National Kindergarten Champion Arun Khemani

He is just 5 years old but can fork your king and queen faster than you can blink an eye. His chess rating is over 1000 at an age when some kids learn how to count to 10. Instead of learning the ABC's, he studies en passant, opposition, zwischenzug and prophylaxis. He won't take AP exams for another twelve years, but he already understands French, Danish, Italian and Sicilian.

He fears nobody on the 64 squares and is eager to challenge opponents his age and even those a dozen times older. Most importantly, he loves to play the royal game! There's no doubt that his name will be one that the Bay Area chess community will remember for years to come.

Congratulations to Arun Khemani, the Kindergarten champion at both the CalChess Grade Level in Stockton and the National K-12 in Orlando! As the photo on the left shows, the organizers in Orlando specially designed the first place trophy to match Arun in height.

The photo below shows Arun before his last round game against top rated Awonder Liang from Wisconsin. Arun (playing white) needed to win in order to tie for first and he succeeded! The second picture shows five smiling Bay Area chess stars after the awards ceremony: Lindsey Canessa, John Canessa, Arun Khemani, Cameron Wheeler and Rayan Taghizadeh. Kudos to all, especially to coach Ted Castro!

Two National Champs! Kyle Shin and Arun Khemani Win in Florida!

(Photos of national champions Kyle Shin on left and Arun Khemani at local tournaments.)

Veni! Vidi! Vici! Lest anyone doubt the impact of the Bay Area scholastic chess community at the national scene, this weekend proved that our kids are prepared to challenge the best of the country--and for that matter, the world. Only 11 local players and their parents flew to Lake Buena Vista, Florida for the National K-12 Championships, yet three of them remained in contention for top honors on the last day. Amazingly, 7 out of 11 took home a trophy! And in spite of difficult competition, two stars won 1st place trophies!

Congratulations to National Champions Kyle Shin (clear first in 5th grade) and Arun Khemani (top tiebreaks in Kindergarten).

As the top seed in 5th grade, Kyle Shin (1943) knew that he would be tested by each and every opponent. He survived a tough game in round 2 against an underrated young Russian immigrant and escaped a losing position in round 6 with a perpetual check. The final round took the full three hours. As Capablanca famously said: "a good player is always lucky." The difference between Kyle and the three other A players in his grade was the ability to take care of business against low rated opponents. In fact, Kyle never faced his nearest competitors because all of those strong players lost to 1600s, and in one case, a 1400. Good job Kyle for sticking to the game plan!

On the other hand, Arun Khemani (1055) faced a different challenge after losing to an unrated in the very first round. Salman Azhar of BayAreaChess.com summed it up best by observing that the "sign of a champion is what he does after he loses rather than after he wins. Arun bounced back from [the] first round loss with six wins to bring Bay Area a National Championship!" In the last round, Arun defeated the top seed, Awonder Liang from Wisconsin, in a battle between two 1000+ rated 5 year olds. He's still young, yet there's no doubt that Arun's future in chess is bright! Kudos also to all-star coach Ted Castro!

Click here for the trophy distribution and the USCF rating report.

• Kindergarten: Arun Khemani 6.0 - 1st place!!!
• Kindergarten: Lindsey Canessa 4.0 - honorable mention
  
• 1st Grade: Rayan Taghizadeh 5.0 - honorable mention
  
• 2nd Grade: John Canessa 5.0 - 12th place
  
• 3rd Grade: Cameron Wheeler 5.5 - 9th place
  
• 3rd Grade: Alvin Kong 5.0 - honorable mention
  
• 5th Grade: Kyle Shin 6.5 - 1st place!!!

Kudos to all of the prize winners! Cameron Wheeler stood tall against the big boys in 3rd grade, drawing with one 1800 before succumbing to another. Siblings John and Lindsey Canessa both earned trophies. Lindsey even doubled her 150 rating, now up to 338.

National Grade Level in Florida This Weekend

(I know at least one young chess player who will no doubt be spending time at the pool in Florida, even in the middle of December. Have fun Kyle!)

The 2008-09 scholastic national championships kicked off yesterday at a beautiful resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida--near the magical theme parks of Disney World. The 1250 young chess enthusiasts attending the National K-12 Chess Championships are divided into 13 sections ranging from Kindergarten to 12th grade; each player only faces opponents in the same grade. Since the field is diluted across so many sections, most of the older and higher rated juniors skip this event due to lack of competition. Nonetheless, the entries are impressive. The top seeds from around the country include talented names such as IM Marc Tyler Arnold and NM Alexander Heimann, both in 10th grade; Andrew Ng in 9th; Ryan Moon in 8th; Jarod Pamatmat in 6th; Christopher Wu in 4th; and Jonathan Chiang in 3rd.

Some of the top boards are being broadcast live on the MonRoi website. For complete results and pairings, please check the official website.

Despite the long flight, a total of 11 elementary school age players and their parents made the trip from Northern California to Florida. Four of these players just won the CalChess Grade Level Championships in Stockton a week ago. Now they're shooting for the stars. The scores below are after three rounds. There are two more rounds today (Saturday) with the final two on Sunday. Please join me in wishing all local players good luck! Hopefully they can bring home some nice trophies.

• Kindergarten: Arun Khemani (CalChess Champion) 2.0 and Lindsey Canessa 1.0
• 1st Grade: Rayan Taghizadeh (CalChess Champion) 2.0
  
• 2nd Grade: John Canessa (CalChess Champion) 3.0
• 3rd Grade: Cameron Wheeler (CalChess Champion) 3.0; Art Zhao and Alvin Kong both 2.0
• 5th Grade: Kyle Shin (photo at right) 3.0 and Maadhav Shah 1.0

Update on Saturday afternoon: Cameron and Kyle are both 4-0. Round 5 is on Saturday at 6pm Eastern, 3pm Pacific.

Rob Wheeler, the father of Cameron, wrote the following in an email to friends yesterday evening: "We had a pretty uneventful flight out to Florida. After settling in, we took the kids to Downtown Disney for a bite, then it was off to bed. We had a lazy morning and explored a bit before Cam's first round at 1pm." After Cameron won the first two rounds easily, his father explained: "It looks like round 3 should be against an 1100. If all goes well, things start to get interesting in rounds 4&5. There are 4 boys 1800+ and 3 more in the 1600s." Amazing! Four 1800 rated 3rd graders in one tournament. Welcome to the big show and good luck!

The Next Generation of Chess Masters

He is half the age of 10 year old master Nicholas Nip--and nearly half of his rating too! World U12 Champion Danya Naroditsky would (for once) be considered an "experienced veteran" compared to this young lad. Local GM-elects Vinay Bhat and Josh Friedel, both merely in their young 20s, are even old enough to be his father (maybe I'm pushing it).

Please join me in welcoming Arun Khemani to the local chess scene. At 1047 on the October Top 100 list, he is the only 5 year old in the country with an established USCF rating above 1000. His current rating is even higher than my first USCF rating of 1023 when I was 18 years old. Of course, Arun plays for fun and still has a long way to go to become a serious competitor. So far, however, he appears to be on the right track after scoring 50% in the U1400 section at the CalChess Labor Day tournament. Good luck Arun!