CHESS HAPPENINGS IN THE BAY AREA
GREETINGS TO EVERYONE -- parents, students, friends and chess lovers! Hope all is well. Here are some news and updates regarding my students and upcoming chess events in the Bay Area.
I. UPDATES
A. YOUNGEST FIDE MASTER IN THE WORLD!
One of my students was awarded a FIDE Master Title! http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=2035863 For some of you who don't know what FIDE is -- it is the World Chess Federation that sanctions International Master and Grand Master Titles. My student, Tanuj Vasudeva was awarded such title for winning in a spectacular fashion (9.0/9.0) the PAN-AMERICAN Youth Championship in Mar Del Plata, Argentina a month ago. As an official representative of United States, he won the GOLD MEDAL! Here is a newspaper article that also came out about him. http://tricityvoice.com/displayPages.php?issue=2009-09-02&page=20
Presently, he is the youngest FIDE MASTER in the world at age 8! We're still confirming if he broke the record as the youngest ever. The record was held by Etienne Bacrot (a French Grandmaster) at age 10. http://fun.chessdom.com/chess-records Bobby Fischer was awarded an FM title when he was 13 yrs. old. Tanuj got it at 8 years, 2 months and 3 days!
B. BRONZE MEDAL IN MEXICO
Another student of mine, Rayan Taghizadeh played in the North American Youth Chess Championship in Mazatlan, Mexico. He was the youngest kid in the entire tournament at age 7 and 2 months. He won the BRONZE MEDAL. Interestingly, he beat the top kid from Mexico who got the Silver Medal in the Pan-Am Tournament in Argentina.
http://main.uschess.org/content/view/9760/556 .
C. WORLD YOUTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP IN TURKEY
I am very excited to announce that 2 of my students will be representing United States to play for the World Youth Chess Championship which will be held in Turkey from November 11-23, 2009. Tanuj will be playing in the Under-8 Division and has a really good chance of being in the top 3! Alisha Chawla who will play in the Under-8 Division for Girls will be her second year to represent the country in such prestigious event. She's looking forward to have a better performance this year and possibly be in the top 10 among the top girls in her age in the world.
http://www.chess.com/news/fremont-girl-is-a-chess-star-at-age-7
http://main.uschess.org/content/view/9834/562/
D. USCF ALL-AMERICA TEAM
Tanuj Vasudeva also made it in the All-American Team 2010 which is also a select group of top kids in the country that are picked based on their peak rating.
http://main.uschess.org/content/view/9789/319/
A very interesting article written by Michael Aigner in his blog points out that 8 kids were selected from Northern California edging NY & Texas scholastic kids. http://fpawn.blogspot.com/
II. TOP KIDS IN THE COUNTRY
UNITED STATES CHESS FEDERATION (USCF) just recently came out with the TOP PLAYER LISTS NATIONWIDE for October and November. As in my previous notes, I have consistently coached and guided these kids over the years in becoming one of the top players in the country. As their coach, I am so thrilled and proud to see their names again in this list. Some of these kids are my private students or students from a private group class. Some of them are honorary members.
Congratulations and good luck to all of them!
AGE 7 and UNDER
#5 RAYAN T. 7 - 1476
#19 LEYTON H. 7 - 1272
#54 ARUN K. 6 - 1007
AGE 8
# 3 TANUJ V. - 1920
#12 JEFFREY T. - 1564
#30 JOHN C. - 1357
#45 RAHUL S. - 1274
#93 ALISHA C. - 1103
#95 ANIRUDH S. - 1098
AGE 9
# 16 VIGNESH P. 1680
# 47 PRANAV N. 1447
# 99 KEVIN M. 1272
AGE 10
# 66 JUSTIN W. 1504
# 99 RAHUL M. 1412
AGE 11
#75 DANIEL H. 1600
AGE 13
# 85 AAMIR A. 1727
AGE 14
# 73 ADITYA K. 1809
III. UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS
For list of tournaments, please check NORCALCHESS.COM or CALNORTHYOUTHCHESS.ORG or BAYAREACHESS.COM or CHESSTHINGS.COM. Please email me if you have any questions as to which tournament do i recommend for your kid(s). I usually suggest different tournaments for each kid depending on my assessment of his/her goals. The biggest one coming up though is the GRADE-LEVEL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP which will be held on Nov. 21 & 22 in Stockton and the NATIONALS (GRADE-LEVEL) on Dec. 11-13 in Dallas, Texas. http://www.uschess.org/tournaments/2009/k12/ .
IV. NEWARK CHESS CLUB
Our Newark Chess Club is open every Friday from 7:00-10:00 pm. Mostly casual games but we also offer rated games from time to time. Our chess club has produced several local, state and National Champions. Soon, international and world champions!
Address: 6300 Civic Terrace Avenue, Newark, CA 94560.
http://daviddonaldson.com/Newark.html
V. CHESS LESSONS AND WEEKEND CAMPS
A. PRIVATE LESSONS
For those of you who are already have a regular schedule with me, hold on to that because at the moment, my schedule is already filled up. If you have to go on a vacation or need to cancel that day, please let me know ahead of time so i can make other arrangements. I appreaciate this (thanks).
I only have a couple of slots left available. For those who live far away, i am now offering chess lessons online.
MONDAYS - online class (late Monday night)
TUESDAYS -- online class (late Tuesday night)
WEDNESDAYS -- online class (late Wed night -- 8:45 pm)
If kids are on vacation and have no school, i am also available in the mornings. Some of you have taken advantage of this. Just please feel free to email me at ted0712@yahoo.com.
B. PRIVATE GROUP CLASS
I am organizing a group class starting next week. This will be divided into 3 groups.
1st Group -- kids rated 500-900
Fridays from 6:10-7:25
2nd Group -- girls rated 150-500
3rd Group --- girls rated 501-900
Thursdays from 5:45-7:15 pm
I already have some parents who signed up their kids for the Girls group class. There will be limited seats so please email me for more information. The tentative schedule is Tuesday 4:15-5:45 or Thursday 5:45-7:15 pm. Please send me an email if you're interested because seats are limited.
C. WEEKEND CAMPS
Last October 3-4 we had fun-filled weekend chess camp with GRANDMASTER VARUZHAN AKOBIAN! The kids who participated had so much fun while learning a lot from this world-class Grand Master. The kids also participated in a simultaneous exhibition. Tentatively we will have another chess camp on Dec. 5 & 6 with GM AKOBIAN when he comes back from the World Cycle Cup (qualifying for the World Chess Championship) in Russia. This will be in preparation for kids who will play in the Nationals in Texas a week later.
We will also conduct several chess clinics in December. These clinics will be divided into several groups: 600-900 (Intermediate), 1000-1200, 1201-1600 and 1601-1950. I might conduct the clinic together with several International Masters and Grandmasters. Please email me for more information.
V. FUTURE EVENTS
There will be several events that i will be organizing in the next few months: CHESS TOURNAMENTS AT THE MALL, CHESS CLASSES IN SCHOOLS, SIMULTANEOUS EXHIBITIONS in SCHOOLS against TOP KIDS and many more. Watch out also for my website which i'm hoping to set up by next month.
That's all folks! Happy Checkmates!
Best Regards,
TED CASTRO
Professional Chess Coach
415-756-1204
castro.ted@gmail.com
