Coach Joe’s Report on the 2019 Calchess Spring States

The 2019 Northern California Scholastic Chess Championships were held the weekend of March 9th & 10th at the Santa Clara convention center.  Over 1200 students and more the 50 schools competed in these championships.  Mission San Jose Elementary school (MSJE) of Fremont was the big winner in the Elementary School Division.  The MSJE team won two major elementary school sections (K-3 & K-6) and Allyson Wong won the overall individual elementary school championship.

The 2019 Calchess Elementary Chess Champions from MSJE

The top elementary school section at these championships is the K-6 Championship Division.  Allyson scored five wins in six rounds and took the first-place trophy.  Other members of the MSJE team were Lucas Jiang (4.5/6)  (Lucas and Aditya Arutla (3.5/6) are second graders that “played up” in K-6 to help the K-6 team as we correctly felt we could win K-3 without him)   Aghilan Nachiappan  (4/6), Jolene Liu (3.5/6) Aditya Sujay.  This was the ninth straight year that MSJE has taken home the first place trophy in K-6.

K-3 Calchess Championship Chess Team from MSJE

The K-3 Championship section is often called the primary school championship.  MSJE finished in first place in this section every year since 2008.  In 2019 MSJE once again finished in first place in K-3 Championship.  Our K-3 team was led by Jason Liu and Swagatha Selvan, who each scored 4.5/6.  Artham Pawar (3.5/6) and Allen Yang (2.5/6) were also top 4 scorers. Arnam Pawar, Thomas Zhang, and Dev Bhatt also competed for our K-3 championship team.

MSJE also did very well in the other sections. Ashwin Jegan, Chet Jayakrishnan, Zahaan Kassamali, Isha Vanungare, Sarvesh Maniv, and Helen Hong competed in K-3 Junior varsity (under 800 rating) and took home the first place team trophy.  Prisha Agarwal, Shreeya Hule, Jai Panicker, Ranga Ramanujam, Pranav Rajit, Atharv Jha, Shashwa Manjunath, Edward Zeng, Aashi Gupta, Keerthana Gudi, Shriya Thirumalai, Sunay Rao, Aditya Vanungare, Samuel Montesinos, Nathan Jacob, and Cedric Liu competed for MSJE in the K-3 beginner (under 500 rating) section and took home the first place trophy.

Pranavi Pramod, Saambhavi Karthik, and Nick Jiang competed for MSJE in the kindergarten section. Sanskriti Pandey, Edmund Saroufim, and Kevin Pham competed for MSJE in the K-6 rookie section.  Adarsh Swamy, Ashwin Marimuthu, Pratyush Hule, Arnav Gupta, and Dhritee Desai, competed in the K-6 Junior varsity section.

Congratulations to the Chess team for a great showing at the State championships.

MSJE Chess Coaches: Joe Lonsdale, Terry & Cathy Liu, Nachi Aghilan, Chris Torres

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Remembering Eric Schiller (1955-2018)

 

In 2018 I lost a good friend and excellent coach, Eric Schiller. Eric was a true gentleman and scholar who during his journey through life acquired a PhD in Linguistics and FIDE Master title in chess. Most will probably remember Eric as the most prolific chess author in history (he wrote over 100 chess books) or for being the arbiter for the 2000 FIDE World Chess Championships. I will always remember Eric for the way he inspired scores of  chess students at our chess camps and classes.

Some of Eric Schiller’s books on display at a chess camp.

 

Below is a game between Eric Schiller and Emory Tate (another friend who has since passed.) Eric and Emory showed this game to a packed house in our Fremont Chess Camp at MSJE. All notes are Eric’s. Enjoy…

 

[Event "US Masters"]
[Site "Chicago"]
[Date "1997.??.??"]
[Round "1"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Emory Tate"]
[Black "Eric Schiller"]
[ECO "C41"]


1.e4 e5 
2.Nf3 d6 
3.d4 exd4 
4.Qxd4 a6


Position after 4… a6


5.Bg5 Nf6 
6.Nc3 Be7 
7.O-O-O Nc6 
8.Qd2 Be6 
9.Kb1 O-O

Position after 9… 0-0


10.Qe1 Nd7
11.h4 Bf6 
12.Be2 Re8 
13.Nd2 {! ?} 
13... b5 { 13...Bxg5 14.hxg5 Qxg5 15.g3 scared me a bit. }

Position after 13… b5


14.f4 b4 
15.Na4 Nd4 {!} 
16.g4 c5


Position after 16… c5


17.b3 { 17.Rh2 Nxe2 18.Qxe2 h6 19.Rdh1 ! ? } 
17... Bd5 
18.Qf1 Bc6 {18...Rxe4 19.Nxe4 Bxe4 Black is clearly better. }

Position after 18… Bc6


19.Nc4 {? Way too ambitious.} 
19... Bxe4 
20.Bd3 Bxh1 
21.Qxh1 Nb5 
22.Bf5 Nf8
23.Ncb6 h6 {? ! 23...Ra7 24.Nd5 Bxg5 25.hxg5 Nd4 }

Position after 23… h6


24.Nxa8 Na3+ 
25.Kc1 hxg5 
26.N8b6 {? ! 26.fxg5 ! Be5 27.N8b6 Bf4+ 28.Kb2 g6 29.Bd3 Be5+ } 
26... gxf4 {!}

Position after 26… gxf4

 
27.Nd5 Bd4 
28.Bd3 f3 
29.g5 {29.Qxf3 Qxh4 } 
29... f2

Position after 29… f2


30.Qf1 Re5 
31.Nf4 {? 31.c3 was needed. }
31... Be3+


Position after 31… Be3+

 
32.Kb2 Bxf4 
33.Qxf2 Be3 
34.Qf3 Qe7 
35.Nb6 Rxg5

Position after 35… Rxg5


36.c3 Re5
37.Nc8 Qxh4 
38.Rc1 bxc3+ {? 38...Bxc1+ 39.Ka1 Bb2+ ! 40.Kxb2
bxc3+ 41.Kxc3 Qd4+ 42.Kd2 Qb4+ 43.Kc1 Qc3+ 44.Kd1 Qe1# }

Position after 38… bxc3+


39.Ka1 Bf4 
40.Bb1 {White resigned.} 0-1

Chris Torres’ Chess Résumé

Chris Torres teaching chess (summer 2017)

 

Chris Torres (209) 323-0197 chesslessons@aol.com · chessmusings.wordpress.com

Chris Torres is a nationally renowned scholastic chess coach working in the San Francisco Bay Area. His classes have attracted players of strengths ranging from rank beginners to world champions. A chess professional since 1998, Chris is widely recognized as one of the main driving forces behind the explosion in popularity and sudden rise in quality of scholastic chess in California.

Experience

1998 – 2000 Chess Coach, Weibel Elementary School During his first year as a chess coach, Chris Torres helped Weibel to win the state championship and also coached his first state champion student.

2000 – 2005 Director of Instruction/Vice President, Success Chess Schools At Success Chess, Chris Torres designed curriculum for all levels of chess players, trained over 50 instructors, established programs at 60 Bay Area schools. Chris established a strong coaching reputation by training several individual state champions each year.

2005 – Present President, Torres Chess and Music Academy Through the Torres Chess and Music Academy, Chris Torres has brought world class instruction to California’s most talented young chess minds. Some of his accomplishments included running a “Chess Study” with the Kern County Superintendent of the Schools and U.C. Berkeley from 2006-2008. In addition to the study, Chris was able to educate the children in Kern County’s migrant farm worker community in chess and even coach them to prestigious Southern California regional chess titles. In the Bay Area, Chris was able to instruct several individual National Chess Champions as well as coach for the Mission San Jose Elementary School chess team, which in 2009, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018 took first place at the USCF National Elementary Chess Championship. Before 2009, no school from California had ever won the Elementary Championship section at the USCF Nationals.  In 2015 and 2016, the Torres Chess and Music Academy organized the Susan Polgar Foundation’s National Open for Girls and Boys which awarded over $100,000 in scholarships and prizes to the top youth chess players in the United States. In 2016, the Torres Chess and Music Academy accomplishments were officially recognized by FIDE (the world chess organization) and the TCAMA was awarded the title of FIDE Academy.

Chess Titles

2015 Correspondence Chess Master, United States Chess Federation

2015 Arena International Master, FIDE

Skills

·         Event Planning ·         Individualized Curriculum Development ·         Program Management

·         Tournament Game Analysis ·         Tournament Selection and Preparation ·         Using Chess as a Confidence Building Tool

Fremont Summer Chess Camp 2016: Day 17

Day 2 of Susan Polgar Week 

Fremont Summer Chess Camp 2016: Day 16

Day 1 of Susan Polgar Week 

Emory Tate’s Magnificent Mate in 4

Below is the conclusion to a chess game from International Master Emory Tate’s simultaneous exhibition at the Fremont Summer Chess Camp played on 7/21/2015. For the previous moves, please refer to “Mate in 4 Challenge from Emory Tate’s Simultaneous Exhibition at MSJE.”

 

White to move: mate in 4

Rxc7+ !

Kxc7

Rc5+ !

Kb7

Qd5+ !!

Rxd5

Rc7#

Fremont Summer Chess Camp 2015: Day 11

Below are some of our favorite moments from day 11 of the Fremont Summer Chess Camp. Click here to sign up for the remainder of our summer chess camp.

  

Calchess Super States 2015

The Calchess Super States(Calchess Scholastic State Championships) is occurring this weekend at the Santa Clara Convention Center. For most, it will be an occasion for games to be won, rivalries to be rekindled and large trophies to be distributed. For myself, weekends like these are all about celebrating chess and teaching hundreds of young bright minds. 

Below are some of my favorite teaching moments from day one:

 

Michael (fpawn) Aigner analyzing a chess game with Rishith Susarla.

 

MSJE Head Coach Joe Lonsdale thoroughly entertaining his students and their parents.

TCAMA Director of Instruction James Paquette doing what he does best. Teaching!

And then there was me helping out where I could.

   

Fremont Summer Chess Camp 2015

Sign up today for the Fremont Summer Chess Camp 2015 http://www.chessandmusic.com/onlineregistration/

Fremont Summer Chess Camp: Week 4

Below are photographs of my favorite moments from week four of the Fremont Summer Chess Camp. I wish to thank all of our students, coaches, Steve and Kate’s Camps,  the Wild Cat Education and Conservation Fund and Grandmaster Susan Polgar. It takes a lot of great people to make the Fremont Summer Chess Camp as successful as it is and without these great groups and individuals many kids from Northern California would have missed out on an experience of a lifetime.

 

Thanks to Coach Tans for doing a great job teaching our youngest campers.

 

 

For four straight years, Coach Francisco has been teaching our campers confidence through attacking chess.

 

 

International Master Emory Tate managed to greatly improve the chess skills of every child in the advanced group.

 

 

Coach James proved daily why he is the Director of Instruction for the Torres Chess and Music Academy.

 

 

James Pacquette also managed the technological aspects of our Esteemed Guest Series.

 

 

MSJE Head Coach Joe Lonsdale was always available to help kids review their USCF rated chess games.

 

 

The Wild Cat Education and Conservation Fund put on a great show for our kids.

 

 

Everyone in attendance will never forget the day Susan Polgar (The World’s Top Chess Trainer) challenged every mind in the room with an extremely thought provoking chess lesson.

 

 

Most of all, it was all the awesome young chess players that made the 2014 Fremont Summer Chess Camp so fantastic.

 

Want to see more?

Fremont Summer Chess Camp: Week 3

Fremont Summer Chess Camp: Week 2

Fremont Summer Chess Camp: Week 1