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.