CalChess Top 20 for Age 12-17

(Photo of FMs Danya and Steven from the 2008 CalChess Scholastics, where they shared top honors in the High School championship.)

The CalChess scholastic rankings keep becoming stronger and stronger. Ten players on the Top 20 for Age 12-17 are rated over 2000 and the next ten are over 1900; just 3-4 years ago, the 20th spot was well into the low 1800s. Incredibly, five ranked players are just 12 years old, with plenty of room to grow over the coming years.

Even with the graduation of IM Sam Shankland last June, there are still five active young Masters in the Bay Area. Two recently broke 2400 USCF, earning the distinction of 'Senior Master' in addition to the FIDE Master title. Congratulations Danya and Steven! And Evan Sandberg is racing to break 2200, having gained an impressive 77 points in two months.

CalChess Top 20 for Age 12-17
(February 2010 rating and points gained in last two months;
fpawn students, both present and former, are shown in bold)
Corrected February 1.

1. FM Naroditsky, Daniel (2426, +51, age 14)
2. FM Zierk, Steven (2417, +30, age 16)
3. NM Young, Gregory (2282, +10, age 14)
4. NM Liou, Yian (2211, -15, age 12)
5. NM Agarwal, Rohan (2204, 0, age 16)
6. Sandberg, Evan (2162, +77, age 16)
7. Manvelyan, Hayk (2064, +12, age 16)
8. Shin, Kyle (2052, -14, age 12)
   
9. Karas, Nicholas (2042, -3, age 16)
10. Liou, Arthur (2010, -4, age 15)
11. Lin, Michael (1974, 0, age 17)
12. Yeh, Andrew (1972, 0, age 14)
13. Bekker, Sam (1953, 0, age 14)
14. Liu, Daniel (1940, +11, age 12)
15. Xiao, Ted (1930,+41, age 14)
16. Kwok, James (1919, +71, age 12)
17. Chillakanti, Mukund (1907, 0, age 15)
18. Sun, Jerome (1907, 0, age 12)
19. Li, Changhe (1904, 0, age 13)
20. Frei, Thadeus (1903, +113, age 16)
    

Evan Sandberg Represents CalChess At Denker

CalChess K-12 co-Champion Evan Sandberg flew to Indianapolis last weekend to compete in the prestigious Arnold Denker Tournament of High School Champions. For more than 20 years, this 48 player invitational has featured many of the best high school players from around the country, one from almost every state. Recent representatives from Northern California included masters Nicolas Yap, Daniel Schwarz and Steven Zierk. This year became Evan's turn after he tied for top honors at the CalChess Scholastics in San Jose. No playoff was necessary because co-champion NM Yian Liou was too young to play in the Denker.

Evan definitely played his heart out in one of the toughest tournaments around the country, but a round 2 defeat on board 1 ended his chances of winning. Having attended in the past two years, I can definitely say that the competition is fierce; there are simply no easy games, even against lower rated opponents. In the end, Evan tied for 5th through 13th place with three wins, two draws and one loss (4.0/6). He had a few ups and downs, but still ended up with a respectable finish as the third lowest rated out of those in the top 13.

Click here for the rating report or check out the story by champion Abby Marshall! (Photos of Evan and all of the Denker participants taken by Joel Sandberg.)