PRESS RELEASE

A couple of months ago you did a nice blurb on the Weibel Elementary School Chess Team winning the Fremont City Championships. This has been an amazing Spring for our team. This past weekend (May 6 through 9) 16 members of our team travelled to Atlanta, Georgia for the most prestigious scholastic event in the United States, the U.S. Chess Federation's Elementary School National Championships. Over 2000 Kindergarten through sixth grade students competed in this annual Spring event. Our Teams competed in three of the four championship divisions--the Primary School Grades 2 and 3, the Elementary School Grades 4 and 5 and the Elementary School 4 through 6. We did not fair well in the Elementary School Grades 4 and 5 placing 17th out of 42 teams. However, Mission San Jose Elementary School, last year's Elementary School Grades 4 through 6 champions, placed third. Mission San Jose also did well in the Primary School Kindergarten and First Grade Championships, placing second. In the Elementary School Grades 4 through 6 Championships, Weibel placed third after battling through the seventh round for first place. Round seven was crucial for our Primary School Team as we entered in second place. We finished tied with Hunter College Elementary School of New York for first place. Thus, Weibel Elementary School became the only Northern California team to obtain the title of National Primary School Champion and only the second team in the near forty years of this event to win a national title in this competition. Mission San Jose Elementary School took home the 4 through 6 grade title last year. For most of the tournaments existence, teams from the East Coast and more specifically New York have won the National titles. Now New York knows the strength of scholastic chess in a city named Fremont in California.

Another first occurred in Atlanta--our championship team won the victory with girls. Well, we did have one top boy. However, the other three players on our primary school team were girls. Even our back-up team member was female. The one young man on our team, Michael Wang, won our state Primary School individual title this year. Our girls are also quite impressive and successful. Joanna Liu, a second grade student, went undefeated in seven games in the eight year old and under section of this year's Giirls Nationals to be award the Championship title. Joanna was invited to attend the World Youth Chess Championships to be held in Greece in November. Alisha Chawla, a third grade student, although eligible for the eight and under group at the Girls Nationals, decided to play in the ten and under section as she had placed second last year in the younger group. She finished in seventh place. Alisha has twice represented the United States in the World Youth Chess Championships. In 2008 she went to Vietnam and in 2009 she competed in Turkey placing 7th out of 82 players. Our third girl in Atlanta we deemed our heroine as she has been a raising star for the last two months--Serafina Show, a second grade student. If it had not been for her success against much higher ranked players we would not have obtained the title. We all feel that next year Serafina will be among our elite young women that the U.S. Chess Federation will invite to attend the 2011 World Youth Chess Championships. I have said it before and in Atlanta it proved true--in Weibel Chess, girls rule!

Alan M. Kirshner, Ph.D.
Director
Weibel Chess Team
(510) 659-0358
Professor of History, Ohlone College
(510) 659-6242
http://www.WeibelChess.org