CLUB NEWS

MCK CHESS CLUB

2026 McK Chess Club Awards

McK Chess Club would like to acknowledge Alex Do, Aaron Todes and Vibhan Jivanjee from the graduating Class of 2026 for their significant contribution to chess at McKinnon over the years. They have been actively involved in many of the Club’s activities, championships, and have represented the school at the zonal and state level. Together, they have played over 500 official games during their time at McKinnon, earning many accolades along the way.

Owing to this, they have been awarded a Lifetime contribution medal by the McK Chess Club:

Alex Do (a new record of 194 games; King class Title; 1400+ McK rating) - Lifetime GOLD medal
Aaron Todes (182 games; King class Title; first player to reach 1600+ McK rating) - Lifetime GOLD medal
Vibhan Jivanjee (129 games; Rook class Title; 1250+ McK rating) - Lifetime SILVER medal

At the award ceremony, the club also presented the high achievers in the recent McK Chess Championship with their trophy and medal:

Yotam Hazan Y12 (Champion 2026)
Aaron Todes Y12 (Runner-up 2026)
Kazu Nakada Y7 (3rd Place 2026)
Aarav Shah Y11 (4th Place 2026)

Championship Website

Interschool Chess State Final

On Monday 12 October, two teams from McKinnon participated in the Victorian Secondary School Chess State Final held at Brighton Grammar School.

McKinnon Blue Team:

Aaron Todes Y12
Yotam Hazan Y12
Shraavan Balaji Y11
Sivanesh Veerappan Y9
Kazu Nakada Y7

McKinnon Red Team:

Igor Shatalin Y10
Konstantinos Dimitrakopoulos Y10
Vibhan Jivanjee Y12
Sean Stolyarov Y12
Bowen Zhong Y7

With more than 40 teams from 23 schools, and over 210 individual players taking part, it was a massive team competition at a very high standard. It demands a huge amount of effort, focus and skill over the 5.5 hours contest. So, well done to these students who were selected to represent McKinnon. They played their games professionally and obtained a respectable overall result against elite opponents. Team & individual scores over 7 rounds were:

Blue Team (8 match points, 21.5 game points)

Yotam (5 pts), Kazu (4.5 pts), Aaron (4 pts), Shraavan (4pts) & Sivanesh (4pts)

Red Team (5 match points, 16 game points)

Igor (5.5 pts), Konstantinos (3 pts), Sean (3 pts), Vibhan (2.5 pts) & Bowen (2 pts)

Superb effort everyone!

McK Chess Rating/Title (Oct 2026 update)

Congratulations to Sivanesh Veerappan from Year 9 who has earned a McK Queen Class Chess Player Title & Badge after reaching 1360+ McK rating during his recent participation at the Victorian School Chess State Final. Well done!

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 20 McK Rated Chess Players at McKinnon:

Aaron Todes Y12 1613 [KG]
Stanley Luo Y12 1559 [KG]
Yotam Hazan Y12 1457 [QN]
Anh Quan (Alex) Do Y12 1404 [KG]
Sivanesh Veerappan Y9 1363 [QN]
Shraavan Balaji Y11 1325 [RK]
Kazu Nakada Y7 1313 [RK]
Arnav Chitnis Y10 1267 [RK]
Vihaan Bhalla Y8 1263 [RK]
Vibhan Jivanjee Y12 1256 [RK]
Aarav Shah Y11 1256 [RK]
Konstantinos D. Y10 1254 [BP]
Lucas Huang Y11 1251 [RK]
Jonathan Huang Y11 1250 [RK]
Jason Yang Y9 1223 [BP]
Igor Shatalin Y10 1219 [BP]
Bowen Zhong Y7 1201 [BP]
Mariia Kabakova Y11 1172 [PN]
Luka Dodos Y11 1160 [PN]
Sean Stolyarov Y12 1152 [PN]

Sandy Law

McK Chess Club