National Scholastic Chess Foundation
 

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Recent Seasons - Highlights
U.S. Team beats Top-Ranked Russia in the Chess Olympiad
September 6, 2012. The 5th-seeded U.S. team defeated the top-seeded Russian team 2½-1½ in the 9th round of the 2012 World Chess Olympiad to move into a four-way tie for first. Update 9/9/12: The U.S. finished 5th after losing to China and defeating Poland. China finshed 4th after losing to Ukraine in the final round. Armenia won the gold on tiebreaks over Russia and Ukraine.  See the standings.

Hikaru Nakamura surpasses Bobby Fischer's ratings record
August 31, 2012. U.S. #1 (and World #5) GM Hikaru Nakamura has broken former world champion Bobby Fischer's record as the historically highest rated U.S. player ever! After he defeated GM Krishnan Sasikiran of India in the 4th round of the 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Nakamura's rating rose above 2786 on the live ratings list, surpassing Fischer's peak FIDE rating of 2785, obtained when he won the World Championship from Boris Spassky in 1972 - a record that stood for 40 years!   More about Hikaru.

Making it on the National Elementary Scholastic Scene
May 13, 2012. Congrats to Teoma Zhigulin, Griffin Cherniss and Nick Boer and to the Bronxville, GCDS and Hackley teams for their trophy winning results in the 2012 National Elementary (K-6) Championships.   NSCF player and team results.         All results.
The final event of the 2011-12 NSCF Scholastic Grand Prix tournament season concluded April 28, 2012.

Congratulations to the Champions
  Shawn Cobb (Overall),
  Jason Yung (Middle School),
  Patrick (Sixth Grade),
  Jack Kochansky (Elementary),
  Dennis Li (4th Grade),
  Erik Brodsky (Primary),
  Griffin Cherniss (K-1),
  Joshua Luis-Casenas (Kindergarten),
  and to Dexin Li (Top Girl)
See all of the award winners. 

Top NSCF trophy winning teams 
2011-12 Season Final Standings

Team               1st   2nd   3rd   Total
Bronxville          33    13    0     46 
GCDS                 8    11    6     25 
Brunswick            8     7    7     22 
Greenwich Academy    3    12    6     21 
Pelham MS            7     3    2     12 
Colonial             6     3    3     12 
Columbus             8     0    1      9 
Ward                 1     2    5      8 
Purchase             2     3    2      7 
Iona Grammar         2     2    3      7
April 23, 2012. Kudos to Greenwich Academy for winning the 2012 National All Girls Championship in the 8 and Younger category, and for finishing second to Hunter in the 12 and Younger category.   All results.
April 18, 2012. Mazeltov to Ben Gershenov of Solomon Schechter for winning the 2012 National High School Championship!
Josh Colas of White Plains finished 12th. See Ben's picture and an interesting win by Josh in the USCHESS report. In the National High School team championship, MS 318 nosed out co-Champions Hunter on tiebreak. This was Hunter's third straight championship, but they were eclipsed in the news by the middle school's win, which made the New York Times.     See all National HS results.

March 24, 2012 Congratulations to the 2012 Westchester County Chess Champions
K-1:
Luis-Joshua Casenas (PK!)
Primary:
Aiden Resnick
Elementary:
Fritz Pingel
Middle-High:
Christopher Mercado
January 29, 2012. Congratulations to the 2012 Greenwich City Scholastic Chess Champions. 
K-1:
     Thomas Ewald
Primary:
     Elliot Greenbaum
Elementary:
     Hunter Korn
Middle-High:
     Jason Yung
Click on photo for enlargement.
Oh my! I almost forgot to see the exhibition of the famous Isle of Lewis chessmen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
They'll no longer be there after April 22, 2012.

Chess closeup: Cobb-Xiong, January 7th, 2012.
The game played on the top board of the final round in the combined top section at the Church Street Scholastic in January 2012 produced a number of interesting positions. See if you can find winning moves for Black in the positions shown on the left and right. Check the solutions here. Then see the complete game analysis by NSCF coach Ricardo Perez-Billinghurst.

   


    Why play chess? See what a lady attorney, former teacher, and chessplayer has to say about it: Westchester attorney thinks Chess can create the next superpower!     For more about the benefits of chess, See Why Chess?

Read a proud parents blog about her son's experience at the National Elementary Chess Championships, May 2011.
Want to blog about chess? Contact the NSCF Webmaster.

Happy Birthday, Hikaru!
December 9, 2011. White Plains bred US #1 GM Hikaru Nakamura, who is 24 today, gets better with age. He is leading the London Chess Classic ahead of the world's top four Grandmasters. On Tuesday, he defeated World Champion Vishy Anand, then took the lead with another victory yesterday. Update: Hikaru finished a close second behind former World Champion GM Vladimir Kramnik and ahead of World #1 GM Magnus Carlsen.

The NSCF's Chess Movie Family Event, a showing of the award-winning film Chess Kids at the Picture House in Pelham on Saturday, November 5, was a big hit with all attendees.

Chess Kids follows the progress of a group of talented students at the 1990 World Youth Chess Championship in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and rejoins them as adults.

Thanks to Betsy Harding for her organizational efforts, and to all who donated to the event.
Chess Closeup
Your webmaster, perusing the tables at the May 2011 Woodlands tournament, found himself at the table of a playoff game between David Brodsky and Morgan Lawless. While snapping the picture at the left, he wondered "how did they get into that position?" See the diagram at the right. It is Black to move and he's losing a piece in a queen-exchange tempo race. A peek at the scoresheets revealed what had happened - and what could have happened. More...



And then what?
In Polly Wright's blog Castling Queenside, she reviews a game she played in the 2010 New York State Championship. In this position she writes: I can simply play 25. Qd2! I didn't play it because I was concerned about a discovered attack that's not there. The bishop is pinned. If he plays 25...Qd7, I have 26. Rd1. But what does White do after 26...Bb5, breaking the pin and defending the queen? More...

Stop that pawn!
Connected passed pawns can be very dangerous, especially if supported from behind. In this position, Paul Gardephe has a material advantage as Black against Aditya Royyuru, the 2010 Overall Grand Prix champion, but he must consider that he may have to give something back in order to stop White from queening a pawn. With that in mind, what is the best move for Black? More...
May 23, 2011. Congratulations to White Plains raised US #1 GM Hikaru Nakamura for his St. Louis match win over former world champion GM Ruslan Ponomariov. Nakamura moved up to World #6 in the live ratings. Nakamura also won the ensuing rapids match.

May 8, 2011. Congratulations to all local players who won trophies at the National Elementary Championships, and to team trophy winners Bronxville, Brunswick and GCDS.    Local results.   Official site.

April 30, 2011. School pride. The Church Street School posted a victory notice on the school website after winning the Novice team trophy at Ridgeway. Results.


The Church Street Novice Team

April 17, 2011. Joshua Colas finished third in the K-8 section, and the GCDS team finished 8th in the K-9 section of the National Junior High (K-9) Championships.    Results.

April 10, 2011. In the Age 12 and Under section of the All Girls National Chess Championships, the Greenwich Academy team finished a close second behind a strong team from I.S. 318. Greenwich Academy also won a 4th place trophy in the Age 8 and Under section. Results.

 
The Greenwich Academy Teams.

Kudos to Bronxville for winning five(!) team championship trophies at the April 9 NSCF Scholastic Grand Prix tournament.


Do you know how to mate, how to mate on... Sesame Street fans Drew and Hunter Korn recently did some internet research and uncovered an excellent video of a Sesame Street segment in which FM Sunil Weeramantry, the NSCF Executive Director, teaches chess. If you watch carefully, you will see snatches of him teaching a sharp combination that starts with the position below and ends in smothered mate (though the final moves are not shown). This famous combination has its own special name - Philidor's Legacy.   See the video.



Congratulations to the 2011 Westchester
County Scholastic Chess Champions
Max Steinberg( JHS/HS), Jason Li (MS), Christopher Mercado (Elementary), David Brodsky (Primary) and Erik Brodsky (K-1).
See all results.   See Polly Wright's WCC Photo Gallery.
2011 WCC JHS/HS Champion Max Steinberg is raising money to sponsor the National 7th Grade Champion, USCF Master Josh Colas, in his competition at the 2011 World Youth Chess Championships in Brazil. If you are interested in donating to this cause, you may contact Max at metspride09(at)yahoo.com.
January 30, 2011. A hearty thanks to all who attended the NSCF
Fundraiser Party or otherwise donated to the NSCF cause. Pictures
of the event are posted at Polly Wright's My Gallery site.

Progressing in Chess
2009-2010 NSCF Scholastic Grand Prix Elementary Section Champion Lazar Vilotijevic has been progressing rapidly in chess, gaining more than 600 USCF rating points over the course of last season.

Lazar capped this success off at the National Elementary Chess Championship in May with a success of another sort - he drew a game against "Chess Queen" GM Alexandra Kosteniuk in a simultaneous exhibition.

In the position on the left, GM Kosteniuk offered a draw without moving. I hope you see why she did not take the pawn!

Lazar and the Queen of Chess

Nov 21 2010.The GCDS Fall Scholastic saw outstanding results by teams from GCDS (1st in the Primary and K-1 sections), Bronxville (1st in Elementary and 2nd in Novice) and Brunswick (1st in Novice and 2nd in K-1). Scarsdale MS took 1st in the Reserve, and Greenwich Academy scored place trophies in the Elementary and Novice sections. Results.

Nov 15 2010. Greenwich Academy team blog (Excerpt)
Congratulations to all the GA girls who participated in the tournament today. We had amazing results and a lot of fun. We won a 2nd-place Team trophy in the K-1 section and a 2nd- place Team trophy in the 2-5 novice section and a 1st-place Team trophy in the rated Elementary section. Wow! This is an auspicious beginning for our team. We are looking forward to the (Nov 21) GCDS tournament.   (Betsy Korn).

Parents and organizers
Would you like to blog for a school team?
Contact the NSCF webmaster.



Photo:Yumi Nakanishi
September 2010. See the August 2010 Chess Life article Best Lessons of
a Chess Coach, penned by Hunter student Alec Getz about his 2010 National
High School Co-Championship, and the role his chess coach played in his life.

Americans in World Chess

December 2010. Happy Birthday Hikaru!   U.S. #1 GM Hikaru Nakamura, currently ranked World #10, celebrated his 23rd birthday with a win over former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik at the London Chess Classic. See the USCHESS article.  Follow the games at chessdom.

November 2010. See this report on the World Blitz Championship. See the games at chessdom.com.
See this article on the Tal Memorial tournament and U.S. #1 GM Hikaru Nakamura.


October 2010. See the USCHESS report on the Cap d'Agde speed chess finals (Ivanchuk-Nakamura).



May 2010. The Bronxville and Columbus teams tied for sixth place (1/2 point out of second!) in the K-5 Under 900 section of the 2010 National Elementary K-6 Chess Championships. GCDS tied for 6th in the K-3 Under 800 while Hunter College Campus tied for second and won the overall K-3 title. Also, All America Team members Joshua Colas and William Graif won trophies in the K-6 section. See all results.

May 2010. You may also want to see this article about the performance of the third-grade Bronxville school team at this year's Westchester County Chess Championships.

April 2010.The Hunter College Campus team won the 2010 National High School Championship. Alec Getz won an individual Co-Championship. See the USCHESS report, and Alec's August 2010 Chess Life article Best Lessons of a Chess Coach.

April 2010.The GCDS team of Brian & Kevin Jordan, Jason Yung, and Alex Justicz won the fifth place trophy in the K-9 Championship at the 2010 National Junior High Championships. Results.
April 2010. A pleasant result in Ohio.
The Greenwich Academy school team made their debut on the National scene in the All Girls' National Championships and returned with the Girls 10 and Under Team Championship! The team members were Drew and Hunter Korn, Karina Schulze, Eleanor Urdang and Phoebe Jacoby. Results.

The Lady GACAs just Love chess!
See the striking tournament pictures posted at JonThaler.com:
Woodlands 3/13/10   Ward 1/9/10   Ridgeway 12/5/09
February 2010. Solomon Schechter wins States again! The Solomon Schechter team has won the New York State High School Championship for the second straight year. See the results.

In the Elementary section, the Bedford Village School team finished 3rd, William Graif and Jonathan Baccay tied for individual 2nd, and Joshua Colas and Michael Ainsworth were also among the leaders. See the results.
The Solomon Schechter Team        
NSCF instructor FM Adnan Kobas, Max Steinberg, Josh Abady, Alexander Reis, Michael Bodek and Jared Goldfarb (not in photo Ben Gershenov).
January 2010. Congratulations to Josh Colas, who tied for First Place in the Junior High Varsity section of the Greater New York Scholastics. See the results.

January 2010. Solomon Schechter chess team honored.
The New York Senate has passed a public resolution honoring the Solomon Schechter Westchester Chess Team for their success in the 2009 Supernationals.   See the announcement.

January 2010. The US team grabs Silver in the World Team Championships. White Plains Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura won Gold on the top board, and GM Onischuk won Gold on board 2!

December 2009. See the results of the National Scholastic K-12 Championships..


Woodlands HS, November 8, 2009.
Solomon Schechter 8th grader Michael Bodek won the first NSCF Youth/Adult event with a perfect 3-0 score. In the NSCF Grand Prix event at Woodlands, section winners were Anshul Doshi (Championship), Nicolas de T Checa (Reserve), Zachary Siper (Elementary), Nicholas Lombardi (Primary), Joseph Kochansky (2-5 Novice) and Rohan Suryawanshi (K-1).   All results, pictures.

See the striking Ward and Ridgeway tournament pictures at JonThaler.com.
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May 17, 2009. The 2008-2009 NSCF Grand Prix competition has concluded.
Congratulations to Grand Prix champions Kevin Rosenberg (Over 1500), Jonathan Baccay (Championship), Jason Shi (Reserve), Morgan Lawless (Elementary), Lazar Vilotijevic (Primary), and Andrew Berzolla (K-1). See all winners here.
October, 2009. White plains GM Hikaru Nakamura, the 2009 U.S. Champion, is the highest rated U.S. player on the October USCF ratings list, at 2824. He also tops U.S. players on the current FIDE list.
In September 2009, FM Sunil Weeramantry engaged over twenty children and adults in a simultaneous exhibition at the Chappaqua Library theater, yielding no draws or losses.


2008-2009 Season Highlights

Polly talks to the Grand Prix winners
See Polly Wright's interviews with the 2008-9 season's most active player Gabriel Joseph and with the sibling 2008-9 NSCF Grand Prix finalists Jonathan and Christian Baccay.
   

May 17, 2009. The 2008-2009 NSCF Grand Prix competition has concluded. Congratulations to Grand Prix champions Kevin Rosenberg (Over 1500), Jonathan Baccay (Championship), Jason Shi (Reserve), Morgan Lawless (Elementary), Lazar Vilotijevic (Primary), and Andrew Berzolla (K-1). See all winners here.

May 17, 2009. White Plains GM Hikaru Nakamura has won the 2009 US Chess Championship. More...

April 5, 2009. The Solomon Schechter team has done it again, winning the National K-9 Championship at the Supernationals. More...

March 28, 2009. Kudos to the 2009 Westchester County Scholastic Chess Champions Max Steinberg(JHS-HS), Alan Zhang(MS), Josh Colas(Elementary), Chris Mercado (Primary), Nicolas De T Checa(K-1) and Max Li(K-1).    All results.

March 1, 2009. The Solomon Schechter school team won the New York State Junior High Championship, and Ben Gershenov won the Championship trophy. Michael Ainsworth, Kevin Rosenberg and William Graif tied for 2nd place in the Elementary section. More....

Photo: Polly Wright

Michael Ainsworth & Josh Colas
More National K-12 pictures

December 15, 2008. NSCF players excel
in the National K-12 championships.
Congratulations to 2008 National K-12 Sixth Grade Champion Michael Bodek and to Third Grade champion William Graif. Kudos also to the Fifth Grade Co-Championship team, the Mamaroneck Avenue School (Joshua Colas, Michael Ainsworth and Andrew Teller). These are just the highlights - see the long list of other successes by NSCF players.
 

Sunil with White Plains Mayor Joseph Delfino.


December 6, 2008. At the NSCF Grand Prix Awards ceremony at the Ridgeway school, White Plains Mayor Joseph Delfino awarded a plaque to NSCF Executive Director Sunil Weeramantry proclaiming December 6, 2008 Chess in White Plains Day.

November 25, 2008. U.S Teams nail the bronze. In a dramatic final round at the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Dresden, the U.S. Men's team, led by GM Gata Kamsky of Brooklyn and GM Hikaru Nakamura of White Plains, scored an upset over a higher ranked (and previously unbeaten) Ukrainian team by the stunning score of 3.5-0.5. Ironically, a pivotal win was scored by GM Alexander Onischuk, a former Ukrainian champion now living in Virginia. The U.S. victory proved sufficient to land the team in third place on tiebreaks. See the US Chess report here. Meanwhile, the U.S. Women's team, led by IM Irina Krush, also won Bronze. IM Anna Zatonskih earned a gold medal for 8/10 on board 2 while WGM Rusudan Goletiani, going undefeated, earned silver for 9/11 on board 3. See the USChess women's team report here. For complete results, see the official Olympiad site here.

November 2, 2008. Hikaru wins Cap D'Agde. White Plains resident GM Hikaru Nakamura has won the Cap d'Agde speed tournament ahead of some of the world's best players, defeating former World Champion Anatoly Karpov in the semi-finals and World #3 Vassily Ivanchuk. See the US Chess article here. In the featured game Nakamura-Ivanchuk, after 38.Nxc4 Hikaru enters an endgame in which his knight is better than Black's bishop. White's king can get to the center faster than Black's king, his pawns will all be on white squares versus the dark-squared bishop, and the bishop is left tied to the defense of the remote a-pawn.

May 11, 2008. Congratulations to 2008 National Elementary Championships K5 section trophy winners Kevin Rosenberg (9th), Michael Ainsworth (12th), and Michael Bogarty (20th). Congratulations also to team trophy winners MS15 (K6), Albert Leonard (K6), Mamaroneck Ave. (K5), Fox Meadows (K5), MS15 (K6 Under 1000), and PS291 (K3 Under 800). See all results here.

FM Sunil Weeramantry gives a chess lesson at Scarsdale Summer Chess Program 2007.
For more pix, see Sound Mind/Sound Body


March 16, 2008. Congratulations to 2008 New York State Scholastic Champions Ben Gershenov (JHS) and William Graif (Primary). Other area residents who won trophies: Jack Hutton, Treva Ayton, and Andrew DiFabbio(16th, 19th, and 20th in the HS section); Max Steinberg, Andrew Zigmont and Alexander Reis (7th, 15th and 16th in the JHS); Kevin Rosenberg, Michael Bogarty and Jasmine Chen (4th, 17th and 18th in the Elementary) ; Eric Zhang and Jonathan Baccay (8th and 20th in the Primary); and Ari Rosen, Christian Baccay and Nicholas Lombardi (6th, 7th and 10th in the K1). In the state team competitions, Hunter won the Primary and K1 sections. Other winning area teams: New Rochelle (3rd in the HS); Solomon Schechter and Isaac Young (2nd and 7th in the JHS); Albert Leonard (7th in the Elementary); Colonial and Bedford Village (7th and 8th in the Primary) and West Patent (4th in the K1). All posted results (with teams at bottom of pages):
 HS  JHS   Elementary   Primary  K-1

March 9, 2008.   Congratulations to Westchester County Champions Andrew Zigmont (JS/HS), Dylan Etzel and Dario Dellorto (MS), Anthony Panat and Kevin Rosenberg (Elementary), Eric Zhang and Christopher Mercado (Primary), and Nichoas Lombardi (K-1).   Kudos also to the winning teams Hastings HS, Iona Grammar, MS15, Edgewood and West Patent.
  All results.

March 9, 2008.Congratulations to Jonathan and Christian Baccay and to Alexander Reis for their excellent results in the CT State Championships. Results.

2006-2007 Highlights

October 2007. White Plains GM Hikaru Nakamura had a stunning result in Corsica, winning an international tournament ahead of two former world champions. See the article at chessbase.com.


Michael Ainsworth and Ben Winston
2007 Westchester County Primary Co-Champions

May 13, 2007. Congratulations to area schools Mamaroneck Ave, MS15, PS291, Scarsdale Middle and Ward, to K-5 Under 900 Champion Zachary Martin, and to all others who won trophies in the National Elementary Championships.     See results.

March 3-4, 2007. Congratulations to Primary-K-1 Champion William Graif and to all high placing area teams and individuals in the New York State Scholastic Chess Championships.  More....


January 2007. NSCF Executive Director Sunil Weeramantry has been awarded the coveted title of FIDE trainer.   More...


The Solomon Schechter School chess program 		December 2006. See all results from the National Scholastic K-12 Championships.

Area schools excelled in the
2006 National Elementary School Chess Championships.
Quaker Ridge finished 4th in the K-5 Championship. PS291 won the K-5 under 900 and K-3 under 800 sections. Solomon Schechter finished 8th in the K-6 under 1000. Hunter College Campus dominated the top sections, taking three first places and two second places!   See all results here.

The NSCF thanks all participants in the 2006 New York State Scholastic Chess Championships.
  Results   Ratings Report

Bishop Takes Rook
Bishop takes Rook, David Tobey, 2006

(Can you find the chess pieces in the picture?)

David Tobey, son of the late distinguished historical painter, muralist and illustrator Alton S. Tobey (1914-2005), had a one-man show of his own paintings and sculptures at the Pleiades Gallery in New York, November 7th through November 25th, 2006 to benefit the National Scholastic Chess Foundation.

100% of proceeds from an auction sale of the painting "Bishop Takes Rook", that he donated to the NSCF went to the foundation; as well as a full 30% of all other sales of his paintings and sculptures that were in the show.

For more, visit his website .


Chess coach Jeff Martinetti and his Iona Grammar team show off their First Place trophy in the JHS Reserve section of the 2006 New York State Scholarship Chess Championships.

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