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