BayAreaChess First-Team

Meets:

Saturdays 10AM-12PM
@ Unitarian Universalist Church at Palo Alto

@ 505 E Charleston Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94306 (map)

Saturdays 3PM-5PM
@ the BAC Chess Center 

@ 2050 Concourse Drive Suite #42, San Jose, CA 95131 (map)

Team member? Pay for your team membership here.

BAC First - Team

Head Coaches: IM Faik Aleskerov (13669090)
and GM Zviad Izoria (12922861)


Team Members

Palo Alto - Saturdays 10AM-12PM

Avan Griggs
Kayan Griggs
Haleyv Kasper
Akshay Joshi
Adarsh Krishnan
Marcus Lau
Raphael (Raphy) Leung
Jacob Levin
Abir Mehta 
Kaiyan Nageswaran 
Riaan Parikh 
Ashwin Rajan
Sanketa Rangam 
Sahil Shivakumar
Amay Srinivasan
Kevin Sun
Everett Wu
Michael Xiao
Malcolm Xielle

San Jose - Saturdays 3-5PM 
Cecily Ablaza
Kekoa Ablaza 
Kiana Ablaza
Darren Agbayani
Mani Bekele 
Debnshu Ghosh
Upanana Halder
Neel Krishnan
Hrishikesh Lakshman
Ian Liao
Rahima Nazirudeen
Jeremy Qiu
Dylan Umino
Stephen Zhu

First Team - Acceptance Guidelines

Due to the young age of the potential First Team Members,
the following guidelines have been established:

Applications for becoming a First Team member will be received on a continuing basis, and subject to the following procedure before accepting any player to the Team:
1) Applicants will be encouraged to try out one First Team meeting after applying to the Team;

2) Applicants will be evaluated by the Head Coaches and recommendation of the readiness of any applicants will be made to the parents and coordinator after the try-out meeting;
There will be no charge if your child chooses not to continue after the class. If you continue, you will be charged the regular monthly fee.

3) Upon acceptance to the First Team, new members can join the Team and meetings on the first meeting of every month;


Background Considerations
Developmentally, it is typical for children between 6 years and 12 years to at times have difficulty focusing attention and listening to instructions. These behaviors are quite typical when a child is engaged in an activity they might not yet be ready for, or are not fully motivated to participate in.

Therefore, any applicants’ readiness for and ability to positively engage in a competitive chess environment for our First Team will be assessed before officially accepting the player to the First Team.
. While registration for the First Chess Team is open to any player wanting to participate. This DOES NOT mean, that every child is a good fit for this type of learning environment.

a) It should be the explicit goal of every student to achieve a rating of 1200+ over time to promote to the Intermediate class.

b) It is paramount that your child’s developmental readiness for this type of environment includes the ability to engage seriously in competitive chess. The environment is meant for committed, dedicated players who desire to work hard to take their chess skills to the next level.

c) Participation in the team class is an opportunity and privilege, and while we at BAC want to support all players interested in chess, we do ask that you please think about whether a competitive atmosphere with expectations of work and behavior is the right fit for your child. If this is not the case, please know that we understand not every child is developmentally ready for this type of structure, and we have other classes available where the learning is done in a more relaxed environment.

The First Team is using the "Polgar book" as their main source of excercises and problems to solve. You can purchase a copy through Amazon:
Chess 5334: Problems, Combinations and Games by Laszlo Polgar.

BAC Teams

BayAreaChess' teams are starting in August 2015 by inviting some of the Bay Area's most dedicated scholastic players with the mission to provide them with a format of training where they can elevate their chess to the next level. We do this by offering strong training with title player coaches combined with a team oriented method of training and support that will give these young players a valuable experience they can apply to both their chess and to their personal lives.

This is a team for players with any rating :)
Do you think you'd be a good fit to this team, and would like us to consider you?
Please, email us why you should be considered and what value you think you bring to the BAC Team. All submissions will be considered. Or just show up at the Team meeting and let's talk!

Chess Coach FAQ

Recommendations of the Chess Coaches based on frequently asked questions

Tournaments - how often should they play and what kind of tournaments? TBA

Online sites - Let me know if there's anything worth recommending other than chess.com/chesskid.com? TBA

Other resources - books, apps? TBA 

Private coaching - Parents often ask at what point they should get a coach. Our opinion on this is that a private coach isn't necessary unless they're very serious about chess. A good guideline to start thinking about possible private coaching is when they reach USCF rated 800-1000.

Back to the Team Introduction page.

2018 Schedule of team-meetings



List of tournaments BAC team members are encouraged to attend in 2019
and the "off weekends" are designed around these tournaments:
if class is falling on these tournament dates, we encourage team members
to take a 1/2pt bye in the tournament to attend the class. 

Half-day scholastic tournament weekly @ various cities: 
www.bayareachess.com/signature