Naroditsky a Finalist for ChessCafe Book of the Year

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!

Fpawn Rating List - November 2009

Within the last week, the USCF posted the Top 100 lists for October and official ratings for November. As usual, the Bay Area is well represented among the elite of the nation. Three kids are ranked #1 for their age: FM Danya Naroditsky (13), NM Nicholas Nip (11) and expert Samuel Sevian (8). Four more follow in the top 3: IM Sam Shankland (17), NM Greg Young (14), NM Yian Liou (12) and A player Tanuj Vasudeva (8). Another four check in at either #5 or #6, bringing the total to 11 Bay Area stars ranked in the Top 6 of the nation for their age!

The November USCF rating supplement includes the 154 player Labor Day Festival (not officially the state championship this year) plus an assortment of smaller tournaments. A total of 25 present and former students attended on Labor Day weekend, but only one became "pseudo state champion." Props to Alan Naroditsky (see photo at right) for scoring an undefeated 5-1 in the Expert section, playing against three talented juniors and three conniving adults! Alan's annual improvement has been quite steady: 1784 in 2006, 1927 in 2007, 2014 in 2008 and now 2092 in 2009. He began his freshman year at UCLA a few weeks ago, but I expect to see him push some more pawns during school holidays.

Look for both Naroditsky brothers among the rankings of all my 2000+ rated students.

Top Students Overall (minimum rating = 2000, current students in red)

1. FM Danya 2378
2. FM Steven 2333
   
3. NM DanielS 2313 -- Stanford
   
4. NM Gregory 2272
5. NM Yian 2226
6. David 2095 -- UC Berkeley
   
7. Alan 2092 -- UCLA
   
8. EvanS 2092
9. Kyle 2088
10. Nicholas 2049
11. Arthur 2014

I updated my student rankings as well. Click here for the Fpawn Rating List or check out the National Rankings page on my website. I copied my trio of Top 5 lists below.

Top 5 Grades K-6

1. Kyle 2088 -- 2008 National 5th Grade Champion
   
2. Neel 1800 -- 2009 CalChess K-5 co-Champion
   
3. Richard 1620
4. Leland 1600
5. Rahul 1449
   

Top 5 Grades 7-8

1. NM Yian 2226 -- 2009 CalChess K-12 co-Champion
   
2. Sam 1953
3. James 1848
4. Roland 1773
5. Tyler 1654

Top 5 Grades 9-12

1. FM Steven 2333 -- 2008 CalChess K-12 co-Champion
   
2. NM Gregory 2272 -- 2008 US Junior co-Champion
   
3. EvanS 2092 -- 2009 CalChess K-12 co-Champion
   
4. Arthur 2014
5. Brian 1854
   

Alan Naroditsky Interview

(Alan Naroditsky proudly stands together with his well-known little brother.)

NM Jonathan Hilton, the intrepid young reporter for Chess Life Online and editor of the weekly newsletter for World Chess Live, recently interviewed local high school senior Alan Naroditsky for the "KibBlitzing" series. Click here to read this fun Q&A.

Whenever he attends a chess tournament, Alan will always be known as "the other" Naroditsky. Having a younger brother who has achieved so much is hardly easy; yet, I have always admired how Alan has never let that fact limit his own, more modest, ambitions in chess. The following response in the interview further shows the respect for his "kid bro".

- Who are your role models in chess?
My role model in chess is definitely my brother. It doesn't matter that I taught him the moves a long time ago; now he's teaching me!

Judging from Alan's FIDE rating of 2133, the young coach has done a pretty decent job! Perhaps Alan would be even higher rated if he didn't commit many hours of time each week to nurturing his bigger talent: playing the piano. Go Alan! Keep up both activities!

Naroditsky Brothers Play in Czech Open

(Big brother Alan posed with the World U12 Champion at the Reno tournament in March.)

Most families who can afford it spend some time during the summer to travel. What do you do if one of the kids is a World Champion of chess? Of course, you go to chess events in Europe! This year, FM Danya Naroditsky and his older brother Alan went to Pardubice in the Czech Republic (or is it the Check Republic?) to participate in the 1500 player Czech Open. Danya, rated 2313 FIDE, competed in the "Open A" together with over 40 Grandmasters. Alan, who recently got his first FIDE rating of 2136, played in the "Open B" for FIDE ratings under 2300--his first ever international chess tournament.

After nine days of intense competition, both boys finished with strong results! Danya scored 5.5 out of 9 for a 2442 performance. Seven of his opponents were rated over 2400 FIDE, including one GM and two IMs. Danya narrowly missed making an IM norm, coming half a point short in the end. Alan earned 6.5 out of 9 for a performance about 100 points above his shiny new FIDE rating. Ranked 80th in his section at the start, Alan finished tied for 12th place. Way to go boys!

Here is a sample of their games from Pardubice, downloaded from the official website.

• Danya 1/2-1/2 IM Sergey Pozin (2436)
• GM Janis Klovans (2428) 1/2-1/2 Danya
  
• Danya 1-0 Mindaugas Beinoras (2426)
• Alan 1-0 Piotr Jagodzinski (2216)
  

Alan and Steven Earn First FIDE Ratings

Congratulations to my students Alan Naroditsky and Steven Zierk and for earning their initial published FIDE ratings on the July 2008 list. Alan is 2136 while Steven is 2132. Both can now travel around the world and always have a rating. In fact, both will be playing at the World Open in Philadelphia next week. (Note: The first FIDE rating often means nothing. Both Alan's superstar brother and I started out with ridiculously low FIDE ratings. Some other players somehow experience the opposite. However, it all tends to sort itself out over time.)

Fpawn's FIDE Rating List

1. FM Danya Naroditsky 2313
2. NM Michael Aigner 2234
   
3. NM Gregory Young 2233
   
4. NM Daniel Schwarz 2222
   
5. Alan Naroditsky 2136
   
6. Steven Zierk 2132
   
7. Adam Goldberg 2008
8. David Chock 1999