Newsletter #225, 01/05/2005

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

The Mike Franett Memorial has started. The early leaders with 1.5 from 2 are IM Vinay Bhat, WGM Kamile Baginskaite and FM David Pruess. Rounds are being held daily at the Mechanics' Institute and up-to-date standings and games can be found at the Mechanics' website under Franett Memorial on the front page. Players are fighting for IM norms, place prizes, and special awards for best opening novelty (donated by Lawrence Totaro), best game, and best endgame (donated by Ron Gross)

Arnold Denker has died at the age of 90. Born on February 20th 1914 in New York City, Denker died January 2nd 2005 in his home in Fort Lauderdale after a brief struggle with brain cancer. Denker led a full chess life. He was US Champion in 1944 and retained it in 1946 after beating Herman Steiner in a match. In 1945 he played Botvinnik on top board in the US vs USSR Radio match and then traveled to Moscow the following year for the return match over the
board where he played Smyslov. He was 3rd at Hastings 1945/46. His most important tournament was Groningen 1946 where he finished
10th.
 Denker authored two editions of his best games - If You Must Play Chess (1947) and My Best Chess Games 1929-1976 (1981). He also co-authored
The Bobby Fischer I Knew and other Stories with Larry Parr. During the last decades of his life he served as USCF Zonal President to FIDE, as a member of the USCF Policy Board and on the US Chess Trust. His proudest chess accomplishment may have been founding the Arnold Denker High School Tournament of Champions.
 Denker, who became an IM title in 1950 and received the Honorary GM title from FIDE in 1981, was never a full-time professional. Hooper and Whyld in their Oxford Companion to Chess remark, " Denker was unfortunate in that he was perhaps at his best at a time when, because of war, little chess was being play. and American chess was dominated by Fine and Reshevsky."

Cindy Tsai, who has represented the United States in numerous international youth world championship and participated in the US Championship, has not had many opportunities to play since beginning her studies at Stanford but did extremely well at the recently concluded PAN AM intercollegiate held in Wichita and organized by Mikhail Korenman. We are pleased to see that after the terrible year suffered by the Raiders and 49ers, at least one Bay Area coach, Stanford's chess trainer Alex Yermolinsky, is no in danger of getting sacked!
 

Hi Alex and John,

Just wanted to update you on how Stanford did at the Pan-Am Intercollegiate Team Championships, which finished on the 30th in Wichita... I'm very proud
to report that the Stanford A team (average rating: 2160) made it into the Final Four! We actually had our own little showdown against Yale in the last
round for the fourth spot. I scored an upset point against Matt Traldi on board 2, but Pat Mihelich was upsetted on board 3. So we ended up tieing the
match since Anish Das Sarma won on board 4 and Nate Solon lost on board 1. We beat Yale on tiebreaks by almost 5 points to take the 4th spot. Overall,
we tied for 7th, but lost to Catholic University of Peru on tiebreaks to finish 8th.
The President's Cup will be held in Lindsborg sometime in April. Not surprisingly, the other three teams are UTD, UMBC and Miami-Dade Community
College. UTD upsetted the pre-tournament favorite UMBC to take first place. There were several strong Canadian and Peruvian teams. The B Team, which had an average rating of 1850, scored some upset points, but finished 16th out of 23 teams. The tournament was nicely organized by Mikhail Korenman.
Personally, I had one of my best touranments in a long time by scoring 5 out of 6-- I was winning in my two drawn games, including one against GM Blehm.
Dan Ben-Moshe, who was first board on the B team, scored a win against WGM Rohonvan from UMBC.
Hopefully, this is just the beginning of the return of Stanford chess! I couldn't have imagined that this would have happened two years ago... I chose Stanford, knowing that the Stanford club was at rock bottom after the retirement or graduation of several masters, whereas Harvard and MIT had strong chess teams. Ironically, Harvard and MIT chess seemed to have declined, especially since neither of them participated this year. I'm very excited that this year we've considerably strengthened chess at Stanford.

Happy New Year!

Cindy

The North American Open, held December 26th to 29th in Las Vegas ended in a tie for first between GMs Moiseenko, Akobian, Miton and Serper  at 5-1. Tying for 6-11 at 4.5 were GMs Shabalov and Kudrin, IMs Milman, I. Ivanov and Sevillano and FM Tate.

MI and Bay Area players were very successful further down.

Under 2000 =1st Kofi Tatum 5/6
           Thomas Maser 4.5/6

Under 1800 Jared Wood =2nd 5 out of 6

Under 1600  Davis Xu =1st 5.5/6

Dr. Mikhail Korenman continues to amaze with his energy and ability to promote chess. His most recent accomplishments (Lindsborg Open 1-2. Moiseenko and Ibragimov) , Lindsborg Knockout (Onischuk winning ahead of 15 other GMs and the 2005 PAN AM - see news item number 3 above) were not only noticed by this Newsletter. The New York Times, on Christmas Day, ran a full page story with two photos on page A10! It's a great pity that Mr. Korenman was not elected to the USCF Executive Board last year. His proven abilities to organize, attract national publicity and cultivate sponsors are qualities sorely lacking in the current Executive Board

In One Kansas Town, the End of the Year Game Is Chess

December 25, 2004
By STEPHEN KINZER

LINDSBORG, Kan., Dec. 21 - Fifteen chess grandmasters, including present or former national champions from five European countries, are spending the last days of December in a windswept Kansas town that has suddenly become a world chess center.
"I never thought it would go this far or get this big," said Mikhail Korenman, a Russian émigré who has brought his passion for chess to a most unlikely place.
Like countless other small towns across the Midwest, Lindsborg, which has a population of 3,500, is struggling to survive as rural life becomes more difficult and people move to cities or suburbs. Until a few years ago, it relied on its niche as Little Sweden, a place where tourists could buy Swedish crafts and eat pancakes with lingonberry sauce.
Swedish flags are still visible around town, but now the banners along Main Street say, "Welcome Anatoly Karpov School of Chess."  The school, which Mr. Korenman runs, opened last year, paid for with donations from local business people and a $216,000 economic development grant from the Kansas
Department of Commerce and Housing. It has already staged several important competitions. This year, both the United States junior championship and the Final Four collegiate championship were held here.
Mr. Korenman has brought Mr. Karpov, a former world champion from Russia who is considered one of the best players of the last century, to Lindsborg three times. Mr. Karpov has given the school his official sanction, something he has previously done only for schools in big cities like Damascus and Istanbul.
In September, Mr. Karpov played an exhibition match here against Susan Polgar, the first ever between former male and female world champions. For that event, which he billedas "Clash of the Titans," Mr. Korenman staged a parade through the center of town, complete with floats and a marching band. Both players spent hours signing autographs and posing for pictures, he proudly recalled.
"If a kid here is interested in football, what he really wants is to see the Kansas City Chiefs or maybe Denver Broncos in real life," Mr. Korenman said. "The chance to meet and talk to a world champion in chess is also something special. It has an effect on these kids, believe me."
Mr. Korenman's enthusiasm, imagination and web of contacts have been crucial to the burgeoning appeal of chess here, but this is also a town that was ready to accept what he had to offer. Lindsborg's Swedish heritage has given it a cosmopolitan identity. It stages several festivals every year, and people here are used to welcoming outsiders.
Mr. Korenman arrived in 1999 to teach chemistry at Bethany College here. His interest in chess has overtaken his interest in chemistry, and he recently quit the college faculty to devote his full time to it. This month Mr. Korenman is staging three tournaments in succession, with the last ending on Dec. 30. A grandmaster who is playing, Anna Zatonskih, 26, a former women's champion in her native Ukraine who is now one of the top-ranked American women players, said Lindsborg had "a great reputation" among chess players.
"It's amazing what has happened here," Ms. Zatonskih said. "You can understand this kind of enthusiasm in New York, because there are 20 grandmasters living there. But even in New York, there isn't this kind of huge attention to us and what we do."
Some local people are amazed, too.
"Here's a guy who lands here with his wife and starts this chess thing," said Jim Richardson, a local photographer. "We're all going, 'Right, sure.' Next thing you know, Anatoly Karpov is in town."
"The Midwest still does have this inferiority complex," Mr. Richardson said. "We really do think that things happen somewhere else. Now they're happening here. A world champion is coming down the street, and we're part of the bigger world."
This year the United States Chess Federation named Lindsborg as its "chess city of the year," a title that in past years it has given to large cities like New York,
Seattle and Miami. It also chose Mr. Korenman, who is 44, as its "chess organizer of the year."

The January 10 deadline for filing for the 2005 USCF Executive Board elections is looming. On that note we will start to take a look at some of the issues that are likely to become lightning rods in the upcoming campaign. One that is going to be near the front is the present Board's animosity towards America's Foundation for Chess which has sponsored the US Championship since 2000.

In Newsletter #223 I wrote:
“Since then the AF4C has done a fantastic job of running the US Championship, one of the core responsibilities of the USCF, without any expense to the USCF.”  A reader writes in: "Well that was a bit of an understatement.  The USCF MAKES MONEY on the US Championships.  The AF4C pays the USCF $7,500 for each event.  The idea was that the USCF would be able to “afford” to send a representative Unfortunately none of the USCF Executive Board made it to La Jolla."
Former USCF President John McCrary adds:
"It is worth noting that the prize fund of the US Championship was almost equal to USCF's positive bottom line, but the former was achieved by only a
few wealthy donors; by contrast, the latter required over 85,000 members and a volunteer Executive Director. However, USCF President Beatriz Marinello reportedly told the Board that she sees " no need to negotiate now" with AF4C. She did not send a statement for the US Championship program, and canceled her personal appearance there. She did send a statement to be read at the Final ceremony, but I noted that it avoided any reference to even the possibility of enhanced cooperation between the entities."

December 25, 2004

Public Letter of Resignation to CalChess Board
Dear CalChess Board members,

In late October and early November I contemplated resigning from the CalChess Board because my workload at CSUS kept me from attending scheduled meetings. At that time, I was asked to stay on the board, but recent events have caused me to reconsider my position.

Last weekend I was informed about the withdrawal of the original lawsuit against Richard Peterson. At another time during the weekend, I was informed about the new legal strategy that had been devised to recover the $26,000 that had been taken. Further, I was informed that Peterson had made a settlement offer and it had been rejected. None of this information was provided to me through the normal communication channels of the CalChess Board, but informally by two board members.

While I understand the reasoning behind these decisions and that there may have been a need to make them quickly and without Board input, I find it unacceptable that I, as a CalChess Board member, was not notified immediately afterward, nor was Board input solicited. To date, I have not received any official word from CalChess President Elizabeth Shaughnessy about:

the status of the Peterson lawsuit;
the change in legal strategy;
an offer of a settlement.

The only news from Elizabeth regarding these issues was Peterson's request for a restraining order on December 22, 2004 which had been denied. Unfortunately, Peterson's two e-mail messages of December 23, 2004, have been more informative that anything I have received in an official capacity from CalChess. I considered resigning immediately when I heard about all of this last weekend, but I decided it would be wiser not to act on a snap judgement. However, after a week of thinking about it, I have not changed my mind. My problem is not with any individual on the CalChess Board nor with the situations that are being dealt with. The problem is not being given timely information about CalChess operations and lack of Board input.

Effective immediately, I resign from the CalChess Board. Even though I will no longer be a member of the CalChess Board, I will continue to be an active organizer and tournament director in CalChess. This letter may be distributed to anyone who requests to see it.

Sincerely,

John P McCumiskey

Mr. McCumiskey's resignation was the second in the past few months by a well-known Bay Area chess worker (Michael Aigner was the other) in a trend that does not bold well for CalChess.

Kudos to FM Eric Schiller for producing the first electronic issue of the CalChess Journal. Go to http://www.calchess.org/ and look on the upper right-hand corner of the front-page.

The 31st Eastern Open, held over the Christmas holidays in Washington D.C. was won by GM Alexander Ivanov with a score of 7 from 8, good for $1500.
IM Stanislav Smetankin was second at 6, earning him $1000.

All those who have followed Bobby Fischer's career remember that 1958 was a breakout year for him. The famous trip to the Soviet Union and later Yugoslavia, where he played in the Interzonal and qualified for the Candidates tournament, is well known.

Newsletter reader Rusty Miller has sent in an article from the August 1958 Washington Chess Letter that sheds further light on Bobby's first trip to Europe.  Larry Finley, a chess-playing high school student from Lake Oswego, Oregon, in Europe for the summer and reporting about his adventures for the Portland paper the Oregon Journal, befriended Bobby and wrote about it.  Bobby and his sister Joan had a few days in Belgium before flying on to Moscow, and Larry heard that Bobby would be spending the weekend in Brussels. The World's Fair was being held there and Larry, who was working as a guide, offered to show Bobby and his sister around. Finley mentions that the Soviet exhibit with its emphasis on technology and big machines was a hit with Bobby.
He concludes his report by noting that they played a game at the end of Bobby's stay which Fischer won easily.

Congratulations to MI member Shivkumar Shivaji who had an excellent result in Lindsborg a few weeks ago. Shiv played a strong field and defeated IM Anna Zatonskih (the second time in six months) and FMs John Bick and Movses Movsesian while drawing with GM Nikola Mitkov and IM Ron Burnett. His only losses were to GM Yury Shulman and IMs Jesse Kraai and Renier Gonzalez.

As for the principles of how to improve your game, they can be stated very simply:
a) Immerse yourself in chess culture
b) Analyze your own games, avoiding self deception
c) Play in the best tournaments you can get
And that's it.

Nigel Davies

The past week has been a busy one at the Mechanics'. Last night was the start of the nine round Winter Tuesday Night Marathon. It is still possible to enter this FIDE-rated event with a half point bye for the first round.

IM Vinay Bhat leads the Michael Franett Memorial, a 12-player IM norm roundrobin, with 6.5 from 8 followed by FM David Pruess with 5.5. Complete standings and games can be found at http://www.chessclub.org/Franett05.html . Here is the most critical game so far in the race for first place.

Pruess (2394) - Bhat (2410)
Michael Franett Memorial San Francisco (6), 2005
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.Nf3 cxd4 5.Nxd4 d5 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.Ndb5 a6 8.e4 Nb4 9.Bg5 f6 10.Bxf6 Qxd1+ 11.Rxd1 axb5 12.Rd8+ Kf7 13.Rxc8 Kxf6 14.a3 Na2 15.e5+ Kxe5 16.f4+ Kxf4 17.Be2 Nxc3 18.bxc3 Ke5 19.Rf1 b4 20.axb4 Ra1+ 21.Bd1 Nd7 22.Rf7 Nf6 23.Rcxf8 Rxf8 24.Rxf8 Ne4 25.Rc8 Kf4 26.Rf8+ Ke5 27.Rc8 Rc1 28.Rb8 Rb1 29.Rc8 Rc1 30.Rb8 Nxc3 31.Kd2 Rxd1+ 32.Kxc3 Rd7 33.Kc4 Kd6 34.Rh8 h6 35.Kd4 Kc6+ 36.Ke3 Re7 37.Ke4 Kb5 38.Ke5 Kxb4 39.Kd6 Rf7 40.Rh7 b5 41.h4 Kc3 42.g4 b4 43.g5 hxg5 44.hxg5 b3 45.g6 Ra7 46.Rh3+ Kb4 47.Rh4+ Ka3 48.Rf4 b2 49.Rf7 Rxf7 0–1

The 5th Annual Bob Burger Open held this past Saturday featured plenty of upsets. IM Ricardo De DeGuzman was defeated by Slovak Master Peter Zavadsky in round four and Zavadsky was defeated in turn by Anthony Rozenvasser in the last round. Rozenvasser's 5-0 score puts him very close to earning his USCF Master title. Tying for second at 4 in the 44-player field were Zavadsky, Victor Ossipov, Keith McDaniel and Sam Shankland. Anthony Corrales directed for the MI.

The January 10 deadline has passed and 9 Candidates have collected their 30 signatures and paid a $250 filing fee to run for the USCF Executive Board. Four spots are open on the Board for the nine Candidates. Bauer, Shutt and Shaughnessy are incumbents, Goichberg is a former EB member. Tanner, John and Sloan have run before but not been elected. There are two new faces running. Joel Channing is a businessman from Florida and a member of the USCF Chess Trust. International Master Gregory Shahade is by far the strongest chessplaying member of those running for office. The past few years he has cut back on his playing to start up and run the New York Masters, a weekly tournament featuring participation from many Grandmasters. This event has been consistently successful in attracting a variety of sponsors, an area where the USCF has always had difficulty. The mail ballot election, in which all USCF members age 16 and over are eligible to vote, will be this summer. Ballots will appear in Chess Life.

Randy Bauer
Joel Channing
Bill Goichberg
George John
Steve Schutt
Greg Shahade
Elizabeth Shaughnessy
Sam Sloan
Robert Tanner

17-year-old U.S. Chess Champion Hikaru Nakamura and World Women's top-ranked Grandmaster Susan Polgar have agreed to play a unique exhibition game during the Millennium Chess Festival on February 26, 2005, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA, it was announced today.

The unique annual event is called the GM Dinner / Exhibition Match, and features two grandmasters playing each other from separate rooms before a live audience with moves relayed by radio. As they play, the GMs explain for the audience what they are thinking about and why they are choosing certain options. For the average casual player it is an opportunity for insight into the amazing mind of a chess grandmaster. (The GMs play on ?wallboards? that allow the audience to follow along with the moves he/she is discussing.)

This year's event, the fourth in a popular series started in 2002 at the Millennium Chess Festival, features two very famous players:

GM Susan Polgar was a child prodigy in her native Hungary, and became the first woman to earn the men's chess Grandmaster title. She taught her two younger sisters how to play and they also became grandmasters (the youngest, Judit, now ranked #9 on the world men's rankings list.). Susan won her 4th World Championship title in 1996 before retiring to have a family. Now a U.S. citizen she returned to chess in 2004 to lead the USA to a first-ever medal in the prestigious World Chess Olympiad.  In addition to the team Silver medal, Susan also captured 2 additional individual Gold medals and 1 Silver medal including best overall performance of the Women?s Olympiad bringing her total medal count to 10 (5 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze).  In addition, she has a 56 consecutive Olympiad game scoring streak without a single loss (this is comparable to Joe DiMaggio's incredible 56-game hitting streak in baseball). In fact, she has never lost a single game in the Olympiads.

GM Hikaru Nakamura last month won the U.S. Chess Championship, at just age 17. At age 10 years and 2 months, he became the youngest American master, shattering Bobby Fischer's record.  He was born in Japan and now lives in New York. Nakamura is regarded by many experts as the best American talent since Bobby Fischer to have a chance to one-day challenge for the World Championship. He is known for hyper-aggressive and imaginative tactical play and has been shooting up the world rankings.  On January 1, 2005, Hikaru for the first time broke through the world?s top 100 ranking.

The GM Dinner / Exhibition Match will take place Saturday, February 26, 2005, at 7:30pm, at the Millennium Chess Festival at the Ramada Plaza Oceanfront Resort, 57th & Atlantic Street, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The Millennium Chess Festival (Feb 25-27) is sponsored by the consulting firm of Booz Allen Hamilton and is presented by Beach Events and the city of Virginia Beach.

The Festival also includes the main tournament, in which many GMs and other players of all strengths will compete in various class sections, plus other special events including a lecture by Susan Polgar and a Fischer-Random Chess blitz tournament.

For more information, see http://www.geocities.com/millenniumchessfestival

Contact: Tom Braunlich
tom.braunlich@cox.net
(918)749-3163

BRITISH CHESS FEDERATION
BOOK OF THE YEAR 2004

The choice this year came down to two books of contrasting but great merit. The first is:

My Great Predecessors 2 by Gary Kasparov Everyman £25.00 continues the high standard established in volume 1, which won last years Book of the Year Award. Indeed if anything it is even better as Kasparov is on more familiar ground as he met and played most of the champions discussed in the second volume, which considers Euwe, Botvinnik and Smyslov and Tal, with vignettes on Bronstein and Keres. He is particularly good on his early coach and mentor, Botvinnik writing with great sympathy about that remarkable mans strengths and weaknesses. As before the book is beautifully produced.

The second book is quite different as it concentrates at great length- 668 pages in all-on one player.Pal Benko My Life, Games and Compositions GM Pal Benko and IM Jeremy Silman Siles Press £31.50. It is further subtitled Opening Survey by IM John Watson and Foreword by GM Susan Polgar.
This is a remarkable work. Silman explains that he was dissatisfied with the conventional best game collections and wanted to create a chess biography of a man that he "admired, who was part of chess history, who played many beautiful games, and who lived a colourful life that transcended mere chess concerns-life death struggles, sexuality, financial stability etc". All this and more can be found here and the book paints a vivid picture of Benko's eventful life and times by means of interviews, photographs and stories of the personalities met on the way.

The chess side is also very well covered with 138 annotated games, a description of the evolution of the Benko Gambit by the founder himself and a 132 page survey by John Watson on Benko's contribution to opening theory. Last but not least, the book includes 91 pages on Benko's worldwide reputation as a problem and end game study composer.

No wonder, then, that this book is one of the heaviest chess books the judges have seen- but it is also one of the best.The choice then was a difficult one; but the judges unanimously selected the Benko volume as it exemplified a new and refreshing approach to chess biography. Gary can console himself that he has another 3 volumes coming out in his My Great Predecessors series, which will surely be in contention for the Book of the Year award in the future.

The annual Rilton Cup, held in Stockholm over the New Year was won by GMs Sergey Volkov and Evgeny Gleizerov of Russia and the Swede
Emanuel Berg with 7 from 9. The Bay Area's Nick deFirmian was among those tied for fourth at 6.5.

The January 2005 FIDE shows some changes at the top with Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov moving into the number three spot the most prominent. Gary Kasparov showed how tough it is to pick up points when you are rated over 2800. His 7.5 from 10 score in winning the Russian Championship netted him only 5 rating points while he dropped 14 in the European Club Championship. Meanwhile Viswanathan Anand picked up 5 in the Chess Olympiad. I believe the 18 point gap is the narrowest ever between these players. If results were only counted in for the past few years Anand would be number one.

1. Kasparov – 2804
2. Anand – 2786
3. Topalov – 2757
4. Kramnik – 2754
5. Leko – 2749
6. Morozevich – 2741
7. Adams – 2741
8. Svidler – 2735
9. Bacrot – 2715
10. Shirov – 2713

The US has five players in the top 100 - Onischik is =46 at 2652 to top the list. Others are:Seirawan at 69 (2631), Kaidanov at 71 (2629), Goldin at 73 (2628) and Nakamura at 99 ( 2613). The US Championship which ended close to the FIDE rating deadline was not counted and will be included on the April list as will two other Nakamura successes - the Western States Open ( 3.5 from 4 vs. 2550 GMs plus two other wins) and the match with Karjakan (4.5-1.5).With these events counted he should be in the 2640s, close to 2650.

Top  ten women:

1. Z. Polgar - 2577
2. Xie Jun – 2573
3. Koneru – 2512
4. Chiburdanidze – 2509
5. Zhao Xue – 2502
6. Zhu Chen – 2494
7. Stefanova – 2491
8. Kosteniuk – 2490
9. Xu Yuhua – 2487
10. Cramling – 2481

Zsuzsa Polgar returns to the list and takes the top spot after her great result in the Olympiad. Notice the huge gap between the top two and the rest.
Other US players in the top 50 include: Irina Krush at #17 (2466) and Anna Zatonskih at #29 (2435).

"Chess, like any creative activity, can exist only through the combined efforts of those who have creative talent, and
those who have the ability to organize their creative work."
Mikhail Botvinnik

IM Vinay Bhat has won the Michael Franett Memorial. Bhat has 8.5 from 10 with one game remaining with IM Ricardo DeGuzman. The race for second has yet to be decided. FM David Pruess just missed the IM norm by half a point and finished with 7.5 points from 11 games. Mongolian IM Odondoo Ganbold has 5 from 8 with three games remaining. Standings and games played to date can be found at http://www.chessclub.org/Franett05.html .

IM Odondoo Ganbold and Batchimeg Tuvshintugs are the top seeds in the 70-player Mechanics' Institute Tuesday Night Marathon. It's still possible to enter the 9 round event with byes for the first two rounds.

Tonight the MI Wednesday Night Blitz will be held at 7pm.

One of America's friendliest International Masters, Victor Frias,  passed away this past Saturday, January 15, at the age of 48 in New York after a brief illness. Born February 10, 1956, in Santiago, Chile,  Victor represented his birthplace in three Olympiads (1976, 1978 and 1984) but played most of his chess in the United States, his homeland for the last twenty years of his life. Awarded the IM title in 1982 Victor was for at least a decade one of the strongest International Masters in the world. His peak FIDE rating of 2530 attests to his strength.

Victor played very little the last part of his life. Bay Area chess fans will remember his second place finish in the 1997 San Francisco International organized by Jim Eade. His final event, a rapid tournament on Long Island last April, saw him go 3-1,  drawing GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Alexander Stripunsky.

Besides being a very strong player Victor was a longtime coach. His most successful job was helping GM-to-be Ilya Gurevich win the World Junior Championship on tiebreak from Alexey Shirov. GM Patrick Wolff was another Samford Scholar that Frias worked with extensively. Victor led many US delegations to World Youth, World Junior and Pan American Championships. He coached at Dalton Academy, managed the Marshall Chess Club and directed the Yonkers Projects Chess Club Program. Despite all of his considerable chess accomplishments Victor will be best remembered by his many friends for his love of life and sharp wit. He may have only lived 48 years but he burned the candle brightly.

Victor was cremated  on January 17. A memorial service will be held Saturday, January 22, 2005 at the Marshall Chess Club in Manhattan at 1:00pm    He is survived by his wife, Zoe Ann Tilton and two sons, Camilo and Pablo.

Victor was never a great opening specialist. He didn't particularly like opening books and stopped playing before laptop computers became required for professionals. I remember him telling me once that Larsen's Best Games was the book that influenced him the most. He was a particularly good endgame player and frequently outplayed strong players in this phase of the game. The following game is a good example.

Frias (2515) - Wojtkiewicz (2575) [E32]
San Francisco Mechanics San Francisco (5), 1997

 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 0-0 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 b6 7.Nf3 Bb7 8.g3 d6 9.Bg2 Nbd7 10.0-0 c5 11.Rd1 Rc8 12.Bg5 h6 13.Bxf6 Nxf6 14.dxc5 Rxc5 15.b4 Rc7 16.Qd4 Qe7 17.Qxd6 Qxd6 18.Rxd6 Bxf3 19.Bxf3 Rxc4 20.Bb7 Rb8 21.Ba6 Rc3 22.Kf1 Kf8 23.Ke1 Nd5 24.Rd7 Rc7 25.Rxc7 Nxc7 26.Bd3 Ke7 27.Rc1 Kd7 28.f4 f6 29.Kf2 Rc8 30.Kf3 Nd5 31.Rxc8 Kxc8 32.Bc4 Nc7 33.Kg4 Kd7 34.Kh5 Ke7 35.Kg6 Kf8 36.e4 a6 37.h4 a5 38.bxa5 bxa5 39.a4 Ne8 40.Bxe6 Nd6 41.Bd5 Nc8 42.Kf5 Nb6 43.Bb3 Nd7 44.Bc4 Nc5 45.Bb5 Kf7 46.h5 Ke7 47.e5 fxe5 48.Kxe5 Ne6 49.Kd5 Nf8 50.Kc5 Ne6+ 51.Kb6 Nd4 52.Kxa5 1-0

Senior Master Dmitry Zilberstein of Fremont was in tremendous form the first seven rounds of the US Championship with a score of 4-3 versus 6 GMs and 1 IM, but then he faced the other Dmitry in the tournament. The following notes are based on those that Dmitry Gurevich gave immediately after the game while doing commentary for the ICC and spectators at the event. Incidentally our Dmitry won a special prize for his brilliant win over GM Alexander Ivanov in a game that is appearing in chess magazines around the planet. I just saw it featured in Larry Christiansen's report in the German monthly Schach.
 

Gurevich - Zilberstein [D38]
US Champ, 2004

1.c4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.d4 Nf6 4.Nc3
I saw that Dmitry played well against my normal Catalan (4.g3) and so decided to try something different
4...Bb4 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bxf6 Qxf6 8.Qa4+
I adopted this system of  play after analysing a game of my student Igor Tsyganov who played it against Georgi Kachieshvili.
8...Nc6 9.e3 0-0 10.Be2 Be6 11.0-0 a6
The idea is to be able to play ...Bd6 without being bothered by Nb5.
12.Rfc1 Bd6
The battle lines are drawn. White will attack on the queenside and Black the kingside. The late Tigran Petrosian handled the White side of such positions with great understanding.
13.a3 Ne7 14.Qd1
A multi-purpose move. I strengthen my Kingside and free a4 for the Knight.
14...Rad8 15.Na4 Bc8 16.Nc5 c6
More direct was 16...g5 when I planned 17.e4
17.b4
Here it was very difficult to choose between the move which I played launching a minority attack and 17.Qb3 Bxc5 18.Rxc5 which is very appealing since Black's attacking Bishop has been exchanged off.
17...g5 18.g3
A preventive move. Now if 18...g4 I have 19.Nh4.
18...Nf5 19.Ne1
Another prophylactic move designed to stop ...h5.
19...Kg7
In view of what occurs Black might consider the immediate 19...h5 but after 20.Bxh5 Kg7 21.Bg4 Rh8 22.Qf3 I see no clear compensation for the pawn.
20.Bh5
Radically stopping ...h5 by occupying the square.
20...Bc7 21.a4
White continues with his queenside attack and is getting ready to play b5.
21...Nd6 22.Bg4
Trading Bishops blunts Black's attack. White is counting long term on his superior structure.
22...Bxg4 23.Qxg4 Qe7 24.Ned3 Bb8 25.Qh3 Rfe8 26.Ra2 f6 27.Rac2 Qf7
The critical position of the game. Here at first I thought I was much better. All my pieces look good but how to improve them? Then I realized that I couldn't and that if I didn't immediately undertake active operations I might soon be worse. Another factor in choosing the following course of action was that my opponent was down to less than 10 minutes to reach move 40 while I had 25.
28.Nxa6 bxa6 29.Rxc6
For the sacrificed piece I have two pawns and the promise of a third coming. Objectively I am no better but it is a difficult psychological moment for my opponent who must adapt to the changed circumstance. Previously he had a very solid structure (...c6, ...d5) but now it's an extra piece but a loose position.
29...Qb7?
Dmitry immediately blunders. Instead 29...a5 30.bxa5 Nc4 31.a6 was critical.
30.Nc5 Qxb4?
This was the fatal error but easy to explain as Dmitry wanted to justify his previous move. Instead he had to return with his Queen: 30...Qf7.
31.Ne6+ Rxe6 32.Qxe6 Ne4 33.Kg2 Kg6 34.Rc8 Qd2 35.R1c2 Qa5 36.Rxd8 Qxd8 37.Rc8 Qd6 38.Rg8+ 1-0

IM Melik Khachiyan was the easy winner of the Western Class Championship held January 15-17 in Los Angeles. Khachiyan beat IM Tim Taylor and GM Amir Bagheri to take first with a score of 5.5 from 6. IM Enrico Sevillano lost in round two but then won four games in a row to take second with 5 points. Tying for third at 4 in the 27-player Open section were Bagheri, Taylor and FM Michael Casella. 205 players competed in the multi-section event organized by Bill Goichberg's Continental Chess Association.

Correspondence IM Simon Fitzpatrick died last August at 51 after a long struggle with cancer. A Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at the University of Western Australia, Simon did his Doctorial studies at the University of Washington in the mid-1970s and was quite active in the Seattle chess scene.
De Faria - Fitzpatrick
ICCF 1997
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.cxd5 cxd4 5.Qxd4 Nc6 6.Qd1 exd5 7.Qxd5 Bd7 8.Nf3 Nf6 9.Qd1 Bc5 10.e3 Qe7 11.Be2 0-0-0 12.0-0 g5 13.Qc2 g4
14.Nd2 Kb8 15.a3 Rc8 16.b4 Bd6 17.Nc4 Bc7 18.Bb2 Ne5 19.Nd2 Rhg8 20.Rac1 Bc6 21.b5 Bxh2+ 23.Kxh2 Qe5+ 24.g3 Qh5+ 25.Kg1 Bxf3 26.Nxf3 gxf3
27.Ne2 Rxc2 28.Be5+ Qxe5 29.Rxc2 fxe2 0-1

USCF Election News:  The ballots will be in the June 2005 issue of Chess Life. Eligible voting members are those USCF members on June 30, 2005 who are 16 or older as of June 30, 2005 and who reside in the United States. USCF members who are eligible to vote but do not receive Chess Life as a membership benefit
must request a ballot by mailing a request for a ballot, including their date of birth and a self-addressed stamped envelope, to the USCF office by June 15th, 2005.

The following minature by 75-year-old San Francisco IM Walter Shipman appeared not too long ago in IM Jack Peters' column in the LA Times.

IM Walter Shipman - IM Kong Deng
Dutch A80
American Open Los Angeles, 2004
1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 h6 3.Bh4 g5 4.e4 Rh7 5.Qh5+ Rf7 6.Bxg5 hxg5 7.Nf3 fxe4 8.Nxg5 Nh6 9.Nc3 c5 10.0–0–0 cxd4 11.Rxd4 Qa5 12.Rd5 Qb6 13.Rf5 1–0

"You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one."
Mikhail Tal

Go to http://www.chessclub.org/Franett05.html for the crosstable and all games from the event.  STEIN - DeGuzman (best game), Thornally-BAGINSKAITE (best opening) and Ho-GANBOLD (best ending) were selected by GM Alex Yermolinsky and NM Stephen Brandwein for special prizes.

Tuvshintugs Batchimeg, Igor Margulis, Victor Ossipov, Lazar Shnaiderman and Igor Traub are tied for first with perfect scores after three rounds of the Mechanics' Institute Tuesday Night Winter Marathon. A half point back are IM Odondoo Ganbold and FM Frank Thornally.

The Andrew I Knew

By Don Schultz

The Andrew I knew went by the name of Arnold. His real name was Andrew, but an Uncle kept calling him Arnold and it stuck. Family, the chess world and everyone always called him Arnold and few knew that was not his name.
“Hello Don, this is Arnold” - Over the last quarter century, Arnold would call me at every few days and these were the words I first heard. I’ll never hear them again and, each time my telephone rings, I will think of Arnold.
Yes, I will miss him, but I will also look back with pleasure at the fun time of the past, how fortunate I was to have as my friend: “The Man Chess Loved”
When I think of Arnold, I think of the press rooms of the great world championships of the eighties. Typically you would see, surrounded by journalists, Arnold and a few of his friends such as Tal and Najdorf  holding court. There were no computers to help the press, only the candid discussion among these giants of the chess world.
At chess meetings, Arnold had a little trick that few ever realized. It was always pre-planned and always worked though used sparingly for just the right debates. Here is how it worked. During the debate, Arnold would remain quiet. Then suddenly he would jump up, rush to the mike, pay no addition to those waiting to be recognized and bypassed them in line. He would shout in the microphone: “This is a disgrace, I can’t believe you are even thinking of doing this; I’m getting out of here.” He would then turn and head for the door. Always, before he reached the door someone from the opposition would say” “Wait Arnold, don’t leave, we will work this out, how about . . .”
When I think of Arnold, I think of Gabriel Schartzman whom we both met at the chess Olympiad in Thessalonika, Greece in 1988. Gabriel, then 12 years old, came to us and said: “Hello, my name is Gabriel Schwartzman and I am a chessplayer, Would you like to see some of my games.” “Sure,” we said. Well, we were so impressed that we arranged for a match between Gabriel and Arnold in Florida. Gabriel and his family later became lifelong friends of ours. Gabriel also became the youngest grandmaster in the world, He went to the U of Florida, studied business administration and has achieved great success as an American businessman. He and his parents are now enjoying a life in Florida they would never have realized had they stayed in Romania. Both Arnold and I take great satisfaction in having had something to do with that.
Another time, Rhona Petroysan, widow of former world champion Tigran Petroysan asked Arnold if he could help her move to the States. Arnold and I discussed this and decided the easiest way was to find an American chessplayer for Rhona to marry. We decided our friend Donald Stone was the perfect person. “What are you nuts?” were Stone’s immediate reply to our request. We were a bit taken back by this since Donald , who was in his late seventies, always responded to a call for help when it involved the game he loved. Nevertheless, we weren't about to be put off so easily. Stone continued: “I’m only a B player. I've been married before and vowed I’d never do it again. I’m too old.” We listened to all these attempts by Stone to avoid his responsibility but remained undeterred. Finally our persistence succeeded: “Okay” he said, “Is she pretty?” We gave Rhona and Donald the information they needed in order to get in touch with each other. But, the marriage never took place as Rhona found a way to enter the U.S. through more conventional means.
Arnold’s second passion was going to the race track. He and I would sit indoors watching the odds change, suddenly he would jump up and rush away to place his bet. He’d return and say in a loud voice to me: “I bet ten big ones on number five,” heads would turn to see who the big bettor was. What they didn’t realize was ten big ones meant ten bucks which is what Arnold and I generally would bet on any race.
Upon leaving the track, I’d generally drop Arnold off at his apartment and head home. Arnold would call Teresa to let her know I’m on my way. When Teresa answered, she would immediately say: “Okay Arnold, how much money did you almost win today?” You see Arnold would never lose; he would win or almost win.
Another time as I was about to leave my seat, Arnold said to me: “Don, I was up all night handicapping this race and number six can’t lose, take my word for it.” Now Arnold was an excellent handicapper, so I left and bet on six. I returned to my seat and looked over at Arnold still studying the race. He turned and said: “Gosh, how did I miss this look at that four horse, I’m betting big bucks on him.” Arnold jumped up, left and bet on the four horse. Of course the four horse won and the six horse came in last.
In many ways, Arnold was the most impatient man I ever knew. He would never wait for a red light. Whether in Buenos Aires, New York or Paris, Arnold would rush across the street weaving left and right dodging cars like any football star rushing downfield on a hundred yard run.
Arnold and I didn’t always agree. One time we had a serious argument. Finally Arnold got up, left my hotel room and slammed the door. I rushed to the door opened it up and called to Arnold; “Okay, we will do it your way.” He turned, smiled and said: “See it always works!”

This and the following section on the USCF (4) might offer more on chess politics than Newsletter readers want to see, but I would argue that the stakes for International and American chess are higher than they have ever been. Chess on the Internet is growing by leaps and bounds, more kids are playing than ever before and some serious groups (AF4C, HB Foundation) are getting involved, but the USCF and FIDE are both disfunctional organizations. Chessplayers need to educate themselves on the issues and remember to vote in the USCF EB elections this summer.

Many have no doubt read about Garry Kasparov's recent decision to drop out of the Prague Agreement after much frustration of  the organization of his match with Kazimzhanov.  The following is a response to IM Tony Saidy by GM Yasser Seirawan who has done much to try to patch up the schism in the chess world.

Dear Tony

Thanks for forwarding.  I had read Kasparov’s statement at the Chess Base website.  Reading Golubev’s comments provided an interesting contrast.  So, Kasparov is out of the picture.  I guess a lot of folks at FIDE will be happy.  Now they can get back to their committee meetings and help WADA with its lists of banned drugs that must be controlled.  Kramnik can breathe easier.  He won’t have to exhaust himself defending his title for another five years.  And those who criticized Kasparov’s inclusion will be mighty pleased.  Apathy, the greatest force in the universe, wins again!
Personally, I think it a very sad day for chess when the greatest player ever, gives up playing for the highest honor.  For well over two years, since December 2002, I saw this day coming.  I saw how incompetent Omuku was.  Later, when his corruption was revealed, he was forced to resign.  I have seen how Makro and others behave at FIDE and I realized that organization is a colossal under-achiever.  I have seen the brazen lies and dirty dealings of our FIDE representatives Doyle and Kelleher and knew that they would support the status quo.  And for decades I’ve witnessed how the leaders of the USCF are more interested in advancing their personal agendas then they are in helping chess grow and blossom.  What a collective embarrassment for the chess world.
Unfortunately, chess has not reached its low mark.  I’ve watched how the most talented players from around the world have given up chess to earn a living in the public and private sectors.  New teen talents will always be found.  When they in turn move on from chess, new teen talents will emerge.  Chess is on a downward spiral and it will, sad to say, continue unless new leaders step forwards.  I’ve tried to bring new people into chess and whether it is the USCF’s leaders or FIDE’s, the knee-jerk reaction has been to say to them, “Go away.  We are doing fine without you!”  Remarkable but true.  While we are all poorer for where we stand today, the real losers are the players and fans.

Yasser

Kalev Pehme was recently fired as editor of Chess Life by a 5-2 vote of the USCF Executive Board (Marinello, Hanke, Shutt, Shaughnessy and Bauer voted to fire Pehme, Schultz and Brady against). Glenn Peterson has been named acting editor. The USCF was in the process of conducting a search for a new editor but it now appears this may be delayed until after the Executive Board elections in August.

Evaluating Chess Life editors is not easy to do. The magazine you read is one way to judge but doesn't factor in what sort of resources were made available to the editor. How many pages did the budget allow? What sort of staff support was there? What was the funding for contributors? The answers to all these questions need to be factored in. Readers may have different tastes but no one can fault Kalev Pehme on fulfilling two major obligations of every editor. Under his direction Chess Life came out in a timely fashion, more so than any other editor in recent memory. This fact was no doubt appreciated by the many organizers that place tournament announcements in Chess Life. Readers of the magazine probably enjoyed that stories were current and not recaps of events they had read about on the Internet 6 months ago. Mr. Pehme, while producing issues promptly, was also successful in avoiding the horrible. Little mistakes did creep in here and there but nothing close to disastrous. Judging his performance compared to past editors it would appear he fell from grace with the current EB for political rather than performance related issues.

The direction of the USCF and in particular the question of how to attract sponsors is coming to the front as a major issue in this year's USCF Executive Board elections. The mail ballot election, in which all USCF members age 16 and over are eligible to vote, will be this summer. Ballots will appear in Chess Life. Don't forget to vote!

Former USCF President John McCrary writes:
The fundamental problems for USCF are these two:

1) Our old membership is aging and being insufficiently replaced;

2) There is a huge boom in chess interest in our culture, but USCF lacks
the resources to tap into that boom. ( I just saw a new major TV commercial
mentioning chess.)

Unfortunately, some are now trying to argue that if the budget is balanced
on existing revenues, that achievement, however, laudable, will be
sufficient. I firmly feel, however, that unless our lagging membership
trends are reversed, in a few years we will be balancing a much smaller
budget for a shrunken organization.

My suggested solution has been to develop working relationships with major
sponsors. Only then can we correct our membership trends by creating a new
system of positive feedback, with seven-figure fund-raising, to replace the
current system of negative feedback with diminishing resources which lead
to more diminishing resources, etc. Much of my effort as President ( at my
own expense of thousands of dollars) was devoted to trying to create such
relationships with major sponsors for the long-term future.

Keep in mind that the US Championship fund of over $250,000 was raised by
only a few sponsors, but it nearly equaled USCF's budget surplus that
required the entire USCF membership to create! Yet, AF4C, when they tried
to initiate talks for larger involvement with USCF, had the door slammed
rudely in their faces last summer and fall, by officers who refused even to
call them to talk or just to be courteous. I fear they may soon join the
ranks of previous sponsors who have concluded that working with USCF's
bizarre political/Internet culture is impossible. Yet, without sponsorship
the USCF has no long-term hope. Just look at the demographics.

regards, John McCrary

USCF Members Certified as Candidates for 2005 Election to USCF Executive Board-in order as a result of the drawing

1. Robert Tanner
2. Sam Sloan
3. Bill Goichberg
4. Greg Shahade
5. George John
6. Elizabeth Shaughnessy
7. Steve Shutt
8. Randy Bauer
9. Joel Channing

This information was provided by Don Schultz, USCF Secretary after the drawing.

Dear CalChess Coach,

The president and board of CalChess invite you to attend a coaches meeting at Fort Mason, San Francisco, room C355 on Sunday January 30, 2005 from 2:30
to 5:30 pm. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the 2005 CalChess Scholastic State Championships which will take place at the Herbst Pavilion at Fort Mason, San Francisco, on May 6, 7, and 8, 2005. I will email an agenda of the meeting nearer to the date.
We expect the meeting to be collaborative as opposed to confrontational so there will be no votes taken on issues though if there is a strong sense in the room for a particular change we will certainly give it  strong consideration.
Larger chess programs are requested to have just one person as their spokesperson. In the days following this meeting the CalChess scholastic committee will draw up a rules and regulations statement which will be circulated by email for comment to all the participants. The final draft will be issued shortly after all comments on the first draft have been reviewed.
Thank you all for your work with children. I hope you will come and help shape the future of CalChess State Scholastic Championships. We will build on our fine tradition and carry it forward.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Shaughnessy, President, CalChess.

 "Dear John

I am writing to you regarding a new web site that I think will be of great interest to your members in terms of improving their chess and raising some money
for your club. The website is called www.improveyourchess.com and is dedicated to improving the play of all players up to 2000 grading or so.
As you will see when you visit the site, players like Jennifer Shahade, our Associate Director (United States) and John Watson recommend us very highly.
The site is not due to take off until February, but as you will see we are making special offers to early responders who indicate an interest in joining our
Chess Gym. In return for any of your members joining the gym we will donate $5 to your club, an offer that will be open until February.
A great deal of work has gone into the gym and we are confident thanks to the help from average club players and grandmasters alike that it will make a significant contribution to the world of chess.
I do hope you can forward this message to your members and I thank you in anticipation.

Yours in chess,

Tony Kosten
Grandmaster
Editor

PS We will donate the $5 even if your members come in
on a cut price subscription

goto:www.improveyourchess.com to guarantee becoming a winner.

The following marathon from the second group in Wijk aan Zee saw Stefanova twice saddled with the dreaded Irish pawn center (tripled pawns) as dubbed by the late Tony Miles.

Cheparinov - Stefanova
Corus Chess 2005 Wijk aan Zee (8), 2005
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.a4 Bb7 8.Nc3 b4 9.Nd5 Nd4 10.Nxd4 Bxd4 11.c3 bxc3 12.bxc3 Ba7 13.d4 Nxd5 14.exd5 exd4 15.Re1+ Kf8 16.d6 cxd6 17.Qh5 Qf6 18.Bg5 Qg6 19.Qxg6 hxg6 20.Re7 d5 21.Rxd7 Bc6 22.Rc7 Be8 23.g3 Bb6 24.Rb7 Ba5 25.Bxd5 Bxc3 26.Rab1 Rh5 27.h4 Rxg5 28.hxg5 Rd8 29.Bc4 d3 30.Rb8 Rxb8 31.Rxb8 d2 32.Bb3 Ke7 33.Rb7+ Bd7 34.Kf1 a5 35.Ke2 Kd6 36.f3 f6 37.Bc2 fxg5
38.g4 Bc6 39.Rb8 Kc5 40.Rc8 Kd6 41.Bd1 Kd7 42.Rh8 Ke7 43.Kd3 Bb4 44.Rg8 Kf6 45.Rc8 Bd7 46.Rb8 Be6 47.Rb7 Bf7 48.Rb6+ Ke7 49.Ra6 Be6 50.Kd4 Bf7 51.Ra7+ Kf6 52.Rc7 Ba3 53.Rc2 Bb4 54.Rc6+ Ke7 55.Ke4 Ba3 56.Rb6 Bb4 57.Rb5 Kf6 58.f4 gxf4 59.g5+ Ke7 60.Rb7+ Kf8 61.Kxf4 Bd5 62.Rb6 Bf7 63.Ke5 Ke7 64.Rb7+ Kf8 65.Rc7 Ba2 66.Rb7 Bf7 67.Ke4 Be6 68.Kd4 Bf7 69.Kd3 Be6 70.Ke3 Bd5 71.Rd7 Be6 72.Rd8+ Ke7 73.Rh8 Ba2 74.Rh7 Kf8 75.Rh1 Ke7 76.Rh7 Kf8 77.Kd3 Be6 78.Rh4 Ke7 79.Ke2 Bf5 80.Ke3 Kd6 81.Rh8 Be6 82.Rh7 Bf5 83.Rxg7 Ke5 84.Rc7 Bb1 85.Rb7 Bf5 86.Rb5+ Ke6 87.Kd4 Bb1 88.Bb3+ Kd6 89.Rb6+ Kc7 90.Ra6 Bf5 91.Bd1 Bb1 92.Re6 Kd7 93.Rf6 Kc7 94.Kc4 Kd7 95.Kb3 Bf5 96.Kc4 Bb1 97.Rf1 Bf5 98.Kd5 Be7 99.Rg1 Be6+ 100.Ke5 Bf5 101.Rg2 Bb4 102.Kd5 Ke7 103.Re2+ Kd7 104.Rh2 Be6+ 105.Kd4 Bf5 106.Rh1 Kd6 107.Rh8 Bc5+ 108.Kc3 Bb4+ 109.Kd4 Bc5+ 110.Kc4 Bb4 111.Re8 Bd7 112.Ra8 Ke5 113.Kd3 Kf4 114.Rd8 Bf5+ 115.Kc4 Kxg5 116.Kd4 Kf4 117.Rh8 Kg5 118.Rh1 Kf4 119.Rf1+ Kg5 120.Ke3 Kf6 121.Kd4 Kg5 122.Ke3 Kf6 123.Kd4 Ke6 124.Bb3+ Kd6 125.Bd1 Bc5+ 126.Kc4 Bb4 127.Kd4 Bc5+ 128.Kc4 Bb4 129.Rh1 Be4 130.Rf1 Bd5+ 131.Kd4 Be6 132.Kd3 Ke5 133.Ke3 Bf5 134.Rh1 Bc3 135.Rh8 g5 136.Re8+ Kd6 137.Rd8+ Ke6 138.Re8+ Kf6 139.Rf8+ Kg6 140.Rg8+ Kf6 141.Rf8+ Kg6 142.Kf3 Bb4 143.Rg8+ Kf6 144.Ra8 g4+ 145.Kg3 Bd6+ 146.Kh4 Bb4 147.Ra6+ Ke5 148.Kg3 Kd4 149.Ra8 Be6 150.Rd8+ Ke4 151.Re8 Kf5 152.Bxg4+ Kg5 153.Rxe6 Bc3 154.Rc6 Bb4 155.Bd1 1–0

The State of Nebraska has contributed many brilliant minds of national renown, but it now appears that this State has been holding out on us, for within its borders resides a chess genius of no mean ability as evidenced by his records, which speak for themselves. The winner of the Minor Chess Tournament, held at Pasadena, California during the latter part of August 1932, while the Major Tournament was in progress, was Mr. Howard E. Ohman, Assistant Pastor of the First Central Congregational Church of Omaha, Nebraska.

Mr. Ohman won the Tournament, mentioned above, in which several State and Sectional Champions were entered, including Irving Spero, a former champion of Ohio, to whom Mr. Ohman lost his only game. The final score being 9 won, 1 lost, and 1 draw. The draw being with Professor Bateman. Some short time ago Mr. Arthur Dake of Portland, Oregon, and a chess expert of considerable reputation, paid Omaha a visit, and of course nothing was more natural than for Mr. Dake and Mr. Ohman should exchange complements in three informal sets of ten games in all.

Mr. Dake managed to win 5 to 3, with 2 drawn games. Mr. Ohman had a clear win in the last game, but made an oversight that cost him a piece and the game; otherwise the final score would read, 4 to 4 with 2 draws. At any rate, the score actually made reflects great credit to winner and loser, alike.

Still later, and to convince possible skeptics that no fluke existed, Mr. Ohman won the City Championship by the remarkable score of 26 wins, none lost, with 2 drawn. And believe it or not, this makes the seventeenth straight year that Mr. Ohman has won the Championship of Omaha!! As a fitting climax, he also defeated the winner of the Class B Tournament by the score of 4 wins, with none lost.

Texas Chess Magazine 1933

"You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it.  But what Chess teaches you is that you
must sit there calmly and think about whether it's really a good idea and whether there are other better ideas."
Stanley Kubrick

NM Igor Margulis is alone in first after four rounds of the Winter Tuesday Night Marathon with a 4-0 score. Tied for second at 3.5 in the nine round event are IM Ganbold Odondoo, NMs Batchimeg Tuvshintugs, Nicolas Yap and Russell Wong and Experts Victor Ossipov, Larry Snyder and Igor Traub.

Berkeley Class A player Steven Svoboda sends the following exciting game against fellow Marathon regular Arthur Dembling.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 c5 6.e3 b6 7.Bd3 Bb7 8.f3 0-0 9.Ne2 Nc6 10.Bd2?!
This commits the Bishop to a passive square. The main line runs 10.0-0 Na5 11.e4 Ne8 12.f4 f5 or 12...Ba6 13.f5 f6 . Note Black must prevent the f-pawn coming to f6; 13...Bxc4? 14.Bxc4 Nxc4 15.f6 Nxf6 16.Bg5 with a crushing attack.
10...d6
More energetic is 10...Na5 11.Ng3 (11.0-0 Ba6) ...Ba6 12.Qe2 d5 13.cxd5 Bxd3 14.Qxd3 Qxd5 15.0-0 Qc4 with good play.
11.0-0 Na5 12.Ng3 Ba6 13.Qe2 Rc8 14.d5 e5?
This gives White a free hand. A better try is 14...Qd7!?
15.Nf5 Re8 16.e4 Nb3?
Necessary was 16...Nh5. Black cannot allow Bg5, pinning the Knight, in the Saemisch.
17.Bg5! Nxa1 18.Qf2!?
Possible was 18.Rxa1but Svoboda has bigger game in mind!
18...Rc7?!
Black had to try something radical like 18...h6 19.Bxh6 (19.Bh4 Kh7 20.Rxa1 g6 21.Ne3 g5 22.Bg3 Nh5) 19...Nh5.
19.Qh4 h5
This doesn't work well and neither does 19...Nb3 20.Nxg7! At this point it is hard to suggest improvements.
20.f4!
20.Rxa1 was possible but the text is more to the point.
20...Bc8 21.Ng3?!
21.Nxg7 Kxg7 22.fxe5 wins immediately.
21...Bg4 22.h3 Qd7
On 22...exf4 then 23.Rxf4 Bd1 24.Bxf6 gxf6 25.Rxf6, with Nf5 coming, is decisive.
23.f5
If 23.fxe5 then 23...Nh7!. 23.Bxf6 gxf6 24.hxg4 Qxg4 25.Qxg4+ hxg4 26.Rxa1was also possible.
23...Nh7 24.hxg4 f6
Maybe 24...Nb3 25.gxh5 (25.Nxh5 f6 26.Be3 with g5 coming isn't so clear.) 25...Nxg5 26.Qxg5 f6 had to be played.
25.Be3 Nb3 26.gxh5 Qe7 27.h6
Now the second wave of the attack picks up.
27...Ng5 28.Nh5?
28.hxg7! Qxg7 29.Nh5 won on the spot.
28...Qd8?
28...gxh6! and Black is still alive.Now White finishes the job.
29.Nxg7 Rxg7 30.hxg7 Kxg7 31.Qh5 Rg8 32.Kf2 Rh8 33.Qg6+ Kf8 34.Bxg5 fxg5 35.f6 Rg8 36.Qh6+ Kf7 37.Qh7+ Kf8 38.f7 1-0

San Jose high school student Matthew Ho is the 2005 Falconer award winner. Ho, who represented the United States in the World Youth Championships in Greece last fall, received $2259, matching his 2259 rating on the December 2004 USCF rating list.  Previous recipients of the Falconer, given to the top player in Northern California under 18, include Nicolas Yap, Michael Pearson and Vinay Bhat (3 times). This award is made possible by the generosity of longtime MI Trustee Neil Falconer.

Recently MI regular Mark Kastor asked me why he hadn't seen Ursula Foster at any recent tournaments. I found the sad answer at the USCF website in the section for remembering recently deceased members. Many California players will remember Ursula for her love of the game and good cheer.
A lengthy obituary appears on the Modesto Bee website..http://www.modbee.com/local/story/8982645p-9876591c.html

The Berry brothers of Stillwater are at it again. Frank and Jim Berry, who have run the North American Open for over a decade, and grown it into one of the strongest Labor Day tournaments in the United States will be sponsoring a match between young Polish 2600 GM Kamil Miton and GM Yury Shulman of Brooklyn who recently tied for third in the US Championship. The six game, featuring a $3000 prize fund ($2000 to the winner)  will be held Feb 19-21 alongside the OCF Winter NAO FIDE Open. See upcoming tournaments below for details about the latter event.

GM Hikaru Nakamura is tied for first with 6 from 8 with two rounds to go in the Gibtelecom Masters. Among those sharing the lead with him are top seed Alexey Shirov. Here is Hikaru's 8th round win over English GM Chris Ward.

NAKAMURA,H - WARD,C

Gibtelecom Masters 2005 Caleta Hotel Gibraltar (8.6), 01.02.2005

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 b6 5.Nge2 Ne4 6.Qc2 Bb7 7.Nf4 0-0 8.Bd3 f5 9.0-0 Bxc3 10.bxc3 c5 11.f3 Nd6 12.e4 Nc6 13.e5 Nf7 14.Qf2 Rc8 15.Be3 Qe7 16.Rac1 Kh8 17.Rfe1 Na5 18.Qe2 Ba6 19.Bf2 Qg5 20.Nh3 Qh5 21.Be3 Qh4 22.Bf2 Qh5 23.Be3 Qh4 24.Red1 Rc7 25.f4 cxd4 26.cxd4 Rfc8 27.c5 Bxd3 28.Qxd3 bxc5 29.Qb5 Nc6 30.Rxc5 Ne7 31.Rxc7 Rxc7 32.d5 Nxd5 33.Ng5 g6 34.Nxf7+ Kg7 35.Nd6 Nxe3 36.Ne8+ Kh6 37.Qb4 d6 38.Nxc7 Nxd1 39.Qd2 dxe5 40.Nxe6 exf4 41.Nxf4 Nb2 42.Nd3+ g5 43.Nxb2 Qe4 44.Nd1 f4 45.h3 f3 46.g4 Qe2 47.Qd6+ Kg7 48.Qd4+ Kg8 49.Nf2 Qxa2 50.Qd8+ Kf7 51.Qd7+ Kf8 52.Qf5+ Ke8 53.Qe4+ Kd8 54.Qxf3 a5 55.Nd3 a4 56.Qf8+ Kc7 57.Qg7+ Kc8 58.Qh8+ Kc7 59.Qxh7+ Kc8 60.Qh8+ Kc7 61.Qe5+ Kc8 62.Qc5+ Kb7 63.Qb4+ Kc7 64.Qc3+ Kd8 65.Nc1 Qe6 66.Kf2 Qb6+ 67.Ke2 Qg1 68.Kd2 Qg2+ 69.Ne2 1-0

John Henderson of America's Foundation for Chess, which has sponsored the US Championship since 2000 writes about the qualifying events for the 2006 event which will be held in February in San Diego.

"I have the 2006 Qualifying cycle ready - we now have to agree (within the next week or two) with the USCF before publication.  However, I can tell you that it
includes two new events: the American Open and the National Congress.  Seeds will be based on the September 2005 USCF list; there will also be an
Additional spot made up of the player who accumulates the most points from the qualifying cycle but fails to gain a spot proper - a sort of Grand Prix if you wish."

Readers of the Newsletter may recall that the AF4C stepped in when the USCF was unable to hold the event. The initial tournaments for men and women in 2000 were run on the traditional format roundrobin format. Since then, in 2002, 2003 and 2004 a 64 player, nine round, mixed gender Swiss has been the template. The qualifying events generated a great deal of interest last year and I suspect that even more players will be trying to make it into next February's Championship. American chess players owe a big thanks to the AF4C and in particular Board Member Erik Anderson who has shown a particularly keen interest in the US Championship. Hearty thanks also go to GM Yasser Seirawan who was instrumental in the founding of the AF4C in his hometown of Seattle.

There are so many websites devoted to chess that it is hard to keep track of what is happening. One excellent one that I visited recently and is well worth checking out is the site of the world's leading chess historian, Edward Winter. You can find it at http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/index.html.

"Now that I've become one of the 10,000 fairly good players who've retired from tournament chess, I can clearly see what I should have seen when I was active --- that for most of us, chess is less of a serious competitive sport than a lifelong love affair."
 IM David Strauss

Ricardo DeGuzman was the convincing winner of the 5th Annual Henry Gross Memorial G/45 last Saturday. The Filipino IM won his first four games before clinching the victory with a draw against teenager Sam Shankland.  Sam had an excellent result tying for second at 4-1 with Dutch Master Marcel Beulen and Expert Victor Ossipov. Anthony Corrales directed the 28-player event for the Mechanics'.

Five rounds into the Winter Tuesday Night Marathon there is five-way tie for first at 4.5 between IM Odondoo Ganbold, NMs Batchimeg Tuvshintugs, Nicolas Yap, and Igor Margulis, and Expert Igor Traub.

Thanks to Providian Financial as part of their Providian Cares program WGM Camilla Baginskaite will begin teaching a free class for women of all ages on Sundays from 2-4 pm very soon. The next Newsletter will have complete details.

The MI's advanced Chess Camp, with GM Alex Yermolinsky as lead instructor, will be back for the fifth consecutive year this summer. The all day camp will run from August 1-5.

Mea Culpa - Nicolas Yap and not Matthew Ho was the 2004 Falconer Award winner.

SM David Pruess writes:

EBCC February Swiss

There’s a new chess player in town, and his first tournament was a resounding success. New York NM Ben Dean-Kawamura, recently relocated to the Bay Area, won his first tournament in these parts with a resounding 4-0 score. To reach this mark he had to face the #1, 3 and 4 seeds in the tournament (he was the #2 seed), knocking them off in succession in rounds 2-4. He played an excellent attacking game against SM David Pruess in round 2.
Second was taken by Mingson Chen with a score of 3.5/4. U2000 honors went to Robert Russo, U1700 to Jonathan Soo Hoo, and U1500/unr to Jamie Sawhill. The East Bay Chess Club holds a weekend swiss once a month, the next one being March 12-13.

Bayareasliga to open soon

A chess league will be starting its first season in the Bay Area shortly. The matches will be played once a month between 4 man teams (though the teams may have many alternates on their roster). The first two match dates are Feb 27th and March 26th. It is still not too late to get into the league, there is room for a few more players. If you would like to have a team or be placed on a team, please contact David Pruess at liga@eastbaychess.com ASAP.

The 132nd, and for the moment final, New York Masters took place on 1st February 2005. Alex Shabalov and Gata Kamsky finished in joint first on 3/4. The two previous events IM Jay Bonin went on a tear winning both tournaments scoring 5.5 from 6 against strong GMs!

 Bonin,J (2342) - Stripunsky,A (2533) [A21]
130th NY Masters New York USA (2), 18.01.2005
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4 3.Qc2 c6 4.a3 Bxc3 5.Qxc3 Qe7 6.d4 d6 7.c5 Nd7 8.cxd6 Qxd6 9.dxe5 Qxe5 10.Qxe5+ Nxe5 11.Nf3 Nxf3+ 12.gxf3 Be6 13.e4 Nf6 14.Rg1 g6 15.Be3 Nd7 16.f4 a6 17.b4 f5 18.Bh3 0–0–0 19.0–0–0 Nf6 20.exf5 Bxf5 21.Bxf5+ gxf5 22.Bd4 Rhf8 23.Rg7 Nh5 24.Rxh7 Nxf4 25.Bb6 Rxd1+ 26.Kxd1 Nd5 27.Bd4 Rd8 28.Rh8 Rxh8 29.Bxh8 Kd7 30.Kd2 Ke6 31.Kd3 Nf4+ 32.Kd4 b6 33.Bg7 Nh3 34.f3 Ng5 35.Ke3 Kf7 36.Bd4 b5 37.Kf4 Ne6+ 38.Ke5 Ng5 39.Kxf5 Nxf3 40.Be5 Nh4+ 41.Kg4 Ng6 42.Bb2 Nf8 43.h4 Ne6 44.Kf5 c5 45.h5 c4 46.h6 Nf8 47.Ke5 Kg6 48.Bc1 Kh7 49.Kd6 Ng6 50.Kc6 Ne5+ 51.Kb6 Nd3 52.Be3 c3 53.Kxa6 c2 54.Kxb5 Ne5 55.a4 Nf3 56.a5 Nd4+ 57.Kc4 Nf5 58.Bc1 Nd6+ 59.Kc3 1–0

Yudasin,L (2547) - Bonin,J (2342) [C00]
130th NY Masters New York USA (4), 18.01.2005
1.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Qe2 b6 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.Bd2 Bxc3 7.Bxc3 Nf6 8.Qf3 Qxf3 9.Nxf3 Bb7 10.Ne5 Nc6 11.Nxc6 Bxc6 12.f3 Rg8 13.Kf2 Nd5 14.Bd2 g5 15.Be2 f5 16.h4 g4 17.fxg4 fxg4 18.Kg3 Ne7 19.h5 Nf5+ 20.Kf4 0–0–0 21.Bc3 Rdf8 22.Rac1 g3 23.Rhg1 Nh4+ 24.Ke3 Nxg2+ 25.Kd2 Nf4 26.Be5 g2 27.Bxf4 Rxf4 28.Rce1 Rg3 29.Bd1 Kd7 30.c3 Kd6 31.d4 Bb5 32.a4 Rf2+ 33.Kc1 Bd3 34.Bb3 Bf5 35.Bc4 Rc2+ 36.Kd1 Rxb2 37.Be2 Rxc3 0–1

Stripunsky,A (2550) - Bonin,J (2343) [C42]
131st NY Masters New York USA (2), 25.01.2005
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Be7 7.0–0 Nd6 8.Re1 0–0 9.Nc3 c6 10.Ne2 Bf5 11.Ng3 Bxd3 12.Qxd3 Nd7 13.a4 a5 14.b3 Nf6 15.Bg5 Re8 16.Re2 Nfe4 17.Bxe7 Rxe7 18.Rae1 Re8 19.c4 Nxg3 20.Rxe8+ Nxe8 21.hxg3 Nc7 22.Qf5 g6 23.Qg4 Ne6 24.Ne5 Qf6 25.Re3 Rd8 26.c5 Qf5 27.Qxf5 gxf5 28.Nf3 b6 29.cxb6 Rb8 30.Rc3 Rxb6 31.Kf1 f6 32.Ke2 Kf7 33.Ke3 Rb4 34.Kd3 Ke7 35.Kc2 Kd6 36.Rd3 c5 37.dxc5+ Nxc5 38.Re3 d4 39.Re8 d3+ 40.Kd2 Rxb3 41.Nd4 Rb2+ 42.Ke3 d2 43.Ke2 Nxa4 44.Rd8+ Kc5 45.Ne6+ Kc4 46.Rd4+ Kb3 47.Rxd2 Nc3+ 48.Kd3 Rxd2+ 49.Kxd2 Ne4+ 50.Kc1 Nxf2 51.Nd4+ Kc3 52.Nxf5 Ne4 53.Kb1 Kd3 54.g4 Ke2 55.Nd4+ Kf2 56.Nc6 a4 57.Ka2 Kxg2 58.Ka3 Nc5 59.Ne7 Kg3 60.Nd5 Ne4 61.Kxa4 Kxg4 62.Kb3 h5 63.Kc2 Kf3 64.Kd3 h4 65.Ne3 Ng3 66.Nc4 h3 0–1

Bonin,J (2343) - Wojtkiewicz,A (2536) [E61]
131st NY Masters New York USA (3), 25.01.2005
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 0–0 5.e4 c6 6.Bd3 d6 7.h3 e5 8.0–0 exd4 9.Nxd4 Re8 10.Bc2 Na6 11.Bf4 Nc5 12.Re1 Nh5 13.Bh2 Be5 14.Nf3 Bxh2+ 15.Kxh2 Qf6 16.Qd2 Nf4 17.Rad1 Nxh3 18.b4 Nd7 19.Kxh3 Ne5+ 20.Kg3 Nxc4 21.Qd4 Qe6 22.Bb3 Qg4+ 23.Kh2 Ne5 24.Qxd6 Nxf3+ 25.gxf3 Qxf3 26.Qg3 Qh5+ 27.Kg2 Qh6 28.e5 Bf5 29.Ne4 Bxe4+ 30.Rxe4 Rad8 31.Rxd8 Rxd8 32.Rf4 Rf8 33.e6 fxe6 34.Bxe6+ Kh8 35.Qc3+ 1–0

Kamsky,G (2717) - Bonin,J (2343) [A46]
131st NY Masters New York USA (4), 25.01.2005
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bg5 Nbd7 4.Nbd2 e5 5.c3 Be7 6.e4 exd4 7.cxd4 Nxe4 8.Nxe4 d5 9.Qe2 dxe4 10.Qxe4 Nb6 11.Bd3 Be6 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 13.0–0 0–0–0 14.a4 Nd5 15.a5 a6 16.Rac1 Qf6 17.Ne5 Qf4 18.Qe2 Nb4 19.Bc4 Rhe8 20.Bxe6+ Rxe6 21.Qc4 Nc6 22.Nxf7 Qxf7 23.d5 Re5 24.dxc6 Qxc4 25.Rxc4 Rxa5 26.cxb7+ Kxb7 27.g3 Ra2 28.Rfc1 Rd7 29.R1c2 a5 30.Kg2 Rf7 31.h4 a4 32.Rb4+ Kc8 33.Rc3 Rf6 34.g4 Kd7 35.Kg3 Rb6 36.Rd4+ Kc8 37.Rdc4 Rb7 38.f3 Ra7 39.Rc2 a3 40.bxa3 Rxc2 41.Rxc2 Rxa3 42.Kf4 Kd7 43.h5 h6 44.Ke4 Kd6 45.f4 c5 46.Kf5 Ra4 ½–½
 

Miton,K (2583) - Bonin,J (2343) [E81]
132nd NY Masters New York USA (2), 01.02.2005
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0–0 6.Bg5 h6 7.Be3 c5 8.d5 e6 9.Qd2 exd5 10.cxd5 h5 11.Nge2 Re8 12.Nc1 Na6 13.Be2 Nc7 14.0–0 Rb8 15.a4 a6 16.N1a2 b5 17.b4 c4 18.Bd4 bxa4 19.Nxa4 Bd7 20.N4c3 Bb5 21.Rac1 Nd7 22.Bxg7 Kxg7 23.Nd1 Ne5 24.Nf2 f5 25.exf5 gxf5 26.f4 Ng4 27.Bxc4 Ne3 28.Bxb5 Nxb5 29.Rfe1 Qb6 30.h3 Re7 31.Nc3 Rbe8 32.Qd3 Kh6 33.Kh2 Rg8 34.g3 h4 35.g4 fxg4 36.hxg4 Nxg4+ 37.Nxg4+ Rxg4 38.Ne4 Rxe4 39.Qf3 Rgxf4 40.Qg2 Rxe1 0–1

Just as the New York Masters has shut down the LA Masters has started up. The 1st Los Angeles Masters took place on 31st January 2005. The format is similar to that of the New York Masters with four games in an evening Timerate in LA is g/30. The event takes place every Monday at the LA Chess Club . Sponsor: Kreiman Chess Academy . IM Andranik Matikozian won the first event with 3.5/4 and GM Vauzhan Akobian the second with an identical score.
Official site: http://lachessmasters.com/

Several Newsletter readers responded to the piece on Ursula Foster in the last issue.

Duane & Lore Catania wrote:

Thanks for reporting the news of Ursula Foster. We knew her for 27 years.  We will miss the dignity and respect that she brought with her to every tournament.

Mike Maloney writes:

I suppose you might be looking for a game or two of Ursula's.  This is the only game I have in my files. It isn't great, but it does show Ursula to have been a solid player and worthy opponent.  She had a substantial advantage in the final position.

Maloney,M (1943) - Foster,U (1610) [B18]
Sacramento Championship (3), 07.07.2001

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.Nf3 Nd7 7.h4 h5 8.Bc4 Qc7 9.Qe2 Ngf6 10.Ng5 Nd5 11.Bd2 0-0-0 12.0-0-0 e6 13.Rhe1 Re8 14.N3e4 Kb8 15.g3 Ka8 16.a3 N7f6 17.Bd3 Nxe4 18.Nxe4 Be7 19.c4 Nf6 20.Bf4 Qa5 21.Nxf6 Bxd3 22.Rxd3 Bxf6 23.Kb1 Qf5 24.Ka2 Rd8 25.Be3 e5 26.d5 e4 27.Rd2 cxd5 28.b3 dxc4 29.bxc4 Rd3 30.Bf4 1/2-1/2

Newsletter reader Rusty Miller passes along the following article that was rediscovered by Stephen Wright of British Columbia. Mr. Wright runs an excellent website devoted to BC chess history at http://www3.telus.net/public/swright2/homepage.html

Royal Game of Chess (from Seattle Daily Times, February 19, 1898, p. 13)

It is likely the Hudson Bay Company’s factors and other employees, who came to this Northwest Coast early in the present century, whiled away the long winter evenings at the chess table, and that the young army officers of the United States stationed at Forts Vancouver and Steilacoom in the 50's, including Harney, Grant, McClellan, Sheridan, Kautz, Pickett and others whose names are now on the page of the immortals, included chess-pIaying among their accomplishments, but no record of the fact has come down to us.
The writer has no knowledge of chess-playing in Seattle prior to 1860. During the winter of 1860-1 Hon. L.B. Andrews spent most of the long evenings at chess in a little gunsmith shop that stood on Commercial Street a little to the north of the present Squire-Latimer Building. Mr. Andrews made new guns and mended old ones by day, and his shop was his parlor, dining room and bedroom as well. English and American muskets of the last century, yagers and Kentucky squirrel rifles, shotguns and pistols of now almost forgotten types kept company with each other while awaiting a new ramrod, tube, mainspring or stock. In the same old, dingy gunshop the writer saw Mr. Andrews make the first tests of the coal from his Squak coal mine, which has since been known as the Gilman mine, and which is a part of the same coal measures as those at Newcastle. The latter were discovered a year or two later, but were developed much earlier.
During the two decades ending with the ‘70’s there were few accessions to the ranks of the chessplayers. O.J. Carr, afterward postmaster, David Kellogg, B.F. Briggs, William H. Gilliam, Isaac Parker and a few of the old pioneers helped to keep the traditions of the old game alive for twenty years or more. About 1883 the town began a more vigorous growth, and among the newcomers were a few chess players. From about 1881 to 1889 - the year of the fire - Griffith Davies' bookstore became the headquarters of the lovers of the game. Kendricks, from Seabeck, Bagley, from Olympia, and visitors from abroad were there welcomed, and it was no unusual event for a game to start when the doors were closed in the evening and close only when it was necessary to open them again to patrons in the morning. During the latter part of this period a young Englishman arrived here, coming by way of Australia and California, who had been trained in the clubs of London, and who was at once recognized as the strongest player in this part of the country, with the exception of Kindrick. This was Thomas Piper, who participated in the recent match and was the leader of the Victoria team. He is a young gentleman in every sense of the word, whose merits are recognized by the military authorities at Esquimalt, where he occupies a responsible position. Of the Iocal players Bagley was for a long time at the head, but along about the time of the fire Griffith Davies took the lead and held it for a year or two and then dropped out of the leading rank. In 1890 a chess club was organized, with a membership of some half hundred, large rooms were fitted up in the Frye Block, and the Chamber of Commerce Building had a chessroom attached, but after a time interest waned, heavy expense fell upon Davies, Jenner and Bagley and the rooms were closed. About three years ago a new club was organized in a modest way and early in 1897 it was consolidated with the Iocal whist organization under the name of the "Seattle Whist and Chess Club,” which keeps a good membership and includes among its members some strong players, both whist and chess.
Rodney Kendrick, formerly of Seabeck, then of Port Hadlock, and now of San Francisco, and Mr. Piper, mentioned above, were of equal strength and both were a shade stronger than any others here. Mr. Chapman of the Victoria team, who played in the recent match, is nearly as strong as those two, and with one other gentleman of Victoria, whose name the writer has forgotten, these gentlemen rank with the strongest players of the Pacific Coast. Of the Iocal players, Messrs. Dickey, Peterson and Bagley are recognized as the strongest, and it is a point of dispute as to which is entitled to take precedence. Each one will tell a friend in confidence that he (the confider) is a shade the better player, but actual contests over the board have left the matter unsettled, with no promise of adjustment. Mr. Davies is probably nearly as strong, but as he does not play with men who call out his powers, it is uncertain as to his rank. Messrs. Lerch, Barto, Jenner, Steele, Williams, Cadien, Baldwin, Getman, Curtis and others are players of more than ordinary strength, and, many other gentlemen of the city take an active interest in the game, so that Seattle bids fair to attain and hold good rank in the chess-playing world.
At the recent-match Seattle's best players were outplayed by Victoria's best players, but in turn the Victoria second-rank men were no match for the Seattle second rank, so that the total score was in favor of Seattle -12 to 9. It is probable that a return match will be played before midsummer, and there is also talk of a telegraphic match with San Francisco.
The late Col. Granville O. Haller was an enthusiastic lover of the game in earlier years, and he and the writer lightened the tedium of a long sea voyage together from New York to San Francisco in 1864 with many a game between themselves and others on the steamer, and the writer has always remembered with enthusiastic delight the rage of the Major, as he then ranked, when the steward of the boat would come at 10 o’clock each evening with a deprecatory flourish and the order, “Lights out, sah." This regulation was strictly enforced at that time owing to the depredations of the Alabama and other Confederate cruisers. In the daytime only the best steam coal, with no smoke, was used, and after dusk all external Iights were forbidden and all interior ones put out after 10 o'clock. These precautions and frequent changes of course made were in order to lessen the danger from such cruisers.

Congratulations to Ed Labate who bought out the inventory of the late Ken Smith's Chess Digest.You can check out Ed's offerings at labatechess.com.

The latest issue of New in Chess (2005/1) has plenty of California connections. There is a big story on the US Championship held last fall in La Jolla. There is a picture of Dmitry Zilberstein of Fremont who annotates his prize winning victory over Alexander Ivanov. The subject of Just Checking for this issue is GM Larry Christiansen who grew up in Riverside.

 Those with good memories will remember Dennis Monokroussos as one of the strongest players Nevada has ever produced. He has recently been very active on the ChessBase website and is now starting his own blog.

Chess fans,

Check out this "blog" by our local Chess Master, Dennis Monokroussos!
http://chessstuff.blogspot.com/
Dennis M's Chess Site
This is a blog for chess fans by a chess fan. I enjoy winning as much as
anyone else, and I've had a reasonable amount of success as a competitor,
but what keeps me coming back to the game is its beauty. And that,
primarily, is what this site will be about! All material copyrighted.

About Me:Name:Dennis Monokroussos
Location:South Bend, IN
I'm a USCF master (current rating 2352) and a once and hopefully future
senior master (peak rating 2434), but my time in chess these days is
dedicated primarily to training juniors and others to achieve their own
successes in our great game. For fun, I also teach philosophy; for a
challenge, I'm trying to complete my doctoral dissertation!

"Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside of an advertising agency."
Raymond Chandler

NMs Nicolas Yap and Batchimeg Tuvshintugs are tied for the lead in the Winter Tuesday Night Marathon after 6 rounds with scores of 5.5. The big upset last night was NM Nicolas Yap's win over top-seed Ganbold Odondoo.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nge7 5.0–0 g6 6.c3 Bg7 7.d4 d6 8.Be3 0–0 9.Nbd2 h6 10.Re1 Kh7 11.Bc2 f5 12.exf5 Nxf5 13.dxe5 Nxe3 14.Rxe3 Nxe5 15.h3 Nxf3+ 16.Nxf3 Qf6 17.Qd2 Bd7 18.Rae1 Rae8 19.Nd4 Rxe3 20.Rxe3 Qf4 21.Qe1 Qf6?
21...d5 22.Ne6 Bxe6 23.Rxe6 Rf6 24.Re7 Rf7=
22.Rg3 Qe5
22...Bf5 23.Nxf5 gxf5 24.Re3 leaves White clearly better; 22...Be8 23.Rf3 wins.
23.Bxg6+ Kh8 24.Qxe5 Bxe5 25.Rf3 Kg7 26.Rxf8 Kxf8 27.Nf3 Bf6 28.Be4 b5 29.g4 a5 30.Kg2 b4 31.cxb4 axb4 32.b3 c6 33.Ne1 d5 34.Bd3 Be5 35.Kf3 c5 36.Ke2 Be6 37.Ng2 c4 38.Bb1 Bd6 39.Ne3 Kf7 40.Bf5 c3 41.Kd3 Bc5 42.Bxe6+ Kxe6 43.Nf5 h5 44.Ng7+ Ke5 45.f4+ Kf6 46.Nxh5+ Kg6 1–0

Three members of the Mechanics' Institute are ranked in the top 15 in the country in the Under 10 category. Congratulations to Daniel Naroditsky, Gregory Young and Hugo Kitano!

February 2005 USCF Top Age 9

1    Heung, Christopher    9    FL    1860
2    Wang, Andrew C    9    MA    1695
3    Naroditsky, Daniel A    9    CA    1688
4    Ding, Richard    9    AZ    1662
5    Finney, Stuart S    9    RI    1647
6    Silberman, Sam E    9    FL    1621
7    Bindumadhavan, Krishna    9    VA    1609
     Lung, James    9    MA    1609
9    Karp, Justin D    9    NY    1607
10    Moon, Ryan Joseph R    9    GA    1605
11    Young, Gregory    9    CA    1598
12    Lessen, Zachary    9    NY    1572
13    Rozovsky, Daniel    9    CT    1558
14    Wu, Hengyi    9    FL    1543
15    Kitano, Hugo C    9    CA    1542

The 4th Aeroflot Chess festival started on February 15 and is being held at the Hotel Rossija in Moscow. Thirty two of the top 100 players in the world are competing led by top seeds:  1 Etienne Bacrot 2 Vassily Ivanchuk 3 Vladimir Akopian 4 Levon Aronian 5 Viktor Bologan 6 Konstantin Sakaev 7 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 8 Emil Sutovsky 9 Teimour Radjabov 10 Alexander Motylev 11 Vladimir Malakhov 12 Alexander Khalifman 13 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 14 Krishnan Sasikiran 15 Vadim Zvjaginsev 16 Pavel Smirnov 17 Pavel Eljanov 18 Aleksej Aleksandrov 19 Alexander G Beliavsky 20 Mikhail Kobalia 21 Gregory S Kaidanov 22 Pavel V. Tregubov 23 Ni Hua 24 Sergei Movsesian 25 Evgeniy Najer  For further details visit http://www.aeroflotchess.com/

MI Grandmaster-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky, our Man in Moscow, drew his first round game with Polish GM Robert Kempinski.

Yermolinsky,A - Kempinski,R
AEROFLOT OPEN 2005 (1)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 0–0 5.Nf3 c6 6.Bd3 d6 7.0–0 Na6 8.h3 e5 9.d5 Nc5 10.Bc2 a5 11.Be3 Qc7 12.a3 cxd5 13.cxd5 Bd7 14.Rc1 Rfc8 15.b4 axb4 16.axb4 Na6 17.Na4 Bxa4 18.Bxa4 Qd8 19.Rxc8 Qxc8 20.Qb1 Qc4 21.Nd2 Qxb4 22.Bb5 Bf8 23.f3 Nh5 24.Bxa6 Qxb1 25.Rxb1 bxa6 26.Ra1 Be7 27.Ra4 f5 28.g4 Nf6 29.Kf1 fxe4 30.fxe4 Bd8 31.Ke2 a5 32.Kd3 Nd7 33.Nc4 Bc7 34.Ra3 Kf7 35.Rb3 Ke8 36.Nb2 Kd8 37.Na4 Kc8 38.g5 Kd8 39.h4 Nb8 40.Bc1 Nd7 41.Ba3 Kc8 42.Kc4 Rb8 43.Rxb8+ Kxb8 44.Kb5 Kb7 45.Bc1 Nb6 46.Nb2 Bd8 47.Bd2 a4 48.Bb4 Bc7 49.Ba3 Bb8 50.Nd3 Nc8 51.Kxa4 Ba7 52.Kb5 Bg1 53.Bb4 Na7+ 54.Kc4 Nc8 55.Be1 Nb6+ 56.Kb5 Nd7 57.Bb4 Kc7 58.Ba5+ Kb7 59.Nb2 Nc5 60.Bb6 Nd3 ½–½

Alex is paired with Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami in round 2.

Hanon Russell, owner and founder of ChessCafe.com, writes:

After the first round of voting which ended January 26, the top three vote-getters made the "short list". These three books were Pal Benko: My Life, Games and Compositions by Pal Benko and Jeremy Silman, Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors; Part Four: Fischer by Garry Kasparov with Dmitri Plisetski and Chess Exam and Training Guide by Igor Khmelnitsky.
Previous years had seen 300-500 votes cast for our Book of the Year. This year, over 900 votes were received. And, much like previous years - and with no disrespect intended to any book or author - this year's contest was really a two-book race between the Benko book and Kasparov's MGP v4.
After all the votes were in and counted, Benko's magnificent work was the clear winner, the 2004 ChessCafe.com Book of the Year. Our congratulations to the authors, publishers and of course you, our readers, for making it happen.
I believe Benko and Silman have become the first authors to win the US Chess Journalists Cramer Award, the British Chess Federation's
Book of the Year and the ChessCafe.com Book of the Year for the same book.

The seven players for Linares this year are: Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Peter Leko, Michael Adams, Francisco Vallejo Pons and Rustam Kasimdzhanov. The Category 20 (2743) event will run February 22-March 10 with rest days on March 1st and 7th. Go to http://www.marca.com/linares/   for more information.

The 10th Open Dutch Blitzchess tournament took place on February 5th 2005. There were 17 rounds (34 games) played in this traditionally strong event. Ukrainian GM Vladimir Baklan became the sole winner while "retired" American GM Yasser Seirawan was second.

Final Standings:
1. Baklan  25/34
2. Seirawan - 24.5
3. Fridman - 24
4-7. Kasimdzhanov, I. Sokolov,
Speelman and Bosboom - 23;
8-9. P. Nikolic and Smeets - 22.5
10-15. van den Doel, van Wely, L'Ami,
Stellwagen, Jonkman & Schrool - 21.5
etc (200 participants).

More details and the archive of information on previous Blitzchess events can be found at http://www.blitzchess.nl/eng

Susan Polgar - Long Live the Queen
by Nancy Ruhling

Grandmaster Susan Polgar settles herself into the folding chair on the makeshift podium, folds her arms demurely in front of her and trains her enormous coffee-brown eyes on the green and white chessboard before her. She lost the coin toss to her opponent, Hall of Famer Lev Alburt, so he, as white, will be making the first move in the 4th annual Chess-in-the-Parks Rapid Open in New York City's Central Park.
Polgar, the No. 1 ranked player in the United States and the No. 1 player in the world, earned her first checkmate when she was only 41/2 and since then has played against all the big names—Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky, Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov—but this is no ordinary game and this is certainly no ordinary venue.
As Polgar and Alburt make their moves, the results are bellowed out via microphone and 32 hyper grade-schoolers, posing as chessmen, mimic the players' maneuvers on a life-size chessboard beneath the park's angel-topped Bethesda Fountain. The object of this demonstration is not so much to win or lose but to show children how much fun the game of chess really can be.
As the clock ticks, the gray sky is spitting rain, the security guards are squealing into their squawkers, the live chess pieces are bopping up and down like Mexican jumping beans, the trumpeter is punctuating each move by playing a peppy phrase and the fans are calling out advice—“Take a bishop, why doesn't she take a bishop!” Then someone trips and tips over the empty chair next to Polgar. She doesn't so much as blink. Her rapt concentration wavers only once, when a little voice yells out a big shout of “Mommy! Mommy!” Reflexively, Polgar, the mother of two little sons, glances to the side.
An hour later, amid all the noise, nuisance and nonsense, the game ends: It's a tie. As the live chessmen boogie off the board, Polgar stands tall in her black stilettos and puts her hand on her forehead as if the motion alone will clear her mind and get her to concentrate on her next move, which is right into the crowd to greet all her fans.
“Chess is in many ways like life itself,” she says. “It's all condensed in a playful manner in a game format and it's extremely fascinating because first of all I'm in control of my own destiny, I'm in charge. You have to be responsible for your actions, you make a move, you had better think ahead about what's going to happen, not after it happens, because then it's too late. Chess teaches discipline from a very early age. It teaches you to have a plan and to plan ahead. If you do that, you'll be rewarded; if you break the rules, you will get punished—in life and in chess. You need to learn the rules to break the rules.”
Learning the game of chess, she says, gave her a head start on the game of life, and that's why she has been devoting her life to being an advocate and an ambassador for chess, all with the goal of making chess as all-American as Mom, apple pie and baseball. In addition to participating in events like the live chess game, she has established the Polgar Chess Center in Forest Hills, New York, where she teaches students and hosts major chess events, and has set up the Susan Polgar Foundation, a nonprofit organization to introduce the social, educational and competitive benefits to American youngsters, especially girls.
“Chess is very good to teach children because it's a very playful game,” she says. “Once you understand a little bit about chess, you can really see the beauty in it like in art or in music.”
It is that beauty that taught her to focus, to concentrate and to be disciplined enough to play and win, even when the odds were stacked against her. As a woman and a Jew growing up in Hungary, she faced discrimination on two levels. Chess was, and for the most part still is, a man's game, and it was she who was the first to break through the gender barrier. While her early wins made her a curiosity in her own country, they only brought her awards and acclaim, not acceptance. “The antisemitism was more subtle,” the 35-year-old Polgar says, adding that all of her grandparents are Holocaust survivors. “The woman problem was more open. Even though by 1984, when I was 15, I was the top-ranked woman in the world, my real breakthrough didn't come until 1988, when for the first time ever, my two younger sisters, Sofia and Judit, and I won the gold medal in the World Chess Olympiad for Hungary. This was the first time any country had ever won over the Soviets. The government started applauding us, and we became national heroes.”
The win made her the Michael Jordan of the chess world. Even today she is a household name in Hungary, and when she visits her homeland, fans stop her on the street and ask for her autograph. By the time her reputation was established, she was besting the male masters. “They were disappointed to lose,” she says, “but they weren't disappointed because I was a woman but simply because they lost.”
Polgar went on to win nine other Olympic medals, along with a slew of other honors, including being named Women's World Champion four times, that have allowed her to remain ranked among the top three female players for the last two decades. Her most recent victory took place in October 2004, when she and the U.S. team brought home America's first-ever medal for the women's competition—the silver—in the 36th World Chess Olympiad that was played in Calvia, Spain. In that competition, she further distinguished herself by bringing home two gold medals—one for best overall performance and one for the most points scored in the entire Women's Olympiad —and a silver for racking up the second-best percentage.
Since the birth of her sons—Tom is 5 and Leeam is 4—Polgar has devoted herself to promoting, not playing chess. Indeed, the 2004 Olympiad was her first international tournament in eight years.
“Now I concentrate on revolutionizing the game and bringing it to the next level of popularity,” she says.
(Sofia, who lives in Israel, stopped playing when she was ranked No. 6 in the world but still ranks in the top 20; Judit, who replaced Susan as No. 1, has been inactive recently because she had a baby.)
It was her father who taught Susan chess and it was she who got Judit and Sofia into the game. “He was a chess fan and wanted to have an opponent,” she says. “But he was never a professional player, and he never even owned a book on chess until we started playing together.”
Polgar, who was homeschooled, was introduced to the game at 4 and her first win, a perfect 10-0 score in the girls-under-11 championship in Budapest, turned her into a media sensation. By age 10, she was beating her father at his own game. By age 15, she was the No. 1 female player in the world.
When she was ready to enter college, Polgar could say “Checkmate!” in seven languages—Hungarian, English, German, Russian, Spanish, Hebrew and Esperanto—and decided to major in physical education and sports teaching, taking a special degree in chess at the Academy of Physical Sports and Education in Minsk, Belarussia.
Her victories and “firsts” have been steady throughout her career. The only world champion, male or female, to win the triple crown—rapid, blitz and traditional world championships—she also is the first woman to win the U.S. Open Blitz Championship; the first woman to win the Grandmaster of the Year Award; the first woman to break the gender barrier to earn the Men's Grandmaster title, and the first woman to qualify for the Men's World Championship.
The award-winning, best-selling author and columnist also is a three-time winner of the Chess Oscar.
What is Polgar's winning combination? There is a lot more to it than merely making the right moves at the right time, she says. Before the game even begins, Polgar does extensive study and research on her opponent's previous games and on overall strategies. “I have to set my mind so that I get the proper sleep. I have to be organized and really focused for the hours that it takes to play the game,” she says. “I also work on improving my endurance by going to the gym. It can take seven to eight hours for one game in top competitions, and it's very tense.”
Although chess is popular in Europe, in America it is considered intellectual, difficult and worst of all, boring. “It's not any of those things,” Polgar insists. “In Europe, you can make a living playing chess. In the United States, you can't. I hope to improve the image of chess and the life of professional players. I could teach you in an hour all the basics. You have to understand the rules and the logic. After that, it's all a matter of practice.”
To prove her point, she has written a number of books, including Teach Yourself Chess in 24 Hours and The World Champion's Guide to Chess, which will be published in March 2005.
Some 45 million people in the United States spend time moving black and white kings and queens from square to square on chessboards and some 200,000 children in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have learned to cheerfully declare “Checkmate,” but only a few schools teach it. “In Europe, there are over 30 countries that use it in the school curriculum,” Polgar says. “I'm trying to get U.S. schools to use chess as a tool nationwide. Unlike a lot of other sports like baseball and football, it's very affordable. You can buy a chess set for $10, and two people can play, and it can be used over and over for years.”
What's more, playing chess helps children develop critical thinking that is useful not only in the game but also in academics, social situations and life in general, she adds. “Test scores improved by 17.3% for students regularly engaged in chess classes, compared with only 4.6% for children participating in other forms of enriched activities,” Polgar notes. “Chess has been shown to develop decision-making, critical thinking, logical thinking, evaluating, planning, problem solving and perseverance skills. It improves concentration, memory, intuition and self-control and promotes independence, imagination and creativity. And it inspires self-motivation, self-esteem and self-confidence. And this is why I am working very hard to raise money for my foundation. I want to be able to help all children in America do better in school and life through chess.”
Indeed, Polgar dreams of making chess so popular that it competes with other sports, like tennis, baseball and football. “We hope to get many more colleges to start offering scholarships for chess,” she says. “And we are working to promote chess as a grassroots movement in some of the smaller cities.”
Once the potential of chess is understood, there will be an explosion of interest, Polgar says. “In terms of popularity, it's still in its infancy,” she maintains. “The whole boom in professional chess will create a whole chain reaction that can revolutionize the game and influence society in a positive way.”
That's why Polgar wants to put a chess piece in the hand of every child in America and to bring the game to life just as the Central Park demonstration did. As part of that effort, she is working on a concept for an educational and entertaining television show that would introduce children to chess.
“I found my first chess set when I was looking in the closet at home for a new toy,” Polgar relates. “I originally was attracted to the shape of the figures. Later, it was the logic that fascinated me and the challenge. When I won with my first perfect score, it gave me self-confidence. And I can see the difference in my own sons; they are more focused, they are more disciplined.”
As Polgar is leaving Central Park, yet another young awestruck fan approaches and asks for an autograph. While she's signing, another fan from across the courtyard points her out to a companion, and in an I-can't-believe-it-tone, exclaims, “Wow! That's Susan Polgar!!”

Northern California, until recently, has been blessed with a series of fine magazines for more than 50 years. George Koltanowski's California Chess News (1948-49) and Chess Digest (1950)  were followed by the outstanding California Chess Reporter which appeared from 1951 until 1976. The more modest Chess in Action appeared from 1951 (maybe 1953) until 1970, in the last decade quarterly and before that intermittently.
The Scacchic Voice first appeared in the late 1960s and quickly morphed into the Central California Chess Voice and then Chess Voice before ceasing publication in 1985. A year later the California Chess Journal started up and ran until 2004 when it ceased publication as a print magazine for lack of funds. It continues as an online magazine while Northern California is without a hard copy journal. Amazingly in the late 1960s the California Chess Reporter, Chess in Action, Scacchic Voice/Central California Chess Voice and the Oakland Chess Clubs En Passant were all coming out at the same time. Those were the days! Thanks to Max Burkett, Neil Falconer, Myron Johnson and the late Paul Vayssie the Mechanics' has an almost complete run of all the magazines mentioned except some early issues of Chess in Action from the 1950s and a few issues of Scacchic Voice/Central California Chess Voice/Chess Voice.

Washington Post Chess Columnist GM Lubosh Kavalek is now writing for the Chess Cafe. You can find his work at http://www.chesscafe.com/skittles/skittles.htm

The Far West Open in Reno is only a month away. Chris (chris@sanfranciscobands.com) writes:

"I don't trust my car to go that far so I would be looking to split gas cost or gas + rental cost, and possibly split hotel cost as well."

Defending champion SM Slava Mikhailuk is leading the Washington State Championship with a score of 4 from 4. Tied for second in the 8-player round robin being held at the Oki Foundation Meeting Center in Bellevue are NMs Bill Schill and Viktors Pupols.

The top ten USCF rated players at the Sacramento Chess Club are led by NM Michael Aigner.

#    Name    Rating
1    Michael Aigner    2285
2    Kenan Zildzic    2262
3    Arthur L Braden    2250
4    John Langreck    2210
5    James Mac Farland    2208
6    Steven G Ross    2200
7    Ashot Minasyan    2157
8    Ziad A Baroudi    2122
9    Daniel Schwarz    2088
10 Marc T Braverman 2059

Dear Chess Enthusiasts,

In the second week of the LA Masters, we had 4 additional players (17) and were pleased to have the California's highest-rated player, Varuzhan Akobian compete. As a result of increased participation, we increased the prizes accordingly and distributed $600 instead.
For each round, top board game was broadcast live on ICC for thousands of players  worldwide ( if you missed this event, you can type "Fin LAmasters" on ICC to go over board 1 games for each event).
Also, this event was radio broadcast on Chess.fm web site live!
As before, special thanks to GM Boris Kreiman for commentary and Michael Jeffreys for ICC move transmissions.
We are very optimistic that this would be the beginning of an exciting, strong, and long tradition in the West Coast.
We are also hopeful that more individuals and organizations would offer donations towards the prizes in order to continue to provide this event at the level it deserves. Your name/organization will be mentioned as donor (LA Chess Club is a Non-profit organization; and therefore your donations are tax-deductible). With a minimum of $100 donation, you will receive complimentary visitation right for life as well!
As usual, your suggestions and/or criticisms are welcomed!

PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE VALENTINE AND WESTERN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP, OUR NEXT TOURNAMENT WILL BE HELD ON FEBRUARY 28TH.

Regards,

Mick Bighamian

"The proper attire for a chessplayer is not a business suit but a ninja outfit"
Vladimir Epishin

Batchimeg Tuvshintugs defeated fellow teenager NM Nicolas Yap to grab a point lead with 6.5 from 7 with two rounds to go in the Winter Tuesday Night Marathon. Tied for second at 5.5 in the 71-player field are Yap, IM Odondoo Ganbold, NM Igor Margulis and Expert Igor Traub.

The Mechanics' will hold a blitz tournament on Saturday, April 9, to celebrate Val Zemitis' 80th birthday. More details shortly.

Thanks to Providian Financial as part of their Providian Cares program WGM Kamile Baginskaite will begin teaching a free class for women of all ages on Sundays from 2-4 pm starting this week on February 27.

32nd Annual People's Chess Tournament
by Michael Aigner

This past weekend saw the continuation of a tradition in Berkeley that dates back to the days of protests against wars of a previous era.  The 32nd edition of the People's Tournament was held in the beautiful Pauley ballroom at the M.L. King student union on the campus of UC Berkeley. A total of 146 players competed in the main tournament held on Saturday through Monday while another 159 youngsters came on Monday for the annual Young People's Tournament.  Both events were organized by the Berkeley student government.  Richard Koepcke directed the adult tournament while Mark Shelton ran the scholastic event.
The combined open and expert section featured 28 players, of which 9 were masters.  Top seeded Filipino IM Richardo DeGuzman was held to a surprising draw in round 1 by teenager Drake Wang but then recovered to defeat four other opponents, including NM Michael Aigner and FM Bela Evans.  His
5.0 out of 6 score was sufficient for clear first place.  Aigner scored four victories in six rounds to overcome the defeat at the hands of DeGuzman and finish in second place at 4.5 points. Tied for third and under 2300 honors were NM Andras Erdei of Hungary and local superstar junior NM Nicolas Yap.  Since the expert section was combined with the open, 3.5 points was sufficient to win first place expert.  Four players achieved this score: veterans Victor Ossipov and Alexander Levitan plus 10th graders Drake Wang and Daniel Schwarz.
The competition was just as fierce in the lower sections.  Mechanics' Institute member Yefim Bukh won Class A with 5.0 out of 6.  Varun Behl won his first five games in Class B before taking a last round draw that clinched first place. Daniel Moglen and Trevor Showalter shared the top honors in the Reserve (under 1600) section by drawing their game in the last round.
For complete tournament results (both adult and scholastic) plus dozens of pictures, please check out the following links on the CalChess and ChessDryad websites.
http://www.calchess.org/tournament_results/2005Peoples.htm
http://www.calchess.org/tournament_results/2005YoungPeoples.htm
http://www.chessdryad.com/photos/berkeley/people_05/index.htm
http://www.chessdryad.com/photos/berkeley/people_05b/index.htm

Armenian GM Vladimir Akopian defeated tournament leader Andrei Kharlov to force a 5-way tie for first between these two players, Vassily Ivanchuk, Emil Sutovsky and Alexander Motylev at 6.5 from 9 in the Aeroflot Open. Leading the American participants were Alexander Shabalov and Alex Yermolinsky at 5. Yermo had a fine result playing up every round against an average opposition of 2627 for a performance rating of over 2660. His only loss was to tournament co-winner Motlyev. Next Tuesday and Wednesday Alex will be talking about some of the highlights of Aeroflot Open starting at 5:15 pm in the Chess Room.

Levon Aronian didn't win the Aeroflot Open but if there had been a competition for give-away chess he would have been a prime contender as evidenced by this sacrificial orgy.

Aronian,L (2684) - Popov,V (2588) [D15]
Aeroflot Open Moscow RUS (4), 2005

 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 a6 5.Nf3 b5 6.c5 g6 7.Qb3 a5 8.Ne5 Bg7 9.Nxb5 cxb5 10.Bxb5+ Kf8 11.0–0 Ba6 12.a4 Ne4 13.Nd3 Bb7 14.f3 Nf6 15.Ne5 Qc7 16.Bd2 h5 17.c6 Bc8 18.e4 Qb6 19.Be3 Be6 20.Rac1 Na6 21.f4 Nc7 22.f5 Bc8 23.Rc5 Ba6 24.Bg5 Bc8 25.Kh1 Nxe4 26.Bxe7+ Kxe7 27.Rxd5 Nxd5 28.Qxd5 Ng5 29.Nxg6+ fxg6 30.Re1+ Be6 31.Rxe6+ Kf8 32.Qd6+ Kg8 33.Bc4 Kh7 34.Re7 gxf5 35.Qf6 Rhg8 36.Qxg5 1–0

The six-game match between Grandmasters Yury Shulman and Alex Wojtkiewicz, held February 19-21 in Stillwater, Oklahoma, finished 3-3 in regulation before going into sudden death where Shulman won the second blitz game to win. This match was sponsored by Frank Berry and the Oklahoma Chess Foundation with Frank Berry, Fred Roper, Alex Relyea and Jim Berry serving as arbiters. This was yet another special event organized by the Berry brothers who have put Stillwater on the world chess map.

Wojtkiewicz-Shulman Game 3 Catalan
 1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. g3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Ne5 Nc6 8.Bxc6 bxc6 9. Nxc6 Qe8 10. Nxe7+ Qxe7 11. Qa4 c5 12. Qxc4 cxd4 13. Qxd4 e5
14. Qh4 Rb8 15. b3 Qe6 16. Bg5 Nd5 17. e4 Nb4 18. Be7 Re8 19. Bxb4 Rxb4 20.Nc3 Bb7 21. Rfe1 Rd4 22. Qg5 h6 23. Qe3 Red8 24. Rad1 f5 25. f3 fxe4 26.fxe4 Qg4 27. Rxd4 exd4 28. Qd3 Qg5 29. Nd5 Bxd5 30. exd5 Qxd5 31. Qc4 Draw

Shulman-Wojtkiewicz, Game 4 Slav
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 Nbd7 7. Nxc4 Nb6 8. Ne5 a5 9. g3 e6 10. Bg2 Bb4 11. O-O O-O 12. e3 h6 13. Qe2 Bh7 14. Rd1
Nbd7 15. Nxd7 Nxd7 16. e4 Qe7 17. Be3 Rfd8 18. d5 exd5 19. exd5 Bxc3 20.bxc3 cxd5 21. Rxd5 Nf6 22. Rxd8+ Rxd8 23. Qb5 Be4 24. Qxa5 Bxg2 25. Kxg2 Ng4 26. Bd4 Qe4+ 27. Kg1 Rd5 28. Qa8+ Kh7 29. h4 Rxd4 30. cxd4 Ne3 31. fxe3 Qxe3+ 32. Kh2 Qe2+ 33. Kh3 Qe6+ 34. Kh2 Qe2+ 35. Kh3 Draw

This Year Linares will not feature huge appearance fees, instead the money is being put into the prize fund with the players competing for a top prize of roughly $130,000.

1º 100.000 € ; 2º 75,000 €; 3º 50,000 €; 4º 25,000 €; 5º 20,000 €; 6º 15,000 € et 7º 12,500 €.

SM Slava Mikhailuk won the Washington State Championship with a score of 7.5 from 9. Tying for second at 6 in the 10-player event, which has been held annually for over seventy years (except a break during World War 2), were NMs Bill Schill and Viktors Pupols. The latter, who competed in his first Washington State Championship in 1954, turns 70 this summer but is still going strong.

"Dazzling combinations are for the many, shifting wood is for the few."
Georg Kieninger

NM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs has clinched a tie for first with a round to go in the Winter Tuesday Night Marathon. Tuvshintugs has 7.5 from 8 with NM Nicolas Yap on 6. FM Frank Thornally and Expert Michael Becco are tied for third at 6 in the 71-player event. The TNM and Mechanics' say goodbye to IM Ganbold Odondoo who recently moved back to Los Angeles.

Last Sunday former US Women's Champion Kamile Baginskaite started her Sunday afternoon classes for Women of all ages. The weekly class runs from 2-4 pm and is free thanks to a grant from Providian Financial.

The MI will celebrate the 80th birthday of Val Zemitis on April 9 with a birthday blitz.

Val Zemitis 80th Birthday Blitz

April 9 at the Mechanics’ Institute
5 double round blitz – WBCA rules used
Prizes (guaranteed)
1st $150 2nd $75 3rd $50 Top Under 2200 $50 Top Under 1800 $50
Book prizes to all contestants

Southern California Champion Melik Khachiyan made his third and final GM norm by half a point by winning the Ibar International held in Los Angeles from February 23-27 with an undefeated 7 from 9. Khachiyan was a former member of the Armenian national team before settling in the United States several years ago. He is a graduate of the Petrosian Chess School and you can find his nice win over Rozentalis from Baku 1983 annotated by the late World Champion and Khachiyan in Petrosian's Chess Legacy (pages 105-106.) GM-elect Khachiyan has long concentrated on his work as a chess trainer, numbering GM Tigran L. Petrosian among his pupils.
Khachiyan was not the only player to make a GM norm. Also reaching the required 6.5 points were IMs Andranik Matikozian and Lev Milman as well as GM Varuzhan Akobian.
Other scores in the Category 8 (2437 average) event: 5. GM V. Georgiev 5; 6.GM Mitkov 4.5; 7. FM Stein 4; 8. FM Banawa 2.5; 9. FM Krechetov 1.5; 10.FM Lucky 1.
The Ibar International was made possible by sponsorship from Ibar Development and Chairman and CEO Asbar Karabayev.
For more information go to http://www.chesschampionschool.com/

For the past several months, CalChess, Richard Peterson and Elizabeth Shaughnessy have been involved in a dispute relating to the affairs of CalChess, during which allegations of alleged wrongdoing were asserted by all parties. Upon further investigation of the facts and circumstances surrounding these disputes, CalChess, Mr Peterson and Mrs. Shaughnessy have agreed to withdraw any and all such claims and/or allegations, and are pleased to report that they have resolved their dispute in its entirety. In light of the above, the 30th annual CalChess Scholastic Chess Championship will proceed as previously scheduled in Oakland, CA on April 15, 16   and 17, at the Oakland Marriott Hotel.

MI Chess Director John Donaldson won the 13th annual David Collyer Memorial held February 26-27 in Spokane with 4.5 from 5. Among those tied for second at 4 were IM Eric Tangborn and NMs David Sprenkle and Curt Collyer. 11-year-old Michael Lee of Seattle, rated close to 2000, made a strong impression drawing IM Tangborn and losing only to the tournament winner.

Among the big guns who have already signed up for the Far West Open in Reno in three weeks are GMs Gregory Serper, Sergey Kudrin and Alex Yermolinsky.

Most eyes are focused on Linares but the Poikovsky Cup is also very strong with an average rating of 2682. American Olympiad team first board Alex Onischuk is doing well at plus one.

Poikovsky 2005
Standings after 4 rounds:
1. Bologan - 3;
2-4. Bacrot, Grischuk, Onischuk - 2½
5-7. Dreev, Svidler and Vaganian – 2
8-9. Dominguez and Rublevsky - 1½
10. Sadvakasov – ½

"Before Geller we did not understand the King's Indian Defence!"
 Mikhail Botvinnik

NM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs won the MI Winter Tuesday Night Marathon with the convincing score of 8 from 9, a point ahead of second place finisher NM Nicolas Yap. Tying for third at 6.5 in the 71-player Swiss were FM Frank Thornally, NM Igor Margulis and Experts Peter Grey, Larry Snyder, Michael Becco and Victor Ossipov. The next Marathon begins March 29th.

13-year-old Sam Shankland of Orinda took a first round bye in the A.J. Fink Amateur (open to under 2000) held last weekend but then reeled off 5 wins in a row to take home the $300 first prize. Among his victims were Yefim Bukh and Ted Castro, both frequent winners of Class A prizes in big tournaments in the West. Bukh was second at 5 followed by Maximo Fajardo and Alok Singh at 4.5 in the 48-player event.

Here are two victories by the tournament winner who has been playing for 2 1/2 years and will be comfortably over 2000 when the USCF catches up with rating events. There looks to be about a two-month backlog at present.

Shankland,S - Bukh,Y
AJ Fink Amateur San Francisco, 2005

 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 Qd7 5.f4 b6 6.Bd3 Ba6 7.Nf3 Bxd3 8.Qxd3 h5 9.0–0 Nh6 10.Ne2 Be7 11.c3 h4 12.Be3 Nf5 13.Bf2 Nc6 14.a4 Na5 15.Nd2 Qc6 16.Qb5 a6 17.Qxc6+ Nxc6 18.g4 hxg3 19.hxg3 Kd7 20.Kg2 g5 21.Rh1 gxf4 22.gxf4 Bh4 23.Bxh4 Nxh4+ 24.Kf2 Ne7 25.Rag1 Nhg6 26.Nf1 b5 27.a5 Rxh1 28.Rxh1 b4 29.Nd2 bxc3 30.bxc3 Rb8 31.Rh7 Ke8 32.Ng3 Rb2 33.Ke3 Kf8 34.Nf3 Rg2 35.Rh3 Rc2 36.Kd3 Ra2 37.Nh5 Nf5 38.Rh1 Rxa5 39.Ng5 c5 40.Nf6 Ra2 41.c4 cxd4 42.cxd5 Nxf4+ 43.Kc4 exd5+ 44.Kb3 Rg2 45.Rh8+ Kg7 46.Rg8+ Kh6 47.Nxf7# 1–0

Shankland,S - Castro,T
AJ Fink Amateur San Francisco, 2005

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 6.N1c3 a6 7.Na3 Nf6 8.Bg5 Be7 9.Nc4 Nd4 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.Nd5 b5 12.c3 bxc4 13.cxd4 exd4 14.Bxc4 0–0 15.0–0 Be6 16.Qd3 Bxd5 17.Bxd5 Rb8 18.b3 Qb6 19.Rac1 Rbc8 20.Rc4 Qa5 21.b4 Qa4 22.Rfc1 Rxc4 23.Qxc4 Qa3 24.Kf1 Be5 25.h3 g6 26.Rc2 d3 27.Rd2 Bc3 28.Qxd3 Qxb4 29.Rd1 a5 30.Rb1 Qc5 31.Rb5 Qa3 32.g3 Qc1+ 33.Kg2 Bb4 34.Rb7 Qa1 35.Qf3 Qg7 36.Ra7 h5 37.Qf4 g5 38.Qf5 h4 39.Rc7 hxg3 40.fxg3 Bc5 41.Rb7 a4 42.Kf3 a3 43.Kg4 Be3 44.Rd7 Bc5 45.Qxg5 Qxg5+ 46.Kxg5 Kg7 47.h4 Bf2 48.g4 Bg3 49.h5 Be5 50.h6+ Kh7 51.Kh5 Kh8 52.Rxf7 Rg8 53.g5 Rb8 54.g6 Bg7 55.hxg7+ 1–0

Rene Olthof, jack of all trades at New in Chess, sends the following report on the Dutch chess league where Yasser Seirawan's retirement(!) continues successfully.
"We have not had any cold weather this winter but with March solidly under way, all of a sudden snow has hit Holland! It's been 20 years exactly since such masses of snow have invaded our country. Due to transportation problems half of the country has come to a standstill. It must be God's punishment for Hilversum (headed by Yaz) beating my club HMC Calder 0.5 : 9.5 last weekend in Round 7 of the Dutch Team Championship, effectively killing our last hope for joining the Final Four in May! Seirawan's game features a model minority attack!"

Seirawan,Y (2631) - Fridman,D (2590) [E35]
KNSB Meesterklasse Den Bosch (7.1), 26.02.2005

 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bxf6 Qxf6 8.a3 Bxc3+ 9.Qxc3 0?0 10.e3 c6 11.Nf3 Bf5 12.Be2 Nd7 13.b4 Bg4 14.0-0 Nb6 15.a4 Rac8 16.Rfc1 a6 17.h3 Bh5 18.Qe1 Nc4 19.Bxc4 Bxf3 20.Bf1 Be4 21.b5 axb5 22.axb5 Ra8 23.bxc6 Rxa1 24.Rxa1 bxc6 25.Qb4 Re8 26.Qb7 h5 27.Ra6 Re6 28.Ra8+ Kh7 29.Rf8 Re7 30.Qa8 g6 31.Rc8 Re6 32.Qb7 Kg7 33.Ra8 Kh7 34.Qc8 Bf5 35.Qg8+ Kh6 36.Ra7 Qg7 37.Qxf7 Qxf7 38.Rxf7 c5 39.dxc5 d4 40.g4 hxg4 41.hxg4 Bxg4 42.Rf4 dxe3 43.Rxg4 e2 44.Bxe2 Rxe2 45.Rc4 Re7 46.c6 Rc7 47.Kg2 Kg5 48.Kg3 Kf5 49.Rc1 Kg5 50.Rc5+ Kf6 51.Kg4 Ke6 52.Kg5 Kf7 53.Rc3 Kg7 54.Rc4 Rc8 55.c7 Kf7 56.f4 Kg7 57.Rc1 Kf7 58.Rc6 1-0

Alex Onischuk will not be satisfied with his minus one score in the recently concluded Poikovsky Cup in Russia, but the event was incredibly strong. Four points was good for a performance rating of 2641!

1-2. Bacrot (FRA, 2715) and Bologan (MDA, 2683) – 6 out of 9
3-4. Grischuk (RUS, 2710) and Dreev (RUS, 2704) - 5½
5. Svidler (RUS 2735) - 5
6-8. Vaganian (ARM, 2670), Onischuk (USA, 2652) and Dominguez (CUB, 2661) - 4
9. Rublevsky (RUS, 2650) - 3½
10. Sadvakasov (KAZ 2635) - 1½.

John Fedorowicz made a rare overseas performance, sharing second prize with Alex Baburin in the Bunratty Masters in Ireland with a 4.5 from 6 score. The event was won by IM Brian Kelly with 5 points.

Michael Atkins reports:

The Millennium Chess Festival VI was another success story. Along with the regular tournament, there was an exciting Fischer-Random blitz vent which featured a last round match between US Champ GM Hikaru Nakamura and 4-time Women's World Champ Susan Polgar. It also featured the exhibition match between the same two players, which GM Polgar has analyzed at http://www.chesscafe.com/polgar/polgar.htm
Booz Allen Hamilton was a big sponsor this year. Senior Vice President Mark Hermon, a lifetime chess player, introduced the players at the start of the exhibition match. We look forward to working with them in future events. The tournament was held at the Ramada Plaza Oceanfront Resort in Virginia Beach, Virginia over the weekend of February 25-27.

The tournament itself was exciting and somewhat of a surprize finish. GM Jaan Ehlvest as 4-0 and leading the pack going into the final round. He drew quickly with GM Alex Wojtkeiwicz which left the interest in the match between US Champ GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Yury Shulman who needed to beat Hikaru in order to tie for first. Nakamura had given up 3rd and 4th round draws to Wojtkeiwicz and GM Pavel Blatny and was in the role of potential spoiler. Shulman eventually won and joined Ehlvest as winners with 4.5
Wojtkeiwicz and Blatny, along with FM Bryan Smith finished with 4-1 to take 3rd-4th/Top U 2400. Chris Bush won the under 2000 with 4.5; Ryan Thunder Rust (great chess name!) and Bradley Marts took the U1800 with 4.5; Sara Walsh took t