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National K-1 Co-Champion Tanuj Vasudeva

Imagine that you sit at the board and your opponent barely is tall enough to see the pieces on the other side of the table. His rating over 1500 is a whopping 250 times his age, which must be some sort of record even for the scholastic hotbed known as the Bay Area. While most youngsters his age practice penmanship on large sheets of paper in school, he neatly records his moves in a chess scorebook. However, it is the smile that intimidates you (thanks to Mark Shelton of ChessDryad for the photos). How can you beat this 6 year old tactical monster? After 20 moves, he wins a pawn. Then a piece. You suddenly realize that you have just been Tanuj'ed!

Rated more than 200 points higher than any other kid his age in the country, Tanuj Vasudeva picked up his first national title today at the Bert Lerner National Elementary Championships in Pittsburgh. He won all seven of his games in the K-1 section against opponents from Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois and New York. Tanuj shared the top honors with Roland Feng of Washington State, who also finished at 7-0. I predict, given his talent and love for chess, that this is the first of several national titles for Tanuj.

The honor roll of CalChess juniors to win or tie for first place in the annual USCF national scholastic championships each spring keeps increasing. Recent winners include Michael Zhong (2007 K-12), Gregory Young (2007 K-9), Rahul Desirazu (2006 K-5), Nicholas Nip (2006 K-3) and Daniel Naroditsky (2005 K-3).

Unfortunately, the other local kids who travelled east were not quite as successful. Kyle Shin came closest in the K-5 section, losing in the final round with a share of 1st place at stake. He still earned the 14th pl

National K-1 Co-Champion Tanuj Vasudeva

CalChess Scholastics Coming Up Soon!

Now up to 828 players and projecting a turnout of 1200 for the CalChess Scholastics on May 17-18 in San Jose!

Check out the list at http://www.calchessscholastics.org/entries.php The entry deadline is Wednesday, May 14, but do not wait until the last minute! If you haven't signed up, go to http://www.calchessscholastics.org/register.php

Please beware the new schedule for the CalChess Scholastics. There are several major differences from previous years: 1. 1-3 Open is now two days, 2. K-6 Novice (U600) and K-6 Unrated is Sunday only and 3. the time control has been extended to G/60 for 1-3 Open, G/75 for 4-5 Open and G/90 for 4-6 Open, 7-8 Open and 9-12 Open.

See the schedule below, or for complete info visit http://www.calchessscholastics.org/rounds.php

Main schedule: all Open sections and all Junior Varsity sections except 1-3 JV
ARRIVE Saturday 7:45
ROUND 1 Saturday 8:30
ROUND 2 Saturday 12:00
ROUND 3 Saturday 4:15
ROUND 4 Sunday 10:00
ROUND 5 Sunday 1:30
ROUND 6 Sunday 5:00
AWARDS
Sunday beginning at 7:15 for 1-3 Open and 4-6 JV (U900)
Sunday beginning at 7:45 for 4-5 Open, 7-8 JV (U900), 9-12 JV (U1000)
Sunday beginning at 8:30 for 4-6 Open, 7-8 Open and 9-12 Open
TIME CONTROL
G/60 for 1-3 Open and 4-6 JV (U900)
G/75 for 7-8 JV (U900) and 9-12 JV (U1000)
G/90 for 4-6 Open, 7-8 Open, 9-12 Open

Saturday only schedule: K, 1-3 JV (U800), 1-3 Novice (U500), 1-3 Unrated
ARRIVE Saturday 7:45
ROUND 1 Saturday 8:30
ROUND 2 Saturda

Vinay Bhat in semi-finals of WCL tournament of champions.

In the 2008 U.S. State champion of champions tournament , held on World Chess Live on April 12 and 19-20 , IM David Vigorito of Massachusettes and our IM Vinay Bhat of Northern California won the Eastern and Western divisions. IM-elect Ray Robson and IM Enrico Sevillano came in second in their respective divisions, so they also advance to the semifinals. Bhat will face Sevillano while Robson takes on Vigorito. The format for the qualifier was a blitz (five minutes+ one second incremement) double-round robin.

Standings
Western Conference, 14 games total
12.5 CofC-NorthCalif -- IM Vinay Bhat
10.5 CofC-SoCal -- IM Enrico Sevillano
9.0 CofC-Arizona -- IM Levon Altounian
8.5 CofC-SDakota -- IM Sandor Kustar
8.5 CofC-Hawaii - NM Cornelius Rubsammen

To watch the semi-finals on April 19, Saturday and finals on April 20, Sunday, download the Dasher interface for World Chess Live.The semifinals will be played at a time control of G/60 with a three-second increment. Click here for complete rules. If you are a USCF member, you are eligible for six free months of WCL. To register, please go to http://www.worldchesslive.com/uscf/ and follow the instructions on the page. Then "observe" the World Chess Live handles of the final four, "Cofc-MA" Vigorito, "Cofc-NorthCalif" for Vinay Bhat, "Cofc-Florida" for Robson and "Cofc-Socal" for Sevillano. Be sure to download the software in advance so you can watch the thrilling showdown for one of two final U.S. Champ

Nicholas Nip Youngest Master in American History at Age 9

NM Nicholas Nip made chess history today by becoming the nations youngest Master in history at the age of 9 years 11 months, shattering GM Hikaru Nakamura's record of 10 years 3 months. This record is one of the most prestigious accomplishments in American scholastic chess. Nicholas is the first 9 year old Chess Master in the history of American chess. To give you an idea, Bobby Fischer broke this record many years ago as a 13 year old.

Nicholas managed this remarkable feat in 75 tournaments in a time frame of 3 years and 3 months. Nicholas's rise has been nothing short of meteoric...a constant rise with very little stalls or setbacks. In Nicholas's very first tournament he won the 1st grade championship title in the Northern Cal Regional Championships. From that time until now, Nicholas captured several prestigious titles including K-3 national champion (won while in 2nd grade), Calchess State Kindergarten, K-3 and K-6 Championships. Nicholas has a FIDE rating of 2143. In the last 6 months Nicholas has had a positive score against NM’s including wins against many notable Bay Area NM's.

Despite his young age, Nicholas has managed in his short chess career to be a consistent winner.

Today Nicholas went undefeated in a Mechanics Institute Quad including a dramatic win against 2339 rated NM Ronald Cusi. Nicholas was in a dominating position, which Cusi struggled to hold in time pressure before finally losing on time. This result was enough to lift Nicholas from 2187 to 2207. Of course Nicholas will be taking a short break from chess until the next supplement comes out! Chess fun sometimes has to be sacrificed for the sake of chess history.

Although Nicholas has managed to achieve one

Richard Shorman is Chosen as USCF February Volunteer of the Month

Renowned chess coach, writer and photographer Richard Shorman was recognized by the USCF as the volunteer of the month for February 2008.

Richard has done most of his volunteer work locally in the Bay Area, much of it for Calchess. Richard for the last decade has been a regular fixture at local tournaments which he documents using a Nikon camera with a fancy zoom lense which Calchess donated to him a few years ago (Richard is the official Calchess photographer). You can find Richard’s chess photo collection in its entirety at www.chessdryad.com.

Richard has taught thousands of kids for the Bay Area, and has been a chess coach for many of the main chess schools in the bay area including Success Chess, Berkeley Chess School, the Mission San Jose Chess Team, and probably many others that I don’t know about. .Richard has always had a non-political stance in the highly political bay area chess scene, and has always had unselfish motivations in promoting and teaching chess. By working with many organizations, Richard has set a fine example to many on how chess should be taught and coached to grade school kids. Richard was teaching and coaching kids using technology and exciting methods, way before the current scholastic chess craze. He inspired many future coaches and organization leaders including myself.

Although he is rarely recognized as such, Richard is one of the best coaches in the country for grade school kids. His mentors for teaching chess include C.J.S Purdy, Ruben Fine, and Paul Morphy. The bay area definately has its share of micreants in the scholastic chess scene...profiteers, liars, thieves, pretend chess masters etc. etc...one thing is for sure in the wild west chess scene Richard Shorman is definately one of the good guys.

Please read the tribute I did t

Robert James Fischer (1943-2008)

Robert James Fischer, child prodigy and world chess champion, passed away yesterday in Iceland at the age of 64. He had been ill for quite some time, but the specific cause of death has not yet been released. The pinnacle of his life was when he took on the legendary chess machine of the Soviet Union in 1972 and defeated reigning world champion Boris Spassky to capture the crown. He was the 11th world chess champion!
Here is his obituary on CNN website: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/18/fischer.obit/index.html

Any story on Fischer must begin with a word of caution. It is always important for us to separate Bobby Fischer the player (1955-1972) from the many controversial and vile statements he made (1990-2005), especially against the United States and the Jewish faith. I would like to focus on his chess games, but we must never forget that this genius had a much darker side as well.

There is no doubt that Fischer was the greatest American player of all time and many people genuinely believe he was the best player of all time, even ahead of Garry Kasparov. His rise to US Champion in his early teens and then on to the world championship in 1972 reads like a fairytale to those of us not old enough to have witnessed it. At that time, the Soviets were the "bad guys" in world politics and they were supposed to be unbeatable in chess--until Fischer won! In fact, the US Chess Federation and would not be the same today without the boom in American chess inspired by the man who took on the Soviet Union and won! Most of the adults over 45 who attend tournaments today started their chess playing days in the Fischer era.

Fischer's playing style is very much the ideal that chess teachers try to achieve for their students. He developed his pieces on the best possible squares and typically castled early, rarely b

Daniel Naroditsky Conquers the World!

Congratulations to Northern California youngster FM Daniel Naroditsky for winning the under 12 division at the World Youth Chess Festival in Turkey! Ranked #1 for his age in America for the past two years and as the 2007 CalChess High School Champion, Danya has been used to success in chess. He also won a medal at the 2006 Pan American Youth Chess Festival. But the World stage is something much bigger.

Danya finished with a remarkable score of 9.5 out of 11 against the world's top youths in his age group. He actually tied for first place with top ranked wunderkind FM Illya Nyzhnyk (2377) from Ukraine, but Danya had the superior tiebreaks. In addition to the gold medal, Danya will receive the automatic FIDE Master title for this performance.

Our hero began the event with five straight wins against lower rated players. In the second half of the tournament, Danya faced three of the top five rated players, all masters. First, he drew with top seed Nyzhnyk in round 6, then he suffered his only defeat to Ulvi Bajarani (2268) of Azerbaijan in round 8 and finally he defeated Ivan Bukavshin (2248) of Russia in the final round. Danya also beat each of the other eight players that he faced.

This was not Danya's first attempt at winning the World Youth, but it certainly was by far his most eventful trip. The experience from previous years really paid off, especially in the final round when his higher rated opponent Ivan Bukavshin (2248) of Russia was clearly rattled by the enormous pressure of the moment. What should have been a difficult struggle ended up being an easy two hour victory.

As one of Danya's coaches, I can say that it has been a great pleasure for me to work with him. His pure love for the game of chess is enormous. Danya is obviously a very strong player, so

CalChess Scholastics 2008 Status Report

Executive Summary
This is the first report on CalChess Scholastic States. The main items covered here are:
1. A summary of the approval process

2. The budget is projected at a loss of $1,787.

3. Contact with Josh Waitzkin, Chessmaster, and Chesspark for participation. ( I am looking for other individuals and companies for possible participation as well)

4. A call for parents and coaches to serve as volunteers or as tournament directors.

5. An update on hotel and other organizational arrangement.

Approval Process
On 15 July 2007, Salman submitted a proposal to organize 2008 State Scholastic Championship based on encouragement from many people who witnessed his tournaments in Santa Clara. The President postponed discussion until he submitted an alternative proposal on 28 July 2007. Salman worked with the President to integrate all his feedback over a period of about four weeks and then resubmitted the proposal with the President’s support. The proposal passed by the new board 4-1 with 2 absentees (Aigner, Garbe) and 1 abstention (me). The summary of the terms is as follows:

1. Salman Azhar is the organizer who will act based on a budget approved by the board.

2. If there is a loss, CalChess would bear the loss.

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Hip-Hop Chess Tournament/Festival
By Dr. Alan Kirshner

Once again I am uploading the press release I received from Adissa Banjoko one of the co-founders of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation. In case there are any questions—I am not tied to the organization in any way. In fact, I know nothing—and, I mean nothing about Hip-Hop music and the renowned people that will be featured at the upcoming event on October 13. Well, I do know Josh Waitzkin and Governor Schwartzeneggar. I can even spell their names—I think. No, “Arnold” has not indicated too date that he will be there, but, Chessmaster and the HHCF are still in contact with his office. As many of you know, the Governator is a chess player.

I came to know about the organization from Adissa, who lives in Fremont with his family. His third grade son went to one of my camps a few years back and has started attending my Weibel Chess Quads. I have been pleased to introduce Adissa into the Bay Area Chess Community and I convinced him to have the Hip-Hop Chess event rated under the USCF. He was able to get Chessmaster to agree to pay for the memberships of all competitors. The match was to coincide with the release of CM 11, but I understand that the date for its premier is being delayed.

I was talking with NM Eric Schiller at Salman Azhar’s CalClassic on Saturday (August 25) and we were both amazed at how much media coverage and publicity the Hip-Hop Chess Federation is receiving. Eric and I are both aware of the difficulty in getting media coverage for chess. We have failed too often. But, then again, we don’t have the star power of these Hip-Hop artists.

The photographs I have attached to this news story I took at the last HHCF event in May. The official press release follows with a couple of minor additions on my part approved by Adissa:

The Hip-Hop Chess Federation and the Makers of the Chessmaster Video Game Announce the 1st Annual Chess Kings