CalChess Champions Over the Years

Since the turn of the century, the CalChess State Scholastic Chess Championship (occasionally misnamed the Super States) has emerged as the single largest annual USCF rated tournament west of the Rocky Mountains, consistently drawing at least 800 eager young chess enthusiasts.  Indeed, the record turnout of 1319 in 2006 compares favorably to the National Championships each spring.  The first weekend of May saw the 40th edition of this Bay Area event.  Two emeritus organizers deserve the lion's share of credit for building up the event during the 1990s and early 2000s: Ray Orwig and Alan Kirshner.

Unfortunately, those 40 years of history are in danger of being forgotten.  Until recently, the champs were honored in the yearly program booklet and online.  Dr. Kirshner diligently compiled lists of individual and school team champions from 1986 to 2011, but the official record at the CalChess website ceases after 2012  Seeing a need, I extended the honor roll of scholastic champions through 2015.

• CalChess Scholastic State Champions (1986-present)

Curiosity drove me to analyze the ranks of individual champions more closely.  For example, Vinay Bhat won the High School division in four out of five consecutive years (1998-2002), but he sat out of the middle year (2000).  Another three masters captured a hat trick of K-12 titles: Andy McManus (1987-1990), Dmitry Zilberstein (1994-1997) and Cameron Wheeler (2013-2015).  Out of this esteemed foursome, only Cameron managed to win (or share first place) in three consecutive years!

Readers may have already mistakenly concluded that winning a scholastic title is easy pickings for a phenom destined to become Grandmaster (like Vinay) or International Master (like Dmitry).  Not true!  Sam Shankland, the strongest player to grow up in the Bay Area during the past three decades, was never crowned champ at the biggest kids tournament.  To his credit, Sam won the adult State Championship at just 16 years old!

To me, the real question was whether anyone achieved a career Grand Slam?  The four pillars of the Grand Prix are the Varsity or Open divisions in Primary, Elementary, Middle School and High School.  Both the K-5 and K-6 sections count for Elementary School.  All players tied for first place are considered co-champions (e.g. five K-5 winners in both 2008 and 2010). 

5-Time Champions

• Vinay Bhat K-3, K-12, K-12, K-12, K-12
• Neel Apte K-3, K-5, K-6, K-8, K-8 (needs K-12)
• Cameron Wheeler K-5, K-6, K-12, K-12, K-12

Since 1986, nobody collected more than five CalChess titles.  However, both Neel (11th grade) and Cameron (10th grade) could break that record next spring..

4-Time Champions

• Micah Fisher-Kirshner K-3, K-6, K-6, K-12 (missing K-8)
• Adam Lischinsky K-3, K-3, K-8, K-12 (missing K-6)
• Daniel Naroditsky K-3, K-6, K-12, K-12 (missing K-8)
• James Kwok K-3, K-6, K-8, K-8 (missing K-12)

Sadly, all of the quadruple champions have run out of eligibility.

3-Time Champions

• Andy McManus K-12, K-12, K-12
• Alan Stein K-8, K-12, K-12
• Dmitry Zilberstein K-12, K-12, K-12
• Keith Yost K-6, K-8, K-8
• Daniel Schwarz K-3, K-8, K-12 (missing K-6)
• Steven Zierk K-3, K-8, K-12 (missing K-6)
• Yian Liou K-3, K-6, K-12 (missing K-8)  
• Kyle Shin K-5, K-6, K-8
• Tanuj Vasudeva K-3, K-5, K-6

Kyle (11th grade) and Tanuj (9th grade) could still add a High School championship to their bulging trophy cases, although neither has played competitively for some time.

Therefore, the answer to my question is a disappointing no!  Interestingly, eight different juniors managed to score 75% of the Grand Slam (see green color).  And with a small dose of luck, Neel Apte could even complete the career Slam by winning the K-12 division next spring.

Ten Student Goals for Chess Lessons

Neel Apte and Daniel Liu with Coach Fpawn at 2009 CalChess Scholastics.

The beginning of each academic year gives students time to review their personal goals for chess lessons.  The following list appears at my teaching website: www.fpawn.com.

1. Become a more confident chess player!
2. Critique your games for mistakes and improvements.
3. Develop the necessary patience to carefully consider the consequences of every move played during a chess game.
4. Improve pattern recognition and understanding of tactics.
5. Learn positional and strategic concepts, such as tempo, space, pawn structures, weaknesses, good/bad pieces, and threats.
6. Apply standard opening rules and develop an opening repertoire.
7. Understand the theory of common endgames.
8. Cope with psychological pressures caused by different game situations, such as a winning or losing position.
9. Prepare for tournaments or even specific opponents.
10. Have fun!

National High School in San Diego

The big playing hall at National High School.  Credit: Martha Underwood.

The 2014 spring national scholastic chess championships kick off with the strongest National High School Championship ever!  By my count, there are two International Masters, 15 players rated above 2300 and 33 masters in all.  As always, the talented Northern California delegation appears poised to bring home some hardware and maybe even a national title.

• Standings and Pairings

Out of 950 total participants, about 340 signed up for the competitive High School Championship.  Given the convenient location at the Town & Country Resort in San Diego, 39 local players made the trip down I-5 for an intense weekend of chess.  Of the 27 Bay Area representatives in the strong Championship section, 9 are rated above 2150, including 2300+ rated FM Cameron Wheeler, NM Kesav Viswanadha and NM Vignesh Panchanatham.

In addition to the battle for individual honors, 3  Silicon Valley schools have entered teams of 4+ students.  Last year's CalChess K-12 Champions Kennedy Middle School of Cupertino, now boasting three masters and two strong 1900s, figures to challenge perennial national power Murrow High School from Brooklyn, New York.  Monta Vista High School, comprised of graduates from Kennedy Middle, should be competitive as well.  Finally, Saratoga High School, no longer quite as strong as last decade, fields a team of four B and C players.

NorCal Watch List
National High School
Final Results
Congratulations to GM-elect Darwin Yang for clear 1st with 6.5/7! 

• FM Cameron Wheeler (KMS) 5.5 - 7th place - drew Darwin Yang in last round
• NM Kesav Viswanadha (MVHS) 6.0 - 4th place - beat Y.Xia (2286) in last round
  
• NM Vignesh Panchanatham 5.0 - 22nd place
• NM Siddharth Banik 3.5
• NM Allan Beilin 5.5 - 18th place
• NM Udit Iyengar (KMS) 5.0 - Honorable Mention
• NM Michael Wang (KMS) 5.0 - Honorable Mention
• Neel Apte (MVHS) 5.0 - Honorable Mention
• Joshua Cao 4.5 
• Hans Niemann 4.5 - 5th grader!
  
• Kevin Rosenberg (MVHS) 4.0
• Daniel Zheng (MVHS) 4.0 - drew Rosenthal (2274), S.Liao (2189) and T.Lu (2185)
• Arhant Katare (KMS) 4.0 - drew S.Liao (2189)
• Pranav Srihari (KMS) 4.0 - drew Miller (2258)
• Faisal Albannai (SARA) 3.5 
• Alex Li (SARA) 3.5 - rated just 1435, played up all 7 rounds, +167 rating points
• Kennedy M.S. 19.5/28 - 2nd place 0.5 behind Catalina Foothills H.S. (Tucson)
• Monta Vista H.S. 19.0/28 - tied for 3rd with Murrow H.S. (Brooklyn)
• Saratoga H. S. 12.0/28 - 27th place

Here's wishing plenty of good luck and skill to all!

9-12 champ Joshua Cao

Denker qualifier Sudarshan Seshadri

Held just two weeks ago, memories of the 2012 CalChess Scholastics have quietly faded into the past.  Fortunately, you can revisit the weekend through the lens of ace photographer Richard Shorman.  

2-time 6-8 champ Neel Apte

4-6 champ Siddharth Banik

Click to view a Facebook album of 225 photos, many of smiling young chess players.


Thousands of photos from many dozens of other events are available at www.ChessDryad.com.

4-5 champ Ben Rood

Trophies!!! :-)

Kennedy Middle Wins K-8 Nationals

Kennedy team: Cameron, Pranav, Neel, Udit and Kesav, photo by Rob Wheeler.

Congratulations to the National K-8 Champions from Kennedy Middle School in Cupertino!!  With a final margin of 4.5 points ahead of the nearest competition, the team practically wrapped up top honors one round before the end.  Always hungry for more, the young Cougars bravely clawed through the top of the leaderboard.  Alas, they could not grab a share of the individual title.

Nonetheless, Kennedy earned four of the top 15 place trophies.  Udit Iyengar led the way with 3rd place at 6.0 out of 7.  Kesav Viswanadha and Cameron Wheeler took 7th and 8th, respectively, at 5.5.  Last, but not least, two-time CalChess K-8 winner Neel Apte scored 5.0, unfortunately falling to both of the national co-champions.

Five other Bay Area juniors also finished in the top 20 of the K-8 section, for a grand total of nine individual awards and two big team trophies!  Amazingly, Horner Junior High School in Fremont was the second best team in K-8.  Led by Daniel Ho at 13th place with 5.5, the Horner team muscled its way past IS 318 in the last two rounds.  Way to go!!

Finally, kudos to Colin Chow of Sacramento for a strong result in the K-9 division.  He beat one master, drew two more and lost just once, unfortunately on board 3 in the final round.

Check out Chess Life Online and CalChess for a pair of additional reports written by Randy Hough and Alan Kirshner, respectively.

Northern California Final Results 

K-9 Championship

• Colin Chow 5.0 - 7th place
• Vignesh Panchanatham 4.5 
• Hemang Jangle 4.5
• Taylor McCreary 4.0
• Russell Bik 3.5 

K-8 Championship

• Udit Iyengar (Kennedy) 6.0 - 5th place
• Kesav Viswanadha (Kennedy) 5.5 - 7th place
• Cameron Wheeler (Kennedy) 5.5 - 8th place
• Gabriel Bick 5.5 - 11th place
• Daniel Ho (Horner) 5.5 - 13th place
• Neel Apte (Kennedy) 5.0 - 15th place
• Allan Beilin 5.0 - 17th place
• Art Zhao 5.0 - 18th place
• Naveen Janarthanan 5.0 - 19th place
• Pranav Srihari (Kennedy) 4.5
• Kory Hui (Horner) 4.5
• Sameer Vijay 4.5
• Audrey Zhao 4.5
• Amit Sant 4.0
• Vikram Vasan 4.0
• Amarinder Chahal (Horner) 4.0
• KENNEDY M.S. TEAM 22.0/28 - NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
• HORNER J.H.S. TEAM 17.5/28 - 2nd place

JHS Nationals Day 2

Lots of kids play chess.  Photo credit: San Diego Union Tribune.

The players, parents and coaches keep busy on the middle day of the Nationals, with three full-length rounds.  The grueling evening round will make or break the tournament for a lot of top players.  Some parents end up feeling even more exhausted than the children.  For the coaches, this day brings 15 hours of analyzing games, starting soon after 9am and often continuing until midnight.   

Team Kennedy occupies top K-8 boards.

Round 3 brought all five members of Team Kennedy together, from boards 3 to 7.  Three won, two lost.  In K-9, Colin drew with one of the masters.  All told, five CalChess kids earned perfect 3-0 and another five have a solid 2.5.  So far so good! 

After round 4, three Bay Area stars continue to share the lead in K-8 with perfect scores.  They will play on boards 1-3 tonight.  Neel seems to have the most difficult pairing against top seed Christopher Wu (2293).  Three more local kids sit with 3.5 going into the evening round.  Colin squares off in another tough pairing against Varun Krishnan (2292). I counted 13 more local players with either 2.5 or 3.0. Kennedy modestly expanded its lead to 2.5 points.  I began tracking Horner Middle School, currently tied for 4th place.

Almost all good things come to an end.  Round 5 was the hour of reckoning for Team Kennedy.  Although four of the five players lost, the team somehow maintained its 2.5 point lead.  Unfortunately, I found no local kids among the leaders going into the final day, but eight have a solid score of 4.0/5.  Good luck!!

Colin Chow pulled off the upset in round 6 to move into a tie for 2nd in K-9 at 5.0!  With an undefeated 2.0/3 against masters, Colin faces a fourth one for all the marbles.  Four Bay Area kids reached 5.0 points in K-8. They could tie for 1st, 2nd or 3rd simply by winning their final games! Team Kennedy recovered in with 3.5 points in round 6, expanding their lead.  They essentially clinched 1st place K-8 team with a round to go!  Horner moved up in the standings and could finish as high as 2nd with a strong final push.

Northern California Watch List (after round 6 of 7)

K-9 Championship

• Colin Chow 5.0 - win against a master and draws with two other masters
• Vignesh Panchanatham 4.5 
• Hemang Jangle 3.5 - draw with master
• Russell Bik 3.5 
• I.S. 318 TEAM 17.5/24 (Leading by 2.5 over Masterman of Philadelphia PA)

K-8 Championship

• Neel Apte (Kennedy) 5.0
• Udit Iyengar (Kennedy) 5.0
• Allan Beilin 5.0
• Art Zhao 5.0
• Kesav Viswanadha (Kennedy) 4.5
• Cameron Wheeler (Kennedy) 4.5 
• Gabriel Bick 4.5
• Daniel Ho 4.5 (Horner)
• Naveen Janarthanan 4.0
• Pranav Srihari (Kennedy) 3.5
• Michael L. Wang 3.5
• Justin Wang (Horner) 3.5
• Audrey Zhao 3.5
• Amit Sant 3.5 
• Kory Hui (Horner) 3.5
• Nikhil Jaha (Horner) 3.5
• Bryce Wong 3.5
• KENNEDY M.S. TEAM 19.0/24 (Expanded lead to 3.5 over IS 318's weaker players.)
• HORNER M.S. TEAM 15.0/24 (Tied for 3rd place and only 0.5 out of 2nd.)

National Junior High in San Diego

 

The 2012 National Junior High School Chess Championship is underway at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego.  Players compete for national titles in both K-9 and K-8 sections.  There are ten rated masters in attendance--nine in the much stronger K-9 division.  The overall turnout seems disappointingly light at only about 650 kids, owing both to the weak economy and the location at one corner of the country.  People complained about the attendance of nearly 1000 at the same tournament in Sacramento in 2007.  This year, a modest local delegation of 64 players traveled south, a week after 840 youngsters descended on Santa Clara for the CalChess Scholastics. 

I don't expect to find many chess tourists in San Diego, certainly not among Bay Area kids.  In fact, seven are rated over 2000, led by newly minted master Cameron Wheeler (photo at left).  Fielding four of the top eight seeds, including Cameron and two-time CalChess 6-8 winner Neel Apte (photo on right), Kennedy Middle School from Cupertino plans to Occupy San Diego.  Can they pull off national honors, both as individuals and as a team?  I believe!!

However, national attention will focus on Intermediate School 318, an inner-city Brooklyn public middle school that took 1st place at the National High School Championship two weeks ago.  As a reward, World #1 Magnus Carlsen (see photo below) visited their school on Monday!  Readers may be disappointed that the top players of I.S. 318, including two masters above 2300, switched from K-8 to K-9 at the last moment.  Did the High School champs duck the challenge from 2136 average rated Kennedy?  Maybe!!  They probably hoped to split their masters and win both sections, just like last year, but coach Elizabeth Spiegel realized that she would need her team's full strength 2162 rated lineup just to win K-8.  While K-9 is more competitive with nine masters at the top, the Brooklyn team has a much easier path to victory.

Saturday AM Update: The first day passed well.  Most Northern California participants are 2-0.  Kudos to Hemang for drawing a master in round 2.  All five Kennedy Middle players are seated at consecutive boards this morning in round 3.  Good luck everyone!  Check out Cameron's blog for a first-hand account and Chess Life Online for a TV news report.

Northern California Watch List (after round 2 of 7)

K-9 Championship

• Colin Chow 2.0
• Vignesh Panchanatham 1.5
• Hemang Jangle 1.5 - draw with master
• Taylor McCreary 1.0
• I.S. 318 TEAM 8.0/8 (Next best teams have 5.5.)

K-8 Championship

• Kesav Viswanadha (Kennedy) 2.0
• Cameron Wheeler (Kennedy) 2.0
• Neel Apte (Kennedy) 2.0
• Udit Iyengar (Kennedy) 2.0
• Allan Beilin 2.0
• Art Zhao 2.0
• Gabriel Bick 2.0
• Naveen Janarthanan 2.0
• Pranav Srihari (Kennedy) 2.0
• Michael L. Wang 2.0
• Vikram Vasan 1.5
• Daniel Ho 1.5
• KENNEDY M.S. TEAM 8.0/8 (I.S. 318 is 2nd, but way back at 5.5.)

CalChess Scholastic Champions!

The 37th annual CalChess Scholastics took place last weekend at the traditional venue, the Santa Clara Convention Center.  A total of 844 youngsters played in one of 14 different sections, ranging from Kindergarten and K-3 Unrated up to the competitive 6-8 and 9-12 Championships.  Thanks to organizer Salman Azhar, CalChess President Tom Langland, Chief Tournament Director John McCumiskey and the rest of the staff for putting this event together.

Without further ado, here are the 2012 State Champions!  Congratulations to all!!

High School 9-12: Joshua Cao and Sudarshan Seshadri
Middle School 6-8: Neel Apte
Elementary 4-6: Siddharth Banik
Elementary 4-5: Ben Rood
Primary 1-3: John A. Chan 

Click here for crosstables.

I focused mostly on the High School section, headed by a quintet of experts and several former students.  While most of the top seeds struggled in 9-12, two surprise winners emerged: 8th grader Joshua and 1835 rated Sudarshan!  Joshua took home the 1st place trophy on tiebreaks, but Sudarshan earned the biggest prize: a ticket to the Denker Invitational this August in Vancouver, WA. 

Three of the top four seeds in Middle School attend Kennedy Middle in Cupertino, and predictably, two squared off in the final round.  My longtime student Neel finished strong to clinch his second straight 1st place trophy.  In fact, he became state champion for the fifth time in six years (K-3, 4-5, 4-6 and 6-8 twice).  Actually, nobody has ever won all of the major sections in the long history of this tournament.  Neel and another of my students, 9th grader James Kwok, only need to win 9-12 to achieve this record.

The Elementary section winners both finished with perfect 6-0 scores.  Siddharth went coast-to-coast as the favorite in 4-6, defeating his closest challenger in the final round.  Ben knocked off the top two seeds in 4-5, including one rated nearly 400 points higher.  After winning K-3 as a 1st grader last year, Ben won 4-5 as a 2nd grader!  Way to go!!

The team competition was rather anticlimactic this year.  National power Mission San Jose Elementary easily won all of the Primary and Elementary sections while Mission San Jose High earned a second straight 9-12 title.  See the embedded photos for a few of the victorious kids at MSJE.  Props to Coach Joe Lonsdale for directing such a successful program over so many years!  Unfortunately, one reason for the lack of team competition was a boycott by rival Weibel Elementary.  I find it really sad that certain adults choose to teach their young children the wrong way to resolve their conflicts.

Normally my report would include photos of winners in each section, sometimes from my own camera   Due to ongoing health issues, I could not attend.  Alas, I have only seen one album from Saturday by Richard Shorman, plus a handful of photos from Sunday's awards presentation.  If you can share additional photos, please send them to michael (at) fpawn (dot) com.  Thanks!

CalChess H.S. Champion Nicholas Karas

Congratulations to Nicholas Karas for taking clear 1st in High School at the CalChess Scholastic Championships on April 2-3. Although I taught Nicholas (photo at left) for the last few years, much of the credit goes to his first teacher, NM Daniel Schwarz, for inspiring him. Now finishing the final year of high school, Nicholas became my fifth student in six years to qualify for the Denker Invitational held each summer at the US Open. Good luck in Orlando!

Two of my younger students shared top honors in the Junior High division. Kudos to Neel Apte and Kyle Shin for taking home the 1st and 2nd place trophies on tiebreaks. They already tied for 1st in Elementary last year, with Neel also earning 1st place. In fact, Neel (photo at right) has captured three titles in a row, starting with 4-5 in 2009.

Unfortunately, the Saratoga High School streak of consecutive team championships ended at six in a row. Mission San Jose High School won easily this year.

2011 CalChess Scholastic Individual Champions

• 9-12 - Nicholas Karas
• 6-8 - Neel Apte, Kyle Shin and Hunter Klotz-burwell
• 4-6 - Cameron Wheeler
• 4-5 - Abhishek Handigol, Alvin Kong, Siddharth Banik and Eric Zhu
• 1-3 - Ben Rood
• K - Balaji Daggupati

2011 CalChess Scholastic Team Winners

• 9-12 - Mission San Jose High School
  
• 6-8 - Horner Junior High School
  
• 4-6 - Regnart Elementary School
  
• 4-5 - Mission San Jose Elementary
  
• 1-3 - Mission San Jose Elementary

Check out the great photos at ChessDryad by Richard Shorman and Mark Shelton.

Congrats to Four State Champions!

I am deeply honored to be the coach of four CalChess scholastic champions for 2010. The winners competed in three of the five Varsity sections: K-5, K-6 and K-8. Although nearly half of my private students attend high school, I was unable to claim the K-12 division this year because the masters all stayed at home. However, the Saratoga High chess team won again, now for a state record sixth year in a row! Way to go students!!!

• James Kwok (top left) -- clear champ in K-8 (fourth title after K-3, K-3, K-6)
• Neel Apte (bottom left) -- co-champ in K-6 (third title after K-3, K-5)
• Kyle Shin (bottom right) -- co-champ in K-6 (second title after K-5)
• Rahul Mohan (top right) -- co-champ in K-5

Another six private students, plus one former student, scored at least 4.5 out of 6 to earn a spot on the informal 2010 All-Fpawn Team. Kudos to Brian Wai (K-12), Arthur Liou (K-12), Edward Li (K-8), Roland Zhu (K-8), Aamir Azhar (K-8), Tudor Muntean (K-8) and Joshua Cao (K-6). Our dominance was greatest in junior high, where five of my students ended up in the top eight finishers (4.5 points or more). Likewise, we claimed three of the top six spots (4.5 points or more) in the elite elementary section. Woot!

35th CalChess Scholastics Begin

The biggest annual chess tournament in the Bay Area, the CalChess Scholastics, began this evening with the blitz side event. After six years, the tournament returns to the premiere venue in Northern California: the Santa Clara Convention Center at Great America. Thanks to a steady trickle of last minute entrants who don't seem to mind the late fee, paid attendance now stands at 890, including a total of 267 in the five Varsity sections. Organizer Salman Azhar no doubt is pleased with more entries! Counting parents, siblings, relatives, coaches and volunteers, the crowd will approach 2000 people. If you're not there, you're really missing out on pure chess bliss!

Participants compete in one of 14 sections from 1-3 Rookie (unrated) to 9-12 Varsity. Advanced and intermediate youngsters play six rounds over two days while beginners only play one day. The elite players in the Varsity divisions play G/75 to G/90, meaning a single game can take up to three hours. There are three rounds Saturday and three more Sunday (9:00, 12:15 and 3:30 on both days). The Novice, Rookie, Kindergarten divisions play only one day each, with five rounds at G/30.

I will watch my 22 private students closely (plus another half dozen former students). Several have aspirations of winning, including three of the top four seeds in 4-6 and the top three rated players in 7-8. Historically my students have dominated the High School division, but that may not be the case this year because all five of my Masters are skipping this tournament. Some have legitimate conflicts while others don't see any benefit from playing only against much lower rated opponents. Most significantly, the Denker Qualifier was held last month with FM Steven Zierk victorious. What a shame! Perhaps one of my five students seeded between 4th and 12th can step up and hit a home run.

Here are my favorites and dark horses for each of the Varsity divisions. Current and former private students are shown in red bold.

• 9-12 Favorites: Samuel Sevian (2133), Hayk Manvelyan (2103), Michael Brown (2068), Arthur Liou (2010). Dark horse: Daniel Liu (1982).
• 7-8 Favorites: James Kwok (1919), Edward Li (1832), Roland Zhu (1798), Hwai-Ray Tung (1688). Dark horse: Aamir Azhar (1639).
• 4-6 Favorites: Kyle Shin (2052), FM Tanuj Vasudeva (1863). Dark horses: Neel Apte (1802), Colin Chow (1787), Hunter Klotz-Burwell (1704), Richard Yi (1688).
• 4-5 Favorite: Cameron Wheeler (1851). Dark horses: Jeffrey Tao (1599), Udit Iyengar (1556).
• 1-3 Favorites: Rayan Taghizadeh (1648), Michael Wang (1473). Dark horse: Leyton Ho (1428).

The team championships should be competitive as they always are. In the Elementary divisions, 2009 national champion Mission San Jose Elementary has won most of the Varsity trophies in recent years. But this year seems to be the best opportunity for crosstown rival Weibel Elementary to steal a title. Likewise, Saratoga High has captured five straight K-12 team titles and is looking for a record sixth in a row. Can they do it, or will Mission San Jose High end the dynasty? Stay tuned!

Latest news from Santa Clara: 7th grader Michael Brown of Southern California won the 7-12 blitz and Edward Li took 2nd. Hunter Klotz-Burwell won K-6 blitz.

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.

Five State Champions!!!

(CalChess High School co-champions Yian Liou and Evan Sandberg pose with trophies.)

The reason why I did not post the results from the last weekend's CalChess Scholastics is because I am overwhelmed and speechless. In 2006, three of my students took first in three different sections. This year, I have an amazing five CalChess champions! Woot!

• Yian Liou and Evan Sandberg in K-12
• Ted Xiao in K-8 (not really my student, but he lives in my city and attends club)
  
• James Kwok in K-6
• Daniel Liu and Neel Apte in K-5

Yian, a precocious 6th grader from Alamo, continued the local trend of kids playing up and then winning the K-12 section! In the final round, he defeated defending champion FM-elect Steven Zierk to claim his share of the title. He also beat third seed Adarsh Konda on the road to victory. After his recent results, including a pair of wins against my nemisis IM Ricardo DeGuzman, it seems very likely that Yian will become the next local master under the age of 18. He is also a bundle of energy, as became apparent after the last round when he joined my older students in bughouse.

Evan is more your typical high school student, a quiet yet very likable 10th grader from San Francisco. His recent tournament results have become increasing strong; in fact, he leads the Mechanics' Institute Tuesday Night Marathon heading into tonight's final round. In San Jose, Evan defeated second seed NM Rohan Agarwal, crushing the notorious Philidor counter gambit. Since Yian is not old enough, Evan qualified to represent Northern California at the Denker Tournament of High School Champions in Indiana this August.

James, Daniel and Neel represent some of the brightest young talents in the Bay Area. James is the veteran of the group and is co-captain of the 2009 National K-6 champion and 5-time state champion Mission San Jose Elementary team. Neel flew in under the radar, saving his best for the biggest weekend of the year. Daniel is the new kid on the block; he was rated in the 800s just 18 months ago, gaining 1000 rating points since!

• Complete results.
• My photos on Flickr and Facebook. (please send other photo links to me)
• Photos by Richard Shorman on ChessDryad.
  
• USCF rating report.
  
• I plan to post more results and photos throughout the week, including a big final report on Friday (hopefully).
  

Here are the captions for photos below, from left to right:

• Neel (left) and Daniel (right) pose with their trophies and teacher.
• James smiles for the camera!
• Yian, Arthur Liou (3rd place K-12) and Daniel stand for a group photo.