FROM ALAN:
As I believe you all know the Weibel parents overwhelming voted last year not to attend any scholastic tournaments that Dr. Salman Azhar organizes including his State Championships.  I said we would revisit this decision this year.  I have asked two parents to express their reasons for going and against going to the CalChess State Championships on April 26 and 27.  I decided against listing the names of the parents as I wanted the votes to be based on the positions and not the authors.    I am distributing these position statements today and will invite anyone who wants to contribute comments to do so.  These other comments will also be distributed to all the Team parents.  Next weekend I will send out a ballot.  If the vast majority of those voting or a clear majority of the Team parents vote one way that will be the position of the Team.  If, however, there is no clear decision then the Weibel parents can decide for themselves if they want to play as individuals or create teams.  Please do read the two position papers below.

POSITION PAPER TO ONCE AGAIN NOT ATTEND THE CALCHESS STATE SCHOLASTIC CHAMPIONSHIPS:
As a parent of a player that was not directly involved in the organizer, Salman Azhar's, attacks on the Weibel Chess Team, some of its players and parents at the CalChess Grade Level in 2011, I ask you to vote not to attend the State Tournament this year for the following reasons:
1) In the 2011 Grade Level the organizer Salman Azhar, who will be running the 2013 CalChess State Championships at the end of April, publicly called one of our players a liar after our player questioned Salman Azhar's integrity by his asking one of his Directors to delay the start of  his game because his opponent, Salman Azhar's son, was going to be late.  The Director also had a son in the same division.  Both individuals should have requested that the Chief Tournament Director handle the situation.  Salman Azhar continued to attack the parents of this player for teaching their child to cheat.  From what Dr. Kirshner told me he also went on to claim that Weibel always cheats.  I saw many of his attacks on Facebook.

2) In that event as well, the tournament organizer (Salman Azhar) decided to pull a Weibel chess player out of the tournament after he unreasonably expelled the kid's father from the hotel.  It is true that the parent did question Salman Azhar as to why he delayed action on another parent who was yelling at his son.   I understand from a number of witnesses that Salman Azhar refused to take immediate action because he said it was just Weibel causing problems again.  The tournament organizer, Salman Azhar, then decided to walk the little kid out of the hotel alone without the supervision of any other Weibel parent or Weibel team guardian.  As a parent, I would never allow a stranger to take my kid anywhere alone. Salman Azhar should have brought the kid's father or the Weibel team guardian back to the tournament to pick up the kid. After this incident, I decided to stand by the tournament entrance for each of my kid's game until my kid finished. This was too unproductive and too uncomfortable as tournament entrances were often crowded. After the tournament, I simply decided not to go to any tournaments hosted by Salman Azhar.

3) The 2010-2011 State Tournaments were run poorly. They did not start on time. The space was too cramped for the players. Pairings were posted last minute and placed poorly. This caused unnecessary stress for both kids and adults.
The amount of people in the room often exceeded the maximum capacity per life safety code.  In case of any emergency event, it would not be fun. The organizer, Salman Azhar, has historic data to estimate the number of players plus chaperones but failed to reserve the correct size of room in favor of , I believe, to make more profits in hosting tournaments.

4) Another reason not to attend the 2013 State Championships is because Weibel chess team has lots of girl chess players who will be attending the Girl's National in Chicago the same weekend. Going to the State tournament will impact the strength of Weibel team significantly.  The CalChess has a rule that the States should not be held on the same weekend as a National Championship.  They violated this rule to suit Salman Azhar and I believe this is another reason we should not attend the State Championships.

5) Chess is not the best team sport but as part of Weibel chess community, we can make some history. In the past couple years, we have shown the United State Chess Foundation that West Coast can have  strong chess teams. We are one of those teams, The Weibel Chess Team.  We should make our decision as a team and we should be proud to be part of that team. We should stand behind our players and support each other.

As a parent, I refuse to participate in any event that can put my child in danger and create unnecessary stress for myself.  I ask you to do the same by voting not to attend this April's CalChess State Championships.

POSITION PAPER TO ATTEND THE CALCHESS STATE SCHOLASTIC CHAMPIONSHIPS:
The State Chess Championship is the main championship that we, Weibel Elementary, play for every year. This is what the team practices week after week for, to do well at the States. Last year, the parents voted not to play in the tournament, although I feel that most of the parents really did not understand the ramifications of this decision. It denied the kids the chance to play in the ultimate tournament to test their skills against players from all over the state, the ultimate learning opportunity. It denied the opportunity for some kids to win an individual state title, either to obtain a Varsity title or some lower level title, and in some cases it was a last chance to win a title.  It denied us the opportunity to win numerous team titles, a feeling of togetherness and accomplishment for many of the kids at all levels on the Team that can't be replicated by any other tournament.

Furthermore, I saw numerous 6th grade kids (and even some 5th graders) on the Team last year literally quit, never to play another game, as a result of having no more incentive to play. Sure, some of the players went to a misplaced Junior High Nationals, tournament, and some of the players went to the more appropriate Elementary School Nationals tournament, but National tournaments should be a complement for the State tournament, not a substitute. This has had a far-reaching effect on our younger players as well. Without an incentive or target to play for late last year, many of the kids and parents slacked off, for lack of a better term, from last winter through the summer, and I feel that has had a major effect on this year's team, as I have not seen the big gains in player ratings that normally would happen by this time of the year. Usually by now I would see 10 to 15 players with huge gains in rating - this year I have seen only about 2 or 3 players with huge gains - hardly anyone has improved from the end of last school year until now.

As parents, we have to realize that it's the kids that get hurt, it's the kids that will miss out on a once a year, maybe even a once in a lifetime opportunity. Kids need to be goal-oriented to do well, especially at the Team level. Please do not be selfish and take away the main goal for the kids. If you have a personal problem with the tournament organizers, discuss this personally with Dr. Kirshner, but do not deny the ultimate chance for the kids to shine.

For those of you who are new to the Weibel Team and, after having read the position papers, want further information as to what occurred last year, you can go to the following sources:
http://www.calnorthyouthchess.org/Alan-postedUSCF.html
This was my response to a question asked on May 11, 2012 in the U.S. Chess Federation Forum.  I wrote it while I was in Nashville  for the momentous National Elementary School tournament at which Weibel Chess took first in the K-6 Championship division.

http://www.calnorthyouthchess.org/WeibelChess/ParentMeeting-12-20-11.html
This is the tape of the parents' meeting held after the 2011 CalChess Grade Level in which the coaches and parents present voted overwhelmingly not to attend any scholastic tournaments organized by Dr. Salman Azhar and his Bay Area Chess business.

http://www.calnorthyouthchess.org/WeibelChess/BrianLuComplaint.html
Dr. Brian Lu's complaint filed against Dr. Salman Azhar for his unprofessional actions as organizer of the 2011 CalChess Grade Level Championships.

http://www.calnorthyouthchess.org/WeibelChess/ZhiZhouComplaintUSCF.html
Zhi Zhou's complaint filed against Dr. Salman Azhar's ethics as organizer of the 2011 CalChess Grade Level Championships.

While others sent complaints and comments to the U.S. Chess Federation, I believe that there is enough information in these links to whet anyone's curiosity as to why the Weibel parents voted to not attend Dr. Salman Azhar's and his Bay Area Chess youth events last year.  The question at hand that will be voted on next week is whether to continue our boycott of the prestigious State Championship as CalChess selected Dr. Azhar to organize the event again.  Yes, there was at least one other bid to do so.

There was no official action taken on the part of the U.S. Chess Federation  on the complaints.  They simply failed to respond to any follow-up inquiries by the parents.

I want to thank all of the parents and children who attended the CalNorth Youth Chess Age Level extravaganza Sunday.  While we had a few logistics problems that did not rival the lights going out at the Super Bowl, our super event celebrating Superman's and my 75th birthday was an amazing success and you made it so.  Not only because it was the Weibel parents who did almost all of the volunteer work, but because your children did well in their over the board chess games.  I admit that by the end of the day I was exhausted and at times a bit cranky. Yet, every time I went outside and saw happy kids enjoying themselves, in formal and informal activities, with cute designs painted on their faces thanks to Josh Eads of Success Chess, I was energized anew.  You can find the results of the Championships at http://calnorthyouthchess.org/AgeLevel2013/PAIRINGSandSTANDINGS.html

There is no chess for Team NEXT Friday, February 15, as the school is closed due to Presidents' Weekend.

I will soon be sending out information about the Super-Nationals at the beginning of April.

I will be  distributing arguments pro and con, that two parents composed, for attending the CalChess State Championships at the end of April.  After e-mail discussion the team parents and coaches will have an opportunity to vote on whether our Team will attend.





For those who are looking for another chess tournament there are two events next Saturday, February 9.  For the Challenger Team player and Potential Team players, I suggest the Hanley Chess Academy Tournament in San Jose.  For our Special Team member the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco has a scholastic tournament.  You can get more information at http://www.calnorthyouthchess.org/Tournaments.html