NATIONAL CHESS DAY AT WEIBEL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN FREMONT, CA: A RESOUNDING SUCCESS

Hundreds of children and adults attended Saturday’s, October 10, 2015, National Chess Day at Weibel Elementary School in Fremont, California, the mecca of scholastic chess in Northern California.  While all the outdoor chess activities were free there was a small charge for the Weibel Ch
ess Quads, an annual Fall event for the last fifteen years.  I made one change this year.  I did not charge for any player who had never attended a U.S. Chess Federation tournament before.  All they had to do was join the U.S.C.F.   To be honest, I was disappointed that I did not have many takers.  The Quads drew 180 players. About the same I have had for many years.  This helped cover the cost of all the free events.

NorCal House of Chess, this year’s U.S.C.F. Chess Club of the year, helped out by supplying not only 15 tables for our stations, but also brought along two Grand Masters to analyze games—GM Sevillano and GM Oliver Barbosa.  I
missed Ted Castro, the owner of the NorCal House of Chess.  Ted was in Las Vegas attempting to win some money in the Millionaire Chess Competition. I owe a lot to Demetrius Goins, Director of the Shoreview Chess Club, who supplied the truck I used to haul equipment to and from the school.  Two other Clubs set up stations, Hanley’s Chess Academy and Torres Chess and Music Academy.  Hanley’s Chess Academy has recently made a presence in Northern California from their base in Southern California.  Chris Torres, the owner of the Chess and Music Program, brought the Susan Polgar Foundation National Open for Boys and Girls to the Bay Area last year and will again this year.  I have it from a reliable source that there might be some even bigger news from the Torres Chess and Music Academy for the chess world in a few months.

A few other chess celebrities were present.  Jay Stalling, here from Southern California, set up a table to exhibit his Chess Academy program for scholastic players.  His booth was crowded all day long.  Hal Bogner, co-founder of Chess Magnet School, came by.  NM Eric Schiller came to not only sell his numerous books, but to give a lesson on the Morra Gambit.  Frisco Del Rosario, author of the First Book of Morphy and Capablanca, A Primer of Checkmate drew students to his usual inspiring presentation.  IM Emory Tate played a blindfold simul against five individuals.  I have added his commentary on a draw he received below.  NM and FWM Uyanga Byambaa went over chess games and taught chess to beginners and advanced players during the day.  She was not alone as other stations were staffed by some of our outstanding Northern California coaches and teachers.

Eswaran Ramalingam and his staff introduced XCELL Chess to t
he public for one of the first viewings. XCELL Chess is a new online all-encompassing chess program.  This program when completed will provide about everything a chess student, a chess player, a chess parent, a chess coach and chess tournament director will need to improve their activities.  I am excitedly awaiting its appearance because one of the things I have been missing is a program that works with my Mac computers that can also transmit information in real time to those participating in a tournament.

One of the most popular, if not the most popular activity, was the Chinese Chess booth.  Two parents, Rob Chan and Mike Show, explained and taught Chinese Chess to a myriad of ethnic people who came by.  One of my favorite tables, staffed by Rob’s Daughter Angela Chan, was Celtic Chess.  I just loved seeing the Isle of Lewis Chessmen being played in a board with concentric circles.  I wish I had had time to sit down and learn to play this early variation of chess.  I used a DGT board to transmit the top board in our Quads to an outside audience as analysis of the game in progress was done.  One of those analyzing the games was a former Weibel student Kevin Moy.  Kevin, whose top rating was 2180, also did a simul that was open to twelve players.  Chenyi Zhao, a current sixth grade student at Weibel whose top rating is 1917, played her first ever simul.  Neither Kevin nor Chenyi lost a game. Chenyi defeated a National Master in her simul debut.

I could go on until I bore you totally with my thanks to those that made Saturday, October 10, 2015 an exciting National Chess Day in Northern California.  I beg forgiveness for not mentioning everyone and all their contributions, but there are two more person who without their help this great event would not have taken place:  Tigran Darbinyan, my trusted Assistant and Christy Lin, the parent coordinator and excellent mapmaker.  Christy produced a site map of the day’s activities that was posted large at the site and was available to those who came by to help us celebrate.

Chess is Forever,
Alan
Alan M. Kirshner, Ph.D.
Organizer
CalNorth Youth Chess Tournaments