Chess by Daniel Hung

Very proud of my student Advaith for placing first at the Texas Junior Invitational, earning himself the right to represent Texas at the National Invitational!

This post will be a joint congratulations to my students that performed well at the Super State Tournament as well as a student spotlight for Nash.

I have to say that my students' performance at the Texas Super State Tournament was incredible, the best I've ever had. Advaith placed First in the Primary Championship Section, Nash placed First in the Primary JV Section, Azhar placed Third in Primary JV, and Sai placed Third in Elementary JV. Additionally, the following students also placed in the Top 20 in their respective section (they only awarded medals to Top 20): Sathvik, Vibhav, Vishruth, Thiran, Akhilesh, and Hithesh. Many of the students also assisted their School in Winning Team Trophies and/or won other awards/prizes. I'm extremely proud of all my students as for most of them this was their first state tournament and they wouldn't have had the success they did without their effort in preparing for this tournament.

Now, let me talk about Nash. Those that read my previous spotlights should know that I'll tell the truth as is, the good and the bad about the student. Chess is an objective game, there are good moves, bad moves, things you did right, things you did wrong, and to improve, you need to be open to understanding your mistakes/weaknesses and try to fix/overcome them. Nash is actually one of my longer tenured students, having his 100th lesson with me recently. In his second tournament in December 2023, he reached a USCF rating of 433 and while he reached a peak of 684 in April 2025, his rating kept fluctuating and dropping until it bottomed exactly two months ago at 466. But 3 tournaments since then, he's doubled his rating to 986 and placed First at the State Tournament. So what's going on? That's always the question I ask myself as I assess each student after each lesson and at the end of each year. When we looked at the last two years, his rating did not really improve, which I attributed to poor opening play and blundering too much. He also admittedly might not have been spending enough time on chess. And actually, earlier in 2025, I gave him and another student an ultimatum to reach 600 USCF by the end of the year or they can't continue with me as I don't want to waste their parents money if they're not improving. Sometimes ultimatums work and sometimes it doesn't, but fortunately for everyone, Nash worked on his weaknesses, studied hard for my old second exam and passed part I (knowledge), while failing part II the puzzle section, so I told him he needed to work more on the latter. He did and the result is what you see today. It's probably cliche at this point, but the takeaway is hard work pays off. Trust the process and be willing to accept constructive criticism and address those problems. Persevering through the hard time and you'll see the fruits of your efforts. I asked him some questions for this spotlight and below are his responses:

1. How did you feel winning the State Championship? I was happy because I won all the games in my first State championship and my USCF rating will probably go over 1000. Also, I was relieved that the tournament was over since it was a long 2 days and I was trying to win all my games.

2. How did you prepare for the State Tournament? I practiced a lot on chess.com and watched chess videos on YouTube to learn different openings and strategies. I also have been doing alot of puzzles in the 1001 Chess Exercise book that my Coach Daniel gave me.

3. What's next for you in terms of chess? What goals do you want to accomplish this year and long term? I want to get to 1500 rating by the end of the year and play in at least 1 tournament each month. I want to learn new openings and strategies to be able to compete in the Championship section.

4. What do you like about chess? I like the strategy and competition in Chess. I have been playing since I was 4 and I've been improving my game. I also like the friends that I meet at the chess tournaments.

I hope the other students can take away something from this. There's not just one way to the top, there are many, and some methods may work on some students, but some may not. That's why I tell students to try different openings to see what they like. Figure out if they like tactical/positional positions then choose their openings based on that as well as other considerations. Work on the phases of their game that they're weak at or try to avoid it if possible.

What Nash accomplished recently was inspiring and we're all rooting for his further success!

This time I'm spotlighting my student Sahasra, who's now ranked in the top 100 for girls age 13 in the US. When she first started lessons with me on December 9, 2024, she was only 785 rated, but very quickly in my January 11, 2025 Leander Tournament, she placed first in her little section and increased her rating to 1028! We thought she would get on the top 100 list then, but she fell just a bit short. Then like most kids that reached 1,000, her rating dropped in the difficult 1,000+ rated sections, then even more in the U1,000 sections, until she bottomed out at 845. For many students, such a fall would have been completely demoralizing, but Sahasra never gave up and kept working hard. She would be one of the first to always complete her assigned books/courses and would even take the initiative to ask about what else she should work on or to borrow books from me. What I often tell parents/students about USCF rating is that the chess.com rapid rating is a more accurate measure of a student's strength as the sample size is bigger. On the other hand, a tournament may only be 4-7 games and a kid could have had a good tournament or bad tournament. So as long as a student kept working hard and keep increasing their rapid rating and completing the different goals I set for them, we will see their USCF rating increase in due time. For Sahasra, her moment came at my August Cedar Park Tournament, where at 845 rated, she scored 3/5 against 1,100-1,300 rated competitions and increased her rating to 998, then two tournaments later in November 2024, she tied for second place with 4/5 points in the Elite Section of the NYOS Tournament, increasing her rating to 1194. And only recently, was the December top 100 list published.

To make these spotlights more interesting, I've been asking these students some questions, which you can see below: 1. What's your long term chess goal? Sahasra: I want to become a GM before college [ hopefully] 2. What do you like/love about chess? Sahasra: I like playing chess because its a fun hobby that tests my mental resilience. 3. What's your favorite tactic? Sahasra: My favorite tactic is the windmill because of how rare it is and how powerful it can be. I also like Doubly Disambiguated Bishop Capture Checkmate. 4. Who's your favorite chess player/streamer? Sahasra: I really like Gothamchess and Can Kabadayi's Youtube channels. I also like Hikaru's speed chess streams.

Let's all cheer Sahasra on as she work towards her long term chess goal of becoming a GM!

I hope everyone had a Wonderful Thanksgiving! I haven’t had to do this in a while since I have 30 kids on the waitlist, but the Friday times did not work for any of the kids on the waitlist, so I’m posting that I have openings for two students in my Friday 5-6pm Beginner Class (U600 USCF) and one spot in my Friday 6-7pm Intermediate Class (600-1000 USCF) both at the Leander Library. I can also take 2-3 kids in my online Advance Class (1,000+ USCF) on Sunday 10:50AM-11:30AM. $35 for the in person classes and $20 for the online class. Feel free to message me if you’re interested or email me at [email protected].

Proud of my students who competed at the Texas State Grade Championship as it’s a tough tournament without any under rating sections. Congrats to my students Ashrith, who placed first in the First Grade Section, Sathvik, who placed first in the Third Grade Section, and Advaith, who placed third in the Third Grade Section. Also, good team effort to Monisha for helping her school to 2nd place Team in 2nd Grade Section and Aayush/Aarushi for helping their school to 5th place Team in the 6th Grade Section. Jake and Sheyan also competed.

Today I'm spotlighting my student Aarushi, who is now ranked 73 in the whole United States ( #5 in Texas) for girls age 11 ! She was first interested in chess from seeing her dad and brother play. She played in her first tournament less than a year ago, starting out at 652 rated and recently reached 1,153. As I thought about what else to write, I realized that it would just be the same thing I wrote about other students that got spotlighted, such as how hardworking she is and how she overcame her challenges. Or perhaps I would talk about how she's very respectful or what aspect of her chess game has improved. Instead, I asked her to tell us about her goals in chess. She said she wants to win a national tournament. I asked for girls or both (regardless of gender)? She said both. I asked her what other goals she has and she said she wants to become a master. I do think it's very important to have goals for oneself to motivate us as well as give us a sense of satisfaction when we meet those goals. I set many goals for my students, for example, I generally have them set a high yearly chess rating goal (usually 400 above their current rating) to reach, because I believe these goals are reachable and that they should be overachievers in life rather than underachievers. Becoming a master won't be easy as I often share with my students the challenges I face in games at this level as well as the need to spend an incredible amount of time in addressing our different deficiencies in the game, including the psychological aspect. I dream of becoming a master, though I've missed my best window of opportunity (prior to starting college and prior to starting your career), and I dream of having a student of mine become a master one day, to vicariously accomplish the goal that I have yet to meet. I am cognizant of the fact that I currently may not be capable of both, thus am constantly seeking to improve myself and my students in the way of chess. Let's all root for Aarushi as she continues her chess journey and may she accomplish the goals she set for herself! https://www.uschess.org/assets/top_players/toplists.php?op=list&month=2508&f=usa&l=R:Regular%20Top%20Girls%20Age%2011.&h=Top%20Girls%20Age%2011

This time I'm spotlighting my student Sathvik, who debuted on the US top 100 list for age 7 and under for the month of June! It's definitely not easy to do as most kids this age have a hard time focusing and learning chess. Unlike many kids his age, he's actually quiet and respectful. When I started teaching him around 6 months ago, he was already 700 rated and has been 700 rated for 6 months already. Within the first few weeks of starting, he even dropped to the 600s. One thing I noticed was that he had full notations of his games, which is great in that most kids his age or even older are always complaining about notating and even if they're notating, they're always messing up on notating and only providing a small part of their games. But from providing whole games, I realized a problem is that usually kids stop notating once they get to 5 minutes and under in games, yet Sathvik always seem to have notation for the whole game even far into the endgame, meaning he's been playing too fast as he basically never goes under 5 minutes during games. It's a common problem and besides reminding kids to play slower, I generally prohibit students from playing bullet chess while strongly discouraging blitz. I encourage daily chess instead, where they can essentially take as long as they want to make their moves. Similarly, I encourage kids to work on harder puzzles where they may need to take a few minutes to solve. Playing slower is still a work in progress, but what always help is simply putting effort into chess and not just playing games. He spent the second most time among all my students on chessable, completing all the courses I assigned. I've said it a few times already, but one must trust in the process, that the hours of work you put into chess will one day bear fruit. For Sathvik this was a few months later, where he got to 899, then over 1,000 before competing at Super Nationals, where he earned a medal (they only give medals at Nationals) for placing in the top 20 out of 222 kids in his section. If he had won his last game, he would have at least tied for 3rd. Since then, his rating has dropped a bit, but as I tell students, chess rating is often two steps forward and one step back. Basically all my students that reached 1,000 will get knocked back down to the 900s or lower as the 1,000+ rated sections are very challenging and there's very little separating the kids from each other. The solution is still the same. Analyzing his games and seeing what the problems are and trying to address it. Once these problems are addressed, I'm sure we'll see Sathvik take another step forward in chess.

A successful first ever tournament at the New Cedar Park Library! 98 kids attended and competed in 5 rounds. Happy to see kids working hard in chess during the summer. Thanks to everyone who attended and Ms. Soni and Mr. Craig LaSalle for assisting. Save the date for our next tournament here on August 23. I got the rating published already for the tournament today. https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202506284822.0-31124218

*Not a City of Cedar Park or Public Library sponsored event.

Another successful tournament at the Leander Public Library*, where we had 60 kids compete in 10 sections and I'm proud to announce that 10 of my students placed first! There were a few sections with ties for first, but my students still placed first in 9 out of the 10 sections, while making up 50% of the participants. I divide the students into 10 sections based on their ratings, thus they had to play 5 games against students with similar ratings to theirs, which is very tough as only one of the sections had someone with a perfect 5/5, whereas there were a number of sections where first place only scored 3.5/5. But this is how one can best improve, by playing against comparable opponents rather than beating up on much lower rated opponents. As always, for those who didn't do as well, take it as a learning opportunity and work harder, so you can do better next time.

Thanks to all the students/parents that attended and to Ms. Soni at NinePointsChess for assisting.

Looking forward to our next tournament on June 28 at the Cedar Park Public Library**. Early registration ends noon on May 28 and we're about 2/3 full. Extra discounts for kids currently rated over 1,200 and 1,400 USCF!

https://www.austinchesstournaments.com/2025-cedar-park-june-scholastic/

*Not a City of Leander or Leander Public Library sponsored event.
**Not a City of Cedar Park or Cedar Park Public Library sponsored event.

This time I am spotlighting my student Nameer, who recently placed first at the RRISD Tournament Championship Section, increasing his USCF rating to over 1,200! I think this 1,200 threshold is important, because there are so many kids 1,000 to 1,100 rated in the top section of most of these scholastic tournaments, but it's hard to separate oneself from this group as kids at this level don't blunder as much as lower rated kids. Often times it's more a statistical game, having 50% chance of winning/losing to someone around your rating, thus it's hard to place first in these sort of tournaments, where the chance of placing first is like flipping a coin 5 times and needing to get head each time. Nameer has the highest online rapid rating of all my students, so his recent in person tournament success was long overdue. Actually, Nameer's first USCF was 1184, which while not common, is not entirely unheard of as the student placing first in a tournament will increase his/her rating and if it's someone's first tournament, that first rating can be over 1,000 as was the case here. However, most if not all his opponents in his first tournament were unrated, so his initial rating didn't reflect his actual strength and over time his rating dropped to a low of 700ish, at which point he started learning from me. Each student has different problems and Nameer's was he was trying to imitate the Grandmasters, whose games he follow. I have to tell students that they can't play like the Grandmasters right now, because most GM games end in draws and they're often expecting to draw, so they commonly exchange their pieces and head into the endgame for a draw. However, kids at this level don't draw very often and are unable to draw an equal or sometimes even winning endgame against more experienced and higher rated opponents, so that was an area that had to be corrected with Nameer as well as some other students. The next area is on the importance of tactics. While many GM games focus more on playing positionally, at this level, excluding kids just blundering materials, most games are decided based on tactics. Even though some students, such as Nameer may prefer positional chess over tactical chess, I emphasized for all students that they can't avoid tactics, especially at this level, and one can't hope to win by being passive. Lastly, it's the openings. While many kids might want to imitate the GMs by playing their openings, oftentimes those openings require countless hours of studying to learn and memorize, thus it's better to choose openings that match your style as well as time commitment, for example avoiding the Open Sicilian, which Nameer has been doing a good job of. These are the three phases of a chess game, but there's another intangible, the psychological aspect that sometimes hold a student back. I had to work with him and some other students on developing their confidence and conquering their fear, so they their full potential in chess can shine through. Like most of my middle school students, Nameer's time for chess is more limited than before, so it'll be up to him and his determination how much further he'll get in chess. I strongly believe he can already currently get to at least 1,400 USCF and hopefully one day he can truly imitate the GMs as he did when he first started out in chess.

Congratulations to my students for their success at the Paragon Tournament yesterday. Out of the 6 scholastic sections, my students placed First in the lowest rated (K3 U400- Sourya) and highest rated sections (K12 Elite - Jake). Nash earned a trophy in K5U600. Besides team trophies, a number of students also earned medals: Matteo, Shlok, Spruha, Ayush, Hiya, Arjun, and Advaith. A number of students were among the lowest rated in their sections, so didn't place or earn a medal as expected, but I always believe that they and all my other students can learn from their mistakes in this tournament to do better in future tournaments.

Paragon Prep April 2025 Scholastic - Pairings and Wall Charts and Standings - Austin Chess Tournaments Round by Round pairings for the 2025 Paragon April Scholastic chess tournament at Paragon Prep on 4/12/2025. Will be updated with final results after the event.