The 2005 Chesspalace Under 15 Junior Invitational Championship held on April 10, 2005 hosted by Chesspalace, Southern California’s premier chess club, attracted 55 juniors. Topping a very strong field in the advance section was up and coming junior star, 3rd grader Christopher Kao. Following him were Ashkon Soroudi, Brett Gonzales, and Venkat Iyer who all tied for 2nd place with 3 points. Christopher Kao will hold the 2005 title as Chesspalace U15 Junior Champion until next year’s championship.
The Knights I section saw Jayo Cacho, another up and coming chess whiz, edged Danny Duran and Frank Castellanos on tiebreaks to take first place with a score of 4 out of 5. Danny and Frank are both part of the Boys and Girls Club of Burbank which has been producing many prize winners in recent events. Much of the credit is due to the tireless efforts of the club’s Games & Recreations director, Kevin Bulone, who can always be seen encouraging his kids in local scholastic events. Behind the three co-champions were Benjamin Quincey and Nathan Kernik.
In the next section, Knights II, three brothers, Mitchell, Marco, and Matteo Miralaie swept the field by taking 1st, 2nd, and the last one sharing third place respectively. Newcomer Salem Munos was the only who prevented the Miralaie brothers from a clean sweep by sharing the third place prize with Matteo.
In the K-3rd, Pawns section, another newcomer 5 year-old Shyam Gandhi scored 4.5 out of 5 to clinch his first place championship trophy of what is bound to be the start of a fantastic chess career!

Special awards were also distributed:
Best Grade Level for
Knights I - 1st grader Brad Gonzales
Knights II – 3rd grader Brian Shefflete & Kindergartner Christina Kao
Pawns- 1st grader Andrew Ascencio

An additional Best Sportsmanship Award was also given to Ashley Alameida. Special door prizes went to Adnan Chowdhury, Brad Gonzales, and Andrew Ascencio.

Much thanks goes to the parent volunteers and coaches for helping make the event run smoothly. Deserve mentioning goes to Kirk Martin, Carmen Childress, Kevin Bulone, and Mike Kao. Austin Ong directed and assisted by Nic Reiner & Anthony Ong.

Complete crosstables available here.

Next scholastic event is scheduled for June 11th, 2005 Saturday. Chesspalace is excited to announce the new schedule for its after school Chess Class for Kids. The class is from 4-5:30pm and it is open for beginners and intermediate juniors from ages 4-15. For more info please email us or call Alfred 310-594-3475. Class info are available here.