Making all of the right moves, students from Westwood High School, Laurel Mountain Elementary School and Canyon Vista and Pearson Ranch middle schools earned top marks and championship titles at the 2019 Texas Scholastic Chess Championships.

Taking home the top individual awards and earning the title of champion in the High School and Middle School categories were Westwood student Emily Nguyen and Canyon Vista student Rohit Gundam, respectively.

As a team, Canyon Vista nabbed the first place spot in the Middle School Grand Champion and the Middle School category. Results for the Middle School category were based on overall team performance and the Middle School Grand Champion category represented both the individual and team performance. Team members include Rohit Gundam, Ganesh Kumarappan, Aparna Yellamraju, Ambica Yellamraju, Raghav Aggarwal, Nitin Akella, Tanvi Chinthagunta Reddy, and Dhruv Pathak.

Individual Winners also included:

  • Ganesh Kumarappan, Canyon Vista,  3rd place, Middle School,
  • Aparna Yellamraju, Canyon Vista,  5th place, Middle School,
  • Austin Mei, Pearson Ranch Middle, 13th place, Middle School, and
  • Ambica Yellamraju, Canyon Vista,  14th place, Middle School.

Team Winners also included:

  • Austin Mei, Sanjay Balasubramanian, Gabriel Hernandez, and Loy Bhowmick, Pearson Ranch,  10th place, Middle School, and
  • Sravya Akella and Ayan Nagulapally, Laurel Mountain, 18th place, Elementary School.

The US Chess Federation also announced that five Round Rock ISD students have qualified to compete in the 2019 World Youth  Chess Championships to be held in Mumbai, India, from October 1 – 13.  These students earned this honor by achieving the highest rating in their age and gender categories according to the US Chess April 2019 rating supplement.

These students include: 

  • Emily Nguyen, Westwood High School
  • Rithik Polavaram, Canyon Vista Middle School
  • Ambica Yellamraju, Canyon Vista Middle School
  • Aparna Yellamraju, Canyon Vista Middle School and,
  • Anh Nhu Nguyen, Walsh Middle School.