National Tournaments are almost here

The Bay Area will be the host to a national tournament this weekend, in Santa Clara.  It's the G/60 Nationals on Saturday October 1 and the G/30 Nationals the following day, Sunday, October 2. This is the first time in many years that the Bay Area has hosted a national tournament.

Numerous Weibel team members have signed up for one or both of the tournaments.  There's still time to sign up - if your game is on, please don't hesitate to sign up.  There will be the normal advanced/adult section, consisting of players over 1000, and a scholastic-only section, U1000, for both days.

Look at the right in the tournaments section to get more info.

the start of a new year

Summer is now over, and the new school year is now in session and kids are getting settled into their routines.  The Weibel team has its first meeting this Friday, September 23. 

In the past, tournaments didn't commence until mid-October (the first Weibel Quad) but nowadays, you can find multiple tournaments in the Bay Area every single week of the year.  In addition, this year is extra special because on October 1 and 2, less than 2 weeks from now, two national tournaments are coming to the Bay Area - the G/60 and G/30 national championships.  Also, another national tournament, the US Junior Congress, will take place at the end of October. For those of you who took the summer off from tournament play (and luckily there were not many of you), NOW is the time to get started on signuing up for and playing in tournaments.  The first of our big targeted tournaments, the Grade Level tournament, is coming up pretty soon.  Please look to the right of this blog post for a list of tournaments, whether they be of the scholastic variety or the adult/advanced kid variety.  It is important to get into the tournament mode because that usually means that the kid is practicing and studying beforehand.

Labor Day Chess Festival results

The annual Labor Day Chess Festival in San Francisco is now in the books. An interesting weekend with around 130 players in 6 sections, ranging in age from 80+ (IM Walter Shipman) to a couple of 5 year old kids (Chinguun Bayaara and Maurya Palusa) who are both destined to be great players. A total of 10 current Weibel Team members, plus 2 Weibel team and club instructors played in this tournament.

The playing hall over at the Golden Gate Holiday Inn itself is very nice, once that could easily accomodate 200 players if necessary.  Lots of restaurants and coffee shops with internet service nearby. The tournament was well-run and there were few issues that manifested itself, save for the usual complaint about a touch-move. The air conditioning in the playing hall even had an interesting rhythmic beat to it (you had to be there to know what I'm talking about).  The usual issues with the tournament is the lack of cellphone reception downstairs where the playing hall was (thanks a lot, AT&T) and the usual Labor Day Monday confusion over whether or not street parking is free or not (it is not anymore).  In addition, one parent of a player had his car vandalized.  Saturday was very peaceful, as Saturday was for the 3-day section players only. Sunday and Monday of course was more chaotic with the 2-day section merges, but not too bad. 



IM DeGuzman (left) with TD NM Koepcke



The Master section was won by Weibel advanced team instructor IM Ricardo DeGuzman.  He demolished the field on his way to the title.  In the Expert section, Weibel 6th grader Kevin Moy moved up a section and had a solid tournament, defeating 2 Experts and drawing with a third.  He won $145, tied for 3rd place.  In the B section, Weibel team member and Horner Junior High 8th grader Justin Wang tied for 3rd and won $72.50.  In the C section, Weibel club instructor and Irvington High 10th grader Kevin Hui got clear 2nd and won $290.


Final results here
USCF results here

Labor Day Chess Festival

The annual Labor Day Chess Festival is taking place this weekend September 3-5 in its usual location at the Golden Gate Holiday Inn in San Francisco.  A number of the Weibel Team members will be taking part in this tournament. We'll have more on this tournament as the tournament progresses.

Here is who has signed up so far on the Weibel team (including instructors):

Kevin Moy (3-day Expert)
Daniel Ho (3-day A)
Sameer Vijay (3-day B)
Michael Wang (2-day A)
Justin Wang (2-day B)
Michael Lu (2-day B)
Kevin Hui (2-day C)
Kory Hui (2-day C)
Sharon Lu (2-day C)
Serafina Show (2-day DEU)

More info:  http://www.newfremontchessclub.org/flyers/LABOR11.pdf
Advanced Entries:  http://sacramentochessclub.org/weekend_events/2011laborday.htm