National High School in San Diego

The big playing hall at National High School.  Credit: Martha Underwood.

The 2014 spring national scholastic chess championships kick off with the strongest National High School Championship ever!  By my count, there are two International Masters, 15 players rated above 2300 and 33 masters in all.  As always, the talented Northern California delegation appears poised to bring home some hardware and maybe even a national title.

• Standings and Pairings

Out of 950 total participants, about 340 signed up for the competitive High School Championship.  Given the convenient location at the Town & Country Resort in San Diego, 39 local players made the trip down I-5 for an intense weekend of chess.  Of the 27 Bay Area representatives in the strong Championship section, 9 are rated above 2150, including 2300+ rated FM Cameron Wheeler, NM Kesav Viswanadha and NM Vignesh Panchanatham.

In addition to the battle for individual honors, 3  Silicon Valley schools have entered teams of 4+ students.  Last year's CalChess K-12 Champions Kennedy Middle School of Cupertino, now boasting three masters and two strong 1900s, figures to challenge perennial national power Murrow High School from Brooklyn, New York.  Monta Vista High School, comprised of graduates from Kennedy Middle, should be competitive as well.  Finally, Saratoga High School, no longer quite as strong as last decade, fields a team of four B and C players.

NorCal Watch List
National High School
Final Results
Congratulations to GM-elect Darwin Yang for clear 1st with 6.5/7! 

• FM Cameron Wheeler (KMS) 5.5 - 7th place - drew Darwin Yang in last round
• NM Kesav Viswanadha (MVHS) 6.0 - 4th place - beat Y.Xia (2286) in last round
  
• NM Vignesh Panchanatham 5.0 - 22nd place
• NM Siddharth Banik 3.5
• NM Allan Beilin 5.5 - 18th place
• NM Udit Iyengar (KMS) 5.0 - Honorable Mention
• NM Michael Wang (KMS) 5.0 - Honorable Mention
• Neel Apte (MVHS) 5.0 - Honorable Mention
• Joshua Cao 4.5 
• Hans Niemann 4.5 - 5th grader!
  
• Kevin Rosenberg (MVHS) 4.0
• Daniel Zheng (MVHS) 4.0 - drew Rosenthal (2274), S.Liao (2189) and T.Lu (2185)
• Arhant Katare (KMS) 4.0 - drew S.Liao (2189)
• Pranav Srihari (KMS) 4.0 - drew Miller (2258)
• Faisal Albannai (SARA) 3.5 
• Alex Li (SARA) 3.5 - rated just 1435, played up all 7 rounds, +167 rating points
• Kennedy M.S. 19.5/28 - 2nd place 0.5 behind Catalina Foothills H.S. (Tucson)
• Monta Vista H.S. 19.0/28 - tied for 3rd with Murrow H.S. (Brooklyn)
• Saratoga H. S. 12.0/28 - 27th place

Here's wishing plenty of good luck and skill to all!

US Chess League Kicks Off!

The San Francisco Mechanics kick off the 9th season of the US Chess League on Tuesday evening.  Always competitive, the local team reached the playoffs in six of the previous eight seasons, winning the league championship in 2006.  Over the years, noteworthy titled players included GM Josh Friedel, GM Sam Shankland, GM Vinay Bhat, GM-elect Daniel Naroditsky, IM David Pruess and captain IM John Donaldson.  The San Francisco recipe for success, now copied throughout the league, depends on cultivating underrated young talent to man board 4, thereby opening enough space under the 2401 rating cap for the highly rated professionals on boards 1 and 2.

The 2013 roster for the San Francisco Mechanics consists of 10 players: 6 kids and 4 adults.  The top five, representing the team nucleus, have earned at least 25 caps each.  The next three also saw playing time last season.  The bottom four represent the Bay Area's latest crop of young stars--all age 13 or less and National Scholastic Champions!  The team selected January 2013 as the official rating list for determining a legal weekly lineup.

2013 Mechanics Roster

(January Rating, September Rating, Difference)

1. GM Jesse Kraai (2567, 2567, 0)
2. GM Vinay Bhat (2555, 2555, 0)
3. GM-elect Daniel Naroditsky (2553, 2590, +37)
4. FM Yian Liou (2432, 2492, +60)
5. IM David Pruess (2431, 2431, 0)
6. FM Andy Lee (2294, 2316, +22)
7. FM Cameron Wheeler (2276, 2276, 0)
8. NM Kesav Viswanadha (2213, 2261, +48)
9. NM Vignesh Panchanatham (2191, 2278, +87)
10. Siddharth Banik (2033, 2151, +118)

A glance at the above roster reveals several observations.  The trio of Grandmasters are interchangeable, and, depending on availability, I expect to see them take turns on boards 1 and 2 for much of the season.  Likewise, the three "Chess Punks" (Cameron, Kesav and Vignesh) appear close in strength and will divvy up many weeks on boards 3 and 4.  Finally, if bottom-rated Siddharth simply holds his own against master level opposition, then the team can afford to field a top-heavy power lineup more often.

Check out some of the possible lineups at captain Donaldson's disposal.  Unfortunately, availability may again become a driving factor in determining who can play, as in recent years.

• two of Kraai/Bhat/Naroditsky + Liou/Pruess + Banik
• two of Kraai/Bhat/Naroditsky + two of Lee/Wheeler/Viswanadha/Panchanatham
• Kraai/Bhat/Naroditsky + Pruess + two of Lee/Wheeler/Viswanadha/Panchanatham

One peculiarity of the US Chess League allows captains to submit a lineup rated over 2400 in spite of the 2401 rating cap. Indeed, 60% of the San Francisco team is currently rated north of their "official" January rating.  Consider the lineup of Kraai + Naroditsky + Liou + Banik, rated 2450 on the September list!!  Few teams can equal that.  Even stronger may be substituting Bhat, the club's all-time leading scorer, on board 1--exactly as Donaldson has done for week 1.

The league schedule shows one match per week for the next 10 weeks, on either Tuesday or Wednesday evening.  The Mechanics compete in the Pacific Division and will face the Arizona Scorpions, Los Angeles Vibe and Seattle Sluggers twice each.  The top pair of teams from each of the four Divisions will participate in the league playoffs in November.

In a big change, the US Chess League has moved to Chess.com.  Basic accounts are free, allowing anyone to follow the action live.  The planned coverage includes a live TV broadcast of every round.  The action kicks off with a California Clásico against Los Angeles on Tuesday at 6:15pm!