Saratoga Wins Santa Clara County High School Championship

The top ranked Saratoga 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?

Saratoga High Wins 5th Straight State Title!

(Players from left to right: Charles Sun, Jeff Young, Sankash Shankar, Evan Ye, Amol Aggarwal, Brian Wai and Alex Lun hiding behind Amol.)

I wrote the following note to the Saratoga High School team yesterday and edited it for this blog. After six years, I have developed a close relationship with these kids. We traveled to many tournaments, beginning with the 2004 National Junior High School Championship in Tucson, AZ (see photo at right). Two years later, the team earned 3rd place at the 2006 National High School Championship in Milwaukee, WI! Four weeks ago, eight players and I flew to Nashville, TN for SuperNationals IV, but sadly we could only muster an 11th place result. The players came to the CalChess Scholastics hungry and eager to prove that they were still the team to beat. And they succeeded!

Dear Saratoga team,

Congratulations! You have proven yourselves worthy once again, earning a record-tying fifth straight CalChess High School team championship (Lowell High in San Francisco won five straight in early 1990s). The lead photo shows the team receiving the trophy.

You also earned six individual trophies. Kudos to Charles (4th place), Brian (7th), Evan (10th), Jeff (13th), Sankash (17th) and Alex (26th). Charles scored 4.5 points, then Brian, Evan and Jeff all had 4.0 and Sankash had 3.5. The team finished with 16.5, a full two points ahead of second place Mission High School from Fremont.

I want to single out 9th graders Brian and Evan. Math superstar Brian Wai (see photo at right) drew with top seed and defending champion FM-elect Steven Zierk in round 2 and then faced three straight experts on Sunday, drawing with all three, including the talented older brother of FM Danya Naroditsky. Evan Ye beat longtime Saratoga-killer Greg Bodwin (1878), beat a 1772 and drew with the older Naroditsky brother plus an 1823 rated 6th grader. Between the two of them, Brian and Evan combined for two upsets wins and six draws against opponents rated at least 150+ points higher! They lost only once, when Evan went down against the top seed Zierk. Nice work guys!

• Charles (1859) = 4.5 for clear 4th place
• Brian (1826) = 4.0 for 7th place (tied for 5th) -- drew FM-elect Zierk (2311) and A.Naroditsky (2035)
  
• Evan (1659) = 4.0 for 10th place (tied for 5th) -- beat Bodwin (1878) and drew A.Naroditsky (2035)
  
• Jeff (2013) = 4.0 for 13th place (tied for 5th)
• Sankash (1532) = 3.5 for 17th place -- beat Steiner (1681)
• Alex (1600) = 3.0 for 26th place
• Avinash (1531) = 2.5 for 29th place
• Amol (1239) = 2.5 for 31st place
• Kevin* (1729) = 4.5 for 6th place (tied for 4th *in 7-8 Varsity section)
  

I hope this exciting performance will inspire the younger members of the team to fill the shoes of those who will graduate (plus last year's grads David and Marvin). Charles will be the lone senior next year--clearly the baton has passed to next year's sophomores. Here's your challenge: Can you keep going the tradition of the Saratoga chess dynasty?

All six team members who graduated last year or will walk in June were admitted at elite universities. Two picked my alma mater Stanford, two chose Cal while one each picked UC San Diego and Marquette (Wisconsin). Indeed, there's life after chess in high school!

Signed, your coach Fpawn

Photos and Results from Nashville

(Here is a photo of the Saratoga High School team. Top row from left: parent Steve Young, Charles Sun, Aaron Garg and Alex Lun. Middle: Brian Wai. Bottom row from left: Sankash Shankar, Evan Ye and Coach Fpawn. Not pictured: Avinash Kumar.)

Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in posting a report about SuperNationals IV. I am actually still recovering from the travel; my battle scars include one sprained toe, two bruises above my right eye and a mildly sprained left elbow. Despite these wounds, the trip to Nashville and back went quite well, at least away from the chess board.

Unfortunately, the results at the chess board were quite mixed. The Saratoga High School team finished in 11th place, a respectable finish in a very difficult section of 15 masters and over 50 experts. Kudos to Jeff Young for earning honorable mention with 5.0/7 and to Evan Ye for a solid 3.5/7 against five opponents rated over 1850. The U1600 team, severely handicapped by having only three players, ended up in 28th place. Despite the ups and downs, all eight players from Saratoga seemed to enjoy the team adventure.

As most readers probably already know, the Mission San Jose Elementary team went to Nashville and conquered the K-6 Championship! They blew open a tight race in the final round with a dominating 4-0 score. Special congrats to Hemang Jangle for crushing the top seed (rated 2174) and earning the 17th place individual trophy. See the photo at right of Hemang with his younger sister and former World Champion Garry Kasparov. The rest of the team joined Hemang to finish tied at 5.0/7: Jerome Sun got 20th, James Kwok 24th and Armaan Kalyanpur 33rd place trophies. MSJE also earned two more top 10 team trophies in K-5 and K-3, both for 9th place. The lion's share of credit for organizing such a successful elementary school chess club goes to MSJE coach Joe Lonsdale.

Four local players earned top 10 honors individually, led by National K-3 Champion Cameron Wheeler! Cameron won all 7 games, defeating friend Vignesh Panchanatham in the final round, and now is rated nearly 1800. The photo at left of Vignesh and Cameron was posted on Chess Life Online. Vignesh still earned the 4th place trophy as a consolation for a strong performance. Joseph Wan and Rayan Taghizadeh both got 6.0/7 in the K-1 section, earning 4th and 5th place trophies.

Click here for the final standings and the USCF rating report.

If any local parents have additional photographs that I may post, please forward them to me at the address located in the right sidebar.

CalChess Squeaks by South Africa 8-6

(Samyukta Bhat on left and Evan Ye on right each scored 2-0 to lead the CalChess delegation.)







The friendship scholastic chess match between CalChess and South Africa occurred as scheduled on Saturday morning with only minor complications. Seven members of each team played a pair of 45 5 games on the Internet Chess Club against an opponent halfway around the world. Most of the participants were between age 12 to 14 and rated 1500 to 1800; unlike a similar match against Australia in 2006, none of the well known elite juniors in California played. The tightly contested South Africa match lasted 3.5 hours and the outcome was in doubt until the final 15 minutes.

In the end, the CalChess team won 8-6, winning both the first round (playing black on all boards) and the second round (playing white) by 4-3. However, the local squad had its back against the wall for much of the morning after losing quickly on boards 1 and 2. Since some boards took much longer than others, we were actually down 3.5-5.5 at one point, but with two games still in progress from round 1. We clinched the match when Roland Zhu pulled a rabbit out of his hat to swindle a losing king and pawn endgame (he won!).

The most valuable players for the local team were Samyukta Bhat and Evan Ye, who both scored 2-0. Samyukta, who recently won the 2009 CalChess Girl's Championship, won a drawn endgame in round 1 and then crushed her opponent on the queenside in an instructive King's Indian Defense. Evan first outplayed his opponent in a wild time scramble with both players relying on the 5 second increment. However, in the second game, the Saratoga High School freshman left nothing to doubt when he executed the "Spanish Torture" in the Ruy Lopez.

Samyukta Bhat (1641) vs Byron Ter Morshuizen
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 Nc6 7. O-O e5 8. d5 Ne7 9. Be3 Ne8 10. Nd2 f5 11. f3 f4 12. Bf2 g5 13. Qb3 h5 14. h3 c6 15. Rfd1 cxd5 16. cxd5 b6 17. Rac1 Bb7 18. Nb5 a6 19. Na3 b5 20. Nc2 Rc8 21. a4 Ng6 22. axb5 axb5 23. Qxb5 Rf7 24. Nb4 Rfc7 25. Bb6 Nf6 26. Bxc7 Rxc7 27. Rxc7 Qxc7 28. Nc4 Kh7 29. Nxd6 Qxd6 30. Qxb7 Qc5+ 31. Kh1 Nh4 32. Bf1 Qf2 33. Nd3 Qc2 34. Rc1 Qd2 35. Qb4 Qe3 36. Re1 Qa7 37. Nxe5 Qf2 38. Nd3 Qg3 39. Qd2 g4 40. Qxf4 Qxf4 41. Nxf4 gxf3 42. gxf3 Nxf3 43. Re3 Ne5 44. Ne6 Bh6 45. Re1 Nc4 46. Bxc4 Nd7 47. e5 Bd2 48. Re2 Bb4 49. d6 Kg6 50. Bb5 Nb8 51. d7 Nxd7 52. Bxd7 Kf5 53. Nd8+ Kf4 54. e6 Kf3 55. Re1 Bxe1 56. e7 Bh4 57. e8=Q Bxd8 58. Qxd8 Ke2 59. b4 Kd3 60. b5 Ke4 61. b6 Kf3 62. b7 Kg3 63. b8=Q+ Kf3 64. Bc6+ Kf2 65. Qd3 h4 66. Qb2+ Ke1 67. Qdb1# 1-0
Click here to replay Samyukta's game in Chess Publisher's java viewer.

Evan Ye (1658) vs Vikash Magu
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 d6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Be7 7. h3 Nf6 8. Re1 O-O 9. c3 Re8 10. d4 Bb7 11. d5 Nb8 12. a4 bxa4 13. Bxa4 Nbd7 14. Nbd2 h6 15. Nc4 Rb8 16. Na5 Qc8 17. Nc6 Bxc6 18. Bxc6 Rf8 19. b4 Nb6 20. Qd3 Nh7 21. Rxa6 f5 22. exf5 Rxf5 23. Ra7 Rf8 24. Nd4 Bd8 25. Ne6 Rf7 26. Bxh6 Bf6 27. Qg3 Kh8 28. Bg5 Qg8 29. Bxf6 Nxf6 30. Qh4+ Nh7 31. Ng5 Rf6 32. Qxh7+ Qxh7 33. Nxh7 Kxh7 34. Rxc7 Rbf8 35. f3 Nc4 36. Re4 Nd2 37. Rg4 Rg8 38. Bd7 Kh6 39. Be6 Rgf8 40. Rgxg7 Nxf3+ 41. gxf3 Rxf3 42. Rh7+ Kg5 43. Rcg7+ Kf4 44. Rf7+ Ke4 45. Rxf8 Rxf8 46. Rh4+ Kd3 47. c4 Rg8+ 48. Kf2 Rf8+ 49. Kg3 Ra8 50. c5 dxc5 51. bxc5 Ra3 52. c6 e4 53. Bf5 Kc4+ 54. Kf4 Kxd5 55. c7 Rf3+ 56. Kg5 Rg3+ 57. Kf6 Rc3 58. c8=Q Rxc8 59. Bxc8 e3 60. Ba6 e2 61. Bxe2 1-0
Click here to replay Evan's game in Chess Publisher's java viewer.

Fpawn Rating List - Largest Gains in 2008

(Rebekah poses with GM Susan Polgar at the Polgar Invitational in Texas last summer. This photo was taken from Polgar's excellent chess blog.)

Now that the December ratings have been released, it is time to look back at the improvements over the past 12 months (December 2007 to December 2008). A total of 20 students took advantage of my private lessons throughout the entire year 2008. All but one increased his or her USCF rating, with the average gain coming to 122 points. Five students (25%) impressively gained over 200 points!

The statistics become more significant when you consider that most of my students are already highly ranked, Six current students are rated over 2000 and three of those have an international rating. Another eight are A players; yet another eight are B players. All of these players know from experience how much harder it is to gain points at higher ratings, both due to the stiffer competition and because of the ratings formula (lower K factor).

Congratulations to CalChess Polgar representative Rebekah for demonstrating once again that, contrary to stereotypes, girls can beat all of the guys at chess! She gained nearly 300 points, jumping all the way to class A from a midrange class C rating last year. Her numbers actually pale in comparison to her little brother DanielL (see photo at right), who unbelievably gained almost 1000 points (from 734P to 1712)--he only began lessons with me in the middle of the year. "Math deity" Brian nearly matched Rebekah's success, earning 275 points to lead Saratoga High School's freshmen. Brian's teammates Kevin and EvanY also had a successful year and all three are now solid B players. Last yet certainly not least, CalChess Denker representative Steven cooled off a bit, but I dare say that improving by 177 points in the rare air of expert and master sections is no less impressive than the 554 points that he gained in 2007.

1. Rebekah +298
2. Brian +275
3. MichaeL +250
4. Tyler +240
5. Kevin +210
6. Steven +177
7. Yian +169
8. EvanY +163
9. Nicholas +132
10. James +113

Silicon Valley Challenge #5 Results

Article submitted by organizer and chief TD Charles Sun.

The Silicon Valley Challenge #5 was held at Susan’s Dance Studio (see photo above) in northeast San Jose on July 27th. A total of 35 chess enthusiasts participated, four of whom were national masters! No doubt the Open section had plenty of competition.

Before I go on, I would like to take some time to thank my chess coach, Michael Aigner. Mr. Aigner has been my teacher for the past three years and has helped me tremendously both as a chess player and a tournament director. Since the beginning of 2007, he has come more than 100 miles from Davis, California to play and also help me direct. I can easily say that without his help, none of this would be possible!

Also, I would like to thank Colin Ma for his generous donation. Colin Ma is new to the chess community, only starting to play in tournaments since last year. Your altruistic gesture means a lot!

Congratulations to Steven Zierk (photo at right) for winning the top section outright, defeating National Master Richard Koepcke and only yielding a draw versus his teacher, Michael Aigner. The SVC5 has only been one of the numerous successes Steven has encountered while his rating has skyrocketed from 1550 to 2246 over the past two years. Good luck to Steven as he travels to Dallas, Texas for the Denker Tournament of Champions and the United States Open!

Kudos also to Evan Ye (photo at left) for taking the U1700 prize with an incredible 3-1 score. After losing to Mr. Koepcke in the first round, Evan easily defeated one C player and two B players. The result was a rating jump of nearly 100 points from 1576 to 1669. Second place was a six-way tie between Brian Wai, Daniel Liu, Alex Radu, Daniel Zheng, Eric Xu, and Partha Vora.

The U1600 section was rather small with only nine players. Congratulations to Pranav Nagarajan for winning with a 4-0 score. Kiarash Mavandad, John Canessa, Micah Pruyn Goldstein, and Andrew Couse also won money prizes.

Thanks to everybody who played in the tournament. I hope to see everyone again on August 10th for Silicon Valley Challenge #6! Click here for advance entries (limited to 54).

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.

Busy Weekend of Chess Tournaments

(Photos of MichaelL, EvanY and Rebekah in action over the past year. Thanks to the awesome local website ChessDryad for all three photos.)

Twelve of my students and I played in five different chess tournaments in three states last weekend. These events were some of the last opportunities for kids to practice before the big CalChess Scholastics coming up in three weeks. Chess is like a sport: if you don't properly train and warm up, you may suffer from brain cramps or tactical blindness.

Those of you who did not play have only a few additional chances to get ready for the main event: the Cupertino Tournament on May 3 and the Charles Powell G/45 on May 10. I expect that both events will have sufficient strong players for anyone rated under 2000 to find adequate competition. Remember that practice makes perfect!

Imre Konig Memorial G/45 at the Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco

• NM Gregory Young (2197) took clear 1st ahead of IM Ricardo DeGuzman and three other masters, pushing his USCF rating over 2200 for the second time. He defeated NM Michael Pearson (2241) and drew with WIM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (2287).
• MichaelL (1793) scored an impressive 3.0 points against five opponents rated 2157 average for his first master level performance! He beat NM Keith Vickers (2200) and former master Kenneth Hills (2132), boosting his rating to 1871.
  
• A total of five of my students played, all scoring at least 50%.

Bay Area Chess Championship 37 in Santa Clara

• EvanY (1540) took clear 1st in the U1700 section, finishing with 3.5 against three underrated kids and one veteran adult. His new rating of 1596 is almost up to Class B.
• Redwood Middle School top board Brian (1674) gained a few rating points with a solid 3.0 score, but had to take a last round bye or else he might have tied for first.
• A total of four of my students played.

Greater Sacramento Adult/Scholastic Championship in Roseville

• The fpawn shared top honors with four other players at 4.0 out of 5.
• Nicholas (1795) gave me a serious run for my money in the "Spanish torture" (closed Ruy Lopez) before succumbing to a desperate counterattack in time pressure.

5th Annual National All-Girl's Championships in Dallas, TX

• Rebekah (1675) shared 4th place in the Under 16 division, scoring a solid 4.0 out of 6. She defeated Karsten McVay (1949) from New Jersey for her highest rated tournament scalp ever. Goooo girls!
  

Arizona State Scholastic Championships in Flagstaff, AZ

• Tyler (1416) took home the 2nd place trophy for K-6 at the premier annual scholastic event in the state of Arizona. He scored 6.0 out of 7, losing only a hard-fought game against the eventual champion Brennen Lee (1959). Congrats on a great result!
  

I updated the Achievements page on my website to reflect the great results by Gregory, MichaelL, EvanY and Rebekah. Kudos to all who played and tried their best!