Bay Area Well Represented on All-America Team!

(FM Naroditsky presents a lecture at left while Sevian calculates a position at right.)

According to this press release by the US Chess Federation, eight CalChess stars earned a spot on the 2010 All-America Chess Team sponsored by Trophies Plus! The requirements for this prestigious honor are quite strict: players must exceed a very high rating depending on their age (ranging from 1800 for age 8 & under to 2450 for age 18). Only 43 juniors made the team--an average of merely four per age group.

Kudos to the following CalChess kids! Readers of this blog are already familiar with the names, and now folks around the country will recognize them as well.

Bay Area juniors on All-America Team (age as of January 1).

• IM Sam Shankland (17)
• FM Steven Zierk (15)
• FM Daniel Naroditsky (13)
• NM Greg Young (13)
• NM Yian Liou (11)
• Samuel Sevian (8)
• Cameron Wheeler (8)
  
• Tanuj Vasudeva (7)

The All-America team highlights a fact that Bay Area coaches have known for several years: the local kids can compete with those from the scholastic hotbeds of New York and Texas! With eight All-Americans, CalChess narrowly edged New York and Texas, both with seven. No other state has more than four.

The Bay Area has become a prime breeding ground for the nation's elite kids, sharing the role that New York dominated for many years. Much of the credit goes to the Mechanics' Institute for fostering an environment that motivates kids. Regular tournaments offer the rising stars a chance to match wits with experienced adult masters and experts, while the San Francisco School of Chess hosts lectures by experienced Grandmasters from around the world. A final factor is that Silicon Valley kids tend to become comfortable with computers at a young age; I have watched kids as young as 5 and 6 playing chess on ICC!

GM Ian Rogers Teaches Top Kids at Mechanics Institute

(The elite chess class is hard at work! From left to right: GM Rogers with students Samuel, Greg, Yian, Kyle and Tanuj.)

Grandmaster Ian Rogers visited the Mechanics' Institute last weekend in conjunction with a meeting of the Ken Whyld Association of chess historians. Known as the strongest player ever from Australia, GM Rogers achieved a peak FIDE rating of 2618 in 1999 (about top 50 of the world back then). He faced many of the world's top players in the 1980s and 1990s, earning a draw as black versus Anatoly Karpov and swindling a checkmate against Viktor Kortchnoi!

On Sunday, October 11, GM Rogers (seated next to FM Naroditsky at right) took time from his busy schedule to tutor some of the Bay Area's elite juniors. The lecture carried on the inspiration of the San Francisco School of Chess, a program seeking to boost promising young chess players in Northern California both through interactions with GMs and IMs as well as their fellow juniors. Sunday's topic quickly caught the attention of the audience: the rapid improvement of teenager Magnus Carlsen to 2800 and beyond. The class delved deeply into Carlsen's openings and middlegames from the recent Nanjing tournament, with lengthy variations and occasional jokes flying around the room from all sides.

The group was small and intimate, yet highly competitive with five of six students ranked in the top three of the nation for their age! These kids no doubt comprise the present and future stars for the San Francisco Mechanics squad in the US Chess League. The team has a seemingly endless supply of underrated juniors for the next few seasons. If the kids keep improving like this, next year's team may field a GM plus three 2300+ rated juniors! (a.k.a. Panda and the three bamboo sprouts)

• FM Danya Naroditsky, 2378, #1 age 13 (Board 3)
  
• NM Greg Young, 2272, #2 age 14 (Alternate)
  
• NM Yian Liou, 2226, #2 age 12 (Board 4)
  
• Kyle Shin, 2088, #6 age 11
  
• Samuel Sevian, 2079, #1 age 8
  
• Tanuj Vasudeva, 1904, #3 age 8

New Hot Rod!

After waiting six months, I finally got my new wheelchair today! I cannot tell you how relieved I am that this episode has come to a close. The process was frustrating; it should never have taken this long. One more reason why this country needs health care reform!

Those of you who visit the Mechanics' Institute for either the Dolan G/45 tournament on Saturday or the SF School of Chess lecture on Sunday (by Australian GM Ian Rogers) will get to see my new hot rod. It is similar to my old one, except that I now can pop a wheelie.

Do You Want to be Part of the SF School of Chess?

(The above students in group 2 range in rating from 1850 to 2050.)

The San Francisco School of Chess is recruiting interested students (K-12) for its second season of classes from October through January. The exact dates have yet to be determined, but will be roughly once a month. All classes are 2-3 hours long and take place on weekends at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in downtown San Francisco. Sponsored through the Mechanics' Institute, the instructors so far in the exciting first year have included Grandmasters Gregory Kaidanov and Melik Khachiyan plus IM David Pruess. There will be a nominal fee for students. Please visit this informational website for additional details, including the School's philosophy.

Students will be divided into three groups with the following rating divisions:

1. Juniors rated over 2100.
2. Juniors rated over 1800.
3. Elementary (K-6) kids rated over 1600 + Primary (K-3) kids rated over 1400 + Top Northern California Girls
   

A word about the selection process: We are lucky to have many promising players in the area right now, and we do not yet have the capacity to accomodate everyone. In the interest of keeping classes focused and productive, we will keep the class sizes somewhat small. In addition to chess playing strength, our main criteria for who can attend will be based on commitment. Students are expected to commit to participating in most of the sessions (at least 3 out of 4) and remaining active in chess events outside of our program. Players who are active at the Mechanics’ Institute tournaments may stand a better chance of being noticed for this special opportunity. Finally, if the dates of our sessions do not work, don’t despair! We will update our schedule and invitation list periodically throughout the year.

If you are interested in the San Francisco School of Chess, can commit to attending 3 out of 4 weekend classes in October through January and fit into one of the above rating categories, contact IM David Pruess by the end of August. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask either Pruess, Mechanics' Institute Chess Room Director IM John Donaldson or myself. Email addresses may be found at the informational website.

Lecture by GM Nick DeFirmian at Mechanics

(Photo of GM DeFirmian teaching group 2 by Chiiwen Liou.)

Three-time US Champion Grandmaster Nick DeFirmian, rated 2541 FIDE, taught the most recent session of the San Francisco School of Chess on July 12-13. Although he currently lives in Denmark, DeFirmian has strong ties to Northern California, growing up in Fresno and earning a degree in physics from UC Berkeley. For many years, he regularly played at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club, the venue for the weekend lecture. His claim to fame now lies in editing the encyclopedia "Modern Chess Openings" (better known as MCO).

Over two days, GM DeFirmian shared a number of opening concepts with the students of the School of Chess. He taught the top group (five students and two guests) for nearly four hours on Saturday, advocating a positional approach to understanding the move orders and strategies to play the 6.Be3 line of the Najdorf Sicilian. GM DeFirmian also demonstrated a "refutation" of the Petrov's defense from the game Naiditsch-Kramnik (Dortmund 2008) and showed some theory in the Zaitsev variation of the Ruy Lopez. It was interesting to watch how even an ultra-tactical opening such as the Najdorf could be understood by a calm positional approach.

The Danish-American Grandmaster returned on Sunday to teach groups 2 and 3, each for about two hours. He started out by going back in history and demonstrating an obscure simul game in the Two Knight's defense where Bobby Fischer played like Paul Morphy. GM DeFirmian spent a large portion of the class on the Yugoslav attack in the Dragon Sicilian, a line which every young player should study sometime in their development as a future master.

The San Francisco School of Chess will continue in August and September with lectures by local International Masters Josh Friedel (August 23) and Vinay Bhat (September 7). Both popular 20-something year old masters have the three norms necessary for the Grandmaster title; Josh is merely waiting for his paperwork to be approved while Vinay needs 17 FIDE rating points to reach 2500. A new group of students will be selected for classes starting this fall.

IM Pruess Kicks Off San Francisco School of Chess

The San Francisco School of Chess kicked off its inaugural session on Sunday, June 22 with three exciting classes taught by Berkeley area natives IM David Pruess (photo at left) and FM-elect Sam Shankland. This was the fourth such lecture targeting the many elite young chess prospects in Northern California hosted and sponsored by the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club. Earlier programs featured GM Yury Shulman in January (sponsored by the US Chess School), GM Gregory Kaidanov in March and GM Melik Khachiyan in May.

The official goal of the School is to generate an environment for top juniors to learn by interacting with titled players and each other. Of course, the invited titled player will personally teach the top group. However, one difference between this program and others is that these students are also expected to share their understanding by teaching lower rated peers, under the supervision of the GM or IM in charge. NM Michael Aigner will further contribute to teaching support and consistency from one class to the next. Another goal of this School, as Chess Room director IM John Donaldson pointed out, is to mimic the many teaching opportunities of New York City.

On June 22, IM David Pruess taught the first and third classes while FM-elect Sam Shankland (photo at right) taught the second class. The elite group, which consisted of masters Shankland, Gregory Young, Nicholas Nip plus expert Michael Zhong, learned valuable lessons in calculation, first in an endgame of rook and knight versus rook and then in a typical middlegame pawn structure that arises both from the French defense and the Scheveningen Sicilian. Together with the second group of players rated 1850 to 1950, high school senior Shankland explored a variety of complex middlegames in the Najdorf and then reviewed his wild recent game against FM Danya Naroditsky. Several observers noted the irony when "Shanky"--always known as a creative yet impulsive player-- implored his students to be more patient and calculate carefully. Lastly, Pruess, assisted a little by IM Irina Krush, taught the lowest group of three talented elementary age kids plus three top local girls, practicing the fine art of searching for unexpected moves in puzzles as well as real games.

(Photo of the second group below. Students seated at table from top to bottom: Evan Sandberg, Adam Goldberg, Andrew Yeh, Kyle Shin and Yian Liou. Photo by Yian's mother.)

San Francisco School of Chess

(IM David Pruess meditates during the final round of National Open in Las Vegas.)

Hello from San Francisco, the city by the bay! I am presently connected to the internet at Starbuck's Coffee on New Montgomery near Market Street.

The San Francisco School of Chess will meet tomorrow at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club. This new school offers a series of lectures, roughly once a month, targeting the top kids in the Bay Area. The stated goal is to provide a boost to promising young chess players in Northern California both through interactions with GMs and IMs as well as their fellow juniors. Click on links to blog posts about previous lectures by GM Gregory Kaidanov and GM Melik Khachiyan. The brainchild of IM David Pruess and IM John Donaldson, the School is funded largely by the Mechanics' Institute and donations.

Check out this website that I have created for the School. About 15 invited juniors will attend tomorrow's lectures taught by IM Pruess and NM Sam Shankland. Future sessions will feature GM Nick DeFirmian, GM-elect Josh Friedel and GM-elect Vinay Bhat. Stay tuned for a special report next week.