WEIBEL TEAM AND STUDENT RESULTS AT THE
CALNORTH YOUTH AGE LEVEL
I realize I am late in getting to this report on the Weibel
players and Team successes at this year’s CalNorth Age Level Chess
Championships, February 4. As the old saying goes, “better late than
never.” Let me just say that perhaps I did not get to
writing this because I was tired from blowing out all the candles on the
birthday cake that Lisa Chan provided for me.
She even created molds to make eatable chess pieces. My first of many thanks to those that helped
make my 11 AM birthday celebration so enjoyable.
Not only was my 80th “party” a success, it was
a wonderful day for Weibel students and our teams. While 379 children registered, a fair number
did not show. Still a respectable number
with over 300 playing. Perhaps the no
shows suddenly realized it was Super Bowl Sunday. Only a few of those that did not show asked
for a refund by the deadline. Obviously,
this helped Carl Moy, the organizer, make ends meet.
Of the 300 plus players around 40 came from Weibel. So let me first inform you how well our teams
did. They did better than well. They were amazing. They won all the age
sections from 6 to 11. There were no
team trophies in the 5 year old section or in the Invitational sections. We had no players in the 12 year old or 13
year old divisions. Translation—we did
the best we could have and even better.
In
the six year old section there were seven teams. Weibel, came in first with 12 points to 9 for
Basis of Fremont. Basis top scorer was
my grandson Elizur who got them 5 of the points. Our top scorers (only top three players
points count) were Louis Le (4 pts), Matthew Miu (4 pts) and Aarav Gulrajani (4
pts).
In
the seven year old section Weibel defeated Mission San Jose Elementary School
with a score of 10.5 to 8.5. There were 11 teams. Abhay Annavajjhala (4), Rohil
Manwani (3.5) and Mintai Ye (3) were our top performers for the team.
In
the eight year old section with seven teams Weibel obtained 12 points defeating
Chadbourne who scored 5.5. Akarsh Khare
(4), Krishank Sardesai (4) and Drake Long (4) led the way. I should note that Wenyuan Xi also had four
and wasn’t counted due to tie-breaks.
In
the nine year old section Weibel’s team received its highest points 14.5. This section had only 5 teams. Second place went to Green Elementary with
nine points. The Weibel leaders here
were Mai-Ha Nghiem (4.5), Ekansh Samanta (4) and Edward Miu (4).
The
ten year old section saw Weibel defeat Chadbourne nine to seven. Eight teams competed in this section. The older sections only played four games as
they had longer time controls. Chau-Ha Nghiem (3.5), Reyansh Samanta (3) and
Kevin Arakkal (2.5) were the top players for the team, although Shreyansh
Suraparaju also had 2.5, but his tie-breaks were lower than Kevin’s.
Weibel
also obtained nine points in the eleven year old section of five teams. In second place was Warm Springs Elementary
with 5.5 points. Weslie Chen(3.5), Surya Gunukula (3) and Krish Gangal(2.5)
gave us the win.
As I
wrote earlier Weibel had 40 players, but some of them played in the
Invitational that had two sections—a 5-9 section whose player rating had to be
over 1000 and a 10-13 whose player rating had to be over 1300. I will start with those in the Invitational
who won trophies that attend Weibel Elementary or Horner Junior High School.
There were eight player trophies for each Invitational. The first place winner received a trophy and
a special crystal cup. The 5-9 award is called the Kirshner Cup and the 10-13 crystal
this year was called the Kerry Lawless Cup to honor the historian of California
Chess who is so often overlooked for everything he has done and accomplished. I will follow the Weibel winners in the
Invitational sections with those in the
open Age Level where there were ten place trophies.
In
the 5 to 9 Invitational, Nikko Le (1724) took home second place. Shruti Nath
(1010) had an amazing tournament, tying for third place with a 1724 rated
player and gaining 150 points to 1160.
In
the 10 to 13 Invitational, Yesun Lee (1480) tied for fifth place along with her
teammate Vincent Yang (1382). Yesun, who is in fifth grade, has a new rating of
1530. She has over a year to go at
Weibel and has time to beat the girl’s record rating held by Serafina Show at
1746 that she achieved while in sixth grade before entering Horner Junior High
School in 2014.
Louis
Law (1373) from Horner tied for first place in the 13 year old division. Arnav
Pradhan (769) from Horner tied for fourth place. In the 12 year old division, Prabhav Vashist (914)
from Horner tied for sixth place.
Weslie
Chen (1179) and Isha Varada (1198), (ahhh I just saw that Isha did not have
Weibel listed next to her name) are this year’s champions in the 11 year old
division. Yes, both are from Weibel. Surya Gunukula (995) tied for third. Krish Gangal (1144) tied for ninth. This
section listed 44 players.
The ten
year old section also had a Weibel player tied as the 2018 Champion, Chau-Ha Ngiem (1095). Reyansh Samanta (1181) tied for fourth. This section
had 46 players.
In
the nine year old division Mai-Ha Ngiem (1151) did not lose a game but took
home second place because she drew one game. Ekansha Samanta (1057) came out on
top of seven other players with four out of five to take home the actual third
place trophy. One of those other players
with four was his teammate Edward Miu (927).
This section had 43 players.
The
53 player eight year old division saw lots of Weibel trophy winners. Akarsh Khare (1953), Krishank Sardesai (627),
Drake Long (462), Wenyuan Xi (649) all tied for third place and Vivaan Parhar
(519) won the tenth place trophy.
The
seven year old division had 62 players listed, but only 48 played. Abhay Annavajjhala tied for fourth place and was
the only Weibel trophy winner.
In
the six year old division, listing 50 players, Louis Le (985) tied for third
with our Aarav Gulrajani (532) and Matthew Miu (663).
The
4-5 year old division had only 9 players and only one played under the Weibel
Club because while training at Weibel he goes to New Horizons. Sarvagnya Brahmanpapally (221). There was one other player indirectly tied to
Weibel in this group. Gaurang Mehta, one
of our instructor’s granddaughter, Zia Mehta, in her first tournament,
Kudos
to all the Weibel players and parents who attended the Eleventh Annual Age
Level Championships. I would like to thank
Carl Moy, our former Weibel Parent Coordinator for all the hard work he put
into making this special tournament a success.
I am also very proud of all the Weibel volunteers who answered my call
to help Carl and myself at his event.
A
number of years ago I had my bid to put on a CalChess tournament denied and one
of the reason I was given was that I was going to hold it at the Newark Pavilion
and such tournaments should be at hotels.
As I look at my photos of the players and parents relaxing and enjoying
themselves outside in the courtyard and open spaces I really must laugh at how
ridiculous some functionaries can be.
You
can find links to all the results, the U.S. Chess Federation ratings and
photographs at http://www.CalNorthYouthChess.org/photographs.html.
Chess
is Forever,
Alan
Kirshner
Director
of Weibel Chess
Originator
of the CalNorth Youth Chess Age Level Championships
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