WEIBEL CHESS TEAM AT THE CALCHESS STATE SCHOLASTIC CHAMPIONSHIPS, 2016

I would like to begin my blog entry on the 2016 CalChess State Scholastic Championships by providing my KUDOS to the Mission San Jose Elementary School players.  Over the weekend of March 19 and 20 they accomplished the near impossible. MSJE won not only every Championship Team section, but every individual Championship--a feat never before achieved in the 41year history of the event.  We did our best to prevent this, but candidly, our best was not good enough.  I am really pleased with the effort my Weibel players put fourth and I am sure they provided some tension to the Mission San Jose Team.  I thought we had a good chance to upset the favorites in both the K-5 and K-6 Championship sections, especially when the coach of the MSJE team did what I hoped he would do after seeing the strength of our K-5 team.  At the last minute he moved Kevin Pan (1881), a fourth grader, who he had initially placed in the K-6 section to the K-5 division.   I cheered because I knew that this gave us a fighting chance in both the K-5 and K-6 where before I only saw a possible win in K-5.  Weibel’s strength in both the K-3 and Kindergarten sections failed to come near Mission San Jose.  At the State Grade Level, where players could only compete in their own grades, our younger groups paled in comparison to Mission.  However, we did win the 1^st grade section as well as the 5^th and 6^th grades while tying for the championship in the 4^th grade.  

            Weibel closed the competition on Saturday with a tied team score in both the K-5 and K-6.  Our team could not hold on to the ties as Mission’s players came on strong and finally won both the K-5 and K-6 sections by a score of 18 to 17—one game point ahead.  Not a bad result, but not a win and far from Weibel’s Waterloo.  We will have another chance to outpace this year’s CalChess State Champions, as we did at the Grade Level in December, at the Nationals in Nashville the first weekend in May. 

           
 I did mention in my Facebook posting and in my first report on Weibel’s players at the States that I was going to go into a bit more detail on the last game of the last round in the K-5 and why the Chief Tournament Director’s judgment call might have impacted the outcome of that division.  I want to make it clear I am not claiming any bias or cheating on the part of the TD as some coaches are prone to do.  A judgment call is just that a judgment and, as we all know, that in all sports once a referee, an umpire or a judge makes a call nothing in heaven or earth is going to make them change that decision.  I did sit down with the TD and asked the parents and coaches to leave so I could get some sense as to why the call was made. 

           
Before I try to explain what happened, I want to be clear that I, like all coaches and parents, was not in the playing hall at the time of the conflicts. I will try to be as fair as I can be from what I pieced together from the Weibel child and the Chief TD.  Somewhere in the middle game the Weibel player won a pawn from his opponent.  The opponent started cursing at the Weibel player and apparently was sulking and disturbing the players around him, one of whom raised his hand to call the Chief TD.   On the back of every players badge that hung from their necks is the following: “Interference during Games, Absolutely ANY interfering in another player’s game is not allowed and will likely also get you immediately forfeited from the tournament!”  The Chief TD decided to penalize the offending player by adding ten minutes to the Weibel player’s clock.  When I asked him about the statement on the back of the card, I was informed that he felt that the statement only applied to interfering in another player’s game and not his opponent and the defining words were “very likely.”  What can I say?

However, it did not end there.  Later in the game the non-Weibel player dropped a Rook in motion.  From what I was told by the Chief TD, an emotional exchange broke out between the two players as to where the Rook had to be placed.  Both players would not calm down and so the players were sent to different sides of the room to sit until they cooled off.  I asked why he did not abandon the game and also why he stopped the clock.  I did not get an answer beyond asking me if that was what I would do.  I answered yes I would abandon the game and I would not have stopped the clock no matter whose move it had been.  In thinking that statement over I am now not sure if I would have stopped the clock.  

The game was later resumed with the concept that the final decision should be determined on the battlefield of the chessboard.  To me that is like the Medieval system of justice—let the two opponents battle it out and the winner is the one who is just.   From my perspective, you are dealing with children and when a player or players get emotional as they did that isn’t going to be a chess game.  I know both players well as the Weibel player’s opponent had spent two year’s at Weibel.  My present player has difficulty overcoming his emotions when he feels he has been unjustly treated.  I wasn’t surprised he lost.  His opponent was known for crying and throwing fits when he was losing and once he settled down and rattled his opponent he came on strong.  Granted, that Chief TD did not know either player, as far as I know.  I can question his judgment call and I am sure others might have made a similar one. However, at the minimal, in my judgment, the game should have been abandon and at the maximum the cursing raucous player should have been forfeited from the game. 

Here is a list of the Weibel trophy winners as they and their parents deserve to see their names in print.  I do want to say that all the Weibel players—well maybe minus a couple—took the competition seriously and showed their love of being a part of the Weibel Chess community.  I had to try and ease the pain of many of them who took the blame of our second place finishes on themselves.  The 105 Weibel entries, their parents, coaches, relatives and friends all deserve my thanks for, all in all, a tiring but enjoyable weekend of chess and comradeship.

Reading the info: Name, (U.S. Chess Federation Rating), Number of games won and lost, Place in the competition

K-3 Beginner rated Under 500-FIRST PLACE TEAM

Vedya Adurthy (389) 5-0 First Place Trophy (Weibel Charging Knights) An unreal result & candidly unexpected although I told him and his Dad that he had a load of talent.

Avyukt Bhardwaj (496) 4-1 Tied for Third

Reyansh Gangal (405) 4-1   Tied for Third

Om Heur (421) 3-2 Plus Score

Srijan Kakkera (419) 3-2 Plus Score

Shruti Nath (388) 3-2 Plus Score

Ryan Pan (274) 3-2 Plus Score

K-3 Junior Varsity rated Under 800-FIRST PLACE TEAM

Kevin Arakkal (711) 4.5-.5 Second Place -  This was an outstanding result. Kevin is very quiet in my class, but also very attentive.  I predict he will become one of Weibel’s strongest players in the future if he continues with chess.

Yesun Lee (717) 4-1 Tied for Third

Mai-ha Nghiem (616) 4-1  Tied for Third

Elena Xu (656) 4-1 Tied for Third

Rutansh Pathak (757) 4-1 Tied for Third

Reyansh Samanta (758) Tied for 12^th

Kindergarten – SECOND PLACE TEAM

I can say the same thing about all our Kindergarten students—they are an absolute joy to be around and they are playing fair chess.  They are all new to chess and I am convinced they will be foundation of the future Weibel Chess champions.

Wenyuan Xi (344) 4-1 Tied for Third

Louis Le (162) 3-2 Tied 14^th (Pre-School so Weibel Charging Knights)

Divij Pathak ( 566) 3-2 Tied 14^th

Wenbo Xi ( 191) 3-2 Tied 14^th

OTHER KINDERGARTEN PARTICIPANTS:

Maxiimus Glenn,  Lucas Chiang, Nikita Jain, Lucas Law, Riddhi Ravishankar, Alina Miu, Vivaan Parhar, Ishika Anand

  
K-3 VARSITY/CHAMPIONSHIP 800 + Rating – SECOND PLACE TEAM

Nikko Le (1348) 3.5-2.5 Tied for 16^th

Chau-ha Nghiem  (908) – Tied for 16^th

K-6 Beginner rated Under 500-SECOND PLACE TEAM

Rohan Bhatia (178) 3.5-1.5  – Tied for 16^th –He did far better than his rating would have predicted.   His name was not even on my chart of expected team scorers. I had seven names listed who might be among the four to score points for the Team.

Aidan Peter (490) 3-2 – Tied for 20^th

Kabita Nath (397) 3-2 – Tied for 20^th

Charith Vemuru (375) 3-2 Tied for 20^th

K-6 Junior Varsity rated Under 800-SECOND PLACE TEAM

Prabhav Vashist (649) 4-1 Tied for Third – Although he was on my list of those who had a good chance of being among the top four, he was listed as number 6. Certainly, a job well done.

Irene Xu (783) 4-1 Tied for Third

Chloe Chan (760) 3-2 Tied for 18^th

Tanish Sathish (568) 3-2 Tied for 18^th

Reyansh Gangal (405) 3-2 Tied for 18^th

Krish Gangal (597) 3-2 Tied for 18^th

Surya Gunukula (618) 3-23 Tied for 18^th

K-5 VARSITY/CHAMPIONSHIP 800 + Rating – SECOND PLACE TEAM

Oliver Wu (1851) 5-1 Tied for Second  - Oliver is always our top player    and most skilled player at Weibel.  For some strange reason he always seems to lose to a lower rated player in an early round. This weekend it was in the first round.  He lost  to a 1207 player named Ahyan Zaman.  Ahyan, to be candid, is underrated by a lot.  His rating has been a lot higher.  He is one of those young players that goes up and down in his rating and is now on a steady uphill path.  His father is a solid chess player, and just an all around nice guy, who volunteers his time to help the State and National chess communities.  NOTE: I like his Mom as well.  In any case, as in other tournaments, Oliver came back strong. NOTE 2: Oliver was disappointed his trophy wasn’t available as he was told it had broken in transit.

Aaron Hu (1656) 5.5-1.5 Tied for 6^th, Aaron is a very consistent player and like Oliver is in our Hall of Fame for his successes in chess.  He is a grade below Oliver and may surpass his accomplishments in time.  He only lost to Kevin Pan (1881) a phenomenal chess talent following in his brother’s footsteps.  He drew Ryan Dong (1439) who is one of the six players from another school, in this case Chadborne, who trains with us on Fridays.

Louis Law (1261) 4-2 Tied for 11^th

Dharshan Vetrivelan (1281) 3.5-2.5 Positive score

Prisha Jain (1262) 3.5-2.5 Positive score              

K-6 VARSITY/CHAMPIONSHIP 800 + Rating – SECOND PLACE TEAM

Chenyi Zhao (1775) 4.5-1.5 Tied for Third – Chenyi is a sixth grade student new to Weibel this year due to the school redistricting a part of Warm Springs.  We were lucky to have her as she has been one of the top players in the nation since she started playing chess.  Her rating reached 1917 last year.  She has not competed much this year.    This is her first tournament competing for Weibel.  We are lucky to have her with us. She was the reason I believed we could beat MSJE in the K-6.  One point separated us—so it was not to be.

Zayaan Khan (1414) 4.5-1.5 Tied for Third – When Zayan is on he is very on.  He reached a high of 1521 in December and then had a couple of bad tournaments. He seems to be on again and I anticipate his help in putting Weibel over the top at the Nationals in May.

Rithwik Narendra (1489) 4-2 Tied for Eighth 

Stanley Ko (1505) 4-2 Tied for Eighth

Aaron Lee (1363) 3.5-2.5 Tied for 14^th

Fredrick Zhang (1148) 3.5-2.5 Tied for 14^th

As Avis Rent-a-Car used to say, “We’re number 2, yet we try harder.” With the hard work of our players and coaches and the loving support from our parents, friends and the Weibel Elementary School staff, I am sure we will soon return to being the number one competitive chess team in our State.
After all, we still have the best overall school chess program in the State.