Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 Subject: fpawn's newsletter April 2006 Hello everyone! I am writing this from Reno, Nevada on the day after the Far West Open tournament. My trip home has been unfortunately delayed by several hours. It is cold and dreary here, certainly feels more like winter than spring. At least the chess part went well. Read more below. Those of you living in California should really plan on attending the state scholastic championships in San Jose on May 20-21. I will be there to review games and provide support. Deadlines for the hotel and early entry fees are coming up at the end of April. http://www.calchessscholastics.org/ Due to various conflicts, all of my regular internet lessons are cancelled until Sunday. The regular schedule resumes on Sunday. Some of you have in person lessons on Tuesday and Thursday, as we discussed in other emails. Enjoy and good chess to all! Michael 1. Daniel featured in Chess Life 2. Far West Open in Reno 3. Player of the Month 4. April top 100 lists 5. CalChess Kids to Play Internet Match Against Australia! 6. Upcoming tournaments 7. Lesson schedule and website -------------------------------- 1. Daniel featured in Chess Life -------------------------------- My long time and top rated student Daniel Schwarz was featured in the April issue of the USCF magazine Chess Life (the one with Nakamura on the cover). Look for the article titled: "Khachiyan and Sevillano Share First in Western Class, Youngster Schwarz Makes Impression." A good 50% of the two page article deals with Daniel's phenomenal performance in Agoura Hills in January. There are two photos plus two games. The game against Eugene Yanayt also was published in the L.A. Times. The article says the following: "The big story was that youngster who made a vivid impression. Fifteen-year-old (incorrect, he is 16) Daniel Schwarz, who came down from Sacramento with his father, was seeded 21st with a 2157 rating. He made a plus score and earned $167 by tying for Under 2300 honors. But the story is how he made this score. In Round 1, Daniel exploited an opening error by Eugene Yanayt to pull a quick upset. Then he made draws with (IM Enrico) Sevillano and 2330-rated Michael Casella. He had an advantage in the former game and was lucky in the latter. In Round 4 he downed (2320-rated Tatev) Abrahamyan in a well-played game. Finally, he met more than his match in Khachiyan, but the overall result was still a great one, earning him his first master rating, and giving joy both to coach Michael Aigner and Daniel's father (who tied for third in Class C)." ------------------------ 2. Far West Open in Reno ------------------------ The Far West Open in the spring is the little sister of the big Western States Open in October. I'm a big fan of both tournaments--and even more so after this weekend. Due to the timing of spring break, I was able to convince four of my students to attend this tournament. As far as I can tell, everyone had a good time even if the chess left something to be desired. The big story of the weekend was my own success. Every once in a while, the teacher has to prove that he still knows how to play this game. This time, two Grandmasters and an International Master were introduced to the fpawn. In round 2, I drew Russian GM Petr Kiriakov (Petrovich on ICC) in a fairly short game. I got fortunate that my opponent walked into my opening preparation before the game with Fritz. Then I followed the draw with a GM up with a 30 move draw against my student Daniel. I hated that pairing! The highlight of the tournament was the crushing victory that I scored against IM David Vigorito (fluffy on ICC). I played my pet Dutch defense against his 1.c4 and he was forced to resign around move 30. As a result of this major upset, the leaderboard going into the last round was this: GM Alex Yermolinsky with 4.5/5 and then GM Jaan Ehlvest, GM Gregory Serper and I with 4.0/5. I was paired as black against the famous Estonian Grandmaster Ehlvest, rated 2676 USCF and 2607 FIDE. Unfortunately, this was my fourth black in six games. I lost in 4+ hours and 42 moves on the black side of the "Spanish torture" (Ruy Lopez, closed system). On the bright side, I made him work for his share of first place. GM Ehlvest later defeated GM Yermolinsky in a blitz tiebreak for the first place trophy. I ended up with 4.0/6, tied for sixth overall and clear first U2300. I gained 17 rating points USCF and, more importantly, 18 rating points FIDE. I will now be back over 2300 USCF and roughly 37 FIDE rating points away from the elusive FM title. Daniel also played and, after a shaky start in round 1, he played fine and finished with 3.5/6. He even earned significant prize money for his share of second U2300. Also playing in the Open section was David. He started out with a half-point bye and two losses, but then rebounded with two wins and a respectable 2.5/6 result. Both Daniel and David gained a few rating points for their efforts. Several other people that I know played in the A section. My students Marvin and Corey both scored 50%: two wins, two losses, one half-point bye and a complicated drawn game against each other. I guess both came to the conclusion that A players are tough! On the other hand, my long time friend Todd conquered the same A players, winning five games en route to a share of first place. Todd's rating will now be back in the 1900s where I think it belongs. Congrats dude! ---------------------- 3. Player of the Month ---------------------- There is no obvious Player of the Month this time. Some of my kids didn't even play in March or early April. None of those that did play had a truly spectacular result. Most played roughly at their rating level. I guess I could give myself the award for Far West Open, but that would defeat the purpose of this award. Or maybe to Daniel, but he already got Player of the Month for his success in Agooura Hills. Thus I would like to give recognition to two of my younger students who have made significant progress in their internet training games on ICC. That said, congratulations to Kevin and Yian for sharing Player of the Month honors. Both are rated in the 1300s USCF but have been working hard on their standard ratings on ICC. 5th grader Kevin currently is over 2050 while 3rd grader Yian is around 1800. The challenge for both kids has been to take their time, preferably at least a minute a move in the middlegame. As most of my older students know by now, the quality of the moves usually increases with the amount of time you think about them. Hopefully Kevin and Yian can translate their practice on ICC into success at real life tournaments so that their USCF rating jumps up to 1500 and beyond. Keep up the great work! (This is also a not-so-subtle hint for my other students to take their ICC standard practice more seriously so that they, too, can get better.) ---------------------- 4. April top 100 lists ---------------------- Rather than waste keystrokes and bandwidth every two months with ratings and top 100 lists, I put them all on a page at my website. Please go to the National Rankings link. Ten of my current students and four former students are nationally ranked this month. Congratulations to everyone! Keep up the good chess. http://www.fpawn.com/chess/rankings.htm ----------------------------------------------------------- 5. CalChess Kids to Play Internet Match Against Australia! ----------------------------------------------------------- (from CalChess website) The local California scholastic chess community has been challenged to an internet match against Australia, to be played this summer on the Internet Chess Club. This interesting and ground-breaking match will pit 24 local kids against their counterparts from Down Under. How will the California golden bears fare against the kangaroos of Australia? Although Australia is a country much larger than northern California, both regions have similar populations and both are scholastic hot spots. For example, Daniel Naroditsky took 5th in the world U10 last year while Raymong Song of Australia got 4th place in the same event a year earlier. The top Aussie player U18, Moulthun Ly, has an internet blitz rating even higher than the insane 2994 rating obtained by local star Nicolas Yap. This idea arose out of discussions last December between the parents of local junior Alex Grossman, who has strong family ties to Australia, and organizers from Down Under. Alex's father, Michael Grossman, then contacted this author to assist him with the logistics of this endeavor. Date: Saturday, July 15 at 5:00 PDT Location: Internet Chess Club (ICC) at www.chessclub.com Teams: 12 players U12 and 12 players U18, at least two in each category must be girls Format: play two games G/60 against same board on opposing team The CalChess team will consist of the top 12 interested players in each age group (including at least two girls) plus 2-3 alternates. The team will be chosen according to the June 2006 USCF rating list and CalChess top 20 list. Players will need to log into ICC on that Saturday evening in July and play their games, presumably from at home. Familiairity with ICC is a plus, but not a requirement. The writer, who is a veteran ICC administrator, can provide technical support by phone if necessary. Any player in this match who doesn't already have an ICC account will receive some free time. Interested participants should send email to michael(at)fpawn(dot)com. Please include your name, age, email address, current USCF rating and ICC handle (if any). Players will also be recruited at the CalChess Scholastic Championships on May 20-21 in San Jose. Let us show the strength of CalChess scholastics to Australia and to the rest of the world! ----------------------- 6. Upcoming tournaments ----------------------- For all upcoming tournaments in northern California, check out the CalChess website at: http://www.calchess.org/modules.php?name=Information&page=01_regular_tournaments/schedule.php Mechanics G/45 Tournament -- April 15 and May 6 Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco http://www.chessclub.org/Konig.html http://www.chessclub.org/Powell.html These monthly tournaments appeal to players and parents who like one-day events at faster time controls. Each month between 30 and 45 players come to the historic Mechanics' Institute chess club to play chess for 10 hours on a Saturday. The events are kid friendly and often half of the players are juniors. I'm known to attend the occassional G/45 tournament (not next week). National High School (K-12) Championship -- April 21-23 Milwaukee, WI http://www.uschess.org/tournaments/2006/hs/ National Elementary (K-6) Championship -- May 12–14 Denver, CO http://www.uschess.org/tournaments/2006/elem/ CalChess State Scholastic Championships -- May 20-21 San Jose, CA http://www.calchessscholastics.org/ I EXPECT TO SEE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF MY CALIFORNIA STUDENTS AT THE CALCHESS STATE SCHOLASTICS. This is the largest annual tournament in California and one of the largest in the nation. It will likely draw over 1300 players this year. The playing site is the grand ballroom of the San Jose convention center in downtown San Jose (not to be confused with the Santa Clara convention center near Great America). Dr. Alan Kirshner will be the organizer and his directing staff will be led by Richard Koepcke and John McCumiskey. Unlike last year, this will be a UNIFIED EVENT and there is absolutely no excuse to skip this tournament. 2nd California Classic -- May 27-28 Cupertino, CA http://www.calchess.org/controlpanel/files/CaliforniaClassic2.pdf This tournament is attractive for many of you because you live nearby. You can play four games and still get home at a reasonable hour. Yes, this is the weekend after the state scholastics. However, this is a 2-day chess tournament on the 3-day Memorial Day weekend, meaning everyone has Monday off to catch up with school or to relax. I'm not certain that I will play, but I'm giving it serious consideration. National Open -- June 16-18 Riviera Casino in Las Vegas, NV http://www.lvchessfestival.com/natlopen/ For those of us who attended last year, this was quite a memorable event. Daniel came close to winning the expert section and Charles actually did win the D section. My entire group won close to $2000 combined, which is second only to the Pacific Coast Open in July 2005. Woohoo! I will be attending again this year (I will actually be in Las Vegas already a week earlier to play in a GM/IM norm tournament) and I hope to see some of my students as well. Maybe you will see me playing again on the stage (last year I lost to GM Varuzhan Akobian on board 1). This trip could also be a nice family vacation--parents can see Las Vegas or can gamble while the kids play chess. Sun Chess Club in Saratoga on most Saturday nights location: Immanuel Lutheran Church in Saratoga schedule: one game each Saturday evening at 7pm format: 4-round swiss in one section time control: Game in 90 minutes entry fee: $30 adults, $20 juniors, $10 for one week website: http://sunchessclub.googlepages.com/home ------------------------------ 7. Lesson schedule and website ------------------------------ I'll keep this section brief since everyone should already know. For the latest information about chess lesson times and cancellations, please bookmark my lesson schedule website: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/schedule.htm As always, please email me if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions. I'm always looking for ways to improve my chess lessons, both for you and my future students That's all for today. May all your pawns promote! Michael