fpawn chess blog

GM deFirmian Returns to Bay Area

2012-01-25T22:31:00.000-08:00

News from Chess Room Director IM John Donaldson:

The Mechanics' Chess Club welcomes Nick deFirmian as its Grandmaster-in-Residence. This will be a return home for the native Californian and UC Berkeley graduate. Grandmaster deFirmian has a long association with the Mechanics' dating back to his days as an undergraduate, and served as a member of the organizing committee for the M.I.'s "Pan-Pacific" International Chess Tournaments in 1987 and 1991.

The past three decades Nick deFirmian has excelled in many areas of the chess world. A world class player for many years, Grandmaster deFirmian is a three-time US Champion and an eight-time member of the US Olympiad team. He served as the Captain of the US team at the 2002 Chess Olympiad held in Bled, Slovenia.

The author of several books on the games, including three editions of the well-received Modern Chess Openings, deFirmian has also written for such leading chess publications as New in Chess, Chess Life and Inside Chess.

He is well known for his role in helping prepare openings for the IBM computer Deep Blue that defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov in a historic battle in 1997. This was the first time a computer had beaten a reigning human World Champion in a match.

The past decade Grandmaster deFirmian has concentrated his energy on teaching chess to children in New York City. This teaching included working with Public School 130 in Chinatown and Horace Mann, a private school which won the 3rd and 5th grade national championships. He has also coached kids in such events as the World Youth Championships and taught at summer chess camps throughout the country.

Grandmaster deFirmian will focus his energy on the Mechanics' Chess Club's Scholastic Outreach program. He will also be the lead instructor at an expanded number of chess camps held at the Mechanics' and will start a Thursday evening group class for enthusiastic amateurs players.

Additional Links

Additional comment by fpawn This certainly counts as exciting news! The Mechanics' has been without a Grandmaster-in-Residence since 2008, the year when Alex Yermolinsky moved to South Dakota. DeFirmian brings the experience of a veteran Grandmaster who won the US Championship three times and many times represented the country abroad. He also is one of only a few American GMs born in the USA! After the departure of Sam Shankland, Josh Friedel and Jesse Kraai, the Bay Area should embrace the new arrival. Welcome home!

Tata Through Round 7

2012-01-21T19:56:00.000-08:00

(Gelfand faces the Dutch from Nakamura. Photo from Chessbase.)

The Tata Steel Chess 2012 tournament has reach the halfway point with the top two rated players in the World continuing to share the lead. In the past three rounds, both Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian drew twice and won once, leaving them with 5.0/7. American star Hikaru Nakamura picked up ground with a pair of exciting victories. On the other hand, three players lost twice since the first rest day: Vugar Gashimov, Boris Gelfand, and David Navara.

Standings After Round 8 of 13
Updated 1/22: All round 8 games were drawn except for Giri 0-1 Gashimov.

5.5 Aronian and Carlsen
5.0 Radjabov
4.5 Caruana, Ivanchuk and Nakamura
4.0 Giri and Van Wely
3.5 Kamsky, Karjakin and Topalov
3.0 Gashimov and Gelfand
2.0 Navara

The biggest surprises are the two local players, seeded 12th and 14th out of 14. The youngster Anish Giri has two wins against a single defeat (1/22: now two defeats) while the veteran Loek Van Wely managed seven straight draws. Most disappointed must be World Championship challenger Gelfand and the highly rated Vugar Gashimov. There is still plenty of time for fortunes to change since six rounds remain to be played.

Here are my favorite games from Group A, one for every round.

Karjakin 0-1 Aronian -- Ruy Lopez closed
Aronian 1-0 Nakamura -- Dutch Leningrad
Carlsen 1-0 Aronian -- Queen's Gambit Declined + BN vs R endgame
Navara 0-1 Karjakin -- Ruy Lopez Berlin + pawn endgame
Nakamura 1-0 Navara -- English Opening, reversed Dragon
Gelfand 0-1 Nakamura -- Dutch Leningrad
Kamsky 1-0 Navara -- Ruy Lopez Berlin + R and B endgame
Giri 0-1 Gashimov -- Sicilian Najdorf, 6.Bg5

Shankland Takes First at NorCal International

2012-01-20T14:24:00.000-08:00

Fifth seed GM Sam Shankland won the 2012 Northern California International with an undefeated score of 7.0 out of 9. Rounds 6 and 7 turned out to be critical, when Sam defeated the early leader, IM Greg Shahade, and the top seed, GM Georg Meier of Germany, both in under 30 moves! A trio of Americans shared second place at 6.5: GM Alejandro Ramirez, GM Josh Friedel and IM Marc Arnold.

The tournament attracted 60 competitors to Fremont on January 2-8, including 8 Grandmasters and 16 International Masters. Players arrived from around the World, representing Georgia, Mongolia, Peru, Zimbabwe, and 9 other countries. The many flags hanging from the ceiling at the playing hall underscored the international flair.
One goal of any such event is to offer GM or IM norms to players who perform above 2600 or 2450, respectively. Three norms are required to earn a title. Kudos to Azeri master Faik Aleskerov for earning an IM norm with 5.0/9! IM Arnold and IM Shahade were among the leaders, but missed GM norms in the final round. C'est la vie! Unfortunately, the number of foreign participants (18) was less than expected (at least 20) due to multiple last minute dropouts, decreasing the norm opportunities. WGM Tatev Abrahamyan and 13-year old FM Kayden Troff both played very well to finish at 5.5/9, but alas, neither faced the requisite number of foreign opponents. Tragic!

Final Standings
Chess Life Online Article (by FM Kostya Kavutskiy)
Games in Java Viewer OR Download PGN
Brillancy Prize (judged by GM Vinay Bhat)
Photos

Many thanks to organizers Arun Sharma and Ted Castro for hosting the tournament. By all accounts, people enjoyed a week of chess and mild weather in the Bay Area. For local participants, this was a chance to play against strong masters without traveling far. And the nine players under the age of 16 received an invaluable face-to-face learning opportunity. Given the high level of enthusiasm, hopefully the Bay Area will host many future Internationals!

(Photos courtesy of Inga Gurevich and Ted Castro.)

Wijk aan Zee Tournament

2012-01-18T14:53:00.000-08:00

(World #1 Carlsen plays white against #2 Aronian. Photo by Chessbase.)

The beginning of each new year brings two of the most prestigious chess events: Wijk aan Zee in January and Linares in March. Both tournaments attract star players--this time 7 of the World's top 10. Chess enthusiasts from around the globe analyze every single game, hoping to understand the brilliant ideas behind the moves. Masters watch for the latest opening innovations while amateurs try to pick up a few tricks to use in their own games. Only the World Championship, Olympiad and World Cup can match this level of excitement.

More than a thousand serious fans brave the snow, cold and ocean breeze on the coast of the Netherlands to participate in a chess festival that began in 1938. Amateurs play in the same hall as the super-Grandmasters, and might even rub elbows with them. For over a decade, the steel company Corus funded the tournament. When Tata bought Corus two years ago, they assumed fiscal responsibility for continuing a tradition. Unfortunately, next year (2013) might bring the end; Tata has not indicated that it will continue the generous financial support.

Who are the players in Tata 2012? The all-star lineup in Group A includes the top 2 rated and 7 of the top 10 on the January FIDE Rating List. The bottom half of the field includes two (and a half) Americans. All but one player is rated over 2700--the unofficial threshold for super-GM. The average rating is a mind-boggling 2755!

#1 Magnus Carlsen (NOR 2835) -- chasing record rating of 2851 set by Kasparov
#2 Levon Aronian (ARM 2805) -- 2011 was best year of his chess career
#5 Teimour Radjabov (AZE 2773)
#6 Veselin Topalov (BUL 2770)
#7 Sergey Karjakin (RUS 2769)
#8 Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR 2766)
#10 Vugar Gashimov (AZE 2761)
#12 Hikaru Nakamura (USA 2759) -- top rated American
#16 Boris Gelfand (ISR 2739) -- challenger to World Champion Anand in May 2012
#17 Fabiano Caruana (ITA 2736) -- born in USA but moved to Italy at age 12
#20 Gata Kamsky (USA 2732) -- second American and reigning US Champion
#28 Anish Giri (NED 2714) -- youngest player at age 17, but top rated Dutchman
#30 David Navara (CZE 2712)
#54 Loek Van Wely (NED 2692) -- frequently plays Open tournaments in USA

Unfortunately, a pair of big names are missing from this list: #3 Vladimir Kramnik (RUS 2801) and reigning World Champion #4 Viswanathan Anand (IND 2799). Kramnik will probably play in Linares. Anand is taking an extended break to prepare for his title defense in May.

The traditional format is a 14-player round-robin, meaning all-play-all. The entire tournament lasts over two weeks--13 rounds interspersed by 3 rest days. Four rounds are now in the books, and the two 2800s share the lead at 3.0/4. They squared off in round 3, with Carlsen pulling out a victory in a wild endgame. On the other hand, Aronian won each of his other three games, including a middlegame win as black against Karjakin and a fighting game against Nakamura's Leningrad Dutch (see adjacent photo). Radjabov and the rising junior Caruana stand in third place, half a point behind the leaders.

Official Website -- lots of video interviews
LIVE Games -- 4:30am to approximately 10:30am PST
Games in Java -- after school or work
Crosstable
Daily Bulletin
Chessbase Reports
ICC ChessFM -- video interviews and Game of the Day (Activities - Events)

I strongly encourage all of the advanced kids reading this article to play through the games of Group A. You may choose to select a couple of top players to follow throughout the year. Over time, you will learn the style of these Grandmasters and see what you need to do to improve. Although not my primary goal, you should also pick up some new opening theory. Any junior rated over 2000 should already be analyzing GM games on his/her own. I think most 1800s are strong enough as well. Now get to work! :-)

While browsing the Official Website, make sure to check out the B and C groups. Group B is an impressive Grandmaster tournament in its own right, with an average rating over 2600. The third invitational, Group C, seems somewhat weaker; still there are six Grandmasters, including two rated around 2650. One small detail: the winner of Group C earns a spot in Group B next year, while the champion of Group B plays with the big boys.

Golden State Open THIS WEEKEND in Concord

2012-01-10T20:28:00.000-08:00

View Larger Map
This weekend's Golden State Open is the most exciting annual adult chess tournament in Northern California. Popular national organizer Bill Goichberg and his Continental Chess Association guarantee a minimum prize fund of $21K, with a projection of $30K based on 290 fully paid entries. The past two years saw an average of 250 participants and they hope for a modest increase.

Players may opt to stay at the comfy Concord Hilton while commuters benefit from easy access to I-680 at Willow Pass Road. Dining options are plentiful: Willows Shopping Center across the street (Claim Jumper, Quiznos and Jamba Juice), Sun Valley Mall just off the freeway, and family restaurants in almost every direction.

Event: Golden Gate Open
Dates: January 13-16 with 3-day and 2-day schedules (no Open in 2-day)
Location: 1970 Diamond Blvd, Concord CA
Format: 7 rounds in 5 sections (Open, U2100, U1800, U1500, U1200)
Primary Time Control: 40/2, G/1, d/5
4-day schedule: Reg by Fri 6PM. Rds: Fri night, Sat (2), Sun (2), Mon (2)
3-day schedule: Reg by Sat 10AM. Rds: two G/75, then Sat night, Sun (2), Mon (2)
2-day schedule: Reg by Sat 9:30AM. Rds: four G/40, then Sun night, Mon (2).
Entry fee: $150 on site
Prize fund: guaranteed $21,000; projected $30,000
Information: http://www.chesstour.com/gso12.htm
Advance Entries: http://www.chesstour.com/ae-gso12.htm

No doubt, I would have played in this event. Alas, my long term health issues do not permit it. Sigh! However, I plan to visit for a few hours on either Sunday or Monday afternoon. It would be just my second Bay Area chess tournament since May 2010. I'm looking forward to seeing lots of old friends and former students! Please say hi!!

October Top 100 Lists

2011-10-21T21:11:00.000-07:00


Udit Iyengar and Cameron Wheeler

I cannot believe that a full year has passed since my last report on the CalChess juniors ranked among the national Top 100 in each age. Alas, my previous blog post was indeed October 2010. My apologies! Without further ado, here are the PDF links everyone has patiently waited for.

CalChess Top Age Lists
CalChess Top 20 Lists

A total of 111 local students earned national recognition for their age, actually 2 less than a year ago. Another 8 girls appeared on the girls-only rankings. The most populous age groups were 11 years old (17 ranked, including 5 of the top 17) and 7 & under (15 ranked, including 5 age 6 and 2 age 5). No doubt this is a credit to the numerous school programs, concentrated in the South Bay.

The CalChess Top 20 lists keep growing stronger each month, despite the June graduation of four of the best high school players. Like last year, 16 kids are rated over 2000 USCF, a number already guaranteed to increase on the December supplement. Even more stunning is that 9 of 11 experts (2000-2199) are in middle school! Specifically, watch out for Kennedy Middle School at nationals, with top four players all currently rated above 2100 on MSA! (That's stronger than most high schools.) Finally, don't forget America's youngest master of all time, NM Samuel Sevian, who less than a year later is knocking on the door to 2300.

Ben Rood

In previous posts about the USCF Top 100 Lists, I created an unofficial medal system to honor the most talented CalChess juniors. Of course, those ranked #1 deserve an extra special mention. 15-year old IM Daniel Naroditsky falls somewhere between Superman and a 600 lb gorilla, considering that he has been at the top for some six years straight. On the other hand, 7-year old Ben Rood is the new kid on the block, winning both the CalChess 1-3 Championship and National K-1 Championship this year on the way to an impressive 1731 rating. Lastly, Chinguun Bayaraa starts off as the highest rated 5-year old in the country! Way to go Danya, Ben and Chinguun!

While only three #1s live in the Bay Area, there still are many star juniors. In fact, someone represents the Top 6 on every age list save two. (The exceptions are 13 and 17 years old.) Moreover, I counted two #2s and three #3s, all but one who reached the top before. With these statistics out of the way, let me announce the gold, silver and bronze medal winners! 14 gold, 17 silver and 9 bronze! (My students appear in bold and italics.)

IM Daniel Naroditsky

GOLD MEDAL (top 6)
Chinguun Bayaraa (#1 age 5)
Agnes William (#2 age 5)
Rishith Susarla (#4 age 6)
Ben Rood (#1 age 7)
Josiah Stearman (#6 age 8)
Michael Wang (#5 age 9)
Rayan Taghizadeh (#6 age 9)
NM Samuel Sevian (#2 age 10)
Cameron Wheeler (#3 age 11)
Jack Zhu (#6 age 12)
NM Yian Liou (#3 age 14)
IM Daniel Naroditsky (#1 age 15)
NM Gregory Young (#2 age 16)
IM Steven Zierk (#3 age 18)

SILVER MEDAL (top 17)
Solomon Ge (#9 age 8)
Anthony Zhou (#12 age 8)
Leyton Ho (#10 age 9)
Jeffrey Tao (#12 age 10)
FM Tanuj Vasudeva (#15 age 10)
Udit Iyengar (#7 age 11)
Vignesh Panchanatham (#11 age 11)
Colin Chow (#14 age 11)

IM Steven Zierk

Siddharth Banik (#17 age 11)
Kesav Viswanadha (#8 age 12)
Allan Beilin (#12 age 12)
Daniel Liu (#10 age 13)
Kyle Shin (#15 age 13)
Neel Apte (#16 age 13)
Paul Richter (#17 age 13)
Taylor McCreary (#17 GirlsU16)
NM Evan Sandberg (#15 age 18)

BRONZE MEDAL (top 30)
Zarek Azam (#21 age 7&under)
Jason Zhang (#23 age 7&under)
Arhant Katare (#28 age 9)
Kevin Moy (#22 age 11
Richard Yi (#24 age 11)
Art Zhao (#28 age 11)
James Kwok (#29 age 14)
NM Hayk Manvelyan (#20 age 17)
NM Rohan Agarwal (#19 age 18)

CalChess FIDE Rated Juniors - September 2011

2011-09-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

Beware the 5th grade master!

When I earned my first international rating in January 2000, the recognition was more of rare bird than it is today, especially for non-masters and juniors. Starting out at 2054, my FIDE actually dropped to 2011, barely above the absolute floor of 2000 back then. My USCF rating bounced around 2100 at the time.

I participated in a handful of "Futurity" events at the Mechanic's Institute, intended for players to earn a published FIDE rating. Only a handful of elite juniors were invited. Consequently, I doubt that more than five kids in the Bay Area could boast of their world ranking at any one time.

Fast forward to 2011...

CalChess FIDE Rated Juniors
(September 2011 FIDE ratings)

IM Daniel Naroditsky 2472
NM Gregory Young 2368
NM Yian Liou 2283
NM Samuel Sevian 2180
Daniel Liu 2063
Kyle Shin 2046
Siddharth Banik 2034
Arthur Liou 2024
Jack Zhu 1996
Cameron Wheeler 1962
Kesav Viswanadha 1938
Udit Iyengar 1917
Ojas Chinchwadkar 1915
Vignesh Panchanatham 1902
Allan Beilin 1899

Things certainly changed in a decade! An amazing 15 youngsters are currently ranked, even after four graduated this past June. Eight sport a FIDE rating over 2000. With fellow World Youth gold medalist Steven Zierk now a freshman at MIT, Daniel Naroditsky lays an undisputed claim to the rank of 600 lb gorilla in Bay Area scholastic chess.

Reigning US Junior champion Gregory Young bounced up 72 points in the first half of 2011 before returning to his retirement due to school and basketball. Hopefully he will submit the necessary paperwork and fee for the FM title that he duly earned by breaking 2300 FIDE. Last year's US Cadet co-champion Yian Liou lurks within striking distance of FM as well, needing just one or two good tournaments.

After this trio of talented high school players, 10 of the remaining 12 local kids are in middle or elementary school! Moving up from just below 2200 is Samuel Sevian, the country's youngest master ever (based on USCF rating). The bottom six players on the Bay Area rankings may still be below 2000, but I bet they will shoot up quickly considering they all are in 5th or 6th grade (except Ojas Chinchwadkar).

CalChess Top 20 FIDE

2011-09-21T23:05:00.000-07:00

Reigning state champion GM Sam Shankland (see photo) sits on top of the CalChess FIDE rating list for September 2011. I still remember Sam as a B and C player way back in 2004. He certainly came a long way since those days, winning three of the last four state titles (2008, 2009 and 2011), playing in three straight US Championships, finishing third this year, and defeating Peter Leko, former World Championship challenger, at the 2011 World Cup. Although Sam now attends Brandeis University in Boston, he plans to play in one or two Bay Area tournaments each year.

Aside from Shankland's meteoric improvement, there are a couple of other noteworthy changes since my last ranking list in February 2010. First, former state champion GM Josh Friedel moved to Wisconsin in search of happy cows. Fair travels! Secondly, teenage FMs Steven Zierk and Daniel Naroditsky upgraded their titles to IM, both gaining over 120 FIDE rating points in a year and a half. Steven also moved to Boston for college after being admitted to MIT. Would the state of Massachusetts kindly stop kidnapping the young chess stars of California?!

CalChess Top 20 FIDE

GM Sam Shankland 2553
GM Jesse Kraai 2514
GM Vinay Bhat 2511
IM Steven Zierk 2483
IM Daniel Naroditsky 2472
IM Dmitry Zilberstein 2403
IM John Donaldson 2390
IM David Pruess 2386
IM Ricardo DeGuzman 2382
IM Vladimir Mezentsev 2369
NM Gregory Young 2368
NM Arun Sharma 2331
FM Andrey Chumachenko 2325
FM Ronald Cusi 2313
FM Robin Cunningham 2295
NM Peter Zavadsky 2294
FM Shinsaku Uesugi 2292
NM Yian Liou 2283
NM Sevan Buscara 2271
FM Bela Evans 2262

Link to top players in Northern California ranked by USCF rating.

Study Math or Study Chess? Let's Ask Kasparov.

2011-09-09T13:22:00.000-07:00

Hey all ya math and chess nerds! Garry Kasparov was interviewed on TV in Brazil:

I'll give you one example: there was an experience run in Germany by one of the German universities. They had classes, two classes. One had extra hours of mathematics. Another class, the same class, parallel, had extra hours in chess. At the end of the year, they compared the results in... mathematics! The class with chess won. But moreover it's about social integration, because it helps kids to gain some self-esteem, it boosts their attitude, sense of logic.

This sounds all too familiar to me.

2011 FIDE World Cup Begins

2011-08-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

Bay Area star GM Sam Shankland (right) stunned super-GM Peter Leko (left) in round 1!

The FIDE World Cup has evolved into the largest and one of the most prestigious chess tournaments. An incredible 128 players arrived in the remote Russian oil town of K h anty-Mansiysk for a Wimbledon style knockout championship. Each mini-match consists of two classical games, one per day. If still tied, the match goes to a third day of tiebreaks, first rapid, then blitz and, if necessary, an Armageddon finale. Only one competitor can advance, meaning the competition is both grueling and nerve-wracking. The field shrinks in half after every round; round 2 has 64 players, round 3 has 32 and so forth.

The participants play for a huge prize fund of $1.6 million and three spots in the next World Championship cycle. Most players qualified either by rating (top 20) or by placing near the top of a country or continental championship (e.g. US Championship). The winner takes home $96,000; each of the 64 losers in round 1 gets $4,800. The two finalists plus the winner of the third place match advance into an 8-player Candidates Tournament (2013) to determine the challenger for a World Championship match (2014).

Considering these stakes, it seems a little surprising that only half of the top 10 rated players chose to participate. Of course, Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand are already busy preparing for a title match in May 2012. Then Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik probably expect to be invited to the Candidates Tournament by rating (top 3). However, the absence of Veselin Topalov and Hikaru Nakamura is more difficult to understand.

Six Americans made the lengthy trip to the middle of nowhere, or more precisely, 500 miles due north of Kazakhstan. Gata Kamsky earned his spot by rating; he actually won the 2007 World Cup. The other five (Alexander Onischuk, Yury Shulman, Ray Robson, Sam Shankland and Alexander Ivanov) all qualified at the 2011 US Championship in St. Louis.

Official website: http://chess.ugrasport.com/ (very good site!)

List of Players
Pairings Bracket
Live Games - Unfortunately begin at 2am Pacific Time. :-(
Complete Results
Fpawn Twitter - Or see right sidebar of this blog.
Daily Photo Albums

Games also available on ICC. Type "/finger WorldCup11" with library links at bottom.

American Results: MAJOR UPSET! Shankland eliminated Leko in round 1!! Click here to view his win. Unfortunately, only Kamsky managed to get past round 2. Kamsky was knocked out by Svidler, who subsequently won the entire tournament!

#8 Kamsky - eliminated by #9 Peter Svidler (Russian champ) 0.0-2.0 in round 4
#51 Onischuk - eliminated by #14 David Navara in round 2
#83 Shulman - eliminated by #43 Vladimiir Potkin in round 1
#103 Robson - eliminated by #26 Etienne Bacrot in round 1
#111 Shankland - eliminated by #82 Abhijeet Gupta in round 2
#112 Ivanov - eliminated by #81 Igor Lysyi in round 2

Schedule:40/90, G/30 + 30 sec/move added from move 1

Opening ceremony, August 27
Round 1, August 28, 128 players
Round 2, August 31, 64 players
Round 3, September 3, 32 players
Round 4, September 6, 16 players
Quarterfinal, September 9, 8 players
Semifinal, September 12, 4 players
Rest Day, September 15
Final + 3rd place, September 16 (two 4 game matches)
Closing ceremony, September 20

Chess: The Road to College

2011-08-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

(Where does this internationally certified chess nut go to college?)

The end of summer brings upon us the annual ritual of starting school. And those who managed to graduate from high school in June now begin a whole new chapter of their lives. Four of the Bay Area's elite scholastic players moved into college dorms this week. I was fortunate to have taught three of the four. They combined to win the past four state High School titles, with each victorious at least once. This post serves as a small tribute.

IM Steven Zierk definitely counts as the star of the class of 2011, both academically and based on chess results. He had many phenomenal results, but three stand out in my mind:

Clear 1st in A section of 2007 People's tournament with a published rating of 1527.
Beat GM Loek van Wely in 27 moves with black at 2009 Western States (Reno).
Gold medal at 2010 World Youth U-18 in Greece, earning the IM title.

While chess played big role in Steven's youth, he had a broad range of interests. As I found out accompanying him at the 2008 US Open in Dallas, he loves math puzzles and devours books of different genres. An active athlete, he played and refereed soccer, earned a second degree black belt in tae kwon do and even joined the school track and field team (shot put). Of course, he also excelled at Lo s Gatos High School. The photo at the top of this post leaves no doubt where Steven chose to go for college: MIT.

A year ago, NM Evan Sandberg (photo at right) became my sixth student to achieve the rank of master. Yet his greatest achievement came in 2009, when he shared 1st place in the High School section at the CalChess Scholastics (with Yian Liou), thereby earning the right to play in the Denker Invitational in Indianapolis. An active member of the Mechanics' Institut e chess club, Evan continued to participate in the Tuesday Night Marathon through this summer. The streak will necessarily end since Evan decided to attend Rutgers University in New Jersey.

NM Rohan Agarwal (photo at left) reached 2200 despite never being one of my students. However, I wrote a tribute to his aggressive playing style titled "The Master Gambiteer". Sadly, he didn't have time for many tournaments over the past two years at Irvington High School in Fremont. He did leave a mark by teaching the next generation at Weibel Elementary. Rohan won't need to go far for college as he decided to attend UC Berkeley.

Expert Nicholas Karas (photo at right) of Rio Americano High School in Sacramento started out with a provisional rating of 395 and then rocketed through the rating scale to a peak of 2159. Much of the teaching credit goes to his first coach--and my longtime student--NM Daniel Schwarz. Nicholas saved the best for his senior year, winning clear 1st in the High School section at the CalChess Scholastics and then attending the Denker Invitational in Orlando. He also became a Golden Bear as he began studying at UC Berkeley.

ConGRADulations to Steven, Evan, Rohan and Nicholas! (I admit that I'm a little late.)

Each year, the most talented young chess players typically get admitted to the best universities around the state and nation. Take GM Robert Hess, America's top rated junior, as an example; he just matriculated at Yale University. Among my growing group of ex-students, there's no doubt that Berkeley has become the most popular school, with at least a half dozen: David C, Jeff Y, Kevin H, Charles S, Michael L and now Nicholas. Five of these six reached 2000 at chess, establishing a quasi benchmark for future Berkeley applicants. And I believe three guys remain at Stanford (Marvin S, Aaron G and Adam G) after the June graduation of Daniel Schwarz.

Numbers aside, however... Go Stanford! Beat Cal!

Naroditsky Finds GM Norm in Spanish Mountains

2011-07-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

I submitted this article to Chess Life Online. The photo at left was taken at the 2011 US Championship. Congratulations Danya!

Always looking for interesting new places to play in Europe, IM Daniel Naroditsky participated in the XXXI Open International Villa de Benasque on July 7-16.

Located in the Pyrenees Mountains, this Spanish town is less than 10 miles from France, but 200 miles from the nearest large city, Barcelona. The majestic scenery attracted 31 Grandmasters and a total of 471 chess players seeking an excuse for a mountain vacation.15-year-old Naroditsky came to play Grandmasters and chase his first GM norm. ...

Please read the full article at Chess Life Online. There you will find a small sample of his games against Grandmasters.

Rybka Cheats!?

2011-06-30T18:51:00.000-07:00

World Champion Chess Program Banned For Cheating
Gizmodo.com (tech web blog) republished from http://kotaku.com
June 30, 2011

The engine which emerged victorious from the past four World Computer Chess Championships, called Rybka ("little fish"), has been banned for cheating. But, uh, how can a computer cheat unless it's programmed to?

The answer lies not in its programming, but in its construction. The International Computer Games Association, which has both an awesome name and which runs the computer chess championships, has found that Rybka's creator, Vasik Rajlich, essentially plagiarised the work of other existing chess engines in creating his software, and has been stripped of all his titles and ordered to return all his prize money. (Which engines? Crafty and Fruit.)

Funnily enough, the ICGA didn't take the action because Rybka had stolen code. They took it because Rybka had used other people's code and not given credit.

Do you think this story the truth or a fish tale? Perhaps people chose to slander Mr. Rajlich because of his success as an independent programmer!? I expect to hear more about this story in the coming weeks or months. I have not made up my mind yet.

For you kids out there, this article does contain one moral to learn and follow: Always cite your sources and give credit where it is due. If this news holds true, then the new program Houdini will be the undisputed leader in the world computer rankings. Coincidentally, Houdini openly borrows from other engines under an open source license.

Download the UCI engine for Houdini 1.5 (find the button about 1/4 down page) and run it in Chessbase, Fritz, Aquarium, Arena or Winboard. Here's the best part: Houdini is FREE!

Bay Area Showdown in St. Louis

2011-06-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

(Photo from the website of the St. Louis chess club, host and sponsor for the US Junior.)

FRIDAY UPDATE: Gregory Young won round 8 to clinch clear first! Congrats!!

Thursday's showdown between Bay Area stars IM Daniel Naroditsky (white) and NM Gregory Young was easily the most critical pairing of the US Junior Invitational to date. Gregory took the early lead, 0.5 points ahead of his rival. By winning, Gregory extended the lead to 1.5 points with just two rounds left.

Click here to play through the moves. Danya set up the Maroczy bind against Greg's accelerated Dragon, deviating at move 11 from Giri - Tiviakov (Unive 2010). The placement of the white rooks (Rad1) is a central theme to this opening. By move 24, black achieved a small tactical advantage on the queenside. Amazingly, the black queen doesn't get trapped! The resulting opposite color bishops endgame was difficult to hold because of white's weaker pawn structure (down a pawn) and black's active pieces.

Despite the lead, Gregory can't rest yet. His final two opponents, FM Warren Harper and FM Victor Shen are both rated over 2400 and eager to play spoiler. In fact, seven of the ten players still have a mathematical chance to win the championship, should the leader slip.

Final Standings

7.5 NM Gregory Young --2011 US Junior Champion
5.5 IM Conrad Holt, FM Victor Shen and FM Alec Getz
5.0 IM Daniel Naroditsky, FM John Bryant and FM Warren Harper
3.0 NM Kayden Troff
2.0 NM Jialin Ding
1.0 NM Raven Sturt

Bay Area Stars at US Junior

2011-06-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

For the second summer in a row, the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis has hosted and sponsored the U.S. Junior Invitational for 10 of the top American juniors under age 21. This club, generously funded by Rex Sinquefield, has quickly grown into the most exciting new venue in the nation. The past two U.S. Championships were held here, attracting most of the elite players of the country. No doubt, many of the juniors attending this week dream to join the big boys in the near future. In fact, the U.S. Junior champion earns an invitation to both the World Junior and next year's U.S. Championship!

Previous winners of the U.S. Junior include GM Bobby Fischer, GM Larry Christiansen, GM Patrick Wolff, IM Joshua Waitzkin, GM Tal Shaked, GM Hikaru Nakamura, GM Robert Hess, GM Ray Robson and last year's winner, GM Sam Shankland. Bay Area talent Shankland made the most of his opportunity at this spring's U.S. Championship, reaching the semifinals before being knocked out by the repeating champion GM Gata Kamsky.

The field of the 2011 Junior features 8 of the top 16 rated on the June Top 100 list for U21. However, the three Grandmasters ranked at the top (Hess, Robson and Shankland) all declined their invitations, perhaps because they each won at least once before. That left 15 year old IM Daniel Naroditsky, rated 2536 USCF, as the top seed. In a bizarre twist, one of the bottom half players actually tied for 1st in the 2008 U.S. Junior (see photo at top of post). The lucky guy holding the trophy was my longtime student NM Gregory Young, now 16 years old. Please join me in cheering loudly for the two Bay Area representatives in St. Louis, Danya and Greg!

My two former students face eight competitors from across the country: three from NY/NJ, two from Texas, plus one each from Utah, Kansas and the host state Missouri. One of the Texans is #2 seed FM John Bryant, formerly from Southern California, but now attending college. One of two Midwestern players, #3 seed Conrad Holt of Kansas, officially became an IM merely two weeks ago. And the youngest participant is 13 year old NM Kayden Troff of Utah, who picked up his first IM norm recently.

Check out the tournament schedule. The rounds begin at 11am Pacific time and are broadcast live on the chess club website using the MonRoi system. Also make sure to listen to the live broadcast by GM Ben Finegold and FM Aviv Friedman. Unfortunately, there is no coverage on ICC.

GRANDMASTER Sam Shankland!

2011-06-11T13:42:00.000-07:00

His odyssey lasted a year longer than he hoped. He took a year off before enrolling in Brandeis University to pursue this elusive dream. Frustrated by his inability to pick up one final norm, he threatened to quit chess. Fortunately for his students and many friends, he fought on. Along the way, he shared a World Youth title, won the US Junior Closed, earned 3rd place at the 2011 US Championship and scalped dozens of experienced chess professionals.

Within the past week, our hero Sam Shankland reached the pinnacle. The world governing body FIDE finally approved his Grandmaster title! He joined more than 1300 players at the highest level for a chess player. Sam was officially credited with four norms, needing only three: New York and Philadelphia in 2009 plus Berkeley and St. Louis in 2011. Bravo!

I still remember Sam as a rambunctious 12 year old rated 1750. It was already obvious back then that he had both the talent and enthusiasm to improve rapidly. In 2004 and 2005, he played a whopping 5,000 standard games on ICC. Kids, don't try this without parental permission. :-) Nonetheless, after so much practice, it is no wonder that his USCF rating shot upwards.

Date - USCF Rating

4/2003 - 1086
2/2004 - 1537
2/2005 - 1867
2/2006 - 2106
2/2007 - 2216
2/2008 - 2279
2/2009 - 2441
2/2010 - 2546
2/2011 - 2559
current - 2613

Although I never formally taught chess to Sam, I didn't hesitate to chew him out when he needed it. Trust me, he deserved it! Over the years, I came to know Sam as well as my top private students, even though he was in fact a major rival. Yet I cheered him on while he trotted around the globe. The biggest highlight was the trip to Vietnam in October 2008, where he shared 1st place in World Youth U18. Well done master!

Despite his repeated claims to the contrary, I am confident that Sam won't quit anytime soon. He loves the royal game and has achieved so much. He will undoubtedly play during vacations plus in the online US Chess League in the fall, unfortunately for the defending champion New England Nor'easters. Sam also enjoys teaching private lessons and summer camps. Check out his chess website for more information. Don't worry, GM Shanky is here to stay!

Sam is the second Berkeley Chess School alumnus to have earned the Grandmaster title. They're the same age and, quite predictably, are friends. Who is the other?

Ray Schutt Memorial Blitz Tournament This Sunday!

2011-05-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

The Mechanics' Institute will host a special event this weekend. I expect a large number of strong players for this Memorial Blitz Tournament. If you like to play blitz and perhaps face someone really good, this is your chance. Rumor mill: GM-elect Sam Shankland, IM Jacek Stopa, IM Daniel Naroditsky, NM Arun Sharma and defending champion FM Andy Lee. N.B. Some of these players say they won't play, but I don't believe it. Be there to find out!

The time control is traditional blitz. No delay or increment. Digital clocks are preferred, of course.

5th Annual Ray Schutt Memorial Blitz Tournament Sunday May 15
Location: 57 Post Street, San Francisco (Montgomery BART)

This tournament is UNRATED. (Membership in the USCF is not required.)

ENTRY FEE: $10 (free for International Masters and Grandmasters)
The prizes are guaranteed due to the generosity of the Schutt Family.

PRIZES: $750 total (guaranteed)
1st place: $300
2nd place: $200
3rd place: $100
4th place: $75
5th place: $50
6th place: $25

FORMAT: Five double-round Swiss or Round-robin, depending on the number of entries. Each player will probably play ten blitz (fast) games in this tournament.

TIME CONTROL: 5 minutes per player per game (G/5).

REGISTRATION: 1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. on May 15, 2010
There will be no registration in advance. Register at the tournament site on May 15.

The tournament will be held between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. The entire event will last between 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Refreshments will be available during the event. There will be an informal awards ceremony immediately following the tournament at approximately 4 p.m.

National Elementary Championships

2011-05-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

The Bay Area has performed well at the National Elementary Championships in recent years, including two team titles. Mission San Jose Elementary won the K-6 sec tion in 2009 while Weibel Elementary tied for first in the K-3 section last year. MSJE and Weibel are crosstown rivals in Fremont and compete for top honors at the CalChess Scholastics each year. The photo above shows last year's players.

This year, a whopping 62 Bay Area juniors traveled to Dallas to compete at Nationals. More than a third of the kids, 22 to be exact, represented MSJE while 11 more attended Weibel. MSJE fields teams in all four Championship sections. Weibel put all their eggs in one basket, shooting for the K-6 title. Another strong team this year is Regnart Elementary in the K-5 division.

Several local youngsters have excellent chances to take home big individual trophies. One is the top seed in K-5 (Cameron Wheeler) while another is ranked second in K-3 (Rayan Taghizadeh). Click on this link for the latest results and standings. The tournaments runs seven rounds: two on Friday, three on Saturday and last two on Sunday. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!

FINAL RESULTS

K-6
Allan Beilin 5.5 -- 6th place
Armaan Kalyanpur (MSJE) 5.5 -- tied for 6th place
Kevin Moy (Weibel) 5.0 -- 11th place
Michael Wang (Weibel) 5.0 -- tied for 11th place
Kesav Viswanadha 5.0 -- tied for 11th place
Alvin Kong (MSJE) 4.5
Erik Wong (MSJE) 4.0
Sameer Vijay (Weibel) 3.5
Alex Yin (MSJE) 3.5
Ishas Kekre (Weibel) 3.5
Sharon Lu (Weibel) 3.5
TEAM MSJE earned 2nd place at 17.5
TEAM Weibel finished in 3rd place at 17.0

K-5
Cameron Wheeler (Regnart) 7.0 -- NATIONAL CHAMPION!!!
Udit Iyengar (Regnart) 6.0 -- 2nd place
Vignesh Panchanatham 5.5 -- 6th place
Pranav Srihari (Regnart) 5.5 -- tied for 6th place
Alexander Feghhi 5.5 -- tied for 6th place
Amit Sant (MSJE) 5.0 -- tied for 20th place
Abhishek Handigol 5.0 -- tied for 20th place
Joseph Zhang 5.0 -- tied for 20th place
Shalin Shah (MSJE) 4.5
Steven Li (MSJE) 4.5
Eric Zhu (MSJE) 4.0
Pramodh Srihari (Regnart) 3.5
TEAM Regnart is NATIONAL CHAMPION with 22.0, 3.5 points ahead of the field.
TEAM MSJE captured 4th place at 18.0

K-3
Rayan Taghizadeh 6.0 -- 4th place
John Chan (MSJE) 5.0 -- tied for 20th place
Om Chinchwadkar 5.0 -- tied for 20th place
Mihir Bhuptani (MSJE) 4.0
Ojas Arun (MSJE) 4.0
Alvin Zhang (MSJE) 3.5
TEAM MSJE finished in 4th place (tied for 3rd) at 16.5

K-1
Ben Rood 7.0 -- NATIONAL CHAMPION!!! (two perfect scores)
Milind Maiti 6.5 -- 3rd place as a Kindergartner!
Balaji Daggupati 6.0 -- 10th place (tied for 4th) also as a Kindergartner
Zarek Azam 5.0 -- 24th place
Jason Zhang 5.0 -- tied for 24th place
Rishith Susarla (MSJE) 5.0 -- tied for 24th place
Bryan Wong 5.0 -- tied for 24th place
Chenyi Zhao (MSJE) 4.5
Soorya Kuppam (MSJE) 4.5
Jeffrey Liu (MSJE) 4.0
TEAM MSJE captures 3rd place at 18.0

Important Links
National Elementary website
Results and Pairings
Chess Life Online -- May 6
Cameron photo on US Chess -- May 8
Cameron Wheeler blog
Weibel Elementary blog

Shankland Stuns Onischuk to Reach Semis of US Championship

2011-04-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

(Shankland at right contemplates his position against Onischuk. To view more photos, click on cover images for each round at St. Louis chess club website.)

Last year's US Junior champion and one of the Bay Area's most talented juniors ever, Sam Shankland did the unthinkable as one of the lowest rated players at the 2011 US Championship in St. Louis. Waiting for FIDE to approve his Grandmaster title, "Shanky" earned a spot in the national semifinals by eliminating the country's #3 player. His reward for dominating GM Alex Onischuk is a mini match against defending US Champion and former World Championship candidate GM Gata Kamsky.

Semis Game #1
Shankland 1/2 Kamsky
Shulman 1/2 Hess

Semis Game #2
Kamsky 1-0 Shankland
Hess 1/2 Shulman

The other semifinal pits 2008 US Champion GM Yury Shulman against GM Robert Hess, the nation's top rated teen. It will be very interesting to watch the nation's top two juniors play against their more experienced opponents. Anything is possible--even a final between Shankland and Hess!

Semis are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, with any necessary tiebreaks on Monday. Games begin daily at noon Pacific and will be broadcast live at ICC and on the Saint Louis club website. The final takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, with tiebreaks and the closing ceremony on Thursday. Each mini match features a pair of classical (slow) games and, if tied 1-1, tiebreaks of G/25 with 5 second delay. This format promises to be exciting!

No doubt Shankland is already a very happy camper! He is guaranteed a minimum check for $15,000 (winner earns $40,000) and he also qualified for the next World Cup (a 128 player knock-out tournament with many top players).

IM Daniel Naroditsky (see photo at right), the other Bay Area representative in St. Louis, castled short with a pair of defeats in rounds 6 and 7. He finished with 2.5/7. We'll have to call it a learning experience, while realizing that few 15 year olds even get this opportunity. Trust me, Danya will be baaaaaaaaaaack!

CalChess H.S. Champion Nicholas Karas

2011-04-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Nicholas Karas for taking clear 1st in High School at the CalChess Scholastic Championships on April 2-3. Although I taught Nicholas (photo at left) for the last few years, much of the credit goes to his first teacher, NM Daniel Schwarz, for inspiring him. Now finishing the final year of high school, Nicholas became my fifth student in six years to qualify for the Denker Invitational held each summer at the US Open. Good luck in Orlando!

Two of my younger students shared top honors in the Junior High division. Kudos to Neel Apte and Kyle Shin for taking home the 1st and 2nd place trophies on tiebreaks. They already tied for 1st in Elementary last year, with Neel also earning 1st place. In fact, Neel (photo at right) has captured three titles in a row, starting with 4-5 in 2009.

Unfortunately, the Saratoga High School streak of consecutive team championships ended at six in a row. Mission San Jose High School won easily this year.

2011 CalChess Scholastic Individual Champions

9-12 - Nicholas Karas
6-8 - Neel Apte, Kyle Shin and Hunter Klotz-burwell
4-6 - Cameron Wheeler
4-5 - Abhishek Handigol, Alvin Kong, Siddharth Banik and Eric Zhu
1-3 - Ben Rood
K - Balaji Daggupati

2011 CalChess Scholastic Team Winners

9-12 - Mission San Jose High School
6-8 - Horner Junior High School
4-6 - Regnart Elementary School
4-5 - Mission San Jose Elementary
1-3 - Mission San Jose Elementary

Check out the great photos at ChessDryad by Richard Shorman and Mark Shelton.

Advice to Chess Parents Reprinted

2011-03-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

This is one of my all-time favorite posts; I am publishing it for the third time. This advice seems especially relevant now: the CalChess Scholastics takes place next weekend, April 2-3.

The main point is that a parent's behavior is critical for a youngster to feel confident and play well. I have seen many examples of parents discouraging their children, instead of positive reinforcement. Is it any surprise that many of the same juniors quit chess soon?

If you haven't entered the Championships yet, the regular entry deadline is Monday. If you already registered, check out the 747 advance entries here (as of Sunday).

The annual CalChess State Scholastic Champio nships take place this weekend. As a chess coach, I spend my time preparing juniors for the most challenging weekend of their lives. What role do the parents have? How should a parent behave at a chess tournament? I published this article last year and now is a good time to reprint it.

To start out, you should prepare your child with the necessary food and rest before and during the weekend. Make sure to get plenty of sleep; an extra hour of sleep will help a lot during the last games at the end of each long day. Of course, the kids need something big and healthy to eat for breakfast (very important) and between each game. Those players in the older sections tend to have longer games and may wish to take a bottle of water and a small snack (chocolate, candy, or gum) with them for each round.

Somewhat more challenging is to strike a balance between keeping your child focused between rounds while not draining all their energy. Refrain from chess activities, except for reviewing the tournament games briefly with a coach or a computer. Avoid blitz and bughouse between rounds because both games cause the children to play impulsively instead of carefully thinking about the best move. Older kids may wish to bring a book or a deck of cards to play with their friends. Younger kids may prefer video games. Another idea may be to bring a ball and go outside for a little while—enough to relax but not too much to drain all of their energy.

What should the parent say right before the round? My advice is simple: try your best and have fun! For example, one big aspect to trying your best is to take your time during the game. Of course, when you get to the board, make sure to be respectful to the opponent and parent. While chess is a war game, the battle should take place only on 64 squares.

The hard part about the motto “try your best and have fun” is to stick to it afterward. If your child tried their best, then you must encourage them no matter what the result. Never get angry with your son or daughter simply because they lost, even to a lower rated opponent. A few common and legitimate reasons to get upset include moving too fast, lack of focus by looking at other games or failure to record the moves. Most children will be eager to talk about the game afterward and even parents who aren’t strong chess players may pick up key details (e.g. “I blundered” or “I had a win but I lost” or “I didn’t see his piece”). Be aware that even chess players who try their best might blunder and miss a move that they should have seen.

Let me close by profiling four kinds of parent behaviors that I hope to discourage.

1. Parent measures performance merely by wins, losses and rating points. They become upset when the child draws or loses to a lower rated player, without considering whether the game was well played or the opponent simply had a good day. My response: Chess ratings are based on a statistical formula that predicts your winning percentage. For example, a player rated 200 points higher should win 75% of games and one rated 400 points high should win 90%. We must come to expect an occasional bad result against a lower rated player. Even an improving player may have one bad game or a disappointing tournament. As I’ve told many people, progress typically comes through two steps forward and one step backwards. Look at the big picture instead of every single game.

2. Parent relies on Fritz too much. I have seen many cases where a parent reviews a game with Fritz or another computer program and finds out that the child missed one or more key tactics. The parent will typically quote a computer evaluation, often mentioning scores like +5. My response: No human can play like Fritz and even top Grandmasters sometimes overlook mate in 1 (Kramnik) or hang a piece for no reason at all. Fritz is merely a tool to get better but an impossible standard to measure your performance against. Parents (and even coaches) sometimes forget or never realized how much more difficult it is to play the game with the clock ticking than to review it afterwards with a computer.

3. Parent hates child’s rival(s). Unfortunately, I see all too often when a parent measures his or her own child against the result of the rival. It is important to score more points or achieve a milestone first. The child is often forbidden to socialize with the rival, purely for competitive reasons. My response: In recent years, the best young players in the Bay Area have benefited from the interaction with their closest rivals. Masters Nicolas Yap, Drake Wang and Daniel Schwarz (at right in adjacent photo), who all graduated from High School in 2007, competed for the same trophies at the CalChess Scholastics for an entire decade, yet also forged strong friendships that included many hours of chess analysis and blitz games. The benefits of having friends in the chess community and someone to study with far outweigh any competitive disadvantage. Take the opportunity this weekend meet your child’s rivals and their parents. Set a positive example for the children to follow.

4. Parent lives for their child’s achievements. Most parents are proud of the success by their son or daughter, but a few take it to another level by bragging. They seek success, often even more than the kids. Those same parents become resentful when the result was not quite as good. My response: It is always of utmost importance that your child has fun. Juniors who don't truly enjoy chess (independent of their parents) simply will not improve as rapidly. You can lead a camel to water, but you cannot force it to drink. Unfortunately, these youngsters, who often have been pushed hard for many years, become prime candidates to drop out of chess entirely as they turn 13 or 14.

For another insightful perspective on competitive chess parents, please read two reports on Chess Life Online written by New York parent Mark Schein from the venue of the recent Bert Lern er National Elementary School Championships. Mr. Schein writes about years of experience attending national competitions as a father. Click here for the first article and the second article.

Best of luck to both the thousand players at the CalChess Scholastics and the many equally pumped up parents! Unfortunately, the chances that I will attend seem pretty low due to my severe long term illness.

New York Times: One Coach, Many Young Champions

2011-02-14T14:05:00.000-08:00

Chess Column - 2/13/11
by Dylan Loeb McClain

In the last five years, two Americans have won world youth championships: Daniel Naroditsky, who took the under-12 title in 2007, and Steven Zierk, the under-18 champion last year.

Both are from Northern California, and at one point or another, they both had the same coach, Michael Aigner.

They are not the only chess champions who have been trained by Aigner. Others include Gregory Young, who tied for first in the 2008 United States Junior Championship, and Yian Liou, who tied for first in the United States Cadet Championship (for players under 16) last year. He has also coached Saratoga High School to six straight California chess titles.

Aigner, 36, is a master, and he sees his role as trying to raise his students to his level, after which they often move on to stronger coaches.

Click on this link to read the full article.

Naroditsky a Finalist for ChessCafe Book of the Year

2011-01-19T17:32:00.001-08:00

Thanks to my former student Alan Naroditsky for sharing this article on Facebook.

(15 year old FM Daniel Naroditsky at left is the sole author of the book at right.)

As some of you may know, my brother Daniel is the U12 World Youth Chess Champion (2007) and just recently attained the highly-coveted International Chess Master title. Very few people in the world have achieved as much as my brother has, and he's only 15! In March of 2010, his first book, "Mastering Positional Chess" was published by New In Chess, one of the world's largest chess publishers. It has been extremely popular among chess enthusiasts, receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews, and after a first round of voting, has been selected as one of three finalists for the ChessCafe Book of the Year.

Out of three finalists, the book that receives the most e-mail nominations by January 31st will be named Book of the Year. If you would like to support my brother, please send an e-mail to bookoftheyear@chesscafe.com with the following text:

"I would like to vote for Daniel Naroditsky's book, "Mastering Positional Chess" for ChessCafe's Book of the Year."

This award is extremely prestigious, and your help is greatly appreciated!!

Here are links to my brother's personal website and his book on Amazon. As a side note, if you would like to purchase the book, I would be happy to have my brother sign it for you!

Addendum from fpawn: I had the pleasure of teaching both Alan and Daniel. Of course, Daniel is far too good for me now with a USCF rating hovering just below 2500. His book is brilliant! If you haven't bought a copy, I highly recommend it. Please also send an email to ChessCafe. Somehow, Daniel reached the final three and squares off against two big names in the chess world: GM Yasser Seirawan and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk. We definitely must support our Daniel as much as we can!

Kasparov Talks @ Google

2010-11-27T15:21:00.000-08:00

Here is one more video of Garry Kasparov in the Bay Area. On November 3, he spent a day at the Googleplex in Mountain View, giving a simul and answering questions at a forum. The former World Chess Champion also took time out of his busy schedule to meet with reigning World Under 18 Champion IM Steven Zierk.

Kasparov Simuls in Silicon Valley

2010-11-09T09:21:00.000-08:00

Did you know that Garry was in town last week?

Yes, the 13th World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov visited two Silicon Valley companies. He gave talks at Google and Palantir Technologies, even playing a pair of simuls. The following YouTube video shows the 10 board simul at Palantir on November 1.

Speaking at Palantir, Kasparov proclaimed the Apple II computer (1977) as America's most recent revolutionary invention. Never one to shy away from controversial opinions, Kasparov believes the United States has become complacent when it comes to innovation. Read more about the lecture here.

Team USA Captures One Gold and Two Silvers

2010-11-01T10:34:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to the three medal winners for Team USA at the 2010 World Youth!

IM Steven Zierk of Los Gatos, CA (at left of top photo) won GOLD in Under 18
NM Kayden Troff of Utah (middle of bottom left photo) won SILVER in Under 12
Jeffrey Xiong of Texas (middle of bottom right photo) won SILVER in Under 10

Finally, make sure watch the last 4-minute long highlight video produced by Chessdom. I saw all three medalists plus the last round game between Samuel and Vignesh.

World Under 18 Champion!!!

2010-10-30T04:29:00.000-07:00

I woke up early today just for this special moment. I logged into the official World Youth website and saw the final moves. Frankly, I couldn't believe what I was seeing; perhaps I wasn't awake yet. Alas, I woke up just in time to see my student become undisputed World Under 18 Chess Champion. Within 32 short moves, Steven Zierk crushed a 2495 rated Azeri Grandmaster, his fourth straight victory at the end of this two week long tournament.

Merely four years ago, Steven was a retired 1500 rated middle school player who played chess off and on as a hobby. Those who knew him already saw his talent back then. With a little motivation and guidance, Steven reached 2100 in the first year and 2300 in the second. Today, he stands as the newest International Master in the country, plus with a valuable Grandmaster norm to boot. His performance rating is a mindboggling 2723, more than 100 points above the GM norm requirement! Steven becomes the third Bay Area World Youth champion in four years, joining Daniel Naroditsky (U12) in 2007 and Sam Shankland (U18) in 2008.

What else can I say? Congratulations Steven! I am really proud of you.

Two other Americans won medals this year. Kudos to Kayden Troff of Utah, who was leading U12 for most of the tournament. He took home the silver medal after losing a crucial round 9 pairing. More kudos to talented youngster Jeffrey Xiong of Texas for winning another silver medal in U10. Click here for the complete results for Team USA.

Bay Area Final Standings at World Youth

U18: FM Steven Zierk 9.5 -- 1st place
U12: Kesav Viswanadha 4.5
U12: Allan Beilin 5.0
U10: Cameron Wheeler 8.0 -- 5th place
U10: Samuel Sevian 8.0 -- 6th place
U10: Vignesh Panchanatham 8.0 -- 9th place
U8: Rayan Taghizadeh 7.0
Girls-U8: Joanna Liu 6.5

Round 8 Interviews with Zierk and Troff

2010-10-28T11:51:00.000-07:00

Check out twin interviews with FM Steven Zierk and NM Kayden Troff starting at 4:13 in the round 8 video below. Rock on Steven and Kayden! And thanks once again to the Bulgarian chess news website Chessdom.

Kayden Troff and Steven Zierk Rock at World Youth

2010-10-27T11:47:00.000-07:00

(The World Youth website includes literally hundreds of photos taken by Chessdom.)

NM Kayden Troff of Utah rocks the entire world in Halkidiki, Greece! He has scored an amazing 7.5 out of 8 and leads the U12 section by a full point with three rounds left. Kayden's pairings have certainly been difficult enough; counting tomorrow's round, he has played five of the top eleven seeds, for a performance rating of 2525 FIDE. Make sure to check out his interesting chess blog.

Bay Area FM Steven Zierk has an undefeated 6.5/8 in the U18 section, good enough for clear 2nd place. He already drew with the leader and his performance of 2649 easily exceeds the GM norm threshold. Unfortunately, Steven has faced only two of the required three Grandmasters; the other GMs all struggled to score even 5.0. What a big shame!

Bay Area Standings at World Youth (after 8 of 11 rounds)

U18: FM Steven Zierk 6.5 -- 2nd place
U12: Kesav Viswanadha 4.0
U12: Allan Beilin 3.5
U10: Cameron Wheeler 6.0 -- 6th place
U10: Samuel Sevian 5.5 -- 13th place
U10: Vignesh Panchanatham 5.5 -- 19th place
U8: Rayan Taghizadeh 5.0
Girls-U8: Joanna Liu 5.0 -- 18th place

FM Zierk Leads Local Delegation at World Youth

2010-10-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

(At left, array of flags flying outside playing hall. At right, both Steven and his young pupil Cameron have excellent results. Visit Cameron's chess blog for more photos.)

The two week long World Youth Chess Championships in Halkidiki, Greece reached its midway point today as the 1400 participants played both rounds 5 and 6 (of 11). Tomorrow is the rest day, typically reserved for sightseeing tours and a well-deserved break from the chessboard. The tournament concludes with a closing ceremony after the final round on Saturday.

First-hand accounts from Halkidiki have been quite positive, fortunately in stark contrast to World Youth nightmares of yesteryear, e.g. Belfort, France in 2005. Check out this detailed chess blog written by 10 year old Cameron Wheeler and his father Rob. Great photos! In addition to pairings and standings, the excellent official website features round-by-round reports, PGN files with 50 top games per round, hundreds of photographs, and video interviews.

The eight CalChess juniors who flew to Greece fare quite well given the tough competition. Half of our kids are in the top 10 of their section! Samuel Sevian, the top seed in U10, remains at the top of the hill, having surrendered just one draw. A bit more surprising is the phenomenal result of Cameron Wheeler in the same section. Cameron scored four wins and two draws against opposition that includes a trio of young FIDE masters. His friend Vignesh Panchanatham recovered from a first round loss by winning four straight games (plus a draw for 4.5/6). Two of Coach Ted Castro's talented 8 year olds, Rayan Taghizadeh (photo at right) and Joanna Liu (wearing her Weibel shirt!) stand at 4.0 and 4.5 respectively. Lastly, Kesav Viswanadha and Allan Beilin may have earned less points than the others, only because they are playing in the more advanced U12 section.

However, the biggest story so far has been the phenomenal performance of FM Steven Zierk in the U18 division. My former star student stands at an undefeated 5.0 out of 6 despite facing three opponents rated around 2500, including a pair of Grandmasters. His performance rating of 2656 puts him on track for a GM norm, and nearly clinches an IM norm! He already drew against the leader, GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia, in a wild game. In fact, he played three of the top six seeds, beating one and drawing with the other two, in spite of losing positions. Admittedly, anything is possible with five rounds to go, but Steven currently finds himself in a most enjoyable situation. Good skill, mate!

Bay Area Standings at World Youth (after 6 of 11 rounds)

U18: FM Steven Zierk 5.0 -- 2nd place
U12: Kesav Viswanadha 3.0
U12: Allan Beilin 2.5
U10: Samuel Sevian 5.5 -- 1st place
U10: Cameron Wheeler 5.0 -- 5th place
U10: Vignesh Panchanatham 4.5 -- 16th place
U8: Rayan Taghizadeh 4.0
Girls-U8: Joanna Liu 4.5 -- 8th place

Interview with Zierk in Greece

2010-10-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

The round-by-round video reports from the World Youth in Greece have been a real pleasure to watch. Check out a 45 second interview with Bay Area representative FM Steven Zierk at the end of the round 4 video below. Thanks to the Bulgarian chess news website Chessdom for all of the media available online.

Los Angeles Norm Tournaments

2010-10-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks to NM Ankit Gupta for sharing this news.

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Chess Club will host an IM norm invitational next month. This ten player round-robin will be the first such event in LA for five years. The nine rounds are spread out over consecutive weekends (November 12-14 and 20-21) at the California Market Center on 110 East Ninth Street in downtown LA. The time control is 40/90, G/30 with an increment of 30 seconds from move 1.

The average rating of the field is 2338 FIDE, which makes it a respectable Category 4. Players must score 6.0 out of 9 to earn an IM norm. The field includes three International Masters: Enrico Sevillano (see photo at right), Tim Taylor and Zhanibek Amanov of Kazakhstan. Most of the norm seekers are role players for the Los Angeles Vibe team in the US Chess League: Roman Yankovsky, Alexandre Kretchetov, Tatev Abrahamyan, Joel Banawa, Jouaquin Banawa, Konstantin Kavutskiy and Ankit Gupta.

Metro Club director Michael Belcher hopes to organize more international tournaments in the future. Any readers with interest in such norm tournaments in the future (either IM or GM norm tournaments) should send an e-mail with subject "METROCHESSLA" to Michael Belcher at td(at)chess(dot)com and Ankit Gupta at gupta.ankit.h(at)gmail(dot)com. You will receive more information from the Metropolitan Chess Club mailing list.

October Top 100 Lists

2010-10-18T14:02:00.000-07:00

(Left photo: Organizer Salman Azhar.)

(Right photo: Coaches Alan Kirshner and Ted Castro with 2010 K-3 National Champions.)

I recently updated the CalChess Top 100 and CalChess Top 20 lists for October. The October supplement includes tournaments rated by the first Friday in September, meaning the Labor Day Festival did not make the cut. The age is current as of September 1.

Kudos to 113 local juniors ranked among the top 100 of the nation for their age. Salman Azhar of Bay Area Chess and All Star Coach Ted Castro apparently discovered the mythical Fountain of Youth. No fewer than 50 Northern California kids are nationally ranked for age 10, 9, 8 or 7 & under, the majority affiliated with either Salman or Ted! I can't wait to see how many young masters we'll have in about five years.
(The Chesspunks train with FM Daniel Naroditsky for World Youth. From left to right: Vignesh, Allan, Danya, Kesav and Cameron. Photo from Cameron's blog.)

A record 16 kids age 17 & under are currently rated above 2000, including four in elementary school! New experts this year: Cameron Wheeler, Jack Zhu, Kesav Viswanadha, Daniel Liu, James Kwok and Andrew Yeh. Superstar FM Daniel Naroditsky, incredibly almost 2500, holds the only #1 ranking this month, but nine more youngsters are ranked among the top five for their age, including four #2's. Here's a big round of applause for ten unofficial gold medalists for October!

GOLD MEDAL (top 5)
Advait Budaraju (#4 age 5)
Josiah Stearman (#4 age 7)
Rayan Taghizadeh (#4 age 8)
Michael Wang (#5 age 8)
Samuel Sevian (#2 age 9)
NM Yian Liou (#2 age 13) -- Co-champion of US Cadet Invitational
FM Daniel Naroditsky (#1 age 14)
NM Gregory Young (#2 age 15)
NM Steven Zierk (#4 age 17) -- Winner of Denker High School Invitational
IM Sam Shankland (#2 age 18) -- Winner of US Junior Invitational

Players ranked in the top 15 and top 25 of the country also deserve a special recognition. The names shown in bold and italics are all current or former students of mine.

SILVER MEDAL (top 15)
Ben Rood (#15 age 6)
Anthony Zhou (#8 age 7)
FM Tanuj Vasudeva (#8 age 9)
Cameron Wheeler (#6 age 10)
Vignesh Panchanatham (#10 age 10)
Udit Iyengar (#13 age 10)
Jack Zhu (#7 age 11)
Kesav Viswanadha (#9 age 11)
NM Evan Sandberg (#14 age 17)
NM Rohan Agarwal (#15 age 17)

BRONZE MEDAL (top 25)
Solomon Ge (#21 age 7)
Leyton Ho (#21 age 8)
Jeffrey Tao (#18 age 9)
Colin Chow (#17 age 10)
Richard Yi (#20 age 10)
Allan Beilin (#17 age 11)
Daniel Liu (#16 age 12)
Kyle Shin (#17 age 12)
Paul Richter (#21 age 12) -- CalChess K-12 Co-champion
Andrew Yeh (#30 age 14) -- CalChess K-12 Co-champion
Hayk Manvelyan (#19 age 16)

Play Chess in Reno Next Weekend!

2010-10-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

To those readers not flying to Greece on Sunday, I highly recommend the annual Western States Open in Reno starting in just five days. Unfortunately, I can't attend one of my favorite events because of an extended illness.

The Western States is one of the largest and strongest annual chess events west of the Continental Divide. Come to watch the Grandmasters play! Organizer Jerry Weikel, his wife Fran and the entire staff work diligently to make the weekend as enjoyable as possible for all. In fact, the Western States draws more players from Northern California than any local adult event except Labor Day. If you still have doubts, check out my article in the February 2008 issue of Chess Life about the 25th anniversary tournament in 2007.

Event: Western States Open
Dates: October 22-24
Location: Sands Regency in Reno (map)
Format: 6 round swiss in six sections (Open, Expert, A, B, C, U1400)
Schedule: Registration: Fri 9-10. Rounds: Fri 12, 7, Sat 10, 6, Sun 9:30, 4.
Time control: 40/2, 20/1, SD/30 (up to seven hours!)
Prize fund: $37,000 based on 400 players, $25,000 guaranteed.
For more information, visit the Reno Chess Club website.
At this late date, register on-site on Thursday evening or Friday morning.
Click here for the advance entry list (149 entries).

Although the tournament is held at a casino, the chess rooms are on the second floor, above the gambling floor. Surprisingly, the chess event is actually quite kid-friendly. One suggestion: If you request a room in the Regency or Dynasty towers, the children can ride the elevators between your hotel room and the tournament hall without passing through the casino at all.

Many students find it difficult to attend because of school. If you can, skip classes on Friday; otherwise take a round 1 bye and drive up in the early afternoon. Unlike most other 3-day tournaments, Reno doesn't offer a 2-day schedule. Despite this conflict, plenty of local juniors play in Reno each year, including many of my students.

Postscript: Students of mine may wish to visit my house in Davis on the way to or from Reno. I live just two minutes away from I-80. While I am sick, I would love to say hi. Please email me if you're interested.

Slow Chess League on ICC

2010-10-12T19:10:00.000-07:00

The Team 45 45 League on ICC is accepting signups for a new tournament! You play one game each week for six weeks (plus playoffs) against different opponents at a mutually negotiated time. The time control is 45 minutes plus a 45 second increment for every move; a typical game may last 2-3 hours. The league, which has been active on ICC for a dozen years now, offers sections at 200 rating point intervals to allow everyone the opportunity to play opponents near their own rating.

I have played in T4545L for quite a few years and I also volunteer as a section TD. About 15 of my students have played in the league--great practice! There are several teams of Bay Area kids, both elementary school and middle school. Please email me for references. The league is both highly recommended and fun to play!

Before joining, please carefully read the Quick Guide and Player Handbook. The T4545L has some strict rules which require a modest level of personal responsibility. It also helps if you are somewhat flexible in your availability to play, either after school on several days of the week or on most weekends. If you're busy at a big weekend tournament, you may wish to ask your captain to sit out that week. Feel free to contact me with further questions.

World Youth in Greece

2010-10-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

(Three of our biggest contenders at World Youth: FM Steven Zierk, Samuel Sevian and Rayan Taghizadeh.)

The 2010 World Youth Chess Champi onships begin next week at the Porto Carras Grand Resort (see photo at right) in Halkidiki, Greece. From October 20 to 30, more than 1400 boys and girls will play 11 rounds in a dozen sections ranging from U8 to U18. The competition should be fierce since the most promising talents from around the world will attend. There are future Grandmasters in every section!

The American delegation consists of 40 players, 5 official coaches and over 100 people in all. The Bay Area is well represented with eight participants, all who will attend their first World Youth. Will anyone follow in the footsteps of FM Daniel Naroditsky (gold medal U12 in 2007) and IM Sam Shankland (equal first and bronze medal U18 in 2008)? We shall see!

Northern California representatives

U18 boys: FM Steven Zierk
U12 boys: Kesav Viswanadha and Allan Beilin
U10 boys: Samuel Sevian, Cameron Wheeler and Vignesh Panchanatham
U8 boys: Rayan Taghizadeh
U8 girls: Joanna Liu

Certainly I won't be the only one watching the results come in each day. Here's the round schedule. Most of the games begin at 16:00 Greek time, which is 6:00 in the morning in California. In past years, three to five boards from each section were broadcast live at the official website. Also make sure to follow youngster Cameron Wheeler and his father Rob, who plan to tweet and blog with daily results, stories and photos.

Good luck everyone! Go USA!!

Mike Goodall 1946-2010

2010-10-11T09:06:00.000-07:00

An expert rated chess player, longtime USCF delegate, prominent San Francisco Bay Area event organizer, National Tournament Director and International Arbiter Mike Goodall passed away on October 5. Read the tribute written by Frisco Del Rosario for the chess blog at the San Francisco Examiner website.

Goodall had already lost a step or two when I first met him in the late 1990s. He remained active in the chess community through this year, playing Tuesday nights at the Mechanics ' Institu te and visiting the annual People's Open in Berkeley. He played in the first five rounds at the 2010 US Open just two months ago and directed the annual weekend tournaments in Santa Rosa until April 2009. It was obvious to me how much he loved chess and chess players. Like Bobby Fischer, Goodall moved on to a higher board at the appropriate chess age of 64.

Rest in Peace, Mike.

Does anyone have word of funeral arrangements? Please email me if you know.

CalChess Top 20 Adults -- October 2010

2010-09-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

(Photos of the top Bay Area chess masters: #2 IM Sam Shankland, #1 GM Vinay Bhat and #6 FM Daniel Naroditsky.)

Eight months have passed since I last posted the Top 20 Adults list for Northern California. I can report relatively few changes; most notably Japanese FM Shinsaku Uesugi began attending UC Berkeley. The top junior, 14 year old FM Daniel Naroditsky, moved up three spots to #6 after gaining 56 points to 2482. And a few players returned to the rankings after briefly dropping off due to inactivity (e.g. GM Walter Browne).

The four former residents of the GM House in El Cerrito (it closed last May) still occupy the top spots, with GM Vinay Bhat ranked #1 by a single point over US Junior Champion IM Sam Shankland. Both Vinay and Sam spend time outside of the Bay Area; Vinay travels around Europe (primarily Spain) while Sam started classes at Brandeis University (in Boston). By the way, if you enjoy studying well annotated games, then I highly recommend bookmarking Vinay's chess blog.

CalChess Top 20 Masters
(Fpawn's former students in red)

1 GM Bhat, Vinay 2560
2 IM Shankland, Sam 2559
3 GM Friedel, Josh 2554
4 GM Kraai, Jesse 2551
5 GM Browne, Walter 2520
6 FM Naroditsky, Daniel 2482
7 IM Florean, Andrei 2477
8 IM DeGuzman, Ricardo 2460
9 SM Kotlyar, Gregory 2435
10 FM Zierk, Steven 2431
11 IM Zilberstein, Dmitry 2421
12 IM Pruess, David 2411
13 FM Uesugi, Shinsaku 2399
14 IM Mezentsev, Vladimir 2394
15 IM Donaldson, John 2389
16 IM Tate, Emory 2389
17 IM Grefe, John 2340
18 FM Lee, Andy 2340
19 FM Cusi, Ronald 2332
20 NM Young, Gregory 2328

Fremont Open Next Weekend!

2010-07-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

The New Fremont Chess Club promotes chess for both adults and advanced juniors with a wide variety of activities. In addition to rated games on Friday nights from 8-11pm, the club hosts weekend tournaments plus camps and lectures by Grandmasters or International Masters. Celebrities who taught in Fremont include 2008 US Champion GM Yury Shulman and the reputed trainer GM Gregory Kaidanov. Check out a recent interview with Shulman by high school student Aditya Kumar.

The Fremont Open will take place next weekend, July 31 to August 1. The organizers hope to match the turnout from the past two years (average of 70). The early entries appear to be a bit sluggish, but the event seems like a good practice opportunity, especially for 1600 to 1900 rated players.

Event: Fremont Open
Date: July 31 - August 1.
Location: Club Sport.
Format: 4 round swiss in 3 sections (M/X, A/B and U1600).
Schedule: Register: Saturday 9:00-9:45. Rounds: both days at 10:00 and 3:30.
Time control: 30/90, G/60.
Entry fee: Postmarked by 7/26: $60. On site: $70. Play up for $10 per section.
Prize fund: $2400 based on 70 paid entries, including $350 for 1st place in M/X.
Contact: kenneth.zowal (at) sbcglobal (dot) net
Tournament Flyer
Advance Entry List

Cadet Kicks Off Today in Tennessee

2010-07-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

(The town of Crossville, TN is home of the US Chess Federation national office and the venue for the US Cadet.)

The US Junior is not the only national scholastic invitational going on this week. Eight of the nation's top talents under age 16 flew to Crossville, Tennessee for the US Cadet. While the big guns (notably GM Ray Robson and FM Darwin Yang) elected to play in St. Louis, the field remains quite impressive. Undoubtedly this is the first time that all eight players are masters!

Another noteworthy observation about the Cadet is how tight the ratings are: just 100 points USCF from top to bottom! Seemingly anyone could beat anyone else in this tournament; it wouldn't surprise me to see each player nicked for at least one loss during the seven rounds. That should make it interesting! If I had to pick one favorite, I would go with the top seed Aleksandr Ostrovskiy because he lives in New York and consequently has more experience facing masters than anyone else.

Of course, I will cheer loudly for my pupil Yian Liou (photo at right) to bring home a national title. Yian has steadily improved from 1200 back in 2005 to nearly 2300 today. He earned a 2400 performance last weekend at Pacific Southwest Open in Los Angeles, drawing with GM Melik Khachiyan and beating IM Jack Peters. Go for the gold Yian!

2010 US Cadet Invitational (most updated USCF rating, July FIDE rating)

Aleksandr Ostrovskiy (2299, 2257)
Yian Liou (2277, 2211)
David Adelberg (2275, 2216)
Michael Yang (2247, 2141)
Adarsh Jayakumar (2242, 2172)
Ryan Moon (2227, 2227)
Jarod Pamatmat (2210, 2060)
Atulya Shetty (2198, 2086)

Games will be broadcast live on the MonRoi website (free registration). I don't know when the first round begins, except that it is sometime today. Stay tuned for updates. Correction: Round 1 is on Tuesday, July 13.

Good Luck to Steven and Sam at US Junior!

2010-07-09T21:42:00.000-07:00

(The top two seeds--Sam Shankland at left and Ray Robson on right--share a lighter moment before the action begins. Photo from CCSCSL website.)

Two of the Bay Area's most successful young chess players will participate in the US Junior Closed (invitational) beginning this weekend at the magnificent Chess Club and Sc holastic Center of St. Louis. Please join me in cheering for FM Steven Zierk (one IM norm) and IM Sam Shankland (two GM norms).

The field seems a bit disappointing, with only three of the top nine players under 20 on the April Top 100 list actually showing up. This year's favorite is top seed and defending champion GM Ray Robson. The second seed, and only International Master to participate, is our own Sam Shankland, who could benefit from a little more luck than at recent tournaments. To be quite honest, I will be shocked if neither Ray nor Sam finish at least tied for first.

The dark horse is FM Conrad Holt, the highest rated player from Kansas ever. He gained another 50 rating points and earned a pair of IM norms at the Copper State International and World Open. Third seed FM John Bryant of Los Angeles won't be intimidated by anyone and may also end up being a force to reckon with.

In addition to Sam, I will cheer loudly for my student Steven Zierk. This is Steven's first one-game-per-day invitational and he will need to adjust to the level of competition. He has enough experience drawing against Grandmasters (plus one notable win) that he could be a serious contender. The challenge will be to play consistently in a round-robin tournament where eight of his nine competitors are rated within 30 rating points or higher.

2010 US Junior Closed (most updated USCF rating, July FIDE rating)

GM Ray Robson (2608, 2562)
IM Sam Shankland (2561, 2513)
FM John Bryant (2483, 2403)
FM Conrad Holt (2468, 2402)
FM Darwin Yang (2429, 2396)
NM Warren Harper (2416, 2304)
FM Steven Zierk (2412, 2385)
NM Parker Zhao (2382, 2267)
NM Tyler Hughes (2381, 2312)
NM Eric Rosen (2227, 2179)

Watch for live video coverage from St. Louis beginning at noon Pacific time daily through July 19 (rest day 7/16). As a treat, GM Hikaru Nakamura is scheduled to comment on the first two rounds this weekend. Games are being broadcast LIVE on ICC (check under the Events list). Watch for occasional updates on this blog and on my Twitter page.

Good luck Steven and Sam!

Silicon Valley Challenge on Sunday!

2010-07-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

(The playing hall is actually a dance studio. Watch out for the mirrors!)

First of all, I apologize to my regular readers for this extended absence. I am battling an annoying intestinal ailment that has deprived me of much of my usual zest for over two months. Unfortunately, it is still not cured, although the doctors can't seem to find anything wrong in my medical test results.

The 8th Silicon Valley Challenge hosted by the Sun Chess Club will be this coming Sunday! As in recent years, the event will be held at Susan's Dance Studio in NE San Jose.

This year takes on a little more significance since Charles graduated from Saratoga High School and will begin classes at UC Berkeley next month. I began teaching him in 2004 and had the pleasure of watching him grow into a smart and confident young man. Charles was never one of my star students, but his success at big money tournaments (Las Vegas!) remains unparalleled by my students. I still remember watching him improve from 1394 to 1806 in the summer of 2005. He attributed that quantum leap to learning to pay attention to tempo in chess.

In high school, Charles took over the leadership of the Saratoga High School club, extending the streak of state titles to a record six straight years. He also began organizing a couple of rated tournaments each year. Read about last year at this blog post. Over four years, a total of 350 players participated in 11 events, with an impressive peak of 62. Charles generously treats his players to free snacks and drinks, which may help explain why many come back each year.

Event: Silicon Valley Challenge #8
Date: this Sunday, July 11
Location: 2146 Ringwood Avenue, San Jose (off I-880 near Milpitas).
Format: 4 round swiss in 2 sections (Open and U1600).
Open schedule: Reg: 8:30-8:50. Rounds: 9:00, 11:30, 1:45, 4:00.
U1600 schedule: Reg: 10:30-11:15, Rounds: 11:30, 12:30, 1:45, 3:00.
Time control: G/60 for Open; G/30 for U1600.
Entry fee: $45 adults, $40 juniors on-site. Masters FREE!
Prize fund: $510 total including $100 for 1st place in Open section.
Go to Sun Chess Club website for the entry form
Or check the advance entry list.
Site capacity: 54 players.

I highly encourage my students to come to play. Unfortunately, it looks like my ongoing health problems may prevent me from coming down on Sunday. Big sigh!

City Council Honors 6-time State Champs

2010-06-03T23:01:00.000-07:00

COMMENDATION OF THE CITY COUNCIL
OF THE CITY OF SARATOGA
HONORING THE
SARATOGA HIGH SCHOOL CHESS TEAM

WHEREAS, Six members of the Saratoga High School Chess Team competed at the CalChess State Chess Championship on April 17th and 18th, 2010 and won the team championship for the varsity section; and

WHEREAS, this Chess Championship was the sixth consecutive championship for the Saratoga High School Chess Team which is a record for the State; and

WHEREAS, the Saratoga High School Chess Team competed in chess competitions throughout the 2009/2010 school year and won the Santa Clara County high school chess championship, with four of the team members placing in the top five finishers, and came in 2nd place in the regional high school league chess championship; and

WHEREAS, the team has been self-motivated and trained throughout the year for this championship; and

WHEREAS, National Master Michael Aigner was the professional coach for the team and trained them in chess technique but also imparted on the team a deep appreciation of the benefits of strategic thinking, hard work and training for all efforts in life; and

WHEREAS, in recognition thereof it is appropriate to extend to them the special honors and highest commendations of the community of Saratoga.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the City Council of the City of Saratoga does hereby congratulate and commend the members of the Saratoga High School Chess Team for this outstanding achievement.

2nd day of June 2010
Kathleen M. King, Mayor
City of Saratoga

(Team members from left to right: Coach Fpawn, Charles Sun, Kevin Garbe, Rolland Wu, Evan Ye and Brian Wai. Not present: Sankash Shankar.)

2010 US Championship Underway

2010-05-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

The 2010 US Championship began on Friday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. Thanks to club sponsor Rex Sinquefield for backing a most generous prize fund of $170,000, including $35,000 for 1st place and $3,000 minimum for last. The novel format is a nine round swiss with one major variation. After round 7, the top four players split from the main swiss and face off in a round-robin quad to determine the top prizes. The "Final Four" plays ten games to determine the national champion while everyone else completes the nine round swiss, with the winner earning 5th place. This ensures that the best players face each other at the end.

The field of 24 participants includes all of America's top Grandmasters, a few older veterans and the brightest young talent. Will defending champion Hikaru Nakamura (photo by Betsy Dynako at top right) flex his muscles to become the first repeat winner in 25 years? Or will fellow Olympiad team (photo by Mike Klein below) members Gata Kamsky, Alex Onischuk, Yury Shulman and Varuzhan Akobian snatch the top honors? Or perhaps one of the three talented teenagers will surprise everyone, like last year when Robert Hess took 2nd place.Defending champion: Nakamura
Favorites: Kamsky, Onischuk
Contenders: Shulman, Akobian, Lenderman
Star Juniors: Hess, Robson, Shankland
Former Champions: Shabalov, Christiansen, Benjamin, Yermolinsky
The Field: Ehlvest, Kaidanov, Kudrin, Stripunsky, Bhat, Finegold, Khachiyan, Kraai, Gurevich, Krush, Altounian

Of course, many readers of this blog will cheer for the California players. Vinay Bhat has come home after spending more than a year traveling the European chess circuit. Gaining 73 FIDE rating points in the past 9 months, he may be a dark horse to surprise everyone. CalChess State Champions Sam Shankland and Jesse Kraai both have the potential to beat anyone, but it is unclear if they can maintain that high level of play over the full 9 or 10 rounds. Many Bay Area chess fans still consider 2-time US Champion Alex Yermolinsky as a local hero, although he moved to South Dakota a few years ago. Finally, Melik Khachiyan of Los Angeles has developed an pool of students from Northern California.

Readers may watch games live daily beginning at noon Pacific time. The Internet Chess Club offers live audio and video broadcasts from Saint Louis for its members (observe boards 1 through 12). Monroi broadcasts live moves for free. The official tournament website also promises live games, but their bandwidth was too low yesterday.

Key Round 1 Results: Stripunsky 0-1 Nakamura, Kamsky 1-0 Robson, Shulman 1/2 Bhat, Lenderman 0-1 Khachiyan (photo at right by Betsy Dynako), Hess 1-0 Shankland, Kraai 1/2 Shabalov.

Vini, Vidi, Vishy!

2010-05-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Anand!

This morning, 40-year old Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand successfully defended his world chess title by defeating challenger Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria. The 12 game title match ended in a narrow 6.5-5.5 score after Anand won today's final game as black. This was the only game that the player of the black pieces won; white had already won four games--two by each participant. This title defense solidified Anand's status as the unified 15th World Champion, following a direct line from Fischer to Karpov to Kasparov to Kramnik and finally to Anand.

The final game seemed typical of the entire match. Playing white, Topalov achieved a pleasant middlegame out of the Queen's Gambit Declined opening. Knowing Anand's reputation in rapid and blitz games, Topalov couldn't afford to play a tiebreaker and had to find a way to win today, even risking defeat. Anand, defending patiently, saw his opportunity on move 30 and struck with a dangerous pawn sacrifice f7-f5! After 33... Rd4 and 34... Qe8, white's monarch was in grave danger, a complete reversal of how this match began in game 1. While Topalov escaped the mating web today, the attack cost him the queen. Game! Set! Match!

Final Standings: Anand 6.5 - Topalov 5.5

Topalov 1-0 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1-0 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Topalov 1/2 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1-0 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Topalov 1/2 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1/2 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1/2 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Topalov 1-0 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1/2 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Topalov 1/2 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1/2 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Topalov 0-1 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video

What is next? According to the World Chess Federation FIDE, eight players will complete a series of knockout matches for the right to challenge Anand in a title match. The players are Topalov, Carlsen, Kramnik, Kamsky, Aronian, Gelfand and two more. These candidates matches are currently penciled in for December 2010 in Azerbaijan, while the next World Championship could be held as soon as the end of 2011. Unfortunately, FIDE has a reputation of not following through on its official commitments, so we will need to wait and see what actually transpires.

Three Foot Tall Chocolate Chess Set

2010-05-10T23:11:00.000-07:00

The family of Utah chess prodigy Kayden Troff hires a chocolate shop to make a giant chessboard with 3-foot pieces. The store owners use more than 1,100 pounds of chocolate while attempting their biggest project ever. After days of hard work, they deliver the board with 32 solid chocolate pieces at a chess camp run by 11 year old master Kayden, his family and their friends.

Little Chocolatiers is an American reality television series on TLC that airs Tuesday evenings. The show is based on Steve Hatch and his wife Katie Masterson's chocolate shop in Salt Lake City and how they make their chocolate.

Part I on YouTube
Part II on YouTube (or click on the video player at top)

Bay Area Results from Elementary Nationals

2010-05-07T22:07:00.000-07:00

A whopping 55 local youngsters, their parents and coaches flew to Atlanta for the Bert Lerner National Elementary Championship this weekend. The local delegation includes most of the Bay Area's elite elementary age players plus large teams from the two strong Fremont schools. I hope these kids can bring home a few national titles plus an assortment of trophies from many different sections! Go Bay Area!

Northern California Standings
(final results)
(click here for full results)

K-6

Daniel Liu 6.0, NATIONAL CHAMPION!!! (4th on tiebreaks)
Kevin Moy 5.0, 18th place (tied for 16th, beating three 1700s)
Daniel Ho 5.0, 24th place (tied for 16th)

K-5

Allan Beilin 6.5, NATIONAL CHAMPION!!! (clear 1st)
Art Zhao 6.0, 4th place (tied for 2nd)
Kesav Viswanadha 5.5, 8th place (tied for 7th)
Jeffrey Tao 5.5, 16th place (tied for 7th)
Armaan Kalyanpur 5.5, 17th place (tied for 7th)
Alvin Kong 5.0, 31st place (tied for 19th)
Cameron Wheeler 5.0, 33rd place (tied for 19th)

K-3

FM Tanuj Vasudeva 6.0, 4th place (tied for 2nd, losing to top seed Roland Feng)
Michael Wang 5.5, 13th place (tied for 9th, also losing against Roland Feng)
Leyton Ho 5.5, 17th place (tied for 9th)
Amit Sant 5.0, 24th place (tied for 19th)

K-1

Solomon Ge 6.0, 6th place (tied for 3rd)
John Chan 5.5, 18th place (tied for 12th)
Luke Zhao 5.0, 33rd place (tied for 25th)
Mihir Bhuptani 5.0, 38th place(tied for 25th)

Team Standings

Weibel K-6 finished in THIRD PLACE!
MSJE K-6 took 10th place
MSJE K-5 took THIRD PLACE
Weibel K-5 slipped to 17th place
Weibel K-3 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!! (2nd on tiebreaks)
MSJE K-3 got 5th place
MSJE K-1 took SECOND PLACE!!

If anyone who was in Atlanta took photos at the awards ceremony, pretty please with a cherry on top send me some pictures for my blog.

I'm a Perfect Square

2010-05-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

(Yes, I do love strawberries!)

Thank you to all of my friends and fans who sent birthday wishes yesterday. I really appreciate the many friends that I have, ranging from my youngest elementary age students to chess veterans who began playing during the Fischer boom of the 1960s and early 1970s. Amazingly, I personally know at least six fans of the royal game who also were born on May 6, including two of my private students plus a resident of the East Bay's famed GM House (Jesse Kraai).

There's a lot going on in the world of chess this week. Foremost is the World Championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and challenger Veselin Topalov. The score is tied at 5.0 with two games remaining on Sunday and Tuesday, starting at 5:00am Pacific time. If they are still tied, then rapid and blitz playoffs are scheduled for Thursday. Let's go Vishy!!!

Back in the USA, the Bert Lerner National Elementary Championship began in Atlanta. The crowd of 2000+ participants includes 55 enthusiastic youngsters from Northern California. Many of the elite local players flew east, including: Daniel Liu (K-6), Kesav Viswanadha (K-5), FM Tanuj Vasudeva (K-3), Allan Beilin (K-5), Cameron Wheeler (K-5) and the severely underrated Michael Wang (K-3). A pair of Fremont schools are hunting for big team trophies: 2009 national champ Mission San Jose Elementary and crosstown punching bag Weibel Elementary both have over 15 kids. Click here for updated standings and pairings from Atlanta.

Finally, I hope to play in the Powell G/45 tournament tomorrow at the Mechanics' Institute. I expect to see many of my students. Will preteen terror NM Yian Liou win for the second month in a row? Can any of my lower rated kids scalp an expert or a master? And will I perform well enough to eek my USCF rating back above my lifetime floor of 2200. Wish us all good luck!

Topalov Levels Score in World Championship

2010-05-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

This morning, the challenger Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria leveled the score of the World Championship match at 4 games each. He continued a theoretical discussion in the Slav defense, this time obtaining an advantage in an opposite colored bishops endgame. However, the defending champion Viswanathan Anand of India defended resourcefully and would have drawn if he had not blundered with 54... Bc6?? Better was Ba4, allowing the Bishop to defend h7 if needed. Black resigned two moves later because he couldn't stop White's Pawns and active King, e.g. 56... Be8 57. g5 Bc6 58. f4 Be8 59. Bg7 Bc6 60. g6 hxg6 61. Kxg6 Bd7 62. Kf6 Kh7 63. Ke7 Ba4 64. d7 Bxd7 65. Kxd7 Kxg7 66. Kxe6.

Only four games remain in the match! Watch the action LIVE on ICC on Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Tuesday beginning at 5:00 in the morning PDT. Anand plays White on Thursday and Sunday.

Current Standings: Anand 5.5 - Topalov 5.5

Topalov 1-0 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1-0 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Topalov 1/2 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1-0 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Topalov 1/2 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1/2 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1/2 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Topalov 1-0 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1/2 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Topalov 1/2 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1/2 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video

If the match somehow ends knotted at 6-6, rapid and blitz tiebreaks will be played on Thursday, May 13. Tiebreak format: Four action games G/25+10 sec/move. If still tied, up to five pairs of blitz games G/5+3 sec/move (as many as 10 games total). If still tied after 12 classical games and 14 rapid/blitz games, they play a single Armageddon game where White has 5 minutes against 4 (no increment) but Black gets draw odds.

Ray Schutt Memorial Blitz on Sunday

2010-04-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

Mechanics' Institute Chess Room director IM John Donaldson passes along this note. He expects the field to be strong, including several GMs and IMs. This looks like a perfect opportunity for the top local juniors to pick up a few big name scalps.

4th Ray Schutt Memorial Blitz Tournament

A Chance to remember and pay tribute to an old friend
Sunday, May 2, 2010, 1 to 5 pm
Tournament: 2 to 4 pm
5 double-round Swiss (10 games)

PRIZES:
1st $300, 2nd $200, 3rd $100, 4th $75, 5th $50, 6th $25

ENTRY FEE: $10. Free to GMs and IMs.
Enter at tournament from 1:00 to 1:45 pm

Come honor Ray's memory and make this a great tournament! Light refreshments will be available.

World Chess Championship: Anand vs Topalov

2010-04-26T23:43:00.000-07:00

(The combatants wait patiently for the start of game 2 on Sunday.)

The most exciting chess event of the year began last weekend in Sofia, Bulgaria. This year's World Championship match pairs two well-known players who both have consistently been ranked in the top 5 for at least a dozen years. And for the first time since 1972, none of the infamous K's was present (Karpov, Kasparov and Kramnik).

In one corner, we have the reigning 15th World Champion from Chennai, India: Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (photo at left). Currently rated #4 in the world at 2787, he achieved a lifetime peak rating of 2803 two years ago. Most impressively, the 40 year old Anand maintained elite status since the mid 1990s, when he lost to Garry Kasparov in a 1995 title match. He became FIDE Champion in 2000 after winning a Knockout Tournament in Tehran, Iran. Alas, twelve years after first facing Kasparov, Anand finally captured the undisputed unified title by winning the 2007 World Championship Tournament in Mexico City, an eight player double round-robin. He successfully defended the throne in a 2008 title match against Vladimir Kramnik (6.5 to 4.5) in Bonn, Germany.

In the other corner stands the 35 year old challenger from Bulgaria: Veselin Topalov (photo at right). He is currently rated 2805, second in the world behind the teenage phenom Magnus Carlsen. His lifetime peak rating of 2813 has been exceeded only by Kasparov. Topalov joined the world elite in the late 1990s, a status he has held since. He became FIDE World Champion by dominating the 2005 World Championship Tournament in San Luis, Argentina, another eight player double round-robin. As the final component of the reunification of the world chess crown, Topalov earned his seat in today's match by defeating Gata Kamsky in a 2009 challenger's match by a lopsided margin of 4.5-2.5.

Grandmasters Anand and Topalov play 12 games from April 24 through May 11, with a rest day after every two games. The classical time control is 40 moves in 2 hours, then 20 moves in 1 hour, and finally G/15 plus 30 second increment starting after move 60 (maximum length = about 7 hours). Games begin at 5:00 in the morning Pacific time, but can easily last four or more hours. If the match is tied 6-6, the tiebreaks are scheduled for May 13. (Action G/25+10sec, then blitz G/5+3sec and finally a possible Armageddon game.)

Current Standings: Anand 4.0 - Topalov 3.0

Topalov 1-0 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1-0 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Topalov 1/2 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1-0 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Topalov 1/2 Anand -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1/2 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video
Anand 1/2 Topalov -- replay -- Chessbase report -- ICC video

You may follow the games early each morning at the official match website or live on the Internet Chess Club. When you log into ICC, type "/tell webcast listen" (for Dasher or BlitzIn only) to hear Grandmaster commentary or view the results and games in "/finger WorldChamp10". By late afternoon of each day, you may watch the "Game of the Day" video for each round (enter your ICC username and password when prompted).

NM Agarwal Honored as Scholar-Chessplayer

2010-04-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

Last week, the US Chess Trust announced five recipients of the 2010 Scholar-Chessplayer Award, including 11th grader NM Rohan Agarwal of Fremont. The other scholarship winners were Richard Herbst (Colorado), WFM Abby Marshall (Virginia), Jake Miller (New York) and FM Victor Shen (New Jersey).

"These annual scholarships awarded by the US Chess Trust, the National Scholastic Chess Foundation, and the USCF, are intended to recognize and encourage high school junior or senior students who promote a positive image of chess. High School students who have shown outstanding merits in academics, sportsmanship and chess were eligible to apply to these scholarships. Five awards of $1,500.00 each (total of $7,500) in scholarship money are awarded."

Well done Rohan for excelling in challenging courses at Irvington High School as much as on the chessboard! Read my blog tribute to the "Master Gambiteer" dated January 2009 and my report on the 2009 US Cadet invitational. No doubt the many skills required to checkmate will also help Rohan in other walks of life. Good luck!

Joanna Liu Wins Girls Nationals U-8!

2010-04-25T22:58:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, the CalChess Scholastics were not the only major chess championship held last weekend. Three Bay Area girls flew to Columbus, Ohio to play in the All-Girls Nationals, hosted by the Kasparov Chess Foundation. They competed against 210 of the best girls around the country, and even managed to bring home a first place trophy!

Congratulations to 2nd grader Joanna Liu (1410) of Weibel Elementary for taking winning the U-8 division with 5.5 out of 6! She worked hard for her trophy, facing five of the top 10 in the final standings, including a pair of challenging 1300s. Joanna's proud coach Ted Castro writes that she was "doing 4-5 hours of training every week to make sure that she gets better and better" (plus 4 hours of play and coaching at Weibel). Practice makes perfect! As the photos prove, Joanna insisted on wearing her lucky old Weibel team shirt in Ohio. (Thanks to her parents for the photos above.)

Two other local girls both scored 4.0/6 to finish in the top 10. 3rd grader Alisha Chawla, also from Weibel, played up and took home the 10th place trophy in the difficult U-10 section, losing only to the top two rated players. 2nd grader Alanna Song received the 8th place trophy in U-8. Well done!

US Chess Online article
Tournament standings
Official rating report

Congrats to Four State Champions!

2010-04-22T23:45:00.000-07:00

I am deeply honored to be the coach of four CalChess scholastic champions for 2010. The winners competed in three of the five Varsity sections: K-5, K-6 and K-8. Although nearly half of my private students attend high school, I was unable to claim the K-12 division this year because the masters all stayed at home. However, the Saratoga High chess team won again, now for a state record sixth year in a row! Way to go students!!!

James Kwok (top left) -- clear champ in K-8 (fourth title after K-3, K-3, K-6)
Neel Apte (bottom left) -- co-champ in K-6 (third title after K-3, K-5)
Kyle Shin (bottom right) -- co-champ in K-6 (second title after K-5)
Rahul Mohan (top right) -- co-champ in K-5

Another six private students, plus one former student, scored at least 4.5 out of 6 to earn a spot on the informal 2010 All-Fpawn Team. Kudos to Brian Wai (K-12), Arthur Liou (K-12), Edward Li (K-8), Roland Zhu (K-8), Aamir Azhar (K-8), Tudor Muntean (K-8) and Joshua Cao (K-6). Our dominance was greatest in junior high, where five of my students ended up in the top eight finishers (4.5 points or more). Likewise, we claimed three of the top six spots (4.5 points or more) in the elite elementary section. Woot!

Chess Shirts

2010-04-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I am not Superman and needed a couple of days to catch my breath after the CalChess Scholastics. It was a wild weekend; I got dizzy from keeping track of 26 private students in 4 different sections. Two of my kids took home 1st place trophies and another two tied for first! And Saratoga High School narrowly earned its sixth consecutive K-12 title! Anyways, my post-championship report is still forthcoming.

For a partial summary of what went down, check out my Twitter feed.

In the meantime, please enjoy hundreds of photos from last weekend that are online. Veteran photographer Richard Shorman uploaded a huge album of 360 pictures on ChessDryad. Organizer emeritus Alan Kirshner carried around a camera, but hasn't had time to post the pics to CalNorthYouthChess yet. I uploaded a modest number of my own photos to Flickr, primarily of players in the High School division.

The photos of chess shirts in this post are all courtesy of Shorman. If you can't read the text on the shirts, click on the thumbnail for a closer look.

35th CalChess Scholastics Begin

2010-04-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

The biggest annual chess tournament in the Bay Area, the CalChess Scholastics, began this evening with the blitz side event. After six years, the tournament returns to the premiere venue in Northern California: the Santa Clara Convention Center at Great America. Thanks to a steady trickle of last minute entrants who don't seem to mind the late fee, paid attendance now stands at 890, including a total of 267 in the five Varsity sections. Organizer Salman Azhar no doubt is pleased with more entries! Counting parents, siblings, relatives, coaches and volunteers, the crowd will approach 2000 people. If you're not there, you're really missing out on pure chess bliss!

Participants compete in one of 14 sections from 1-3 Rookie (unrated) to 9-12 Varsity. Advanced and intermediate youngsters play six rounds over two days while beginners only play one day. The elite players in the Varsity divisions play G/75 to G/90, meaning a single game can take up to three hours. There are three rounds Saturday and three more Sunday (9:00, 12:15 and 3:30 on both days). The Novice, Rookie, Kindergarten divisions play only one day each, with five rounds at G/30.

I will watch my 22 private students closely (plus another half dozen former students). Several have aspirations of winning, including three of the top four seeds in 4-6 and the top three rated players in 7-8. Historically my students have dominated the High School division, but that may not be the case this year because all five of my Masters are skipping this tournament. Some have legitimate conflicts while others don't see any benefit from playing only against much lower rated opponents. Most significantly, the Denker Qualifier was held last month with FM Steven Zierk victorious. What a shame! Perhaps one of my five students seeded between 4th and 12th can step up and hit a home run.

Here are my favorites and dark horses for each of the Varsity divisions. Current and former private students are shown in red bold.

9-12 Favorites: Samuel Sevian (2133), Hayk Manvelyan (2103), Michael Brown (2068), Arthur Liou (2010). Dark horse: Daniel Liu (1982).
7-8 Favorites: James Kwok (1919), Edward Li (1832), Roland Zhu (1798), Hwai-Ray Tung (1688). Dark horse: Aamir Azhar (1639).
4-6 Favorites: Kyle Shin (2052), FM Tanuj Vasudeva (1863). Dark horses: Neel Apte (1802), Colin Chow (1787), Hunter Klotz-Burwell (1704), Richard Yi (1688).
4-5 Favorite: Cameron Wheeler (1851). Dark horses: Jeffrey Tao (1599), Udit Iyengar (1556).
1-3 Favorites: Rayan Taghizadeh (1648), Michael Wang (1473). Dark horse: Leyton Ho (1428).

The team championships should be competitive as they always are. In the Elementary divisions, 2009 national champion Mission San Jose Elementary has won most of the Varsity trophies in recent years. But this year seems to be the best opportunity for crosstown rival Weibel Elementary to steal a title. Likewise, Saratoga High has captured five straight K-12 team titles and is looking for a record sixth in a row. Can they do it, or will Mission San Jose High end the dynasty? Stay tuned!

Latest news from Santa Clara: 7th grader Michael Brown of Southern California won the 7-12 blitz and Edward Li took 2nd. Hunter Klotz-Burwell won K-6 blitz.

World Champion Vasily Smyslov 1921-2010

2010-03-27T22:39:00.000-07:00

The 7th World Chess Champion Vasily Smyslov died on Friday night, just three days after his 89th birthday. He will be remembered for a stellar career among the top chess players of the world that spanned four decades. His stint as champion was rather short; he won the title from Mikhail Botvinnik in 1957, but lost the automatic return match to the same player a year later. He came close to earning another shot at the title more than 20 years later, but faltered in the 1982 Candidates Final to a certain Garry Kasparov.

"Smyslov was always known for his positional style and his extraordinary endgame abilities. He was also a great combinational player, and in his games we find many spectacular tactical shots. In the opening he made important contributions to the English, Grünfeld, Ruy Lopez and Sicilian." --ChessBase website

"He is truth in chess! Smyslov plays correctly, truthfully and has a natural style. ... But I am fond of his style. I would recommend a study of Smyslov's games to children who want to know how to play chess because he plays the game how it should be played: his style is the closest to some sort of 'virtual truth' in chess. He always tried to make the strongest move in each position." --Vladimir Kramnik (photo at right from ChessNinja blog)

The following sample games from ChessGames.com offer a glimpse into the style of the 7th World Champion.

Botvinnik-Smyslov (1954 WC match) - King's Indian - queen sacrifice
Botvinnik-Smyslov (1957 WC match) - English / Slav - endgame
Smyslov-Liberzon (1968 USSR champ) - English / Dutch - bishop pair
Smyslov-Ribli (1983 London) - QGD / Semi-Tarrasch - builds up attack

Smyslov also excelled away from the chessboard. He studied aviation science in the 40s and was an accomplished baritone singer. In fact, he often sang at tournaments (photo at top right), accompanied by the famous pianist and chess rival Mark Taimanov.

Zierk Survives Upset Parade at Denker Qualifier

2010-03-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

(Fpawn poses between two students, 2nd place Daniel Liu and 1st place Steven Zierk.)

The Bay Area Chess Regional Championship & Denker Qualifier attracted nearly 200 players to the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency on a warm and sunny March weekend. Many of Northern California's top juniors participated in the High School division, either hoping to represent CalChess at the Denker Invitational for High School State Champions in Irvine this summer or playing just for the sake of strong competition. Although only high school students could claim the prestigious top prize, an amazing 33 out of 54 players were younger than 9th grade.

Due to the skewed attendance numbers, the high school championship turned into an epic battle between teenagers and a talented pool of elementary school kids. Would experience or youth prevail? The first round on Saturday morning was marked by a parade of 300 to 400 point upsets: 6th grader Richard Yi (1596) beat a 2010, 5th grader Russel Bik (1531) beat a 1802, 12th grader Bryan Petersen (1481) beat a 1832, 3rd grader Michael Wang (1446) beat a 1832 and 5th grader Daniel Song (1239) beat a 1743. Typically the upset winner was the younger and lower rated player; a few elementary school kids lost to even younger opponents! Some semblance of order was restored in the second round, although occasional upsets continued all weekend. Two names to watch for in the future are 3rd grader Michael Wang (now rated 1707!) and 6th grader Richard Yi, who both played up almost every round and combined for six upsets in the tournament.

Despite the wave of surprises, the highest rated players still finished near the top. Top rated FM Steven Zierk (2420) took on the role of 600 lb gorilla by squishing anyone in his path for a 6-0 score. Needing merely a draw in the final round, Steven ground down his opponent with technique that has become his trademark. The most intriguing pairing of the weekend matched Steven, the 2008 Denker qualifier, against last year's representative, Evan Sandberg (2167). Black quickly achieved a comfortable position in the Qa5 line of the French Winawer, although it took nearly 60 moves to convert the full point.

Play chess online

The talented and rapidly improving 6th grader Daniel Liu finished alone in second place at 5-1. He faced five of the seven players rated above 2000 in the tournament, winning three games and drawing the other two! Daniel's rating jumped a whopping 70 points to 2052. Kudos on an awesome performance--and for becoming an Expert!

Four players tied for third place at 4.5 each: 3rd grader Samuel Sevian, 11th grader Nicholas Karas, 11th grader Evan Sandberg and 4th grader Vignesh Panchanatham. Evan had a respectable result, gaining 3 rating points but leaving him at 2196, just shy of master. If Steven declines to participate in the Denker Invitational, it appears that Nicholas and Evan would need a playoff to determine who earns the right to represent CalChess.

The competition for the high school teams was as tight as possible. In fact, the race came down to the final game, pitting five-time state champion Saratoga High against newcomer Dougherty Valley High (San Ramon). Saratoga finally prevailed, but the message was delivered loud and clear: the CalChess Scholastics K-12 team competition will be fierce this year! In addition to Saratoga and Dougherty, I expect to see strong teams from Mission San Jose High (Fremont) and Monta Vista High (Cupertino).

Thanks to über-organizer Salman Azhar and his army of volunteers from Bay Area Chess for hosting a smooth and enjoyable tournament. The only complaint was about the lighter than expected attendance. Tournament directors John McCumiskey and Tom Langland had light work this weekend; it was a warm-up for the "Big One" on April 17-18. Parents and players: If you haven't already signed up for the CalChess Scholastics, make sure to register soon!

Chess Diva To Help Haiti!

2010-03-11T23:11:00.000-08:00

A special note from Lauren Goodkind, co-producer of "Chess Diva" TV show.

You are cordially invited to the “Chess Diva” Chess-Haiti Fundraiser! Nationally ranked chess players Barbara and Lauren Goodkind, producers of the award winning local access TV show “Chess Diva,” will play 5-minute blitz games against the public. Non chess players will find it entertaining to watch! Parents, bring your kids!

Dates: Saturday and Sunday, March 20th and 21st.
Times: 10:00 to 4:30 on both days
Location: Lytton Plaza at 202 University Ave, Palo Alto (next to Pizza My Heart)
Suggested Donation: $5 per 5-minute blitz game
Good Cause: All proceeds will go to UNICEF for Haiti.

If you live in or near Palo Alto and have free time this weekend, please consider dropping by to support these two enthusiastic young women. Watch out, they're both quite strong players, both ranked in the Top 100 of the country for women!

Denker Qualifier FAQ

2010-03-11T10:47:00.000-08:00

(Group photo of prize winners at 2009 Denker Invitational in Indianapolis. Local hero Evan Sandberg is in front row at the right.)

Update on March 15: I have finally accounted for all but one of the local juniors rated above 2000. The top seeds for the Denker Qualifier this weekend will be 2008 champ FM Steven Zierk, 2009 champ Evan Sandberg, Samuel Sevian, Hayk Manvelyan, Nicholas Karas, Kyle Shin, Arthur Liou and maybe NM Rohan Agarwal. Sevian and Shin are ineligible to qualify because they are too young. Click to view the official advance entry list.

The 35th CalChess Scholastics will be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center (near Great America) on April 17-18. This year, there is a second worthy scholastic event for top players to consider: the Denker Qualifier at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara on March 19-21. The Denker Qualifier doubles as the K-12 section of the Bay Area Chess Regionals.

Why are there two state championships?

Last year, CalChess made the unfortunate decision to schedule the state scholastics on the same weekend at the National High School Championship in Columbus, Ohio. The High School Nationals have never drawn a large crowd from the Bay Area, although sometimes a few elite players attend with the goal of bringing home a national title (like Michael Zhong in 2007). My students at Saratoga High School also achieved some success, finishing as high as 3rd place team in the country.

In order to allow top players a (theoretical) chance to attend the National High School Championship and still have a chance to represent CalChess at the Denker Invitational this summer, there will be two separate events, one in March and one in April. However, only the winner(s) of the April championship may call themselves state champs.

What is the Denker Invitational?

The Denker is a prestigious invitational tournament open only to high school state champions each year. There are approximately 50 invitees, one for each state (two for California). Named after the late Grandmaster Arnold Denker (photo at right), the field includes many experts and usually tops out in the mid 2200s, with maybe one or two players above 2300. Only juniors currently in grades 9 through 12 are eligible; younger players cannot qualify. Recent Northern California representatives were: Evan Sandberg (2009), Steven Zierk (2008), Nicolas Yap (2007) and Daniel Schwarz (2006).

The invitational takes place each August at the US Open, held in different places each year all around the country. This year is a bit special because the location will be in Irvine, Southern California. The dates are July 31 through August 3. After completing six rounds in the Denker, players may choose to also play in the 6-day schedule of the US Open. That's 15 games of chess (each up to 5-6 hours) in 9 days. Most likely, I will play in the more leisurely 9-day schedule of the US Open.

Who should play in the Denker Qualifier?

Technically speaking, any student in K-12 may enter the Denker Qualifier, although a minimum rating of 1200 is needed for those in elementary or middle school. Very few, however, have a realistic chance to qualify. Generally speaking, only high school students rated over 2000 have a decent chance to win. Seven high school players are rated over 2000: FM Steven Zierk, NM Gregory Young, NM Rohan Agarwal, Evan Sandberg, Hayk Manvelyan, Nicholas Karas and Arthur Liou. Players younger than 9th grade may play for practice, but cannot qualify for Denker even if they win.

I suggest that you should play in the Denker Qualifier on March 19-21 if you fall into one of the following categories:

You are in grades 9-12 and are rated above 2000.
You are in grades 9-12, are rated above 1600 and wish to face tough competition.
You are in grades K-8 and are rated above 1800 and feel that you need to face older and stronger opponents to get better.
You are in grades K-12, are rated above 1200, and simply want to get your butt kicked--just for a learning experience.

Should I choose the 2-day or 3-day schedule?

I expect most players to choose the 2-day schedule (three G/60 then three more G/120). Those who prefer slower time controls and are free on Friday night can play the 3-day schedule (three G/90 then three more G/120). The two schedules will merge in round 4. Note: based on early entries, the 3-day schedule is significantly stronger with nobody rated under 1800.

Which tournament will be stronger?

I predict that the March event may actually be tougher than the official state championship in April, for the following three reasons:

Top players tend to be more interested in qualifying for Denker than winning a state championship. Plus, one or two masters might go to Ohio for nationals instead.
The Denker Qualifier presents a great opportunity for all of the talented elementary and middle school kids to compete against the top high school players. I expect most of the A and B rated K-6 and K-8 kids to be back in their normal age groups at the CalChess Scholastics.
There won't be many weak players at the Denker Qualifier (currently 17 of 28 early entries are over 1800). On the other hand, the CalChess Scholastics attracts school teams, including many lower rated players.

Where is the advance entry list?

Click here for the advance entry list posted at the Bay Area Chess website. As of March 10, there are 28 entries in the Denker Qualifier. (3-day schedule: 10 players, median rating 1888. 2-day schedule: 18 players, median rating 1763.) Only three of the seven eligible high school students rated above 2000 have entered so far. However, there are seven elementary school kids rated above 1800 who have chosen to play up.

Make sure to register for the Denker Qualifier before the entry deadline on Wednesday, March 17! (St. Patrick's Day) Follow this link to the Bay Area Chess online payment system.

Naroditsky Book Signing on Sunday

2010-03-10T00:38:00.000-08:00

Special event at the Mechanics' Institute!

Here's a brief word about a special event happening this Sunday, during the A.J. Fink Amateur at the Mechanics' Institute. The youngest chess author in the world, 14 year old FM Daniel Naroditsky, will sign copies of his new book "Mastering Positional Chess" on March 14, at 2pm. You can buy a copy of the book for $24 (I think) and Daniel will sign it. By the way, great book!

If you can't make it to San Francisco on Sunday, you can order the book from the links on Daniel's new website!

CalChess FIDE Rated Juniors -- March 2010

2010-03-04T00:25:00.000-08:00

The new FIDE rating list for March 2010 was released this week. Nine Bay Area juniors have earned their international rating--fully 75% of the local kids rated above 2000. Unlike just a few years ago, now there are plenty of opportunities to establish a FIDE rating simply by playing in the top section at Northern California tournaments.

Two observations this month: 1. Welcome to Samuel Sevian (photo at left by Shorman), who earned his first published rating last November. He gained 84 points since that first rating (using the higher K factor for new players). 2. The two FIDE Masters, Danya Naroditsky and Steven Zierk (photo at right from 2007 CalChess Scholastics), appear to be chasing each other's rating. Their current USCF ratings are 3 points apart; the FIDE ratings are separated by just 8 points. Go right ahead boys! Chase each other all the way to 2500!

FM Danya Naroditsky 2388
FM Steven Zierk 2380 -- gained 74 points in 4 months!
NM Gregory Young 2268
NM Yian Liou 2229
NM Rohan Agarwal 2197
Evan Sandberg 2159
Samuel Sevian 2144 -- gained 84 points (provisional) in 4 months!
Hayk Manvelyan 2087
Kyle Shin 2061

California Budget Crunch Threatens Sacramento Chess Club

2010-03-03T23:26:00.000-08:00

Another sad sign of the times from the Sacramento Chess Club:

As many of you are aware, the City of Sacramento has been suffering from budget problems for several years now. In 2008, those budget issues directly affected the Sacramento Chess Club, requiring us to pay rent to use the Redwood Room of the Hart Senior Center. Through the donation of generous benefactors, the Club has been able to continue to rent the space at the Hart Senior Center. Since then, the Club has also looked at the options available, with the primary focus being to avoid charging members dues, something the Club has been able to do throughout most of its existence, and remain in or close to the downtown area.

For the year 2010, the Sacramento Chess Club will need to pay $3,432 in rent to the City of Sacramento for the use of the Redwood Room. ... In a recent informal discussion with the staff of the Hart Senior Center, it appears likely that the rental rates for the Redwood Room will increase during the course of the year. This puts the Sacramento Chess Club in an untenable financial position.
During the last several months, an unsuccessful search has been on-going to find a new location for the Club to meet. Although there are still some possibilities being investigated, the outlook appears bleak for staying in the downtown Sacramento area. ... The Sacramento Chess Club has a long, rich chess history in the community and state of California. Your help is vital to the continuation of the Sacramento Chess Club and its place in the community.

The cold, hard reality of the state's fiscal catastrophe will be felt yet again. Ever since I began playing competitive chess in 1994, Sacramento was my home club. Each Wednesday night, 30 up to nearly 100 players would drop by the Hart Senior Center on J Street between 27th and 28th Street to play chess. The club was quite fortunate to meet rent free until the summer of 2008. In turn, the weekly tournaments (G/10 and G/60 were most popular) only cost $2 or $5 per player. Since the City of Sacramento began charging a steep rental fee, the club cannot keep going; it will have to find a cheaper venue for meetings.

This story mirrors the harsh reality at many other small chess clubs around the country. That's why many meet at fast food places, eager for extra business in the evenings. Unfortunately, most restaurants can't accommodate a club as large as Sacramento. I would really be sad to see a club whose history dates back to 1934 close. Hopefully that won't be necessary.

Celebrity Guest: Danya on ChessFM!

2010-02-09T15:42:00.000-08:00

Announcement on the ICC ChessFM website:

This week (Tue., 9 February) joining IM John Watson on Chess Talk will be the young American prodigy and author, FM Daniel Naroditsky.

Daniel Naroditsky, 14, of the Mechanics Chess Club in San Francisco, shot to fame in 2007 when he won the under-12 World Youth Championship, being only the second American to win a world youth title - and in the process, he was rewarded with a lifetime membership of ICC. Recently, Daniel has also become the world's youngest chess author in history with the release of Mastering Positional Chess for top chess publishers New in Chess.

(To listen to the full interview, you must be a current Internet Chess Club member. Enter your ICC username / password if prompted. Click here for a 10-minute free preview.)

During the hour long interview, Danya lists all of his many GM and IM coaches, describes some of his study habits, shares what it is like playing--and beating!--a strong Grandmaster and then shows off his crushing win on the black side of the Najdorf against GM Alexander Shabalov in round 4 of 2009 North American Open. He also explains why he wrote a book on positional chess and how he put together enough examples to fill over 200 pages.

Danya's book already was released in Europe and should be available sometime in March in the USA. Click here to pre-order the book on Amazon.

36th Annual People's Tournament in Concord

2010-02-09T00:31:00.000-08:00

A change in venue. The old: Sather Tower in Berkeley at left. The new: Mount Diablo near Concord at right.

Some participants will miss the drums. More than a few others will not. For most of its 35 year existence, the People's Chess Tournament was held at Sproul Plaza on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. Love 'em or hate 'em, the drummers were always a part of the annual President's Day weekend tournament.

A sad sign of the times, state budget cuts, rising rental fees and lack of insider support forced organizer Richard Koepcke to find another venue. He teamed up with BayAreaChess.com founder Salman Azhar to move the event to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Concord (1/2 mile north of the Concord Hilton where last month's Golden State Open was held). The weekend simply won't be the same, although the board game being played remains unchanged.

The entry fee has increased due to the rental cost at the hotel. The days of cheap tournaments seem to be history because few organizers can find a free or cheap playing site. Big sigh!! The nonprofit Mechanics' Institute remains the biggest exception. New this year are 3-day and 2-day schedules, plus an experimental dual entry fee structure: players may pay the full entry fee to win full prizes, or pay 2/3 of the entry, but only be eligible for half of the advertised prizes. So far, about 1/3 of the entrants have chosen the "economy" fee. (If you're a junior playing up a section for the experience, then it makes sense to pay the economy fee.)

Event: 36th People's Tournament
Date: February 13-15
Location: Crowne Plaza Hotel in Concord (map link)
Format: 6 rounds in 6 sections (Open, U2100, U1900, U1700, U1500, U1300).
3-day schedule: Reg: Sat 10-11. Rds: Sat 11:30, 5; Sun 11:30, 5; Mon 10, 3:30.
2-day schedule: Reg: Sun 9-9:45, Rds: Sun 10, 12:15, 2:30, 5; Mon 10, 3:30.
Time control: 30/90, G/60 (rounds 1-3 of 2-day schedule at G/60)
Entry fee: Regular $99/98 or Economy $69/68. Play up for $20. Add $25 after 2/11.
Prize fund: $7,001 based on 129 paid entries. $1000 (guaranteed) top prize in Open and $500 in each of the lower sections. Economy players win 1/2 prize.
Tournament Flyer
Online Registration
Advance Entries (89 players as of 2/11)

I will be there and look forward to seeing many of my students as well! Hopefully I have some free time between rounds (or before 11:30 on Sunday morning) to go over games.

Trivia question: Who won the People's the last time it was not held at UC Berkeley?

Can Chess Get You Into College?

2010-02-07T20:21:00.000-08:00

Conventional wisdom suggests that you must participate in a wide range of academic and extra-curricular activities to get into a top tier university. Examples include math club, debate team, band or a varsity sport. Where does chess fit into the picture? Over the years, there has been little evidence that competitive colleges view chess as more than another club.

A parent pointed out this article from April 2008 about admissions at UC Berkeley. I wouldn't have thought much about it except for one 5-letter word in this paragraph.

"The admitted class for fall 2008 also excels beyond academics. It includes a world champion in youth division sailing, a student who wrote a symphony during high school, a back-up dancer for a pop star on a U.S. concert tour, a national chess tournament champion, an international Irish dance competition winner, several Olympic and Junior Olympic medalists and a set of quadruplets."

Perhaps there is hope after all! It is just a few short words, yet they say chess matters.

The more frequently admissions officers see chess listed among activities, the better the chances that it leaves a positive impression. In fact, my teaching experience has shown that chess can indeed be one component of a successful college application, especially when supported by thoughtful essays.

Saratoga Wins Santa Clara County High School Championship

2010-02-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

The top ranked Sar atoga High School chess team dominated the 2010 Santa Clara County High School Chess Championship on February 6 at Monta Vista High School. While Saratoga has won five straight CalChess state scholastic titles, Monta Vista won the county chess league two months ago and was looking for more. Order was restored to the universe as Saratoga players took home four of the top five place trophies, plus the perpetual trophy awarded to the top team.

Final standings
Photos at top: Charles, Evan and Kevin
Photos at right: Brian and Sankash

The 41 player tournament ended in a tie for 1st place between Saratoga senior Charles Sun (1920) and sophomore Evan Ye (1811), both at 4.5 out of 5 after they drew their last round head-to-head game. Freshman Kevin Garbe (1743) and sophomore Brian Wai (1914) took home the 4th and 5th place trophies, respectively. Rounding out the four-way tie for third with 4.0 out of 5 were Monta Vista senior Vishal Dasari (1848) at 3rd place and freshman Chris Wu (1851) at 6th place. In the all-important team standings, Saratoga's top three combined for 13.0 while Monta Vista only managed 11.0.

Kudos to Charles and Evan, plus the rest of the Saratoga team! (Rolland Wu and Sankash Shankar both finished at 3.0/5.) The players built on the success from the New Year's Open and Golden State Open, where Evan, Charles and Brian combined to pilfer over $1600. Next up are the Denker Qualifier in March and the CalChess Scholastics in April. Can the Saratoga dynasty capture a record setting sixth consecutive state K-12 team title?

Sacramento Team Champ Is Underway

2010-02-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

(Left: Heiserman white against Lazetich. Right: Micah Cohen white against MacFarland. Photos taken by cell phone.)

The annual Team Championship at the Sacramento Chess Club began last week with nine teams and over 60 players. Each team fields six boards rated under 1750 average, with up to three alternates allowed. The premiere event of the club brings back folks who rarely attend the rest of the year. I counted 5 masters, another 5 experts and over a dozen experienced A players. No doubt the competition on the top three boards will be fierce! Round-robin play continues through March 24, although each team gets a bye.

The defending champions from UC Davis, named after the university mascot Gunrock, appear heavy favorites to repeat. NM Jim Heiserman, Phillip Seitzer, Valeriy Timofeyev and John Cohen give them four players rated above 1950 to fill the top three boards; the lower boards are manned by strong unrateds typically of class B or C strength, but who count as 1300 for the team average rating. Top challengers include Pinoy Destroyers (expert Joe Escoto plus his Filipino buddies) and 2-C (formerly called B-Nam, featuring NM Jim MacFarland on top board).

My own team, Russo's Rustlers captained by rapidly improving A player Joe Russo, might also finish in the top half of the field. (The photo at right shows Robert struggling as black against my student Nicholas Karas.) Unfortunately, we seriously got our bells rung in the first round by Gunrock's Heroes. I have never been on the wrong side of a 5.5-0.5 score before! I even lost to Phillip Seitzer due to tactical blindness and poor time management. Thanks to Marvin Gilbert for avoiding the shutout with a draw on board 4. Fortunately, the team bounced back 4-2 against King Hunters, with me sitting out.

Team Standings after round 2 (MP, GP, top board)

Gunrock's Heroes (2.0, 10.5, NM Jim Heiserman)
Pinoy Destroyers (2.0, 10.5, Joe Escoto)
2-C (1.0, 5.5, NM Jim MacFarland)
Daze N' Knights (1.0, 5.0, Micah Cohen)
Russo's Rustlers (1.0, 4.5, NM Michael Aigner)
King Hunters (0.5, 5.0, Nicholas Karas)
Zoki (0.5, 3.5, Ted Xiao)
Zoka (0.0, 2.5, NM Zoran Lazetich)
Warriors (0.0, 1.0, NM Steve Ross)

Official team standings and individual results are posted at Sacramento Chess Club website.