Samyukta Ties for 4th at Polgar

(Board 1 in the final round. Yang Dai played 1.d4 and Samyukta responds with Nf6.)

Oh so close, and yet so far away. You simply can't win 'em all.

Playing on board 1 against the top seed rated more than 300 points higher, Samyukta Bhat fought all the way to the end, blundering only in time pressure. In the words of Polgar Invitational organizer and namesake GM Susan Polgar, she "fought valiantly. The position was very close." In spite of this setback, Samyukta finished tied for 4th place, together with the defending champion and two other girls. There's no doubt that she made all of us in Northern California proud to have her as official representative!

Final standings of Polgar Invitational

• 6.0 -- Yang Dai (2057) 6.0
• 5.0 -- Rachel Gologorsky (1704) and Epiphany Peters (1797)
• 4.5 -- Linda Diaz (1882), Courtney Jamison (1984), Samyukta Bhat (1740) and Joanne Koong (1683)
  

Check back for Samyukta's round 5 win, which I will post as soon as it is available online. Click here for photo albums from the tournament.

Samyukta Bhat Leads Polgar Championship

Update on Thursday night: Samyukta Bhat won today and is in clear 2nd place with 4.5 out of 5! She faces top seed and tournament leader Yang Dai (2057) in Friday's final round, needing a win to become national champion. On behalf of all of Samyukta's fans back home, here's wishing you all of the best of skill!

Samyukta Bhat, winner of the CalChess Girl's Championship, remains tied for first with a perfect 3-0 score at the halfway point of the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls. The photo at right shows Samyukta posing with GM Susan Polgar. The two other girls sharing the lead are the top seeds: Yang Dai (2057) of Virginia and defending champion Courtney Jamison (1984) of Texas. An incoming 9th grader rated 1740, Samyukta started out ranked #9 out of 60 girls. No doubt the competition will soon become much tougher, starting tomorrow against Julia Jones (1869), also from Texas. Here's wishing her all the best of luck!

Samyukta is not the only Fremont area girl playing in Texas. 8-year old Alisha Chawla has a single point (see photo at left), competing against mostly older and higher rated opponents. No doubt she will benefit from the entire experience, including instructional lectures, puzzle contests and blitz tournament.

Watch this post and my Twitter feed for updates throughout the week. There will be one round daily through Friday. For more photos of young ladies playing chess, click on album #1 and album #2.

Rebekah Liu in 3rd Place Going into Last Round of Polgar

(This photo of today's action from Lubbock, Texas was taken by Paul Truong and posted on Susan Polgar's Chess and Information Blog. Rebekah played black on the far board.)

CalChess girl's champion Rebekah Liu has 4.0 out of 5 and stands in 3rd place on tiebreaks in the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls heading into tomorrow morning's last round. After two consecutive draws, she defeated Fiona Lam (1720) of Maryland today. Rebekah faces a challenging final pairing: white against second seeded Sylvia Yang (1900) of Texas. Based on her record of success in recent Bay Area tournaments, Rebekah should not be intimidated by the high rating. Goooo Rebekah!

Pairings for the final round
1 Courtney Jamison (2046 : 5.0) - Linda Diaz (1726 : W : 4.5)
2 Ashley Carter (1877 : 4.0) - Michelle Xue Chen (1762 : 4.0)
3 Rebekah Liu (1699 : 4.0) - Sylvia S Yang (1911 : 3.5)
4 Amelia Wheeless (1711 : 3.5) - Rita Mirchandani (1813 : 3.5)
5 Eve Zhurbinskiy (1747 : 3.5) - Angel Bohannon (1700 : 3.5)
6 Nisha Deolalikar (1726 : 3.5) - Taylor Bailey (1650 : 3.5)
7 Fiona Lam (1727 : 3.0) - Alexandra Wiener (1560 : 3.5)

Update on midday Friday: Rebekah drew her final game against the second seed to finish with an undefeated 4.5 out of 6. Woohoo!

Girl Power!

At the halfway point of the week long Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls, the official Northern California representative Rebekah Liu (1735) of Palo Alto is tied for 4th place at 2.5/3, ahead of several higher rated players. In the photo at left from this online album, she stands next to the tournament's namesake: GM Susan Polgar. Rebekah, who earned her ticket to Lubbock, Texas by winning the CalChess Girl's Championship and the subsequent playoff match, drew yesterday's round as black versus the #2 girl from the host state, Angel Bohannon (1768). This afternoon at 1:30 Central time, she faces Michelle Xueying Chen (1805) from Massachusetts.

The latest article on Chess Life Online mentions Rebekah and includes her round 3 game against Bohannon. I am guessing that Rebekah simply overlooked after 17... Ng6 18.Qxd8 Rxd8 that 19.Nc6 forks both of her rooks. With that in mind, black should have tried 15... bxc3 instead of Kxg7.

Rebekah also found success in the side events. On Saturday evening, she won the second highest quad in the warm-up event, sweeping a field of three 1600s. On Monday night, she won the puzzle contest by correctly solving all 10 checkmate positions in 5:26, a minute and a half faster than any of the other girls! According to her father, Rebekah really enjoys the trip to Texas and has made a few new friends with other competitors.

In other news, the August Top 100 lists are out. Rebekah simultaneously jumped onto two new lists for the first time: #83 for age 14 (including boys) and #91 overall among women (any age). Woohoo! Perhaps there is still some hope for Girl Power in chess!?

Update on Wednesday evening: Rebekah drew again and now has 3.0 out of 4. She will play with the black pieces tomorrow against Fiona Lam (1720) from Maryland. Here are the complete Polgar tournament standings and pairings.

CalChess Polgar Qualifier

I received the following email from TD Richard Koepcke regarding the playoff for the annual Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls. The K-12 division at the CalChess Girl's Championship last month ended in a tie for first place between two of my students: Rebekah Liu and Samyukta Bhat.

Rebekah Liu won the match (1.5 to 0.5) yesterday at the Mechanics' Institute. When reporting to the USCF on who is our Representative for the Polgar tournament, you should list Rebekah Liu as the primary and Samyukta Bhat as the alternate.

Congratulations to Rebekah and good luck in Texas this summer! I am sure both girls will have many more chances in the coming years.