Mission San Jose Elementary Takes Chess to a New Level

Mission San Jose Elementary School in Fremont, California has, for decades, fielded the most successful chess teams the Golden State has ever produced. Year after year, the relatively small public school’s chess club trains hundreds of students in the art of aggressive chess play. Those who excel at the club are invited to participate in the more exclusive Monday night team meetings. There, as he has done since the 1980’s, Head Coach Joe Lonsdale uses his demo board to show practical examples of masterful chess games played by the great masters of the 19’th century as well as recent gems played by the young Mission San Jose Elementary chess players.  After the lesson, students are paired into a stepladder tournament and compete using clocks while notating their moves. Every week, almost every game played gets analysed by Joe Lonsdale, Richard Shorman, Chris Torres or a graduate of the chess team. Joe’s labor of love has created a chess team that has an unrivaled success rate at major chess tournaments and a team jersey that can barely fit all the state chess titles the school has won.

    Mission San Jose Elementary School has also fares well at the national level despite the fact that the USCF National Elementary Chess Championships are rarely held on the west coast. In 2009, Mission San Jose Elementary School became the first school from California to ever win the National Elementary Chess Champion Title. The following year, the Mission San Jose Elementary School team placed second in the K-1 Championship Section, tied for fourth place in the K-3 Championship Section, finished third in the K-5 Championship Section and placed 9^th in the K-6 Championship section.  In 2011, we even did better! Mission San Jose Elementary School placed second in the k-6 Championship Section, fourth in the k-5 Championship Section, fourth in the k-3 Championship Section  and third in the k-1 Championship section. According to a long bearded USCF representative I road back to the airport with, this is the best overall achievement of any school in the history of the USCF National Elementary Chess Championships.

   Of course, as hard as us coaches work, it is the players who deserve the credit and recognition. Sixth grader Arman Kalyanpur was our team leader scoring an impressive 5.5/7. Fifth Grader Alvin Kong achieved a score of 4.5/7. Sixth Grader Erik Wong also scored well with 4/7. Our fourth member of the k-6 Championship Section was Alex Yin who completed the tournament with 3.5/7.

   Our k-5 team was led by fourth grader Amit Sant with a score of 5/7. Fifth graders Steven Li and Shalin Shah who both finished with an impressive 4.5/7. Another fifth grader, Eric Zhu, managed to score 4/7.  Fifth Grader Sayan Das scored 3.5/7.   

   Our k-3 team was led by second grader John Andrew Chan who finished with 5/7. Next came second grader Mihir Bhuptani and third grader Ojas Arun who both scored 4/7.  Second grader Alvin Zhang  had a strong showing with 3.5/7. Second Grader Luke Zhao, who had the flu, finished with 3/7.  Edward Liu, who attended his first Nationals,  finished with 2.5/7.

   The MSJE k-1 team’s top scorer was kindergartener Rishith Susarla with and impressive 5/7. Next came first graders Chenyi Zhao and Soorya Kuppam with a score of 4.5/7. First Grader Jeffrey Liu managed to score 4/7. The quickly improving Kindergartener Amulya Harish finished with 2.5/7.

  And to the MSJE Chess Team…

 It was a real pleasure to watch all of you achieve such great success in the most prestigious tournament of the year. As your chess coach, I am very grateful to have shared so many memorable moments with you during the 2010-2011 school years. Congratulations!

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Calchess State Grade Level Championship: Round 1

Early results from round 1 of the Calchess Grade Level Championship are arriving. Most of my students were paired with lower rated opponents and had an easy time of it. Below are two nice wins from my students:

[Event “Calchess State Grade Level Championship”]
[Site “Stockton”]
[Date “2010.12.04“]
[Round “1”]
[White “Matthew, Kate”]
[Black “Liu, Edward”]
[Result “0-1”]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bd3 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. Nc3 d5 6. exd5 Nxd5 7. Nxd5 Qxd5
8. Bb5 Bd7 9. Bxc6 Bxc6 10. Ng5 Qxg2# 0-1

[Event “Calchess State Grade Level Championship”]
[Site “Stockton”]
[Date “2010.12.04“]
[Round “1”]
[White “Fargher, Arthur”]
[Black “Arun, Ojas”]
[Result “0-1”]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 dxe4 4. Nxe5 Bc5 5. Nc3 Qd4 6. Qe2 Qxe5 7. Bg2 Nf6 8.
Nxe4 Nxe4 9. Bxe4 Nd7 10. d3 O-O 11. Bf4 Qxb2 12. Qd1 Qd4 13. Be3 Bb4+ 14. Ke2 Qf6 15. Rb1 Nb6 16. Rxb4 Bg4+ 17. Bf3 Bxf3+ 18. Kd2 Bxd1 19.
Rxd1 Nd5 20. Rb3 Nxe3 21. fxe3 Qf2+ 22. Kc1 Qxe3+ 23. Rd2 Qd4 24.
c3 Qc5 25. d4 Qc4 26. Rxb7 Rfe8 27. Rd1 Rab8 28. Rxb8 Qxc3+ 29. Kb1 Rxb8# 0-1

Fremont Summer Chess Camp 2010: Day One

Forty children signed up for the first week of our annual chess camp in Fremont. Participants were attracted by the affordable price, world-class chess instruction and comfortable location. Ojas Arun had a particularly good first day at the Mission San Jose Elementary Chess Camp. Ojas managed to beat his coach (Chris Torres) while Chris was eating lunch. After lunch Ojas went on to win round one of our rated tournament in style. Below is his game:  

[Event “Fremont Summer Chess Camp”]
[Site “Fremont (MSJE), CA”]
[Date “2010.06.28”]
[Round “1”]
[White “Arun, Ojas”]
[Black “Gharpuri, Akshay”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “C55”]
[Opening “Two Knights”]
[Variation “Perreux Variation”]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. e5 Ng4! {A more conservative
approach involves playing d5 here.} 6. Bxf7+ Kxf7 7. Ng5+ Kg8! {This is
actually best! Black can now refute white’s attack but will be
uncomfortable for a long time.} 8. Qf3?! {I discovered this years ago with
a mouse-slip in an online blitz game. The move is considered dubious but
wins quite often.} Ncxe5?? {Black needs to play Bc5+ creating a square for
his king to escape. Ngxe5 is equally as bad!} 9. Qd5+! {Crime and
punishment. A question mark move followed by an exclamation mark move.} Nf7
10. Qxf7# 1-0

Chess Quads for Children

A children’s chess quad run by the Torres Chess and Music Academy is the ideal way for new chess players to begin playing in tournaments. Children are separated into groups of four based on rating and age so that each quad tournament represents the closest chess experience grouping possible. This structure assures that all three chess games a child in are winnable and instructive. All Torres Chess and Music Academy tournaments have a group of outstanding master chess teachers on hand to review the child’s game as soon as he/she finishes it. At Torres Chess and Music Academy tournaments a loss is never just a loss. Instead a loss is a unique opportunity to grow as a chess player under the supervision of the very best chess coaches.
Today the Torres Chess and Music Academy ran a children’s chess quad tournament in Sunnyvale, California. Our tournament was hosted at the beautiful South Peninsula Hebrew Day School site. On hand were scores of enthusiastic young chess players as well as TCAMA coaches Chris Torres, Tans Hylkema, Kenneth Kirkland and Saurabh Gupta. Plenty of children left with trophies while even more left with consolation prize medals. All children who attended left with a better understanding of chess than they arrived with. Below are the cross tables from todays event. I will provide some games and photographs in a future post.

Q#	FIRST NAME	LAST NAME	SCHOOL	USCF ID	RATING	PLAYER 1	PLAYER 2	PLAYER 3	PLAYER 4	TOTAL
Q1	SERGEY	GASPARYAN	LWS	13708417	1292		1	1	1	3
	TRUMAN	LEUNG		13520267	1210	0		1	1	2
	ALBERT	SUI	CHADBOURNE	13590730	754	0	0		1	1
	OJAS	ARUN	MSJES	14192020	683	0	0	0		0
Q2	SOORYA	KUPPAM	MSJES	14267883	689		0	0	0	0
	SABRINA	LEUNG		13545068	898	1		1	0	2
	KEVIN	MAO	HIRSCH	14137754	534	1	0		1	2
	LUKE	ZHAO	MSJES	14282042	500	1	1	0		2
Q3	DANIEL	HU	ALMOND	14137733	455		1	1	1	3
	SEAN	CROFUT	COLLINS	14135537	424	0		1	0	1
	RHYS	GIROUARD	JOHN MUIR SB	14207710	390	0	0		0	0
	ALBERT	QIU	COLLINS	14137775	388	0	1	1		2
Q4	MARSHAL	HATFIELD	PARKMONT	14212354	283		1	1	1	3
	VIVEK	POKALA	COLLINS	14137905	204	0		0.5	1	1.5
	ADITYA	MENON	COLLINS	14176302	112	0	0.5		0.5	1
	RAVI	VARMA	MUIR	14176240	114	0	0	0.5		0.5
Q5	RUSHABH	SHAH	COLLINS	14204003	105		1	1	0	2
	SHREYASH	GUPTA	GARDEN GATE	NEW	0	0		1	0	1
	ANOOP	BHAT	COLLINS	NEW	0	0	0		0	0
	JAMIN	CHEN	MONTESSORI	14298006	0	1	1	1		3
Q6	WILLIAM	QIU	COLLINS	NEW	0		0.5	0	0	0.5
	RIO	VAZQUEZ	ST. NICHOLAS	NEW	0	0.5		0	0	0.5
	ANEESH	BHAT	COLLINS	NEW	0	1	1		X	2
	PRATIK	MULPURY	LOYOLA	NEW	0	1	1	F		2
Q7	ALVIN	CAI	DELPHI	NEW	0		1	1	1	3
	FAVEO	HOEROLD	COLLINS	14346836	0	0		0	1	1
	DANILA	KARABELNIKAU	MUIR	14349967	0	0	1		0	1
	ASHWIN	NATHAN	MUIR	NEW	0	0	0	1		1
Q8	RYAN	SU	LACS	NEW	0		0.5	1	1	2.5
	NIVEN	JAYANTHI	JOHN MUIR SB	NEW	0	0.5		1	0.5	2
	JOSEPH	YOON	LACS	NEW	0	0	0		1	1
	KEITH	ANDREWS	CRESTMOOR	14339447	0	0	0.5	0		0.5
Q9	HARRISON	CHEN	STOCKLMEIR	NEW	0		0	1	1	2
	ZACHARY	CHEN	LOYOLA	NEW	0	1		1	1	3
	MORIAH	ELDAR	SPHDS	NEW	0	0	0		0	0
	VICTOR	LEE	DELPHI	NEW	0	0	0	1		1
Q10	ANISH	SUNDAR	COLLINS	NEW	0		1	1	1	3
	AMRITA	MENON	COLLINS	NEW	0	0		0	0	0
	BEN	FERREL	ST. NICHOLAS	NEW	0	0	1		X	1
	DERRON	MENDEL	SPHDS	NEW	0	0	1	F		1
Q11	ORI	SHANI		14298012	0		0.5	1	1	2.5
	JESSE	CHEN	MONTESSORI	NEW	0	0.5		1	1	2.5
	PHILIP	CULBERTSON	LACS	NEW	0	0	0		0.5	0.5
	GABRIEL	GELLER	SPHDS	NEW	0	0	0	0.5		0.5
Q12	ANTHONY	LIU	DELPHI	NEW	0		1	1	1	3
	CHEZKY	FELSEN		NEW	0	0		0	1	1
	RONIT	PATTANAYAK	DELPHI	NEW	0	0	1		1	2
	COLE	RINENBACH	LACS	NEW	0	0	0	0		0

Standings. SPHDS QUAD 13 FEB 10: QUAD 13	Name	ID	Rtng	Team	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Tot
1	MOSHE FELSEN		unr.	SPHDS	W2	W3	W5	3
2	SHARV UTPAT		unr.	DELPHI	L1	W5	W4	2
3	MORGAN STOLPMAN		unr.	LACS	W4	L1	B—	2
4	SHION TAKIGUCHI		unr.	MUIRC	L3	B—	L2	1
5	RAI MADHAV		unr.		B—	L2	L1	1