A) Looking Back:

November 2011:

Only three of the 130+ players at the Staser Scholastic Tournament at the Great Park
on 11/19 were from Fullerton, but they all won first-place medallions: Brandon Hendrie in
the fourth grade section, Johua Yoo in the fifth grade one, and Andrew Kao (playing in his
last Staser) won the high school senior and overall high school section. Congratulations!

Summary of 2010-11 Scholastic Chess Season

Weekly chess clubs – for various periods of time were held at eight schools during the 2010-11 school
year. Chess clubs were held at lunch time for all junior high schools, Orangethorpe and Fisler, and after
school for Laguna Road, Acacia and Golden Hill. Schools are listed below, with the approximate number
of months of chess club duration in parantheses:
    Laguna Road (7)    Golden Hill (3)    Acacia (4)
    Orangethorpe (3)    Fisler (3)       
    Parks Jr. High (6)    Nicolas Jr. High (7)    Ladera Vista Jr. High (5)

While the Fullerton City championship determined the city champions, three individual elementary
schools (Laguna Road, Golden Hill, Acacia and Orangethorpe)  concluded their own multiple – typically
three  per school– tournaments to determine the champions for 4th grade,  5th and 6th grade, and best
girl players.  (Note: Laguna Road is an exception: the 3d grade boys and girls each have their own
tournaments, for a total of five!).
In each tournament first, second and third places got trophies, and all
participants received key-chain chess pieces. Note: winners of school championship winners to be listed later.

Highlight of the Chess Season: the Fullerton City Scholastic Chess Championship Tournament
One of the last major events at the Fullerton Senior Center before it is demolished, was the sixth annual
Lions-sponsored Fullerton City Scholastic Chess Championship Tournament. Compared to last year’s,
this was a (comparatively) well organized event, accommodating 52 two students competing in eight sections.
Each grade had its own section, except that the 6th and 7th grades and all high school players were combined
into a section each, respectively.  High school participation was exceptionally low this year due to a
combination of belated publicity at Troy and competition with various test activities at the high schools.
However the chess youth movement is going strong:  26 of the 53 players were grades four and under.
This tournament also differed from previous ones in that in addition to Laguna Road Elementary which has
always dominated in the past, six schools were represented by three or more players: Acacia (6), Hermosa
Drive (6), Golden Hills (4) and Rolling Hills (3).  Parks dominated the junior high school scene, both in terms
trophies (5 of 6), though less so in participants (5 vs. 4 for Ladera Vista).
Individually, Henry Tang (Acacia) and Brandon Hendrie (Carden) dominated the 1st & 2nd  and 3d grades,
respectively. Yoshua Yoo (4th grade, Laguna Road) repeated as champ of his grade for the  third time, and
his brother Aaron Yoo (Parks) is the 7th grade champ. As in the past three years, two young ladies dominated
the now 6th grade: Sarah Young (Laguna Road) repeated came in first, and Eeman Iqbal (Arborland Montessori)
second. Large and competitive sections in 5th and 8th grade saw Elvin Aman edge out Ryaz Razi (both from
Laguna Road),  meaning that only the second time in the tournament’s history there was no city champion from
the Razi family (I am sure a temporary state of affairs). 
The high school tournament was dominated by Andrew Kao, now a US Chess Federation expert with a rating of 2200
– a paltry 550 points higher than that of Lions chess activities coordinator and tournament director Pete Baron!

Archived News:

Top News of the 2009/2010 Year: Led by Sean Manross, Andres Kao, Sarah Young and Joshua Yoo, Fullerton students
compiled an amazing record in two November tournaments (see FLASH below)

Fullerton scholastic chess players compiled a remarkable record in November of 2009.  
The highlight: senior Sean Manross and sophomore Andrew Kao, both from
Sunny Hills High School, finished first and second BOTH in the Staser Scholastic
Tournament held at the Great Park on 11/20, and in the  American Open Scholastic
Tournament held in Los Angeles on November 28 - a truly remarkable achievement!  
Troy senior Botao Jiang finished fourth to barely miss a 1-2-3 sweep of the tournament
by the Fullerton contingent.

In addition to Sean and Andrew, four other Fullerton students, all from Laguna Road
Elementary, participated in the Staser Scholastic Tournament.  The results were
outstanding: Joshua Yoo and Sarah Young WON the 3d and 5th grade tournaments,
with 4th grader Elvin Anam finishing third in his grade, and Aaron Yoo finishing fourth
in a very tough and competitive 6th grade tournament.  

PLEASE NOTE:  A substantial article on page 8 of the Saturday 12/12 Local section of
the Orange County Register reported on the success Sean Manross, Andrew Kao and
Botao Jiang had at the LA  American Open Scholastic. The article describes how
Fullerton’s chess culture sponsored by the Fullerton Host Lions Club encouraged
Sean and Andrew to develop their chess skills, and contains entertaining quotes by
Sean on how he views the game. On-line version appeared on Friday, 12/11 and can
be viewed at http://www.ocregister.com/news/chess-223722-manross-high.htm