Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2007 Subject: fpawn's newsletter January 2007 Hello chess students, parents and friends! Happy New Year 2007 to all! May your pawns promote and your rating increase. Most importantly, I hope you all have fun playing and become better, smarter human beings because of chess. As many of you know, I spent the days between Christmas and New Year at the big tournament in Las Vegas. Normally you receive a big prize or recognition after the last round--or not at all. In this case, the stunning news came hours before round 1 when the USCF President Bill Goichberg congratulated me on (unofficially) qualifying for the 2007 US Championship. Unknown to me, my result and tiebreaks at the US Open last summer in Chicago were sufficient for a qualifying spot. To read more, check out section 1 of this newsletter. This newsletter includes coverage from Las Vegas and the holiday blitz tournament in Saratoga. The first few months of 2007 will include many opportunities to play, starting with an event directed by one of my students and culminating in state and national championships. I also plan to run a standard tournament on ICC next Saturday afternoon. Read the newsletter to find out more! One small note: I have added two talented new students at the beginning of 2007, which leaves me above capacity. If anyone asks you in the coming months whether I am accepting any further students, please tell them no. I am bad at saying "no" myself--being popular has its downside. However, circumstances will force me to decline any new students from now on until some new openings arise. Thank you for your continued support! :-) I hope you enjoy this newsletter. If you have any questions or suggestions for the new year, please feel free to write to me. I can only become a better chess teacher with feedback (good and bad) from you all! Michael P.S. This is a long newsletter! ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 2007 US Championship 2. North American Open in Las Vegas 3. Player of the Month 4. Holiday blitz tournament 5. Major tournaments in first half of 2007 6. Silicon Valley Challenge #3 in Saratoga 7. 15 0 tournament on ICC next Saturday 8. Two tips about practicing on ICC 9. Upcoming tournaments 10. Lesson schedule and website ----------------------- 1. 2007 US Championship ----------------------- As I mentioned in the introduction, I (unofficially) qualified for the 2007 US Championship. The top two players at the US Open last August in Chicago earned spots in the prestigious national championship. The first spot went to GM Yury Shulman, who won the tournament with an impressive 8.0/9 score. Ten players tied for second at 7.5/9, including me. I thought, incorrectly, that my tiebreaks were terrible, but I didn't understand one quirk in the rules concerning players that withdrew before the last round. To make a long story short, I actually finished sixth on tiebreaks. However, three players ahead of me were foreign (thus ineligible) and one (GM Gregory Kaidanov) will be seeded by rating. Somehow, I apparently earned the second qualifying spot! Unfortunately, the matters get murkier now. Specifically, many important details for the 2007 US Championship have not been finalized and publicized. In fact, nobody knows for sure what the qualifying rules are (although the common assumption is that the rules would be the same as last year). We have only been told two key details: there would be only 32 players (as opposed to 64 last year) and the tournament would be a knockout format with some matches to be played over the internet. There will be no centralized venue such as San Diego, but rather smaller sites around the country with a final championship match played in Las Vegas. What does this mean for me? While I'm excited to have qualified for the US Championship, I realize that my stay will be rather short under this format. I will likely be the #30, #31 or #32 seed and, consequently, expect to face either top rated American GM Gata Kamsky, reigning US Champion GM Vladimir Onischuk or young rising star GM Hikaru Nakamura in the first round. My chances of winning the California state lottery are greater than my hopes of advancing beyond the first round. I will, however, try my best and will find a way to enjoy my moment in the spotlight. Certainly, I am happier to lose in the first round than not to qualify at all. :-) Stay tuned for more information. The latest word is that the first round will be in May or June. I will keep you all posted! ----------------------------------- 2. North American Open in Las Vegas ----------------------------------- Seven of my students and I made the trip to Las Vegas over the holidays to play in North American Open. We were joined by some 500 other chess fans, including 14 Grandmasters and a similar number of International Masters. This big money tournament hosted by the Continental Chess Association draws players from all around the country and, in fact, the world. Former US Champion GM Hikaru Nakamura won the event with a 6-1 score by playing fellow Grandmasters from Armenia, Mongolia, Switzerland and the country of Georgia, winning against two and drawing with the other two. After receiving word before round 1 that I had qualified for the US Championship, I set out to prove worthy of such a recognition. I was only partially successful. On the bright side, I only lost once in seven rounds, as black to former US Champion GM Alex Shabalov. I even scored a draw against another former US Champion, this time GM Alex Yermolinsky from the Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco. Unfortunately, I came down with a virus called draw-itis, and drew all four of my games with white--two against opponents rated 2068 and 1958. I finished with 4.0/7 after failing to win win a favorable middlegame in the last round against local star junior NM Nicolas Yap. My students had a mix bag of performances. Four students gained double digit rating points while two lost points (plus one essentially had no rating change). Whether they gained or lost rating points, each person had a good time and hopefully learned something from this experience. Kudos to Danya, Alan, Charles, Aaron, Adam, Andrew and Rebekah for all going to Las Vegas! The two big winners were Alan in the A section and Adam in the C section. Alan finished with 5.0/7, gaining 52 rating points, breaking 1900 for the first time (now at 1916) and earning some cash. Adam topped Alan with 5.5/7 (albeit in the easier C section), gaining 67 points, breaking 1600 for the first time (now at 1627) and earning over $400 in prize money. Congratulations to both Alan and Adam for a job well done! ---------------------- 3. Player of the Month ---------------------- While occassionally I award the Player of the Month award for one phenomenal tournament, I prefer to recognize people who had good results over several months. This month is one such example. Alan Naroditsky played well in Las Vegas and gained over 50 rating points. Even more impressive is his gain of 199 points since the June rating list, from 1717 to 1916. Congratulations to Alan for the Player of the Month award for January! I have always been impressed by Alan's cheerful approach to chess. It is not easy to be the older brother of someone as talented as Danya. Imagine if your little bro is ranked #1 in the nation and gets all the attention! Yet Alan has always taken it all in stride, never complaining that his brother is higher rated. In fact, Alan sometimes tries to be Danya's chess teacher, pointing out some concepts that his little brother might not have paid attention to. In the past few months, Alan has managed to create his own independent identity in the chess community. He drew with WIM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs and NM Russell Wong at the last Tuesday Night Marathon. In the summer, Alan even defeated Batchimeg in a G/45 tournament. These results merely suggest that further improvement is in Alan's future. He broke 1800 on Thanksgiving in Los Angeles and then broke 1900 in Las Vegas. Alan, I hope to see you in an Expert section soon! --------------------------- 4. Holiday blitz tournament --------------------------- My holiday blitz tournament on December 22 was a wild success. A dozen kids (K-8) participated and I think everyone had fun. The time-odds format allowed the lower rated players to compete more evenly against higher rated opponents—and everyone managed to win at least two games. CONGRATULATIONS TO RIK FOR SURPRISING EVERYONE AND TAKING FIRST PLACE AT 9.0/11. Top rated Yian lost to Rik in the first round but recovered to take second place with 8.0/11. Tied for third place were Andrew and Adam, both with 7.0/11. The winners got their choice of book prizes! Check out the tournament crosstable by clicking on the following link. The mini team competition (four players per team) was won by East Bay over Redwood with a score of 24.5 to 19.5. http://www.fpawn.com/Dec06HolidayBlitzStandings.html A BIG THANK YOU TO KURT AND EMILY GARBE for letting us invade their house for a party with a dozen youngsters and for preparing the food. It amazed me how quiet the kids became once each round began. We had no fights, no arguments and no sore losers. I was also happy to see everyone shake hands before each round. Many adults have something to learn from these kids! Way to go! ------------------------------------------- 5. Major tournaments in first half of 2007 ------------------------------------------- I hope that most of my students can attend certain major tournaments. These include big adult tournaments plus major scholastic events. This year is a bit special because we have one of the USCF nationals in our area. PLEASE ADD THE FOLLOWING THREE TOURNAMENTS TO YOUR CALENDARS. I will provide more details prior to each event. 34th People's Chess Tournament (adult tournament) February 17-19 (U1600 section is February 17-18 only) M.L. King Student Union at UC Berkeley. http://www.calchess.org/controlpanel/files/PeoplesFlyer07_rev1.pdf National Junior High School (K-9) Championship March 30 - April 1 Sacramento, CA http://www.uschess.org/tournaments/2007/jhs/ 32nd CalChess State Scholastic Championship April 28-29 San Mateo, CA http://www.calchessscholastics.org/ I HOPE TO SEE ALL OF MY STUDENTS AT THESE THREE TOURNAMENTS (with the exception that 10th graders and older can't play in the JHS Championship). I intend to play in the People's Tournament and coach at all three. BE THERE! Some of my students will play in the National High School (K-12) Championship on April 13-15 in Kansas City and the National Elementary (K-6) Championship on May 11-13 in Nashville. I might travel to Kansas City but, unfortunately, I will not be in Nashville. ------------------------------------------- 6. Silicon Valley Challenge #3 in Saratoga ------------------------------------------- My student Charles Sun wants to be more than just a good chess player; he wants to direct tournaments as well. He has run several events in the past, including two weekend tournaments with 36 players each. In recognition of his leadership, Charles was recently appointed as a Scholastic Representative for CalChess, giving him a voice inside the state organization. The next tournament will be on Saturday, January 27 in Saratoga. It will be a 4 round swiss in three sections: Open, U1400 and U1200. I ENCOURAGE MY STUDENTS TO ATTEND, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO LIVE NEARBY. I plan to play and Charles hopes to attract other strong players, including several masters and experts. Be there! When: Saturday, January 27 Where: Immanuel Lutheran Church, Saratoga CA Format: Four round swiss in three sections (Open, U1400 and U1200) Time control: G/60 Schedule: registration at 9:15-9:45am, games between 10:00am and 6:30pm Entry fee: $35 adults, $25 juniors ($5 discount for a team or if you bring a friend) flyer: http://sunchessclub.googlepages.com/SiliconValleyChallenge3EntryForm.pdf website: http://sunchessclub.googlepages.com --------------------------------------- 7. 15 5 tournament on ICC next Saturday --------------------------------------- I like to host occassional fun events for my students. In the past, I've done several simuls and a time-odds blitz challenge. This time I will run a standard tournament open to all of my students. This is intended to be fun with no pressure. It will ICC rated but NOT USCF rated, so there's nothing to be afraid of. You may take up to two half-point byes if you have other activities on Saturday afternoon. When: Saturday, January 13 Where: ICC channel 288 Format: Four round swiss in one section Time control: 15 5 (G/15 with 5 seconds/move increment) Registration: send me an email or ICC message Schedule: check in 2:30-2:55 with rounds at 3:00, 3:45, 4:30, 5:15 (Pacific time) Entry fee: none Prizes: recognition in this newsletter next month To join: 1. Email me (or send a message on ICC) that you want to play. 2. Log in before 2:55 PST on Saturday. 3. Add channel 288 for announcements. To add add channel 288 type: "tell 288 hello". That automatically adds the channel and allows you to listen to me and other players. Guys, please keep this channel clean since I teach quite few younger kids too. Thanks. 4. Type "finger fpawn-blitz" for pairings and standings. 5. To challenge your opponent, go to the Game menu of BlitzIn, select Match, fill in your opponent's name, time=15, increment=5, wild=0 (normal chess) and choose rated. ----------------------------------- 8. Two tips about practicing on ICC ----------------------------------- As most of you know, I like to see my students use ICC to practice their chess. Why pass up an opportunity to play in your spare time without having to drive anywhere? Ideal would be a slow time control like G/60, but it is difficult to find opponents online for really slow games. Plus, rarely do you find an opponent who actually uses their full time in a slow game. Instead, I encourage two compromises: play 15 0 or 20 0 standard or enter the 5-minute blitz pool. Which is best for you depends a lot on your personality and experience. Some people can't see tactics so fast, and they will want to play standard time controls such as 15 0 and 20 0. In reality, these are intermediate time controls, but you are still forced to think between moves. I WISH ALL OF MY STUDENTS COULD PLAY SOME STANDARD GAMES EACH WEEK (even two would be great), but the odds of that happening are longer than me becoming Pope. For those of you who would rather play G/1 (not one hour but rather one minute), I strongly urge you to play in the 5-minute blitz pool. I understand that bullet is fun, but it is not serious. Blitz 5 0 is the fastest time control that I consider semi-serious because you can't win a game strictly by moving fast. ICC has the special 5-minute pool. You get a human opponent near your rating simply by typing 5 and hitting enter. It might take a few seconds, but a game will pop up soon. You don't need to seek an opponent. IF YOU LACK THE TIME OR PATIENCE TO PLAY STANDARD ONLINE, THEN AT THE VERY LEAST I BEG YOU TO PLAY IN THE 5-MINUTE POOL. I used some statistical analysis to come up with approximate formulas to convert ICC standard and 5-minute ratings into USCF ratings. Check them out below and compare your ICC ratings with your USCF. I need to emphasize that these formulas are, of course, only approximations. However, they are pretty accurate (within 100 points) for many of my students. Convert your ICC standard and 5-minute ratings to approximate USCF ratings: USCF = 1.20 * ICCstandard - 520 (correlation = 0.83) USCF = 0.77 * ICC5-minute + 470 (correlation = 0.88) ----------------------- 9. Upcoming tournaments ----------------------- 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 California Classic Championship -- January 14 USF campus in Cupertino http://www.geocities.com/sfchessclassic/AdultClassic.html Jason Gurtovoy and Salman Azhar have a lot of energy directing tournaments in the South Bay for children and adults. For those of you who live in Santa Clara county, this is a great opportunity to play four rated games in one day without travelling far. You might event win a prize! Future California Classic tournaments will be held at an elementary school in Santa Clara. Mechanics G/45 Tournament -- January 20, February 10 Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco http://www.chessclub.org/Burger.html http://www.chessclub.org/Gross.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 tend to drop by once in a while for these tournaments. Silicon Valley Challenge #3 -- January 27 Immanuel Lutheran Church in Saratoga CA http://sunchessclub.googlepages.com/SiliconValleyChallenge3EntryForm.pdf I plan to attend this tournament and hope to see several of my students. For more information, please scroll up to section 6 of this newsletter. East Bay Chess Club monthly swiss -- February 3-4 East Bay Chess Club near Oakland airport http://www.eastbaychess.com (no information posted as of this time) The EBCC is a very kid friendly chess club that runs adult and scholastic tournaments on the weekends. The weekend swiss format is simple: four rounds of slow chess (30/90 + SD/60) with two games each day. The events usually two sections (open and U1800) and feature medium sized money prizes. I am known to support my friends who run this club whenever I have the time and energy. ****************************** 34th People's Chess Tournament February 17-19 (U1600 section is February 17-18 only) M.L. King Student Union at UC Berkeley. http://www.calchess.org/controlpanel/files/PeoplesFlyer07_rev1.pdf The People's Tournament is one of the two great tournaments held each year in Northern California (the state championship on Labor Day is the other). After being held at EBCC last year, the event returns to its historical venue overlooking historic Sproul Plaza on the Cal campus. Play up to six rounds (byes are available) at a classical slow time control. Richard Koepcke is chief TD. I PLAN TO PLAY AND COACH AND I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THIS EVENT TO ALL OF MY STUDENTS! Be there! ****************************** ********************************************** National Junior High School (K-9) Championship March 30 - April 1 Sacramento, CA http://www.uschess.org/tournaments/2007/jhs/ ********************************************** National High School (K-12) Championship April 13-15 Kansas City, MO http://www.uschess.org/tournaments/2007/hs/ ******************************************* 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/ ------------------------------- 10. 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. My teaching schedule will be pretty stable until April. I will play in tournaments the last weekend of January and on President's Day weekend in February; I will email people affected by these cancellations. Otherwise, I expect to be available unless I get sick or something unexpected comes up. 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 US Open story: http://www.fpawn.com/USOpen06/USOpen06.htm Thanks for reading the entire newsletter. :-) All the best for 2007! Michael