Junior High Nationals - Final Update

The Horner Junior High team captured 2nd place in the K-8 Championship section, behind the powerful Kennedy Junior High team from Cupertino.  Congratulations to Daniel Ho for his fine 5.5 performance and getting the 13th place trophy on tiebreaks.

Daniel's younger sister 5th grader Desiree fell short in her bid to win the K-9 U1250 section at the Junior High Nationals.  She still finished with a fine 5.5, tying for 5th place and getting the 7th place trophy on tiebreaks.  The K-9 U1250 team from Weibel finished in 6th place.

3rd graders Shivangi Gupta and Jeremy Chen both had 5.5 in the K-8 U1000 section as the Weibel Team finished 4th, just a scant one point away from 1st.  Jeremy wound up with the 7th place trophy and Shivangi wound up with the 9th place trophy.

5th grader Sara Kaushik won a trophy for being the highest point scorer for U1100 in the K-8 championship section.

Junior High Nationals - End of Round 6 update

Desiree Ho won her last game and is now at 5.5 out of 6, alone in first place going into the final round of the K-9 U1250 section.  She will be going for a national championship title!

The Horner K-8 team is tied for 3rd place heading into the final game with a decent shot of getting as high as 2nd place.
The Weibel K-8 U1000 team is also tied for 3rd place heading into the final round, also with a decent chance to finish in 2nd place.
The Weibel K-9 U1250 team has dropped back a bit and is now tied for 5th place heading into the final round.

Other notable scorers:
In the K-8 Championship section, Horner's Daniel Ho (K-8 Championship) has 4.5/6.0 . A great weekend for the Ho family so far!
In the K-8 U1000 section, Jeremy Chen and Shivangi Gupta have a 4.5/6.0.  Anvi Surapaneni has 4.0/6.0.

Good luck to all, let's finish strong!

Junior High Nationals - end of Round 5 update

The Horner K-8 team is still tied for 4th place heading into the final 2 games.
The Weibel K-9 U1250 team is also tied for 4th place heading into the final 2 games
The Weibel K-8 U1000 team is alone in 4th place heading into the final 2 games.

Notable scorers:
In the K-9 U1250 section, Desiree Ho has had a fine tournament so far with 4.5/5.0
In the K-8 U1000 section, Jeremy Chen has a 4.0/5.0 so far
Vittal Thirumalai (K-9 U1250), Daniel Ho (K-8 Championship), Kory Hui (K-8 Championship), and Shivangi Gupta (K-8 U1000) all have 3.5 out of 5.0.  Former Weibel student and now attending Stratford Middle School Sameer Vijay also has 3.5 out of 5.0.

Junior High Nationals

The Junior High Nationals will be taking place in San Diego April 27-29 at the picturesque Town and Country Resort.

17 members from the Weibel Chess Team, along with 7 members from the Horner Junior High Team will travel down to San Diego this weekend to compete. 

58 total players from Northern California will make the trek down to San Diego, including 5 members from the Kennedy Middle High team in Cupertino who will attempt to take down the famed IS 318 Junior High team from New York that just won the HS Nationals in Minneapolis 2 weekends ago.  That promises to be a tremendous competition.

Udates will be provided for members of the Weibel team as they come in.  More information can be found by going here.

Update 04/28/2011 08:05pm - Not a particularly good weekend so far for any of the Weibel or Horner teams as the halfway point of the tournament has been reached.  The Horner K-8 Championship team is in 5th place going into Round 5, as is the Weibel K-9 U1250 team.  The Weibel K-8 U1000 team is in 4th place going into Round 5.   I think most of the players in San Diego are now finding out that the players from across the country have done some serious preparation.

Individually, Desiree is at 3.5/4.0 in the K-9 U1250 group, and Jeremy, Shivangi, and Anvi are at 3.0/4.0 in the K-8 U1000 group. 

Sunday Updates on the Girls' Nationals

Update 04/22 02:40pm:  Weibel 10 and Under finished in 2nd, 0.5 out of first.  Serafina, Desiree and Anvi all finished with 4.0.

Going into the final round, Weibel has 10.0 and is 0.5 off of the first place lead in the 10 and Under Division.  Anvi won a key game for Weibel in Round 5 to keep Weibel in contention.

Serafina 4.0
Desiree 3.0
Anvi 3.0
Alisha 2.0

In the final round, Serafina will be playing up but the other girls will be playing down.  The team that is leading, 2 of their top 3 players will be playing up. 

Simple Analysis:  Desiree and Anvi need to win round 6 in order for Weibel to have a good shot at taking the title - both are playing down.

Update on the Girls' Nationals

4/22 08:15am

after round 4 in the 10 and Under division, Serafina and Anvi have 3.0, and Desiree and Alisha have 2.0.  Serafina's only loss has been to her buddy and former Weibel team member Joanna Liu (1558).  Joanna has a perfect 4.0 going into Round 5 and is tied for first.  Weibel has 8.0 after 4 rounds and is 0.5 points out of first place.

In the 12 and Under division, San Jose 6th grader Ashritha Eswaran sits alone in first place at a perfect 4.0 going into Round 5.  Ashritha is a student of Weibel Coach Ted Castro.  In the 8 and Under division, another of Ted's students, Chadbourne Elementary attendee Chenyi Zhao, is just outside of first place at 3.5.

Final two rounds are on Sunday.

Weibel Girls at the Girls' Nationals

A note from Head Coach Dr. Alan Kirshner:

ALL:

I want to take this opportunity to wish good luck to the four + one Weibel girls attending the Girls Nationals in Chicago this weekend: Serafina, Anvi, Desiree and Alisha. The plus one is Joanna who as most of you know is one of the highest rated players in the country. She holds the record for the highest rated girl ever at Weibel and we have had and have some strong girl players. Last year her parents bought a home in the Gomes district. Her father said at the tournament this weekend that Joanna's heart is still with Weibel.

 

This will be the first of 3 Nationals that members of the Weibel Team will be competing in over the next few weeks.  Let's see if Weibel can repeat as 10 and Under champions this weekend!

Weibel match against Norcal House of Chess

On Sunday April 1, select members from the Weibel Chess Team faced off against members from the powerful Norcal House of Chess (of which many members of the Weibel Chess team are part of).  It was a fierce battle - Norcal jumped out to a 9-3 lead but some key wins by some of higher rated boards cut the lead down to 10-9 at the end of the first round.  The 2nd and final round was nip-and-tuck all the way to the very last game, and the score ended up tied at 19-19.

Weibel versus Norcal House of Chess - USCF rating here

The previous day, the Berkeley Chess school traveled down to Fremont to face the Norcal House of Chess in a rematch.  Previously the 2 Clubs had battled in Berkeley back in January. Norcal House of Chess, with numerous players from the Weibel Chess Team and sadly former members of the Weibel Chess team who have either graduated and/or transferred to other schools, defeated Berkeley Chess School 33-21.

Norcal House of Chess vs. Berkeley Chess School - USCF rating here