CalChess State Champs on Labor Day

The view of airplanes landing at SFO is sometimes breathtaking.

The annual CalChess State Championships, open to chess warriors of all ages, will be held this coming weekend at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame, south of SFO Airport.  Veterans will recall this event as the Labor Day Festival, which for many years took place on Van Ness Avenue in the City itself. In those days, Labor Day was the biggest adult tournament in the Bay Area.  While the Golden State Open in January now boasts a larger prize fund and turnout, winning on Labor Day weekend brings more prestige--state champions will be crowned in every section!

Last year saw a pair of Grandmasters, Ioan Cristian Chirila and Oliver Barbosa, share first place, with Chirila awarded the trophy.  The defending champion will be back in 2015!  The top challengers include local GM and author Jesse Kraai, visiting GM Giorgi Margvelashvili, at least three International Masters, and one high-rated math professor.  Of course, one or two surprise entries show up on-site each year.

Update: 223 players have already registered.  

• Event: CalChess State Championships
• Date: September 5-7 (3-day) or September 6-7 (2-day) 
  
• Location: San Francisco Airport Hyatt Regency in Burlingame (map here)
• Format: 6 round swiss in 6 sections (Open, Expert, A, B, C and D/E/Unrated).
• 3-day schedule: Reg: Sat 8-9:30. Rounds: Sat 10, 3:30; Sun 11, 5; Mon 10, 3:30.
• 2-day schedule: Reg: Sun 8-9, Rounds: Sun 9:30, 12, 2:30, 5; Mon 10, 3:30.
• Time control: 40/120 G/30 d/5; except rounds 1-3 of 2-day schedule at G/61 d/5.
• Entry fee: $154 includes late fee; $25 extra to play up.
• Prize fund: $20,000 based on 249 players, including $2,500 for 1st place in Open and between $1000 to $1500 for 1st place in each lower section.
• Tournament flyer
• Information page
• Advance entry list
• 2014 Results (266 players!!)

Traffic alert!  There will be no BART service from the East Bay to San Francisco for the entire weekend. Expect heavier than usual traffic on the bridges. More info at 511.org.

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)

Fpawn Rating List - November 2009

Within the last week, the USCF posted the Top 100 lists for October and official ratings for November. As usual, the Bay Area is well represented among the elite of the nation. Three kids are ranked #1 for their age: FM Danya Naroditsky (13), NM Nicholas Nip (11) and expert Samuel Sevian (8). Four more follow in the top 3: IM Sam Shankland (17), NM Greg Young (14), NM Yian Liou (12) and A player Tanuj Vasudeva (8). Another four check in at either #5 or #6, bringing the total to 11 Bay Area stars ranked in the Top 6 of the nation for their age!

The November USCF rating supplement includes the 154 player Labor Day Festival (not officially the state championship this year) plus an assortment of smaller tournaments. A total of 25 present and former students attended on Labor Day weekend, but only one became "pseudo state champion." Props to Alan Naroditsky (see photo at right) for scoring an undefeated 5-1 in the Expert section, playing against three talented juniors and three conniving adults! Alan's annual improvement has been quite steady: 1784 in 2006, 1927 in 2007, 2014 in 2008 and now 2092 in 2009. He began his freshman year at UCLA a few weeks ago, but I expect to see him push some more pawns during school holidays.

Look for both Naroditsky brothers among the rankings of all my 2000+ rated students.

Top Students Overall (minimum rating = 2000, current students in red)

1. FM Danya 2378
2. FM Steven 2333
   
3. NM DanielS 2313 -- Stanford
   
4. NM Gregory 2272
5. NM Yian 2226
6. David 2095 -- UC Berkeley
   
7. Alan 2092 -- UCLA
   
8. EvanS 2092
9. Kyle 2088
10. Nicholas 2049
11. Arthur 2014

I updated my student rankings as well. Click here for the Fpawn Rating List or check out the National Rankings page on my website. I copied my trio of Top 5 lists below.

Top 5 Grades K-6

1. Kyle 2088 -- 2008 National 5th Grade Champion
   
2. Neel 1800 -- 2009 CalChess K-5 co-Champion
   
3. Richard 1620
4. Leland 1600
5. Rahul 1449
   

Top 5 Grades 7-8

1. NM Yian 2226 -- 2009 CalChess K-12 co-Champion
   
2. Sam 1953
3. James 1848
4. Roland 1773
5. Tyler 1654

Top 5 Grades 9-12

1. FM Steven 2333 -- 2008 CalChess K-12 co-Champion
   
2. NM Gregory 2272 -- 2008 US Junior co-Champion
   
3. EvanS 2092 -- 2009 CalChess K-12 co-Champion
   
4. Arthur 2014
5. Brian 1854
   

Labor Day Festival in San Francisco

Check out the advance entry list, updated through Tuesday night. A total of 106 players have signed up so far. Have you? At first glance, the Master section appears unusually weak this year, but many of the usual suspects sign up on-site each year.

The annual Labor Day Festival in San Francisco is coming up soon. In an era of declining attendance at adult chess events, this has been the lone exception, drawing at least 160 players to the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway at Van Ness and Pine for each of the past seven years. Certainly one big reason that people keep coming back is the friendly and competent staff: organizer Richard Koepcke assisted by TDs John McCumiskey and Tom Langland.

Over these years, no other adult or open tournament in Northern California has attracted this many players, including multiple International Masters and even an occasional Grandmaster. The list of recent winners is quite formidable: Sam Shankland (2008), Josh Friedel (2006, 2007), Alex Yermolinsky (2005), Vladimir Mezentsev (2004), Dmitry Zilbertstein (2003) and Ricardo DeGuzman (2002). Who will win this year?

• Event: Labor Day Festival
  
• Date: September 5-7 (3-day) or September 6-7 (2-day)
  
• Location: Van Ness at Pine in San Francisco
  
• Format: 6 round swiss in 6 sections (Open, Expert, A, B, C and D/E/Unrated).
• 3-day schedule: Reg: Sat 8-9:30. Rounds: Sat 10, 4; Sun 11, 4:45; Mon 10, 3:30.
• 2-day schedule: Reg: Sun 8-9, Rounds: Sun 9:30, 11:45, 2, 4:45; Mon 10, 3:30.
  
• Time control: 30/90, G/60 except G/60 for rounds 1-3 of 2-day schedule.
• Entry fee: $70 adults, $60 juniors postmarked by August 31; $10 more on-site.
• Prize fund: $5400 based on 160 players, including $700 for 1st place in Open section and $380 for 1st place in each lower section.
  
• Tournament flyer
• Advance entry list

I highly recommend this event to all of my students and friends! Of course, I will be there, with or without my power wheelchair. I suggest the 3-day schedule to serious players because G/60 tends to be like roulette (i.e. more luck than skill), but the 2-day schedule requires less of a time commitment. A weird feature of this tournament is that many kids play up a section, especially those rated within 100 points of the next class. For example, if you're rated above 1700, you should play in the A section for practice.

WARNING: The Bay Bridge will be closed over Labor Day weekend! If you are driving, please make sure to take I-280 or US-101 or cross at the San Mateo Bridge. You may also take BART to Embarcadero Station, walk one block north to California street and catch a #1 Muni cable car to the hotel on Van Ness. Use the trip planner at 511.org for maps and route schedules.

Finally, I must lodge a small protest. Most readers are probably unaware that the CalChess Board voted to strip this festival of its longtime "state championship" designation. Mind you that the USCF encourages states to use Labor Day weekend for state tournaments, and, in fact, many big states do run theirs on Labor Day. Instead, the Board saw fit to endorse a yet untested big money event at a brand new venue on Thanksgiving weekend. The motto "Build it and they will come" has not worked well at Bay Area tournaments in the past (e.g. the Firecracker Open fiasco in 2001). I won't say more now, but count me as a big skeptic of this Board decision. We shall see in November.

Labor Day Recap

(Photos of top players by Richard Shorman. From left to right: 2008 State Champion FM Sam Shankland, NM Daniel Schwarz and IM Dmitry Zilberstein. For more photos, please visit the excellent local website ChessDryad.)

Click here for the corrected link to my photos from Labor Day.

I briefly wish to revisit the Labor Day Festival, a.k.a. the CalChess State Championship. If there was one central theme this year, it must have been the impressive performance of elite kids, especially in the top sections. Has the fledgling San Francisco School of Chess already paid dividends or is this an indication of greater things to come?

Look no further than 1st place in the Master section and you'll find high school senior FM Sam Shankland. After beating a pair of big name Grandmasters and winning two of the strongest adult tournaments in California, "Shanky" is rated 2425 USCF and 2436 FIDE! At this rate, he will soon complete his final two IM norms and begin shooting for the GM title.

Shankland was not the only elite junior to achieve success up on the hill in San Francisco. Here are a few more highlights, limited just to my own pool of students:

• Longtime student and Stanford sophomore NM Daniel Schwarz tied for 2nd overall with an undefeated 4.5/6, beating IM Ricardo DeGuzman once again.
• NM Steven Zierk also defeated DeGuzman and drew with GM-elect Vinay Bhat. His FIDE rating will jump 108 points to 2240 on the upcoming October list.
• NM Gregory Young drew with both Bhat and IM Dmitry Zilberstein and will be rated 2264 FIDE, just 36 points away from becoming the Bay Area's third FM.
• The new kid on the block, 11 year old expert Yian Liou, beat IM Walter Shipman for his first IM scalp. His provisional FIDE performance rating was an impressive 2229!
• Evan Sandberg gained 29 points for 4.0/6 in Expert section, up to 2051.
• Michael Lin gained 62 points for 3.5/6 in Expert section, up to 1933.

Way to go guys! Keep up the good work and no doubt more success will come your way!

Shankland PWNS CalChess State Championship

The leaner and meaner FM Sam Shankland (photo at left by Shorman) once again demonstrated that he is a primordial force to be reckoned with in Northern California chess. Although he has yet to win the CalChess Scholastics, "Shanky" can now call himself State Champion after his success over Labor Day weekend at the Golden Gateway Holiday Inn in San Francisco. He scored an undefeated 5.0 out of 6, including this refutation of the St. George's opening essayed by IM Andrei Florean. Shankland drew twice over the weekend against both of the players who tied for second place at 4.5: NM Daniel Schwarz and IM Dmitry Zilberstein. Congratulations to Sam on a successful summer that included an IM norm at the World Open, top honors at Agoura Hills, impressive wins against Grandmasters Shabalov and Erenburg, and last but not least a state title!

Sam Shankland (2410) vs Andrei Florean (2465)
1. e4 a6 2. d4 b5 3. Bd3 Bb7 4. Qe2 e6 5. a4 c5 6. dxc5 b4 7. Nf3 Bxc5 8. Nbd2 d6 9. Nb3 Nd7 10. O-O Ngf6 11. Bd2 O-O 12. a5 Qb8 13. Rfd1 Rd8 14. h3 h6 15. Qe1 Ra7 16. Nfd4 Kh8 17. f3 e5 18. Nxc5 Nxc5 19. Nf5 Nxd3 20. cxd3 Bc8 21. Nxh6 Nh7 22. Ng4 b3 23. Ne3 Be6 24. Bc3 f6 25. d4 Ng5 26. dxe5 dxe5 27. Bxe5 Qa8 28. Bc3 Re8 29. Qg3 Rb7 30. e5 Nh7 31. exf6 gxf6 32. Qf4 Rg7 33. Kh2 Qa7 34. Rd6 Kg8 35. Rad1 Bd7 36. Bd4 Qb8 37. Rd2 Rg6 38. Bc3 Be6 39. Qb4 Qc8 40. Qb6 Bxh3 41. Rd8 1-0

Final standings of Master section

• 5.0 FM Sam Shankland
• 4.5 NM Daniel Schwarz and IM Dmitry Zilberstein
• 4.0 IM Andrei Florean, NM Drake Wang, NM Nicolas Yap

The weekend was marked by a slew of upsets by Northern California's pool of talented younger players against internationally titled masters. The two players that everyone expected to battle for top honors didn't even stay in contention!? GM-elect Vinay Bhat drew twice with teenage masters Steven Zierk and Gregory Young before losing to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo sophomore NM Drake Wang. Joining the upset parade, the Bay Area's most active titled player, IM Ricardo DeGuzman, castled short against a pair of my students, losing to NM Schwarz for the second time this year before also losing to NM Zierk. Even 11 year old expert Yian Liou got into the act by beating veteran IM Walter Shipman for the first IM scalp of his young life! Considering all these upsets, perhaps the smartest person this weekend was two-time defending state champion GM-elect Josh Friedel, who wisely took a break from chess after a busy summer of tournaments.

(Photo by Shorman of the top board action in round 2. On board 1, NM Zierk played GM-elect Bhat while on board 2, IM Zilberstein faced NM Young. Both games were drawn.)
The annual CalChess Labor Day Festival drew a total of 160 players in six sections and paid out the advertised prize fund of about $5,500. Organizer Richard Koepcke received assistance from CalChess President and Chief TD Tom Langland and NTD John McCumiskey. Thanks guys for a smooth and enjoyable weekend!

While I have concentrated on the Master section in this story, I wish to close by recognizing the various champions in lower divisions. Kudos to them as well!

• Expert = Reynaldo Salvatierra and Dana Mackenzie
• Class A = Daniel Zheng and Arun Gomatan
• Class B = Chris Tsai
• Class C = Harold Parker, Donovan Zhao, Albert Lin and Gabriel Ki
• Class D/E/unr = Seid Seidov (only 6-0 score of the entire weekend)

Final standings: http://sacramentochessclub.org/weekend_events/2008laborday.htm
Photos by Richard Shorman on ChessDryad.
Photos by Michael Aigner on Flickr.

CalChess Labor Day

(Players on the top two boards for round 2: NM Steven Zierk and IM Dmitry Zilberstein on left squared off against GM-elect Vinay Bhat and NM Gregory Young on the right.)

The annual CalChess Labor Day festival, also known as the adult state championship, takes place this weekend at the Golden Gateway Holiday Inn in San Francisco. This event, with six rating categories and two different playing schedules, draws more players each year than any other adult tournament in northern California. With over 120 advance entries and another 25 on-site entries on Saturday, the total attendance should once again reach 170.

The Master section is reasonably strong but also quite large. The top players include GM-elect Vinay Bhat and IM Dmitry Zilberstein in the 3-day schedule plus IM Ricardo DeGuzman, fresh off his dominating 8.0/9 result in the Alan Benson IM tournament, signed up for the 2-day schedule. After two rounds in 3-day, FM Sam Shankland and your reporter are the only 2-0 scores because my star students NM Steven Zierk and NM Gregory Young impressively drew their second round contests against Bhat and Zilberstein, respectively. Kudos also to my 11 year old student Yian Liou for taking down veteran IM Walter Shipman in the first round.

Click here for pairings and standings throughout the weekend. Richard Shorman took some photos yesterday, which will probably appear on the ChessDryad website soon.

Advance Entries for Labor Day

Make sure to sign up for the CalChess Labor Day State Championship before Monday's postmark deadline, or else plan to show up an hour before round 1. This tournament at the Golden Gateway Holiday Inn in San Francisco routinely draws about 175 players, including several International Masters and the Bay Area's top juniors. It is traditionally the largest and strongest chess event each year in Northern California. Check out last year's crosstables. The organizer is Richard Koepcke and the chief TD is John McCumiskey.

• tournament flyer
• advance entry list
  

CalChess Labor Day State Championship

It is time once again to sign up for the CalChess Labor Day Tournament, which serves as the Northern California Adult State Championship (mail-in entry deadline is August 25). This annual event has grown into the largest chess gathering for adults in the Bay Area, attracting about 180 players for each of the past three years. The two-time defending State Champion is GM-elect Josh Friedel (see photo at right). He will no doubt face a challenge from several International Masters and a variety of lesser maestros.

Participants choose between 3-day and 2-day schedules and can play in one of six class sections divided by rating. Improving players may opt to "play up" a section, e.g. For example, I would encourage a junior rated 1900 to play in the Expert section instead of Class A. I am likely to play in the 3-day schedule for the Master section. Wish me luck, especially since I will inevitably be paired against my many high rated students.

• Event: CalChess Labor Day Tournament
  
• Dates: August 30 - September 1 (2-day option is Sunday-Monday only)
  
• Location: Van Ness at Pine in San Francisco (1.2 mile walk from Civic Center BART)
  
• Format: 6 round swiss in 6 sections (Open, Expert, A, B, C, D/E/Unrated)
• 3-day schedule: Saturday 10:00, 3:30; Sunday 11:00, 4:45; Monday 10:00, 3:30
• 2-day schedule: Sunday 9:30, 11:45, 2:00, 4:45; Monday 10:00, 3:30
  
• Time control: 30/90, SD/60 except first three rounds of 2-day schedule are G/60
  
• Entry fee: $70 adults, $60 juniors by August 25; $10 more on site; $10 play up fee
• On-site registration: Saturday 8:00-9:30, Sunday 8:00-9:00
  
• Prize fund: $5,400 total including $700 for 1st place in Master section
• Click here for flyer and entry form

I'll be there! Will you? I hope to see most if not all of my students at this big event!