PRO's & CON's OF GOING & NOT GOING

PRO NOT GOING TO THE CALCHESS STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS AGAIN THIS YEAR AS THE ORGANIZER IS ONCE AGAIN DR. SALMAN AZHAR

As a parent of a player that was not directly involved in the organizer, Salman Azhar’s, attacks on the Weibel Chess Team, some of its players and parents at the CalChess Grade Level in 2011, I ask you to vote not to attend the State Tournament this year for the following reasons:
1) In the 2011 Grade Level the organizer Salman Azhar, who will be running the 2013 CalChess State Championships at the end of April, publicly called one of our players a liar and a cheater after our player questioned Salman Azhar’s integrity by his asking one of his Directors to delay the start of his game because his opponent, Salman Azhar’s son, was going to be late. The Director also had a son in the same division. Both individuals should have requested that the Chief Tournament Director handle the situation. Salman Azhar continued to attack the parents of this player for teaching their child to cheat. From what Dr. Kirshner told me he also went on to claim that Weibel always cheats. I saw many of these attacks on Facebook.
2) In that event as well, the tournament organizer (Salman Azhar) decided to pull a Weibel chess player out of the tournament after he unreasonably expelled the kid's father from the hotel. It is true that the parent did question Salman Azhar as to why he delayed action on another parent who was yelling at his son. I understand from a number of witness that Salman Azhar refused to take immediate action because he said it was just Weibel causing problems again. The tournament organizer, Salman Azhar, then decided to walk the little kid out of the hotel alone without the supervision of any other Weibel parent or Weibel team guardian. As a parent, I would never allow a stranger to take my kid anywhere alone. Salman Azhar should have brought the kid's father or the Weibel team guardian back to the tournament to pick up the kid. After this incident, I decided to stand by the tournament entrance for each of my kid's game until my kid finished. This was too unproductive and too uncomfortable as tournament entrances were often crowded. After the tournament, I simply decided not to go to any tournaments hosted by Salman Azhar.
3) Weibel chess team has lots of girl chess players who will be attending Girl's National in Chicago the same weekend. Going to the State tournament will impact the strength of Weibel team significantly. The CalChess has a rule that the States should not be held on the same weekend as a National Championship. They violated this rule to suit Salman Azhar and I believe this is another reason we should not attend the State Championships.
4) Base on 2010-2011 State Tournaments, both tournaments were run poorly. They did not start on time. The space was too cramped for the players. Pairings were posted last minute and placed poorly. This caused unnecessary stress for both kids and adults.
The amount of people in the room often exceed often exceeded the maximum capacity per life safety code. In case of any emergency event, it would not be fun.
The organizer, Salman Azhar, has historic data to estimate number of players plus chaperones but failed to reserve the correct size of room in favor of , I believe, to make more profits in hosting tournaments.
4) Chess is not the best team sport but as part of Weibel chess community, we can make some history. In the past couple years, we have shown the United State Chess Foundation that West Coast can have a strong chess team. We are one of those teams, The Weibel Chess Team. We should make our decision as a team and we should be proud to be part of that team. We should stand behind our players and support each other.
As a parent, I refuse to participate in any event that can put my child in danger and create unnecessary stress for myself. I ask you to do the same by voting not to attend this April’s CalChess State Championships.

PRO GOING

The State Chess Championship is the main championship that we, Weibel Elementary, play for every year. This is what the team practices week after week for, to do well at the States. Last year, the parents voted not to play in the tournament, although I feel that most of the parents really did not understand the ramifications of this decision. It denied the kids the chance to play in the ultimate tournament to test their skills against players from all over the state, the ultimate learning opportunity. It denied the opportunity for some kids to win an individual state title, either it obtain a Varsity title or some lower level title, and in some cases it was a last chance to win a title. It denied us the opportunity to win numerous team titles, a feeling of togetherness and accomplishment for many of the kids at all levels on the Team that can't be replicated by any other tournament.

Furthermore, I saw numerous 6th grade kids (and even some 5th graders) on the Team last year literally quit, never to play another game, as a result of having no more incentive to play. Sure, some of the players went to a misplaced Junior High Nationals, tournament, and some of the players went to the more appropriate Elementary School Nationals tournament, but National tournaments should be a complement for the State tournament, not a substitute. This has had a far-reaching effect on our younger players as well. Without an incentive or target to play for late last year, many of the kids and parents slacked off, for lack of a better term, from last winter through the summer, and I feel that has had a major effect on this year's team, as I have not seen the big gains in player ratings that normally would happen by this time of the year. Usually by now I would see 10 to 15 players with huge gains in rating - this year I have seen only about 2 or 3 players with huge gains - hardly anyone has improved from the end of last school year until now.

As parents, we have to realize that it's the kids that get hurt, it's the kids that will miss out on a once a year, maybe even a once in a lifetime opportunity. Kids need to be goal-oriented to do well, especially at the Team level. Please do not be selfish and take away the main goal for the kids. If you have a personal problem with the tournament organizers, discuss this personally with Dr. Kirshner, but do not deny the ultimate chance for the kids to shine.