Fpawn Rating List - November 2009

Within the last week, the USCF posted the Top 100 lists for October and official ratings for November. As usual, the Bay Area is well represented among the elite of the nation. Three kids are ranked #1 for their age: FM Danya Naroditsky (13), NM Nicholas Nip (11) and expert Samuel Sevian (8). Four more follow in the top 3: IM Sam Shankland (17), NM Greg Young (14), NM Yian Liou (12) and A player Tanuj Vasudeva (8). Another four check in at either #5 or #6, bringing the total to 11 Bay Area stars ranked in the Top 6 of the nation for their age!

The November USCF rating supplement includes the 154 player Labor Day Festival (not officially the state championship this year) plus an assortment of smaller tournaments. A total of 25 present and former students attended on Labor Day weekend, but only one became "pseudo state champion." Props to Alan Naroditsky (see photo at right) for scoring an undefeated 5-1 in the Expert section, playing against three talented juniors and three conniving adults! Alan's annual improvement has been quite steady: 1784 in 2006, 1927 in 2007, 2014 in 2008 and now 2092 in 2009. He began his freshman year at UCLA a few weeks ago, but I expect to see him push some more pawns during school holidays.

Look for both Naroditsky brothers among the rankings of all my 2000+ rated students.

Top Students Overall (minimum rating = 2000, current students in red)

1. FM Danya 2378
2. FM Steven 2333
   
3. NM DanielS 2313 -- Stanford
   
4. NM Gregory 2272
5. NM Yian 2226
6. David 2095 -- UC Berkeley
   
7. Alan 2092 -- UCLA
   
8. EvanS 2092
9. Kyle 2088
10. Nicholas 2049
11. Arthur 2014

I updated my student rankings as well. Click here for the Fpawn Rating List or check out the National Rankings page on my website. I copied my trio of Top 5 lists below.

Top 5 Grades K-6

1. Kyle 2088 -- 2008 National 5th Grade Champion
   
2. Neel 1800 -- 2009 CalChess K-5 co-Champion
   
3. Richard 1620
4. Leland 1600
5. Rahul 1449
   

Top 5 Grades 7-8

1. NM Yian 2226 -- 2009 CalChess K-12 co-Champion
   
2. Sam 1953
3. James 1848
4. Roland 1773
5. Tyler 1654

Top 5 Grades 9-12

1. FM Steven 2333 -- 2008 CalChess K-12 co-Champion
   
2. NM Gregory 2272 -- 2008 US Junior co-Champion
   
3. EvanS 2092 -- 2009 CalChess K-12 co-Champion
   
4. Arthur 2014
5. Brian 1854
   

Fpawn Rating Lists -- July 2009

(CalChess K-12 co-champions Yian and Evan shared a laugh in my team room.)

I updated the Fpawn Rating List for the July USCF supplement which is already available at the MSA website. The names on top of the list have not changed this year, although the ratings keep moving upwards. I also included the rating gains over the past seven months. Bearing in mind how difficult it becomes to improve above 2000, the +84 and +68 jumps by CalChess K-12 co-champions Yian Liou and Evan Sandberg look even more impressive.

Top 5 Students Overall

1. NM Steven 2312 (+54, photo at right by Richard Shorman)
   
2. NM Gregory 2249
   
3. Yian 2140 (+84)
4. EvanS 2098 (+68)
   
5. Alan 2058 (+6)
   

(Honorary: FM Danya 2378 and NM DanielS 2313)

My group of students gained 68 points on average just since December. Eight moved up by 100 or more points. Kudos to Daniel Chen for going from 892 to 1337 in half a year!

Largest Rating Gain (Past 7 Months)

1. DanielC +445 (see photo at right)
   
2. EvanY +138
3. Arthur +135
   
4. Roland +128
   
5. Neel +126
   
6. DanielL +117
   
7. MichaelM +101
8. Andrew +100
9. Brian +98
10. Yian +84
    

Fpawn Rating List - April 2009

I updated the Fpawn Rating List for the April USCF supplement. Since my last blog post in December, the names at the top of the list remain largely unchanged.

Top 5 Students Overall

1. NM Steven 2311
2. NM Gregory 2249
3. Yian 2082
4. EvanS 2044
5. Alan 2035
6. Jeff 2013
7. MichaelL 2001
   

(Honorary: FM Danya 2341, NM DanielS 2317 and David 2095)

However, the ratings continue to inch upwards with every month. In fact, my students gained an average of +39 points since the December supplement just four months ago, with 19 gaining points and only 6 posting small losses. Kudos to the following big winners.

Largest Rating Gain (Past 4 Months)

1. DanielC +323
2. Suraj +170
3. Roland +125
4. Neel +94
5. Andrew +76
6. Aamir +74
7. Brian +71

Special kudos to Saratoga High School chess team senior Jeff Young (see photo by Richard Shorman) for cracking 2000 at this year's People's Tournament, an achievement that in my opinion was long overdue. He was rated 1173 when I began teaching him in November 2003. Jeff's most memorable win came at the 2006 National High School championship when he crushed 2437 rated IM-elect Salvijus Bercys.

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

Fpawn Rating List - December 2008

I updated the USCF rating for all of my chess students using the December rating supplement which is now available on the MSA site. The December ratings are considered the "annual" list for US Chess. Note that these calculations include only tournaments through the first Friday of November.

Click on the link to view the full Fpawn Rating List. Kudos to the following students for moving up into the next rating class: Michael Lin broke 2000 (plus he beat me over the weekend!); Rebekah Liu and James Kwok both officially became A players! Photos of Michael, Rebekah and James taken at this year's CalChess Labor Day festival may be found at the top of this story.

Top 5 Students Overall

1. NM Steven 2258
2. NM Gregory 2249
3. Yian 2056
   
4. Alan 2052
   
5. EvanS 2030

(Honorary: FM Danya 2379, NM DanielS 2321 and David 2095)

Top 5 Grades K-6

1. Yian 2056 -- CalChess Elementary (K-6) Champion
   
2. Kyle 1943 -- CalChess Elementary (K-5) co-Champion
3. James 1818
4. DanielL 1712
   
5. Eric 1611
   

Top 5 Grades 7-8

1. NM Gregory 2249 -- US Junior (U21) co-Champion
2. Sam 1900
   
3. Kevin 1747
   
4. Andrew 1695
   
5. Roland 1623
   

Top 5 Grades 9-12

1. NM Steven 2258 -- CalChess High School co-Champion and Denker representative
2. Alan 2052
   
3. EvanS 2030
4. MichaelL 2001
   
5. Jeff 1996 -- CalChess High School co-Champion
   

Fpawn Rating List - September 2008

I have updated the USCF rating for all of my chess students using the September rating supplement that is now available on the MSA site. Please note that I have incremented everyone's grade by +1; I hope that none of my students flunked a year in school. ;-)

You may view the full Fpawn Rating List by clicking on the link. Congratulations to the following students who officially broke into the next highest rating class: Steven (2200), EvanS (2000), Yian (2000), Nicholas (1800), DanielL (1600) and EvanY (1600). Special kudos to Steven Zierk (see photo below) for earning the well-deserved NM title!

Top 5 Students Overall

1. NM Steven 2246
2. NM Gregory 2227
3. Alan 2037
   
4. EvanS 2020
5. Yian 2019
   

(Honorary: FM Danya 2339, NM Daniel 2288 and David 2094)

Top 5 Grades K-6

1. Yian 2019 -- CalChess Elementary (K-6) Champion
   
2. Kyle 1840 -- CalChess Elementary (K-5) co-Champion
3. James 1739
   
4. DanielL 1629
   
5. Neel 1620
   

Top 5 Grades 7-8

1. NM Gregory 2227 -- US Junior (U21) co-Champion
2. Sam 1931
   
3. Alex 1750
   
4. Andrew 1682
   
5. KevinG 1657
   

Top 5 Grades 9-12

1. NM Steven 2246 -- CalChess High School co-Champion and Denker representative
2. Alan 2037
   
3. EvanS 2020
   
4. Jeff 1996 -- CalChess High School co-Champion
   
5. Adam 1909

Fpawn Rating List - June 2008

I have updated the USCF rating for all of my chess students using the June supplement that is now available on the MSA site. New students are only eligible for these rankings after at least two months of lessons (sorry Kyle). This will be final the ranking list for the 2007-08 school year; I will add +1 to everyone's grade later this summer, assuming that nobody flunked a year in school. ;-)

You may view the entire Fpawn Rating List by clicking on the link. Check to see who is moving up (hint: that kid in the photo is one).

Top 5 Students Overall

1. FM Danya 2320
   
2. NM Gregory 2213
3. Steven 2147
4. Alan 2049
5. Jeff 1978

(Honorary: NM Daniel 2249 and David 2098)

Top 5 Grades K-6

1. FM Danya 2320 -- CalChess High School co-Champion
   
2. Yian 1956 -- CalChess Elementary (K-6) Champion
3. Sam 1901 -- tied for 6th place K-8
   
4. James 1747 -- tied for 2nd place K-6
   
5. Alex 1684

Top 5 Grades 7-8

1. NM Gregory 2213 -- invited to US Cadet (U16) Championship
2. Adam 1901
3. Arthur 1873
4. Andrew 1727 -- tied for 3rd place K-8
   
5. Brian 1683 -- tied for 6th place K-8
   

Top 5 Grades 9-12

1. Steven 2147 -- CalChess High School co-Champion and Denker representative
2. Alan 2049 -- tied for 5th place K-12
   
3. Jeff 1978 -- CalChess High School co-Champion
4. Charles 1901 -- tied for 8th place K-12
   
5. MichaelL 1871 -- tied for 8th place K-12

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
    

Fpawn Rating List - April 2008

I have updated the USCF rating for all of my chess students using the April 2008 supplement that is now available on the MSA site. You may view the entire Fpawn Rating List by clicking on the link. One interesting question posed using these rankings: Who would win a hypothetical 5-board team match between my top elementary age students and best high school players?

Top 5 Students Overall

1. FM Danya 2266
2. Gregory 2194
3. Steven 2099
4. Alan 2043
5. Jeff 1971

(Honorary: NM Daniel 2249 and David 2098)

Top 5 Grades K-6

1. FM Danya 2266
2. Yian 1928
3. Sam 1901
4. James 1762
5. Alex 1745

Top 5 Grades 7-8

1. Gregory 2194
2. Adam 1923
3. Arthur 1882
4. Andrew 1737
5. Samyukta 1648

Top 5 Grades 9-12

1. Steven 2099
2. Alan 2043
3. Jeff 1971
4. Charles 1901
5. KevinH 1802

Fpawn Rating List - March 2008

(As World U12 Champion, FM Danya Naroditsky earned his spot on the cover of Chess Life magazine for February 2008.)

I have updated the USCF rating for all of my chess students using the March 2008 supplement. You may view the entire Fpawn Rating List by clicking on the link. Congratulations to FM Danya Naroditsky for taking over the top spot with a rating of 2256 after gaining about 15 points each at North American Open (Las Vegas, NV) and Western Class Championships (Agoura Hills, CA).

Top 5 Students Overall

1. FM Danya 2256
2. Gregory 2194
3. Steven 2105
4. Alan 2008
5. Jeff 1966

(Honorary students: NM Daniel Schwarz 2249 and David Chock 2098)

Top 5 Grades K-6

1. FM Danya 2256
2. Sam 1902
3. Yian 1900
4. James 1737
5. Alex 1720

Top 5 Grades 7-8

1. Gregory 2194
2. Arthur 1882
3. Adam 1881
4. Andrew 1741
5. KevinG 1609

Top 5 Grades 9-12

1. Steven 2105
2. Alan 2008
3. Jeff 1966
4. Charles 1901
5. KevinH 1802