DECEMBER 2006 KUDOS

I would like to thank NM Michael Aigner for bringing to my attention, through his posting on the CalChess Forum of what he titles "Prodigy Report," the phenomenal accomplishment of  the young man who is the recipient of my Kudos this month-Ojas Chinchwadkar.  Ojas, a sixth grader at Forest Park Elementary School (Fremont) won the Jim Hurt Amateur tournament (U 1800) in San Francisco the weekend of December 16 & 17.  NM Aigner wrote: "In six games, Ojas faced two 1700s, three 1600s and a high 1500. He scored four wins and one draw against merely a single defeat. Four of his six opponents were juniors, all likely underrated themselves. For this performance, Ojas gained an unheard of 242 USCF rating points, from 1308 to 1550. I dare someone to beat that!"

I have known Ojas since he was in first grade.  His Dad brought him to my class at Newark Community Center. I could see he had chess smarts, but what I liked about him most was the constant smile and how polite he always was.  He had a close friend, also a good chess player and a happy kid, Dilip Shekhar.  They were like twins even though they looked nothing alike.  I left the Newark program when I left Success Chess two years ago.  So I was thrilled when I read about Ojas amazing accomplishment and immediate sent a congratulatory e-mail to Ojas and his family with my Kudos.  His Dad wrote back: "I knew that you're going to be very happy about his success. Your e-mail means a lot for him as well as me. Once again thanks for your encouragement.

After the tournament, I did remember his first day in your class in Mar 2001:-).

Rgds, Gajanan"

I look forward to the further successes of Ojas Chinchwadkar.

JULY 2006 KUDOS
My July Kudos go to Kyle Shin. Kyle is heading into third grade at the Friends School in San Francisco. At this writing the eight year old has a posted rating of 1672. I write at this writing as he competes in almost every tournament available and has risen 400 points in four months.  Obviously, a lot of his success, besides talent, goes to his basic fundamental training in an Academic Chess program, his tutelage under Liina Vark and Eric Hicks, his training partner the amazing Nicholas Nip and his chess study routine of four hours each day.

Kyle now competes primarily in adult tournaments and has won money in three out of the last four.  He actually got expert performance in two of these events. Kyle won first place in his section in each of these 3 tournaments: Bagby Memorial (mechanics), Sacramento Championship, EBCC June Swiss. As his coach, Eric Hicks, writes: "Kyle is proof that hard work (mixed with amazing talent) pays off.

Besides my Kudos I often provide some predictions.  I predict that in a few months Kyle will be follwing his training partner's lead and appear as number one on the national top 100 list for his age group.I believe the only other time we had two Northern California players on top of their respective age groups was about 15 years ago with Vinay Bhat and Jordy Mont-Reynaud both of whom became National Masters at age 10 1/2.  Will we see history repeat itself with Kyle Shin and Nicholas Nip-National Masters at 10 years of age?

MAY 2006 KUDOS
May Kudos go to just about everyone. I guess I can start with the 1300 + players that attended the CalChess State Scholastic Championships held on May 20 & 21.† And, of course their guest--all 2500 of them. NM Michael Aigner produced a fairly thorough report of the tournament and the championship divisions that can be read at: http://www.CalChess.org.  If you do not get my newsletter, you can read my account of the CalChess State Scholastic Championships by clicking here!

Of course, I would be remiss if I failed to provide special May Kudos to our two newest Northern Californian National Champions.  At the National Elementary School Championships held in Denver Colorado on the weekend of May 12 through the 14th. Second grader Nicolas Nip took first place in the Primary School (K-3) Championship and fifth grader Rahul Desirazu tied for first in the K-5 Elementary School Championship. A complete report, thanks again to NM Michael Aigner, is at:
http://www.CalChess.org

APRIL 2006 KUDOS
My April Kudos go to David Chock of Saratoga High School for his phenominal result at the National High School Championships in Milwaukee the weekend of Apriol 22 through 23. David, rated 2009, won six of his seven games David beat a Senior Master as well as a Master before falling in the seventh round to NM Landon Brownell (2237) from Arizona. Both are only in tenth grade and can test their mettle against each other for the next two years.

David led his team, Saratoga High School to a third place. I think that may be the highest any High School Team from the Bay Area has done in this event, ever. I do need to check the records as Bellermine field some very strong teams in this competition a number of years back. You can find more information on the Saratoga players at the CalChess.org website. Complete results are located at: http://www.calchess.com/chess/06/hs

FEBRUARY 2006 KUDOS
Three cheers, or perhaps in keeping with my usual column three Kudos, to second grader Jessica Zhu. Jessica has finish first in January in three girls competitions.  The really big victory came with a tie for first in the K-2 section in the 2006 Susan Polgar National Open Championships for Girls in Corpus Cristi, Texas, January 27-29. On top of her large first place trophy she brought home another for a puzzle solving competition.  She qualified through this competition for the Susan Polgar, National Invitational in Chicago in August.

A week earlier she had her second big victory in the second grade division at the North California Girls Championship held in San Rafael, California. Her first victory of the month took place at the Sojourner Truth Girls Tournament on January 8. 

Now if it only seems that Jessica wins girls events you need to watch her do just as well against the boys at my Quads where she has won numerous first place awards over the past few years.  Her rating of 1091 will soon put her on the National Top 100 Under 13 Girls List (bottom rating is 1108 & it is a 10 year old). She is already on the National Top 100 Under 7 Age Group list for all players.  As a side note, I still am awaiting CalChess to include the Under 13 and Under 16 Girls List for Northern Cal players.  I have made the request a few times. I believe great players like Jessica deserve all the recognition they can get.

JANUARY 2006 KUDOS
I would like to congratulate Forest Park Elementary School sisters, Saisha Agrawal and Trisha Agrawal. Both Saisha and Trisha won their grade sections at the North Bay Girl's Championships held in San Rafael on January 21, 2006.  Saisha is in first grade and Trisha in third grade.  Their father is, himself, a fine chess player and does some teaching in the Success Chess program when he has time.  Both girls do their chess under the direction of Mark Shelton at the Newark Community Center. I believe you will see many more victories from these two young ladies, just beginning their chess career.  I am sure that their love for chess as evidenced by their smiling faces will keep them competing for a long time.

DECEMBER 2005 KUDOS
I would like to congratulate the Saratoga High School Team, Stayton Chock their manager and Michael Aigner who coaches most of their players for their victory in the ninth grade division of the National Grade Level Championship in  Houston.  It has been many years since a Northern California Team has won an open national championship.  I believe the last time was back in the mid-nineties.  So mucho Kudos—you deserve it!

Speaking of the mid-nineties, the golden years for scholastic chess in Northern California, Northern California was known throughout the country as a center for strong players with loads of young masters and school teams placing high in national events.  I think we are now entering a platinum age as our young players like Daniel Naroditsky are placing on top of the Top 100 age group lists and winning national championships—two in a row in his case.   While Nicolas Nip is not yet a national champions, I predict the day will soon arrive when his coach, Eric Hicks, will flood the web with Nicholas' national titles—justifiably, I must add.

NOVEMBER 2005 KUDOS
This month's Kudos go to two players who have both exemplified the spirit of what it means to be a consistent winner: Rahul Desirazu, 5th grade at Harker in San Jose and Daniel Ho, 2nd grade at Weibel in Fremont.

Both players have been very active in the chess scene in the last two years.  Both players have won or placed in the top in near every tournament.  I would like to add that both players have received publicity in their communities, but Rahul, while providing information for his school on his successes, with my verification, has not been able to get his well deserved story.  Daniel has had a bit more luck.  He did get a nice write-up and a fair size photograph in his local newspaper last year the day before my Regional's. My selecting both players this month was due to Rahul winning the #1 Quad at the Berkeley Chess Tournament November 5 with Daniel taking the #2 Quad and then winning their respective quads at the SCS Weibel tournament on November 19.  Congrats Rahul and Daniel and I know you will both achieve many more successes.

OCTOBER 2005 KUDOS
This month's Kudos go to Kimberly Tom from Hopkins Junior High School in Fremont. Kimberly won the E Section of the prestigious Western States Open in Reno. She was the only Northern California scholastic player to win any of the sections.  Others did finish in the money incliuding last month's Kudos Wunder Kinder Nicholas Nip. 

I have watched Kimberley play since she was at Mission San Jose Elementary School--well as best I could as she has always had this beautiful full curly head of hair that covers her face and makes for great photographs.  In the last few years Kimberly joined the Success Chess Knights at Weibel Elementary School under the direction of Richard Shorman.  Her love of the game and her game itself has improved dramatically.  Kimberly, I am sure, will be one of the top young women players in our area for years to come.

SEPTEMBER 2005 KUDOS
This month's Kudos go to seven year old Nicholas Nip of San Francisco. The Bay Area's newest chess prodigy tied for second in the C Division of the adult State Championships over Labor Day weekend.  Nicholas started his studies with Academic Chesss at St. Anne's School in the city.  National Expert Eric Hicks, founder and President of Academic Chess, during one of his camps saw the love of chess in Nicholas' eyes and his desire to learn.  Eric, at first, helped his Mom look for a coach, but then Eric decided along with his Estonian Chess Expert wife, Liina Vark, to become Nicholas' teacher and mentor. To quote Eric, "I decided I liked this kid too much to give him up."

Nicholas Nip enter the Labor Day Championship rated at 1369 and left with a 1526.  Phew!  I can think of no other young chess player from the Bay Area, and we have had some great ones, who came near that rating as a seven year old. 

And, what does Nicholas want to achieve next?  Well, according to his coach he would like to become the youngest ever U.S. Chess Master. I think he is on his way to achieve that noble goal.

AUGUST 2005 KUDOS
This month's Kudos go to SCS Instructor Frisco del Rosario. Frisco has been named the Best Chess Journalist for 2005 by the Chess Journalists of America. Part of the reason for the award was his production of the SCS Dragon that won the Best New Chess Journal award. The cover of Frisco's book took the Best Art Work for a Chess Book Cover. NICE WORK!

JUNE 2005 KUDOS
This month's Kudos go to sixth grader Rohan Agarwal of Weibel.  Rohan came home with the first place purse in the Under 1600 category  from the National Open. The tournament was held in Las Vegas between June 10 and 12. NOTE:  This tournament is not a scholastic only event and the vast majority of players have been out of Elementary School for a long long time.

Rohan entered the match with a 1528 rating and due to his outstanding results presently has a 1682 rating.  Mr. Richard Shorman, Rohan's instructor at Weibel, has been showing his games to his private students to not only show what good artistic chess looks like, but what they can accomplish if they study as hard as Rohan.  Congrats, Rohan!

I am also providing a runner up award this month to Charles Sun from Fischer Middle School in Los Gatos. He tied for first place at the aforementioned tournament in the Under 1400 division.  Congrats Charles!

MAY 2005 KUDOS
This month's Kudos go to sixth grader John Boyle of Palo Alto.  John has placed either first or second in all the tournaments he has entered since starting his chess career three years ago at SCS Duveneck, Palo Alto. His current rating is 1609.  He placed second in the very tough Elementary School Varsity Division at the California Northern Regionals on April 16-17, losing only to the wunder kid, Daniel Naroditsky (1875), who received our previous Kudos.  On May 7-8, at the San Francisco Kid's Chess Championship John took first place by over a point and a half above the individual who topped the K-6 players at the CEA CalChess Scholastic States.   John's coaches and his parents both report that he has an unreal passion for chess and devours chess books as if they were candy.  CONGRATS, JOHN!

MARCH 2005 KUDOS
This month's Kudos go to third grader Daniel Naroditsky.   Daniel, with a posted rating of 1715, will likely be 1800 when his victories of the last two months are posted at the US Chess Federation's web site. This should move him up from third on the Top 100 list to first or second in the nation in his age group. He recently, February 21, took home top honors in the K-6 section of the Young People's Tournament in Berkeley against some older formidable opposition. Daniel hopes to repeat this success against top older players at the California Northern Scholastic Regionals in April where he has selected to forgo the Primary School Championship to compete in the Elementary School Open Division and be named the first  CalNorth Regional Champion for K-6.

My main reason for providing my Kudos to Daniel for March is his recent media presence. NBC has used an interview with Daniel on at least four different TV shows that highlights his chess and underlines the maturity of this talented young man.  I was very impressed by the artistry of the spot and the articulation of this young man.  I might add that while a few of Northern California's talented players have received TV coverage in the past, none have had their interviews repeated as many times on different shows. CONGRATS, DANIEL!

JANUARY 2005 KUDOS
This month's Kudos go to all the  SCS girl's and other young women who took the trek to San Rafael to compete in the first annual  North Bay Girl's Tournament. Special recognition must go to SCS Weibel Elementary School's girs who took all the top awards in the Fifth Grade section. Thanks and Kudos also to Ray Orwig the organizer, who did his usual great job in organizing a tournament.  Ray last year became concerned about the state of affairs of Sojourner Truth Tournament for Girls in the few years since Doug Shaker stepped aside as organizer.  He decided to replace this tradition with a new, well-organized, get what you expect girl's tournament.  He saw this as a chance to restore in the near future the continue growth of girl's attending an all girls event, reversing the dramatic decline that has plagued the traditional event in recent years and again this year.

NOVEMBER 2004 KUDOS
This month's Kudos go to two former SCS students, Ryan Ko (10th grade at Mission San Jose HS) and Darwin Fu (11th grade at Mission San Jose HS).  Ryan and Darwin organized their second extremely successful USCF rated swiss tournament at Club Sport in Fremont on November 5.  The competition was stiff and some of the South Bay's top young players competed.  They did it all on their own after interning at a number of Success Chess tournaments.  High School students like Ryan and Darwin along with last month's organizers of the CalChess Halloween Scholastic, Jacob Green and Nazee Moghahdam, who received my June 2004 Kudos, are the future chess promoters of the Bay Area.

OCTOBER 2004
October Kudos go to SCS Instructor, Frisco Del Rosario.   Frisco's new book just arrived--A First Book of Morphy, Trattford Publishing, Canada, 2004. Author Frisco del Rosario was also named   "Teacher of the Week" by the San Jose Mercury News in August. In September, Frisco returned to editing a quality chess magazine.  From 2001 through 2003 he produced the award winning CalChess Journal.  He left that venture when the CalChess Board changed its flavor.  Editing magazines is in his blood and so he decided to create The SCS Dragon. Others tell you what they will do and you wait for the results. Frisco Del Rosario says little and produces.  I am proud to know him and have him as a teacher for Success Chess.

SEPTEMBER 2004
September SCS Kudos go to Jerry Chen of SCS Dilworth in Cupertino. This young man tied with Gabriel Lee of the Chinese Christian School for first place in the 4-6 grade division at the Stockton Scholastic Patriot Day Memorial held on September 11.  Honorable mention goes to Aamir Azhar (2 grade), his brother Yosef (pre-K) and Druvikha Sahni (2 grade) who brought SCS the team trophy in the K-3 section. Aamir placed second in that division.   They attend SCS programs in Fremont and travelled all the way to Stockton to compete in this special Memorial Tournament to honor all those that fell in the 2001 terrorist attack on the United States.

AUGUST 2004
August Kudos go to William Chen and Sankash Shankar. These young men topped all the other summer Grand Prix Participants--570 in the three tournaments--to obtain 160 out of a possible 165 points.  For the great showing they obtained large trophies and a year's free membership in a SCS program of their choice or, if for some strange reason, they did not want to attend an SCS school, they could use their certificates to attend all the SCS tournaments between September 1, 2004 and August 31, 2005.  The other winners (they received large trophies and two free entries to any SCS tournament in the next year) were Eric Lee (155 pts), Christopher Clayton (150 pts), Andrew Yeh (150 pts), Rohan Desikan (145 pts), Gordon Su (145 pts), Andrew Li (145 pts), Vasishta Jayanti (130 pts), Jay Mulye (120 pts), Ankur Gupta (120 pts) and last year's winner, Raji Srikant (120 pts).

JUNE 2004
This month's Kudos go to SCS student Kimberly Anonuevo, BCS student Nazee Moghadam and the stockton Knight's Jacob Green.  These teenagers produced their own tournament.   The CalChess Scholastic Weekend, held in Stockton on June 12 & 13, 2004.  While the turnout was low, the energy was high.   They never got discouraged and the three are planning on working together again in 2005 to create another scholastic weekend.  At this writing they are looking at the first week in March.

I would also like to recognize a fine performance by Kevin Garbe of SCS Argonaut.  He went 5 & 0 to win the K-3 division against some quality players.

MAY 2004
This month's Kudos go to the SCS students who participated in the CalChess second big State Scholastic Championships of the year--The CalChess Grade Level. Special Kudos go to those SCS players who came away with state championship titles. This event was held in Stockton on May 1 and 2, 2004.  Alex Grossman (SCS Duveneck) won first in the second grade section.  The Weibel Elementary School (SCS) won the team title and can continue to exclaim that they have won a State Championship in some division since 1990.  Andrew Li (SCS Ardenwood) tied for first place in the third grade division. Arnav Shah (SCS Weibel--Horner) tied for first place in the eighth grade division.

This month I would also like to congratulate Aamir Azhar (SCS Weibel) for tying for first place in the K-3 division of the North Central California Non-Rated Scholastic Chess Championships, Stockton, May 23, 2004.  His father, Salman, is following in his son's footsteps.  He won the Amateur Section of the rated adult section.  Salman reports that this was his first chess tournament since his college days.  He has been keeping up his chess skills as a volunteer instructor for SCS Jung SuWon in Milpitas.

MARCH 2004
This month's Kudos go to the hundreds of SCS students who participated in the CalChess State Scholastic Championships on the weekend of March 20 & 21, 2004.  Extra Kudos to all our trophy winners--individual, school teams and club teams. Extra special Kudos to the SCS school championship division teams: Blossom Hill (Primary Championship=K-3). Gomes (Elementary Championship=K-6) and the SCS members who brought victory to American (High School Championship=K-12) + the former SCS members, who now through Stayton Chock's Saratoga Chess Club, won it for Redwood Middle School (Junior High School=K-8). That folks is a clean sweep of the championship divisions

FEBRUARY 2004
This month's Kudos go to five year old Joshua Chan, SCS Gomes, who won the first place trophy for the Kindergarten division at the Young People's Chess Tournament on February 16.  Joshua won three of his five games and they were against fourth, fifth and sixth grade students. He only lost to last year's third grade champion (1316)and a fifth grade student rated 1375 who placed second.

Joshua started playing in tournaments last summer before he entered Kindergarten.  His results are impressive and he will be a contender for this year's State Kindergarten Championship, but he will face tough competition against SCS Milpitas Christian's Irene Su (Sojourner Truth Champion) and newcomer, Roberto Long Trinh, SCS Vallejo Mill.  Forgot watching the sixth graders at this year's States, the excitement will be in Kindergarten.

JANUARY 2004
This month's Kudos go to all the SCS students who won first place in their respective divisions at the Sojourner Truth Girl's Tournament on January 24:

Irene Su-Kindergarten
Tiffanie Lo-Third Grade
Leslie Chan & Jackie Connor-Fourth Grade
Vivian Lo-Fifth Grade
Amy Wann-Sixth Grade

Out of seven grades contested on Saturday and 120 players, SCS girl's took five firsts and six seconds.  Wow!

DECEMBER 2003

This month's Kudos go to SCS Carden's Fourth Grade chess maven Partha Vora.  He has just defeated his first Grand Master.  At the National Grade Level Championships in Chicago, December 12-14, he defeated GM Alexandra Kosteniuk who resigned after move 32 in a simultaneous game. She played against 40 individuals and Partha won the 1st prize--a $250 Balmain Swiss wrist-watch. You can read about his accomplishment at WGM Kosteniuk's website, http://www.kosteniuk.com

As a side note-Partha won a 14th place trophy in the 4th grade section out of 233 players.

NOVEMBER 2003

KUDOS to Jerry Chen, SCS Dilworth, who went all the way to Sacramento from Cupertino to win the K-3 Section of Sacramento High School Championship on Nov 8. Gordon Su (2nd grade), SCS Milpitas Christian, took a third and his sister Irene Su (kindergarten)tied for fifth, winning the top female competitor.  The brother sister combo brought home a second place team trophy.  Not bad when you realize that the first place team had nine players in the competition from which to draw their 4 top team members.

The week before, November 2, Saveen Sahni-SCS Ardenwood, travelled to Half Moon Bay to go undefeated in the Coastside Scholastic Tournament.  Perhaps he went that far because our Los Gatos tournament filled up almost two weeks earlier. He stood alone in first place 1.5 points above his nearest competitor.

SEPTEMBER 2003

KUDOS go to SCS Instructor Senior Master Dmitry Zilberstein.  Dmitry who teaches in five SCS schools won the CalChess State Open Championship over Labor Day weekend.  We usually reserve this space for the children, but this is an extraordinary accomplishment. CalChess is one of the strongest chess states and the competition at the championship is always fierce with International Masters and Grand Masters often competing.  During his younger days, Dmitry won the CalChess Scholastic High School Championships three times. Dmitry follows in the footsteps of another great SCS instructor, Jon Frankle, also an open CalChess champion. We are proud to have such talent--both chess and teaching--on our staff. 

AUGUST 2003 KUDOS goes to Alex Grossman, from our Duveneck School, who is a British Commonwealth citizen from his mother's side.  He competed in the British Junior championship in the UK. Alex finished 14th of 44 in the 8 & under section and second among children 7 and under. His Dad also sent me a photograph of Alex wearing his SCS shirt in Edinburgh.  As a side note: Alex's grandfather and great grandfather were competitive chess players.  In fact, they even located a recorded game from back in the 20's in the archives of the famous Marshall Chess Club in New York.  Chess skipped a generation with his Dad, but it looks as if Grossman chess is reborn.

JUNE 2003: SCS Kudos to Jayodita Sanghvi, Robert Wei and Robert Chan. These three High School Seniors, products of Weibel Chess, taught for SCS this year. Jayodita will be heading to MIT and Robert Wei to UCLA. Robert Chan turned down invitations from UCLA and Cal because North Western offered him more money. I would like to think my letters of recommendation helped--but, these young people's achievements in school, in life and in chess speak for themselves.

MAY 2003: SCS Kudos to Kevin Leong (SCS-Weibel)& Saveen Sahni (SCS-Ardenwood)for becoming the CalChess State Grade Level Champions. Kevin for third grade and Saveen for fourth grade.This tournament did not have Club Teams, however the following SCS programs won School Team Championships: Ardenwood (Kindergrarten & 2nd Grade), Weibel (3rd Grade), Gomes (5th Grade), Horner (7th Grade, Mission San Jose HS (9th Grade).

April 2003: SCS Kudos to all of our students who attended the CalChess State Scholastic Championships on April 12 and 13 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Special Kudos to SCS-Weibel School (Fremont) for winning at least one championship every year since 1990. This year they won the State Championship in the Elementary Championship Division (4-6) for the seventh time. They were followed by SCS-Warm Springs in second and SCS-Gomes in third--amazing!

Our SCS Knight's Team in Newark, competing for Challenger-Ardenwood took the Primary School Championship Division (K-3) breaking Weibel's 4 year streak. SCS-Horner (Fremont) stopped the SCS-Hopkin's team that had won the title for five years--two straight.

SCS's Robert Chan and Allen Tu are the Bughouse champions. SCS-Carden's Partha Vora took first in the Primary Unrated Section. Former SCS student Harsha Nukala is the State Champion in the Primary Division. SCS-Miller's Igor Cherny won the Jr.H.S. Premier Division. And, Kimberly Anonuevo tied for third in the Jr. HS Championship Division--no mean feat.

SCS Club Teams (the above were School Teams)won 4 of the 10 contested divisions. For full results and photographs, go to: http://www.CalChessScholastics.org/
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