Weibel Chess

WELCOME TO OUR NATIONALLY RENOWNED WEIBEL CHESS TEAM:

OUR TEAM PLAYERS AS OF THIS WRITING (September 22, 2019)

I am pleased to report that after two years of a decrease in chess players to our Team, this year we increased. Granted, the number wasn’t near the 96 players we had three years ago. Last year we had 76 members and this year we are starting with 79 players. However, the Club, which does not start to Tuesday, continues to decline in the numbers. I believe we will have 80 members this year.

If the Fremont Unified School District goes through with a retroactive policy to charge us through our sponsor, the PTO, for the use of facilities, I will not be able to restore a few of the things, I had to cut from the budget last year. If the FUSD does not rescind the extra charges that were not put into effect until last week, there will be a budget shortfall of between $5,000 and $15,000. At this moment with our PTO President, Sharon Kwok, and a former PTO President, Fahria Khan, attempting to identify to the District their unfair and likely illegal retroactive charges, I am optimistic.

This year we have 30 new players on our Team. Of these members 20 are girls and 59 are boys. We only have 2 Kindergarten players and one is from Leitch. BY GRADE: 1^st = 14 2^nd = 16 3^rd= 14 4^th = 13 5^th = 11 6^th = 8 7^th& 8^{th =}1 We do have 14 Horner students returning to help our K-2 Team and some of them will be playing in our Varsity Division when they finish their teaching.

K-2 Team in training =13 NOVICE TEAM = 29 JUNIOR VARSITY TEAM = 17 VARSITY TEAM = 20

CONFUSED OR CURIOUS ABOUT OUR CURRICULM?

http://www.calnorthyouthchess.org/WeibelChess/curriculum.html

REMEMBER that your child must have completed his first chess tournament by October 21. Any U.S.C.F. tournament completed after June 1^st does count towards the required five. You can use the FALL WEIBEL CHESS QUADS to complete this requirement. The first one is on October 5 in the Weibel MUR. Information: http://www.CalNorthYouthChess.org/Applications/FallQuads19-GP. You can find other tournaments at http://www.CalNorthYouthChess.org/Tournaments.html http://calchess.org/scholastic_calendar.html

KEEP IN MIND:

1) The children start chess promptly at 2:55 in the MUR.

2) K-2 Team, Novice and Junior Varsity will be dismissed from the MUR at 4:45 PM. No parent nor anyone designated on our list to pick up their child may do so before 4:45 PM without advance notice. Varsity players are done at 5:30. They cannot leave until 5:30 whether they have finished their games or not. If a child completes a game early they must go over them with one of our instructors. .

3) All players must leave through the doors leading to the upper/staff parking lot. No student can exit back into the school or be on school property after chess unless they are in an afterschool program that meets on the campus.

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES: VARSITY TEAM ATTENDS FROM 2:55 TO 5:30 PM - Players in K-3 who have U.S.C.F. ratings above 800 and those players with ratings above 1000 are on Varsity. All other Team members arrive ay 2:55 and leave at 5:30 PM sharp.

E-MAILS TO CONTACT OUR INSTRUCTORS:

GM Enrico Servillano: enricosevillano@yahoo.com

Demetrius Goins: coachdemetrius@gmail.com

Frisco DelRosario: friscodelrosario@gmail.com

Bada Norovasambuu: bada.n0524@gmail.com

Jason Cruz: jacruz04@yahoo.com

Alan Kirshner: Alan@WeibelChess.org

http://www.calnorthyouthchess.org/WeibelChess/Instructors.html

HOMEWORK:

Starting in three week all players must do homework. Translation—the first homework is due on Friday, October 11. All players, but Kindergarten, will notate their games. K-2 Team (minus K), Novice and Junior Varsity will only need to write 10 moves to start. They will expand to more moves in a few weeks. The Varsity players must record their complete game. Varsity players must annotate their games (comment on the moves) this must be placed in a computer and turned in the next Friday or e-mailed to me. Novice & JV players will start this practice in the second semester.

I still have to pay for Chess Magnet School for this year and then set up each student in their class and provide their nicknames. I plan on e-mailing a list of Nicknames and Passwords for ChessMagnetSchool.com. Those that had one previously will use the same Nicknames and Passwords. Players are to do the number of problems appropriate for their status: new to Team do 30 a week, on Team before 20 per week.. If the problems/puzzles are taking more than two hours during the week, let me know & I will consider reducing the number. I will also be providing you with the passwords for Chesshomework.com. Any work done there is extra credit. Our highest skilled players can receive a password for ChessLecture.com. They will watch videos & report what they learned as well as to critique the video lectures. Parents will receive a warning if their child has not done their homework. They must make it up. If they do not or there is a second warning the child will be suspended for a minimum of one week. If they get suspended three times they will be removed from the chess team.

I hope to have a parent meeting for all the girls’ parents and one for all parents in the near future. The girls meeting will be to discuss the All-Girls Nationals. The full parent meeting is to respond directly to questions about the program.

RATINGS AND RANKINGS:

For those of you new to Weibel Chess this year, let me try and explain our ranking system. Players get points for playing chess, doing homework, attending tournaments and at the discretion of their teacher. The children get 3 points when they win a game, 2 points for a draw and 1 point for a loss. These points are doubled when they play in a United States Chess Federation Tournament. When they obtain a specific amount of points they obtain a title. For example, after obtaining 8 points they are a Pawn. At the end of the year we have an awards ceremony/banquet. All players will receive trophies and a certificate with their current title. The top 5 point winners will receive special trophies. Each week, after the first month,—unless my schedule prevents it—I will update the points and the ranking sheets. Please be sure your child brings home a sheet each week. I often post little notes to the parents on these missiles. Every few weeks I will send a copy of the point sheet home via e-mail.

Please do not confuse the points a player receives or his/her rating with the level. Skill levels are based only upon the class the student attends or the rating they receive when entering U.S. Chess Federation tournaments.

MISCELLANEOUS:

I will order the T-shirts and parents polo shirts next week. I need to get a count from the Club that starts on Tuesday first.. I only order the number of T-shirts for those who get them gratis, those that joined for the year and for those that ordered them extra. I do order two extra in each size in case the parent ordered the wrong size. Requesting a change in the initial order size may not be possible if the two extra are already exchanged unless the one of the exchanged shirts fit.

Please be sure examine the Weibel Chess website: http://www.WeibelChess.org. We also have a blog. If you would like to receive notice of what is new on the blog, please sign on there. http://www.weibelchess.org/ I will be placing this Newsletter on our blog. We also have a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Weibel-Chess-213022428884018/timeline/

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES: VARSITY TEAM ATTENDS FROM 2:55 TO 5:30 PM - Players in K-3 who have U.S.C.F. ratings above 800 anf 4-6 players with ratings above 1000 are on Varsity. All other Team members arrive ay 2:55 and leave at 5:30 PM sharp.

SOME RESOURCES FOR NEW MEMBERS TO TEAM:

Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, Stuart Margulies, 1982 (New students who came to the New to Team Orientation received a copy.)

Everyone’s Second Book of Chess, 2018 Edition, Dan Heisman

Chess Tactics for Champions, 2006, Susan Polgar

A First Book of Morphy, 2006 Frisco Del Rosario

http://www.coachjayschessacademy.com

https://www.chesskid.com/?m=chesskids

https://lichess.org

Shoreview Chess in Fremont near Pacific Common

http://www.shoreviewchess.com/

NorCal House of Chess also in Fremont

http://norcalhouseofchess.com/

http://www.ChessMagnetSchool.com supplied to all Team and Club members/

FYI: http://www.calnorthyouthchess.org/WeibelChess/Hall-of-Fame.html

DATES TO REMEMBER:

OCTOBER 21: FIRST TOURNAMENT COMPLETED (YOUR CHOICE)

NOVEMBER 16 and/or 17: CALCHESS GRADE LEVEL: EXPECTED ATTENDENCE BY TOP 4 PLAYERS IN EACH GRADE BY RATING. I WILL CHECK RATINGS AT END OF NOVEMBER. THIS WILL COUNT TOWARDS FIVE IF YOUR CHILD IS SELECTED. IF NOT SELECTED CHILD SHOULD ONLY ATTEND NON-GRADE LEVEL SECTIONS.

NOVEMBER 25: SECOND TOURAMENT COMPLETED (YOUR CHOICE)

NOVEMBER 23-DEC 2 THANKSGIVING BREAK

DECEMBER 20-JAN 5: WINTER BREAK

JANUARY 6: THIRD TOURNAMENT COMPLETED -KINDERGARTEN TEAM #1 (YOUR CHOICE)

FEBRUARY 2: CALNORTH AGE LEVEL RECOMMENDED FOR ALL—HELD IN NEWARK

FEBRUARY 3: FOURTH TOURNAMENT COMPLETED (YOUR CHOICE)-KINDERGARTEN TEAM #2 (YOUR CHOICE)

MARCH 7 (TENTATIVE): ALL-GIRLS STATE LEVEL GIRLS TOURNAMENT – ALL GIRLS REQUIRED TO ATTEND OR MAY BE REMOVED FROM CHESS. WILL COUNT FOR FIVE REQUIRED.

MARCH 9: FIFTH TOURNAMENT COMPLETED (YOUR CHOICE)-KINDERGARTEN TEAM #3 (YOUR CHOICE). IF NOT DONE PERMANENT REMOVAL FROM CHESS

MARCH 14 and/or 15 CALCHESS SCHOLASTIC STATES REQUIRED OF ALL PLAYERS. WILL BE REMOVED FROM TEAM IF DO NOT ATTEND WITH SUFFICIENT NOTIFICATION AND APPROVAL.

APRIL 10 to Apr 19: SPRING BREAK

MAY 23 LAST DAY OF CHESS AND AWARDS CEREMONIES (3 to 5:30 PM)

OUR FIRST CHESS TEAM AT STATES AND THREE OF THE MEMBERS OF THAT TEAM IN 2016

The first Weibel Chess Team, 1989, on the left and on the right that same group in 2016. From left to right: Micah Fisher-Kirshner (1st Grade), Jennifer Cheung (2nd Grade), Alan Kirshner, Ratham Kumarappan (1st Grade), Tov Fisher-Kirshner (Kindergarten). Ratham died in a car accident that summer while visiting India--a horrid end for a wonderful young child. Micah & Jennifer live across the street from each other in the Glenmoor District of Fremont. The Team took fourth place in the K-3 Championship Section. We were thrilled. Tov is proud of his big brother as you can see his finger pointing first. Micah won the K-3 Championship Section that first year and began the association of the name Weibel with chess. In 1990, the Weibel Chess Team won the first of its many State Championships.

The Weibel Chess Team in the K-6 Championship Division of the National Elementary Chess Scholastic Championships in Nashville this weekend took third place. Yes, we strived for first since we came in ranked second. This event is both an individual and team competition. Four players on a team who finish with the most points count for the team score. We had nine players in this most prestigious of the sections which had 146 competitors. With all the other subdivisions the tournament drew a total of 2254 players. Fourteen of our 77 team members selected to attend.

Fate seemed to be against us as individually our players faced far greater competition than most of the other teams. I am happy to say the Weibel players came through with flying colors as the increase in their national ratings show.

Yesun Lee, our highest ranked player at 1879, even defeated a National Master (2245) and only lost to two Experts (over 2000). With 5 points out of 7 she led our Team and tied for 15th place. Vincent Yang (1765) and Nikko Le (1830) obtained 4.5 points. Our fourth player used for our team score could have been anyone of these four individuals as they all had 3 points: Mai-Ha Nghiem (1190), Sabrina Kuntjara (1359), Chau-Ha Nghiem (1154) and Ryan Tiong (1476). Mai-Ha and Chau-Ha both won two of the three trophies for players in this section with ratings between 1100 and 1200. Mai-Ha’s new rating of 1394 qualifies her, as a fourth grader, for a Weibel Elite player jacket. Sabrina’s new rating of 1404 means that as a sixth-grade student she will also receive an Elite player jacket.

The other players in the K-6 Championship section were Shruti Nath (1350) and Reyansh Gangal (1189).

I was thrilled with the performance of our new players to the team that entered non-championship divisions. Charlene Kwok (866) took home a fourth-place trophy, tying for third in the K-6 Under 1000 section by winning 6 of her 7 games. This brought her national rating to 1104 and places her on the Weibel Chess Honor Roll and she will receive her special cap.

Charlene’s brother, Stanley Kwok (517), did not lose a game in the K-3 Under 700 section. However, he drew one game giving him 6 ½ point score and a second-place trophy. Lucas Immanuel Oh (699) also finished well in this section scoring 4.5 points. Second grader Sara Kuntjara (864) scored 4 points in the K-3 Under 1000 division. Every time she finished a game she returned to our team area smiling, win or lose. We could tell when she won because she added a dance to her smile.

While it was difficult for me and some of the parents to smile all the time, I think we all can say we enjoyed our stay in Nashville and we bonded together as a Weibel team. Finally, I would like to thank Grand Master Enrico Sevillano, the team coach, for all the time he spent analyzing our players’ games. This is his first year at Weibel and he is truly a member of the Weibel Chess family. He wore his Weibel Chess T-shirt cap and jacket each day in Nashville as he does every Friday to our team classes.