Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 Subject: fpawn's newsletter April 2007 #2 -- National HS Championship Hello chess students, parents and friends! I just returned from a long and emotional weekend at the National High School Championship in Kansas City. The highs and lows at this tournament were extreme, including both a national title and a last round collapse. The tournament also was the end of era--the last scholastic tournament in the career of one of Northern California's most dominant players for the past 10 years. Please read this newsletter carefully for news from the Far West Open in Reno and the High School tournament in Kansas City. Most of you will be interested in the CalChess Scholastics which take place on April 28-29 in San Mateo. Be there! I have a normal chess teaching schedule continuing through Wednesday of next week. After that, I'll be limited to occassional lessons during the first two weeks of May. Basically, I will only teach those students playing in the National Elementary Championship in Nashville and my top guns (2000+) who will help me prepare for the US Championship. I will be playing in Oklahoma on May 15-23, flying on the 14th and 24th. WARNING: This newsletter is LONG! Sorry folks, there's a lot to write about. Michael ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. National K-12 Championship in Kansas City 2. Far West Open in Reno 3. The end of an era: Daniel Schwarz finishes scholastic career 4. Fpawn's schedule for spring 2007 5. CalChess Scholastics in San Mateo 6. Players at the CalChess Scholastics 7. US Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma 8. National Open in Las Vegas 9. Upcoming tournaments 10. Lesson schedule and website --------------------------------------------- 1. National K-12 Championship in Kansas City --------------------------------------------- Six of my students and I flew to Kansas City for the National High School Championship on April 12-15. Before I continue, a geography lesson for all: Kansas City is not in Kansas, but rather lies across the river in the state of Missouri. Yes, there is a Kansas City in Kansas, but the bigger and more well-known city is in Missouri. Daniel and I flew into Kansas City on Thursday morning while the Saratoga High School team travelled on Wednesday after school. The day on Thursday is dedicated to bughouse and blitz side events. Three of my students tied for second place in the bughouse championship: David partnered with an internet friend from Georgia while Marvin and Aaron formed a successful team! The blitz championship in the evening saw Daniel take charge against the strongest high school players in the nation, picking up the first place trophy with 11.0/12! Daniel won his first 10 games and then split two games against NM Landon Brownell in the last round. Way to go! Kudos also to Jeff for a very respectable 19th place tie (out of 314 players). The Saratoga High School team took 3rd place in the blitz championship. Unfortunately, the main tournament did not go so well. My top two players held their own and finished with a very respectable tie for 8th place at 5.5/7, although both had poor tiebreaks (Daniel at 19th and David at 22nd). David was my only student to gain rating points, mostly because he avoided defeat and instead gave up three draws to 1900+ rated opponents. Several of my students had a chance to get honorable mention with a last round victory, but a foul odor permanated from my hotel room on Sunday afternoon. Despite a disaster in the last round, the Saratoga High School team still finished in 5th place. The most impressive local result was turned in by Los Altos High School sophomore Michael Zhong, who tied for first place with IM Alex Lenderman and NM Alex Barnett. Michael faced four masters and scored an amazing 3.5/4. His last round victory in the Ruy Lopez--complete with sacrifices of two pawns, then two minor pieces and finally a rook--was described by several people as having been played by the ghost of Mikhail Tal. Michael's rating jumped from 2049 to 2112. Northern California trophy winners: ----------------------------------- Michael Zhong = national champion Sam Shankland = 11th place trophy Daniel Schwarz = 19th place trophy David Chock = 22nd place trophy + 5th place bughouse Jeff Young = 26th place blitz Aaron Garg = 8th place bughouse Marvin Shu = 8th place bughouse Saratoga High School = 5th place team + 3rd place blitz The solid results of Daniel and David have been added to the achievements page on my website: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/achievements.htm ------------------------ 2. Far West Open in Reno ------------------------ Nine of my students, two friends, one parent and I played in the Far West Open in Reno. I really enjoy the hospitality at the Reno tournaments and this year was no exception. Courtesy of the Sands Regency hotel, I had two large rooms and plenty of free drinks to share with everyone. We had a fun pizza party in my room on Saturday afternoon, complete with pizza and kosher chocolates. It was nice to see all of the kids have fun together. Several of my students did really well in the tournament. Out of the 12 of us, eight won money, albeit only about $20-40 for some people. Congratulations to Daniel, Gregory and Adam for winning about $300 each! Daniel scored 3.5/6 in the difficult open section, including an impressive 7-hour defensive effort down a pawn in a rook endgame to draw against GM Gregory Serper in round 1! Daniel followed up that draw with another 7-hour draw against IM Dmitry Zilberstein in round 2 and another draw against FM Tigran Ishkhanov in round 4. Gregory shared first place in the expert section with 4.5/6. This was his second successful tournament in a row, after sharing first at the National Junior High School Championship in Sacramento. The third big winner was Adam, who took 2nd place in class B with an undefeated 5.0/6. Adam proved for once and for all that he does not belong in U1800 sections anymore! The other kids didn't win big money, but most had good results. Danya got 2.5/6 in the difficult Open section, drawing NM Michael Lee and losing games to two Grandmasters and a FM. Jeff, Charles, Aaron, Arthur and KevinH all played in the A section, with Jeff coming out on top with 4.0/6 with KevinH close behind at 3.5. Daniel's star student Nicholas had an impressive result, scoring 3.5/6 while playing up in the C section to increase his rating from 1356 to 1449. My friend Todd showed the young guns that 30-somethings can still keep up, recovering from an 0-2 start to finish with a decent 2.5/6 in the Expert section and even winning a little cash! Your truly also had a decent result to warm up for the upcoming US Championship. I drew GM Alex Yermolinsky to increase my lifetime score against him to 2.5/4 (three draws and a win). Unfortunately, I lost a heartbreaker in an even endgame against GM Melik Khachiyan. In my other games, I calmly executed a few experts and agreed to a 6-move draw with my student and friend Daniel. I tied for 5th place overall at 4.0/6 behind the co-champions GM Khachiyan, GM Yermolinsky, IM Enrico Sevillano and IM Zilberstein. I proclaim myself ready for Oklahoma! Michael = 4.0 in Open = tied for 5th overall and top U2400 Daniel = 3.5 in Open = tied for 2nd U2300 Danya = 2.5 in Open Gregory = 4.5 in Expert = tied for 1st place!! Todd = 2.5 in Expert = tied for 10th place Jeff = 4.0 in Class A = tied for 4th place KevinH = 3.5 in Class A = tied for 9th place Charles = 3.0 in Class A Aaron = 2.5 in Class A Arthur = 2.5 in Class A Adam = 5.0 in Class B = clear 2nd place! Nicholas = 3.5 in Class C = tied for 8th place Daniel, Gregory and Adam can check out my achievements webpage to find their names recorded for immortality: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/achievements.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3. The end of an era: Daniel Schwarz finishes scholastic career ---------------------------------------------------------------- Since I already announced Gregory Young as Player of the Month for April, I had to change the title of this feature. Nonetheless, I would like to give special recognition to NM Daniel Schwarz for achievements over the past few weeks as well as a length and successful scholastic chess career. As a graduating senior from Rio Americano High School in Sacramento, this is the last time that Daniel is eligible for an honor as one of my "kids". Daniel played in three tournaments in the month of April, performing extraodinarily well in two and settling for a respectable result in the third. On the first day at the Far West Open in Reno, Daniel set several records that may never be broken by one of my students or even by me. He played two games that lasted 14 hours combined, getting to bed at three in the morning on an empty stomach because he was fasting for Passover. The first round draw in an inferior rook endgame against Seattle native GM Gregory Serper was his first success against a Grandmaster--and a strong one at that! Daniel followed this up with a second round draw against local IM Dmitry Zilberstein, once again in a rook endgame down a pawn. Daniel, who taught you to love endgames? Despite the obvious fatigue, he finished the tournament strong, drawing with FM Tigran Ishkhanov before taking a short draw against yours truly. A few days after Reno, Daniel, his father and I flew to Kansas City for the National High School Championship. Just hours after arriving from the airport, Daniel played in the blitz championship and TOOK THE FIRST PLACE TROPHY! He won his first five pairings 2-0, including playing one 2050 and two 1900s. In the final round, he was paired against reigning High School champion NM Landon Brownell from Arizona and they split the two games 1-1. Daniel was awarded the first place trophy on tiebreaks! The main tournament didn't go quite so well as Daniel struggled with long games and little rest between rounds. Nonetheless, he kept his head up and finished tied for 8th place in the country--certainly not a shabby achievement! These were the last games in Daniel Schwarz' scholastic career, a history that goes back to 2nd grade. (Daniel can't play in the CalChess Scholastics this year because of a conflict with the Reno Jazz Festival.) Daniel played his first rated game in January 1997. His second tournament was the Young People's event in Berkeley, where he scored 2.0/4 and earned a rating of 940. His first non-provisional rating was 1045. Today, Daniel is up to 2225 USCF and 2205 FIDE and he is my only student to have earned the elite title of National Master. Over the past decade, he has played over 500 USCF rated (slow) games and 13,000 games on ICC. In recent years, Daniel took on the additional responsibilities of chess teacher and tournament director. Daniel has always been Mr. Consistency. He doesn't know how to compete half-assed. He is always full of intensity. For nine straight years, Daniel finished in the top five of CalChess Scholastics, usually finishing either first, second or third! He had a undefeated streak dating over three years at Sacramento area scholastic tournaments, a streak broken only by his desire to throw a game to make his older brother happy at their last tournament together. Here is a list of some of Daniel's many achievements over the last 10 years. These are taken from my website and from the MSA records. * Tied for 7th place in 3rd grade at National Grade Championship in New Jersey in November 1997 * CalChess K-3 State Champion, March 1998 * 3rd Grade State Champion, April 1998 * Tied for 5th place in 4th grade at National Grade Championship in Illinois in December 1998 * 4th Grade State Co-champion, May 1999 * First place K-6 at Young People's Tournament in Berkeley in February 2000 * 6th Grade State Champion, May 2001 * CalChess K-8 State Champion, April 2002 * First U2000 at Sacramento Championship in July 2003 * First U2200 at Sacramento Weekend Swiss in December 2003 * First master scalp: Daniel defeated NM MacFarland (2201) in Sacramento in March 2004 * Board prize for board 1 in Sacramento Team Championship in February-March 2004 * First IM scalp: Daniel defeated IM Walter Shipman (2239) in Berkeley in February 2005 * First overall at East Bay Thanksgiving Swiss in Berkeley in November 2005 * Daniel drew IM Enrico Sevillano (2544) in Agoura Hills in January 2006 * First U2300 at Pacific Coast Open in Agoura Hills in January 2006 * CalChess K-12 State Champion, May 2006 * Represented California at the Denker High School National Championship in Chicago in August 2006 * Tied for 2nd U2400 at U.S. Open in Chicago in August 2006 * Daniel defeated IM Vladimir Mezentsev (2497) in Reno in October 2006 * Daniel drew GM Gregory Serper (2576) in Reno in April 2007 * K-12 Blitz National Champion in Kansas City April 2007 * Tied for 8th place at National High School Championship in Kansas City in April 2007 Daniel will be attending Stanford University in the fall. I hope that he doesn't totally quit chess, but I know that dorm life is a lot of fun and many chess players do quit during their college years. Certainly, I believe that I've left my mark on Daniel's life and hope that he will continue to improve as a chess player, either during college or afterwards. I would like to close with a passage from a letter of recommendation that I wrote for Daniel. It was a great honor and privilege to have known Daniel Schwarz as a student, a friend and also as a teacher. Thank you Daniel! "As a student, Daniel’s strength has been his inquisitive nature. While many pupils patiently soak in the material, this was not enough to satisfy him. He would question moves that I suggested, not as a teenager who questions authority, but as a budding young scientist who critically evaluates the world around him. He would search for the truth in a chess position, happy to spend an hour trying to understand why one strategy was superior to another. Even during our conversations about non-chess topics, Daniel continued to broaden his knowledge and seek the underlying truth. To him, chess is merely a model of the universe shrunk to 64 squares." -- October 2006 ----------------------------------- 4. Fpawn's schedule for spring 2007 ----------------------------------- I still have a busy schedule ahead of me for the next month. My teaching schedule will be practically non-existent after the next week (i.e. after April 25). However, I will be available for coaching at the CalChess Scholastics on April 28-29 in San Mateo until Wed 4/25 = normal schedule Thu 4/26 = rest day Fri 4/27 - Sun 4/29 = CalChess State Scholastics in San Mateo (coach and TD) Mon 4/30 = rest day Tue 5/1 - Mon 5/14 = preparation for US Championship -- lessons limited to and 2000+ rated who help me and those playing in National Elementary Championship in Nashville Tue 5/15 - Thu 5/24 = US Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma (player) Fri 5/25 - Mon 5/28 = rest days I have posted this schedule on my website . Please bookmark that page and check it if you are unsure of your lesson schedule. ------------------------------------ 5. CalChess Scholastics in San Mateo ------------------------------------ 32nd CalChess State Scholastic Championships April 28-29 San Mateo, CA http://www.calchessscholastics.org/ This is the big cahuna! There are 800 players already signed up and I expect the final number to be about 1200. I will have 21 private students playing in the state championship (two can't make it and two are out of state). The following are not signed up as of Saturday night: David, Gregory, Marvin and Aamir. Please don't wait until the last minute because I expect there will be a mad rush in the middle of the week and then some mistakes may be made. When you get to the San Mateo expo center (2495 South Delaware Street, behind the Bay Meadows race track), I suggest that you park in the west parking lot. I believe there is a daily fee of $7 per car, but you can go in and out as needed. The tournament area will be in the Oak and Cyprus halls. All of my students are in the K-12, K-8 and K-6 varsity sections, so everyone will be in the Oak hall. However, the bughouse and blitz side events will be in the Cyprus hall. Check out the site layout: http://www.calchessscholastics.org/States2007/layout.html The skittles room, team rooms and TD area will be in the adjacent Redwood hall. I have reserved a team room identified by the name "FPAWN" (technically, it is not a room but just an area separated by drapes). There will be six long tables and about 30 chairs. I welcome all of you to set up camp in this room and I will be reviewing games here. Saratoga High School (or what is left of it) and Redwood Middle School are welcome to drop in as well. Since I am a member of the CalChess Board, I also have some other commitments this weekend. Specifically, I will be a TD for the bughouse (Friday evening) and blitz (Saturday evening) side events. All of you are welcome to come and play (for fun!) and I would love if one or two parents could volunteer to help us run the tournaments smoothly. I also will be running the tournament help desk before and during round 1. Friday night: bughouse registration at 6:00-6:45, round 1 at 7:00 ROUND 1 on Sat at 9:30 -- Michael running tournament help desk ROUND 2 on Sat at 12:45 ROUND 3 on Sat at 3:45 -- Michael preparing for blitz Saturday night: blitz registration at 6:00-6:45, round 1 at 7:00 ROUND 4 on Sun at 9:00 ROUND 5 on Sun at 12:15 ROUND 6 on Sun at 3:15 Finally, please remember my new policy. If you take advantage of my team room and I have an opportunity to go over games between rounds, I recommend that you pay me for my time. The suggested fee is equivalent to one regular weekly lesson. Thank you very much to those who contributed after the Junior High Championship in Sacramento! -------------------------------------- 6. Players at the CalChess Scholastics -------------------------------------- (#) = current student (&) = former student or other ties to me K-12 1. 2296 NM Nicolas Yap 2. 2239 NM Sam Shankland 2239 NM Drake Wang <--- probably will not play 2206 NM Daniel Schwarz (&) <--- will not play 3. 2145 Danya Naroditsky (#) 4. 2095 David Chock (#) 5. 2084 Adarsh Konda 6. 2073 Gregory Young (#) 7. 2046 Matt Zavortink (&) 8. 2042 Michael Zhong 9. 1978 Rohan Sathe 1969 Daichi Siegrist <--- probably will not play 10. 1956 Jeff Young (#) 1947 Louiza Livschitz <--- will not play 11. 1928 Alan Naroditsky (#) 12. 1899 Charles Sun (#) 13. 1894 Sreekar Jasthi 14. 1862 Ted Belanoff 15. 1853 Aaron Garg (#) 16. 1844 Arnav Shah (&) 17. 1817 Marvin Shu (#) 18. 1807 Micah Cohen K-8 1. 1942 Rohan Agarwal 2. 1860 Steven Zierk (#) 3. 1832 Arthur Liou (#) 1819 Davis Xu <--- probably will not play 1750 Evan Sandberg <--- rumor is he will play in K-12 4. 1715 Adam Goldberg (#) 5. 1665 Vishal Dasari 6. 1646 Partha Vora 7. 1644 Christopher Tsai 8. 1635 Kevin Garbe (#) 9. 1597 Trevor Lowenthal (&) 10. 1597 Harsha Nukala K-6 1. 1963 Nicholas Nip <--- his coach confirmed to me that he plans to play in K-6 2. 1731 Sam Bekker (#) 3. 1726 Isaac Zhang (&) 4. 1675 Kyle Shin 5. 1646 Yian Liou (#) 6. 1624 Andrew Yeh 1620 Jerome Sun <--- will not play 7. 1614 Alex Grossman 1612 Hugo Kitano <--- probably will not play 8. 1604 Rahul Desirazu 9. 1590 James Kwok (#) 10. 1588 Christopher Wu 11. 1544 Ojas Chinchwadkar 12. 1532 Jennifer Livschitz 13. 1521 Daniel Zheng 14. 1521 Nikita Shenkman 15. 1480 Daniel Tan 16. 1476 Andrew Chen (#) ------------------------------------------ 7. US Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma ------------------------------------------ Most of you should know by now that I am playing in the US Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma on May 15-23. The tournament is a 9-round swiss with approximately 34 players. The final field has not been released because a few players have declined to play due to other commitments. Based on the preliminary list, I am ranked #33 out of 34. In other words, I can look forward to a lot of up pairings. You can read the details of the US Championship below. In addition to determining the United States chess champion for 2007, this tournament is a Zonal for the FIDE World Cup and five players will qualify for that event. GM and IM norms are available and the requirement of three foreign opponents is waived for all Zonals. My personal goals are to have fun and learn chess. If I can earn the FM title (need 30 more FIDE rating points) then that would be a bonus. If I can earn an IM norm, that would be stupendous. I am going to be realistic and not set too high expectations. This will easily be the most difficult tournament that I have ever played in! I am looking for help from my top students to prepare for this tournament. Specifically, I will assign each of my top students who expresses interest about five to eight players to prepare an opening dossier for me. I will compile a large database with thousands of games from all of the players and will provide a questionnaire to guide the preparation. If you are interested, rated 1800+ and have some experience manipulating large databases of games in Fritz or Chessbase, please email me or drop me a message on ICC. -------------- Frank K. Berry U.S. Championship May 15-23, 2007 Stillwater, Oklahoma USA venue: Quality Inn website: http://www.monroi.com/tournamentgate/USChamp07 1. The defending champion is GM Alexander Onischuk. 2. 9-round swiss with at least 34 players: 31 qualifiers and 3 sponsor's exemptions. 3. Possibly some patrons who pay fee ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 depending on USCF rating. 4. Time control = 40/100, 20/50, SD/15 with 30 seconds/move increment starting on move 1. 5. Prizes: $12000, 8000, 5000, 4000, 3500, 3000 down to 500 for last place. 6. If tie for 1st, money split evenly and the top two on tiebreaks play two G/10 for the title. 7. Five players qualify for FIDE World Cup with ties broken by computer tiebreaks. 8. All players are required to use the MonRoi electronic scoresheet. Schedule: Player's meeting on May 14 at 9pm Opening ceremony on May 15 at 12noon Rounds daily on May 15-22 at 2pm Last round on May 23 at 12noon, followed by closing ceremony USCF Executive Board meeting on May 19-20 Players qualified: (USCF rating then FIDE rating) 1 GM Hikaru Nakamura 2755 2651 2 GM Gata Kamsky 2752 2705 <--- declined to play 3 GM Alexander Onischuk 2712 2663 4 GM Gregory Kaidanov 2686 2595 5 GM Jaan Ehlvest 2675 2610 6 GM Ildar Ibragimov 2675 2602 7 GM Yury Shulman 2662 2604 8 GM Alexander Shabalov 2656 2602 9 GM Varuzhan Akobian 2652 2588 10 GM Joel Benjamin 2650 2571 <--- declined to play 11 GM Alexander Ivanov 2646 2577 12 GM Alexander Stripunsky 2638 2575 13 GM Sergey Kudrin 2609 2543 14 GM Eugene Perelshteyn 2609 2535 15 GM Julio Becerra 2600 2546 16 GM Susan Polgar 2597 2577 <--- declined to play 17 GM Dmitry Gurevich 2591 2517 18 GM Nick DeFirmian 2585 2539 19 IM Enrico Sevillano 2562 2501 20 GM Melikset Khachiyan 2542 2480 21 WGM Anna Zatonskih 2491 2462 22 IM Irina Krush 2480 2449 23 FM Joseph Bradford 2475 2442 24 IM David Pruess 2461 2416 25 FM Robert Hess 2447 2394 26 IM Bryan Smith 2440 2402 27 IM Michael Mulyar 2440 2362 28 IM Justin Sarkar 2438 2405 29 IM Ron Burnett 2393 2388 30 FM Michael Langer 2354 2339 31 FM Ray Robson 2332 2249 32 FM Movses Movsisyan 2292 2280 33 NM Michael Aigner 2282 2269 34 Tom Braunlich 2148 2204 Several people have declined to play. Among the replacement players are Northern Californians GM Alex Yermolinsky and WGM Camilla Baginskaite. That would mean four local players are in the championship: Yermolinsky, IM David Pruess, Baginskaite and me. ----------------------------- 8. National Open in Las Vegas ----------------------------- National Open June 8-10 (2-day schedule June 9-10) Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas http://www.lvchessfestival.com/natlopen This has been one of my favorite trips each year. I have had some of the best personal results in this city. For example, last year I drew GM Darmen Sadvakasov (ranked in top 100 of the world) with the black pieces. This year's tournament has an honored guest: former World Championship finalist Viktor Korchnoi (who lost to Anatoly Karpov in the infamous 'yogurt match' in 1976). The tournament should draw in excess of 800 players, making it the largest adult tournament west of the continental divide. For many of you, this will be the first weekend of summer vacation. Unfortunately, my students from Saratoga High School have final exams the week after National Open. Thus, I expect a younger generation of students to play. Players can choose between the normal 3-day schedule and the accelerated 2-day schedule (three G/60 games on Saturday and then merge for round 4). I will be playing in this tournament and will use the trip as a mini vacation too. I'm flying on Wednesday June 6 and returning on Tuesday June 12. I've signed up for the main tournament (3-day schedule) and the G/10 championship on Thursday afternoon. *** Please email me soon if you are thinking of attending National Open. I can probably take on one or two mature kids in my room if you can find a way to get to Las Vegas with someone. *** ----------------------- 9. Upcoming tournaments ----------------------- *** BREAKING NEWS *** The East Bay Chess Club is no more. Due to much smaller turnouts and the personal quests of Pruess and Friedel for the Grandmaster title, the chess club has closed its doors. In my opinion, the trend began when they were booted out of their location in Berkeley and moved to Oakland airport. Anyways, there will be no more tournaments at EBCC anymore. :-( It is important to make sure that you get practice playing chess. If all you do is take lessons and learn, then you won't know how to apply what you learned! That could be embarrassing later at state or national championships. I recommend that everyone try to play at minimum one tournament every two months. Serious players can aim for one event each month. 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 21, May 12 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 50 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 will not be playing G/45 for a long time, but might drop by on occassion to watch and coach. ********** *** 32nd CalChess State Scholastic Championship *** April 28-29 *** San Mateo, CA *** http://www.calchessscholastics.org/ ********** National Elementary (K-6) Championship May 11-13 Nashville, TN http://www.uschess.org/tournaments/2007/elem/ 44th Stamer Memorial June 2-3 Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco http://www.chessclub.org/Stamer.html This is one of the two bigger events at the Mechanics' Institute and I have won it twice this decade (including last year, when I drew with IM DeGuzman to share first place). The first four rounds on Saturday are played at G/60 and the last two rounds on Sunday are played at 30/90, SD/60. I urge my students to play--whether I play is still unclear but I probably will drop by at least on one day as a coach. National Open June 8-10 (2-day schedule June 9-10) Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas http://www.lvchessfestival.com/natlopen I have attended National Open for several years in a row and intend to play again this year. It is the largest annual adult tournament west of the continental divide, attracting around 800 players each year. The Open section will feature a double digit number of Grandmasters, including this year the honored guest Viktor Korchnoi (who lost to a World Championship match to Anatoly Karpov in 1976). For many of you this is the first weekend of summer vacation and a great opportunity to play chess! ------------------------------ 9. Lesson schedule and website ------------------------------ My lesson schedule is on the website as usual (http://www.fpawn.com/chess/schedule.htm). I suggest that you bookmark that page for future reference. The top of the page includes a notice about lesson cancellations which I update whenever I know more information. Please note that almost all lessons will be cancelled from April 26 through the end of May due to the CalChess Scholastics and US Championship (and my preparations for it). As usual, check out my website for the latest news, schedule information and other cool tidbits. lesson schedule: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/schedule.htm teaching contract: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/contract.htm achievements: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/achievements.htm national rankings: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/rankings.htm latest news: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/news.htm May all your pawns promote! Thanks once again for reading the entire newsletter. :-) Michael