Fallon 7th Graders Win State Chess Championship

Fallon Middle School's chess team had its best year since 2016 at the CalChess Grade Level Championships in Santa Clara in November.

Fallon won three team state titles, including the highly-competitive 7th grade school championship, and the U800 and U500 rating sections, while placing 2nd in the 8th grade championship.

The Grade Level Championships is the second most-important local scholastic tournament, drawing 500 of the best junior players in Northern and Central California every year, including a record 39 from Fallon.

Led by Naman Garg (3rd place, 5-1), Krish Matai (5th place, 4.5) and Vikrant Ganesan (8th place, 4-2), Fallon’s 7th-graders topped Fremont powerhouses, Hopkins Jr. High and Horner Jr. High. Hopkins is the 2nd-best middle school team in the nation, while Horner is the current middle school State team champion.

Fallon is no slouch. It was the runner-up to Horner at the State Tournament last spring, and ranked 12th in the nation.

The chess club is a parent volunteer-led, after-school club sponsored by the Fallon PFC and school administration. It is the most popular PFC club, with more than 90 members this year.

Other 7th grade competitors included Arunachalam Kasi (9th), Sanat Gupta (18th), Rajneesh Jain, Abhijoy Mukherjee, Laksh Jain, Aryan Jain, and Adavya Sharma.

Fallon had previously won the 8th Grade Championship at this tournament in 2016. It placed 2nd this year, led by Suriya Gnanasundar (9th individually), Katherine Pask, Aadith Muthukumar, Rushil Yadavalli and Vivek Goorla.

Fallon’s Strength in Numbers enabled it to shine in the Junior Varsity sections. Fallon regained the K-12 U800 team trophy, led by 6th grader Gavin Katz, who went 5-0 to tie for first, and other individual trophy winners Eashan Mahajan and Victor Lu Astinov. They were supported by team members: Shashank Garag, Evan Roche, Arnav Antal, Jayin Sampeur, Ankur Prasad, Anuraag Aravind, Neel Sharma, Raghav Sivakumar, Arvin Andiappan, Eric Yu Xiao, Arya Iycattil, Krishiv Jaini, Ian Hsu and Bishal Prasad.

Fallon also won the K-6 U500 team trophy for 4th time in 5 years, led by scorers Ronin Sen, Saif Jeelani, Ekam Dhot and Adith Gnanasundar, and supported by Abhirup Mukherjee, Prajwal Dacharla, and Bala Atharv Kandi.

Other Dublin school district trophy winners at this year's tournament included:

4th Grade Championship - Advay Bansal (Dougherty, tied for first)

5th Grade Championship - Winston Leung (John Green, 7th)

11th Grade Championship - Justin Leung (DHS, 4th)

U800 - Rayan Jain (Amador, 12th)

To see more photos and to learn more about Fallon's after-school chess club, visit our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/fallonchess