Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 Subject: fpawn's newsletter September 2006 Hello chess students, parents and friends! It has been a long time since I wrote to all of you and a lot has occurred since my last newsletter. I've been really busy, both in the chess community and otherwise. Hopefully I can make up for the delay with a long and packed newsletter. For five of you, this is your first newsletter as a student of mine. Welcome aboard! I now have 19 students with regular weekly time slots and two others with alternative arrangements. That means I am no longer actively seeking new students simply because I have no time and energy for more kids. This summer was quite a wild ride for me, culminating in Chicago at the US Open. As most of you already know, I was literally playing for first place overall in the last round. I ended up drawing a Grandmaster in that last game, which left me tied for second place amongst all of the Grandmasters. You can read more below and on my website. Several of my students also had great summers. Daniel accompanied me to Chicago and played in the US Open and the Denker invitational for high school state champs. David earned high honors in the Chess Life story about the National K-12 Championship, including publication of his win over IM Alex Lenderman. The Saratoga High School team (David, Marvin, Jeff, Aaron and Charles) was lauded as a team to watch out for in the coming years. And last but not least, Danya flew to Ecuador and returned with the bronze medal at the Pan American U12 Championship (read below). There is even some chess politics news. I was elected to the Board of Directors for CalChess and have begun serving a two-year term. I don't know if congratulations or condolences are more appropriate. However, I feel like I can make a difference by helping Northern California chess. This newsletter is packed with lots of information. Please use the table of contents to navigate to topics that may interest you. The next newsletter will come out after my next tournament: the Western States Open in Reno on October 6-8. Let me know if you plan to attend (read below). Michael ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. World Championship: Topalov vs Kramnik! 2. My Trip to the US Open 3. Danya Wins Bronze in Ecuador 4. CalChess Labor Day Championship 5. Players of the Month 6. October rating list 7. October top 100 lists 8. Simul results from September 16 9. Spassky lecture in SF on October 1 10. Reno tournament on October 6-8 11. East Bay CC returns in new location 12. Upcoming tournaments 13. Lesson schedule and website ------------------------------------------ 1. World Championship: Topalov vs Kramnik! ------------------------------------------ The World Chess Championship is finally upon us! The title of top player in the world will finally be unified for the first time since 1993. It was 13 years ago that Garry Kasparov played Nigel Short outside the auspicies of FIDE. Since then we have had two champions: the Kasparov line and the winner of of a variety of FIDE championship tournaments. One of the great failures of Kasparov is that he was unable to reunify the championship before he retired in March 2005. The battle of reunification has fallen to Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov. Kramnik defeated Kasparov in a match in 2000, using the infamous "Berlin Wall" (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6!?) to neutralize Kasparov's impressive white opening advantage. Topalov's claim to fame comes as the winner of the 2005 San Luis (Argentina) super-tournament hosted by FIDE. All of the top players in the world except Kasparov and Kramnik participated and Topalov impressively dominated the field. Starting on Saturday, Kramnik and Topalov will face off in a 12 game match held in Elista, Kalmykia (a former Soviet republic). The time control is classical chess: 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by 20 moves in 1 hour and finally 15 minutes (plus 60 seconds a move) for the rest of the game. A long endgame can take up to eight hours! Games will likely be covered LIVE on ICC, albeit they start at 4:00 in the morning Pacific time. When you get up in the morning, you may want to check and see if they are still playing. Or you can find a link to click on and review each game. Go to Events under the Window menu on ICC. If you have trouble finding the games, ask me. Finally, I would like to give my prediction. Topalov is an aggressive player who has benefitted from his great desire to win almost every game, regardless of his opponent or color. This fighting spirit has catapulted him to top rating in the world (currently 2813). Kramnik is a more solid player who has occassionally drawn the nickname "Drawnick". While there is certainly some value in playing solidly, I always prefer to see a win and a loss over two draws. Therefore, I am picking Topalov as my favorite in this match. Feel free to message me on ICC who you think will win. ------------------------- 2. My Trip to the US Open ------------------------- The highlight of my summer was the trip to Chicago in August for the US Open. Rather than give all the details here, I have written up a summary on my website. This document includes photos of various players (including one of me) and two fully annotated games. If you are interested in re-living a dream come true or want to read my comments on the games, please click on this link. http://www.fpawn.com/USOpen06/USOpen06.htm The success really only hit me much later. Watch out for the November issue of Chess Life for a complete report, including interviews with champion GM Yury Shulman and me. I have seen my name mentioned in the chess columns of the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and London Daily Telegraph. I have been somewhat amused by stories around the world referring to some "untitled player Michael Aigner" who finished highly in a major tournament. Yes, I am "untitled" since I do not have an international title, but hopefully the US Open will catapult me to the FIDE master title. ------------------------------- 3. Danya Wins Bronze in Ecuador ------------------------------- While most of you were relaxing and enjoying summer vacation, Daniel Naroditsky had work to do. He was on a mission to do well at the Pan American Youth Chess Championship in Cuenca, Ecuador during the first week of August. Since he is 10 years old, he competed against older kids in the U12 division. No problem--Danya won the first three rounds. The competition finally got tougher and Danya lost two out of the nine games--one to each of the two co-champions Jorge Cori of Peru and Ray Robson of Florida. Fortunately, his final score of 6.5 combined with excellent tiebreaks (most difficult opponents) was sufficient for a place on the podium. Danya earned the bronze medal! He finished in third place in the entire Americas--in the U12 division. Woot! Congratulations on a great result. Of course, the next logical step is the World Youth Chess Championship, held this year in the country of Georgia (former Soviet republic) at the end of October. This eventt is competitive and he will need all the luck that he can get in order to finish near the top. Gooooooo Danya!!! ---------------------------------- 4. CalChess Labor Day Championship ---------------------------------- Despite homework, parking hassles and even a bridge closure, the vast majority of my students showed up in San Francisco for the annual CalChess Labor Day Championship (adult state champ). With a total of 17 kids participating, I was certainly quite busy. Nobody won their section (we really need to work on that for next year) but three ended up tied for second place. Unfortunately, all these distractions caused me to play rather poorly. I am sure that the young age (average age = 15.7) and incredible skill of my opponents contributed as well. Strangely, my slump seemed to rub off on my top students, as Daniel, David and Danya all had mediocre results. Never in my wildest nightmares would I have expected Daniel and Danya to start out 0-6 with two full point byes! At least David has earned some bragging rights: he drew against me (again). Things looked better in the lower sections. Gregory took second place in the expert section despite losing the first game. Aaron nearly won the A section but lost the critical round 5 game on top board and also ended up in second. Finally, Yian duplicated Aaron's result in the B section, also losing in the decisive fifth round and also sharing second. What is impressive about this trifecta of second place results is that each student was playing *up* a section! Gregory bumped his rating up across the 2000 mark and is now an official expert. Aaron and Yian both gained in excess of 100 rating points and are now finally A and B players, respectively. The Labor Day tournament was also a great opportunity for me to meet many of my students in person. It was a pleasure to go over games in the evenings. And then later, the Saratoga H.S. team and I had a great time sharing stories and jokes at dinner. The Northern California state championship was won by IM Josh Friedel and GM Alex Yermolinsky. The 19 year-old Friedel, formerly of New Hampshire but now living in Berkeley, faced somewhat more difficult opposition and therefore took the first place trophy on tiebreaks. ----------------------- 5. Players of the Month ----------------------- Two of my students excelled above all of the rest at the Labor Day tournament. Only two secured impressive rating gains of over 100 points. They both scored 4.5/6 and tied for second place while playing opponents an average of 200 points higher. When all was said and done, both of these students find themselves promoted to the next rating class. However, that's where the similarities end. One kid is a teenager while the other is six years younger. One is a patient defender who recently has been working on playing more aggressively. The other is an intuitive player who has finally started being more patient and taking his time. After this lengthy introduction, the Player of the Month honors are shared between Aaron and Yian. Aaron, initially rated 1724, nearly won the A section and, in fact, had one chance to win the critical round 5 game against the section winner. Yian, officially underrated at 1482, shocked the B players and the rest of the tournament with his youthful enthusiasm (nobody can forget his smile!) and increasingly more mature patience. Yian earned 141 rating points while Aaron gained 114, a difference which becomes negligible when you consider that the rating system is more generous for lower rated players. Hopefully this success will inspire both Aaron and Yian to keep their heads up and put in the effort required to improve further in chess. Both of you have the potential to be good at chess if you have the desire and energy to do it! ---------------------- 6. October rating list ---------------------- The USCF has already posted the October rating list. Not counting my friend, emeritus student and occassional teacher Daniel Schwarz, three of my students are now rated over 2000, two more over 1900 and another two over 1800. Congratulations to my top five rated students: NR Daniel 2216 1 David 2110 2 Danya 2047 3 Gregory 2036 4 Charles 1924 5 Jeff 1910 I want to especially congratulate Gregory on becoming an expert. I have worked with Gregory for 1.5 years now and he has improved first rapidly and now more slowly but steadily. His trademark recently has become gaining 10-20 points at almost every tournament. He has played steadily at the expert level for a few months now and finally his rating proves it. Congrats Gregory! USCF ratings: http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrLst.php ------------------------ 7. October top 100 lists ------------------------ Surprisingly, the USCF also posted the October top 100 lists a few weeks sooner than usual. After adding a few talented elementary school kids, I now am proud to say that 13 of my current students are ranked in the top 100 of the nation for their respective ages. This is quite an impressive accomplishment for all of you! After all, how many of your friends can say they are ranked in the top of the entire USA in any activity? Please view the national rankings on my website at http://www.fpawn.com/chess/rankings.htm Links to the relevant USCF and CalChess rankings are at the bottom of that page. The top dawgs are Danya (#1 age 10), Gregory (#3 age 11), David (#11 age 15) and Yian (#13 age 9). Is it possible to get even better with a little more effort? There are seven of you who are not yet on the rankings. Hey now, I think we have figured out a goal for you! If you are 10, you need to get to about 1325. If you are 12, you want to get to about 1550. At 14, you have to get to 1625. And finally, 16 year olds need to be 1750. For most of you, this is roughly 100-200 rating points away. A little more effort will go a long way! ---------------------------------- 8. Simul results from September 16 ---------------------------------- I gave a simul on ICC on the evening of September 16. Eight of my students took advantage of this opportunity to play against me mano-a-mano. I scored 6.5/8, losing to Danya and drawing against Adam. In a weird twist, the longest three games featured kids averaging merely 9.3 years in age! Yian played the longest, finally losing in a complex endgame. Congratulations to everyone who played. I expect to host further events every 1-2 months on Saturday evenings. If you are available, feel free to join! ------------------------------------- 9. Spassky lecture in SF on October 1 ------------------------------------- A rare opportunity is coming up to listen to the 10th World Champion live in San Francisco. The Mechanics' Institute will host Boris Spassky on October 1 at 2:00pm. This event will be open to the public and all are welcome. If you have never before met a legend in the world of chess, this is your best opportunity. For those of you unfamiliar with chess hisory, Spassky became the 10th World Chess Champion in 1969 by defeating Tigran Petrosian. Three years later, he lost the title to Bobby Fischer in the famous "Match of the Century" in Iceland. Now Spassky, the villain representing the Soviet chess machine, travels freely to share his experiences and insights with chess fans around the globe. ---------------------------------- 10. Reno tournament on October 6-8 ---------------------------------- Those of you who have received my newsletters in the past know how much I enjoy playing in Reno. The two annual tournaments in Reno are the largest events within driving distance from the Bay Area (about 4-5 hours drive). The Western States Open in October draws about 400 players each year, including a dozen GMs and a bunch of other titled players. I also enjoy the friendly and relaxed atmosphere at the Reno tournament. The tournament is kid-friendly and, in fact, many kids do attend. The hotel accomodations (and cheap cost) strike points for me as well--except for the smoke in the casino. I will play again this year. My plan is to travel to Reno on Thursday, October 5 and I will return on the following Monday or Tuesday. Consequently, NO CHESS LESSONS FROM THURSDAY 10/5 THROUGH TUESDAY 10/10. Almost everyone will lose exactly one week of instruction. (This cancellation notice has also been posted on the lessons schedule page on my website.) If you are planning to attend, please let me know. I don't expect too many of my students because of the obvious conflict with school (Friday 10/6 is not a holiday). However, it is well worth the trip if you can work out the logistics. tournament website: http://home.nvbell.net/wayern/renochess/wso/index.html advance entries: http://home.nvbell.net/wayern/renochess/wso/preregistration.html --------------------------------------- 11. East Bay CC returns in new location --------------------------------------- The East Bay Chess Club shut down on August 1 after being evicted from its old location in Berkeley. Sadly for chess, the school occupying the same building needed to expand. But today I can report good news. The EBCC is back! It has moved to Oakland in the vicinity of the airport. The new and larger site is located in an office park about two blocks away from Hegenberger Road. Ample parking is available. Those of us who rely on public transportation can take BART or Amtrak to the Oakland Coliseum station and either walk about 1.5 miles or take a bus (AC route 58) in direction of the airport. The really good news is that EBCC is running weekend tournaments again. These are great opportunities to play serious chess at a standard time control of 30/90 + SD/60. I will try to play and support my friends who run the chess club as my schedule permits. See the calendar below for tournament dates. East Bay Chess Club website: http://www.eastbaychess.com address: 7994 Capwell Drive, Oakland CA map: http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_resultaddr=7994+Capwell+Drive&csz=Oakland2C+CA&country=us&new=1&name=&qty= ------------------------ 12. Upcoming tournaments ------------------------ 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 -- September 23, October 28 Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco http://www.chessclub.org/Donnelly.html http://www.chessclub.org/Dolan.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. There is a significant (75%) chance that I will drop by on 9/23 and a smaller (25%) chance that I will even play. East Bay Chess Club monthly swiss -- September 23-24, October 14-15 East Bay Chess Club in Oakland http://www.eastbaychess.com/tourney/06/septswiss.php http://www.eastbaychess.com/tourney/06/octswiss.php 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 have 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. Western States Open -- October 6-8 Sands Regency Hotel & Casino in Reno, NV tournament website: http://home.nvbell.net/wayern/renochess/wso/index.html advance entries: http://home.nvbell.net/wayern/renochess/wso/preregistration.html For more information, please scroll up to section 10 of this newsletter. California Classic Championships -- October 29 University of San Francisco campus in Cupertino http://www.geocities.com/sfchessclassic/AdultClassic.html New organizers Salman Azhar and Jason Gurtovoy run joint one-day adult and scholastic tournaments. The format is: five rounds of action chess (G/60) on one day. The event has two sections (open and U1800). The location and one-day format will make this and other Cupertino tournaments appealing to many of my students. I may show up at the 10/29 tournament because of a CalChess Board meeting planned for this date. *** National Junior High School (K-9) Championship *** March 30 - April 1 *** Sacramento, CA National High School (K-12) Championship April 13-15 Kansas City, MO *** 32nd CalChess State Scholastic Championship *** April 28-29 *** San Mateo, CA National Elementary (K-6) Championship May 11-13 Nashville, TN ------------------------------- 13. Lesson schedule and website ------------------------------- As usual, check out my website for the latest news, schedule information and other cool tidbits. Over the past few weeks, I have made major changes to the weekly lesson schedule and updated the achievements and rankings pages. Just to go http://www.fpawn.com/chess and use the menu on the top of the screen to jump to various pages. lesson schedule: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/schedule.htm latest news: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/news.htm achievements: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/achievements.htm national rankings: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/rankings.htm US Open story: http://www.fpawn.com/USOpen06/USOpen06.htm I also added information about a teacher-student-parent contract. I am not the kind of person to be picky about following every rule to the letter, but I do have broad expectations for each of my students. If you have forgotten, I suggest that you read it again: http://www.fpawn.com/chess/contract.htm That's all folks! Have a good fall. May your pawns promote, Michael