Monday, November 5

World Cadet Underway in Spain

The playing venue is at the Ciudad de la Cultura. (website)

The 2018 World Cadet Chess Championships kicked off on Sunday at the Christian pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela located in northwestern Spain. Nearly 850 young chess players from around the world compete in six sections: Open and Girls for age U8, U10 and U12. The Open U10 and Open U12 divisions both have over 200 participants. After eleven rounds, gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded on November 15.

Team USA includes 74 players, at least that many parents, 6 official team coaches and several private trainers. The American medal chances seem greatest in Open U12, where 21 kids rock the red, white and blue, including 4 of the top 10 seeds. Top contenders include Rachael Li (1st seed in Girls U8), FM Christopher Yoo (2nd seed in Open U12), IM Arthur Guo (4th seed in Open U12), NM Kirk Ghazarian (8th seed in Open U12), Dimitar Mardov (8th seed in Open U10), CM Jason Wang (10th seed in Open U12) and Crystal Gu (10th seed in Girls U8). Note that seeds are ranked by FIDE ratings, and the order may differ from USCF ratings.

Team USA hails from 17 states, including 16 youngsters from New York, 12 from California, 10 from New Jersey and 6 each from Illinois and Texas. The other states represented are: AZ, CT, FL, GA, MA, MI, OH, OR, PA, VA, WA and WI.

The official website is http://www.wccc2018.com/. The daily rounds begin at 7:30am PST except on November 10 (free day) and November 15 (final round starts 2.5 hours sooner). Watch the top boards at FollowChess or at Chess24 (with a 30 minute delay to deter cheating).

FINAL STANDINGS
Top American scores plus California kids
Rating from November USCF supplement
Age given as of December 31, 2018

OPEN U12 results link (21 players)

  • FM Chasin, Nico (12 NY 2320) = 8.5 - BRONZE MEDAL (tied for 2nd)
  • IM Guo, Arthur (12 GA 2387) = 8.5 - 4th place (tied for 2nd)
  • FM Yoo, Christopher (12 CA-N 2455) = 8.0 - 7th place (tied for 6th)
  • CM Wang, Jason (12 OH 2317) = 8.0 - 8th place (tied for 6th)
  • Tian, Eddy (12 NJ 2270) = 7.5
  • CM Zhou, Liran (10 NY 2291) = 7.5
  • NM Ghazarian, Kirk (12 CA-S 2230) = 7.0 
  • CM Xu, Arthur (11 IL 2158 = 7.0
  • Nathan, Krishna (12 CA-N 2115) = 6.5
  • Clasby, Derek (12 NJ 2231) = 6.5
  • Park, Evan (11 PA 2177) = 6.5
  • Yu, Jason (12 WA 2208) = 6.5
  • Sethuraman, Sandeep (11 AZ 2149) = 6.5
  • Oberoi, Shelev (12 TX 2045) = 6.5
  • Gu, Andy (12 CA-S 1693) = 4.5

GIRLS U12 results link (11 players)

  • WCM Pang, Ashley (11 CA-N 1737) = 8.0 - 6th place (tied for 3rd)
  • WFM Wang, Ellen (11 NY 2015) = 7.5 - 12th place (tied for 8th)
  • WCM Ke, Rianne (12 CA-S 2102) = 7.0
  • WCM Velea, Stephanie (11 WA 1668) = 6.5

OPEN U10 results link (12 players)

  • Zhao, Erick (10 FL 2067) = 9.0 - SILVER MEDAL (tied for 1st)
  • Mardov, Dimitar (10 IL 2178) = 8.0 - 8th place (tied for 7th)
  • Ngo, Bach (10 FL 2075) = 7.5
  • Lee, Jayden (10 AZ 2022) = 7.5
  • Shivakumar, Shawnak (10 CA-N 1991) = 7.0
  • Sloan, Jed (10 NY 1912) = 6.5
  • Tay, Brian (10 VA 1822) = 6.5
  • Sivakumar, Shaaketh (10 CA-N 1861) = 5.5
  • Huang, Brian (10 CA-S 1924) = 5.5

GIRLS U10 results link (15 players)

  • WCM Velea, Sophie (10 WA 1782) = 8.0 - 7th place (tied for 5th)
  • Liu, Kelsey (10 MA 1944) = 7.0
  • Evans, Serena (10 CT 1475) 7.0
  • WCM Wen, Kally (10 CA-N 1681) = 6.5
  • Elangovan, Ramya (10 TX 1593) = 6.5
  • Peng, Sophia (10 AZ 1697) = 6.5
  • Zhu, Florina (10 NJ 1623) = 6.5
  • Field, Lila (9 NJ 1310) 6.5

OPEN U8 results link (8 players)

  • Chennareddy, Yuvraj (8 IL 1901) = 10.5 - GOLD MEDAL
  • Wang, Alexander (8 NJ 1960) = 8.0 - 10th place (tied for 6th)
  • Jiang, Andrew (8 GA 1864) = 7.0
  • Woodward, Andy (8 TX 1812) = 7.0

GIRLS U8 results link (7 players)

  • WCM Qiao, Evelyn (8 GA 1641) = 8.5 - BRONZE MEDAL
  • Prakash, Nandini (8 IL 1554) = 7.5 - 9th place (tied for 8th)
  • Gu, Crystal (8 CA-S 1578) = 7.0
  • Li, Rachael (8 TX 1994) = 6.5

Sunday, November 4

Online Mate In One Test


Test your ability to solve mates in one using this fun web application. You get 10 seconds to find the correct move. If you're right, then you immediately get another position. The program stops when your move is not checkmate, or when your time expires.

Many of the positions are trivially winning, but the goal is to checkmate in one. Multiple solutions exist for some problems, and the program will accept any of them. After you have solved several hundred, you may notice that some positions repeat.

Parental warning: This game is addictive. I know several young masters who solved over 100 in a row. At least two have reached 500! At this time, yours truly only achieved a modest 41. If you wish to brag to your friends, then save a screenshot immediately after you messed up.

Finally, if 10 seconds is too fast, then simply edit the number at the end of the URL.

Monday, September 3

NorCal Top 20 - September 2018

US Champion Sam Shankland has fun teaching talented
kids at the US Chess School. (Credit: US Chess School)

NorCal Top 20 Adults
September 2018

Rank Name USCF FIDE
1 GM Shankland, Sam 2816 2722
2 GM Zviad Izoria 2718 2601
3 GM Naroditsky, Daniel 2691 2615
4 GM Holt, Conrad 2688 2561
5 GM Zierk, Steven 2565 2506
6 IM Harmon-Vellotti, Luke 2563 2455
7 GM Matamoros, Carlos (ECU) 2561 2494
8 IM Joshua Sheng 2550 2447
9 GM Sevillano, Enrico 2535 2423
10 IM Wheeler, Cameron 2503 2406
11 IM Liou, Yian 2499 2412
12 IM Kavutskiy, Kostya 2472 2424
13 SM Hong, Andrew Z 2467 2357
14 IM Viswanadha, Kesav 2457 2367
15 IM Zilberstein, Dmitry 2454 2378
16 IM Coleman, Teddy 2452 2378
17 IM Panchanatham, Vignesh 2451 2383
18 SM Zhu, Jack Q 2437 2373
19 SM Bick, Gabriel 2429 2381
20 SM Yoo, Christopher W 2414 2402

  • Derived from US Chess Rating Lists by State.
  • GM Negi moved to Massachusetts.
  • GM Holt and GM Sevillano listed under other states.
  • Newcomers GM Zierk (welcome back!) and IM Sheng.
  • SM Bick enters list after playing abroad for a year.
  • GM DeFirmian and IM Donaldson mostly inactive.

Friday, August 31

NorCal Top 20 JHS & High School (Age 12-17)

Local stars FM Josiah Stearman and FM Rayan Taghizadeh squared off at the
US Cadet (U16) Invitational in San Jose last month. (Credit: BayAreaChess)

NorCal Top 100 Lists and NorCal Top 20 Juniors
August 2018

Rank Age Name USCF Change FIDE
1 13 FM Hong, Andrew Z 2454 33 2377
2 14 FM Stearman, Josiah P 2416 111 2346
3 16 FM Taghizadeh, Rayan 2402 -41 2302
4 15 NM Ke, Ivan 2351 37 2238
5 13 FM Daggupati, Balaji 2329 57 2226
6 16 NM Wang, Michael 2323 -15 2133
7 17 WIM Eswaran, Ashritha 2256 52 2243
8 12 NM Wu, Rochelle 2252 141 2094
9 17 NM Ravuri, Vinesh 2239 68 2050
10 13 NM Kolay, Alex 2220 141 2115
11 15 NM Wu, Derek S 2220 161 2050
12 15 nm Murugappan, Ganesh 2193 69 2076
13 17 FM Vasudeva, Tanuj 2184 -2 2013
14 15 Wang, Henry 2182 117 1970
15 15 Feng, Justin 2173 43 1987
16 15 Pan, David 2162 67 1979
17 12 Nathan, Krishna 2152 188 1894
18 17 Wei, Jeffrey 2150 19 1965
19 12 Pan, Kevin 2148 92 2040
20 17 nm Pan, Christopher 2145 -61 2045

NorCal Top 20 Elementary (Age 11 & Under)

11 year old FM Christopher Yoo won a brilliancy against GM Conrad Holt to
complete his second IM norm this month in Berkeley. (Credit: Chessdryad)

NorCal Top 100 Lists and NorCal Top 20 Juniors
August 2018

Rank Age Name USCF Change FIDE
1 11 FM Yoo, Christopher W 2414 140 2378
2 10 NM Li, Eric Y 2207 158 2008
3 11 Yan, Rui Y 2133 167 1852
4 11 Vidyarthi, Vyom 2105 132 1912
5 10 Kondakov, Adrian 2057 133 1948
6 11 Boldi, Ethan K 2011 139 1879
7 10 CM Krishnakumar, Sriram 1978 22 1675
8 10 Shivakumar, Shawnak 1919 131 1713
9 11 CM Nachiappan, Aghilan 1911 94 1631
10 11 Sairam, Pranav 1866 57
11 11 Kamath, Atul R 1832 66 1478
12 9 CM Nath, Nitish 1811 187 1506
13 9 Sivakumar, Shaaketh 1792 109 1522
14 11 WCM Wong, Allyson 1746 107 1479
15 10 Le, Nikko D 1745 96
16 11 Zhou, Nolan Y 1742 128
17 10 Weng, Nicholas 1737 138
18 7 Rajaram, Rohan 1718 505 1321
19 9 WCM Rajaram, Anika 1706 181 1371
20 11 Kou, Daniel 1703 -71 1444

NorCal Top 20 Girls

Rui Yang Yan also played at the
Women's Western Regional in
Berkeley. (Credit: Chessdryad)
NM Rochelle Wu took first place
at the Women's Western Regional
in Berkeley. (Credit: Chessdryad)





















NorCal Top 100 Lists and NorCal Top 20 Juniors
August 2018

Rank Age Name USCF Change FIDE
1 17 WIM Eswaran, Ashritha 2256 52 2243
2 12 NM Wu, Rochelle 2252 141 2094
3 11 Yan, Rui Y 2133 167 1852
4 15 WFM Liu, Kimberly 2012 33 1877
5 15 Nayberg, Simona 1954 114 1880
6 17 Chatterjee, Trina 1913 53 1748
7 12 WCM Eswaran, Aksithi 1876 86 1757
8 13 WFM Meiyappan, Annapoorni 1843 -25 1631
9 16 Show, Serafina 1836 23 1550
10 14 WCM Garai, Antara 1826 -40 1556
11 17 Hasteer, Divija 1775 -35 1544
12 11 WCM Wong, Allyson 1746 107 1479
13 12 Zhou, Chelsea 1733 343
14 15 Gomboluudev, Enkhjin C 1720 55 1676
15 9 WCM Rajaram, Anika 1706 181 1371
16 8 WCM Vidyarthi, Omya 1679 351 1145
17 10 WCM Pang, Ashley 1666 80 1604
18 14 Chen, Ashleann 1616 -66
19 13 Wang, Agnes Z 1592 85
20 11 Lee, Yesun 1591 214

Friday, August 17

Berkeley GM Norm RR

The front desk and chess library. (Credit: Chessdryad)

Berkeley Summer GM Norm Invitational
August 17 to 21
Hosted by the Berkeley Chess School
Watch the games live at the Follow Chess app!

Time control = G/90 + inc/30
Average rating =  2433
Required score = 6.5 for GM norm, 5.0 for IM norm
Participants:
  • GM Conrad Holt (2592)
  • GM Priyadarshan Kannappan (2554) from India THIRD PLACE
  • GM Mark Paragua (2506) from Philippines
  • IM Joshua Sheng (2415) FIRST PLACE - GM NORM!!
  • IM Bryce Tiglon (2392)
  • NM Gabriel Bick (2391)
  • IM Ahuja Rohan (2387) from India 
  • FM Christopher Yoo (2378) IM NORM!!
  • IM Kim Yap (2366) from Philippines SECOND PLACE - GM NORM!!
  • FM Josiah Stearman (2346)
Crosstable:

GM Conrad Holt  | X | = | 1 | 0 | = | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | = |   3.5
GM Kannappan    | = | X | = | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | = | = | 1 |   6.0
GM M. Paragua   | 0 | = | X | 0 | 1 | 1 | = | = | = | 1 |   5.0
IM Josh Sheng   | 1 | 1 | 1 | X | 1 | = | = | 1 | 0 | 1 |   7.0
IM B. Tiglon    | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | = | 1 | = | 0 | = |   3.0
NM Gabe Bick    | 1 | 0 | 0 | = | = | X | 0 | = | 0 | = |   3.0
IM Ahuja Rohan  | 0 | 0 | = | = | 0 | 1 | X | 1 | = | 0 |   3.5
FM Chris Yoo    | 1 | = | = | 0 | = | = | 0 | X | 1 | 1 |   5.0
IM Kim Yap      | 1 | = | = | 1 | 1 | 1 | = | 0 | X | 1 |   6.5
FM J. Stearman  | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | = | = | 1 | 0 | 0 | X |   2.5

Saturday, August 11

Berkeley IM Norm RR

The new Berkeley Chess School building opened in May. (Credit: Chessdryad)

Berkeley Summer IM Norm Invitational
August 11 to 15
Hosted by the Berkeley Chess School
Watch the games live at the Follow Chess app!

Time control = G/90 + inc/30
Average rating = 2298
Required score = 6.5 for IM norm, 6.0 for WGM norm
Participants:
  • IM Ahuja Rohan (2387) from India FIRST PLACE TIE
  • IM Kim Yap (2366) from Philippines FIRST PLACE TIE    
  • IM Vincent McCambridge (2359)
  • FM Josiah Stearman (2346)
  • FM Teemu Virtanen (2309) from Finland THIRD PLACE TIE
  • FM Rawle Allicock (2236) from England
  • WIM Annie Wang (2288) 
  • NM Ivan Ke (2238)   
  • FM Ezra Chambers (2233) from Burundi
  • FM Ladia Jirasek (2222) THIRD PLACE TIE
Crosstable:

IM Ahuja Rohan  | X | 0 | 1 | = | 1 | = | 1 | = | 1 | 1 |   6.5
IM Kim Yap      | 1 | X | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |   6.5
IM McCambridge  | 0 | 0 | X | 0 | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |   1.5
FM J. Stearman  | = | 0 | 1 | X | 1 | 0 | 1 | = | 0 | 0 |   4.0
FM T. Virtanen  | 0 | = | 1 | 0 | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |   5.5
FM R. Allicock  | = | 0 | = | 1 | 0 | X | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |   3.0
WIM Annie Wang  | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 0 | 1 | = |   4.5
NM Ivan Ke      | = | 0 | 1 | = | 0 | 1 | 1 | X | 0 | 0 |   4.0
FM E. Chambers  | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 1 |   4.0
FM L. Jirasek   | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | 0 | X |   5.5

Friday, July 27

Shankland Plays at Danzhou Super GM

Sam Shankland (credit China Chess)

The Bay Area's own GM Sam Shankland participates in his first Super GM invitational in southern China. Eight young players, all rated above 2700 FIDE, compete in a single round-robin hosted by the city of Danzhou on the island of Hainan. While Shankland has been successful against 2700s in the past, there are no easy opponents at this elite event.

Participants

  • Yu Yangyi (CHN) 2762
  • Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL) 2737
  • Wei Yi (CHN) 2729
  • Le Quang Liem (VIE) 2728
  • Sam Shankland (USA) 2727
  • Santosh Gujrathi Vidit (IND) 2718
  • Bu Xiangzhi (CHN) 2712
  • Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS) 2707

Duda won in the first round against Vidit while the other three games were drawn. Shankland survived a scare with black against the former prodigy Bu, once the youngest GM in the world at age 13. In this tournament, Bu is the oldest at 32, and Shankland the second oldest at 26.

Games begin at 11:30PM Pacific and are broadcast at Chess24. Follow @sinachess for the latest news and photos. Readers who understand Mandarin may be interested in the official website.

Thursday, May 10

National Elementary Championships


The annual US Chess National Elementary Championships bring more than 2200 eager youngsters together in Nashville on Mother's Day weekend. The Northern California delegation consists of 45 kids plus their parents and coaches. More than half represent two historically strong Fremont elementary schools, Mission San Jose and Weibel, both which won national championships in recent years. How many trophies will the local participants bring home this year?

Most of the attention goes to the K-6 Championship section, which features the most local players and the best opportunities for high place trophies. Indeed, 7 kids are rated in the top 40 of the section, which is approximately the 70th percentile and up. Both Mission San Jose and Weibel have teams in K-6, with MSJE seeking to duplicate their shared first place in K-5 last year. The other interesting section appears to be the K-1 Championship, with first graders Rohan Rajaram and Lucas Jiang seeded among the top three. MSJE also hopes to finish near the top in K-1 after taking second place last year.


LATEST RESULTS (RFINAL RESULTS)


Kevin Pan (credit @USChess)
K-6 Championship (16 local players)
  • Kevin Pan (MSJE) - 6.0 - CO-NATIONAL CHAMPION
  • Abhinav Penagalapati - 4.5
  • Aghilan Nachiappan (MSJE) - 5.0 - 17th place
  • Stephen He (MSJE) - 4.0
  • Nikko Le (Weibel) - 4.0
  • Nicholas Jiang (MSJE) - 4.0  
  • Allyson Wong (MSJE) - 4.5
  • Alex Shrauger - 4.5
  • Saatvik Krishnan - 3.5
  • Dharshan Vetrivelan (Weibel) - 3.5
  • Aidan Chen (MSJE) - 4.0
  • Umesh Gopi (Weibel) - 3.0
  • Krish Gangal (Weibel) - 3.0 - 2nd U1400
  • Nivedha Maniv (MSJE) - 3.0
  • Reyansh Gangal (Weibel) - 2.0
  • Savir Khanna (Weibel) - 2.0
  • MSJE K-6 team (7 players) - 19.5 - CO-NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
  • Weibel K-6 team (6 players) - 13.5 - 6th place

K-5 Championship (9 local players)
  • Shaaketh Sivakumar - 4.5
  • Anika Rajaram - 4.0
  • Nikhil Parvathaneni - 3.5
  • Kavya Meiyappan (MSJE) - 4.0
  • Jayden Xu - 4.0
  • Leo Jiang - 2.5
  • Jason Liu (MSJE) - 3.0
  • Ayaan Kassamali (MSJE) - 3.5- 1st U1100
  • Jolene Liu (MSJE) - 2.5 - 2nd U1100
  • MSJE K-5 team (4 players) - 13.0 - 9th place

K-3 Championship (4 local players)
  • Nitish Nath - 5.5 - 7th place
  • Ryan Wang - 5.0 - 16th place
  • Jaden Cheung - 3.0
  • Tanishi Varma - 2.5

Rohan Rajaram (credit @USChess)
K-1 Championship (12 local players)
  • Rohan Rajaram - 6.5 - NATIONAL CHAMPION
  • Lucas Jiang (MSJE) - 6.0 - 4th place
  • Arnam Pawar (MSJE) - 6.0 - 7th place
  • Artham Pawar (MSJE) - 6.0 - 3rd place
  • Louis Le - 4.0
  • Aditya Arutla (MSJE) - 5.0 - 23rd place
  • Bhaasvan Varma - 5.0 - 16th place
  • Yahor Hrynko - 5.0 - 27th place
  • Shreyank Krishnan - 5.0 - 17th place
  • Anvitha Penagalapati - 3.0
  • Swagatha Selvam (MSJE) - 3.5
  • Sarvesh Maniv (MSJE) - 1.5
  • MSJE K-1 team (6 players) - 13.5 - NATIONAL CHAMPIONS