Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 Subject: fpawn's newsletter July 2005 Hello chess students, parents and friends, Boy is it hot! :-) Happy summer to all of you. The main event over the past month was the Sacramento chess championship over the 4th of July weekend. Read below for a recap and links to plenty of photos. 1. Sacramento Chess Championship 2. New look for the CalChess website 3. USCF ratings for August 4. Upcoming tournaments 5. Lesson schedule over the summer 6. Fpawn's website -------------------------------- 1. Sacramento Chess Championship -------------------------------- The annual Sacramento Chess Championship took place over the 4th of July weekend in Sacramento. Not only is this event one of the larger weekend tournaments in northern California, it also serves as a mini get-together for my group of students. Eight of my current students played, in addition to several other kids with whom I have worked either formally or informally over the years. The tournament itself ran smoothly. The site at the Best Western Expo Inn provided enough elbow room to relax or play blitz in the skittles area. A total of 90 players attended, of which about half were juniors. As usual, the blame for running such an efficient event falls squarely on the shoulders of John McCumiskey. When you are as organized as he is, you can't help but remark "life is good." All of my students either did well or played like they should never have gotten out of bed. The tone was set on the first day of the 3-day schedule when everyone related to my group scored either 2-0 or 0-2. Fortunately, far more people did well than poorly. We can only hope that the guys who should have stayed in bed will recover at future events. Four current students finished in the money. Arnav out-hustled and out-played five opponents to share first place in the Reserve (under 2000) section. This impressive result will push his rating near the 1800 mark. Jeff scored 4.0/6 and shared second place under 1400 honors in the Reserve group. Playing in the Amateur (under 1600) section, Charles and Caleb took different routes on their way to a share of second place under 1400. Charles started out well and played many of the top players, losing to two of the top three prize winners. Caleb did the opposite, losing to a 307 rated kid before recovering and finishing with 1.5/2 against 1500s. Two other students did well despite not winning money. David drew NM Richard Koepcke, which I believe was his first rated draw against a master. Tejas boldly entered in the Reserve section and played up in every round, impressively drawing four of his five games. Kudos to all! Your teacher started out well himself, winning his first three games including a game against top junior NM Nicolas Yap. I even managed to reach a favorable endgame against top seed and tournament winner IM Ricardo DeGuzman. Then the DeGuzman curse struck (again!) and I blundered a piece out of the blue. Distraught and facing two of the state's elite juniors on the last day, I lost both games. Sigh! Tournament results: http://sacramentochessclub.org/weekend_events/2005scc.htm Photos by fpawn: http://www.fpawn.com/SactoJuly05/page1.html Photos by ChessDryad: http://www.chessdryad.com/photos/sac_05/index.htm Story on CalChess site: http://www.calchess.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=22&mode=&order=0&thold=0 ------------------------------------ 2. New look for the CalChess website ------------------------------------ http://www.calchess.org Eric Hicks has produced a completely new look for the CalChess website. The goal of this new site is to provide a forum to share information and news about the latest events in northern California chess. You can find articles about recent local tournaments and occassionally some national and even international chess news. The forums allow anyone to participate and ask questions. It is no longer the boring CalChess site of old! Those of you who bookmark the adult and scholastic tournament calendars will need to change the links. I still am in charge of these calendars. Regular (adult) calendar: http://www.calchess.org/modules.php?name=Information&page=01_regular_tournaments/schedule.php Scholastic calendar: http://www.calchess.org/modules.php?name=Information&page=02_calchess_scholastics/schedule.php -------------------------- 3. USCF ratings for August -------------------------- The USCF ratings for August are posted. Several students have gained significant points. Special congratulations to Gregory (+184 points since the June rating list) and Charles (+137). Good luck to everyone in the search for even more rating points! Note that the Sacramento championship (4th of July weekend) and the Oakland state scholastics have not been rated yet. John McCumiskey submitted the Sacramento tournament immediately, but the USCF has been slow in processing the memberships of two players. The USCF recently promised to input and rate the Oakland tournament despite Richard Peterson's failure to send in all the proper info and pay the rating and membership fees. Hopefully both of these tournaments will appear in time for the October rating list. Student Rating Change Daniel 2158 +17 David 1922 +10 Gregory 1871 +184 Jeff 1772 +17 Arnav 1739 -35 Corey 1715 +34 Marvin 1690 0 Charles 1532 +137 Tejas 1457 -2 Caleb 1320 0 Embert 1276 -19 ----------------------- 4. Upcoming tournaments ----------------------- 10th Pacific Coast Open Friday through Sunday, July 22-24, 2005 in Agoura Hills (30 miles north of Los Angeles) http://www.chesstour.com/pco05.htm http://www.chesstour.com/ae-pco05.htm (advance entries) This tournament is hosted by Bill Goichberg's Continental Chess Association, which means it has to be a good tournament. I will be going along with at least four of my students. Wish us luck, because I'm sure we will need it! Daniel and I will be wrestling with the Grandmasters of the open section. Whee!!! CalChess Labor Day Festival (Adult State Championship) Saturday through Monday, September 3-5, 2005 in San Francisco http://www.calchess.org/controlpanel/files/LABOR05.pdf 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. Everyone competes in their own rating class (or may play up). I will be playing--no doubt about that! Richard Koepcke and John McCumiskey do an excellent job of making this 150-200 player event run smoothly and happily for most people. Mechanics' Institute tournaments: http://www.chessclub.org Vladimir Pafnutieff G/45 - August 6 (I actually might attend this event!) http://www.chessclub.org/Pafnutieff.html Bernardo Smith Amateur (under 1800) - August 20-21 http://www.chessclub.org/Smith.html East Bay Chess Club monthly weekend swiss tournaments: http://www.eastbaychess.com EBCC August Swiss - August 13-14 !!! This tournament has been CANCELLED. !!! ---------------------------------- 5. Lesson schedule over the summer ---------------------------------- I have cancelled all chess lessons from Thursday, July 21 through Monday, July 25 due to the Agoura Hills tournament. I think I spoke to everyone who is affected by this already. Please check out my lesson schedule for the time slot that I have for you. During the summer, most students and even your teacher will be out of town for one or more weeks. I can cancel or reschedule lessons as needed, but please email me in advance. Moreover, some students may wish to take lessons in the afternoon since they don’t have school. I am available beginning at 1pm on most days. http://www.fpawn.com/chess/schedule.htm ------------------ 6. Fpawn's website ------------------ This is my monthly plug for my website: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/ Go there for all the latest news or check out my current lesson schedule. I'm still working on adding more content material. The latest addition is the picture page for the Sacramento tournament. I hope to take many photos at the Labor Day championship as well. That's all folks! I'll see some of you in Agoura Hills in a few days. Hope to see the rest of you in San Francisco on Labor Day weekend. May all your pawns promote! Michael