Congratulations to the juniors from our area who took titles at the August Mid-Atlantic and South-East Regional Junior Championships or who placed well at the National Junior Championship Tournament (JCT) last weekend.

At the regional championships that were played in Atlanta, Arjith Mathew (BU15), Trinity Moshi (GU13), and Elise Kang (GU15) took home first place trophies. Sami Garside reached the BU15 final, while Daniel King (BU17) and Makeda Moshi (GU15) took third.

At the JCT in San Francisco, which attracted the top-ranked USA juniors, Daniel King pulled off repeated five-game upsets in the main draw. Playing in his first-ever JCT, and seeded in the bottom group at 33/48, King reached the BU17 quarters, a nearly unheard of feat, and finshed sixth.  Rohan Bhatia also reached the BU17 quarters, a personal best JCT result for him as well.

GU13 Akaisha Bhatia, the #7 seed, knocked out the #2 seed in the quarters in an impressive four-game match and took third. Bhatia and Isabella Tang, who played in her second-ever JCT, had an epic match for third place, with Bhatia winning 12-10 in the fifth game. Congratulations to both of them for their incredible finish, perhaps the first time in NCS history where juniors from our district took two of the top four places in a JCT draw!

Khadija Elhaddad finished 11-12 in the 32-player GU15 draw. Trinity Moshi also finished 11-12, but in GU13. She pushed the #1 seed to 12-10 and 13-11 games in the round of 16.