Viva Las Vegas - North American Open

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

		October 2011 Weibel Quad pictures VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL ADD MORE PHOTOS This online album has 6 photos on SkyDrive.

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Weibel Quads - Grand Prix #1

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

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

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

some pics from the G/60





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

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

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

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

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

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

Dr. Kirshner's Summer Chess Camp

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

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

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

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

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

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.