Silicon Valley Challenge on Sunday!

(The playing hall is actually a dance studio. Watch out for the mirrors!)

First of all, I apologize to my regular readers for this extended absence. I am battling an annoying intestinal ailment that has deprived me of much of my usual zest for over two months. Unfortunately, it is still not cured, although the doctors can't seem to find anything wrong in my medical test results.

The 8th Silicon Valley Challenge hosted by the Sun Chess Club will be this coming Sunday! As in recent years, the event will be held at Susan's Dance Studio in NE San Jose.

This year takes on a little more significance since Charles graduated from Saratoga High School and will begin classes at UC Berkeley next month. I began teaching him in 2004 and had the pleasure of watching him grow into a smart and confident young man. Charles was never one of my star students, but his success at big money tournaments (Las Vegas!) remains unparalleled by my students. I still remember watching him improve from 1394 to 1806 in the summer of 2005. He attributed that quantum leap to learning to pay attention to tempo in chess.

In high school, Charles took over the leadership of the Saratoga High School club, extending the streak of state titles to a record six straight years. He also began organizing a couple of rated tournaments each year. Read about last year at this blog post. Over four years, a total of 350 players participated in 11 events, with an impressive peak of 62. Charles generously treats his players to free snacks and drinks, which may help explain why many come back each year.

• Event: Silicon Valley Challenge #8
  
• Date: this Sunday, July 11
• Location: 2146 Ringwood Avenue, San Jose (off I-880 near Milpitas).
• Format: 4 round swiss in 2 sections (Open and U1600).
• Open schedule: Reg: 8:30-8:50. Rounds: 9:00, 11:30, 1:45, 4:00.
• U1600 schedule: Reg: 10:30-11:15, Rounds: 11:30, 12:30, 1:45, 3:00.
  
• Time control: G/60 for Open; G/30 for U1600.
• Entry fee: $45 adults, $40 juniors on-site. Masters FREE!
  
• Prize fund: $510 total including $100 for 1st place in Open section.
• Go to Sun Chess Club website for the entry form
  
• Or check the advance entry list.
• Site capacity: 54 players.

I highly encourage my students to come to play. Unfortunately, it looks like my ongoing health problems may prevent me from coming down on Sunday. Big sigh!

Saratoga Wins Santa Clara County High School Championship

The top ranked Saratoga High School chess team dominated the 2010 Santa Clara County High School Chess Championship on February 6 at Monta Vista High School. While Saratoga has won five straight CalChess state scholastic titles, Monta Vista won the county chess league two months ago and was looking for more. Order was restored to the universe as Saratoga players took home four of the top five place trophies, plus the perpetual trophy awarded to the top team.

• Final standings
• Photos at top: Charles, Evan and Kevin
• Photos at right: Brian and Sankash

The 41 player tournament ended in a tie for 1st place between Saratoga senior Charles Sun (1920) and sophomore Evan Ye (1811), both at 4.5 out of 5 after they drew their last round head-to-head game. Freshman Kevin Garbe (1743) and sophomore Brian Wai (1914) took home the 4th and 5th place trophies, respectively. Rounding out the four-way tie for third with 4.0 out of 5 were Monta Vista senior Vishal Dasari (1848) at 3rd place and freshman Chris Wu (1851) at 6th place. In the all-important team standings, Saratoga's top three combined for 13.0 while Monta Vista only managed 11.0.

Kudos to Charles and Evan, plus the rest of the Saratoga team! (Rolland Wu and Sankash Shankar both finished at 3.0/5.) The players built on the success from the New Year's Open and Golden State Open, where Evan, Charles and Brian combined to pilfer over $1600. Next up are the Denker Qualifier in March and the CalChess Scholastics in April. Can the Saratoga dynasty capture a record setting sixth consecutive state K-12 team title?

Four Tie for First at 7th Silicon Valley Challenge

(Two of the nation's top juniors squared off in round 3. Playing white, 8 year old expert Samuel Sevian held a draw against 15 year old FM-elect Steven Zierk.)

Article submitted by organizer Charles Sun.

The Silicon Valley Challenge #7, held on the August 1st, 2009, attracted a total of 43 players to the Century Arts Alliance Foundation near the Great Mall in San Jose. Snacks and bottles of water were complimentary as usual and participants helped themselves between rounds.

The Open section was filled with 32 players. Master players include Steven Zierk (2319), Emmanuel Perez (2267), Michael Aigner (2263), Rohan Agarwal (2227) and Richard Koepcke (2222). Three Expert-players rated 2000 to 2200 and seven A-players rated 1800 to 2000 also joined in fierce competition. After acing his first three games, NM Aigner lost the last round to one of his students, FM-elect Zierk. At the end, Zierk, Koepcke, Kyle Shin (2070) and Samuel Sevian (2055) tied the first place and shared the top prizes.

Neel Apte won the first prize for U1700 and gained 34 rating points for his impressive performance. Also, congratulations to Armaan Kalyanpur who won second prize.

There were 11 players in the U1600 section. Bryan Huang took clear first by an entire point, winning all of his games! Congratulations to Rahul Mohan for the second place and to Vignesh Varadarajan and Colin Ma for taking the U1000 prizes.

Thanks to everyone for participating in the Silicon Valley Challenge. Special thanks to Colin Ma for donating scoresheets and Michael Aigner for his help with tournament preparations. Future events will always be publicized on the Sun Chess Club website and emailed to previous participants.

Silicon Valley Challenge on August 1

(The playing hall is actually a dance studio. Watch out for the mirrors!)

The 7th Silicon Valley Challenge by the Sun Chess Club is coming up soon! This year's event on Saturday, August 1, will again be held at Susan's Dance Studio in NE San Jose.

Organizer Charles Sun, a longtime student of mine and now a senior at Saratoga High School, volunteers each year to host one or two tournaments. This gives him a broader perspective on the royal game than simply being a player. Click on the links to read about Challenge #5 and Challenge #6, both held last summer.

Already 16 participants have registered, split almost evenly between the Open and U1600 sections. The top section may prove to be very strong, with at least four masters! The deadline to mail your entry is on Saturday, or you may procrastinate and enter on-site early in the morning before round 1. Note that only 54 entries will be accepted due to the capacity of the playing venue.

Update on Tuesday evening: There are now 30 entries and counting.

• Event: Silicon Valley Challenge #7
  
• Date: August 1
• Location: 2146 Ringwood Avenue, San Jose (off I-880 near Milpitas).
• Format: 4 round swiss in 2 sections (Open and U1600).
• Open schedule: Reg: 8:30-8:50. Rounds: 9:00, 11:30, 1:45, 4:00.
• U1600 schedule: Reg: 10:30-11:15, Rounds: 11:30, 12:30, 1:45, 3:00.
  
• Time control: G/60 for Open; G/30 for U1600.
• Entry fee: $35 adults, $30 juniors by July 15 or August 1, $10 more on-site.
• Prize fund: $510 total including $100 for 1st place in Open section.
• Go to Sun Chess Club website for the entry form and advance entry list.
• Site capacity: 54 players.

I highly encourage my students to come to play on August 1. Even I intend to play, just to have fun and hang out with my students.

Silicon Valley Challenge #6 Results

Article submitted by organizer and chief TD Charles Sun.

The Silicon Valley Challenge #6 attracted a total of 41 players to the Century Arts Alliance Foundation near the Great Mall in San Jose. Snacks and drinks were complimentary as usual and participants helped themselves between rounds. Despite the warm California weather, players were very comfortable in the air conditioned building. Parents even took the liberty of camping on the lawn outside.

The Open section was filled with some of the top juniors in the Bay Area along with one National Master and one International Master. Not surprisingly, there was no perfect score in the Open, although NM Albert Rich (see photo above) did win clear first, only yielding a draw to IM Ricardo DeGuzman in the last round. Albert’s rating is once again over 2200, gaining seven points from the event. Kudos also to IM Ricardo DeGuzman, Brian Wai, and Qijie Zhu, who shared second place.

Congratulations to Partha Vora in the Open section. At Silicon Valley Challenge #5, he took a share of second place for U1700. Two weeks later, he shared first place in the U1700 class prize. His rating went up 75 points in the past month! Also, great job to co-champion Felix Hernandez-Campos whose provisional rating has skyrocketed from 1619 to 1723.

In the U1600 section, there was fierce competition among its 13 players. Unrated Ron Steedman took clear first by an entire point, winning all of his games! (So goes the pithy saying of “play the board, not the opponent.”) Congratulations to Austin Cheng and John Canessa for sharing second place and to Leland Yu and Daniel Chen for splitting the U1000 prizes.

Thank you to everyone for participating in the Silicon Valley Challenge. I am glad so many parents and chess participants enjoyed the atmosphere; I had a great time directing the event as well. Future events will always be publicized on the Sun Chess Club website: sunchessclub.googlepages.com and will be emailed to previous participants.

Silicon Valley Challenge #5 Results

Article submitted by organizer and chief TD Charles Sun.

The Silicon Valley Challenge #5 was held at Susan’s Dance Studio (see photo above) in northeast San Jose on July 27th. A total of 35 chess enthusiasts participated, four of whom were national masters! No doubt the Open section had plenty of competition.

Before I go on, I would like to take some time to thank my chess coach, Michael Aigner. Mr. Aigner has been my teacher for the past three years and has helped me tremendously both as a chess player and a tournament director. Since the beginning of 2007, he has come more than 100 miles from Davis, California to play and also help me direct. I can easily say that without his help, none of this would be possible!

Also, I would like to thank Colin Ma for his generous donation. Colin Ma is new to the chess community, only starting to play in tournaments since last year. Your altruistic gesture means a lot!

Congratulations to Steven Zierk (photo at right) for winning the top section outright, defeating National Master Richard Koepcke and only yielding a draw versus his teacher, Michael Aigner. The SVC5 has only been one of the numerous successes Steven has encountered while his rating has skyrocketed from 1550 to 2246 over the past two years. Good luck to Steven as he travels to Dallas, Texas for the Denker Tournament of Champions and the United States Open!

Kudos also to Evan Ye (photo at left) for taking the U1700 prize with an incredible 3-1 score. After losing to Mr. Koepcke in the first round, Evan easily defeated one C player and two B players. The result was a rating jump of nearly 100 points from 1576 to 1669. Second place was a six-way tie between Brian Wai, Daniel Liu, Alex Radu, Daniel Zheng, Eric Xu, and Partha Vora.

The U1600 section was rather small with only nine players. Congratulations to Pranav Nagarajan for winning with a 4-0 score. Kiarash Mavandad, John Canessa, Micah Pruyn Goldstein, and Andrew Couse also won money prizes.

Thanks to everybody who played in the tournament. I hope to see everyone again on August 10th for Silicon Valley Challenge #6! Click here for advance entries (limited to 54).

Silicon Valley Challenge on July 27 and August 10

The Sun Chess Club will host the 5th and 6th Silicon Valley Challenge on Sunday, July 27 and Sunday, August 10 in northeastern San Jose. These tournaments are organized by my high school student Charles Sun. I will attend the July 27 event to play and personally make sure that Charles doesn't mess up. Check out my blog story and photos from the 4th Silicon Valley Challenge held in March at the same venue.

• Events: Silicon Valley Challenge #5 and #6
  
• Dates: July 27 and August 10
• Location: 2146 Ringwood Avenue, San Jose (off I-880 near Milpitas)
• Format: 4 round swiss in 2 sections (Open and U1600)
• Open schedule: Reg: 8:30-8:50. Rounds: 9:00, 11:30, 1:45, 4:00.
• U1600 schedule: Reg: 10:30-11:15, Rounds: 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30.
  
• Time control: G/60 for Open; G/30 for U1600
• Entry fee: $35 adults, $30 juniors by July 15 or August 1, $10 more on site
• Prize fund: $510 total including $100 for 1st place in Open section
• Go to Sun Chess Club website for entry forms and advance entry lists.
• Due to space restrictions, both tournaments are limited to 54 players.
  

This tournament is highly recommended to my students, particularly those rated below 2000. I plan to play on Saturday just to have fun and hang out with my students.

Update July 24: The advance entry list has 22 players ranging from 562 to 2273. Charles is expecting at least four masters to attend, including the latest local master, Steven Zierk! If you want to play against a master in a rated game, then here's your chance!

Upsets Reign at High School (9-12) States

(The four co-champions of the High School division, from left to right, Boglarka Erdos, FM Daniel Naroditsky, Steven Zierk and Jeff Young.)

The premier section of the annual CalChess Scholastics was the 9-12 Varsity, better known as the High School Championship. Most of Northern California's juniors rated above 2000, regardless of their age, tested themselves in the second strongest scholastic swiss in the nation, behind only the National High School Championship. In recent years, the High School division included as many as four masters, but this time three of the four top players were unable to participate due to a variety of different reasons. The top rated local junior, NM Sam Shankland, spent the weekend playing on a bigger stage in Oklahoma: the US Championship. Despite these absences, defending champion FM Daniel Naroditsky headlined a competitive field of one master and seven experts.

The story of the tournament was the parade of upsets that began as early as round 1. Here is a list of wins on Saturday by lower rated players against opponents rated 1800+.

• Avinash Kumar (1576) defeated FM Daniel Naroditsky (2322) in round 1
• Kevin Bao (1230) defeated Arnav Shah (1837) in round 1
• Marvin Shu (1804) defeated Michael Zhong (2072) in round 2
  
• Greg Bodwin (1752) defeated Jeff Young (1980) in round 2
• Rebekah Liu (1699) defeated Charles Sun (1888) in round 2
• Minjian Wang (1611) defeated Daniel Quan (1893) in round 2
• Brandon Lee (1464) defeated Daniel Quan (1893) in round 3

There were, of course, a number of upset draws as well. Normalcy returned for Sunday's three rounds, but by then the lower rated players had left their mark on the championship.

Six players escaped the upset parade with a perfect 3-0 score on Saturday night: Steven Zierk, Boglarka Erdos, Adarsh Konda, Rohan Agarwal, Evan Sandberg and Sreekar Jasthi. Evan and Sreekar were voted off the island in the morning round on Sunday while Rohan and Adarsh suffered their expected fate later in the day against the upset yet determined World U12 Champion. That left two players tied at 4.5 out of 5 to compete for the top honors in the final round: Boglarka against Steven. Their hard fought draw opened the door to Daniel Naroditsky and Jeff Young, who both had lost badly in the first two rounds, to join them in a 4-way tie for 1st place. I am especially proud to point out that, excluding one foreign player, the three High School co-champions are all my students!

• Boglarka Erdos (2071 FIDE) came to California on a vacation paid for as a prize for winning a girl's championship in her native Hungary. She took the 1st place trophy by yielding only two draws to 2100+ rated opponents.
• Steven Zierk (2145) won the Junior High last year and moved up to the big boys. This was his third state title, having also won K-3 back in 2001. Steven will represent CalChess at the Denker Tournament of High School Champions in Dallas this August.
• FM Daniel Naroditsky (2307) successfully defended the title that he won last year, yet his performance was a bit shaky with the major upset in round 1. This was his fourth state title, having also won K-3 in 2004 and K-6 in 2005.
• Jeff Young (1978) became just the second player rated under 2000 to win or tie for 1st place in the High School division since 1990. He will ascend to the top board for the powerful team at Saratoga High School next year.

Final Standings of 9-12 Varsity

1. 5.0 Boglarka Erdos (2142) -- 1 year ICC extension
   
2. 5.0 Steven Zierk (2155) -- qualified for Denker Tournament
   
3. 5.0 Daniel Naroditsky (2322) -- 1 year ICC extension
   
4. 5.0 Jeff Young (1980)
5. 4.5 Rohan Agarwal (2118)
   
6. 4.5 Adarsh Konda (2123)
   
7. 4.5 Alan Naroditsky (2029)
8. 4.0 Sreekar Jasthi (1901)
   
9. 4.0 Greg Bodwin (1752)
   
10. 4.0 Evan Sandberg (1955)
    

Without quite as much adventure or fanfare, the Saratoga High School team captured its fourth straight High School Championship. It has been a real pleasure for me to work with the nucleus of this team over the past 4+ years (see photo from 2004 at bottom right), achieving success at both the state and national level (3rd place at National High School in 2006). Congratulations to the following team members: Jeff Young (5.0), Marvin Shu (4.0), Charles Sun (4.0), Aaron Garg (4.0), David Chock (4.0), Alex Lun (3.0), Avinash Kumar (3.0) and Amol Aggarwal (1.0). I offer a final round of applause to All Star top board David (see photo at bottom center) and his teammate Marvin, who will graduate in a couple of weeks after playing chess together since elementary school.

Mukund and Isaac Share Top Junior High (7-8) Honors

(Junior High co-champions Isaac Zhang on left and Mukund Chillakanti.)

I watched the 7-8 Varsity section of the CalChess Scholastics closely for two reasons: quite a few of my students were playing and I saw no single clear favorite to win. In fact, I thought any one of the top six seeds, all rated above 1800, had a reasonable chance to climb to the top. Of course, I wished that one of my students would become champion, but without a doubt, the two most deserving players took the top honors.

Congratulations to Mukund Chillakanti and Isaac Zhang for winning five games and drawing only with each other. Mukund gained over 100 rating points in the past two months, highlighted by a 2075 performance at the National High School Championship with an impressive pair of wins against experts. On the other hand, Isaac has been a terror at the Sacramento Chess Club, winning nearly every adult honor possible, including Player of the Year. Honorable mention goes to Isaac's friend, Ted Xiao, who earned the 3rd place trophy by defeating two of the three highest seeds while losing only to Mukund.

Final Standings of 7-8 Varsity

1. 5.5 Mukund Chillakanti (1917) -- $50 gift certificate
   
2. 5.5 Isaac Zhang (1923) -- 1 year ICC extension
   
3. 5.0 Ted Xiao (1740) -- 1 year ICC extension
   
4. 5.0 Puneeth Gadangi (1656)
5. 5.0 Andrew Chen (1722)
6. 4.5 Sam Bekker (1911)
7. 4.5 Andrew Yeh (1847)
8. 4.5 Rahul Desirazu (1664)
   
9. 4.5 Vincent Tian (1674)
   
10. 4.5 Brian Wai (1690)

Kudos also to the Redwood Middle School team (photo on bottom right) for taking 1st place honors for the second year in a row! My students Brian Wai (4.5), Kevin Garbe (4.0), Evan Ye (4.0) and Sankash Shankar (3.0) proved once again that you don't need a superstar on board 1 to succeed. Thanks also to David Chock, Jeff Young and Charles Sun of nearby Saratoga High School for coaching and mentoring the team this year.

Finally, organizer Salman Azhar accurately commented at the awards ceremony that many of these players are friends off the chess board. They really love to goof off, as demonstrated in this blog post and the middle of the three photos below.

Silicon Valley Challenge was a Success!

The 4th Silicon Valley Challenge took place on March 15 at the dance studios of the Century Arts Alliance Foundation. Despite a wide selection of chess tournaments in the South Bay, this event attracted 48 players ranging from master to novice. Although most of the participants were juniors, they competed not for trophies but for cash prizes. Thanks to the successful turnout, the total prize fund was increased to $700.

The 30 player Open section featured stiff competition at the top with 9 competitors rated 1800 and up. After four rounds of G/60, two players emerged from the fray with 4-0 scores: Fleford Redoloza rated 1897 (see photo at right) and this blogger. The perfect scores did not mean that the road to victory was easy. Redoloza, who got back into chess last fall after an extended break, defeated veteran expert Daniel Burkhard and two of the area's top K-6 players: Paul Richter (1988) and Alex Grossman (1720). On the other hand, I defeated three 1900s, facing especially tough resistance from teenagers Jay Kumar and Jeff Young, both who should reach 2000 by the end of the year. I intend to annotate the exciting last round game against my student Jeff and will post on this blog in a few days.

The other prizes in the Open section went to Jeff Young, Rohan Sathe, Jaydee Tenioso and Daniel Liu, all with three wins and one loss. The first three names should not surprise anyone, as they are all (under)rated above 1900. However, Daniel Liu came into the event rated just 1133 officially (1149 on the MSA website) and faced four straight opponents more than 400 points above him, beating three (including an A player) and losing only in an endgame to Sathe. He will gain over 200 USCF rating points for a performance rating over 2000! The funny story is that Daniel, the little brother of my student Rebekah, signed up for the U1400 section, but the sections had to be merged due to insufficient entries. Another player who had a good result yet didn't win a prize was 6 year old Tanuj Vasudeva (1547), who scored 50% against three A players and one B player. Daniel and Tanuj demonstrated that playing against stronger opponents is a win-win situation: either you gain rating points or experience--sometimes both!

Although those in the U1200 section had lower ratings, the competition among the 18 players was equally fierce. Congratulations to Kiarash Mavandad for winning with a perfect 4-0 score. William Weber, Vedaank Tiwari, Colin Ma and Vikram Vasan tied for second place at 3.0.

Thanks to organizer Charles Sun (see photo at left) and his always helpful parents for putting together another successful tournament. In spite of being a 10th grader at competitive Saratoga High School, Charles still finds the time to contribute to the chess community at least one weekend each year. The event ran smoothly and the venue in northeast San Jose was comfortable for both the players and the parents. Most, if not all, participants had a great time playing chess while indulging on extras such as complimentary croissants, chips, diet soda and water. Charles hopes to run another tournament when his school commitments allow. I'll be there!

Addendum March 20: The tournament has finally been USCF rated. Note that Daniel Liu's rating jumped from 1149 to 1372!

Silicon Valley Challenge on March 15

The Sun Chess Club will host the 4th Silicon Valley Challenge on March 15 in northeastern San Jose. This event is organized by my high school student Charles Sun. I will be there are well to provide assistance during registration and make sure that Charles doesn't mess up. Check out the crosstables for last year's event in Saratoga. Can we match 62 players, including 3 masters?

• Event: Silicon Valley Challenge #4
• Date: March 15 at 10:00am (registration closes at 9:45am)
• Location: 2146 Ringwood Avenue, San Jose CA (off I-880 near Milpitas)
• Format: 4 round swiss in 3 sections (Open, U1400, U1200)
• Time control: G/60 for Open and U1400; G/30 for U1200
• Entry fee: $35 adults, $30 juniors by March 10 ($5 school team discount)
• Prize fund: $555 total including $100 for 1st place in Open section
• Print entry form
• Check advance entries

This tournament is highly recommended to my students, particularly those rated below 2000. I am planning to play just to have fun. If I have time between rounds or at the end of the day, I can go over some games with my students. Unfortunately, I know that some of you will be busy at MathCounts competition, but the rest of my students are encouraged to come on down!