The winner of the Ohio Elementary Online Championship is Siddarth Sriaditya Kunapuli of Lewis Center, OH.  After fighting through his K-5 opponants in the Championship section in an all day five round online tournament, Siddarth emerged with 4 wins and a draw which secured him a victory.   Siddarth will now represent Ohio in the Rockefeller National Tournament of Elementary State Champions.

Siddarth started his chess journey when he was just five years old and has become a force on the light and dark checkered board.  The Scotch Gambit is his favorite opening and he plays with the style of tactician, playing for advantage against his opponents.  “I enjoy tricky positions as they give opportunity for deep thinking and using tactics & strategies. Whenever I feel I have a winning position, I always look for tactical play to find the knockout moves,” Siddarth commented.  Spoken like a true chess champion!

Siddarth credits his improvement to his coaches Alan Casden & Vladimir Kizov, and he also shared his chess goals with us.  His first goal is to play for the US on a team representing his country in world events.  And he also mentioned, that he is striving to become a GrandMaster.  Good luck to you, Siddarth!  

Full tournament results can be found here.

The next tournament in our Ohio Scholastic Championship series is the Ohio Online High School Middle School Championship on April 17th.  Elementary players are welcome and encouraged to join in the middle school sections.  We’ll see you at the event!