A BUSY COUPLE OF WEEKS COMING UP FOR YOUTH CHESS IN MAY PLUS A PEEK AT THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NATIONALS

On Saturday, May 3, Success Chess School in Cupertino is holding its first rated chess Quads tournament in many years.  Success Chess has been the major sponsor of all my events. However, neither myself, CalNorth Youth Chess or Weibel Elementary School are affiliated with Success Chess.   So I wish them success. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.  Information is available at http://www.successchess.com/Tournaments/BethelTournament_INFO.html

The same day, May 3,  in Santa Clara, Let’s Play Chess has a youth Swiss tournament: http://www.chessthings.com/events.php

On Sunday, May 4, Robert Blatt who ran a large highly praised CalNorth Youth Quads at Tierra Linda Middle School in San Carlos is holding a non-rated Swiss event at Heather School in San Carlos.  Over the last few years this tournament has drawn numbers in the mid-one hundreds.   I hope he pulls young players from all over Northern California as he did for the April 5 Quads.  You can get information at: http://home.comcast.net/~heatherchessclub/heather_chess_2014.pdf

The same day, Bay Area Chess, that holds small youth tournaments just about every weekend, will host both a Swiss and Quads in Fremont: http://bayareachess.com/events/tournament-list/

The next weekend May 10 & 11 includes a whole series of Bay Area Chess tournaments as well as a NorCal House of Chess Quads in Fremont on Saturday, May 10. http://norcalhouseofchess.com/?page_id=9

Sunday, May 11, Chess For Kids is hosting a youth tournament in San Jose.  http://www.CalNorthYouthChess.org/FlyerChessQuads_051114.docx

Saturday, May 17, is the last of the CalNorth Youth Chess Spring Quads.  This one will be back at Weibel.  I am hoping it will be the largest and the best of the Spring series.  As of today 80 players are registered.  This bodes well for an excellent event.  Why?  Because it allows me to divide up the four members playing each other by very close skill levels and school grades.  As those that have attend these Quads before know,  I do my best to avoid placing players from the same school and club at the same table.  This task is not always possible for schools and clubs that have a large number of entries.  http://www.calnorthyouthchess.org/SpringTournaments2014/

A side note: On May 3 the NorCal House of Chess will have its second meet against Weibel Elementary School.  In their last face off a month ago NCHC defeat Weibel 24 to 22.  While Weibel is determined to obtain revenge, the main purpose of these head to head matches is to obtain practice in playing in the long time controls similar to those of the Nationals.  Weibel will have three teams at the Elementary School Nationals.  NorCal House of Chess cannot field any teams as scholastic tournaments are reserved for academic schools.  This, by the way, is why it is called scholastics. Ted Castro’s NCHC has trained many of the top players in the country, including many Weibel players, and they will have a fair number of players at the event.

The Elementary School Nationals are the weekend of May 9 through 11.   The tournament presently has 1943 entries.  Northern California has a total of 60 entries.  This number pales in comparison to New York’s 562 and the 668 entries from Texas.  Then again the event is in Dallas so Texas has the home field advantage.  Southern California only has 7 entries.  I have absolutely no explanation for this.  SoCal like NorCal has many outstanding chess players. 

The third largest contingent of players in Dallas will be from Florida with 84.  The Teams to beat, in most cases, are from Texas and New York.  The NorCal teams shape up pretty well.  At this writing only three school teams are entered, Mission San Jose, Weibel and Gomes Elementary Schools.  While two players from a school can constitute a team to be realistic four players are needed to place in the top of the competition.  Presently, Mission San Jose has 15 players entered with full teams of four players in K-1 and K-3. Weibel is sending 26 players with full teams in K-3, K-5 and K-6.  Gomes with 5 players will compete in K-6.

The Gomes Team won the K-5 last year and this year the members are shooting to win the K-6.  They are by far the favorites despite Jason Zhang being in fourth grade and William Sartorio in third grade.  Most of the competitive teams have four sixth grade players.  The Nationals will use the May U.S. Chess Federation ratings.  Right now only the April ratings are posted online.  I took a look at the May ratings that show at the U.S. Chess Federation site as “Published Rating as of 2014-05-01.  The four top rated Gomes players are:

2024 Liu, Joanna
1865 Murugappan, Ganesh M
1725 Zhang, Jason Shuhe
1573 Sartorio, William Jiarui

This gives Gomes a team average of  1797.   Joanna Liu is presently seeded sixth right behind another player who competes in our Statw,  Andrew Zhang Hong.

Weibel will be entering as the third seed behind a team from Texas with an average of 1675.  Weibel’s top four players average 1545:

1817 Zhou, Anthony
1578 Show, Serafina
1421 Emmanuel, Daniel
1364 Gupta, Shivangi

For what it is worth, while Weibel will fight to overtake Gomes, the two teams are brothers and sisters in arms and will be sharing the same Team Room.

In K-5, Mission San Jose has only three players.  Weibel has eight.   Based on current entries and the May ratings Weibel will enter in eighth place with:

1573 Surapaneni, Atri
1404 Lee, Aaron
1384 Chen, Jeremy Y
1265 Mistry, Enya

Weibel does have some depth with four other players that might be able to cover if one player falters.  None of the Northern California individual players fall within the top ten entries.

In K-3, Mission San Jose presently is seeded second to a strong team from New York with an average rating of  1518.  Mission’s team average is 1466.  I would never rule Mission out as they have a record of pulling it through in the last round. 

1701 Susarla, Rishith
1536 Pan, Kevin
1505 Meiyappan, Annapoorni
1124 Thirumalai, Atul

Weibel enters in fifth place with a 1388 average. My hope is that Weibel has learned from their rival two miles away and will finish the last rounds with wins as our girls did at the All-Girls Nationals earlier this month.  Translation--I need to toughen up my boys.  ;-) It is h^&% having a group of great chess players that are nice kids with wonderful parents. ;-)  If they play the last rounds as well as they will the first rounds,  I am sure Weibel has a shot at the title in this division.

1745 Wu, Oliver
1294 Wang, Vincent X
1286 Law, Louis
1227 Mistry, Eshaan

The perennial winners of this division have been from New York with two private schools that emphasize chess leading the pack, Dalton and Hunter.  They are in second and third place.  I would not rule either one out as they have amazing depth.

Northern California has an amazing group of individual players in the K-3 section.  Balaji Daggupati is presently top seed with a 1935 rating.  Other players from our State to watch are Milind Maiti 1814,  Callaghan McCarty-Snead 1796,  Andrew Peng, 1764, Oliver Wu 1745 and Rishith Susarla 1701.

Only Mission San Jose has a team entered in the K-1 Championship division.  Their team average of 863 could place them in the top 5.

1209 Wong, Allyson
1117 Lingannagari, Arnav Reddy
 629 Jay, Shreyas
 497 Arutla, Siddharth

The leading team in this section, New York’s PS 22,  has an average of 1208 for its top four players, but has eight others that can fill in.  Once again, keep your eyes on Hunter and Dalton both with team averages over 1000. Both teams have loads of extra players that could replace one or more of their top four.  Dalton will field 15 players.  Hunter has 10 competitors in this section. Only the top four scores will count in the Team competition.

If you are interest in following how things are shaping up for the NorCal teams and individual players, the pairings and results will be found starting Friday, May 9, at http://www.alchess.com/chess/14/elem/

Chess is Forever!
Alan

PS: Breaking news: 

Cupertino’s Vignesh Panchanatham (2317) wins the K-9 Championship division of the Junior High School Nationals.  Hopkins Junior High School places second in the team competition in the K-8 Championship Division.

***********************

Alan M. Kirshner, Ph.D.
Director/Organizer
CalNorth Youth Chess Tournaments

“Our family really appreciates the CalNorth Youth Chess tournaments because they are not only superbly run, from a logistical and organizational standpoint, but it is also clear that the principles that guide all those involved, from the leadership to the volunteers, are to cherish, motivate, and inspire our children -- and to do so with excellence, integrity, good humor, and warmth.”  David Hwang, Corte Madera

WEIBEL PLAYERS GOING TO THE NATIONALS IN DALLAS FROM MAY 9 THROUGH MAY 11:

WEIBEL GIRLS RULE IN THE UNDER 12 DIVISION OF THE ALL-GIRLS NATIONALS, APRIL 11-13 2014

WEIBEL GIRLS RULE IN THE UNDER 12 DIVISION OF THE ALL-GIRLS  NATIONALS

            This weekend (April 11-13, 2014) ten girls from Weibel attended the All-Girls Nationals in outskirts of Chicago.  You couldn’t ask for a worse location for a National event—in a place where nothing existed but a few hotels.  You couldn’t ask for a better outcome for the Weibel players.

            Due to high hotel prices and a lack of available space in downtown Chicago, this year’s All-Girls Nationals took place in Northbrook.  The organizers of the tournament ran a very successful event despite the limitations they faced in a second rate location with nearly nothing within walking distance from the hotel.

            For the second straight year the Weibel girls took a first in the Under 12 division.  This was accomplished even before the last round started.  Our girls proved unquestionably that they were the best in the country in the Under 12 category.  Our Team finished with 14.5 points compared to the second place team from Florida with 9.5 points and the third place team with 8 points. Weibel has now won four National girls titles. 

In the individual competition this year, four of the Weibel girls brought home trophies.  I would claim a fifth trophy going to Weibel due to the fact that one of our girls, Aria Lakhmani, moved to Warm Springs Elementary School last year even though she continues her chess at Weibel.  Obviously, her points could not count for Weibel.  I might note that no matter how many people you have on your team only the top three players scores count. The organizers awarded 15 trophies in each section.  In the Under 12 section there were 74 entries.  This years Championships were the largest to date with 322 players. Last year the event drew 238 competitors. 

            All our girls did wonderfully.  They are wonder girls.   Only one of our ten girls failed to obtain three points out of six. The youngest of our wonder girls, and the only girl from Weibel to compete in the All-Girls National, Prisha Jain in a non-under 12 section, tied for fifth in the Under 8 section.  The highlight of her day was defeating the only player attending from Mission San Jose Elementary School.  I am not sure why MSJE failed to have more players at this event as two of their girls are ranked very high in the country.  Aside:  Despite this continued interschool competition we all cheered for the California Girls.  I even gave small California flags to the Weibel girls and those from other Northern California schools.  Sadly I ran out of flags and could not provide for every California girl.

            The wonder girls from Weibel were:

Serafina Show, Weibel student school president  and number one Wunder Kind, went undefeated.  She drew two and won four.  Her two draws were against the two highest ranked players.  In the last round she fought hard for the National title and a trip to the World’s.  Her draw placed her in a tie for second place.

Enya Mistry, with five wins and one lose, also tied for second. She had, perhaps, the best tournament of her life.  Enya came in ranked 24^th in the competition.

Raisah Khan went 4.5-1.5 and tied for eighth.  Raisah defeated a 1731 rated player in her way to winning a trophy.  Raisah came into the completion ranked 29^th..

Shivangi Gupta had a great day as well.  If she had won her last round she would have tied for second rather than 10^th.   Shivangi’s rating was 1308 and that of her last round opponent, 1711.  Shivangi ranked 19^th in the beginning of the competition.

Aria Lakhmani, from Warm Springs and former Weibel student, attended Weibel Chess again this year even though she moved out of our attendance area last year.  She also tied for 10^th.   Aria entered the Championships ranked number 20.

Sashrika Pandy, Amir Rafi, Ambika Tiwari and Anvi  Surapaneni finished the weekend close to the rankings they entered with.

Above I have sung the praises to second grade student, Prisha Jain, who entered ranked number 20 and fished tied for sixth.

I would like to thank all the parents who accompanied their daughters to the Championships.  They did a beautiful job inspiring all the girls to do well.  I mean all the girls, not just their own daughters.  When I get the photos up online shortly (I hope) at http://www.CalNorthYouthChess.org/photographs.html, you will see one mother going to each girl

sharing her energy for their win.

Obviously, their chess instructors, both inside and outside Weibel, had a great deal to do with their success. 

Finally, I want to identify those that brought extra inspiration and lessons to the girls via Sunday training sessons:  Richard Shorman,  FIM Uyanga Byambaa, the Goodkind sisters—Barbara and Lauren, Joanna Liu and Elaine Veksler.  I am convinced that while the girls’ excellent training helped, the inspiration provided by those I named placed the finishing  touch to their victories.  We often see one person taking credit for the achievements of another, but in reality it takes a village within which a child lives to create their success.   So to those who helped our girls learn to finish a competition in style, my special thanks.

           

OLIVER WU RECEIVES ANOTHER HONOR

Oliver Wu, a Weibel third grader with a 1745 rating, just received news that he won ninth place nationally in the 2013 Junior Grand Prix sponsored by Chess Magnet School and the U.S. Chess Federation.  The points are based upon how well you do in USCF Junior Grand Prix designated events throughout the nation. Oliver has had a great year so far.  He won the most difficult scholastic chess tournament of the year to date—the Under 10 open section of the CalNorth Youth Chess Age Level--bringing home the unique Kirshner Cup. The same month, February,  Oliver became the 27th player in the 25 year history of Weibel Chess to obtain Hall of Fame status.  There are a number of criteria to receive that honor.  You can view the vigorous requirements and the other honorees listed from the link at WeibelChess.org.  Oliver did it by obtaining a 1600 rating.  He has made an amazing jump to 1745 in just a month and a half.  Oliver not only received a certificate for his accomplishment but also a membership in Chess Magnet School and in the Chess Lecture program.  As you know, all our Weibel Chess students get Chess Magnet School free and a select few are enrolled in Chess Lecture free as well.  Oliver has been watching the Chess Lecture tapes for many hours every week and keeping a log with reviews of each tape he views as part of his homework. KUDOS TO OLIVER! What is next for this boy wonder?—I am betting on a National title.