I'm baaaaaaaack

Many of my readers have wondered what happened to this blog. Five weeks have passed since my last post. Did I give up blogging? Did I quit chess? Is something else seriously wrong?

Fortunately, I can assure everyone that rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated. Yes, I was sick for a while with nagging cold/flu symptoms. I also felt sad and burned out and wanted a little time simply to "chill" and recharge my mental batteries.

As the recent photo by Richard Shorman of ChessDryad at left proves, my enthusiasm for chess has not waned. I maintain a busy weekly teaching schedule with only occasional interruptions. Despite heavy rain on President's Day weekend, I joined 11 students and about 90 other chess enthusiasts at the People's Tournament in Berkeley. IM David Pruess beat me and won the Open section ahead of five other masters. Kudos to National 5th Grade Champion Kyle Shin for winning the U2200 section and to Saratoga High School senior Jeff Young for finally earning the rank of Expert! During February and March, I also participate in the annual Sacramento Chess Club Team Championship; unfortunately, neither my team (Elk Grove) nor I have played terribly well so far.

In other CalChess news, Samyukta Bhat (see photo at right) scored an undefeated 4.0/5 to take clear first for K-12 at the CalChess Girl's Championship, thereby earning our state's qualifying spot in this year's Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls in Lubbock, Texas on July 26-31. Rebekah Liu plans to attend the same invitational after winning the high school section of the Susan Polgar National Open in Glendale, AZ. Goooo girls!

I will try to catch up with some stories over the next week. Please check back soon!

Fpawn Rating List - Largest Gains in 2008

(Rebekah poses with GM Susan Polgar at the Polgar Invitational in Texas last summer. This photo was taken from Polgar's excellent chess blog.)

Now that the December ratings have been released, it is time to look back at the improvements over the past 12 months (December 2007 to December 2008). A total of 20 students took advantage of my private lessons throughout the entire year 2008. All but one increased his or her USCF rating, with the average gain coming to 122 points. Five students (25%) impressively gained over 200 points!

The statistics become more significant when you consider that most of my students are already highly ranked, Six current students are rated over 2000 and three of those have an international rating. Another eight are A players; yet another eight are B players. All of these players know from experience how much harder it is to gain points at higher ratings, both due to the stiffer competition and because of the ratings formula (lower K factor).

Congratulations to CalChess Polgar representative Rebekah for demonstrating once again that, contrary to stereotypes, girls can beat all of the guys at chess! She gained nearly 300 points, jumping all the way to class A from a midrange class C rating last year. Her numbers actually pale in comparison to her little brother DanielL (see photo at right), who unbelievably gained almost 1000 points (from 734P to 1712)--he only began lessons with me in the middle of the year. "Math deity" Brian nearly matched Rebekah's success, earning 275 points to lead Saratoga High School's freshmen. Brian's teammates Kevin and EvanY also had a successful year and all three are now solid B players. Last yet certainly not least, CalChess Denker representative Steven cooled off a bit, but I dare say that improving by 177 points in the rare air of expert and master sections is no less impressive than the 554 points that he gained in 2007.

1. Rebekah +298
2. Brian +275
3. MichaeL +250
4. Tyler +240
5. Kevin +210
6. Steven +177
7. Yian +169
8. EvanY +163
9. Nicholas +132
10. James +113

Rebekah Liu in 3rd Place Going into Last Round of Polgar

(This photo of today's action from Lubbock, Texas was taken by Paul Truong and posted on Susan Polgar's Chess and Information Blog. Rebekah played black on the far board.)

CalChess girl's champion Rebekah Liu has 4.0 out of 5 and stands in 3rd place on tiebreaks in the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls heading into tomorrow morning's last round. After two consecutive draws, she defeated Fiona Lam (1720) of Maryland today. Rebekah faces a challenging final pairing: white against second seeded Sylvia Yang (1900) of Texas. Based on her record of success in recent Bay Area tournaments, Rebekah should not be intimidated by the high rating. Goooo Rebekah!

Pairings for the final round
1 Courtney Jamison (2046 : 5.0) - Linda Diaz (1726 : W : 4.5)
2 Ashley Carter (1877 : 4.0) - Michelle Xue Chen (1762 : 4.0)
3 Rebekah Liu (1699 : 4.0) - Sylvia S Yang (1911 : 3.5)
4 Amelia Wheeless (1711 : 3.5) - Rita Mirchandani (1813 : 3.5)
5 Eve Zhurbinskiy (1747 : 3.5) - Angel Bohannon (1700 : 3.5)
6 Nisha Deolalikar (1726 : 3.5) - Taylor Bailey (1650 : 3.5)
7 Fiona Lam (1727 : 3.0) - Alexandra Wiener (1560 : 3.5)

Update on midday Friday: Rebekah drew her final game against the second seed to finish with an undefeated 4.5 out of 6. Woohoo!

Girl Power!

At the halfway point of the week long Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls, the official Northern California representative Rebekah Liu (1735) of Palo Alto is tied for 4th place at 2.5/3, ahead of several higher rated players. In the photo at left from this online album, she stands next to the tournament's namesake: GM Susan Polgar. Rebekah, who earned her ticket to Lubbock, Texas by winning the CalChess Girl's Championship and the subsequent playoff match, drew yesterday's round as black versus the #2 girl from the host state, Angel Bohannon (1768). This afternoon at 1:30 Central time, she faces Michelle Xueying Chen (1805) from Massachusetts.

The latest article on Chess Life Online mentions Rebekah and includes her round 3 game against Bohannon. I am guessing that Rebekah simply overlooked after 17... Ng6 18.Qxd8 Rxd8 that 19.Nc6 forks both of her rooks. With that in mind, black should have tried 15... bxc3 instead of Kxg7.

Rebekah also found success in the side events. On Saturday evening, she won the second highest quad in the warm-up event, sweeping a field of three 1600s. On Monday night, she won the puzzle contest by correctly solving all 10 checkmate positions in 5:26, a minute and a half faster than any of the other girls! According to her father, Rebekah really enjoys the trip to Texas and has made a few new friends with other competitors.

In other news, the August Top 100 lists are out. Rebekah simultaneously jumped onto two new lists for the first time: #83 for age 14 (including boys) and #91 overall among women (any age). Woohoo! Perhaps there is still some hope for Girl Power in chess!?

Update on Wednesday evening: Rebekah drew again and now has 3.0 out of 4. She will play with the black pieces tomorrow against Fiona Lam (1720) from Maryland. Here are the complete Polgar tournament standings and pairings.

Busy Weekend of Chess Tournaments

(Photos of MichaelL, EvanY and Rebekah in action over the past year. Thanks to the awesome local website ChessDryad for all three photos.)

Twelve of my students and I played in five different chess tournaments in three states last weekend. These events were some of the last opportunities for kids to practice before the big CalChess Scholastics coming up in three weeks. Chess is like a sport: if you don't properly train and warm up, you may suffer from brain cramps or tactical blindness.

Those of you who did not play have only a few additional chances to get ready for the main event: the Cupertino Tournament on May 3 and the Charles Powell G/45 on May 10. I expect that both events will have sufficient strong players for anyone rated under 2000 to find adequate competition. Remember that practice makes perfect!

Imre Konig Memorial G/45 at the Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco

• NM Gregory Young (2197) took clear 1st ahead of IM Ricardo DeGuzman and three other masters, pushing his USCF rating over 2200 for the second time. He defeated NM Michael Pearson (2241) and drew with WIM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (2287).
• MichaelL (1793) scored an impressive 3.0 points against five opponents rated 2157 average for his first master level performance! He beat NM Keith Vickers (2200) and former master Kenneth Hills (2132), boosting his rating to 1871.
  
• A total of five of my students played, all scoring at least 50%.

Bay Area Chess Championship 37 in Santa Clara

• EvanY (1540) took clear 1st in the U1700 section, finishing with 3.5 against three underrated kids and one veteran adult. His new rating of 1596 is almost up to Class B.
• Redwood Middle School top board Brian (1674) gained a few rating points with a solid 3.0 score, but had to take a last round bye or else he might have tied for first.
• A total of four of my students played.

Greater Sacramento Adult/Scholastic Championship in Roseville

• The fpawn shared top honors with four other players at 4.0 out of 5.
• Nicholas (1795) gave me a serious run for my money in the "Spanish torture" (closed Ruy Lopez) before succumbing to a desperate counterattack in time pressure.

5th Annual National All-Girl's Championships in Dallas, TX

• Rebekah (1675) shared 4th place in the Under 16 division, scoring a solid 4.0 out of 6. She defeated Karsten McVay (1949) from New Jersey for her highest rated tournament scalp ever. Goooo girls!
  

Arizona State Scholastic Championships in Flagstaff, AZ

• Tyler (1416) took home the 2nd place trophy for K-6 at the premier annual scholastic event in the state of Arizona. He scored 6.0 out of 7, losing only a hard-fought game against the eventual champion Brennen Lee (1959). Congrats on a great result!
  

I updated the Achievements page on my website to reflect the great results by Gregory, MichaelL, EvanY and Rebekah. Kudos to all who played and tried their best!

Fpawn Rating List - Best Gain in First Quarter of 2008

(Aamir playing blitz at my holiday party in December 2007, where he took 2nd place.)

As I do every month, I compiled the Fpawn Rating List and Top 5 lists using the new USCF rating supplement. Instead of presenting the raw numbers for May on my blog, I took a slightly different approach. Since we are one-fourth of the way through 2008, I wanted to see who has been most successful at improving their rating in the first quarter of the year. My spreadsheet calculated the rating gain from the February to May supplement; each list was created on the first Friday of the previous month (i.e. January 4 to April 4).

Congratulations to Aamir for breaking out of a slump in style with two impressive results in recent weeks. Rebekah has also been moving up and she will represent CalChess at the Polgar Invitational for Girls in Texas this summer. Finally, I wish to congratulate Brian, not so much for his chess rating (which has improved quite a bit), but for passing the difficult AMC and AIME tests to qualify for the USA Math Olympiad as an 8th grader!

1. Aamir +145
2. Rebekah +86
3. Danya +68
   
4. EvanY +66
   
5. Chris +65
   
6. Yian +50
   
7. Steven +49
   
8. Brian +48
   
9. Tyler +45
   
10. Alan +38
    

CalChess Polgar Qualifier

I received the following email from TD Richard Koepcke regarding the playoff for the annual Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls. The K-12 division at the CalChess Girl's Championship last month ended in a tie for first place between two of my students: Rebekah Liu and Samyukta Bhat.

Rebekah Liu won the match (1.5 to 0.5) yesterday at the Mechanics' Institute. When reporting to the USCF on who is our Representative for the Polgar tournament, you should list Rebekah Liu as the primary and Samyukta Bhat as the alternate.

Congratulations to Rebekah and good luck in Texas this summer! I am sure both girls will have many more chances in the coming years.

A.J. Fink Amateur Results

Four of my students played in the A.J. Fink Amateur at the Mechanics' Institute on March 1-2. This 2-day adult tournament drew 51 players all rated under 2000 USCF to San Francisco on a nice and warm spring weekend. Jayakrishnan Ramachandran (1878) finished with a perfect 6-0 score to take first place, ahead of swiss gambiteer Ted Belanoff (1898) who won five straight games after losing in the first round. Perhaps not unexpected these days in the Bay Area, most of the money prizes went to juniors, with the notable exception of the overall winner.

My students all finished at 3.5 or 3.0 points. The best performance belonged to 9th grader Rebekah (1570), who scored 3.5 against a tough field including five opponents rated above 1850. On her way to the top U1600 prize, she defeated adult Hovik Manvelyan (1871) and teenager Daniel Quan (1887). After this impressive result, Rebekah's rating jumped to 1656 and soon she will appear in the top 30 of the country for girls under 16! The other strong performance came from 10th grader Michael L. (1772), who ended up with the same score as Rebekah and shared 2nd place U1800. Michael faced three of the top six seeded players back to back to start the tournament, earning a win against Solomon Beilin (1917) and then a draw against the noted Russian expert Yefim Bukh (1921).

(Photo of Rebekah from 2007 CalChess Scholastics by Richard Shorman of ChessDryad.)