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.

Fpawn Rolls Over Opponents in Sacramento

(Left: Fpawn holds the trophy and 1st place check. Right: Masters Koepcke and Lazetich battle on top board in the final round.)




The annual Sacramento Chess Championship on 4th of July weekend provides a leisurely opportunity to push pawns on a holiday weekend. Even the mild weather was enjoyable this year! The 72 player attendance was down nearly 20% from last year, but that did not decrease the competition in the top section. I was paired with three veteran masters and three talented youngsters who all may be over 2200 by next summer. At the end of three days, I finished at 5.0 out of 6 for undisputed 1st place. NM Zoran Lazetich, NM Richard Koepcke and 11 year old Kyle Shin (rated only 1956 officially) shared 2nd at 4.5, with Kyle earning the top prize for players under 2200.

As a scholastic coach, I focus attention on the many up and coming local juniors. Two earned 2250+ performances in their quests to become masters themselves! 12 year old Yian Liou (first photo at left) started out hot with a perfect score after three rounds, beating FM Kenan Zildzic. However, he lost twice to finish with a modest rating gain, leaving him 39 points short of his goal of 2200. Not to be outdone, 11 year old Kyle Shin (second photo at left) picked up the slack. After losing badly in the first round, he recovered to win four straight games, including a pivotal victory against Yian. Kyle was even tied for the lead going into the final round, but only was able to draw. With an impressive 2273 performance rating, Kyle gained 48 rating points to 2045, and he may be near 2100 when the ongoing Tuesday Night Marathon is rated next week!

Several other youngsters gained both experience and rating points in the Master/Expert section. Honorable mention goes to Roland Zhu (3.0 points, +14 rating) and 8 year old Tanuj Vasudeva (2.5 points, +26 rating). Kudos to everyone who fought hard!

On a personal note, I must mention how difficult it is to play a serious game against your own students. On one hand, I want the kids to do well and improve; on the other hand, I really hate to lose or even draw! Making matters worse, the kids know my favorite openings, forcing me to improvise. This led to disaster in round 2, when Yian beat me after a stupid blunder--I hung an undefended knight on c6 to a simple fork with Qd5 check. I reentered into the 2-day schedule and was determined to atone for my mistake; unfortunately for Kyle, he was first in line to play an angry fpawn. The fresh start worked out well for me, and luckily Kyle was able to bounce back from the loss.

The 48 player Reserve (under 2000) section saw stiff competition between the A players and the up-and-coming adult B players. With the elite juniors all playing up in the Master/Expert section, this was the opportunity for Sacramento resident Robert Russo (see photo at right) to dominate. By scoring 5.5 out of 6, Robert certainly earned his promotion to A player! Mathew Benson (rated only 1646 going in) and Michael Da-Cruz shared second place at 5.0. Amazingly, the only junior to win money in the Reserve section was Ted Xiao at 4.0--who won the "top junior" prize.

• Click for USCF rating report.
• Check out my photo album on Flickr.
  

A few readers have commented how rare it is to see a photo of me on this blog. It makes sense considering that I am usually behind the camera. After I won the final round in Sacramento, the tournament organizer John McCumiskey and some others insisted that I pose for the candid camera. Thanks to parent Jung Shin for taking the photo at the top of this article.

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.

Recap of North American Open

The annual North American Open attracted 583 chess enthusiasts to Bally's Casino (above photo taken by official webmaster Chris Bird) at the heart of the Las Vegas Strip. Between the Christmas and New Year's holidays, the city bustles with tourists, gamblers and revelers--plus a few wood pushers amongst the crowds. The winter weather offered a perfect excuse to spend long hours at the chess board (especially for those under the legal gambling age of 21). Everything, from the tournament hall to hotel rooms to restaurants, is conveniently located under one roof. In fact, you can walk from Bally's to France--or at least to the adjacent Paris Casino.

About 40 Northern California players and their parents took the 1 hour flight or drove for 8-10 hours. Fortunately, gas prices are quite reasonable now! Those who arrived in the evening on Christmas Day battled heavy traffic and even an ice storm, but the rest of the week was sunny and cold, but dry. Nine of my students showed up for their final chess competition of 2008.

The tournament began rather auspiciously. Nobody could have predicted that IM David Pruess and FM Daniel Naroditsky would each start 0-2 against substantially weaker opponents, yet as a testiment to their fighting spirit, they both recovered to finish above 50%. Somehow, all five of my students in the U2100 section lost in round 1, but one still ended up tied for third. Even I struggled with draws against two low experts, perhaps a consequence of a bout with the stomach flu.

Fortunately, the final results were far more encouraging. Below are some notable scores from local players. Please click on the link for the USCF ratings report.

• IM Sam Shankland, 5.0 in Open (top U2500, see photo above)
• IM David Pruess, 4.5 in Open
  
• FM Daniel Naroditsky, 4.0 in Open
• NM Steven Zierk, 4.0 in Open (broke 2300 USCF)
• NM Michael Aigner, 4.0 in Open
  
• NM Rohan Agarwal, 3.5 in Open (broke 2200 USCF)
  
• Yian Liou, 5.5 in U2100 (tied for 3rd place)
• Karim Seada, 5.5 in U2100 (tied for 3rd place)
  
• Michael Da-Cruz, 6.0 in U1900 (tied for 2nd place)
• Mukund Chillakanti, 5.5 in U1900 (tied for 5th place)
• Samuel Sevian, 4.5 in U1900
  
• Roland Zhu, 4.5 in U1900 (+137 rating points up to 1760)
• Seid Seidov, 7.0 in U1700 (clear 1st place)
• Rahul Desirazu, 5.5 in U1700
  
• Merak Arriola, 6.0 in U1300 (tied for 2nd place)
• Jeffrey Zhang, 5.5 in U1300 (tied for 5th place)
• Rohan Kapre, 5.5 in U1000 (tied for 3rd place)
  

Five local juniors had an especially memorable tournament and deserve special recognition. Two won significant money and the other three all achieved rating milestones.

• IM Sam Shankland tied for 7th place overall and earned top U2500 with 5.0/7. After a disappointing draw in round 1, he caught fire and beat his major rival IM Robert Hess with black and then drew GM Jaan Ehlvest. At least there's still room for improvement: Sam got schooled by GM Zviad Izoria in the penultimate round.
• NM Steven Zierk (see photo at right) impressed with 4.0 against 7 FIDE titled players with an average rating of 2408 USCF. His highlights included a solid draw against GM Varuzhan Akobian, ranked #5 in the USA, and a crushing win against IM Emory Tate. Steven also can still improve: he lost quickly to IM Shankland in the final round.
• Please join me in congratulating California's newest master, NM Rohan Agarwal! He had quite a memorable tournament, defeating IM Emory Tate and drawing with GM Anatoly Lein on his way to a 2335 performance. Rohan's style and opening repertoire always generate many exciting tactical slugfests.
• Young expert Yian Liou no doubt has his eyes on the master title after he tied for third place in the U2100 section with a 2219 performance. He got a much needed kick in the rear end by losing round 1, but after five straight wins, he was on board 1 in the final round (a draw with section winner Jared Tan).
• Las Vegas was my first opportunity to watch new student Roland Zhu (see photo at right) play. Suffice it to say that he left quite an impression, far exceeding my expectations by scoring 4.0/7 while playing up in the U1900 section. As a reward, his rating jumped from 1623 to 1760!

The winner of the Open section was--no, not me!--Grandmaster Giorgi Kacheishvili with 6.0 out of 7. He took control in the fourth round and never relinquished the lead, picking up three wins and two draws against fellow Grandmasters. Five GMs tied for second: Zviad Izoria, Melik Khachiyan, Alexander Shabalov, Julio Becerra and Jaan Ehlvest. Check out the interesting tournament blog by USCL's Blogger of the Year Chris Bird for further details and a few key positions from the top boards.