We are ecstatic to announce that our first inaugural over-the-board Chess Effect Fundraiser was a huge success. Held at the Cambria Hotel at Chandler Fashion Center, the tournament garnered over 60 participants across 3 sections including one Grandmaster, two International Masters, and several FIDE Masters and National Masters.

We would like to thank our sponsors: BannerChess, LIL Venture Fund, and Unity Chess Club for helping us ensure the event went smoothly.

Unity Chess Club Website: https://www.unitychess.com/

LIL Venture Fund: https://www.scholarlaunch.org/leadership-innovation-lab

Banner Chess: https://www.bannerchess.com

We were able to raise over $600 in net proceeds for Arizona Helping Hands that were donated in-person at their facility. A huge thanks to our guest speaker from AZ Helping Hands: Ms. Bethany Eggleston.

Arizona Helping Hands: https://azhelpinghands.org/

The Winners

Open

The open section featured one of the strongest lineups in the history of Arizonan chess, headed by Grandmaster Ehsan Ghaemmaghami of Iran. GM Ehsan would go on to beat International Master Sandeep Sethuraman in the final round to clinch the tournament victory with a perfect 4/4 score. One player who punched well above his weight throughout the tournament was Roshan Sethuraman who won his final round game against FM Andy Lin to finish in clear second place with 3.5/4. Thank you to all of our masters and participants in the Open Section!

U1800

The U1800 section featured a combination of high-rated players and young uprising talent. Despite starting off slow with a draw, Avinash Gobburi strung together 3 straight points to clinch the section with a clear 3.5/4 and almost 50 rating points to boot. He was followed closely by Saurav Skanda, Aditya Gupta, and Pranav Nair who all ended the tournament with 3/4 and significant rating gains. Thank you to all 18 players who showed up ready to play and support the chess community here in Arizona!

U1200

The U1200 was the smallest but certainly not the least section with 17 participants. We had the second perfect score of the tournament from Mark Zaldivar who jumped from unrated all the way to over 1600! He was followed by no less than 4 runners-up on 3/4 including Kylie Tokeshi, Vedansh Gupta, Elliot Baudanza, and Aaroosh Kurchania. A huge thank you to all of our participants for some of whom this was their very first OTB USCF rated tournament!

Thank you to all of our participants for making this tournament as successful as possible!