Recent Events
CalChess State Championship
One of the largest
tournaments each year is the
CalChess State Championship
on Labor Day Weekend. This
year’s event took place from
Saturday, August 30th –
Monday, September 1st at the
Santa Clara Convention
Center. 276 Players competed
in the six round tournament.
Winning the master section
and the tournament were
Grandmasters Ioan Chirila
and Oliver Barbosa. Each won
$1875. Tied for third and
fourth were National Master
Arun Sharma and Paul
Richter. There were three
players tied for 5th place. They
are Grandmaster Mark
Paragua, International Master
David Pruess and National
Master Michael Wang.
There was also a two player tie
for first place in the Expert
Section. Teemu Virtanen and
Joshua Cao won the section
with five points each. Taking
clear third in the Expert
Section was Ladia Jirasek.
There were eight players tied
for fourth and fith place. They
are Julian Lin, Dana
Mackenzie, Pranav Nagarajan,
Art Zhao, Gabriel Bick,
Andrew Hong, Samuel Bekker
and Christopher Pan.
Alexandre Birguer was the
winner of the A section
scoring 5 points and winning
$1250. Tied for 2nd to 5th were
Ted Castro, Jamshid
Alamehzadeh, Aniruddha
Basak, David Pan, Yuan Wang
and Luiz Uribe.
There was also a sole winner
in the B section. That person
is Nikhil Jaha. Tied for 2nd to
5th were Oliver Wu, Brandon
Ho, Kevin Pan, Antara Garai
and Evan Ai.
GM Chirila tied for First Place
Photo by Richard Shorman
Page 6
Winning the C Section was
Dmitri Dobrynin winning five
games and drawing one. In
clear second was Rithvik
Javgal. In clear Third Place
was Robert Thayer. Five
CalChess Journal
CalChess State
Championship
1-2
3-4
5
1-2
3
4-5
1
2-5
1
2-5
Master
GM Ioan Cristian Chirila
GM Oliver Barbosa
NM Arun Sharma
Paul Richter
GM Mark Paragua
IM David Pruess
NM Michael Wang
Expert
Teemu Virtanen
Joshua Cao
Ladia Jirasek
Julian Lin
Dana Mackenzie
Pranav Nagarajan
Art Zhao
Gabriel Bick
Andrew Hong
Samuel Bekker
Christopher Pan
A
Alexandre Birguer
Ted Castro
Jamshid Alamehzadeh
Aniruddha Basak
David Pan
Yuan Wang
Luiz Uribe
B
Nikhil Jaha
Oliver Wu
Brandon Ho
Kevin Pan
Antara Garai
Evan Ai
5
4.5
4
5
4.5
4
5
4.5
5
4.5
Summer 2014