TO THE WEIBEL CHESS COMMUNITY AND ALL OUR SUPPORTERS

I am pleased to report that the Weibel Chess Team and Club players with their parents and their coaches deserve Kudos for their results at the 7^th Annual CalNorth Youth Chess Age Level Sunday, February 9.  In 2000, during a conversation with NM Sunil Weeramantry, the father of  GM Hiraku Nakamura, presently the number 1 US player, he told me an interesting story.  When Hiraku was 12 years old Sunil told him that he felt it was time to get him a Grand Master as his coach. Sunil reported that Hiraku told him that he definitely did not want a coach.  Sunil, surprised, asked him why.  Hiraku said, “Well, then they will take credit for my greatness.”

            The moral of the story is that while we as parents, friends, teachers and coaches can inspire and provide opportunities to our children their ultimate success comes from within.  A few weeks ago I had two of our Weibel coaches patting themselves for training one of our students.  I had to step in and tell them of the long successful history this young girl had in chess before she entered any of their classrooms.  She took the best from each of them and succeeded because she was the talent.  I get sick to my stomach when someone in the business of chess exploits the talents of a player who took one lesson from them, went to their camp one summer or shook their hand.   Granted, I know they are making a living at chess or  have a need to assuage their own ego, but I say, let the results speak for themselves. I thank the large number of Weibel players and their parents for coming to the Age Level, especially those parents and coaches that volunteered their time. In my mind they expressed the respect for Weibel and the program I organized because of my children and one of their coaches, Richard Shorman. 

            On to the Weibel Team and individual results in the CalNorth Youth Chess Age Level Championships, one of the largest youth chess by age events, in the nation.  This year Carl Moy skillfully organized the event. 

I was asked a few weeks back by a chess program director as to how the CalNorth Youth event drew so many players—over 500 signed up this year.  Sadly, due to sickness and other reasons many players withdrew at the last minute.   As soon as it is rated, which should be Tuesday, I will have a better count.  My response to this chess organizer was that Northern California has loads of programs and players that are boycotting, for various reason, the CalChess State tournaments under the auspices of  Dr. Salman Azhar.  These players, schools and programs have selected to come to the CalNorth events so they can test their mettle.  Added to these numbers are the players who love good competition wherever they can find it.

            Weibel took first place Team trophies in the 6, 7, 8, 9(here we tied with Chadborne), 10, and 11 year old divisions.  In the 12 year old Team division Tierra Linda Junior High School of San Carlos won and in the 13 year old division (the oldest age competing) Hopkins Junior High School took first.

            There was no Team trophy in the 4-5 Age Group or the 4-9 Special Open competitions.  The 4-9 age group was established to give the top young players longer time controls. This year Carl Moy decided to create a special award called the Kirshner Cup for first place.  He felt this would be a special legacy award for my creation of this event.  I might note that all first place winners were given certificates to attend the NorCal House of Chess Summer camps.

            Let me begin the individual awards with the 4-9 Special Open.  I worked a computer in the younger players hall.  Due to the longer time controls of the 4-9 Special Open Division they played in the 10 through 13 year-old building. After we were done I walked over to the other building and was met by an excited third grader Oliver Wu who shouted out, “I think I have won the Kirshner Cup.”   I felt great for this was another birthday award for me—Oliver is Weibel’s top third grade player and one of the best in the country.  I felt honored to give him the trophy at the awards’ ceremonies. 

            Three other Weibel 3^rd grade players entered this division designed for those with a minimum 1000 rating:  Louis Law,  Vincent Wang and Eshaan Mistry.  Eshaan decided to switch over to the 4-9 Open after competing for three rounds in the 8 year old section without losing a game.

We awarded 15 plus trophies.  The plus refers to those who tied at 15th place.  We awarded logo chess medals to all participants.  The 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 year olds played 5 games.  The 10, 11, 12. 13 year olds played 4 games. Here are the Weibel trophy winners:

FIVE YEAR OLDS (23 entries):

Aakash Koneru (2^nd)

David Gao (3^rd)

SIX YEAR OLDS (51 entries):

Rutansh Pathak (3^rd tie)

Alex Han (9^th tie)

Mihir Gadre (11^th )

Nik Sadeghi (11^th tie)

Reyansh Samanta (11^th tie)

Zayaan Madhini (11^th tie)

SEVEN YEAR OLDS (79 entries):

Dharshan Vetrivelan (2^nd tie)

Prisha Jain (4^th tie)

Weslie Chen (4^th tie)

Umesh Gopi (4^th tie)

Isha Varada (4^th tie)

Aryan Yenni (4^th tie)

Erin Law (14^th tie)

Mihir Chauhan (14^th tie)

EIGHT YEAR OLDS (109 entries)

Sasha Prakir (1^st tie)

Sidarth Raman (4^th)

Surya Somasundaram (4^th tie)

NINE YEAR OLDS (76 entries)

Aaron Lee (3^rd)

Stanley Ko (3^rd tie)

Zayaan Khan (3^rd tie)

Frederick Zhang (3^rd tie)

TEN YEAR OLDS  (75 entries)

Jeremy Chen (1^st)

Rahul Ravishankar(4^th tie)

Anish Kasam (7^th tie)

Jaden Wei (7^th tie)

Prithvi Nagamanivel (7^th tie)

Tanabh Mishra (7^th tie)

ELEVEN YEAR OLDS (45 entries)

Daniel Emmanuel (3^rd tie)

Suryateja Mandadi (5^th)

Raisha Khan (5^th tie)

Avi Khanna (5^th tie)

Praveen Ravindar (5^th tie)

Avikam Chauhan (12^th tie)

Shivangi Gupta (12^th tie)

Congratulations to all of the above and to all the other Weibel attendees who spent the day with tough competition and I am sure learned a lot of chess on the practice field.

Alan

Director

Weibel Chess