Again, Supernationals is grueling. Let me compare outcomes at State. At State, top teams expect to sweep our opponents at least once or twice. Every player on the team expects to win more often than they lose, and one or more players are likely to win every game they play. At nationals, there will be, at most, one undefeated contestant-- this year, even the overall champion had one draw. Our top four players put together won exactly half of their games. But, on paper, compared to the ratings of other competitors, our players outplayed their ratings--and wound up, as team, ahead of the majority of the other top players in the United States.
Whoa.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Many thanks
Supernationals is grueling. And the players found it challenging, too (chaperone joke :-) Speaking of chaperones, let me thank the parents who accompanied us and supported the team in invaluable ways. Monica Chiroque, Ronald's mother, brought her experience from previous Supernationals, and, if I may say so, a deeply appreciated maternalism. Rich Diaz drove down, bringing Jacob, Max, and Matthew Kosova, as well as Matthew's father, Larry Kosova. Mr Kosova brought great contributions to the future of Northside chess - both his son, Matthew, incoming freshman, and a will to develop the Northside chess program to new heights.
Thank you, parents for making all of this possible!
Thank you, parents for making all of this possible!
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Round four
Ryan is playing up again, as are Alex, Slav, Max, and Jacob. Liang is favored in his match, and Aamir faces an opponent ranked about the same as he is.
Good Luck to all!
Good Luck to all!
other news
Of course, we are watching our fellow Chicagoans, too. Sam Schmakel has fared well through three rounds, and he is rewarded in the fourth round with a game up on Board One vs. Atulya Shetty, rated 2438 and the favorite to win the entire tournament. You can root for Sam if you wish :-)
Charles Swan has 1.5 wins, so Liang is ahead of him with 2 wins so far. Other Whitney Youngsters have won 2 and 2.5 games, putting WY in a tentative good position (2nd place) at this fairly early point in the tournament.
Catalina Foothills of Arizona, who looked like an extra-terrestrial team in the blitz tournament, is a half point shy of Whitney Young.
Charles Swan has 1.5 wins, so Liang is ahead of him with 2 wins so far. Other Whitney Youngsters have won 2 and 2.5 games, putting WY in a tentative good position (2nd place) at this fairly early point in the tournament.
Catalina Foothills of Arizona, who looked like an extra-terrestrial team in the blitz tournament, is a half point shy of Whitney Young.
Cold pizza not a wonder-food
Well, Liang and Slav won in round three, and Aamir drew for the second time, against a significantly-higher-rated player. Everyone else lost to a stronger opponent.
Round three underway Saturday morning
Things don't get easy around here :-)
Round three match-ups pit
Liang vs 1644 (well, he will be favored in this match)
Aamir vs 1931
Ryan vs. 1934
Alex vs. 1800
Slav vs. 911 (if that's not a typo, it ought to work out for Slav - as long as he doesn't get overconfident!)
Max vs. 1764
Jacob vs. 1462
Lots of tough opponents. Let's hope that cold pizza breakfast is good for the chess mind!
Round three match-ups pit
Liang vs 1644 (well, he will be favored in this match)
Aamir vs 1931
Ryan vs. 1934
Alex vs. 1800
Slav vs. 911 (if that's not a typo, it ought to work out for Slav - as long as he doesn't get overconfident!)
Max vs. 1764
Jacob vs. 1462
Lots of tough opponents. Let's hope that cold pizza breakfast is good for the chess mind!
Round two was tough - with one exception!
Round two was tough on all our players in the K12 Open division. What is does "K12 Open" mean? That is the BIG national high school championship category - the highest division at this monster multi-tournament.
But! Ronald is in the K12 U1600 (i.e., rated 1600 or below) division, and he won both of his first two rounds! Way to go Ronald!
But! Ronald is in the K12 U1600 (i.e., rated 1600 or below) division, and he won both of his first two rounds! Way to go Ronald!
Friday, April 5, 2013
Round one results
Aamir lost to a 2088-rated player.
Ryan rolled over a weaker opponent.
Alex took down a guy rated 1708!
Slav lost vs 1690; Max lost vs. 1646; Jacob lost his first game.
Ronald won in the Under 1600 division, vs a player rated 1257.
In general, Northsiders won games they were favored to win, plus Alex scored an upset, and Liang had the highest upset of the tournament so far. Nice performances.
Liang takes down a Goliath
Liang drew one of the most unenviable first round opponents you can imagine. Levy Rozman of Forest Hills High School in New York is rated 2300, exactly. Over 350 points higher than Liang - on paper Liang had less than a one in twenty chance of winning, not much real hope of a draw. But Liang played his game and did not let himself be intimidated by his opponent. In the end, Liang won! In fact, Liang was the only player -- of any rating -- to beat a 2300-rated opponent in the first round! Rock on, Liang!
Official Supernationals results page
For the exhaustive details of results and pairings, click on Supernationals 2013 Results and Pairings
Reflections on Blitz
Last night, as players returned from competition and let me know their results, I heard lots of good-sounding things. One player would say, "I played a 2100 and won one and lost one" Pretty good. Another would say, "I have won 7 of my 10 games". That sounds great. Another said "I won 6 and a half". Very cool. However, I've never scrutinized the results of high school blitz tournament before, so I wasn't confident to say what this would mean for the team -- in fact, none of us was entirely sure that there would even be a team ranking for blitz. Then, the ballroom full of players emptied out. Northsiders, for their own geeky reasons, stayed around and played against each other - analyzing their games, looking forward to the start of the long tournament the next day. While sitting around, someone quietly snuck up behind us and started stapling sheets of paper to the bulletin boards which had posted the pairings earlier. Then someone noticed that they were team results, and that Northside was listed THIRD! What? No-one had seen that coming. Yeah, I thought that 7 out of ten, and 7.5, and 6.5, sounded remarkably strong, but the kind of scores that place third in the nation?? Whoa!
By the way, some of the other teams well down the list, you might recognize - Niles North, Hinsdale Central. Yeah, mighty tough!
One more note: Liang sort of led our team to glory by accident. He just registered for the blitz tournament because I told everyone that they were supposed to. He didn't really want to play blitz, because it's really not his strong suit. He wanted to unregister, but I had no idea how to do that, so he just went along with it. Likewise, Ryan could have enhanced his individual standing, because he was eligible to compete in the 9th-grade division, instead of with all the upperclassmen.
Thanks guys for inadvertently leading us to glory!!
By the way, some of the other teams well down the list, you might recognize - Niles North, Hinsdale Central. Yeah, mighty tough!
One more note: Liang sort of led our team to glory by accident. He just registered for the blitz tournament because I told everyone that they were supposed to. He didn't really want to play blitz, because it's really not his strong suit. He wanted to unregister, but I had no idea how to do that, so he just went along with it. Likewise, Ryan could have enhanced his individual standing, because he was eligible to compete in the 9th-grade division, instead of with all the upperclassmen.
Thanks guys for inadvertently leading us to glory!!
Thursday, April 4, 2013
THIRD PLACE in the Nation!
THIRD PLACE in the Nation!
Northsiders took third place in the Supernationals High School Blitz Tournament tonight. We surpassed Stuyvesant HS of New York City, and other long-time, heavy-hitting chess schools loaded with very high-rated players.
Liang Luo led the way with 7.5 wins out of 10 games.
Aamir Ansari and Ryan Toepfer both won 7 out of 10. Slav Djukic rocked 6.5 out of 10.
Max Haugh-Ewald went 6 out of 10, including some crazy games that nobody thinks make any sense (except Coach Florin, who was correct)
Max 6 out of 10, despite having to play the 2300 guy for two games. His crazy opening worked again!
Slav 6.5 out of 10, including two draws against David Paykin, one of Niles North's top players. Slav has given Paykin quite a dose of grief over the years!
Liang 7.5 out of 10.
Aamir was treated to a pair of games against a 2200, and still went 7 out of 10 overall.
Unfortunately, the pairings pitted Ronald against Aamir in the last round, which cost Ronald a couple of games, but he had a good showing against players other than his own higher-rated teammate!
Slav 6.5 out of 10, including two draws against David Paykin, one of Niles North's top players. Slav has given Paykin quite a dose of grief over the years!
Liang 7.5 out of 10.
Aamir was treated to a pair of games against a 2200, and still went 7 out of 10 overall.
Unfortunately, the pairings pitted Ronald against Aamir in the last round, which cost Ronald a couple of games, but he had a good showing against players other than his own higher-rated teammate!
Ryan goes 7 out of 10!
Ryan realized at the start of the blitz tournament that he could have registered for the K-9 section instead of the K-12 section that all of the upperclassmen were in. That didn't stop him at all. He won every game where he was more highly rated, added one big upset, and wound up winning 7 out of 10. Congratulations, Ryan!
Wild things happen in blitz
Every Northsider has won several games after four rounds. Some of the wins are remarkable. Slav, rated about 1450, played someone rated over 2000, and split his games 1-1. Some of the not-wins are still remarkable. Although Max lost a couple games in the first round, he felt OK about both games; he later found out that his opponent was rated 2300 - stratospheric! Then Max tried a deliberately crazy blitz opening - he began by moving his pawn out one square, then moved his king on the second move out toward the center of the board. Everyone knows this is a terrible thing to do - it just hands your opponent the opportunity to attack your king. But it drove his opponent crazy trying to capitalize on Max's "bad opening", -- he made a mistake, and Max took him to task and won the game!
What is Blitz?
The main event, beginning tomorrow, consists of seven chess matches over the course of three days. Friday two matches in up to eight hours of competition; Saturday, three matches take up to twelve hours; Sunday two more matches - another eight hours.
But not tonight - tonight the plan is twelve games of chess in just five hours. Blitz gives each player five minutes on their clock for the entire game (ten minutes between the two of them). After playing one game, the players turn the board around and play a second game with opposite colors.
But not tonight - tonight the plan is twelve games of chess in just five hours. Blitz gives each player five minutes on their clock for the entire game (ten minutes between the two of them). After playing one game, the players turn the board around and play a second game with opposite colors.
Blitz Tournament underway
Here is a picture of the
competition area. Doubtless you can spot the Northside players. ;-)
IS 318
We just ran into IS 318 in the elevator. What's that, you ask? The MIDDLE school that won the national high school championship last year, that's all...
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