Chess4Life

Stevenson Elementary Trimuphs Again at 2008 National Elementary Chess Championships

Stevenson chess team did it again, for the third time, bringing home team and individual trophies from the National Burt Lerner Elementary (K-6) Chess Championship.  This year, the Elementary National Championship was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from May 9-11. The Stevenson Elementary School from Bellevue, Washington won the 1st place team title in K-3 Championship section, 1^st place team trophy in K-5 U900 section, 10^th place team title in the K-5 Championship section. Last year, the Stevenson team clinched 1^st team trophies in K-3 U800 and K-5 U900 sections and 5^th place team title in the K-5 Championship. In 2005, Stevenson won the National Team title in the K-5 Championship section.

This annual event, organized by the United States Chess Federation, brings together the best scholastic chess players from around the country to compete in 9 sections. This year over 2,200 students from 45 states participated.

Stevenson Elementary fielded a total of 3 teams and 17 of its best chess players. The K-3 Championship team of Daniel Hua, Patrick Wang, Amith Vanmane, Kevin Ma, Nathan Chou and Stephen Embry won the National Champion Team title in the 209-player section impressively with 21 points. The team score is computed based on the top four individual scores. Several team members won individual trophies, including Daniel Hua (7^th place), Patrick Wang (11^th place), Amith Vanmane (25^th place) and Nathan Chou (1^st place among U600). Nathan also won the Biggest Upset award by defeating a player rated more than 800 points higher.

The K-5 U900 team topped the 406-player section in convincing fashion with a score of 24 points. All four team members won individual trophies each with a score of 6 points. They are Kevin Qiu (9^th place), Grace Sun (10^th place), Eric Chen (12^th place) and Allen Yuan (14^th place).

The K-5 Championship team of Jiayi Hu, Brandon Wang, Brian Yu and Robert Zhang scored 15.5 points in the 288-player section. Individual class trophy winners include Jiayi Hu(1^st place among U1200), Brandon Wang(1^st place among U1000), and Brian Yu(2^nd place among U1000).

Other individual trophy winners include Leanne Hwa (2^nd place) in the K-6 Unrated section who had an almost perfect score of 6.5 and Nikolai Warner (10^th place) in the K-3 Unrated section.

The following players also participated in side events. In the Bughouse tournament, Allen Yuan teamed with Jack Go from Eastside Christian School and won 5^th place out of 54 teams. Leanne Hwa and Grace Sun won the 7^th place. Eric Chen and Kevin Qiu won 25^th place. In the Blitz K-6 tournament, Eric Chen, Grace Sun, Leanne Hwa and Allen Yuan won 11th place team trophy and Grace also won individual 3^rd place among U800.

Nationals Team Members:

K-3 Championship Team

1^st Place Team Winners                               

Daniel Hua                  3^rd Grade

Patrick Wang              3^rd Grade

Amith Vanmane          3^rd Grade

Kevin Ma                    2^nd Grade

Nathan Chou               3^rd Grade

Stephen Embry           3^rd Grade

K-5 Under 900 Team

1^st Place Team Winners                               

Kevin Qiu                   4^th Grade

Grace Sun                   4^th Grade

Eric Chen                    4^th Grade

Allen Yuan                  5^th Grade

K-5 Championship Team

10^th Place Team Winners

Jiayi Hu                       4^th Grade

Brandon Wang            5^th Grade

Brian Yu                     5^th Grade

Robert Zhang             5^th Grade

K-6 Unrated

Leanne Hwa                5^th Grade

K-3 Unrated

Nikolai Warner            3^rd Grade

K-1 Championship

Kumho Chun              1^st Grade

Stevenson Chess Club Coaches:

Stevenson Chess Club is coached by Elliott Neff, Matt Fleury, David Hendricks and Gregg Dillingham. This year's team to Nationals is led by coaches Elliott Neff, David Hendricks and Harlan Lee.

Elliott Neff, a self-taught chess master, has been the head coach for the past 5 years.  He is the founder of Chess4Life Center and Clarus Academy in Bellevue.

Matt Fleury has been a coach at Stevenson for 5 years. He was the winner of Washington State Premier in 2005.

David Hendricks has been a coach at Stevenson for 6 years.  He is currently the scholastic director of the Washington Chess Federation.

Gregg Dillingham has been a coach at Stevenson for 3 years.

Stevenson Chess Club

Stevenson Elementary School

Bellevue, Washington

The Stevenson Chess Club is in its 6^th full year as an after-school club activity at Stevenson Elementary in Bellevue, Washington.  The Club has 86 members from 1^st through 5^th grades.  The Club is run by parent volunteers.

Stevenson Elementary is a K-5 school in the Bellevue School District, located in the heart of Bellevue, across Lake Washington from Seattle.  The school enrolls 582 students.  It has a widely diverse student population, with the following demographics: 22% white; 7% African-American; 41% Asian; 20% Hispanic; 9% multi-ethnic.  58% of the students speak a first language other than English. 35% qualify for free- and reduced-price lunches. The school includes both a neighborhood program and a magnet program for gifted students. The goal of our club is to promote scholastic chess to as many students as possible.  The Club includes students from the entire school. The principals at the school are Brenda Naish and Christy Lindquist.  (425) 456-6000.  www.bsd405.org/stevenson/

Contact Person: Uma Vanmane, club coordinator, (425) 653-3433

Photos are at http://share.sameageinside.com/Lists/Photos/Forms/AllItems.aspx?RootFolder=%2FLists%2FPhotos%2F2008%20National%20Burt%20Lerner%20Elementary%20Championship

GM Hikaru Nakamura Simul at WA State Elementary Championship

Hello chess enthusiasts,

The WA State Elementary Chess Championships this year was huge.  With record numbers of over 1500 players, it was certainly the biggest WA State Championships yet.  And next year will only be bigger.

A big thanks go to Chess Enrichment Association for putting on the event this year.

One of the biggest attractions at State this year was the simultaneous chess exhibition performed by former US Chess Champion Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.  Nakamura took on 20 players at the same time of all skill levels.

Nakamura Simul at State - VIDEO

The event began with mostly younger, student players, but as Nakamura played on undefeated, some of the best adult chess players in the state sat down and challenged him.  After hours of simul play (which can be taxing on even the most seasoned chess master) Nakamura emerged victorious in every game he played.

WA State vs British Columbia Intermat Report and Photos

The 17th edition of this annual scholastic match, held at the New Westminster campus of Sprott-Shaw College on April 19th, resulted in a decisive 32-20 victory for the home team. Previously held the first weekend in December, this year the match was moved to the spring to provide better driving conditions - naturally, this coincided with late snowfalls on both sides of the border, but transportation was unaffected.  In previous years the match was contested by two players from grades 1-12 on each side, but this year kindergarten students were added, bringing the total on each side to twenty-six. Traditionally Washington has scored heavily in the lower grades in these matches, whereas B.C. tends to do better in the upper grades; the match is thus determined by which team can do better in their respective area of strength, or improve in their area of weakness. The visiting squad was hampered by a date conflict - a number of Washington's top juniors were playing in a national high-school competition in Texas and were thus unavailable for the match. Also unfortunate was a lack of communication, resulting in Washington not being aware that players could represent a higher grade until the last minute, by which point it was too late to make use of a substitute for one of their grade twelve players.

Despite these problems the Washington team held their own for much of the first round (5.5-5.5, then 8.5-8.5) but the superiority of the B.C. upper grades gradually made itself felt toward the end of the session, leaving B.C. with a comfortable 15-11 lead at the half. Despite playing black in the second session B.C. increased its lead, winning the second round 17-9 for an overall twelve-point victory.  The traditional areas of strength for each team are still evident: Washington won the kindergarten to grade 2 duels by a 2-10 score, but apart from a 2-2 draw in grade 4 B.C. won every other grade.

Especially significant was the score for grades 6-12: 19.5-4.5 in B.C.'s favour. In terms of individual results, B.C. players who won both their games were Donovan Zhao (grade 5), Tanraj Sohal (6), Foster Tom (8), Richard Huang (9), Elliot Raymer (10), Noam Davies (11), and Bindi Cheng and Jingzhou Lai (both 12); others with a plus score were Janak Awatramani (3), Jacob Jensen (4), Frank Cheng (5), Yifei Han and Jack Cheng (both 7), Yiming Han (9), and Tedging Pan (11). On the Washington side, Benjamin Brusniak and Nicholas Lumiere swept their grade one opponents. Others on the Washington team with perfect scores were Allistair Yu (kindergarten) and Kevin Ma (2), while Ethan Bashkansky (4) also had a plus score.

Many thanks to organizers Elliot Neff (Washington) and Ken Jensen and Glen Lee (B.C.) (especially for the sumptuous lunch spread), and to all the players for participating. The TD was Stephen Wright. Washington now holds a slim 9-8 lead in the overall series.

Year - Location - Victor

1991 - White Rock - BC

1992 - Mountlake Terrace - WA

1993 - Burnaby - WA

1994 - Mountlake Terrace - BC

1995 - Burnaby - WA

1996 - Shorewood - WA

1997 - Burnaby - BC

1998 - Shorewood - BC

1999 - Burnaby - WA

2000 - Seattle - WA

2001 - Burnaby - BC

2002 - Seattle - WA

2003 - Burnaby - WA

2004 - Seattle - BC

2005 - Burnaby - BC

2006 - Bellevue - WA

2008 - New Westminster - BC