Category: Chess Tournaments

    Chess Club News Chess Tournaments
    Karl Tolentino Wins Club Championship
    NM Karl Tolentino

    National Master Karl Tolentino is San Gabriel Valley Chess Club’s 2023 Club Champion. He scored an impressive 6.5 out of 7 rounds in a field of 53 players. The event ran from March 21 to May 2 with an awards ceremony held on May 9. Club President John Wright presented Karl with the SGVCC Champions Cup, a perpetual trophy that now bears his name, as our first Club Champion. Karl has been SGVCC’s top rated player since it reopened in Altadena in October of 2021 and has finished first in 10 of the 14 events we have held. His dedication to SGVCC is most appreciated and he is a very deserving Champion!

    Engraved plaques were also given to Best in Rating Class winners. They were as follows:

    – Linus Eisenberg, Best Class B and clear second place;
    – Henry Castro, Best Expert and Nathan Gan, Best Class A and co-third place;
    – Ashley Lin, Best Class C;
    – Derek Li, Best Class D;
    – Jon Serrano, Best Class E; and
    – Leya Daftuar, Best under 1000.

    Local FIDE Master David Bassett donated $50 for an Upset Prize Award for most cumulative upset points. Joshua Sang was the winner, gaining 100 rating points for his effort.

    Congratulations to all the winners! Our 2024 Club Championship will start in March of next year.

    Chess Tournaments
    2023 Calendar

    Following is a list of our recent and upcoming tournaments:


    Mount Wilson Open
    05/09/23 – 06/06/23
    NO ROUND ON MAY 30th

    A four round event in 3 sections: Premier/1800+, Reserve/1200-1800, and Booster/Under 1200. We will not have a round on May 30 due to the Annie Wang Simultaneous Exhibition.

    Register here.

    Standings and tentative pairings here.


    Annie Wang Lecture & Simultaneous Exhibition
    May 30, 2023

    International Master and WGM Annie Wang will take on all challengers in a Simultaneous Exhibition at the SGVCC on Tuesday, May 30. There will be a short lecture starting at 6:30 pm and the games will begin at 7:00 pm. Rated 2450, and the No. 4 female player in the United States, Annie makes her return to the San Gabriel Valley CC where she rose from child prodigy (National Master at age 11) to the US Junior Girls Champion in 2021. Entry fee to play is $25 per person. Reserve your place in advance by registering here.

    For more info contact John Wright at (626) 864-5744, or by email at [email protected] .


    Summer Fun 2!
    06/13/23 – 07/18/23
    NO ROUND JULY 4th

    We kick off summer with the first of our two scheduled events. This will be a 5 Round event in two sections (over 1600 and under 1600). Register here: https://caissachess.net/online-registration/index/2799


    End of Summer
    07/25/23 – 08/21/23

    Another 5 Round event in multiple sections. Details to follow.


    Feel free to contact us with any questions.

    Chess Club News Chess Tournaments
    Happy Holidays from SGVCC!
    Holiday OTB Chess Club in Pasadena
    PLAY IN THE NEW YEAR OPEN

    Hello SGVCC Members – We’ll start the New Year Open, a six round tournament, on January 3, 2023. There will be three sections and the last round ends on February 7th. A registration link with more details is below. The Club is closed on December 20 and 27. On behalf of your SGVCC Board, thanks to our players, parents, and volunteers for a great year. Membership is open to all chess enthusiasts and we hope to see a lot of new faces in 2023!

    https://caissachess.net/online-registration/index/2154

    Chess Tournaments
    Larry Stevens Wins Capa Open

    Congrats to NM Larry Stevens who only gave up a draw in his march to first place in the Capablanca Open. “Mr. e4” scores a nice win over top seed NM Axel Müller along the way. The event only had 8 participants and we are hoping more of you will join us for the 5 round Euwe Open that starts on September 17th. It will be played at our usual LiChess SGVCC Site. You need to join SGVCC at that site and let us know if you need any assistance.

    Sign up here:
    https://caissachess.net/online-registration/index/1174

    We will also hold The Cardano Open, a 6 minute +1 Arena Blitz event on September 10th. Join the fun!

    Join us here: https://lichess.org/tournament/gZDPksxW. The password is:

    sgv

    Chess Tournaments
    Club League Round 5

    Our upcoming match against Borba Gato Chess Club of Brazil is tentatively set for Friday, July 16, at 7:00 p.m. The match is played on Chess.com and you can find updated info on Season 3 of Club League at our Chess.com San Gabriel Valley CC site. Just click on the Club link and then “ News.”

    Chess Tournaments
    Louis Pasteur Memorial Round 3: Openings gone wrong

    In this round we were treated to some very good games. Randy and Artem worked together to create this beautiful cluster of knights in the center.

    You can find the pairings for the last round here:

    https://caissachess.net/live/1027

    The pairings will be finalized on Tuesday evening, so for the moment these pairings you find there are preliminary.

    The winner and the top <1800 player will get prizes. Since we might resume over the board chess games soon again we probably won’t have time for a tiebreaker this time.

    Some of the players joining our online tournaments live too far away to join us for OTB tournaments and some players might not be ready yet for indoor meetings. If there is some demand I am more than happy to continue to offer online tournaments. We might have to opt for another time though. Please let me know what you think and send an email to: [email protected]

    Here are the annotated games of round 3:

    Chess Tournaments
    Louis Pasteur Memorial: The first two rounds

    The first two rounds of the Louis Pasteur Memorial saw some exciting chess and some upsets. In round 1 David Faulkner narrowly missed a win and allowed Kevin Zhang to escape with a draw. In round 2 Kevin’s brother Arthur Zhang played a beautiful Italian and beat me quite convincingly.

    Things obviously went wrong for me. How did Arthur finish the game in style?

    Artem Aleksenko showed some good fighting spirit in both of his games. In his game against John Wright Artem kept pushing in a drawn rook ending and John, under time pressure, went wrong. In the second round Artem defended with a minute left against Gerald Ruiz assault and the game ended in a draw. Earlier Gerald, true to his name, sacrificed his queen and got very close to winning the game. Artem’s active defense muddied the waters enough to escape with a draw.

    Larry Stevens is faithfully sticking to the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. Manu Prasad went for 3. Nc3

    This is an inaccuracy. Larry treats us to a masterclass on how to exploit this.

    The pairings for round three will be published on Tuesday evening at the usual place:

    https://caissachess.net/live/1027

    Round 1 games:

    Round 2 games: