The CalChess Board of Directors has selected Sunday, August 16th as the date of the next CalChess Annual General Meeting. The meeting will start at 2:30PM at the San Mateo Marriott located at 1770 South Amphlett Blvd., San Mateo, CA 94402.  During this meeting the elections for the CalChess Board of Directors will take place.  Candidates and voters must be members in good standing to be placed on the ballot or to vote.   The current Board has defined “good standing” to include being a member 30 days prior to the election.  This means you must be a member by July 17th.  If you are interested in being a candidate for one of the 4 open positions on the Board, please send an e-mail to President Tom Langland at tom@calchess.org.  If you need to check your membership status, please view the CalChess Membership List.  This list will be updated before July 17th (and prior to the meeting), so if you would like to become a member, please fill out the Application Form soon!

  by Rob Wheeler

Cameron Wheeler is eight years old and in the third grade at Regnart Elementary School in Cupertino, California. Cupertino is located in the heart of the “Silicon Valley” just 50 miles south of San Francisco. While winning the championship is a story in itself, I think the more interesting story is the fact that he played his good friend Vignesh Panchanatham for the title. Vignesh is also from Cupertino, although they do not attend the same school.

Cameron and Vignesh don’t have chess programs at their schools. Lacking the team camaraderie at tournaments that many kids enjoy, they (and other top kids in their situation) started hanging out together.  The group became fast friends, sharing a love of chess.  While they  enjoyed each other’s company, they also are all intensely competitive and push each other to get better. Eventually the group pulled together to compete on the Internet Chess Club as a team. The team, dubbed the “Chesspunks,” contains top Bay Area chess stars: Tanuj Vasudeva (second grade), Wheeler (third grade), Panchanatham (third grade), Allan Beilin (fourth grade), Kesav Viswanadha (fourth grade), and Armaan Kalyanpur (fourth grade).