Bay Area Chess Memorial Day and Other Tournaments

For those of you not fortunate enough to be in Chicago this weekend, there still is plenty of chess available in the Bay Area over the coming weeks. In fact, there are three major multi-day adult tournaments in the Bay Area over the next four weekends.

• BayAreaChess.com Memorial Day Festival begins tomorrow in Santa Clara. 3-day schedule 5/24-26 (all games are 30/90, SD/60) with popular 2-day option 5/25-26 (rounds 1-3 are G/55); six round swiss with sections: Master, Expert, A, B, C and D/E/Unrated. Scholastic swiss and blitz on Saturday; quads on Sunday. Advance entries include six players over 2000, but I expect more on site.
• Berkeley Open on May 31 to June 1 at Hillside School (home of the Berkeley Chess School). Four rounds (30/90, G/60) with sections: Master, Expert, A, B, C, D/E/Unrated. This event makes up for the lack of a People's Tournament this year.
• 45th Arthur Stamer Memorial on June 14-15 at the Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco. This rich tradition pits players of all ratings from 1000 to 2400+ in one large Open section. Rounds 1-4 on Saturday are G/60; rounds 5-6 on Sunday are 30/90, SD/60. I will probably play and strongly encourage my students to attend.

In between these Bay Area events comes the annual National Open in Las Vegas on June 6-8. I realize that it is difficult for most older kids to travel due to school commitments (finals and graduations); nonetheless, I expect at least four of my younger students to play. Yes, this all means that my playing schedule will be quite busy over the next three weeks: Chicago Open, National Open and Stamer Memorial. I hope to boost my FIDE rating (currently 2257) back up near 2300 so that I can finally earn the FM title.