Weibel Chess

Final Results, Norcal House of Chess Winter Chess Championship

2012-02-27T15:39:00.000-08:00

On Feb 26 and Feb 27, a 5 round FIDE qualifying tournament (in the Open section) sponsored by the Norcal House of Chess was held in Fremont at the Allstar Institute. A total of 53 players in 3 sections played. The Allstar Institute is a new place for chess tournaments, and it is a very decent place to hold a tournament. Centrally located in Fremont with a few restaurants nearby and a hotel next door.

The Open section was a mix of the Old World veterans, with 4 masters, and the New World, consisting of many of top under-14 kids in the country. The Old World took most of the top spots, but there were a few surprises along the way. Allan Beilin upset NM Ronald Cusi, and Weibel Team members Michael Wang drew with NM Cusi and Kevin Moy drew with IM Ricardo DeGuzman.

RESULTS OF THE TOURNAMENT
Open Section (FIDE RATED) 30/90 SD/30
Standings Winter Chess Championship 2012: Open

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Rd4	Rd5	Total	Prize
1	(IM)Raymond Kaufman	2414	2418	W8	W7	W3	L2	W11	4	$180.00
2	(NM)Ryan Porter	2284	2296	W14	L3	W17	W1	W7	4	$180.00
3	(IM)Ricardo DeGuzman	2500	2486	W16	W2	L1	W11	D4	3.5	$65
4	Kevin Moy	2007	2023	D6	W13	W9	H---	D3	3.5	$65
5	Rayan Taghizadeh	2006	2008	W17	H---	H---	L7	W8	3	U2100 $52.50
6	Pranav Nagarajan	1819	1848	D4	D10	H---	D12	W13	3	U2100 $52.50
7	(FM)Tanuj Vasudeva	2013	2027	W10	L1	H---	W5	L2	2.5
8	Jeffrey Tao	1970	1973	L1	D17	W16	W9	L5	2.5
9	Michael Wang	1959	1967	D15	W12	L4	L8	W14	2.5
10	Neel Apte	2115	2094	L7	D6	H---	D14	D16	2
11	Allan Beilin	2016	2024	D13	W15	H---	L3	L1	2	Biggest Upset Winner $20.00
12	Ted Castro	2000	1987	H---	L9	Z---	D6	H---	2
13	Vikram Ganesh	1843	1848	D11	L4	D14	W16	L6	2
14	Jerome Sun	1907	1902	L2	D16	D13	D10	L9	1.5
15	(FM)Ronald Cusi	2327	2308	D9	L11	H---	U---	U---	1
16	Art Zhao	1991	1969	L3	D14	L8	L13	D10	1
17	Anirudh Seela	1721	1724	L5	D8	L2	U---	U---	0.5

Amateur Section (U1900) G/90
Standings.WinterChessChampionship2012:Amateur

#	Name	Rtng	Post	Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Rd4	Rd5	Total	Prize
1	Michael Ho	1815	1829	W2	W9	W12	D4	L3	3.5	$110.00
2	Audrey Zhao	1604	1654	L1	W13	D11	W12	W4	3.5	$110.00 + $20 Biggest Upset Prize
3	Henry Vinerts	1875	1864	D6	D11	H---	D10	W1	3	$25.00
4	Venkata Nandula	1796	1789	W7	D12	B---	D1	L2	3	$25.00
5	Amit Sant	1652	1670	L12	D7	H---	W8	W10	3	U1700 $35.00
6	Anthony Zhou	1625	1648	D3	D8	D9	H---	W11	3	$35.00
7	Faeiq Jfouf	1588	1608	L4	D5	H---	W13	W9	3	$35.00
8	Kevin Dooley	1744	1701	L10	D6	D13	L5	X12	2
9	Alekhya Nandula	1659	1638	W13	L1	D6	D11	L7	2
10	Sameer Vijay	1579	1597	W8	H---	U---	D3	L5	2
11	Joanna Liu	1570	1575	H---	D3	D2	D9	L6	2
12	Peter Tu	1882	1857	W5	D4	L1	L2	F8	1.5
13	Nikhil Jaha	1411	1400	L9	L2	D8	L7	B---	1.5

Reserve (U1500) G/90
Standings.WinterChessChampionship2012:Reserve

#	Name	Rtng	Post	Rd1	Rd2	Rd3	Rd4	Rd5	Total	Prize
1	Om Chinchwadkar	1443	1478	H---	W13	W7	W8	W4	4.5	$110.00
2	Brandon Ho	1186	1297	W16	L7	W15	W9	W6	4	$50.00
3	Pranav Senthilkumar	1341	1331	D13	W23	L5	W19	W8	3.5	$40.00
4	Balaji Daguppati	1258	1322	W21	W15	H---	W5	L1	3.5	U1200 $45.00
5	Ram Nandula	1231	1252	D23	W18	W3	L4	W11	3.5	$45.00
6	Chinguun Bayaraa	1394	1379	W11	W10	L8	W7	L2	3
7	Chenyi Zhao	1287	1306	W9	W2	L1	L6	W13	3
8	Atri Surapaneni	1272	1282	W14	W20	W6	L1	L3	3
9	Louis Law	1059	1145	L7	W17	W21	L2	W15	3	Biggest Upset Prize $20.00
10	Serafina Show	1237	1213	W19	L6	D11	L13	W18	2.5
11	Seth Castro	1183	1173	L6	W16	D10	W20	L5	2.5
12	Siddharth Srinivasan	1108	1090	L15	L19	W23	H---	W20	2.5
13	Stephen Ho	1099	1145	D3	L1	W18	W10	L7	2.5
14	Maurya Palusa	1045	1040	L8	L21	W16	B---	H---	2.5
15	Calvin Tam	1448	1380	W12	L4	L2	W17	L9	2
16	Zhiyi [Agnes] Wang	1020	999	L2	L11	L14	B---	W19	2
17	William Sartorio	900	903	L20	L9	W22	L15	W23	2
18	Tommy Koh	1021	1002	H---	L5	L13	W23	L10	1.5
19	Aditya Tadimeti	990	981	L10	W12	H---	L3	L16	1.5
20	Aksithi Eswaran	808	823	W17	L8	H---	L11	L12	1.5
21	Agnes Williams	1200	1175	L4	W14	L9	U---	U---	1
22	Anvi Surapaneni	850	829	H---	H---	L17	U---	U---	1
23	Jaden Wei	970	917	D5	L3	L12	L18	L17	0.5

Norcal House of Chess 2012 Winter Championship

2012-02-24T09:43:00.001-08:00

The 2012 Norcal House of Chess Winter Championship is going on this weekend in Fremont at the AllStar Institute, 43697 Mission Blvd at the northwest corner of Mission Blvd. and Pine St., right across from the south entrance to Ohlone College. I recommend this to all players above 900 who can play both Saturday and Sunday (you can take up to 2 byes if you other conflicts). More info can be found here.

Entry Fee: $ 55.00. If payment is received after Feb. 24 or onsite: $ 65.00

($5.00 discount if NHC member; $ 20.00 more if playing up)

February Supplement will be used.

Round times: 5 Rounds and Game in 90 minutes.

Saturday 10:30 am; 2:30 pm; and 6:00 pm

Sunday 9:30 am; 1:30 pm

Byes: Two ½ point byes, if requested before Rd.2

TIME CONTROL FOR THE OPEN SECTION IS DIFFERENT:

30/90 SD 30 (Game in 90 minutes in 30 moves & sudden death 30 minutes)

Saturday schedule Round 1: 1030 am Round 2: 2:45 pm; and Round 3: 7:00 pm

Sunday schedule Round 4: 9:30 am; Round 5 2:00 pm

OPEN SECTION (1900 above) FIDE RATED!!!

$450 for 1^st place winner

$220-150-80 (2^nd,3^rd, and 4^th)

U2100 $ 120, 80 (1^st & 2^nd)

Amateur Section (1500-1899)

$300 for 1^st place winner

$120-100 (2^nd & 3^rd place)

U1700 $120-80 (1^st & 2^nd place)

Reserve Section (1000-1499)

$ 220 for 1^st place winner

$100-80 U1300 100-80

February Fremont Quads at MSJE

2012-02-24T09:29:00.005-08:00

our neighbors to the north Mission San Jose Elementary School will be hosting a Quads tournament on Saturday Feb 25, in their Multi-Use room. MSJE is located at 43535 Bryant St. Onsite registration is from 8:30am to 8:45am, with the first round starting at 9:00am. If you haven't already registered yet, late registration at the door is $40. I recommend this tournament to all U1000 kids, and to those kids over 1000 who can't play 2 days in Ted Castro's tournament a couple of blocks away.

For more information, please email either tournament director:

Arthur Liou: arthurliou@hotmail.com; Vincent Tian vincentt888@yahoo.com

Rounds: 3 Round Robin Quad. USCF-Rated Tournament.

Time Control: G/30.

Round Times: 1st Round: 9:00am. 2nd Round: 10:00am. Lunch Break: 11:00pm-11:30pm. 3rd Round:
11:30pm. Awards: Will be given as students finish.

Awards: Top player in each quad will win a trophy. If a tie for first occurs, all players tied for first
receive a trophy. Chess medals will be awarded to those that did not receive a trophy.

Additional Notes: Registration for this tournament may be limited due to space constraints. Please bring
your own clocks and notation sheets. A limited of number of clocks and notation sheets will be
provided.: 3 Round Robin Quad. USCF-Rated Tournament.

Age Level Tournament results

2012-02-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

The Age Level Tournament was held this weekend at the Newark Pavilion. Many thanks to the Sociedade Do Espirito Santo (SES) for being hospitable hosts and providing the facility and concessions for the event, and to the namy number of volunteers who helped keep the event running smoothly.

Congrats to the Weibel Team members who finished with perfect scores (and 1st place in their sections):

5 year old - Ajay Anubolu
7 year old - Louis Law
8 year old - Enya Mistry
10 year old - Serafina Show
11 year old - Steven Li
4-9 year old Open Section - Anthony Zhou

Complete results and standings here
USCF ratings here

5th Annual CalNorth Youth Age Level Championships this weekend

2012-01-30T11:05:00.000-08:00

The 5th annual CalNorth Youth Age Level Championships will happen on Super Bowl Sunday, February 5 at the Newark Pavilion in Newark. There will be over 500 participants ranging in age from 3 to 13.

Breakfast and lunch will be available on the premises. There should be free wi-fi and even some TVs to watch the Super Bowl.

For more info on the event, click here
To register, click here
Advanced entries here

Calchess Girls' State Championships

2012-01-28T22:05:00.000-08:00

Weibel girls win the 2-3 and the 4-6 sections... Congrats to 3rd grader Enya Mistry and 4th grader Serafina Show for winning their sections - they are now both crowned State Champions!

More details as they come in...

NorCal House of Chess vs. Berkeley Chess School match

2012-01-25T09:43:00.000-08:00

NorCal House of Chess members in red
(picture courtesy of Ted Castro)

Last Saturday, a friendly match between kids from the Norcal House of Chess Chess Club and the Berkeley School of Chess took place in Berkeley. Players were pre-arranged for pairings so that the ratings were very close to each other. Each pair (13 players for each side) played 2 games against each other, one white one black. Three players from Weibel (of course there are many many more who belong to the Norcal House of Chess club) took part in this match - Anthony, Vittal, Aditya T, and Surya Teja.

Norcal House of Chess did win the match by the way 13.5-12.5. There will be a rematch next month, in Fremont.

full USCF results here

Golden State Open

2012-01-15T20:37:00.000-08:00

The 3rd annual Golden State Open is being held at the Concord Hilton over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. As usual, the Open section is filled with numerous titled players and is very competitive, as were all the sections. Numerous Weibel Team members are also participating.

Here are the final scores (7 rounds total) for Weibel Team members and coaches.

Open
IM Ricardo de Guzman (2485) 5.0 (coach) tied for 3rd - won $554

U2100
Ted Castro (2000) 4.5 (coach) - won $76
Michael Wang (1949) 4.5 - won $76
Uyanga Byaamba (2027) 3.0 (coach)
U1800
Abhishek Handigol (1610) 4.5
Anthony Zhou (1683) 4.0
Steven Li (1524) 3.5

U1500
Nikhil Jaha (1443) 4.0
Alisha Chawla (1319) 3.0
John Andrew Chan (1263) 3.0

U1200
Vittal Thirumalai (864) 4.0
Maurya Palusa (1076) 3.0
Louis Law (928) 3.0

Complete results here

Masters at Weibel

2012-01-10T16:01:00.001-08:00

On Friday, January 6, Ted Castro invited some of the masters playing at the Northern California International tournament nearby to come by the Weibel Team Friday practice before Round 7. Also, WFM Sabrina Chevannes had a lecture last Wednesday in which a few Weibel Team kids (actually, mostly) attended.

Picture 1 - GM Bartlomiej Macieja watches on as IM Angelo Young works with some of the kids.
Picture 2 - WIM Alejandra Guerrero playing with a couple of the Weibel kids.
Picture 3 - CM Florentino Inumerable playing
Picture 4 and 5 - kids working with WFM Sabrina
Pictures 6 and 7 - Sabrina posing with Serafina and Anvi
Picture 8 - IM Young working on an endgame

Masters at Weibel

View photos Download all

Northern California International results

2012-01-09T09:55:00.000-08:00

The weeklong tournament is now concluded. This was a wonderful tournament, with an interesting twist not seen at any other tournaments: a few Weibel Team member parents helped out with hosting some of the players and providing transportaton and sightseeing. Thanks to all the Weibel parents who helped in this regard, and of course thanks to the organizers of the event Ted Castro and NM Arun Sharma. After the closing ceremonies, a blitz tournament was held, where a couple of the Weibel team members got to play blitz with many of the same participants in the tournament.

The 9 round tournament was won with a 7.0/9.0 by 2-time Calchess State champion Sam Shankland (pictured with Ted Castro), who received a cool $3,000 for his efforts. Weibel Coach IM Ricardo De Guzman tied for 12th with 5.5, and Coach WFM Uyanga Byaamba ended up with 3.0.

There is talk about having the tournament again at the end of June, after the National Open in Las Vegas.

Weibel Holiday tournament

2012-01-07T15:52:00.001-08:00

Weibel Holiday tournament

View photos Download all

Northern California International underway

2012-01-03T11:20:00.000-08:00

The annual Northern California International is now underway. This is a tournament for players around the world who are rated 2000+ FIDE and this year it is taking place nearby at the NorCal House of Chess inside Northwest Polytech University. Weibel Coach Ted Castro along with NM Arun Sharma are co-running the event. There are 59 players in the event, of which some are being hosted by Weibel parents.

The tournament runs through January 8. Here is the schedule of round times:

1/2 - 6pm
1/3 - 11am, 6pm
1/4 - 4pm
1/5 - 11am, 6pm
1/6 - 4pm
1/7 - 4pm
1/8 - 10am

Tournament Homepage

Viva Las Vegas - North American Open

2011-12-31T16:11:00.000-08:00

A couple of interesting happenings came out of this 7 round tournament, which took place between December 26 and December 29.

In the U1250 section, Weibel 3rd grader Atri Surapaneni was in a 4-way tie for first place with 6.0 out of 7.0 and as a result will pick up a check for $2,111! Atri had been playing in tournaments for barely over a year and this was his very first adult tournament that he's ever played in. Interestingly enough, Atri's mom had to go back to work on Thursday to attend meetings and as a result Atri had to take 1/2 point byes for the last 2 rounds. Once Atri won his first 5 games, naturally he wanted to continue on, but alas you can't take back byes once they are locked in, which in this case was before the start of Round 4. Those two 1/2 point byes came in handy in hindsight, as no one else got above 6.0. Way to go Atri! Along the way, he picked up almost 200 rating points, to 1229.

The other story belonged to Weibel 6th grader Kevin Moy, who played in the U2100 section. Going into the tournament, Kevin needed 34 points to break 2000 and gain the title of Expert. After a uneventful draw in the 1st round (book moves for 20+ moves) and a missed tactic that could have resulted in a potential win in the 2nd round that ended up as a draw, Kevin had picked up a couple of points but nothing much more. However, wins in the 3rd and 4th rounds all of a sudden had gotten him pretty much right at 2000. Kevin had already taken a bye for Round 7 which was already locked in. The thought process then became the following - at 3.0 out of 4, if Kevin won Round 5, he would play Round 6 because he could get to 5.5 which would be a pretty nice chunk of money. If Kevin lost Round 5, he would play Round 6 because well, he would be below 2000 and would need a win to get back to 2000. So what happened? - he drew. Albeit, the draw was against none other than former U10 World Youth champion Jason Cao (2082), which gave Kevin a couple of extra points for cushion. After thinking about it overnight, Kevin and his dad decided that getting to 5.0 and a few dollars (probably no more than $200) wasn't worth the "risk" of dropping below 2000 with a loss, and as such, decided to take a 0-point bye for Round 6 and walk away. Kevin's rating is now 2007, which now qualifies him for the 2012 World Youth championship in Slovenia. (Though there are rumors floating around in regards to changing the qualification rules for 2012). Congrats to Kevin.

Other Weibel Team member results:
Abhishek Handigol 3.5 out of 7.0 in U1700
Anthony Zhou 2.5 out of 7.0 in U1700
Anvi Surapaneni 3.0 out of 7.0 in U1250

Also, Weibel Team coaches:
IM Ricardo DeGuzman fiinished in a tie for 12th with 4.0 out of 7 in the Open Section
Uyanga Byambaa 4.0 out of 7 in the U2100 section

USCF Top 100, December 2011

2011-12-14T10:10:00.000-08:00

a couple of weeks late on this but here are the Weibel Team members on the list. This is a list of the Top 100 players in the country for their age. This is based on December 2011 supplement, which is the rating as of end of October. Strangely enough, the year 2000 population boom phenomenon seems to be nationwide, as the #100 best player for Age 11 is actually higher than the #100 best player for Age 12 - a very remarkable occurence. Usually between ages, there is around a 100 to 150 point gap between the 100th best player from one age to the next age.

13 years old
#72 - Daniel Ho - 1817
#97 - Justin Wang - 1763

11 years old
#25 - Kevin Moy - 1938

10 years old
#8 - Michael Wang - 1949
#94 - Steven Li - 1520

9 years old
#31 - Anthony Zhou - 1604

8 years old
#98 - John Andrew Chan - 1148

7 and Under
#59 - Austin Li - 1157

Girls Under 13
#58 - Sharon Lu - 1466
#82 - Alisha Chawla - 1356

Complete list

Weibel Quads Grand Prix results

2011-12-13T14:45:00.000-08:00

The final installment for the Weibel Quads is now in the books.

Congratulations to the Grand Prix winners:

1st Place - Enya Mistry, Jeremy Chen
2nd Place - Aria Lakhmani
3rd Place - Brandon Ho, Sherman Wu, Nivedha Kumar

MSA Results

GM Ian Rogers to lecture at the Norcal House of Chess

2011-12-07T09:15:00.000-08:00

GM Ian Rogers (pictured on the left) from Australia will appear at the Norcal House of Chess on Thursday, December 8 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm to lecture on endgame play. He is a former trainer of Bay Area stars IM Daniel Naroditsky and GM Sam Shankland. The lecture is entitled "Everything You Need To Know About Endgames In Two Hours". Cost is $40 for non-Norcal House of Chess members, $30 for members. For details please contact Ted Castro at ted0712@yahoo.com.

CalChess K-12 Grade Level results

2011-12-05T13:05:00.000-08:00

The tournament was a flawed tournament marred by numerous events above and beyond what scholastic chess should be about. Rather than the events handled in a behind-the-scenes manner, events between the tournament organizer and others unfolded before many of the parents and kids and that led to a good number of people - parents and players alike - having to be in the uncomfortable position of witnessing these events. In addition, the fact that this prestigious event was held in cramped conditions for players and for parents and not in a unique setting such as in prior years at the University of the Pacific made for a very chaotic and unsettling weekend.

Weibel Team Member award winners:

8th Grade:
Daniel Ho - 5.0 out of 6.0 - 2nd Place

6th Grade:
Sharon Lu - 4.5 out of 6.0 - 4th Place
Kevin Moy 4.0 out of 6.0 - 8th Place
Steven Li - 3.5 out of 6.0 - 12th Place
Ishas Kekre - 3.5 out of 6.0 - 17th Place

5th Grade:
Alisha Chawla - 4.0 out of 6.0 - 12th Place
Sara Kaushik - 3.5 out of 6.0 - 16th Place

4th Grade:
Anthony Zhou - 5.0 out of 6.0 - 3rd Place
Serafina Show 4.5 out of 6.0 - 7th Place
Vittal Thirumalai - 4.0 out of 6.0 -12th Place

3rd Grade:
Anvi Surapaneni - 3.5 out of 5.0 - 14th Place

2nd Grade:
Ryan Song - 3.0 out of 5.0 - 14th Place

1st Grade:
Vincent Wang - 3.0 out of 5.0 - 8th Place
Oliver Wu - 3.0 out of 5.0 - 16th Place

Kindergarten:
Ajay Anubolu - 3.0 out of 5.0 - 5th Place
Abhay Anubolu - 3.0 out of 5.0 - 10th Place

CalChess K-12 Grade Level Tournament

2011-12-02T10:46:00.001-08:00

for the Weibel Team, this is one of the major tournaments that we all strive to do well in, and the entire Team save for two will be playing this weekend. Grades 4-12 is on both Saturday and Sunday, 3 games each day, G/60. Grades K-3 is on Sunday only, 5 games. G/30. Note that this is a change in years past, where K-3 was on Saturday only.

Round Times:
Grades 4-12:
Round 1 - Saturday 9am
Round 2 - Saturday 11:30am
Round 3 - Saturday 2:00pm
Round 4 - Sunday 9am
Round 5 - Sunday 11:30am
Round 6 - Sunday 2:00pm

Grades K-3:
Round 1 - Sunday 9:00am
Round 2 - Sunday 10:30am
Round 3 - Sunday 12:00pm
Round 4 - Sunday 1:30pm
Round 5 - Sunday 3:00pm

Awards - sometime after 4:30pm Sunday

Where to Play
Grades 4-6 will be playing in the Magnolia Room on Saturday and in the Santa Clara Ballroom on Sunday. Grades 7-12 will be playing in Rooms 205 and 208 in the Santa Clara Convention Center
Grades K-3 will be playing in the Santa Clara Ballroom on Sunday.

The parents will be seated in the Napa Room, which is across from the Magnolia Room. We should have a few tables for Weibel Team parents in this room.

I sure hope that the Santa Clara Ballroom is separated out between K-3 and 4-6 because the different start times will cause massive noise issues.

The Magnolia Room is on the first floor of the hotel and will be to your left. The Santa Clara Ballroom will be on the 2nd floor also on the left side. Rooms 205 and 208 are in the area where the Team Rooms are for the previous 2 years' State Championships and presumably where the Team Rooms are for the Grade Level Tournament (we don't have a Team Room this year since the majority of the Team members are in K-6 and are playing in the next building over).

Hyatt Floor Plan
Santa Clara Convention Center Floor Plan

Additional information on the tournament can be found here

Pictures from the K-12 Nationals

2011-11-23T00:54:00.001-08:00

Serafina playing with the owner of the Chocolate Secret in Dallas

all smiles before Round 1

Kevin and his NorCal House of Chess teammates Ashritha Eswaran and Jeffrey Tao at Boards 2 and 3 in Round 5

Kevin and fellow Northern Californian Vignesh Panchanatham before the final round for the 6th Grade Championship

Kevin with the 5th Place trophy for 6th grade

Maurya accepts the Kindergarten Championship trophy

K-12 Grade Level Nationals, Final Results

2011-11-21T01:42:00.000-08:00

The K-12 Nationals are now in the books. Kindergartener Maurya Palusa is the National Kindergarten co-champion, winning 6 out of 7 games, along with fellow Northern California player Chinguun Bayaraa. In the 6th grade section, Kevin Moy went into the final round in a 3-way tie for first and played on the top board with a golden chance to win the 6th grade championship, but came up short and wound up tied for fourth with 5.5 out of 7. 4th grader Serafina Show wound up with 4.0 out of 7.

Congrats to the Northern California players who were crowned champions - Maurya and Chinguun in Kindergarten, Rayan Taghizadeh in 4th grade, and Vignesh Panchanatham in 6th grade.

The event was marred by a person who fell from his room on one of the top floors of the Hilton Anatole between the 4th and 5th rounds on Saturday. There were all kinds of rumors going around, but it appears as if it was a 11th grade player from Lubbock, Texas.

K-12 Nationals, Round 6

2011-11-20T09:09:00.000-08:00

Kevin Moy and fellow Northern Californian Vignesh Panchanatham both won their games in the 6th grade section, so they will face each other for the 6th grade championship later this afternoon. This will be fun!....

World Youth Tournament after Round 2

2011-11-19T23:10:00.000-08:00

For the 4th year in a row, Weibel has a representative in the World Youth tournament. This year, 10 year old 5th grader Michael Wang is representing the USA in the U10 group. He's off to a flying start so far, beating two titled players, CM Nitish Belurkar (FIDE rating of 1662) and FM Sandoval Mercado Carlos (FIDE 1791). He faces Franco Anamaria of Peru (1818) in the third round. Good luck to Michael!

K-12 Nationals, after Round 5

2011-11-19T22:50:00.000-08:00

The Weibel contingent is doing pretty well after the 2nd day of competition here in Dallas, with 5 rounds now in the books. In the 6th grade section, Kevin Moy is tied for first going into the final 2 rounds at 4.5. He has a golden chance to be playing for the championship in the final round. In the 4th grade section, Serafina Show has 3.0, and in the Kindergarten section, Maurya Palusa has 4.0 and in a 5-way tie for 2nd place.

Rounds 6 and 7 takes place at 9am and 1pm at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas. Good luck to the Weibel kids and to the entire Northern California contingent, many of whom are doing very well. Northern California kids are currently in 1st place in Kindergarten (Chinguun Bayaraa), 1st Grade (Rishith Susarla), 4th grade (Rayan Taghizadeh), and as aforementioned, in 6th grade.

K-12 Nationals, after Round 2

2011-11-19T07:31:00.000-08:00

after 2 rounds, Kevin Moy is at 2.0 in the 6th grade section, Serafina Show is at 1.0 in the 4th grade section, and Maurya Palusa is at 2.0 in the Kindergarten section. Round 3, 4, and 5 will take place Saturday. More updates later on today.

Grade Level Nationals

2011-11-17T12:05:00.000-08:00

The annual K-12 Grade Level Nationals are upon us. Unlike the G/60, G/30 and US Junior Chess Congress tournaments, this one is not here in the Bay Area. This one is in Dallas, at the Hilton Anatole, site of last school year's Elementary School Nationals. This is a grade level tournament, with kids from the same grade competing from grades Kindergarten through 12th grade and is one of the big ones that we shoot for.

This year's Grade Level Nationals is being held at an ideal time, the week before Thanksgiving, whereupon school is out the following week. However, only 3 on the Weibel Team are participating - 6th grader Kevin Moy, 4th grader Serafina Show, and Kindergartener (competing for Oliviera Elementary) Maurya Palusa. There are a total of 25 kids from the Northern California area that are participating. There would be more, but a few are competing in the World Youth tournament in Brazil which commences at the same time this weekend.

Hopefully I will be providing timely updates of the Grade Level Nationals throughout the weekend.

Info, including pairings and results: http://www.uschess.org/tournaments/2011/k12/

Weibel Quads - Grand Prix #2

2011-11-11T11:33:00.000-08:00

Part 2 of the Weibel Quads Grand Prix will take place on Saturday November 19 at Weibel Elementary. For more information, look in the Scholastic Tournaments section on the right and click on the link for the Weibel Quads for November 19. There are still 7 team members who have either never played a rated tournament game before and/or have not played a tournament game since the school year started. Please make sure you get at least one rated tournament in before the Grade Level tournament. Please use the tournament listings on the right, or use Dr. Kirshner's scholastic tournament listings here. The listings on the blog are more comprehensive since they cover scholastic, adult, and certain out-of-town tournaments of interest. There are tournaments virtually every week that is suitable for anyone. Imagine my frustration last week when I heard Dr. Salman Azhar last week tell me that he was talking to a Weibel parent and the parent had no clue that there was a national tournament (US Junior Chess Congress) going on last weekend.

Weibel Team requirements - PLEASE READ

2011-11-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

In addition to the 6 tournament requirement, there are 2 must-attend tournaments that every Weibel Team member must play in - the Calchess Grade Level Tournament which is always held in the first week of December, and the Calchess Scholastic States Championship which is held sometime between April 1 and May 15. This is clearly stated on the application form. If you know in advance that you are not going to be able to make it on either of those 2 dates, do not sign up for the team. Although part of the purpose of the team is to learn and have fun, just like in any other sport that you play in, if you don't play in these two tournaments, you're not helping the team.

Chess Magnet School accounts

2011-11-02T17:06:00.000-07:00

by now, all Weibel Team members should have received an email from the Chess Magnet School notifying them of their account information and password. If you haven't seen it, please look in your junk email account.

The Chess Magnet School is a great program especially for players up to 1300. There is advanced material as well for those that are over 1300 as well.

FIDE World Youth Tournament

2011-11-01T14:12:00.000-07:00

The prestigious World Youth Tournament will take place in Brazil from November 17-27, in the resort city of Caldas Novas. Caldas Novas is about a 4 hour drive from the capitol city of Brasilia. For the 4th year in a row, a Weibel attendee will be playing in the tournament. 5th grader Michael Wang will be playing in the U10 Open section.

For more information on this event, you can go here: http://www.wycc2011.com/

For more information on the qualifications for this tournament for subsequent years, click here.

WEIBEL CHESS TEAM MESSAGE FROM DR. KIRSHNER

2011-10-31T10:18:00.001-07:00

ALL:
We will have chess this Friday, November 4 at the normal time--starting ay 2:50 until 5:30 PM. We always have chess on minimal days. We only miss chess on the days Weibel is closed. This means no school on November 11-Veterans Day & no school November 25-Thanksgiving break. It is really really important you do come on November 4 as we must prepare for the required CalChess State Grade Level, December 3 and 4. We are trying to set up some special training sessions for the Thanksgiving break for those who will still be here.

Grades K-3 play ONLY on Sunday, December 4. Yes, that is a change from previous years when K-3 played only on Saturday. I have no idea why the change. The good news is that we no longer have to drive to Stockton. The tournament will be at the Santa Clara Convention Center <note from editor: offically at the Hyatt Regency Hotel which is next door to the Santa Clara Convention Center>

I will be sending at a short summary of what occurred at the Junior Congress this weekend that for those who ATTENDED WE ARE RECOVERING FROM. I have made two decisions this weekend that I hope will help us to do better at the Grade Level this year. ONE--I have agreed to have a special Weibel program within Chess Magnet School. This will be free to ALL Weibel students. If it works out the first month, I will cover the cost from your tuition to continue for the year. SECOND--For the rest of this month I am going to allow anyone over 800 and under 1200 in k-4 to attend Demetrius' preparation for the Nationals class on Tuesdays(no cost). If the group is too large I will bring someone else in. Sri will be calling all those who qualify soon.

US Junior Chess Congress results

2011-10-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

Team member results are posted below. Weibel wound up 2nd in the 6-7 age group and third in 8-9 and 10-11. No spectacular results, but for those that played, this is a great warmup and indication for the State Grade Level Championships coming up 5 weeks from now and to build from here. Two consecutive days playing in a cooped up environment with a long walk to everywhere is very tiring for everyone, so hopefully this will give an idea on how to pace your kids for the Grade Levels.

14-15 (6 rounds)
Kevin Moy ^ 4.0

12-13 (6 rouuds)
Angela Chan 3.0
Nikhil Jaha 2.5
Rohan Koka 2.5

10-11 (6 rounds)
Steven Li 4.0
Geeta Shankar 3.5
Anthony Zhou ^ 3.0
Sharon Lu 3.0
Abhishek Handigol 3.0
Alisha Chawla 3.0
Kia Sadeghi 2.5
Sara Kaushik 2.0

8-9 (6 rounds)
Atri Surapaneni 4.0
Serafina Show 4.0
Surya Teja Mandadi 3.5
Aditya Tadimeti 3.0
Anvi Surapaneni 3.0
Shivangi Gupta 2.5
Aria Lakhmani 2.5
Prithvi Nagamanivel 2.0

6-7 (5 rounds)
Ryan Song 3.5
Maurya Palusa ^ 3.5
Louis Law 3.0
Amy Chan 3.0
Jake Stasi 3.0
Oliver Wu 3.0
Suyash Lakhmani 2.5
Aayush Shah 2.5
Gabriella Currie 1.5
Aileen Zheng 0.5

5 (5 rounds)
Maurya Palusa 3.0

^ - moved up out of their age group into a higher age group

Individual Final Standings
Team Standings
USCF Ratings Report

US Junior Chess Congress National Tournament

2011-10-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

The USCF Junior Chess Congress Nationals tournament is coming to the Bay Area the weekend of October 28-30 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara. This is open to all people 18 years and under, and the tournament sections are divided up into age groups. The birthdate is determined by the kid's birthdate as of October 29, 2011.

Here is the schedule of events:

10/28 - Blitz 6:30pm-8:30pm
10/29 - 5 and Under play 5 games, G/30, 9am first game
10/29 and 10/30 - 8/9, 10/11, 12/13, 14/15, and 16 to 18 sections play 3 games each day, G/75, 9am first game
10/29 - Bughouse 6:30-8:30pm
10/30 - 6/7 section plays, 5 games, G/30, 9am first game

Early Registration is through October 20

Flyer: http://www.bayareachess.com/events/11/usjr11.pdf
Online Registration: https://bayareachess.com/my/special.php?membertype=1111_usjr
Advanced Entries: https://bayareachess.com/events/11/usjrcong.php

Weibel Quads results

2011-10-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit late on this, but results are now rated. They didn't quite come out very pretty but hopefully Dr. Kirshner will have the actual Quads pairings and results on the CalNorthYouthChess website shortly.

Exactly 60% of the Weibel Team, 48 out of the 80 players on the Team, plus numerous Weibel Club players, played in this tournament.
Kudos to the following team members with perfect 3.0 scores (and big rating gains I may add):

Kory Hui
Rokas Dargis
Jaden Wei
Tanabh Mishra
Jeremy Chen
Louis Law
Amirah Rafi
Eshaan Mistry

USCF Ratings here

The 2nd of the Grand Prix Weibel Quads series is on Saturday November 19.

October 2011 Weibel Quads pictures

2011-10-16T15:57:00.001-07:00

October 2011 Weibel Quad pictures

VIEW SLIDE SHOW	DOWNLOAD ALL
ADD MORE PHOTOS

This online album has 6 photos on SkyDrive.

Share your own slide shows with Hotmail

Weibel Quads - Grand Prix #1

2011-10-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

The first of three tournaments of our annual Weibel Quads Grand Prix will be held this Saturday, October 15 in the MUR at Weibel Elementary. These Quads are special because since there usually are a lot of players in the tournament (anticipated 150 players), the players in each Quad will generally all have a very similar rating to each other, with a variance of usually no more than 50 points). Also, for players who are unrated, this particular Quad is a good place to start since there will be plenty of other players playing in a tournament for the first time as well, and the unrateds will generally get paired up with one another. Online early registration ends Thursday night.

Online Flyer: http://www.calnorthyouthchess.org/Applications/FallQuads11-GP/
Online Registration: https://calnorthyouth.powweb.com/Applications/FallQuads11-GP/CCEntries.html
Advanced Entries: http://www.calnorthyouthchess.org/Applications/FallQuads11-GP/ENTRIES.html

The other two tournaments as part of the Grand Prix will be on November 19 and December 10.

USCF October 2011 Top 100 list

2011-10-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

The October lists are finally out, almost a month late. The Top 100 lists are based on October supplement, i.e. end of August ratings. Ages are based on birthdate as of August 31. Weibel had a number of players who just missed out being in the Top 100.

Listing here: http://main.uschess.org/component/option,com_top_players/Itemid,638/

Age 7 Austin Li - #59 - 1153 **
Age 8 Anthony Zhou - #12 - 1554
Age 9 Michael Wang - #5 - 1921
Age 10 Abhishek Handigol #60 - 1612 **
Age 11 Kevin Moy - #22 - 1912
Age 12 Justin Wang - 12 - #74 - 1734 *
Girls Under Age 13 - Sharon Lu - #54 - 1474

* - Horner JHS student
** - Weibel team member but not eligible to play for Weibel

USCF G/60 and G/30 roundup article

2011-10-05T16:18:00.001-07:00

Article on the G/60 and G/30 Nationals. Some nice mentions of Weibel Elementary here.

http://main.uschess.org/content/view/11413/643/

pics from the G/60 U1000 event

2011-10-04T17:28:00.000-07:00

some pics from the G/60

2011-10-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

Michael W. and Kevin M., two of Weibel's superstar players

Daniel H., a national champion!, along with Kory H.

Alisha is all smiles for now

Geeta and Desiree, hiding her face

Sharon L. at work

Welcome Back! Steven

USCF G/30 Nationals results

2011-10-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

The USCF G/30 Nationals took place on Sunday at the same location as the G/60 Nationals the day before, at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara. Since the G/30 is more or less considered to be a scholastic-type of time control, it stood to reason that many more kids would show up for the U1000 scholastic portion of the event rather than the regular event. As such, the regular over-1000 portion of the tournament moved back to the upstairs ballroom of the Hyatt as opposed to being in the Convention Center as it was on Saturday. This was a 5 round tournament, but even with the extra round, with the shorter time control, the event lasted 2 hours shorter than the day before - no doubt to the delight of the legions of parents hording around at the tournament.

Most of the Weibel team participants played in the U1000 portion of the tournament. This makes sense since we generally encourage the Weibel kids rated over 1000 to play in longer time control tournaments. There's a lot of work to be done for most, but a couple of good results did come out of this. I am glad though that so many did come out in the 2 days for this event. A Swiss tournament, especially a tournament with lots of players in a section, will always be a much better gauge of the strength of the player. This is valuable for the Weibel coaches to judge where the improvement needs to come from. The Weibel team overall did win first place in the U1000 section.

Results for Weibel instructors and team members (perfect score 5.0):

Open:
Francisco Anchodo - 3.0
Uyanga Byambaa - 2.0

U1800
Steven Li - 1.5

U1400
Kia Sadeghi - 1.5

U1000
7th grader Rohan Koka - 4.0 - won the 8th place trophy
3rd grader Aditya Tadimeti - 3.5
3rd grader Atri Surapaneni - 3.0
3rd grader Anvi Surapaneni - 3.0
3rd grader Jaden Wei - 2.5
4th grader Sashrika Pandey - 2.0
1st grader Louis Law - 1.5
3rd grader Kevin Zhu - 1.5
3rd grader Surya Teja Mandadi - 0.0

U600
3rd grader Enya Mistry - 3.5 - won the 21st place trophy
3rd grader Pranav Ramesh - 3.0
3rd grader Amirah Rafi - 3.0
4th grader Aria Lakhmani - 3.0
3rd grader Privthi Nagamanivel - 2.0
1st grader Suyash Lahkmani - 2.0
1st grader Aileen Zheng - 2.0
1st grader Eshaan Mistry - 1.5
4th grader Avi Khanna - 1.5
3rd grader Rahul Ravishankar - 1.0
　
　
　

USCF G/60 Nationals results

2011-10-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

A very large turnout came out for the USCF G/60 Nationals tournament, the first USCF Nationals tournament in the Bay Area in many years. A total of 204 players played in 3 sections, Open (1800+), U1800, and U1400 for a total of 4 rounds. In addition, another 110 players played in 2 sections (U1000, U600) in a separate ballroom for the scholastic version of this event. This will be first of 4 national tournaments scheduled over the next 5 months, and hopefully more will be coming next year.

The event was held at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara. Quite frankly, wth the larger than anticipated turnout, I was a bit fearful that the tournament would turn out like the scholastic State championship next door at the Santa Clara Convention Center 5 months back, where everyone was packed in like sardines. But the room setting in the ballroom was very spacious and well set up, with the top boards in the Open section off to the farthest quietest side of the ballroom. The tables were of the extra long 8 foot variety, with 4 players to a table.

Thanks to all from the Weibel team and former team members who made the trek down to Santa Clara to participate in the event. You are a big part of what made the event very successful. There will be a separate blog item for the G/30 event which will be held today October 2.

Weibel instructor and student participants in the G/60 and their results:

Open:
IM Ricardo De Guzman (2493) 3.5 - won $183.67 for finishing in a tie for 2nd
Michael Wang (1909) 3.0 - won $63.33 for finishing in a tie for 3rd
Kevin Moy (1969) 1.5
Justin Wang (1750) 1.5

U1800
Daniel Ho (1745) 4.0 - perfect score, won $500 for finishing in a tie for 1st place and is declared a national champion!
Anthony Zhou (1643) 2.0
Abhishek Handigol (1612) 2.0
Kory Hui (1541) 2.0
Steven Li (1423) 2.0
Alisha Chawla (1361) 0.5

U1400
Calvin Tam (1342) 3.0 - won $21 for finishing in a tie for 3rd
Amarinder Chahal (1270) 3.0 - won $21 for finishing in a tie for 3rd
Sharon Lu (1471) 2.5
Geeta Shankar (984) 1.5
Desiree Ho (1253) 0.0

In addition, there was also a scholastic version of the G/60 event for players with a rating of under 1000. There were 110 total players particpating in this event. The Weibel Team won both the U600 and U1000 sections.

U1000
3rd grader Atri Surapaneni (1064) - 3.5 - tied for 1st and won the 5th place trophy on tiebreaks
5th grader Sara Kaushik (912) - 3.0 - tied for 7th and won the 8th place trophy
Kindergartener Maurya Palusa (1002) - 2.0
5th grader Akshay Gharpure (825) 2.0
3rd grader Surya Teja Mandadi (816) 2.0
7th grader Rohan Koka (902) 2.0
1st grader Louis Law (672) 1.5
3rd grader Anvi Surapeneni (731) 1.0
3rd grader Jaden Wei (874) 1.0
2nd grader Ryan Song (688) 1.0

U600
3rd grader Privthi Nagamanivel (434) 3.0 - tied for 4th place and won the 7th place trophy on tiebreaks
4th grader Vittal Thirumalai (249) 3.0 - tied for 4th place and won the 11th place trophy
1st grader Oliver Wu (594) 3.0 - tied for 4th place and won the 12th place trophy
1st grader Vincent Wang (466) 3.0 - tied for 4th place and won the 15th place trophy
3rd grader Amirah Rafi (577) 2.0 - tied for 19th place and won the 29th place trophy
3rd grader Rahul Ravishankar (460) 1.5

National Tournaments are almost here

2011-09-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

The Bay Area will be the host to a national tournament this weekend, in Santa Clara. It's the G/60 Nationals on Saturday October 1 and the G/30 Nationals the following day, Sunday, October 2. This is the first time in many years that the Bay Area has hosted a national tournament.

Numerous Weibel team members have signed up for one or both of the tournaments. There's still time to sign up - if your game is on, please don't hesitate to sign up. There will be the normal advanced/adult section, consisting of players over 1000, and a scholastic-only section, U1000, for both days.

Look at the right in the tournaments section to get more info.

the start of a new year

2011-09-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

Summer is now over, and the new school year is now in session and kids are getting settled into their routines. The Weibel team has its first meeting this Friday, September 23.

In the past, tournaments didn't commence until mid-October (the first Weibel Quad) but nowadays, you can find multiple tournaments in the Bay Area every single week of the year. In addition, this year is extra special because on October 1 and 2, less than 2 weeks from now, two national tournaments are coming to the Bay Area - the G/60 and G/30 national championships. Also, another national tournament, the US Junior Congress, will take place at the end of October. For those of you who took the summer off from tournament play (and luckily there were not many of you), NOW is the time to get started on signuing up for and playing in tournaments. The first of our big targeted tournaments, the Grade Level tournament, is coming up pretty soon. Please look to the right of this blog post for a list of tournaments, whether they be of the scholastic variety or the adult/advanced kid variety. It is important to get into the tournament mode because that usually means that the kid is practicing and studying beforehand.

Labor Day Chess Festival results

2011-09-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

The annual Labor Day Chess Festival in San Francisco is now in the books. An interesting weekend with around 130 players in 6 sections, ranging in age from 80+ (IM Walter Shipman) to a couple of 5 year old kids (Chinguun Bayaara and Maurya Palusa) who are both destined to be great players. A total of 10 current Weibel Team members, plus 2 Weibel team and club instructors played in this tournament.

The playing hall over at the Golden Gate Holiday Inn itself is very nice, once that could easily accomodate 200 players if necessary. Lots of restaurants and coffee shops with internet service nearby. The tournament was well-run and there were few issues that manifested itself, save for the usual complaint about a touch-move. The air conditioning in the playing hall even had an interesting rhythmic beat to it (you had to be there to know what I'm talking about). The usual issues with the tournament is the lack of cellphone reception downstairs where the playing hall was (thanks a lot, AT&T) and the usual Labor Day Monday confusion over whether or not street parking is free or not (it is not anymore). In addition, one parent of a player had his car vandalized. Saturday was very peaceful, as Saturday was for the 3-day section players only. Sunday and Monday of course was more chaotic with the 2-day section merges, but not too bad.

IM DeGuzman (left) with TD NM Koepcke

The Master section was won by Weibel advanced team instructor IM Ricardo DeGuzman. He demolished the field on his way to the title. In the Expert section, Weibel 6th grader Kevin Moy moved up a section and had a solid tournament, defeating 2 Experts and drawing with a third. He won $145, tied for 3rd place. In the B section, Weibel team member and Horner Junior High 8th grader Justin Wang tied for 3rd and won $72.50. In the C section, Weibel club instructor and Irvington High 10th grader Kevin Hui got clear 2nd and won $290.

Final results here
USCF results here

Labor Day Chess Festival

2011-09-03T01:22:00.000-07:00

The annual Labor Day Chess Festival is taking place this weekend September 3-5 in its usual location at the Golden Gate Holiday Inn in San Francisco. A number of the Weibel Team members will be taking part in this tournament. We'll have more on this tournament as the tournament progresses.

Here is who has signed up so far on the Weibel team (including instructors):

Kevin Moy (3-day Expert)
Daniel Ho (3-day A)
Sameer Vijay (3-day B)
Michael Wang (2-day A)
Justin Wang (2-day B)
Michael Lu (2-day B)
Kevin Hui (2-day C)
Kory Hui (2-day C)
Sharon Lu (2-day C)
Serafina Show (2-day DEU)

More info: http://www.newfremontchessclub.org/flyers/LABOR11.pdf
Advanced Entries: http://sacramentochessclub.org/weekend_events/2011laborday.htm

World University Games Shenzhen 2001 FISU FIDE tournament

2011-08-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

Round 2 Men top board pairings

This traveler takes us to Shenzhen, China, which is where the 2011 World University Games are taking place over the next week or so. Included as a sport is chess (!), which takes place from August 15 until August 21. Unfortunately, no one is representing the United States (where are you Sam Shankland or Robert Hess?). There are about 150 male and female participants in this event. China decided to send out its big guns for this tournament, sending 5 out of its top 8 players to this event, including most of their Olympic team. Wang Hao (2718), Wang Yue (2709), Li Chao (2669), Ni Hua (2662) and Zhou Jianchao (2636) are the 5 that are representing China. In fact, these 5 are the top 5 seeds on the men's side. Armenia also sent some of their top collegiate players, all in the Top 10 (Andriasian, Grigoryan, Melkumyan) who are all in the lower 2600 range, and those 3 are seeded 6//7/8. By contrast, the top guy from Russia, Aleksandr Rakhmanov (2585) is ranked #50 in Russia. Most of the other top chess-playing countries either did not send anyone, or sent collegiate players either with no titles or lower titles (i.e. not a GM).

The venue is fantastic at the Shenzhen Convention Center. Tickets were reasonable, at 30 rmb per person (that's around $4.50 in US Dollars). The audience was full of kids and their parents, probably around 100 people. That was interesting because there's a province-wide Grade Level tournament going on in the city of Shunde, about a 2 hour drive away which started on August 11. The Grade Level tournament is a grueling event, 7 days, and if I'm not mistaken, 17 rounds. Chess is really growing in China, especially in Shenzhen, where there are a couple of renowned schools that offers chess in their daily curriculum.

Security is very tight, with dozens upon dozens of volunteers directing traffic and making sure the audience is in line. We were allowed entrance into the playing hall only after 15 minutes had gone off the clocks, and we could only stay for 15 minutes once we were in the playing hall. In a funny side note (well, funny to me at least), the China team was decked out in white and blue with the red flag emblem. Imagine that, the China team wearing red, white, and blue. I think Chairman Mao is rolling in his grave right now.

UPDATE 08/19/2011 00:50 SZ time: Stupid me, I was focused so much on the men's list that I didn't even notice that a girl near and dear to the Bay Area was playing. Former Bay Area resident, WGM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs, is playing in the tournament representing Mongolia. And Meg's in 1st place after 6 rounds, with 2 more days to go.

Susan Polgar at Norcal House of Chess Aug 10

2011-08-06T22:25:00.001-07:00

GM Susan Polgar was at the Norcal House of Chess Wednesday August 10 in the evening to give a lecture and a girls-only simul. The event was well attended by many members of the club, along with many parents. Among the people in attendance - GM Dejan Bolkov, IM Ricardo de Guzman, NM Arun Sharma, and NM Paul Truong, also the husband of GM Polgar.

My slight regret is that a few of the top-rated girl players at Weibel were not in attendance either because they were out of town or had other other things going on.

UNICEF Charity tournament

2011-08-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

Aditya Kumar, a student at Irvington High, ran a special chess tournament to raise funds for UNICEF over at the Bay Area Chess headquarters in north San Jose on Saturday. Results coming later.

GM Dejan Bolkov at Norcal House of Chess

2011-08-06T22:18:00.000-07:00

GM Dejan Bolkov from Bulgaria was present at the Norcal House of House all week to preside over a Grandmaster camp and to run a Friday night lecture and simul. Pictures from the lecture and simul are posted.

Bay Area Chess Grand Prix Part 2

2011-08-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

On Sunday July 31 Part 2 of the Bay Area Chess Grand Prix took place. To-be 4th grader Rayan Taghizadeh scored a perfect 4.0 to take clear first in the Open section in the $uper$wiss tournament. (His Dad Abu in the center of the pic spied me taking a pic of the playing hall!). To be 7th grader Rahul Mohan won the U1700 portion of the $uper$wiss

USCF Results: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201107312241.0

Dr. Kirshner's Summer Chess Camp

2011-07-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

yes, there is a summer chess camp going on at Weibel this summer. Well, not at the school, but in the neighborhood. Dr. Kirshner again is holding his annual development summer chess camp for K-2 Weibel-enrolled students who are going on to the team for the following school year. The purpose of this camp is to give the kids continuity in their chess studies and to get them a head start in their chess development for next year.

The first summer semester tournament for this camp is now in the books, and the results are here. The 2 top finishers are Louis Law and Ryan Song. Not surprisingly, they are 2 players who play fairly regularly in tournaments. Note to parents on the team - the way to improve is to play regularly in tournaments, and not just play the minimum amount of tournaments required.

Freedom Open and Norcal House of Chess Quads

2011-07-24T15:14:00.000-07:00

Two directors near and dear to the Weibel Chess community are hosting tournaments this weekend. First, Coach Ted Castro's Norcal House of Chess hosted a scholastic Quads tournament this weekend. Approximately 30 players played in this tournament. A few of our team members, Vincent, Ryan S and Kevin Z, played in this tournament, mostly with good results.

The USCF results for this tournament can be found here.

On the advanced/adult side of things, uber tournament director Salman Azhar and Bay Area Chess is hosting the 2nd annual Freedom Open, a 2-day, long time control tournament this weekend over at the Bay Area Chess headquarters in north San Jose. A number of Weibel team members are present here as well. Nikhil Jaha, Daniel Ho and Ishas Kekre are all off to good starts, with 1.5 out of 2.0 at the end of the first day. More on this later.

UPDATE: Daniel Ho winds up with 3.0 and probably a healthy rating point gain. Ishas Kekre wound up with 2.5.

Side note, in the Open section, there has been major fireworks, as soon-to-be high schooler and A player Joshua Cao has pulled off 2 major upsets, beating IM Emory Tate and NM Mike Splane so far. He has been anointed the title of "UM" - Upset Master!

UPDATE: Joshua continued to be on a roll as he drew with expert Julian Lin, but the good fortune came to an end in the last round against expert Neel Apte, who was on a roll himself, winning all 4 games in the Open section. A good way to go into the Barber tournament next weekend in Orlando, FL for Neel.

USCF results here.
Standings here.

August 2011 USCF Top 100 List

2011-07-18T14:53:00.000-07:00

The August 2011 USCF Top 100 lists are now out, and can be found here. Ratings based on rating at the end of June.

Weibel Team members on the lists:

#6, Age 9 - Michael Wang - 1884
#15, Age 8 - Anthony Zhou - 1553
#16, Age 10 - Kevin Moy - 1846
#41, Age 9 - Joanna Liu - 1534
#58, Age 10 - Abhishek Handigol - 1621
#72, Age 12 - Justin Wang - 1718
#92, Age 11 - Sameer Vijay - 1618

Girls Under 13:
#36 - Age 9 - Joanna Liu - 1534
#71 - Age 11 - Sharon Lu - 1387
#99 - Age 9 - Desiree Ho - 1271

Pacific Coast Open

2011-07-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

The annual Pacific Coast Open is currently being held at the Renaissance Hotel in scenic Agoura Hills, CA, a bit north of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley-Ventura Country region of the state. Most likely because of Carmageddon, attendance at this event is down about 15% from previous years. I counted 193 entries, including re-entries and house players, whereas in previous years the attendance was in the 220-240 range. The hotel is about 15 miles west of Ground Zero for the 405 freeway closure.

As usual, a number of Northern California players have made the 5 1/2 hour road trip down here. From the Weibel team, Kevin Moy (1854) is the only one here. And he's doing pretty well, as he has 3.5 out of 4.0 and playing on the top board for Round 5 in the U1900 section. This is a 6 round event, so there are two more rounds to go on Sunday. Many Weibel players opted to play in the Bagby tournament over at Mechanics on Saturday.

More updates to follow, if I can procure an internet connection. Otherwise, I'll update this post with the final results tomorrow. Perhaps I'll get some pictures as well.

07/17 15:26 Update: Kevin drew with Steven Morford (1798) in a complicated defensive battle, so he's at 4.0 out of 5.0 going into the final round. Steven is at the top of the leaderboard at 4.5, with 4 players at 4.0. So still a decent chance for Kevin to get 1st place if things go correctly.

Update 2 19:30 - typing from an iPad so sorry for the lack of formatting - Kevin won his last game and wound up with 5.0 out of 6.0.

Update 3 07/18 12:00 - Looks like Kevin tied for 1st in U1900, good for $1200. His rating went over 1900 as well, to 1908.

Tournament results here: http://www.pacificcoastopen.com/

Interesting side note - juniors got first place in all the upper sections, something fairly rare at a big-money CCA tournament where the majority of the players are adults. In addition to Kevin, Howard Jed Chen (17 years old) tied for first in the Open Section, and soon-to-be-high schooler Paul Richter tied for first place in the U2100 section.

Master and GrandMaster Summer Camps

2011-07-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

Summer is in full swing, and there are many chess camps going on. There are camps affiliated with Bay Area Chess, Ted Castro, and Chris Torres that are all local in Fremont going on this month.

For the advanced players, there are some camps of note:

This week, July 11-15, there is a master camp (1200 and above) with GM Sam Shankland in Fremont at Mission San Jose Elementary. Go to bayareachess.com for more details.

On August 1-5, Norcal House of Chess will be hosting a Grandmaster Camp (1600-2100) with GM Dejan Bokjov. Here are the details for this camp:

Who: Advance players 1600-2100

When: August 1-5 (Mon-Fri)

9 am. to 4 pm. (early and late-pick up are also available)

What: Summer Camp Grandmaster Edition!

Cost: $ 200/half-day (whole week) or $ 370/whole day (whole week); other options are possible -- 3 whole days only, 2 days only, etc.

Where: NorCal House of Chess 47655 Warm Springs Blvd., South Bldg. of Northwestern Polytechnic University (NPU), Fremont, CA 94539.

Guest Coach: Grandmaster Dejan Bojkov (2544), former coach of World Champion for Women and excellent professional chess trainer! A Bulgarian GM who qualified from the Sports Academy of Sofia as a trainer, a profession which he has followed in various countries. After his work as a trainer in Kavala (Greece), he was hired to coach ex World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova. Bojkov has also written more than 30 reports for chessbase.com and chessbase.de. Bojkov was champion of Bulgaria in 2009 and was a member of the Bulgarian team at the European championships in 2009. In cooperation with Vladimir Georgiev he has written "A Course in Chess Tactics" which appeared as a Gambit publication in 2010.

Also, IM Emory Tate will be teaching a couple of master camps at the Harker School in Cupertino/San Jose on the weeks of July 25-29 and Aug 8-14. Details at bayareachess.com

Finally, Mechanics Institute in San Francisco will be holding their 11th annual Master camp for kids 1200-2200. Details at http://www.chessclub.org/children/camp.php

Sacramento Chess Championship

2011-07-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

The annual 4th of July weekend bash known as the Sacramento Chess Championship will take place this year from July 2 to July 4 in the heart of Sacramento at the Best Western Expo Inn. As of Friday July 1, there are 56 registrants, including 4 from the Weibel Team - Michael Wang, Kevin Moy, Justin Wang and Anthony Zhou.

Pairings and Standings

Saturday 7/2 update: just about 100 degrees in Sacramento today. There are now 72 entrants for this tournament, which is approaching the max that the playing room can hold for players to be seated comfortably.

After 2 rounds, Michael Wang is at .5, playing up in the Open section. Kevin Moy and Anthony Zhou both are at 1.5 out of 2 in the U2000 section, but both have byes for Rounds 3 and 4.

FINAL RESULTS:

Justin Wang and Kevin Moy both had 4 points in the Reserve Section (U2000) and won $22 each.
Anthony Zhou got 2.5

In the Open Section, Michael Wang wound up with 2.0 points.

2011 North American Youth Chess Championship

2011-06-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

The 2011 North American Youth Chess Championship started on Sunday June 25 in scenic Tarrytown, NY. A number of Bay Area kids, including Weibel's Alisha Chawla, are competing in this tournament. This is an international tournament, FIDE-rated, with 264 participants from the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, and Bermuda taking part. The top player in each section (and there are numerous sections - U8, U10, U12, U14, U16 and U18 for both Open and Girls) will earn the FIDE Candidate Master title.

Official Website: http://www.chesseducators.com/northamericanyouth/

UPDATE: FINAL STANDINGS. Alisha ended up with 3.5 out of 7. Leyton Ho and Vignesh Panchanatham both ended up with draws and came up just a bit short for 1st place and the coveted CM FIDE title. So, after 7 rounds, results for the Northern California participants:

U8 Girls
Estella Wong (1042) 5.0 (tied for 3rd)
Chenyi Zhao (1207) 4.5
Selena Wong (940) 4.0

U10 Open
Leyton Ho (1717) 5.5 (clear 2nd place)
Justin Tan (1476) 3.5
Lawrence Wong (1424) 3.5

U10 Girls
Alisha Chawla (1227) 3.5

U12 Open
Vignesh Panchanatham (2025) 5.0 (tied for 3rd)
Siddarth Banik (1951) 3.5

U18 Open
Nicholas Karas (2150) 3.5

Bay Area Chess Grand Prix in Pleasanton

2011-06-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

The world of Bay Area chess descended upon Pleasanton at the Hilton Hotel on Saturday, as around 80 players competed in 3 tournaments - the advanced $uper$wiss for players 1200 and above, a scholastic Swiss tournament, and a late afternoon Quads tournament. The Grand Prix is a concept borrowed from other sports (and also used by Weibel every year when hosting their 3 fall Quads tournaments) where points are accumulated for performing well at various tournaments. At the end of the tournaments (in this case, 3 tournaments, overall winners based on the total number of points accumulated will be declared the winners of the Grand Prix).

The Hilton Hotel in Pleasanton is a very nice location, with 2 separated event rooms that looked like it could accomodate around 120 chess players. Centrally located in Pleasanton, the location is ideal as it is central to the Fremont area as well as the people who live in the Peninsula and Contra Costa areas.

Michael W

Kia S

Anthony Z

As usual there are always large numbers from Fremont that seem to be at every tournament, and this tournament was no exception. 6 players from the Weibel Team played in the 3 tournaments on Saturday.

USCF results:

$uper$wiss

Scholastic Swiss

Scholastic Quads

ALAN'S K-2 SUMMER CHESS PROGRAM IS UNDERWAY

2011-06-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

I am pleased with the turn-out for my special summer chess program. I wanted 12 and I got 12 students. As I noted in my earlier e-mails, there is room for single day drop ins. The information is available from the http://www.WeibelChess.org site. Just look for the Alan's Summer Chess link. There is just one catch--any K-2 player (Fall 2011 school grade) attending must be committed to attending the Team next year. Third grade players who have no U.S. Chess Federation rating or are rated under 300 are also welcome.

I understand a few parents are concerned about the commitment of 6 chess tournaments during the 2011-2012 school year. Considering that almost all the tournaments are in Fremont or Santa Clara County, that really doesn't require a lot of travel to complete the 6. The required State Championships in mid-April are also in Santa Clara. And, yes, there are Sunday events as well. Most of our Team players attend far more events because they love chess competition.

If you have any questions, drop me an e-mail: alan@WeibelChess.org

Watch for Carl's notices on summer tournaments and chess camps. You can find a list of summer tournaments and weekly events at my http://www.CalNorthYouthChess.org/Tournaments.html page. That site lists a few tournaments not found on the official CalChess website.

Alan

Las Vegas brillancy prize

2011-06-21T13:06:00.000-07:00

At the Las Vegas National Open last weekend, prizes were given out for the best games played (players aged 14 and under who submitted their games), as judged by GM Ron Henley. Weibel Team member Abhishek Handigol got one of the prizes, for this game.

Norcal House of Chess June Quads

2011-06-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

the Norcal House of Chess hosted a scholastic Quads tournament this past weekend. Good to see many of our up and coming younger kids play in this tournament, even though summer vacation has just started. Anvi was the big gainer - she took 3 out of 4 and gained over 100 rating points, to 752.

USCF Rating report: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201106188421

GM Robson at Norcal House of Chess

2011-06-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

A number of Weibel team members attended the lecture and simul that was given by GM Ray Robson Friday night at the Norcal House of Chess in Fremont, CA. The lecture and simul was given to approximately 30 members. His dad, Dr. Gary Robson, was also on hand to promote his new book, Chess Child. Yes, GM Robson did win all of his games. Thanks to Club director and Weibel coach Ted Castro for promoting this event!

Las Vegas Chess Festival - final results

2011-06-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Kevin and Abhishek with the big payday at the National Open (well, not really)

well another long weekend over. To some extent most of the top kids across the country who played in this tournament found out that being at the top of a section doesn't necessarily translate into big money. But a good tournament nonetheless for a couple of our team members.

U1800 - Kevin Moy 4.5 - won $128
U1600 - Abhishek Handigol 4.0 - won $67, and won one of the brillancy prizes.

Las Vegas Chess Festival

2011-06-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

The annual National Open is going on this weekend in Las Vegas, as well as the International Youth Championship, replacing the Polgar Tournament, which has relocated to Chicago.
In the National Open, after 4 rounds out of 6:

U1800
Kevin Moy 3.5
Joanna Liu 1.5

U1600
Abhishek Handigol 3.0

In the Youth Championship, after 3 rounds out of 5:
U14 - U1100
Angela Chan 2.0
Veronica Show 0.0

U9 Open
Serafina Show 1.0

USCF Top 100 Lists - June 2011 edition

2011-06-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

Congrats to all the Weibel Team members who made the lists. Rating is based on end of April rating. You are truly among the elite in the entire country:

The entire lists can be found here: http://main.uschess.org/component/option,com_top_players/Itemid,371/

12 year old
#81 - Justin Wang 1711

10 year old
#21 - Kevin Moy 1795
#59 - Abhishek Handigol 1597

9 year old
#2 - Michael Wang 1904

8 year old
#20 - Joanna Liu 1543
#22 - Anthony Zhou 1506

Under 13 Girls -
#38 - Joanna Liu - 8 years old - 1543
#79 - Sharon Lu - 11 years old - 1357
#86 - Desiree Ho - 9 years old - 1333
#99 - Serafina Show - 9 years old - 1285

Azhar Memorial Grade Level Tournament

2011-05-31T10:45:00.000-07:00

The Weibel future! Our 1st place kindergarten team, Oliver, Louis, Eshaan and Vincent.

in conjunction with the CalChess State Championships at the Fremont Marriott this weekend, there was a scholastic grade level tournament on Memorial Day. Here is a report from Dr. Alan Kirshner regarding our Weibel players:

Today there was a Grade Level Chess Championship run through Bay Area Chess. I am happy to report that Weibel players did well.

Let me start with our wonderful Kindergarten crew--and I do mean crew. We had four players attend. Oliver Wu and Louis Law tied for second winning four of their five games. Eshaan Mistry tied for sixth with 3.5 out of 5 and Vincent Wang tied for eighth with 3 wins. There were 29 players in this group of Kindergartners. I think this holds well for the future of chess in the Bay Area and for Weibel. Weibel took first place in the team competition, defeating Encinal who had seven players, by 1.5 points.

Only one First Grade student showed from Weibel--Amy Chan. She tied for seventh place with 3 out of five points. (31 players) To have a Team you need two players and three count for points.

Second Grade had 43 competitors. Our group of seven players all did well, but not enough to win first as a team. Actually, first place went to Bay Area Chess--obviously not one school. Yet, once again--as at the Nationals--deja vu--Mission San Jose beat us by 1/2 a point. 10.5 to 10. Our top scorer was Surya Teja Mandadi who tied for second with 4 out of 5. Shivangi Gupta, Atri Surapaneni and Kevin Zhu also had a plus score of 3 and tied for 11th. While Jaden Wei finished with 2.5 he lost to the winner who had a rating twice his as well as to another player 300 points higher. Anvi Surapaneni and Enya Mistry both showed well and finished near the top half of the pack. What potential this group shows for future years.

Only Grace Xu played for Weibel in Third Grade. And, while we had no team, she won the whole thing--yup, she took first place on tie-breaks.

Weibel only had two players in Fourth Grade, but they did well enough to get us first place even over the multi-team club of Bay Area Chess and Mission San Jose! Sara Kaushik became our second first place winner of the day with Kia Sadeghi only a half-point behind.

Only one Weibel Player showed up in both Fifth Grade and Sixth Grade. Rishabh Khurana in Fifth Grade finished out of the trophies, but Rohan Koka, in Sixth Grade, did tie for fifth.

Only one of our Horner Junior High School students entered the 7-12 grade division--Shubham Gupta and tied for seventh.

Calchess State Championships - Final results

2011-05-31T10:39:00.000-07:00

All out of 6 points:
Xpert section -
Michael Wang 2.5

A section
Kevin Moy 3.5

B section
Justin Wang 4.0 (won $50)
Sameer Vijay 3.5
Abhishek Handigol 3.0
Joanna Liu 2.0

C section
Calvin Tam 2.5
Alisha Chawla 1.5

Calchess State Championships

2011-05-29T22:57:00.000-07:00

The regular Calchess State Championships are going at the Fremont Marriott this Memorial Day weekend. The D-E section is complete (U1400), and results (out of 6 games) for Weibel Team members:

Ishas Kekre 4.0
Telvin Zhong 3.0
Cynthia Zhang 3.0

In the other sections, 4 games have been played, with 2 more to go on Monday: Results up-to-date for Weibel Team members:

Expert (U2200):
Michael Wang 2.5

A (U2000):
Kevin Moy 3.0

B (U1800):
Abhishek Handigol 3.0
Sameer Vijay 2.5
Justin Wang 2.0
Joanna Liu 2.0

C (U1600):
Calvin Tam 1.5
Alisha Chawla 0.5

Fremont Elementary School Championship

2011-05-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

The 2nd Annual Fremont Elementary School Chess Championship was held at Irvington High School on Saturday, May 21. A total of 13 Weibel Team members and/or Weibel-attendee players played.

2nd grader Jaden Wei took 1st place in the U1000 division. Jaden is part of a very talented 2nd grade group at Weibel that will be very good for years to come. Two other Weibel students, 2nd grader Atri Surapaneni and 6th grader Rohan Koka, tied for 2nd in this section.

3rd grader Anthony Zhou, who will attend Weibel next year and be a huge part of Weibel's Nationals group, finished 2nd in the Open section.

CalNorth Girls' Grade Level Championships

2011-05-16T01:03:00.000-07:00

61 girls, plus 4 moms competed in the 3rd annual Cal North Girls' Grade Level Championships on May 14. This was held at Mission Valley Elementary in Fremont.

Weibel Nationals Team Member Sharon Lu tied for 1st in the Open section and won the subsequent Blitz playoff, thus taking home the 1st Place trophy.

a couple of Weibel Team pictures

2011-05-11T01:45:00.000-07:00

most of the team is here (Sameer didn't get the message about the photo shoot apparently)

Coach D trying to pump up the kids before the last round.

Nationals Team Room

2011-05-09T18:50:00.001-07:00

memories of the weekend past - our team room at the Nationals, the Ming Room.

Nationals - a recap

2011-05-09T01:43:00.000-07:00

sorry I'm late with this blog. Busy day today running around downstairs waiting for Kevin to come out.

We ended up in 3rd place behind the powerful team from Illinois and a mere 0.5 points behind our arch-rivals from Mission San Jose with 17 points. Going in, I had thought that we would get 18.5 points (10.5 points from our top 2 boards and 8 points from the 3rd and 4th boards), and obviously we didn't quite meet expectations. In order to meet expectations, we had to have players play above their heads, and, well, as it turned out, no one did. Also, it didn't help that 2 5th graders who transferred out this year who would have been our 4th boards wound up getting 5.0 and 4.5 points, respectively in the K-5 division, playing for other schools. It was a frustrating day because not only was 2nd place there for the taking, but first place as well, as the Illinois team did not have a particularly good tournament.

Final scores (out of a possible 7.0):
Kevin 5.0 (finished in a tie for 11th place, was the highest 5.0 player)
Michael 5.0 (finished in a tie for 11th place, gets the 15th place trophy)
Sameer 3.5
Sharon 3.5
Ishas 3.5
Calvin 3.0
Serafina 3.0

Also, Louis finished with 3.0 in K-1, Atri with 4.0 in K5U900, and Angela with 5.0 in K6U1000.

Nationals, end of Round 5

2011-05-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

wow, an exhausting day is now over. It's 11pm here and time to go to bed.

The K-6 team is at 13.5 points. Not a particularly good round, only added 1.5 to our total, but most everyone was playing up. We're trailing the Illinois team by 1.5 going into Round 6.

Weibel K-6 players at the end of Round 5:

Michael 4.0
Kevin 4.0
Sameer 3.0
Sharon 2.5
Ishas 2.5
Serafina 2.5
Calvin 2.0

Louis has 2.0 in K-1
Angela has 3.0 in K-6U1000
Atri has 3.0 in K-5U900

Nationals, results after Round 4

2011-05-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

we're .5 points behind the great team from Illinois in the K-6 Championship Division! 12.5 to 12

Kevin has 3.5
Michael has 3.0
Sameer has 3.0
Serafina has 2.5

Sharon has 2.0
Calvin has 2.0
Ishas has 1.5

In other divisions -

Louis has 2.0 in K-1
Angela has 2.0 in K-6 U1000
Atri has 3.0 in K-5 U900

Nationals, Round 2

2011-05-06T18:18:00.001-07:00

Kevin was out after barely 2 minutes, he's now at 2.0

Michael won, and Sameer with the big upset, so 3 of us with 2.0.

Serafina has 1.0, so the team has 7.0 after 2 rounds.

Nationals, Round 1

2011-05-06T18:17:00.001-07:00

After Round 1, the K-6 group has 3.0 out of a possible 4.0. Michael, Kevin and Sameer won.