Florida — National K12/Collegiate Championships

Congratulations to the super-troopers representing Austin who made it all the way to Florida for the National K12 Championships held December 8–12! This was a difficult tournament for most, but honorable mentions go out to Dylan James (6 pts. / tying for 3rd–7th places), Alexander Balkum (5.5 pts. / tying for 5th–10th places). USCF results tables for the tournament are now viewable.

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Brownsville — Texas Grade Championships

Austin's Advaith Anand scored 5/6 to tie for 2–5 places in the 89-player Grade 5 Section of the Texas Grade Championships! Performing a similar feat in the 61-player Grade 6 Section with the same 5/6 score was Jeff Wylie who tied for 2–6 places. David Bian was the only other player representating Austin; he performed admirable scoring 4/6 and sharing 8–16 out of 54 players in the Grade 8 Section. Congratulations to each!

USCF results tables for the tournament are now viewable.

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Austin has a new US Champion!

Congratulations to Dylan James who captured the Under-11 US Junior Champion title! Dylan has been studying hard, and his results in Dallas certainly reflected that. Dylan had one narrow escape while scoring five solid wins on his way to capturing the title.

Great scores, upsets, and results were also had by other Austin-area players. In the Under-15 Championship, Alex Balkum placed 6th while Danny Chen seemed to capture his "old form" to take 8th place. Kevin Lu was awarded Top C, Derek Chang Top Age 11, and Eric Liu took home the Top U800 prize.

Other results in the Under-11 Championship: Steven Chen placed 5th overall; Eric Chen, 7th, Andy Wang had Top E honors, and Kevin Xie was Top Age 9.

All in all, it was a wonderful showing for local participants! Austin continues to gain momentum in chess excellence ...

USCF results tables for the tournament are now viewable.

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St. Andrews Draws 116 to School-Year Finale

The annual week-long St. Andrews summer chess camp was again followed by the one-day St. Andrews chess tournament. Here's a quick recap: The K–3 Section saw Austin Jiang and Saavan Nanavati tie for first place with 4.5 points each. First place in the K–6 Section was clinched with a win by Madhumitha Venkataraman over Andy Wang, who tied for second place with Jaydeep Singh, Aakaash Rao, and Dylan Feldpausch, all a half point back. In the K–12 Section, Arindam and Abhay Raina, and Abinash Thangirala tied for first with four points each. The concurrently-held Open Section ended with yet another upset. Though ranked only ninth at the start of the event, middle-schooler Kevin Lu eventually outclassed the field of 22 players! His sole first place was sealed when runners-up, Michael Yarosevich and Sean Li drew their final game on board one.

USCF results tables for the tournament are now viewable.

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Austin Juniors Score Well at Texas Pro-Ams!

The annual Texas Pro-Am Championships in Houston featured a surprising number of successes by Austin juniors. Here's a recap:

The concurrently held One Day Scholastic Tournament (K–12 Section) was won handily by Austin's Steven Chen. As fate would have it, Chen faced two other Austinites — Sanjna Zadoo and Alexander D. Jiang. Chen narrowly escaped with a first round draw against Jiang and went on to an exciting 1st Place finish, scoring 4.5 points in five games. Zadoo (4.0) took 2nd place. The K–12 / U750 Section was won by Austin's Kailynn Balkum whose 182-point jump certainly catapults her out of the novice bracket for future tournaments!

The Open Amateur Section (U2000) featured yet two other stellar performances by Austin juniors. Brothers, Danny and Eric Chen, took 1st Place in their respective categories (U1600 and U1400). There was a nice pay-off for both. Each brother jumped about half a rating class, with Danny narrowly missing the 1700 mark, while brother Eric surpassed the1500 milestone.

Congratulations to all!

USCF results tables for the tournament are now viewable.

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Kealing City Championships feature World Champion Susan Polgar

Four-Time World Champion, Susan Polgar, who played three simultaneous exhibitions and raised the level of excitement at the Kealing City Championships, has returned to New York, where she resides. However, the exciting weekend Ms. Polgar leaves behind will certainly be remembered by those who had the opportunity to see her here in Austin. Media coverage was abundant; an article and streaming video can be viewed at News 8 Austin.

Ms. Polgar lectured on various insights to the world of chess, and entertained Austinites by playing three simultaneous exhibitions in less than 48 hours. She spent all day Saturday at the concurrently held Kealing City Championships, chatting with the players and their parents, the coaches, and curious spectators. She also made an appearance at the Austin Chess Club, Sunday night, before flying back to New York.

Kealing City Championships recap: Keith James took sole 1st place in the K3 section with a flawless 5.0 score. In the K6 section, Steven Chen took clear 1st — a point ahead of the competition. Arindam Raina scored 5.0 to take 1st place in the K12 section. Joanna Wu and Sanjna Zadoo topped the Girls section with perfect 4.0 scores. Though the concurrent Open section featured several strong scholastic players, in the end, the title went to non-junior, Marc Jimenez, who finished a full point ahead of the field.

USCF results tables for the tournament are now viewable. Team standings are also online.

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Region VI Tournament Features 215 Players

The Region VI Championships at LJB High School turned out to be a bit hectic, but quite successful nonetheless! Here's a brief recap by section: Sunay Nanavati took sole first place in the Primary section with 4.5 points; Derek Chang, Dylan James, and Eric Chen tied for first place in the Elementary section with 4.5 points each; Seth Thompson cleared the field by a whole point with a perfect 5.0 result in the Middle School section; and finally, Jesse Lozano scored a perfect 5.0 to take top honors in the High School section. The Open section was won by Sean Li, who opted to forego playing in the scholastic section, as did several other strong juniors. Full results tables are now viewable.

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Kyle Chimes in as Lehman High School hosts Scholastic Tournament

Neil Krasnoff, Lehman School Librarian, and now, chess tournament director/organizer, ran a wonderful first-time tournament at Kyle's new high school campus.

Mr. Krasnoff took an extra step not even seen at Austin Area tournaments; he incorporated the use of computer pairings AND an auditorium big screen with state-of-the-art DLP projector to post pairings for easy sight/access to all five rounds. It was a very nice touch to a successful tournament. Participants came from as far away as Pflugerville to enjoy the relaxed, enjoyable event. Wihle not a USCF-rated tournament, individual and team results have been tallied and are now available online.

Congratulations to all the winners, and to Mr. Krasnoff for a memorable event!

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Mathews Turn-Out is Over 200!

A surprising turn-out of over 200 players made for a very successful Mathews, 2006 tournament. Top honors went to: Open Section — Michael Yaroshevich; K-8 — Roger Yamada; K-5 — Russell Yang, Avram Bukhbinder, and Dhurv Garg; and K-3 — Cole Baker and Keith James.

Yaroshevich was a real upset winner in the Open Section, as all nine players above him gave up half and whole points round after round. Ranked only ninth at the beginning of the tournament, Yaroshevich defeated Steven King in the final round to gain almost a hundred rating points for his performance,

In the scholastic sections, Yamada also won handily with a perfect score — 5-0. He gained 60-something rating points and is now only three shy of 1,300. Yang, Bukhbinder, Garg each gave up half a point on the way to a three-way tie, while yet more perfect performances from Baker and James rounded out the top honors.

Available now is a full list of award winners. Also, complete tournament charts are now online.

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News From Houston — The official number: 1,626!

That's right! A total of 1,626 participants played in this year's Texas Scholastic Championships held in Houston, February 4–5. A large number of Austin-Area students participated, capturing many top places and taking home lots of Team and Individual trophies for their efforts.

Full Tournament Results tables are available at the TCA (Texas Chess Association) website.

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Austin Area Students Join Coaches in 2006 Texas Team Championship

They Might Be Midgets — From left to right: Eugene Kohnitz, Dylan James, Danny Chen, and Paul Chaplin.

Congratulations go to They Might Be Midgets (see photo below), a team which featured students Danny Chen and Dylan James, and local coaches Paul Chaplin and Eugene Kohnitz, for tying for first place in the U1900 section of the Texas Team Championship.

Two other Austin-Area students getting a taste of the Texas Team open tournament format were Alex Balkum and Matthew Liu. Balkum played fourth board on the highest-rated team from Austin, scoring a respectable 2-2. While his team didn't quite manage a prize, they did hold the Overall 1st place team to a draw. Liu found three San Antonio Area players in need of a fourth, so he joined and helped that team also tie for 1st place U1900. The San Antonio tournament also sported a Brownsville team featuring yet another student-adult combination. Hopefully, a trend is in the making, and in the future we'll see more and more K-12 students playing in Open tournaments.

See the USCF website for related tables and results.

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