World Cadet Underway in Spain

The playing venue is at the Ciudad de la Cultura. (website)

The 2018 World Cadet Chess Championships kicked off on Sunday at the Christian pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela located in northwestern Spain. Nearly 850 young chess players from around the world compete in six sections: Open and Girls for age U8, U10 and U12. The Open U10 and Open U12 divisions both have over 200 participants. After eleven rounds, gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded on November 15.

Team USA includes 74 players, at least that many parents, 6 official team coaches and several private trainers. The American medal chances seem greatest in Open U12, where 21 kids rock the red, white and blue, including 4 of the top 10 seeds. Top contenders include Rachael Li (1st seed in Girls U8), FM Christopher Yoo (2nd seed in Open U12), IM Arthur Guo (4th seed in Open U12), NM Kirk Ghazarian (8th seed in Open U12), Dimitar Mardov (8th seed in Open U10), CM Jason Wang (10th seed in Open U12) and Crystal Gu (10th seed in Girls U8). Note that seeds are ranked by FIDE ratings, and the order may differ from USCF ratings.

Team USA hails from 17 states, including 16 youngsters from New York, 12 from California, 10 from New Jersey and 6 each from Illinois and Texas. The other states represented are: AZ, CT, FL, GA, MA, MI, OH, OR, PA, VA, WA and WI.

The official website is http://www.wccc2018.com/. The daily rounds begin at 7:30am PST except on November 10 (free day) and November 15 (final round starts 2.5 hours sooner). Watch the top boards at FollowChess or at Chess24 (with a 30 minute delay to deter cheating).

FINAL STANDINGS

Top American scores plus California kids

Rating from November USCF supplement

Age given as of December 31, 2018

OPEN U12 results link (21 players)

• FM Chasin, Nico (12 NY 2320) = 8.5 - BRONZE MEDAL (tied for 2nd)
• IM Guo, Arthur (12 GA 2387) = 8.5 - 4th place (tied for 2nd)
• FM Yoo, Christopher (12 CA-N 2455) = 8.0 - 7th place (tied for 6th)
• CM Wang, Jason (12 OH 2317) = 8.0 - 8th place (tied for 6th)
• Tian, Eddy (12 NJ 2270) = 7.5
• CM Zhou, Liran (10 NY 2291) = 7.5
• NM Ghazarian, Kirk (12 CA-S 2230) = 7.0 
• CM Xu, Arthur (11 IL 2158 = 7.0
• Nathan, Krishna (12 CA-N 2115) = 6.5
• Clasby, Derek (12 NJ 2231) = 6.5
• Park, Evan (11 PA 2177) = 6.5
• Yu, Jason (12 WA 2208) = 6.5
• Sethuraman, Sandeep (11 AZ 2149) = 6.5
• Oberoi, Shelev (12 TX 2045) = 6.5
• Gu, Andy (12 CA-S 1693) = 4.5

GIRLS U12 results link (11 players)

• WCM Pang, Ashley (11 CA-N 1737) = 8.0 - 6th place (tied for 3rd)
• WFM Wang, Ellen (11 NY 2015) = 7.5 - 12th place (tied for 8th)
• WCM Ke, Rianne (12 CA-S 2102) = 7.0
• WCM Velea, Stephanie (11 WA 1668) = 6.5

OPEN U10 results link (12 players)

• Zhao, Erick (10 FL 2067) = 9.0 - SILVER MEDAL (tied for 1st)
• Mardov, Dimitar (10 IL 2178) = 8.0 - 8th place (tied for 7th)
• Ngo, Bach (10 FL 2075) = 7.5
• Lee, Jayden (10 AZ 2022) = 7.5
• Shivakumar, Shawnak (10 CA-N 1991) = 7.0
• Sloan, Jed (10 NY 1912) = 6.5
• Tay, Brian (10 VA 1822) = 6.5
• Sivakumar, Shaaketh (10 CA-N 1861) = 5.5
• Huang, Brian (10 CA-S 1924) = 5.5

GIRLS U10 results link (15 players)

• WCM Velea, Sophie (10 WA 1782) = 8.0 - 7th place (tied for 5th)
• Liu, Kelsey (10 MA 1944) = 7.0
• Evans, Serena (10 CT 1475) 7.0
• WCM Wen, Kally (10 CA-N 1681) = 6.5
• Elangovan, Ramya (10 TX 1593) = 6.5
• Peng, Sophia (10 AZ 1697) = 6.5
• Zhu, Florina (10 NJ 1623) = 6.5
• Field, Lila (9 NJ 1310) 6.5

OPEN U8 results link (8 players)

• Chennareddy, Yuvraj (8 IL 1901) = 10.5 - GOLD MEDAL
• Wang, Alexander (8 NJ 1960) = 8.0 - 10th place (tied for 6th)
• Jiang, Andrew (8 GA 1864) = 7.0
• Woodward, Andy (8 TX 1812) = 7.0

GIRLS U8 results link (7 players)

• WCM Qiao, Evelyn (8 GA 1641) = 8.5 - BRONZE MEDAL
• Prakash, Nandini (8 IL 1554) = 7.5 - 9th place (tied for 8th)
• Gu, Crystal (8 CA-S 1578) = 7.0
• Li, Rachael (8 TX 1994) = 6.5

Online Mate In One Test

Test your ability to solve mates in one using this fun web application. You get 10 seconds to find the correct move. If you're right, then you immediately get another position. The program stops when your move is not checkmate, or when your time expires.

Many of the positions are trivially winning, but the goal is to checkmate in one. Multiple solutions exist for some problems, and the program will accept any of them. After you have solved several hundred, you may notice that some positions repeat.

Parental warning: This game is addictive. I know several young masters who solved over 100 in a row. At least two have reached 500! At this time, yours truly only achieved a modest 41. If you wish to brag to your friends, then save a screenshot immediately after you messed up.

Finally, if 10 seconds is too fast, then simply edit the number at the end of the URL.

NorCal Top 20 - September 2018

US Champion Sam Shankland has fun teaching talented
kids at the US Chess School. (Credit: US Chess School)

NorCal Top 20 Adults
September 2018

Rank	Name	USCF	FIDE
1	GM Shankland, Sam	2816	2722
2	GM Zviad Izoria	2718	2601
3	GM Naroditsky, Daniel	2691	2615
4	GM Holt, Conrad	2688	2561
5	GM Zierk, Steven	2565	2506
6	IM Harmon-Vellotti, Luke	2563	2455
7	GM Matamoros, Carlos (ECU)	2561	2494
8	IM Joshua Sheng	2550	2447
9	GM Sevillano, Enrico	2535	2423
10	IM Wheeler, Cameron	2503	2406
11	IM Liou, Yian	2499	2412
12	IM Kavutskiy, Kostya	2472	2424
13	SM Hong, Andrew Z	2467	2357
14	IM Viswanadha, Kesav	2457	2367
15	IM Zilberstein, Dmitry	2454	2378
16	IM Coleman, Teddy	2452	2378
17	IM Panchanatham, Vignesh	2451	2383
18	SM Zhu, Jack Q	2437	2373
19	SM Bick, Gabriel	2429	2381
20	SM Yoo, Christopher W	2414	2402

• Derived from US Chess Rating Lists by State.
• GM Negi moved to Massachusetts.
• GM Holt and GM Sevillano listed under other states.
• Newcomers GM Zierk (welcome back!) and IM Sheng.
• SM Bick enters list after playing abroad for a year.
• GM DeFirmian and IM Donaldson mostly inactive.

NorCal Top 20 JHS & High School (Age 12-17)

Local stars FM Josiah Stearman and FM Rayan Taghizadeh squared off at the
US Cadet (U16) Invitational in San Jose last month. (Credit: BayAreaChess)

NorCal Top 100 Lists and NorCal Top 20 Juniors
August 2018

Rank	Age	Name	USCF	Change	FIDE
1	13	FM Hong, Andrew Z	2454	33	2377
2	14	FM Stearman, Josiah P	2416	111	2346
3	16	FM Taghizadeh, Rayan	2402	-41	2302
4	15	NM Ke, Ivan	2351	37	2238
5	13	FM Daggupati, Balaji	2329	57	2226
6	16	NM Wang, Michael	2323	-15	2133
7	17	WIM Eswaran, Ashritha	2256	52	2243
8	12	NM Wu, Rochelle	2252	141	2094
9	17	NM Ravuri, Vinesh	2239	68	2050
10	13	NM Kolay, Alex	2220	141	2115
11	15	NM Wu, Derek S	2220	161	2050
12	15	nm Murugappan, Ganesh	2193	69	2076
13	17	FM Vasudeva, Tanuj	2184	-2	2013
14	15	Wang, Henry	2182	117	1970
15	15	Feng, Justin	2173	43	1987
16	15	Pan, David	2162	67	1979
17	12	Nathan, Krishna	2152	188	1894
18	17	Wei, Jeffrey	2150	19	1965
19	12	Pan, Kevin	2148	92	2040
20	17	nm Pan, Christopher	2145	-61	2045

• Derived from August 2018 US Chess Top 100 Lists.
• Age as of August 1, 2018.
• Rating Change from August 2017.

NorCal Top 20 Elementary (Age 11 & Under)

11 year old FM Christopher Yoo won a brilliancy against GM Conrad Holt to
complete his second IM norm this month in Berkeley. (Credit: Chessdryad)

NorCal Top 100 Lists and NorCal Top 20 Juniors
August 2018

Rank	Age	Name	USCF	Change	FIDE
1	11	FM Yoo, Christopher W	2414	140	2378
2	10	NM Li, Eric Y	2207	158	2008
3	11	Yan, Rui Y	2133	167	1852
4	11	Vidyarthi, Vyom	2105	132	1912
5	10	Kondakov, Adrian	2057	133	1948
6	11	Boldi, Ethan K	2011	139	1879
7	10	CM Krishnakumar, Sriram	1978	22	1675
8	10	Shivakumar, Shawnak	1919	131	1713
9	11	CM Nachiappan, Aghilan	1911	94	1631
10	11	Sairam, Pranav	1866	57
11	11	Kamath, Atul R	1832	66	1478
12	9	CM Nath, Nitish	1811	187	1506
13	9	Sivakumar, Shaaketh	1792	109	1522
14	11	WCM Wong, Allyson	1746	107	1479
15	10	Le, Nikko D	1745	96
16	11	Zhou, Nolan Y	1742	128
17	10	Weng, Nicholas	1737	138
18	7	Rajaram, Rohan	1718	505	1321
19	9	WCM Rajaram, Anika	1706	181	1371
20	11	Kou, Daniel	1703	-71	1444

• Derived from August 2018 US Chess Top 100 Lists.
• Age as of August 1, 2018.
• Rating Change from August 2017.

NorCal Top 20 Girls

Rui Yang Yan also played at the
Women's Western Regional in
Berkeley. (Credit: Chessdryad)

NM Rochelle Wu took first place
at the Women's Western Regional
in Berkeley. (Credit: Chessdryad)

NorCal Top 100 Lists and NorCal Top 20 Juniors
August 2018

Rank	Age	Name	USCF	Change	FIDE
1	17	WIM Eswaran, Ashritha	2256	52	2243
2	12	NM Wu, Rochelle	2252	141	2094
3	11	Yan, Rui Y	2133	167	1852
4	15	WFM Liu, Kimberly	2012	33	1877
5	15	Nayberg, Simona	1954	114	1880
6	17	Chatterjee, Trina	1913	53	1748
7	12	WCM Eswaran, Aksithi	1876	86	1757
8	13	WFM Meiyappan, Annapoorni	1843	-25	1631
9	16	Show, Serafina	1836	23	1550
10	14	WCM Garai, Antara	1826	-40	1556
11	17	Hasteer, Divija	1775	-35	1544
12	11	WCM Wong, Allyson	1746	107	1479
13	12	Zhou, Chelsea	1733	343
14	15	Gomboluudev, Enkhjin C	1720	55	1676
15	9	WCM Rajaram, Anika	1706	181	1371
16	8	WCM Vidyarthi, Omya	1679	351	1145
17	10	WCM Pang, Ashley	1666	80	1604
18	14	Chen, Ashleann	1616	-66
19	13	Wang, Agnes Z	1592	85
20	11	Lee, Yesun	1591	214

• Derived from August 2018 US Chess Top 100 Lists.
• Age as of August 1, 2018.
• Rating Change from August 2017.

Berkeley GM Norm RR

The front desk and chess library. (Credit: Chessdryad)

Berkeley Summer GM Norm Invitational

August 17 to 21

Hosted by the Berkeley Chess School

Watch the games live at the Follow Chess app!

Time control = G/90 + inc/30
Average rating =  2433
Required score = 6.5 for GM norm, 5.0 for IM norm
Participants:

• GM Conrad Holt (2592)
• GM Priyadarshan Kannappan (2554) from India THIRD PLACE
• GM Mark Paragua (2506) from Philippines
• IM Joshua Sheng (2415) FIRST PLACE - GM NORM!!
• IM Bryce Tiglon (2392)
• NM Gabriel Bick (2391)
• IM Ahuja Rohan (2387) from India 
• FM Christopher Yoo (2378) IM NORM!!
• IM Kim Yap (2366) from Philippines SECOND PLACE - GM NORM!!
• FM Josiah Stearman (2346)

Crosstable:

GM Conrad Holt  | X | = | 1 | 0 | = | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | = |   3.5
GM Kannappan    | = | X | = | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | = | = | 1 |   6.0
GM M. Paragua   | 0 | = | X | 0 | 1 | 1 | = | = | = | 1 |   5.0
IM Josh Sheng   | 1 | 1 | 1 | X | 1 | = | = | 1 | 0 | 1 |   7.0
IM B. Tiglon    | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | = | 1 | = | 0 | = |   3.0
NM Gabe Bick    | 1 | 0 | 0 | = | = | X | 0 | = | 0 | = |   3.0
IM Ahuja Rohan  | 0 | 0 | = | = | 0 | 1 | X | 1 | = | 0 |   3.5
FM Chris Yoo    | 1 | = | = | 0 | = | = | 0 | X | 1 | 1 |   5.0
IM Kim Yap      | 1 | = | = | 1 | 1 | 1 | = | 0 | X | 1 |   6.5
FM J. Stearman  | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | = | = | 1 | 0 | 0 | X |   2.5

Berkeley IM Norm RR

The new Berkeley Chess School building opened in May. (Credit: Chessdryad)

Berkeley Summer IM Norm Invitational

August 11 to 15

Hosted by the Berkeley Chess School

Watch the games live at the Follow Chess app!

Time control = G/90 + inc/30
Average rating = 2298
Required score = 6.5 for IM norm, 6.0 for WGM norm
Participants:

• IM Ahuja Rohan (2387) from India FIRST PLACE TIE
• IM Kim Yap (2366) from Philippines FIRST PLACE TIE    
• IM Vincent McCambridge (2359)
• FM Josiah Stearman (2346)
• FM Teemu Virtanen (2309) from Finland THIRD PLACE TIE
• FM Rawle Allicock (2236) from England
• WIM Annie Wang (2288) 
• NM Ivan Ke (2238)   
• FM Ezra Chambers (2233) from Burundi
• FM Ladia Jirasek (2222) THIRD PLACE TIE

Crosstable:

IM Ahuja Rohan  | X | 0 | 1 | = | 1 | = | 1 | = | 1 | 1 |   6.5
IM Kim Yap      | 1 | X | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |   6.5
IM McCambridge  | 0 | 0 | X | 0 | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |   1.5
FM J. Stearman  | = | 0 | 1 | X | 1 | 0 | 1 | = | 0 | 0 |   4.0
FM T. Virtanen  | 0 | = | 1 | 0 | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |   5.5
FM R. Allicock  | = | 0 | = | 1 | 0 | X | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |   3.0
WIM Annie Wang  | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 0 | 1 | = |   4.5
NM Ivan Ke      | = | 0 | 1 | = | 0 | 1 | 1 | X | 0 | 0 |   4.0
FM E. Chambers  | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 1 |   4.0
FM L. Jirasek   | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | 0 | X |   5.5

Shankland Plays at Danzhou Super GM

Sam Shankland (credit China Chess)

The Bay Area's own GM Sam Shankland participates in his first Super GM invitational in southern China. Eight young players, all rated above 2700 FIDE, compete in a single round-robin hosted by the city of Danzhou on the island of Hainan. While Shankland has been successful against 2700s in the past, there are no easy opponents at this elite event.

Participants

• Yu Yangyi (CHN) 2762
• Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL) 2737
• Wei Yi (CHN) 2729
• Le Quang Liem (VIE) 2728
• Sam Shankland (USA) 2727
• Santosh Gujrathi Vidit (IND) 2718
• Bu Xiangzhi (CHN) 2712
• Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS) 2707

Duda won in the first round against Vidit while the other three games were drawn. Shankland survived a scare with black against the former prodigy Bu, once the youngest GM in the world at age 13. In this tournament, Bu is the oldest at 32, and Shankland the second oldest at 26.

Games begin at 11:30PM Pacific and are broadcast at Chess24. Follow @sinachess for the latest news and photos. Readers who understand Mandarin may be interested in the official website.

National Elementary Championships

The annual US Chess National Elementary Championships bring more than 2200 eager youngsters together in Nashville on Mother's Day weekend. The Northern California delegation consists of 45 kids plus their parents and coaches. More than half represent two historically strong Fremont elementary schools, Mission San Jose and Weibel, both which won national championships in recent years. How many trophies will the local participants bring home this year?

Most of the attention goes to the K-6 Championship section, which features the most local players and the best opportunities for high place trophies. Indeed, 7 kids are rated in the top 40 of the section, which is approximately the 70th percentile and up. Both Mission San Jose and Weibel have teams in K-6, with MSJE seeking to duplicate their shared first place in K-5 last year. The other interesting section appears to be the K-1 Championship, with first graders Rohan Rajaram and Lucas Jiang seeded among the top three. MSJE also hopes to finish near the top in K-1 after taking second place last year.


LATEST RESULTS (RFINAL RESULTS)

• Click here for Pairings and Standings
• LIVE Games (from top boards)
• US Chess Twitter (with photos)
• Schedule (PDT): Friday 11am, 4pm * Saturday 8am, 12noon, 4pm * Sunday 8am, 12noon

Kevin Pan (credit @USChess)

K-6 Championship (16 local players)

• Kevin Pan (MSJE) - 6.0 - CO-NATIONAL CHAMPION
• Abhinav Penagalapati - 4.5
• Aghilan Nachiappan (MSJE) - 5.0 - 17th place
• Stephen He (MSJE) - 4.0
• Nikko Le (Weibel) - 4.0
• Nicholas Jiang (MSJE) - 4.0  
• Allyson Wong (MSJE) - 4.5
• Alex Shrauger - 4.5
• Saatvik Krishnan - 3.5
• Dharshan Vetrivelan (Weibel) - 3.5
• Aidan Chen (MSJE) - 4.0
• Umesh Gopi (Weibel) - 3.0
• Krish Gangal (Weibel) - 3.0 - 2nd U1400
• Nivedha Maniv (MSJE) - 3.0
• Reyansh Gangal (Weibel) - 2.0
• Savir Khanna (Weibel) - 2.0
• MSJE K-6 team (7 players) - 19.5 - CO-NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
• Weibel K-6 team (6 players) - 13.5 - 6th place

K-5 Championship (9 local players)

• Shaaketh Sivakumar - 4.5
• Anika Rajaram - 4.0
• Nikhil Parvathaneni - 3.5
• Kavya Meiyappan (MSJE) - 4.0
• Jayden Xu - 4.0
• Leo Jiang - 2.5
• Jason Liu (MSJE) - 3.0
• Ayaan Kassamali (MSJE) - 3.5- 1st U1100
• Jolene Liu (MSJE) - 2.5 - 2nd U1100
• MSJE K-5 team (4 players) - 13.0 - 9th place

K-3 Championship (4 local players)

• Nitish Nath - 5.5 - 7th place
• Ryan Wang - 5.0 - 16th place
• Jaden Cheung - 3.0
• Tanishi Varma - 2.5

Rohan Rajaram (credit @USChess)

K-1 Championship (12 local players)

• Rohan Rajaram - 6.5 - NATIONAL CHAMPION
• Lucas Jiang (MSJE) - 6.0 - 4th place
• Arnam Pawar (MSJE) - 6.0 - 7th place
• Artham Pawar (MSJE) - 6.0 - 3rd place
• Louis Le - 4.0
• Aditya Arutla (MSJE) - 5.0 - 23rd place
• Bhaasvan Varma - 5.0 - 16th place
• Yahor Hrynko - 5.0 - 27th place
• Shreyank Krishnan - 5.0 - 17th place
• Anvitha Penagalapati - 3.0
• Swagatha Selvam (MSJE) - 3.5
• Sarvesh Maniv (MSJE) - 1.5
• MSJE K-1 team (6 players) - 13.5 - NATIONAL CHAMPIONS