CalChess Scholastics -- Enter by Saturday!

The first entry fee deadline for the CalChess Scholastics is this coming Saturday, April 18! The region's biggest annual tournament will be held on May 2-3 at the Parkside Convention Center and Crown Plaza Hotel in downtown San Jose. I expect around 1000 players, including most of Northern California's top stars. Will you be there too?

About 600 players have registered to date, not including entries for the blitz and bughouse side events. The organizer encourages everyone to sign up early to decrease the stress of the last minute crunch. All entry fees will increase by $10 after Saturday night. If you haven't already, please register here as soon as possible.

If you're high rated and unsure which age group to play in, here's my advice: This is the state championship, the one tournament each year where you measure yourself against your peers. There's nothing wrong with shooting for the title of state champ! To that end, I only encourage a few elite students, generally those rated above 2000, to "play up" into the super competitive K-12 section. Another logical reason to move up would be if you won state or national titles within the past year.

I have compiled the following list of the top 20 juniors in Northern California. Half are already registered for the CalChess Scholastics and I expect 3 or 4 more to sign up soon. Unfortunately, some other kids have serious academic conflicts--this year's tournament dates could not really get any worse. :-(

(Added 4/17 at 1pm: all K-12 entries sorted by rating)
(Added 4/20 at 11pm: all K-8 entries sorted by rating)

CalChess Top 20 Juniors (April rating list with present or past students in bold)

1. IM Sam Shankland 2477 -- not playing due to US Championship!
2. FM Daniel Naroditsky 2341 -- not playing due to Young Stars (Russia)!
   
3. NM Steven Zierk 2311 -- signed up K-12
   
4. NM Gregory Young 2249
5. NM Rohan Agarwal 2215 -- signed up K-12
6. NM Nicholas Nip 2211
7. Adarsh Konda 2124
8. Michael Zhong 2092
9. Yian Liou 2082 -- signed up K-12
10. Hayk Manvelyan 2066
    
11. Evan Sandberg 2044 -- signed up K-12
12. Micah Cohen 2036
13. Alan Naroditsky 2035 -- signed up K-12
    
14. Jeff Young 2013 -- signed up K-12
    
15. Michael Lin 2001
    
16. Samuel Sevian 2001
17. Kyle Shin 1969 -- signed up K-12
    
18. Louiza Livschitz 1956
19. Nicholas Karas 1911
    
20. Daniel Zheng 1905 -- signed up K-6

On a side note, I will TD the blitz and bughouse tournaments once again this year. The blitz on Friday night offers a great opportunity to warm up for a weekend of chess. The bughouse on Saturday night is the perfect way to relax and socialize after a tough day of serious chess. I hope to see many of my students and other local kids, especially for the Friday night blitz championship! Schedule: on-site registration both days at 5:30-6:00 with round 1 at about 6:15. If all goes well, the K-6 kids will be done by 8:30ish and the 7-12 kids finish around 9:00.