NorCal House 3-Peats as National Champs

In white sweatshirts from L to R: GM Sevillano, IM DeGuzman,
captain Ted Castro, and FM Cusi. Photo credit: Castro.

NorCal House of Chess dominated the U.S. Amateur Team, capturing the national playoff for an unprecedented third straight year.  They qualified for the playoff by winning all six matches at the Amateur Team West in Irvine on President's Day weekend.  Today, they won two more matches, first eliminating the North champion Pinoy of Chicago by 3.0-1.0 and then crushing the East champion Virginia Assassins by 3.5-0.5.

Organized by Metropolitan Chess L.A.

Before last year, no team had ever repeated in the playoff.  NorCal House now can claim a hat trick!

Major props to the following All Star cast of coaches and students.  GM Enrico Sevillano (2554), IM Ricardo DeGuzman (2453) and FM Ron Cusi (2302) capably manned the top three boards for two straight years.  Juniors Ronit Pattanayak (1480) and Evan Vallens (1377) shared duties on the bottom board, with Ronit winning two pivotal contests today against much higher rated opponents.  Club founder and organizer Ted Castro served as team captain.

See for playoff games at Chess Life Online and in the May edition of Chess Life magazine.

Eswaran To Play in US Women's Champ

Ashritha posing with Garry Kasparov at Girls Nationals.

Here is great news from Ted Castro of NorCal House of Chess.

Congratulations to my student Ashritha Eswaran for being invited at the US Women's Championship (most prestigious chess tournament in the US) to be held at the world famous St. Louis Chess Club in May. She's presently the #1 ranked Girl U16 in the country and is newly minted National Master! Thanks to our team of coaches and very supportive parents!

In addition to earning the NM title and #1 national ranking, Ashritha ranks as the top woman in Northern California and Top 20 in the country.  Although lowest rated in the Women's Champ, the 13 year old appears poised to score a few upsets.  Go get 'em!

NorCal Top 5 Women - March 2014

1. NM Eswaran, Ashritha 2231 USCF 1982 FIDE
2. NM Tsodikova, Natalya 2226 2135
3. WFM Byambaa, Uyanga 2136 2050
4. Liu, Joanna 2006 1756
5. Mccreary, Taylor 1998 1876

List adapted from Fpawn Chess. 

FIDE Events @ NorCal House of Chess

March Invitational players and arbiters stand with USCF President Ruth Haring (third from left) and tournament organizer Ted Castro (far right).

Motivated by the success of the Northern California International in January, respected chess coach Ted Castro organized a 10-player IM-Norm Invitational over two consecutive weekends. Due to demand, Castro plans to run similar events on a bimonthly basis. In addition to master level competition, these high level tournaments offer a unique local opportunity to earn one of three norms for the International Master title. Well done Ted!

At the top of the field are three veteran IMs: Enrico Sevillano (photo on left), Ricardo DeGuzman (photo on right) and Ray Kaufman. The Southern California master Sevillano (2562 USCF, 2502 FIDE), is the top seed. Rated second is DeGuzman, the 800 lb. gorilla of Northern California chess. Kaufman, the son of a Grandmaster, moved out West last summer after living near Washington D.C.

Three FIDE Masters, one Women's FM and three National Masters fill out the Category III tournament (2307 average FIDE rating). The youngest two participants are 22-year old WFM Uyanga Bayambaa and my former student, 14-year old NM Yian Liou (photo below). Players need to score 6.5 out of 9 for an IM norm. It ain't easy!

The big guns have certainly proven themselves so far. In early showdowns, Kaufman beat DeGuzman but lost to Sevillano. Cusi and Lobo have three draws and a win each, but still must face all of the IMs. High school freshman Liou drew four straight games, including against Sevillano and Kaufman. While his pairings for the coming weekend seem favorable, he needs to score a nearly perfect 4.5 out of 5 next weekend for his first norm. Go Yiansky!

Standings After First Weekend (4 rounds)

• 3.5 Sevillano (2502)
• 3.0 DeGuzman (2400)
  
• 2.5 RKaufman (2316), Cusi (2316) and Lobo (2236)
  
• 2.0 YLiou (2293)
• 1.5 Ishkhanov (2347) and Bayambaa (2110)
  
• 0.5 EPerez (2290) and BEvans (2256)

Would you like to play in one of these invitationals? Ted Castro says about 20 people have expressed interest, many his friends or students. Since he can't accommodate everyone, he set up another tournament: a FIDE qualifier. The winner earns an invite to the next IM norm event in May. Four straight wins (or maybe 3.5/4) and you're in! If you're interested, contact Castro right away because only a handful of seats remain. Recommended for USCF over 2000!

Good skill (luck)!! :-)

(Photo credits: Ted Castro and Inga Gurevich)

Shankland Takes First at NorCal International

Fifth seed GM Sam Shankland won the 2012 Northern California International with an undefeated score of 7.0 out of 9. Rounds 6 and 7 turned out to be critical, when Sam defeated the early leader, IM Greg Shahade, and the top seed, GM Georg Meier of Germany, both in under 30 moves! A trio of Americans shared second place at 6.5: GM Alejandro Ramirez, GM Josh Friedel and IM Marc Arnold.

The tournament attracted 60 competitors to Fremont on January 2-8, including 8 Grandmasters and 16 International Masters. Players arrived from around the World, representing Georgia, Mongolia, Peru, Zimbabwe, and 9 other countries. The many flags hanging from the ceiling at the playing hall underscored the international flair.
One goal of any such event is to offer GM or IM norms to players who perform above 2600 or 2450, respectively. Three norms are required to earn a title. Kudos to Azeri master Faik Aleskerov for earning an IM norm with 5.0/9! IM Arnold and IM Shahade were among the leaders, but missed GM norms in the final round. C'est la vie! Unfortunately, the number of foreign participants (18) was less than expected (at least 20) due to multiple last minute dropouts, decreasing the norm opportunities. WGM Tatev Abrahamyan and 13-year old FM Kayden Troff both played very well to finish at 5.5/9, but alas, neither faced the requisite number of foreign opponents. Tragic!

• Final Standings
• Chess Life Online Article (by FM Kostya Kavutskiy)
  
• Games in Java Viewer OR Download PGN
• Brillancy Prize (judged by GM Vinay Bhat)
• Photos
  

Many thanks to organizers Arun Sharma and Ted Castro for hosting the tournament. By all accounts, people enjoyed a week of chess and mild weather in the Bay Area. For local participants, this was a chance to play against strong masters without traveling far. And the nine players under the age of 16 received an invaluable face-to-face learning opportunity. Given the high level of enthusiasm, hopefully the Bay Area will host many future Internationals!

(Photos courtesy of Inga Gurevich and Ted Castro.)

October Top 100 Lists

(Left photo: Organizer Salman Azhar.)

(Right photo: Coaches Alan Kirshner and Ted Castro with 2010 K-3 National Champions.)

I recently updated the CalChess Top 100 and CalChess Top 20 lists for October. The October supplement includes tournaments rated by the first Friday in September, meaning the Labor Day Festival did not make the cut. The age is current as of September 1.

Kudos to 113 local juniors ranked among the top 100 of the nation for their age. Salman Azhar of Bay Area Chess and All Star Coach Ted Castro apparently discovered the mythical Fountain of Youth. No fewer than 50 Northern California kids are nationally ranked for age 10, 9, 8 or 7 & under, the majority affiliated with either Salman or Ted! I can't wait to see how many young masters we'll have in about five years.
(The Chesspunks train with FM Daniel Naroditsky for World Youth. From left to right: Vignesh, Allan, Danya, Kesav and Cameron. Photo from Cameron's blog.)

A record 16 kids age 17 & under are currently rated above 2000, including four in elementary school! New experts this year: Cameron Wheeler, Jack Zhu, Kesav Viswanadha, Daniel Liu, James Kwok and Andrew Yeh. Superstar FM Daniel Naroditsky, incredibly almost 2500, holds the only #1 ranking this month, but nine more youngsters are ranked among the top five for their age, including four #2's. Here's a big round of applause for ten unofficial gold medalists for October!

GOLD MEDAL (top 5)
Advait Budaraju (#4 age 5)
Josiah Stearman (#4 age 7)
Rayan Taghizadeh (#4 age 8)
Michael Wang (#5 age 8)
Samuel Sevian (#2 age 9)
NM Yian Liou (#2 age 13) -- Co-champion of US Cadet Invitational
FM Daniel Naroditsky (#1 age 14)
NM Gregory Young (#2 age 15)
NM Steven Zierk (#4 age 17) -- Winner of Denker High School Invitational
IM Sam Shankland (#2 age 18) -- Winner of US Junior Invitational

Players ranked in the top 15 and top 25 of the country also deserve a special recognition. The names shown in bold and italics are all current or former students of mine.

SILVER MEDAL (top 15)
Ben Rood (#15 age 6)
Anthony Zhou (#8 age 7)
FM Tanuj Vasudeva (#8 age 9)
Cameron Wheeler (#6 age 10)
Vignesh Panchanatham (#10 age 10)
Udit Iyengar (#13 age 10)
Jack Zhu (#7 age 11)
Kesav Viswanadha (#9 age 11)
NM Evan Sandberg (#14 age 17)
NM Rohan Agarwal (#15 age 17)

BRONZE MEDAL (top 25)
Solomon Ge (#21 age 7)
Leyton Ho (#21 age 8)
Jeffrey Tao (#18 age 9)
Colin Chow (#17 age 10)
Richard Yi (#20 age 10)
Allan Beilin (#17 age 11)
Daniel Liu (#16 age 12)
Kyle Shin (#17 age 12)
Paul Richter (#21 age 12) -- CalChess K-12 Co-champion
Andrew Yeh (#30 age 14) -- CalChess K-12 Co-champion
Hayk Manvelyan (#19 age 16)

Tanuj Smiles for Camera on CBS 5

Did you see 8 year old FM Tanuj Vasudeva on the CBS 5 Tuesday evening news? If not, click on the video image below to replay the story or read about the experience at his blog. Tanuj shows off his trophies, checkmates coach Ted Castro in blitz and talks about trips to distant lands. He even manages to smile for the camera! Gimme five Tanuj!

RayanT Leads Bay Area Trophy Winners!

A weekend of great promise at the National K-12 Championships in Dallas ended with a group of 20 local juniors collecting ten big trophies and one national title! The youngsters from the Bay Area (see photo at right) played on the top boards in every section from 1st grade to 6th grade, competing against kids from New York, Texas and across the country. Congrats to 2nd Grade National Champion Rayan Taghizadeh (photo at left) for finishing at the top with a perfect 7-0 sweep!

The delegation could have earned another national title or two, as no fewer than six local kids had a mathematical chance of tying for first place heading into the final round. Alas, the competition is always incredibly fierce and we must be proud of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th place and 7th place trophies. Here's a special pat on the back for 5th grader Allan Beilin and 6th grader Kyle Shin, both who were tied for the lead but came up one game short. On a more positive note, 4th graders Cameron Wheeler and Vignesh Panchanatham drew in consecutive rounds against 2097 rated Tommy He, the top seed from Texas. And last but not least, 5th grader Kesav Viswanadha did everything right except for losing to the 2119 rated winner, earning a well-deserved 2nd place trophy on tiebreaks. Kudos to Coach Ted Castro for the wonderful job he did in training and preparing many of these young stars.

Final Standings (click here for the official website or the rating report)

• 2nd grade: Rayan Taghizadeh 7.0 -- National Champion!!
  
• 5th grade: Kesav Viswanadha 6.0 -- 2nd place!
• 4th grade: Cameron Wheeler 6.0 -- 3rd place!
• 6th grade: Kyle Shin 5.5 -- 4th place!
• 4th grade: Vignesh Panchanatham 5.5 -- 6th place
• 5th grade: Allan Beilin 5.5 -- 7th place
• 1st grade: Solomon Ge 5.0 -- 9th place
• 4th grade: Jeffrey Tao 5.5 -- 11th place
• 6th grade: Daniel Liu 5.0 -- 13th place
  
• 3rd grade: Anirudh Seela 5.0 -- 15th place
  
• 4th grade: Alvin Kong 5.0
  
• 4th grade: Siddharth Banik 5.0
  
• 1st grade: Josiah Stearman 4.5
• 4th grade: Udit Iyengar 4.5
• 5th grade: Armaan Kalyanpur 4.5
• 2nd grade: Bryce Wong 4.0
  
• 3rd grade: Amit Sant 4.0
• 4th grade: Shalin Shah 4.0
  
• 4th grade: Eric Zhu 3.5
  
• Kindergarten: Muthiah Panchanatham 3.0
• 5th grade: Blake Wong 3.0

Even one former Bay Area kid (his family moved to Nebraska last summer) performed well in Dallas. Talented 2nd grader Joseph Wan took the 2nd place trophy with 6.0, losing only to Rayan on top board. Imagine how strong MSJE would be with his 1561 rating!?

Finally, thanks to Rob Wheeler for updating his new blog and Twitter page throughout the weekend. Check it out! The photos at the top of my article came from his site.