Simone's Chess Blog

World Youth Chess Champsionship 2010: Day 6

2010-10-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

On the road along the beach

On the way to town

In the small town

In town by the bay

In front of the church

World Youth Chess Championships 2010: Day 5

2010-10-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

Before Round 5

On the way to the tournament

Before Round 6

World Youth Chess Championships 2010: Day 4

2010-10-23T08:36:00.001-07:00

By the Pool Bridge

At the Beach

Simone and girls from Canada

Round 4 starting

Playing Hall - Snapshot

World Youth Chess Championships 2010: Day 3

2010-10-22T01:08:00.000-07:00

View from my hotel room balcony
Every morning, when I walk through the sliding doors of the Porto Carras Hotel, I feel the light breeze envelope me.

Looking ahead, I can see a wooden bridge over the crystal blue pools and miniature water falls on built-in rocks making loud noises. There are trees here and there, green and dark green, where the sun in the cloudy blue sky casts its light. There are reclining chairs around the pools and by the beach. On the right, I hear the laughters and some predictable rhythmic bounces of the pingpong ball on the table, where the world's young top players in various colorful national team uniforms release their physical energy and tension. In the distance, I can see just a turquoise line on the horizon above the magical sea.

Before Round 3 against my third WFM opponent

This is just another day of the World Youth Chess Championships. So far, I have been paired against 3 woman FIDE masters. The fighting on the board is always interesting and I have been enjoying my games as usual, win or lose. Today the US team is once again filled with joys of victory. There are quite a few kids with perfect scores. Congratulations to them.

World Youth Chess Championships 2010: Day 2

2010-10-21T04:38:00.001-07:00

Today I got a chance to walk around the Porto Carras Resort in the morning. There are several hotels within the resort. The one the US Team staying in is called Meliton. Like I mentioned yesterday, the hotel seems just like the Limra, a Turkish hotel that hosted the World Youth Chess Championships before, even the food is alike. The spaghetti tastes exactly the same, a little dryer than the one in California. The sauce is oliver-based instead of tomato-based like in the America. Some food seem to be westernized such as fries and miniature hamburger patties. The hotel is like a decent American resort, just a little smaller and a little under-decorated. There are many big pools with small waterfalls and bolt-in rocks. The whole place is surounded by some mountains, away from the cities. Since the weather is quite wet here, I can see nicely green everywhere, much better than the pale dry yellow I am always used to in Southern California.

Porto Carras Resort is nice
The two pools are big
There is even a waterfall

Tournament started in the late afternoon. Just like yesterday, In order to fight the jetlag, I woke up in the last minute from my nap before the round started. On my way to the tournament hall, I ran into Margaret, a sweet-looking girl from the Saint Louis Chess Club.

Ran into Margaret before round 2
In front of the World Youth Playing Hall
Giving my gift to my WFM opponent from India

This year's World Youth seem to be organized more simply and efficiently.

From the result of round 2, I can see the young chess players that I have played before have made big progress in chess in terms of understanding of the game. I think the national training program and their hard work have paid off for them.

The US team has continued to do well.

World Youth Chess Championships 2010: Day 1

2010-10-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

I finally arrived the World Youth Chess Champsionships 2010 tournament site after 24 hours of being on the road and plane. Today I spent most of my time resting or trying to rest so I did not blog earlier.

The weather in this part of Greece is warm even in comparison with the sunny Southern California, but a lot wetter. It was heavily clouded when I came in, rained a little, turn into sunny, and rained a little again, all happened in one day. We stayed in Porto Carras Resort, the main hotel of World Youth tournament. The hotel is a big five story building right next to the Mediterranean Sea, with two big swim pools, and next to them is the beach, much like a smaller version of the Limra Hotel in Turkey which a couple prior World Youth Chess Championships were held. The sea is calm and the waves are a lot smaller than the Pacific Ocean next to California. The water is clean with a tone of deep blue. The facility of the hotel is okay but the internet here is quite impossible for a major event like the World Youth. I just write my blog entries here and let my dad take care of fighting the web connection and posting my writings.

I found that everyone in the US team got here safely and seemed in good spirit. The World Youth tournament is split into 2 locations, with the U8 and U10 groups competing right in a big room next to the hotel lobby and rest of the tournament is in the conference center about 5 minutes walk from the hotel.

Simone on Board 1 before Round 1

One hour before the tournament, I found that I was going to play on board 1 of my section against the top rated girl in my section who is a Woman FIDE Master came from the strongest chess country of Russia. I had long decided that I was going to "enjoy" chess in this tournament anyways so I just continued my resting. I got to the tournament site right at the time of the round start. My opponent is a tall girl who looked quite tense, did not smile or show any other emotion. She moved first with 1.d4. I did not prepare before the round and just played my usual logical chess. We fought for about 3 hours before the game ended abruptly. I went back the hotel room and rested more.

The US team did well on the first day of competition with more wins than losses.

World Youth Chess Championships 2010: Day -1

2010-10-19T10:47:00.001-07:00

Simone at Zurich Airport

Simone at Zurich - Platz Promenade

Simone at Zurich - River Limmat

Simone at Zurich Train Station

On my trip to World Youth Chess Championships 2010 in Greece, I stopped in Zurich, a major city in Switzerland after 11 hours of plane ride from Los Angeles. As far as I knew, Switzerland is famous for its tasty chocolate, fancy cheese and delicate watches. When I arrived there, I did see many pastry shops there, small and large, filled with mouth-watering but over-priced bakery goods. I also noticed that the Swiss public transportation system is efficient, convenient and suprisingly clean. People are also very friendly and healthy-looking (I barely see any over-weight individuals). Many of them speak multiple languages including English so I have little trouble asking for direction.

I did a little walk on the streets in downtown Zurich and spent rest of my time resting, as my dad has advised. I am flying out this evening to Thessaloniki, Greece and taking a bus ride to the tournament site of World Youth Chess Championships.

World Youth Chess Championships 2010: Day -2

2010-10-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

Today is my last day at school before going to the World Youth Chess Championships 2010. We studied skeletons in our science class and viewed the progress of the long construction project of the school in our social science class. I also worked hard in P.E.. The weather turned cold suddenly. It started to rain at noon. After school, my dad and I headed to Los Angeles Airport, beginning our long journey to Greece where the 2010 World Youth Chess Championships will be held. While we waiting in the long security check line at the airport, my dad informed me that we would fly to Switzerland first and then continue our trip to Thessalonikki, Greece.

World Youth Chess Championships 2010: Day -3

2010-10-17T16:28:00.000-07:00

World Youth Chess Championships 2010 will start in 3 days. Many of my teammates in U.S. have either arrived or on the road to the tournament site in Greece. I am still at home today. In fact, I will still go to school tomorrow as usual, trying to reduce my days away from school to a minimum. Last Friday, I received my independent study package from all my teachers and found quite some work in it for me to do in the next two weeks. I started with my math and science work this weekend, hoping I can catch up.

Several weeks ago I met a talented chess player from outside of the country and learned that she used to be in the national youth chess program in China, where they were able to study chess full time in the weekdays and do school work on the weekends only. That must be tough, but they became very good in chess with a large amount of training. I guess we, the amatuer players in our country, will have to try really hard and perform well in the World Youth in order to compete with the professionals from the strong chess countries. In any case, I wish the best for the U.S. team.

As for me, I will treat World Youth Chess Championships 2010 as a good learning experience in terms of improving skills, better handling stress (and jet lag) and observing a foreign culture. So far, I have played on the national youth team in tournaments in countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Turkey, and Vietnam. Most of these places are interesting in their own ways, but quite different from what I see in California daily. I got to also see the top players at my age from around the world (and in the US) growing up from little kids into pre-teens just as I have. I am almost certain some of them will become giants in the future chess world.

Promoting Chess in Schools and Communities

2010-10-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

Besides studying chess and playing in the tournaments, I have often enjoyed spending time promoting chess in local schools and communities.

Foe example, in the last few years, I have been invited to speak and/or give simuls with scholastic players in various loactions in Southern California. I have also taught kids at my age to play. I have always like to see more people especially more kids play chess, because I think chess helps us to improve visualization, think more thoroghly, and handling stress better if we play in tournaments. Of course it is a fun activity. I wished I had studied harder when I was younger just like many top chess kids do, but now it gets harder for me because of school work in the middle school. I hope the other kids, especially the younger ones can devote more time to improve chess when they are still in lower grades.

World Youth Chess Championships 2010 is fast approaching. I wish the best luck to the entire big US Team.

John Hillery

2010-09-20T23:33:00.000-07:00

Less than three hours ago, I was shocked to learn that a major Southern California chess tournament director, Mr. John Hillery, passed away due to illness at the age of 58.

Ever since I started to play in “adult” chess tournaments, I have frequently run into Mr. Hillery as he directed most of the regional ones I attended. He has always appeared to me as a huge man in gray suits sitting behind a desk, quietly looking at his laptop doing tournament pairings, standings, or registration. But sometimes, he would raise his surprisingly loud voice and shout at the players and spectators, “Quiet please, quiet please! Games in progress!” This seemed to become his trademark quote.

Frankly, my encounters with Mr. Hillery have not always been pleasant. I still vividly remember once he yelled at my dad and me because we wanted him to correct a pairing mistake. “How can a TD treat a 9 year old girl chess player in such a manner?” This really puzzled me, until I realized he was under a lot of stress doing all the tournament organization himself. I have learned over the years that he was actually a knowledgeable and capable chess arbiter.

I can’t believe that Mr. Hillery has really died - he looked okay when I saw him directing the 2010 Southern California Open Chess Championships just last month. I’ll surely miss his loud “Quiet please!” RIP John Hillery.

World Youth Chess Championships 2010

2010-09-16T20:00:00.001-07:00

The 2010 World Youth Chess Championships is only one month away. It will be held in Porta Carras, Greece, from October 18 to October 31.

World Youth Chess Championships is a top level youth chess tournament organized by FIDE (World Chess Federation) and held every year since the 1970s. The World Youth Championships consist of "small" championships in 12 groups:

Under 18 Open, Under 18 Girls,

Under 16 Open, Under 16 Girls,

Under 14 Open, Under 14 Girls,

Under 12 Open, Under 12 Girls,

Under 10 Open, Under 10 Girls,

Under 8 Open, Under 8 Girls.

Many countries sent youth chess teams made up from the top players of the above 12 age groups to compete for gold, silver and bronze medals. In 2010, there will be more than 1400 players from more than 80 countries from every continents with the exception of Antarctica.

Throughout the recent history of World Youth Chess Championships, several extremely talented young players from United States have done well and won gold medals:

Ilya Gurevich (U14, 1985)

Yvonne Krawiec (U12G,1987)

Alex Lenderman (U16, 2005)

Daniel Naroditsky (U12, 2007)

In 2010, the United States Chess Federation is sending a very big team to the World Youth Chess Championships in Greece.

There will be 6 coaches:

Michael Khodarkovsky

Aviv Friedman

Armen Ambartsoumian

John Fedorowicz

Sam Palatnik

Andranik Matikozyan*

Amongst the US players, there are 22 boys:
Steven Zierk
Jeffrey Haskel
David Adelberg
Atulya Arya Shetty
Kayden Troff
Christopher Wu
Joshua Colas
Kapil Chandran
Dachey Lin
Justus Williams
Kesav Viswanadha*
Allan Beilin*
Samuel Sevian
Tommy Outeng He
Jeffery Xiong
Vignesh Panchanatham*
Cameron Wheeler*
Jonathan Chiang*
Aravind Kumar
Rayan Taghizadeh
Praveen Balakrishnan
Awonder Liang

The US Youth Chess Team also includes 18 girls:
Anjali Datta
Anna Matlin
Sarah Chiang
Jessica Regam*
Claudia Munoz*
Simone Liao
Alice S. Dong
Apurva Virkud
Maryia Oreshko
Margaret Hua
Devina Devagharan
Reva Singh
Nicole Zlotchevsky
Samritha Palakollu
Annie Wang
Kaavya Ramesh
Emily Nguyen
Joanna Liu

Mr. Jerry Nash will also be in the World Youth as the assistant Head of US Delegation.

Good luck to the US Team in World Youth Chess Championships 2010!

* are team members added after August 2010, welcome!

Western Pacific Open 2010

2010-04-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

In April, I played in another “big” tournament of Western Pacific Open, just like the Agoura Western Class Championship in March. And once again I signed up at the last minute on the second day of the tournament. I was debating on open section with strong experts and experienced masters or the premier section. I finally chose the Premier because that was the section I won in Agoura. Maybe I let my superstition* got hold of me. This important decision was actually made a couple hours before the tournament at breakfast.

* Here is My dictionary of the word “superstition”:
1. Only using certain pens against lower-rated opponents, and different pens against higher-rated opponents. I had “discovered” that black ink is luckier than blue ink when I was 9 year-old.
2. Believing that if you chew a certain amount of gum for a certain amount of time, your opponent will blunder. (He did hang a knight).

Regarding the tournament, I played in the 2-day option just like in the Western Class Championships, since by the time I made my choice, the 3-day players had finished their first round. The tournament was located in the L.A.X. Hilton, a nice place, but a bit loud, considering all the airplanes taking off so close by. The schedule was basically the same as Agoura, with the same time control, except the sections were different. Also, I suspect that there were a lot less people at this tournament than Agoura because the prize fund on the flyer (and everyone knows that’s not going to be real) was half of the prize fund on Agoura’s flyer (well, you can only go down so much from the 1.4 gram offered if enough people played).
Anyways, back to my tournament. The first round started at 10:30 am, I played a younger boy with very promising future. In the game, he was keeping his position together well. I played carefully, and finally, he made a mistake. I caught his error and proceeded to win the game. The boy later on won the rest of his games in the tournament.

In the second game, I was surprised to be paired against a 1500 gentleman who had upset a 300-point higher rated in the first round. He played a good opening, and I should mention that when we got into the late opening or early middle game, an alarm in the hotel was apparently set off. It was quite annoying, and its pattern of beeping changed every 30 seconds or so. Many players were so bothered that they paused the clocks. For me, when going to a school, I was used to very loud all the time. I learn to block out noise. This technique becomes extremely useful during my lunch period (for crying out loud, do people have to be so loud that you have to shout to hear yourself?), and apparently, in the Hilton LAX. Used to very loud atmospheres, the alarm was completely tame. In fact, I found myself tapping my foot to the rhythm of the beep, beep, beep…A laugh came from the players as we gave up waiting 10 minutes for the alarm to turn off. We turned their clocks back on, and the alarm beep, beep, beep, beep, BEEP! I wouldn’t be surprised if someone passed out right then. (No one did, so I could not be a witness of CPR in the works.) Back to the game, shall we? By the time the alarm stopped, I was a pawn up. Eventually, I converted this advantage into a win.

I knew my third round would be pretty darn tough. I was on the top board against a strong and tall 15-year-old boy rated 100 points above me. I had played him once and won on a “cheap” tactic. The round started comfortably, that was, until I sacrificed unsoundly. Being a piece down, I played aggressively and threw everything at his king, with 13 strong moves. My opponent panicked and blundered, losing a rook and a pawn. In despair, he resigned. It was a lucky game.

That was the end of Saturday’s games. The next morning I found that there was another player with perfect scores in my section: a talented boy who was rapidly moving up the rating charts at the cheetah pace of (70 points per month) in the last 12 months. When I played him I was not aggressive and got a closed position in a rook-pawn endgame. I drew my game.

In the 5th and last game in the later afternoon, I knew I had to win since there were 5 3½ pointers at the top. I played an older gentleman whom I had previously drawn with. But when the game began, I somehow became very reckless, losing a piece early on, which forced me to attack and get back in the game. I first got the material back, then started my pawn and piece storming. The attack proved victorious.

After I ended my game on the top board, I turned my attention to the 2nd board, where 2 ladies competing for the top price. One was Liz Taylor, IM Tim Taylor’s wife, who doesn’t blunder easily, and the other was Simone Sobel, the stronger Simone. They were very thoughtful and their game lasted too long for me to watch until the end since I had to go home to get ready for school on the next day. Next morning, I found out that Simone (Sobel) had won and received 4 ½ points, just like I got. So the funny thing was in the Western Pacific Open 2010, the Premier Section was won by Simone and Simone!

Big chess tournament in Agoura

2010-04-27T16:32:00.000-07:00

In March, I played in a chess tournament in the Renaissance Hotel in Agoura Hills. In the past, I had not done very well in tournaments with large prize sums. I couldn’t find an exact reason for this, but I think it had to do with the fact that my opponents had been a whole lot more vicious and played at least 2 notches up while I just had done my normal. I recalled that often time I had been the only player sometimes yawning and everyone else had been in full concentration. That was, except when people were up a queen and two rooks, but that was another story. So basically, players in these tournaments are trying to win really, really hard.

I had not intended to play there because I had more than one school projects due the week after, also I had not played in a big tournament (see my definition for a big tournament in my last blog post) for quite a while. Since the tournament site was not too far from my home, in the early morning of the second day of the event, I went there to see the competition. When I was looking at the pairing charts on the wall, I suddenly felt a burst of energy and decided to play. The energy seemed to last when I started my game 30 minutes later. I felt like running a mile with a jump rope and walking a 400 pound Rottweiler with a very short leash at the same time.

Since the players were grouped by class, my section consisted of players mostly with close ratings. In the first game, I played a gentleman. We played the opening without surprises. Then I managed to create a weakness in his pawn structure and attacked a pawn that he couldn’t defend. After one hour, I was up a piece and traded down to endgame. Seeing no opportunities to fight back, my opponent resigned gracefully.

In the second round, I played a very strong boy in Southern California, around my age and rating, whom I had a negative record against. I felt that it would be another tough game for me because I knew my opponent had studied very hard in chess under his very strong IM coach and I had not worked much on my chess lately. I pushed the bad thoughts away from my head as far as I could which would probably be somewhere in the Sahara Desert. I focused on the game and played patiently, not to repeat my mistakes. I did not get a crashing win or even a win at all. Instead, after we used up almost all our time, we drew our game. I could see that the boy had made more progress since last time I had played him because he seemed to understand his position quite well.

By the time I reached the third round in the evening, I thought, “Hey, I’m doing okay in Agoura. This never happens, well, until now anyways.” In this game, I played a nice and smart gentleman whom I had played several times with mixed results. He is a doctor and his daughter, a very tall and very smart girl around my age, whom I am friends with, was also playing in the same section. I attacked my opponent’s kingside with pawn storms, and if such a term exists, piece storms. [Piece Storms – Piece Storms are similar to pawn storms, but with pieces. This does not mean pieces will become raining down from the sky, in the middle of the night with lightning, but it does include trying to run the opposing king’s head through with a fire spear. Not literally because that could set the fire detector off and force everyone to evacuate the building. Then, your clock will run out, you will be fined, and you will be indirectly responsible for the injuries of two firemen.] Anyways, I did what I knew I would do. I attacked his kingside and actually worked. Unlike my first round opponent, the doctor kept on playing in tough situation till the end. What a fighter! I guess old players never resign, they just got checkmated.

After I got home, I rested for the night, thinking,” I have 2 ½ out of 3. I have a shot for a prize maybe. 1 ½ out of 2 points tomorrow will do it…”

I jumped out of bed on the next day with the same mile-running-with-a-Rottweiler-a-lot-heavier-than-me-that-hasn’t-eaten-for-4-days feeling as Saturday. My fourth round was against a nice and quiet gentleman whom I had played several times before. I might have gotten too comfortable and was not thinking too deeply. The result was that I did not have a very good position, especially after my opponent had carefully worked out his moves. But the price he paid was that he had used up a lot of his time for those good moves. After 3 hours, my clock beeped and flashed red light on my opponent’s side. When we stood up I told my opponent that he had played a good game and might have made some trouble for me if he had had more time.

In the fifth and the last round I was a bit nervous. I was on table #1 against a strong high school boy from Arizona whom I had lost to last year. Coming into the round, he was the only player in my section with a perfect score of 4/4, so I wondered if I would be his fifth victim. I ignored this thought, partly because the word “victim” reminded me of mosquitoes sucking blood and transmitting diseases, Count Dracula biting you, or something along those lines. We made the opening moves cautiously. After several hours of playing, I achieved a slightly better position with equal material. My opponent offered me a draw because he need 1/2 point only to win the tournament. I thought for several minutes and declined the draw offer. In the final hour of the tournament, I launched an attack on his kingside and was positive it would work. It did.

With 4 ½ out of 5, I tied for first place in my section and earned my prize in this “big” tournament. The win gave me confidence. I was elated for the entire rest of the week.

Middle School and Chess

2010-04-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

Since making the transition from elementary school to middle school, I have been a lot busier with school work. One of my discoveries in sixth grade is that the teachers like to assign long projects in all subjects which I believe are very beneficial to my education. I am also beginning to learn violin, as part of my school’s excellent music education. After a few months’ practice, I can stand listening to myself playing with only occasional screeching sounds.

A side-effect of these is that now I have had a lot less time for chess study, let alone chess blogging. No more weekday evening chess games in the club. No more state scholastic championships or scholastic nationals. I switched to play a few club-level tournaments on the weekends when I managed to push my school projects to other days. Eventually I became used to the middle school “madness” and actually managed to squeeze in a couple “big*” tournaments since last month.

My Definition of a Big tournament:

1. A tournament that is extremely crowded when trying to look at the pairings on the wall. If you would like to see your pairings before others, you can either wait at the pairing sheet location 30 minutes earlier, or you can practice squeezing between people while shouting “Excuse me! Coming through!” - not something a gentle lady is accustomed to.

2. A tournament usually held in a hotel. Warning to scholastic players: Do not try to play hide and seek or play tag in the lobby between rounds. The hotel staff may yell at you. Also, you might knock over a luggage cart or a vacationing family member.

3. A tournament in which some players sandbag or cheat with Pocket Fritz or some other ways in order to get some prize money after they pay expensive entrance fees.

It has become harder to play at higher levels and understand positional play. For chess playing kids this is even more difficulty when we try to do well in both school and chess because of the time and energy demanded from us. I start to understand why there are so many kids especially girls quit chess when they get into middle school or older. During this time, I received encouragement from chess players, chess masters and chess parents. Thank you Mr. Cashman, the Ong family, Master Mick, Master Smith, Mr. McKey, Sansei Akagi, GM Khachiyan and many other nice people who want to see me stay in chess.

World Youth Chess Championships 2009: Day 2

2009-11-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

Last night I still had problem sleeping. I woke up at 1 am and my dad had to give me a pill to treat my headache. After that I slept until after 10 am, missing breakfast again.

On the hotel room balcony

I wasn't sure exactly what to prepare for my opponent, so I did some review of openings before the game. The problem was while I had little idea of my opponent, she and her coach could look at many of my prior games to study against me.

By one of the big pools in Limra - look what I carry in my hand

My opponent was an Indian girl with short black hair. When the game started, she immediately took off her shoes and put her feet on the chair. She played an opening that I was not familiar with and traded queens in less than 10 moves. While I did have a strong center, it became hard to win, so the game was equal. 3 hours later I was not in total control of the game and was quite tired, so I offered a draw and was accepted.

Simone in round 2

The lesson I learned today was that I need a stronger will to win and stronger body to fight.

World Youth Chess Championships 2009: Day 0

2009-11-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

We finally arrived Antalya, Turkey after 3 flights of 9000 miles, half way around the world for the World Youth Chess Championships 2009.

In this tournament, national youth champions of many countries come to fight for the 3 medals to show who is really the best. I have been to this tournament twice before, once in Vietnam and the other time in ... Antalya, Turkey, the same place, even the same hotel! (Readers of my blog can check out my experience from my prior posts).

Outside my dorm

The hotel seems to be pretty much the same as I went last time, a beautiful place with lots of stray cats. I stayed in a room very close to the one I did last time. It was raining when I arrived so we had to be careful not to step into puddles of water when we walked upstairs with our luggages which was fortunately lighter than last time because my dad insisted.

Limra Hotel

I took a short walk around the place after I showered. I recognized the smae items around the pool including the water slides, the dolphin statue, and the bridges with ropes. I also saw the chilren's play ground and the same gift shop.

As dinner, I saw more of my teammates. We sat with Sarah and Jonathan.

World Youth Chess Championships 2009: Day 1

2009-11-12T06:21:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up at 3:30 AM, clearly jetlagged. I tossed and turned for a couple hours. When I finally slept, I slept through the breakfast and the technical meeting. The pairings was not up and the internet was down. My dad tried to find my first round opponent but it was hard because we did not have the final list of players. Finally 40 minutes before the round started, we got mthe tournament information, which showed that I was to play a girl from UAE.

When I got in the tournament hall there was a massive crowd and we were sufficating in it. When I sat down, I found my opponent, a short girl who looked like some girl from South America.

Simone at Round 1

In the game, we did our openings fairly quickly. My opponent blundered 2 king-side pawns. I was soon in an advantage position. Then my opponent made a scholastic level mistake - missing a mate-in-one and was defeated.

I won my first game in 20 minutes and was out of the hall before my dad had a chance to get out of the restricted area.

Simone and GM Fedorowicz

The lesson I learned is to be more careful and more accurate.

Later on I learned that almost everyone on the US team have won their games in this round.

World Youth Chess Championships 2009: Day -1

2009-11-11T07:41:00.000-08:00

My dad woke me up at 4 am. I muttered some gibberish and then suddenly realized that I today I was going to start my grueling 24 hours' of trip to Turkey for the 2009 World Youth Chess Championships.

Ready to start my 24-hour road trip

When I arrived at the Los Angeles Airport, I saw my teammate Annie Wang. I found that we had the same flight schedule, which was LA to New York to Istanbul to Antalya, a painful long journey.

Met with prodigy Annie

After our first flight, we arrived at the JFK airport, I met more teammates including Abby Marshall who recently went to the 2009 national high school invitational - Denker tournament as the only girl and actually won it!!

Together with 2009 Denker Winner Abby

Letter from GM Alexandra Kosteniuk

2009-09-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

Earlier this evening, when I was finishing my dinner, my dad handed me a sealed plastic envelope with my name in the middle. When I looked more carefully, I found at top left corner there was a small sticker with a familiar name Alexandra Kosteniuk, the 12th Women's World Chess Champion. I was excited to find out that GM Kosteniuk sent me a note and a nice gift. I am glad that there is some recognition of my work in chess. Thank you very much Alexandra!

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Medal Award Ceremony

2009-09-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Medal Award Ceremony

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Returning Home

2009-08-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

The day after the closing ceremony and last round, I was on my way home. I woke up early enough to eat breakfast.

The flight from Mar Del Plata to Buenos Aires took off at 2 pm. so we had the morning to ourselves. I did not have to pack because my dad had woken up extra-early to do that.

Simone, Vincent and Stan at Mar Del Plata plaza

We spent the morning with Vincent Huang, my 15-year-old teammate that earned a silver medal in Pan American Youth 2008. Vincent, like me, is from Southern California. He came alone to the tournament and was busy prepareing and playing the rounds in the previous days. We went to the plaz, a bunch of street of highrise buildings with shops on the first floor. Soon I learned that most of the shop in the plaza are clothing shops. There were also banks but only a few souvenir shops.

After a while of walking, we came to the end of the street, which is actually the Atlantic Ocean. We saw some more souvenir shops in which I bought some cute stuff. We walked back to the hotel along the ocean.

With the Argentina Heart At Buesnos Aires Airport

With Stan before getting into the gate

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Closing

2009-08-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

Team USA - The Medalists
Victor, Andrew, Daniel, Arthur
Tommy, Simone, Tanuj, Annie

Team USA - The coaches and the 3rd place team trophy
Aviv, Armen, Beatriz, Michael

Here are some of the younger medalists in the US Team:

Annie W. - Gold Medalist

Tanuj V. - Gold Medalist

Arthur S. - Silver Medalist

Tommy H. - Bronze Medalist

Me - the blog writer

Pan American Youth Championships 2009: Final Day

2009-08-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

Simone in Round 9

Being one point ahead, I ended the final round with a draw this morning, and got my gold medal.

I found out that my teammates Tanuj (U8) and Annie (GU8) have won their games earlier and earned 2 gold medals!

Gold Medalists and Coaches
Coach Aviv, Coach Armen
Tanuj, Annie, Simone

So by 11:30 am we had 3 gold medals in Pan American Youth Championships 2009 so far for the US chess team.

After that our team received 2 more gold medals (Victor in U16 and Daniel in U14), 2 silver medals (Arthur in U12 and Andrew in U16) and 1 bronze (Tommy in U10). Many of other teammates did very well too. This is one of the best tournaments for Team USA!

Team USA

Coach Beatriz, Simone and Coach Michael

Simone and Coach Aviv

Maryia and Simone

Simone and Anna

Alisa and Simone

Stan and Tommy

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Round 8

2009-08-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

Adjusting my pieces before round 8

In Round 8, I played black against a Columbia girl Valentina, the top rated player (2093) in my section. She plays about 5 different openings just for one color alone. I am not exaggerating here. They are c4, d4, e4, f4 and Nf3. I played her 2 years ago in World Youth Chess Championships 2007 when we were little. After a lot of training and tournaments, Valentina has improved and played very solid in this tournament so far.

We came out of the opening in a fairly equal position. After I snatched a pawn in the middle game, she started to think a lot, became low on time and hung some pieces. We finished the game in 2.5 hours.

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Round 7

2009-08-20T14:25:00.000-07:00

Before Round 7

My round 7 was against a player from the hosting country, also the other player with the highest score in my section. Both of us got out of standard opening moves in move #4. (She did this first). I was able to attack on the kingside very early in the game and broke through. I think I got lucky.

On the street by the sea

After the game I took a 10-minute walk on the street by the ocean. I did not go to the beach because my dad said it was too windy there and might catch a cold.

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Round 6

2009-08-19T19:29:00.000-07:00

waiting for my round 6 opponent to show up

My round 6 opponent Danitza from Puerto Rico came 2 minutes after the game started and could have been forfeited if the new FIDE rule had been used. She is also a young player that did well in last year's Pan American Youth Championships and was leading my section with no losses. That was one of the crucial games for me if I wanted a shoot of a medal.

Danitza has wavy black hair and lighter skin, and looked very confident. She was very well prepared for the opening. Somehow I managed to blunder again and lost a rook for a knight and a pawn. Danitza's position was also active. I started to fight back, first by winning a pawn and equalize the material. Then my opponent had a tactical idea and sacrificed a knight for a mating attack only to find out in the next 2 moves that a variation of mine stopped her sequence. Now I was getting 2 minor pieces and a pawn for my lost rook. In another hour, I was able to trade my rook and promote. Another roller-coaster game.

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Round 5

2009-08-19T10:20:00.001-07:00

The streets and gloomy sky of Mar Del Plata

Unlike some rooms in the hotel with nice view of the Atlantic Ocean, the one I stayed in was surrounded by residential apartments and side streets, so there is not much to see. The hotel food is good but not many selection of vegetables, so my dad made me eat oranges and apples between meals to make up for the lacking of vitamins. The tournament hall is big and bright, but the restrooms can get dirty after a few hours of use. I heard the boys' room is even worse. After a few days of play I still don't know who the chief arbitor is - I hope I can find out by the end of the tournament. Games on the top boards are broadcast but unlike the World Youth tournament, the organizers do not use digital boards. Instead, they have workers copy down the moves by hand on sheets and send them somewhere every now and then. I guess blitzing will be hard for them.

My round 5 was against the U8 Girls champion of Pan American Youth 2008. She was very good at tactics and was not afraid to getting into complex positions. Several times, I almost fell into bad situation but we maintained equal for more than 40 moves in a few hours. In the endgame I finally got her into a zugzwang and advanced. This was not an easy win.

I think I definitely need to improve a lot after this tournament just to survive these girls in the future.

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Round 4

2009-08-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

k

Round 4 was at 5 pm. Today is the last one-round day. I had a training session with Master Armen and got some rest in the afternoon. Hopefully I was prepared and rested, and not over-confident.

I played against a girl from Bolivia. She played a different opening than expected, but I knew her line to a degree. Still I made some not-so-good opening moves, but none were fatal mistakes. Then my opponent made a bad move, weakened a pawn and lost it. After I was 2 pawns up, my opponent tried to counter-attack in the middle-game while I played positionally. After a few hours of going back and forth, my opponent's attack did not get her the materials back, instead, we traded down to a R+B+Pawns endgame with 2 pawns up for me. She was not able to stop my queening.

It was a long fight. The South American girls have improved a lot!

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Round 3

2009-08-17T18:41:00.001-07:00

Round 3 of Pan American Youth Chess Championships was at 5:00 pm, just like round 1. I had adequent rest but I wasn't able to prepare much. I was overconfident.

My opponent was like many other girls from South American with darkish skin and black hair. This girl was form Peru. She had her hair full of hairspray with a long ponytail in the back and wore a Peru Team jacket with matching red pants. Her parents took many photos of her - just about 3 for every pose.

My opponent played an uncommon opening. I made some strategic blunders (such as a wrong trade) and made my opponent's position very active. After I lost some pieces, I was not able to hold the game. 0 point for me. :(

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Rd 2

2009-08-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

Round 2 was at 9 am, which meant that the California players had to wake up very early due to the 4 hours' time difference. I had to eat breakfast and prepare for the round, which technically meant that I had to get up before 4 am Pacific time.

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Simone before Round 2

My round 2 opponent was a girl with darkish skin and black hair, like many girls in South America. Unlike my first round opponent, toys did not accompany her. I played with confidence. My opening led to an equal game. I got an outpost. Then my opponent made a mistake which I took advantage of, getting 2 passed pawns next to each other and eventually made a queen out of it. I won the game knowing that the third round will be harder. I will try my best.

Stan and Coach Michael

We took a quick walk in the market after lunch this afternoon under sunshine.

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Round 1

2009-08-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Round One of Pan American Youth Championships started at 5:00 PM today. I was glad to see Little Annie and her dad finally show up in the hotel. She was ready to play since Master Beatriz was kind enough to register her in advance. However, the registers of the tournament made a mistake on 8-year-old Stan and placed him in U18 Open, my dad had to bug Master Aviv to bug the TDs to fix it. Unfortunately they did not do that even after the tournament started. Instead they paired him against an 18-year-old 2100-rated player. Master Aviv had to rescue poor Stan again and got him out of misery by getting him in the U10 section where he belongs.

Before Round 1 of Pan American Youth Chess Championships

I played against a girl with long orange hair from Chile. She must liked company -- she had an army of toys, a footlong stuffed roden, 2 small plastic animals which I can't name and a butterfly eraser. My opening was okay. In the early middle game, I made a strategically weak move which might lead to a passive game. My opponent did not fully take advantage of it and instead made a series of weaker moves. I captured the opportunities and finished my game early in 40 minutes.

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Day 0

2009-08-16T07:44:00.000-07:00

There was a knock at the door, it was the hotel cleaning lady. "You can wake up now," said my dad as he rasied his head from the computer, "It's 9 am". I bounded out of my bed and blindly reached for clothes. I had spent my first night in Mar Del Plata. My brother wasn't as alert as I was, since it took him extra 10 minutes to get up. We had breakfast in a dinning room reserved to be used by the US Team only. This is nice. I had some ham, chess and some Argentina pastries, carefully declining the orange juice in the jar to avoid get food poison again like last year.

City of Mar Del Plata from a distance

The city of Mar Del Plata looked okay from a distance in the highrise hotel but walking the streets was tricky. The weather is wet and wild. The sidewalk is uneven, bumpy with puddles of water and trash here and there. The ocean is a 5-minute walk away but it took us a little longer to avoid the stray dogs and their waste. I have yet to see anything really interesting.

The Mar Del Plata Central Park

I have seen fire and I have seen rain

The Atlantic Ocean

The tournament will start this afternoon. I have not seen the names of all the players yet because registration is still going on. I reminded myself to be aware of the new FIDE rules, including the one that a player can be forfeited for being late for the game for just 1 second.

Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009: Day -1

2009-08-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

After more than 24 hours' of travel with 3 flights, 2 taxi rides, a lot of walking and waiting, I finally arrived the city of Mar Del Plata, Argentina in south hemisphere, the tournament site of Pan American Youth Chess Championships 2009!

I have little to report except the fact that the weather is cloudy and windy here, and also my feeling that the US youth chess team is very strong this year. I am very tired now and will get some rest.

By the way I am surprised at the hotel arrangement of starting dinner at 9:30 PM. I hope we the elementary school kids can get used to this real soon or I may have to eat out every evening.

National All-Girl Chess Champs 2009

2009-04-28T11:12:00.001-07:00

Last Friday my dad came to school to pick me up earlier when I was in the middle of a math test, so I had to finish it in 10 minutes. Even though I still scored best in the class, I did not get 100%. Bummer!

My dad and I hurried out of school to catch the flight to Dallas, Texas to attend the National All-Girls Chess Tournament, which was held every year by Kasparov Foundation. Last year I played in the 10U section and did okay. This year I challenged myself in 12U section and was confident that I would do well again.

The trip was somewhat adventurous. First Freeway 405 was jammed heavily when we got on it. I regretted complaining to my dad earlier that he had picked me up from school too soon, instead I wished he came sooner. My dad told me not to worry and we would be okay. He was right, when we got to the terminal, we saw the passengers just began to stand up from the chairs and walk to the gate. We were right on time. Whew!

We were not lucky after we arrived DFW. Even though we did not have luggage, it took us 40 minutes to get to the train station and we missed the train by 5 minutes and the next one would not come until 1.5 hour later. Bummer again! And this time it was actually not my dad's fault! Just when we thought we would get stuck in the cold and dark train station, a taxi came and rescued us. Whew again!

The Hyatt Lobby

The Hyatt hotel we stayed in was nice. The elevators were unusual. They were extremely fast and through the glass walls I could see the restaurants and the courtyard of the hotel. When it passed 20th floor, it went through the glass ceiling of the hotel and the view of the entire downtown Dallas was in front of us. It got scary when the elevator came down, making riders feel like they were falling fast. I held on to the railing tightly and enjoyed the "rollercoaster". Aaaaaaaaah!

Downtown Dallas

The next morning my dad woke me up 30 minutes before the tournament started. But I still felt tired when I sat down to play round 1 probably because of the jet lag of 2 hours. Zzzzzzz...

Ready to start

After I won my first 3 rounds, I faced Julie, one of the top New York girls for her age. I was not able to get ahead until the middle-game when I was barely up a pawn. Then I got an opportunity to get another pawn but I had to trade my good rook with her so-so rook after that. I decided to keep the pieces, which was a BIG mistake. Julie played well after that and even though I got her pawn later, she almost made a perpetual on me. We kept fighting long after everyone else finished. Scary!

What's white's best move?

The second day was more challenging. In the fifth round I played my fifth opponent Lilia from New York. I made a couple mistakes until I realized that I could have gotten into the variation I used to win an expert a month ago. With a pawn down, I was thinking hard to get out of my cramped position and got into serious time trouble since this was a G60. When my opponent attacked on the queenside, I was not able to defend. This loss killed my chance to equal my score last year, despite that I won my last game. Ouch!

With Master Anna Zatonskih

Even though I only got the 3rd place in my section, this tournament has been a good opportunity for me to find my weak points and work on them. Cool?

With Little Annie

meeting WCM Fernanda Rodrigues

2008-12-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

I had just come home from school last Friday when my dad gave me surprising news -- the top 12 year old Brazilian girl WCM Fernanda Rodrigues had come to L.A. to train for future events. I packed my chess bag and set out for car. After a long drive in the rush hour traffic, I arrived Armen's camp and played several blitz games with her. She did better than I did under the time pressure.

My dad scheduled a match in more "normal" time control between me and Fernanda Today (Sunday), which was better for both of us. I got black. Fernanda proved herself to be a 12-year-old feminine championa and had a good game with me for most of the game, until I got into a position with some oppotunities. But she fought on hard and piled up her pieces against my king, hoping for a mate or a perpentual. I thought for 16 minutes and decided to take my chance and have some more fun rather than taking a draw. I finished with winning the endgame after many moves with bishops and kings from that point.

I think playing with a powerful girl player is beneficial and fun.

What's black's best continuation?

World Youth Chess Championships 2008: Day 11

2008-10-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

Today was the last round and also the last chance for me to possibly get a medal. In the my game, my opponent made a surprisingly aggressive move and I was not able to stop her attack. I lost the game in 3 hours. I did not reach my place in last World Youth, instead I got a lower 9th place out of 69 competitors in my section, who were the best players of their own countries. I need to study harder to be able to win.

The closing ceremony was packed with singing, dancing and fireworks. Some fireworks landed very close to the top 10 players of each section were sitting right in front of the award stage which was a little scary.

World Youth Chess Championships 2008: Day 10

2008-10-29T07:36:00.000-07:00

Even though my round 10 opponent is the 9-year-old girl's chess champion of the world, I felt that I may be more tactical than she is. I needed to win this round and the next just to match my score in last World Youth Chess Championships in Turkey. She was also the 4th Indian player I competed.

My opponent has short hairs like many other Indian girls. She looked very confident.

As I made several moves in the opening, I forgot the line. Within 15 moves I had to trade my queens. After 1 1/2 hours of fight, I got in a slightly better position. 2 1/2 hours after that I won the game by promoting my pawns. The next round will me against a player from Indonesia.

World Youth Chess Championships 2008: Day 9

2008-10-28T07:03:00.000-07:00

Simone with players from China -- Qianqian, Zhuoling, Rui

My 9th round was against the top Chinese player. She has black hairs and dark brown eyes. I had never played someone who was from China before. If I won this game I would have a chance for a medal. I thought I was ready. I came out of the opening with very good situation and let my guard down. Then my opponent was able to turn the table and got the upper hand after long thoughts. I started to think longer and longer. After 3 hours, I ran out of time and lost while my opponent had 3 minutes left on her clock.

Despite not getting a medal, I should still play the rest of games well.

World Youth Chess Championships 2008: Day 8

2008-10-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

My 8th round was on board #1 against the top player of my section who is from Russia and had not lost a game.

Instead of playing her regular opening, my opponent played the opening I had some weak points at. After I played passively, she took advantage of it. I was in a bad position after that and lost in 3 hours.

I need to study harder and work on the opening so that I can be more solid.

World Youth Chess Championships 2008: Day 7

2008-10-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

Simone before Round 7

My 7th round was against a Woman FIDE Master from Peru. I had played her before so I thought that I knew her style. She had black hairs that ran down the middle of her back and black large eyes. She played a line her coach prepared against me and it worked for her, but she was not familar about the concept following the opening. After 4 hours of middle game, both of us were running all of time and eneregy. As I sneaked in my queen and tore open her defense, her position got very weak. She resigned before I took her queen.

Simone and Coach Michael

Simone and Coach Aviv

Simone and FIDE Master Darwin

Simone and Woman Master Sarah

Simone and Jennie

World Youth Chess Championships 2008: Day 6

2008-10-25T04:19:00.000-07:00

Today is a free day after 5 days of competition

After 5 days of tough fighting we had a free day with no rounds. Instead of spending a lot of time taking a tour offered by the hotel, a couple of us decided just to go see the statue of Jesus, one of very few places in the area "worthwhile" to see. So that we can have the rest of time working on chess.

Sarai, Simone, Hannah and Katherine

When we got there, we found the unfortunate. We have to climb 30-40 uneven stone stair cases since the statue was on the highest hill in Vung Tau. To make matters even worse, there was an average of 30 steps per staircase! When I finally reached the top of all the stair cases, I was exhaused, so was everyone else. Then I realized that people were going into the statue. Once I got in, I saw another 10 stories of staircases, except they were thin and narrow and seemed to go up forever. After endless climbing I finally got to the top of the statue and had a good look of the city from the top in the gust of strong wind.

By the way everyone in my group climed up to the top. We have a tough team!

At the Jesus Statue

walking out of the hotel

On the street of Vung Tau

ran into player Ye Qian Qian from China

World Youth Chess Championships 2008: Day 5

2008-10-24T12:36:00.000-07:00

Today's weather is much different from the very hot and cloudy weather I had exprienced in last couple of days. It started at night time when a loud boom of thunder woke me up, followed by heavy rain that sounded like people dropping gallons of water by the second. A couple hours later if stopped raining, but within an hour the rain came right back. It went off and on several times thoroughout the day.

Round 6 against another high rated India player

My sixth round was against the #2 seeded person. When I looked at her prior games, she seemed more solid than my other opponents so far. When I saw her I found that she was about 1 1/2 feet taller and looked very mature. When the game started, I realized that she was not very familiar with the opening and lost 2 pawns. Then in the very early middle game, she made a blunder so big that eventually cost her 2 rooks after some combinations. She was not able to recover from this for the rest of the game. To her credit, she did fight hard for 2 hours in the situation.

World Youth Chess Championships 2008: Day 4

2008-10-23T06:17:00.000-07:00

view from DIC Star Hotel #1

view from DIC Star Hotel #2

Big Knights at the Tournament Entrance

After preparation work, I was full of confidence when I stepped into the tournament hall. Although I was a little nervous about my new opening, I knew I was able to get an edge over my opponent.

Simone before Round 5

After the game began, I found that my opponent liked to think for a while every move. In one move, she even considered for half an hour! These European girls are simply amazing. I moved quickly since I was able to think on her time and also knew the opening better than she did. I spent most of the time walking around checking out my teammates' games. After my opponent used up all her time but 5 minutes, I was in a completely winning position while I used about 15 minutes. She resigned when I launched the final attack to win the game in 4 moves.

Simone analyzing game with Coach Armen

Hannah did very well for her first World Youth Championship appearence with 4.5/5. I think she will win big!

Margaret, Hannah and Simone

World Youth Chess Championships 2008:D3 Rd4

2008-10-22T04:18:00.000-07:00

Round 4 is about to start

Another game against a tough player from India

I had my first defeat of the tournament in this round. I was tired after waking up early and doing one game in the morning. I attemped to nap unsuccessfully before the round in the evening but I thought that I was ready. As I started the game, I noticed that my opponent's coach had special preparation against my line so I was not able to have a good game after the opening. Although I was not completely aware of the position, I sacrificed a piece for 2 pawns hoping to open up her defense. Later on in the game I found that it had not been a good idea. After 3 and half hours of fight my opponent won. I need to play more solidly in the rest of the tournament.

World Youth Chess Championships 2008: Day 3

2008-10-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

Today is a busy day for me. This is the only day in the tournament containing 2 rounds of games.

First I'd like to describe the tournament place. The tournament hall is a sport arena large enough to host a basketball game. The entrance is decorated with 5-foot tall sparkling chess pieces and a ginormous balloon with the World Youth Tournament Logo on it. The inside of the tournament hall has bleachers that spectators can watch the games "quietly". There are also big chess pieces but unlike the outside, there are flags of all the countries that attended the tournament hanging down from the ceiling. There is also a large stage.

Before Round 3 -- against the 10-year-old Asian Champion

My 3rd round was against a girl from India, a strong chess playing country. Since I outplayed her in the opening by sacrificing a bishop to open up her king side, the game only lasted 1 hour. I think it is again a lucky win.

World Youth Chess Championships 2008: Day 2

2008-10-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

Guess which countries are those flags of?

Vietnamese music was played at dinner

My first morning walk on the beach

This morning I woke up early again (due to jetlag I guess) and walked to the beach for the first time. It is hot and very humid here.

Simone outside the tournament hall

Simone in front of the World Youth Championships sign

Simone before round 2

My second round was against a tough Turkish girl. She had curly brown hairs that were almost black. She had attended the last World Youth Championships. I was a little over-confident because my victory in the first round yesterday and let my opponent outplay me in most of the middle game with 2 pawns up. My opportunity came one hour later when she moved her rook to the wrong place and was trapped.

Review my game with MAster Aviv

There is no time to feel lucky over this win because my next round will be a lot tougher.

World Youth Chess Championships 2008:Day 1

2008-10-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after registeration, the long bus ride and lots of confusion, we finally reached the hotel in the afternoon. As I looked around in the hotel room, I saw 3 coaches, 2 beds (with a mean of 4 feet wide and range of 2 feet -- I am sure you can figure out the width of each. When you do please post your answer in the comment), 2 mirrors, 1 closet, a couple of drawers and a clock. At 6:30 pm I felt very tired and slept for 12 hours. I usually don't wake up at 6:30 am, but I did today because the time difference and also the loud sound of construction work, which my dad had to "communicate" to the hotel manager. I was tired but I was fully ready for the fight.

Hannah has become a big girl

Simone with 2-time champion Ivana

Simone before Round 1

My first round was against the strongest 9-year-old girl from Vietnam, the hosting country. She has a very long name and very short hairs in pig tails. Since it was the first round the organisers (again, European English) did not know how to seat us. The tournament started late after we played a few rounds of musical chairs. My opponent performed well in last World Youth competition in my section so I was very careful and she was as well. After 3 hours of hard battle, I managed to get to the end game with an extra passed pawn. I won the game shortly after I promoted this lucky pawn.

Simone and Margaret

World Youth Chess Championships 2008:Day -1

2008-10-19T04:01:00.000-07:00

Since there is no direct fly from LA to Ho Chi Minh, VN, we stopped in Hongkong, one of the biggest cities in China. Although it is said to be a very interesting place with many tourist attractions, I did not have time to explore outside the airport because I did not have time other than staying in long queues (the European English word for "lines").

After 3 hours, we finally arrived Ho Chi Minh but my journey was far from ending. First the visa process was extremely long and chaotic, followed by the 2-hour bus ride on local streets from Ho Chi Minh to Vung Tau. Since there were not enough seats on the bus, I had to squeeze between a heavily trained competitor from Azerbijian Hojjatova and heavily weighted luggages during the 2 hours. Then I had to wait in more queues to sign up the tournament before I finally checked in the hotel and showered.

After going through all this hard work and stress, I have even more reasons to do my best in the up-coming tournament.

One good thing is that there are many local volunteers in Vung Tau for this event. They are helpful.

World Youth Chess Championships 2008: Day -2

2008-10-19T03:11:00.000-07:00

After the exciting long Friday with school, soccer, rushing to the airport, etc., I experienced the shortest Saturday in my life! I did not eat or drink but slept through most of it because I was tired. To make it more confusing, I actually only slept 6 hours yesterday. This is where the concept of "time zone" comes in. Since Vietnam, the country I am going where the World Youth Chess Championships 2008 will be held, is 15 hours ahead of California. When I got on the plane, it was about 12:00 am 18 Oct. When the plane flew west, at certain point, we crossed an invisible line -- the international date line -- which changed the day from 18 Oct to 19 Oct, during the time when I was sound asleep on the plane. That was how I spent my short Saturday.

World Youth Chess Championships 2008: Day -3

2008-10-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

This year the World Youth Chess Championships will be on October 19 to 31st. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that the tournament was held in Turkey last time. Recently my dad has been reminding me that I will be play in the section for 10 year-olds, which will be much stronger than the 8 year-olds group I played in last year. I need to step up to the challenge!

The World Youth Chess Championships 2008 will be held in Vung Tau, a seaside town in Vietnam. Including passports, security and connecting flights, the trip will take about a whole day. Vietnam is almost halfway around the world from US. I'll need to cross the entire Pacific Ocean -- the biggest ocean on earth.

Girls in Chess

2008-09-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

Girls are rarely seen in chess tournaments, especially in more "serious" ones. In the 2008 Southern California Open last weekend, if I do not count the scholastic part of tournament, there were only 10 females in the total of about 150 players. Some aisles were filled with gentlemen only while the other ones were barely decorated by isolated ladies!

Simone and Annie

Annie is a bright young chess star. I had never seen her before, but I was able to spot her easily before the tournament started because she had certain things that clicked in my brain. As a 6-year old, she was brave enough to play the open section of the scholastic tournament. Being a provisional player in USCF and only studied chess for one year, she has already accomplished a lot, such as winning 3 games out of 6 in the 2008 Susan Polgar Invitational. She reminds me of another young girl I met in Texas, the chess genius, the top girl under 8 in the nation -- Hannah. They are both very smart, active and full of curiosity. Of course there will be some time before Annie may be able to catch up with Hannah.

Simone and Anna

Anna came from the chess super power country of Armenia, just like Tatev, the top girl under 21 in US. Tatev is also the strongest of the six females in the open section of this tournament. Anna is skinny, but definitely very tough mentally and physically. Anna is good at spending a lot of time analyzing positions in long games, which often results in many good moves. Despite our age difference, Anna and I became friends after seeing each other in several tournaments. We played each other 3 times with mixed results. I always feel that I can learn from her. Her younger brother is also a very talented chess player and actually has a similar rating as his powerful sister.

Simone and Simone

Simone is not the most common name. On the USCF rating list, Simone Sobel and I are the higher rated ones with this name. Of course she is much stronger than I am. I had always wondered how she looked like. My question was answered when we both were in an Agoura tournament one month ago. To my surprise, we were actually paired against each other in round 5 of that tournament. Before that game started, Simone told me that she had rarely played against girls and never against anyone also named Simone. I soon found that she was not going to be mercy on me because of that. She won that game in 3 hours after I made some soft moves. We met each other again in this tournament. I was lucky not have to lose to her again since we were in separate sections.

How did we girls do in the tournament? Tatev tied for the first in the open section. Overall, we were above the average in this tough competition, which proves that female can do just as well. I am wondering why there are not more of us participating in this wonderful game of chess. I would really like to see more females especially girls playing at a higher level.

Pan American Youth Chess 2008 - Day 4: Award

2008-07-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

We took some team photos in the afternoon. I wish we had a team uniform like all the teams from the other countries.

Team USA

Team USA Girls: Ellen, Reva, Alena, Simone, Sylvia, Evan, Courtney and Claudia. Where are Darrian and Nicole?

Thanks again, Master Aviv!

with Master Claudia

Thanks Dr. Huang for looking after me when I was sick

The closing ceremony was held in a wet tennis court with no chairs. The stage was the size if an average king size bed. The anouncers only spoke in Spanish. I worked so hard in the games but all I got was a small lousy silver medal and a possible FIDE WFM title.

My second international medal

Medal and Certificate close-up

The US Team got the third place team trophy;
Alec got a gold;
Vincent got a silver;
Sylvia got a silver;
Simone got a silver;
Evan got a blonze;
Courtney got a blonze;
Alena got a blonze.
Many other teammates did well in this tournament.

Pan American Youth Chess 2008 - Day 4: Round 9

2008-07-05T09:42:00.000-07:00

In the middle of the evening game the day before yesterday, I started to feel very sick. I was having a very bad headache plus a stomach ache. I had to rest my head on the chess table from time to time, but managed to hold on to my game and win.

After the game finished, my dad had to get me back to the hotel immediately. After resting a little, I decided to have the coach analyze my game. After that my dad and Master Beatriz got the local emergency doctors in to check on me. They examinated me and told me what to eat and what to avoid. At the dinner, the restaurant cook kindly made me a special meal with steak and rice. I went to sleep right after the meal, shower and a few sentences on my blog.

At midnight, I had a very high fever. I was so warm that my dad claimed that he could fry a raw egg on my forehead. After I took some Motrin I was able to sleep after 2 hours.

I slept until 30 minutes before the round started the next morning. I ate something plain and suddenly I felt worse in my stomach. After I threw up I rested for a while. I decided that I wanted to play more since I was the ranked #1 in my section at that time.

After my dad and I took a taxi there I was 45 minutes late. My dad carried me into the hallway and told me if my head or stomach felt any worse I should just quit. I played for 2 hours and accepted a draw. I felt bad because I could have won if I were in better shape.

My dad made me eat some chicken soup and take a long nap after this game. He also asked one of the boys Vincent's dad Dr. Huang to take a look at me.

I was the last one to get out of my room and get on the bus to the tournament site. When my team saw me walked up, they gave me a loud applause. I felt really encouraged. In round 8 in the evening, I was against a Columbian. We played in equal position for 2.5 hours until I thought about 10 minutes and sacrificed my bishop to open up my opponent's king side. She thought for a long time and took my bishop. I got 2 pawns and attacked her king with my queen, a rook and a knight. She fought back very hard and I was not able to checkmate her. But during my attack, I got her bishop and 1 more pawn. After I traded down I had a bishop and 6 pawns, leaving my opponent with a knight and 3 pawns. Before I pushed the pawns to the end, she resigned.

This morning I felt better on my head but I had to go to the bathroom 6 times in 2 hours. After I took my medicine I was better but I was again 20 minutes late for my last round. I was determined to do my best in this game even though my dad told me not to worry much about the points and rank. My opponent was a girl with brown hair and wore a fluffy pink coat. We both played solidly until my opponent overlooked my attack of a mate in one.

I am glad that I was able to tough it out in this tournament. I only felt a little bad as I missed the first place by a small tiebreak point difference. I wished my body could have been a little stronger. I will exercise more after I get back home.

I was very sick

with strong girls from Peru

Eric did well against the high rated

Evan, Simone, Ellen and Stan

Pan American Youth Chess 2008 - Day 3: Round 6

2008-07-03T16:02:00.001-07:00

In round 6 my teammate Evan and I switched opponents. Mine was an Mexican girl with glasses. She was very good and drew my very powerful teammate in the previous round. She played solidly without big blunders until she missed a mate in 2 and lost.

Simone and Evan waiting for our opponents of round 6

Stan continues his uphill battle

Pan American Youth Chess 2008 - Day 3: Round 5

2008-07-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

Getting everything ready for round 5, including adjusting my glasses

I got up late this morning because I was preparing last night after the pairing was posted after 10 pm. That is the problem of playing more than 1 game every day since a player had little time to work her next game. I rushed to the site after getting off the bus but slipped and fell. Dad told me to walk slowly just like making my chess moves.

In round 5 I played a "true" strong opponent. We fought for 3 hours until the end game when I had one pawn up but I was not able to win it after moves that filled one whole score sheet. I really need to learn my end game!!

My brother before round 5

Pan American Youth Chess 2008 - Day 2: Rd 3&4

2008-07-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

I had a busy day today with 2 long games and all the preparation work.

Round 3 was against a Brazilian player whose family stayed in the same hotel as we do. She is a short and sweat 9 year old just like me so I almost under-estimated her which caused the game to go extra long. I promise myself to play more carefully next time.

Round 4 was against the best player from Ecuador. Someone had told me that the Ecuador players and Peru players are strong and well trained. Indeed my opponent was familiar with her opening. I played very patiently until I was up. But then I got careless and missed several chances to finish the game earlier. During the analysis after the game, Coach Armen said that I was torturing my opponent by taking her pieces slowly and squeezing her. That was not my intention.

My little brother did not do well today. He blundered in his first game. Then he touched the wrong piece in the second game by accident and was called the tough-move rule by his opponent. Since he did not speak Spanish he was not able to explain the situation to the TD and ended with losing a whole rook. I hope he do better tomorrow.

Pan American Youth Chess 2008 - Day 1: Round 2

2008-07-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

The second round was against my teammate Evan. She improved a lot since April.

The tournament hall has an interesting shape.

Stan won his second game after lost his first.

Pan American Youth Chess 2008: Day 1: Round 1

2008-07-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

Today I had to wake up really early because the round started at 9 am. That was 5 am in California Time! When I looked at the pairing sheet with my sleepy eyes, I said to myself, "Oh no, not again!" I was on board 1 against the top seed, a WFM rated 2100 FIDE! I had the same "luck" in the first round of World Youth 2007 last Novemeber when I played my opponent's teammate, a girl rated 2000 FIDE.

My opponent was a girl with long hairs and brown eyes, from Columbia. This time I learned not to be scared.

Before Round 1

We both played solidly. I was very patient advancing my position until my opponent blundered. I won this game in 3 hours.

Review Games with Master Aviv

My brother in a soccer side event

Pan American Youth Chess - Day 0 again

2008-06-30T11:24:00.001-07:00

The tournament is delayed to start tomorrow.

Some players and families were still in Buenos Aires last night due to bad weather so the round was delayed. After I overslept and ate breakfast, I met Sylvia, one of the players in the Sub-12 girls on the US team. Sylvia is a very strong player, and when I played her I lost.

After sitting on the couch for a very long, we the US team walked to Monaco hotel to register (a fancy word that means pay money) and get our badges. The walk to the hotel took around 20 minutes, so afterwards I was tired. Later I studied.

Pan American Youth Chess 2008: Day 1 - Arrival

2008-06-29T15:24:00.001-07:00

Today I arrived Cordoba, Argentina after a bus ride of more than one hour from the airport.

I found that there are some differences between Argentina and U.S.

The U.S. Team stayed in a hotel other than the main tournament hotel of Monaco. Both hotels are small.

Although we were tired, Stan is looking forward to his first meal in the hotel, which turned out to be just a plain sandwich and some burned fries.

In the afternoon we took a taxi from our hotel to Monaco to register for the tournament and see the opening ceremony. The line is very long for registering and we were too tired to wait. What was worse was that the ceremony was canceled because many players are stuck in the Argentina capitol and could not come in.

Pan American Youth Chess 2008: Day 0: Coming in

2008-06-29T04:44:00.000-07:00

My brother and I are going to Pan American Youth Chess 2008. It is hot in Los Angeles but it is actually winter in Argentina where the tournament will be held.

This is my brother's first long fly and also his first time out of the country, so he is excited. There are 24 kids in the US Team. I met a few on the plane. They are much stronger players. I hope they do well.

The security line in the airport was very long. After the plane eventually took off, I played with the LCD system on my seat. I learned a few Spanish words from some program and hope it may help me in Argentina.

After 11 hours of flight overnight, we arrived Santiago. Unlike my brother, I could not sleep on the plane. I am tired and will catch some sleep in the airport before getting on my next flight to Cordoba.

I woke up 1 hour or 2 later and it was still one hour before taking off so I went to the gift shop enjoying various local art work. Dad bought me a key chain I made with some beads spelling my name. I found that 1 dollar equaled to 500 Chilian pesos. This is more surprising then Japanese Yen.

When I came out, we ran into Michael, Alena and her dad. Alena was one of the girls on the USCF magazine cover of 4 girls' group photo early this year. We both went to the World Youth Chess Championships in 2007.

My brother and I stayed as long as we could on the ground before our plane left Santiago.

My heart goes out to children in Sichuan

2008-05-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today I heard from my dad that earlier this week there was an earthquake with a 7.9 magnitude happened in Sichuan, China. It wiped out more than 10,000 lives in many towns and villages. I feel bad for them, especially the children in schools. Many of them died because they were buried under pieces of concrete while studying in their classrooms. It took a long time for rescue workers to come since the places were messed up and the roads were blocked with rocks. Even though the earthquake only lasted minutes, the damage was horrifying. It makes me scared and sad just to think of it.

Although I myself need a lot of money for my chess, especially the international tournaments, my brother and I took some from our piggy banks and donated to Sichuan because I think the children there need help. Here is a letter from the American Red Cross to me after they received my donation.

Dear Simone & Stan,

Thank you for your generous gift to the American Red Cross in response to the earthquake that devastated China on May 12, 2008. Your gift makes it possible for the Red Cross to provide comfort and hope to disaster victims across the affected region, helping to meet critical needs such as for shelter, food, relief supplies and other emergency assistance.

The American Red Cross works to improve the lives of vulnerable people in China and around the world. We speed relief to disaster survivors and help communities to prepare for the next emergency. We lead programs to prevent deadly diseases such as measles, malaria and HIV/AIDS. We reconnect families separated by crisis or conflict, and promote understanding of the global humanitarian principles that guide our work. Each year, the American Red Cross and our Red Cross and Red Crescent partners worldwide improve the lives of millions of people. Please continue to visit us at http://www.redcross.org/ for the most current disaster updates and information about our programs worldwide.

Your generous support means the most to the people who rely on the Red Cross to help them through some of the most difficult times of their lives. Our work can only be accomplished because of compassionate donors like you.

Sincerely,

The American Red Cross

2008 National All Girls Chess Tournament: Day 2

2008-04-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

Before Round 5: with No. 1 Player Evan

Before Round 6: The Final Round

Got my trophy from IM Irina

Margaret is a good player

2008 National All Girls Chess Tournament: Day 1

2008-04-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

Before Round 1

Before Round 2

Restaurant Lunch

Outside the Marriott

Before Round 3

Before Round 4

With WCM Claudia

With IM Irina Krush

2008 National All Girls Chess Tournament: Day 0

2008-04-26T05:15:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I had to get out of school 30 minutes earlier to catch the flight to Dallas to attend the 2008 National All Girls Chess Tournament. I had expected a short and relaxing trip but it was still very tight because the lines were long every step of my way. Finally I got to the hotel by 11:30 pm. I couldn't believe that I was on the road for 7 hours!
Me with my brother before I left school for Dallas

By the way, my new braces are hurting my teeth and my gum a lot. That was why my smile looked awful.

My Chess 2007

2008-01-02T07:42:00.000-08:00

Studying hard, concentration and determination led me to good progress.

Studying hard has given me knowledge so I can be better at opening and endgames. Books can be hard to read sometimes so I did some of my training on the computer.

Concentration is needed in the the game and in practice. I sometimes chew gum to stay alert in long games.

Determination is important because sometimes I need to motivate myself to play well in tough games. Also, I don't want to be over-confident or discouraged.

As a result now I am able to see better during my games and have done well in some tournaments. By the way, the side effects of being a good scholastic chess player is more traveling on planes which makes me sick sometimes. For example, during 2007 I had to ride planes to Corpus Christi, Sacramento, Mexico and Turkey just for chess tournaments. In Turkey it took me days to feel normal again after 26 hours of travaling in the air and on the road; not to mention I had to miss school and to make up work later.

Here is one game I played on 2008 new year's day.

[Event "ICC 35 10"]
[Site "ICC"]
[Date "2008.01.01"]
[White "ncg"]
[Black "RBim"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Detail "Checkmated"]
[WhiteElo "1684"]
[BlackElo "1684"]
[Opening "Sicilian"]
[Time "23:52:09"]
[Control "2100+10"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 d5 4. exd5 exd5 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 Nf6 7. Bg5 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Qd2 Nc6 10. dxc5 Be6 11. Rad1 Bxc5 12. Bxf6 Qxf6 13. Nxd5 Qxb2 14. Bc4 Rad8 15. Qe2 Bf5 16. Bb3 Rfe8 17. Qc4 Qa3 18. Nf6+ gxf6 19. Qxf7+ Kh8 20. Qxf6# {Black checkmated} 1-0

In the position showed above, I played white and found a move that I thought would benefit me. I made it hoping to gain some materials but ended with winning the game shortly because my opponent did not find the best response. Is there a better move for white?

Everybody Loves Flat Raymond

2007-12-25T14:14:00.000-08:00

teaching Flat Raymond to play soccer

Several days ago I received a brown envelope from Texas. When I opened it, I found a boy made of paper inside about 8 inches tall. His t-shirt was colored grey and his pants were blue. He also had funny looking pitch black hairs. A note was attached to it with a signature of Raymond, who just won the national first grade chess championship! Raymond named the paper boy Flat Raymond and sent him to me to spend the holidays.

Flat Raymond is now on the tennis court

So far I have taken Flat Raymond to several places including my soccer practice and my tennis practice. I am writing up my experience with Flat Raymond and will send him back along with my writings to his owner Champion Raymond.

World Wouth Chess Championships 2007: Day 11

2007-11-28T06:58:00.000-08:00

Today was the last round, the round that you'd use all your remaining energy. I woke up early at 8:45. My opponent was a big and tall girl from Iran. She was a tough player and had beaten my teammate in an earlier round. When the game started, I played the line I was well prepared for. Soon I got my bishop and queen lined up against the opponent's uncastled king. Then I took my opponent's knight and bishop with my other bishop in move 11. My opponent took my bishop back with a rook obviously still trying to castle, allowing me to fork her king and rook in the next move. She gave up and resigned after. I only used 5 minutes on my clock. I was ready for the toughest fight for the last round but it turned out to be the easiest.

Thanks coaches and thanks Larry!

prepared for round 11 - the last game

The US team did well this year.

Daniel got gold in Boys-12
Sarah got silver in Girls-10
her brother Jonathan got 6th in Boys-8
Brian got 7th in Boys-10
Ray got 7th in Boys-14
Simone got 6th in Girls-8

I said good bye to everyone after dinner. I learned a lot from this World Youth.

Relax on the beach after the tournament

thank you Master Aviv

With Boys-10 Champion Chinese player Wang Tong Sen

On the stage

With my small medal

World Youth Chess Championships 2007: Day 10

2007-11-27T09:01:00.000-08:00

Today my dad let me sleep in for 1/2 hour more. I ate breakfast in my hotel room. During Aviv's lesson we went over some previous games at this tournament. It was nice to have a master to coach me every single day. At lunch I barely ate. I wasn't nervous but I strained myself not to be over-stuffed and over-confident.

The Alinda hotel for players from some other countries

The game finally came. My opponent was of my size with black hair. I played solid and soon controlled the center. After a while, I created a passed pawn and pushed it forward backed by my queen. My opponent panicked and blundered. I wiped out her pawns aorund the king and surrounded her poor kings with 2 queens and a rook. I won the game in a little more than 2 hours.

Simone not looking at pairing sheet for round 10

World Youth Chess Championships 2007: Day 9

2007-11-26T10:14:00.000-08:00

Today I got up early tired although my dad made sure I slept on time last night. He had to wake me up by laying out the souveniors we bought.

In Master Aviv's lesson, we reviewed some openings and then practiced some variations. I felt that I knew better about some concepts but there were still many things I was not very clear on.

The main pool of Limra

The statue of 3 dolphins

I am heading out

Lunch was good today with some delicous chicken nuggets and specially fresh green apple juice. I ate quite a few until my dad had to stop me from stuffing myself.

This hotel has a big name - World Palace

I started round 9 with the opening I was prepared for but in the middle, I was not able to recall the moves I supposed to make. So I started to invent my own according to my understanding of the chess principles. I got an attack on the queen side with my queen and rook and then I started to make blunders, letting my opponent folk my queen and rook. I was down a bishop and then a rook but I kept on fighting for another hour and half until I lost. After the game, the coaches said that I had a completely winning position. They questioned me how I could lose such a game. I feel really bad.

Simone before round 9

World Youth Chess Championships 2007: Day 8

2007-11-25T08:05:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up ready for round 8. Once again I ate breakfast at the cafe. I drank 3 cups of orange juice, not breaking my record of 4.

Turkish Chess Federation

Simone on the walkway to the dorm

At Aviv's lesson, I reviewed a couple opening lines. I prepared as hard as I could. But I was not able to predict what would happen in the tournament. I promise myself to try my best to fight for the US team.

Simone outside the playing hall again

After that we took a bus to Kemer, a small town 5 minutes ride up the coast. I found most people there speak good English. I guess it is important to know a foreign language. Which one should I study?

Simone on Kemer street

Simone and mermaid

Simone in a Kemer seaside park

When I confidently walked to my board before round 8, I found my opponent already sitting at her seat. She had long brown hair and was the average size of an 8 year-old girl. She is from a country SVK. I still wonder which country it is. This girl was amazing. She came into this tournament with 2 losts first. Guess what, then she won 5 games in a row. "That girl needs to be stopped before I become her number 6 victim!" I said to myself.

The game started and we moved quickly, so fast that I couldn't remember the last time I moved like this. In one and half hours, we were already at the late middle game. With a pawn down, my opponent tried to launch an attack but blundered badly. I was able to discover her pieces twice. Now with a queen down, my opponent kept on fighting. I soon trade her last power piece, a rook. She still wouldn't give up and pushed her pawns to deadend positions obviously trying for a stalemate. I slowed down, tightened my position carefully and checkmated her. She had good fighting spirit.

Simone before round 8

World Youth Chess Championships 2007: Day 7

2007-11-24T13:03:00.000-08:00

Today I got up early again. After my quick breakfast, I played a little on the jungle gym. I guess that could be counted as morning exercises.

Simone on the jungle gym

After that I went to study with GM Aviv Friedman. He explained to me patiently. When I went back to my dorm, I reviewed the materials and wrote down the main lines and some variations. I thought I was ready for the game this afternoon.

Simone with GM Friedman

Afer a couple of hours study, I went for a walk outside the Limra hotel. I found that there were couple other nice hotels nearby. I walked to one of them. The buildings looked like big ships. There were also several dogs wondering around, just like several cats wondering in Limra. So I called this hotel the "dog" hotel. I was tired after walking so my dad had to carry me all the way back to Limra.

I walked to the "dog" hotel

When we came back, it was the time for the US team pictures. WE stood there waiting for all players and coaches to arrive. After most of us were here, we had to smile for 10 minutes for everyone with camera to shoot at us. My face was sore after that.

Then my dad also took this opportunity to take photos of me with some young teammates.

Simone and Evan

Simone and Varun

Round 7 started in the afternoon. I was playing against the Russian Girls' Champion. She is a tall girl with a big pony tail. She is very familiar with the opening theory as I had expected. Soon I was down a pawn and then a knight. I was going to lose again. I could not let this happen! I started to think for long time when my opponent started to walk around in delight. After 3 hours of hard fight, I got my piece back with some complex tactics and brought the game to an even position. I was a little relieved but still alert. We fought for another hour until neither of us could move forward. I offered my opponent a draw but she was too proud to accept. After a few minutes, she offered me to draw but this time I decided to play a little longer. Another half hour passed. We finally got into a position that we just moved our piece without capturing others. We both were smart enough to stop the game before we had to play another 30 minutes and declare the draw on the 50-move rule. It was dark and cold when I walked out but I felt hope. I think we American girls can play just as well as the Russian girls if we just try.

Simone before round 7

World Youth Chess Championships 2007: Day 6

2007-11-23T11:14:00.000-08:00

The Democracy Statue of Antalya

Simone and US Teammates

Simone and Canadian Kids

At the Antalya Waterfall

World Youth Chess Championships 2007: Day 5

2007-11-22T02:34:00.000-08:00

Today I got up early, early enough that I didn't miss breakfast. I went to the cafe and for the first time I saw all the cereals and breakfast desserts. Yum!

Outside the cafe where I eat every day

I wish the water park is open

On my way back to my dorm

I had 2 games today. One in the morning and one in the late afternoon. Last night I was scared stiff. When my dad found the pairings for round 5 for me, I found that my opponent was the girls' champion of Panamericano 2007 from Ecuador. I did some preparation and was ready to fight again.

I am ready for round 5

MY opponent turned out to be a short girl with brown hair. We played solidly until my attack slowed and she hung her rook. I gradually won the game. Now I "officially" played all champion girls from North and South America of my age.

Round 6 was against a girl from Finland. She fought for 3 hours until I was up in exchange R vs B and I had 2 rooks on 7th rank. Then my opponent got a passed pawn and pushed it to the 2nd rank. Since all my pieces were tied up in the attack, I decided to use my king to stop it. Then my opponent made a brilliant combination with clearance exchange with a queen check and wiped out my rook. I was suddenly down a piece and threatened by a passed pawn. I overlooked again! I was going to lose a winning game! And my time is running out! My mind went blank for a few minutes until I concentrate myself again. I focused on my 3 advanced pawns and use them as my weapon. We fought for another hour until both sides were completely out of brain juice and most of the time. We shook our hands and walked out together with a draw. I was very impressed with that girl.

World Youth Chess Championships 2007: Day 4

2007-11-21T12:06:00.000-08:00

Today is very windy, so I did my morning walk with jacket on. I did not sleep too well last night because some kid in the neighbor kept crying. I looked tired in the photos.

Simone in the back of the dorm

Can you see the snow on the mountain?

How many colors does the ocean have?

I am doing jumping jacks

Round 4 was a disaster for me. I moved the knight to the wrong square and missed an obvious attack from the opponent early on in the game. I lost badly. I must pay more attention in the future.

Round 4

Tomorrow I have an early game. I need to sleep now so that I can get up on time to prepare.

World Youth Chess Championships 2007: Day 3

2007-11-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

Simone outside her dorm

Simone in the corridor

Simone on the bridge

Today I got up really late because the sun did not come up. It was very cloudy. My morning walk was pretty much around the staircase before I went to study with Master Kudrin. I was late to lunch so I had to wait for a table. After that I only practiced a few chess opening variations and watched some endgame videos on the computer.

I went to the playing hall with my dad and walked into the room of my section. I was surprised again that I could not find my seat. Then the tournament director told me that I was shifted to another room again. Why? Later on I learned I was "upgraded" to the "first class", thanks to my opponent, the best scoring girl player of the hosting country Turkey for my age.

Simone before round 3

We played pretty fast. I made a blunder again in the middle game, losing a bishop. Then my opponent got greedy and grabbed my a-pawn allowing me to pin her knight and to win it. We fought for one and a half hours in equal position. My opponent grew impatient and went for a threat for mate, completely forgetting she moved her queen into the long diagonal of my queen. Her face turned red when she raised her head from the score sheet and saw her queen off the board. After I pointed out my move, she stared at the board when I walked away to observe other games. A minute later, I felt a tap on the shoulder. It was my opponent who led me to our board and showed me that she resigned.

World Youth Chess Championships 2007: Day 2

2007-11-19T10:48:00.000-08:00

This morning I got up late and missed breakfast as usual because my dad did not wake me. I wonder if that's his strategy to not let me fall asleep during the afternoon games. I went for a short walk to the beach since it was not raining like last night.

Simone's Morning Walk

The sun is shining again on the beach

Then I studied again with Grandmaster Kudrin. But he did not coach me much today because I was to play against my team member Evan. Evan is the top US girl player for my age and has been a regular chess champion before I even started chess.

Simone with Grandmaster Kudrin

Simone with Master Daniel (not a joke!)

Simone's salad lunch before the game

Simone with 2007 British Girls' Champion Anna

After the game started, my opponent Evan moved faster than I could blink. Apparently she is a natural. Soon I was a pawn down. I told myself I would lose if I let this go on. So I started attacking her king side but she defended very well and kept gobbling up my pawns. As things not looking good for me, I moved slower and slower. Then I sneaked my rook into the 7th rank and pinned her f-pawn. She ignored my threat and continued her counter-attack. I thought for 8 minutes and developed my plan. When I moved, Evan was smart enough to see through my plan right away and smiled slightly in disbelief. I checkmated her soon.

World Youth Chess Championships 2007, Day 1

2007-11-18T10:48:00.001-08:00

Today is the first round of the tournament. This morning I studied with Coach GM Sergey Kudrin. When the pairing came up, I was surprised to see myself on board 1 against a 2026 FIDE rated player, who is also the top rated girl for my section. I was not expecting this at all.

Before I had a chance to get more scared of who I was facing, the game starting time came. I was surprised again when I had to go into the tournament by myself without my dad because parents were not allowed in.

I was surprised for the third time that I was not able find my seat because board 1 and board 2 were separated from the rest of the section. After a few times going back and forth between tournament rooms, I finally found my seat, which was in the bigger kids' room.

My opponent came later, right before the tournament started. She was wearing a nice Columbia team uniform, including a jacket, pants and a shirt, much prettier than the US ones. As soon as the game started, I forgot I was supported to be scared. I made moves in confident and easy-going style. We played for 3 and half hours until I blundered in my attack but I found a move to compensate for my mistake, so it actually turned out like a sacrifice. My opponent resigned shortly after the move.

After dinner, I met some players from other countries. The girl in the picture is the 2007 Girl's Champion of Canada for my age. I said hello to her and wished her good luck.

World Youth Chess Championships 2007: Day 0

2007-11-17T01:58:00.000-08:00

I slept 14.5 hours last night until my stomach protested really badly. Again, the plane ride was long and tiring. I did not eat or sleep much then. When we arrived Antalya, the bus ride took more than 1 hour since it was not on a freeway. It took us long time to check in the hotel because there was only one line and we had to wait for one person ahead of us checking in the entire delegation of Russia.

I saw people from different countries with different language and custom. For example, some people wear things over their heads and bodies; otherwise, most clothes children wear are alike.

Turkish Chess Federation

Limra has a big yard

Limra has a big cave

Limra has a green bridge over the green pool

Limra's main tower

I did just a little bit exercise on "openings" this afternoon. After that I watched the "opening" ceremony. It was long because there were many speeches and each had to be repeated in 3 or 4 times in different languages. When I sat there bored, I read some facts about Antalya and Turkey.

I will be back tomorrow and fight...

World Youth Chess Championships 2007: Day -1

2007-11-16T08:09:00.000-08:00

I did not know how painful it was to get to Antalya, Turkey from California, US. Here is a list of places I had to pass by:

California
Nevada
Utah
Colorado
Wyoming
Nebraska
Indiana
Illinois
Lake Michigan
Michigan
Lake Erie
New York
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
New York
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Maine
Canada
Atlantic Ocean
Great Britain
France
Germany
Austria
Hungry
Romania
Burgaria
Turkey

I was excited at the beginning even though I had to get up at 4 am. After countless hours of flying, waiting, walking, bus riding, I just want to go to bed. My dad will post some photos I selected.

Simone departing from California

Like my sketch?

Endless plane rides for Simone

Simone finally arriving Antalya

The hotel is big and fancy

But the pool is green?!

Guess what this is!

Simone Inspecting the playing hall

North America Youth Chess Championships:Day 3

2007-10-07T20:40:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of the tournament. Many of my US Teammates have done well, including several ones leading their groups. Raymond and Robert have won all their games.

At breakfast, a Mexican player asked me to help her practice. I spent some time with her to improve and wished her good luck.

In the last round, I played against the #1 8-year-old girl in Mexico, who has gone to Pan America Championships in Columbia earlier this year. There was some tension in this game. The girl was a thinker and played slowly. I made solid moves and took advantage of a couple of her tactical blunders. I was ahead of material soon and gradually won.

I won all my games in this tournament and got my first international gold medal.

The US Team got 6 medals in this tournament.
Raymond and Tanuj in Boys-8.
Simone in Girls-8.
Claudia in Girls-10.
Aleks in Boys-12.
Robert in Boys-16.

Helping Mexican Player Giovana

Before Round 5

With Teammate Raymond

Award!

The first place!

Check our medals.

With 10-year-old Champion Claudia and US Team Lead Mr. Harwood

The Medalists of the US Team

My Gold Medal

Aguascalientes

North America Youth Chess Championships:Day 2

2007-10-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

Today will be a tight day.

Before Round 3

A game with Chess Prodigy Tanuj

My new friend Sophia

In the pool

The big round #4

North America Youth Chess Championships 2007

2007-10-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't been writing in my blog for a while. I am now at Central Mexico attending North American Youth Chess Championship as a member of the US Team. This is to prepare for the World Youth Championships next month, since it has the same time control and same aged players just a different lanaguage. Here are some photos.

Before the Opening Ceremony

The US Youth Chess Team

Part of the Canadian Team

Ready for Game 1

Game 2 just started

A game with US teammate Ian.

A Game with Raymond, the #1 boy for 7-year-old and under in US

International Soccer Tournament?

May 2007 - Chess practices

2007-05-29T13:18:00.000-07:00

I found that in the last several weeks most chess players I know have made a lot of progress and had good break throughs, including my local chess buddies and my far-away friends Emily, Hannah and Alice. I have been doing the opposite. In May I did some practice tournaments but did not do well. I kept on losing to players who did better than before.

Last weekend I attended a local tournament and played in a higher section than I had before for better practice. I lost several games in a first day because I was not very good, plus I was not focused during longer games. On my way home I promised myself to do better in the rest of the tourney and improved a little the next day.

I took this photo with Master Sevillano and the very nice trophy he just earned for winning this tournament. He and couple other masters were standing behind me during the last few moves of the game when I survived Allan. He encouraged me to study and do better. My dad told me that he was in the US National Chess Championship just a week before. He is a busy man! Most likely I never can be as good as he is but I will still try to improve.

Here are 2 games I played on the 2nd day. I got very lucky in the first game against the central California High School Champ Allan. He had a checkmate threat against me but I calculated 5 variations ahead to mate or draw him instead. He chose the option to be mated!

[Event "MDC 07 Premium"]
[Site "LAX Hilton"]
[Date "2007.5.28"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Allan S."]
[Black "Simone L."]
[TimeControl "2/40 SD/1"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "oft"]
[WhiteELO "1623"]
[BlackELO "1287"]

1.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.Ngf3 Nc6 5.g3 Nge7 6.Bg2 g6 7.O-O Bg7 8.a4 O-O 9.c3 b6 10.Qc2 Ba6 11.Re1 dxe4 12.dxe4 Qc7 13.Bf1 Bxf1 14.Nxf1 Rad8 15.Be3 Ne5 16.Nxe5 Bxe5 17.Rad1 Nc6 18.Kg2 Bg7 19.h3 Rfe8 20.g4 Rd7 21.Ng3 Red8 22.Rxd7 Rxd7 23.Qc1 Be5 24.f4 Bg7 25.h4 Rd8 26.g5 e5 27.f5 Qd7 28.Re2 Qc7 29.Qc2 Qc8 30.Rf2 Bf8 31.Qb3 Na5 32.Qa2 Qb7 33.fxg6 hxg6 34.Rf6 Bg7 35.b4 Bxf6 36.gxf6 Nc6 37.Bh6 cxb4 38.Qc2 bxc3 39.Qc1 Nd4 40.Qe3 c2 41.Bg7 Ne6 42.Qh6 Nf4+ 43.Kf3 Rd3+ 44.Kg4 Qd7+ 45.Nf5 gxf5+ 46.exf5 Rg3+ 47.Kxg3 Qd3+ 48.Kf2 Qe2+ {white resigned} 0-1

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The second game also the last game of the tournament started around 5 pm. Once again I promised myself to try my best not to lose. My opponent was a nice older gentleman rated higher than I. He thought a lot during the game. We played for 4 hours until I was very tired plus I had school the next day so I agreed to a draw. I felt that I can do something at this point. Any ideas?

[Event "MDC 07, Reserved"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2007.5.29"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Simone L."]
[Black "Dan B."]
[TimeControl "40/2 SD/1"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "oft"]
[WhiteELO "1287"]
[BlackELO "1399"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 d6 5.Be3 Nf6 6.Nc3 a6 7.Be2 e6 8.O-O Be7 9.Qd2 O-O 10.Rad1 Qc7 11.Nxc6 Qxc6 12.Bf3 Qc7 13.Bf4 Rd8 14.Rfe1 Qb6 15.b3 e5 16.Bg5 Be6 17.Bxf6 Bxf6 18.Nd5 Bxd5 19.Qxd5 Rac8 20.c4 Rc5 21.Qd2 Qc7 22.Qe2 g6 23.Rd3 Be7 24.Red1 Kg7 25.Rd5 Rc6 26.Qe3 b6 27.Bg4 h6 28.h3 Bg5 29.Qe2 Qa7 30.Qb2 Kg8 31.Qa3 Be7 32.Qa4 Qb7 33.Bf3 Ra8 34.Qa3 Rd8 35.Qb2 Rdc8 36.Bg4 Rd8 37.Bf3 h5 38.Qc2 Qc8 39.Qd2 Kg7 40.Qc2 b5 41.Be2 bxc4 42.Bxc4 Qb7 43.Qe2 Qb6 44.Qf3 Rc7 45.R5d3 Bf8 46.Rd5 Rcd7 47.R1d3 Qb7 48.Qe2 Be7 49.Rg3 *

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One great tournament

2007-04-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

Do I look like an Indian?
Yesterday I went to the American Heritage Tournament in the neighboring county. I signed up for the high school section. The section was in a classroom, away from the main tournament. When I walked in I saw whole bunch of big kids. One of them was a nice looking girl. Later I learned that she was the daughter of the tournament organizer and main director. I faced her in the 2nd round and won. After that I played against the highest rated kid in this tournament. The 7th grader was making all the good moves according to chess principles. We fought for a long time until I was low on time. He was slightly ahead and used his queen to chase mine to trade down, but ignored a small hole in his defense. After I used that and made the checkmate move he smacked his forehead and sank in the chair. When we walked out, Coach J. told me that he would not look at my game. I thought he was just kidding but then I found out that my opponent was his son, who was the 5th grade Southern California Champion 2 years ago even before I started chess. I won all my games including the last round against my friend. I am happy but I am also worried that Coach Jay may give me a hard time in next week's single grade Western States Championship since he will be the main director there. Should I still go???

[Event "Heritage"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2007.4.28"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Simone L"]
[Black "Jackson S"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "oft"]
[WhiteELO "1278"]
[BlackELO "1365"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Nxe4 d5 5.Bb5+ c6 6.Bd3 dxe4 7.Bxe4 Bc5 8.Nf3 Bg4 9.h3 Bh5 10.d3 Qb6 11.O-O Nd7 12.b3 Bd4 13.Rb1 Nf6 14.Bd2 Rd8 15.c3 Nxe4 16.cxd4 Nd6 17.dxe5 Nb5 18.Be3 Qc7 19.d4 Nc3 20.Qe1 Nxb1 21.Qxb1 Bxf3 22.gxf3 Qd7 23.Kh2 Qd5 24.Qf5 Qe6 25.Qg5 Qg6 26.Qh4 Qf5 27.Qg3 g6 28.Rd1 c5 29.d5 h5 30.f4 Qe4 31.d6 b6 32.Qg5 Qf5 33.Qe7# 1-0

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[Event "Heritage"]
[Site ""]
[Date "2007.4.28"]
[Round "5"]
[White "John G"]
[Black "Simone L"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "oft"]
[WhiteELO "1103"]
[BlackELO "1278"]

1.e4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Bd3 Nf6 5.Qe2+ Be6 6.Nf3 Bc5 7.b3 Nc6 8.Bb2 O-O 9.O-O-O Re8 10.h3 d4 11.Ne4
Nxe4 12.Qxe4 g6 13.Rdg1 Bxb3 14.Qf4 Bxa2 15.c4 Nb4 16.Bf1 a5 17.Ng5 Re1# 0-1

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My recent tourneys and games

2007-04-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

I have not been playing well lately. This have been my "mistake" month for some reason. Unexpectedly I lost to several lower rated players. I had poor games online too. I let my opponents have spacial advantage and allow them to use tactics on me. I also had many blunders. Hey, masters, could you please take a look at my recent games and let me know how I can improve?

[Event "ICC 30 0"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.04.11"]
[Round "-"]
[White "illation"]
[Black "newchessgal"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black checkmated"]
[WhiteElo "1646"]
[BlackElo "1597"]
[Opening "French: advance variation"]
[ECO "C02"]
[NIC "FR.03"]
[Time "18:43:28"]
[TimeControl "1800+0"]

1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Bb5 Qb6 6. Bxc6+ bxc6 7. Ne2 Ne7 8. O-O Nf5 9. b3 Bd7 10. Be3 cxd4 11. cxd4 Be7 12. Nbc3 O-O 13. Ng3 Bb4 14. Na4 Qd8 15. Nxf5 exf5 16. f4 Re8 17. a3 Ba5 18. Nc5 f6 19. Nb7 Qc7 20. Nd6 Re7 21. b4 Bb6 22. Qh5 g6 23. Qh4 Rf8 24. a4 a5 25. bxa5 Bxa5 26. Rab1 Bb6 27. Rb2 Qd8 28. Rfb1 Ba5 29. Rb8 Qc7 30. Rxf8+ Kxf8 31. Qxf6+ Kg8 32. Qxe7 Bb6 33. Qf7+ Kh8 34. Qf8# {Black checkmated} 1-0

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[Event "ICC 20 20"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.04.13"]
[Round "-"]
[White "newchessgal"]
[Black "SlowMoe"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black checkmated"]
[WhiteElo "1607"]
[BlackElo "1683"]
[Opening "Caro-Kann: Panov-Botvinnik attack"]
[ECO "B13"]
[NIC "CK.03"]
[Time "13:07:39"]
[TimeControl "1200+20"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Nf3 Bg4 7. Be2 dxc4 8. Bxc4 Bxf3 9. Qxf3 Qxd4 10. Bb3 Rd8 11. O-O Qg4 12. Qe3 Qb4 13. Bd2 Qd6 14. Nb5 Qe5 15. Qxe5 Nxe5 16. Bf4 Ng6 17. Ba4 e5 18. Nc7+ Ke7 19. Be3 b6 20. Rfd1 Rxd1+ 21. Rxd1 Nf4 22. g3 Ng6 23. Bg5 b5 24. Bxb5 Rg8 25. Rd7# {Black checkmated} 1-0

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2007 US Jr. High Championship - Day 3

2007-04-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

Before Round 6

Me and my new friend

Me and more new friends

My brother has done all games.

The California State Capitol

Going home

2007 US Jr. High Championship - Day 2

2007-03-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

Simone before game #3

Simone before game #4

Simone and brother outside the tournament hall

2007 US Jr. High Championship - Day 1

2007-03-31T07:07:00.000-07:00

Leaving Burbank

Arriving Sacramento

Simone before round 1

Stan before round 1

Ready...get set...start!

Tough it out

2007-03-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

I have not been to any chess tournaments since the Super States 2007 at the beginning of month. A week ago, I played with my friends Emily, Alice and Hannah online and lost badly. I feel that I really need to study hard at every aspect of chess. I also need to be much more careful not to make blunders that let my opponent use tactics on me. Finally, I need to tough it out to survive the "boring" games. Today I trained myself and played a G60 online. You can see how I fought until the end with down materials.

[Event "ICC 60 0"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.03.23"]
[Round "-"]
[White "newchessgal"]
[Black "sarr48"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Detail "Black resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1652"]
[BlackElo "1651"]
[Opening "Sicilian defense"]
[ECO "B30"]
[Time "22:49:33"]
[TimeControl "3600+0"]

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1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be2 Bg7 5. d3 d6 6. O-O Nf6 7. Bg5 O-O 8. Qd2 Bg4 9. h3 Bxf3 10. Bxf3 Nd4 11. Be2 a6 12. f4 h6 13. Bxf6 Nxe2+ 14. Qxe2 Bxf6 15. f5 Bd4+ 16. Kh1 b5 17. Rab1 Qa5 18. Nd5 e6 19. Ne7+ Kh7 20. fxg6+
fxg6 21. c3 Bf6 22. Nc6 Qc7 23. e5 dxe5 24. Nxe5 Qxe5 25. Qxe5 Bxe5 26. Rfe1
Bg7 27. Rxe6 Rfe8 28. Rc6 c4 29. dxc4 bxc4 30. Rxc4 Re2 31. a4 Rd8 32. b4
Rdd2 33. Rg1 Rc2 34. Rc6 Rxc3 35. Rxa6 Bd4 36. Rd1 Rc4 37. Rd6 Bg7 38. Rb6
Rec2 39. a5 Rc1 40. Rxc1 Rxc1+ 41. Kh2 Be5+ 42. g3 Rc2+ 43. Kh1 Bxg3 44.
Rb7+ Rc7 45. Rxc7+ Bxc7 46. Kg2 Kg7 47. Kf3 Kf6 48. Ke4 Ke6 49. Kd4 Kd6 50.
Kc4 Kc6 51. b5+ Kb7 52. b6 Bb8 53. Kb5 g5 54. a6+ Ka8 55. a7 Bf4 56. Ka6
{Black resigns} 1-0

My first simul

2007-03-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

Today I went back to the chess class I used to go to few months ago because the new chess teacher had invited me there to encourage his students. When I got there, I found from the teacher that I would be playing a simul as a "junior chess champ". I had done a few simuls but I had never play from the "master" side. The teacher told me not to worry and showed me some basics. Soon many kids started to appear, with some of them I used to study together when I first started to play chess. After the teacher made the announcement about the simul, almost the whole class rushed to the boards. At the first, I started to make quick moves on each board and soon made my hand very tired. After a while as more and more of my opponents finished their games I had to travel longer distance between the remaining boards and made my legs very tired as well. I won all my games as expected. I am sure that the students had fun, as some of them played 2 or 3 rounds against me during the simul. I am glad that I helped to promote chess.

I also played some games online recently. I feel that I really need to improve my opening, mid-game and tactics.

[[Event "ICC 11 7"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.03.09"]
[Round "-"]
[White "newchessgal"]
[Black "tressiag"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Detail "Black resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1539"]
[BlackElo "1561"]
[Opening "Sicilian:"]
[ECO "B30"]
[NIC "SI.31"]
[Time "23:07:44"]
[TimeControl "660+7"]

TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. h3 Qd6 6. Nc3 e5 7. d3 Nf6 8.
Be3 b5 9. a3 b4 10. axb4 cxb4 11. Na4 c5 12. Bxc5 Qc6 13. Bxf8 Rxf8 14. c3
bxc3 15. Nxc3 Ke7 16. Nxe5 Qb6 17. Qc2 Rd8 18. O-O Rb8 19. Rfe1 Qxb2 20.
Qxb2 Rxb2 21. Nc6+ Ke8 22. Nxd8 Kxd8 23. e5 Nd7 24. d4 Rd2 25. Rad1 Rc2 26.
Ne4 Bb7 27. Nd6 Bd5 28. Rc1 Rxc1 29. Rxc1 Ke7 30. Rc8 Nb6 31. Rc5 Ke6 32.
Ra5 f6 33. Rxa6 Nc4 {Black resigns} 1-0

Super States 2007

2007-03-06T17:00:00.000-08:00

During last weekend, I went to the Super States Chess Tournament. It was the largest scholastic chess tournament in southern California once a year. This year, it was held in North Hills, CA. This was a 2-day, 7-round tournament. I was back to play in the K-3 Open with the kids of my age for fun. My friends were surprised when they saw me coming in last minute before the tournament because I just signed up. One of them invited me to his team before others got a chance.

During the 1st day, I easily won my 4 rounds, so was my teammate. So we were the only 4 pointers. The next day started rough for us. My teammate lost his 5th round and I drew mine. The next round I played my teammate and won. I felt bad for him with 2 straight loss coming out a 4-0 the day before. Then I noticed a boy coming out strong with 5 points unexpectedly. He was the one who won my teammate in the 5th rounds and he just won another game against a very good player. The last round he got to the head table to face me. Everyone's attention was focused on this table, wondering if the boy could make another miracle. A defensive draw play would got me the champion but I did not think it was fair to other players. I played very calmly and carefully and soon got ahead. When I won the boy stormed out with tears when my teammates cheered. I am now the "state champion" for 3rd grade and under for 2007. My teammate got #3 and together we took the team champion.

By the way, my little brother had competed in a K-6 reserved section and got 4th with 5 wins out of 7. This was a fun tournament. He also got a team champion.

It was funny that I got to play against my friends the twin chess brothers in round 2 and round 3 in a row. They acturally had the same rating too! Here are the games.

[Event "Super States"] [Round 2] [Date "2007.03.03"] [White "Simone L"] [Black "Aaron Chow"] [Result "1-0"] [Detail "Black resigns"] [WhiteElo "1072"] [BlackElo "959"] [TimeControl "2700+0"]	TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 a6 5. Ba4 b5 6. Bb3 Bb7 7. Bg5 d6 8. 0-0 Nbd7 9. c4 Be7 10. Nbd2 0-0 11. cxb5 axb5 12. Re1 Qc7 13. Rc1 Rfe8 14. d4 d5 15. exd5 exd5 16. dxc5 Nxc5 17. a3 Qb6 18. Be3 Ng4 19. Bd4 Rac8 20. Ba2 Qg6 21. Bxc5 Bxc5 22. Rxe8+ Rxe8 23. Rxc5 d4 24. Rc7 Bxf3 25. Nxf3 Rf8 26. Qxd4 Qh6 27. h3 Nf6 28. Ne5 Re8 29. Bxf7+ Kf8 30. Qd6+ {black resigns} 1-0
[Round 3] [Event "Super States"] [Date "2007.3.3"] [Round "3"] [White "Darren Chow"] [Black "Simone L"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteELO "959"] [BlackELO "1072"] [TimeControl "2700+0"]	TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">

1. d4 e6 2. c4 f56 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Bb4 5. e3 d5 6. Bd2 0-0 7. a3 Bxc3 8. Bxc3 Ne4 9. Bb4 Rf7 10. Ne5 Rf6 11. Bd3 Bd7 12. Nxd7 Qxd7 13. f3 Nd6 14. Qc2 Nc6 15. Bxd6 Qxd6 16. f4 Rg6 17. c5 Qd8 18. 0-0-0 Rc8 19. Bb5 a6 20. Bxc6 bxc6 21. g3 Rh8 22. b4 Rf6 23. Qa4 Qe8 24. Qa6 Ra8 25. Qb7 Rxa3 26. Qxc7 Rf7 27. Qe5 Rfa7 28. Rhf1 Ra1+ 29. Kd2 R1a2+ 30. Ke1 Rb2 31. Rd2 R7a1+ 32. Ke2 Rxd2+ 33. Kxd2 Rxf1 34. Qc7 Qa8 35. Qd7 Qa2+ 36. Kd3 Rd1+ {White Resigns}

My last tournament in February

2007-02-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

I had a thrilling 5-round tournament last weekend. It was held in a place farther than 1 hour's drive from my home so I had to get up early. I am more used to be in the elementary section but this time my dad signed me up for junior high open section so everyone in the section is older and plays well to graduate from lower section.

The first round was long but smooth. The second round was a little harder, against the top rated Fairflex 8th grade tough player. We played carefully for a long time until my opponent made a BIG blunder. I took advantage of that and quickly won the game. Now came the third round against a strong veteran player. I played very solid and made him think for longer and longer time until he got very low on the clock and started to play silly moves and lost. The fourth round was against the best performing 8th grader in this tournament. I made a blunder in the middle game with a rook down, making the game very difficult. But I hung on to the game. In the end, I used my last chance to set him up. He actually fell for it. I mated him right after that. After these long games I was very exhausted so I took the fifth round bye.

My beginner chess player brother did better in this tournament after I told him many times on the way to the tournament to pay attention to each move. He scored 4-1 in the K-3 Champ section where my opponents said that I should belong. My brother had a chance to play well in the game against the top seater but again he forgot to look at the whole board and lost his queen in the middle and was checkmated later.

Here is a game I poorly played game I did recently.

[Event "30 0"]
[Date "2007.02.24"]
[White "vish"]
[Black "newchessgal"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Detail "White resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1135"]
[BlackElo "1173"]
[Opening "French: advance variation"]
[ECO "C02"]
[NIC "FR.03"]
[TimeControl "1800+0"]

TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">

1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Be3 cxd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 f6 8.
f4 fxe5 9. fxe5 Nge7 10. Qh5+ g6 11. Qh4 O-O 12. Bg5 Qe8 13. Bd3 Nf5 14.
Bxf5 Rxf5 15. Bf6 Rh5 16. Qf2 Qf7 17. O-O-O Be7 18. g4 Bxf6 19. exf6 Rh6 20.
g5 Rh5 21. h4 Bd7 22. Nh3 Rc8 23. Nf4 Nd8 24. Nxh5 gxh5 25. Rhg1 b5 26. Kb1
Qg6+ 27. Ka1 b4 28. Ne2 Rc2 29. Rc1 Rd2 30. Qe3 Rd3 31. Qe5 Nc6 32. Qh2 Rd2
33. Nf4 Rxh2 34. Nxg6 hxg6 35. Rh1 Rd2 36. Rcd1 Rxd4 37. Rxd4 Nxd4 38. b3
Bc6 39. Kb2 Nb5 40. Rc1 Bb7 41. Rc5 Nc3 42. a3 Ne4 43. Rc7 bxa3+ 44. Kxa3
Ba6 45. Rxa7 Bb5 46. Rg7+ Kf8 47. Rxg6 d4 48. Rg7 d3 49. Rb7 d2 50. g6 Nxf6
51. Rxb5 d1=Q 52. Rb8+ Kg7 {White resigns} 0-1

SP National Girls Championship 2007

2007-02-19T11:07:00.000-08:00

This was a chess tournament held in Corpus Christi, Texas. My dad and I had to take 2 planes and 7 hours to get there. The weather is colder there than it was at my place. I ended with getting 4 games out of 6. This was not very good for me, especially for the game I lost to a 900. My opponent made quick moves and I thought a lot. When I had a little time left, I moved quick, almost completely randomly. Before I knew it she had checkmated me. I promised myself to control the time better for short games.

Also in the first evening I had my very first puzzle solving contest, which I did not get a award for. One of the fun things was that I made some friends that were from Texas, New Jersey and Maryland. These are the very top girl players in US some of whom I saw some them online regularly but I was glad that I got to meet them face-to-face. And of course, I saw Susan Polgar and her sons again. Last time was in 2006 SP World Championship for Girls in Vegas.

The girls' tournament was in a beautiful meeting room on the tenth floor. The bad thing was and on the first day there was a fire alarm, guess how many flies of stairs we girls had to walk down!!

After the tournament we were waiting outside the hotel for taxi when Dr. Kim, who was the father of my 2 fellow players from Baltimore drove by and he was kind enough to give us ride to the airport. Thank you, Dr. Kim!

SP National Girls 2007 Winners, Grade 3-5, taken by Paul

Hot blog of the week

2007-01-31T16:29:00.000-08:00

I just found out that my blog is named the Hot Blog for the Week by Chess-Live site by GamesParlor. I hope more chess players can read my blog and comment my games to help me to play better.

I played a quick chess game online after school the day before. I often have problem figuring out what the best steps to take after my opening. Any advise?

[Event "ICC 30 0"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.01.29"]
[Round "-"]
[White "newchessgal"]
[Black "lepomis"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black mated"]
[WhiteElo "1524"]
[BlackElo "1520"]
[Opening "Sicilian defense"]
[ECO "B30"]
[NIC "SI.31"]
[Time "22:12:29"]
[TimeControl "1800+0"]

TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 d6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. O-O Bg4 6. d3 e6 7. Bg5 Be7 8. h3 Bh5 9. Re1 O-O 10. Qe2 Nd4 11. Qd1 Nxf3+ 12. gxf3 Qd7 13. Kh1 a6 14. Rg1 Qc6 15. Bh6 Bg6 16. Bg5 Rfe8 17. Qd2 Nd7 18. Rg3 Ne5 19. Rag1 Bxg5 20. Qxg5 h6 21. Qd2 b5 22. Bb3 Re7 23. h4 b4 24. Ne2 Bh5 25. Rxg7+ Kh8 26. Qxh6# {Black checkmated} 1-0

MLK Scholastic Tourney

2007-01-28T09:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went out of town to this tournament. It had 5 rounds of G30. If I had studied way harder I might have won all the games. Sadly I only won four. I lost to a 6th grader who had been champions of all the recent tournaments. He was very aggressive and left no holes in his defense. Eventually he won all the games in this tournament too. The rest of the games were not hard for me. By the way, there were 3 of us who won all their games except the one against the champion. I received the 3rd place on tie-break.

[Event "MLK Scholastics"]
[Site "Independence, CA"]
[Date "2007.01.27"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Simone"]
[Black "Alexander"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Detail "White Mated"]
[BlackElo "1198"]
[Time "14:37:08"]
[TimeControl "1800"]

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1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. Bc4 d5 4. exd5 exd5 5. Be2 Nf6 6. o-o Bd6 7. Re1 o-o 8. d3 Bd7 9. Bg5 h6 10. Bh4 Re8 11. Nbd2 Bc6 12. c3 Nbd7 13. d4 c4 14. b3 b5 15. bxc4 bxc4 16. Rb1 Rb8 17. Rxb8 Qxb8 18. Qc2 Ng4 19. g3 Ngf6 20. Rb1 Qc7 21. Qd1 Ne4 22. Rc1 Nb6 23. Bf1 Ba4 24. Qe1 Nxg3 25. Ne4 Re4 26. Qd2 Bf4 27. Qb2 Bxc1 28. Qxc1 Nxf1 29. Qxf1 Rg4 30 Kh1

Chess Tournament on a farm

2007-01-22T22:09:00.000-08:00

This was one interesting tournament I won't forget. I got my come-back game on Mark, the player who had beaten me last month in the K-6 section. I had also beaten the guy had beaten Mark in the tournament. I won another 2 players that my brother lost to. When I won all my 5 games I felt just plain great. That was an awesome tournament.

Chess Tournament in my Home Town

2007-01-22T21:21:00.000-08:00

I did terrible in the Western Class Tournament last week. It was one of those tournaments where both adults and children can attend and have more than 2 hours for each player to think in each game. I am not familiar with this, since I usually have 45 or 30 minute games. I moved way too quickly and only won 3 games out of 6. This could have been okay except that I was one of the highest rated persons in the section.

In one game, my opponent gave me a bait and I took it, ending up losing my queen. I promise myself to really watch out in the future. That's a lesson I'll never forget. Can you see what I did wrong here??

[Event "Western Class E"]
[Site "Agoura Hills, CA"]
[Date "2007.01.15"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Simone"]
[Black "Sanjay"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Tournament "White mated"]
[BlackElo "1038"]
[Opening "French defense"]
[Time "18:00:08"]
[TimeControl "7200"]

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1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. Bd3 cxd4 7. cxd4 Bd7 8. Be2 Ne7 9. b3 Nf5 10. Be3 Bb4+ 11. Kf1 Qb5 12. Bd2 Ncd4 13. Bxd4 Qxb4 14. Nxd4 Nxd4 15. a3 Qb6 16. b4 Nxe2 17. Qxe2

On another bad game I didn't watch out on a promoting pawn and clearly lost that game.

Something interesting happened to me was I had to play one person twice in the same exact tournament.That was because there were only 2 players in my 3-day option of section including me, before joining with the 4 day section. I lost my first game but I won back in the second.

I am on Scholastic Chess Gateway!

2007-01-09T20:35:00.000-08:00

I was surfing on chess sites several days ago and found a cool blog site called Scholastic Chess Gateway written by Steve Goldberg and guess what, I actually found myself on the blog too with a photo of me with my big chess trophy.

I played a quick chess game online just now after I finished my tennis practice. Here is how it went.

[Event "ICC 40 5"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2007.01.09"]
[Round "-"]
[White "newchessgal"]
[Black "BNITE"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[WhiteElo "1485"]
[BlackElo "1396"]
[Opening "KP: Nimzovich defense"]
[ECO "A40"]
[NIC "QO.17"]
[Time "22:29:08"]
[TimeControl "2400+5"]

TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">

1. d4 Nc6 2. e4 e5 3. c3 Nf6 4. Bg5 h6 5. Bxf6 Qxf6 6. Nf3 exd4 7. cxd4 Bb4+ 8. Nc3 d6 9. Bc4 Bg4 10. Be2 O-O 11. O-O h5 12. h3 Bxh3 13. gxh3 h4 14. Nd5 Qg6+ 15. Kh1 Qxe4 16. Bc4 Qe6 17. Kh2 Ba5 18. Qc2 Qh6 19. Rg1 Nb4 20. Nxb4 Bxb4 21. Ng5 b5 22. Bd5 Rac8 23. Qb3 Bd2 24. Bxf7+ Kh8 25. Qd5 c6 26. Qf5 Bxg5 27. Rxg5 d5 28. Rh5 Rxf7 29. Rxh6+ Kg8 {Black resigns} 1-0