35th CalChess Scholastics Begin

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.

Zierk Survives Upset Parade at Denker Qualifier

(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.

• Tournament crosstables
  
• MSA ratings report
• Photos by Kirshner
  

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.

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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!