CalChess Girl's State Championships

Twenty Weibel players attend the CalChess Girls State Championships at St. Mark's School in San Rafael. This year only 52 players registered - in previous years there have been at least 25 to 30 more competitors.

I had a meeting with the Weibel and Horner players.  Two of our girls, Shivangi Gupta and Amy Chan had birthdays that could have been celebrated this weekend..  Louis Law, the brother of Kindergarten competitor Erin Law, was celebrating his birthday on the same day of the tournament.  I wished the three Happy Birthday and gave them little gifts for their dedication to chess by traveling to San Rafael for the Girls Championships.  Then I dropped the bad news--since Weibel had almost half the players they would be playing against each other starting in round one.

And, so it came to pass.   Each round saw our black shirts face off against each other.  Interestingly, there were a number of upsets where the lower rated Weibel girl defeated her higher rated teammate. While this, I know upset our girls, it will result, I believe, that one to three of our girls will break the 1000 rating points barrier, placing them on the Weibel Chess Honor Roll.  I will have their pink or black caps (their choice) ready for them.  I do not expect the USCF ratings for awhile--one to two weeks as has been the case in
past years.

This was the first year of the Girl's States that we did not have a State Champion in any of the Elementary School sections.   Sharon Lu, however, did win the Junior High School title so we didn't go home completely void of an individual State Champion.

I am happy to report that as has been the case throughout the history of this event, our girls brought home State Team titles.  We won a clear first in the 4-6 grade section.  Well, OK--there weren't any other teams competing.  I have little doubt, however, that if there were, the outcome would not have changed.  All you had to see was the plethora of black shirts in the awards ceremonies to realize the depth of our Team.  We may not of had an individual champion, but we had loads of runner-ups. I am proud of  how well the girls played and how seriously they took each game.

In the 2-3 grade division we also took a first place Team title tying with Mission San Jose.  For the first time we could not field a Team in the-1 section, but neither could any other school.  I hope next year some of this year's Kindergarten girls in the Club join the Team.  Our young women attending Horner won the Junior High School section.

I might mention that Ray Orwig, the organizer, and I bounded through out the event.  We shared the same ice bag.  When he was done icing his ankle, he lent me the bag so I could ice my wrist.  I just had an operation and the swelling remains.

I do want to thank all you wonderful parents who were willing to make the journey to San Rafael to support your daughters.  I appreciate it as a coach and I know your daughters appreciate your being there with
them.

You can find the full results of the tournament and the photos I took at: http://www.CalNorthYouthChess.org/photographs.html

Dr. Alan Kirsher