People's Open in Berkeley

Top boards in 3-day schedule, from left to right: GM Parimarjan Negi (W),
GM Nick DeFirmian (B), FM Cameron Wheeler (W) and IM Kesav Viswanadha (B).

The 41st Annual People's Tournament returned to its traditional roots on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley.  Due to the lack of a suitable venue in Berkeley, this event was held at Santa Clara in recent years.  This year, chess came home to The Faculty Club on campus.

• Final Standings  Congratulations to GM Negi for going 5-0!

• Photo Album on Facebook 
• Photos by Shorman on ChessDryad

• Top players:
  • GM Parimarjan Negi, GM Cristian Chirila
  • IM Kesav Viswanadha, IM Ricardo DeGuzman, IM Elliott Winslow
  • FM Cameron Wheeler, SM Arun Sharma, FM Andy Lee
• 169 total participants 

CalChess Crowns New Scholastic Champs

Playing room for divisions playing on 2-day schedule. Credit: ChessDryad

The 40th CalChess Scholastic Championship drew over 900 participants, their families and coaches to the Santa Clara Convention Center.  Despite the mass of humanity at the start of each round and a country music concert across the street, most of the kids enjoyed playing chess.  Many thanks to Bay Area Chess for organizing this complex event, especially Judit Sztaray plus her most experienced directors Tom Langland and John McCumiskey.

• Click for full results.
• Click for USCF rating report.
• Click for photos by Richard Shorman.
• Click for photos by Dr. Alan Kirshner.

TD Tom and Coach Joe with MSJE K-5 team.

Kudos to top seeded FM Cameron Wheeler for winning the challenging High School division for an unprecedented third straight year!  Incredibly, Cam is just a freshman and could conceivably win another three times.  His school, Monta Vista High School of Cupertino, easily claimed first place, nearly doubling the next best score.

The Elementary School divisions were dominated by well-established chess programs based in Fremont.  Mission San Jose Elementary, guided by veteran coach Joe Lonsdale, swept the K-6, K-5 and K-3 championships for the fourth straight year!  However, crosstown rival Weibel Elementary proved competitive in all three divisions, especially in K-6 where a half point separated first and second.  NorCal House of Chess won the club competition in both K-6 and K-5, but Liu Chess Club pulled ahead in K-3.  I tip my hat to Coach Ted Castro and Coach Wei Liu.

Congratulations to all of the State Champions!


Individual Champions

• K-12: FM Cameron Wheeler
• Denker Invitee: FM Vignesh Panchanatham
• K-8: CM Pranav Senthilkumar
• Barber Invitee: FM Rayan Taghizadeh
• Girl's Invitee: Simona Nayberg
• K-6: Eeswar Sree Kurli and Daniel Cheng
• K-5: Rishith Susarla
• K-3: Adrian Kondakov, Aghilan Nachiappan, Joon Kim and Prarthan Ghosh
• K: Nitish Nath and Vaibhav Krishnan

Team and Club Champions

• K-12 Team: Monta Vista HS (Cupertino)
• K-8 Team: Miller MS (Cupertino)
• K-8 Club: NorCal House of Chess (Fremont)
• K-6 Team: Mission San Jose Elementary (Fremont)
• K-6 Club: NorCal House of Chess (Fremont)
• K-5 Team: Mission San Jose Elementary (Fremont)
• K-5 Club: NorCal House of Chess (Fremont)
• K-3 Team: Mission San Jose Elementary (Fremont)
• K-3 Club: Liu Chess Club (Palo Alto)

Carlsen Meets Technology Leaders

In his first business trip as the 16th World Chess Champion, the Norwegian born Magnus Carlsen rubbed elbows with some of the movers and shakers of the tech boom.  The journey began at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where he calmly swept all 20 challengers in a simul organized by Nordic Semiconductor.

Coach Joe Lonsdale (Sr) + Carlsen
Below: Exec Joe Lonsdale (Jr)

The following week, Carlsen flew into the Bay Area for his second visit.  At a social event hosted by Joe Lonsdale, the youthful co-founder of Palantir and Addepar, the champion posed for photos with guests and narrowly defeated local Grandmaster Vinay Bhat in a bullet game.  Check out ChessDryad for photos taken by Richard Shorman.  The next day, Carlsen challenged Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg after dining with top executives, a game which has been politely described as a lesson.

Lesson with Facebook founder.

However, the most popular event was a Question & Answer session hosted by the tech forum Churchill Club.  Chess master Peter Thiel, perhaps better known for founding PayPal, moderated an exciting discussion that touched on diverse topics, from his recent title match against Vishy Anand to the role of computers in the royal game.  For those unable to attend (like me), the hour long dialog was recorded and uploaded to YouTube (click on video at top).  Highly recomended!

USA 6th at World U16 Olympiad

Team USA-2 from left to right: Arthur, Chris, Yian, Michael, Kevin and Mr. Shen.

After ten rounds over eight days, the World Youth Chess Olympiad in Chongqing, China ended with a Closing Ceremony on Monday.  As expected, the race for gold came down to the top two seeds.  Russia and India, both featuring lineups rated over 2400, scored eight wins each.  The difference came in round 6, when the scholastic chess superpowers squared off in a match that saw three tense draws and only one victory, by India's third board.  The #2 rated Indians faced 8 of the top 10 teams, impressively beating 6 and splitting with #3 Hungary and #7 Turkey.  The higher rated Russians still could have shared top honors; alas, they halved a match with the upstart China-2 team right after the rest day.

Final Team Standings

1. #2 India (18 MP, 30.5 GP)
2. #1 Russia (17 MP, 30.0 GP)
3. #7 Turkey (15 MP, 26.0 GP)
4. #3 Hungary (15 MP, 25.0 GP)
5. #4 China-1 (14 MP, 29.0 GP)
6. #6 USA-2 (14 MP, 26.0 GP)
7. #16 SCWY School (14 MP, 24.5 GP)
8. #8 Iran (14 MP, 23.0 GP)

No doubt the host Chinese are disappointed not to have earned a team medal.  Indeed, three Chinese squads were among the top 5 going into round 9, after China-1 crushed #5 Australia by 4-0 and China-2 nicked the Russians 2-2.  And as a pleasant surprise, SCWY School checkmated the Czech Republic.  However, all three local teams lost in round 9, shattering their medal dreams.  Nonetheless, the future appears bright for the talented students at the elite Chinese chess academies.

SM Kevin Wang

SM Chris Gu

The American teams also hoped for better results.  To their credit, the official team USA-2 managed to claw back to respectability with a share of 5th place.  They faced only two higher rated squads, halving the match against #3 Hungary and subsequently losing a showdown with #1 Russia by the narrowest margin.  The low point came following the rest day, when the Americans lost to #10 Kazakhstan and, a few hours later, tied with the overachieving students of SDQD School.  Each member of USA-2 tasted defeat at least once, some due to an embarrassing blunder or with a match hanging in balance.  Board 3 Kevin Wang (78% record) and alternate Chris Gu (81% record) posted the best results, both scoring six wins.  Kudos to Chris for earning 3rd board prize among eligible alternates!

The extra team USA-1 struggled throughout the event, especially against the underrated local schools.  They finished above 50% with 11 MP, good for 25th place out of 72 teams.

Website Links

• Final Team Standings
• Individual Board Prizes
• Team USA-2 Results
• Team USA-1 Results 
• Mid-tournament Report by GM Ian Rogers
• Video of the Closing Ceremony - 4 1/2 minutes long and worth watching
• Official Photo Albums

Photo Essay: USA vs Russia

Board 1: IM Artemiev 1-0 FM Michael Bodek

Board 2: FM Yian Liou 1/2 IM Oparin

Board 4: FM Arthur Shen 1/2 IM Zenzera

Board 3: FM Alekseenko 1-0 SM Kevin Wang

Photos courtesy of Chiiwen Liou.

Halftime Report for Youth Olympiad

USA-2 on left versus Hungary. From front to back:
Chris, Arthur, Yian and Michael (not visible).

Teams from 26 countries arrived in Chongqing, China to compete in the World Youth Chess Olympiad.  Ten American juniors came to represent the nation on two separate teams.  The official team USA-2 scored 11 out of 12 points in the first three rounds, vanquishing opponents from Singapore and two Chinese schools. USA-2 split round 4 against #3 seed Hungary on the strength of a win by Chris Gu on board 4.

This result set up a showdown versus top rated Russia on Thursday morning. Although Arthur Shen won and Yian Liou drew, the Russians proved simply too strong with the White pieces on boards 1 and 3. After this setback, the team regrouped quickly to pull out an important match victory in the afternoon round against Indonesia.

Board 2 FM Yian Liou

Board 1 FM Michael Bodek

Heading into Friday's rest day, USA-2 stands in 7th place with 9 Match Points (2 per win) and 17 Game Points, only one MP out of 2nd. India defeated Russia in round 6 to take the lead at 11 MP. Four rounds remain, including another double round on Saturday. The tournament concludes on Monday (Sunday evening in California).

Team Standings (after Round 6)

• 11 MP - India
• 10 MP - Russia, China-2, Hungary and Iran
• 9 MP - China-1, USA-2, Australia-1, Turkey and Kazakhstan

Unfortunately, the lower rated USA-1 team has fallen on tough times, losing first to #2 seed India and subsequently to two of the Chinese schools.  These scholastic programs represent the future of Chinese chess, which developed many talented young Grandmasters over the years--including 7 of the current Top 100 in the World, all under age 30!

Websites

• Pairings and Results 
• Schedule (subtract 15 hours for PDT)
• Live games  
• Chess Life Online (report by GM Rogers)
  

Photos courtesy of Chiiwen Liou.

Youth Olympiad Kicks Off

USA-2 on left versus Singapore.  From front to back:
Chris Gu, Arthur Shen, Kevin Wang and Yian Liou.

The World Youth Chess Olympiad kicked off this week in Chongqing, China.  A total of 72 teams have entered the championship, representing mainland China and 25 other countries.  Ten American juniors made the trip, competing as two separate teams.

To date, three rounds are in the books.  The top teams will begin to clash in round 4 tonight, including the showdown between the #1 seed Russia and the home team and #4 seed China-1.  And our boys, #6 seed USA-2, face #3 seed Hungary.

Update on Wednesday morning: USA-2 drew Hungary 2:2 on the strength of a board 4 win by Christopher Gu.  The Americans are paired versus top rated Russia for round 5.  Watch it LIVE at 6pm PDT tonight! 

Update late on Wednesday evening: USA-2 lost a close fight to Russia by 1.5-2.5.  Next up is Indonesia at 12:30am PDT on Thursday early morning!  Then, after playing six rounds in four days, the players earned a rest day on Friday.

USA-2 at Opening Ceremony

USA-2 (Official Team)
(click for full results)

7th place with 9 MP, 17 GP

1. Defeated CQFLHY School (China) by 4-0
2. Defeated Singapore by 3.5-0.5
3. Defeated BJJM Club (China) by 3.5-0.5
4. Split with #3 seed Hungary 2:2
5. Lost to #1 seed Russia 1.5-2.5 
6. Defeated Indonesia by 2.5-1.5
7. Paired against Kazakhstan on Saturday
   

USA-1 (Extra Team)
(click for full results)

49th place with 5 MP, 11 GP

1. Defeated Hong Kong by 3-1
2. Defeated SouthAfrica-3 by 3-1
3. Lost to #2 seed India by 0-4
4. Lost to CDSD School (China) by 1.5-2.5
5. Split with QD School (China) 2:2
6. Lost to CQFLHY School (China) 1.5-2.5
7. Paired against Taiwan on Saturday

Photos courtesy of Chiiwen Liou.

Opening Ceremony

Young Dancers

Schutt Blitz Results and Photos

FM Yian Liou

IM Daniel Naroditsky

NM Daniel Schwarz

Now in its seventh year, the Ray Schutt Memorial Blitz Tournament continues to attract many of the strongest and fastest local players to the Mechanics' Institute.  The 5 double-round swiss (10 games) featured a generous $750 prize fund, augmented by free books for everyone, including multiple signed copies by Bay Area authors.  Even ten days later, the fond memories remain fresh.  Thanks to photographer Richard Shorman and webmaster Kerry Lawless for uploading more than 100 photos on ChessDryad.

6-time US Champion
GM Walter Browne

A blast from the past:
NM Mike Arne

Out of a record 63 participants, 17 were masters, including two Grandmasters and seven International Masters.  The defending champion IM Daniel Naroditsky was poised to three-peat, but he faced stiff challenges in the final two rounds from Italian IM Niccolo Ronchetti (1.5-0.5) and 3-time US Champion GM Nick deFirmian (1-1).  This allowed high school sophomore FM Yian Liou to snatch clear first place by sweeping IM Ricardo DeGuzman (2-0).

Three of my former students finished in the money: Yian, Danya and recent Stanford graduate Daniel Schwarz.  Way to go guys!  All that blitz practice pays dividends!

Final Standings

• 9.0 FM Yian Liou
• 8.5 GM Nick deFirmian and IM Daniel Naroditsky
• 8.0 IM Ray Kaufman, IM Odondoo Ganbold and NM Daniel Schwarz
• 7.5 IM Niccolo Ronchetti
• 7.0 IM Ricardo DeGuzman and FM Andy Lee
• 6.5 GM Walter Browne
• 5.5 NM Michael Aigner

On the day before the blitz, the Mechanics' hosted the 13th Powell Memorial (G/45).  For the first time in four years, Yours Truly ended up victorious!  I beat master Romulo Fuentes and improving expert Aleksandr Ivanov before drawing with National K-8 champion Siddharth Banik.  Most importantly, I finally got off my life master floor!

The Chess Room

Photos of King Magnus in Bay Area!

Nicholas K and Daniel S with Carlsen.

Tom Langland poses with Numero Uno.

Not every day does a young Norwegian man makes waves in Silicon Valley.  Nov. 16, 2012 was indeed a magical day!  Magnus Carlsen, the highest rated chess player on the planet, stopped by for a small blindfold simultaneous exhibition, Q&A and many personal photos.  Check out Facebook for photos and videos by Richard Shorman.  Thanks to IM David Pruess, Tom Langland and Bay Area Chess for putting together this memorable afternoon.

GM Carlsen slouches in chair while playing four kids blindfolded!

Make sure to read Mr. Langland's new article at Chess Life Online and watch the video of Daniel Naroditsky playing blitz against King Magnus.

Hail to the Champions!

Sam Sevian, gold in U12

Kayden Troff, gold in U14

Team USA earned four World Youth Chess Championship medals!  

The 13th World Champion Garry Kasparov conferred the honors.
Photos from Facebook.  

Hail to the Champions!

And thanks to the organizers and sponsors in Slovenia. 

Christopher Shen, bronze in U8

Cameron Wheeler, silver in U12

Coach Magnus in New York

The highest rated Bronx Bomber?

The top rated chess player in the World spent the end of August in New York City, teaching and playing blitz at a Chess NYC camp, while seeing the city and meeting other prominent players.  After one lecture, he answered some serious questions.  Here is one particularly great reply.

What advice would Magnus Carlsen give to a beginner?

Just have fun, play games, a lot if you want, read chess books. That’s the way I went about it in those years. It was never really a system. I worked from the age of nine with a trainer once a week but I would also just sit at home with the board and some chess books. And I think it’s a healthy approach not to study the openings too much. I think studying the openings is useful but getting an understanding of the game, learning tactics is more important. And the way I did it back in those days is that I read books on some openings, not necessarily the entire book but some things that interested me. Then the next week I’d go to a tournament and try it out and see how it goes.

Read the full article and more interesting Q & A at businessinsider.com.  Don't forget to view the exclusive video embedded (1:48).  For another perspective, including many colorful photos (three copied here), browse the popular chess media website ChessVibes.

Ken Rogoff, renowned economist and Grandmaster, plays blitz with Magnus Carlsen.

9-12 champ Joshua Cao

Denker qualifier Sudarshan Seshadri

Held just two weeks ago, memories of the 2012 CalChess Scholastics have quietly faded into the past.  Fortunately, you can revisit the weekend through the lens of ace photographer Richard Shorman.  

2-time 6-8 champ Neel Apte

4-6 champ Siddharth Banik

Click to view a Facebook album of 225 photos, many of smiling young chess players.


Thousands of photos from many dozens of other events are available at www.ChessDryad.com.

4-5 champ Ben Rood

Trophies!!! :-)

CalChess Scholastic Champions!

The 37th annual CalChess Scholastics took place last weekend at the traditional venue, the Santa Clara Convention Center.  A total of 844 youngsters played in one of 14 different sections, ranging from Kindergarten and K-3 Unrated up to the competitive 6-8 and 9-12 Championships.  Thanks to organizer Salman Azhar, CalChess President Tom Langland, Chief Tournament Director John McCumiskey and the rest of the staff for putting this event together.

Without further ado, here are the 2012 State Champions!  Congratulations to all!!

High School 9-12: Joshua Cao and Sudarshan Seshadri
Middle School 6-8: Neel Apte
Elementary 4-6: Siddharth Banik
Elementary 4-5: Ben Rood
Primary 1-3: John A. Chan 

Click here for crosstables.

I focused mostly on the High School section, headed by a quintet of experts and several former students.  While most of the top seeds struggled in 9-12, two surprise winners emerged: 8th grader Joshua and 1835 rated Sudarshan!  Joshua took home the 1st place trophy on tiebreaks, but Sudarshan earned the biggest prize: a ticket to the Denker Invitational this August in Vancouver, WA. 

Three of the top four seeds in Middle School attend Kennedy Middle in Cupertino, and predictably, two squared off in the final round.  My longtime student Neel finished strong to clinch his second straight 1st place trophy.  In fact, he became state champion for the fifth time in six years (K-3, 4-5, 4-6 and 6-8 twice).  Actually, nobody has ever won all of the major sections in the long history of this tournament.  Neel and another of my students, 9th grader James Kwok, only need to win 9-12 to achieve this record.

The Elementary section winners both finished with perfect 6-0 scores.  Siddharth went coast-to-coast as the favorite in 4-6, defeating his closest challenger in the final round.  Ben knocked off the top two seeds in 4-5, including one rated nearly 400 points higher.  After winning K-3 as a 1st grader last year, Ben won 4-5 as a 2nd grader!  Way to go!!

The team competition was rather anticlimactic this year.  National power Mission San Jose Elementary easily won all of the Primary and Elementary sections while Mission San Jose High earned a second straight 9-12 title.  See the embedded photos for a few of the victorious kids at MSJE.  Props to Coach Joe Lonsdale for directing such a successful program over so many years!  Unfortunately, one reason for the lack of team competition was a boycott by rival Weibel Elementary.  I find it really sad that certain adults choose to teach their young children the wrong way to resolve their conflicts.

Normally my report would include photos of winners in each section, sometimes from my own camera   Due to ongoing health issues, I could not attend.  Alas, I have only seen one album from Saturday by Richard Shorman, plus a handful of photos from Sunday's awards presentation.  If you can share additional photos, please send them to michael (at) fpawn (dot) com.  Thanks!

October Top 100 Lists

Udit Iyengar and Cameron Wheeler

I cannot believe that a full year has passed since my last report on the CalChess juniors ranked among the national Top 100 in each age. Alas, my previous blog post was indeed October 2010. My apologies! Without further ado, here are the PDF links everyone has patiently waited for.

• CalChess Top Age Lists
• CalChess Top 20 Lists

A total of 111 local students earned national recognition for their age, actually 2 less than a year ago. Another 8 girls appeared on the girls-only rankings. The most populous age groups were 11 years old (17 ranked, including 5 of the top 17) and 7 & under (15 ranked, including 5 age 6 and 2 age 5). No doubt this is a credit to the numerous school programs, concentrated in the South Bay.

The CalChess Top 20 lists keep growing stronger each month, despite the June graduation of four of the best high school players. Like last year, 16 kids are rated over 2000 USCF, a number already guaranteed to increase on the December supplement. Even more stunning is that 9 of 11 experts (2000-2199) are in middle school! Specifically, watch out for Kennedy Middle School at nationals, with top four players all currently rated above 2100 on MSA! (That's stronger than most high schools.) Finally, don't forget America's youngest master of all time, NM Samuel Sevian, who less than a year later is knocking on the door to 2300.

Ben Rood

In previous posts about the USCF Top 100 Lists, I created an unofficial medal system to honor the most talented CalChess juniors. Of course, those ranked #1 deserve an extra special mention. 15-year old IM Daniel Naroditsky falls somewhere between Superman and a 600 lb gorilla, considering that he has been at the top for some six years straight. On the other hand, 7-year old Ben Rood is the new kid on the block, winning both the CalChess 1-3 Championship and National K-1 Championship this year on the way to an impressive 1731 rating. Lastly, Chinguun Bayaraa starts off as the highest rated 5-year old in the country! Way to go Danya, Ben and Chinguun!

While only three #1s live in the Bay Area, there still are many star juniors. In fact, someone represents the Top 6 on every age list save two. (The exceptions are 13 and 17 years old.) Moreover, I counted two #2s and three #3s, all but one who reached the top before. With these statistics out of the way, let me announce the gold, silver and bronze medal winners! 14 gold, 17 silver and 9 bronze! (My students appear in bold and italics.)

IM Daniel Naroditsky

GOLD MEDAL (top 6)
Chinguun Bayaraa (#1 age 5)
Agnes William (#2 age 5)
Rishith Susarla (#4 age 6)
Ben Rood (#1 age 7)
Josiah Stearman (#6 age 8)
Michael Wang (#5 age 9)
Rayan Taghizadeh (#6 age 9)
NM Samuel Sevian (#2 age 10)
Cameron Wheeler (#3 age 11)
Jack Zhu (#6 age 12)
NM Yian Liou (#3 age 14)
IM Daniel Naroditsky (#1 age 15)
NM Gregory Young (#2 age 16)
IM Steven Zierk (#3 age 18)

SILVER MEDAL (top 17)
Solomon Ge (#9 age 8)
Anthony Zhou (#12 age 8)
Leyton Ho (#10 age 9)
Jeffrey Tao (#12 age 10)
FM Tanuj Vasudeva (#15 age 10)
Udit Iyengar (#7 age 11)
Vignesh Panchanatham (#11 age 11)
Colin Chow (#14 age 11)

IM Steven Zierk

Siddharth Banik (#17 age 11)
Kesav Viswanadha (#8 age 12)
Allan Beilin (#12 age 12)
Daniel Liu (#10 age 13)
Kyle Shin (#15 age 13)
Neel Apte (#16 age 13)
Paul Richter (#17 age 13)
Taylor McCreary (#17 GirlsU16)
NM Evan Sandberg (#15 age 18)

BRONZE MEDAL (top 30)
Zarek Azam (#21 age 7&under)
Jason Zhang (#23 age 7&under)
Arhant Katare (#28 age 9)
Kevin Moy (#22 age 11
Richard Yi (#24 age 11)
Art Zhao (#28 age 11)
James Kwok (#29 age 14)
NM Hayk Manvelyan (#20 age 17)
NM Rohan Agarwal (#19 age 18)

Chess Shirts

Unfortunately, I am not Superman and needed a couple of days to catch my breath after the CalChess Scholastics. It was a wild weekend; I got dizzy from keeping track of 26 private students in 4 different sections. Two of my kids took home 1st place trophies and another two tied for first! And Saratoga High School narrowly earned its sixth consecutive K-12 title! Anyways, my post-championship report is still forthcoming.

For a partial summary of what went down, check out my Twitter feed.

In the meantime, please enjoy hundreds of photos from last weekend that are online. Veteran photographer Richard Shorman uploaded a huge album of 360 pictures on ChessDryad. Organizer emeritus Alan Kirshner carried around a camera, but hasn't had time to post the pics to CalNorthYouthChess yet. I uploaded a modest number of my own photos to Flickr, primarily of players in the High School division.

The photos of chess shirts in this post are all courtesy of Shorman. If you can't read the text on the shirts, click on the thumbnail for a closer look.