A Chesspunks party

All the chesspunks got together to celebrate the Pan-Am Youth gold medal at Santana Row, San Jose.

Q. What do chess punks do for fun?
A. Play chess:)

Had mediterranean lunch at Thea while playing blind chess and then we played some more over the board blitz games. We found a couple of good players at the "big board" and a 2200+ master.

See some pictures below:

Lunch at Thea

I play a blitz game with Vignesh

On a roll here, this time its Kesav

Tashi and Mom

For more pictures see the album.

Party at my dad's office

We had a party celebrating the Pan Am gold medal at my dad's office. There we had cake and played a simul match. Below are some pictures:

Yummy cake with my name

Simul with 6 players

At board with Richard. We had a session earlier and he used it in the game. Good going.

Last board to finish with Shiva

Having fun with Amish

Many more pictures here

Pan Am 2009 Closing Ceremony

I got my gold medal. The closing ceremony was pretty simple. US team got overall third place. US team received the most gold medals (5) though.

Here are some pictures:

That's me shaking hands with President of Argentina Chess Federation.

Medal winners of Under-8 Open section From Left: Tanuj (Gold), Jorian (Bronze), Carlos (Silver)

US Team Medal winners. From top left: Victor, Andrew, Daniel and Arthur

Bottom left:Tommy, Simone, Tanuj and Annie

US Team Medal winners with coaches

Thats me with my Gold Medal

USCF Website has another nice article about US team @ Pan Am.

We leave tomorrow morning for Buenos Aires by bus.

Having fun after the tournament

I won the last round with Ivan Gonzalez from Argentina. I was playing white and it turned out to be another short and simple game.

Here it is for all to see:

Here are some pictures:

Round 9 I played against Ivan Gonzalez with white.

A lot of people were asking me for picture with them. I gave them all a happy smile.

A beaming smile.

Our only picture together.

Gold at Pan-Am with a round to spare

I am going for complete shutout now having secured gold medal with 8 out of 8. It has been a great tournament for me. I feel all the hard work I put in my preparation is being rewarded.

Once again many thanks to all the friends and family that have supported me, encouraged and sent their wishes.

It is exciting that we are about to get more gold medals. Following are leading or in the hunt for Gold. I wish they all win tomorrow and win gold.

Annie Wang: U-8 Girls: Leading by tie-breaks. She is only 7(corrected) years and plays amazingly good.

Simone Liao: U-10 Girls: Leading by 1 point. Last year's silver medalist. I have known her longest and she will definitely win gold.

Jarod Pamatmat/ Arthur Shen: U-12 Boys: I wish for them to get Gold and Silver tomorrow.

Daniel Rozovsky: U-14 Boys: Half point behind the leader. He beat the only other 7/7 player at the tournament.

Victor Shen: U-16 Boys: Leading by tie breaks. Undefeated so far in the tournament.

Good luck to all the other US team members.

Some pictures from earlier today...

Round 8: With Alejandro Santillan from Argentina. He was not smiling after a few moves.

With Coach Armen and coach Aviv after round 8. I was working with coach Armen during this tournament.

Getting ready before Round 8

With 7 points and two more rounds to go

Just had lunch with Shyam and his dad at my favorite place, Retro cafe. Trying to figure out spanish words is becoming interesting now. Por Favor means please. But they say it so fast it sounds like "porpapor".

I won round 7 against Carlos Avila from Bolivia. It was a simple game I won a pawn early and just took him to end game promoted and won.

Next I play Alejandro Santillan from Argentina. This is my second black in a row but first Argentinian.

Some pictures:

Round 7 I was black against Carlos Avila from Bolivia

Coach Aviv wishing me good luck before round 7

Update:

Just saw my picture at USCF website. Thanks to Jennifer.

5 days, 6 rounds and 6 points

I am very happy with my performance and results so far. However there are three rounds still to go and I hope to keep going.

It is a wonderful experience to have played kids from different countries such as Peru, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. Tomorrow I will play another kid from Bolivia.

My round 6 was a comfortable win in about 45 minutes. It was against Felipe from Brazil.

Round 6 with Felipe Alves Da Silva from Brazil.

4 days, 4 rounds and 4 points

Round 4 was a good game. It was easily the longest game I played so far. Carlos had only about 6 minutes left. He resigned after blundering a rook in a worse position (down 2 pawns). Last time I played him was two years ago at North American Youth 2007, Aguacalientes, Mexico.

Round 5 was an interesting game. I secured an advantage in the middle game by pinning his bishop and eventually won a pawn then an exchange. It was easy conversion after that.

Here are a couple more pictures from Round 4 and 5:

Round 4 with Carlos Mercado Sandoval from Mexico

Round 5 with Montes Gherson Rivera from Peru

Mar Del Plata is fun

I want to start by saying thank you to all the people supporting me and for sending their kind wishes. I will need it. Thanks again.

Mar Del Plata is a nice place. Our hotel is near a plaza and there is a lot of activity and people. Strange thing is that the dinner places don't even open before 8 or 8:30pm. Therefore we end up eating at a pizza/pasta cafe instead. Retro Cafe is our favorite and the owner speaks English too. Thanks to coach Aviv for getting the dinner moved up by an hour to 8:30 pm.

At the beginning of every round in under-8 section parents take pictures of their kids in many many poses and with many cameras. This goes on for 10 minutes before and after the round start time. Some players just stall for first 5 - 10 minutes for distractions to settle down. I have being playing extra slow during that time taking up to 10 minutes for first 3-4 moves.

Some Pictures...

Round#1 Under-8 boys section

A street puppet show. This puppet was dancing to Michael Jackson songs.

Round #1 I was white against Sebastian Diaz Donozo from Chile

Round #2 playing with black against Cesar Ramirez from Peru

Round#3 I am white against Jorian Jared Acosta from Colombia

Round#4 starts in at 1pm PST today. Bye.

3 days, 3 rounds and 3 points

Just completed 3 days in Mar Del Plata and with three points in three rounds, so far so good. With only 21 players in this section there are only two players with 3 points and I am playing the other in round#4.

In general, US team has been doing pretty well with following players leading their sections:

Tanuj Vasudeva, Under 8 Open
Tommy He, Under 10 Open
Arthur Shen, Under 12 Open
Vincent Huang, Under 16 Open
Annie Wang, Under 8 Girls

My games are getting increasingly competitive with every round. Round#1 was against an opponent from Chile. It turned out to be a short 16 move game and I was happy to be out in about 30 minutes. He dropped a bishop then a knight and then resigned when I had a mate in two. Round#1 game is below.

I will publish more games later.

Some games from this tournaments are now available live at the following site:

Pan-Am Youth 2009 Click on "Visor De Partidas" and then "VISOR ABSOLUTO" for open section.

The results are also being posted at the following site:

Chess results website

Preparation for Pan-Am Youth

I have been training pretty hard for the Pan-Am Youth Chess Championships 2009, Mar Del Plata, Argentina. I will be playing in Under-8 section as the official representative from US.

My training included a mix of chess studies, physical exercises and mental preparation. For past five weeks I have been doing 5-6 hours of chess training everyday with very few exceptions.

Running 20-30 minutes every morning to help me increase my stamina. Pan-Am would have two games a day. I hope to keep myself in top shape for the second game of the day.

Chess studies included: solving tactics from book, End games problems, compositions and studying GM games. Self study was a large part of my preparation however I did get plenty of coaching sessions as well.

I will be departing on 14th morning and arriving at Mar del Plata on 15th afternoon.

Some information links for the event Pan -Am:

Pan-American Youth Chess Championship 2009 (English)

Argentina Chess Federation (English)

I hope to keep you all posted.

Wish me luck!