All-Girls in Chicago: Naomi Becomes USA National Champion!

All-Girls in Chicago: Naomi Becomes USA National Champion!

2013 All-Girls USA National Champion

On April 26-28, 2013 Naomi Bashkansky and her mom Luda traveled to Chicago, where the All-Girls National Chess Championship is held every year around this time, in Swissotel Chicago Downtown.

This year Naomi won first place at the All Girls Championship, in the Under 10 category!  She has become the reigning chess champion among girls her age in the USA!  And just one week before this, Naomi became Washington State Grade 4 Champion!  Atta girl!  

And yes, that's Kasparov at the picture, personally giving Naomi her hard won trophy:

WA Girls Success in All-Girls National Championships

This year in Chicago, Garry Kasparov gave trophies to quite a few WA girls:

Under 10:

Naomi Bashkansky - first place.

Under 12:

Sujatha Chalasani - sixth place.

Under 14:

Sangeeta Dhingra - ninth place,

Olga Cherepakhin - twelfth place.

Both Sangeeta and Olga also got second place in bughouse.

Under 20:

Sarah May - third place.

Results: http://rknights.org/registration/tournaments/2013-all-girls-nationals/results/

USCF story: http://www.uschess.org/content/view/12184/707/ has this photo:

Chicago!

Downtown Chicago is an amazing masterpiece of modern architecture.  Its Arts Institute houses some of the best art pieces and exhibits in the whole world.  Here are links to Luda’s daily photo albums:

2013_04_27 Chicago All-Girls Day 2 Arts Institute

2013_04_28 Chicago All-Girls Day 3 City, Awards, Kasparov

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2012 Flashback

2012 All-Girls USA Vice-Champion

Last year we also traveled to the All-Girls National Chess Championship in Swissotel Chicago Downtown, on April 20-23, 2012.

Back then Naomi took second place in the USA among girls 8 years old and under.

Results: http://www.renaissanceknights.org/allgirls/results/8.HTM

Amazing Chicago!

Downtown Chicago is an amazing masterpiece of modern architecture.  Its Arts Institute houses some of the best art pieces and exhibits in the whole world.  Here are links to my daily photo albums:

2012_04_20 Chicago Architecture Boat Tour, All Girls Chess Day 1, Magnificent Mile

2012_04_21 Chicago All Girls Chess, Millenium and Grant Parks, the Loop

2012_04_22 Chicago Rounds 5 and 6, Navy Pier, Awards, Sears Tower

2012_04_23 Chicago Cloud Gate Art Institute

If you haven’t clicked on the links above to see the photo albums, it’s like you won a lottery prize but lost the winning ticket.

2012 US Chess Open

2012 US Chess Open

Ethan plays better, Naomi is better looking

Girls Stand Out

This outstanding photo of Naomi was taken by Philip Peterson (see his other great photos here) at the 2012 US Chess Open Championship in Vancouver, WA:

He also took this photo of Naomi back in 2010:

And in general, chess girls make the most photogenic images, like this one, with all six nice participants of the 2012 US Women's Open:

Vancouver, WA - Scorched by the Sun

Fort Vancouver, founded by the Hudson Bay Company for fur trade with natives, was a British bid to hold territory to the north of the Columbia River.  However, eventually the US took all the territory up to the 49th Parallel.  And anyway, what would Canadians do with two Vancouvers? ;)

The place was hot, hot, hot on August 5-12.  The black powder, musket and pistol demonstrations were the most memorable.

Fort Vancouver

Canon balls

Musket fire

Results

According to the famous law of big numbers, the larger the experimental sample, the closer its distribution is to the probability theory expected results.

Due to the large number of games and players, this law has obviously affected the players results distribution: ratings are well correlated with final standings:

http://www.alchess.com/chess/12/usopen

However, Ethan has played better than his rating, while Naomi hasn’t played as good as she looks ;)

Photos

First day photos by a phone camera:

2012_08_04 US Open Chess Championship, Vancouver WA (phone camera)

Second day - Fort Vancouver, Portland Aerial Tram:

2012_08_05 US Chess Open, Vancouver WA, Portland OR

That night I returned home by Amtrak, leaving the car to my wife and kids in Vancouver.  They spent another week playing chess at the US Open in Vancouver, WA.

Last couple of days:

2012_08_11 US Chess Open, Vancouver WA

2012_08_12 US Chess Open, Vancouver WA