Labor Day Chess Festival results

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

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

 



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

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

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

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

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