Newsletter #300, 07/06/2006

"Chess is an incredibly emotional game. If everything around you is harmonious, when you are feeling good, you are in a creative mood. If something is disturbing you and you are in a bad mood, then it is difficult to be creative. So you have to create the right atmosphere."
Vladimir Kramnik

IM Ricardo DeGuzman won the 6th Annual Charles Bagby G/45 on July 1st with a 5-0 score. Tying for second at 4-1 in the 38-player field were Romulio Fuentes, Sam Shankland and Dmitry Vayntraub.

Several Bay Area players made the trip to Philadelphia for the World Open this past weekend, led by six-time US Champion Walter Browne. Walter played well throughout and had a chance to tie for first, but a last round loss to Jaan Ehlvest left him at 6-3.  As a consolation Walter received  a share of the top under 2500 money.
Teenager Nicolas Yap and 20-year-old Batchimeg Tuvshintugs both had excellent results and might have made IM norms. Nicolas beat GM Rohde and IM Burnett and drew with GM Ivanov , IMs Mulyar and Zlotnikov, and SMs Lopez and Enkhbat , losing only to IM Lapshun enroute to a 5 ½ - 3 ½ score. Batchimeg  scored 5-4 numbering among her victims IMs Milman, Burnett and Bonin.
Drake Wang and Shikumar Shivaji had 4 ½ points and Kenan Zildzic finished with 4.

Gata Kamsky, Ildar Ibragimov, Joel Benjamin, Leonid Yudasin, Alex Wojtkiewicz, George Kachieshvili, Jaan Ehlvest, Vadim Milov and Alexander Ivanov tied for first in the World Open held in Philadelphia from June 28-July 4 with scores of 7-2, Kamsky won the title and a little extra prize money by winning the blitz tiebreaker over Milov. My rough numbers have over 1460 entries (including reentries) and 45 GMs and 25 IMs in the 237 player Open section.

Here is one game that caught my eye and many others.

Benjamin - Stripunsky [B22]
34th Annual WORLD OPEN Philadelphia, 2006

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.c3 Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.Bc4 d6 6.d4 cxd4 7.cxd4 Be7 8.0-0 0-0 9.Re1 dxe5 10.dxe5 Nb6 11.Bd3 Na6 12.Qe2 Nc5 13.Bc2 Nd5 14.Rd1 Bd7 15.Nbd2 Nb4 16.Bb1 Qa5 17.Ne4 Qa6 18.Qe3 Qc6 19.Nd4 Qc7 20.Nf6+ Bxf6 21.exf6 Nd5 22.Bxh7+ Kxh7 23.Qh3+ Kg6 24.fxg7 Kxg7 25.Qg4+ Kh8 26.Qh4+ Kg8 27.Qg4+ Kh8 28.Qh4+ Kg8 29.Qg5+ Kh8 30.Qh5+ Kg8 31.Qg5+ Kh8 32.Qh6+ Kg8 33.Nf3 Ne4 34.Ng5 Nef6 35.Rxd5 exd5 36.Qxf6 Qc2 37.Be3 Qg6 38.Qd4 Rfe8 39.h3 Bc6 40.Rc1 f6 41.Nf3 Re4 42.Qd3 d4 43.Bf4 Rae8 44.Kh2 Qf5 45.Bg3 Kg7 46.Qa3 Rf4 47.Nh4 Rxh4 48.Bxh4 d3 49.Qd6 d2 50.Qxd2 Qe4 51.f4 Qe2 52.Rc2 Qe4 53.Rc3 Kf7 54.Qf2 Rh8 55.Bg3 Qf5 56.Re3 a5 57.a3 a4 58.Qe2 Rd8 59.Re7+ Kf8 60.Rc7 Re8 61.Qd2 Kg8 62.Bh4 Bd5 63.Qf2 Qg6 64.f5 Qh6 65.Qd4 Re5 66.Rd7 Bf7 67.Rd8+ Kh7 68.Rd7 Kg8 69.Qg4+ Kf8 70.Rxb7 Bd5 71.Rb8+ Ke7 72.Qb4+ Kf7 73.Qg4 Ke7 74.Bf2 Re4 75.Qg3 Qf4 76.Bc5+ Kd7 77.Qxf4 Rxf4 78.g4 Rc4 79.Be3 Kd6 80.Kg3 Rc2 81.Rd8+ Kc6 82.Rc8+ 1-0

GM Varuzhan Akobian (2575) – GM Eugenio Torre (2543) [A41]
2nd San Marino Open (7), 09.06.2006

1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 Bg4 3.c4 Bxf3 4.exf3 c6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be2 Bg7 7.Be3 Nf6 8.g4 Na6 9.f4
Better was 9.Qb3 or 9.a3.
9...Qa5 10.Qd2 d5 11.g5 Nd7 12.cxd5 cxd5 13.Nb5
13.Bb5 Nc7 14.Bxd7+ Kxd7 15.Rc1 e6 16.f5 gxf5 17.Bf4 Rhc8 was unclear.
13...Qb6
Trading Queens would have given White a slight but persistent advantage 13...Qxd2+ 14.Kxd2 0-0 15.Rhc1.
14.Rc1 0-0 15.0-0 Ndb8 16.b4 Nc6 17.a3 e6 18.Nc3! Ne7
The best decision as 18...Nxd4 19.Bd1 Nb3 (19...Rac8 20.Na4 winning) 20.Bxb3 d4 21.Na4 dxe3 22.fxe3 Qb5 23.Rfd1 was slightly better for White and 18...Bxd4 19.Na4 Bxe3 20.fxe3 Qd8 (20...Qc7 21.b5) 21.Bxa6 bxa6 22.Rxc6 was winning for me.
19.Na4 Qd6 20.Rc2 Rac8 21.Nc5 Nxc5 22.bxc5 Qc7 23.Rb1 Nc6
Possibly better was 23...Nf5 24.Bg4 Rb8 25.Bxf5 gxf5 26.Rcb2= with equal chances.
24.Bb5 Kh8 25.h4 h5 26.Bxc6 bxc6
26...Qxc6 27.Rcb2 Rc7 28.Qa5 Ra8 29.Qb5 b6! 30.Qxc6 Rxc6 31.cxb6 axb6 32.Rxb6 Rxb6 33.Rxb6 Rxa3 would offer equal chances.
27.Rcb2 Rb8 28.Rb4 Rxb4
28...f6!? was interesting.
29.Qxb4 e5?
He had to sit still with 29...Kg8 when 30.Kg2 would be slightly better for White as the space advantage counts for more than the slightly weakened structure.
30.fxe5 Qd7 31.Bf4! a5 32.Qd2 Ra8 33.a4 Bf8 34.Bg3 Be7 35.Rb3 Bd8 36.Qf4 Kg8 37.Kh2 Qc8 38.e6!
The decisive break.
38...Qxe6
Or 38...fxe6 39.Rf3 winning.
39.Re3 Qd7 40.Qd6 Qxd6
No better was 40...Ra7 when White is winning after  41.Qxd7 Rxd7 42.Re8+ Kg7 (or 42...Kh7 43.Be5 f6 44.gxf6 g5 45.hxg5 Kg6 46.Rg8+ Kh7 47.f7 Rxf7 48.Rxd8) 43.Be5+ f6 44.Rxd8 Rxd8 45.Bxf6+ Kf7 46.Bxd8.
41.Bxd6
Slightly more accurate was  41.cxd6 Kf8 42.d7 Be7 43.Bc7 f5 44.gxf6 Bxf6 45.Rf3 Kg7 46.Be5 Bxe5+ 47.dxe5 Rd8 48.e6 winning.
41...f5
Or 41...f6 42.Re8+ Kf7 43.Rf8+ Ke6 44.gxf6+- and White wins.
42.Re8+ Kf7 43.Rh8 Rc8 44.Kg2 Ke6 45.Kf3 Ra8 46.Be5 Kd7 47.Rg8 Rc8 48.Rxg6 Be7 49.Rh6 Re8 50.Kf4 1-0

The new FIDE rating list is out with young players like Shakhriyar Mamedyarov ( +23 rating points to rise to 12) , David Navarra (+ 61 to 14), 16-year-old Sergey Karjakin from place 45 to 27, and 15-year-old Magnus Carlsen from 63 to 34.
GM Gata Kamsky, regaining his past strength game by game, gained 26 points at the Olympiad and MTel and now occupies place 20. He tops list the list of American’s rated over 2600
Which also includes: #38 Alex Onischuk 2668, =69 Yasser Seirawan ( semi-retired but playing well in the Dutch league) 2638, #78 Hikaru Nakamura 2632 and #90 Ildar Ibragimov 2624. Rounding out the US top ten are Alex Shabalov 2604, Yury Shulman 2602, Gregory Kaidanov 2596, Jaan Ehlvest 2593 and Alexander Ivanov and Alexander Stripunsky at 2589.

FIDE Top 20

1. Topalov (1975, BUL) 2813 14
2. Anand (1969, IND) 2779 26
3. Aronian (1982, ARM) 2761 21
4. Kramnik (1975, RUS) 2743 9
5. Svidler (1976, RUS) 2742 28
6. Leko (1979, HUN) 2738 0
7. Ivanchuk (1969, UKR) 2734 39
8. Adams (1971, ENG) 2732 25
9. Morozevich (1977, RUS) 2731 18
10. Gelfand (1968, ISR) 2729 20
11. Radjabov (1987, AZE) 2728 20
12. Mamedyarov (1985 AZE)2722 27
13. Ponomariov (1983, UKR) 2721 29
14. Navara (1985, CZE) 2719 36
15. Shirov (1972, ESP) 2716 43
16. Akopian (1971, ARM) 2713 21
17. J. Polgar (1976, HUN) 2710 1
18. Grischuk (1983, RUS) 2709 28
19. Bacrot (1983, FRA) 2707 32
20. Kamsky (1974, USA) 2697 29

Thanks to Las Vegas Expert Charles McVoy for the following article which was published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday, April 15, 1964.
The exhibition, which was sandwiched in between simuls in Santa Monica (April 19) and Denver (April 26) saw Bobby score  + 34, =1, -0. According to the late Ken Smith, who made he only draw, things were over quick as Bobby needed only lasted 1 1/2 hours to finish things off.

Boy Wonder of Chess will compete
As local golf fans anticipate the forthcoming tournament of Champions, Las Vegas will be visited by a champion of the world's most cerebral competition.

 Bobby Fischer, current US Chess Champion, will take on all comers in a simultaneous exhibition chess match sponsored by the Las Vegas Chess Club at the Dessert Inn, April 22 at 7 pm.

Chess, originally contrived by Indian Buddhists, as a substitute for war, is more like the real thing to Fischer, six time US Champion.

Edward Lasker, unofficial dean of the American chess community, in his book entitled "Chess for Fun and Blood" describes Fischer as belonging to the latter category.  "He always wants to kill his opponent" Lasker said.

Reported to have a disposition much like that of Attila the Hun, Fischer has electrified the chess world, not only for his daring, slashing play, but also for his occasional disregard for the social amenities compatible with formal chess competition.

The 20-year-old boy wonder is a maverick among the chess elite. Unlike other International Grand Masters - almost all highly educated scholars or mathematicians - he never bothered to finish high school.

Winning his first US title at the precocious age of 14, the "enfant terrible" of the American chess community is to many authorities a stronger player than the current World Champion, Tigran Petrosian.

At the US Championships last December in New York the boy from Brooklyn performed an unparalleled feat by winning 11 straight matches - everyone he played.

In Las Vegas, Fischer will probably be playing more than 11 players - simultaneously.  Tickets are available through chess club members Jerry Cole, Herman Estrada, Stan Zajac, Art Gamlin, and G. M. Farnham.

Newsletter readers on the West Coast, if you have not yet received your ballot, you need to contact Pat Knight (pknight @uschess.org) at the USCF very quickly to request a replacement ballot, as they have to be received in Crossville by Wednesday, July 19th.

Andranik Matikozian defeated fellow IM Jack Peters in the last round of the 46th Annual Pacific Southwest Open in Los Angeles over July 4th weekend to take first place with 6 from 7. Tying for second at 5 ½ were FM Michael Casella, NM Julian Landaw (who upset Matikozian in round 2) and Expert Christopher De Sa. Only 92 players competed in the Open and Amateur section, which must have unquestionably been a disappointment to he organizers. Unquestionably the World Open and the upcoming Pacfic Coast Open cut into the attendance of this Grand Dame of West Coast chess.

Jeff Siebrandt scored 3.5-.5 to secure his fifth U. S. Blind title June 23-24, 2006, in Buckhannon, WV, at the Hampton Inn, The field of nine players consisted of 4 former champions.

"Rublevsky is not a sexy player. There are younger and more gifted individuals around and he knows it. Yet he has canniness, which the greenhorns don't. He does not engage the teenagers on the sharp end of opening theory, testing his ailing memory against the freshness of their computer-assisted analysis. Instead he heads a little off the beaten track - not exactly to the jungle, but to lesser-traveled byways where his experience counts."
Nigel Short
The Guardian June 29, 2006

SM Craig Mar defeated WIM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs in a tense battle last night to take the lead with Expert William Gray with 4 1/2 from 5 in the 8-round MI Summer Tuesday Night Marathon. Gray, who is from Scotland, turned in his second upset in two rounds beating NM Russell Wong after defeating Viktor Ossipov in round four..

Tuvshintugs,B - Mar,C
Ruy Lopez C64
Mechanics' Summer TNM (5)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.0-0 Nge7 5.c3 Bb6 6.d4 exd4 7.cxd4 d5 8.exd5 Nxd5 9.Re1+ Be6 10.Ne5
10.Bg5 Qd6 11.Nbd2 0-0 12.Nc4 is the main line which is considered better for White.
10...Nde7 11.Bg5?! Qxd4 12.Bxe7
12.Qxd4 Bxd4 13.Bxe7 Bxe5 14.Rxe5 Kxe7 15.Bxc6 bxc6 16.Nc3 Norcia-Canal, Reggio Emilia 1951, was very comfortable for Black.
12...Kxe7!?
(a) 12...Qxf2+ 13.Kh1 Qxb2 14.Bxc6+ bxc6 15.Ba3 Qxa1 16.Qa4 0-0-0 17.Qa6+ Kb8 18.Nxc6+ Ka8 19.Nxa7 Bc4;
(b) 12...Qxd1 looks safest 13.Rxd1 Kxe7 14.Nxc6+ (14.Bxc6 bxc6 15.Nxc6+ Kf6 16.Nc3 Rhe8 17.Rd2 is a better try and might be equal. Black has the two Bishops but the Knight on c6 creates a bind.) 14...bxc6 15.Bxc6 Rad8 and Black was doing well in Arribas-Perez, Cuba 1999.
13.Bxc6 Qxf2+ 14.Kh1 Rad8?
14...bxc6 had to be played. Critical is  15.Nxc6+ Kf8 16.Nd2 Bd5 17.Ne4 when Black has extra material but may have trouble consolidating his position.
15.Qc1 f6
15...bxc6 16.Nxc6+ Kd7 17.Rd1+ Kc8 18.Nxd8 Rxd8 19.Rxd8+ Kxd8 20.Na3 and White is better.
16.Ng4 Qh4 17.Bf3 Kf7 18.Rxe6!?
18.Re4! Qg5 19.Ne5+ Kf8 20.Qxg5 fxg5 21.Nc3 is easily winning.
18...Kxe6 19.Qc4+ Ke7 20.Nc3 c6 21.Qe4+ Kf8 22.Qb4+ Kg8
22...c5 is a huge concession giving up d5 but objectively had to be played if Black wanted to continue but White would win easily. Mar's move should lose quickly but offers better practical chances.
23.Qc4+
23.Qe7! with threats of Ne4 and Ne5 would have ended resistance quickly. Around here White was in extreme time pressure.
23...Kf8 24.g3
24.Qb4+ was  the way to get on the right track.
24...Qg5 25.Re1
25.Ne4 Qf5 26.Rf1 h5 27.Be2 Qd5 and Black's Rook and two pawns look very good against White's Knights in the ending.
25...h5!
The Knight is trapped.
26.Ne4 Qf5 27.Qe2 hxg4 28.Bxg4 Qe5 29.Qf1 Qd4 30.Re2
White's flag fell before she could punch her clock.
0-1

Congratulations to Nicholas Yap and Batchimeg Tuvshintugs who both made norms ( IM and WGM respectively) at the World Open. This was Batchimeg's second WGM (2400 FIDE performance) this year and she needs one more result and a 2300 FIDE rating to be awarded the Women's Grandmaster title.

The Continental Chess Association website reports the following norms were made at the World Open.

IM Norms - Igor Schneider, Salvijus Bercys, Emory Tate, Bryan Smith, James Critelli, Jake Kleiman, Nicholas Yap, Moulthun Ly (AUS) and Yoshiharu Habu (JPN). WGM Norm Batchimeg Tuvshintugs .

This event took place in Drezden, July 7th-8th. Susan Polgar won the trophy defeating Elizabeth Paehtz in the final match.

Knockout stage results:
Quarterfinals
Lujan – Socko 2–0
Ushenina – Polgar 0–2
Sebag – Chang 2–0
Kachiani – Paehtz 0–2

Semifinals
Lujan – Polgar ½–1½
Paehtz – Sebag 1½–½
For the 3rd place
Sebag – Lujan 1–1 (1–0)

Final
Polgar – Paehtz 1½–½

Filipino IM Ricardo DeGuzman took home $325 for winning the 28-player Open section of the Sacramento Chess Championship held July 7-9. DeGuzman scored 4 1/2 - 1/2 giving up a draw only in the last round to fellow IM Walter Shipman. Teenage Expert  David Chock had an excellent result in finishing second with 4, beating NM Zildzic and drawing NMs Aigner and Fuentes. Alonzo McCalley won the 48-player Reserve section.

The latest edition of the World Open was arguably the strongest and definitely awarded the most prize money of any of the series. Interestingly the biggest winner did not come from the Open section ( a 9-way tie that yielded Gata Kamsky $7,485 and the others $7,127) but the Under 2200 section where Rhode Island Expert Michael Clark won a whopping $17, 917 for his 8 from 9 score not to mention a tidy gain of 110 rating points. Alongside a well-run event that featured excellent attendance and many well-known GMs, there were also a few strange incidents. This Newsletter is published under the aegis of the Mechanics' Institute. The US being an extremely litigious, we will confine ourselves to well established facts.

Eugene Varshavsky , an Expert from New Jersey rated 2169 going into the World Open, scored 5 from 9 against the field in round order ( bye, + 2366, =2387, +2343, +2471, -2630, +2800, -2697, -2544. Expert, now NM, Varshavsky went from 2169 to 2234 in this event. The USCF MSA has Varshavsky playing his first USCF event in 1992. In 1997 he was rated 1671 . He won the Eastern Class Ch. in 2003 which got him a floor of 2000. The next three years he went up about 150 points. Nothing prior to the World Open indicated such a breakthrough ( performance for rounds 2-7 that of a strong GM) was in the offing. Was such a breakthrough the result of some Maslowian self actualization on steroids or is there another explanation? We note that minus his magic hat Varshavsky lost his last two rounds, but also that they were against GMs. I leave it to the reader to decide.

IM John Bartholmew wrote about his game with Varshavsky on Mig Greengard's Chess Ninja website ( www.chessninja.com)

"In our game, Varshavsky came to the board some 20 minutes late. He also took a lot of time in the opening  even on 4. ....dxc6. The only strange thing I noticed about his attire was the blue bucket hat he wore that drooped low around his ears. He wore the same hat against Adamson in round 4, Kacheishvili in round 6, and Smirin in round 7 before the TDs made him take it off. Varshavsky sat at the board the entire time, only getting up briefly after time control was reached. I never saw his eyes leave the board.

"The game itself was one of the strangest I have ever played. Varshavsky gave up a pawn on move 14 in a very standard theoretical position (14...b5 is almost universally played). After I played 15.Nxc4, I expected to consolidate the extra pawn, trade pieces, and win in the endgame. However, Varshavsky suddenly put up surprisingly strong resistance. He began playing fast and I had a difficult time finding good squares for my pieces. I was particularly struck by the unpredictability of Varshavsky's moves after move 14. I remember thinking to myself several times that it felt as though I was playing against a computer. I did not even consider moves like 26 ... Ne7, 33 ... Rg8, 41. ... Bxe8, and 49 .... b6 during the game. It was very frustrating."

Bartholomew (2471) - Varshavsky (2169)
Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation
World Open (5) 2006
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.O-O f6 6.d4 exd4 7.Nxd4 c5 8.Nb3 Qxd1 9.Rxd1 Bg4 10.f3 Bd7 11.Bf4 O-O-O 12.Nc3 c4 13.Na5 Bc5+ 14.Kf1 Ne7 15.Nxc4 Be6 16.Nd2 h5 17.Nb3 Bc4+ 18.Ke1 Bg1 19.Ne2 Bb6 20.Nd2 Bf7 21.Bg3 Be3 22.Nf1 Bc5 23.Bf2 Bd6 24.h4 f5 25.exf5 Nxf5 26.Ne3 Ne7 27.Ng3 Rde8 28.Kf1 Rhf8 29.Kg1 Bg6 30.c3 c6 31.Nc4 Be7 32.Nf1 Bf7 33.Nce3 Rg8 34.Nd5 Bd8 35.Nf4 g5 36.hxg5 Bxg5 37.Nh3 Bh6 38.Ng3 Bg6 39.Re1 Ne5 40.Bd4 Nd3 41.Rxe8+ Bxe8 42.Nf5 Bf8 43.Nf2 Nxb2 44.Re1 Bg6 45.Ne7+ Bxe7 46.Rxe7 Re8 47.Rg7 Bb1 48.f4 Re1+ 49.Kh2 b6 50.Be5 c5 51.g4 Nc4 52.gxh5 Nxe5 53.fxe5 Rxe5 54.Rg8+ Kb7 55.Rh8 Bxa2 56.h6 Kc6 57.Nd3 Re7 58.h7 Rc7 59.Ne5+ Kb5 60.Kg3 Bb1 61.c4+ Ka5 0-1

Smirin (2800) -Varshavsky (2169)
Ruy Lopez Open Variation
World Open (7) 2006

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.Be3 Be7 10.c3 Nc5 11.h3 Nxb3 12.axb3 O-O 13.Re1 Qd7 14.Nbd2 a5 15.Nf1 Bf5 16.Ng3 Bg6 17.Qd2 h6 18.Rad1 Rad8 19.Qe2 b4 20.Rd2 Rfe8 21.Qd1 Qe6 22.Nd4 Nxd4 23.cxd4 f6 24.Bf4 fxe5 25.Bxe5 Qd7 26.Rde2 c5 27.Re3 Bg5 28.f4 Bh4 29.Rf1 Rf8 30.Kh2 Rf7 31.Qd2 cxd4 32.Qxd4 Qa7 33.Ne2 Qxd4 34.Nxd4 Be4 35.g3 Re8 36.Rc1 g5 37.f5 Rxe5 38.gxh4 gxh4 39.Re2 Ree7 40.Rf2 Rc7 41.Rcf1 Rf6 42.Rf4 Rg7 43.R1f2 Kf7 44.Rxh4 Ke7 45.Rg4 Rgf7 46.Kg3 Bxf5 47.Rgf4 Bd7 48.Re2+ Kd6 49.Rh4 Rg7+ 50.Kh2 Rg5 51.Rd2 h5 52.Re2 Rf1 53.Rd2 Be8 54.Rg2 Rxg2+ 55.Kxg2 Rd1 56.Kf2 Rd3 57.Ke2 Bg6 0-1

Such peculiarities were not confined to the Open section. If you look for the name of Steve Rosenberg in the crosstable of the Under 2000 section of the World Open you will not find him. This might seem strange to spectators who attended the World Open for all but the last day. Rosenberg was leading the Under 2000 section with a score of 7.5 in 8 rounds and was in excellent position to win close to $20,000. Instead he was thrown out of the tournament during the last round. Tournament directors discovered that the supposed hearing aid he was wearing beneath his headphones was actually an audio reception device and threw him out of the tournament. Rosenberg's results were stricken entirely from the tournament scores. All seven of the opponents he defeated were given half-point byes. The one player he drew plus his last round opponent were given forfeit wins. Those two players ended up tied for first place and each won $13,258.50.

We also note that Steve Rosenberg won his three previous events, all with perfect scores. He scored 19-0 combined in these three tournaments, thereby raising his rating from 1731 to 1974. The USCF has not taken action on these events, but don't be surprised if they do for Rosenberg is a certified USCF tournament director who directed the events . He has directed 200 plus USCF Rated tournaments. His  results in many of these tournaments are to put it politely, at odds with statistical probability.

Some cheating at chess has always been around though it was and still is small potatoes compared to almost every other sport. One reason is  that until recently for most players there was little money involved. There are always a few individuals around who try to raise their ratings by artificial means but what really brings the cheaters out of the woodwork is big class prizes. The rise of  technology in the form of chess playing programs and audio devices makes the chance of a big score more tempting than ever to a certain type. Technology of this sort is here to stay and large class prizes will always be a necessity in lieu of sponsorship but clearly something must be done.

Right now the penalties appear to be minimal - Rosenberg is still listed as a member of the USCF and as a TD. His 19-0 streak is still on the record - but not his  World Open performance. Clearly action needs to be taken to circumvent similar incidents.. One step might be more active policing on the tournament floor, but this usually means more TDs which adds to the cost of holding events which are often run on very small margins. It is also not 100 percent clear all cheaters would be caught but I suspect it would definitely cut down on funny business. Another key factor as pointed out by Mig Greengard, is the lack of a credible deterrent. At present the penalties for cheating are not that serious except for the shame factor. To put it another way the risk reward ratio is favorable for cheaters right now. Maybe they risk $1000 for entry fee, hotel and travel for a shot at close to $20,000. A serious ban from tournament play might make some would be schemers give matters a second thought. Not to be left out of the equation, and undoubtedly a reason for caution on the part of the USCF, is the fear of misjudging an innocent party or being sued by the alleged cheater. Throughout the years the USCF has been sued by enough chessic wing nuts that it usually goes out of its way to avoid litigation so much so that it almost always caves in if pushed. One example being the incident in the American Open last fall where a spot was up for grabs in the US Championship and one player was charged with having sold a game to enable another to qualify for San Diego this year. There were plenty of witnesses in the form of TDs and other players but no "smoking gun" . The alleged "buyer" was allowed to play in San Diego but such action was potentially not without cost as all indications were that the US Championship sponsor, America's Foundation for Chess, was not at all pleased.

GM Yasser Seirawan was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame in a special ceremony held during the Chess Olympiad in Turin. Among those attending the induction, which was held during an Internet Chess Club reception, were the 2006 US Olympiad team, GM Joel Benjamin - many-time teammate of Yasser's, Executive Board members Don Schultz and Robert Tanner. Tim Redman represented the US Hall of Fame and performed the induction.

GM Seirawan may have officially retired from serious competitions but he still maintains his 2630 + FIDE rating in the Dutch Team competitions. He has also worked closely for several years with one of Holland's top young prospects Daniel Stellwagen, who is zeroing in on 2600 FIDE. Yasser is very active with ChessBase doing commentary work. You can listen to some of his recent efforts for free at http://www.chessbase.com/shop/product.asp?pid=286&user=&coin=  or just going to www.chessbase.com .

Last call to vote in the USCF Election for two Executive Board Members and your Northern California Delegates. There have been some problems in getting ballots out. I had to personally request a replacement ballot and  would be interested to hear from other USCF members in Northern California who did not receive ballots. Remember your vote must be received in Crossville by July 19. Among those running for the Executive Board are California native sons Randy Hough and Mike Goodall.

The July issue of Chess is just out, the second featuring the "new look". It appears that there are supporters for both the new look and long-time columnists like Andy Soltis and Larry Evans who were axed in the makeover. We note that the photos are more plentiful, better chosen and crisper than in the past but to this old dog the blue and white diagrams without borders are just too funky and hard on the eye. We would be interested in hearing from other Newsletter readers on this matter, pro or con.

For up to date information on what is going on in the chess world there are few better sources than the online daily Chess Today ( http://www.chesstoday.net - 15 euros for three months)  by Irish GM Alex Baburin. The issue this past Tuesday ran the following interview ( translated from Russian) entitled Rublevsky Speaks Out
"Our colleague, IM Vladimir Barsky, conducted an interview for the website e3e5.com with the winner of the Foros tournament, GM Sergei Rublevsky. In particular, problems of the Russian team were discussed. Rublevsky stated that in his opinion "a pessimist" [i.e. GM Dolmatov] should not rule the national team, and that the team needs another coach, whoever would play for it in the future. He also added that this opinion is shared by four other members of the Russian team: Svidler, Morozevich, Grischuk and Bareev. Rublevsky also opined that players should be given the possibility to propose candidates for the coaches' position.

Earlier, Bareev revealed the team's long-term dissatisfaction with the work of the coach Dolmatov in the interview for "Shakhmatnaya Nedelya" - after which Dolmatov called Bareev's interview "treasonous" in "64 - Chess Review". In one more interview, given to "Sport-Express" newspaper, Dolmatov, who had health problems before and during the Olympiad, said that he should not go to Turin from a medical point of view, but he wanted to make the feat. Dolmatov's professional future most probably will be decided at the Russian chess federation meeting on the 21st July.

We note that since 1986 the USCF has wisely chosen a system in which the players directly choose their Captain.

Johan Hellsten is performing sensationally in the Swedish Championship currently being held in Gothenburg. He leads with 8 from 10 but has not yet clinched first as fellow GM Emmanuel Berg is close behind him. Her is a an exciting Hellsten victory from round ten.

Eriksson,J - Hellsten,J
Nimzo-Indian E39
Swedish ch 2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 c5 5.dxc5 0-0 6.a3 Bxc5 7.Nf3 b6 8.Bf4 Bb7 9.0-0-0 Nc6 10.e3 Rc8 11.Bd3 Be7 12.e4 Na5 13.e5 Nh5 14.Bxh7+ Kh8 15.Be3 g6 16.Bxg6 fxg6 17.Qxg6 Qe8 18.Qh6+ Kg8 19.Bg5 Rf5 20.Bxe7 Qxe7 21.g4 Rxf3 22.gxh5 Rxc3+ 23.Kb1 Be4+ 24.Ka2 Qxa3+! 25.bxa3 Rc2+ 26.Kb1 Rd2+ 27.Ka1 Nb3 mate!
 

The 7th Marseille open tournament took place from 30 June – 7 July.
Final standings:1-2. Fridman (2562) and Prie (2475) –7½ 3. Kosten (2504) – 7 4. Jedynak (2444) – 6½, etc.
There was also organised an IM title  tournament, won by the Ukrainian GM Stanislav Savchenko and the women's GM title tournament, where WGM Anna Zatonskih (USA) shared first place with the Romanian WGMs Cristina Foisor and Elena-Luminita Cosma.

IM Vinay Bhat, recently graduated from UC Berkeley, is enjoying a summer in Europe before joining the working world. He is currently playing in the Andorra Open where he has 3 from 5.

GM Nick deFirmian, another UC Berkeley grad, divides his time between New York and Copenhagen. Nick captained the Bermuda team in Turin and his update of Capablanca's classic Chess Fundamentals was recently published by McKay.

The Association of Chess Professionals recently released published the final rankings for the season 2005/2006. A quote from the detailed final report: "The top 7 finishers of the Tour were determined even before the end of the World Open in Philadelphia. There was some uncertainty about the 8th spot: Viorel Bologan had 799 points, but Hikaru Nakamura (720, 10th place) could surpass him in case of showing a favourable result in the World Open. After 7 rounds Nakamura was half a point behind the leading group, but in the end he failed to catch up with them, collecting just 18 Tour points. So, Bologan took the 8th spot in the yearly rankings."

Top 20:
1. Aronian (5 events) - 2128 points
2. Anand (7) - 1752
3. Rublevsky (4) - 1425
4. Harikrishna (8) - 1225
5. Naiditsch (7) - 1055
6. Shirov (8) - 926
7. Bareev (4) - 818
8. Bologan (6) - 799
9. Nakamura (6) - 755
10. Radjabov (3) - 747
11. Volokitin (4) - 719
12. Svidler (3) - 703
13. Van Wely (6) - 690
14. Sasikiran (4) - 657
15. Grischuk (4) - 628
16. Bacrot (5) - 576
17. Motylev (3) - 566
18. Gelfand (3) - 556
19. I.Sokolov (7) - 520
20. Eljanov (2) - 464

(Note that some of the world's top
players: Topalov, Ivanchuk,
Ponomariov, Karpov are not ACP
members as of yet.)

GM Mikhail Golubev writes in Chess Today: While analyzing the FIDE rating list, the editor of TWIC, Mark Crowther, writes:
"Another surprise was FM Vladimir Afromeev's entry into the list with a rating of 2620, initially his April rating was given as 2558 but this must have been corrected at some point to 2612, he gained a further 8 points from a tournament in Tula to become the only non-GM in the list, especially surprising as he was born in 1954."

In the Russian-speaking chess world, Afromeev is more known as an organizer than as a player. His latest achievements have provoked ironical comments by the editor of the e3e5.com website. Some background information (also in Russian) can be found at http://blackchess.narod.ru/ .

When observing the West's conciliatory dealings with Russia, I'm reminded of a quotation often attributed to Winston Churchill: "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."
For five years, President Bush has been talking about maintaining an open dialogue with Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and about how hard he has worked to convince the Russian leader that "it's in his interest to adopt Western-style values and universal values." This sounds reasonable, but we don't have to go on theory. There's a track record — one that clearly shows that persuasion and appeasement toward Russia have failed.

It is long past time for Western leaders to take a tougher stand if they want their rhetoric about democracy to be credible. A perfect opportunity awaits at this week's meeting of the Group of 7 leaders in St. Petersburg. I say "Group of 7" rather than "Group of 8" because I continue to hope that the West will find its collective backbone and make Russia's participation contingent on its actually being a democracy.

The St. Petersburg meeting offers the visiting heads of state a chance to see for themselves how bad things here have become. The right of Russians to elect their governors and parliamentary representatives is steadily eroding, with more and more influence accruing to the executive. Even Aleksandr Veshnyakov, the chairman of the Central Electoral Commission who has rubber-stamped the results of every election under President Putin, recently said that if all the new legislation proposed by Mr. Putin's United Russia Party were passed, elections here "would be a farce." Opposition activists and journalists are routinely arrested and interrogated. The Kremlin, in complete control of the judiciary, loots private businesses and then uses state-controlled companies to launder the money abroad.

Mr. Bush and Europe's leaders apparently believe it is best to disregard such unpleasantness for the sake of receiving Russia's cooperation on security and energy. This cynical and morally repugnant stance has also proven ineffective. Just as in the old days, Moscow has become an ally for troublemakers and anti-democratic rulers around the world. Nuclear aid to Iran, missile technology to North Korea, military aircraft to Sudan, Myanmar and Venezuela, and a budding friendship with Hamas: these are the West's rewards for keeping its mouth shut about human rights in Russia.

It's time to stop pretending that the Kremlin shares the free world's interests. The high energy prices the Putin administration requires to keep its hold on power are driven by the tensions that come with every North Korean missile launching and Iranian nuclear threat. It's no surprise that Russia continues to block United Nations sanctions against these rogue states. The mystery is why the West continues to treat Russia like an ally.

Tomorrow and Wednesday, State Department representatives are scheduled to attend the Other Russia conference in Moscow. Organized by the opposition umbrella group of which I am a founder, the conference will bring together politicians and nongovernmental organizations from all over Russia and from every part of its political spectrum.

The primary aim of the conference is to document our national crisis for the Russian government, the Russian people and the widest possible international audience. It is equally important to discuss what is to be done and to make it clear that it is not too late. Our citizens must refuse to be bought off with a fleeting oil windfall and the false impression of a return to superpower status. Western leaders must live up to their rhetoric about human rights by stating in no uncertain terms that Russia's status as a trading partner, security ally and G-8 member are all at risk if the country continues its slide into dictatorship.

Just days ago, dozens of activists en route to Moscow to attend the conference were arrested, some beaten. Possession of opposition literature is being defined as an attempt to "overthrow constitutional order." Will the Western delegations sit silently? Will the American president say nothing?

Perhaps silence is the best option if the most Mr. Bush has to offer are weak expressions of concern and remarks about his personal relationship with Mr. Putin. President Ronald Reagan's hard public line on the Soviet Union let us know that someone out there was aware of our predicament and was fighting for us. Now this American president seems to be saying that Iraqis and Afghans are deserving of democracy, but Russians are not.

The darkest days of Communist rule are now a generation behind us. Between the end of the Communist dictatorship and the crackdown under President Putin, there was a period of freedom. It was brief and it was flawed, but it could have served as a foundation for a democratic Russia. Since 2000, however, Mr. Putin has done everything possible to dismantle that fragile edifice. In dealing with Russia, please don't confuse what's good for the Putin regime with what's best for the Russian people.

Garry Kasparov is the co-chairman of the All-Russia Civil Congress and the chairman of the United Civil Front of Russia

This article appeared on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times on July 10, 2006.

Hello CalChess team,

The Australia match is going ahead as planned on Saturday at 5pm.  I hope all of you can make it!
*** IF YOU CANNOT PLAY FOR ANY REASON, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. ***

Date: Saturday, July 15 at 5:00 PDT
Location: Internet Chess Club (ICC) at www.chessclub.com
Teams: 12 players U12 and 12 players U18, at least two in each category must be girls
Format: Play two games 45 5 (note change!!!) against same opponent on opposing team.  After the
first game, take a break of up to 10 minutes and then play the second game (colors reversed).
Younger players who move faster will probably finish in 1.5 hours while the most competitive
matches can take up to 3 hours.

I currently have 11 players committed for both U18 and U12 and I'm currently asking a couple more
people about their availability.  If you know anyone else who might be interested, please tell
them to contact me ASAP.  I would like to have one or two alternates if possible.  I will find a
way for the alternates to play someone as well.

Just so that everyone understands:  On Saturday, please log into ICC before 5pm from your home (or
anywhere else).  You do not have to go to Mechanics or any other specific physical location.  When
you log in, you should say hello to me "tell fpawn hi!" so that I know you are online.  I will
send more detailed instructions, including who your opponents are, later this week.

More later!  See the list of players below, updated using the latest USCF ratings as of yesterday
evening.

Michael Aigner
"fpawn" on ICC

U18
1. Drake Wang (2256)
2. Daniel Schwarz (2217) -- maybe
3. Sam Shankland (2162)
4. Mike Zhong (2006)
5. Matt Zavortink (1950)
6. Charles Sun (1926)
7. Ted Belanoff (1835)
8. Jonathan Soo Hoo (1799)
9. Steven Liu (1768)
10. Alan Naroditsky (1742)
11. Rebekah Liu (1277) (w)
12. Jessica Connor (671) (w)

U12
1. Daniel Naroditsky (2055)
2. Gregory Young (1988)
3. Sam Bekker (1660)
4. Kyle Shin (1616)
5. Yian Liou (1512)
6. Jennifer Livschitz (1474) (w)
7. Alex Grossman (1357) -- might play for Australia
8. Andrew Chen (1355)
9. Jackie Connor (1092) (w)
10. Aditya Kumar (1075)
11. Caleb Morin (979)

"It will be cheering to know that many people are skillful chess players, though in many instances their brains, in a general way, compare unfavorably with the cognitive faculties of a rabbit."
James Mortimer

Former World Champion Boris Spassky and his wife Marina will be guests of the Mechanics' Institute from September 28 to October 3.  During this time Spassky will give a clock simul, lectures, answer questions, work with junior players and sign books. He will give a clock simul on Saturday, September 30 on 25 boards. Cost for the simul will be $100 (The same as the past two years in Reno). The simul starts at 2:00 PM. There are only 25 spots which will be allocated on a first-come first-serve basis, but to sign up before September 1, you must be a Mechanics' member.

More details on Spassky's activities will soon be forthcoming. This visit by the tenth World Champion will continue a Mechanics' tradition first started in 1903 by Emanuel Lasker and continued by Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Fischer and Karpov. Such visits are not inexpensive and contrary to some assumptions, the MI Chess Club is not blessed with an unlimited budget. Contributions to cover this visit will be greatly appreciated and are tax deductible. Checks made payable to the MI can be sent to: Mechanics' Institute, 57 Post Street #408, San Francisco, CA 94104.

SM Craig Mar and Expert William Gray share first in the Tuesday Night Marathon with 4 1/2 from 5. Tied for third at 4 are NM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs, Chad Salinas, George Sanguinetti, and Daichi Siegrist. Three rounds remain for the 59 players.

GM Alexander Wojtkiewicz (VOIT-kay-vich) died around 6pm on July 14th in Baltimore, ten days after he tied for first in the World Open.

I don't know the official cause of death,  but Wojt suffered from internal bleeding for three days before seeking treatment and this may have contributed to his demise. All indications are that Alex was not feeling well in the weeks before his death but had no idea how precarious his situation had become.  He leaves behind his son Joseph, Joseph's mother Laima and his mother Tamara.

Alexander Wojtkiewicz was born on January, 15th,  1963 in Riga, Latvia to a Polish father and Russian mother. His talent for chess was recognized at an early
age and he received the Soviet Master title at 15. The following year he was a member of Mikhail Tal's team at the Riga Interzonal, which the former World Champion won with the monster score of 14 from 17. It was at this event that World Junior Champion Yasser Seirawan (seconding Tarjan and Mednis) first met Wojt. The two spent many happy hours playing blitz during the tournament.

The next phase of Wojt's life was not a happy one and I quote from the recollections of Alexey Shirov, who also grew up in Riga  and played there frequently until 1988. Wojtkiewicz's father (Pavel Voitkevich) died in Riga in the beginning of the 1980i due to severe health problems - more or less a similar age and  cause of death as Alexander himself. He also drank heavily and had a strong character not accepting the Soviet's way of life. Maybe he was also jailed once, I am not sure now. He was also a gifted chess player and I think somewhere in the 60s or 70s he was refused the Soviet master title (after completing the norm) after which he practically stopped playing chess but he nevertheless passed the love of the game to his son.

Alexander was hiding from the Soviet army since 1982 and he was sentenced in the summer of 1986 for two years. In the summer of 1987 he was amnestied and started playing in Riga again despite the ugly behavior of chess authorities (for example they refused to award him when he was second in the Latvian blitz championship in 1987, I was lucky to be first then) but when he got the opportunity to move to Poland in 1988 he obviously did so immediately.

Refusing to serve in the army was not exactly the 'Latvian human rights' movement, in fact the danger of being a Soviet soldier was known all around the big country and I remember my own dilemma in 1989-1990. In any case Alexander had very clear negative ideas of the Soviet regime that probably made it absolutely impossible for him to go to the army unlike the most of players from his generation. He also told me once that he had good relations with the well-known scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov.

Wojtkiewicz immigrated to Poland in 1988 and quickly established himself as the top player in the country. During this time in his ancestral homeland, Wojt represented Poland on first board on several occasions in Olympiads and European teams championships. He won the Polish Championship several times. At some point  Wojtkiewicz and the Polish Chess Federation began to have their differences and he began spending more and more time in the United States. Wojt came from a generation in the Soviet Union that looked West, so this move to the US was probably a natural one. A gifted linguist that spoke many languages fluently (Russian, Latvian, Polish, German and English with some French and Spanish thrown in), Wojt was a natural traveler and loved to visit new places. He made up for his lack of opportunity in the Soviet Union with gusto when he was released. One account has him having visited six continents and 48 states in his lifetime and it is easy to believe. Certainly he was among Delta's top customers in the late 1990s when he played frequently in Asia, often accompanied by his good friend Jaan Ehlvest.

Life in the United States was a mixed bag for Wojt. No other player, save the late Igor Ivanov, played so often and traveled so frequently around the United States in search of Grand Prix points. This life without a anchor, traveling weeks on end, certainly took its toll on Alex as it did on Igor. One online writer suggested naming the USCF Grand Prix after Alex and Igor, and it seems like the perfect tribute to these iron men. Alex was always busy in the US whether it was playing or teaching. Wojt seemed to feel financially  insecure and it is a pity he had no health insurance.

Wojtkiewicz was a very talented player who loved the game dearly. Such words are often written about GMs when they die but here they are accurate. A product of his time (the Soviet Union in the late 1970s and early 1980s) Wojt adopted the recommended repertoire - safe and solid with White playing for the enduring small edge and razor sharp with Black to avoid the the death of a thousand small cuts. This translated into 1.Nf3, 2.c4 and 3.g3 as White and the Najdorf Sicilian and Kings Indian as Black.  Later the Slav would creep into his repertoire, but for the most part Alex remained true to his school. Though a positional routine based on strong technique was his bread and butter in weekend swisses,  Wojt was a brilliant tactician in the Latvian school tradition ( Tal, Shirov, Shabalov). By today's professional standards Wojtkiewicz lacked the disciplined daily routine and systematic study habits necessary to reach the world's elite nonetheless he truly loved the game and was always analyzing interesting positions. He contributed much to the theory of his beloved Catalan and his games in this opening were always worthy of close scrutiny. Alex never showed any sense of  regret for the path he chose and was happy to play in swisses in which opening preparation counts for less and middlegame and endgame strength for more.

A full-portrait of Wojt cannot fail to mention that he could be very hard to deal with at times and gave tournament organizers grief on many occasions. If he was in a certain mood you definitely wanted to stay away. Not just once was he dubbed Grandmaster Vodkavich, and yet that was just one side of him. Most of the time Alex was one of the most friendly and charming people you could meet. Cultured and curious, with a sharp wit and self deprecating sense of humor, you couldn't help but enjoying being around him. Many were the tournament organizer who welcomed him back to the fold after some incident, unable to resist despite the hidden suspicion that future troubles were lurking.

Alex will be missed by many.

Though  Alex was known to habitually open 1.Nf3 in the US he could often play a mean 1.e4 when he wanted to. Here are two examples from early days.
 

Wojtkiewicz,A (2495) - Gdanski,J (2435) [B49
POL-ch 49th Czestochowa (14), 1992

1.Nf3 c5 2.e4 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be2 a6 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Be3 Bb4 9.Na4 0-0 10.Nxc6 bxc6 11.f4 Rb8 12.Bd3 Be7 13.c4 d6 14.c5 dxc5 15.Rc1 e5 16.f5 Rd8 17.Qe2 Ng4 18.Bxc5 Bg5 19.Rcd1 h5 20.h3 Nf6 21.Bc4 Rd7 22.Rxd7 Nxd7 23.Bxf7+! Kxf7 24.Qc4+ 1-0

Wojtkiewicz,A - Asanov,B [B78]
Sochi YM Sochi, 1980

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.Bb3 Rc8 11.h4 Ne5 12.0-0-0 Nc4 13.Bxc4 Rxc4 14.h5 Nxh5 15.g4 Nf6 16.e5 Nxg4 17.fxg4 Bxe5 18.Nd5 Bxg4 19.Rdg1 h5 20.Rxg4! hxg4 21.Bf4 Qh2 at all costs! 21...Rxd4 22.Bxe5 dxe5 23.Qh6 Rd1+ 24.Rxd1 1-0

Most chess competitions occur over the board, face to face.  Yet there is no reason to limit
ourselves to physical interactions when it is possible to play chess in cyberspace.  Of course,
the internet offers the opportunity to meet and match wits against people from other countries and
continents.  The match against Australia was the first of hopefully more such events on the
Internet Chess Club (www.chessclub.com).

The genesis for the Australia match came when local junior Alex Grossman and his parents visited
Australia and competed in scholastic championships Down Under.  Alex's father Mike thought it
would be a great experience to meet again in cyberspace.  Mike Grossman arranged for the contact
between Alan Goldsmith from Ausnetchess and me.  After ironing out the match details and
recruiting players, the match was set to go on July 15 at 5:00pm San Francisco time.

Amazingly, almost everyone who signed up on both teams actually showed up as planned.  Typically
someone would forget or perhaps their internet was unavailable.  Out of 28 Californians and 26
Australians (24 boards each plus alternates), all but three showed up--some over a half hour
early--all eager to play.  Only one player developed internet trouble during the three hour match.
And despite some confusion at the start, most players found their correct opponent and started
playing within 10 minutes of the scheduled time.  That was a minor miracle in itself!

The match itself progressed smoothly.  Local players played two games at a 45 5 time control (game
in 45 minutes with 5 seconds added per move) against the same board number from Australia.  The
chess server automatically switched the colors between the first and second game.  In fact, once
all boards were underway, there was little for the two organizers to do but watch and tally
results.  Maybe the only disappointment was that some games finished way too fast; two U18 matches
finished 2-0 within 30 minutes with each team having one goat.

The U12 year old match was quite lopsided in favor of CalChess.  The local squad was led by Daniel
Naroditsky (#1 in USA for age 10 and under) and Gregory Young (#6 in USA for age 11).  Although
the opponents put up a valiant fight, they were outclassed and eventually lost.  The final score
was 20.0-4.0.  The following Northern Californians won both of their games: Daniel Naroditsky,
Gregory Young, Kyle Shin, Yian Liou, Jennifer Livschitz, Isaac Zhang, Alex Grossman, Andrew Chen
and Ted Xiao,

In contrast, the U18 year old match was much closer.  Australia's lineup featured Moulthon Ly, who
had just obtained an IM norm at the recent World Open.  CalChess countered with national masters
Matthew Ho, Drake Wang and Daniel Schwarz.  The U18 result was in doubt down to the end of the
final two games.  With CalChess clinging to a narrow 1.0 point lead, Drake Wang and Steven Liu
both converted their endgames to provide for a more substantial margin of victory (13.5-10.5).
Kudos to the perfect scores: Drake Wang, Daniel Schwarz, Mike Zhong, Matt Zavortink and Steven
Liu.

The overall score ended up at 33.5 to 14.5 in favor of Northern California.  Please visit the
following website for complete results.

http://www.fpawn.com/CalChessvsAustralia.txt

I would like to thank my counterpart for Australia, Alan Goldsmith, for organizing the match from
his end.  Due to some logistical difficulties, he had to put together his team entire within two
weeks.  I also want to thank Mike Grossman for the inspiration and for getting the ball rolling.

The following translation of  an interview from the Russian website e3e5 was translated for Alex Baburin's excellent online daily Chess Today ( http://www.chesstoday.net - 15 euros for three months)

"In November 2005 I had a long phone conversation with A.G.Bakh [Executive Director of the Russian Chess Federation],which Alexander Grigorjevich in his interview for the 64-Chess Review limited to just one sentence. I told him that it would be better for the team if someone else would perform the coach's duties, and I provided concrete reasons. But, indeed, I was agreed that if Sergei himself considers everything to be OK and does not want to go - then, after our victory in the important competition [The World Team Championship 2005] for some people the replacement of the coach would look illogical. And only this was mentioned by Bakh"

"All players, I underline this, have high opinions about him [Dolmatov] . He is one of the most decent persons in the chess world. But if all those who share the view that our team needs another coach would be excluded from the team, then the team will be changed radically"

"The main problem of Sergei, probably, is that there are such people (and he is definitely one of them) who, when everything is good, are waiting for everything to change for the worse. Such expectations are transferred to those who are around, in our case - to the team"

IMs Enrico Sevillano and Andranik Matikozyan tied for first in the 2006 Southern California Championship, a 7-player round-robin held at the Los Angeles law offices of Cheong, Denove, Rowell and Bennett. from July 9 through 16. Next at 4-2 was IM Jack Peters. Other scores: IM Cyrus Lakdawala and Eugene Yanayt, 2.5-3.5; Christian Tanaka, 2-4; Francis Chen, 1-5. John Hillery directed.

Official site: http://www.westernchess.com/hold/champ06/champ06.html

        This week's guest on the internet radio show "Chess and Books with Fred Wilson" will be
        Ireland's strongest grandmaster, and creator & publisher of the terrific daily
        internet chess newsletter, CHESS TODAY, GM ALEXANDER BABURIN.

        The show runs from 8:00 to 10:00 PM (EST) every Tuesday evening.  As always, there will be
        replays of the show almost immediately afterwards for our chess enthusiasts on the West
        Coast & elsewhere, and often there will be several replays the following day.

        You can access it at the following website:
        http://www.chess.fm, ONLY IF YOU ARE AN ICC MEMBER (a decision with which I disagree).
  However, if you visit chessclub.com you can sign up for a one week FREE trial membership,
        listen to my show that week, and access the other good stuff on Chess.fm while you're at it!

We wish a speedy recovery to FM Eric Schiller who recently suffered a stroke.

The San Francisco Chronicle (Section B, page 1 and 8) on July 14, ran a picture of John Cutler who wants to bring a large chess board to the Mill Valley Plaza. The story received over half a page of coverage. The Mill Valley Plaza is one of the de facto chess clubs for Marin County chess players, with five inlaid tables getting constant use.

It might not have been Tinkers to Evers to Chance but Koltanowski to Grey to Donaldson produced a tournament report on the 1966 US Open in the latest issue of ChessBase magazine. The late Koltanowski directed the event forty years ago and later passed the game scores on to Grey for the event which had no book or bulletin on it. Earlier this year Grey loaned the scores to Donaldson who entered over 200 of them including Peter Cleghorn's upset win over Pal Benko.

US Champion Alex Onischuk has started his own website. Check it out at www.onischuk.com .

IM Vinay Bhat scored 5.5 from 9 to tie for 16th in the 89-player Andorra Open won by GM Igor Khenkin with 7 points.

US Womens champion Anna Zatonskih is continuing to play in Europe after the Olympiad. She scored 5 1/2 from 9 ( 2479 performance) in the Paris Open won by GM Kazhgaleyev with 7 points.

Zatonskih,A (2432) - Paredes Galan,A (2361) [C02]
Paris Open Championship Paris FRA (7), 14.07.2006

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bd3 Bd7 6.0-0 Rc8 7.a3 Nxd4 8.Nxd4 cxd4 9.Nd2 Ne7 10.Nf3 Nc6 11.b4 a6 12.Bb2 Qb6 13.Qe2 g6 14.h4 Bg7 15.h5 gxh5 16.Rad1 Ke7 17.Rfe1 Rcg8 18.Qd2 h6 19.Qf4 f6 20.Qh4 Qc7 21.Nxd4 Kf7 22.Qxh5+ Kf8 23.Nxc6 Bxc6 24.exf6 d4 25.Rxe6 Bd7 26.Re7 1-0

The 2nd Annual Alajuela Open in Costa Rica was won by GM Vladimir Georgiev of Chicago with 7 1/2  from 9. Among those tied for second at 7 were Chicago GM Nikola Mitkov and New York GM Gennady Sagalchik. Defending champion GM Varuzhan Akobian and LA NM David Bennett were among those on 6.5.

George Koltanowski's record of over 50 years as columnist for the SF Chronicle  is well documented and the incredible record  of around 75 years for the LA Times (Steiner, Kashdan and Peters) is public record but David Cohen writes that are northern neighbors also have some long streaks. One is Malcolm Sim who  wrote the chess column for the Toronto Telegram for 34 years, from 1922 until his death in 1956. For comparison, IM Lawrence Day will complete his 30th year at the Toronto Star in December.

"In a memorial speech in Curacao, Jaan Ehlvest called Wojt the James Bond of chess. I don't know if I would go that far; maybe Don Quixote is a better comparison. Either way, he was of a generation that is slowly dying out: the devil-may-care, living-for-the-moment professional chess bum. He traveled from tournament to tournament, thinking little about money or a conventional lifestyle, only about playing chess and enjoying himself. He really lived his life as if there was no tomorrow."
Alex Shabalov writing about his friend the late Alex Wojtkiewicz

SM Craig Mar has clinched at least a tie for first in the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon after his round seven win over George Sanguinetti. Mar has 6 1/2  points , a point ahead of NM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs and veteran Victor Todortsev. The latter upset Expert William Gray of Scotland and will likely play Mar in the final round next Tuesday. The next Tuesday Marathon, named after the late Paul Vayssie, starts August 22.

George Sanguinetti - Craig Mar
Kings Indian E60
Summer Tuesday Night Marathon (7)
(Donaldson)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.f3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Ne2 0-0 6.Na3?!
Typical Sanguinetti homebrew and not to be found in the Mega2006  database. The text follows the current trend ( 1.e4 c5 2.Na3) of moving the Knight to the rim but looks to be less motivated here.
6...c5
Also quite reasonable and more ambitious was 6...e5 .
7.Nc2 cxd4
7...Nc6 8.d5 Ne5 9.Nc3 allows White to make sense of his Knights.
8.Nexd4 Nc6 9.Be3 Nxd4 10.Bxd4
10.Nxd4 looks more natural. If Black continues as in the game White gets a pleasant ending: 10...Qa5+ 11.Qd2 Qxd2+ 12.Kxd2.
10...Be6 11.Be2 Qa5+ 12.Qd2
This is probably the right choice. White walks a tightrope after  12.Bc3 Qg5 13.0-0 Rfc8 14.Bd2 (14.b3? Bh3 15.Rf2 Nxe4!) 14...Qh4 15.b3 Nh5 16.Qe1 (16.Rc1? Be5!) 16...Qxe1 17.Raxe1 b5 18.Na3 but if he finds his way he should be okay.
12...Qxd2+ 13.Kxd2 Rfc8 14.b3 a5
14...a6 aiming for ...b5 is also natural but the text is to the point as ...a4 is in the cards.
15.g4
Advancing this pawn Whites plans g4-g5  grabbing more space on the kingside. 15.Rac1, trying to preserve the Bishop with Be3, is countered by  15...Nd7 16.Be3 a4 or 15...a4.
15...Nd7 16.Bxg7 Kxg7 17.Nd4 Nc5 18.Nxe6+?
White trades away his good minor piece. A better idea was 18.h4 trying to generate some play on the kingside.
18...fxe6 19.Ke3 e5
Black is better with the good Knight versus bad Bishop but still must find a way to win the position. Breaks with ...a4 and ...d5 and pressure on the f-file are all options at his disposal.
20.Rhc1 Ne6 21.a3 Rc6 22.h4 Nd4 23.Bd1 Rac8 24.a4?
This move, trying to achieve a draw by blocking the position, is not an easy one to make as it condemns White to a passive defense. Better was the more active 24.f4 with the point that  24...a4 can be met by the ugly but concrete  25.bxa4 Rxc4 26.Rxc4 Rxc4 27.Rb1 and the counter play against b7 gives White the necessary breathing room. For example: 27...Rc3+ (27...Rc7 28.g5) 28.Kd2 Rxa3 29.fxe5 dxe5 30.Rxb7.
24...Ne6
Now a long period of cat and mouse ensues as Mar looks for the breakthrough.
25.Be2 Rb6 26.Rc3 h6 27.Rac1 g5 28.h5 Kf6 29.Bd1 Rb4 30.R1c2 Nd4 31.Rd2 Rb6 32.Rdd3 Rbc6 33.Kd2 e6 34.Re3 Ke7 35.Kc1 Kf6 36.Kb2 Rc5 37.Red3 Ke7 38.Re3 Nc6 39.Bc2 Nb4 40.Bb1 Kf6 41.Rc1 R5c7 42.Rce1 Ke7 43.Bc2 Kd7 44.Rd1 Kc6 45.Bd3 Kc5 46.Rd2?
This blunder, allowing Black's King into the position, loses straight out. It was likely caused by time pressure, Sanguinetti's bête noire. 46.Kc3 had to be played when Black is considerably better but the win must still be shown. Note the direct attack on f3 doesn't seem to pay dividends: 46...Rf8 47.Be2 Rcf7 48.Rh1 Nc6 49.Bd1 Nd4 50.Rh3 and it is hard to see how Black goes forward. Note also how the Rook on e3 is deterring the ...d5 break. which needs to be managed with some subtlety to be effective. For example: 50...Re8 51.Rh1 d5 52.exd5 exd5 53.Rhe1 Rfe7 54.cxd5 Kxd5 55.Be2 and Black has gained nothing from the pawn trades.
46...Kd4 47.Re1 Nxd3+ 48.Kc2 Rxc4+
This decides things.
49.bxc4 Rxc4+ 50.Kb3 Rb4+ 51.Ka3 Kc3 52.Rxd3+ Kxd3 53.Rd1+ Ke3 54.Rxd6 Kxf3 55.Rxe6 Rxe4 56.Rxh6 Rxg4 57.Rf6+ Ke2 58.h6 e4 59.Kb3 e3 60.Rf5 Rh4 61.Rxg5 Rxh6 62.Rxa5 Rc6 63.Re5 Kd2 64.Re7 b6 65.Rd7+ Ke1 66.Rh7 e2 67.Rf7 Rc5 68.Rf6 Kd2 69.Rd6+ Ke3 70.Rxb6 Re5 71.a5 e1Q 72.Kc4 Qc1+ 73.Kb3 Qb1+ 74.Kc4 Qa2+ 75.Rb3+ Ke4 76.Kc3 Rc5+ 0-1

Former World Champion Boris Spassky and his wife Marina will be guests of the Mechanics' Institute from September 28 to October 3.  During this time Spassky will give a clock simul, lectures, answer questions, work with junior players and sign books. He will give a clock simul on Saturday, September 30 on 25 boards. Cost for the simul will be $100 (The same as the past two years in Reno). The simul starts at 2:00 PM. There are only 25 spots which will be allocated on a first-come first-serve basis, but to sign up before September 1, you must be a Mechanics' member.
Five of the twenty five boards are gone after the first week so if you want to play don't delay.

Book and equipment donations to the Mechanics' are always welcome. All donations to the Mechanics' are tax deductible due to the M.I.'s 501(c) (3) nonprofit status. If you have any chess books or equipment that have been lying around unused for some time consider donating to the Mechanics'. You will not only get a tax write off but also the satisfaction of seeing things put to good use.

IM Tim Taylor, whose gladiatorial do or die style of play brings to mind the late Jerry Quarry, won the upset-riddled 11th Pacific Coast Open in Agoura Hills this past weekend, topping a field which included two GMs and two other IMs. Taylor scored an undefeated 5-1 to take home $2000 followed by IM Enrico Sevillano and NM Eliot Liu at 4 1/2, good for $900 apiece. MI member Batsaikhan Tserendorj should be a Master shortly as he tied for first in the Expert section, scoring 5 from 6 for $1000. A total of 207 players competed in the multi-section event directed by Steve Immitt and Randy Hough for the Continental Chess Association.

The ChessBase website has an excellent piece on Alex by Alex Shabalov (this issue's quote is taken from it). Go to http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3256. There are also pieces by IM s Leonid Sandler and Mark Ginsburg and Elizabeth Karnazes.

The following game, kindly provided by Cleveland Expert Mike Joelson, comes from Alex's last event, the Columbus Open. He tied for first in this event, held a week after the World Open, with IM Ben Finegold. Alex entered 2006 rated around 2550 USCF and at his passing he was 2653. He gained points in nearly every event he played in the last six months of his life.

An obituary on Alex, written by Dylan Loeb McClain, appeared in the  NY Times on July 19.

Mike Joelson - Alex Wojtkiewicz
English Botvinnik A36
Columbus Open (3), 2006
(Donaldson)

1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.d3 d6 6.e4 Nf6 7.Nge2 0-0 8.0-0 Bd7 9.a3 Ne8 10.Rb1 a5 11.Be3 Nc7 12.f4 Bg4 13.h3 Bxe2 14.Nxe2 Qd7?!
14...Ne6 was more prudent and thematic but Wojt decides to give his opponent some rope.
15.d4 cxd4 16.Nxd4 Nxd4?!
Black heads for a good Knight versus bad Bishop situation that proves not to be the case. Maintaining the tension with  16...a4 looks like a better idea.
17.Bxd4 Bxd4+ 18.Qxd4 Ne6 19.Qd5 Qc7 20.f5! Nc5 21.f6?!
21.e5! (liberating the Bishop) 21...dxe5 22.b4 axb4 23.axb4 Nd7 24.fxg6 hxg6 25.Qxb7 with an advantage to White in the ending.
21...a4 22.Rbd1 Rad8 23.h4?!
23.fxe7 Qxe7 24.Rd2 Rd7 (24...Qe5? 25.Rxf7!) 25.h4 would have given White a small advantage.
23...Rfe8 24.h5 Qb6 25.hxg6 hxg6 26.Kh2?
26.fxe7 Rxe7 27.Rf2 was necessary to maintain the balance.
26...Qxb2 27.e5 Qxe5 28.Qxe5 dxe5 0-1

USCF Executive Board Election Results. The following results are by region. 100% of the ballots have been counted.

Region States  Sloan Perks Goodall Hough Schlich
I ME,NH,VT,MA,RI,CT  68 55 66 75 89
II NY,NJ  172 97 125 138 87
III PA,WV,VA,MD,DC,DE  154 121 124 155 178
IV NC,SC,GA,FL  140 88 105 114 65
V MI,IN,OH,KY  135 172 92 104 71
VI MN,WI,ND,SD  42 37 36 47 29
VII IA,MO,IL,NE  90 70 73 91 50
VIII TN,AL,MS,AR,LA  42 48 46 57 36
IX WY,UT,CO,KS  50 30 41 36 27
X OK,TX,NM  89 83 98 107 70
XI AZ,NV,CA(N),CA(S),HI  164 98 226 406 82
XII MT,ID,WA,OR,AK  44 41 34 67 23
Other APO,FPO,US Territories  3 2 7 4 4
Preliminary Totals  1193 942 1113 1401 811

Based on these results, Randall Hough has been elected to a three year term and Sam Sloan has been elected to a one year term, both terms to begin once the election has been certified by the Board of Delegates in August.

Northern California Delegates election

N. California
18    1 Richard Koepcke   126
19   2 Robert D. Blatt   70
20   3 Eric Hicks   68
21   4 Roger Poehlmann   93
22   5 Eric Schiller   109
23   6 Elizabeth Shaughnessy   116
24   7 Salman Azhar   64
25   8 Jacob Green   67
26   9 Mike Goodall   135
27   10 Andy C. Lee   98
28   11 John Donaldson   144
29   12 James Eade   109
30   13 Hans Poschmann*   108

The following piece appeared in Alex Baburin's outstanding daily Chess Today ( www.chesstoday.net).

Dolmatov's Interview and Danailov's Response by GM Mikhail Golubev

On 24th July the Russian newspaper Moskovskiy Komsomolets published an interview conducted by the
newspaper's chess observer Eugeny Gik with the former coach of the Russian national team, GM Sergey
Dolmatov, where the latter doubted achievements by the FIDE world champion, Veselin Topalov.
Dolmatov, in particular, stated: "What Topalov is doing on the board these days, is beyond human abilities. And I
am sure that an interference from outside is taking place." In the same interview Dolmatov also said: "I have
no reliable facts of the non-standard actions of Topalov, but in Elista everything will become clear."

Dolmatov also stated "...[I] would not be surprised if Topalov will find some way to avoid the duel" (i.e. the title match versus
Kramnik in Elista. Here and above the translation is mine – MG). We requested Topalov's manager, IM Silvio Danailov, to comment on
Dolmatov's interview and we publish his answer below:

"The only conclusion that we find in such statements is that they are not just [the] absurd ones, but it is absolute
paranoia. The campaign is being orchestrated to make nervous the World Champion Veselin Topalov
before his match for the title against GM Vladimir Kramnik. [The intention] is to win the match before playing it.
The article is an effort against the moral integrity of the person and it is called the dirty war. I do not believe
that it is a coincidence that all the commentaries of this type are coming from Russia. I understand that some
fans of the Russian challenger [might not to support], it, but I would like to ask them to put the slander and other
accusations away since they [are] based on neither logic, nor any evidence. It is legally [punishable] in
all the environment of the international law and it is in no way will benefit the world of chess.

Silvio Danailov
Kaissa chess management

The US Junior Invitational took place at the  Dallas Chess Club 15th-20th July 2006. Robert Hess won the event with 7/9.

Official site: http://www.swchess.com/sce/tourney/USJrInv06/results.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------
US Junior Dallas USA (USA), 15-20 vii 2006            cat. II (2279)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
                                      1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 1. Hess, Robert L        f USA 2358  * 0 = 1 1 = 1 1 1 1  7.0  2489
 2. Kleiman, Jake           USA 2271  1 * 1 = 0 = 1 = 1 1  6.5  2445
 3. Bercys, Salvijus      f USA 2368  = 0 * = 1 1 = = 1 1  6.0  2393
 4. Gulamali, Kazim         USA 2302  0 = = * = 1 = = 1 1  5.5  2356
 5. Schneider, Igor       f USA 2367  0 1 0 = * = = = 1 1  5.0  2311
 6. Ludwig, Daniel          USA 2391  = = 0 0 = * = 1 1 1  5.0  2309
 7. Molner, Mackenzie       USA 2280  0 0 = = = = * 1 = 1  4.5  2278
 8. Banawa, Joel Cholo      USA 2260  0 = = = = 0 0 * 1 =  3.5  2200
 9. Coraretti, Benjamin     USA 1974  0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 * 1  1.5  2039
10. Maltese, Adam         USA 2216  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 0 *  0.5  1841
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Minute Heroics By Arnold Earns The Coveted
2006 U.S. Cadet Chess Championship Title by Alan Kantor
Eight of the strongest youngsters under the age of 16 faced off in Dallas, Texas at the Marriott Dallas/Addison Quorum from July 15-21, 2006 to see who would win the 2006 U.S. Cadet Championship. The stakes are high as the winner receives a four-year college scholarship including tuition and fees from the University of Maryland at Baltimore County (UMBC). The current value of the generous award that UMBC offers is over $34,000 for Maryland residents and over $66,000 for non-residents.

The tournament went right down to the wire as two New Yorkers faced head-to-head to see who would earn the scholarship: Parker Bi Guang Zhao had 5 points, needing just a draw and Mark Tyler Arnold had 4-1/2 points in a must-win situation entering the final round. Arnold came through in the clutch but Zhao certainly deserves recognition for his second place. When it was all said and done, Arnold had 5-1/2 points, Zhao accumulated 5 points and won the 2nd place $200 scholarship with Jeffrey Haskel, from Florida, getting 4 points and a $100 scholarship.

Here is the key game from the tournament winner:

White: Parker Bi Guang Zhao (2203)
Black: Marc Tyler Arnold (2241)
Sicilian Defense (Bb5+ Variation)
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Bd7 4. Bxd7+ Qxd7 5. O-O Nc6 6. c4 Nf6 7. Nc3 e6 8. d4 cxd4
9. Nxd4 Be7 10. b3 O-O 11. Be3 a6 12. f3 Rfd8 13. Rc1 Nxd4 14. Qxd4 b5 15. cxb5 axb5
16. Rfd1 Rab8 17. e5 dxe5 18. Qxe5 Qe8 19. Rxd8 Qxd8 20. Rd1 Qe8 21. a4 bxa4 22. bxa4 Bb4
23. Bd4 Rd8 24. Nb5 Rd5 25. Qe2 Qd7 26. Rc1 Rxd4 27. Nxd4 Qxd4+ 28. Qf2 Qd8 29. Qa7 g6
30. Rb1 Nd5 31. Qd4 Qa5 32. Rc1 Bc3 33. Qc4 Qb6+ 34. Kh1 Qe3 35. Rb1 Kg7 36. Qe4 Qd2
37. Qh4 Nf4 38. Qg3 Qd3 39. Re1 Bxe1 40. Qxe1 Qc2 0-1

The tournament was organized by Luis Salinas and directed by Francisco Guadalupe. For all the game scores, see http://swchess.com/sce/tourney/USCadet06/games.htm.

MINUTES OF THE MAY, 07-08, 2006, USCF EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING, BOCA RATON, FL
 

EB06-074 – Board – The Board authorizes the following awards:
Award Recipient(s)
Chess City of the Year Crossville, TN, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Chess Club of the Year St. George UT Chess Club
Chess College of the Year U of CT. School of Engineering, Texas Tech
Committee of the Year International Affairs
Distinguished Service Award Mike Nolan
Frank J. Marshall Ambassador Shaun Alexander
Grandmaster of the Year Ildar Ibragimov, Anna Zatonskih
Honorary Chess Mates Jim Warren, Delores Wagner, Elizabeth Tanner
Gold Koltanowski Medal America’s Foundation for chess (AF4C)
Meritorious Service Jim Brotsos, Jon Haskel, Wilder Wadford, Jon & Barbara Fortune
Organizer of the Year Cris Collinsworth Pro Scan Foundation
Outstanding Career Achievement Gus Gosselin, Fred Goldhirsch/Doug Bellizzi, David MacEnulty, Jerry Weikel
Scholastic Service Tim Redman
Special Services Kim Cramer, John Donaldson, Mikhail Korenman, Greg Shahade
Tournament Director of the Year Walter Brown
Special Friend of USCF Phil Haley

Chess Match in the Making!!

Currently the North American Chess Association is working alongside two well known GM's to bring a match to North America!

We are in talks with English GM Michael Adams (FIDE 2732) and American-Armenian GM Varuzhan Akobian (FIDE 2567) to bring a 4-round match to Chicago.

The tentative schedule has the event just before the 2007 Memorial Day holiday in the U.S. The tentative schedule of events is as follows:

May 18 - GM Akobian Simul
May 19 - Round 1
May 20 - Round 2
May 21 - Rest Day
May 22 - Round 3
May 23 - Round 4
May 24 - GM Adams Simul

Stay tuned over the course of the coming weeks for further details on this super match!

If you are an organization or individual wishing to provide sponsorship for the event please contact me at sevan.muradian@nachess.org for further details.
 

The following updates to NACA can be found on our website:

1. The July issue of the North American Chess Review is available for download (free registration required)
2. Illinois Junior chess player Gopal Menon's daily chess puzzles (on our blog site - www.nachess.org/blog.html) with solutions posted on the discussion forums (free registration required)
3. The July NACA screensaver is available (on our home page)
4. A new offering of weekly chess analysis by various players is available. The sample e-zine can be found on our homepage with another issue located in the discussion forums (free registration required).

Some changes we have experienced:

1. Due to logisitical issues the Summer North American FIDE Invitational was cancelled but we are planning the October one now with no cancellation!
2. We have, for 2006, changed our publication to be available on a bi-monthly basis. We are hoping to go back to monthly in 2007 along with translation in Spanish and French.

Things that are in the works:

1. Decision to drop membership dues in 2007 to $15 for everyone!
2. Starting in August 2006 we will have lessons in Windows Media Format available for download. There will be a number of samples available for free download and then blocks of lessons will be available for purchase over time.
3. Organization of a match between a US based GM on a hot streak of tournament wins - GM Varuzhan Akobian and Super-GM GM Michael Adams. Tentatively set for May 2007 prior to the Chicago Open. Watch our website for further inforamtion on Adams-Akobian 2007.
4. Q1-2007 (pushed back) - ChessPro Live - our online live chess playing server! Part of the $15 yearly membership fee!

We are in need of some volunteer services if they are out there:

1. Weekly chess articles
2. Translation services (English to Spanish, and English to French)
 

Good Chess to All,

Sevan A. Muradian, President
North American Chess Association

Black's paradoxical 24th move ...Bxe5  brings to mind a stratagem first seen in Jimenez-Larsen, Palma de Mallorca 1967. It has been written about by MI Grandmaster-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky.

Petersen,S (2244) - De Firmian,N (2559)
Politiken Cup Copenhagen (4.10), 25.07.2006

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 g6 5.Bc4 c6 6.0-0 Bg7 7.exd6 Qxd6 8.Nbd2 0-0 9.Bb3 Nd7 10.Nc4 Qc7 11.Re1 N7f6 12.Nce5 Ng4 13.Qe2 Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Be6 15.c3 Rad8 16.h4 Bf5 17.h5 c5 18.hxg6 hxg6 19.Qf3 cxd4 20.cxd4 Qd6 21.Bd2 Be6 22.Rac1 Qb8 23.Rc5 Qd6 24.Ba5 Bxe5 25.Rxe5 Nb6 26.Bxe6 fxe6 27.Qe4 Rf6 28.Bxb6 Qxb6 29.b3 Kf7 30.Rc4 Rh8 31.Rec5 Rf5 32.g4 Rf6 33.d5? Qd6 34.dxe6+ Kg7 35.Qd4 Qh2+ 36.Kf1 Rd8 37.Qe3 Rd3 38.Qe1 Qh1+ 39.Ke2 Qf3+ 40.Kf1 Rd1 41.g5 Qxf2# 0-1

The Governor's Cup will be held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, from October 27-29. Among the invitees are MI Grandmaster-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky and GM Sergey Kudrin.

Kasparov to play first serious event since retirement

TWIC informs: Garry Kasparov will play his first serious chess event since his retirement after the Linares 2005  tournament in Zurich on August 22nd
2006. Kasparov always left open the door to play rapid events and he will take on Anatoly Karpov, Viktor Korchnoi and Judit Polgar on the occasion of the Lichthof Chess Champions Day. Other reports have suggested this will be a FIscher Random event.

Garry Kasparov was a guest on the Charlie Rose Show last night. Kasparov and Russian foreign policy maven Steven F.Cohen discussed the current political  situation in Russia.

Texas Master Mikhail Langer won the Jerry Spann Memorial, held July 15-16 in Oklahoma City, with NM Bill Orton, Tom Braunlich and Sergey Galant sharing second.. Braunlich won the title of Oklahoma champion  on tie break. Frank and Jim Berry organized and directed.

The USCF reports as a result of elections at the recent FIDE Congress in Turin, Italy, and subsequent action by the USCF Executive Board, the following changes were made in the representatives of the USCF to the World Chess Federation.
William Kelleher was elected by FIDE to the position of Presidential Board Vice President. He replaced Steve Doyle who stepped down after ten years on the Board. Mr. Kelleher had previously served as the USCF’s Delegate to FIDE. Don Schultz was then selected by the USCF Executive Board to fill the vacancy left by Kelleher as FIDE Delegate.

Fred Wilson writes:

IF YOU MISSED LAST NIGHT'S SHOW, OR TRIED TO LISTEN IN BUT COULD NOT GET ANY SOUNDŠ

Due to technical difficulties last night's terrific interview with GM JOEL BENJAMIN was not broadcast for the first 40 minutes of the show, although it WAS recorded!  I urge any of you who haven't already heard a replay to listen to one of the continuous replays running today until about 8:30 PM this evening.  This was a fascinating interview-I THINK ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS EVER-in which Joel candidly discusses his exciting success in the World Open, his new online column for the USCF ("Ask Joel") and what types of questions he is seeking from chessplayers (& what questions he doesn't want!), teaching children and not having them be afraid of being challenged, Kasparov's canards about the Deep Blue Team, his views on both the FIDE & USCF tournament rules & various time controls, and much else.  This is really a show worth hearing if you can possibly find the time today!

"Well, I must say that retiring from serious play before Viktor Korchnoi made me a little uneasy. When I first faced "Viktor the Terrible" in a serious game it was back in 1982 in Lucerne; I was 19 and he was 51. Now I'm a retiree and Korchnoi is still out there playing teenagers!
Of course overall it will bring back pleasant memories from the great old days. World championship matches, bright lights, great chess and great competition. In our own ways, all four of us have made huge contributions to our sport. But despite the festive occasion and the surplus of gentlemanly gray hair on the stage, I don't expect young Judit will be the only one with fighting spirit at the board."

Garry Kasparov talking about the event he is scheduled to play in later this year with Anatoly Karpov, Viktor Kortchnoi and Judit Polgar.

We are sorry to hear that long-time Mechanics' member Mike Goodall was in a serious car accident on his way to the US Open. We wish him a complete and speedy recovery.

2006 US Chess League Schedule

1. Aug 30th -   White vs Dallas Destiny (8:30 ET)
2. Sept 4th -    Black vs Miami Sharks (8:30 ET)
3. Sept 13th - Black vs Philadelphia Masterminds (8:30 ET)
4. Sept 20th - Black vs Dallas Destiny (8:30 ET)
5. Sept 27th - White vs Tennessee Tempo (8:30 ET)
6. Oct 2nd-    White vs New York Knights (8:30 ET)
7. Oct 11th -  White vs Seattle Sluggers (8:30 ET)
8. Oct 18th -  Black vs Tennessee Tempo (8:30 ET)
9. Oct 23rd -  White vs Seattle Sluggers (9:00 ET)
10. Nov 1 -    White vs Miami Sharks (8:30 ET)

The 2006 season of the US Chess League will feature new teams from Tennessee and Seattle. Our nothern neighbors look to have a formidable squad with GM Gregory Serper and IMs Georgy Orlov and Eric Tangborn manning the top boards. The MI team lineup has yet to be finalized. Team Captain John Donaldson needs to do some juggling to be able to field team that average 2400.5 per board and no higher. Curiously there are enough plenty players over 2425 in the Bay Area and below 2325 but almost no active players in between.

Recent Cal grad Vinay Bhat has been working his way back into form after several years of serious academic responsibilities. Vinay started off his summer tour in San Marino and Andorra then made 7 from 9 in the Pula Open before exploding in the Balaguer Open in Spain held July 17-26. There he scored 7 from 10 making his second GM norm. His  only loss in the last round where he was battling for first. Well done Vinay!

GM Delchev of Bulgaria was the tournament winner with 8 from 10.

Bhat,V (2409) - Sanuy Moncasi,A [A00]
XI Open Balaguer ESP (1), 17.07.2006

1.d3 e5 2.a3 Nf6 3.c4 a6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.g3 c6 6.Nf3 d6 7.Bg2 Bg4 8.h3 Bf5 9.d4 exd4 10.Nxd4 Be6 11.Nxe6 fxe6 12.b4 Ba7 13.0-0 0-0 14.e3 Qe7 15.Bb2 Nbd7 16.Qb3 Kh8 17.Rad1 Rf7 18.Ne2 Raf8 19.g4 d5 20.c5 Bb8 21.f4 e5 22.Ng3 exf4 23.Nf5 Qd8 24.exf4 Kg8 25.Qc3 h6 26.Rde1 Re8 27.Rxe8+ Qxe8 28.Re1 Qf8 29.Qd4 Kh7 30.Nh4 Re7 31.Rf1 g6 32.g5 Ne4 33.f5 Be5 34.fxg6+ Kg7 35.gxh6+ Kxh6 36.Qe3+ Ng5 37.Rxf8 1-0

Bhat,V (2409) - Granda Zuniga,J (2634) [E11]
XI Open Balaguer ESP (3), 19.07.2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Nbd2 0-0 5.a3 Be7 6.e4 d5 7.e5 Ne4 8.Bd3 Nxd2 9.Bxd2 dxc4 10.Bxc4 b6 11.Qe2 Bb7 12.0-0 a5 13.Rac1 Ra7 14.Rfd1 Na6 15.Be3 Qa8 16.Ne1 Rd8 17.Qg4 Nb8 18.Bxe6 fxe6 19.Qxe6+ Kf8 20.Rxc7 1-0

Castellanos,R (2479) - Bhat,V (2409) [C18]
XI Open Balaguer ESP (4), 20.07.2006

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 Ne7 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.Qg4 0-0 8.Bd3 Nbc6 9.Bg5 Qa5 10.Ne2 Ng6 11.0-0 Qa4 12.f4 c4 13.Bxg6 fxg6 14.Ra2 Bd7 15.h4 Rf5 16.Ng3 Qa5 17.Rf3 Qb6 18.Rf1 Nxe5 19.Qe2 Nf7 20.Raa1 h6 21.Nxf5 exf5 22.Be7 Re8 23.Rfe1 Nd6 24.Qe5 Ne4 25.Rab1 Qc6 26.Rxe4 fxe4 27.Qd6 Kf7 28.Qxc6 Bxc6 29.Bd6 Ke6 30.Be5 Re7 31.Kf2 Ba4 32.Rc1 Kf5 33.Kg3 h5 34.Kf2 Re6 35.Rb1 ½-½

Bhat,V (2409) - Kovchan,A (2498) [D83]
XI Open Balaguer ESP (5), 21.07.2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 0-0 6.Rc1 c5 7.dxc5 Be6 8.Nf3 Nc6 9.Ng5 Bg4 10.f3 e5 11.cxd5 exf4 12.dxc6 Qe7 13.fxg4 Qxe3+ 14.Be2 Rad8 15.Qc2 Nxg4 16.Nh3 f3 17.gxf3 Ne5 18.Kf1 Nxf3 19.Bxf3 Qxf3+ 20.Nf2 bxc6 21.h4 Qf4 22.Rd1 Bd4 23.Rh3 Bxc5 24.Nce4 Bd4 25.Rdd3 h5 26.Rdf3 Qe5 27.Rhg3 Qb5+ 28.Kg2 Qxb2 29.Qc4 Kg7 30.a3 Bxf2 31.Rxf2 Qd4 32.Qxc6 Rc8 33.Qf6+ Qxf6 34.Nxf6 Rc4 35.Nxh5+ Kh6 36.Nf4 Rd8 37.Rgf3 Rdd4 38.Kg3 Ra4 39.Rc2 Ra6 40.Rc7 f6 41.Ng2 Rda4 42.Ne3 g5 43.Nf5+ Kg6 44.Rg7+ Kh5 45.Rh7+ Kg6 46.Rg7+ Kh5 47.Rh7+ Kg6 48.Rh6+ Kf7 49.h5 Rxa3 50.Rh7+ Kf8 51.h6 Rxf3+ 52.Kxf3 Ra4 53.Ne7 f5 54.Ng6+ Ke8 55.Re7+ Kd8 56.h7 Ra3+ 1-0

Krivoshey,S (2500) - Bhat,V (2409) [D10]
XI Open Balaguer ESP (6), 22.07.2006

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Bf4 Nc6 6.e3 Bf5 7.Qb3 Na5 8.Qa4+ Bd7 9.Qc2 Rc8 10.Bd3 e6 11.Nf3 Bb4 12.0-0 h6 13.a3 Be7 14.Ne5 0-0 15.Qe2 Nc6 16.Rac1 Nxe5 17.dxe5 Nh7 18.Bb1 Re8 19.Qd3 Nf8 20.e4 d4 21.Qxd4 Ng6 22.Bg3 Bc5 23.Qd3 Bc6 24.Qe2 Bd4 25.Kh1 Bxe5 26.f4 Bd4 27.e5 Nh4 28.Bxh4 Ra8 ½-½

Bhat,V (2409) - Burmakin,V (2558) [B17]
XI Open Balaguer ESP (7), 23.07.2006

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Ng5 Ndf6 6.Bc4 Nh6 7.c3 Nd5 8.N1f3 g6 9.h3 Bg7 10.0-0 0-0 11.Re1 Nf5 12.Qe2 a5 13.a4 Qc7 14.Ne4 b6 15.g4 Nd6 16.Nxd6 Qxd6 17.Bxd5 Qxd5 18.c4 Qe6 19.Bg5 Qxe2 20.Rxe2 f6 21.Bf4 Ra7 22.Kg2 h5 23.Kg3 Rd8 24.Rae1 Bf8 25.Bd2 Kf7 26.Bc3 Bd7 27.b3 Rc8 28.Nd2 b5 29.Ne4 bxc4 30.bxc4 Rb8 31.Nc5 Bc8 32.gxh5 gxh5 33.Kh4 Bf5 34.f4 Bh6 35.Rf1 Rg8 36.Ne4 Rb7 37.Nc5 Ra7 38.Rb2 Bf8 39.Rf3 Rg1 40.Rb7 Rxb7 41.Nxb7 Rg2 42.Bxa5 Ra2 43.Nc5 e6 44.Bb6 Bxc5 45.Bxc5 Rxa4 46.Kxh5 Rxc4 47.Rb3 e5 48.Rb7+ Ke8 49.fxe5 fxe5 50.Re7+ Kd8 51.Rxe5 ½-½

Van Riemsdijk,H (2376) - Bhat,V (2409) [C18]
XI Open Balaguer ESP (8), 24.07.2006

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 Ne7 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.h4 Nbc6 8.h5 Qa5 9.Bd2 Bd7 10.h6 gxh6 11.Nf3 0-0-0 12.Bd3 c4 13.Be2 Ng8 14.Kf1 f6 15.Qe1 fxe5 16.Nxe5 Nxe5 17.dxe5 Ne7 18.Bxh6 Rhg8 19.a4 Be8 20.Bf3 Bg6 21.Ra2 Be4 22.Rh3 Bxf3 23.Rxf3 Nf5 24.Bf4 Rg4 25.g3 h5 26.Qb1 h4 27.Qb5 Qc7 28.a5 Rdg8 29.Ke2 a6 30.Qb4 Kb8 31.gxh4 Nxh4 32.Rg3 Nf5 33.Rxg4 Rxg4 34.Qf8+ Ka7 35.Kf3 Rg1 36.Rb2 Qxa5 37.Qf7 Qxc3+ 38.Be3+ Qxe3+ 0-1

Bhat,V (2409) - Baklan,V (2621) [E10]
XI Open Balaguer ESP (9), 25.07.2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 c5 4.d5 b5 5.Bg5 exd5 6.cxd5 d6 7.e4 a6 8.Bd3 Be7 9.Bf4 Bg4 10.Nbd2 Nbd7 11.h3 Bh5 12.0-0 0-0 13.Bc2 Nb6 14.g4 Bg6 15.Bg3 Re8 16.Re1 Nfd7 17.Rb1 a5 18.b3 b4 19.Nf1 a4 20.N3d2 axb3 21.axb3 Bh4 22.f4 Bxg3 23.Nxg3 Nxd5 24.f5 Qh4 25.Qf3 Ne5 26.Qf2 Nc3 27.Kg2 Ra2 28.Rbc1 h5 29.fxg6 fxg6 30.Nf3 Qe7 31.Nxe5 Qxe5 32.gxh5 Rf8 33.Qd2 Qd4 34.Qxd4 cxd4 35.Kg1 Rf3 36.Nf1 d3 37.Bd1 Rxh3 38.Re3 Rxe3 39.Nxe3 Re2 40.Nd5 Re1+ 41.Kf2 Rxd1 42.Rxd1 Nxd1+ 43.Ke1 Nc3 44.hxg6 Nxe4 45.Nxb4 Nc5 46.Kd2 Nxb3+ 47.Kxd3 Kf8 48.Kc4 Nc5 49.Kd5 Ke7 50.Nc6+ Kd7 51.Nd4 Na6 52.Nf5 Nc7+ 53.Ke4 Ne6 54.Kd5 Nf4+ 55.Ke4 Nxg6 56.Nxg7 Ne7 57.Nh5 d5+ 58.Ke5 Kc6 59.Nf4 Kc5 ½-½

Mirzoev,A (2523) - Bhat,V (2409) [D61]
XI Open Balaguer ESP (10), 26.07.2006

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c6 4.Qc2 Nd7 5.Bf4 Ngf6 6.e3 Be7 7.Nc3 h6 8.h3 0-0 9.Rd1 a6 10.a3 dxc4 11.Bxc4 b5 12.Ba2 a5 13.Ne5 Qb6 14.Bb1 Rd8 15.Nxd7 Rxd7 16.Ne4 Bb7 17.0-0 Nxe4 18.Qxe4 Kf8 19.Qh7 Bf6 20.a4 b4 21.Rc1 Ke7 22.Rc5 b3 23.Be5 Rd5 24.Bxf6+ Kxf6 25.Rc3 Rad8 26.Be4 R5d7 27.Bf3 Qb4 28.Ra1 c5 29.Bxb7 Qxb7 30.Rxc5 Rd5 31.Rc3 Rg5 32.e4 Rxd4 33.Rf3+ Ke7 34.Qg8 f6 35.Rc1 Rd8 36.Qh7 f5 37.Re3 Kf7 38.g3 Rg6 39.exf5 exf5 40.Rce1 Rdd6 41.Re8 Qd5 42.Qg8+ Kf6 43.Qf8+ Kg5 44.R8e5 Qf3 45.Qe7+ Rdf6 46.Rxa5 h5 47.Qe3+ Qxe3 48.Rxe3 Ra6 49.h4+ Kh6 50.Rxf5 Rg4 51.Rxb3 Raxa4 52.Rb8 Kg6 53.Rbb5 Rab4 54.Rxh5 Rxb2 55.Rxb2 Kxh5 56.Kg2 Kh6 57.Rb6+ Kh7 58.Kh3 Ra4 59.h5 Ra2 60.f4 Ra4 61.Kg4 Ra3 62.Kh4 Rf3 63.Kg4 Ra3 64.f5 Ra5 65.Kg5 Ra4 66.g4 Ra5 67.h6 gxh6+ 68.Rxh6+ Kg7 69.Rb6 Ra7 70.Rb5 Rc7 71.f6+ Kf7 72.Kf5 Ke8 1-0

Dave50 contributed the following piece to Mig's ChessNinja ( http://www.chessninja.com/) website.

Players interested in the psychology of the game, or in the nature of expertise itself, may want to read the following article, in the current issue of Scientific American:

Philip E. Ross, The Expert Mind (Scientific American, August 2006, 64-71). While the subject of the article is expertise and its origins, nearly all the examples are drawn from chess.

For those who have not yet seen this article, the arguments in it are as follows. The central thesis of the article is that experts are made, not born, and that the process of developing expertise involves studying at levels just beyond one’s current competence. The article cites several cases of players who became strong by studying the game, rather than by innate ability. It argues that practitioners in any field, including chess players, who work solely at one level of competence, are unlikely to advance beyond that level. By comparison, those who study until they reach a level of competence, and then study at the next level, will be able to surpass their competitors and achieve a higher level of expertise.

The article caveats this by acknowledging that the strongest players of the past were often more creative, in the sense that they had to develop technique on their own, and in some cases actually invented modern methods. Even so, the article tends to downplay their originality, arguing that even their creativity emerged from rigorous training. This argument is of course controversial, and one could respond that some players of the past single-handedly achieved skills that put them ahead of their time.

An interesting aspect of this thesis, which the article does not investigate, is that the human mind and the computer have radically different approaches to chess. The human mind develops long-term memory about positions, and the expert is apt to select only a among a range of higher-quality moves. By comparison, most computer programs still rely more on brute force computation than on qualitative selection.

Another point in the article that is worth noting is that expertise in one area does not necessarily translate into another. The article cites several instances of where expertise in fields that involve mathematics or logical reasoning is not correlated with ability in other areas that would make use of the same types of skills. In this sense, expertise in the human mind appears to be highly compartmentalized. This actually dovetails with the evidence that chess players who leave the game often go on to successful careers elsewhere. Their later success is not due to their ability at chess, but rather, their ability to engage in a similar learning process, so as to develop the expertise in their chosen professions.

Even though one may disagree with the article in places, or have some reservations about the strength of its statements, this piece makes for an interesting read.

A quick list of IMs to have lived in San Diego would bring up Jeremy Silman ( who grew up there), Cyrus Lakdawala (for twenty odd years the strongest player in town) and Larry D. Evans (more or less retired as a player but still very active as a teacher), but it would not be complete. Add to the list John Watson who lived there for many years before moving back to his native Nebraska and the late Frank Anderson.

Anderson, who might be the strongest San Diegan of them all, represented Canada in three Ollympiads, winning individual gold medals on board at Amsterdam 1954 and Munich 1958. A former Canadian champion he moved to San Diego sometime around the late 1960s. He didn't play too much in his his new home but he did influence the young Jeremy Silman who went to Anderson's home on many occasions to look at chess before the latter's passing in 1980. We would be interested in hearing from anyone who had contact with Anderson during his San Diego years.

Here is a sharp piece on Anderson that appeared in The Ottawa Journal (Wednesday, August17th, 1955):

HERE FOR CHESS TOURNEY
 

Relaxes After Game By Playing Another

by Eileen Turcotte of The Journal

How do chess champions relax after a tense, brain-buffeting tournament match?
Probably by playing another game of chess.
That's how 25 year-old Frank Anderson of Toronto, Canada's co-champion with Abe Yanofsky, likes to "cool off" after a hot contest.
Many champions do, he told The Journal shortly after arriving in Ottawa to take part in the Canadian Championship Tournament at the Chateau Laurier. It's the same principle that makes a runner keep moving for a while after a hard race.
Tournament games are usually limited to five hours at a stretch, with each player allowed 40 moves in two and a half hours.
"It's too strenuous to keep at it any longer", the youthful ace-chessman said. But a good fast game with lightning moves will refresh the expert's ultra-active mental reflexes.
Mr. Anderson started playing when he was 16, after bouts of rheumatic fever and arthritis kept him confined to his bed for several years.
And here's good news for beginners- he's a completely self-taught chess wizard, who learned his masterly game from books.
50 games by mail
Shortly afterwards he was playing by air mail with opponents all over the world. "Once I had 50 games going at once", he said. "Every day I'd get two or three moves in the mail, and it would keep me busy for a few hours figuring out my play. Each game lasted from four months to a year that way."
Although he kept files for record of every game[sic], he could remember his exact position in each one from memory."Any tournament player could", he insisted.
play Blindfolded.
This fantastic feat of memory was matched recently when he played eight blindfold games simultaneously. It only took him four hours to win all eight unseen games. "But I had a slight headache afterwards", he recalls.
When he can see the boards, he has played up to 40 games simultaneously, and is able to do a play-by-play post-mortem by memory on each one afterwards.
The slightly-built, bespectacled chess-master is a student in the honors course of mathematics and physics at the University of Toronto in his spare time away from chess.
He had planned to be a nuclear physicist, but lately became more interested in the actuarial profession. This Summer he's working for a Toronto insurance company in their actuarial department.
He's kept too busy with chess to have many other hobbies, but he enjoys a game of bridge or reading. His lightest literature choice is science fiction.

        CHESS & BOOKS
   with Fred Wilson
        This Week's Guest: IM (ICCF) JON EDWARDS
 

        "Fred Wilson's guest on Tuesday, Aug. 1st, 2006,  will be ICCF International Master JON EDWARDS.  Jon, who was both the 10th U.S. and 7th North American Invitational Correspondence Chess Champion, has written the superb autobiographical games collection, "The Chess Analyst" (Thinker's Press, 1998. $19.95), and has just completed what promises to be a fascinating and superbly illustrated beginners' book for all entitled "Chess for Visual Learners" (Wiley, Oct., 2006).  Jon has also created the terrific entertaining & instructive website http://www.queensac.com , which is loaded with FREE tutorials and much other useful information!  Please email good questions for JON EDWARDS about postal chess, chess book collecting (he has a great library!), opening research, chess teaching, etc. to fred@fredwilsonchess.com".

        Best in chess,  Fred Wilson

Garry Kasparov's piece Oil-and-Gas Empire appeared in the Opinion section of the Monday ( July 31st) Wall Street Journal. Those who queried  Kasparov's decision to give up tournament play for the job of reforming Russia might wonder about  his chances  of success,  but can't doubt his committment. In this opinion piece he laments what he sees as Russia's return to its old role as a primary provider of natural resources with top politicos enriching themselves at the expense of the common man.

"Oh! this opponent, this collaborator against his will, whose notion of Beauty always differs from yours and whose means (strength, imagination, technique) are often too limited to help you effectively! What torment, to have your thinking and your fantasy tied down by another person!"
Alexander Alekhine, foreword to Mes Problèmes et études d'échecs, Fred. Lazard, 1929

This Newsletter is coming out early due to a summer vacation, The next Newsletter will come out on August 16.

The last round of the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon looked like it would be uneventful going in. Tournament leader SM Craig Mar was a point ahead of his nearest challengers and had White against an opponent rated almost 500 points below him. Mar was much better for most of the game but when he incorrrectly won the Exchange his veteran opponent Victor Todortsev had a chance to cap a brilliant tournament but made a tragic blunder.

Mar ,C - Todortsev,V [E81]
Summer Tuesday Night Marathon San Francisco (8), 2006
[Donaldson]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 Na6 7.Qd2 c5 8.d5 Bd7 9.Bd3 Rb8 10.a3 Nc7 11.b4 cxb4 12.axb4 a6 13.Ba7 Ra8 14.Bb6 Qc8 15.Nge2 Be8 16.0-0 Nd7 17.Bd4 Ne5 18.f4 Nxd3 19.Qxd3 Bd7 20.f5 gxf5 21.Bxg7 Kxg7 22.exf5 f6 23.Nd4 Kh8 24.Rae1 Rf7 25.Ne6 Bxe6 26.fxe6 Rg7 27.Re2 Qe8 28.Ne4 Qg6 29.Rf3 Rag8 30.Ng3 Qxd3 31.Rxd3 Rg4 32.Nf5 R8g5 33.Nh6?!
White has been pushing Black around the whole game but here he starts to lose his way. 33.Nxe7! Rxc4 34.Rf3 looks much better.
33...Rxc4 34.Nf7+ Kg7 35.Nxg5 fxg5 36.g3
White cannot allow the exchange of Rooks: 36.Rf2 Rc1+ 37.Rf1 Rxf1+ 38.Kxf1 Kf6 and the pawns start dropping.The active looking  36.Rf3 leads nowhere 36...Nxd5 37.Rf7+ Kg6.
36...Ne8
36...Rxb4 37.Rf2 was White's idea.
37.Rb2 Nf6 38.Kf2 Kg6 39.Ke3 Re4+ 40.Kf2 Rc4 41.h3
On 41.Ke3 Black can test the waters by repeating or try ...Kf5.
41...h5 42.Ke1?
This does not look good.
42...g4 43.hxg4 hxg4 44.Kd1 Kf5
Now it is clear Black has more than enough compensation.
45.Rf2+ Ke5 46.Re3+ Re4 47.Rxe4+ Nxe4 48.Rf4
48.Rf7 Nc3+ 49.Kd2 Nxd5
48...Kxd5 49.Ke2 Nf6??
49...Nxg3+ 50.Kd3 Kxe6 51.Rxg4 Nf5 when White is struggling for a draw.
50.Rxf6 1-0

Mar finished on 7.5 from 8 and second place at 6.5 was taken by NM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs who defeated Berkeley Expert Larry Snyder in the last round.

Tuvshintugs,B - Snyder,L [C42]
Summer Tuesday Night Marathon San Francisco (8), 2006

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Bf4 Nd7 8.Qd2 Nc5 9.0-0-0 Bg4 10.Qe3 Ne6 11.Kb1 Nxf4 12.Qxf4 Be6 13.h4 Qd7 14.Qe3 Qa4 15.a3 Qa5 16.Nd4 Qd5 17.Bb5+ c6 18.c4 Qc5 19.Nxc6 Qxe3 20.Nd4+ Kd8 21.fxe3 a6 22.Nxe6+ fxe6 23.Ba4 Kc7 24.c5 Rad8 25.cxd6+ Bxd6 26.Rhf1 Rhf8 27.Bb3 e5 28.Bd5 Rxf1 29.Rxf1 Rf8 30.Rxf8 Bxf8 31.Kc1 b6 32.Kd2 a5 33.Kd3 Bd6 34.Ke4 Kd7 35.Bg8 h6 36.Kd5 Bc5 37.Ke4 Bd6 38.c3 Bc7 39.Kd5 Bd8 40.g3 Be7 41.Bh7 Bd8 42.Bf5+ Ke7 43.Kc6 Ke8 44.Be4 Ke7 45.b4 axb4 46.axb4 Ke6 47.b5 g5 48.h5 g4 49.c4 Bg5 50.c5 1-0
 

We are very happy to hear that Mike Goodall is doing much better. Peter Stevens writes:

            I spoke with Mike about 8:30 p.m..  He was in good spirits, has a fractured vertebra with no
            nerve damage, no facial injuries.  He hopes to come home in the next 1-3 days, and will have
            to wear a back brace for a while.
            Mike fell asleep while driving and hit a wall at 70 mph.  He'll probably be back to the Mechanics'
            Thursday bull sessions in a few weeks.
            The hospital phone # is (707) 546-3210. His home phone # is (415) 491-1269.

Many American players made the trip to Curacao with GM Jaan Ehlvest taking top honors.

1 Elhvest, Jaan        EST   2593   7.5
2 Ris, Robert          NED   2364   7
3 Zatonskih, Anna      USA   2432   6.5
   Werle, Jan           NED   2531   6.5
5 Shabalov, Alexander  USA   2604   6
   Tate, Emory          USA   2380   6
   Goletiani, Rusudan   USA   2404   6
   Bannink, Bernard     NED   2248   6
   Schut, Han           NED   2106   6

GMs Ildar Ibragimov, Sergey Kudrin and Alexander Ivanov tied for first at 4.5 from 6 in the Continental Open held last weekend in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

Closer to home IM Ricardo DeGuzman tied for first at 3-1 with Romulio Fuentes and Lev Pisarsky in the 3rd California Classic Championship in Cupertino.

Edmund Nash, originally Adam Edmund Nasierawski, was born Dec. 24, 1909 in Montreal, Canada
and died June 4, 2006 in Chevy Chase, MD. His residence was in D.C. He became a naturalized U.S.
 citizen on 1936. He attended Alliance Jr. college 1927-1929, got a BA from  U. of Wisconsin -Madison in 1932
and an MA there in 1938. He beat Bobby Fischer in the 1956 U.S. Amateur. His last rated event was the 2001 Eastern Open.
He was a division chief at the Bureau of Labor -statistics. He is survived by his daughter Carolyn Nash of San Francisco.

For 20 years I lived in Cleveland and visited the Library which has the largest  chess collection in the world. There was a World Championship match held in New York City and the games were COPYRIGHTED. That sounds like something Lasker would do, so I think it was in the Lasker-Steinitz match of 1894. The games were put on the "wire" and sold. Spectators were forced to sign an agreement concerning restriction of what they could do with the game scores. I would like the exact information.  The other two matches in New York were: Steinitz-Zuckertort 1886 and Lasker-Marshall 1907.  Question No. 2. In one of his later books translated into English, Mikhail Botvinnik said to the Soviet Chess Federation: "The next world champion should be a Soviet, like me, and not an Estonian, like Paul Keres" and he tells more.  I believe he said the same thing in another of his books. What were the books? If any Newsletter readers have the answers to either of these questions I will be happy to pass them along.

"No. you don't cheat anybody out of their experience, whatever it is. I promise you, it's all part of what makes you who you are down the road. And if a match is getting blown out one way or the other, you've got to learn from it and understand it for what it is. I've been on the other side of that. I wouldn't want to cheat anybody out of that experience."
Tennis great Andre Agassi, when asked whether he eased up on over matched opponents.

Ricardo DeGuzman won the 49-player Vladimir Pafnutieff Memorial G/45 held August 5th at the Mechanics'. The Filipino IM scored 5-0 to finish a point ahead of Batsaikhan Tserendorj, Josh Gutman, Kimani Stancil, Edward Perepletsky, James Jones and Zachary Cohn. Second seed NM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs was upset in round two by Alan Naroditsky. The next MI tournament is the Bernardo Smith Amateur for players under 1800, which will be this weekend. Next Tuesday is the start of the Paul Vayssie Memorial Tuesday Night Marathon.

Former World Champion Boris Spassky and his wife Marina will be guests of the Mechanics' Institute from September 28 to October 3. During this time Spassky will give a clock simul, lectures, answer questions, work with junior players and sign books. He will give a clock simul on Saturday, September 30 on 25 boards. Cost for the simul will be $100 (The same as the past two years in Reno). The simul starts at 2:00 PM. There are only 25 spots which will be allocated on a first-come first-serve basis, but to sign up before September 1, you must be a Mechanics' member.

Ten of the twenty five boards are gone after the few weeks so if you want to play don't delay.

Book and equipment donations to the Mechanics' are always welcome. All donations to the Mechanics' are tax deductible due to the M.I.'s 501(c) (3) nonprofit status. If you have any chess books or equipment that have been lying around unused for some time consider donating to the Mechanics'. You will not only get a tax write off but also the satisfaction of seeing things put to good use.

MI member Daniel Naroditsky recently ventured to Cuenca, Ecuador, for the Pan American Juniors where he won a bronze medal in the Under 12 Championships. Good job Daniel!

American Results- (medalists in bold)

Boys U18- Elliot Liu -7/9- Gold Medal!
Girls U18-Tatev Abrahayman - 9/0 Gold Medal!
Girls U16- Alisa Melekhina- 7/9- Silver Medal, Julia Kerr-6.5/9 and Nicole Maffeo-5.5/9
Boys U14- Alec Getz 6.5/9, Marc Arnold 6/9 and Christian Tanaka 4.5/9
Girls U14-Karsten McVay-4.5/9
Boys U12- Ray Robson-8/9- Silver Medal(tied for first, Silver on tiebreak), Daniel Naroditsky 6.5/9-Bronze Medal, Christopher Hueng-5/9 and Justin Karp-4/9.
Girls U12-Darrian Robinson and Helen Chu- 5/9
Boys U10-Darwin Yang-7.5/9-Silver Medal (tied for first, silver on tiebreak), Aleksander Ostrovskiy 6/9 and Aaron Schein-5/9
Girls U10- Eileen Dai- 7/9

Chicago GM Yury Shulman continued his successful run in 2006, adding the US Open title to his second place finish in the US Championship. Shulman, who teaches chess to kids for a living, was undefeated with 8 from 9, drawing only GM Joel Benjamin in round 6 and in the final round with 15-year-old Peruvian IM Emilio Cordova. His key victory was in round 8 against GM Alex Shabalov. For his efforts Shulman won $6,000.

Tying for second at 7 1/2  in the event, which attracted over 500 players to the Doubletree Inn in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, were Shabalov, Benjamin, Cordova, GMs Gregory Kaidanov, John Fedorowicz, Giorgi Kacheishvili, Dmitry Gurevich, Zviad Izoria , IM  Alfonso Almeida and NM  Michael Aigner. Yes, you read it right,  Michael Aigner of  Davis tied for second in a career best event. Well done Michael! Here is what he posted on the CalChess website.

Hello chess friends!

Oh my goodness!!! I just received a prize check for SECOND PLACE in the US Open in Chicago. I scored 7.5 out of 9 and finished tied with seven GMs and two IMs (top player under 2400 USCF). GM Yury Shulman took first place a half point ahead.

final standings: http://www.chessforlife.com/chess/mergstand9.html

Highlights:
* Tied for second overall.
* Clear first U2400 ($2000).
* Defeated IM Tim Taylor in round 8.
* Drew GM John Fedorowicz in round 9.
* Only defeat came against GM Zviad Izoria in round 5, ranked #50 in world.
* New USCF lifetime peak rating of about 2340.
* FIDE rating up to approximately 2299, almost enough for FIDE master.
* Interviewed for Chess Life and live video on Internet Chess Club.

My longtime student Daniel Schwarz had his ups and downs. He started well and finished well but struggled in between. His score of 7.0/9 in the US Open was good for a share of second place U2400 (behind me). He also ended up with 3.5/6 in Denker after a disappointing last round game. Nonetheless, he stands to earn roughly a 10 point rating gain from this week.

Review all nine games from the 2006 US Open in Chicago. I got really lucky at least twice (Mattson and Taylor) and had a couple nice wins too (Selzler and Ballard). I played three titled players, losing to GM Izoria, defeating IM Taylor and drawing with GM Fedorowicz.

To learn more about Michael go to his website at www.fpawn.com/chess. Incidentally Joel Benjamin and I both thought that Michael had the neatest score sheets of anyone competing in the Open.

Shabalov,A - Kacheishvili,G
107th Annual 2006 US Open Chicago (7), 11.08.2006

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Be3 e6 5.Nd2 Nd7 6.Be2 Ne7 7.Ngf3 Qb6 8.0-0 Qxb2 9.Rb1 Qxa2 10.Rxb7 Nc8 11.c4 dxc4 12.Bxc4 Qa3
13.d5! exd5 14.Nd4! Nc5 15.Nb5! cxb5 16.Bxb5+ Bd7 17.Bxc5 Bxc5 18.Bxd7+ Kf8 19.Bxc8 Rxc8 20.Ne4 Rd8 21.Nxc5 Qxc5 22.Qf3 f6 23.Qh5 1-0

Benjamin,J - Kaidanov,G
107th Annual 2006 US Open Chicago (7), 11.08.2006

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.c3 g6 7.Bg5 Bg7 8.Nbd2 0-0 9.Nf1 Bd7 10.Ne3 Ne7 11.Bb3 c6 12.Bxf6 Bxf6 13.h4 h5 14.g4 hxg4 15.Nd2 Kg7 16.Nxg4 Ng8 17.Qf3 Bxh4 18.0-0-0 Bg5 19.Rdg1 Nf6 20.Ne3 Bxe3 21.Qxe3 Rh8 22.f4 Ng4 23.Qf3 Rxh1 24.Rxh1 exf4 25.Qh3 Qh8 26.Qf3 Qd8 27.Qxf4 Qe7 28.Nc4 d5 29.exd5 cxd5 30.Nb6 Rh8 31.Qd4+ f6 32.Rxh8 Kxh8 33.Nxd7 Qxd7 34.Qxd5 Qxd5 35.Bxd5 b6 36.Kd2 Kg7 37.c4 Kf8 38.d4 Ke7 39.Bf3 Nh6 40.b4 Nf5 41.Kd3 Nh4 42.Bb7 a5 43.bxa5 bxa5 44.c5 f5 45.d5 f4 46.d6+ Kd7 47.Ke4 1-0

Almeida,A - Shulman,Y
107th Annual 2006 US Open Chicago (7), 11.08.2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 e6 3.e4 h6 4.Bxf6 Qxf6 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.Qd3 d5 7.e5 Qd8 8.a3 Be7 9.f4 b6 10.0-0-0 Ba6 11.Qg3 0-0 12.Bxa6 Nxa6 13.f5 exf5 14.Qd3 Nb8 15.Qxf5 b5 16.Nf3 b4 17.axb4 Bxb4 18.e6 Bxc3 19.bxc3 Qd6 20.exf7+ Rxf7 21.Qe5 Qc6 22.c4 dxc4 23.d5 Qa4 24.Qc3 Nd7 25.Rd4 Nb6 26.Ne5 Rf5 27.Nxc4 Nxd5 28.Qb2 Qe8 29.Rhd1 Nf4 30.Qa2 Ne2+ 31.Kd2 Kh8 32.Rd3 Rf2 33.Re3 Qd8+ 34.Ke1 Rf1+ 35.Kxf1 Qxd1+ 36.Kf2 Rf8+ 37.Rf3 Qg1+ 0-1

Shulman,Y - Shabalov,A [D15]
US Open Chicago, USA Chicago, USA (8), 12.08.2006

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.a4 e6 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 dxc4 8.a5 c5 9.Bxf6 Qxf6 10.d5 Qd8 11.Ne5 Nd7 12.Nxc4 Be7 13.dxe6 fxe6 14.g3 b5 15.axb6 Bb7 16.e4 0-0 17.Bh3 Rf6 18.Qb3 Nb8 19.Rd1 Qf8 20.Ne5 Rxf2 21.Qxe6+ Kh7 22.Qg6+ Kh8 23.Qg4 Kh7 24.Ng6 Qf6 25.Nxe7 Nc6 26.Ned5 Qf7 27.Nf4 Bc8 28.Rd7 Bxd7 29.Qxd7 Qxd7 30.Bxd7 1-0

Cordova,E - Benjamin,J [A45]
US Open Chicago, USA (8), 12.08.2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 d5 3.e3 c6 4.Nd2 Qb6 5.Rb1 Bf5 6.Bd3 Bg6 7.f4 Bxd3 8.cxd3 Nbd7 9.Ngf3 h6 10.Bxf6 exf6 11.0-0 Bd6 12.b4 a6 13.Qb3 0-0 14.Nh4 Rfe8 15.Qd1 Bf8 16.Qg4 Re6 17.Rf3 Rae8 18.Nf1 Qb5 19.Rd1 Qxb4 20.Rg3 c5 21.Nf5 g6 22.Nh4 R6e7 23.Nf5 cxd4 24.Nxe7+ Rxe7 25.f5 g5 26.Qxd4 Qxd4 27.exd4 Re2 28.Re3 Rxa2 29.Re8 h5 30.Rd8 Nb6 31.Re1 1-0

NM Nelson Lopez and Abby Marshall  won the Arnold Denker and Susan Polgar tournaments, open to High School boys and girls, held concurrently with the US Open. MI member Louiza Livshitz of San Ramon tied for second in the Polgar with 5 from 6 while Nor Cal Denker representative Daniel Schwarz was among the leaders but lost in the last round to finish 10th with 3 1/2 points. Good job Louiza!

International Arbiter Mike Goodall, who directed over 100 hundred tournaments at the Mechanics Institute in the 1960, 70s, 80s and 90s, is making an excellent but slow recovery from his car accident in early August. Mike is currently undergoing rehab at the Kentfield Hospital  (1125 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in Kentfield in Marin County) . He expects to be there for several months and warmly welcomes visitors. Michael's phone number is (415) 485-3502 and his room number is 122B .

Chess author, arbiter and organizer, FM Eric Schiller has been released from hospital and is recuperating at home following a stroke. He is expected to recover fully but for some time will be unable to travel. He will be offering lessons at his home in Moss Beach, California and via Internet conferencing during his recovery to help cover his considerable medical bills. While he welcomes all assistance, he would prefer that those wanting to help take some lessons.
FM Schiller can be reached at eric@ericschiller.com and has a website at www.ericschiller.com. His latest book, the Big Book of Chess, is an introductory book about chess aimed especially at parents and new chess players. He writes regularly for www.chesscountry.com. Eric hopes to be back in action at the Gibraltar Chess Congress in January and looks forward to seeing his many chess friends there.

The absence of US Open stalwart Mike Goodall prompted Cal Chess President Richard Koepcke to appoint me a delegate for Northern California for the USCF annual meetings. Prior to the invention of the laptop such assignment could have been considered cruel and unusual punishment but no more. During the meetings in Oak Brook it looked like half the Delegates were happily and productively multi-tasking. The meeting was pretty quiet but here are a few of the highlights.
Among the winners at the annual awards luncheon was longtime Western States Open organizer Jerry Weikel of Reno whose 1999 US Open was the strongest in the series with 27 GMs participating.
Congratulations also goes to the World Champion of chess archivists Jeremy Gaige and the chess author and popularizer Irving Chernev who will be inducted into the US Hall of Fame at the US Open in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, next August.
The late Soviet GM Alexander Kotov, who advocated writing down one's move before playing it on the board, would be displeased with the USCF edict that henceforth such action will be considered note taking and not permitted. FIDE implemented the decision a few years ago but domestic action seems to have been spurred by a desire for consistency with the Monroi electronic score keeping devices that have been appearing at major tournaments of late. The latter produced some enthusiastic responses inn Oak Brook but at $359 a pop many would be purchasers appear to be looking for a price drop.
Another rule change that appears right around the corner is one barring headphones of any kind except hearing aids during tournament play. Newly anointed Executive Board member Sam Sloan proposed such legislation which was sent to committee  The consensus among Delegates was not if the ban will be enacted but how soon.
There was a unanimous decision to award up to $10,000 to NM Beatriz Marinello. Marinello, who is a current EB member and former President, is suffering from a serious kidney disease that prevented her from attending the meetings in Chicago. This is the third time in the approximately 15 year existence of the Professional Chess Players Health and Benefits Fund that moneys have been earmarked. Previous recipients were IM John Watson and the late GM Igor Ivanov.

The USCF currently has about $500,000 in the bank about $150,000 of which is tied up with the new USCF building in Crossville, Tennessee.

"Being a chess player is much more like being an artist. It's a bohemian life, and I could have gone that way. But I am happy I chose to pursue economics. Why did I give up chess? The reason was threefold: I wanted to do something important with my life; I didn't want to travel so much; and I didn't think it was great for my social life. Then, of course, I became an academic  economist, which seemed to share the same three faults."
GM Kenneth Rogoff, Director of the IMF's Research Department, speaking about his career in an interview in November 2001.

The Mechanics' Institute team for the US League, which starts a week from this Wednesday, is

1. IM Josh Friedel
2. IM Vince McCambridge
3. IM Vinay Bhat
4. IM David Pruess
5. IM-elect Dmitry Zilberstein
6. NM Mark Pinto
7. Sam Shankland
8. Daniel Naroditsky

with John Donaldson serving as team captain. League rules require that teams average no more than 2400.5 so the first five will divide duties on boards 1-3 and numbers 5-8 on board 4.

Zachary Cohn and Jason Gurtoway divided top honors in the 2nd Annual Bernardo Smith Amateur held August 19-20. Tying for second, half a point behind the winner's 5-1 score, were Ewelina Krubnik and Steve Liu. 36 players competed in the event directed by Anthony Corrales and John Donaldson.

Former World Champion Boris Spassky and his wife Marina will be guests of the Mechanics' Institute from September 28 to October 3. During this time Spassky will give a clock simul, lectures, answer questions, work with junior players and sign books. He will give a clock simul on Saturday, September 30 on 25 boards. Cost for the simul will be $100 (The same as the past two years in Reno). The simul starts at 2:00 PM. There are only 25 spots which will be allocated on a first-come first-serve basis.

The Paul Vayssie Memorial Tuesday Night Marathon starts this evening. All those who enter this TNM also have the benefit of a free lecture by Boris Spassky on Tuesday night, October 3 from 5:15 to 6:15.

At a meeting of the USCF Executive Board in Chicago on Monday August
14, 2006, Bobby Fischer was reinstated as a member of the United
States Chess Federation.

The motion by new Executive Board Member Sam Sloan provided that Executive Board motion EB 02-40, that had passed in 2002 by the Objections Procedure without a formal vote by the board, was vacated and reversed. Since that motion had expelled Bobby Fischer from membership because of his statements on 9/11, this means that Fischer is a USCF member again.

The vote was passed by 4-1-2. Voting in favor were Sam Sloan, Bill Goichberg, Beatriz Marinello and Robert Tanner. Joel Channing voted against. Don Schultz and Randy Hough abstained.

Beatriz Marinello, speaking by speaker phone, made an especially strong statement as to why Bobby Fischer should be reinstated.

At issue was EB 02-40, which was reported in the 2002 Delegates Call
but not in the minutes and which provided the following at
http://www.uschess.org/docs/pdf/15EBactionsvolex02.PDF

    "The US Chess Federation informs Grandmaster Robert J. Fischer
that, because of his deplorable public remarks in support of terrorist
actions, his right to membership in the United States Chess Federation
is cancelled. The Interim Executive Director is asked to write to FIDE
and to the US Chess Trust about this action and about the public
remarks of Mr. Fischer, with a request that those organizations join
with the USCF in condemnation of these remarks." PASSED BY THE
OBJECTIONS PROCEDURE

Among the reasons the reasons given in support of the motion were that Fischer has
the right of Freedom of Speech, plus the Objections Procedure is
intended only for routine non-controversial motions and this motion
clearly was not one of those. Thus, the expulsion of Fischer was
improper.

Bill Goichberg pointed out that even mass murderers serving life
sentences in prison are allowed to be USCF members and to play rated
games and Fischer has never even been charged with a crime.

Beatriz Marinello strongly defended Fischer's right to Freedom of
Speech.

Joel Channing, speaking against the motion, stated that it would be
bad for the image of the USCF to have someone such as Mr. Fischer as a
member.

Don Schultz abstained, saying that he believes that Fischer has
renounced his membership, but is not sure.

The remarks by Don Schultz were apparently based on the transcript of
the third press conference, held on September 14, 1992 in Yugoslavia
during the 1992 Fischer Spassky Match in which Fischer famously
stated, among other things, "I would appreciate it if all of my fans
canceled their subscriptions to their horrible magazine Chess Life -
I call it Chess Lies."

However, none of his statements at that press conference could
reasonably be considered to be a renunciation of his USCF membership.
In addition, it is doubtful whether statements made at a press
c