Our student of the month is Sophia Li, from Orinda, CA. At our BCS playoffs, she went an undefeated 5-0 against the top player from the five other schools. She coolly held down the top board for Del Rey school and withstood every challenge. Her performance rating was off the charts! Considering that Sophia was undefeated at our big Walnut Creek tournament too, everybody better watch out for her at summer camp.

This year's Oakland Year-End Tournament, showcasing our five Oakland Outreach schools of Santa Fe, Learning Without Limits, Futures, Esperanza and Maxwell Park will take place on Wednesday, June 2nd at Learning Without Limits. The tournament is from 9am-11am and is open to the community. Come see our students showcase their new- and not so new-found skills as they compete with their peers in Quads and for overall school trophies.

Congratulations to all the BCS students who participated in April's State Championships in Santa Clara! Over 40 BCS students came, and although we were only a handful of the 900 competitors, we did much better than our numbers might predict.

BCS stalwart Tommy Gonda tied for second place in the 7th-8th grade varsity with 5.0 out of 6.0. Tudor Muntean and former student Roland Zhu finished just half a point behind Tommy.

In the 4-6 Varsity Championship, Joshua Cao, like Tommy, missed being State Champion by half a point. He ended up just behind the leaders with 4.5.

In the 4-6 Jr. Varsity, Nathan Auyoung went undefeated to take first place. He also gained nearly 300 ratings points! Nathan Yuen was tied for tenth in the section.

in the 1-3 Varsity, Josiah Stearman was 7th. He’s only in first grade, so he has many more chances to become State Champ.

The Kindergarten section was dominated by BCS, with both Ben Rood and Evan Cutler-Leach going undefeated to become co-state champs! We can’t wait to see what they do for an encore.

Miranda Christ was the second biggest BCS rating points winner, gaining over 200 points during the event!

Around a dozen other BCS students received trophies for finishing near the top of their divisions as well! Great showing, everyone. Pictures to come!

Oakland Chess Champions

Coverage of our 2009 tournament by KGO TV, ABC 7, is nominated for a local news award. Cheer on some familiar faces. We are looking forward to seeing everyone at this year's tournament. More details coming soon!

Chess Champions from Dean C. Smith on Vimeo.