BCS wins National Championship!

BCS sent 3 teams to the National Amateur Team West in SFO over Presidents Day Weekend. BCS (Best Chess School), BCS Can we Wu it?, and BCS Sunshine Almond Woodpushers. BCS Can we wu it? was the top ranked team in the 3 day schedule with a 2194 rating average, and BCS (Best Chess School) was ranked second in the 3 day with a 2190 average. First round went according to plan with both teams scoring 3.5/4. in the second round BCS Can we wu it? 4-0d their opponent. and BCS (Best Chess School) won 3.5/4. with both teams 2/2 round 3 started to get much tougher! BCS can we wu it? squeezed by with 2.5/4 Saikhanchimeg was the hero of the round as she was only the player on the team to win her game. All of the other games were drawn for Can we wu it?. BCS Best Chess School got nicked with a draw by a strong team led by GM Sevillano who won a nice game on board 1. BCS (Best Chess School) fought back winning boards 2, and 3. but lost on board 4 resulting in a 2-2 tie.

Saikhanchimeg who saved her team in round 3, and was also the Gold medal winner for Board 3!

Going into round 4 Can we wu it? has 3/3 and (Best Chess School) has 2.5/3 Can we wu it? barely won again with 2.5/4 and (Best Chess School) won nicely 3/4. going into round 5 BCS Can we wu it? was the only team with 4/4 with (Best Chess School) in 2nd with 3.5/4. Can we wu it? won round 5 nicely with 3/4. However on table 2 things were getting very tense for (Best Chess School) they lost on board 4, and only managed a draw on board 3. Luckily IM Jirasek won on board 2 tying the match. but board 1 was IM Bick playing a drawn rook ending with a very strong master both down to below a minute. Gabe played on in drawn rook ending for 30 moves trying every configuration to trick his opponent into blundering. and…. succeeded! On move 93! his opponent finally blundered and Gabe was able to draw blood from the stone!

here after 30 moves black finally blundered with Kd6? Gabe had Kc4, Kc6 Re7! Kd6 Kb5! (the point! the Rook on a6 is misplaced!) and won this ending! incredible tenacity from Gabriel!

So (Best Chess School) won! setting up the final round match up on table 1 between BCS Can we wu it? vs BCS (Best Chess School) Berkeley vs Berkeley. Brother vs Brother! board 4 finished quickly with a tactic that was missed.

Board 4 final round Black to move and win a piece.

Can we Wu it? drew first blood, but Best Chess School was not going to go down easy, and Ladia struck back on board 2!

Ladia is slightly better in this Queen ending because his passed b pawn is further up the board, but Derek traded Queens! going into a King a Pawn ending. (he thought it was winning for black because of the passed H pawn but the king and pawn ending is winning for white!) Chess is hard!

IM Gabriel Bick won a nice game on board 1, and FM Rayan Taghizadeh gave Saikhanchimeg her only loss on board 3. Winning the match for BCS (Best Chess School) and the National Championship! with 5.5/6! BCS Can we wu it? won 2nd place with 5/6. BCS also walked away with many board prizes as well

Board 1) Bronze IM Gabriel Bick. 5/6

Board 2) Silver IM Ladia Jirasek. 5.5/6

Board 3) Gold Saikhanchimeg Tsgotsaikhan 5/6 Silver FM Rayan Taghizadeh 5/6

Board 4) Silver NM Bryon Doyle.

We couldn’t be more proud of our National Champions! and wish them the best of luck in the Playoffs! Here are a few more photos of the event! as well as links to the Live broadcasts, and the games of the top boards!

Pgn of the top 20 games