Newsletter #68, 01/02/2002

"I am not a chess historian, I am a piece of chess history, which no one can ignore."
Wilhelm Steinitz

Grandmasters Alexander Onischuk of Denver and Gregory Kaidanov of Lexington tied for first in the North American Open held December 26-29 at Bally's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Their undefeated scores of 5-1put them ahead of 13 other GMs. MI Grandmaster-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky shared third through eighth at 4.5 with fellow GMs Igor Novikov, Gregory Serper, Sergey Kudrin, Ildar Ibragimov and Alexander Goldin. Yermo lost to GM Aaron Summerscale in the quick schedule, but recovered strongly defeating IMs Khacian and Ziatdinov down the stretch.
Peninsula teenager Michael Pearson turned in an excellent result, tying for first in the Expert section with Laura Ross. Yefim Bukh was =5th in the Under 1800, while Drake Wang and Felix Rudyak had 3.5/6 in the Under 2000.
A total of 486 players participated in the annual Continental Chess Association event.

The latest issue of Mark Crowther's TWIC reports lineups for the Wijk aan Zee 2002 tournament are now set with Ukrainians Vasilly Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov withdrawing because they will play in the FIDE WCC final match in January. Vladimir Kramnik also withdrew because of his Man vs. Machine match in February. The participants are:
Group A: Garry Kasparov (Rus), Michael Adams (Eng), Peter Leko (Hun), Evgeny Bareev (Rus), Loek Van Wely (Ned), Alexander Khalifman (Rus), Boris Gelfand (Isr), Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb), Dreev (Rus), Alexander Grischuk (Rus), Joel Lautier (Fra), Mikhail Gurevich (Bel), Jeroen Piket (Ned) and Jan Timman (Ned).
Group B: Ivan Sokolov (BIH), Pavel Tregubov (Rus), Mikhail Krasenkow (Pol), Friso Nijboer (Ned), Yu (Chn), John Van der Wiel (Ned), Almira Skrypchenko-Lautier (Mol), Stefanova (Bul), Peng (Ned), Harmen Jonkman (Ned), Cuijpers (Ned) and Werle (Ned).

There were several significant changes at the USCF over the Holidays. Policy Board Members Helen Warren and Doris Barry resigned in mid-term and a special election will be held this summer to replace them. Frank Niro is taking over for George De Feis as Executive Director. The USCF recently put out the following press release:
Frank Niro, currently President of the US Chess Trust (charitable arm of the USCF) has been appointed Interim Executive Director of the United States Chess Federation. Niro, a full time student on a chess and education graduate fellowship at the University of Texas at Dallas, is a USCF life member with more than 30 years experience as a tournament director, organizer, player, journalist, coach and benefactor.
He has served on the USCF Ethics Committee, as a Delegate to the last two annual USCF meetings, has been an active participant in the planning and development of the World Chess Hall of Fame and Sidney Samole museum in Miami, and previously edited Chess Horizons (1984-86).  He is an ICCF (International Correspondence Chess Federation Master who has represented the United States in international correspondence chess competition.
Niro has nearly 25 years nonprofit management experience, having been employed as a hospital administrator and as a management consultant auditor for a national public accounting firm.
Niro is currently working to ensure a smooth transition with outgoing ED & CEO George De Feis, in the national office in New Windsor, NY.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (with Alex Wojtkiewicz playing for them!) and the University of Texas at Dallas tied for first place at the 2001 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, held Dec. 26-29 in Providence, RI. The two winners drew in round four and won all their remaining matches. Stanford and Berkeley both sent teams. We hope to have more complete results next week.

The Sacramento Chess Club, which meets every Wednesday from 5:30 PM to 10 PM at the Hart Senior Center at 915 27th Street, has continuous activity. NM Michael Aigner and Diane Barnard tied for first with 3-0 scores in the G/20 Octos held December 19. The previous weekend a Masters/Experts event was won by Zoran Lazetich ahead of fellow master Robert Sferra. Lazetich was also victorious in a G/1 Minute event held December 12.

The US Championships takes place January 5th-13th in Seattle. There are 56 players in the nine round Swiss which will feature several players from the Bay Area including GMs Alex Yermolinsky and Waltr Browne, Guillermo Rey and John Donaldson, SM Vladimir Strugatsky and WGM Camilla Baginskaite. Full coverage will be available at http://www.seattlechessfoundation.org/events.asp

MI Newsletter reader IM Eric Tangborn of Seattle passes on the following curiosity in which five pawns and a knight triumph against a lone queen. The game was from a weekend Swiss in which the then Canadian GM absolutely had to win which helps explain his risky play.

"You have a chance to become a good chess player if you travel to play chess, not play chess to travel."
Ivan Sokolov

This is a special edition of the Newsletter to honor longtime Mechanics' Institute member Neil Falconer.

Neil first entered the Chess Room in 1939 while he was a Berkeley High School student and has been associated with the Institute ever since.  During the 1950s he was often found on one of the top boards for Northern California in their annual match with the South and was also a frequent contributor to the California Chess Reporter.
Neil's responsibilities as a lawyer and family man prevented him from ever realizing his true potential as a player, but he still collected a number of significant titles.  His most prominent victory was in the 1992 US Senior Open where he took top honors defeating Grandmaster Arthur Dake in the last round.
Neil has served as a Trustee at the MI for over 30 years.  He is still very much involved with the Chess Room and is a regular at Grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky's weekly lectures on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.  If you hear a voice piping up in the back asking Yermo the specifics of a concrete variation, chances are, it's Neil!

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 d6 5.c4 f5?!
The move ...f5 is popular after 5.c3, but here White has Nc3.
6.d4 fxe4 7.Nxe5 dxe5 8.Qh5+ g6
Known is 8...Ke7 9.Bxc6 Qxd4 10.Qe8+ Kd6 11.Be3 Qxc4 12.Nc3 Bg4 13.Rd1+ 1–0, Book-Andersson, Warsaw (ol) 1935.
9.Qxe5+ Kf7 10.Bxc6 bxc6 11.Qxh8 Nf6 12.Nc3 Qd7?
This game first appeared years ago in the San Francisco Chronicle where the late George Koltanowski asked "why not 12...Qd4 with good possibilities"?  He looks to have been right as the logical sequence 13.Be3 Qxc4 14.Bg5 Bg7 15.Qd8 Bg4 16.Qxa8 (16.Qxc7+ Nd7 17.Qf4+ Bf5 18.Rd1 with equal chances is the right way to play) 16...Nd5 wins for Black!
13.Nxe4 Nxe4 14.Qxh7+ Bg7 15.Bh6 Qxd4 16.0–0 Qf6 17.Rae1 Ng5 18.Re7+ Kxe7
Or 18...Qxe7 19.Qxg7+ Ke8 20.Qg8+ Kd7 21.Rd1+
19.Bxg5 Qxg5 20.Qxg7+ Kd6 21.Rd1+ Kc5 22.Qd4+ Kb4 23.Qc3+ 1–0

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 Ne7 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.Nf3 Qa5 8.Bd2 Qa4 9.Bd3 Nbc6
More logical is 9...c4.
10.dxc5
This gives White the use of the important d4 square. The tripled c-pawns are not so important.
10...Qa5 11.0–0 Qxc5 12.Qe2 Ng6 13.h4! d4?!
Here 13...h5 looks safer. For example:14.Bxg6 fxg6 15.Qd3 Ne7 16.Bg5 Nf5 17.Nd2 b6 (17...0–0 18.c4) 18.Ne4 with interesting play.
14.cxd4 Nxd4 15.Nxd4 Qxd4 16.Bb5+ Bd7 17.Bxd7+ Qxd7 18.Bb4!?
White fixes Black's King in the center at the cost of a pawn.
18...Nxh4 19.Rfd1 Qc6 20.f3 Nf5 21.g4 Qb6+ 22.Kh2 Nd4?
22...Ne7 was essential. Hildebrandt puts his head into the mouth of the lion and quickly pays the price.
23.Rxd4! Qxd4 24.Rd1 Qf4+ 25.Kg2 f6
If 25...a6, then 26.Qd3
26.Qb5+ Kf7 27.Rd7+ Kg6 28.exf6 h5 29.Rxg7+ Kxf6 30.Bc3+ e5 31.Qd7 Qxf3+ 32.Kxf3 hxg4+ 33.Kxg4 1–0

"The older I get the more I value pawns"
Paul Keres

"Let us depart from science. Chess can never reach its height by following in the path of science…Let us, therefore, make a new effort and with the help of our imagination turn the struggle of technique into a battle of ideas."
Capablanca

CORRESPONDENCE MASTER AND CO-DIRECTOR UNDER-10 PROGRAM, FRANK NIRO

"Despite a busy career as a hospital administrator, Frank Niro has managed to find enough spare time over the past 27 years to remain involved with chess as a player, journalist, organizer, tournament director, benefactor, teacher and good will ambassador. As a player he has carried as many as 150 correspondence games at a time with a lifetime winning percentage greater than 80%. He won the 1973 American Postal Chess League championship and became a correspondence master in that organization in 1975. He is also active in international correspondence chess through ICCF. Frank is best known in the chess world as a journalist. He was editor of the award winning magazine, CHESS HORIZONS (CH), from 1984 to 1986. During that time,
CH was twice chosen as the best state magazine (Massachusetts) by Chess Journalists of America and Frank earned individual awards for layout, photography and writing. In 1985, he was runner up in the balloting by CJA
for the prestigious Chess Journalist of the Year Award and received Honorable Mention for his efforts. He is presently editor of PRINCETON CHILDREN'S CHESS NEWS, which is dedicated to the development of scholastic chess in New Jersey. He collaborated on the 1988 publication of FORTY YEARS
AT THE TOP, a compilation of games by FIDE Master John Curdo, and edited FM Curdo's most recent booklet, STILL MORE CHESS CAVIAR. He has served on several chess organization Boards and is presently Secretary-Treasurer of the Princeton Children's Chess Foundation. A well-respected and entertaining speaker on many topics, Frank has been invited to give lectures and simultaneous exhibitions in a variety of locations including the Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas as well as chess clubs in New Delhi, India and Cordoba, Argentina."

Either of these events makes a good double bill with the US Masters which runs February 28-March 3. This event will not only be a memorial to Eugene Martinovsky, but will also double as a qualifier for the US Championship with six spots up for grabs. Full details are offered below.

"Chessplayers are of varying character.  Some, in order to be confident of success, have to see their opponents as a friend, while others must, without fail, feel enmity towards the opponent... There are many more of the second type, and it must be admitted that the author belongs to this group."

Viktor Kortchnoi

IM Ricardo De Guzman won the Bay Area Masters Grand Prix I, held January 25-27 at the Mechanics' Institute. The 3-time Filipino Olympiad team member scored 4-1, including a victory over top seed SM Vladimir Mezentsev. MI Chess Director John Donaldson and NM Adrian Keatinge-Clay shared second with 3 1/2 points. This was a particularly fine performance by Adrian as he scored 1 win and 3 draws against 3 IMs and a SM rated 2550.
Adrian, who has one IM norm to his credit, made only one mistake in the tournament. He forgot to give organizer Guillermo Rey an address to send his prize money. We expect to hear from Adrian soon!  Rounding out the list of plus scores at 3 points, in the 13-player field, were Mezentsev, IM Rey and NM Michael Aigner.
Two other events in this series open to players rated over 2200, will be held May 10-12 and June 14-16. Full details will soon be available on the website. A big thanks goes to IM Guillermo Rey for sponsoring these events which provide a much needed opportunity for the Bay Area's top players to keep in shape and to Anthony Corrales for directing.

The Mechanics' Winter Tuesday Night Marathon has four leaders after three rounds. Topping the 66-player field are Victor Ossipov, Larry Snyder, Peter Grey and James Jones. There is still time to enter the eight round event with half point byes for the first three rounds.

Bill Goichberg's Continental Chess Association returned to Los Angeles the weekend of January 19-21 with the Western Class Championships. The top section saw a tie for first between GM Alex Wojtkiewicz and Armenians Varuzhan Akobian and Meliks Khachiyan at 5 1/2  from 7.  Sharing fourth and fifth at 5 were SMs Cyrus Lakdawala and Levon Altounian.
Several MI members made the trip south. SM David Pruess was in the running for a top prize throughout, but lost in the final round to Akobian to finish with four points. Expert Monty Peckham had a sensational result. The 16-year-old high school student, rated 2057 going into the event, scored 3 1/2 beating 2 masters and drawing with IM Ziatdinov. One of Lithuania's top young female talents, Egle Morkunaite, who is currently living in San Francisco, defeated two masters while scoring 2 1/2 points.

Tournament organizer Rico Adkins writes: here is the report from the Hercules Amateur Championship held at the Mechanics Bank Operations Center in Hercules this past weekend.
In the 16 player event, eight players out of sixteen won cash. Larry Snyder finished 4-0 for 1st place. Teri Lagier and Kayven Riese finished tied for 2nd overall and Best B prize with 3 points. Kris MacLennan was the Best and worst A player with 2 1/2 points. Alan Howe and Tom Allen tied for Best C with 2 points and Ben Laufer and Gregory Ihde tied for Best D/below with 1 point. For Gregory, it was his first win as an Unrated player.  Look for the next event planned for April! Flyers will be available at the Mechanics' and Berkeley Chess Club as well as Bay Area chess events such as the 29th Annual Peoples Tournament in Berkeley.

Sibylle Zemitis has unearthed evidence of a regular San Francisco chess column from 1859. The May 22 edition from that year of the San Francisco Alta features two Morphy-Mongredien games with annotations and a problem by Conrad Bayer.  The column appears to have run every Sunday. We would welcome more information.

The Mechanics' Institute will be hosting the 2nd Annual Henry Gross G/45 this Saturday. Among the early entrants in this five round Swiss are IM Ricardo De Guzman and NMs Egle Morkunaite and Keith Vickers.

IM Guillermo Rey will be hosting the Town School Spring Chess Challenge this Saturday at the Town School (2750 Jackson Street in San Francisco). The event is open to grades K-8 and runs from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM. Contact Guillermo at reyg@ix.netcom.com or (650) 355-0305 for more information.

“After losing a game I play the next one better, after losing the second game I play like a lion, but after three defeats in a row anyone can beat me!”.
Eduard Gufeld

Filipino IM Ricardo De Guzman continued his winning ways by taking first with a 5-0 score in the 2nd Annual Henry Gross Memorial held February 2 at the MI. This was De Guzman's fifth tournament win in 2002! Up and coming junior Monty Peckham moved another step closer to 2200 by taking second with 4 1/2 points, while NM Keith Vickers, junior Ben Haun and improving veteran Mariusz Krubnik shared third with 4. The 42-player event was directed by Anthony Corrales.

Experts Victor Ossipov and Larry Snyder lead the Winter Tuesday Night Marathon after four rounds with perfect scores by virtue of defeating Peter Grey and James Jones respectively. Rudy Hernandez is alone in third at 3 1/2 after his defeat of fellow National Master David Blohm. Four rounds remain for the 66 contestants.

International Master Vinay Bhat of San Jose has won the Neil Falconer Award, given annually to the top-rated player in Northern California under age 18, for the third year running. Bhat, who is a 17-year-old high school senior, will receive $2505 (his rating on the December 2001 USCF list). This is Vinay's last year of eligibility and the winner of the 2003 award will be wide open with many Northern California juniors over 2000 USCF trying to raise their ratings quickly!
The Falconer Award is given by longtime Mechanics' Trustee and 1992 US Senior Open winner Neil Falconer. All USCF rated juniors under 18 living in Northern California are eligible to compete for this award. For more details contact MI Chess Director John Donaldson

"Chess requires total concentration…when I play I try to keep my mind completely on the game…Many people who play chess are using only a fraction of their mind and the rest of their mind is off wandering somewhere."
Bobby Fischer

"I have won many games that have not made me happy; and when I lose, I am also not happy.  My friends ask ‘so when are you happy?’.  That's the way chess is; you are happy only rarely; the rest is grief."
GM Ljubomir Ljubojevic

SM Dimitry Zilberstein and IM John Donaldsontied for first in the 29th Annual People's Chess Tournament held February 16-18 on the UC Berkeley campus. The two winners, who finished at 5-1, both beat Filipino IM Ricardo De Guzman and drew with each other and NM Michael Aigner. The latter tied for third at 4 1/2 with Igor Margulis, and had an excellent result. Besides the draws with the two winners, Aigner also drew De Guzman and beat NM Mauro Casadei. This result will put Michael over 2300 for the first time. Congratulations!
This years People's event, directed by Michael Goodall and Richard Kopecke, attracted 155 players, up thirty from last year, which is an excellent turnout. During the Fischer years in the mid-1970s, this tournament routinely attracted 200 plus players, but those were different times and there was no competing US Amateur Team West on the same weekend in Los Angeles. Additionally, 148 kids showed up for a well-run three section scholastic on Monday.
All in all, it was a very encouraging weekend for Bay Area Chess and the large number of flyers for upcoming events bodes well.  Events are scheduled for the next few months in Sunnyvale, Vallejo, Fremont, Sacramento,  San Francisco, Marin City, Hercules and Santa Rosa!  Tom Dorsch has a big Memorial Day event set for the Holiday Inn on Van Ness (easily accessible by BART and MUNI - get off at Montgomery station and take the #38 Geary which runs frequently and drops you off two blocks from the site). Now if we can only find somebody to organize in San Jose!
Results of class sections next week.

NM Igor Margulis of San Francisco defeated Berkeley Expert Larry Snyder to force a five way tie for first at 5-1 with two rounds to go in the MI Winter Tuesday Night Marathon. Joining Margulis and Snyder on the leader board are Victor Ossipov, Peter Grey and Chad Sweeney. Chad (1849) has had an excellent result so far, knocking off several more highly rated opponents and was winning against Ossipov, but lost on time.

The 75th Anniversary of the Copenhagen Chess Union was celebrated with a Category 9 tournament. Chris Ward and US Berkeley grad Nick DeFirmian tied for first.
1.Ward, Christopher g ENG 2486 5.5; 2. DeFirmian, Nick E g USA 2536 5.5; 3. Hector, Jonny g SWE 2507 5.0; 4. Schandorff, Lars g DEN 2545 5.0; 5. Gausel, Einar g NOR 2520 5.0; 6. Brinck-Claussen, Bjorn m DEN 2359 4.5; 7. Hoi, Carsten g DEN 2407 4.0; 8. Jakobsen, Ole m DEN 2405 4.0; 9. Mortensen, Erling m DEN 2441 3.5; 10. Kristensen, Bjarke m DEN 2406 3.0.
Games and Internet coverage are available at: Games in PGN  and  http://www.ksu.dk .

Grandmaster Edmar Mednis died suddenly of cardiac arrest during a bout with pneumonia on Wednesday, February 13, 2002 at his home in Woodside, Queens, New York. Mednis, who was best known as the author of many excellent instructional works on the endings, appeared to be in robust health at recent chess events, and his death comes as a shock.

Longtime MI member Jan Fischer passed away in early February. A musician by training, Fischer loved to spend days in the Chess Room kibitzing and talking about everything under the sun. His life underwent a marked change when he was evicted from his San Francisco apartment and forced to live on the street, but he never complained.

The September-October 1940 issue of the American Chess Bulletin reports the results of the MI Club Championship. We notice such familiar names as Master Vladimir Pafnutieff, H. (Bip) Ralston - founder of the California Chess Reporter, noted correspondence player Nicolas Preo and science fiction writer and MI stalwart Carroll Capps.

1.H. Simon 9½; 2.V. Pafnutieff 8; 3.G. Lapiken 7½; 4.H. Ralston 7; 5-6. N. Preo and Wallace Smith 6½; 7-8.L.L. Boyette and C. Capps 6; 9-10. E.Fawcett and E.Tippin 5; 11.C.Howland 4½; 12.C.Hong 3 ½ ; 13. J.F. Yale 3

Igor Margulis and Larry Snyder lead the Tuesday Night Marathon with 6-1 scores with a round to go. David Blohm is third at 5 1/2.

Senior Master David Pruess and his free Tuesday evening chess class at the Albany Public Library (6-8 pm , 1247 Marin Avenue) were featured on the front page of the February 22 edition of the Berkeley Voice.

Moscow GM Sergey Makarichev and his wife master M. Makaricheva Ostrovskaya visited the Mechanics' Institute yesterday and did some filming for a future episode of their popular weekly chess program that airs on Russian television.

Expert - Matthew Ho
Class A - Paul Ganem
Class B - Pierre Vachon
Class C-  David Bischel and Juan Ventosa

Cal Chess, the official body representing the United States Chess Federation in Northern California, is becoming increasingly more active under President Tom Dorsch and California Chess Journal Editor Frisco del Rosario and deserves support. Members receive discounts on the entry fee to many chess tournaments in Northern California as well as a subscription to the bimonthly Journal which includes annotations by the likes of GM Alex Yermolinsky.  The cost of a years membership is $15 ($13 for scholastic). Contact Frisco at 126 15th Ave, San Mateo, CA 94402, (650) 574-6029 frisco@appleisp.net.

US Masters Prize List
1st-5th:  GM Gregory Kaidanov, GM Alexander Onischuk, GM Daniel Fridman, GM Leonid Yudasin
              GM Aleksander Wojtkiewicz 5.5-1.5        $3,000 ea.
6th:        GM Dmitry Gurevich, GM Gregory Serper, GM John Fedorowicz, IM John Donaldson 5.0-2.0        $175 ea.
1st-3rd  2400-2499: IM Nikolay Andrianov, IM William Paschall, GM Anatoly Lein  5.0-2.0        $366.67 ea.
1st-2nd  2300-2399: IM John Watson, LM Jason Doss 5.0-2.0  $475 ea.
 Additionally, $1,500 in point pool prizes were split amongst players scoring at least 4.5 points

Best Chess Column – Harold Dondis, Boston Globe
Harold Dondis’ Chess column has been appearing in the Boston Globe weekly since 1964!! Recently, to save space the Globe discontinued it. There was such an uproar over this that the Globe not only brought it back but Harold’s chess column now appears two times a week! When informed of the award, Harold asked that proper recognition be given to NM John Curdo and GM Patrick Wolf who do the game analysis and commentary for his column.

Best State Publication – Illinois Chess Bulletin
The Illinois Chess Bulletin, published six times a year, is the official publication of the of the Illinois Chess Association. It has won numerous Chess Journalist of America Awards and has won the Cramer Award for Best State Publication in 1994 and 1999. During 2001 three different editors shared the honor of serving as editor for this fine publication: Roy Frye, Josh Flores and Bill Brock.

Best Book – Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces by Igor Stohl (318 pages, $24.95)
Igor Stohl is a grandmaster from Slovakia and was a runner-up in the 1982 World Junior. This book is a collection of 50 grandmaster  games, covering the period from Gelfand-Dreev, Tilburg 1993 to Anand-Khalifman, FIDE World Cup, Shenyang 2000. In a Chess Café review by Stephen Ham, the book is described as "Big and Beautiful." Hamm goes on to describe both the quantity and quality of Stohl’s work as being "Great."

Previous winners for these categories are:

Chess Journalist of the Year
1994 – IM John Donaldson
1995 – Shelby Lyman
1996 – Burt Hochberg
1997 – Jerry Hanken
1998 – GM Yasser Seirawan
1999 – Mike Franett
2000 – GM Larry Evans
2001 – Hanon Russell

Best Book
1996 – The Bobby Fischer I Knew by GM Arnold Denker and Larry Parr
1998 – Napier The Forgotten Chess Master by John  Hilbert
           Alekhine’s Chess Games by Leonard Skinner and Robert Verhoeven
1999 – Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy by John Watson
2000 – Soviet Chess 1917-1971 (Historical) by GM Andy Soltis
           The Road to Chess Improvement (Instructional) by GM Alex Yermolinsky
           Chessdon (Memoirs) by Don Schultz
2001 - Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces by Igor Stohl

Best Chess Column
1998 – David Sands (Washington Times)
1999 – GM Lubosh Kavalak (Washington Post)
2000 – GM Robert Byrne (NY Times) and GM Michael Rohde (Chess Life)
2001 – Harold Dondis (Boston Globe)

Best State Magazine
1994 – Illinois Chess Bulletin (Robert Renault) and Atlantic Chess (David Burris)
1995 – floridaCHESS (Don Schultz)
1996 – floridaCHESS (Don Schultz)
1997 – Chess Horizons (Joe Sparks)
1998 – Texas Knights (Selby Anderson)
1999 – Illinois Chess Bulletin (Josh Flores)
2000 – Chess Horizons (Peter Sherwood)
2001 – Illinois Chess Bulletin
Mar-Apr 2000 thru Nov-Dec 2000: Roy Frye
Jan-Feb 2001: Josh Flores
Mar-Apr 2001 thru May-Jun 2001: Bill Brock

After nearly half a century of enjoying the beauty of endgame studies and problems, and reproducing many of them in my chess publications, I felt it was time to do something in return: to organize and sponsor a composing tourney - if only because I would like to spend my 60th birthday, 13 April 2003, admiring some fine studies and problems that might otherwise not have been there.

Composers are invited to submit original compositions in two sections:

1) Endgame Studies
2) Problems - direct-mate moremovers

Prizes in both sections will be 400, 200, 100, 2 x 50 and 2 x 25 Euro.

1) Endgame studies.

Themes are free. Entries no later than 31 December 2002 to the Tournament Director, René Olthof, Achter het Schaapshoofd 7, 5211 MC 's-Hertogenbosch, NEDERLAND; e-mail: <raja@newinchess.com>
Judges: Harold van der Heijden and Tim Krabbé.

2) Problems - direct-mate moremovers.

Themes are free. Entries no later than 31 December 2002 to the Tournament Director, Henk le Grand, Heimanslaan 5, 6705 AD Wageningen-hoog, NEDERLAND; e-mail: <hlegrand@nl.packardbell.org>
Judges: Ruud Beugelsdijk and Tim Krabbé.

The awards will be published on Tim Krabbé's website http://www.timkrabbe.nl/chess/chess.html
in his weekly chess column in Algemeen Dagblad, and in EBUR and Probleemblad.

"One of the most common mistakes a player can make, is to play mindlessly along, repeating known ideas, used before in similar situations.  The player thinks he is playing by the book, but because one or two details are askew, the position is different and should be evaluated differently."
GM Yasser Seirawan

"I have won many games that have not made me happy; and when I lose, I am also not happy.  My friends ask ‘so when are you happy?’.  That’s the way chess is; you are happy only rarely; the rest is grief."
GM Ljubomir Ljubojevic

NM Michael Aigner writes:
"The LERA tournament was held March 9-10 in Sunnyvale About 75 players showed up, allowing organizer Rod McCalley to increase the prize fund slightly.  The top section featured six masters, led by IM Vinay Bhat and NMs Robin Cunningham and Michael Aigner.  After the first two rounds, those were the only players with perfect scores.  When the dust settled, Aigner took clear first with 3.5/4, defeating Bhat with white in the last round.  Second place was shared by Cunningham (who also drew Bhat) and underrated junior Akash Deb (whose lone blemish was a loss to Aigner), both at 3.0/4."

"As Bobby Fischer said, you have to go for the truth in chess, and if that requires taking on a risky activity, you have to go ahead and do it."
Edmar Mednis

The Ohlone tournament this past weekend in Fremont drew about 90 players, allowing organizer Hans Poschmann to pay the full advertised prize fund. The open section went quite according to the ratings, as the top three seeds took the top three prizes.  IM Ricardo DeGuzman shook off a major scare in round 1 against expert Jim Uren to sweep the tournament 4-0.  He defeated NMs Paul Gallegos and Michael Aigner on the second day.  NM David Blohm gave up half a point in round 1 and then cruised to 3.5 and clear second place.  At 3.0 were Aigner and top under 2100 prize winner Steve Gaffagan.
Curtis Munson won the reserve section with 4-0 and Maximo Fajardo took clear second with 3.5-0.5. Tyler Arnold and Eric Tsai shared top honors in the booster section with 3.5-0.5 each. The team trophy was won by the Mechanics', with the team of Blohm, Monty Peckham, Gary Huang, and Drake Wang.
Thanks to Michael Aigner for this report.

The Spring Tuesday Night Marathon started last night. The 57-player field includes 5 Masters led by top seed Egle Morkunaite. It's still possible to enter the event with a half point bye for the first round.

IM Ricardo DeGuzman and SM Ronald Cusi tied for first place with 3 1/2 - 1/2 in the Vallejo Open held March 16-17. Approximately 20 players participated in the event directed by Rico Adkins.

Mechanics' member Eric Schiller did very well in the recent Dos Hermanas/ICC events  averaging 75 percent and getting his rating Internet Chess Club rating up to 2550 These events were played with eight minutes aside and a two-second increment and featured many GMs and IMs. Well done Eric!

" When your opponent has a strategic advantage and virtually controls the board, or when he attacks
something that cannot be defended by reasonable means, then the 'threat' or 'blackmail' with
nonexistent attacks on the king may induce a mistake".
GM Mihai Suba

Filipino IM Ricardo DeGuzman continued his domination of the MI's monthly G/45 events by winning the Max Wilkerson Open on March 30th with a 5-0 score. Among his victims in the 58-player field were Cuban FM Alvaro Blanco and NM Victor Baja (2371). Sharing second with four points were Blanco, Baja, NM Igor Margulis , Expert Alexander Levitan and A players Ben Haun and Felix Rudyak.
Daichi Siegrist and Michael Haun tied for top B with 3 points. The same score gave John
Steele and Vicenzo Pelliccia top C honors and Aviv Adler the D prize. Top E, for the best under 1200, was divided between Mark Altchek, Stephen Wilson, Yuki Siegrist, Dustin Rudiger and Cameron Jackson who each had two points. Max Wilkerson, who served as MI Chess Director from 1980-1996, had an outstanding event drawing masters Margulis and Paul Gallegos. Anthony Corrales directed this event which set an MI G/45 record for attendance.
Please note that checks for prize winners will be not be mailed out until approximately April 12 as the MI's accountant is taking a well-deserved vacation. The next G/45 event at the MI, The 2nd Imre Konig Memorial, will be held Saturday, April 13.

Two rounds into the MI Spring Tuesday Night Marathon the following players have perfect scores in the 59-player event: NMs Igor Margulis, Russell Wong, David Blohm and Rudy Hernandez, Experts Victor Ossipov, Larry Snyder, Igor Traub, and James Jones plus A players Victor Todortsev (who upset top seed Egle Morkunaite) and Andrew Mueckenburger (who upset Expert Mingson Chen). It's still possible to enter the eight round event with half point byes for rounds one and two.

Participants in last night's Tuesday Night Marathon were among the first to get the opportunity to use the Chess Room's new space in Room 407 adjacent to the Directors Office. The MI Chess Room, founded in 1855, is the oldest continuously active chess club in the country, but the space it currently occupies is considerably more recent. The MI moved around a lot in the period 1855-1865, but the following year it found a permanent home in a three story building at 31 Post Street in room 10 where it remained until the earthquake and fire of 1906. A month after these disastrous events the Institute and Chess Room
reopened in temporary quarters. It was not until 1910 that the current building was opened with the Chess.  Room located on the third floor. The expansion of the library eventually led to the Chess Room being moved to the fourth floor in 1923 where it has remained to this day albeit with some minor changes.
Sometime in the next month construction will begin on a long overdue women's bathroom on the 4th floor which will occupy the space where the Chess Room computers are currently occupied. In return for this lost space the Chess Room now has the full-time use of room 407. This second, dedicated room, will allow for much better conditions for Chess Room users as there is now a designated place for skittles and game analysis during tournaments. The Chess Room would like to thank the MI Trustees, Executive Director Jim Flack, Building Manager Michael Savage, Special Events Director Laura Shepherd, Mohammed Shaikh and Anthony Corrales for their help in making this possible. Jim and Michael also note that due to the speedy move there will be about a month while the Chess Room has both it's old and new space making it possible to hold a tournament with over one hundred players without crowding. The attendance record (pre-fire code!) for the Chess Room was set at the 1974 Stamer Memorial with 119 players. The Max Wilkerson Open last Saturday set a one-day record with 58. Will the Imre Konig Memorial on April 13 break it?

The 6th Charles Linklater International, an 11-player IM norm round robin, starts this Thursday at 5pm. The field consists of IMs Ricardo DeGuzman, Guillermo Rey and John Donaldson, FMs Ricardo Lobo, Vladimir Mezentsev, Cyrus Lakdawala, Adrian Keatinge-Clay and Frank Thornally plus NMs Shivaji Shivkumar, Chethan Narayan and Vivek Nambiar. This will be the first tournament for Frank Thornally of Marinwood in more than twenty years. He was one of the top Bay Area players in the 1960s and 70s and represented the United States at the World Student Team Chess Championships at Ybbs, Austria, in 1968. Welcome back Frank!
This Linklater is funded entirely by generous donations from Anthony Corrales and Michael Goodall and entry fees from the players. If you would like to make contributions to the Mechanics', which enjoys tax-deductible 501(c) (3) status, please contact Chess Room Director John Donaldson at (415) 421-2258 or imwjd@aol.com.

GMs Ilya Smirin, Alexander Goldin, Ildar Ibragimov, Gregory Kaidanov, Joel Benjamin and Giorgi Kacheishvili tied for first at 5.5 from 7 in the 4th Annual Foxwoods International held March 28-31 at the Foxwoods Resort Casino & Hotel in Connecticut.  The six qualifiers for the US Championship are Maurice Ashley, Michael Mulyar, Alan Bennett, Alex Stripunsky, Larry Kaufman and Igor Foygel with Marc Esserman as first alternate. Bill Goichberg's Continental Chess Association organized the event.

Do you remember the Turk? No, we are not talking about Grandmaster Suat Atalik of Istanbul, but the famous chessplaying machine of the 18th century which is the subject of a recent book (THE TURK: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth Century-Chess Playing Machine) by Tom Standage. He will be talking about "Thinking about Thinking Machines, 1769-2002" and signing copies of THE TURK in San Francisco on the following dates:

* May 28 @ 7:00 PM: The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street
* May 29 @ 12:30 PM: Stacey's Booksellers, 581 Market Street

For additional information about the book and/or Tom Standage, please visit www.theturkbook.com.

The following piece appeared at the ChessBase web site at the beginning of this month.

"Modern chess is too much concerned with things like pawn structure. Forget it. Checkmate ends the game"
Nigel Short

GM Yermolinsky 2583
GM  Browne 2473
IM Donaldson 2430
FM Mezentsev 2400
IM DeGuzman 2372
IM Rey 2358
FM Zilberstein 2337
FM Porter 2309
FM Keatinge-Clay 2284
FM Lobo 2282
IM Shipman 2237
Stearns 2233
Nambiar 2203
Casadei 2169
Schiller 2166
Aigner 2158
Gallegos 2134
Morkunaite 2132
Peckham 2080

"I refused to believe that Black was lost.  Looking at the position, I felt there must be a defense, and looking at the previous play, I liked all of Black’s moves!  Not trying to find a defense for Black would have meant admitting that something was wrong with my concept of chess strategy."
GM Bent Larsen

"There are two kinds of equal positions. Equal positions you like to play, and equal positions you can't stand the sight of."
Viswanathan Anand

"It's funny, but many people don't understand why I draw so many games nowadays. They think my style must have changed but this is not the case at all. The answer to this drawing disease is that my favorite squares are e6, f7, g7 and h7 and everyone now knows this. They protect these squares not once but four times!"-
Mikhail Tal

1. Onischuk, Alexander g USA 2641 6.0; 2. Rublevsky, Sergei g RUS 2657 5.5; 3. Zvjaginsev, Vadim g RUS 2645 5.5; 4. Dreev, Alexey g RUS 2677 5.0; 5. Vaganian, Rafael A g ARM 2664 5.0; 6. Sokolov, Ivan g BIH 2647 5.0; 7. Bologan, Viktor g MDA 2652 4.5; 8. Vescovi, Giovanni g BRA 2611 4.5; 9. Aleksandrov, Aleksej g BLR 2654 4.0; 10. Obodchuk, Andrei m RUS 2435 0.0;

"Life is like a game of chess: we draw up a plan; this plan, however, is conditional on what - in chess, our opponent - in life, our fate - will choose to do."
Artur Shopenhauer

Walter Korn, a well-known chess aficionado who fled Czechoslovakia during World War II, died last month in Burlingame at age 89.
A lifelong lover of chess, The San Mateo resident authored several books on the strategic game, including "The Brilliant Touch in Chess", "America’s Chess Heritage" and "The Art of Chess Competition".
Korn, who died July 10, also wrote an 11-page essay on chess for Encyclopedia Britannica and for more than 50 years was a contributing editor to chess publications including Chess Life and the British Chess Magazine.
"He was a brilliant man, but totally loving and warm", says John Burtman, a family friend who considers Korn his grandfather. "he was a wonderful, kind-hearted, good person…very rare in today’s world."
Born in Prague in 1908, Korn fled his homeland for London with his late wife, Herta Klemperer.
Several decades later, in Germany, he directed the U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, helping to relocate concentration camp survivors. In 1948, he served as national director of ORT in Geneva.
He later immigrated to the United States in 1950 and lived in Detroit, where he worked as a business manager of the Jewish Community Center. From 1960 to 1964, he lived in Israel, working for both the Joint Distribution Committee and the United Jewish Appeal.
After moving to California in the mid-1970s, he spent his retirement years pursuing his passion for chess.
But those who knew Korn call him a cultured man whose interest extended far beyond his favorite game.
Says his doctor George H. Cohen: " I looked forward to his visits and the back-and-forth bantering that always seemed to ensue. Walter never left the office in an instance where I hadn’t learned something new from him."
Korn is survived by his longtime friend Muriel Feiler Roth of San Mateo and her family, as well as a sister-in-law, Hedi Furth of Dusseldorf, Germany and niece Marcella Buldrova of Prague.

"The art of treating the opening stage correctly and without error is basically the art of using time efficiently.
Svetozar Gligoric

1 Expert Larry Snyder 4
2 X Jerry Sze 3
1 A Ray Banning 2.5
2 A Bruce Matzner 1.5
1 B Chien Liu 3
2 B Alberto Cisneros 3
1 C Ewelina Krubnik 3
2 C Oren Gazit 3
1 D Stephan Goupille 3.5
2 D Richard Van Gaabeck 3
1 E Yuki Siegrist 2.5
2 E Iris Kokish 2
1 U1000 Herbert Kanner 2.5
2 U1000 Emilia Krubnik 2.5

The Bay Area has a new GM in the area, at least temporarily. Former World Junior Champion Tal Shaked is interning with Intel this summer in Santa Clara, before moving to Seattle this fall where he will pursue a Ph. D.at the University of Washington.

NM Robert Haines, who moved back to Albuquerque from Richmond earlier this year, recently won the New Mexico Senior Championship.

NM Bob Burger of Arcata writes regarding Newsletter #86: "The games you quote from MI championship, 1930, are interesting: Lamb is Willis Lamb, then a student at Cal and member of the Castle CC. He went on to get a Ph.D. in physics and made key discoveries (at Yale, I believe) that led to the invention of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)."

IM Vinay Bhat, several-time winner of the Falconer award for the top junior player in Northern California, will be attending UC Berkeley this fall. He joins a long list of strong players who have gone to Cal including GM Nick deFirmian, IM Vince McCambridge, IM Greg Hjorth, SMs David Pruess, David Glueck and Dmitry Zilberstein,  to mention but a few.

NM Eric Schiller of El Granada has been quite busy of late with various writing and software projects. One of his students, Robert Lau of Hawaii, finished clear second in the recent national scholastic K-5 division. Eric has once again be named Chief Arbiter fort the rescheduled Kramnik-Fritz  match.

MI Chess Room stalwart Lloyd Stephenson showed he is a man of many talents this past weekend by not only helping organize (until the very last minute) the Zippy 5K run in Golden Gate Park, but also placing 19th in a field of 250 with a time of 15:46 which works out to a average of 5:05 a mile! Lloyd was the fifth ranked master runner in the country in 1996. Chess Room Director John Donaldson showed it is not only his chess that needs work as he placed 165th with a time of 21:08 (6:49).

"Your only task in the opening is to reach a playable middlegame".
Lajos Portisch

National Master Victor Baja and Expert Juan Luaces shared first place in the 2nd Charles Powell Memorial held May 18 at the Mechanics' Institute. The two winners, who drew with each other in round four, split $300. There was a big tie at 3 1/2 with James Jones, Nicolas Yap, Nelson Sowell, Kevan Gross, John Chan and  Mariusz Krubnik dividing the Under 2200, 2000 and 1800 prizes. Oren Gazit, Aaron Wilkowski and Davis Xu shared top Under 1600 with three points apiece. Anthony Corrales directed the 33-player event.

The sixteenth annual Frank P. Samford, Jr. Chess Fellowship has been won by Varuzhan Akobian of Glendale, California. The Samford is the richest and most important chess fellowship in the United States, offering brilliant young American chessmasters the support necessary to reach their full potential. The total value of the Fellowship is $32,000 per year. The prize is awarded for one year, renewable for a second year.
Akobian, the top-rated American player under 21 at 2480 FIDE, will be playing in the MI's Konig Memorial this fall. UC Berkeley student David Pruess was among the finalists for this year's Samford.

MI Chess Director John Donaldson will be coaching American representatives Hikaru Nakamura and Cindy Tsai in the Pan American Junior Championships this June in La Paz, Bolivia. Donaldson will be spending next Tuesday and Wednesday at the world's largest chess library (the J.G. White collection) in Cleveland researching the club's history. This accounts for the early arrival of Newsletter #89.

The Mechanics' Institute Library is constantly adding both new and older chess materials to its collections. Recent acquisitions include Chess Informants and MI Trustee Vince McCambridge's book on Yasser Seirawan.

"To study opening variations without reference to the strategic concepts that develop from them in the middlegame, is, in effect, to separate the head from the body".
Petrosian

MI GM-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky finished in a 7-way tie for first in the Chicago Open held May 24-27 at the Hyatt Regency Oak Brook. Joining Yermo in the winner's circle in the 805-player event, which featured 19 GMs and 13 IMs, were GMs Gregory Kaidanov, Jaan Ehlvest, Alexander Shabalov, Leonid Yudasin, Ildar Ibragimov and Giorgi Kacheishvili, who all scored 5.5 from 7. Alex defeated Alexander Goldin (second rated in the US at 2702 USCF) with Black in the final round to gain his second big victory of 2002 (he and Walter Browne tied for first in the National Open). Good job Alex!
Several other MI members made the trip east. David Pruess and Shivkumar Shivaji had 3 1/2 from 7 in the open section while Chethan Narayan had 2 1/2. Gennadi Reznikov had 4 in the under 2200, with Steven Gaffagan at 3 1/2 and James Jones on 2 (from 6). Former MI member Mike Maloney, now living in Chicago, finished in the money in the Under 2000 group with 5 1/2 points.
US Championship Qualifiers (per the excellent Continental Chess Association Website): GM Alex Fishbein (5 points), IM Jesse Kraai, GM Anatoly Lein, Stephen Muhammad, Marc Esserman (all 4 1/2 points). Former Bay Area Players IM Mladen Vucic and Renard Anderson tied for 2nd-5th qualifier at 4 1/2 points, but lost out on the tiebreak. Elina Groberman was the qualifying woman.
The attendance for the Chicago, organized by Bill Goichberg's Continental Chess Association, was down slightly from last year, but excellent considering that very few players flew to the event.

Current US Champion Larry Christiansen(2573) and six-time titleholder Walter Browne (2473) have been added to the field for the Imre Konig Memorial. GMs Yury Shulman(2591), Alex Yermolinsky (2583), Lubomir Ftacnik (2576), Alex Baburin (2565), Alex Wojtkiewicz (2554), Suat Atalik (2551), Nick DeFirmian (2550), John Fedorowicz (2514) and IMs Varuzhan Akobian (2480) and Hikaru Nakamura (2466) round out the field. This will be the first time in the history of the Mechanics' that ten GMs have competed together in the same event.
Rounds will be held daily from 11 am to approximately 4pm in the Mechanics' main Chess Room and spectators are most welcome. Admission is complementary. IM John Donaldson will provide commentary during some of the rounds. There will be a WBCA blitz tournament on Saturday, September 7 from 5-7 PM. Simuls pitting children against top players will also be part of the Konig chess festival. Full details will appear in upcoming Newsletters.
Donations are what make events like this possible. Fund raising to date, through the generosity of National Masters Tibor Weinberger, Mark Pinto and Jim Eade and former US Senior Champion Neil Falconer, has generated 60 percent of the tournament budget. Can you help to make up the remaining $9,000? The M.I. has 501 (c) (3) status, so donations are tax deductible.

Schedule for the Imre Konig Memorial
September
3  7pm drawing of lots
4  rd 1 11am
5  rd 2 11am
6  rd 3  11am
7  rd 4 11 am  (WBCA blitz 5pm -7pm)
8  rd 5 11am
9  rd 6 11am
10 Free Day
11 rd 7  11am
12  rd 8 11am
13  rd 9 11am
14 rd 10 11am
15 rd 11 11am

"Castle if you will, or if you must, but not when you can".
Napier

Saturday, June 15, 2002
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
PeopleSoft Building
Knowland Park & Zoo, Oakland, CA
General Admission  $5.00
(WEBCA Members Free)

PROGRAM

*Q & A Session*

* IGM plays simuls Blindfolded vs 3 Scholastic Club Teams*

*IGM plays simuls vs 20 players selected by raffle drawing*

*Skittles*

*Photos and Autographs*

For more information call 510-568-8262 or 510-569-2806

On Friday, June 14, 2002 at Parker Elementary School, 7229 Ney Avenue in Oakland  there is an "Evening with Maurice" planned only for kids who are members of the Windsor East Bay Chess Club.  This will be a private affair for the Club kids, sponsors, special guests, media representatives, and representatives from the schools where my chess classes are being held.  Pizza will be served from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Following that,  Maurice will talk to and play with the kids..  Of course you are invited to Friday as well as Saturday.

"The  passed pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key; mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient".
Nimzovich

"The game of chess is not merely idle amusement.  Several valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it."
Ben Franklin, 1779

National Master Cindy Tsai of Gainesville, Florida, won the Pan American Girls' Under 20 Championship held in La Paz, Bolivia, from June 4-14.  Tsai won the WIM title, a 9-game WGM norm and direct entry into the World Girls' Under 20 Championship.
Hikaru Nakamura, of New York City, tied for first in the Pan American Junior, losing the title in tie-break.  Hikaru will be among the participants in this fall's Imre Konig Memorial to be held in early September at the MI.

IM Ricardo De Guzman and NM Michael Aigner shared top honors in the Arthur Stamer Memorial held June 7-9.  This event, which honors the memory of the MI's first Chess Director, attracted 55 entries.

SM Dimitry Zilberstein defeated IM Ricardo De Guzman en route to winning the third Bay Area Masters Grand Prix held this past weekend.  De Guzman and IM Guillermo Rey shared second.

Three rounds into the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon, FM Frank Thornally and NMs Russell Wong and David Blohm, are the only perfect scores. The Summer Marathon has set a new attendance record with 66 participants.  This is the third consecutive marathon in a row with 60+ players.  It's still possible to enter this eight round event with three half point byes.

Bay Area Masters David Pruess and Alan Stein have shined in the New York Masters Action Tournaments organized by IM Gregory Shahade.  Pruess, who is visiting the Big Apple for the summer, tied for third with GM Alex Shabalov in the June 11 event won by GMs Igor Novikov and Leonid Yudasin.
Stein, who has relocated to NYC, has defeated GM Alexander Stripunsky and drawn with Novikov in recent events.

IM Vinay Bhat, a three time winner of the Falconer Award given annually to the top junior under 18 in Northern California, will be representing the United States in its match against China in Shanghai in July.  Good luck, Vinay!

"To win you have to risk loss."
Jean-Claude Killy

IM Ricardo De Guzman and NM Victor Baja tied for first at 4 1/2 - 1/2 in the 38-player  William Addison Open held June 22 at the MI. Ironman Anthony Corrales directed.  A complete list of prize winners follows.

Prize Winners:
1st - 2nd Overall      De Guzman and Baja - $150 each
1st - 2nd Expert       Hammer and Lazar - $45 each
1st "A"                    Argishti - $75
1st through 4th "B": M.Krubnik, Gross, Sowell, E.Perpelitsky - $17.50 each
1st - 2nd                 Garg and Wilkowski - $32.50 each

NM Russell Wong defeated FM Frank Thornally in the fourth round of the Mechanics' Summer Tuesday Night Marathon to grab the lead at 4-0.  NM David Blohm and Expert Victor Ossipov share second at 3 1/2.  A record 68 players are competing in this eight round event.  This marks the third consecutive Marathon with more than 60 players.

Marc Newman from the Berkeley Chess School writes:
"The Berkeley Chess School is offering scholastic summer camps (grades K-8) in the cities of Berkeley, Fremont, Walnut Creek, and San Carlos.  Featured teachers are GM Marcel Sisniega (coming in from Mexico), IM Elliott Winslow, national master Roger Poehlmann, and high expert Nicholas Proudfoot.
Starting dates are June 24 except for San Carlos and weekly sessions run well into July.
More information can be found here: http://www.berkeleychessschool.org/Pages/summer_camp/summercamp.htm
We can be reached at (510) 843-0150

Long time Bay Area resident NM Robert Haines, who moved back to his native New Mexico a short while ago, tied for second in last weekends Albuquerque Open, which was won by rapidly improving youngster NM Lior Lapid.