National Champions!!!

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

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!

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

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

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

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

 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

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

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)

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

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.