Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 Subject: fpawn's newsletter August 2005 #2 Dear chess students and parents, Summer vacation is almost over, or in some cases, it is already over. I hope everyone had the opportunity to relax and enjoy themselves. There are two orders of business for this email: As everyone should know by now, Labor Day weekend is the date of the CalChess State (adult) Championship. I hope to see most if not all of my local students in San Francisco! Read below for more information. It is time to set up a lesson schedule for fall. Hopefully I can find an acceptable time slot for everyone. As a fun event, I will do a simul on SATURDAY at 5pm Pacific on ICC. All my current and past students are welcome. This is your chance to beat up on your teacher. 1. CalChess State Championship (Labor Day) 2. Fall lesson schedule 3. Simul on Saturday at 5pm PDT 4. Other upcoming tournaments ------------------------------------------ 1. CalChess State Championship (Labor Day) ------------------------------------------ CalChess Labor Day Festival (adult state championship) San Francisco (Holiday Inn on Van Ness at Pine) 3-day schedule: Sat 9/3 through Mon 9/5, 6 rounds of 30/90,SD/60 2-day schedule: Sun 9/4 through Mon 9/5, 3 rounds of G/60 plus 3 rounds of 30/90/SD/60 (note that Monday is Labor Day, a school holiday) flyer: http://www.calchess.org/controlpanel/files/LABOR05.pdf entries: http://www.calchess.org/controlpanel/files/labordayadvanceentries.htm ALERT! Mail in your entry this week if you haven't done so already! Those of you living in the Bay Area simply can't miss this tournament! It is the biggest adult event in Northern California and draws also the toughest competition. I expect the turnout to approach 200 players with the Master section headlined by IMs DeGuzman, Mezentsev, Donaldson and Zilberstein. The class sections are every 200 rating points (Master, U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600 and U1400). I will be playing--no doubt about that! Richard Koepcke and John McCumiskey do an excellent job of making this player event run smoothly and happily for most people. As you may have noticed from the early entries, many people play up in this tournament. Thus, the "expert" section has almost no experts, but rather a bunch of A players! My advice is that anyone rated within 100 points of the top of their section should definitely play up. Other people are welcome to play up as well. The main reason NOT to play up would be to gamble on winning your section and becoming state champion. Here are my suggestions and official August ratings--you don't *have* to follow them, but I hope you can give me a good reason if you disagree. Master: Michael (2285), Daniel (2158) Expert: David (1922) Class A: Gregory (1871), Jeff (1772), Arnav (1739), Corey (1715), Marvin (1690) Class B: Charles (1532), Tejas (1457) Class C: Caleb (1320) Class D: Yian (1162) Guys like David, Jeff, Arnav and Charles who have gained sufficient rating points recently to move up a section should play in their new rating class for sure. In case anyone was wondering, you may only play up one section from your official August rating... even if your current rating on the website is much higher. I have signed up for a half-point bye for round 4. This gives me the opportunity to coach and review games all day on Sunday after I finish my round 3 game without being concerned about playing another tournament game that day. I will either set up in the skittles room or, if that is too crowded, in my hotel room upstairs (ask for the room number). I hope to have a chance to talk to everyone sometime on Sunday afternoon or evening. Please don't be shy and make sure to stop by and show me a game or two! Those of you who are playing in the 3-day schedule and who want to go for dinner (pizza?) on Saturday night, please let me know. Most games should be finished by 8pm, so it is not too late in the evening. There are several places to eat within a few blocks of the hotel. We could also go out to socialize on Sunday evening, but the last round starts at 5pm so some people may be playing at 9pm or later. Finally, a warning: BLITZ AND BUGHOUSE HAVE BEEN DEEMED HAZARDOUS TO YOUR CHESS RATING BY YOUR TEACHER!!! I do not want to see any of you playing bughouse or blitz between rounds in San Francisco. You only mess up your mind and get tired. You have my reluctant permission to goof off a little bit in the evening after your last game, but not before. ----------------------- 2. Fall lesson schedule ----------------------- It is this time of year... time to set up the lesson schedule for a new school year. As you can imagine, balancing the availibities of a dozen people is a challenge! I also need to weigh my own schedule to avoid being tired after many hours straight of teaching. I have spoken with most people already about the fall lesson times. Please see my website for the tentative schedule. If I messed up or if you need to move to a different time, please let me know ASAP. As you can see, I tend to be more available on weekday afternoons than evenings. Does anyone want their lesson on Friday after school? Saratoga kids need not apply. http://www.fpawn.com/chess/schedule.htm I hope to resolve any scheduling conflicts to everyone's satisfaction, but that may or may not be possible. In the unfortunate event that a schedule can't be resolved, I will give preference to students with whom I have worked the longest. That makes Daniel the 500 lb gorilla (we have had lessons for six years now). ANYWAYS, PLEASE EMAIL ME IF YOU NEED A CHANGE IN YOUR WEEKLY LESSON TIME. The fall schedule will officially go into effect on Tuesday, September 6. If your summer lesson time conflicts with school, please contact me to schedule a lesson for the last week of August. ------------------------------- 3. Simul on Saturday at 5pm PDT ------------------------------- Just for fun, I will do another simul on SATURDAY at 5pm Pacific time. This simul is open to my current, past students and a some invited friends. I will play all comers--hopefully we can get at least 8 or 10 people to show up. FREE!!! This is intended to be a fun event as well as an opportunity to match wits with your teacher. Considering the competition that I will face, surely I'll lose at least one or two games! Time control = 60 10 (start with 60 minutes and add 10 seconds per move). I will be white in all games. To enter, type: "play fpawn" between 4:45 and 5:00. We will use channel 293 for chat, but guys, please keep the channel clean (no profanity). Good luck! ----------------------------- 4. Other upcoming tournaments ----------------------------- Western States Open - October 14-16 Reno, Nevada http://home.nvbell.net/wayern/renochess/wso/index.html This is my favorite tournament each year. Unfortunately for you Bay Area kids, it is a 4-5 hour drive away and presents a significant logistical problem with school schedules (3-day tournament but not a holiday weekend). I expect a small group of maybe 3 or 4 students to play in this tournament. Former World Champion Boris Spassky (lost to Bobby Fischer in 1972) will be making another appearance this year. CalChess adult tournaments website: http://www.calchess.org/modules.php?name=Information&page=01_regular_tournaments/schedule.php I will see most of you in San Francisco on Labor Day weekend. May all your pawns promote! Michael