09/12/2026
Congratulations to everyone who played in the 2026 80th Annual Peter P Lahde TN Open and State Championship!
James Dove from Mississippi walked away with $1,641 in Tennessee money for 1st place and top Under-20 Junior, scoring 5/6 and a master-level performance rating of 2380, while NM Graham Horobetz and IM Ron Burnett tied for 2nd with 4.5/6, snagging the State Title of Tennessee State Chess Co-Champions for 2026! (Graham won the plaque on tiebreaks)
NM Paul Linxwiler returned to "big time" chess claiming the Top Expert title and plaque, tying with Georgia's NM Chris Chambers and Pennsylvania's Nathan Zeigler.
Beau Sensing and Memphis's John Nguyen tied for Top TN Class A player, with Beau winning the plaque on tiebreaks, both earning 4/6. John won the Title and plaque for TN Top under-20 Junior, though, with an expert-level performance rating of 2045.
Memphis's Townes Buford earned the Top Class B player, tying with Mississippi's Diego Delgado with 3.5/6 in a very strong field.
Memphis's IM Dave Ross won the Top TN Senior Prize!
In the Amateur State Championship, there was a four way tie for first! With 5/6, all players are TN State Amateur Co-Champions: Preesh Ramanathan, winning the plaque on tiebreaks, Memphis's Kaishav Shelat, winning the Top Class C Player plaque on tiebreaks, Maxwell Garza, and Jackson's Brad Smith! (Note there was a mistake when the plaques were distributed and photos were taken; Kaishav indeed won the top C plaque.)
Aiden Gaskins came away with Tennessee Top Class D player with 4.5/6, while Ellie Tseng and Julian Kang tied for 2nd.
Ellie also won Top Female, with a performance rating for the tournament of 1516.
Memphis's Charles "Chuck" Wenzler, cleared 1st place for Class E with 4.5/6, and Mark Quinton Lindsey Louderback and Aniketh Roshan came in 2nd with 4/6.
Memphis's Jasmine Sekyere scored the Top Class F player with a great score of 4.5/6, as well as the Biggest Upset, beating a player 622 points higher rated than herself!! Gregory Rzeczko came in 2nd for Class F with 4/6.
George Crouch won the money prize for Top Unrated, while Duong Nguyen won the plaque and title as a TN player.
Finally, Aiden Gaskins and Chuck Wenzler, in a very rare event and wild circumstance, both submitted the game they played against each other that led to a razor edge draw well-identified by both players, and both won the prize together!
Brilliancy games can be found at https://lichess.org/study/ePK62IxT, and the winning game is G/K.
Results and Crosstables can be found at https://ratings.uschess.org/portal/tmnt-report/202609070043
Thanks to Promarketing Group Guyana for guaranteeing the Prize fund, Downtown Memphis for funding the plaques, and Tabiya Chess Software for funding 2 lower-income players' entry fees!
