Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 Subject: CalChess Scholastics Express Report Hello chess friends! What a weekend. Too many kids. Too many parents. Too many blunders and moments of temporary insanity. One student won down two rooks and another won after blundering a queen in the opening. On Saturday it was hot and on Sunday it was cold. On Saturday, I could hear and on Sunday, I could not (or only sometimes). Some students did extremely well and a few others struggled to beat people rated 400 points lower. This is beginning to sound like a Charles Dickens novel ("It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.") Welcome to the 1170 player CalChess Scholastics last weekend at the San Mateo Expo Center! Now let me try to focus on the positives. * HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPION DANIEL NARODITSKY -- yes, he's just a 5th grader! * High School 3rd place David Chock -- part of 6-way playoff for Denker qualifying spot * 10 of top 18 in High School division are either current (8) or former (2) students * Saratoga High School three-peats as state team champion * JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL CHAMPION STEVEN ZIERK * Junior High School 3rd place Adam Goldberg * Redwood Middle School stuns #3 nationally ranked Hopkins Junior High for state team title * 5 of top 10 in Junior High School division are current students * Elementary School 2nd place Sam Bekker * 3 of top 11 in Elementary School division are current students * 1 student got 6.0 * 1 student got 5.5 * 3 students got 5.0 * 7 students got 4.5 * 7 students got 4.0 * 19 of 20 students won a top 20 trophy! * Great camaraderie between all of the kids in my team room. Obviously the big story was the success of Daniel Naroditsky in the High School Varsity section. In a field of two teenage masters and six experts, a fifth grader took the top honors at 5.5 out of 6. Of course, Daniel Naroditsky, ranked #1 in the nation for age 11, is already experienced to being first in chess. He faced four of the six players tied for second place: A player Micah Cohen, reigning National High School Champion Michael Zhong, Saratoga High School captain David Chock and finally National Master Sam Shankland. Perhaps this was Daniel’s first of maybe many more High School state championship trophies. Saratoga High School board 1 David Chock is part of the 6-player group that tied for top "high school" honors, behind the fifth grade champion. These six players (Sam Shankland, David Chock, Nicolas Yap, Adarsh Konda, Michael Zhong and Micah Cohen) will compete in a playoff for the qualifying spot to the Denker Invitational for High School Champions. Many of you will remember that Daniel Schwarz represented CalChess at the Denker last year. The final story which I want to share today is the amazing feat achieved by Redwood Middle School. Rarely does a team come out of nowhere and wins the state team championship within 6 months. The Redwood team (average rating of 1445) tied the #3 ranked team in the nation from Hopkins Junior High (average rating of 1671) and won on tiebreaks! Congratulations to my students Kevin Garbe and Evan Ye, plus their teammates Brian Wai and Sankash Shankar. Finally, a big pat on the back to their team coach, high school student David Chock. I am too tired to write more. Feel free to read my short story on the CalChess website. I will upload my own photographs tomorrow during the day (check out my photo album on CalChess site). And the regular May newsletter will come out later this week or early next week. http://www.calchess.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=96000 REMINDER #1: Unless I specifically told you otherwise, NO CHESS LESSONS for the entire month of May! I need the time to prepare for and play in the US Championship (May 15-23). REMINDER #2: To my 1800+ rated students. If you have experience using Fritz or Chessbase and want to help me a little to prepare for US Championship, please let me know in a day or two. I will create a big file of games from all of the players in the tournament. Your job will then be to answer an opening repertoire questionaire for a handful of players that I assign to you. I have affirmative responses from DanielS, Steven, Adam and Charles. I'm looking for a few more helpers. Happy May Day to all! fpawn P.S. Hearing aid problem is now resolved. I am using the backup one that I had at home.