Alan Naroditsky Interview

(Alan Naroditsky proudly stands together with his well-known little brother.)

NM Jonathan Hilton, the intrepid young reporter for Chess Life Online and editor of the weekly newsletter for World Chess Live, recently interviewed local high school senior Alan Naroditsky for the "KibBlitzing" series. Click here to read this fun Q&A.

Whenever he attends a chess tournament, Alan will always be known as "the other" Naroditsky. Having a younger brother who has achieved so much is hardly easy; yet, I have always admired how Alan has never let that fact limit his own, more modest, ambitions in chess. The following response in the interview further shows the respect for his "kid bro".

- Who are your role models in chess?
My role model in chess is definitely my brother. It doesn't matter that I taught him the moves a long time ago; now he's teaching me!

Judging from Alan's FIDE rating of 2133, the young coach has done a pretty decent job! Perhaps Alan would be even higher rated if he didn't commit many hours of time each week to nurturing his bigger talent: playing the piano. Go Alan! Keep up both activities!

KibBlitzing in World Chess Live Newsletter

Check out this fun interview that I gave to World Chess Live a few days ago. The weekly online newsletter is edited by teenage chess writer Jonathan Hilton.

- If you weren’t a chessplayer, what would you be?
An engineer holed up in a cubicle.

Saturday Recap: WCL Qualifier and HS Nationals

(Dachshund races are one of the most popular events at the annual UC Davis Picnic Day.)

I actually spent much of today outdoors, away from my computer and chess. Today was the annual Picnic Day celebration at UC Davis, which gave me an excuse to visit my alma mater. The gorgeous weather made the day a perfect 10. Despite my absence, there was still plenty of chess action around the country. Unfortunately, the results were somewhat disappointing for the home team.

The semifinals of the online qualifier to the 2008 Frank K. Berry US Championship took place on ICC's sister server World Chess Live. The field was impressive: IM Vinay Bhat vs IM Enrico Sevillano and IM David Vigorito vs IM-elect Ray Robson. According to a poll on this blog, Bhat was favored to win by slightly over half of the voters while Sevillano and Robson split most of the remaining votes. I predicted a final match of Bhat against Robson.

To my surprise, both of the favorites lost by 2-0 scores! Bhat lost an important central pawn in the first game with white, but managed to rebound with a strong attack in the second game. However, he became dangerously short of time and, with merely 8 seconds left (plus a 3 second increment), committed a fatal blunder. In the other match, veteran Vigorito schooled 13 year old Robson with a prepared line in the ultra-sharp Botvinnik variation and then held on in the second game. Congratulations to IM Enrico Sevillano of Southern California and IM David Vigorito of Massachusetts for advancing to the final, scheduled for noon PDT on Sunday at World Chess Live.

Update on Sunday afternoon: IM David Vigorito won the online qualifier and advanced to the US Championship in Tulsa next month! He won a wild first game of the final with black and then calmly drew with white to clinch the match. Congratulations and good luck!

I wish I had better news to report from the National High School Championship in Atlanta, but I do not. In fact, while writing this blog entry, I listened to my friend and fellow coach FM Robby Adamson (BLITZMASTER on ICC) rant about the poor performance by his team from Catalina Foothills High School (Tucson, Arizona). The upset bug has bitten many of the top players at the tournament, including top rated FM Marc Tyler Arnold (2419) who drew with Christian Tanaka (2126) from Southern California. Only three players remain with a perfect 5-0 score: FM Daniel Yeager (2347), Edward Lu (2194) and Michael Thaler (2152). Who will win? Watch the action live on MonRoi website.

Here are the scores from Northern California. Mukund Chillakanti remains the lone bright spot with an impressive performance, especially considering the strength of opposition that he faced. All the best in the final two games on Sunday!

• Steven Zierk (2154) has an undefeated 3.5, but three draws against A players.
  
• Mukund Chillakanti (1868) also has 3.5, including 2.5 against four experts!
  
• Kenneth Law (1664) has 2.5
  
• Kartik Chillakanti (1706) has 2.0

Update on Sunday morning: Steven and Kartik both won in round 6 while Mukund and Ken drew. Mukund faces yet another expert in the final round, having already scored a stunning 3.0 out of 5 against opponents rated over 2000. Woohoo! On the stage, Michael Thaler upset top ranked FM Marc Tyler Arnold and will face FM Daniel Yeager for the title. My friend FM Robby Adamson is also happier now; his team is back in the lead.

Watch Online Qualifier this Weekend!

As announced previously on this blog, IM Vinay Bhat advanced to the semifinals of the 2008 US State Champion of Champions tournament on ICC's sister service World Chess Live. The winner earns a spot in the field of 24 for the 2008 Frank K. Berry US Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 13-21. Vinay squares off against IM Enrico Sevillano from the Southern California. The other semifinal pits experience versus youth in IM David Vigorito from Massachusetts against 13 year old IM-elect Ray Robson from Florida. The winners will play for the championship.

The USCF and CalChess websites both report that wisdom prevailed and the date for the semifinals has been changed to Saturday, April 19, with the final on Sunday, April 20. It seemed silly to play on Friday as originally planned, when both some participants and spectators are at work. Both the semifinal and final will begin at 12noon Pacific time--be there! The time control for each two game match will be 60 3.

To watch the matches, download the Dasher interface for World Chess Live (unfortunately, BlitzIn will not work). If you are a USCF member, you are eligible for six free months of WCL thanks to a promotion. To register, please visit the World Chess Live website and follow the instructions on the USCF page (you'll need your USCF ID and PIN code). Upon logging on, you may "observe" the World Chess Live handles of the final four, "Cofc-NorthCalif" for Bhat, "Cofc-SoCal" for Sevillano, "Cofc-MA" for Vigorito and "Cofc-Florida" for Robson.

Who do you think will win this internet qualifier? Vote for your favorite player at the right! There are several strong and exciting choices to make this poll very interesting. This poll closes on Friday at noon so that I can announce the results.

Vinay Bhat Advances to Online Qualifier Semifinals!

San Francisco Bay Area native IM Vinay Bhat (see photo at left) has advanced to the semifinal stage of the 2008 US State Champion of Champions tournament. The winner of this online tournament, hosted by ICC's sister service World Chess Live, will qualify for the US Championship next month.

In today's 5 1 blitz action, Vinay impressively won the Western Conference of the double round-robin qualifier with 12.5 out of 14, ahead of opponents including IM Sandor Kustar (South Dakota) and IM Levon Altounian (Arizona). IM Enrico Sevillano (10.5/14) from Southern California took second place and also advanced to the semifinals. The Eastern Conference was won by IM David Vigorito (17.0/18), now living in Massachusetts, while Florida wunderkind IM-elect Ray Robson (13.5/18) took second (see photo at right), narrowly ahead of FM Kazim Gulamali of Georgia.

The road to Tulsa continues on Friday at 12noon Pacific time with a pair of two game matches at the time control of 60 3. The West features Bhat vs Sevillano; the East has Vigorito vs Robson. The winners meet on Saturday, again beginning at 12noon PDT. No doubt this will be a barn-burner, so tune into WCL! Note: All USCF members get six months free membership to World Chess Live as part of a marketing agreement.