Folsom Chess Club
We make learning enjoyable
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Welcome, Parents!
Many believe that learning chess would help one develop skills that would be useful and important in life (academic & work) now and later on, like creative problem solving, analytical thinking, concentration, strategic/tactical planning, etc. Our coaches love to inspire and motivate their students to analyze logically and plan independently, in a fun and interactive environment where the instructors would ask the students a lot of questions, like on their thinking processes.
2011 Events
December '11 - tied team 1st place in National Youth Action Championship
3 young players from Folsom Chess Club went to the National Youth Action Championship in Irvine, California. With only 3 players, the Folsom Chess Club team tied with another team for the 1st place team in the K-6 blitz section. In this section, Lawrence, an 5th grader, won 2nd place, while his younger twin sisters and 3rd graders, Estella and Selena tied for 3rd place and tied for 8th place respectively. The southern California team that Folsom tied with had 4 players with one 6th grader.
October '11
The 2011 US National Chess Championship in Santa Clara, California was the 1st US national tournament we ever went to. Luke placed 1st in the U1100 rating sub-section and tied for 1st place in the U1200 rating sub-section. Lawrence tied for 1st in both U1700 and U1600 rating sub-sections.
June '11
2011 North American Youth Championship in New York was the 1st international tournament we ever went to. This event was open to players from the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Mexico and the United States, although only 4 countries participated. Our Estella won the 3rd place trophy in the girls section for her age. That should be the biggest trophy won by a Californian among all the girls sections.
May '11 (Memorial Weekend)
3rd grader Venkat won 3rd place at the Regional Grade Level Championship for his grade level. 4th grader Lawrence managed to win clear 3rd place at the CalChess State Championship in 1 of the sections for adults and advanced kids, ahead of 2 PhD's who tied for 4th with 3 other players.(this is 1 way a young boy earns more money than 2 PhD's combined in an intellectual activity.)
On May 14 2011, Estella and Selena became the latest CalNorth Girls Chess grade level team champion and individual co-champions for the 2nd grade section in Fremont, California. They brought back home 3 trophies (1 team trophy, 1 individual trophy for each of them) per year from this annual event 3 years in a row. They won all their games against girls from other schools in this event in all 3 years. Like last year, their game resulted in a draw when they were paired up to play against each other in the last round. Although we won against the famous home team there before, this time, the home team, Weibel Elementary from Fremont, just won 2 national girls team champion titles last month in Chicago, including the age group for this grade level, and the one right above. They also have a decades-long tradition of chess at their school where a professor runs the famous chess program there as an after-school activity with 190 out of 700 students in the school participate in. Given all these, Coach Tony, who founded Folsom Chess Club just a few years ago, is extremely happy about our consistent achievements.
February '11
Folsom Chess Club competed in the Young People's Tournament in the bay area on President's day and we won team 2nd place out of 19 teams, and every kid came back to Folsom with his/her own individual trophy won as well, including 3 kids who went to compete in bay area chess for the 1st time!
January '11
Estella tied for 2nd at CalChess Girls State Championships 4th-6th Grade section on 2011/1/29 even though she's still a 2nd grader!
2010 Events
December '10
We won the CalChess State Grade Level Chess Championship team 2nd place for the grade level we have a team (2nd grade) in Stockton on Dec 4th. We also won team 2nd place for this same event last year with the same team of 3 players, Estella, Sean and Selena. This year, the 1st place team and 3rd place team winners had 7 and 9 players respectively. In the elementary grade levels, like last year, the 1st and 2nd place team winners have been dominated by the 2 bay-area chess powerhouses (Weibel and MSJE) which are both nationally known and both of those schools won national team champions past couple years, we were the only "David" that could break into top 2 teams despite these 2 "Goliaths" and we did it year after year! Individually, Folsom Chess Club members, Lawrence tied for 2nd place in the 4th grade section after he won 2 members of last school year's national K-3 team champion (1 of them represented USA 2 times in World Youth Chess Championship already), Estella tied for 3rd place in the 2nd grade section (she only lost 1 game to a boy who became national 2nd grade champion in Florida the weekend after). Sean is the most improved player in our team for this event. Last year he did not win a single game in this event as he had just learned the game, this year the games he won enabled us to get into top 2 team in this state tournament.
November '10
Folsom Chess Club went to the main and blitz events of the California Chess Kids Class Championship in the bay area in the thanksgiving long weekend. We came back with 13 trophies ... 7 trophies were won by kids who never won a trophy in the bay area before this weekend and 5 of which were won by kids who went to a bay area tournament for the 1st time!
August '10
Selena was included in the national top 100 list for the youngest age group and she was 1 of the very few girls in this list.
July '10 - State Girls Champions meeting World Co-champions
Folsom Chess Club's twin sisters (Estella and Selena) attended the prestigious Susan Polgar Girls invitational. This event never had twin sisters before! Ms. Polgar, former women world champion, also started to include intensive chess training this year.
May '10
We competed in the CalNorth Girls Grade Level Chess Championship where we won team champion and both of our team members (Estella and Selena) also won individual CalNorth Girls Grade Level Champion.
In the Memorial Day weekend, we won 1st Grade team 2nd place (Estella, Sean and Selena) in the NorCal grade level championship in the bay area. The team champion from bay area won the 2nd best national team in Atlanta recently.
Jan/Feb '10
We went to 2 state-level tournaments: CalChess Girls State Championships and CalNorth Age Level Championships. We won champions in both events!
2009 ~ We had a great year in 2009!!!
November '09
We had 1 team (Estella, Sean and Selena) competing in the CalChess State grade level tournament and won 2nd place team trophy. We were the only NON-bay-area team winning 1st or 2nd team trophy among all elementary grade levels (1st to 6th).
May '09
Both of our girls (Estella and Selena) won CalNorth Girls tournament individual co-champions and also team champion for their grade level. See details here.
April '09
Both teams of Folsom Chess Club won team champions (K-3 and K-12 section) in 2009 Greater Sacramento Adult/Scholastic Championship in Roseville, CA.
March '09
USCF just published the newest USCF top 100 lists, on average 1 state would have 2 kids in a list, and Folsom Chess Club now has TWO 2nd graders (Anthony and Lawrence) in the list for the youngest age group!
January '09
Terry won the 1st place in 2009 Sacramento Elementary Championship.