I am pleased to report that the
Weibel Chess Team and Club players with their parents and their coaches deserve
Kudos for their results at the 7th Annual CalNorth Youth Chess Age
Level Sunday, February 9. In 2000,
during a conversation with NM Sunil Weeramantry, the father of GM Hiraku Nakamura, presently the number 1 US
player, he told me an interesting story.
When Hiraku was 12 years old Sunil told him that he felt it was time to
get him a Grand Master as his coach. Sunil reported that Hiraku told him that
he definitely did not want a coach.
Sunil, surprised, asked him why.
Hiraku said, “Well, then they will take credit for my greatness.”
The moral of the story is that while
we as parents, friends, teachers and coaches can inspire and provide
opportunities to our children their ultimate success comes from within. A few weeks ago I had two of our Weibel coaches
patting themselves for training one of our students. I had to step in and tell them of the long
successful history this young girl had in chess before she entered any of their
classrooms. She took the best from each
of them and succeeded because she was the talent. I get sick to my stomach when someone in the
business of chess exploits the talents of a player who took one lesson from
them, went to their camp one summer or shook their hand. Granted, I know they are making a living at
chess or have a need to assuage their
own ego, but I say, let the results speak for themselves. I thank the large
number of Weibel players and their parents for coming to the Age Level,
especially those parents and coaches that volunteered their time. In my mind
they expressed the respect for Weibel and the program I organized because of my
children and one of their coaches, Richard Shorman.
On to the
Weibel Team and individual results in the CalNorth Youth Chess Age Level
Championships, one of the largest youth chess by age events, in the
nation. This year Carl Moy skillfully organized the event.
I was asked a few weeks back by a chess
program director as to how the CalNorth Youth event drew so many players—over 500
signed up this year. Sadly, due to
sickness and other reasons many players withdrew at the last minute. As soon as it is rated, which should be
Tuesday, I will have a better count. My
response to this chess organizer was that Northern California has loads of
programs and players that are boycotting, for various reason, the CalChess State
tournaments under the auspices of Dr.
Salman Azhar. These players, schools and
programs have selected to come to the CalNorth events so they can test their
mettle. Added to these numbers are the
players who love good competition wherever they can find it.
Weibel took
first place Team trophies in the 6, 7, 8, 9(here we tied with Chadborne), 10,
and 11 year old divisions. In the 12
year old Team division Tierra Linda Junior High School of San Carlos won and in
the 13 year old division (the oldest age competing) Hopkins Junior High School
took first.
There was
no Team trophy in the 4-5 Age Group or the 4-9 Special Open competitions. The 4-9 age group was established to give the
top young players longer time controls. This year Carl Moy decided to create a
special award called the Kirshner Cup for first place. He felt this would be a special legacy award
for my creation of this event. I might
note that all first place winners were given certificates to attend the NorCal
House of Chess Summer camps.
Let me
begin the individual awards with the 4-9 Special Open. I worked a computer in the younger players
hall. Due to the longer time controls of
the 4-9 Special Open Division they played in the 10 through 13 year-old
building. After we were done I walked over to the other building and was met by
an excited third grader Oliver Wu who shouted out, “I think I have won the
Kirshner Cup.” I felt great for this
was another birthday award for me—Oliver is Weibel’s top third grade player and
one of the best in the country. I felt
honored to give him the trophy at the awards’ ceremonies.
Three other
Weibel 3rd grade players entered this division designed for those
with a minimum 1000 rating: Louis
Law, Vincent Wang and Eshaan
Mistry. Eshaan decided to switch over to
the 4-9 Open after competing for three rounds in the 8 year old section without
losing a game.
We awarded 15 plus trophies. The plus refers to those who
tied at 15th place. We awarded logo
chess medals to all participants. The 5,
6, 7, 8, 9 year olds played 5 games. The
10, 11, 12. 13 year olds played 4 games. Here are the Weibel trophy winners:
FIVE YEAR OLDS (23 entries):
Aakash Koneru (2nd)
David Gao (3rd)
SIX YEAR OLDS (51 entries):
Rutansh Pathak (3rd tie)
Alex Han (9th tie)
Mihir Gadre (11th )
Nik Sadeghi (11th tie)
Reyansh Samanta (11th tie)
Zayaan Madhini (11th tie)
SEVEN YEAR OLDS (79 entries):
Dharshan Vetrivelan (2nd tie)
Prisha Jain (4th tie)
Weslie Chen (4th tie)
Umesh Gopi (4th tie)
Isha Varada (4th tie)
Aryan Yenni (4th tie)
Erin Law (14th tie)
Mihir Chauhan (14th tie)
EIGHT YEAR OLDS (109 entries)
Sasha Prakir (1st tie)
Sidarth Raman (4th)
Surya Somasundaram (4th tie)
NINE YEAR OLDS (76 entries)
Aaron Lee (3rd)
Stanley Ko (3rd tie)
Zayaan Khan (3rd tie)
Frederick Zhang (3rd tie)
TEN YEAR OLDS (75
entries)
Jeremy Chen (1st)
Rahul Ravishankar(4th tie)
Anish Kasam (7th tie)
Jaden Wei (7th tie)
Prithvi Nagamanivel (7th tie)
Tanabh Mishra (7th tie)
ELEVEN YEAR OLDS (45 entries)
Daniel Emmanuel (3rd tie)
Suryateja Mandadi (5th)
Raisha Khan (5th tie)
Avi Khanna (5th tie)
Praveen Ravindar (5th tie)
Avikam Chauhan (12th tie)
Shivangi Gupta (12th tie)
Congratulations to all of the above and to all the other
Weibel attendees who spent the day with tough competition and I am sure learned
a lot of chess on the practice field.
Alan
Director
Weibel Chess
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