CLUB NEWS

MCK CHESS CLUB

Congratulations to Yotam Hazan Year 12who has been crowned the McK Chess Champion for 2026. 

The final was a closely fought contest between Yotam and former champion Aaron Todes of Year 12. In the end, Yotam emerged victorious with the scoreline of 1.5-0.5. 

Meanwhile, in the 3rd place playoff, Year 7 sensation Kazu Nakada managed to overcome the challenge posed by Aarav Shah Year 11 and took home the bronze. 

Check out the 2026 McK Chess Championship website for all the details.

The McK Chess Club would like to thank all participants of the Championship, including those who played in the qualifiers in Term 2. Without them, it would not have made this year’s event such a memorable one!

Interschool Chess Zonal 

On Tuesday 1st September, the McKinnon chess squad: Aaron Todes Year 12, Yotam Hazan Year 12, Alex Do Year 12, Sivanesh Veerappan Year 9, Shraavan Balaji Year 11, Vibhan Jivanjee Year 12, Arnav Chitnis Year 10, Konstantinos Dimitrakopoulos Year 10, and Sean Stolyarov Year 12, went to Camberwell Grammar School to compete in the Chess Victoria Secondary School open zonal tournament. 

Left to right: Vibhan, Yotam, Aaron, Alex, Shraavan, Sivanesh, Arnav, Sean, Konstantinos

It was a huge interschool competition with more than 40 teams and over 230 individual players taking part. Some delegates from the Oceania Chess Federation were also present, elevating the status of the event. 

It may have been a tough day for all but the team performed admirably. Led by Aaron and Yotam (both 5.5 points) with solid contributions from Alex, Sivanesh and Konstantinos (all 4.0 points), Sean and Shraavan (both 3.5 points), Arnav and Vibhan (both 3.0 points), McKinnon came 8th overall on the day out of 43 teams. This has also earned the team a spot in the State Final in October.

A Fantastic achievement, well done!

McK Chess Rating/Title (Aug/Sep 2026 update)

Congratulations to the following students whose performance in the recent McK Chess Championship and/or interschool chess zonal have earned them a McK Chess Player Title & Badge:

• Yotam Hazan (Queen Class Title) 1360+

• Kazu Nakada, Aarav Shah (Rook Class Title) 1260+

• Bowen Zhong, Igor Shatalin (Bishop Class Title) 1185+

• Sean Stolyarov (Pawn Class Title) 1120+

All students who have played in any tournament organized by the McK Chess Club in the past will be in the McK Chess Rating database. Rating is used for competition seeding, school team’s selection, as well as determining player’s titles. The updated rating list for 2026 can be accessed via this link.

McK Player’s Titles are in [...].

The current top 10 McK Rated Chess Players at McKinnon:

1. Aaron Todes                Y12      1602    [KG]

2. Stanley Luo                  Y12     1559    [KG]

3. Yotam Hazan               Y12      1439    [QN]

4. Anh Quan (Alex) Do   Y12     1404    [KG]

5. Sivanesh Veerappan   Y9       1353    [RK]

6. Shraavan Balaji           Y11      1311    [RK]

7. Kazu Nakada                 Y7       1301    [RK]

8. Arnav Chitnis               Y10     1267    [RK]

9. Vihaan Bhalla                Y8       1263    [RK]

10. Vibhan Jivanjee           Y12     1258    [RK]

Sandy Law

McK Chess Club