Daniel Pascoe won all three games tonight to finish in first place in Group 1. Daniel is one of our students who is going to the SuperNationals in Nashville, TN. I believe he will be ready to go and will continue to improve. If he has a rating of 1500 by then, I would not be surprised. On top of this, Daniel is a very good kid. At our MLK camp, Daniel told me, "Mr. Hanley, I have a hard time beating the lower rated kids. I want to give them a chance."

In Group 2, Andrew won two games. He may be going to Nashville with us as well and it is so good to see him back playing regularly. Congratulations Daniel and Andrew! In the Non-Rated division, Cai (a new student...welcome Cai!) and Colin learned some checkmate patterns along with some drills to improve their tactical skill. Here are the results of the Rated division.

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Total	Trophy/Notes
1	Daniel Pascoe	1036	1110	W3	W2	W4	3.0	1st Place Trophy-Group 1-Congratulations Daniel!
2	Matthew Harris	857	856	W7	L1	W5	2.0
3	Andrew Cook	790	795	L1	W7	W8	2.0	1st Place Trophy-Group 2-Congratulations Andrew!
4	Yongsoo Kim	923	907	W8	D5	L1	1.5
5	Brian Fu	548	664	W6	D4	L2	1.5
6	Jae Han Cho	954	904	L5	U	U	0.0
7	Adam Walls	UNR	386	L2	L3	U	0.0	Welcome Adam!
8	Nick Anderson	142	136	L4	U	L3	0.0	You are improving Nick!

#15 January 10, 2009

Tonight, we had 7 players with a real cool showing of 3 new players in the Non-Rated division. Welcome Adam, Colin, and Holiday! They worked on the basics along with how to keep score. I am glad to hear you all had fun! For the Rated division, there were 4 players lead by Leo Kamgar. He won all three games...tough ones against Jae Han. Leo is a very good player at only 8 years old. I am sure he will continue to grow and improve to whatever level he wishes. John Carson Brown, another new player I did not know until tonight did very well, also. I understand he is the brother of a very strong youth, Michael Brown, who is already an expert level player himself. Congratulations to all of them!

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Total	Trophy/Notes
1	Leo Kamgar	1124	1155	W4	W4	W4	3.0	1st Place Trophy-Congratulations Leo!
2	John Carson Brown	537	596	W3	W3	L3	2.0	1st Place Trophy-Group 2--Welcome John!
3	Daniel Soroudi	704	650	L2	L2	W2	1.0
4	Jae Han Cho	944	908	L1	L1	L1	0.0

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#14 January 3, 2009

A good turnout tonight of 7 players. Leo Kamgar, a new student to HCA had a good New Year's Camp and an even better tournament tonight. He played well all evening. For someone only 8 years old, he has very good tactical vision.

Congratulations Leo on a very good tournament as well as a 82 point rating gain!

Jae Han had another nice tournament. While he had slipped back for two tournaments, he came right back to where he achieved his highest rating to date. Again, Jae Han has only been playing since May of 2008. The sky is the limit for him. Congrats Jae Han. Here is his game against Matthew Harris...a game featuring mistakes from both sides. The notes are mine.

Here is the game.

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Total	Trophy/Notes
1	Leo Kamgar	1041	1123	W5	W2	W3	3.0	1st Place Trophy-Congratulations Leo!
2	Jae Han Cho	829	943	W3	L1	W4	2.0	Highest rating ever! Congrats Jae Han!
3	Tony Kukavica	1116	1065	L2	W4	L1	1.0	We'll see you return to 1100 soon...and above!
4	Matthew Harris	861	829	W6	L3	L2	1.0	So close to a breakthrough!
5	Brian Fu	583	548	L1	W7	L6	1.0	Keep Improving Brian!
6	Jacob Boiarsky	299	358	L4	U	W5	1.0	Wins T-Shirt For U300 Rating!
7	Andrew Palmer	188	176	U	L5	U	0.0	Nice Tactical Work Andrew!

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#13 December 27, 2008

5 Players tonight as I am guessing many are away for the holidays. Even though it was small, it was strong with many very good games. We were able to focus on the critical element of time. This mainly was shown in Matthew Harris-Tony Kukavica from round three. I have given my annotations of this game below up to the educational learning moment.

Tony won the tournament in great style being held to a draw in one game by Daniel.

Finally, I want to welcome Andrew Palmer, a player showing great promise. Welcome Andrew! Finally, we hope to see you all next week! Happy New Year's everyone!

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Total	Trophy/Notes
1	Tony Kukavica	1118	1163	W4	D2	W2	W4	3.5	1st Place Trophy-Congratulations Tony!
2	Daniel Pascoe	1027	1036	W3	D1	L1	W5	2.5	Learn this concept of time, Daniel. It will pay off.
3	Matthew Harris	870	873	L2	W4	U	L1	1.0	Learn this concept of time, Matthew. It will pay off.
4	Yongsoo Kim	900	862	L1	L3	W5	U	1.0	Learn this concept of time, Yongsoo. It will pay off.
5	Andrew Palmer	251	299	L7	W8	L3	W3	2.0	Welcome Andrew & good job on the tactics. It will pay off.

Here is the game.

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#12 December 20, 2008

Back from Nationals...a lot of fun and a great experience! We cannot wait til April for the SuperNationals!

A good turnout tonight of 8 players. Daniel Soroudi had the tournament of his young career. He won all three of his games and gained 150 rating points! Congratulations Daniel. The other highlight of the night was Andy Polizotto winning two games to win his "B" section.

Finally, we had a brand new tournament player tonight in Samuel Taylor. Welcome Samuel! Finally, we hope to see you all next week! Happy Holidays everyone!

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Total	Trophy/Notes
1	Daniel Soroudi	554	704	W8	W7	W2	U	3.0	1st Place Trophy-Group A
2	Sarah Polizotto	653	692	W4	W6	L1	U	2.0
3	Andy Polizotto	474	455	L6	W4	W5	L5	2.0	1st Place Trophy-Group B
4	William Wang	296	303	L2	L3	W8	W8	2.0
5	Jacob Boiarsky	251	299	L7	W8	L3	W3	2.0
6	Jae Han Cho	877	820	W3	L2	D7	U	1.5
7	Brian Fu	573	583	W5	L1	D6	U	1.5
8	Samuel Taylor	UNR	101	L1	L5	W4	L4	0.0	Welcome Samuel!

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#11 December 6, 2008

A good turnout tonight of 8 players. The students learned a lot as we had extra time in between rounds to review games.

For the tournament, in group A (686-866 USCF), Jae Han was tough to beat tonight. He is continuing to improve and increase his rating. A goal of 1500 for him by SuperNationals in April is not beyond reach. He works really hard at improving and deserves this success. In Group B, Sarah won two games and also showed nice improvement in the process. She is a very good learner and picks up what is being taught very well. Congratulations to you both as well as all others in your improvement tonight!

Please remember there is no Saturday Night Chess Club next Saturday December 13 as our group from HCA will be competing in the K-12 Grade Level National tournament in Orlando. We will resume on December 20.

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Total	Trophy/Notes
1	Matthew Harris	866		W4	L3	W7	2.0
2	Andrew Cook	781		W5	W7	L3	2.0	Welcome back Andrew!
3	Jae Han Cho	776		W6	W1	W2	3.0	Trophy--1st Place Group A
4	Brian Fu	686		L1	L6	L8	0.0
5	Sarah Polizzotto	639		L2	W8	W6	2.0	Trophy--1st Place Group B
6	Daniel Soroudi	485		L3	W4	L5	1.0
7	Andy Polizzotto	463		W8	L2	L1	1.0
8	Julius Pagtakhan	336		L7	L5	W4	1.0

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#10 November 22, 2008

There was a small turnout tonight as we had 4 players. Jae Han, one of our players who are going to Florida in December for the National tournament finished in first place. He improved his rating from 622 to 750 which shows his increasing skill level. His game against Daniel Soroudi featured a sacrifice of a piece (12. 0-0!) for huge positional considerations. There were a lot of mistakes by both players but it is great to see a student be taught something and then be able to apply it. Here at Hanley's Chess Academy, our concern is not the fact that we all make mistakes but rather do the students learn from them so they will grow and improve? Jae Han is doing a great job in learning from his mistakes. Here is the game.

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Total	Trophy/Notes
1	Jae Han Cho	622	750	W4	W3	U	D2	2.5	1st Place Trophy
2	Brian Fu	654	686	L3	W4	W4	D1	2.5	Great tournament Brian!
3	Matthew Harris	884	810	W2	L1	U	L4	1.0
4	Daniel Soroudi	477	491	L1	L2	L2	W3	1.0

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#9 November 15, 2008

A good turnout tonight of 7 players. We also had a good baseball game in between rounds of the tournament. Thanks Daniel for bringing the baseball bat and ball. That was fun!

For the tournament, Daniel was tough to beat tonight. He learned a lot at our Columbus Day Camp and I continue to see his improvement. He is getting better and better. Jae Han did have a good game against Daniel as at one point he was winning. However, Jae Han missed a key tactic in trme pressure and Daniel did not give him another chance.

Another good result was by Brian Fu. He too won 4 games and took the second place trophy. Congratulations you guys!

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Total	Trophy/Notes
1	Daniel Pascoe	994	1067	W2	U	W4	W4	U	W5	4.0	1st Place-Group A
2	Brian Fu	574	654	L1	W7	W7	W5	L5	W3	4.0	1st Place-Group B
3	Yongsoo Kim	795	737	L5	W6	W6	W7	U	L2	3.0
4	Matthew Harris	909	884	W6	U	L1	L1	W7	U	2.0
5	Jae Han Cho	499	622	W3	U	U	L2	W2	L1	2.0	123 Rating Point Increase!
6	Daniel Soroudi	503	477	L4	L3	L3	U	U	W7	1.0	Good learning Daniel!
7	Nick Anderson	163	142	U	L2	L2	L3	L4	L6	0.0	Keep learning Nick, you are doing well!

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#8 November 8, 2008

There was a small turnout tonight as we had 3 players. Matthew, Yongsoo, and Daniel faced each other. The good news is they all had a chance to review their games privately with me so there were good opportunities to learn and get better. For the second week in a row, Matthew took first place. Congrats again, Matthew. Let's go for 1000 USCF before we go to the Florida Nationals! I believe you can do it!

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Total	Prize
1	Matthew Harris	800	832	W2	W3	U	2.0	1st Place Trophy
2	Yongsoo Kim	708	702	L1	U	W3	1.0
3	Daniel Soroudi	534	503	U	L1	L2	0.0

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#7 November 1, 2008

Tonight, Matthew took first place on tiebreaks. He continues to improve as shown by his rating. In January of this year, he was about 300 USCF. Now, he is at the 800 mark and I believe from what he has learned recently, he will soon hit the 900 mark. Congratulations Matthew!

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Total	Prize
1	Matthew Harris	828	800	W5	W4	L2	2.0	1st Place Trophy
2	Yongsoo Kim	675	708	W3	L5	W1	2.0
3	Brian Fu	506	582	L2	W6	W5	2.0
4	Jacob Boiarsky	101	251	W6	L1	D6	1.5
5	Jae Han Cho	527	538	L1	W2	L3	1.0
6	Daniel Soroudi	548	447	L1	W2	L3	0.5

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#6 October 18, 2008

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Total
1	Daniel Pascoe	949	994	W4	W2	W3	U---	3.0
2	Matthew Harris	768	780	W3	L1	W5	U---	2.0
3	Daniel Soroudi	530	548	L2	B---	L1	W7	2.0
4	Yongsoo Kim	620	667	L1	W7	W6	U---	2.0
5	Brian Fu	533	506	W7	L6	L2	U---	2.0
6	Sam Epstein	351	396	H---	W5	L4	U---	1.5
7	Jae Han Cho	633	527	L5	L4	B---	L3	1.0

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#5 October 11, 2008

We had 8 players tonight. One of the highlights tonight was the accomplishment of Brian Fu. This was only Brian's second USCF rated tournament and he won 4 games. Congratulations Brian! Another great achievement was Jae Han Cho's big climb in rating from 419-596. I teach Jae Han privately and I have believed for a long time that he is under rated. He has been getting very good positions but then would make an unfortunate mistake causing him to lose a large part of his advantage. He is now learning to win these games and I believe he will see his rating continue to rise...not to mention that he, Matthew Harris, and Daniel Pascoe learned a lot at our Columbus Weekend Holiday Chess Camp and therefore will probably see the results of this hard work. Since Matthew, Jae Han, and Yongsoo Kim are going to the K-12 Nationals in Florida in December, we will be working just as hard in the upcoming months to get ready for this tournament! I believe they will improve even more due to their work during these stages.

Here are the final results. The first three games for each player were what the trophies were determined by. The other games were extra rated games for the purpose of gaining experience and practice.

#

Name

Rating

Post

Rd 1

Rd 2

Rd 3

Rd 4

Rd 5

Rd 6

Rd 7

Total

Trophy Awarded

1

Craig Hilby

1146

1155

W7

W4

W3

U

U

U

U

3.0

1st Place--Group 1

2

Brian Fu

473

533

L4

U

W8

W8

U

U

W6

3.0

1st Place--Group 2

3

Jae Han Cho

419

W4

U

L1

W5

U

2.0

4

Matthew Harris

736

L3

U

L2

W6

W6

2.0

5

Daniel Pascoe

891

L1

U

W6

L3

U

1.0

6

Sarah Polizzotto

739

L2

L2

L5

L4

L4

0.0

7

Andy Polizzotto

460

L2

L2

L5

L4

L4

0.0

8

Nick Anderson

198

L2

L2

L5

L4

L4

0.0

Finally, here is a game that was played at our Columbus Day Weekend Chess Camp. It is instructive in many ways. The notes are mine

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#4 October 4, 2008

We had 6 players tonight with two of them being new to tournament chess. Welcome Brian and Jacob! Here are the final results.

#	Name	Rating	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Total	Trophy Awarded
1	Daniel Pascoe	794	W5	U	W3	W2	U	3.0	1st Place--Group 1
2	Yongsoo Kim	473	W6	W6	W4	L1	U	3.0	1st Place--Group 2
3	Matthew Harris	757	W4	U	L1	W5	U	2.0
4	Brian Fu	New	L3	U	L2	W6	W6	2.0
5	Jerry Tan	624	L1	U	W6	L3	U	1.0
6	Jacob Boiarsky	New	L2	L2	L5	L4	L4	0.0

Next week, we have our Columbus Day Weekend Camp on Saturday-Monday. We will still be having our Saturday Night Chess Club as usual. We hope to see you here for our camp and Saturday Night Chess Club.

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September 27, 2008

Tonight, we had 11 players show. It was a very strong group with Andrew Kao (USCF 1699 leading the way). Everyone also had some of Matthew Harris' birthday cake as his party was here just before our Chess Club. Happy Birthday Matthew! We also saw Christopher Lopez is a very good soccer player as he scored 5 of the 6 goals in our outdoor soccer game between rounds 2 and 3. He told me he plays club soccer and it shows as he is a very good player. Well, here are the standings.

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Total	Trophy Awarded
1	Andrew Kao	1699	1701	W4	W8	W3	3.0	1st Place-Group 1 Congratulations Andrew!
2	Yongsoo Kim	473	564	W9	W5	W8	3.0	1st Place-Group 2 Congratulations YongSoo!
3	Matthew Harris	757	776	W7	W6	L1	2.0
4	Paul Novak	974	994	L1	W11	W10	2.0
5	Garrett Keyes	205	269	B---	L2	W11	2.0
6	Daniel Soroudi	501	522	W10	L3	W9	2.0
7	Jae Han Cho	433	421	L3	D10	B---	1.5
8	Craig Hilby	1189	1150	W11	L1	L2	1.0
9	Nick Anderson	209	190	L2	B---	L6	1.0
10	Jordan Keyes	417	391	L6	D7	L4	0.5
11	Christopher Lopez	965	877	L8	L4	L5	0.0

Here is the game between Andrew Kao and Craig Hilby (who he himself is a very strong player and a talented up and coming player). The annotations are mine.

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September 6, 2008

Tonight we had 8 players. We all had a good time from our pizza dinner and ice cream to the basketball and air hockey activities. I believe all learned and improved from our tactical exercises and instruction in between games. Here are the results.

#	Name	Rating	Post	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Total	Prize
1	Christopher Lopez	882	927	W2	W4	W3	3.0	1st Place-Group 1
2	Daniel Pascoe	798	789	L1	W5	W6	2.0
3	Jae Han Cho	437	461	W6	W7	L1	2.0	1st Place-Group 2
4	Andrew Cook	816	778	D5	L1	W7	1.5
5	Daniel Soroudi	469	491	D4	L2	W8	1.5
6	Yongsoo Kim	unr.	297	L3	W8	L2	1.0
7	Jessica Lopez	266	267	W8	L3	L4	1.0
8	Nick Anderson	unr.	100	L7	L6	L5	0.0

I analyzed a game between Jae Han and Christopher which is on my blog. You can find this link on my home page. Finally, with next Saturday being our HCA #13 tournament, we will move the Saturday Night Chess Club to Friday from 6-9pm. We hope to see you there.

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August 9, 2008

We started our Saturday Night Chess Club with 9 players. 5 were rated while 4 were not rated. We all had a good time finally getting the basketball hoop outside to play 4 on 4 for 30 minutes followed by the kid's favorite...the ice cream break! The other activities included air hockey, the USCF rated tournament, the Non-Rated/Capture the King tournament, other board games, and of course, the pizza dinner!

HCA Sat Night #1--Rated

#	Name/Rating/ID	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4
1	Andrew Cook	B 4	----	W 2	B 3
	905 13835421	1.0	U1.0	2.0	3.0
2	Matthew Harris	W 3	----	B 1	----
	658 13744673	1.0	U1.0	1.0	U1.0
3	Andy Polizzotto	B 2	W 5	----	W 1
	317 13722688	0.0	1.0	U1.0	1.0
4	Sarah Polizzotto	W 1	----	B 5	----
	286 13722708	0.0	U0.0	1.0	U1.0
5	Chandler Campbell	----	B 3	W 4	----
	unr. 14001391	U0.0	0.0	0.0	U0.0

HCA Sat Nite #1-Non-Rated

#	Name/Rating/ID	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5
1	Danny Simon	3	4	2	4	3
	unr.	2.0	2.0	3.0	3.0	5.0
2	Lindsay Campbell	4	3	1	3	4
	unr.	0.0	2.0	3.0	5.0	5.0
3	Kaitlyn Campbell	1	2	4	2	1
	unr.	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
4	Nick Anderson	2	1	3	1	2
	unr.	2.0	4.0	6.0	8.0	10.0

Here is a game from the Rated Tournament:

Next week, we will move back to Friday Night as Saturday is HCA #11 which is a full day tournament. When there is a full day tournament on Saturday, we will be offering the Chess Club on Friday night. We hope to see you here!