Newsletter #352, 07/05/2007
"Fischer was an individual and so was I. Today, these players have
coaches, physicians, cooks, psychologists, and parapsychologists. The championship
has become a fight between two big collective farms."
Boris Spassky
FM Frank Thornally and Expert Murray Newcomb lead the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon with 5.5 from 6 with two rounds to go. Thornally, who grew up in the Bay Area and played for the US team in the 1968 and 1969 Student Olympiads, is well known to MI members but Newcomb is not. Murray is a recent arrival from Maryland and has been playing in every MI event he can find in his quest to become a Master. Mr. Newcomb has been as high as 2187 in the past fifteen years, but his rating was down to 1998 when he showed up at the MI. Since then, It's been climbing every event and he is now solidly in the Expert category. We wish him well on his quest.
IM Ricardo DeGuzman, NM Peter Zavadsky, and Expert Gregory Young tied for first at 4.5 from 5 in the 58-player seventh annual William Addison Open. The result was particularly fine for twelve-year-old Gregory who defeated NM Michael Aigner and drew with DeGuzman. This result puts Gregory solidly over 2100. The event marked a return to the tournament arena by the Krubnik sisters, Ewelina and Emilia, the later upset a player rated 800 points above her! We even had a Christiansen playing in the Addison, but it was Larry's wife, Natasha and not the GM himself.
For those who don't know, William Addison is an IM who played twice for the United States Olympic team in the 1960s and had a plus score over 50 games played in US Championships during the same decade. Addison, who is still an MI member, served as Chess Director at the Mechanics' in the late 1960s. The first player of International standard to live in California was the late Herman Steiner who came to the Golden State in the mid 1930s. He was followed some years after by Isaac Kashdan, but both of them were already well established players when they arrived. Addison, who moved from his native Louisiana to San Francisco in the early 1950s, was a low Expert when he first stepped through the doors of the Mechanics'. The next decade, by dint of hard work with no outside support, he developed into one of the top eight players in the country.
Below find the playing schedule for the Konig, subject to minor modifications. The public is welcome to attend. Note that Mr. and Mrs. Atalik and GM Yermolinsky will be playing in the Canadian Open in Ottawa until July 15th which explains the scheduling.
Konig Scheveningen Schedule
7/9 Monday 6:30 PM
Stein (1) - Baburin (1)
7/10 Tuesday 1 PM
Fedorowicz (1) - Pruess (1)
7/11 Wednesday 5 PM
Friedel (1) - Fedorowicz (2)
7/11 Wednesday 6:30 PM
Baburin (2) - Pruess (2)
7/12 Thursday 5 PM
Fedorowicz (3) - Stein (2)
7/12 Thursday 6:30 PM
Friedel (2) - Baburin (3)
7/13 Friday 5 PM
Pruess (3) - Fedorowicz (4)
7/13 Friday 6:30 PM
Baburin (4) - Stein (3)
7/15 Sunday 10 AM
Zilberstein (1) - Baburin (5)
Mezentsev (1) - Fedorowicz (5)
7/15 Sunday 3 PM
Fedorowicz (6) - Zilberstein (2)
Baburin (6) - Mezentsev (2)
7/16 Monday 12 PM
Baburin (7) - Zilberstein (3)
Fedorowicz (7) - Mezentsev (3)
7/16 Monday 5 PM
Zilberstein (4) - Fedorowicz (8)
Mezentsev (4) - Baburin (8)
7/17 Tuesday 12 PM
Fedorowicz (9) - Friedel (3)
Pruess (4) - Baburin (9)
K.Atalik (1) - Stein (4)
S.Atalik (1) - Mezentsev (5)
Yermolinsky (1) - Zilberstein (5)
7/18 Wednesday 12 PM
Stein (5) - Fedorowicz (10)
Baburin (10) - Friedel (4)
Pruess (5) - S.Atalik (2)
Yermolinsky (2) - Mezentsev (6)
K.Atalik (2) - Zilberstein (6)
7/18 Wednesday 5 PM
Stein (6) - Yermolinsky (3)
S.Atalik (3) - Zilberstein (7)
Mezentsev (7) - K.Atalik (3)
7/19 Thursday 12 PM
Mezentsev (8) - S.Atalik (4)
Zilberstein (8) - Yermolinsky (4)
K.Atalik (4) - Pruess (6)
7/19 Thursday 5 PM
Zilberstein (9) - S.Atalik (5)
Mezentsev (9) - Yermolinsky (5)
Friedel (5) - K.Atalik (5)
7/20 Friday 12 PM
K.Atalik (6) - Mezentsev (10)
7/20 Friday 5 PM
Zilberstein (10) - K.Atalik (7)
7/24 Tuesday 12 PM
Yermolinsky (6) - Pruess (7)
S.Atalik (6) - Friedel (6)
Stein (7) - K.Atalik (8)
7/24 Tuesday 5 PM
Friedel (7) - Yermolinsky (7)
S.Atalik (7) - Stein (8)
Pruess (8) - K.Atalik (9)
7/25 Wednesday 12 PM
Yermolinsky (8) - Stein (9)
S.Atalik (8) - Pruess (9)
K.Atalik (10) - Friedel (8)
7/25 Wednesday 5 PM
Stein (10) - S.Atalik (9)
Yermolinsky (9) - Friedel (9)
7/26 Thursday 12 PM
Pruess (10) - Yermolinsky (10)
Friedel (10) - S.Atalik (10)
The 35th World Open, held in King of Prussia, PA, from June 28 to July 4 saw nine GMs tie for first at 6 1/2 from 9. They were: Varuzhan Akobian, Leonid Yudasin, Hikaru Nakamura, Chanda Sandipan, Alexander Stripunsky, Victor Mikhalevski, Julio Becerra, Evgeni Najer, and US Champion Alex Shabolov.
Several Mechanics' members competed in the ultra tough open section with 35 GMs. Our top finishers were Josh Friedel and Batchimeg Tuvshingtugs with 5 from 9. Josh was hoping for more, and if not for a last round loss with black against GM Alexander Ivanov, he would have been among the prize winners. Batchimeg (aka Chimi), had a very eventful tournament. She started slowly but beat IMs Bonin and Simutowe in the last two rounds, showing excellent endgame technique.
Bonin,J (2374) - Tuvshintugs,B (2275)
World Open 2007 King of Prussia USA (8), 04.07.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.Qa4+
Nc6 8.e3 0-0 9.Rc1 Bd7 10.cxd5 exd5 11.Qb3 Rfe8 12.Be2 Qg6 13.0-0 Bh3 14.Ne1
Rad8 15.Kh1 Bf5 16.Bf3 Be6 17.Ne2 Bd6 18.Nd3 Na5 19.Qc3 b6 20.Nef4 Qg5
21.b4 Nc4 22.Nxd5 Bxd5 23.Bxd5 Qxd5 24.Qxc4 Qh5 25.h3 Re4 26.Rc2 Rde8 27.Qc6
R4e6 28.Qf3 Qb5 29.Qe2 Re4 30.Qd2 Qf5 31.Ne5 Rxe3 32.Qxe3 Qxc2 33.Qb3 Qxb3
34.axb3 Bxe5 35.Re1 f6 36.f4 Kf7 37.dxe5 fxe5 38.fxe5 Ke6 39.Re4 Kd5 0-1
Tuvshintugs,B (2275) - Simutowe,A (2460)
World Open 2007 King of Prussia USA (9), 04.07.2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.f4 Qb6
8.Nb3 h6 9.Bxf6 Nxf6 10.Be2 Qe3 11.Qd2 Qxd2+ 12.Nxd2 g5 13.e5 dxe5 14.fxe5
Nd7 15.Nd5 Ra7 16.e6 Nf6 17.exf7+ Kxf7 18.Nb6 Bf5 19.0-0-0 e6 20.Ndc4 Bc5
21.Rhf1 h5 22.Nd6+ Kg6 23.Nbc8 Bxd6 24.Nxd6 Rd8 25.Nxf5 Rxd1+ 26.Kxd1 exf5
27.Bd3 Ne4 28.Bxe4 fxe4 29.Ke2 b5 30.Ke3 Rc7 31.Rf2 Rc4 32.c3 h4 33.Rd2
Kh5 34.Rd4 Rc8 35.Rxe4 Rc6 36.a4 bxa4 37.Rxa4 Rb6 38.Ra2 Re6+ 39.Kd3 Rd6+
40.Ke3 Re6+ 41.Kd3 Rd6+ 42.Kc2 Rf6 43.b4 Rf1 44.c4 Rh1 45.h3 g4 46.hxg4+
Kxg4 47.c5 Rf1 48.Kb3 Kf5 49.Rc2 Ke6 50.c6 Rf8 51.Ka4 Kd6 52.c7 Rc8 53.Ka5
1-0
One interesting feature of this years event was an under 2400 section
which attracted a large number of lower rated IMs looking at a chance for
glory not possible when playing with the big boys. Eleven-year-old MI stalwart
Daniel
Naroditsky had a tremendous performance, scoring 6 out of 9. Daniel
somehow won two games by forfeit (how come this never happens to me!),
but in the seven games he played, he had a performance rating of 2354 to
pick up 30 rating points and move up to 2180. Daniel is now about 200 points
higher than any boy his age in the US.
Frank K. Berry 2007 US Women's Chess Championship
Over the week of July 16-20, 2007, ten of the top American women chess
players will compete in a round-robin tournament in Stillwater, Oklahoma,
to determine the Frank K. Berry 2007 US Women's Chess Champion along with
a $7,000 first place prize. Also up for grabs will be three World
Championship qualification places. and various players have the possibility
of obtaining Woman Grandmaster and Woman International Master norms!
Competing in the Championship are:
FKB 2007 USA Women’s Ch USCF FIDE
July
1. Krush, Irina (WGM, IM) 2497 2479
2. Zatonskih, Anna (WGM, IM) 2491 2462
3. Baginskaite, Camilla (WGM) 2361 2328
4. Rohonyan, Katerine (WGM) 2304 2316
5. Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg (WIM) 2275 2236
6. Abrahamyan, Tatev (WFM) 2258 2237
7. Battsetseg, Tsagaan (WIM) 2234 2241
8. Melekhina, Alisa (WFM) 2168 2099
9. Airapetian, Chouchanik (WFM) 2157 2162
10. Vicary, Elizabeth (WFM) 2155 2148
Average Ratings: 2290 2270
Top 20 in the World
1. Anand 2792
2. Kramnik 2769
3. Topalov 2768
4. Ivanchuk 2762
5. Morozevich 2758
6. Mamedyarov 2755
7. Leko 2751
8. Aronian 2750
9. Radjabov 2746
10-12. Jakovenko, Shirov and Svidler 2735
13. Gelfand 2733
14. Adams 2731
15. Grischuk 2726
16. Kamsky 2717
17. Carlsen 2710
18. Akopian 2708
19. Polgar 2707
20. Ponomariov 2706
Top US players:
1. Kamsky 2718
2. Onishuk 2650
3. Nakamura 2647
4. Shabalov 2637
5. Seirawan 2634
6. Ehlvest 2629
7. Shulman 2610
8. Ibragimov 2599
9. Kaidanov 2596
10.Stripunsky 2589
Irina Krush is the 14th highest rated woman in the world at 2479
and Anna Zatonskih is number 22 at 2462.
In 2007 the USCF will hold an election to elect three (3) members to
the USCF Executive Board for terms of four (4) years beginning at the conclusion
of the 2007 Delegates Meeting and one (1) member to complete the remaining
two (2) years of Robert Tanner's term, effective with the certification
of election results.
The 10 candidates, in the order in which they will appear on the ballot,
are:
Susan Polgar
Randy Bauer
Mike Goodall
Joe Lux
Sam Sloan
Stephen Jones
Paul Truong
Jim Berry
Don Schultz
Mikhail Korenman
Voting members who receive Chess Life will receive their ballots with the June issue. (It will be a cover wrap around the magazine.) Voting members who do not receive Chess Life, such as additional family members who are 16 or older, will receive their ballots via first-class mail in early June. Voting members who join or renew in May will also receive their ballots via first-class mail in early June.
All told, ballots will have been sent to 39,880 voting members, including 2163 ballots in the supplemental mailing that will go out via first class mail around June 8th. Voting members who have not received a ballot by June 25th should contact Pat Knight at the USCF office to request a replacement ballot.
The ballots will be counted in July. The ballot counting will commence
at the USCF offices in Crossville TN on Wednesday, July 25th, under the
supervision of the Chief Teller, Frank Camaratta. Any USCF member is welcome
to observe the ballot counting. Preliminary results will be released by
the USCF office by the 12 USCF regions as those regions are completed.
Vassily Ivanchuk had yet another brilliant tournament in winning this super strong event held in the Crimean section of the Ukraine, but the story for Americans was the excellent performance of Grandmaster Alex Onishuk who rebounded from a first round loss to tie for third place, despite being the lowest rated player in the tournament. Alex's performance rating was in the rating neighborhood of 2735.
This is the sort of tournament we need to have in the United States for our best players. Big Swiss tournaments are very helpful in developing talent to a certain level, but to rise much about 2600 and especially to make it into the 2700s, there's no substitute for meeting super strong GMs round after round with a playing schedule of one game a day.
Final Standings:
1. Ivanchuk – 7½
2. Karjakin – 7
3-6. Shirov, Onischuk, Van Wely and Svidler
6 7. Dominguez – 5½
8.Rublevsky – 5
9-10. Jakovenko and Eljanov 4½
11-12. Sasikiran and Nisipeanu – 4
Norm hunters and those just looking to play a very interesting tournament in a new local, will definitely want to check out the Miami Open scheduled for late September. IM Blas Lugo deserves major congratulations for putting together this event. Look for complete details below under upcoming events.
IM Mark Ginsburg of Tucson writes:
i am constructing a 'life essay' of games and personalities at the above
site. Some of the historical reminiscences will necessarily
be incomplete so a blog comment feature is ideal for corrections &
augmentations!
Check Mark's site out at: http://nezhmet.wordpress.com/
Mechanics' IMs will have their work cut out for them at the Konig. Two of the GMs, in particular, are in excellent shape. Suat Atalik recently tied for first in a very strong tournament in Serbia, finishing ahead of Karpov. The Irish Bear, Alex Baburin, won the Liechtenstein Open and then placed highly in the European Union Championship in Aosta, Italy. Note the fine placing of Italian-American teenager Fabiano Caruana.
Final standings:
1-2. Sedlak, Godena – 8 points
3-6. Luther, Caruana, Baburin, Cebalo
– 7½
7-9. Sulskis, Sulava, Llaneza Vega – 7
etc.
GM Baburin, who gave an excellent lecture at the Mechanics' on Tuesday night, is the chief editor and publisher of the excellent online daily Chess Today. Each issue features four to six pages of recent annotated games, tournament reports, book reviews, editorials, and more. Alex is offering a special rate to MI members of $25 for a six month subscription, (over 180 issues). This price is a discount of 30% over the normal subscription rate. Sign up in person at the MI any time in the next two weeks.
The following game, which makes one think of the old fashioned king hunts of long ago, was recently published in Chess Today. I've truncated the notes:
Ahn,Martin (2302) - Ruck,Tamas (2334) [C45]
BEL-chT 0607 Belgium (9), 01.10.2006
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nb3 Bb6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Bg5
h6 8.Bh4 d6 9.a4?
9.Qe2 occurred in the last tiebreak rapid game Rublevsky-Grischuk in
Elista (and also in Ivanchuk-Morozevuch, Morelia/Linares 2007, etc.
9...Nxe4!!N
In 1992, GM Inkiov played 9...a6 against GM Smirin; 9...g5 was
used too. The text just refutes White's 9th.
10.Bxd8
After 10.Qh5 White hardly has any compensation for the pawn. E.g. 10...g6!?
11.Bxd8 gxh5 12.Nxe4 Kxd8 13.a5 Nxa5 14.Nxa5 Re8]
10...Bxf2+ 11.Ke2 Bg4+ 12.Kd3 Ne5+!!
The main point of the combination.
13.Kxe4 f5+ 14.Kd5 Rxd8!-+
Now Black's main threat is 15...Ke7 with inevitable mate.
15.Qxg4 c6+! 16.Ke6 0-0!
Very spectacular! And also somewhat stronger than 16...fxg4 17.Kf5
17.Nd5
If 17.Qxf5, then Rfe8#
17...fxg4 18.Bd3 g6
18...Rde8+!? wins in a more forced way;
while 18...Rf7! (with the idea of 19...Re8+, 20...Rd7#) was the simplest.
But, generally, everything is good for Black here
19.Rhf1 Kg7 20.Nd4 Rfe8+ 21.Ne7 Bh4 22.Bxg6 Rxe7+ 23.Kf5 Rf8+ 24.Ke4
Nxg6+ 25.Kd3 Ne5+ 26.Kc3 Bf2 0-1
Three years ago, IM Igor Khmelnitsky, a three time participant
in the US Championship, wrote the original and well received Chess
Exam and Training Guide which won the 2005 Cramer Award for the
best chess book produced in the United States. Now Igor has a new book
out, Chess Exam and Training Guide: Tactics. Find out all
about it at:
http://www.iamcoach.com/chess/Exam/additional_info_on_exam2.htm#Reviews
"Simple positions give an inexperienced player an opportunity not
only to understand, but also to feel deeply what each piece is able to
do."
Vassily Smyslov
FM Frank Thornally defeated Expert Murray Newcomb last night and leads the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon with 6.5 from 7. He will face NM Andy Lee, who has 6 points, in the last round. Tied for third are Expert Victor Ossipov and Class A player Brendan Purcell. The latter is having an excellent tournament and should be an Expert after this event.
The 2nd Imre Konig Memorial has started. So far the results are Stein-Baburin draw and Fedorowicz-Pruess 0-1.
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.
A total of 75 players braved the summer heat of Sacramento to play in
the annual 4th of July
weekend classic on July 6-8. Many players came from the Bay Area but
some travelled as far as
Idaho and Florida. The field was headlined by International Masters
Ricardo
DeGuzman and Walter
Shipman plus National Masters Daniel Schwarz, Zoran Lazetich
and Michael Aigner. However, a total
of 13 players in the Master/Expert section were juniors (as young as
9 years old) and a few had
big impact on the final standings.
Final standings: http://sacramentochessclub.org/weekend_events/2007scc.htm
All of the top seeds got in trouble early in the event. On Friday night,
Shipman lost to Larry
Martinez (1851) and never was a factor in the standings. This
reporter fared not much better with
an endgame draw against teenage student Jeff Young (1918) and a loss
to Martin Marshall (1947).
Aigner reentered to join DeGuzman and Lazetich in the 2-day schedule
and all three masters earned
2.5/3 in the G/60 games (Aigner-DeGuzman was a draw). However, it was
not without adventure, as
DeGuzman played the wrong check in a game against Brendan Purcell (1982)
and found himself in big
trouble after sacrificing a piece and a rook. Thanks to some luck in
time pressure, the master
magician won yet again. In the meantime, Schwarz cruised to a 3-0 start
in the 3-day schedule by
defeating fellow teenager David Chock (2099).
However, after the merge, Schwarz promptly returned to earth, losing
in 20 moves to DeGuzman's
favorite Torre Attack. While Lazetich won in a time scramble, this
reporter was unable to break
down 12 year old Gregory Young's defenses in a rook endgame up a pawn.
That left DeGuzman and
Lazetich tied for first at 3.5/4 with Aigner and three of his students
(Schwarz, Chock and Gregory
Young) half a point behind.
On the final day, DeGuzman sacrificed a piece for three pawns against
Lazetich and won the endgame
after over 50 moves, with Lazetich missing an apparent draw at one
point. However, the real action
was on board 2 where, after a very sloppy middlegame (queen's gambit
accepted) with multiple
forced wins for both sides, Aigner ran Chock out of time in a drawn
endgame of Q+P vs R+B+P. In
the final round, DeGuzman came to fight and essayed the Shabalov-Shirov
attack of the semi-slav
(7.g4), but could only force a drawn opposite bishop endgame. That
left the winner of board 2 with
a chance to tie for first, but close friends Schwarz and Aigner swapped
all of the minor pieces
without great adventure and agreed to a draw.
Master/Expert section prizes:
1st Place: IM Ricardo DeGuzman
2nd Place: NM Daniel Schwarz & NM Michael Aigner
1st & 2nd Place Under 2200: Gregory Young, David Chock, Adarsh
Konda and Eleuterio Alsasua
The Reserve (under 2000) section saw 47 players compete for rating points
and a variety of cash
prizes. Douglas Legvold, who moved from Florida to California about
a year ago, took the first
place honors at 5.5/6. Junior Ted Belanoff shared second with veteran
Conrad Cota at 5.0. Perhaps
the biggest success story of Sacramento in the past year has been the
rise of 13 year old Nicholas
Karas from merely an 1170 player last October to 1740 after a 4.5 result
last weekend! Much of the
credit for this improvement goes to his budding young teacher, NM Schwarz.
Another promising
player is Brian Curtis from Colorado, who raised his rating from 1233
to 1463 after an amazing
4.0/6 result that included wins over two opponents rated above 1750.
Reserve section prizes:
1st Place: Douglas Legvold
2nd Place & 1st Place 1600-1799: Ted Belanoff & Conrad Cota
2nd Place 1600-1799: Nicholas Karas
1st Place 1400-1599: Jennifer Livschitz
2nd Place 1400-1599: Christian Dypoldt, Marvin Gilbert, Alan Howe,
Vjay Jasthi & John Locke
1st Place U1400: Brian Curtis
2nd Place U1400: Michael Fischer
1st Place Junior: Anthony Blessing, Vishal Dasari, Arun Gomatam
& Isaac Zhang
This weekend the Portland Chess Club will be holding a memorial tournament for Clark Harmon. Thanks to Clark's wife Sherry and Michael Morris of Portland all of Clark's games from the 1959 California Junior Championship and the 1974 Stamer Memorial are available.
Clark had only been playing for a few years when he made the long road trip from Portland to Lancaster ( 942 miles!) with Buz Eddy. Now much was expected from the 16-year-old from Oregon in a field which included such strong young talents as Gilbert Ramirez, Art Wang and Stephen Sholomson but Clark scored 6.5 from 7, drawing only with Ramirez, to earn the title "Clark- The California Crusher"
Here are two key games from the event:
Harmon,Clark - Wang,Arthur D [E56]
California Jr. WB Patterson Memorial Lancaster (5), 26.06.1959
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 d5 6.Nf3 c5 7.0-0 Nc6
8.a3 dxc4 9.Bxc4 Ba5 10.Ne2 cxd4 11.Nexd4 Nxd4 12.Nxd4 Qe7 13.Bd2 Bxd2
14.Qxd2 Bd7 15.Qe2 e5 16.Nf3 Bc6 17.Rfd1 a6 18.Rac1 h6 19.Nh4 Ne4 20.Qg4
Qf6 21.f3 Nd6 22.Bd5 Bxd5 23.Rxd5 Rac8 24.Rcd1 Nc4 25.Nf5 g6 26.Nxh6+ Kg7
27.Rd6 Nxd6 28.Rxd6 Rc1+ 29.Kf2 Rc2+ 30.Kg3 Qxd6 31.Nf5+ Kg8 32.Nxd6 Rxb2
33.Qc4 Rb6 34.Nc8 Re6 35.Qc5 Rfe8 36.Nd6 R8e7 37.Nxb7 Kg7 38.Nd8 1-0
Harmon,Clark - Sholomson,Steven [E70]
California Jr. WB Patterson Memorial Lancaster (7), 26.06.1959
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Bg5 0-0 6.Qd2 Nbd7 7.f4 h6
8.Bh4 e5 9.fxe5 dxe5 10.d5 Nc5 11.Qe3 Qe7 12.Nf3 b6 13.h3 a5 14.Be2 a4
15.0-0 g5 16.Be1 g4 17.Nh4 Kh7 18.Nf5 Bxf5 19.Rxf5 gxh3 20.gxh3 Ncd7 21.Kh2
Rg8 22.Bg3 Qb4 23.Rb1 Rae8 24.Nb5 Nc5 25.Be1 1-0
The 1974 Stamer Memorial set an all-time MI attendance record with 119 entries (not likely to be challenged since it is well over the current Fire Marshall limit!) and Clark won $700 for his 6.5 from 7 score. Here is his last round win.
Harmon,Clark - Newbold,Robert [D87]
Arthur Stamer Memorial San Francisco (7), 04.07.1974
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4
c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Qc7 11.Rc1 Rd8 12.Qa4 Bd7 13.Qa3 Bf8 14.Qb2
b5 15.Bd3 Rab8 16.Bf4 e5 17.Bg3 Bg7 18.d5 Na5 19.Qd2 c4 20.Bb1 Qc5 21.Kh1
b4 22.cxb4 Rxb4 23.f4 Bh6 24.Qc3 Rdb8 25.Bf2 Qc7 26.Qf3 exf4 27.Be1 Bg4
28.Qxg4 Rxb1 29.d6 Qd8 30.Bd2 R1b2 31.Bc3 Rxa2 32.Nxf4 Bg7 33.e5 Nb3 34.Rcd1
Nc5 35.Nd5 Ne6 36.Ne7+ Kh8 37.Nc6 Qf8 38.Nxb8 Qxb8 39.Rxf7 Rc2 40.Qxe6
Qa8 41.Rf3 1-0
Obituary published: April 14, 2007 in McMinnville, OR newspaper -
Mr. Harmon died of cancer on Thursday, April 12, 2007, at his home.
He was 64. Born in Portland on Oct. 18, 1942, he was the son of Edwin and
L. Rose (Parker) Harmon. He grew up in Portland, graduating from Clackamas
High School. He attended Portland State University, where he earned an
accounting degree. He lived in Seattle for a short time, working for Boeing,
then returned to Portland to work for Freightliner. He later established
his own certified public accountant practice in Olympia. In 1989, he went
into the business of manufacturing and selling greenhouses. He married
Sherry Correla on March 30, 1991, in Vancouver, Wash. He moved to McMinnville
in 1991 and Amity in 1996.
A master chess player, he was a 10-time winner of the state chess championship. He belonged to the Portland Chess Club and U.S. Chess Federation.
He also enjoyed horses, horse camping at the beach and reading. "He
was an easygoing, mild-mannered man who was very non-judgmental and took
everyone at face value," his family said. In addition to his wife, Mr.
Harmon is survived by two sons, Calvin of McMinnville and Charles of Los
Angeles; a daughter, Christina Schwartz of Amity; a sister, Susan Prothero
of Corvallis; and three grandchildren.
MI GM-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky and his good friend GM Suat Atalik are tied for first with 4 from 5 in the 9 round, 280-player, Canadian Open being held in Ottawa. Among those joining them at the top are GMs Nigel Short and Sergei Tiviakov. Expect action to heat up in the last four rounds as the top players slug it out.
For more information go to
http://www.islandnet.com/~jberry/cycc/5sO.htm
http://canchess.blogspot.com/
The following game from Ottawa is well worth replaying.
Mikhalevski - Sambuev: Queen's Gambit, Tarrasch
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 c5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.0–0 Be7 7.cxd5 exd5
8.Nc3 0–0 9.Bg5 cxd4 10.Nxd4 h6 11.Be3 Re8 12.Rc1 Bf8 13.Nxc6!? .bxc6 14.Bd4
Bg4 15.f3 Bd7 16.Na4 g6 17.Nc5 Bf5 18.g4 Bc8 19.Qa4 Qd6 20.e3 h5!? 21.g5
Nh7 22.f4 h4 23.e4 h3 24.e5 Qd8 25.Bf3 Bxc5?! 26.Rxc5 Bd727.e6!! Rxe6 28.Bc3
Kf8 29.Qd4 Ke8 30.Ba5 Qb8 31.Rcc1! Nf8 32.Bb4 Qb7 33.Bc5 Rc8 34.f5!
gxf5 35.Qh8 Re7 36.g6!! fxg6 37.Rfe1 1–0.
One GM who is not doing particularly well in Ottawa is Arkadi Vul. A player of master/IM strength for much of his life Vul suddenly shot up over 2500 in his early 50s but just a few years later is now close to 2300. One doesn't want to make accusations without knowing all the facts - illness or financial troubles could easily explain the sudden drop - but this does look suspicious.
Much more obvious is the case of Vladimir Afromeev. GM Alexander Baburin wrote in Chess Today ( issue 300) on September 3rd, 2001, about the Romanian fake GM Alexandru Crisan ( still rated 2588 on the July 2007 FIDE list) and Afromeev.
"The problem is very serious - it is quite possible soon that people like Crisan will bring their ratings even higher, automatically gaining places in World FIDE Championships. Then they will be getting money (OK, they probably have expenses when 'earning' their ratings), depriving some deserving players a chance to make a better living. Alas, the fact that FIDE did not take a hard stance against such abuse, has already tempted more people into inflating their ratings. For example, I recently received '64-Chess review' No.7 of 2001. There I read an interesting article by IM Igor Yagupov, who described how a local businessmen in his native Tula (city about 120 km from Moscow; GM Kotov was from there) last year decided first to get and then to raise his Elo. That guy - Mr. Vladimir Afromeev - has been so successful in his fraud, that he now has an international rating of 2520! I call it a fraud, because many know that the some of the tournaments, which he 'organized' never took place, while in some others certain players threw points at Mr. Afromeev. Now he is an FIDE Master and I bet that soon he will become Grandmaster.
By the way, at some point Mr Afromeev decided that his personal driver
should have Elo rating too (who wants un-rated drivers nowadays?!). Now
that guy has a rating in excess of 2440. Mr.Afromeev is even claimed to
have said that if he wanted, his cat would get a rating like that too!
Now, that's something for FIDE to look at, if you ask me! Alas, as Yagupov's
article indicates, the Russian Chess Federation is not going to do anything
and I doubt that FIDE will do much either. Yet, this problem can be dealt
with - for example by establishing a FIDE commission, which would examine
all suspicious tournaments, demand score-sheets and warn people, who took
part in them."
Prophetic words by Baburin. Afromeev is still an FM but he is now #78
in the world at 2642! There is no word on how high rated his cat is.
Top Americans players will be active this summer.
MonRoi International Women's Chess Grand-Prix
MonRoi International Women's Chess Grand-Prix will hold an 8 player
round robin July 21st-28th in Montreal, Canada.
Standings, based on rating performances in 7 qualifiers in Grand-Prix host countries: Gibraltar, France, Croatia, Germany, Liechtenstein, Italy & USA
1. WGM Irina Krush, USA, RP- 2554 GibTelecom
2. GM Pia Cramling, Sweden, RP-2522 GibTelecom
3. WGM Iweta Rajlich, Poland, RP- 2521 Euro 2007
4. WGM Jovaka Houska, England, RP- 2512 GibTelecom
5. WGM Lela Javakhishvili, Georgia, RP- 2490 Euro 2007
6. WGM Cristina Adela Foisor, Romania, RP- 2489 Liechtenstein
7. WGM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman, India, RP- 2482 Liechtenstein
8. Myriam Roy, Canada, Quebec Chess Federation selection
Details: http://www.monroi.com/GP/
The 40th Biel Chess Festival takes place 21st July-3rd August 2007.
Alex Onischuk will represent the US in the strong top group.
Official site: http://www.bielchessfestival.ch/
Players:
Teimour Radjabov AZE 2747
Judit Polgar
HUN 2727
Alexander Grischuk RUS 2717
Magnus Carlsen NOR
2693
Loek Van Wely
NED 2674
Alexander Onischuk USA 2663
Bu Xiangzhi
CHN 2656
Boris Avrukh
ISR 2644
Alexander Motylev RUS 2642
Yannick Pelletier SUI 2602
---------------------------------
Average : = 2677 (cat. XVIII)
8th Montreal International There may not be a lot of chess
players in Canada but they do organize many nice tournaments each summer.
Gata
Kamsky will fly the US flag in this blockbusteras Vassily Ivanchuk
tries to win his fourth major competition in a row. The 8th Montreal International
takes place 19th-28th July 2007.Players: Vassily Ivanchuk, Gata Kamsky,
Nigel Short, Pavel Eljanov, Sergei Tiviakov, Emil Sutovsky, Kamil Miton,
Pentala Harikrishna, Mark Bluvshtein and Pascal Charbonneau.
Official site: http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/index.php?typ=actu&id=1760&categorie
GM Leonid Yudasin leads the New Jersey Futurity International
being held July 7-11 in Parsippany with a score of 5 from 7 with two rounds
to go. Other standings in the event, which features an average FIDE rating
of 2412 are: 2-3. GMs Panchanathan and Erenburg 4.5; 4-6. GM Zaichik,
IM Simutowe and NM Ju 3.5; 7. NM Molner 3; 8-10. Bartell, Ippolito and
Zlotnikov 2.5
Go to http://njknockouts.blogspot.com
for more information.
Starting Sunday, September 9th, Berkeley will once again have a weekly
chess club. To celebrate, the inaugural tournament will be a six-week
Marathon with just $6 entry fee and $350 in cash prizes. Games will
start at 7:00 pm and time control is 40/90 followed by G/30. The
club will meet in room 17 at Hillside School 1581 LeRoy in Berkeley.
The Berkeley Chess Club is being sponsored by the Berkeley
Chess School, in consultation with former BCC director Alan Glasscoe. Richard
Shorman will occasionally provide pre-game lectures, plus analysis
in the skittles room. We will have a web page with game transcripts,
results, advance pairings, etc.
The registration form is at http://www.berkeleychessschool.org/chessclub.htm
and this is a secure page. You can sign up online or print and mail
it to us.
Feel free to contact us at 510-843-0150 or bcschool@pacbell.net.
You can speak wtih Elizabeth, Marc, or David.
Can anyone shed light on Jim Murray, a Bay Area master of the 1960s? NM John Blackstone, who played on the US Student team in Ybbs, Austria, in 1968 passes along the following three games.
Blackstone,J - Murray,J [B67]
M Peninsula - M.I. No. CA (1), 1962
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5
e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 Bd7 9.f4 h6 10.Bxf6 gxf6 11.Be2 h5
12.Rhf1 Qc7 13.Kb1 0-0-0 14.f5 Be7 15.Qe1 Rdg8 16.Qf2
Ne5 17.h3 h4 18.Nf3 Qc5 19.fxe6 fxe6 20.Qxc5+ dxc5
21.Nxe5 fxe5 22.Rf7 Kd8 23.Bg4 Ke8 24.Rf3 Rh6 25.g3
Rf8 26.Rxf8+ Bxf8 27.gxh4 Rxh4 28.Ne2 Bc6 29.Ng1 Bxe4
30.Re1 Bd5 31.Rxe5 Bd6 32.Re2 Kf7 33.b3 b5 34.Nf3 Bxf3
35.Rf2 Rh6 36.Rxf3+ Rf6 37.Rxf6+ Kxf6 38.Kc1 Bf4+
39.Kd1 Ke5 40.Be2 ½-½
Blackstone,J - Murray,J [B67]
M U.C. - MI No. CA (2), 1967
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5
e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 Bd7 9.f4 h6 10.Bxf6 gxf6 11.Bc4
Na5 12.Be2 h5 13.Kb1 Qc7 14.f5 0-0-0 15.Rhf1 Be7
16.Qd3 Kb8 17.Qh3 Nc4 18.fxe6 fxe6 19.Nxe6 Qc8 20.Bxc4
Qxc4 21.Nd5 Rde8 22.Nb6 Bxe6 23.Nxc4 Bxh3 24.gxh3 Rhg8
25.b3 Rg2 26.Rd2 Reg8 27.Rff2 Rxf2 28.Rxf2 Rg1+ 29.Kb2
Re1 30.Nd2 Re3 31.h4 f5 32.exf5 Bxh4 33.f6 Re8 34.f7
Rf8 35.Rf5 Kc7 36.Nf3 Be7 37.h4 Kd7 38.Ng5 b6 39.Nh7
Ke6 40.Nxf8+ Kxf5 41.Nd7 Kg4 42.f8Q Bxf8 43.Nxf8 Kxh4
44.Kc3 Kg4 45.Kd3 h4 46.Ke2 Kg3 47.Kf1 Kf3 48.Nd7 b5
49.Nb8 Ke3 50.Nxa6 Kd4 51.Nb4 1-0
Murray,J - Blackstone,J [E66]M MI - Golden Gate No. CA (2), 19681.c4
g6 2.Nc3 Bg7 3.g3 c5 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.Nf3 Nf6 6.0-00-0 7.d4 d6 8.d5 Na5 9.Qd3
a6 10.Rb1 b5 11.cxb5 c412.Qc2 axb5 13.Nd4 b4 14.Ncb5 Bd7 15.a4 Qb6 16.h3
Rfc817.Be3 Qb7 18.Qd2 c3 19.bxc3 Nc4 20.Qd1 Nxe3 21.fxe3Bh6 22.Nc6 Bxe3+
23.Kh2 Bf5 24.Rxb4 h5 25.Nxd6 Qd726.Nxc8 Rxc8 27.Qb3 Kg7 28.a5 e6 29.c4
Rh8 30.Qxe3exd5 31.Ne5 Qc7 32.Rxf5 gxf5 33.Qg5+ Kf8 34.Qxf6 Rh735.Rb8+
Qxb8 36.Nd7+ Ke8 37.Nxb8 h4 38.Qe5+ Kd839.Nc6+ Kd7 40.cxd5 hxg3+ 41.Qxg3
1-0
Today, when it is possible to watch games live over the internet, it is easy to forget what a recent development this is.
Michael Morris writes:
"Your bio of Addison mentioned his participation in the US Championships of the 1960's. I remember well the excitement at the club when the report first came in of Bill's sensational defeat of Sammy Reshevsky in the first round (I believe) of the 1963 tournament. In those pre-email, pre-fax days the only way to get the game score quickly was by telephone and I recall someone on the line taking down the moves from a friend in NY."
Vinay Bhat took time off work to play three tournaments in Spain in search of his final GM norm. He writes:
Hi John,
I started out quite well in Sort (4.5/5, with wins against Granda
and a draw with Burmakin), but then I fell sick, started taking some
antibiotics and lost the next 3 games (Korneev, Mamedov, and Gupta).
I have 5.5/9 right now, with one more game to go here.
Next up after Sort is Benasque, which starts July 5th.
Vinay
We note that Vinay is in the GM norm hunt in Benasque with 4.5 from 6 including a win over GM Mamedov and a draw with GM Gelashvili.
John Blackstone writes:
John the following was taken from the following:http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3934
which is ChessBase web site. Do you know if this
actually occurred or is it just a joke.
1,000-game simultaneous display
From the ‘Simultaneous Display’ entry in Harry Golombek’s
The Encyclopedia of Chess (London, 1977 and Harmondsworth, 1981):
‘It is also reported that a certain Dr Backer played 1,000 games
in San Francisco, 1938 with the result +343 –138 =519.’
Golombek’s words appeared in the section on exhibitions given on a
replacement basis (i.e. with new games beginning as others are completed).
Whether such a display ever occurred was a question raised in C.N. 899
by Hugh Myers (Davenport, IA, USA), who pointed out that ‘Backer’ is usually
given as
‘Basker’. Our correspondent quoted from page 122 of the March 1938
BCM (of which Golombek was then the General Editor):
‘San Francisco. A certain Dr Basker has succeeded in performing the
herculean task of playing 1,000 boards simultaneously. His results were
(after four days’
play) 343 wins, 138 losses and 519 draws.’
As noted in C.N. 3230, the story was widely reported. For example, the following appeared on page 100 of the Australasian Chess Review, 30 April 1938:
‘A certain Dr Basker, of San Francisco, is reported to have played 1,000
games simultaneously. After four days’ play, he finished up with a score
of 343-137
[sic], and 519 draws. We assume that his opponents came along in relays
or waves, with day and night shifts.’
Finally, from page 337 of CHESS, 14 June 1938:
‘Several magazines and journals have reported that a certain Dr Basker,
of San Francisco, has played 1,000 opponents simultaneously, winning (after
four days’
play) 343, drawing 519, losing 138. We believe the whole thing is a
hoax.’ Whether this ‘certain’ Dr Basker ever existed is uncertain.
Can readers shed light on this matter?
The last day to qualify for the early entry discount for the New England
Masters Tournament is JULY 13, 2007! Get your entry in soon to pay
the lowest possible entry fee!The New England Masters is a 9 round FIDE
Swiss that will be held from August 13-17, 2007, near Boston, USA.GM and
IM norm opportunities exist as we have 25 entries currently averaging over
FIDE 2350, including 4 Grandmasters and 10 IMs. Remember, entries
are limited to players FIDE rated 2200 or higher to help maintain the high
average and maximize norm opportunities!The event will take place at the
Holiday Inn, Boston-Peabody, which is about 12 miles away from Logan International
Airport in Boston. We have secured a low $69/night rate for all nights,
so long as you book your hotel by July 23, 2007. After this date
both the rate and availability cannot be guaranteed!For complete information
on the New England Masters, online entry and online hotel booking system,
please visit our website at www.NewEnglandMasters.com.Please do not hesitate
to contact me should you have any questions regarding the tournament.Sincerely,Chris
BirdOrganizer, New England Masters Chess Tournamentwww.NewEnglandMasters.com
"The possibilities of Morphy's genius have never been half revealed
because only a very limited exercise of its powers has been sufficient
to insure victory."
Samuel Standidge Boden (after losing to Morphy)
On Sunday evening the chief editor and publisher of the well respected online chess daily Chess Today reported on the Konig Memorial.
2nd Imre Konig Memorial
by GM Alex Baburin
For such a big country, the US offers very few opportunities for
someone to
make a GM norm – maybe there are half of dozen such tournaments
in the
country. One of them – and this is the only such tournament this
year on the
West coast – is in progress at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club
in San
Francisco. It is called the 2nd Imre Konig Memorial and it has a
Scheveningen format, with two 'teams' facing each other.
One team (let's call it the IM-team)consists of GM-norm seekers –
IMs
Vladimir Mezentsev (born in 1959, FIDE rating - 2392), Dmitry
Zilberstein
(1979, 2410), Alan Stein (1975, 2412), David Pruess
(1981, 2424) and Joshua
Friedel (1986, 2472).
Their opponents are: WGM Ekaterina Atalik (1982, 2400), GMs Suat
Atalik
(1964, 2564), Alexander Baburin (1967, 2559), Alex Yermolinsky (1958,
2517) and John Fedorowicz (1958,2460). Since three of these players
took part in the Canadian Open, they will start this tournament
later.
Results so far:
Fedorowicz – Pruess 0-1
Stein – Baburin ½-½
Friedel – Fedorowicz ½-½
Pruess – Fedorowicz 0-1
Friedel – Baburin ½-½
Fedorowicz - Stein ½-½
Baburin – Pruess 1-0
Baburin – Stein ½-½
Mezentsev – Fedorowicz 0-1
Zilberstein – Baburin ½-½
Fedorowicz - Zilberstein ½-½
Baburin – Mezentsev 1-0
The IM-Team:
Stein – 1½ out of 3;
Zilberstein and Friedel – 1 (2)
Pruess – 1 (3)
Mezentsev – 0 (2)
GM Team:
Baburin – 4 (6)
Fedorowicz – 3½ (6).
All 10 players will play together on Tuesday. After that games and
standings should appear on the website of the Mechanics' Institute
Chess Club. By the way, the name "Mechanics' Institute" is a bit confusing
– I have not seen any mechanics here! It is essentially a library,
set up in
San Francisco after the Gold Rush. The Chess Club is a part of the
MI and it is
the longest continuously running chess club in the United States.
Current standings as of Tuesday night with 21 of 45 games played so far .
1. Fedorowicz 5.5/9
2. Baburin 4.5/9
3. Zilberstein 3/5
4. Stein 2/4
5. Pruess 1.5/4
6. Mezentsev 1.5/5
7. S.Atalik 1/1
8. Friedel 1/3
9-10. K. Atalik and Yermolinsky .5 /1
Look for daily updates and games at http://www.chessclub.org/ from MI Chess Club webmaster Alex Yermolinsky.
NM Andy Lee won the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon by defeating front runner FM Frank Thornally in the last minute. Lee, the highest rated player in the event, started with two half point byes then reeled off six consecutive wins. Thornally and Brendan Purcell, who defeated Expert Victor Ossipov in the last round to finish an excellent tournament, shared second with 6 1/2 points.
The 9 round Ben Gross Memorial Tuesday Night Marathon starts August 7th.
12-year-old Expert Greg Young defeated NM Michael Pearson
in the last round to win the 7th Annual Charles Bagby Memorial G/45
held July 14th with a 5-0 score. Tying for second at 4.5 in the 73 player
field, second best attended in the MI's 7 year history of monthly one day
G/45 events, were IM Ricardo DeGuzman and NM Paul Gallegos.
14-year-old Fabiano Caruana (who turns 15 on July 30th - he was born in Miami) made his final GM norm by winning the July First Saturday tournament in Budapest held July 7th-15th.
1. IM Caruana (ITA, 2549) - 7
2. GM Ilincic (SRB, 2509) - 5½
3-5. IM Smerdon (AUS, 2461), FM Fruebing (GER, 2319) and GM G.Todorovic
(SRB, 2471) - 5,
6-7. GM Fogarasi (HUN, 2425) and IM Bui Vinh (VIE, 2466) - 4½
8. FM Vernay (FRA, 2381) - 3½
9. G.Kjartansson (ISL, 2306) - 3
10. FM Hammes (GER, 2390) - 2
Fogarasi,T (2425) - Caruana,F (2549) [B43]
First Saturday 2007 Budapest (1) 2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Bd3 Nf6 7.0-0 Bc5
8.Nb3 Ba7 9.Kh1 Nc6 10.Bg5 h5 11.Bxf6 gxf6 12.f4 d6 13.Be2 Bd7 14.Qd2 0-0-0
15.Rad1 Be8 16.Rf3 h4 17.h3 Rg8 18.Qe1 Ne7 19.f5 Bc6 20.Nd4 Bxd4 21.Rxd4
d5 22.exd5 Nxd5 23.Rc4 Rxg2 0-1
Caruana,F (2549) - Todorovic,G (2471) [B45]
First Saturday 2007 Budapest (2) 2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.e5
Nd5 8.Ne4 Qc7 9.f4 Qb6 10.c4 Ne3 11.Qd3 Bb4+ 12.Bd2 Ba6 13.b3 0-0 14.Rc1
f5 15.exf6 gxf6 16.Bxb4 Qxb4+ 17.Qd2 c5 18.Qxb4 cxb4 19.Kf2 Nxf1 20.Rhxf1
Bb7 21.Nc5 Bc8 22.Rcd1 Rf7 23.Rd6 Kf8 24.Rfd1 Ke8 25.h3 h5 26.R1d2 a5 27.Kg3
Rh7 28.f5 h4+ 29.Kf2 exf5 30.Rxf6 Ke7 31.Rxf5 d6 32.Re2+ Kd8 33.Ne6+ Kd7
34.Rf4 Kc6 35.Nd4+ Kc5 36.Rd2 a4 37.Nb5 Rh6 38.Rd5+ Kc6 39.Rf7 axb3 40.Nd4+
Kb6 41.Rb5+ Ka6 1-0
Fabiano improved on the American record set by Hikaru Nakamura in Februaru
of 2003 when he made his final GM norm in Bermuda at the age of 15 years,
58 days, eclipsing Bobby Fischer's 1958 record of 15 years, 185
days.
Currentlly rated 2549 Fabiano expects to be close to 2580 when not-yet-calculated
tournaments played the past few months are added in. This might make him
the youngest member of the top 20 juniors in the world club when the October
FIDE rating list comes out.
Fabiano's 1st tournament ever was at Susan Polgar's club in Queens
on May 30th, 1998, and his first USCF rating was 473. Since Fabiano is
now at 2556 USCF I believe he may also have broken GM Joel Benjamin's record
for biggest USCF rating gain as he is up almost 2100 points!
Fabiano and his dad Lou are currently living in Budapest where the
GM-elect is coached by former World Championship Candidate Alexander Chernin.
Well done Fabiano!
WIM Tsagaan Battsetseg is the early leader of the US Women's Championship held in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Look for more information on the event that is being sponsored, organized and directed by Frank and Jim Berry at Chris Bird's excellent website at http://www.uswcc2007.com/ .
1 Tsagaan Battsetseg 3½
2-3 Anna Zatonskih 3
2-3 Katerina Rohonyan 3
4-5 Irina Krush 2½
4-5 Camilla Baginskaite 2½
6 Batchimeg Tuvshintugs 2
7-8 Elizabeth Vicary 1½
7-8 Alisa Melekhina 1½
9 Tatev Abrahamyan ½
10 Chouchanik Airapetian 0
From Australia:
Grandmaster Ian Rogers stunned the audience at the prize-giving ceremony for the Lidums Checkmate Open by announcing his retirement from all tournament chess, effective immediately. His retirement was forced upon him by medical advice that was too positive to ignore. Ian had just won the event so at least he was able to retire on a winning note.
Australian chess players will miss Ian on the tournament scene. Fortunately, he will still be able to write and coach, two activities that helped to create his reputation as arguably the most influential chess player Australia has produced.
Ian is best known for his playing, having been Australia's strongest player for more than 25 years. He was Australian Junior Champion in 1976 and by 1980 had won the Australian Championship which he won a further 4 times. He also won the Australian Open Championship in 1993 and the Australian Grand Prix 7 times, the first in 1989 and the most recent in 2004. His “premier event” was the Doeberl Cup which he won 12 times from 1980 to 2007. Ian also was awarded the ACF Steiner Medal as Player of the Year on 5 occasions and the Purdy Medal for chess journalism, which can be won only once, in 1989.
Ian's contribution as a coach will be well-known to many young players as. in recent years, he has made a great contribution to the coaching of junior players in groups such as the ACF Ergas Junior Development Squad. Squad.
On behalf of the ACF and all Australian chess players, we wish Ian the
very best for the future.
We published the following account of chess in San Francisco in 1888
in Newsletter #104 and recently uncovered new information.
By G.H. D. Gossip
Sir: On the 18th of last month I left Sydney, per steamship "Alameda,"
reaching this city on the 12th, where I first set foot on my native soil
after an absence of over forty years, and I have played here more games
of chess in a week than I contested during the last six months in Sydney.
There are two leading Chess resorts here, viz: the Mercantile Library and
the Mechanics' Institute (in Post Street), which have large and commodious
rooms for the accommodation of chess players - twice as large as any chess
club or chess room in Australia. In fact nearly everything here is on a
grander, more civilized and cosmopolitan scale than in Great Britain, although
the streets of Adelaide and Melbourne are wider than those of San Francisco.
The last named chess resort (MI) is crowded with chessplayers every afternoon,
both rooms being open daily, Sundays included. I met here M. Montgomery
- a French amateur - with whom I had the pleasure of playing in days gone
by at the Cafe de la Regence, more than twenty years ago. Mr. Piper, one
of the Vizayanagaram Tourney prizewinners, formerly of Greenwich and Sydney,
is also here.
Of five games played over the board played over the board on even terms
between Messrs. Zukertort and Redding, the former won 3 and lost 2, and
Mr. Redding also defeated him in his blindfold exhibition. Besides being
a strong chess player and an enthusiast, Mr. Redding is also a splendid
billiard player (the best, I believe, in "Frisco") and an accomplished
musician. The other strong players here are Dr. Marshall, who won 2 out
of 5 games of Baron Heydebrand Von Der Lasa, lately and Mr. Heinemann.
Of 28 games I have played here I have won 19, drawn 2 and lost 7. I was
fortunate enough to win a considerable majority of games of Dr. Marshall,
and to make even games with Dr. Heinemann, but have been so far worsted
by Mr. Redding, having lost five and only won three games of him. Curiously
enough, although there are many more chess players in San Francisco than
in Sydney or Melbourne, there is not a single chess column in any San Francisco
newspaper. Formerly there was one in the "Argonaut" but it has long since
been discontinued. A tournament, however, among the leading players, is
to be started this week.
Source: The International Chess Magazine June 1888, page 170-171
Redding, J - Gossip, G [C47]
San Francisco, 1888
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Bb4 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.Bd3
d5 8.exd5 cxd5 9.0-0 Bxc3 10.bxc3 0-0 11.Bg5 h6 12.Bh4 Qd6 13.Re1 Bd7 14.Bg3
Qc5 15.Qd2 Rfe8 16.h3 Re6 17.Be5 Rae8 18.Bd4 Qa3 19.Rxe6 Rxe6 20.Qf4 Ne8
21.Qf5 Nf6 22.Bxf6 gxf6 23.Qh7+ Kf8 24.Qxh6+ Ke7 25.Qd2 Qb2 26.Rd1 Qxa2
27.c4 a5 28.Bf5 Re5 29.Bxd7 Kxd7 30.cxd5 Kd6 31.Qf4 Ke7 32.c4 Qb3 33.Qd2
Qa3 34.Qd4 Kd6 35.Ra1 Qb4 36.Kf1 a4 37.f4 1-0
Source: The International Chess Magazine, August 1888, page 251.
Redding, J - Gossip, G [C55]
San Francisco, 1888
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Bc4 Nxe4 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 6.Nxe4 d5 7.Neg5+
Kg8 8.d4 h6 9.Nh3 Bxh3 10.gxh3 exd4 11.Nxd4 Qd7 12.Nxc6 Re8+ 13.Be3 bxc6
14.Qf3 Bc5 15.0-0 Bxe3 16.fxe3 Qe6 17.Rae1 Kh7 18.Qf5+ Qxf5 19.Rxf5 Re7
20.c3 Rhe8 21.Kf2 Re4 22.Rf7 R4e7 23.Rxe7 Rxe7 24.Rg1 Re4 25.Rg4 g5 26.Kf3
Re8 27.Ra4 Rf8+ 28.Ke2 Rb8 29.b3 Rb7 30.Ra6 c5 31.Rc6 c4 32.b4 a5 33.a3
axb4 34.axb4 Ra7 35.e4 dxe4 36.Rxc4 Ra2+ 37.Ke3 Rxh2 38.Rxc7+ Kg6 39.Kxe4
Rxh3 40.b5 Rh1 41.b6 Rb1 42.Rc6+ Kg7 43.c4 h5 44.c5 g4 45.Rc7+ Kg6 46.b7
g3 47.Rc6+ Kg7 48.Rc7+ Kg6 49.Kf3 Rb3+ 50.Kg2 Kg5 51.c6 h4 52.Rg7+ Kf4
53.Kh3 Rb1 54.Rf7+ 1-0
Source: The International Chess Magazine, July 1888, page 217-18.
I just found the following game and add that Gossip writes: "Played in San Francisco, May 1988, in a short match of three games with the Champion of the Pacific Coast" . I wonder if these are the three games of the match for which no score is given?
Gossip,G - Redding,J [C41]
San Francisco, 05.1888
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Be7 6.Bd3 0-0 7.0-0
Nbd7 8.Nf5 Ne5 9.Nxe7+ Qxe7 10.Bg5 c6 11.Be2 h6 12.Bxf6 Qxf6 13.f4 Ng6
14.Qd2 Qe7 15.f5 Nh8 16.Rad1 d5 17.exd5 Qe5 18.Qd4 f6 19.Qxe5 fxe5 20.dxc6
bxc6 21.Bc4+ Kh7 22.g4 Rb8 23.b3 g6 24.fxg6+ Nxg6 25.Rxf8 Nxf8 26.Rd8 Kg7
27.Ba6 Ne6 28.Rxc8 1-0
Source: Gossip's Vest-Pocket Chess Manual, page 53.
In the final 10th round Bu Xiangzhi defeated Vadim Milov to become the
sole winner of this exceptionally
strong open tournament held in Ottawa. MI Grandmaster-in-Residence
Alex Yermolinsky shared 7th-21st place.
Final standings:
1. GM Bu Xiangzhi (2685) - 8 out of 10
2-6. GM Short (2683), GM Miton (2648), GM Sandipan (2563), IM Krnan
(2492) and GM Sambuev (2482) - 7½
7-21. GM V.Milov (2678), GM Tiviakov (2648), GM Rychagov (2557),GM
Bluvshtein (2520), GM Kunte (2519), GM Yermolinsky (2517), FM Kovalyov
(2510), GM Hoang Thong Tu (2483), GM De La Paz Perdomo (2452), IM Roussel-Roozmon
(2414), IM Reprintsev (2410), IM Gerzhoy (2409), FM J.Bradford (2406),
FM Rensch (2400) and FM Tayar (2271).
John Hillery reports:
IM Enrico Sevillano scored 6½-½ to take first place in the 2007 Southern California Invitational Championship, held in Los Angeles from July 7 through 15. Second with 4½ was Julian Landaw, a promising junior player, while IM Jack Peters finished third with 4-3. Special thanks to John Rowell, who provided the playing site at the law offices of Cheong, Denove, Rowell & Bennett. This was the 19th annual tournament and Julian Landaw (age 16) and John Daniel Bryant (age 15) made excellent debuts.
Standings, games and photos are available at http://www.westernchess.com/hold/champ07/champ07.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------
SCCF State Championship Los Angeles USA (USA), 7-15 vii 2007cat. I
(2261)
---------------------------------------------------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
---------------------------------------------------------------
1. Sevillano, Enrico m USA 2493 * 1 1
1 1 = 1 1 6.5 2649
2. Landaw, Julian W USA 2191
0 * = 1 = 1 1 = 4.5 2372
3. Peters, John A m USA 2423
0 = * = 1 0 1 1 4.0 2287
4. Taylor, Timothy m USA 2332
0 0 = * 1 1 0 1 3.5 2250
5. Hermansen, Ron
USA 2229 0 = 0 0 * 1 1 1 3.5 2265
6. Bryant, John Daniel USA 2167 = 0 1
0 0 * 1 0 2.5 2172
7. Funderburg,John
USA ---- 0 0 0 1 0 0 * 1 2.0 2140
8. Del Pilar, Reynaldo USA 2252 0 = 0
0 0 1 0 * 1.5 2032
The 4th Continental Championship of the Americas, a qualifier
for the FIDE World Championship, is being held in
Cali, Colombia, and ends July 20. Americans Varuzhan Akobian, Alexander
Ivanov and Sergey Kudrin are tied for first at 5.5 from 8 with
three rounds to go with fellow GMs Giovanni Vescovi and Julio
Grand Zuniga and IMs Leon Hoyos Milan and Emilio Cordova.
Go to http://www.colombiadeportiva.com/continental.htm
for more information.
Newsletter #354 reported on the reemergence of the Berkeley Chess Club and Berkeley Chess School web manager Marc Newman was interested in the founding of the original BCC. Kerry Lawless, head of the tremendous website devoted to California chess history (http://www.chessdryad.com/), answers:
Hi Marc,
The earliest mention I can find (so far) is from the Autumn 1964 issue of Kolty's Chess in Action. "The Berkeley Y.M.C.A. announced the founding of its chess club recently. It is open to ALL chess players, from beginner to grandmaster. Membership application may be made in person at the YMCA "desk," or by mail. The Berkeley "Y" is located at 2001 Alston Way in down-town Berkeley. More information may be obtained by phoning 848-6800." A later issue lists Jerome Long as the contact. I believe that Martin Morrison of the Oakland CC took over from Jerome in 1968.
Regards,
Kerry
Last Newsletter I wrote about the Northern California Master Jim Murray. NM Erik Osbun shares the following information.
John:
I played skittles with Murray back in the early 60s. He appeared
very well read and a gentleman and a scholar capable of excellent conversation.
He was well known for taking a MI title from Bill Addison in either the
late 50s or early 60s. See the Chess Reporter. I did not have
the opportunity of playing an official game with him as did John Blackstone,
but John always played more than I was able. Murray was tall and
had blonde hair with a slightly cherubic face. I was impressed with
his manifest intelligence.
Stephen Brandwein and Sam Sloan both ran into Murray in New York in the late 1960s where he was playing under the name of Charles Eastman. Can any Newsletter readers shed light on this?
GM Emil Anka and NMs Nate Koons and Michael Lee shared first place with 4.5 from 5 in the Clark Harmon Memorial held July 14-15 at the Portland Chess Club.
NM John Blackstone of Las Vegas sends in the following games pitting
Nothern Californian's against visiting GMs in simuls.
Szabo,L - Lerman,J [E77]
San Francisco San Francisco, 1973
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.e4 d6 4.d4 Bg7 5.Be2 0-0 6.f4 c5
7.d5 b5 8.cxb5 a6 9.bxa6 Nxa6 10.Nf3 Qb6 11.0-0 c4+
12.Kh1 Ng4 13.Qe1 Nb4 14.Qh4 Nd3 15.Bxd3 cxd3 16.f5
Nf6 17.Bg5 Qxb2 18.Rac1 Ra3 19.Nd1 Qb7 20.Bh6 Rxa2
21.Ng5 Nh5 22.Bxg7 Kxg7 23.Ne3 Qb2 24.fxg6 hxg6
25.Rxc8 Rxc8 26.Rxf7+ Kg8 27.Qg4 Rc1+ 28.Rf1 Rxf1+
29.Nxf1 Qf6 30.Qc8+ Kg7 31.Ne6+ Kh7 32.Nf8+ Kh6
33.Qc1+ Qf4 34.Qb1 Qf2 0-1
Bisguier,A - Gross,H [D21]
Simul Bisguier San Francisco, CA, 25.08.1953
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 a6 4.a4 c5 5.e3 Bg4
6.Bxc4 e6 7.Nc3 Nf6 8.d5 exd5 9.Nxd5 Nc6 10.Qb3 Na5
11.Nxf6+ Qxf6 12.Bxf7+ Qxf7 13.Qxf7+ Kxf7 14.Ne5+ Ke6
15.Nxg4 h5 16.f3 hxg4 17.fxg4 Bd6 18.h3 Rhf8 19.Bd2
Nb3 20.Rb1 Bg3+ 0-1
Gross,H - Prins,L (2480) [C73]
Simul Prins clock San Francisco, CA, 11.11.1954
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 d6 5.Bxc6+ bxc6
6.d4 exd4 7.Qxd4 Be7 8.Nc3 Bf6 9.Qe3 Ne7 10.0-0 0-0
11.Rd1 Ng6 12.Qd3 Bd7 13.Be3 Qe7 14.Bd4 Bg4 15.Rd2
Bxf3 16.Qxf3 Bg5 17.Re2 Nf4 18.Ree1 Ne6 19.Ne2 Nxd4
20.Nxd4 Qd7 21.Rad1 Bf6 22.b3 Bxd4 23.Rxd4 Qe6 24.c4
½-½
"Master chess grips its exponents, shaking the mind and brain so
that inner freedom and independence of even the toughest character cannot
remain unaffected."
Einstein
The 2nd Imre Konig Memorial is nearing completion with the GM team leading 21 1/2 to 15 1/2
GM Team:
John Fedorowicz - 6½/10
Alex Baburin - 5/10
Suat Atalik - 4/5
Alex Yermolinsky - 3/5
Ekaterina Atalik - 3/7
IM Team:
Dmitry Zilberstein 4 ½/10
Vladimir Mezentsev 3½/10
Josh Friedel - 2½/5
David Pruess 2½/6
Alan Stein 2½/6
The following game was annotated in Chess Today( www.chesstoday.net) by its editor Alexander Baburin. Chess Today, which appears daily online, is one of the very best chess magazines in the world.
White: GM Alex Baburin (2559)
Black: IM Joshua Friedel (2472)
Konig Mem, San Francisco, 2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 0–0 5.Bg5
I had not seen many games where Friedel played the Nimzo (in general
many US tournaments are not in databases, which made home preparation in
this tournament harder for Europeans), so I decided to surprise him with
a rare line. Alas, surprises are almost impossible nowadays when one can
find almost all your games in a matter of seconds!
5...h6 6.Bh4 c5 7.e3 cxd4 8.exd4 Nc6 9.Nf3 g5
All of this my young opponent played very quickly, so I realized that
he has seen my previous games in this line.
9...d5 10.Rd1 Be7 11.a3 Bd7 12.c5 Nh5 13.Bxe7 Qxe7 14.Bb5 e5 15.Nxd5
Qe6 16.dxe5 Rad8 17.0–0 Nxe5 18.Be2 Bc6 19.Nxe5 Bxd5 20.Bxh5 Qxe5 21.Qe2
Rde8 22.Qxe5 Rxe5 23.Bg4 Bc6 24.b4 Rg5 25.h3 Re8 26.Rd6 a5 27.Rfd1 axb4
28.axb4 h5 29.f4 hxg4 30.fxg5 Re2 31.R1d2 Re5 32.hxg4 Rxg5 33.R6d4 Re5
34.Kf2 g6 35.Re2 Rg5 36.Kg3 1–0
Baburin-B.Kristensen, Isle of Man 1996;
9...Be7 10.a3 b6 11.d5 exd5 12.Bxf6 Bxf6 13.Nxd5 Re8+ 14.Be2 Bb7 15.0–0
Rc8 16.Rad1 Ne5 17.Nxe5 Rxe5 18.Bf3 Bxd5 19.Rxd5 Qc7 20.b3 b5
21.Qd2 bxc4 22.Rxd7 Qa5 23.bxc4 ½–½ Baburin (2570)-Adams
(2680),
Kilkenny 1997.
10.Bg3 g4 11.Ne5 Nxd4 12.Qd1 Nf5 13.Nxg4 h5?
Objectively Black should be doing fine in this position, but his last
move is overly optimistic. Black played better in the game Baburin (2600)-Benjamin
(2595), Europe vs Americas, Bermuda 1998: 13...Ne4 14.Rc1 Qg5 15.Bd3 d5
16.0–0 Bxc3 17.bxc3 h5 18.Ne5 Nexg3 19.Nf3 Ne3 20.Nxg5 Nxd1 21.Rfxd1 dxc4
22.Bh7+ Kg7 23.hxg3 f6 24.Be4 fxg5 25.Rd4 Rb8 26.Rxc4 b6 27.Rd1 Rf7 28.Rc6
Bb7 29.Rxe6 Bxe4 30.Rxe4 Rc8 31.Rd5 Kf6 32.Ree5
Rxc3 33.Rxg5 Ra3 34.Rxh5 Rg7 35.g4 Re7 36.Rdf5+ Kg6 37.g3 Rxa2 38.Kg2
a5 39.Rhg5+ Kh6 40.Rg8 Kh7 41.Ra8 Kg6 42.Rg8+ Kh7 43.Ra8 Kg6
44.Raf8 Ra7 45.Rh5 a4 46.Rfh8 Rf7 47.Rg8+ Rg7 48.Ra8 Rf7 49.Rg8+ Rg7
50.Ra8 Rf7 51.Rf5 b5 52.Ra6+ Kg7 53.Rg5+ Kh7 54.Rh5+ Kg7 55.Rg5+
Kh7 56.Rh5+ ½–½
14.Bc7!
The computer prefers 14.Nxf6+ Qxf6 15.Rc1 h4 16.Bf4 but I think my
idea is more interesting and is objectively stronger.
14...Qe7 15.Nxf6+ Qxf6 16.Bd3!
This is the point - White sacrifices a pawn in order to complete development.
16...Bxc3+ 17.bxc3 Qxc3+ 18.Kf1 Qf6 19.Kg1!
I reckoned that taking on f5 would be premature: 19.Bxf5 Qxf5 20.Bd6
Re8 21.h4 Kh7.
19...h4?!
Black was anxious to prevent h2-h4, but this move gives White access
to g4. Perhaps Black should have played 19...d5, though after 20.Rc1 White
has full compensation for a pawn.
20.Qg4+
The computer favors the blockading move 20.c5!?, which did not even
occur to me!
20...Qg7 21.h3! d6 22.Kh2!
I spent a lot of time on this move.
22...Bd7
I particularly liked the idea 22...Qxg4 23.hxg4 Nh6 24.f3 f5 25.Kg1!
or, better yet, 24.Kg1! - the white king is very busy in this game!
23.Bxf5 exf5 24.Qxh4! Qe5+?!
Objectively this move is bad, but it may be Black's best practical
chance. Friedel clearly did not fancy defending his position after 24...Bc6
25.f3 Rfe8 26.Rhe1 d5.
25.f4! Qc5 26.Rad1!
Also good is 26.Rhe1! Rfe8 27.Rxe8+ Rxe8 28.Bd8.
26...Qxc7
I was sure that White had to be winning here, but having 9 minutes
(plus 30 seconds increment), I failed to find a clear-cut win - and nearly
lost the game! I felt that the winning line should involve the move Rhe1
- getting the last pieces into play and cutting off the escape route of
the black king.
27.Qg5+
The immediate 27.Rhe1 was also very strong, i.e. 27...Rfe8 28.Qg5+
Kh7 29.Rd3 Rxe1 30.Rg3+-.
27...Kh7 28.Qh5+ Kg7 29.Qg5+ Kh730.Qh5+?
Clearly I was tired as the line 30.Rd3!Rg8 31.Qh4+ Kg7 32.Re1! (White
should also win after 32.Rg3+ Kf8 33.Qh6+ Ke7 34.Re1+ Be6 35.Rxe6+ Kd7
36.Rf6 but this line is inferior.) 32...Be6 33.Rxe6! fxe6 34.Rg3+ Kf8 35.Qh6+
Qg7 36.Rxg7 Rxg7 37.Qh8+ Rg8 38.Qf6+ Ke8 39.Qxe6+ Kf8 40.Qxf5++- is not
too hard to find if your brain is working properly.
30...Kg7 31.Rd3 Rfe8 32.Rg3+ Kf8 33.Qh8+ Ke7 34.Qh4+ f6!
34...Kf8 35.Rg5! should be still a win for White.
35.Re1+ Kd8 36.Qxf6+ Kc8 37.Rxe8+ Bxe8 38.Rg8?
Played with only seconds left. White is still clearly better after
38.Qxf5+ Qd7 39.Qf8 Qf7 40.Qxd6.
38...Qd8 39.Qxf5+ Kc7 40.c5?
40.Rg7+!±
40...Rc8! 41.Qd5 Qf6?
I thought that my opponent had blundered into my next move. It turned
out that he had seen it and deliberately went for the line, which happened
in the game. I was much more afraid of 41...Kb8! 42.Qxd6+ Qxd6 43.cxd6
Bf7.
42.Rg7+!? Kd8 43.Qxd6+ Qxd6 44.cxd6 Rc2 45.a3?
Not a good practical decision. It was safer to play 45.Rxb7 and White
does not risk losing this game.
45...Bc6 46.h4 Rf2!
The white king is horribly placed as it can't support its pawns properly.
47.h5 Rxf4 48.g4 Ke8
Black avoids the line 48...Rf6 49.g5 Rxd6 50.h6 Be4 51.Kg3.
49.Kg3
Here, again getting short of time, I completely missed the move 49.d7+!.
49...Rf3+ 50.Kh4 Kf8 51.Rc7! Rd3 52.Rc8+?
That was my idea. But apparently much better is 52.h6 Kg8 53.g5 Rxd6
54.Rg7+ Kh8 55.g6.
52...Kf7 53.Rc7+ Kg8 54.Rc8+ Kf7 55.Rc7+ Kg8 ½–½
Black should have played for a win with 55...Ke6 56.h6 Rxd6!.
IM Irina Krush won the 2007 Frank K. Berry US Womens Championship held July 16-20 in Stillwater, Oklahoma, with a undefeated score of 7-2, good for $7000 and a spot in the FIDE Womens World Championship. Anna Zatonskih and Katerina Rohonyan also earned spots in the WC cycle and $4,000 apiece. MI members Batchimeg Tuvshintugs and Camilla Baginskaite were a collective plus one in the strongest US Womens Championship ever. The youngest player in the event in which all participants were under 41, was 16-year-old Alisa Melekhina of Philadelphia who made a promising debut.
Position Player Points
1 Irina Krush 7
2-3 Anna Zatonskih 6½
2-3 Katerina Rohonyan 6½
4 Batchimeg Tuvshintugs 5½
5 Tsagaan Battsetseg 5
6-7 Alisa Melekhina 4
6-7 Camilla Baginskaite 4
7-8 Tatev Abrahamyan 3½
9 Elizabeth Vicary 2½
10 Chouchanik Airapetian ½
The 4th Americas Continental in Cali. Colombia has come to an end with
a five way tie for first. American GMs Alexander Ivanov and Varuzhan
Akobian join Gata Kamsky (seeded for his performance in the
previous cycle) and Alexander Shabalov, Alexander Onischuk, Yury Shulman,
Julio Becerra and Gregory Kaidanov (all qualified from the 2007
US Ch/Zonal) as the eight US players qualified for the new FIDE WC cycle.
1-5. GMs Granda Zuniga, Al.Ivanov,Akobian, Lima and IM Iturrizaga
- 8,
6-13. GM Vescovi, IMs Leon Hoyos,Cordova and Lafuente, GM Felgaer,
IM
Matsuura, GMs Peralta and Gulko 7½
14-22. GM Kudrin, IM Escobar Forero, GMs D.Gurevich, Zambrana, Ehlvest
and Fier, IMs Ibarra Chami,
Alzate and Sequera - 7, etc (116 players).
The five top players (those who scored 8 points) immediately qualified
into the World Cup and Matsuura and Peralta won the last two spots in a
playoff among those finishing on 7.5.
TUNE-IN FOR THE JOHN WATSON CHESS & BOOK SHOW
Each Tuesday at 21:00 Server Time on ICC Chess.FM, John's 90+ minute
show will review the latest titles, followed by a discussion of books and
other chess topics with his guests.
John's special guest this week (24 July) is none other than elite grandmaster
Alexei
Shirov! The Latvian-born GM is regarded by many as one of the
most imaginative attacking players of the modern era. His penchant
for wild attacking games has made him a firm favorite with the chess fans,
who see him as a natural heir to one of his former trainers, the great
Mikhail
Tal. His games collection series Fire On Board and Fire On Board
(Part II) are both widely regarded as modern-day classics.
JOHN B. HENDERSON
Standings after two rounds of the 8th Montreal Empresa tournament.
1. Harikrishna (IND, 2664) - 2;
2-4. Kamsky (USA 2718), Eljanov(UKR, 2701) and Tiviakov (NED, 2648)
- 1½;
5-7. Bluvshtein (CAN, 2520), Ivanchuk(UKR, 2762) and Miton (POL
2648) - 1
8. Charbonneau (CAN, 2503) - ½;
9-10. Short (ENG, 2683) and Sutovsky (ISR, 2656) – 0
GMs Joel Benjamin, Alex Shabalov, Jan Werle and Victor Mikhalevski are tie for first at 3.5 from 4 in the Curacao Open.
The 40th Biel Chess Festival takes place 21st July-3rd August 2007. Round 1 of the main GM event starts Monday 23rd July 2007.
Players:
Teimour Radjabov AZE 2747
Judit Polgar
HUN 2727
Alexander Grischuk RUS 2717
Magnus Carlsen NOR
2693
Loek Van Wely NED
2674
Alexander Onischuk USA 2663
Bu Xiangzhi
CHN 2656
Boris Avrukh
ISR 2644
Alexander Motylev RUS 2642
Yannick Pelletier SUI 2602
Average : = 2677 (cat. XVII
Official site: http://www.bielchessfestival.ch
"There aren't fewer draws, fans don't like it, the players don't
like it, sponsors don't seem to care, and the chess is much worse."
Mig Greengard (on the faster FIDE time controls)
After a three week run at the Mechanics' Institute the 2nd Imre Konig Memorial, run on the Scheveningen system, has finished. The MI would again like to thank Tibor Weinberger whose generosity made this event possible.
GM Team
1. GM Atalik 8
2. GM Fedorowicz 6.5
3. GM Yermolinsky 6
4. GM Baburin 5
5. IM K. Atalik 4.5
IM Team
1. IM Friedel 4.5
2. IM Zilberstein 4.5
3. IM Pruess 4
4. IM Stein 3.5
5. IM Mezentsev 3.5
1st overall Atalik
2nd overall Fedorowicz
3rd overall Yermolinsky
GM team 30 - IM 20
The following was not Suat's best game of the event but it was a very clean win.
Atalik,Suat - Mezentsev,Vladimir [D53]
Konig GM/IM San Francisco, CA
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 h6 6.Bh4 b6?!
6...0-0 7.Nf3 b6 is the usual way to enter the Tartakover-Bondarevsky-Makogonov
variation.
7.cxd5 Nxd5
7...exd5 8.Bb5+ c6 9.Bd3 would also favor White.
8.Bxe7 Qxe7 9.Nxd5 exd5 10.Qa4+
Suat introduces a novelty, borrowing an idea from the 4.a3 line of
the Queen's Indian, which is designed to prevent Black from achieving his
ideal development. Previously seen were 10.Ne2 ( Petrosian), 10. Be2 (
Portisch) and 10. Rc1 ( Polugaevsky). Note that from a4 the Queen can sometimes
meet ...c5 with Qa3 ( especially after Black has castled) and play Ba6
or Bb5 to try to gain control of the queenside light squares (a6 and c6).
10...Bd7?!
This move picks up a tempo but the Bishop is not well-placed here (
it belongs on b7 or e6) and will soon have to move again. 10...c6 was more
solid.
11.Qb3 0-0
Vladimir is a dangerous tactician and here he stays true to his style
trying to solve his positional problems with tactics.
12.Ne2 c5 13.dxc5 bxc5
13...Qxc5 14.Rc1 with a clear positional disadvantage. The text commits
him to gambiting material.
14.Nf4 Nc6 15.Nxd5 Qd6 16.Rd1 Rab8 17.Qc3 Nd4
Black tries to complicate but White simply develops. 1
18.Bc4 Bc6 19.Nf4 Qf6 20.exd4 Qxf4 21.0-0 cxd4 22.Rxd4 Qf6 23.Rfd1
White has emerged from the opening with a winning position with an
extra pawn and more active pieces but Suat does not make the common mistake
of relaxing with the win in sight.
23...Rfc8 24.Qg3 Be8 25.b3 Rb6 26.h4 Kf8 27.Qd3 Qg6 28.Qe3
The endgame after 28.Qxg6 Rxg6 29.Kf1 would still involve a lot
of work.
28...Qf6 29.Rf4 Qe7 30.Re4 Qf6 31.Re1 Qc6 32.Re7 a6
Can you find the win?
33.Bd5 1-0
For reports at US Chess Live go to http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_472.php
and http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_457.php
.
Mechanics' member Vinay Bhat made his 3rd and final GM
norm by tying for first in the 12th Balaguer Open Chess International
Tournament held from July 16th-25th in Balaguer, Spain. Vinay
scored 8 points out of 10 and was tied for the first place with GM Aleksander
Delchev, ahead of 10 GMs and 14 IMs . He will receive the title conditionally
this September the full title being bestowed when his FIDE rating crosses
2500.
For more information on the tournament go to http://www.openbalaguer.org/htm/inici_a.htm
Here are key games from rounds seven and eight.
GM Narciso Dublan,Marc (2552) - Bhat,Vinay S (2450) [D30]
XII Balaguer op (7), 22.07.2007
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Nbd2 c5 6.cxd5 exd5 7.Bb5+ Bd7 8.Bxd7+ Nbxd7 9.0-0 Bd6 10.dxc5 Nxc5 11.Nb3 Nce4 12.Bd2 0-0 13.Rc1 Rc8 14.Bc3 Nxc3 15.Rxc3 Rxc3 16.bxc3 Qb6 17.Qd3 Rc8 18.Rc1 g6 19.g3 Bf8 20.Nfd4 Ne4 21.Ne2 Qf6 22.Rf1 Nxc3 23.Nxc3 Rxc3 24.Qxd5 Qc6 25.Qa5 a6 26.Rd1 Rc2 27.Nd4 Qc5 28.Qa4 Rb2 29.Qd7 Rxa2 30.Qxb7 a5 31.Qe4 Rb2 32.Qa8 Qb6 33.h4 h5 34.Ra1 Rb1+ 35.Rxb1 Qxb1+ 36.Kg2 Qb4 37.Nc6 Qe4+ 38.f3 Qc2+ 39.Kh3 a4 40.g4 hxg4+ 41.Kxg4 a3 42.Ne7+ Kg7 43.Qxa3 Qg2+ 44.Kf4 Qh2+ 45.Ke4 Qxh4+ 46.Kd3 Qxe7 47.Qb2+ Qf6 48.Qb7 Bc5 49.Qb5 Qf5+ 50.Ke2 Qc2+ 51.Ke1 Qc1+ 52.Kf2 Bxe3+ 53.Kg2 Qg1+ 54.Kh3 Bf4 55.Qb2+ Kh7 0-1
Bhat,Vinay S (2450) - IM Flores,Diego (2560) [A42]
XII Balaguer op (8), 23.07.2007
1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.e4 Nc6 5.d5 Nd4 6.Be3 c5 7.Nge2 Qb6 8.Na4
Qa5+ 9.Bd2 Qd8 10.Nxd4 Bxd4 11.Bd3 Nf6 12.Nc3 0-0 13.0-0 Ng4 14.Be2 f5
15.Bxg4 fxg4 16.Rb1 e5 17.Ne2 Qh4 18.Qe1 g5 19.Nxd4 cxd4 20.Qc1 g3 21.hxg3
Qxe4 22.Bxg5 Rf7 23.Qd2 Bf5 24.Rbc1 b6 25.f3 Qd3 26.Qb4 Bd7 27.Qxd6 Qf5
28.Bh4 Re8 29.Rce1 d3 30.Re4 Qh5 31.Rd1 Rg7 32.Rxd3 Bf5 33.Rxe5 Rd7 34.Qf6
Rf8 35.Qc6 Qf7 36.Rde3 Rc7 37.Rxf5 1-0
GM Melik Khachiyan won the Pacific Coast Open held in Agoura Hills just outside LA July 19-22 with a score of 5-1. Tying for second at 4.5 were GMs Suat Atalik, Lars Bo Hansen and Rogelio Antonio and IM Enrico Sevillano. MI Grandmaster-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky finished just outside the prizewinners with an undefeated score of 4-2 against strong opposition. Bay Area players NMs Michael Aigner and Daniel Schwarz and Expert Greg Young ended up with 3.5 points. Young's performance was impressive as he played up all six rounds and lost only to GM Antonio picking up 23 points to move near a master ranking at 2172.
Yermo gives a clinic to his highly rated opponent from Southern California in the following game. Thanks to NM Michael Aigner for supplying the score.
Yermolinsky,Alex (2577) - Matikozyan,Andranik (2528) [E70]
Pacific Coast Open (3), 21.07.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Bd3 0-0 6.Nge2 e5 7.d5 Nh5
8.0-0 f5 9.exf5 gxf5 10.Ng3 Nxg3 11.fxg3 Qe8 12.Be3 c5 13.Bc2 Kh8 14.Nb5
Qe7 15.Qh5 a6 16.Bg5 Bf6 17.Bxf6+ Rxf6 18.Nc3 Nd7 19.Bxf5 Nf8 20.Ne4 Rxf5
21.Rxf5 Bxf5 22.Qxf5 Ng6 23.Rf1 Rf8 24.Qe6 Rxf1+ 25.Kxf1 Qf8+ 26.Qf6+ Qxf6+
27.Nxf6 Ne7 28.g4 Nc8 29.Ne4 b5 30.b3 Kg7 31.h4 Kf7 32.g5 Ke7 33.h5 bxc4
34.bxc4 1-0
Frank Camaratta, Chief Teller, has authorized releasing the following
overall totals as complete and final:
Polgar 3004
Bauer 2325
Truong 2056
Berry 2026
Jones 1774
Korenman 1648
Schultz 1580
Lux 1231
Sloan 677
Goodall 482
Polgar, Bauer and Truong have been elected to four year terms on the
Executive Board, Berry has been elected to complete the remaining two years
of Robert Tanner's term.
Jim Berry has accepted these results and has not requested a
recount.
America's top players are shining in foreign events.
1-2- Alexander Onischuk and Magnus Carlsen- 3/4
3- Boris Avrukh- 2.5/4
4-8- Judit Polgar, Alexander Motylev, Teimour Radjabov, Yannick
Pelletier- 2/4
9- Bu Xianghzi, Alexander Grischuk 1.5/4
10- Loek Van Wely- .5/4
Onischuk-Van Wely, Biel (4) 2007
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6 8.Bh4
g5 9.Nxg5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 Nbd7 11.exf6 Bb7 12.g3 c5 13.d5 Nxf6 14.Bg2 Bh6
15.Bxf6 Qxf6 16.O-O O-O-O 17.Nxb5 a6 18.Nc3 exd5 19.Re1 Kb8 20.Na4 Bf8
21.Rc1 Bc6 22.b3 Bh6 23.Rc2 Qd4 24.Qb1 Ka7 25.bxc4 Bxa4 26.Rb2 Rd6 27.Bxd5
Rxd5 28.Rb7+ Ka8 29.Qb6 1-0
Montreal Empressa after 7 rounds
1. Tiviakov, Sergei g NED 2648 5.5;
2. Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2762 5.0;
3-4. Kamsky, Gata g USA 2718 and Harikrishna, P g IND
2664 4.5;
5. Eljanov, Pavel g UKR 2701 4.0;
6. Miton, Kamil g POL 2648 3.5;
7-8. Bluvshtein, Mark g CAN 2520 and Sutovsky, Emil
g ISR 2656 2.5;
9. Charbonneau, Pascal g CAN 2503 2.0;
10. Short, Nigel D g ENG 2683 1.0;
Monroi International Women's Grand Prix Finale - Montreal
Standings after five rounds
1-3. IM Jovanka Houska ENG 2401, GM Pia Cramling, SWE 2533 and IM
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant GEO 2418- 3.5
4. IM Lela Javakhishvili GEO 2460 3.0
5-6. IM Irina Krush USA 2479 and IM Iweta Rajlich POL 2406 2.5
7. IM Cristina Adela Foisor ROM 2372 1.5
8. Myriam Roy CAN 1925 0.0
IM Anna Zatonskih, NMs Tatev Abrahamyan and Michael Langer tied for first at 4-1 in the 62nd Jerry Spann Memorial held in Stillwater, Oklahoma, directed and organized by Frank and Jim Berry. MI member Batchimeg Tuvshintugs was among those for fourth at 3.5. Her coach Batsaikhan Tserendorj had 2.5.
Bay Area players Lauren and Barbara Goodkind, who are
both rated in the top 100 women in the United States, have a series of
chess videos that can be viewed for free online at http://www.chessdryad.com/chessdiva/index.htm
. Among those interviewed are the top rated 11-year-old in the US, Daniel
Naroditsky, and Sojourner Truth tournament organizer Doug Shaker.
The 23-year-old identical twin sisters' program Chess Diva is supported
by the Burlingame Chess Club, the Media Center in Palo Alto, CA, and the
Northern California Chess Association. For more information contact Barbara
and Lauren at
chessdiva.show@gmail.com
.
Several Newsletters ago Kerry Lawless wrote about a San Francisco column
in the 1880s that published in the Argonaut . Here he provides more information.
CHESS LIFE
Volume 6, Number 14, March 20, 1952
After 66 years, the Argonaut, published in San Francisco, has
added a chess column, edited by Dr. H. J. Ralston, already the editor of
the excellent California Chess Reporter. This weekly feature
of the Argonaut magazine recalls the fact that sixty-eight years ago in
the issue of January 5, 1884 of this same Argonaut began a chess column
edited by J. Fennimore Welsh, which was probably the first regular
chess column on the Pacific Coast. Mr. Welsh was succeeded by J. E. Tippett
who conducted the column until March 6, 1886 when the feature was discontinued,
to be revived on February 8, 1952 under the skilled direction of Dr.
Ralston. Contribution in game scores, original problems and news items
are requested by the editor, who may be addressed: Dr. H. J. Ralston, The
Argonaut, 544 Market Street, San Francisco, Calif.
"It's far more important not to do anything stupid than to create
brilliant combinations."
GM Larry Evans
With deep sadness we note the passing of long-time Mechanics' member Mario Samatra who passed in late July of prostate cancer. Mario, whose rating fluctuated between Expert and Class A for many years, was a fixture in the Tuesday Night Marathons the past decade where his good spirit was always appreciated. He will be sorely missed.
Mike Nolan of the USCF, who has done so much to modernize the Federation's computer systems, provides the following data for the top 10 youngest experts (since 1992) in the US. MI member Nicholas Nip narrowly missed breaking the record and joins some famous names including two other Bay Area players.
9 years 8 days
12910173 LUO, BRIAN J
9 years 1 month 22 days 12743305 CARUANA, FABIANO
9 years 2 months 2 days 13062538 NIP, NICHOLAS
9 years 9 months 22 days 12770589 ARNOLD, MARC TYLER
9 years 10 months 9 days 12641216 NAKAMURA, HIKARU
9 years 11 months 6 days 12945617 YANG, DARWIN
9 years 11 months 9 days 12847250 ROBSON, RAY S
9 years 11 months 22 days 12551720 BHAT, VINAY S
10 years 7 days
12540667 MONT-REYNAUD, JORDY
10 years 1 month 20 days 12550676 STEIGMAN, A J
Author, arbiter and chess master Eric Schiller of Moss Beach, who suffered a stroke last year, is now doing much better and plans to play in the Nor Cal Championship, the Cal Chess Masters and the Western States Open in Reno. Welcome back Eric!
FM Jim Eade and NM Mark Pinto head a group of Mechanics' Chess Club members who will travel to the Palm Springs area in a few days to play in the US Senior Open in La Quinta.
SM Craig Mar heads the list of entrants in the 68-player Ben Gross Tuesday Night Marathon which started last night. It is still possible to enter the nine round event with a half point bye for the first round.
The Mechanics' will be hosting its 7th Annual Vladimir Pafnutieff
Memorial G/45 this Saturday starting at 10am.
2006 US Champion Alex Onischuk continued his series of excellent results ( 2nd in the US Championship, =3rd in the super strong Aerosvits International) the past few months by tying for first in Biel and is moving forward toward 2700 .
1.-2. Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2710) 5.5
1-2.. Alexander Onischuk (USA, 2650) 5.5
3.-6. Yannick Pelletier (Switzerland, 2583) 5
3-6. Judit Polgar (Hungary, 2707) 5
3-6. Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2726) 5
3-6. Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan, 2746) 5
7-10. Bu Xianghzi (China, 2685) 3.5
7-10. Loek van Wely (Netherlands, 2679) 3.5
7-10. Alexander Motylev (Russia, 2648) 3.5
7-10 Boris Avrukh (Israel, 2645) 3.5
The 2nd Edmonton International, a Category 4 (2346 FIDE average) IM norm round robin held August 2-6 at the Edmonton Chess Club, was won by GM Melik Khachian of Los Angeles in convincing fashion with 7.5 from 9. IM Jessie Kraai , who will receive his GM title this September, started slowly with only one point from his first three games but finished very strongly. The IM norm for the event was 6. Vlad Rekhson, assisted by Micha Hughey, organized and directed the event.
Final Standings:
1. GM Khachian (USA) 7.5
2. GM (elect) Kraai ( USA) 6.5
3. IM Donaldson (USA) 6
4-5. GM Aveskulov (UKR) and IM Bachmann (PAR) 5.5
6-7. FM Huber (CAN) and Li (HKG) 3.5
8. Yanayt (USA) 3
9.-10. Reeve (CAN) and Haessel (CAN) 2
IM Axel Bachmann- GM Melik Khachian
Edmonton (8) 2007
Notes by GM Khachian
1.e4 e5 2.Ne2
I didn't have much time to prepare,but still this move was absolutely
unexpected.
2...Nf6 3.Nbc3 Nc6 4.g3 Bc5
4...d5!? 5.exd5 Nd4 6.Bg2 Bg4 was another approach. I spent about
10 minutes here trying to remember the variation, but I guess I was just
little bit tired and in the end decided just to play more solidly
5.Bg2 a6 6.d3 d6 7.0-0 0-0 8.h3 Be6 9.Kh2?!
This was an important moment. White need to play 9.Kh1 to avoid any
possible discovery check from the Black knight on f6. I was surprised
that my opponent played his King to h2 so fast.
9...d5! 10.Bg5?!
10.exd5 Nxd5 11.Nxd5 Bxd5 12.Nc3 Bxg2 13.Kxg2 with equality is White
what should have done. He obviously didn't see the Black's response.
10...d4! 11.Bxf6
Here I was surprised once again when my opponent declined my proposal
of a draw.The tournament situation was O.K for me and thought the
draw would be fine for me in the penultimate round.. But after some deep
thinking my opponent refused the offer.
11...Qxf6 12.Nb1 Qh6!?
To control the h6-c1 diagonal and also eye the h3 pawn.
13.Nd2?!
13. Qd2 still offered White good chances to equalize the game since
the position is locked and hard to break open.
13...Bd6 14.a3 b5 15.Ng1 Ne7 16.Bf3
Trying to trade white color bishops,but the position still remain very
unpleasant for White.
16...c5 17.b3 Bc7 18.Qe2 Ba5 19.Rfd1 Rfc8 20.Nf1 c4 21.b4
The Bishop must be on the diagonal f8-a3 in order to attack the a3
and b4 pawns.
21...Bc7! 22.Bg4 a5 23.a4
Desperation,but White still in big trouble.
23...axb4 24.axb5 c3 25.Rdb1 Bd6 26.b6 Rab8 27.b7 Rxb7 28.Ra6 b3!
This this tactical blow is going to finish White off.
29.Bxe6 Qxe6 30.cxb3 Rxb3 31.Rxb3 Qxb3 32.Rxd6 c2 33.Qd2 Qb8 34.Rd8+
Rxd8 35.Qxc2 Rc8 36.Qa4 Qb1 37.Nd2 Qxd3 38.Ngf3 f6 39.Qd7 Kf7 40.Kg2 Rc2
41.Qb7 Rxd2 42.Nxd2 Qxd2 43.Qb3+ Kg6 0-1
Jesse Kraai - Axel Bachmann
Edmonton (7) 2007
1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. e4Bg7 6. Be3 d6 7.
Nc3 Nf6 8. Be2 O-O 9. O-O Bd7 10. Re1 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 Bc6 12. Bd3 a5 13.
Qd2
Nd7 14. Bxg7 Kxg7 15. Re3 Nc5 16. Rh3 h5 17. f4 f5 18. Re1 fxe4
19. Bxe4 Nxe4 20. Nxe4 Bxe4 21. Rxe4 e5 22. Rb3 Rf7 23. Qd5 a4 24. Rxb7
Rxb7 25. Qxb7+ Kh6 26. Re2 exf4 27. Re6 Rb8 28. Qf7 Qg5 29. h4 Qg3 30.
Re7 Qxh4 31. Qg7+ Kg5 32. Re6 Kg4 33. Rxg6+Kf5 34. Qf7+ Ke4 35. Qd5+ 1-0
John Donaldson - Zhichao Li
Edmonton (5) 2007
1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 c6 4. c4 Bf5 5. cxd5 cxd5 6. Qb3 Qc8 7.
Nc3 e6 8. O-O Nc6 9. d3 Be7 10. Bf4 O-O 11. Rac1 Qd7?!
This walks into a well-known shot. A better move was 11...Bg6 meeting
12.Ne5 with 12...Nd7 and only a small advantage for White in Kortchnoi-Karpov,
Final Candidates, Moscow 1974.
12. e4! dxe4 13. dxe4 Nxe4 14. Nxe4 Bxe4 15. Ne5 Nxe5 16. Bxe4 Nc6
17. Rfd1 Qc8 18. Qa4
White recovers his pawn with a positional advantage.
18... Rd8 19. Rxd8+ Qxd8 20. Bxc6 bxc6 21. Qxc6 a5!
21...h6 22.Be5 Bg5 23.Rc4 Qd1+ 24.Kg2 Rd8 25.Qf3 Qxf3+ 26.Kxf3 Bf6
27.Bxf6 gxf6 28.Ke3 and White won in convincing fashion in short order
in Barcza-Smyslov, Moscow (ol) 1956;
21...Bf6 22.b4 Bd4 23.Bd6 h5 24.a4 g6 25.Rc4 e5 26.b5 with a big advantage
for White in Donaldson-Rey, Berkeley 1999.
The idea of the text is to prevent White from playing a4, b4 and b5
fixing a7 as a target.
22. b3 Ba3?!
22...Bb4 of Barcza-Malich, Kecskemet 1968, looks more solid.
23. Rc4 Qd1+ 24. Kg2 Rd8
The follow up to 22...Ba3 is this attempt to activate the Rook but
the plan is too ambitious.
25. Bg5! Rd7??
This end the game right away but 25...Rf8 26.Be3 with 27.Rd4 to follow
leaves White dominating the central files.
26. Qa8+ Bf8 27. Qxf8+ Kxf8 28. Rc8+ 1-0
GM Vassily Ivanchuk won his game against Harikrishna in the last
round and thus became the sole winner of the 8th Montréal Empresa
(Category 16) tournament and will see his rating reach
a personal best of around 2775 on the next FIDE list this fall.
1 Ivanchuk - 7.0
2 Tiviakov - 6.0
3 Harikrishna - 5.5
4 Kamsky - 5.0
5 Eljanov - 5.0
6 Sutovsky - 4.5
7 Miton - 3.5
8 Bluvshtein - 3.5
9 Charbonneau - 3.0
10 Short - 2.0
Monroi Womens Chess Grand-Prix
This roundrobin held in Montréal in late July saw the winner received $4,500 CAN. US Womens Champion Irina Krush had a rare sub par result.
1. GM Pia Cramling (SWE, 2533) - 5/7
2-3. WGMs Javakhishvili (GEO, 2460) and J. Houska (ENG, 2401)
- 4½
4-5. WGMs Arakhamia Grant (GEO, 2418) and I. Rajlich (POL, 2406)
– 4
6-7. WGMs Krush (USA, 2479) and C. Foisor (ROM, 2372) - 3
8. Roy (CAN, 1925) – 0.
The annual Politiken Cup, held in the Danish capital of
Copenhagen late July saw a former MI member share top honors. Five players
tied for the 1st place with 8/10, three of them were the Elo-favorites
of the tournament – GMs Vladimir Malakhov (Russia, 2676), Gabriel
Sargissian (Armenia,2667) and Michael Krasenkow (Poland,2660).
They were joined by Nick de Firmian (USA), who defeated another
favorite, Peter-Heine Nielsen (2646), with the Black
pieces in the last round, and also by the Swedish GM Emanuel Berg.
Here are two of Nick's wins.
Sorensen,T (2375) - De Firmian,N (2540) [A37]
Politiken Cup 2007 Helsingor (6.5), 25.07.2007
1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.a3 a5 7.Rb1 Nge7 8.d3 0-0 9.0-0 d6 10.Bg5 f6 11.Bd2 Kh8 12.Ne1 Be6 13.Nc2 d5 14.cxd5 Nxd5 15.b4 cxb4 16.Nxd5 Bxd5 17.Bxd5 Qxd5 18.axb4 a4 19.b5 Nd4 20.Nxd4 exd4 21.Rb4 a3 22.Qb3 Qxb3 23.Rxb3 Rfc8 24.Ra1 Bf8 25.Ra2 Ra4 26.Kg2 Kg8 27.Rb1 Kf7 28.Kf1 Ke6 29.Ke1 Kd5 30.Kd1 h5 31.h3 Bd6 32.Bf4 Be7 33.Bd2 g5 34.e4+ dxe3 35.fxe3 f5 36.Ke2 Bd6 37.Kf3 h4 38.Be1 g4+ 39.Kg2 gxh3+ 40.Kxh3 hxg3 41.Kg2 Rh8 42.Kf3 Rh2 43.Rba1 Rxa2 44.Rxa2 Kc5 45.Ra1 0-1
Nielsen,P (2637) - De Firmian,N (2540) [E17]
Politiken Cup 2007 Helsingor (10.3), 29.07.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.0-0 0-0 7.d5 exd5 8.Nh4 c6 9.cxd5 Nxd5 10.Nf5 Nc7 11.e4 Nba6 12.Re1 Re8 13.Qg4 g6 14.Nh6+ Kg7 15.Nc3 d6 16.Qf3 f6 17.h4 Nc5 18.h5 N7e6 19.hxg6 hxg6 20.Nf5+ Kf7 21.Nh6+ Kg7 22.Nf5+ Kf7 23.b4 Nd7 24.Nh4 Bf8 25.e5 Nxe5 26.Rxe5 dxe5 27.Qg4 Ke7 28.Be3 Bg7 29.Rd1 Qc7 30.Qxg6 Rad8 31.Nf5+ Kf8 32.Rxd8 Rxd8 33.Nxg7 Nxg7 34.Qxf6+ Kg8 35.Ne4 Rd1+ 36.Kh2 Qf7 37.Qh4 Nf5 38.Nf6+ Kf8 39.Qh8+ Ke7 40.Bg5 Ke6 41.Ng4 Re1 42.Be3 Qg7 43.Qe8+ Ne7 44.Qh5 Ba6 45.Bh3 Bf1 46.Bh6 Qh8 47.Nxe5+ Bxh3 48.Qxh3+ Nf5 49.Nf3 Re2 50.Ng5+ Ke7 51.Qxf5 Qxh6+ 52.Kg2 Re1 53.Nh3 Qe6 54.Qh7+ Kd8 55.Ng5 Qd5+ 56.Nf3 Re7 57.Qh8+ Kc7 58.a3 c5 59.Qc3 c4 0-1
Final standings:
1-5. Krasenkow, Berg, Sargissian, de Firmian, Malakhov – 8 points
6-17. Agrest, Brynell, Khenkin,Nyback, Godena, Lie, Zude, A.-S.
Rasmussen, Bulski, Stripunski, Hector, C.-K. Pedersen – 7½
At the Cherry Hill, New Jersey Executive board meeting, the new USCF board elected 2007-2009 officers. Votes for all positions were unanimous.
Chairman: Susan Polgar
President: Bill Goichberg
Vice President: Jim Berry
Vice President – Finance: Randy Bauer
Vice President – Marketing and Communications: Paul Truong
Vice President – Business Development: Joel Channing
Vice President- Secretary: Randy Hough
Hello. My name is Blas Lugo. I am an international chess master
with one grandmaster norm. As president of Miami International Chess
Academy (www.miamichess.com ) ( www.themiamichessopen.com) I am
working on the organization of the " The Miami Chess Open" which will be
held in the city of Miami Florida USA at the end of September of this year
2007.There is going to be 100,000 dollars award The objective of this letter
is to ask for your support when it comes to spreading the word about our
coming event by placing a banner of our event in your web. We would like
to bring back memories like the ones all you had while playing in the late
New York Open only with the amenities characteristic of sunny Miami Florida.
Thank you for the support towards the " The Miami Chess Open".
"The beautiful thing about chess is, it's one of the few places in
the world where you are just objectively judged for what you have done
last week. There is no boss or someone telling you this, that or the other
thing. ... I don't need a boss."
GM-elect Jesse Kraai
NM Mark Pinto lead the way for a contingent of Mechanics' members who made the trip to Palm Springs for the US Senior Open which started yesterday, winning in round one. IM Walter Shipman, FM Jim Eade and NM Art Wang are among those seeking to become the first Bay Area player to win the US Senior title since Neil Falconer in 1992.
FM Craig Mar and NM Andy Lee head the top of the rankings in the Ben Gross Memorial Tuesday Night Marathon with 2-0 scores. It is still possible to join the nine round with half point byes for rounds one and two.
Thanks to Melvin Chernev, son of the late Irving Chernev, the Mechanics' chess library has some important additions. The Institute now has a complete collection of Chess Review and the American Chess Bulletin, and significant runs of Wiener Schachzeitung and L'Echiquer as well as the series of Yearbooks produced by the American Chess Federation and USCF in the 1930s and 40s. In addition Mr. Chernev donated some very nice photos of his father in action against Fine and Reshevsky in US Championships. Look for them to be up on the walls of the Club shortly.
Those who have not been to the Mechanics' Chess Club in awhile will find many new photographs thanks to the efforts of Bob Burger. Among them are some classic black and white photographs taken by the Nancy Roos for the California Chess Reporter in the 1950s. Among those featured are Herman Steiner, Svetozar Gligoric and Jacqueline Piatigorsky.
The San Francisco Mechanics', defending US Chess League Champions, starts its title defense on August 29 at 5:30 pm. Spectators are welcome to watch the action in person at the Mechanics' or follow it online on the Internet Chess Club.
2007 Team Roster: (San Francisco is using the Dec 06 Rating List)
1. GM Patrick Wolff: 2623
2. IM Josh Friedel: 2535
3. IM Vinay Bhat: 2465
4. IM Vince McCambridge: 2502
5. IM David Pruess: 2452
6. IM John Donaldson: 2460
7. Daniel Naroditsky: 2076
8. Gregory Young: 2043
Alternates:
1. NM Mark Pinto: 2228
2. NM Sam Shankland: 2208
IM Ricardo DeGuzman won the 69-player Vladimir Pafnutieff Memorial held August 11 at the Mechanics' with a 5-0 score. Arthur Liou, rated only 1823 going in, had a monster tournament defeating Expert Gregory Young and NM Peter Zavadsky to take second with 4.5 and pick up almost 60 rating points. There was a massive tie for third at 4 including SM Craig Mar (lost to Zavadsky), NMs Nicolas Yap ( lost to DeGuzman), Zavadsky and Experts Dmitry Vayntrub, Kimani Stancil, Juan Luaces, James Jones and 9-year-old Nicholas Nip (losing only to Mar - up to 2040). Yian Liou, rated 1782, also had a great event, scoring 3.5 points which was good for a 58 point rating gain. Anthony Corrales directed for the Mechanics' assisted by Alex Yermolinsky.
This Saturday the Mechanics' will be hosting the two day Bernardo
Smith Amateur for players rated under 1800.
GMs Boris Gulko, Segey Kudrin, Alex Shabalov and Michael Rohde tied with IMs Ben Finegold and Michael Mulyar and NM Anton Del Mundo with 7.5 from 9 in the US Open held July 28th- August 5th in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
The Northern California representatives in the Polgar
and Denker Invitationals for High School champions both scored
4.5 from 6. Louiza Livschitz was leading the Polgar event for girls
until she lost in the last round and tied for third. Nicolas Yap was equal
fourth in the Denker.
Any naysayers about Fabiano Caruana, who recently turned 15, are chewing on crow now as the newly minted GM took the 250-player Vlissingen Open held August 4-11 on tiebreak over world class GM Sergei Tiviakov and others with 7.5 from 9, good for a 2715 performance rating. Fabiano showed great versatility but was particularly strong in tactical positions. Here are a few highlights from the tournament.
Leenhouts,K (2395) - Caruana,F (2549) [B42]Vlissingen (4)2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Nf6 6.0-0 Qc7 7.c4 Nc6
8.Nf3 b6 9.Nc3 Bb7 10.b3 Bd6 11.Bb2 Ne5 12.h3 0-0 13.Rc1 Rac8 14.Bb1 Nxf3+
15.Qxf3 Be5 16.g3 Bc6 17.Ba3 Rfe8 18.Nd5 exd5 19.cxd5 Qb8 20.dxc6 dxc6
21.Qe2 c5 22.Kh2 Bd4 23.f4 h5! 24.e5 h4 25.Bb2
As 25.g4 is met by 25...Bxe5! 26.fxe5 Rxe5
25...hxg3+ 26.Kxg3 Rcd8 27.Kh2 Bxb2 28.Qxb2 Nh5 29.Rce1 Rd4 30.Qe2??
30.Re4 Red8 31.Rf2 had to be tried.
30...Nxf4 31.Qe3 f6 0-1
Caruana,F (2549) - Stellwagen,D (2631) [B54]Vlissingen (6) 2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 d6 6.g4 a6 7.Be3 Nge7
8.Nb3 b5 9.f4 Bb7 10.Qd2 Na5 11.Nxa5 Qxa5 12.Bg2 b4 13.Ne2 h5 14.h3 Ng6
15.Bf2 Be7 16.g5 e5 17.f5 Nf4 18.Nxf4 Bxg5 19.Qxd6 exf4 20.0-0 Rd8 21.Qc5
Qxc5 22.Bxc5 Rc8 23.Bxb4 Rxc2 24.Rf2 Rxf2 25.Kxf2 Rh6 26.Bc3 Rc6 27.Rd1
g6 28.e5 Bh4+ 29.Kf1 Rxc3 30.bxc3 f3 31.Bh1 gxf5 32.Rd4 f4 33.Bxf3 Bxf3
34.Rxf4 Bg3 35.Rxf3 Bxe5 36.c4 h4 37.Ra3 1-0
Caruana,F (2549) - Barua,D (2462) [C06]Vlissingen NED (8) 2007
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ngf3 Be7
8.0-0 a5 9.Re1 cxd4 10.cxd4 Nb4 11.Bb1 Nb6 12.Nf1 Bd7 13.Ng3 h5 14.Ne2
Rc8 15.a3 Nc6 16.Nf4 g5
White's next move, to use Britspeak, is very "visual"
17.Ng6!!? Rg8
I'm not sure exactly what is happening after 17...fxg6. White has two
major responses 18.Bxg6+ (18.Nxg5 is likely to transpose) and 18.Nh4.
After 18.Bxg6+ Kf8 19.Nxg5 Bxg5 20.Qf3+ Kg7 21.Qf7+ Kh6 22.f4
Be7 looks to be okay. 18.Nh4 looks more dangerous and the second piece
definitely cannot be accepted: 18.Nh4 gxh4? 19.Bxg6+ Kf8 20.Qf3+ Bf6 21.Bg5
Nxd4 22.Qf4 favors White but declining the gift with 18...0-0 (or possibly
18...g4) are not so clear. After declining Barua is worse as he will dearly
miss his dark squared Bishop.
18.Nxe7 Qxe7 19.Qd3 g4 20.Qh7 Qf8 21.Ng5 Rh8 22.Qd3 a4 23.Nh7 Qg7
24.Nf6+ Kd8 25.Qb5 Nc4 26.Qxb7 Rc7 27.Qa8+ Bc8 28.Qxa4 Nxd4 29.Kh1 Nc6
30.Qd1 N6xe5 31.Ne4 Nd7 32.Nc3 Bb7 33.Nb5 Nxb2 34.Qb3 Qe5 35.Bg5+ Qxg5
36.Nxc7 Qd2 37.Bc2 Kxc7 38.Qxb2 Rb8 39.Rac1 Bc6 40.Qg7 Qxf2 41.Ba4 Rb6
42.Rf1 Qe3 43.Qxf7 Qe4 44.Bxc6 Rxc6 45.Rce1 Qc4 46.Qxh5 e5 47.Rf7 Qe4 48.Qh4
Qg6 49.Rff1 e4 50.Qg3+ Kd8 51.Rf4 Nf6 52.Ref1 Ke7 53.Qf2 Re6 54.Qa7+ Kd6
55.Qb6+ Ke7 56.Qc7+ Ke8 57.Rb1 Nd7 58.Qc8+ Ke7 59.Rb7 Rd6 60.Rf8 e3 61.Qd8+
Ke6 62.Re8+ 1-0
Fabiano had to defend against FIDE 2004-2005 World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov in the last round.
Kasimdzhanov,R (2683) - Caruana,F (2549) [C18]Vlissingen (9) 2007
1.d4 e6 2.e4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4 0-0
8.Bd3 Nbc6 9.Qh5 Ng6 10.Nf3 Qc7 11.Be3 c4 12.Bxg6 fxg6 13.Qg4 Bd7 14.h4
Rf5 15.Ng5 Raf8 16.Qe2 h6 17.Nh3 b5 18.f3 a5 19.Qd2 Qd8 20.Bf2 Ne7 21.0-0
R5f7 22.Kh2 Nf5 23.g3 Ne7 24.Ng1 Nf5 25.Kg2 Kh7 26.Nh3 Kg8 27.Rh1 Ne7 28.Ng1
Nc6 29.Be3 Ne7 30.g4 Nc6 31.Rh3 Qe7 32.Ne2 b4 33.axb4 axb4 34.cxb4 Qxb4
35.c3 Qb6 36.Qc1 Rb8 37.Ra2 Qb1 38.Qxb1 Rxb1 39.Nf4 Kh7 40.Rh1 Rb3 41.Ne2
Rf8 42.Bd2 Rfb8 43.Rha1 Kg8 44.Kf2 Kf7 45.Ra8 Bc8 46.Rxb8 Rxb8 47.Nf4 Rb6
48.Ke3 Rb5 49.Ra8 Rb8 50.Ra1 Rb6 51.Bc1 Rb3 52.Kd2 Rb6 53.Ra8 Rb8 54.Rxb8
Nxb8 55.Ba3 Nc6 56.Bb4 Bd7 57.Kc2 Be8 58.Kb2 Bd7 59.Ka3 Be8 60.Ng2 Bd7
61.Ne3 Ke8 62.Nd1 Na7 63.Bc5 Nc6 64.Bb6 h5 65.Nf2 g5 66.hxg5 hxg4 67.fxg4
Kf7 68.Nh3 Kg6 69.Kb2 Bc8 70.Kc1 Bd7 71.Kd2 Bc8 72.Ke3 Bd7 73.Kf2 Kf7 74.Nf4
Ne7 75.Bc5 Ng6 76.Ne2 Ba4 77.Kg3 Bd1 78.Nc1 Nh8 79.Na2 Ba4 80.Nb4 Bb5 81.Nc2
Ba4 82.Ne3 Bd7 ½-½
If one were asked to name the most important person in the chess world names like top players like Kramnik, Anand and Topalov would be sure to be mentioned and if you asked the right person FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov would be on the list but a strong argument could be made that individual that would be most missed is Mark Crowther, who has faithfully produced The Week in Chess ( TWIC) - every chess players weekly source for recent news and games - for over a decade. If you suffer from hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, read no further, for issue 666 of TWIC is out this week. Thank you Mark (and Malcolm Pein of the London Chess Center and Chess magazine for sponsoring Mark).
The U.S. Chess Federation (USCF) held its' Annual USCF Awards luncheon
at this years 2007 U.S. Open Chess Championship at the Crowne Plaza Hotel
in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.The luncheon took place on Saturday, August
4 with the following award recipients accepting:
Chess City of the Year (1983): Stillwater, Oklahoma (accepted by
Frank and Jim Berry).
Chess Club of the Year (1999): Atlanta Chess Center.
Committee of the Year (1982): 2007 Financial Review Committee.
Distinguished Service Award (1979): Fred Gruenberg of Illinois.
Friend of the USCF: GM Garry Kasparov of the USSR.
Gold Koltanowski Medal (1979): Frank K. Berry of Oklahoma for his
contribution to the 2007 U.S. Championship.
Grandmaster (GM) of the Year (1997): GM Gata Kamsky of New York.
Frank J. Marshall Ambassador Award (1994): GM Gregory Kaidanov of
Kentucky.
Meritorious Service Award (1980): Richard Shorman of California,
John Hilbert of New York, Dan Heisman of Pennsylvania, and Grant Perks
of Ohio.
Organizer of the Year (1994): Sevan Muradian of Illinois.
Outstanding Career Achievement (1986): Fred and Carol Kleist of
Washington, Gordon Barrett of Nevada, Stephen Dann of Massachusetts.
Scholastic Services Award (1994): GM Susan Polgar of New York and
Brownsville, Texas School District.
Society of Chess Mates (1998): Donna Gruenberg of Illinois and Jan
Rogers of Georgia.
Special Services Award (1983): Steve Doyle of New Jersey, Ernie
Schlich of Virginia.
Tournament Director of the Year (2004): Michael Atkins of Virginia.
The Chess program Rybka won a pawn-odds match versus GM Joel
Benjamin with a score of 4½-3½, . In each game, Rybka
removed a different one of the eight pawns at the start. Coverage at
RybkaForum.net
"Chess brings out man's creative powers. It is not only a struggle,
it is a sphere where humans can fight for justice because there are strict
laws."
Boris Spassky
Time magazine July 31, 1972
NM Andy Lee, Experts Batsaikhan Tsrendorj, Carlos Davila, Victor Ossipov, Romulo Fuentes, Larry Snyder, Wiliam Gray, Igor Traub, James Jones and Class A players Demtrious Goins and Adam Goldberg who upset NM Igor Margulis and Expert Felix Rudyak respectively, are tied at 2-0. Right behind them at 1 1/2 are IM Ricardo DeGuzman , NM Sam Shankland and Expert Daniel Naroditsky who have each taken a half point bye. It's still possible to enter the 74 player, 9 round event, with half point byes for the first two (or three) rounds.
This past weekend Jay Kumar won the Bernardo Smith Amateur ( Under 1800) at the MI with a score of 5 from 6. Bernard Liang, Evan Sandberg, Cesar Tamondong and Zachi Bacharav tied for second with 4 1/2 in the 38-player event.
The San Francisco Mechanics' open the defense of their US Chess League title on Wednesday, August 29th, at 5:30 pm. Spectators are welcome . Alternatively you can follow the games live on the Internet Chess Club at www.chessclub.com. For more information on the US Chess League go to http://www.uschessleague.com
Thanks to John Alexander Jr. who has donated several beautiful black and white photos of chess in San Diego in late 1950s including one with Bent Larsen, Larry Evans and Pal Benko in it. John's father, John Alexander Sr., was one of the leading West Coast organizers in the 1950s and 60s.
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.
GM Leonid Kritz was the winner of the New England Masters,
finishing with 7/9, a half-point ahead of GM Alex Shabalov and IM
Dean Ippolito. Kritz maintains his 100% record of winning Master
tournaments organized by Chris Bird, which includes his joint first in
the Las Vegas Masters last year.
Finishing in fourth place was IM Robert Hess with 6/9, while
IM
Lev Milman, IM Josh Friedel and 12 year old FM Ray Robson finished
tied for fifth with 5.5/9.
Ippolito's 2nd place finish was also good for the top Under 2400 prize while Robson took second in the same category. FM James Critelli and local youngster Max Enkin took the top Under 2300 prize, both of them finishing with 5/9, and both of them notching up a win against English GM Nigel Davies during the course of the tournament.
Norm Watch
IM Dean Ippolito's 6.5/9 was good enough for a GM norm performance
and FM James Critelli's 5/9 was good enough for an IM norm performance.
Unfortunately both players played six USA players and the FIDE rules stipulate
that a maximum of 60% of your opposition can come from your own federation.
FM
Ray Robson and Max Enkin both ended up just a half-point shy
of IM norm performances, although they would have also failed to play the
necessary non-USA opposition.
This was caused due to various foreign players dropping out for
one reason or another over the final couple of weeks, including a foreign
GM dropping out and being replaced by GM Shabalov (who is USA, but
who wouldn't want the US Champion at their tournament?) and the foreign
players not performing well enough to be paired against the players that
needed them. Obviously there is only so much that can be done to
obtain these match-ups, while maintaining the integrity of the tournament,
which is of paramount importance.
The only consolation for both of the players is that they still
need to obtain the relevant 2500 (GM) and 2400 (IM) FIDE ratings, and their
results in this tournament will go a long way to helping with that cause.
If they take the confidence gained from this tournament, and keep performing
up to these standards, it will only be a matter of time before they eventually
succeed in their quests.
Three Members of Mechanics' US Chess League team make trip (JD)
IMs Josh Friedel and David Pruess went to New England looking for GM norms and will not be satisfied with their results, but 16-year-old Sam Shankland scored a very respectable 4 from 9 with a performance rating of around 2300 despite typically spending 30 minutes on his clock each game. Slow down Sam!
Shankland,Samuel (2166) - Yanayt,Eugene (2335) [B77]
New England Masters (4) 2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nc6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 d6 8.f3 0-0 9.Qd2 Bd7 10.h4 Qa5 11.h5 Ne5 12.Bb3 Rfc8 13.hxg6 hxg6 14.Bh6 Bh8 15.0-0-0 Nc4 16.Bxc4 Rxc4 17.Nb3 Qa6 18.Bf8 Rxf8 19.Rxh8+ Kxh8 20.Qh6+ Kg8 21.Rh1 Nh5 22.g4 Be6 23.gxh5 g5 24.Qxg5+ Kh7 25.Rg1 1-0
Go to http://www.newenglandmasters.com/
and http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_511.php
for more information.
Arizona NM Joel Johnson won the US Senior ( age 50 and over) title by scoring 5.5 from 6. Johnson's key win was in round 5 over Mechanics' member IM Walter Shipman who tied for second at 4.5 with FMs Jim Eade, Lester Van Meter and Robert Rowley and NM Stane Kirofiloski. Eade, a former Mechanics' Institute Chess Director coming off a long layoff from tournament play, had a fine result and was undefeated. MI regular Nelson Sowell tied for first under 1800 in the 41-player event held in Palm Springs August 14-19.
Go to http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_512.php
for more information.
Each Tuesday at 21:00 Server Time, John's 90+ minute show will review
the latest titles, followed by a
discussion of books and other chess topics with his guests. John's
special mguest on the 21st of August is Dutch
GM Hans Ree. A four-time champion of the Netherlands, Hans is now a
more recognizable figure as one of the
game's great writers. He's a columnist and chess writer for the Dutch
newspaper NRC Handelblad and also
a contributor to the award-winning chess magazine New in Chess.
Hans has written many books, though mainly in Dutch, but has written
one book in English, The Human Comedy
of Chess: A Grandmaster's Chronicles, based on a collection of his
insightful articles that delve into the history of
the game and its personalities.
The following article appeared in the March 1939 issue of Chess Review (Volume 7, Number 3). Thanks to Kerry Lawless for transcribing it. For similar articles go to his website at www.chessdryad.org .
On Tour
By I. A. Horowitz
When one leaves for an extended trip of ten weeks, it is generally to
be expected that much time and effort is spent in preparation. Not so with
a chessplayer. I hastily packed my belongings, and madly rushed to bid
farewell to some of my friends. Then still somewhat in a daze, I headed
for the depot. As the pleasant chant “a-b-o-a-r-d” was heard, I relaxed.
At long last, I arrived in Los Angeles. Los Angeles was a breathing
spell for me, for I stayed a week and played only twice. And the weather
was favorable.
I believe Los Angeles has the largest chess club in point of membership,
in the world. The roster, I am told, records the names of over 400. And
at the opening gong at nine, forty to fifty men assemble for combat and
sociability. It is no particular miracle that the club is successful. For
E. P. Elliot, champion of the American Chess Federation in the early 1900s,
has devoted his full time and effort to building the club.
I played at the L. A. Club and also at the home of Gottfried Reinhardt.
We topped off the evening at the latter’s home with a brand of New York
rapid transit. It was fun.
My old teammate, Herman Steiner, did most of the honors at L. A. We
visited Hollywood, and watched Fred Astaire rehearse, and saw them shoot
a few scenes. We met actors and artists. Incidentally, Steiner is forming
a new club to cater to these people. It was the particular delight of Mrs.
Steiner to see that I regained the weight lost by the arduous labors of
a tour. And I did. I must have gained six or seven pounds gorging at the
Steiner household.
Simultaneous performance at the home of Gottfried Reinhardt.
January 26, 1939
SICILIAN DEFENSE
I. A. Horowitz (White) – G. Reinhardt (Black)
1 P-K4 P-QB4 2 Kt-KB3 Kt-QB3 3 P-Q4 PxP 4 KtxP Kt-B3 5 Kt-QB3 P-K3
6 B-K2 B-K2 7 0-0 0-0 8 Kt-Kt3 P-QKt3 9 P-B4 PQ3 10 B-B3 B-Kt2 11 Q-K2
P-QR3 12 B-K3 Q-B2 13 Q-B2 Kt-Q2 14 QR-Q1 QR-B1 15 P-KKt4 P-B3 16 P-B5
Kt-Q1 17 R-Q2 Kt-K4 18 B-K2 Kt-B5 19 BxKt QxB 20 BxP Q-B3 21 B-K3
B-R1 22 Kt-Q4 Q-B5 23 PxP KtxP 24 Kt-B5 KR-K1 25 KtxBch RxKt 26 RxP BxP
27 P-KR3 B-Kt2 28 KR-Q1 Q-QKt5! 29 B-B1 R-B5 30 P-R3 RxPch! 31 PxR QxPch
32 K-R2 Q-R4ch 33 K-Kt3 Kt-Kt4! 34 BxKt QxBch 35 K-R2 Q-R3ch! 36 K-Kt3
R-K6ch 37 QxR QxQch 38 K-R2 Q-B7ch 39 K-R3 Q-B6ch 0-1
Then I made the trek up the West Coast. From L. A. to Seattle, taking
in Carmel, Frisco, Portland, I rode and played. Again I met many friends.
There were Work and Whitman, and Clarke and Smith and Bagby and Boyette
and Fink, and Chapman and Pelouse, and another of my old teammates, Arthur
Dake. All made it a point to ease the tension of the grind. Then in Seattle
there were Bourne Smith and Bart Bowen, and a host of others.
Occasionally I'd find time to meander. And at Santa Cruz, with Reynolds
and Miller as guides, I visited the “Big Trees”. Gigantic Redwoods towering
into the sky, and broad.
Clock Game – San Francisco, Calif.
January 31, 1939
RUY LOPEZ
I. A. Horowitz (White) – A. J. Fink (Black)
1 P-K4 P-K4 2 Kt-KB3 Kt-QB3 3 B-Kt5 P-QR3 4 B-R4 Kt-B3 5 0-0 KtxP
6 P-Q4 P-QKt4 7 B-Kt3 P-Q4 8 PxP B-K3 9 P-B3 B-K2 10 QKt-Q2 0-0 11 B-B2
Kt-B4 12 Kt-Kt3 Kt-Q2 13 R-K1 R-K1 14 QKt-Q4 KtxKt 15 KtxKt Kt-B1 16 P-KB4
P-QB4 17 KtxB PxKt 18 R-K3 P-B5 19 R-R3 B-B4ch 20 B-K3 Q-Kt3
20…BxBch followed by …Q-Kt3 was better.
21 B-Q4 R-K2 22 K-R1 BxB 23 PxB R-B2 24 Q-Q2 P-Kt3 25 R-KB1 Kt-Q2
26 P-KKt4 QR-KB1 27 P-B5 K-R1
If instead 27…KPxP; 28 PxP, PxP; 29 R-R6 followed by 30 P-K6!
28 R-KKt1 KPxP 29 PxP RxP 30 Q-R6 1-0
Now I was headed eastward. The touch of nostalgia was eased by the thought
that each exhibition brought me one step closer to home.
"Spassky's strength is his emotional stability plus his stamina.
His strength away from the board sustains him at the board."
Larry Evans
Time magazine July 31, 1972
Berkeley Expert Larry Snyder upset SM Craig Mar last Tuesday to grab a share of first place in the Ben Gross Memorial Tuesday Night Marathon. Joining him in the lead in the 78-player event with 3-0 scores are NM Andy Lee and Experts Carlos Davila and Victor Ossipov. Right behind them is a large group at 2 1/2 led by IM Ricardo DeGuzman and NM Sam Shankland.
Three members of the Mechanics' Institute - Gregory Young, Daniel Naroditsky and Nicholas Nip - have been selected to attend a session of the US Chess School which will be held January 2-6 at the Mechanics' and taught by GM Yury Shulman. The US Chess School (http://www.uschessschool.com/) which is another brainchild of US Chess League founder Greg Shahade, brings together the best young juniors and top coaches in the United States. Jim Roberts and America's Foundation for Chess are key sponsors.
John Blackstone sends along the following tidbit from the Mechanics'
past which appeared in Clif Sherwood's column in the Los Angeles
Times on May 4, 1930.
A simultaneous exhibition at the Mechanics' Institute, San Francisco,
Saturday night, April 27, by Herman Steiner, New York State Champion, recently
of Los Angeles, resulted in his winning 14, losing 2 and drawing one.
This Wednesday the San Francisco Mechanics open their season as defending champions in the US Chess League. Watch in person or live on the Internet Chess Club.
San Francisco Mechanics vs Carolina Cobras
All Time Series Record: (San Francisco leads 1.5-0.5)
Starts at 8:30 PM ET Time Control
- Game 60 with 30 second increment
San Francisco Mechanics Carolina Cobras
IM Josh Friedel: 2535
IM Lev Milman: 2503
IM Vinay Bhat: 2465
FM Oleg Zaikov: 2359
IM David Pruess: 2452
NM Craig Jones: 2263
Daniel Naroditsky: 2076
Satyajit Malugu: 2192
Avg Rating: 2382
Avg Rating: 2329
IM Renier Gonzelez tied for first at 7-2 in the traditional Baynoles tournament in Spain, held August 16-24, with GMs Levon Aroshidze, Viktor Moskalenko, Mikhail Marin and Jose Gonzalez. This result was also the third GM norm (after Foxwoods and Lindsborg 2004) for the well-liked Renier, who, with a peak rating of 2560 (back in 1996) will receive the title very soon, possibly in the next month.
To learn more about the 35-year-old Gonzelez, who has made Miami his home since moving from his native Cuba in 2001, go to http://www.reniergonzalez.com .
Here are two key games by Gonzelez in his favorite Scandinavian.
Short, Nigel D (2683) - Gonzalez, Renier (2456)
Banyoles (6) 2007
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.d3 c6 6.Qe2 Nbd7 7.Bd2
Qe5 8.a4 Qxe2+ 9.Ngxe2 a5 10.O-O e6 11.Ne4 Be7 12.f4 Nc5 13.Ng5 O-O 14.Ng3
b6 15.f5 h6 16.Nf3 exf5 17.Nd4 Bd7 18.Ndxf5 Bd8 19.Bc3 Nxa4 20.Rxa4 B5
21.Nxg7 Bxa4 22.Rxf6 Bxf6 23.Bxf6 Rab8 24.Ne4 Be6 25.Nxe6 fxe6 26.Bxe6+
Kh7 27.Be7 Rfe8 28.Bf5+ Kg7 29.Bf6+ Kf8 30.Bd7 Re7 31.Bxc6 Re6 32.Bxa4
Rb4 33.B3 Rbxe4 34.dxe4 Rxf6 35.Bb5 Ke7 36.g3 Kd6 37.Kg2 Ke5 38.Bd3 Rf8
39.h4 Rf7 40.Kh3 Rg7 41.Kg2 Rf7 42.Kh3 Rg7 43.Kh2 Rc7 44.Kg1 Rf7 45.Kg2
Rf8 46.Kh3 Rg8 47.Kg2 Rf8 48.Kh3 Rg8 49.Kg2 Draw
Fluvia, Jordi (2497) - Gonzalez, Renier (2456)
Banyoles (8) 2007
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 c6 6.Bc4 Bf5 7.Bd2 e6
8.Nd5 Qd8 9.Nxf6+ Qxf6 10.Qe2 Bg4 11.d5 Bxf3 12.gxf3 cxd5 13.Bxd5 Nd7 14.O-O-O
O-O-O 15.Be4 De5 16.Bc3 Qc7 17.Kb1 f6 18.f4 Bd6 19.f5 exf5 20.Bxf5 Kb8
21.h4 Nc5 22.h5 Na4 23.Bd4 Bc5 24.c3 Bxd4 25.cxd4 Qb6 26.Qc2 Rxd4 27.Rxd4
Qxd4 28.Rc1 a6 29.B3 Nb6 30.Bxh7 Rc8 31.Rd1 Qe5 32.Qf5 Qe2 33.Rg1 Qd2 34.Qd3
Qxf2 35.Qg3+ Qxg3 36.Rxg3 Rc7 37.Bg8 Re7 38.Kc2 Nd7 39.Kd3 Kc7 40.Kd4 Ne5
41.Bd5 Kd6 42.Rg2 a5 43.Be4 b6 44.Bd5 Nd7 45. Bg8 Nc5 46.a3 Nd7 47.Bc4
axb4 48.axb4 Ne5 49.Bd5 Rc7 50.Rf2 Rc1 51.h6 Rd1+ 52.Ke4 Re1+ 53.Kd4 Rd1+
54.Ke4 Ng4 55.h7 Nxf2+ 56.Ke3 Rd3+ 0-1
IM Amon Simutowe of Zimbabwe, but with has attended the University
of Texas at Dallas for several years, won the Euwe Stimulans
tournament in Arnhem, Netherlands by a full point. Amon also earned his
third and final GM norm but needs about 60 points to reach 2500 ( the other
requirement besides the norms) to receive the GM title.
Note the interesting mix of youngsters and veterans in the field and
the nice result by 66-year-old Nona Gaprindashvili, one of the greatest
female players in the history of the game.
Here are the final standings:
1. Simutowe, Amon m ZAM 2421 7.5
2. Barua, Dibyendu g IND 2462 6.5
3. Wang Puchen f NZL 2348 6.0
4. Gaprindashvili, Nona1 g GEO 2364 5.0
5-8. Panno, Oscar g ARG 2457 4.0
5-8. Hendriks, Willy m NED 2420 4.0
5-. Muhren, Bianca wg NED 2334 4.0
5-8. Olafsson, Fridrik g ISL 2