Cam's Chess Blog

Day 12 - Tournament is over

2011-11-27T12:39:00.001-08:00

Cameron's opponent for the last round was Joshua Johnson from Trinidad. Despite his lower rating, he had already beaten Kesav and Kadhir in the tournament, so we knew this match was not going to be easy. Cameron seemed especially apprehensive about the match, which is never a good sign. Early reports coming out of the playing hall all said that Cameron was losing. Apparently he had sacrificed the exchange for an attack, but it didn't work and he was just down material. Later reports stated that Cameron's position was probably a theoretical draw, but that it would be difficult to hold. Fortunately, Cameron was able to find the drawing idea and hold the position to a draw. He finished the tournament with 6.0/9.0 winding up in 19th place overall. Not exactly the result we were hoping for, but not bad for his first year in the Under 12 section. Hopefully he'll be able to improve next year in Slovenia.

After the tournament, we were all relieved to be done with the stress and intensity of the games. Lucas and I relaxed by going to the water park across the street. Cameron, Allan, Tanuj, and Michael relaxed by holding an impromptu blitz tournament. Apparently 9 straight days of chess was not enough for them.

Finally our vacation can begin...

Day 11 - Round 8

2011-11-25T04:24:00.001-08:00

Mom's Gina & Me with Kadhir & Cam

Dad's Kovan & Rob with Kadhir & Cam

One of the nice things about coming to these tournaments is meeting new people. The parents get a lot of time to hang around and talk. We spent time with Gina & Kovan Pillai from New York, and in round 8, Cameron was playing on the board next to Kadhir. His round 8 opponent is from Peru,

Eric Joel Chong Chinchay. Cameron asked, how come all these guys have so many names? I don't get it do you. My camera obviously had a spot on the lens right on the guys eye, does that look weird. Cameron was very insecure about playing this game and had lost a lot of confidence, we were wondering if the strain of this long tournament was taking it's toll. In the end he won. Cameron had an even position and slight advantage, the opponent offered two draws but Cameron could see that he had enough of an advantage that he wanted to play on and out played his opponent in the end game for the win.

Round 8 opponent Eric Joel Chong Chinchay from Peru

This is not Iguacu Falls!

I was testing if my camera really could take a
picture under water and it worked!

Roughing it!

Lucas got to spend the day at the water park across the street. Bitu and Tashi joined us and they had a great time. At first Lucas didn't want to go but when it was time to leave, he didn't want to leave the park.

Lucas, Tashi & Bitu

Bitu & Tashi coming down!

Tashi is racing her mom & Lucas
She is the lighter and the fastest
down this slide.

Day 10 - Round 7

2011-11-24T14:39:00.001-08:00

It seems hard to believe that I have been in Brazil for nine days. The same small hotel room. The same food. Breakfast does not have that much of a variety, I have skipped this a few times. Lunch and dinner are almost the same, minus the soup at dinner. It always consists of lots of meat, rice (white and brown), some sort of potatoes, some sort of pasta, and lots of different salads. Although, how they prepare the dishes change, it still feels like the same food. I'm ready to move on. They usually make a very pretty center piece out of fruit. They have a lovely dessert table, but I haven't enjoyed their desserts. The texture isn't quite right, they use a lot of sugar and butter (usually that's great), but not so much for me here. It has been nice not having to do dishes and the cooking, but laundry in the bathroom sink has not been too fun. Cameron has two Team USA shirts, so I have been washing those every other day.

Alligator made out of pumpkin

Pretty flower made of watermelon

Cameron's second opponent from Germany. Patrick played the exchange variation of the Semi-Slav. Cameron made a mistake in the opening, he could have placed his light square bishop better. He recovered by an attack in the middle game and gained a huge advantage. He misplayed the end game and missed a quick finish trading down to a drawn end game, but the opponent did not know how to play it either allowing Cam to win. Cameron is now 4.5/7, which puts him in the top 40 in the section. He started the tournament seeded 16th out of 133, and we are hoping for a solid finish.

Round 7 Opponent Patrick Hoeglauer from Germany

Lucas and I headed to the gift shop. We stopped at the entrance to diRoma to take pictures by the sign and waterfall. We were able to find some gifts for cousins and a few other things. There seems to be an abundance of rocks and crystals. Agate, Onyx, Hematite, etc. Unfortunately, those can get a little heavy. Lucas was very worried that things would not fit in our suitcases on the way home.

Lucas said "Iguazu Falls is going to be better than this right?"

Sign at the entrance to the resort area.

Day 9 - Round 6

2011-11-24T09:29:00.001-08:00

Cameron & Allan - Round 6

I guess it was bound to happen. Cameron got paired against one of his good chess friends, Allan Beilin, from California. One of the Chess Punks as we call them. It was was his second match in a row against a USA team member, and it was a very critical round for both of them. Cameron was feeling pretty confident because he had white and that would give him a slight advantage, unfortunately this was not a win for him. He lost this round in a little over five hours. All reports coming from the playing hall were that the match was a draw, so we were very disappointed when we found out it was a loss. I'll ask Cameron to post more about the game analysis later. If you want chess detail, you'll have to wait for Cameron or Rob to post. Bittersweet when you play such a close friend. Happy for Allan, sad for Cameron. It happens, you get used to it, it goes both ways.

Monkey in a tree by the pool at our resort

Lucas spent the day at the pool, enjoying the resort. There were two monkeys in the tree by the pool. The workers put some banana in the tree branches so they would come and eat them, then I was able to get a pretty good photo of the monkey. It was quite small and almost looked like a squirrel or rat. The water slides look really fun, but you actually don't go down, you get stuck and you have to push yourself down the slide. The water in the pool is the natural thermal spring water, so it's quite warm. They drain them every few days and wash the pools. I don't know if that's why the water slides don't work like the ones back home or not. There are a ton of pools at the resort, and Lucas has only wanted to swim here and not go to the Aqua Park across the street. That water park also has a ton of different pools, but he's happy as a clam here at out hotel.

Lucas coming down water slide, just his speed.

Lucas at the pool!

USA Team Photo

A team photo was scheduled twice today. One at 2:30, right before the round, and one at 8:30 p.m. after the round was over. Unfortunately, we did not hear about the 2:30 p.m. picture and were only present for the 8:30 picture. Thanks to Ben Rood's mom, Robyn for helping to get the people organized. The team room was very small, and there were lots of people, but she managed to stage the Coaches and players very nicely.

Day 8 - Round 5

2011-11-23T11:22:00.001-08:00

Allan & Cameron walking together into the playing hall.

Cameron's 5th Round Opponent - Tommy He from Dallas

Now the whole Wheeler Family is in Brazil. Cameron will never admit it but he loves having Lucas around. They have a unique friendship that only brothers can have. It's good when it's good and it's bad when it's bad. So far, it's been pretty good.

Little Bro' Lucas rooting for Big Brother

Today's opponent is Tommy O He from Dallas. Cameron played him last year at Greece World Youth and also has played him at Nationals. His record against him had been 3 draws and 1 loss, so he had a losing record against him. This was going to be a tough round. Cameron won this round in around three and half hours. Cameron was prepared for a French Advance, but Tommy played the French Tarrasch variation, so Cameron was out of book on move three. Cameron made mistake on move 8, he castled premature and Tommy could have prepared an attack, but he played too passively and Cameron gained a space advantage which he eventually converted into a material advantage.

We walked through the town of Caldas Novas after dropping off Cameron at the playing hall. Lucas got his traditional necklace and a ball to play with. Rob & Lucas spent two hours at the pool, while I worked on my homework for the first time since arriving.

Same routine after the game, analyze game, eat dinner, get ready for bed. and go to sleep.

Day 7 - Rest Day

2011-11-22T02:29:00.001-08:00

Cameron, Albert, Brandon & Allan waiting on basketball court.

Today was a rest day from chess. We thought we would go to the water park across the street, but the water park is closed Monday & Tuesday's for cleaning. Not so great planning on the organizers part.

When we woke up, Cameron was tired and wanted to stay in bed, I ran to the dining hall to get some coffee and breakfast before they closed.

Cameron decided he would rather stay around the resort, do something here, then work on his homework. A bunch of US players and coaches were going to play soccer on the basketball court. So I took Cameron there, but he did not want to play. They were playing teams 5 vs. 5 and rotating teams in. 2 goals or 5 minutes. People got tired of waiting so another game started on the sand court. Unfortunately, our coach, Yury got injured in that game and was rushed off to the hospital. We were beginning to think we wouldn't have a coach for the rest of the tournament.

Michael Wang & Cameron outside of the gift mall.

After lunch we walked to the gift shop with Ally, Harry, Xin & Michael Wang. Michael and Cameron ended up playing chess on a set they saw in the gift shop.

Vendor making coconut milk.

I don't think I like coconut milk.

They tried fresh coconut milk that came right out of the coconut. There is this special tool that takes the top off and then it punctures the coconut and they put the juice into the large thermos that has ice. So this wasn't the best tasting drink, but at least Cameron tried it. It was exotic and good for you, but it didn't taste that great.

After we returned from our trip, we were very happy to hear that Yury was back. His shoulder wasn't broken and it just needed to be iced and rested. Then back to the room for more studying.

The parents had a meeting in the lobby at 6:30 p.m. and I got to meet a lot more of the USA parents. Some of them I had never met even thought we have been here almost a week. I told the parents that if Rob & Lucas showed up to tell them that I arranged this welcome party for them. I decided to head back to the room to get Cameron go to the lobby and wait 15 minutes before going to dinner. While I had returned to the room, Rob & Lucas arrived. Charley (Albert Lu's dad) was nice enough to escort them to the room to surprise us.

Rob & Lucas on balcony of our room.

We all ate in the dining hall and then Lucas was very tired and just wanted to go to sleep. Nighty, night.

Day 6 - Double Day Round 3 & 4

2011-11-21T05:27:00.001-08:00

Today we had to get up early to make the 10:00 a.m. round. I woke up a little before 9:00 and I was trying to get Cameron to have some breakfast. If his round went 5 hours he would miss lunch and breakfast might be his only time to eat. He has such a hard time eating when he's stressing about chess, which just makes me get even more stressed out. He forced some food down, and off we went to the round. This time it was much better, they let everyone into the playing hall and made the main aisle wider so people could walk inside. My third round opponent was a CM Gabriel Kimelman fromUruguay.

3rd Round Opponent - Gabriel Kimelman from Uruguay

Cameron won this game fairly quickly so he had time to analyze with Yury, eat Lunch, and rest before next round.

Next up was a very strong player from Germany, Thore Perske. Unfortunately Cameron lost this battle in 3 hours. He went to analyze with Coach Yury, have dinner and then relax reading before going to bed. Lucas and Rob arrive tomorrow so this may be the last good night sleep that we both get in Brazil.

4th Round Opponent Thore Perske from Germany

Often time people ask what a tournament is like. This picture below shows how crowded and chaotic this tournament is. The playing hall is really too small to support this many boards. This tournament has been unlike any I've attended in the past. There are 1120 players from 80 countries. Nationals are as big, I believe but much more organized and people all speak the same language. The USA has the largest team outside of South America (Brazil, Argentina & Peru are ahead of them). In Brazil very few people speak English and communication is very difficult. I had heard that you can possible get by with Spanish but not really. It's like playing a game of charades every day. Which is very funny. We went to town today and Tarun & Harry were trying to ask taxi drivers what the cost was to pick up their families from the airport and drive them to Caldas Novas. They wanted to also go with the driver to the airport so their wives would recognize this. This was all communicated via drawing and hand signals.

Playing hall before Round 4

Day 5 - Round 2

2011-11-19T10:58:00.001-08:00

This morning we slept in because Cameron had a hard time falling asleep at night. We skipped breakfast and used the time to rest. Cam's lesson with Yury was at 11:00. He's paired against a boy from Norway, Benjamin Imsrud. He's an unrated player that won his first round against Francisco Munoz from Argentina. Francisco is a strong 1940, so Benjamin has to be a strong player if he beat a 1940.

After lunch we headed to the playing hall. They decided not to let parents into the playing hall that created a mob by the entrance. I placed Cameron in the mob and said push your way to the entrance. I kept looking for his hat to see if he made it in but it was so crowded I coulnd't see him. Eventually he appeared right next to me. He as too uncomfortable pushing his way in, so he came out of the mob. I had to stand behind him and push him to the door. It was the worst entrance to a tournament I have ever witnessed. I wasn't able to get a picture of his opponent this round, but in Round 3, I got the picture below.

Round 2 Opponent - Benjamin Imsrud from Norway

Cameron won this match in three hours, thankfully not the four hours 50 minutes of yesterday. He reviewed his game in the team room and we headed to dinner. Need to get to bed early for the double day tomorrow.

Mob scene at playing hall entrance, hard to get a sense from picture how chaotic this was.

Day 4 - Tournament Begins

2011-11-19T05:04:00.001-08:00

I woke in the middle of the night around 3:00 a.m. and went online. The pairings were already posted, and Rob had already done his homework and sent as many pgn files as he had on Cameron's first round opponent from Peru, Saavedra Espiritu Enrique Emanuel. We woke up around 9:00 a.m. and before heading to breakfast, Cameron needed to look over all six games. At breakfast, we didn't see too many people in the dining hall. We were hoping to find our coach, and got word that he had arrived. We went to the reception after breakfast because our room was being cleaned. As we were sitting there, we saw him. Yury Schulman was indeed in Brazil and right there in the lobby. He was excited to find one of his students and had a lesson with Cameron right then. I ran back to the room because we had already loaded six games from Cam's first round opponent on his computer and I brought that to Yury's room. On the way back, I ran into the Beilin's and Vasudeva's and they too went to Yury's room to schedule their first day lessons.

After the lesson, we went back to the room to do homework and rest before lunch. We wanted to eat a late lunch because the round could last a long time. After lunch we walked to the convention center to find out where it was and how to get there. We ran into an unrated U10 player from Brazil, Frois Vitor Amorim. He and his mother didn't speak a word of English, but we somehow managed to communicate who we were by pointing to the pairings on the board. Then he wanted to play chess. They played two quick rounds and Cam beat him both times. Cameron said, "He kept trying to talk to me in Portuguese and I couldn't understand anything he was saying!”

After that, we went back to the room to rest. We still hadn't gotten our badges or visited the team room. I went off to find out about those logistics while Cam rested in the room. About 3:15 p.m. we headed to the convention center to get our badges and the first round. It was a crazy playing hall, way too small to accommodate the number of players. We were trying to find the U12 section and having a really hard time. We finally found it and had to make our way through a maze of parents standing in the narrow aisles. Cam's chair was at the end of a table and there wasn't enough room to push his chair in. He had to straddle a table leg, putting one leg on each side of it. They boards were very close together. They did a brief opening ceremony and then the parents were asked to leave. I showed some folks the playing hall, walked back to convention center and then decided to head back to the room. I ended up going back to the playing hall an hour later which started a long wait. I got to see a lot of players exiting the playing hall. First Tanuj, win, then Ben Rood, win, Jonathan Chiang & Tommy He, win. It seemed that every USA player coming out was winning. I was sitting with Kovan Pillal and Jackie Nydick. Kadhir and Brandon were playing exceptionally long games as well. Ally was in and out, it was uncomfortable in the waiting hall. Stuffy, hot, bugs everywhere. Harry showed up about three hours into the round. Eventually Kesav came out with a smile. Win. Allan came out with a win. Which I have to mention was his first World Youth win (in 12 rounds). If you remember last year he lost his first round and then drew 10 rounds in a row. He was very excited. Kadhir Win, Brandon, win. It seemed like Cameron was the only one left playing, luckily Harry had sent Tarun to keep me company. It was very stressful awaiting the outcome and nice to have the company. When Cameron finally came out 4 hours and 50 minutes of playing time later, his result was a draw. It was a little heart breaking, but we needed to keep positive and focus on the rest of the tournament. There are still 8 rounds to play.

First round opponent from Peru

1st win ever at a World Youth Championship

We headed to the team room for game analysis. During the analysis we had a black out at the resort. We walked via flashlight to the dining hall. We had to eat by candle light and flash light. It was pretty funny. Eventually the lights came back on and everyone cheered. After dinner, Cameron finished his analysis with Coach Yury. Then it was time for bed. Cameron had a very hard time falling asleep. The excitement and stress of the tournament was getting to him and although lights out at 11:00 p.m., he did not fall asleep until 1:00 a.m.

Day 3 - Day of Rest

2011-11-18T04:55:00.001-08:00

Today we woke up at 11:50 a.m., if it weren't for the maid, we would have probably slept longer. Breakfast is served from 7:00 - 10:00 a.m. so we missed that but lunch is from noon to 2:00. We weren't hungry right then, so we decided to take a walk around the resort and then make our way to the store for water. We bought 20 litres of water. At the entrance to the resort was a small water fall/rock formation where we stopped to take pictures.

After we ate lunch, Cameron did some of his independent study homework. Then we went to the Aqua Park with Tarun Uncle & Tanuj. Cam got stuck in one of the tubes and Tarun Uncle slammed into him on the way down. There isn't the safety concerns here in Brazil as there are in the US water parks. After that incident, Cam was ready to get back to his homework. He played chess with Tanuj for a couple hours and then we went to the team meeting held by the coaches. As we were walking to the meeting we ran into Ally & Kesav. They arrived after an eight hour bus ride from Brasilia. We found out that Yury Schulman would be Cam's coach but he was the only coach that had not yet arrived to Brazil. Hope he makes it here before the first rounds starts tomorrow.

Entrance to Thermas Di Roma

After dinner, we had a restful evening. Cameron started to read his new book Inheritance and I watched Horrible Bosses.

Cameron & Tanuj

Tarun

Allan, Kesav, Tarun & Michael and then there's Cameron off to the side not smiling

Cameron's Faux Hawk - Now he's smiling

2011-11-16T18:03:00.001-08:00

Day 1 & 2 - Arriving in Caldas Novas

We left our house at 8:15 in the morning on Tuesday November 15. We arrived at SFO around 9:00 a.m. for our 11:00 a.m. flight. There was a very nice tail wind so we arrived early just under 5 hours of flight time. That was nice because it gave us time to switch terminals and have a nice dinner before our 10:30 p.m. flight to Rio. We had heard from Dad that our friends the Beilin's were having trouble leaving Kansas City to make their Houston connection to Rio due to bad weather in Houston. We wouldn't know if they made it our not until we see them in Rio.

At the Rio airport, we were excited to see familiar faces at the check in to our Gionna flight, Tarun Uncle and Tanuj were in line. Daddy Harry wanted to have a three hour training session in Rio during our layover and we kept waiting for him to arrive. We had no idea if he made his connection in Houston and we had no cell or internet connection in the Rio airport. Hours went by and there was no sign of him. Finally around 2:30 just one hour before our scheduled departure, the Beilin's arrived. We also met Jackie and Brandon from New York. Brandon is playing in the U10 section with Tanuj. The boys had a great time in the airport but definitely not having a chess lesson. Everyone was way too tired. Our flight was delayed for about an hour.

When we arrived in Gionna, the bus was waiting. It was full of members of the China Team and then Team USA took over the rest of the bus. We even picked up Michael Wang who arrived from Brasilia, their flight was delayed over 8 hours. It was grueling two and a half hour bus ride to Caldas Novas, which we finally arrived at 9:00 p.m. We checked into the room and hurried to the dining hall to have dinner before it closed at 10. That's about it, two days and all we did was arrive and have dinner. Lots of new faces and lots of familiar ones all speaking the same language of chess. We wish safe travels to all the rest of the travelers, may your journey be smooth with no delays.

Checking our bags at SFO

Meeting some old friends at GIG and making a new one. Left to Right, Allan, Harry, Tanuj, Tarun & new Friend Brandon from New York

Finally made it to Thermas di Roma in Caldas Novas

Bem vindos ao Brasil

2011-11-14T23:53:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning my mom and I are flying to Brazil so that I can participate in the 2011 World Youth Chess Championships. We fly from San Francisco to Charlotte, NC. Then we catch another flight to Rio de Janeiro. Once in Rio, we will catch a flight to Goiânia, the capital of the Brazilian state of Goiás. From there it will be a short bus ride to the city of Caldas Novas, where the tournament will be held.

Caldas Novas is one of the largest hydro-thermal resort towns in the world. The pictures of our hotel look really cool. My little brother should have a fun time playing in all of the pools while I'm playing chess. Hopefully I'll get a chance to relax a bit too.

This will be my first ever trip to the continent of South America. I'm excited to see and meet other chess kids from all over the world. My friends from the Bay Area: Tanuj, Allan, Kesav, and Michael W. are all playing in the tournament. I'll also get to see my chess friends from Dallas: Tommy, Jonathan, and Jeffery. Plus, John Hughes, Joshua Colas, James Black, Justus Williams, Andrew Tang, and Michael Chen from US Chess School will be there too. The US should have a pretty strong team in my section (U12). I also think my friend Albert Lu (from LA) will have a strong tournament in the U10 section. You can follow my progress on this blog and on the chess-results.com server.

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

This is starting to turn into a tradition, my Dad and I drove out to Sacramento for their annual 4th of July Sacramento Chess Championship. The tournament is hosted by the Sacramento Chess Club and run by TD John McCumiskey. John can be seen here, sporting this patriotic shirt that only gets brought out for special occasions. In my last 3 tournaments I have been "on fire"; winning a national championship and picking up nearly 90 rating points. I was hoping for some "hot chess" this weekend, but my hopes were dashed in round 1 with a loss to a lower rated opponent. I tried to play a new opening from white, and got a variation that I was unfamiliar with. My opponent simply outplayed me after the opening and I never could recover.

While my chess wasn't too hot, the weather sure was. On Saturday, my Dad's car said it was 109 degrees Fahrenheit. I burned my hand just putting on the seat belt. I decided I needed to change my fortunes, so on Sunday I sported a new hairdo and my bright orange Lincecum jersey. Apparently, this was just the trick as I beat an expert and drew against a strong master.

On Monday, I faced my future Kennedy teammate, Neel Apte. Neel built up a strong attack and under pressure from his attack and the clock, I blundered badly and missed a mate-in-two. Losing this game definitely took some wind out of my sails and I was contemplating withdrawing from the tournament (for the first time ever). My Mom and Dad say, "Wheeler's aren't quitters". After a nice meal and getting to watch both the Giants and the A's play, I felt like I had a little more energy. I went back to the tournament hall hoping for a good pairing, and that is exactly what I got. I was to play black against Philip Seitzer. Philip crushed me at this very tournament last year playing the white side of the Chatard-Alekhine gambit against my French Defense. I was prepared for a repeat of that game (I had learned a thing or two about the opening in the past year), but to my surprise, he played a different line. I handled the opening well, and applied a lot of pressure in the middlegame. Eventually I sac'd a pawn to rip open the protection in front of his King. Despite being a pawn down, I had way too many threats for Philip to handle and I was able to recover material and head into a completely winning endgame. Despite repeated draw offers, which were tempting because I had to catch my flight to go to the US Chess School in North Carolina, I pressed on and eventually ground out the win. This was a very satisfying victory because I proved to myself that I can bounce back, even after some bad results and still play a nice game.

It feels like déjà vu all over again...

2011-05-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

Dallas was my seventh national championship: four grade-level championships and three elementary championships. Each one has had its own differences, but there was something vaguely familiar about this one...

Déjà vu #1
After a short round 5 last night, we went to the same steak house that Uncle Darren took me to last time I came to Dallas for nationals. I had an awesome Buffalo Filet Mignon. All that protein is powerful brain food.

After five rounds, there were only three players left with a perfect score: myself, #2 seed Roland Feng from Washington, and #4 seed Vignesh Panchanatham (my good friend and training partner from Cupertino). I'd never played Roland before but I knew he'd be tough. As a fourth grader he was already the second highest rated in the section. I first learned about Roland after his amazing performance in Las Vegas back in December. The filet mignon must have really done the trick, because I won the game in nice fashion. Vignesh unexpectedly drew his game, so I was the only perfect score going into the final round.

Déjà vu #2
Last year in Atlanta, I had my worst nationals ever; losing a won game in round 1 against a much lower opponent. Basically my tournament was over before it ever started. However, my good friend and fellow Chesspunk, Allan Beilin, found a way to win the K-5 national title. In round 6 I thought he might have a chance to repeat the performance in K-6. He faced the newly-minted master, Jeffery Xiong and played a tough 4 hour match. The position reached a theoretical draw, but in extreme time pressure, Allan blundered and lost the game. The repeat was not to be...

Déjà vu #3
My first elementary school nationals was the Supernationals in Nashville, TN. I was fortunate enough to win the K-3 section for my first national title. The victory was bittersweet because I had to face my friend, Vignesh, in the final round. History has a funny way of repeating itself, and here we were in Dallas, once again playing for the title. Vignesh and I have played each other many many times. In our last "serious" game together he beat me. Also, prior to the nationals, Allan, Vignesh, and I had a little competition and Vignesh kicked my booty. Needless to say, I was pretty nervous about playing him. The main thing I had going for me was the half-point lead. Even though I was playing black, I only needed a draw to secure the title. This was very much like the situation between Allan and Kesav in the final round of the K-5 nationals last year in Atlanta.

Vignesh knows my playing style very well, so I was also nervous that he would have a special opening prepared for me. I was a little surprised when he played a drawish line in the French that we both knew quite well and steered the game towards the endgame. We rattled off our opening moves quickly and soon the game looked to be a draw. Vignesh could not afford to draw the game and pressed for the win. Unfortunately for Vignesh, the win wasn't there and he blundered and wound up losing. It is hard to prepare with your friends and then face them over the board for such a serious game. Each of us really wanted the win. The sad thing about the swiss system is that you can go from playing for the title to sixth place in a single game. In my mind, Vignesh really came in second here in Dallas and in Nashville.

Déjà vu #4
At the grade-level nationals in Florida last December, I won the national title and my friend and classmate, Udit Iyengar, took second place. Together with Pranav Srihari, we won the team title as well. I didn't expect so many great things to happen in a single tournament. Yet, 5 months later, the exact same thing happened again. Despite an unexpected draw in round 2, Udit buckled down and played tough chess throughout the entire tournament, never giving up. When the dust settled, he had reached the number 2 spot again, and with Pranav and his brother Pramodh, we won a second team title. Wahoo!

All photos in this post courtesy of Shaun M. Smith from New York's Chess in the Schools

Day 2 is in the Books

2011-05-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

What a day, I had three rounds today @ 9:00 a.m.(Ethan Xie), 2:00 p.m. (Ethan Li) and 7:00 p.m. (Anshul Adve). I was successful in winning all three matches, and now have a perfect 5-0 score. There are two other players in the section with a perfect score. Roland Feng from Washington, and good friend Vignesh Panchanatham from Cupertino, CA. I will play Roland tomorrow in Round 6, I've never played him before. Daddy & Lucas arrived right before Round 4 and Mom was thankful because the stress of competition was really getting to her. She's really not cut out for all the waiting and wondering what's going to happen each round.

Here's a view of the playing hall, with me sitting at Board 1 in front of the room.

I went over to check out my friend Jeffrey Xiong at the top board in the K6 section.

Round 3 opponent, Ethan Xie.

Round 5 opponent, Anshul Adve.

I finished my 5th round quickly, so we got to go to YO Steakhouse for dinner, then straight to bed to get ready for Sunday.

Day 1 is in the books...

2011-05-06T21:52:00.000-07:00

Well, day one is done and I managed to win my first two games of the tournament. Round 1 was a pretty easy game against Reddy Lee from NY's Dalton School. In round 2, I faced William Sun from Virginia. I got a better position in the 2nd round and picked up a pawn plus the exchange, but it was still going to be tough to break through, fortunately, my opponent used so much time trying to hold off my attack that he flagged and I didn't have to play a long, drawn out endgame.

Things got off to a bit of a rocky start for Team Regnart. Udit and Pranav both unexpectedly drew a game today. Fortunately, Pramodh managed to get a win in the first round, so I think we will be ok. We are alone in second place, just a half-point behind the leaders, but that team has some very low-rated players, so I know we will pass them tomorrow. The real question is what will the teams that are just behind us do tomorrow.

Besides the unfortunate draw for Udit, the Chesspunks are representing the Bay Area well. Allan, Kesav, Vignesh and I are all 2.0/2.0. Things will get interesting tomorrow: busy day with 3 more rounds. If I can win the first two, I should get a very strong opponent for round 5.

Dallas here we come!

2011-05-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the 2011 National Elementary Championship in Dallas, Texas. Team Regnart will be there and competing in the K-5 section. You can follow our progress right here on the blog/twitter and get complete results at the USCF website.

Go Roadrunners!

State Champions!!!

2011-04-05T00:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the Northern California Scholastic State Championships. What a crazy weekend!

Even though this is my last year at Regnart, this is my first year with an actual team to play with. I won the K-5 Championship section last year, so my Dad and I were considering playing me in a higher section (like High School), but I wanted to play with my new teammates. In order to all stick together, we decided to play in the appropriate section. This gave us two choices, play K-5 (which I already won) or play K-6. With two experts and a class B player, our team would be a big favorite in either section. Since my Dad is our team coach, he decided to play us in which ever section looked like it was going to offer tougher competition. We waited and waited to register, trying to see where the strong players would wind up. Finally we needed to register, so we entered the K-6 section which looked slightly stronger at the time. However, as soon as we entered, players started moving to the K-5 section. Suddenly, the K-5 section looked like it could provide more challenge. We decided that K-5 now looked like the more interesting section to play, so we moved down a section

Early on Friday afternoon, we went to the convention center to help setup boards for the tournament. While we were there, my Dad checked the entries one more time. Apparently after we moved down, then players started to move back to K-6. This was getting ridiculous. My team now had the #1, #2, and #4 seeds in the K-5 section. Who were we going to play? My Dad was getting quite frustrated and finally decided to just go back to K-6 and hope that someone was willing to compete against us.

Friday night, I met my teammates at Ted Castro's NorCal House of Chess to hear a lecture by WGM Jennifer Shahade and play in a simul against her. My team and my friend Armaan were there along with a bunch of younger kids and their parents. A couple of stronger adult players showed up, wanting to get into the simul. For some reason Arun Sharma played the simul, even though i think he is higher rated than Jennifer. The simul was pretty fun. Armaan and I gave Jennifer interesting games. I think she spent more time on Armaan's game than anyone else. In the end, she was probably better in both of our games, but they would have been challenging endgames to win. Eventually she offered both of us draws and we gladly accepted. Udit got a very strong queenside attack going in a Sicilian Defense and actually managed to pull off a win! Arun and Udit were the only winners and Armaan and I were the only draws. The rest of the kids all lost their games. The simul was a lot of fun, but it went much later than we expected and we were all pretty tired.

On Saturday, the tournament started and I was paired against Steven Yuan. He was only rated in the 1300s, but the game was much tougher than I thought it would be. I guess you shouldn't judge a player by their rating. In fact, my teammate, Udit, drew his game against a similarly rated opponent. Staying up late and then getting up early to watch cricket might have contributed to the draw, but I think he also just underestimated how good the opponent could be. I did the same thing at Nationals last year and lost in the first round to someone 500 points below me. Oops! Fortunately for our team, Pranav and Pramodh took care of business.

In round 2, to add insult to injury, Udit didn't get a pairing and had to settle for a forfeit victory. What's up with this tournament? Won't anyone play us? I got paired against Ashritha Eswaran and had a better game than round 1. Pranav won again too, and our team opened up a huge lead right out of the gate.

In round 3, I got paired against Anirudh Seela, who we hung out with at Nationals in Florida. I know Anirudh from chess tournaments, but I think this is the first time we've actually played. Our whole team won their games in this round. Pramodh (rated 975) took down his second 1300-rated player of the tournament. After 3 rounds, I think our team lead was up to 5 points. We practically had the team title wrapped up.

Sunday was sure to bring some more interesting games. My round 4 pairing was John Canessa who is coached by my friend and training partner, Allan Beilin. John got into trouble early, playing an opening that I'm pretty familiar with and it looked like it might be new to him. He fought hard, but he had sacrificed too much material in the beginning to survive. Udit had his second unexpected draw and Pranav also could only manage a draw.

I was now in clear first, a half-point ahead of the rest of the field. I got paired against Michael Lei Wang, who drew Pranav in the previous round. I won this game fairly quickly (I was hungry for lunch), and the competition that was a half-point behind drew. So, I had at least clinched the co-champion title with a round to go. Our team also had a 4.5 point lead, so there was no way for us to lose the team title either.

In the final round, the craziness began. I was a full point ahead, so I thought that I would get paired against the highest rated player a point behind. That would have been my teammate, Udit. The pairings got posted early for the last round, and my Dad came back to the hall where I was eating lunch and playing blitz games with my coach, Steven Zierk. My Dad told me that they must have avoided pairing teammates, because I was going to play black against Art Zhao. I know that Art plays 1. d4, so Steven and I spent a few minutes reviewing my opening, and I headed to the playing hall. We started playing our games, and after many minutes, the tournament director asked us to stop. We had played 14 moves of our game. Apparently Art's parents complained about him having to play against me and got the tournament directory to re-pair the top boards. Udit's game was already in the endgame, but they basically just made us move and start over with a new opponent. Now I had to play my teammate Udit. I didn't realize they could just make you stop a game that you were already playing.

I could have just resigned my game to Udit and we'd be co-champions, but that might also let other players like Art and Pranav Nagarajan share first place too. When I won my first national championship, I was in a similar position and had to play my friend Vignesh. My Dad and I discussed that game and decided that it was best to play it out, win or lose, so I thought it was probably best in this situation as well. I got a better position in my game against Udit, and eventually won a pawn. Even though I was up a pawn, the position was a complicated opposite colored bishop and rook endgame. Udit offered a draw, but I decided to play on and see if I could win. After a few more moves, I decided that Udit could probably hold the position and settled for the draw and the Championship.

I was pretty glad to have won the tournament, and it was great to win a team title as well. Now I'm looking forward to going to Dallas with my team for the Nationals next month!

National Champions!!!

2010-12-14T19:44:00.000-08:00

Coming into round 6, there were only three players left with a perfect storm: Michael Chen from Michigan, Udit and myself. I got paired against Michael and Udit had to play the highest rated person a half-point below, Tommy He. I got a good position out of the opening against Michael and I was able to use this advantage to generate a strong attack and force through a win. Unfortunately, Udit made a mistake in the late-opening/early-middlegame and found himself in a lot of trouble very quickly. The pressure proved to be too much and he lost an uncharacteristically short game to Tommy.

That left just me with a perfect score after 6 rounds, and Tommy was the only player trailing by a half-point. I would face Tommy for the 4th time. Tommy and I recently played at the World Youth in Greece and I squandered a completely winning position, so I was eager to get a chance to play him again. Both Tommy and I had played white in the previous two rounds, so one of us was going to get three consecutive whites in a row. Turns out it was Tommy, but I still had draw odds to win the whole tournament. In the game, I made a mistake early and went down a pawn, but I was able to fight my way back into the game. At one point I was probably winning, but I knew that I only needed a draw to become National Champion, so I made sure that I wasn't going to lose. Tommy fought hard, knowing that a draw wouldn't get him the title, but in the end the position was a clear draw and I became the champion.

Udit won his final game to finish with a score of 6.0/7.0 to tie for second place. He had the best tiebreaks of the all of the 6.0s, so he got the second place trophy! Here is a shot of Udit and I with our first and second place trophies.

For most of my "chess career", I've been the only serious chess player at Regnart. That all changed last year when Pranav moved from New Jersey. We still didn't have enough players to make a team, but at least I wasn't the only tournament chess player at the school. This year, Udit moved to my neighborhood and he goes to Regnart. Now we finally had the makings of a real team. My dad started an official chess team at the school, and this nationals was our first tournament together. Pranav, his brother, Pramodh, Udit, and I all came to play in the tournament. All of us played exceptionally well and in the end, Regnart won the team competition for grade 5! In this photo, we are showing off our cool new team shirts and our new "hardware". Having a team really added something new to the whole competition. I was still trying to do my best, but I also wanted the team to do well too.

The Bay Area was well represented at this year's Nationals. Josiah Steerman won in 2nd grade. Udit and I got second and first in 5th grade. Pranav tied for 12th. Kesav was co-champion in 6th grade and got the second place trophy on tiebreaks. Allan took home the sixth place trophy in that same section. Anirudh and Pramodh also had strong results in the fourth grade section.

After it was all done a group of Bay Area kids and their parents went to Downtown Disney to play at DisneyQuest and have a celebratory dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Cafe. It was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone and finally get a chance to relax.

Our flight home didn't leave until the late afternoon. That meant we had about a half-day to play at Disney. Despite the late night celebration with our friends, we got up early, packed our stuff, and headed off to Disney's Animal Kingdom for a breakfast. The food was really good and lots of characters came to our table to visit. My mom took this picture of my brother and I with Mickey. After breakfast we had a chance to explore the park for a few hours and ride lots of cool rides. What a great way to end the trip!

A long day 2

2010-12-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

Day 2 of the nationals is always a tough day because you have to play 3 games in one day and the last game, round 5, is usually against a very tough opponent. This year was no different.

After my scare yesterday in the 2nd round, it was important to bounce back with a strong game. I got a good position early against Prateek Pinisetti of Arizona. I was able to convert the win and keep my win streak alive. Udit also won his game. The most impressive feat was Pranav's draw against the tough William Graif of New York. This draw could be critical, as William also has a strong team in the section.

Often times when I go to chess tournaments, it is just me and my dad, but this time my mom and little brother, Lucas, also came. Lucas gets to go and play at all of the Disney parks while I do chess, but he took some time out to wish me good luck and see me get an award.

Prior to the start of the fourth round, they announced the Trophies Plus All-American Team. I was named to the team for the second year in a row. This is a nice award for some of the top kids in the country. They gave us a very nice plaque and a jacket with our name on it. I was pretty happy to make the team again because I lost last year's jacket.

In the fourth round, I had to play Noah Fields of Washington. I met Noah and his family a couple of years ago and Nationals and he even came down to Mechanics Institute in SF one time for a tournament. I knew this game would be tough because WA kids tend to be underrated. I was able to get a better position in the game and force through a win. My teammates Udit and Pranav also won to extend our team's lead.

In the fifth round, I faced James Wei from Illinois. James is a teammate of Alex Bian and Conrad Oberhaus. Conrad couldn't make it to this year's nationals, so their team only has two players, but they will definitely be a force to contend with in the spring. James and I played a long game, but I got a comfortable position early and felt that I had the upper hand throughout. The game ended with a funny checkmate. My teammate, Udit, took out the #2 seed, Andrew Tang. Unfortunately, Pranav was not able to pull out a victory against his opponent. Our team still has a 1.5 point lead in the section. Meanwhile, the top board, Tommy He, drew, so there are only three of us left with a perfect 5.0/5.0 Tomorrow I will play Michael Chen from Michigan and Udit will have to face Tommy. Round 6 will be very critical for our team and individual title chances.

Day 1 is Done!

2010-12-11T13:06:00.000-08:00

My family and I traveled to Disney World (via Philadelphia) on a red-eye flight from San Francisco. We arrived at our hotel on Thursday morning a little tired, but happy to be here and with a whole day to play before the tournament began. We stopped off at Downtown Disney to have a quick lunch at the cool Rainforest Cafe and then we went to Disney Hollywood Studios. It was a lot of fun, but the whole family was exhausted from the overnight flight and we had to get back to the hotel early to make sure we got enough rest.

Day 1 started off pretty well. Tommy O He from Dallas, TX registered at the last minute, so I was bumped down to the #5 seed, but they didn't accelerate the pairings so my first round game was against a pretty low-rated opponent. His name was Andrew Mayorga and he lives right here in Florida. I won the game pretty quickly, but the best part is that my teammates, Udit and Pranav, also won their games and our team was tied for first place right from the start.

Between rounds 1 and 2, Udit came back to my room and we relaxed by watching Over The Hedge. Check out our cool team t-shirts!

In round 2, I gave everyone a bit of a scare. My opponent was Akhil Goel from Virgina. He was only rated 1267, and perhaps I took him a little too lightly. I got off to a poor start, lost a pawn in the middle game, and then got into a bit of time pressure. Fortunately, I was able to pull off the win with only 1 minute 50 seconds left on my clock. I was very relieved to have escaped the tight spot, and my teammates also won their games so Team Regnart is now a perfect 6.0/6.0 and tied with one other team for first place. Tomorrow is going to be a tough day with 3 rounds each of increasing difficulty. Go Roadrunners!!!

The Happiest Place on Earth

2010-12-07T00:18:00.000-08:00

This week I'm traveling to Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida for the 2010 National K-12 Championships. I'll be competing in the super tough 5th grade section where I'm currently the #4 seed going into the tournament. One of the most exciting parts is that for the first time ever, I will be a member of a chess team. My schoolmates, Udit and Pranav, are also coming to the tournament and together we will try to win a national championship for Regnart Elementary! Stay tuned to this blog for all of the updates on Bay Area chess kids and hopefully some photos of my brother and I having fun at Disney too.

Greece Wrapup

2010-11-19T22:23:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been about 3 weeks since we returned from Greece and I finally got a spare moment to upload more photos. It was an incredible trip, and thank you to all the friends and family who cheered me on. When we got back, there was some interest in the trip from several newspapers. My coach, who won the U18 gold medal, got written up in the San Jose Mercury News and in the New York Times. My friends and I even got written up in our local paper, the Cupertino Courier.

So, here is my final post about Greece, I promise:

In round 11, the final round, I was only a half-point behind the leader. A win in this round would give me the silver medal! My opponent was the dangerous Jason Cao of Canada. He had already beat Samuel Sevian and Tommy He from Team USA, and he lost a winning endgame against Jeffery Xiong. We spent a good deal of time preparing for his opening, and I got the position over the board that we had prepared for. Unfortunately, I thought I found a winning combination, but it turned out that I missed his best reply. My position quickly went from bad to worse as I blundered again. I wasn't able to save the game and my medal dreams were done. In the end, I got 5th place because of my excellent tiebreaks. In some swiss tournaments you get a lucky draw, but this definitely wasn't one of those tournaments.

One of the odder stories from this year's World Youth was my friend Allan's performance. My dad, snapped this photo of Allan telling his father that he had just drawn his 10th straight game in a row. No one could believe that this was even possible.

When the tournament finished, we still had some team obligations to fulfill. After lunch, the entire group of players and coaches assembled on the steps leading to the playing hall and we posed for many pictures as all of the parents went crazy with their cameras.

Finally we got to blow off some steam! My friends and I try to catch a wild Rayan-oceros. We had so much energy stored up that we just had to run around like crazy for a while. The parents were all exhausted, but we were ready to go. Fortunately, Rayan's dad took a bunch of us to the soccer field for our last game.

While we were all playing soccer, some of the parents snuck off to a nearby winery for a tasting. Don't they look relieved that the tournament is over?

After all of the soccer and wine tasting, it was time for the closing ceremonies. They called the top 8 finishers from each section up to the stage to receive medals. The top 3 also received a small trophy. Team USA did well in U10 with Jeffery Xiong in second, I was in 5th, Samuel Sevian was 6th, and Vignesh was 9th.

Here Samuel and I posed for a picture with silver medalist, Jeffery Xiong. I had a lot of fun with the other Team USA members and look forward to seeing them at future events.

Our flight home was at 4am the next day, so we decided to stay up late. How would you relax after a grueling 11-day chess tournament? My friends and I decided to have a blitz tournament, just for the fun of it. I won ;)

After playing blitz late into the evening, we got 2 or 3 hours of sleep in our room and then we had to take the 2-hour bus ride to the airport in Thessaloniki. Even though it is about 3am, we still had to play some blitz. Here my friend Allan is getting whipped by Anna Matlin from New Jersey.

Just like on the way to Greece, we had a seven hour layover. Uncle Harry is not one to sit around, so we took the train into town again. This time the dads were determined to find the lake. We got to walk down a lot of cool little side streets like this one.

At 7:00am on a Sunday morning, not a lot was happening in Zurich yet. The restaurants weren't even open yet, but there were a lot of birds swimming in the river.

We finally made it to the lake. Turns out we were pretty close last time, but we just didn't realize it. Joining us on this trip to the city were: Simone Liao, Joanna Liu, Vignesh, me, Allan, Kesav, and Anna Matlin.

We were all very hungry for some breakfast, but the parents were busy taking pictures of all of the buildings.

We pretty much had the city to ourselves at this hour.

The only thing open this early was a Starbucks (can you say free WiFi?). We hung out at the tables outside playing cards while we waited for a nearby restaurant to open

Finally it was 9am and we were able to go to a Swiss restaurant called Cakefriends for a traditional Swiss brunch. It was really tasty. After brunch it was back to the airport to catch our flight home.

Farewell from Greece

2010-10-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

Well, the tournament is FINALLY over. Who knew eleven days of chess could be so grueling. In the final round I played on board #2. If I won the game, I would get the silver medal. Unfortunately, I made a blunder in the middlegame and lost. I came in 5th place overall. Not too bad for my first major international chess tournament. It was a great learning experience and I spent a lot of good time with my friends and made many new ones as well.

Congratulations to my coach (and friend) IM Steven Zierk who won the U18 World Championship gold medal. I believe he is the first American to have ever won in that prestigious section. Of course, I had to pay him 10 euros for our side bet, but I think he earned them. If we make more bets like this, he'll be a grandmaster in no time.

I have many photos to post, but my Dad thinks we already packed the USB cable, so we will have to add them when we get home. Our flight leaves in the middle of the night, and we will be traveling for over 20 hours. Hopefully I'll get some sleep on the flight and have enough energy to join my brother trick-or-treating when we get home. Bye for now...

The last FM

2010-10-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

One of the unique aspects of this tournament compared to the ones we play back home is the "one game per day" scheduling. We find out our opponent's the night before, and we can prepare specifically for this opponent. Each day I have a session with Coach Sam Palatnik before my game. Here Coach Sam, Dachey Lin (of Dallas, TX), and I look at some puzzles to warm up our chess brains.

For the fifth and final time in this tournament, I faced a FIDE Master in round 10. This game was critical. A win was necessary to have any shot at a medal. My opponent was, Mohammed-Amin Tabatabaei from Iran. The Iranian team is very strong, and Tabatabaei is their national champion. Last year in Turkey, Tabatabaei won the bronze medal behind my friend Tanuj. I knew this was going to be a tough game. We looked at his games, and prepared against his Caro-Kann, but again, we got a Sicilian Defense. Tabatabaei's play was inaccurate and I got an early advantage. This time I continued to press my advantage and really forced through the win. I faced five FMs and scored 4-1 against them.

During round 10, there were several other key matchups on the top board. The biggest was Jeffery Xiong versus Tommy He, both from Dallas, TX. Jeffery won the game to take sole possession of 1st place. If he wins tomorrow, he gets the gold.

Other important matchups included my friends Vignesh and Samuel, playing next to each other. Both won their games and they now have 7.5/10.0 and will face each other tomorrow. The winner of that game could possibly earn a medal.

My next round opponent is Jason Cao of Canada. Jason has been having an excellent tournament, knocking off Samuel Sevian and Tommy He. In this picture, my friend and teammate, Jeffery Xiong, helps me prepare for my game against Jason, while his sister, Meryl, looks on. Tomorrow is a big day and all the Americans are hoping to win. GO Team USA!

What a difference a day makes

2010-10-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

When we were preparing for this trip in early October, I asked my dad what the weather would be like. He said it would be a lot like home, but perhaps a bit cooler and wetter. Well, it has been sunny and hot each day since we arrived. That all changed last night when a giant storm passed through. The wind was howling all night, and there was lots of thunder and lightning. When we awoke in the morning, we found that the power had gone out and the road and soccer field were flooded. I guess soccer is ruled out for the day...

We couldn't go to the field for exercise, so my Dad took me on a walk to the beach instead. All kinds of debris had washed ashore. The beach was littered with branches, bottles, and other junk, including this giant circular hay bale. I wonder where it came from.

The rain had stopped, but it was still quite cool and windy so we didn't stay out for long. The power didn't get restored until about 3pm, so we mostly just hung out in the room, reviewing my lines and doing homework.

My 9th round opponent was Jingyao Tin from Singapore. He earned the FM title as the ASEAN Under-10 champion. ASEAN means the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and includes the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philipines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. With the power and Internet gone, it was difficult to prepare, but, fortunately, my Dad hasn't been able to sleep here and he got some games off the Internet before the power died.
I was pretty excited about this round because it would be my first opportunity to play the black pieces against 1. d4. Steven and I spent a significant amount of time reviewing these lines at his mother's house back in Los Gatos in the weeks preceding the tournament, and this was my chance to show what I had learned. I got a decent position out of the opening, and the game was tough, but I finished with a nice endgame. Coach Sam wants the game to be published on the USCF website because he liked the way I ended the game. I now have 7 points from 9 rounds and sit in 4th place, just a half-point behind the leaders. The last two rounds will determine who gets the medals. Not surprisingly, my 10th round opponent is also an FM. Out of six FMs in the section, I will have faced 5 of them. Sometimes life just isn't fair :)

Side bet side-note:
Prior to the tournament, my coach, Steven, and I made a side bet: whoever scores more points at the World Youth gets $10 from the other player. When we got to Greece, we decided to up the bet to 10 euros. With 5 Grand Masters (GM), 12 International Masters (IM), 21 FIDE Masters (FM) in Steven's section, I thought this bet would be easy money. Boy was I mistaken. Despite my strong performance, Steven is having an amazing tournament, and I'm one half-point behind with two rounds to go. I'll keep you posted on who wins the cash...

Rebound

2010-10-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest things to do in a chess tournament is to come back to play another game after a tough loss. My Dad says I excel at this because I have such a bad memory and forget about the loss quickly, but the truth is, there is nothing you can do about the last game now, and you have no choice but to go on and play again. Even still, it is good to have the support of friends and family to help get your mind back to a "good place". Today, Steven came by to check up on me and make sure I was ready for my game. I got the white pieces for a second game in a row, so there wasn't much to prepare. Instead we goofed around and played a few blitz games for fun. I've only managed to flag Steven one time, but someday I think I will beat him.

My playing hall is a long skinny room in the hotel. It is just for the U10 Open and U10 Girls sections. There are about 100 girls and 150 boys. The top boards in the boys section is all the way at the far end of the hall. We have to walk the entire length of the room, squeezing past all the parents and coaches, just to get to my board.

My opponent for round 8 was Arya Omidi of Iran. The Iranian team is very large and talented. I did not have a lot of games to look at from Arya, but the games I had were of good quality. I knew this was going to be a tough game. Again, I got a very nice position out of the opening, although it wasn't as huge an advantage as in the games versus Jeffery and Tommy. I slowly built up my attack and eventually I was able to break through. In post-game analysis, Coach Sam showed me a nice mate that I missed, but he said I played a good game. It was nice to come back from the previous defeat with a strong round. In round 9, I get to face my 4th FM (out of 6 in the section). So far, I think I've had the toughest draw of anyone in the tournament.

Team USA vs Team USA (part 2)

2010-10-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

Everyday we try to get a little bit of fresh air and exercise. One of our favorite activities is to take a walk along the marina. My Dad loves to look at all of the different boats, and I can find lots of rocks and pine cones to toss into the water. Also, my Dad is trying to teach me how to juggle.

Here are a couple of the "locals" soaking up the warmth of the hot bricks. The sun has been out nearly every day that we've been here, but the weather is definitely getting cooler, and I think these dogs know that there won't be many more days like this.

This boat looks like it is REALLY FAST! It is kinda hard to tell from the picture, but it is very big too.

On the far side of the marina, we found this deserted beach. In the summer, this must be a very popular spot, but on this day, my Dad and I had the whole beach to ourselves.

In round 7, I got paired against my third FM of the tournament, my teammate, Tommy O He, from Dallas, TX. I've played Tommy two other times at Nationals and drew both games. In the previous two games I was black, so I was really looking forward to the chance to beat Tommy with the white pieces. In the game, I got a great position out of the opening and won a piece for a pawn, and I had a strong attack. However, instead of pressing my advantage, I traded off some pieces. In the exchanges, I gave up my active pieces and activated his passive pieces. Suddenly, despite being a piece up, I was under tremendous pressure. After a few inaccurate moves, and I was losing. It always sucks to lose a game, but losing a game that you are clearly winning is always the toughest. I felt like crying, but I didn't. Kudos to Tommy for not giving up when he got in a tough spot. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to meet him again at the Dallas Nationals next spring.

A day in Thessaloniki

2010-10-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

After the grueling "double day", we were given a day off to rest. My friends and I boarded a bus with our parents and other members of the USA delegation and drove two hours to the city of Thessaloniki. I have never been to a city quite like this. It is a very big and crowded city with over 1 million inhabitants. The city has existed for over two thousand years, and there is evidence of this throughout the city. Here I'm standing by the city wall that used to encircle the entire city. Over a century ago, much of the wall was dismantled to allow the city to expand, but remnants of the wall still remain.

Thessaloniki is the second largest city in all of Greece and an important port city. We were dropped off by the water to stroll the city on our own, enjoy the sights, do some shopping, and have fun with friends.

The parents seem to enjoy walking around just looking at stuff, but definitely the best part for me is hanging out with my friends. See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil, and, ummm...pocket no evil?

They say "it's greek to me", and I understand why. The Greeks use a different alphabet and it is very hard to read their signs. Every once in a while, we find a familiar looking place, though. Here is a Starbucks Coffee (can you say free WiFi?). Just across the street was a Pizza Hut too. Some kids were excited by that, but I won't eat at Pizza Hut in the USA, so why start now.

Thessaloniki has a lot of interesting contrasts. You might find a two thousand year old palace surrounded by modern apartment buildings. As we strolled along the promenade, you could see several large container ships coming into port, but we also found this small Greek dingy. My Dad liked the colors, so he took a snapshot.

Modern architecture is mixed in with the old and the ancient. This "luxury living" apartment building was directly across the street from the promenade and the Aegean Sea beyond.

Thessaloniki is known for its shopping district. There were many boutiques that you could find in any large city, including those in the United States. One toy shop caught our eye because they had several unique chess sets displayed in the window, including this Smurf chess set. I have so many sets already, so we couldn't really justify getting another one, even if they were cool.

Right in the center of the shopping district, we stumbled upon these ruins of the Palace of Galerius. The palace was built for Roman Emperor Galerius Maximianus early in the fourth century AD. Nearly two thousand years ago!

There are a lot of stray cats and dogs both in Thessaloniki and at the tournament site in Halkidiki. This one looks a lot like my brother's cat, so we figured his name must be Buddios.

After strolling through the city, we worked up an appetite. Here a Greek woman prepares my lunch.

Step 1: pour some batter onto a hot griddle.

Step 2: spread the batter to make a very thin crepe

Step 3: add ham, cheese, and some chicken

Step 4: Eat!

I've never had a crepe before and it was delicious. My Dad says that they are actually French, and not Greek, but it was still very warm and tasty on this cool, gray day.

In the United States, we don't have cities that are so cramped. This street was too narrow even for cars.

Thessaloniki is also an important spiritual center in Greece. The city is filled with churches. The practice a different form of Christianity than we find in the US. The churches are Eastern Orthodox. Allan's father, Harry, was quite interested in seeing the churches with their ornate decorations and interesting architecture. I'd never really seen people come to worship, so this was new to me.

Churches, ruins, and shopping can get kind of old for a kid, but hanging out with friends is always fun. Here Kesav and Rayan play blind chess against each other. They are so goofy.

I think the parents may be more tired than the kids. While we went to an archaeological museum, some of the parents snuck off for a Greek coffee, a local favorite. Rayan and Kesav's moms are ready for a caffeine boost.

It was nice to have a break, but the tournament is starting to get really intense. Next round I will face my second American and third FM, Tommy O He, also from the Dallas chess club.

Double Up

2010-10-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

The World Youth Chess Championship is an eleven round tournament. Each day we play a single game. The game can last anywhere from one to five hours depending on how tough your opponent is. To break up the monotony of the tournament, we play rounds 5 and 6 on the same day, and then we get a much needed day of rest. (Sporting my SF Giants shirt because they just won the pennant) My round 5 opponent was Semen Elistratov of Russia. Going into the tournament, he was rated #4 in our section. I knew this was going to be a tough game, and it was, right up until my opponent hung his bishop, three and a half hours into the game. He started to cry and it was very sad. He resigned a few moves later. Everyone here is a champion from their own region or country and they all want to do well. I think this is the toughest competition I've played in.

After my long round 5 game, I just had a few short hours to eat some lunch, relax, and prepare for my next opponent. In round 6, I faced Bhaskar Gupta from India. I had the black pieces for the second round in a row. Bhaskar is a French Defense player himself, so I knew this would be another tough battle. I got a very comfortable position out of the opening and I felt that I had all of the winning chances, but I played too passively and couldn't find a way to break through. Bhaskar made several draw offers throughout the game, and finally after 5 hours I accepted. I was a bit disappointed because I think I could have scored the full point and now I'm a half-point behind the leaders, but there is still a lot of tournament left.

After the long game, I was starving, so we skipped the coach's analysis (9 hours of chess is enough for one day) and went straight to dinner. It was my Dad's birthday and I had hoped to give him 2 full points as a present, but he seemed pretty pleased with 1.5/2.0. In the cafeteria, Vignesh's Dad, Siva, arranged to have a small cake brought to our table. We lit candles and sang happy birthday. While we were singing, nearby tables joined in. Soon many, many tables were singing, all from different countries, and everyone clapped when we were finished. My Dad turned bright red :)

Team USA vs Team USA

2010-10-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

After 3 rounds, there were still 7 players from Team USA on a perfect score (3.0/3.0). Three of those perfect scores are in my section, Samuel Sevian, Jeffery Xiong, and myself. Here my Dad snapped a quick picture of the three of us with Jeffery's Dad.

One of the cool things about this tournament is you get to meet kids from all over the world who share a common interest. Even though I can't speak with some of them, we can still play chess together. My first round opponent, Carlos Sandoval Mercado from Mexico is very friendly and always wants to take pictures with me. I'm sure we will be seeing him at other tournaments in the future.

We knew it was going to happen sooner or later. With only 12 perfect scores in the section after round 3, a USA vs. USA matchup was imminent. In round 4, I got paired with the talented Jeffery Xiong from Dallas, TX with a sky high rating of 2162 (USCF). Jeffery and I have only played one other time online and I knew this was going to be a tough fight. My preparation was good, and I got a winning position out of the opening and early middlegame, but Jeffery played better in the late middlegame and I was suddenly in a losing position. In the end, we wound up drawing the match and both have a score of (3.5/4.0). That puts us into a 6-way tie for 4th place.

Hungary for some French Fries?

2010-10-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

Life here in Greece is finally starting to fit a bit of a schedule:

Because of the time difference, I'm still going to bed late and sleeping in as late as I can. When I wake up in the morning, my Dad has usually looked up my day's opponent and his games. I will make a quick study of the games to see how he plays, we'll discuss some plans and go grab some breakfast.
After breakfast, I will usually try to get some of my independent study done for school, while my Dad does his work.
At 11:00am, we meet with Coach Sam to do preparation for the match. Sam usually gives me some puzzles, tells me to walk on the beach and eat ice cream. These things are important for strong play :)
After my session with Sam, we will usually do some sort of physical activity; sometimes we go for a walk, play catch with our baseball gloves we brought, or play soccer with my friends from Team USA.
Next it is time for a quick lunch. The food here is much better than my Dad expected. Some people are growing a little tired of the "sameness", but I can eat pasta everyday, so I'm happy.
After lunch it is time for some serious preparation. I usually go through my opponent's games again, to see what type of style he plays. Next, I review my lines and try to predict how he will play. Usually Steven will come by if he has finished his preparation and make sure that I have a good plan. It really helps to have your coach at the tournament.
Once the preparations are complete, it is game time. Most of my games have been taking 3.5-4.5 hours. There are many strong players here and there are no "easy" games.
After the game, we go downstairs to review our game (win or lose) with one of the Team USA coaches. Analyzing your games with a strong player or coach is one of the best ways to improve your chess.
Finally it is time to eat dinner. All of our meals are taken much later than I'm used to back home, but my body clock is all messed up from jetlag so I don't really know what time it is. All I know is that when we eat at 9pm after a long day of study, preparation, game and analysis, I'M STARVING! Plus, if we win our games we get cake :)
Time for bed and we do it again tomorrow

My independent study requires me to do some PE each day. It is also good for my chess to get some fresh air and exercise. Here, Team USA is having some fun together on a nearby soccer field. We even had a friendly match with Team Holland. As other players from different countries would arrive, they'd join sides. Even though we couldn't all speak the same spoken languages, we all shared the languages of soccer and chess.

Another requirement of my independent study is to complete a reading log. I like to read and it eases my mind. My Dad likes it because I'm quiet and he can do his work.

My opponent in round 3 was Hungarian Attila Czupor. We had a collection of his games and they were all 1.e4 e5 or 1.e4 c5, so I thought I'd give him a tasty serving of my French (fries) Defense. As predicted, he didn't have a lot of experience with the French and I was able to get a comfortable position and win the game to stay perfect on 3.0/3.0

Another day, another FM

2010-10-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

My section has 154 kids playing in it. Six of those kids hold the title of FIDE Master (FM), and in the first two rounds I've played two of them. So much for having easy pairings in the early part of the tournament...

What? 1. ... c5? So much for my preparation...

After defeating the co-champion from the Pan American Youth Festival in round 1, I was rewarded by having to face the Indian U-9 National Champion, Guha Mitrabha. My Dad and I looked on the Internet and found several of his games. In a half-dozen games as black, he played the Caro-Kann, and a particularly strange line. With Steven, I prepared several variations against this opening, all of them leaving me with a very comfortable position. Imagine my surprise when he answers 1. e4 with the Sicilian Defense. All I could do was laugh to myself, thinking about the hours I wasted in preparation. In the end, I managed to beat my second FM of the tournament, so I wasn't too upset about the lost time. Tomorrow I play a boy from Hungary who also has won both of his games. Only 27 (out of 154) players still have a perfect score, and the competition will just keep getting tougher and tougher.

The tournament is finally underway

2010-10-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

Today we got assigned to different coaches that are provided by the USCF. My coach is GM Sam Palatnik. Prior to the first round, I had a warm-up session with Coach Sam and siblings Jonathan and Sarah Chiang. We tried solving some interesting puzzles just to loosen up the mind and get into chess mode.

For the first round, my opponent was Carlos Sandoval Mercado from Mexico. This year in Brazil, Carlos was co-champion of the Pan American Youth Chess Festival and earned the FIDE Master (FM) title. I was a little nervous having to face such a strong opponent in the first round, but my pregame preparation was good, I got a comfortable position, and won in a straight forward fashion.

The tournament was a little disorganized to start. When I arrived in the playing hall, I didn't even have a table. You can see in the picture above that we have a table but no board. I guess someone miscounted...

My playing hall is in the hotel, but the older kids (U12 and up) are playing in a nearby building. The picture on the left is taken from the hotel, looking along the marina; the older kids' playing hall is the first building past the giant yachts.

This is the view from the playing hall looking back towards our hotel. Pretty nice, huh?

After our games, we need to report to the USA coaches for post-game analysis (win or lose). Coach Sam liked my game, but he wanted to make sure that I took my Dad out for a walk to get some fresh air. He said my Dad is like a pet and I need give him exercise to keep him healthy. Sam is funny like that. This is a picture of me down by the marina with the lights of the hotel in the distance.

One game down, ten more to go...

Wow, this place is amazing!

2010-10-19T07:04:00.000-07:00

The view of a nearby village from our hotel

We got to the hotel around 4am this morning after traveling for nearly 24 hours, and my Dad made me go straight to sleep. We wanted to get up by 10:30am for breakfast, but we both slept right through the meal. After a nice long shower, we went out to find my friends and explore the hotel grounds. As you can see from the picture above, the resort is located at spectacular site. It is now off-season and most things are closed, but the resort has a nice looking pool (unheated sea water), golf course, tennis courts, soccer field, and beach. During the summer, I think this area must be quite crowded, but now it is very quiet except for 1000 chess kids running around.

On the way to the village, we met up with my coach and fellow teammate Steven Zierk

After exploring a bit on our own, we finally found my friends and we decided to walk to the next village over to pick up some supplies. It turns out the nearest market is a few kilometers down the beach. On the way there, my coach Steven caught up to us and we all went together. At the market we picked up some of my favorite chess staples: lots of bottled water (very heavy), cheese, crackers, ham, and fruit. We calculated that we had to carry 120 lbs. of water back to the hotel, but it was a good deal. Steven said that he paid about 50 times as much for a small bottle of water in the Frankfurt airport.

After missing breakfast and doing all that walking, I was starving. Thankfully we got back from our adventure in time for lunch. The lunch was buffet style and very good with lots of things I like to eat.

Now we are hanging out in our room. I've got independent study work to do for my school and my Dad has to work. Tonight we have a team meeting with all of the coaches and American players. Things will start to get more serious then.

Blitzing in Zurich

2010-10-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

Hanging out with friends in the Old Town part of Zurich

We are on our way to Greece and we have a 7-hour layover in Zurich, Switzerland. In addition to Allan, Vignesh, and Kesav, we had Samuel Sevian and Joanna Liu on our flight over from SF. We met up with coach Andranik in the Zurich airport. Uncle Harry took us all on a stroll around the old part of town. Now we are blitzing at a Starbucks (can you say free WiFi?).

Impromptu blitz tournament in a Starbucks in Zurich

Generation Next

2010-10-17T00:20:00.000-07:00

Chess has an extremely rich history, with each new generation standing on the shoulders of the last. Former world champion, Vladimir Kramnik once wrote,

If you want to reach the heights, you should study the entire history of chess. I can't give any clear logical explanation for it, but I think it is absolutely essential to soak up the whole of chess history

The Chesspunks with former U12 World Champion, Daniel Naroditsky.

Botvinnik influenced Karpov, who helped shape Kasparov, who in turn developed Kramnik. This is the way chess knowledge has been passed down for centuries, and the tradition continues right here in California. In preparation for the World Youth Chess Championships, I've been studying with a two of the strongest junior players in the Bay Area (and the world). My friends and I have been having group study sessions with FM Daniel Naroditsky (former U12 World Champion!). I've also been working individually with FM Steven Zierk (2010 Denker Champion), who will be competing in the U18 section in Greece. The lessons have been a combination of hard work and fun, but hopefully the knowledge gained will push us to new heights in Thessaloniki!

Going to Greece!!!

2010-10-04T22:47:00.000-07:00

In just two weeks I'll be traveling to Thessaloniki, Greece with my father for the 2010 World Youth Chess Championship. This will be my first time going to another continent and my first international tournament.

Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece and the capital of Macedonia. The city is a major commercial center and transportation hub in Greece. The tournament itself will be held at the beautiful Porto Carras Grand Resort from October 20th to the 30th.

I'll also be traveling with good friends and training partners: Vignesh Panchanatham, Allan Beilin, and Kesav Viswanadha. Vignesh and I will be competing in the Under 10 section, while Allan and Kesav will be playing in the Under 12 section. I'll try to post regular updates to my blog and you can follow the action on my Dad's twitter feed. Results, pairings, and other information should be posted on the official site as it becomes available.

Pics

2009-12-16T08:45:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics from my recent trip to Dallas:

http://picasaweb.google.com/caminator2000/2009K12Nationals

2009-12-14T14:08:00.000-08:00

Several people have asked about my games during the tournament. Here is my final round victory against the tough (and underrated) Ryan Swerdlin from Colorado. We were the last two players in our section. The game lasted about 3 hours and 5 minutes (the time control was G/90 with 5 sec delay).

Play chess online

Bay Area chess kids rock

2009-12-13T20:07:00.001-08:00

Well, the nationals are finally over. The Bay Area kids came and represented very well. Here we are with our new hardware:

Unfortunately, Allan's dad made their flight too early, so he had to grab his trophy before the official presentation and head to the airport. Here is a shot of him before he left:

All told, the Bay Area kids took home several trophies, almost one of every flavor:

1st place - Rayan Taghizadeh (2nd grade)
2nd place - Kesav Viswanadha (5th grade)
3rd place - Cameron Wheeler (4th grade)
4th place - Kyle Shin (6th grade)
6th place - Vignesh Panchanatham (4th grade)
7th place - Allan Beilin (5th grade)
11th place - Jeffrey Tao (4th grade)
13th place - Daniel Liu (6th grade)
15th place - Anirudh Seela (3rd grade)

Day 3 coming up

2009-12-13T06:14:00.000-08:00

So today is the last day. Lot's of exciting things happening.

In grade 2, Rayan T* has a perfect 5/5 and is in excellent position. The top seed in his group lost in the last round, and he has moved up to the #2 slot behind Annie Wang. The two games today will be the biggest of his short chess career.

In grade 4, my friend Vignesh and I are in a 7-way tie for 2nd place right now with two rounds to go. There is only one kid 1/2 point ahead of us, so anything can happen. Vignesh has a tough pairing against William Graif of New York (last year's champion), and I'm playing Amir Moazami, another tough New York kid. The picture in grade 4 will become a lot clearer after this round.

In grade 5, Allan Beilin is an amazing 5/5 and is playing the tough Christopher Wu from New Jersey. My dad and I hope that Allan "french fry"s the guy! Kesav V* has an excellent score of 4/5. He can place very well with a good showing today. Armaan K* is also doing well at 3.5/5; two wins today might nab him a trophy.

In grade 6, Kyle Shin is just a half-point behind the leader and plays him on board 1 this morning. His fate is in his own hands. Daniel Liu is also in contention, just a point behind the leader.

Good luck to all of the bay area kids!!!

Pre-game warm-up:

Trophies Plus All-American Team

2009-12-12T20:56:00.000-08:00

Right before the start of the 4th round, they announced this year's All-American Team. I made the team for the first time, by having a peak rating over 1800 while I was still 8 years old. They gave us all monogrammed jackets:

Then they called us up on stage and presented us with a plaque:

Here is a short video of the presentation:

Short break before round 4

2009-12-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

Round 3 is wrapping up and we are back at the room watching some basketball and eating a quick snack. My friends and I are doing well:

2nd:
Rayan (3/3)

4th:
Me (3/3)
Vignesh (3/3)
Jeffrey T (3/3)

5th:
Allan (3/3)
Kesav (3/3)
Armaan (2.5/3)

The games keep getting tougher and tougher. Still waiting for round 4 pairings, but several of the 'punks will have to play up.

Day 1 is in the books

2009-12-11T21:24:00.000-08:00

So an exciting day 1 is complete. It is time to get a good night's rest for a busy day 2. I finished the day with a score of 2.0/2.0. Several of my friends have 2.0/2.0 as well: Allan, Vignesh, Kesav, Armaan, and Rayan. I'm happy to have the victories, but the games were much tougher than I thought they would be. Tomorrow is going to be very challenging.

My Uncle Darren was born and raised in San Jose, but he is a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. Coincidentally, he and Auntie Desiree had planned to come to Dallas this weekend to see the Cowboys take on the San Diego Chargers. They are staying in a hotel just a few miles away, so Uncle Darren came by tonight to take us out to a nice steak house after the 2nd round. My dad and uncle both shared their steaks with me because for some reason I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich. The steaks were very, very good! At the restaurant, they had this funny chair made from the horns and hide of cattle:

After dinner, uncle took us to a supermarket so we could stock up on some of my favorite tournament foods: crackers and cheese, fruit, yogurt, and cereal. Now we are all set! Thanks Uncle!!!

Round 1 is over

2009-12-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

Round 1 started on time (1pm local time). I was sitting at the very front of the room, as far from the doors as possible, so my Dad couldn't see me. Luckily I had my lucky Orioles hat on. My opponent came in late, just as the round was starting. After an hour, I finally beat my opponent. He played much better than I expected for round 1.

By the time I finished, most of my friends were done. Allan, Vignesh, and Kesav all won quickly. We stayed to watch Rayan win his game. It looked like Armaan was going to win, but we needed to grab some food, so we had to leave before he was done (update: Armaan eventually won).

Now my Dad and I are playing hotel room football, just relaxing until the next round starts...

Settled in

2009-12-10T22:55:00.000-08:00

We've safely arrived in Dallas. The trip was pretty uneventful. Kesav's family came to pick us up and we traveled to the San Jose Airport together. At the airport, we met up with Armaan, Vignesh, and little Muthu. Here we are waiting for our flight to board:

The flight was a little late leaving San Jose, but we got here quickly. Upon arrival, we grabbed a cab with Armaan and Kesav to the tournament hotel.

The hotel is very nice, with lots of Asian style art. After dropping our stuff in the rooms, we met back in the lobby to search for dinner. While waiting for Kesav to return from his 22nd story perch, we ran into Allan and his father returning from dinner. After a short chat, we parted ways and headed for dinner. We found a sports bar in the hotel where we could eat something and watch the Steelers get embarrassed by the Cleveland Browns. My dad's fantasy football team might be in trouble.

After dinner, we checked out the playing hall and bumped into a couple more Bay Area chess players: Shalin Shah and Jeffrey Tao. Now it is off to bed to get some rest before tomorrow's opening round at 1pm (11am PST). More updates then...

Cam gets a blog

2009-12-09T13:44:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Cam's Chess Blog.

On this blog I'll keep people updated on my latest chess activities.