CalChess Scholastic Championships: A very special 25 year anniversary

By Alan M. Kirshner, Ph.D.

The 2000 CalChess State Scholastics turned out better then I ever dreamed. I had hoped for a very special event to mark the 25th year of this tournament, which happened to coincide with the new millennium (I know it really isn’t). I, especially, wanted the silver anniversary to be extraordinary because I had told everyone that this would be my last year as organizer. After five years under my direction, I felt it was time to pass the ball to some younger organizers. Riley Hughes and Doug Shaker will organize the tournament at the Santa Clara Convention Center on March 3 and 4 of 2001. Both have assisted at the championships for many years now and they have produced their own successful tournaments.

Since taking over the tournament from Ray Orwig of St. Marks School in 1996, I strove to increase the number of players from its high of 350 to 1000. I almost met my goal with 985 registered and 968 on the rooster on April 8, the first day of the two day tournament. I gambled that if I increased the number of division and awards for both individuals and teams, I would excite more children to play and more coaches to bring their clubs. I guess the strategy worked. I had 200 more players then last year.
I awarded 25 place trophies in each of nine sections. I insist on awarding trophies to all players who are tied at place 25, a practice different from any nationals. In the K-12 under 950 Division this meant trophies down to 40th place. In the K-6 under 750 Division, with 273 players, I gave awards down to 81st place. This year, I added grade level trophies. I continued the rating group medals. I increased the school team trophies from five to eight and the non-school clubs from one to two trophies. I added a bughouse tournament on Friday night which Riley Hughes directed. Elliott Temple and Liam MacDermed won the overall bughouse championship out of 34 teams. Trophies were given in each school section and medals for each school grade. The same night, Hans Poschmann supervised 35 blitz players. Chris Pascal took the top of three championship trophies with trophies provided to each school section winner and medals to the top in each grade.

Since this was the 25th anniversary of the tournament the trophies were silver and I special ordered larger sizes then in years past. Budd Setzepfandt worked with me to create a distinctive and attractive logo from an idea provided by Frisco del Rosario. This was rendered beautifully on our commemorative boards, on special medals, on the T-shirts and on the programs and the pins that all the players received.

The unexpected bonus that made this years tournament even more special for me was my son Micah winning the High School Championship and being named the California Chess State representative to the August 7-11 Denker Tournament of State High School Champions to be held in St. Paul, Minnesota.

While a few problems arose—don’t they always—the only major delay came about in the Saturday kindergarten through third grade sessions. Beginning with the first round, when one of our directors had a senior moment and left 17 reporting sheets in a different playing room, and continuing with some computer malfunctions. We found ourselves an hour behind schedule. I take responsibility for some of this delay as I only assigned one computer operator—our best, David Gross. The number of entries in the three divisions demanded at least two computers.

Please forgive me for taking some space to name the tournament directors and all the helpers. They deserve their name in lights, not just print, for making things look easy and me look good. If I forgot someone, I sincerely beg your forgiveness—it was not intentional.

Tournament Directors: Allan Fifield (Chief TD), David Gross, Robert Lee, Steve Seegmiller, Doug Shaker, Hans Poschmann, John McCumiskey, Bonnie Yost, Steve Simler, Sujay Roy, Prakash Narayan, Nick Ayala, Peter Brett, Mike Haun, Riley Hughes, Robert Blatt, Steve Kwan, Dennis Alfaro, Frisco del Rosario, Henry Vinerts, Richard Koepke, Chris Torres, Rob Nicholson, Larry Gibie, Diana Ong, Toby Kahn, May Plata, Rene Plata, Robert Carpenter, Cornelius Caprar

Sales Table: Susan Fisher-Kirshner, Kim Ma, Leila Tseung

Staff: Stephanie Blatt (Supervisor), Phoebe Chen, Kiran & Rita Buch, Lee Chen, Mamta Choksi, BJ Darr, Jenny Fang, Joanne Fang, Peter Hanson, John Hwa, Brian & Isa Iso, Somali Kumar, West Kurihara, Elizabeth Laufer, Patty Setzepfandt, Lydia Lee Elizabeth Karnazes, Athena, Jang, Joann Lin, Linda Loitz, Yizhi Lu, Ken Ma, May Miura,Tomoe Naoi, Lakshmi Palaniappan, Thamarai Ratnam, Ming Ho Rou, Lee Tay, Lilly Ting, Sunita Verma, Cyril Wang, Susan Luh, Fung-Mei Yang.
Thank you Jay Blem from National Chess for your book and equipment store, Robert Snyder of Chess for Juniors for analyzing players games, Gary Kidgell for displaying your beautiful chess sets, Richard Shorman for your excellent photographs and Chess Mentor for providing your learning program to all our winners.

And now some of the results:

High School Championship (K-12 Open)
1st Micah Fisher-Kirshner (1931) 6-0
2nd Eliott Temple (2035) 5-0
Christopher Pascal (1846) 5-0
Joe Lonsdale (1534) 5-0
Michael Kai Lum (1560) 5-0
David Petty (1540) 5-0
Teams: Mission San Jose (Fremont) 19, Berkeley High School 15, Bellamine Prep (San Jose) 14
Clubs: Berkeley Chess Club 16, Chess for Juniors 11.5

As I wrote earlier, Micah’s victory in the fifth round was a surprise, upsetting Jordy Mont-Reynaud. He defeated Elliott Temple in round six for the title. Granted, he has had an non-posted rating as high as 2086, but Jordy Mont-Reynaud (2340) came into the tournament rated 300 points higher. Without Vinay Bhat (2475), who played at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco to obtain (and I can happily report, got) his FIDE International Master norms, Jordy appeared a run away winner. Vinay defeated Jordy in the last round of the two previous championships, preventing Jordy from representing CalChess at the Denker Tournament of High School Champions, one of America’s most prestigious tournaments. This should have been Jordy’s year. While I was ecstatic for Micah (Micah’s commentary on the game follows this article), I felt very bad for Jordy. Jordy dropped out of the tournament. Earlier, another top contender, Eduard Shamilov (1915), after losing round two to Monty Peckham(1503) called it quits. He might have had a bit more success if he had remained in his Junior High School Division.

When I gave the school team award to Mission San Jose High School, I broke down in tears. I have known those boys since they were in first grade. They were the Blue Knights, a chess group funded by the Fremont Police Department. Richard Shorman taught them and they all were on the Top 50 list and Open State Champions at one time. They won the Junior High School National Championship when they were at Hopkins in 1996. Except for Micah, they had played very little chess since junior high school. They came back together for one last title before they head off to different colleges: Micah Fisher-Kirshner (Primary School Champion, 1989, Elementary School Co-Champion, 1992 & 1994) is heading for the Elliott School of International Relations at George Washington University. Joe Lonsdale (Elementary School Co-Champion, 1993 and 1994) is off to Stanford. Kevin Simler (Primary School Champion, 1991) will study Engineering at Berkeley. Eric Lin (Junior High School Champion, 1996), recently returned from a couple of years in Singapore, is on to CalTech for the Engineering program in the fall. I wish them all the best and hope they will continue to play some chess in future years.

High School Junior Varsity (K-12 Under 950)
1st Christopher Miller (unrated) 5.5
Bhairav Singh (unrated) 5.5
3rd Phil Jouriles (908) 5-1
Kaitlin Kirk (926) 5-1
Mather Fisher (859) 5-0
Teams: Biggs (near Chico) 15, Gunderson (San Jose) 14.5, Balboa (San Francisco) 13.5
Clubs: Paladin Knightmares (Santa Cruz) 17.5, Berkeley Chess School 16

This was a new division this year and had 62 entries. The unrated’s had a field day with two of them receiving the title of Co-Champions. Biggs, from Northern California, brought down about 30 competitors and did well in a number of divisions including the team championship here. The Paladin Knightmares were one of the few clubs to out point the Berkeley Chess School in any of the sections.

Junior High School Championship Division (K-8 Open)
1st Alen Melikadamyan(1814) 5.5
2nd Lev Pisarsky (1534) 5-1
Adam Lischinsky (1810) 5-1
Keith Yost (1750) 5-1
Michael Pearson (1752) 5-1
Teams: Bartlett Middle School (Porterville) 14, Hopkins (Fremont) 12.5, St. Marks School (San Rafael) 11.5
Clubs: Berkeley Chess School 15.5, Chess For Juniors 11.5, Mechanics Institute 11.5

In round 7, Alen Melikadamyan of Chess for Juniors drew Matthew Ho (1920) to take first. Matthew had three draws in a row. With his reputation and rating I cannot help but wonder if his opponents played for the draws. By the way, since Alen comes from Southern California, a separate state according to the United States Chess Federation, he cannot claim the title of CalChess Champion. Therefore, Lev Pisarasky, Adam Lischinsky, Keith Yost and Michael Pearson are Co-Champions.
The last time Bartlett Middle School won the title was back in 1991. Hans Borm, their coach, has supported this tournament for many years and always brings up competitive teams. I was glad to see them walk away with the big trophy.

Junior High School Junior Varsity Division (K-8 Under 850)
1st Major Castleberry(837) 6-0
2nd Ryan Dooley (775) 5-1
Michael Fischer (792) 5-1
Philip Choi (unrated) 5-1
Justin Kreibich(831) 5-1
Brian Lau (785) 5-1
Billy Klotz (808) 5-1
Teams: St. Marks School (San Rafael) 17.5, Sunnyvale Middle 17, Emeryville Middle 14
Clubs: Berkeley Chess School 15.5, Paladin Knightmares (Santa Cruz) 13.5

I need to add one historic note to the team championship. This was St. Marks 20th year of competition and their 20th championship. At their first competition they also edged out Sunnyvale Middle School for the title.

Elementary School Championship Division (K-6 Open)
1st Drake Wang (1605) 6-0
2nd Daniel Schwarz (1429) 5-1
Vanessa West (1512) 5-1
Aaron Wilkowski (1048) 5-1
Daichi Siegrist (1307) 5-1
Ewelina Krubnik (1226) 5-1
Ricky Yu (1205) 5-1
Sharon Tseung (1056) 5-1
Teams: Weibel (Fremont) 18, Biggs 15, Mission San Jose (Fremont) 12, Forest Park 12
Clubs: Mechanics Institute (San Francisco) 19.5, Berkeley Chess School 19.5

In this division of 110 players, the favorite did win. Drake might have been challenged by Alexander Setzepfandt (1608), a fourth grader who decided to play up in the High School Division to obtain better games. He placed 36th, a respectable showing.

Elementary School Junior Varsity Division (K-6 Under 750)
1st Kristof Horompoly (unrated) 6-0
Jonathan Jew (715) 6-0
Carl Yang (652) 6-0
Teams: Mission San Jose (Fremont) 21, Forest Park (Fremont) 20.5, St. Marks School (San Rafael) 18.5
Clubs: Berkeley Chess School 17, Wisdom Chess 11.5

This division began with 275 players. Someone told me that we could have as many as eight champions after six rounds. Luckily, we only had three. If a seventh round had been played we might have reduced the winners to one or two. But, all are deserving of the title. Mission San Jose edged out their neighbor Forest Park for the state title.

Primary School Championship Division (K-3 Open)
1st Andres Fuentes-Afflick (1020) 5-0
Tyrone Plata (967) 5-0
3rd Melinda West (1075) 4-1
Corey Chang (900) 4-1
Hans Tsai (952) 4-1
Joshua Shaham (1089) 4-1
Alvin Cheng (871) 4-1
Brent Yamada (1018) 4-1
Tatsuro Yamamura (782) 4-1
Tau Jeng (862) 4-1
Keith Moffat (799) 4-1
Teams: Weibel (Fremont) 14, St. Marks School (San Rafael) 11.5, Mission San Jose (Fremont) 10
Clubs: Wisdom Chess (Fremont) 16, Berkeley Chess School 15.5

Our co-champions in this division of 68 players could be twins--no, not in looks, but in their warm, pleasant and mellow personalities. I have seen them play with the continued support of their parents for the last three years. I am sure there will be many more years that they will share numerous victories and a few defeats.

Weibel had a clear victory in this year’s Primary Championship Division, bringing their total wins in this section to five—one more then Mission San Jose. When Elizabeth Shaughnessy, came to obtain one of her few second place trophies for the Berkeley Chess School, she wanted to know who beat her club. I reminded her that the winner, Wisdom Chess, is a new club and an offspring of the Weibel program in Fremont. Their players helped Weibel defeat the Berkeley Bishops in this year’s dual match.

Primary School Junior Varsity Division (K-3 Under 600)
1st Sally Freeman (514) 5-0
Daniel Wong (unrated) 5-0
Jaren Feeley (unrated) 5-0
Zhou Wu (unrated) 5-0
Teams: Weibel (Fremont) 16, Argonaut (Saratoga), Blossom Hill (Los Gatos)
Clubs: Berkeley Chess School 17, Windsor Chess 9.5

One Hundred and seventy four players contested this division. We obviously could have used a sixth and seventh round to reduce the number of champions. However, why not spread the glory around.

Kindergarten Division
1st Donald Livingston (847) 5-0
2nd Kevin Hsu (960) 4-0
Marie Huff (202) 4-0
Richard Livingston (794) 4-0
Alan Hwang (627) 4-0

Forty children entered this section with some as young as four years old. Wow! A few can even play good chess. They all seemed to have a great time and we seldom saw two Kings alone on the board fighting to checkmate. Everyone in this division received a trophy. We do not have Kindergarten teams or clubs—I hope the reason is obvious.

If you want to see a more complete list of the results and a few photographs, go to http://CalChess.webjump.com/Results00.html.

Finally, I want to thank everyone for their overwhelming support over the last five years. I may have organized the tournament, but you made the CalChess State Scholastic Championships great. This 25th Anniversary Special will remain a positive memory for the remainder of my life. No, I will not leave scholastic chess. I will continue on as the CalChess Scholastic Chair, maintain the websites and provide a few small tournaments during the year. Keep the chess passions burning.