5th Annual CalNorth Youth Age Level Championships this weekend

The 5th annual CalNorth Youth Age Level Championships will happen on Super Bowl Sunday, February 5 at the Newark Pavilion in Newark.  There will be over 500 participants ranging in age from 3 to 13.

Breakfast and lunch will be available on the premises.  There should be free wi-fi and even some TVs to watch the Super Bowl.

For more info on the event, click here
To register, click here
Advanced entries here

Calchess Girls' State Championships

Weibel girls win the 2-3 and the 4-6 sections...  Congrats to 3rd grader Enya Mistry and 4th grader Serafina Show for winning their sections - they are now both crowned State Champions!

More details as they come in...

NorCal House of Chess vs. Berkeley Chess School match

NorCal House of Chess members in red
(picture courtesy of Ted Castro)

Last Saturday, a friendly match between kids from the Norcal House of Chess Chess Club and the Berkeley School of Chess took place in Berkeley.  Players were pre-arranged for pairings so that the ratings were very close to each other.  Each pair (13 players for each side) played 2 games against each other, one white one black.  Three players from Weibel (of course there are many many more who belong to the Norcal House of Chess club) took part in this match - Anthony, Vittal, Aditya T, and Surya Teja. 

Norcal House of Chess did win the match by the way 13.5-12.5.  There will be a rematch next month, in Fremont.

full USCF results here

Golden State Open

The 3rd annual Golden State Open is being held at the Concord Hilton over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend.  As usual, the Open section is filled with numerous titled players and is very competitive, as were all the sections. Numerous Weibel Team members are also participating.

Here are the final scores (7 rounds total) for Weibel Team members and coaches.

Open
IM Ricardo de Guzman (2485) 5.0 (coach) tied for 3rd - won $554

U2100
Ted Castro (2000) 4.5 (coach) - won $76
Michael Wang (1949) 4.5 - won $76
Uyanga Byaamba (2027) 3.0 (coach)
U1800
Abhishek Handigol (1610) 4.5
Anthony Zhou (1683) 4.0
Steven Li (1524) 3.5

U1500
Nikhil Jaha (1443) 4.0
Alisha Chawla (1319) 3.0
John Andrew Chan (1263) 3.0

U1200
Vittal Thirumalai (864) 4.0
Maurya Palusa (1076) 3.0
Louis Law (928) 3.0

Complete results here

Masters at Weibel

On Friday, January 6, Ted Castro invited some of the masters playing at the Northern California International tournament nearby to come by the Weibel Team Friday practice before Round 7.  Also, WFM Sabrina Chevannes had a lecture last Wednesday in which a few Weibel Team kids (actually, mostly) attended. Picture 1 - GM Bartlomiej Macieja watches on as IM Angelo Young works with some of the kids. Picture 2 - WIM Alejandra Guerrero playing with a couple of the Weibel kids. Picture 3 - CM Florentino Inumerable playing Picture 4 and 5 - kids working with WFM Sabrina Pictures 6 and 7 - Sabrina posing with Serafina and Anvi Picture 8 - IM Young working on an endgame

Masters at Weibel View photos    Download all

Northern California International results

The weeklong tournament is now concluded.  This was a wonderful tournament, with an interesting twist not seen at any other tournaments:  a few Weibel Team member parents helped out with hosting some of the players and providing transportaton and sightseeing.  Thanks to all the Weibel parents who helped in this regard, and of course thanks to the organizers of the event Ted Castro and NM Arun Sharma.  After the closing ceremonies, a blitz tournament was held, where a couple of the Weibel team members got to play blitz with many of the same participants in the tournament.

The 9 round tournament was won with a 7.0/9.0 by 2-time Calchess State champion Sam Shankland (pictured with Ted Castro), who received a cool $3,000 for his efforts.  Weibel Coach IM Ricardo De Guzman tied for 12th with 5.5, and Coach WFM Uyanga Byaamba ended up with 3.0. 

There is talk about having the tournament again at the end of June, after the National Open in Las Vegas.

Weibel Holiday tournament

Weibel Holiday tournament View photos    Download all

Northern California International underway

The annual Northern California International is now underway.  This is a tournament for players around the world who are rated 2000+ FIDE and this year it is taking place nearby at the NorCal House of Chess inside Northwest Polytech University.  Weibel Coach Ted Castro along with NM Arun Sharma are co-running the event.  There are 59 players in the event, of which some are being hosted by Weibel parents.

The tournament runs through January 8.  Here is the schedule of round times:

1/2 - 6pm
1/3 - 11am, 6pm
1/4 - 4pm
1/5 - 11am, 6pm
1/6 - 4pm
1/7 - 4pm
1/8 - 10am

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