CalChess State Scholastic Championships, March 27-28, 1998
By Alan M. Kirshner
What if you threw a chess tournament and too many players showed? This is every organizers dream and nightmare. This is what occurred on the weekend of March 28 and 29 for the California Chess State Scholastic Championships held at the Santa Clara Convention Center. As the organizer I had planned on 600 players. I figured that would be the growth from the 554 players that participated the year before.
As the entries started arriving, comparisons with previous years at the same time indicated we would break 700 and could reach 800. I rationalized that my team discount and early entry deadlines explained the apparent unexplained the disproportionate numbers. But, I panicked anyway—that is my nature. I had only booked enough space for 600 players. What would I do with the remainder? I could place Jay Blem and his National Chess sales out in a hallway again as I did last year. Yet, that would make room for only 50 more players. Besides I had promised Jay a secure room this year.
I called the Convention Center Staff. They eased my apprehension by informing me that they had a few small rooms not booked on the other side of the Convention Center. I first acted conservatively and book one room for about 75 players, just in case my rationalization about the early entry fee for teams proved correct. The entries kept pouring in and I decided to book two more rooms to handle an overflow of 200 players. I am glad I did. Pre-registration hit over 730 juniors and 709 players showed for the competition. A few players arrived from Texas, Idaho and the Southern California state. Our tournament has always been open to any scholastic player, but only players and teams from Northern California can claim the championship titles.
I sent the High School players and a small group of Junior High School players to the other rooms. By having the older participants on the other side of the Convention Center, I reduced the danger and annoyance of younger children becoming lost or using the escalators and elevators on that side of the building as toys.
Oh, they found enough "toys" to cause my already elevated blood pressure to jump. I had obtained extra help to guard the escalators in the main tournament area. However, a few times, the kids still were able to pull the switches and stop them from working. This turned out to be the least of my problems. Security informed us that children had been making false 911 calls from one of the Convention Center telephone banks. I immediately posted volunteers at that site. Despite my efforts and announcements to remove anyone caught playing with the telephones, the calls continued from other telephone banks in the Convention Center—20 during the weekend. This problem alone might prevent us from using this excellent site in forthcoming years. The Center staff was also unhappy about people bring food into the site. They had, however, promised to set up a food vendor at our area. They did not. They provided one on the opposite side of the Center for another convention. The prices they charged were, to be polite, outrageous.
On Sunday, an event occurred that had me vowing never to run another scholastic tournament. Security informed me that four teens had entered a closed convention site. They had used the large electric flat beds in the room as bumper cars. When security entered they jumped off the cars, let them hit the walls, and scooted out the back doors. One wall was a mess and I figured we would be billed a few thousand dollars for repairs. A couple of parents saw two of the boys who darted out of the room and followed them to the hotel. When security interrogated the boys they learned that they were not with our group. They had drifted over from Great America. Phew! I still fail to understand why security let them leave without taking their names and addresses. In any case, our chess players were vindicated and I intend to continue running the State Championships—if I can find a location large enough and willing to tolerate the youthful exuberance. I will, of course, be better prepared next year to prevent the problems I encountered this year.
Now on to the rest of the story—the tournament: As a warm-up, we held an eight round blitz tournament on Friday night. Only 48 players entered. The competition was still fierce. Anthony Rozenvasser (2070 ) took first with Micah Fisher-Kirshner (2045) tying with Adam Lischinsky (1787), Keith Yost (1730), Andrew Ianaccone (1420) and Julius Mercado (unr.) for second. We provided three trophies for the first three places and one for each grade level.
We hold the three primary school divisions on Saturday only with five rounds of game in thirty. As with all the sections, we award a minimum of fifteen trophies (we gave trophies after 15th place if individuals had the same score as the 15th place winner. We also awarded rating group medals. Five trophies were presented to the top teams and one to the best United States Chess Federation Club in all but the Kindergarten Section.
Twenty-six four and five year olds had fun trying to win the Kindergarten Section. Jasmine DiLucci from Texas tied for second with Eli Baldwin and Jesse Alexander (4-1). Cory Plante had a perfect 5-0 to take home the first place trophy. We did make sure that all the kindergarten players received awards.
In the Primary School Junior Varsity Section (K-3 Under 650), 107 children competed. We had a tie for first: Sharon Tseung (644), Byron Becker (618) and Kevin Walters (610). All had perfect 5-0. Weibel Elementary School of Fremont won its first of three team championships in this division. The Berkeley Chess School took home the club trophy.
In the Primary School Championship Section we had 40 players. Daniel Schwarz (1050), not losing a game, won first. A five-way tie ensued for second place with 4-1 scores: Gabe Gordon (1057), Drak Wang (1054), Richard Rico (907), Edward Schloss (1168) and Mihir Pendse (987). While St. Paul the Apostle of Los Angeles won the first place team trophy, Forest Park Elementary School of Fremont, in second place, becomes the CalChess Team Champion for this section. Chess For Juniors from Huntington Beach won the best Club award.
Competitors in all the other divisions had to play six games, three Saturday and three Sunday. The Elementary School Division played game in 60 and the Junior High School and High School Divisions had a time control of game in 75.
The Elementary School Junior Varsity Section (K-6 Under 800) was one of the larger divisions with 163 players. Christopher Vuong (unr.) tied with Wesley Kwang (775) to be declared co-champions in this division each winning all their games. Noah Youngs an unrated player received 5.5 points to take third place. Heber Elementary School from Heber, near the Mexican Border, came ready to challenge the northern teams. Tony Lambert, who used to Coach Ruus Elementary School in Hayward, had moved there and prepared his children as he always did with Ruus. They received 18 points for first followed by St. Marks School of Marin and Weibel Elementary School of Fremont with 17.5. The latter two schools are the 1998 CalChess Elementary School Championship Teams. The Berkeley Chess School won the top Club Team award.
Seventy-six players contest for the championship of the Elementary School Open Section (K-6). Keith Yost (1730) from Fresno, which is part of CalChess, was the winner with a perfect 6-0. A six way tie ensued for second place: Hlynur Haflidason (1447), Michael Pearson (1125), Alen Melikadamyan (1603), Wesley Chen (1146), Ankit Gupta (1102) and Harout Keshishian (1152). The All-American Association from Los Angeles, an Armenian Chess Club, won the Club Team award with 17 points and Weibel Elementary School became the CalChess School Champion with 16.5 points.
Next year we will need to divide the Junior High School Division into two sections as 183 players competed in this section. Four individuals tied for first place with 5.5 points. Minas Nordanyan (1723) is from Los Angeles and so we only had three champions: Elliot Temple (1660), Robert Chan (1461) and Michael Kai Lum (1438). Piedmont Middle School defeated three-time champion Hopkins Junior High School, from Fremont, for the school championship. The Fremont Chess Club won the Club award with an amazing 21 points.
Carolyn Withgitt and Hans Poschmann continue to return to smoothly direct the High School Division that this year saw 116 players contend for the championship title and a chance to go to Hawaii for the Denker Tournament of High School Champions. Vinay Bhat (2339), in 8th grade, defeated Jordy Mont-Reynaud (2256) in the last round to win the tournament, the title and the trip to Hawaii as he will be officially in High School in August when the tournament occurs. The College Preparatory School of Oakland received 18.5 points to win its first High School Championship. Chess For Juniors from Huntington Beach took the top Club trophy with 16.5 points.
You can see the complete results of the tournament on the Internet at http://www.hooked.net/~hegemon/Results.html. If you are interested in learning the new ratings of the players, the United States Chess Federation’s Internet site provides a rapid rating search engine: http://www.uschess.org.
I would like to thank all our tournament staff headed by Allan
Fifield from Visalia. My thanks also to the Weibel Elementary School parents and
other parents who offered their services to make this year’s event not only the largest
ever, but one of the most efficient and enjoyable. I wish I had the space to thank
you all by name. Of course, if I avoid trying to name everyone, I avoid the risk
of forgetting someone. I do need to give special kudos to Pheobe Chen who handled
publicity. A number of radio stations provided information about the tournament and
my comments about children in chess. I could be heard on KCBS news all day Saturday.
KPIX-TV, our CBS affiliate, filmed the event and ran two segments on their news.
Thanks to the players, the coaches and the parents for a job well done. I hope to
see you all next year wherever I can hold the CalChess State Scholastic Championships.