Sacramento Team Champ Is Underway

(Left: Heiserman white against Lazetich. Right: Micah Cohen white against MacFarland. Photos taken by cell phone.)


The annual Team Championship at the Sacramento Chess Club began last week with nine teams and over 60 players. Each team fields six boards rated under 1750 average, with up to three alternates allowed. The premiere event of the club brings back folks who rarely attend the rest of the year. I counted 5 masters, another 5 experts and over a dozen experienced A players. No doubt the competition on the top three boards will be fierce! Round-robin play continues through March 24, although each team gets a bye.

The defending champions from UC Davis, named after the university mascot Gunrock, appear heavy favorites to repeat. NM Jim Heiserman, Phillip Seitzer, Valeriy Timofeyev and John Cohen give them four players rated above 1950 to fill the top three boards; the lower boards are manned by strong unrateds typically of class B or C strength, but who count as 1300 for the team average rating. Top challengers include Pinoy Destroyers (expert Joe Escoto plus his Filipino buddies) and 2-C (formerly called B-Nam, featuring NM Jim MacFarland on top board).

My own team, Russo's Rustlers captained by rapidly improving A player Joe Russo, might also finish in the top half of the field. (The photo at right shows Robert struggling as black against my student Nicholas Karas.) Unfortunately, we seriously got our bells rung in the first round by Gunrock's Heroes. I have never been on the wrong side of a 5.5-0.5 score before! I even lost to Phillip Seitzer due to tactical blindness and poor time management. Thanks to Marvin Gilbert for avoiding the shutout with a draw on board 4. Fortunately, the team bounced back 4-2 against King Hunters, with me sitting out.

Team Standings after round 2 (MP, GP, top board)

1. Gunrock's Heroes (2.0, 10.5, NM Jim Heiserman)
2. Pinoy Destroyers (2.0, 10.5, Joe Escoto)
   
3. 2-C (1.0, 5.5, NM Jim MacFarland)
4. Daze N' Knights (1.0, 5.0, Micah Cohen)
5. Russo's Rustlers (1.0, 4.5, NM Michael Aigner)
6. King Hunters (0.5, 5.0, Nicholas Karas)
7. Zoki (0.5, 3.5, Ted Xiao)
   
8. Zoka (0.0, 2.5, NM Zoran Lazetich)
9. Warriors (0.0, 1.0, NM Steve Ross)

Official team standings and individual results are posted at Sacramento Chess Club website.

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.

The Young and the Younger

(Tanuj at left prepares to write down IM Shipman's latest move.)

A total of 72 chess enthusiasts of all ages turned up for the Sacramento Championship on the 4th of July. The 25 player Master/Expert section features a competition between 5 masters and 11 nationally ranked juniors. After four rounds, 3 masters are tied for first at 3.5/4: NM Zoran Lazetich, NM Richard Koepcke and this writer, who took the reentry option. The top kids are just half a point behind at 3.0, both losing to one of the leaders. 12 year old Yian Liou already beat two masters while 11 year old Kyle Shin defeated a pair of experts. The final two rounds are scheduled for Sunday.

The exciting pairing that I hoped for in my blog post three days ago did indeed occur. The tournament's youngest player, 7 year old (edit: he turned 8 recently) Tanuj Vasudeva (1800), challenged the sly veteran 79 year old IM Walter Shipman (2209) in a battle for the ages. They traded into an endgame of queens, rooks and pawns that should have been drawn by best play. In the end, the young kid got greedy and took a poisoned pawn, allowing the more experienced master to deliver a mating attack. No doubt that's a lesson that the kid will now know.

Board Standings After Round 4

(Coach Zoran leads his Zoka Zoki team by example with 3.5-0.5 on board 1.)

Here are the unofficial board prize standings for the Sacramento Team Championship. To be eligible for the board prize, the recipient must play 60% of the rounds at that board. Two people played twice on one board and twice on another; for now, I ranked them under the higher board. Please send corrections to my email address at the right sidebar.

BOARD 1

• 3.5 NM Zoran Lazetich (ZOKA) -- defeated MacFarland and Heiserman
  
• 3.0 NM James MacFarland (BNAM) -- defeated Aigner
  
• 2.5 NM Michael Aigner (EG) -- defeated Heiserman and Ross
  
• 2.0 NM Steven Ross (WAR)
• 2.0 NM Jimmy Heiserman (UCD-N)
  

BOARD 2

• 3.5 John Cohen (UCD-B)
• 2.0 Charles Brunton (BNAM)
• 2.0 Bernie Lu (EG)

BOARD 3

• 3.0 Erik Friedlander (UCD-N)
• 3.0 Romeo Pilar (EG)
• 2.5 Joe Birt (WAR)
• 2.5 Kevin Dooley (KING)
  

BOARD 4

• 3.0 Nebojsa Gvozden (BNAM)
• 2.5 Brady Hill (KING)
• 2.5 Bob Baker (WAR)
• 2.0 Robert Russo (EG)
  

BOARD 5

• 2.5 Marcus Langston (UCD-N)
• 2.5 Everett Penn (WAR)
• 2.0 Brian Eller (UCD-N)
• 2.0 Brian Hu (ZOKA)
  

BOARD 6

• 3.0 Donald Dixon (EG)
• 3.0 Joel Iniquez-Aguiar (BNAM)
• 2.5 Ryan Leung (UCD-N)
• 2.0 David Whiteneck (UCD-N)
• 2.0 Justin Garvin (WAR)

Sacramento Team Championship Round 4

The Sacramento Chess Club Team Championship is the most popular event of the year, attracting some players on Wednesday nights who play in few other local tournaments. This year, there are eight teams of 6 players (plus 3 alternates) with an average rating under 1750 each week. The teams play a round-robin over seven weeks from February 4 until March 18.

The list of top board players is impressive: masters Zoran Lazetich, James MacFarland, Steven Ross, Jimmy Heiserman and your blogger are joined by three others rated above 2000. It is special to see so many of the active chess players in the Sacramento region turn out for this tournament.

After four rounds, two teams have separated themselves from the field. The UC Davis Knights are 4-0 with NM Heiserman and three other players rated over 1800. However, the strength of the Knights lies on the bottom boards, where they field several unrated players. Jamshid Alamehzadeh's B-Nam team trails close behind at 3.5-0.5, featuring NM MacFarland and two 1900s. Tied for third place at 2-2, but unfortunately well out of contention, are Elk Grove (my team) and Warriors (Joe Birt's team with NM Ross).

TEAM STANDINGS (after round 4)

1. UC Davis Knights 4.0 MP, 18.5 GP
2. B-Nam 3.5 MP, 14.5 GP
3. Elk Grove 2.0 MP, 14.5 GP
4. Warriors 2.0 MP, 14.0 GP
5. UC Davis Bishops 1.5 MP, 11.0 GP
6. Zoka Zoki Academy 1.0 MP, 9.0 GP
7. King Hunters 1.0 MP, 7.5 GP
8. Daze Knights 1.0 MP, 5.0 GP

Fpawn and Students PWN Sac-town

(The fpawn poses with student Suraj Nair after both won 1st place. To my disappointment, these trophies did not come filled with wine or candy.)

The final chess tournament of the year in Sacramento is the annual Weekend Swiss held at the Learning Exchange on Howe Avenue. About 40 players, their parents and a few enthusiastic observers came despite the cold weather. Many of the longtime regulars at the Sacramento Chess Club played, including three of the five masters: James MacFarland, Zoran Lazetich (first photo at bottom) and Michael Aigner. Thanks to longtime club TD John McCumiskey (second photo at bottom) for hosting yet another fine tournament.

The first round saw a tsunami of upsets in the top section that significantly changed course of the competition. At one point, all three masters appeared to be facing defeat. I managed to win after five hours of play against 2007 club champion Alonzo McCaulley, but both of my fellow masters lost. Kudos go to Jamshid Alamehzadeh (1854) for swindling Lazetich in an endgame and Ricardo Salazar (1839) for defeating MacFarland.

The main consequence of these upsets was that I would cruise through the entire four round tournament without being paired with anyone rated over 1900. (Sigh!) After working hard against McCaulley, I secured a comfortable advantage by move 25 in two games and won the third in merely 13 moves with black! I took clear 1st at 4-0, a full point ahead of NM Lazetich, Michael Da-Cruz, Nicholas Karas and Alamehzadeh.

Congratulations also to two of my students for winning money and achieving small milestones. Nicholas Karas (third photo at bottom) broke 1900 USCF by winning his first three games, defeating an expert along the way, before losing to his teacher. (Ahem!) Fresh off his victory in the 9th grade section at the CalChess Grade Levels in Stockton, Suraj Nair scored 2.5 out of 3 against B players to take clear 1st in the U1800 section. He broke 1600 USCF, gaining nearly 200 rating points in the past month and 400 points since the summer. After the final round, I asked Suraj what he did to improve so fast; he credited many hours of solving tactics puzzles on CT-ART. (Students: hint, hint!)