Chess Players Graduate - Class of '13

Andrew and Benjamin

Kevin

Over the years, I have been blessed by the opportunity to coach some of the brightest kids in Northern California.  Simply spoken, smart children play chess, and chess offers a competitive arena to exercise their cerebral talents.  I always knew my students had the brains to excel.  Every June, it seems that the graduates move on to some of the best colleges in America.  Well done mates!

Many hearty congratulations to the High School Class of 2013!  Former chess students will matriculate all around the country in the Fall: Stanford (Kevin), UC Berkeley (Andrew and Ted), MIT (Jonathan), Yale (Benjamin) and NYU (Embert) in the Fall.  These young stars not only achieved state and national recognition in chess, but also in math and science.  Here is a special shout-out to Kevin and Andrew for being recognized as finalist and semifinalist (respectively) in the Intel Science Talent Search!


The nine main members of the 6-time CalChess K-12 Champion team at Saratoga High School have all moved on, with four choosing Stanford and four attending UC Berkeley (plus one guy at Duke).  David and Jeff have graduated from Berkeley while Marvin and Aaron earned their diplomas from Stanford.  Aaron will continue at MIT for graduate studies.  Congratulations guys! 

The following list shows the number of former chess students who enrolled at prestigious universities (including new freshmen).  Unfortunately, I lost track of a few students.

• 11 = UC Berkeley
• 6 = Stanford 
• 3 = MIT
• 2 = UCLA and UC San Diego 
• 1 = Yale, Northwestern, Duke, NYU, Rutgers
• 1 = Pomona, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz
  

ConGRADulations to David, Marvin and Kevin!

HIGH SCHOOL

GRADUATES 2008!

Three of my present and past students just graduated from High School. The Saratoga High School ceremony was yesterday, June 12. This section is a small tribute to each of them.

David Chock (2094 USCF, photos at top) completed four years as the top board for Saratoga High School. Shortly after I began teaching him in 2003, David won the U2000 section in Sacramento with a 6-0 score--as the lowest rated player, thus setting the record for the most rating points gained in one tournament by a student of mine! His greatest moment of glory came at the 2006 National High School Championship when he nearly won the whole enchilada, even defeating top seeded IM Alex Lenderman (reigning World U16 Champion) on the stage. David's school won five straight state championships dating back to middle school and even won three top 5 team trophies at the annual Nationals in the spring. In the past two years, he helped mold the young players from Redwood Middle School into a strong team that has now won two state team titles itself. As a recognition for how long we worked together, David joins Daniel Schwarz as a lifetime emeritus student. David will attend the University of California at Berkeley in the fall.

Marvin Shu (1804 USCF, photo at left) probably was better at math than chess, but he sure had fun playing the royal game. My earliest recollection of Marvin came from a game in middle school when he checkmated a higher rated opponent with two bishops against two rooks (even number of pawns). I also remember once thinking of how to scold him for playing on down a rook against a 1900 in tournament, when hours later he drew the game! I don't know if that's determination or just plain dumb luck. After graduating with highest honors from Saratoga High School, Marvin will attend my alma mater, Stanford University, in the fall.

Kevin Hwa (1802 USCF, photo at right) was never a star chess player, but studied the royal game for its beauty. As a natural attacker and a disciple of gambit openings, Kevin loved to play with fire on the board and occasionally even burned himself. After considering some east coast and midwest schools, Kevin finally chose the University of California at Berkeley for the fall.

Congratulations to all three graduates! Hopefully you will remember your days as a chess player when you're older and have an accomplished career.

Mukund and Isaac Share Top Junior High (7-8) Honors

(Junior High co-champions Isaac Zhang on left and Mukund Chillakanti.)

I watched the 7-8 Varsity section of the CalChess Scholastics closely for two reasons: quite a few of my students were playing and I saw no single clear favorite to win. In fact, I thought any one of the top six seeds, all rated above 1800, had a reasonable chance to climb to the top. Of course, I wished that one of my students would become champion, but without a doubt, the two most deserving players took the top honors.

Congratulations to Mukund Chillakanti and Isaac Zhang for winning five games and drawing only with each other. Mukund gained over 100 rating points in the past two months, highlighted by a 2075 performance at the National High School Championship with an impressive pair of wins against experts. On the other hand, Isaac has been a terror at the Sacramento Chess Club, winning nearly every adult honor possible, including Player of the Year. Honorable mention goes to Isaac's friend, Ted Xiao, who earned the 3rd place trophy by defeating two of the three highest seeds while losing only to Mukund.

Final Standings of 7-8 Varsity

1. 5.5 Mukund Chillakanti (1917) -- $50 gift certificate
   
2. 5.5 Isaac Zhang (1923) -- 1 year ICC extension
   
3. 5.0 Ted Xiao (1740) -- 1 year ICC extension
   
4. 5.0 Puneeth Gadangi (1656)
5. 5.0 Andrew Chen (1722)
6. 4.5 Sam Bekker (1911)
7. 4.5 Andrew Yeh (1847)
8. 4.5 Rahul Desirazu (1664)
   
9. 4.5 Vincent Tian (1674)
   
10. 4.5 Brian Wai (1690)

Kudos also to the Redwood Middle School team (photo on bottom right) for taking 1st place honors for the second year in a row! My students Brian Wai (4.5), Kevin Garbe (4.0), Evan Ye (4.0) and Sankash Shankar (3.0) proved once again that you don't need a superstar on board 1 to succeed. Thanks also to David Chock, Jeff Young and Charles Sun of nearby Saratoga High School for coaching and mentoring the team this year.

Finally, organizer Salman Azhar accurately commented at the awards ceremony that many of these players are friends off the chess board. They really love to goof off, as demonstrated in this blog post and the middle of the three photos below.

National High School Championship in Atlanta

(David Chock versus reigning World U16 Champion IM Alex Lenderman on the top board at the 2006 National High School Championship. David pulled off the upset of his life.)

Four players from Northern California have made the journey across the country to Atlanta for the National High School Championship this weekend. Having attended this tournament in previous years, I can safely say that the intense competition exceeds anything that we might find at the state level. Out of approximately 340 players in the top section, there are 13 masters, 14 rated 2100-2199 and another 20 rated 2000-2099.

In recent years, two underrated players from the Bay Area found substantial success: David Chock of Saratoga High School defeated an International Master in 2006 and sat alone in first place before losing on the top board in the final round; the "Wizard of Oz" Michael Zhong of Los Altos High School faced four straight masters in 2007 and impressively beat three of them to tie for first place! Whose turn is it this year?

The results from the first day include many of the upsets that are typical of this tournament. Three of the masters have drawn a game and one even lost--all against dangerous A players. Likewise, the four local players have had mixed performances so far.

• Mukund Chillakanti (1868, see photo by Shorman at right) has 2.0/2 after defeating two experts!
• Steven Zierk (2154) drew an A player in round 2 and has 1.5.
• Kenneth Law (1664) has 1.0
  
• Kartik Chillakanti (1706) has 0.5

Kudos to Mukund for a very impressive start to the tournament! I know there are still five more rounds, including three on Saturday. Here's wishing the best of skill (and a little luck) to the local delegation! If you're interested in following the action, some games from the top boards are being broadcast live at the MonRoi website.

Update on Saturday afternoon: Through four rounds, Steven has 3.0, Mukund sits at 2.5 (against four experts), while Kenneth and Kartik both have 2.0.