LAX American Open

LAX American Open

My tournament in LA didn't go very well. I scored only 2.5 out of 6. In the first game I wasn't playing focused, but in the second game I had a chance for a draw, went for the win and lost. In the third game I beat Ojas Chinchwadkar after a sharp attack. I lost again in the fourth game after getting tired. The next day I won the fifth round after another sharp attack before drawing a 2000 in the endgame of my final round. We also saw many cool sights at LA. The LAX airport was right next to us, but the hotel did a good job of keeping the noise down. Many blinking cylinder lights stood around us. They kept changing their color into green, yellow, orange, red, purple, and pink. I had tasty food to eat every day. For example, we ate delicious chinese food before the fourth round. Most of the lunches were from Subway because that is where I usually eat on chess days. The drive back took two hours more than the first one because there was a lot of traffic because of the end of Thanksgiving weekend and we drove more relaxed.

On Tuesday nights I am playing a FIDE tournament (FIDE stands for Federation Internationale des Echecs) called Tuesday Fight Knight to improve my rating because in many tournaments you have to play in the Open to get a FIDE rating. There are 12 players and 11 rounds so we are going to play everybody in the round robin. It is in San Jose and my chess friends are also playing so I see them every time. I won my first game against Randy Moon, a 1750 who won the A section in Bay Area on Thanksgiving, but there are 10 more rounds to go. 

Thanksgiving!

     Muthu(my little brother) and I both participated in a piano recital yesterday. He played five short songs and I played four long songs. We both did very well.
     I am now all caught up with my schoolwork because my science project about biomes is now finished.
     This Thanksgiving week, I am going to LA to play a tournament. We are leaving on the early morning of Thursday. That means we have to celebrate Thanksgiving on Wednesday or in LA. We have the whole week off so I have lots of time to prepare. I am playing only six rounds on three days not eight rounds on four days so that I could have fun on Sunday.  I will update my blog while I'm playing in Los Angeles.

A Week After Getting Back...

After getting back from WYCC, I took the week off from chess. I had fun reading, watching TV, and playing sports. Boy, I had a ton of work to catch up on! I am almost done with the work I missed. We also had fun on Diwali this Friday. This week I'm getting back to my chess work.

Round 10 and 11 - Final Update

In Round 10, I beat a very strong German, Raphael Lagunow, in a long game. He was leader in the earlier part of the tournament.

In the final 11th round, I got paired against the top seed, and fellow Bay Area kid, Samuel Sevian. I drew him after a sharp, positional game.

I finished with 8 out of 11, and tied for 5th through 10th...with 9th place on tie-breaks. I achieved my goal of making Top 10 in the world.

See you all back in California.

http://chess-results.com/tnr39337.aspx?art=1&rd=11&lan=1&flag=30&m=-1&wi=1000

World Youth Chess Championships 2010 Open Under 10

Last update 30.10.2010 15:25:40 / Page cached 30.10.2010 15:39:02 100min.

Final Ranking after 11 Rounds

Rk.			Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1
1			Cao Jason	CAN	0	9,0	56,5
2			Xiong Jeffrey	USA	1824	9,0	54,5
3			Puranik Abhimanyu	IND	1790	8,5	55,0
4			Gupta Bhaskar	IND	1742	8,5	54,5
5			Wheeler Cameron	USA	0	8,0	53,0
6			Sevian Samuel	USA	2105	8,0	53,0
7			Drozdowski Konrad	POL	1769	8,0	50,5
8		FM	Tabatabaei M Amin	IRI	1793	8,0	48,0
9			Panchanatham Vignesh	USA	1803	8,0	46,5
10			Trjapishko Alexandr	UKR	1931	8,0	46,0

Round 9 Update

Today I played another Iranian, FM Aryan Gholami, the 2009 U8 World Champion. I got an okay position in the opening,  but he blundered in the middlegame to give me a quick win in the endgame. Two more tough rounds to go.

Round 8 update

I had a quick game against Khashyar Rajabi Yazdi of Iran. He played a wierd line in the opening and I mated him quickly. I have three much tougher rounds to play. If I get 3/3 then I might have a shot at the medals.

Round 7 update

Yesterday I lost to FM Tin Jingyao of Singapore. I had another winning position, but again missed a tactic which would have won the game. I lost my chance at the medals, but I can still reach my goal if I win the next 4. I have to take each game one at a time.

I made the All-American team that morning. My dad always says that anything good always has something unpleasant come after it and he is right. The unpleasant thing usually means more effort by me.

Round 6 update

Yesterday I scored 1.5 out of rounds 5 and 6. I mated the first opponent, Aram Hakobyan, an Armenian, after capturing 6 of his pawns. My sixth round was on board 6 against an Iranian, Arya Omidi. Like the first round I got a winning position, but missed the win. I then went in to a drawn endgame and drew. I was very upset about this game, but I'll bounce back next round. Today is a rest day, so we are going to Thessaloniki. Tomorrow I will play FM Tin Jingyao in a tough round.

Round 4 update

My fourth round win was against Andrei Macovei, a Moldovan. I messed up in the opening, but came back with a huge initiative. After another mistake by him I transposed into a winning rook and bishop against rook endgame. Another tough day ahead. I will have two hard games against strong opponents.

Updates after Round 3

Quick update from Greece...3 rounds are completed, 8 more to go in this marathon event.


Round 3 – I played Russian, Konstantin Bezotechestvo, and won the game comfortably on positional advantage and tactics after which I would have won his queen, so my opponent resigned. 2 good wins.


Round 2 – I played Welsh boy, Katsande Nyasha, and won the game with a nice checkmate combination in 2hrs. Good comeback. 9 more rounds to go…


Jet lag must have affected me in the first round. My dad made me take a powernap of 30min couple of hrs before the start of the round after doing lot of Google research on “naps”. Certainly, it seems to help.


Round 1 – I played Armenian, Artur Hoghmrtsyan, and what should have been a win, I ended up losing owing to a bad move in time pressure and mismanagement of the clock – trying to make 15 moves in 10 minutes in first time control. I will learn from this.

WYCC 2010, Halkidiki, Greece

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of my well-wishers for the warmest wishes at the World Championships.

My dad and I came to Greece via Zurich early this week, and got settled in. It is awesome to be at the Porto Carras Grand Resort by the side of beautiful sea-beach.

I have prepared well and am proud, privileged, and honored that I made to the ultimate destination of the world championship in my favorite hobby and sport of chess. The competition is very strong with champion participants from all over the world, but I am hopeful and confident I will deliver a good result.

Please follow my results at http://wycc2010.chessdom.com/  U10 Open Section.

My own blog ...At Last!

I decided to start my own blog after seeing my chess friends start theirs and also having wonderful experiences posting to my classroom's blog at Murdock-Portal.

I am a 10-year old from Cupertino, CA, USA. I am an avid reader and enjoy my school as well as love chess. I also like to play soccer, piano. I have tried baseball, basketball, football, swimming, taekwando, and tennis, and would love to go back to them sometimes.

Presently, I am part of the US team at the World Youth Chess Championships 2010 in Halkidiki, Greece. I will be posting brief descriptions about my games here.