Fpawn and Students PWN Sac-town

(The fpawn poses with student Suraj Nair after both won 1st place. To my disappointment, these trophies did not come filled with wine or candy.)

The final chess tournament of the year in Sacramento is the annual Weekend Swiss held at the Learning Exchange on Howe Avenue. About 40 players, their parents and a few enthusiastic observers came despite the cold weather. Many of the longtime regulars at the Sacramento Chess Club played, including three of the five masters: James MacFarland, Zoran Lazetich (first photo at bottom) and Michael Aigner. Thanks to longtime club TD John McCumiskey (second photo at bottom) for hosting yet another fine tournament.

The first round saw a tsunami of upsets in the top section that significantly changed course of the competition. At one point, all three masters appeared to be facing defeat. I managed to win after five hours of play against 2007 club champion Alonzo McCaulley, but both of my fellow masters lost. Kudos go to Jamshid Alamehzadeh (1854) for swindling Lazetich in an endgame and Ricardo Salazar (1839) for defeating MacFarland.

The main consequence of these upsets was that I would cruise through the entire four round tournament without being paired with anyone rated over 1900. (Sigh!) After working hard against McCaulley, I secured a comfortable advantage by move 25 in two games and won the third in merely 13 moves with black! I took clear 1st at 4-0, a full point ahead of NM Lazetich, Michael Da-Cruz, Nicholas Karas and Alamehzadeh.

Congratulations also to two of my students for winning money and achieving small milestones. Nicholas Karas (third photo at bottom) broke 1900 USCF by winning his first three games, defeating an expert along the way, before losing to his teacher. (Ahem!) Fresh off his victory in the 9th grade section at the CalChess Grade Levels in Stockton, Suraj Nair scored 2.5 out of 3 against B players to take clear 1st in the U1800 section. He broke 1600 USCF, gaining nearly 200 rating points in the past month and 400 points since the summer. After the final round, I asked Suraj what he did to improve so fast; he credited many hours of solving tactics puzzles on CT-ART. (Students: hint, hint!)

Aamir and Suraj Win CalChess Titles in Stockton!

(From left to right: Aamir Azhar, Suraj Nair and Michael Meng. Photos of Aamir and Michael by Dr. Alan Kirshner of CalNorth Youth Chess.)

Here's a somewhat belated recognition to my three students who played at the CalChess Grade Level Championships in Stockton on December 6-7. A total of 342 intrepid young players arrived at the University of the Pacific to compete for the title of state champion in one of 11 sections ranging from Kindergarten to High School. Perhaps the competition was lighter than the CalChess Scholastics in the spring because none of the local 1800+ rated players attended, but don't tell that to those who worked hard for their trophies.

Two of my students took home 1st place trophies and a third got 4th place. Congrats to 7th grade champion Aamir Azhar and 9th grade champion Suraj Nair! Honorable mention goes to Michael Meng for finishing just half a point behind the winners in the tough 6th grade section.

• Aamir (1650) improved recently by consistently beating opponents that he was supposed to beat, something that he did quite well in Stockton. He stumbled only against co-champ Thomas Gonda, but later Aamir won the blitz playoff for the bigger trophy. Check out Aamir's strong attack against the Chigorin defense.
  
• Suraj (1499) left no doubt who was the man to beat in 9th grade by blasting his way to a perfect 6-0 score. He crushed the top seed (1713) with a thematic Bxh7+ sacrifice, much like the spectacular Pruess-Kraai game in the previous post. Suraj took care of business in his other games to finish two points ahead of the field.
  
• Michael (1274) was rated well below the top players in 6th grade, but that was not reason to be intimidated. He finished with 4.5 out of 6 and barely missed out on a chance to tie for 1st with a last round draw.

Click this link for the USCF rating report. Many thanks to Chief TD John McCumiskey, the entire directing staff and the North Stockton Rotary for spending their time preparing for and running this annual tournament. I still have faint hope that someone who attended the event will write a summary article for the CalChess website.

Wrap-up of the Western States Open

Click here for the crosstables on the Reno chess website. The tournament has been USCF rated.

I returned home after a long and tiring weekend in Reno and slept in my familiar bed again. Reno has always been one of my favorite destinations, but this year's Western States Open was up and down both at the chess board and away from it. My wheelchair problem (see previous blog entry) distracted me a lot, although fortunately, my joystick worked well after I "fixed" it using my finger. Nonetheless, I blundered left and right in my final three games, still somehow scoring 1.5/3 after my last round opponent repeated moves in a winning position. Maybe I was more frustrated than usual because all of my opponents were from Northern California. My final score of 3.0/6 (two wins, two losses, a draw and a bye) was good for $135 in prize money, but I lost 3 USCF and 4 FIDE rating points. I picked up another $120 net from gambling. It could have been worse. :-\

Most of my half dozen students finished with respectable results. On the bright side, Nicholas (photo at upper left) was undefeated at 4.0/6 in the A section and 11 year old Yian (photo at upper right) gained valuable experience from 3.5/6 in the Expert section. NM Steven Zierk continued two contradictory streaks: he remained undefeated lifetime against Grandmasters by drawing with Alex Yermolinsky in round 1, but he also added to an otherwise mediocre record against IMs and 2400s. Getting to 2300 and beyond was never supposed to be easy. Congratulations to Sacramento area 12 year old Suraj (see photo at right) for winning the D section on tiebreaks with 5.0/6!

I expect the organizers to upload the final standings and submit the tournament for rating by Wednesday. In the meantime, please check out over 60 photos at Flickr: click to view the album or the slideshow.

My final report will appear at the USCF homepage later this week. Kudos to GM Sergey Kudrin for taking top honors at 5.0/6. Three tied for 2nd at 4.5: GM Jaan Ehlvest, GM Melik Khachiyan and IM Enrico Sevillano (photos below from left to right).