By Chris Y Kim
Carissa Zheng, a 12th grade student at Winston Churchill High School in Montgomery County, has won the 2023 Maryland Sweet 16 this weekend (March 4-5) at the University of Maryland - Baltimore County (UMBC). She is the first female winner of the Maryland Sweet 16 in the nearly 30 years of the event. This was the first time the Maryland Sweet 16 has been held in 3 years, since the pandemic cancelled over-the-board tournaments right after the 2020 version.
It is often the case that a player in the top half after the 1st day who can win both matches on the 2nd day will often win the Maryland Sweet 16. Round 4 featured the match between the top two seeds on Board 1 who were tied for the lead: Nitesh Cherukuri (2055) - Carissa Zheng (2035). Nitesh Cherukuri is in 6th grade in Howard County. Both players had won their 3rd round matches to take the lead at 2.5/3.0. Zheng prevailed in the drama-filled game to win the tournament, which includes a 4-year tuition scholarship to UMBC. The Maryland Chess Association would like to thank all the players and parents who accepted participation on very short notice and endured a power outage at UMBC on Saturday that shortened Round 2.
Here are the final standings in tiebreak order (out of 4 games):
3.5: Carissa Zheng
3.0: Jayant Maheshwari, Anish Mariappan
2.5: Nitesh Cherukuri, Siddharth Kurup, Gabriel Joshi
2.0: Devesh Cherukuri, Sherlock Grigsby II, Michael Deng, Andy Yue
1.5: Joshua Liu, Alexander Zlodorev, Eliot Wu
1.0: Angelina Verma, Sandeep Thimmasamudram
0.5: Anushka Skariah