Gens Una Sumus!
This past Saturday Steve Cohen helda mini-decathlon of chess events with fast time controls in San Mateo.
Six-time US Champion Walter Browne andIM John Donaldson tied for first in the Game in 15 Minutes tournament with4/5 in a small field that included one GM and three IMs. IM Mladen Vucicwas third at 3.5. Mechanics' juniors did very well. Alex Setzepfandt wonthe G/15 Senior Amateur and Emilia Krubnik won the Junior Amateur. Brownetied with IM-Elect Ron Cusi in the WBCA Five Minute tournament and thenwon the Game in One Minute event to complete the hat trick! All three eventswere very well run and the prize fund of over $2500 makes it the richestchess event on the Peninsula this year.
11/12/2000
Bay Area players are making their markin all sorts of ways.
El Granada's Eric Schiller was one ofthe four arbiters that officiated the result Kasparov-Kramnik match inLondon, while Menlo Park's Jim Eade is serving as the Zonal President forthe USA at the FIDE Congress in Istanbul. We should soon find out if VinayBhat was awarded his International Master title.
11/19/2000
Russia wins Chess Olympiad
Top-seeded Russia, playing without VladimirKramnik, Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, easily won the 34th Chess Olympiadheld the past three weeks in Istanbul. The all-Grandmaster team of AlexanderKhalifman (4.5/9), Alexander Morozevich (7.5/10), Peter Svidler (4.5/8),Sergei Rublevsky (7/10), Konstantin Sakaev (7/9) and Alexander Grischuk(7.5/10), scored a collective 38 points from 56 games. Germany, led byformer Soviets Arthur Yusupov and Rustem Dautov , had an outstanding tournamentto finish second at 37, followed by Hungary and the Ukraine at 35.5. TheUS Team, which was seeded seventh, finally fell victim to the law of averages.Consistent overachievers at Olympiads for over two decades (no finish lowerthan equal fifth since 1974) , the American team tied for 26th in Istanbulwith 31.5 points. The US had a terrible start but fought its way back intocontention , and might even have medaled if they had won a key match againstGermany in Round 12.
Here are the individual scores:
Board 1 Yasser Seirawan (5/10); 2 - BorisGulko (5.5/9); 3 - Alex Shabalov (6/10); 4 - Gregory Kaidanov (5/9); 5- Alex Yermolinsky (5.5/9); 6 - Nick deFirmian (4.5/9).
China won the Womens competition followedby Georgia and Russia. The US women turned in one of their best performancesever. Seeded 26th at the outset, they tied for 12th despite missing twoof the top female players in the country (Irina Krush and Anjelina Belakovskaya).Third board Jennifer Shahade particularly shined scoring 7.5 points in11 games. Alex Yermolinsky's wife, Camilla Baginskaite, held her own onboard one with 5.5/ 10 and second board Anna Hahn (6.5/12) and reserveEsther Epstein (4.5/9) also contributed handily to the team effort. A topten finish in the next Olympiad is a definite goal for the US Womens team.
Larry Christiansen (men) and Ilya Gurevich(women) served as US Team Captains.
If you would like to see some of the topgames of the Olympiad come to the Mechanics' Institute this Tuesday (5:15pm-6:15 pm) and Wednesday (6:15pm-7:15 pm). IM John Donaldson will be givingfree lectures.
11/19/2000
Carroll Capps Memorial
National Masters Ryan Porter and KennethHills tied for first at 4.5/5 in the Carroll M. Capps Memorial held November10th through 12th at the Mechanics' Institute. Tying for third at 4-1 wereIM Mladen Vucic, NM Michael Aigner and Expert Eleturio Alsasua . The 67-playerevent was top heavy with two International Masters and 9 NMs competing.A complete list of prize winners will follow in the next MI Chess RoomNewsletter.
11/19/2000
CHESS FEVER HEATS UP IN RICHMOND
Organizer Trendell Ball passes on thefollowing announcement. Join the City of Richmond's Senior Center and theGreater Richmond Chess Club's First Annual John L. Easterling Memorial"Chess in Richmond" Festival
Honoring the dedication and legacy ofthe late Mr. John L. Easterling's efforts to promote " youth chess" inthe city of Richmond. Mr. Easterling created chess programs in schoolsthroughout the Bay Area, teaching the
"game of kings' " to thousands of inter-citychildren.
For more information call the Black Knightat: (510) 234-0102. ALL EVENTS ARE FREE.
11/29/2000
American Open
Armenian IM Andranik Matikoziandefeated top-seeded GM Pavel Blatny in round 7 and drew with IMJohnDonaldson in round eight to win the American Open held over ThanksgivingDay weekend in Los Angeles. Matikozian scored 6.5/8 followed by Donaldson,SM Levon Altounian and NM Michael Casella on 6. Tying for 9-11 at 5.5 wereNovato's IM Mladen Vucic, GM Blatny, SM Eduardo Ortiz, NMs Ron Hermannsen,Harry Akopian and Garry Simms, plus expert David Bassett. Other MI membersdoing well in the Open section were NMs Vivek Nambiar (5 points) and EricSchiller (4.5 points). Schiller had a particularly good event defeatingtwo players over 2250 and drawing with an IM . A total of 203 players,including 1 GM, 4 IMs, and 2 SMs(+2550), participated in the annual eventorganized by Jerry Hanken and directed by Randy Hough.
12/03/2000
The Bay Area has a new InternationalMaster.
San Jose high school student VinayBhat officially received his title at the recently concluded Olympiadin Istanbul. Well done Vinay! IM Bhat, who is one of the top-rated juniorsin the country, made all three of his norms in Mechanics' Institute events.
Adults over 2000 (USCF/and or FIDE) andJuniors over 1900 will have their chance to make IM and GM norms at theKoltanowski Memorial held December 14-22 at the MI. Contact John Donaldsonat [email protected] for more information.
12/03/2000
Olympiad Stars
Vladimir Kramnik just won the World Championship,but his reign on the throne may not be long. The Olympiad featured severaloutstanding performances by potential challengers. Alexander Morozevich,who played board two for Russia turned in the best result of the eventwith a performance rating of 2804 by virtue of his 7.5/10 score versusan average rating of 2611. Right behind him were Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria(PR 2797), 17-year-old Ruslan Ponomariov (PR 2785) of Ukraine, the Germanduo of Arthur Yusupov (PR 2782) and Rustem Dautov (PR 2776) and Judit Polgarof Hungary (2772). Polgar's result was particularly impressive as she scored10 points from 13 games. The Olympiad goes 14 rounds and it is very rareto have a player on a contending team participate in more than 10 rounds.She was truly the Ironwoman of the event! Note: there is no Men's Olympiad,but rather an open competition and a women's' division. This year therewere several women playing on some of the highest rated teams. Among thetop placers were Polgar on the 4th place Hungarian team and AntoinettaStefanova of Bulgaria.
12/07/2000
Welcome Home Yermo!
Grandmaster-in-Residence Alex Yermolinskyupheld the honor of the MI Chess Room as he made it through to the thirdround of the FIDE World Championshipin New Delhi before losing to MichaelAdams of England. The first two games of the match were drawn and the playersthen contested two games of G/25 plus 10 seconds a move, a time controlthat Adams is a specialist at. The Englishman won to advance to the roundof 16 players (100 started the competition). Alex's prize after taxes butbefore airfare, hotel and food was $21,600. Well done! Alex will talk abouthis experiences in Turkey and New Delhi this Sunday at 2pm (followed bya blitz event at 4pm).
Round 1: GM Alex Yermolinsky (USA) 1.5GM Al-Modiakhi (Qatar) .5
Round 2: GM Alex Yermolinsky (USA) 1.5GM Jun Xu (China) .5
Round 3: GM Alex Yermolinsky (USA) 1 GMMichael Adams (England) 3
12/07/2000
Ryan Porter Wins WBCA Blitz National
Master Ryan Porter scored 9-0 to win theWorld Blitz Chess Association event held at the Mechanics' Institute onDecember 10th. The Stanford student, who is originally from Kansas, pickedup $150 for his efforts. Senior Master Vladimir Mezentsev, who lost toPorter in the last round, was second at 8-1, good for $100. One of themost impressive performances of the evening was turned in by former USSenior Open champion Neil Falconer who tied for third with NM Arthur Ibragimovat 5.5-3.5, though rated in the second half of the ten player field.
01/07/2001
North AmericanOpen
The 10th annualNorth American Open, held in Las Vegas from December 26th to 29th at theBally's Hotel and Casino, ended in a three way tie for first at 5-1 betweenGMs Utut Adianto, Alex Shabalov and IM Nikolay Andrianov.The three winners each received close to $6,000 for their efforts. Theperformance by Andrianov, formerly of the Soviet Union but now living inPhoenix, was particularly impressive as he scored 3 out of 4 versus GMs(wins over Beliavsky and D. Gurevich and draws with Adianto and Ehlvest).Tying for fourth through tenth at 4 1/2 were GMs Hodgson, Stripunsky, V.Mikhalevski, Ehlvest, D. Gurevich, Goldin and Blatny. A totalof 23 GMs competed in the NAO which attracted 607 players. A prize fundof $100,000 was guaranteed and
paid out.
Bay Area playersdid well in Las Vegas. 13-year-old Michael Pearson continued hisrecent rapid progress as he scored 5 1/2 from 6 to win the Under 2000 andtake home $6,000. Well done Michael! This event brought Michael over2000 and 14-year-old Gary Huang also gained his Expert's title by scoring4-2 in the same section. Michael and Gary were both attendees at the MI'sChess Camp
held last summer.OlegShakhnazarov, who scored 5-1 to tie for first in the Under 2200 sectionand 12 year-old Alex Wu (5 from 6 in the C section) completed the listof top finishing MI members.
01/07/2001
Pan-Am Intercollegiate
Bay Area chess playershelped Berkeley and Stanford to finish near the top at the recent collegiatenational championships. MI member David Steel reports:
"Here is a rundownof the Pan-Ams, which took place Dec. 27 - 30. Our (UC Berkeley) team consistedof 1st board Dmitry Zilberstein, 2nd Charlie Gelman, 3rd Anthony Rozenvasserand 4th myself. We finished tied for 3rd with 6 others (including Stanford,who finished 7th on tiebreaks) and our strong tiebreaks (we swept 3 matches4-0) gave us 3rd. UTD-A and UMBC-A tied for 1st, with UTD-A winning ontiebreaks ( ED: First board for UTD was GM Shulman who won the recent KoltiMemorial) . In the last round, Cal faced Stanford in an important matchwith additional pressures due to our rivalry. Last year Cal swept Stanford4-0, but this year we were without our former 2nd board David Pruess andStanford had picked up Jordy Mont-Reynaud. The match ended in a 2-2 tie:
Zilberstein -Wang 0-1
Ilfeld - Gelman.A 0-1
Rozenvasser -Mont-Reynaud 0-1
Aigner - Steel0-1
Charlie Gelman inhis last Pan-Ams (he graduated this semester) was huge for Cal, scoring5.0/6 with his only loss coming to IM Szak in our 0-4 defeat to UTD-A.His victories include a win over U Toronto A IM Igor Zugic which I wishI had the full score for but which began: (Zugic - Gelman) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4c5 3.d5 b5 4.a4 bxc4 5 Nc3 e6 6.e4 exd5 7.e5 d4 8.exf6 d5 9.Ne2 Nc6 (!)
01/14/2001
FIDE New TimeControl
The big news thisweek is the decision by FIDE to speed up the game to encourage sponsorship.It appears that the new time control of 40 moves in 75 minutes, 15 minutesfor the remainder of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per movefrom move 1, will only be required for official FIDE competitions (worldchampionship, Olympiads, etc.).. That would mean that only the US Championship,and only when it is a Zonal qualifier, would be required to use the newtime control. The decision by FIDE was so sudden that some ramificationshave yet to be worked out. In particular will the new time control be allowedfor title norms? Currently FIDE allows two games a day twice in a nineround title norm tournament, but this potentially means two games of 40/2,20/1 followed by G/30. Playing 14 hours a day might be creating worse gamesthan the new proposal! Theory is advancing so fast that today's topplayers often rattle off the first ten to fifteen moves in a few minutesleaving them extra time to play the rest of the game. The flip side ofthe new time control change is that it will lead to a lowering of the standardof play. Do readers of the MI Chess Room Newsletter have strong opinionson this?
01/14/2001
Visits by WorldChampions to the MI
This past centurythe MI has hosted many World Champions including Lasker (1902 and 1926),Capablanca (1916), Alekhine (1924 and 1929), Euwe (1947!?), Fischer (1964),Smyslov (1976), Petrosian (1978), Spassky (??) and Karpov (1999). The MIChess Room is currently working on a project to preserve it's history.Any games, recollections or photos from simuls by World Champions at theMI would be most appreciated. Does anyone know the exact year that Euwevisited? Spassky was a guest at the Paul Masson tournament in the late1970s/early 80s. Did he ever actually visit the MI?
Smyslov: March 20,1976 Former World Champion Vassily Smyslov faced strong opposition whenhe visited the MI immediately after the 1976 Lone Pine tournament. Facing30 boards, he scored +18, -3 (Victor Baja, Randy Fong, and Jay Whitehead- all teenagers at the time!) and = 9 (Russell Bartoli, Gary Berry, MikeDyslin, Pam Ford, Barry Kraft, Charles Moore, Rodney Phillips, Peter Stevens,and Ted Zwerdling) in an exhibition lasting 4 ½ hours. Can anyoneadd to this?
01/21/2001
"JESSIE JEANS"OPEN
Major chess tournaments north of the GoldenGate Bridge have been extremely rare the past few years but that looksto be changing with the emergence of events at the Jessie Jeans coffeeshop in Santa Rosa. Tournament
Director Jerry Weikel reports:
"JESSIE JEANS" OPEN- Jan 12-14,2001 - Santa Rosa, Ca TD Jerry Weikel - 40/100,20/40,30/30
We were very happy with the turnout (44for main tournament and 31 for the Action tournament (G/50)) consideringonly 2 weeks notice for the tournament! After the 1 1/2 hour delay on Fridaynight's 1st round start everything went pretty smooth (I guess we'll haveto cut off registration at 7pm next time!). The crowd that did attend waspretty much enthusiastic about what we're trying to accomplish in SantaRosa. Most all seem to have a pretty good time. Thanks to Jessie Jeanscoffee shop for hosting the tournament and the next one on March 16-18at same site with pretty much the same details as this one (about onlydifference is that the G/50 tournament will be played on Sunday). We feelconfident we'll hit 80 players next time which will mean a $4,000 prizefund!! This tournament paid out $2,200. See you all on March 16! JerryWeikel"
OPEN SECTION
1. Mezentev,Vladimir (Mtn.View)(2534) 4.5 - $275
2-4. Dorsch,Thomas (Menlo Park) (2200) each with 3.5 - $91
Narayan,Chethan (Milpitas) (2217)
Pinto,Mark (Sebastopol) (2204)
Under 2200 Weikel,Jerome (Reno,NV)(2064) 3pts. - $151
RESERVE SECTION(1600-1999)
1-4.Shnaiderman,Lazar (Santa Rosa)(1823) each with 3.5 pts. - $96
Gross,Benjamin (Sebastopol) (1900)
Setzepfandt,Alexander(Oakland)(1824)
Mead,Pat (Cotati) (1879) .....
01/28/2001
Quote of the Week:
"He who has a slight disadvantage playsmore attentively, inventively and more boldly than his antagonist, whoeither takes it easy or aspires after too much. Thus a slight disadvantageis very frequently seen to convert into
a good, solid advantage."
Lasker
01/28/2001
Pruess - Zilberstein Match Ends 2-2
A four game match (time control game in45 minutes) between two of Northern California's top juniors was held atthe Mechanics' on February 2nd and 3rd. UC Berkeley students Dimity Zilberstein(2414) and David Pruess (2354) traded wins in games one and two and theremaining games were drawn.
02/04/2001
Walter Wood Correspondence IM
Congratulations to Walter Wood of Berkeleyfor earning his Correspondence IM title.
Kasparov winsin Holland
37-year-old GarryKasparov won the the Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee for the the thirdyear in a row.
1. G.Kasparov (Russia)9/13.
2. V.Anand (India)8.5
3-4. V.Ivanchuk(Ukraine), V.Kramnik (Russia) 8
5-7. M.Adams (England),A.Morozevich (Russia), A.Shirov (Spain) 7.5
8. P.Leko (Hungary)6.5
9. V.Topalov (Bulgaria)5.5
10-11. A.Fedorov(Belarussia) L.Van Wely (Netherlands) 5
12-13. J.Piket,S.Tiviakov (both Netherlands) 4.5
14. J.Timman (Netherlands)4
Kasparov also starredaway from the board on Sunday with a "guest appearance" during the SuperBowl contest. Heading a major $5m commercial for Pepsi Cola, the formerworld champion accepts the Pepsi Challenge by taking on and losing to oneof the soft-drink giants' vending machines at chess.
02/11/2001
"Lack of patience is probably the mostcommon reason for losing a game, or drawing a game that should have beenwon"
GM Bent Larsen
Vinay Bhat Wins Falconer Award
International Master Vinay Bhat is thewinner of the 2001 Falconer Award. The San Jose high school honor studentwas the top rated player in Northern California under 18 on the December2000 USCF rating list at 2477. Vinay's prize, made possible by the generosityof longtime Mechanics' Institute Trustee Neil Falconer, is $2477. Bhatis the youngest IM in the country at 16 and will represent the United Statesin the upcoming match with China this March in Seattle.
Pruess defeats Steel
NM David Pruess defeated Expert DavidSteel 4-0 in a match held February 7th and 8th.
Petrosian at the Mechanics' InstituteApril 16, 1978
"Former World Champion Tigran Petrosianvisited San Francisco with his wife, Rona, as honored guests of famouschess writer Irving Chernev and past editor of the California Chess Reporter,Guthrie McClain, following the prestigious Louis D. Staham tournament inLone Pine on April 16.
During his brief stay Petrosian faced22 opponents in a simultaneous exhibition at the Mechanics' Institute ChessClub, winning 16 games, losing two (to Neil Falconer and Leon Miller) anddrawing four with Gary
Berry, Michael Gonsalves, Roger Hoffmanand Edward Syrett."
Chess Voice 1978 (page 56)
02/21/2001
“The greatest skill in chess lies innot allowing
the opponent to show you what he cando.”
Garry Kasparov
Revamped MI Chess Room Website
Grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky is in theprocess of revamping the Chess Room’s website. The new look will featurelots of up to date information including tournament reports and annotatedgames.
People’s Open
Italian master Mauro Casadei, whois a graduate student in geology at UC Berkeley, won the annual People’sOpen this past weekend with a 5-1 score. IM Guillermo Rey, who tied forsecond a half point back, drew with Casadei in the last round. There were130 players competing in the three day event.
Maurice Ashley Visits the Bay Area
Bay Area organizer Riley Hughes passeson the following message from Alan Kirschner.
"Have you been having trouble locatingthat excellent CD-ROM, Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess? Well, how about thenext best thing--Maurice Ashley live? Under the auspices of Chuck Windsor'sEast Bay Chess Club, Grand Master, Maurice Ashley, has taken a two-thirdsreduction in his usual fee to make, what I believe will be, his first publicappearance in the Bay Area to help celebrate Black History Week.
Grand Master Ashley, who became the firstUS citizen of African descent to achieve the most prestigious chess titleinternationally, will participate in a "Chess-Fess 2001" on Saturday, February24, from 10 AM until 3 PM. The location will be the People Soft Buildingat the Knowland Park Zoo in Oakland. The cost to attend this historic eventwill only be $5. Tickets will be available at the door. I will providea copy of the announcement I received from Chuck Windsor at the CalChessScholastic Tournament site which can be reached from, my main page at http://KidChess.go.cc."
Donaldson-Khmelinistsky
John Donaldson defeated fellow InternationalMaster Igor Khmelinitsky in a Battle of the Minds event held on the USCFwebsite (USCL) on February 15. The game will soon appear here with annotations.
02/28/2001
“Perhaps the most important trait aplayer needs is a warped sense of humor.”
Tony Miles
Henry Gross Memorial
Things didn’t look bright the day beforethe event with only six advance entries, but 26 players showed upthe morning of February 24th to turn the Henry Gross Memorial intoa fitting tribute. Named after the well-liked San Francisco master who was not only a strong player but also a major benefactor (rememberthe 1957 US Junior Open and 1961 US Open, both of which were held in SF- Gross helped to make them possible), the one day (G/45) Gross Memorialfeatured some strong competition. Top seed was Senior Master (2550)VladimirMezentsev followed by IM Guillermo Rey of Pacifica and newcomerFMAndrey Chumachenko (2320 FIDE) formerly of the Ukraine, now settledin Rancho Cordova
Mezentsev held the lead after fourrounds with a perfect score, having turned back NM Rudy Hernandezand IM Rey, but he was defeated by FM Chumachenko in the money game.Chumachenko, who drew in round three with Expert Dale Hammer, tiedfor first with NM Mauro Casadei of Berkeley at 4.5. Casadei, freshfrom his victory at the People’s Open the previous weekend, drew with IMRey in round three and beat Hammer and Hernandez in the final two rounds.
Credit for a well run and trouble freeevent goes to Tournament Director Anthony Coralles. A crosstablefor the event can be found on here
Prize Winners for the Henry Gross Memorial
1-2 Overall: FM Chumachenko and Casadei4.5 points, good for $150 apiece
Top Under 2200 and Top Under 2000:Alexander Setzepfandt and Nelson Sowell 4 points $82.50 each
Top Under 1800: Mariuz Krubnik 3 points $70
Top Under 1600: Wesley Chen 3 points $65
Newsletter #26, 03/07/2001
"When you play against Kasparov, thepieces start to go differently."
Evgeny Bareev
Wojtkiewicz wins strong WBCA Blitz
Polish GM Alex Wojtkiewicz showed whyhe is one of the best blitz players in the world by winning a WBCA Blitzevent at the MI on March 4. "Wojo" scored 10.5-.5 in a field whichincluded two Grandmasters, one International Master and one Senior Master to take home the $150 first prize. His only draw was to secondplace finisher SM Levon Altounian who ended up on 10-1, good for $100. Altounian was kept from a first place tie by National Master Ryan Porterwho was the sensation of the event beating GM Walter Browne and IM GregoryShahade, before losing to Wojtkiewicz in an exciting last round game. Thestrength of the 12 player round robin may be gauged by the fact that IMShahade scored only 8-3 and Six-time US Champion Browne ended on 7-4. Congratulationsgo to Felix Rudyak, rated only 1816 WBCA, who made fifty percent by beatingfour players rated above him and drawing with Porter. Well done!
Chess in the News
Chess has been in the local news of late.Last Friday (March 2) the San Francisco Examiner ran a large story on theMechanics' Institute which featured several club members including picturesof Ewelina and Emilia Krubnik. The story can be found online here
The San Francisco Chronicle ran an articleon Tuesday about the recently concluded Northern California State ScholasticChampionship in Santa Clara. The story can be found on their webpage.
Mechanics' members did very well in thisevent. We hope to have a full report from the team's coach Anthony Corralesin the next Newsletter and on our ChildrenChess page
Newsletter #27, 03/15/2001
"If you have made a mistake or committedan inaccuracy there is no need to become annoyed and to think that everythingis lost. You have to reorient yourself quickly and find a new planin the new situation."
David Bronstein
Linklater Memorial
GMs Alex Wojtkiewicz and Yury Shulmanwon the recently concluded Linklater Memorial held at the MI with a scoreof 7-3, dividing $3500. Tying for third, a half point back, were GM AlexanderBaburin and IM (elect) Gregory Shahade ($750 each). Shahade and IM MichaelMulyar made their final IM norms and will
officially receive the title at the nextFIDE Congress.
US Women's Champion Camilla Baginskaitehad a difficult first half of the tournament, but proved to be a good finisher.That was also the case in last year's Val Zemitis International. NewcomerAlexander Kretchetov, who is working as a programmer in Silicon Valley,showed that he is underrated at 2300 FIDE. He played all three GMs tough.Aaron Stearns score was not indicative of his play. He had several gameswhere he should have earned points, but the Fates were against him.
Wong and Ossipov lead Tuesday NightMarathon
Russell Wong defeated fellow NationalMaster David Blohm in Round Six to grab a share of first place. Wong isjoined at 5 points by Victor Ossipov who beat George Sanguinetti. Tiedfor third at 4½ are Blohm, Peter Grey and Victor Todortsev. Tworounds remain to be played.
Alex Setzepfandt featured in Montclarion
MI Member Alex Setzepfandt, rated numbertwo in the country for players ages 10 and under at 1864, had a featurestory on him in the March 13 edition of the Oakland-based newspaper TheMontclarion. Alex is making rapid progress and should soon be an Expert!
Akopian and Zhong win National Open
Grandmasters Vladimir Akopian and ZhangZhong of China tied for first in the National Open held March 9-11 in LasVegas. The two winners, who scored 51/2 - 1/2, each received $6,000 fortheir efforts. Mechanics' GM-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky tied for thirdthrough eleventh at 5 -1, to win $705. Other Bay
Area players finishing in the money wereVivek Nambiar at 4-2 in the Open (tied for top under 2300 and Thomas Masurat 5-1 in the Reserve (equal fifth through tenth).
Newsletter #28, 03/21/2001
“The battle for the ultimate truthwill never be won. And that’s why chess is so fascinating.”
Hans Kmoch
USA loses to China but Mechanics’ InstituteDraws!
China defeated the United States 21-19in a team match (mens, womens and junior boards) held March 14-18 in Seattle.While the Chinese won against the United States they could only draw 3½ - 3 ½ with the Mechanics’ Institute. The MI supplied twomembers of the American team and both did very well. United States Women’sChampion Camilla Baginskaite scored one win and two draws againsthigher rated opposition to emerge as the top American scorer on the womensand junior boards. Vinay Bhat, the 16-year-old Falconer Awardwinner, scored one win, one draw and two losses against the youngest Grandmasterin the history of chess Bu Xiangzhi and the emerging talent Ni Hua. Vinaycould have done even better, but declined a draw in the last round in avaliant attempt to help the American team avoid defeat. The final result,with China winning, would have created a sensation ten years ago, but Chinawas a clear favorite going into this match based on FIDE ratings measuringpast performance. Much like Russia in the past, China has ambitiousplans to rise to the top of World Chess.
IM Guillermo Rey ties for first in United States G/10 Championship
Long time Mechanics’ Institute member Guillermo Rey tied for first in the United States Game in Ten Minutes Championshipheld March 12 in Las Vegas with a score of 6 ½ from 8. Joining theInternational Master from Pacifica in the winner’s circle were Grandmasters Dmitry Gurevich, Alexander Stripunsky, GM Ildar Ibragimov, Alexander Cherninand Alex Wojtkiewicz.
Wong Leads Tuesday Night Marathon
National Master Russell Wong defeatedVictor Ossipov to grab a full point lead with a round to go in the SpringTuesday Night Marathon. Marty Cortinas scored a big upset by beating top-seedKenneth Hills. The next Marathon will start on April 10th.
1. NM Wong 6/7
2. Todortsev 5.5
3-6. NM Blohm, Grey, Ossipov and Cortinas5.
Northern California State ScholasticChampionship
The Mechanics’ Scholastic Chess Team,coached by Anthony Corrales, turned in many excellent individual and teamresults in the Northern California State Championships held March 3-4 inSanta Clara. Congratulations to Coach Corrales and all the players fora job well done!
Clickhere to view the results.
Newsletter #29, 03/28/2001
"Chess is my profession. I am my ownboss; I am free. I like literature and music, classical especially. I amin fact quite normal; I have a Bohemian profession without myself beinga Bohemian. I am neither a conformist nor a great revolutionary."
Bent Larsen
Kasparov Keeps Winning
Former world champion Garry Kasparov,who lost his title to Vladimir Kramnik last fall, has been a man on a missionthis year. A victory in the 1st FIDE World Cup of Rapid Play in Cannesmarked his third tournament win in 2001. Fellow countryman Evgeny Bareev,who served as one of Kramnik's seconds, lost to Kasparov in the final 1.5-0.5.Garry's only difficult match was in the semifinal against Alexander Grischukwhere the 17-year-old Muscovite went 1-1 in regulation before losing theplayoff.
Smyslov Turns 80, Kortchnoi 70
Former World Champion Vassily Smyslovturned 80 on March 23. While Smyslov no longer plays due to poor eyesight,Viktor Kortchnoi is still going as strong as ever. Kortchnoi, who turned70 on March 23, recently tied for second in a strong double round robinrapid (game G/15 with two second increment) tournament in his old hometownof St. Petersburg.
1. GM K Sakaev (Russia) 8/10; 2-3.GM V Korchnoi (Switzerland), GM S Rublevsky (Russia) 6;
4. GM V. Popov (Russia) 5.5; 5. G.Chepukaitis (Russia) 3; 6. GM M Taimanov (Russia) 1.5.
Wong Wins Tuesday Night Marathon
National Master Russell Wong wonthe Spring Tuesday Night Marathon that ended on March 27 by defeating VictorTodortsev in the last round. Wong scored an undefeated 7-1 to takehome the first prize of $300. A point back was NM David Blohm at6-2 followed by a five-way tie for third at 5 1/2 between Todortsev (firstClass A) and Experts Victor Ossipov, Peter Grey, George Sanguinettiand Mark Brown. Other class prize winners were: 1st B ArthurDembling and Wilmot McCutcheon with 5; 1st C Will Gullicksonand Daichi Siechrist at 4.5; 1st D Andres Fuentes-Affleck4. The next Marathon will start on April 10th.
Dorsch First in Jesse Jeans Open
Organizer and Director Jerry Weikelof Reno writes:
"Jessie Jeans Open II Chess Tournament- Santa Rosa, Ca. - March 16-18, 2001
Even with the ever popular National Open(Las Vegas) being held one week before this tournament we still had a reasonableturnout of 65 players between the 2 tournaments. Many players stopped byto observe but informed me they were too "chessed out" to play anothertournament! We knew this when we scheduled this event but it was eitherhold the tournament on this weekend or not at all! The players that didshow appeared to have a good time and many well-fought games were realizedin all sections!
Tom Dorsch pulled the 'ol Swiss Gambitwhen he over speculated his attacking chances in round 1 vs. Kyle Kowalskeand lost (Paul Morphy would be proud to watch Tom's style!) but then settleddown to dispose of his next 4 opponents (including me!) to win 1st place($250) with a fine 4-1 score. Congrats, Tom! With only 10 players in theOpen Section it almost was a round robin affair and 60% of the playerswinning money!
The reserve section (1600-1999) was wonby Benjamin Haun (Santa Rosa) with a score of 4. The key game in this sectionappeared to be the hard fought draw between Curtis Munson and BenjaminHaun in round 4. Going into round 5 (with Haun being held to a draw byTeri Lagier) Munson had a chance to win the Section but was defeated byMichael Marque. Interesting that this section's first 4 places were claimedby "B" players and not an "A"! Also interesting, was the fact that withso many players dropping out after a couple of losses 3rd place (U1800)was won with 1 ½ points!! The "A" trophy was won by John Jaffrayof Santa Rosa.
The Booster Section (1599-below) saw areal dogfight for the championship. With one round to go Michael Shaw (1333-NevadaCity) had the led with 4 points. Matched up against him with 3 ½points was the ever surprising Michael Gosk (823!!- Santa Rosa). Gosk hadto win the game to win the championship(!) but could only manage a draw.Catching Michael for a 2nd place tie was Willie Campers(1504-Santa Rosa).They both had 4 points and a fine, fine tournament. Michael Gosk appearsto be vastly underrated and will expect to see him continue his rise. Eventhe champion was a dark horse being ranked 7th on the wall chart with the# 1 ranked player 230 points above him! Shaw won the "D" trophy and Goskwon the "E" trophy. The "C" trophy was won by Campers.
The Action tournament (Game/50 min. -4 rd. Swiss) was a tie between the #1 seed Bill Davis (2124-Santa Rosa)and the # 5 seed Mariusz Krubnik (1625!-Alameda) in the Open Section andin the Booster Section (1399-below) by Naryan DeVera (1136-Occidental,Ca).Conrats to all!
Also, a special THANKS to Mark Pinto whoplayed just one game for the only purpose of supporting this tournamentto help keep it's existence. He also insisted on paying full entry feeincluding late fee! (They don't make too many of these kind of chess supporters!Tom Dorsch is another one. He traveled to Santa Rosa even though he justgot back from the National Open and must have been tired! Thanks guys).I'll see you all at the next (JJ III) tournament on April 20-22,2001!
MI Chess Book Collection Grows
Thanks to the generosity of members likeVal Zemitis, Neil Falconer and Alex Yermolinsky the collection of chessbooks in the Mechanics' library continues to grow.
Donations are always welcome and tax deductibleas the MI has 501 (3) (c) status. See John Donaldson in room #408 or call(415) 421-2258 for more information.
Newsletter #30, 04/04/2001
"One of the greatest advantages of chessover other sports is that you can always resign"
Joe Gallagher
Reyes and Peckham tie for first inA.J. Fink Memorial Osmundo
Reyes and rapidly improving Berkeley highschoolstudent Monty Peckham tied for first place at 4 1/1 - 1/2 inthe A. J. Fink Memorial Amateur Championship held March 30-April 1 at theMI. The two players each won $250 for their efforts. 54 player competedin the event held to honor native San Franciscan and longtime MImember A.J. Fink (1880-1956) . Fink, along with Dr. Walter Lovegrove, wasone of the two strongest
MI members for close to fifty years startingin the 1890s. He was recognized as a world class problemist and publishedfrequently in leading chess magazines through out his life.
New FIDE Ratings Out
The April 2001 FIDE rating list has appearedwith two players over 2800 for the first time on a single rating list.FIDE finally decided to rate last fall's match between Garry Kasparov andVladimir Kramink, which gave Kramnik the push he needed to cross 2800.FIDE titleholder Viswanathan Anand is not far behind with a big gap betweenhim and #4 Michael Adams.
Top ten: 1 G Kasparov (Russia) 2822; 2V Kramnik (Russia) 2802; 3 V Anand (India) 2794; 4 M Adams (England) 2750;5 A Morozevich (Russia) 2749; 6 P Leko (Hungary) 2739; 7 V Ivanchuk (Ukraine)2731;
8 A Shirov(Spain) 2727; 9 B Gelfand (Israel)2712; 10 E Bareev (Russia) 2709.
Patrick Wolff Simul
Former US Champion Patrick Wolff's simulat the Burlingame Chess Club last Thursday night was a great success. TheGrandmaster scored 41 wins, one loss and three draws. Among those splittingthe point with Wolff was 11-year-old MI member Alex Setzepfandt (at 1am!).The exhibition lasted five hours and Patrick played games with both Blackand White in an impressive performance..
Setzepfandt-Wolff
1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. f4Bg7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. O-O e5 8. d5 Nb4 9. fxe5 dxe5 10. Be2 Ne811. a3 Na6 12. Bxa6 bxa6 13. Qe2 Nd6 14. Bg5 f6 15. Bh4 Qe8 16. Rae1 Kh817. Bg3 a5 18. Nd2 a4 19. Qe3 Ba6 20. Rf2 Qd7 21. Qc5 Rfb8 22. Qa5Bb5 23. Nxb5 Qxb5 24. Qxc7 Rd8 25. b3 Rac8 26. Qxa7 Rxc2
27.bxa4 Qe8 28. Qb6 Rxd2 29.Rxd2 Nc4 30. Qb4 Nxd2 31. Qxd2 Qxa4 32. Qb4 Qa8 33. Qc3 Rc8 34. Qf3 Qa635. Rd1 Rd8 36. Bh4 Kg8 37. Qd3 Qd6 38. Rc1 Ra8 39. Rc3 Draw
Newsletter #31, 04/11/2001
Sergey Shipov wins Second Internet ChessTournament "Dos Hermanas"
Sergey Shipov defeated fellow RussianGrandmaster Alexander Rustemov 1 1/2 - 1/2 to win a major Internet chesstournament run in conjunction with the Dos Hermanas event in early April.This cyberspace spectacle, which attracted 4424 entries from 70 countries,was very strong. Among the participants were 48 Grandmasters and 85 InternationalMasters! Thirty-two players qualified for the knockout finals and fourAmericans qualified including Bay Area stars GM Roman Dzindzihashvili ofSausalito and IM Guillermo Rey of Pacifica as well as IM Mark Ginsburgof Tucson and GM Max Dlugy of New York. All the American players lost inthe first round except Dzindzhi, who lost to GM Lev Psakhis 2-1 in theRound of Sixteen. IM Rey lost his match 1/2 - 1 1/2 to the eventual winnerShipov.
Luzhin's Defense comes to the Bay Area
The San Francisco Film Festival is screeningThe Luzhin Defense on April 23 and 24 at the AMC Kabuki Theaters. The adaptationof the Vladimir Nabakov novel, starring John Turturro, has received excellentreviews. English Grandmaster Jonathan Speelman served as the technicalconsultant for the movie which was directed by Marleen Gorris.
IM Donaldson wins Konig Memorial
International Master John Donaldson wonthe Imre Konig Memorial held April 7 at the Mechanics' Institute. The 42-year-oldDonaldson won his first four games before drawing in the last round withsecond seed FIDE Master Andrey Chumachenko of Sacramento to take home the$200 first prize. Veteran master Keith Vickers turned back several promisingjunior players in route to capturing second prize with a score of 4-1.The Game in 45 Minutes event, rated at 1/2 K by the USCF, attracted 28players. Events with similar time controls will be held at the club onMay 13 (Charles Powell Memorial) and June 2 (William Addison Open).
The event was held to honor the memoryof Imre Konig. International Master Konig, who came to the Bay Area fromEngland in the early 1950s, was the first internationally recognized playerto settle in San Francisco. He played for his native Yugoslavia in theChess Olympiads and authored several outstanding books, including Chessfrom Morphy to Botvinnik and Frank J. Marshall - J. R. Capablanca Match1909. The latter was one of a series of pamphlets on World ChampionshipMatches produced by the California Chess Reporter in the 1950s under thedirection of Guthrie McClain and Dr. H. J. Ralston. Konig is still wellremembered by old-timers at the MI for his kindness, patience and deepunderstanding of the game. He moved to Southern California around 1970and died in the early 1990s.
Thursday Afternoon Talks Start
IM John Donaldson has started a seriesof lunchtime chats on recent chess events. The talks are held Thursdaysfrom noon to 1pm and are free to all.
Newsletter #32, 04/18/2001
1) University of Texas at Dallas WinsFinal Four
Yes, Duke did win the NCAA BasketballFinal Four, but in chess it was UTD! Stanford team member Michael Aignerreports on the meeting between the four top collegiate chess programs inthe United States held last weekend.
"The Stanford team (FM Philip Wang, NMJordy Mont-Reynaud, NM Etan Ilfeld, FM Ryan Porter, NM Michael Aigner,David Pecora and coach NM Eric Schiller) travelled to Dallas on April 13-15to participate in the first
college President's Cup. The fourteams invited were the elite of college chess: Pan Am co-champions Universityof Texas at Dallas and University of Maryland at Baltimore County plusUniversity of California at Berkeley, and Stanford University.
round 1: UMBC 5.0-1.0 Stanford ; UT-Dallas3.5-2.5 Berkeley
round 2: Stanford 2.0-4.0 UT-Dallas; Berkeley 1.0-5.0 UMBC
round 3: UMBC 1.5-4.5 UT-Dallas ; Berkeley3.0-3.0 Stanford
final standings: UT-Dallas 12.0, UMBC11.5, Berkeley 6.5, Stanford 6.0
We were rather depressed by the firstround match versus UMBC, as we were better on all boards and winning on3 or 4 of them. Then we completely collapsed. I lost a pieceup position because I refused to play a logical developing move. The list goes on and on. Only David Pecora on board 6 managed toconvert his won position into a point.
The highlights of round 2 versus top seedand eventual winner UT-Dallas were FM Philip Wang's draw versus GM YuriShulman (and Shulman had to find several only moves to avoid losing) andmy complicated endgame win (R+2B+5P vs 2R+N+4P) over NM Andrei Dokuchayev.
In the last round, the Cal-Stanford rematchended drawn--again! FM Dmitry Zilberstein 1-0 FM Philip Wang, NMJordy Mont-Reynaud 1/2 NM David Pruess, NM Andras Erdei 1/2 NM Etan Ilfeld,FM Ryan Porter 1-0 Anthony Rozenvasser, David Steel 1-0 NM Michael Aigner,David Pecora 1-0 Pierre Vachon. Jordy tried for almost six hoursto milk a full point out of a drawn rook endgame, but it was not to be. This result gave Berkeley third place on the strength of their near upsetin round 1 over UT-Dallas. In the other last round match, top seedUT-Dallas needed to overcome a 2.5 game point deficit versus Baltimoreto win the tournament, and they did exactly that with a 4.5-1.5 victory.
We all would like to thank USCF Presidentand UT-Dallas Professor Tim Redman for organizing this event and the UT-Dallaschess club for sponsoring our trip to the Lone Star state."
David Steel of Berkeley was his team'sstar, scoring 2 1/2 out of 3 against masters despite being rated 2060.David is among the leaders with 2 from 2 in the current Tuesday Night Marathonat the MI.
The time control for the round-robinwas 45/2 SD/1.
Here are the players who participatedand average team ratings. UTD and the
University of Maryland at Baltimore bothoffer full ride chess scholarships.
Newsletter #33, 04/25/2001
"Chess is a form of intellectual productiveness,therein lies its peculiar charm. Intellectual productiveness is one ofthe greatest joys - if not the greatest - of human existence. It is noteveryone who can write a play, or build a bridge, or even make agood joke. But in chess everyone can, indeed must, be intellectually productiveand so can share in this select delight. Chess, like love, like music,has the power to make men happy".
Siegbert Tarrasch
1) Chapman-Kasparov Charity Odds Match:
English amateur player Terry Chapman camevery close to beating Garry Kasparov in a charity match held at Simpson's-in-the-Strandin London this past week. Each game Kasparov had to start two pawns down,but not the same pawns were removed each time. With the match precariouslybalanced at 1.5-1.5, the starting position Kasparov feared most againstChapman came in the final game. Fortunately for the world numberone, it all became too much for a tiring Chapman who tragically blunderedbadly to allow Kasparov to triumph 2.5-1.5 in this fascinating contest.
2) The Luzhin Defence
The movie adaptation of VladimirNabokov's novel about a chessmaster enjoyed an excellent reception at theSan Francisco Film Festival selling out both shows. It will start a regularrun at the Embarcadero Theatre this Friday.
3) Open Letter to the Global ChessCommunity
FIDE officials continue to press for fastertime controls but several of the world's top players recently voiced theiropposition to this trend. Just in case you wondering the letter K wouldeasily field the top team in an Olympiad organized by family name. AddKhalifman, Kamsky, Kaidanov, Kharitonov and Kholmov to name but afew GMs to back up Kasparov, Kramnik and Karpov.
"As the 12th, 13th, and 14th WorldChess Champions, we are writing jointly to voice our disagreement withrecent statements and unilateral decisions made by FIDE, the internationalchess federation. In particular, we are very concerned about FIDE’spolicy changes regarding the official time controls, their treatment ofthe history of the World Championship, and their open hostility towardthe organizers of traditional events.
The world’s chessplayers have beendenied a voice in these matters, and we who represent these conventionsat the highest level see the need to set aside our differences and speakout publicly in defense of the game that has brought us so much joy. Many players and European chess federations are critical of FIDE’s recentactions and we hope to lend a powerful and unequivocal voice to this protest.
The time honored traditions andrules of classical chess are not to be toyed with and any changes shouldbe made only after such plans are studied and debated in an open forum. Drastically shortening the amount of time available during a game is anattack on both the players and on the artistic and scientific elementsof the game of chess itself. To implement these rules without anadequate period for reflection, discussion, and review is foolhardy andcavalier.
Of greater concern is the behaviorof FIDE in regard to the prestige and tradition of the World Chess Championship. FIDE’s declaration in Tehran laid claim to a title that existed long beforeFIDE was created and, we might say, will exist long after it is gone. A century of tradition cannot be wiped away simply by saying that it isso. The true tradition lives on in us and in the minds and memoriesof millions of chess enthusiasts around the globe. It is unacceptablefor FIDE to claim rights to the World Chess Championship while at the sametime working to destroy the structures upon which the tradition was built.
Nor are the traditional tournamentsthat have given so much to chess safe from FIDE. Their threat toschedule FIDE events in competition with traditional ones is nothing lessthan a direct attack on the organizers, players, and fans of events suchas Linares, Dortmund, and Wijk aan Zee.
Chess is not FIDE’s property totoss around like a bauble. The game belongs to the global chess community.
Based on FIDE’s accompanying statements,these ill-advised measures have been taken in an attempt to popularizethe sport of chess. This is an admirable goal, but it is impossibleto achieve it by assaulting the very things that elevate the game mostof all: beautiful games of chess, traditional top tournaments, and thequest for the World Championship.
The chess world is depending onits leaders to provide a suitable and democratic solution to this unsatisfactorystate of affairs. We propose an open dialogue on these matters betweenFIDE, the national federations of which it is composed, and the players– professional and amateur alike – it was created to represent. Inthis dialogue we will depend on the participation of the fans, organizers,and sponsors to whom chess owes a great deal. We, who have both givento and received so much from chess, look forward to being on the frontlines in this battle to protect the status and legacy of the game we love."
_________________ _________________________ __________________
Anatoly Karpov Garry Kasparov Vladimir Kramnik
4) Jessie Jeans III
National Master Paul Gallegos won thethird Jessie Jeans Open held April 20-22 in Santa Rosa with a score of4-1. IM John Donaldson took first in the one day event with a 4-0 score.Jerry Weikel of Reno organized and directed both tournaments. We hope tohave a full report in next week's newsletter.
5) Bay Area Players Prominent on USCFTop 50 Lists
New Jersey Grandmaster Boris Gulko isthe top-rated player in the United States in the April rating list producedby the United States Chess Federation. Five Bay Area players are ratedin the top fifty headed by MI Grandmaster-in-Residence Alex Yermolinskywho is rated number nine at 2644.
Other Bay Area Players in the top fiftyare:
28. John Donaldson 2524
31. Walter Browne 2509
=35. Vince McCambridge and Vinay Bhat2495
Many MI junior players are rated in thetop 50 for their age group including Matthew Ho who is number two for playersages 11-12. A complete list will be presented in the next newsletter.
6) Chess Camps
The Mechanics' Institute will behosting three chess camps this summer. The first, on the weekend of June16-17, is part of the Kolti Seminar series held to honor the late GeorgeKoltanowski. This event, which is being sponsored by the U.S. Chess Trust,is open to players under 21 who are rated over 1600 and appear in eitherin the April or June USCF Top 50 list for their age. The instructor forthis camp is GM Yermolinsky and tuition is free.
A camp for intermediate and advanced youngsterswill be held July 30-August 3 and a camp for beginners and novices fromAugust 6-August 10. Information about these camps is available at the ChessRoom website under programs for children.
7) MI Chess Room Volunteers andDonations
Volunteers and donations are always welcomein the Chess Room. We would like to thank Jim Clark for repairing some of the MI's chess clocks and John Heymann for keeping the Chess Room computers in good working order. Thanks also to Frank Berry for donating two historical photographs of Bobby Fischer. Remember the MI is a 501 (c)(3) charity so your donations are tax deductible. Chess books, magazines and computers can all be put to good use.
Newsletter #34, 05/02/2001
"Devastating moves are like dissonant sounds; they shatter the eardrums. Their appeal is to an atavistic brutality in our natures, not to our finer sensibilities. In contrast, a "quiet" move is the epitome of finesse. A soft answer turns away wrath, but its subdued quality makes it no less efficient."
Hans Kmoch
1) Walter Lovegrove Senior Open
International Master Walter Shipman, National Masters David Blohm and Keith Vickers and Experts Agnis Kaugars and Larry Snyder tied for first place at 3-1 in the Walter Lovegrove Senior Open held April 28-29 at the Mechanics' Institute. The 19-player event was named in honor of Walter Romaine Lovegrove (1869-1956) who was one of San Francisco's strongest players for half a century. Five players rated over 2200 competed in the 19-player event.
2) MI Kids in Kansas City at the Supernationals
Alex Setzepfandt and Aaron Garg were the top finishers among Bay Area youngsters competing in the Scholastic Supernationals this past weekend in Kansas City. Alex tied for 8-18th in the K-6 section at 5.5 from 7 and Aaron Garg tied for 7th-25th in the K6 under 900 group with 6-1. Michael Pearson was 26th in the K-8 group with a score of 5-2. Aaron's sister Elisha and Steven Zierk also competed successfully. Close to 5000(!) kids competed in this event which included elementary, junior high and high school students.
3) Man versus Machine
The Bay Area's Eric Schiller will be serving as an arbiter for the upcoming battle between Vladimir Kramnik and Deep Fritz this fall in Bahrain. John Henderson, chess editor for The Scotsman provides the details.
"Ever since Garry Kasparov's infamous match in 1997 when he lost to IBM's Deep Blue, Man vs. Machine has added a new dimension to the game of chess as they worked out which was better: human intuition or silicon brute force.
This October in Bahrain, Kasparov's human nemesis, Vladimir Kramnik, will attempt to restore the honor of the human race when he plays an eight game match organized by the Brain Games Network against Deep Fritz from the Hamburg-based ChessBase stable - with the Emir putting up a purse of $1m for Kramnik if he wins, $800,000 if he draws and $600,000 if he loses.
In order to find Kramnik's challenger from the silicon world, a special tournament recently took place in Cadaques, Spain, under the auspices of one of the world's leading computer chess experts, Prof. Enrique Irazoqui. Despite an outcry before the start that leading programs such as Rebel and Chess Tiger were excluded in this unique Candidates-like qualifier, two of the most recognized names in the silicon game, Deep Fritz (written by Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist) and Deep Junior (written by Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky), each running on identical dual Pentium systems (2x933 MHz), slugged it out over a grueling 24-game match (four games a day under a normal time control) to see which would go forward.
Looking every bit the loser after Deep Junior streaked to 5-0 after five games, remarkably, Deep Fritz staged the mother of all comebacks to tie the match 12-12, and goes through to play Kramnik after winning 2-0 in the playoff games.
However, it looks as if the programmers will have to consider adding a new feature of
"match situation knowledge" to their creations. With three games left to play - and still 2-0 down - Fritz made a dreadful blunder of offering a draw which would have virtually clinched the match for Deep Junior - who unbelievably turned the offer down and went on to lose the game!
Deep Fritz - Deep Junior
BGN World Qualifier, (15)
Torre Attack
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 d5 3 Bg5 Ne4 4 Bf4 c6 5 e3 Qb6 6 Qc1 h6 7 Nbd2 Bf5 8 Nxe4 dxe4 9 Ne5 Nd7 10 Nc4 Qd8 11 Be2 g5 12 Bg3 Bg7 13 Qd2 a5 14 a4 h5 15 h4 g4 16 0-0 0-0 17 b4 axb4 18 Qxb4 b6 19 Rab1 Qe8 20 Nxb6 Nxb6 21 Qxb6 Rxa4 22 Qc5! Qd7 23 Rb6 Rfa8 24 Rxc6 R4a5 25 Bb5 Bf8 26 c4 e6 27 Qb6 Qe7 28 Rc7 Qb4 29 Rb7 Ra2 30 Qc7 Bg6 31 Be8 Rxe8 32 Rxb4 Bxb4 33 Rb1 Bf8 34 Rb8 f6 35 Rxe8 Bxe8 36 Qc8 Kf7 37 d5 exd5 38 cxd5 Ba4 39 d6 Ra3 40 d7 Ra1+ 41 Kh2 Bxd7 42 Qxd7+ Kg6 43 Qe8+ Kg7 44 Qxh5 Ra7 45 Qxg4+ Kh8 46 Qxe4 1-0 "
Thanks to John Henderson
4) Five-Way tie for First in April-May Tuesday Marathon
Kenneth Hills, Michael Aigner, Victor Ossipov, Peter Grey and David Steel are tied for first at 3 1/2 - 1/2 at the midway point of the current Tuesday Night Marathon. A total of 57 players are competing in the event.
Newsletter #35, 05/08/2001
"Chess, like literature and the arts, often suffers a premature loss. The poems that Keats and Shelley might have written, the music that Mozart and Schubert might have composed, these have their counterparts in the missing games due to the early deaths of such masters as Charousek, Breyer and Reti. Fortunately for us, however, just as the poets and composers managed to pack into their brief life an abundance of poetry and music, so these chess masters produced a wealth of beautiful games!"
Harry Golombek
2000 USCF Grand Prix Final Standing
It took awhile, but the results of the 2000 USCF Grand Prix have finally come in with two members of the MI staff finishing in the top twenty places. The USCF reports:
"Once again Alex Wojtiewicz has come out on top of the USCF Grand Prix. (He also won in 1999.) Five hundred and nine players qualified for Grand Prix points this year, down by a hair from the 514 in 1999. Total points offered in 1999: 6,935, in 2000: 9,106. GP events in 1999: 353, in 2000: 361.
The following final point totals reflect all rated event information received and rated through March. The Grand Prix is a yearlong contest with $25,000 in prizes."
1 GM Alex Wojtkiewicz 457.64 $7,000
2 GM Alexander Stripunsky 396.30 3,500
3 GM Alexander Ivanov 349.63 2,500
4 GM Pavel Blatny 322.99 1,200
5 GM Alexander Goldin 275.04 1,200
6 GM Alexander Shabalov 243.20 1,200
7 GM Jaan Ehlvest 220.24 1,200
8 GM Alex Yermolinsky 204.61 1,200
9 IM Rogelio Barcenilla 187.40 1,000
10 GM Gregory Serper 186.06 1,000
11 FM Igor Foygel 160.69 500
12 IM Enrico Sevillano 147.50 450
13 GM Sergey Kudrin 145.37 400
14 IM Nikolay Andrianov 129.00 350
15 IM Rashid Ziatdinov 115.97 300
16 IM John Donaldson 111.05 250
17 GM Gregory Kaidanov 96.97 200
18 FM Stanislav Kriventsov 96.71 200
19 IM Igor Ivanov 91.10 200
20 GM Dmitry Gurevich 90.68 200
Victor Ossipov and David Steel lead April-May Tuesday Night Marathon
Upset victories by Victor Ossipov and David Steele over Masters Kenneth Hills and Michael Aigner propelled the two Experts into the lead of the April-May Tuesday Night Marathon with three rounds to go at 4 1/2 from 5.
Robert Hsu wins National Elementary (K - 3 Under 800)
We missed one outstanding local performance in our coverage on the Scholastic Supernationals in Newsletter #34. The USCF website reports that Robert Hsu, 9, of Hillsborough, California, tied for first with A.J. Spector of Mundelein, Illinois in the K-3 Under 800 section. Congratulations to Robert!
USCL Action: Rohde-Donaldson
IM John Donaldson continued the Mechanics' Institute tradition of winning the Battle of the Minds on the USCF's online server United States Chess Live' (USCL) by defeating GM Michael Rohde the evening of May 3rd. GM Alex Yermolinsky and WIM Camilla Baginskaite have each won several games in this format which pits titled players against each other while they simultaneously explain their thoughts to the audience. The following game was played with a time control of 45 minutes for each player with a 5 second increment.
Battle of the Minds May 3, 2001
Michael Rohde vs. John Donaldson
Exchange Slav
1.Nf3 c5 2.c3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.cxd4 d5 5.Bf4 Nf6 6.e3 Bf5 7.Bb5
Michael's plan of avoiding an early Nc3 is noteworthy. He intends to put pressure on c6 with Qa4 and doubling Rooks on the c-line. The N on b1 will go to b3 to discourage ...c5 (after Bxc6).
7...e6 8.0-0 Nd7 9.Nbd2 Rc8 10.Qa4 Qb6 11.Rfc1 Be7 12.Rc3 0-0
Black could have also tried 12...a6 but I thought that after 13.Bxc6 bxc6 14.Rb3 Qa7 15.Rc1 O-O 16.Rbc3 c5 17.dxc5 Rxc5 18.Nd4 White would have some advantage.
13.h3
This was played after a long thought. The more natural move is 13.Rac1 but then Black can initiate complications with 13..e5. The idea is to go after the Rc3. For example : 14.Nxe5 Ndxe5 15.Bxe5 Bb4. I'm not sure if 13...e5 is completely correct, but 13.Rac1 does seem to be the logical followup to White's previous play.
13...a6 14.Bxc6 Rxc6
This brings Rf8 into the game.
15.Rxc6 Qxc6
This makes it easier to realize ...c5.
16.Qxc6 bxc6 17.Rc1 Rc8
Black wants to play ...c5 and answer dxc5 with ...Rxc5. Black has no problems here and Michael soon starts to overpress.
18.Nb3 f6 19.Na5 c5 20.b3?
Black was threatening ...c5. The text doesn't stop it. Now Black's Bishops come alive.
20...c4! 21.bxc4 Ba3 22.Rd1 dxc4 23.g4 Bc2 24.Rd2 Be4 0-1
Chess Camps
The Mechanics' Institute will be hosting three chess camps this summer. The first, on the weekend of June 16-17, is part of the Kolti Seminar series held to honor the late George Koltanowski. This event, which is being sponsored by the US Chess Trust, is open to players under 21 who are rated over 1600 and appear in either in the April or June USCF Top 50 list for their age. The instructor for this camp is GM Yermolinsky and tuition is free.
A camp for intermediate and advanced youngsters will be held July 30-August 3 and a camp for beginners and novices from August 6-August 10. Information about these camps is available at the Chess Room website under programs for children.
Newsletter #36, 05/16/2001
"Chess is all about making decisions. Postponing a decision doesn't necessarily improve it."
John Nunn
Charles Powell Memorial
The 1st Charles Powell Memorial, held May 13 to honor one of the Bay Area's strongest players in the 1980s, was a fitting tribute. There were only 18 advance entries, but 29 players showed up at the door making this the
best-attended one day event at the Mechanics' in recent memory!
Expert Vivek Nambiar of Milpitas defeated Stanford Master Ryan Porter in the last round to take home the $225 first prize with a 4-0 score. Tying for second at 3 1/2 in the G/60 event were National Master Keith Vickers, Expert Nicholas Proudfoot and Uri Andrews. 15-year-old Andrews of San Jose, rated
in the 1700s was the revelation of the event, collecting several scalps.
Upsets were the order of the day as only Keith Vickers won a prize among the five masters competing.
Charles Powell was Armed Forces Champion several times and a key member of the Washington Plumbers, winners of the 1976 National Telephone League. A perennial state champion in his native Virginia, Charles moved to San Francisco in the late 1970s and played in several Northern California State Championships (Bagby Memorials), but will be best remembered for his friendly manner and good sportsmanship. In a passing of the baton, National Master Robert Haines, who was encouraged by Charley in his first tournament in the
Bay Area, sent two of his young students Lucian Kahn and Keith Moffat, to play in this event.
Tuesday Night Marathon
Berkeley undergraduate David Steele defeated fellow Expert Larry Snyder to grab the lead in the April-May Marathon with two rounds to go. Steele has 51/2 from 6, but right behind him is Expert Victor Ossipov with 5. Chasing the two leaders are National Masters David Blohm, Kenneth Hills and Michael Aigner, plus Experts Steve Gaffagan and Peter Grey all at 4 1/2.
Fischer Update
"LOVE him or loath him, Bobby Fischer will always remain one of the games biggest stars, not to mention one of its biggest enigmas. Thanks to the legions of fans who have kept the faith over the years, the erratic and often misguided American genius is still big news in the game despite the fact that it's nearly ten years now since he last (officially) played a game.
The rumour mill on his whereabouts these days is always active. Prohibited from returning to the US due to an outstanding arrest warrant from the Treasury (though when I visited Seattle recently I have it on authority from a very reliable source that Fischer managed to come back into the country via Canada to attend his sister's funeral last year), he's been known to favour living in Budapest (even Scotland's own Jonathan Rowson bumped into him one night there whilst on the metro), though its recently reported that he now lives in Japan. Whilst in Budapest, he struck up a working friendship with the Hungarian No.1, Peter Leko. In return for some "free" advice and insight into the game from the great one, Leko played a number of (unpublished) Shuffle Chess games with him.
It's now claimed that Fischer has been playing again under a pseudonym on an internet chess server and smashing up several strong GMs - by playing weird openings such as 1 f3 followed by some bizarre king manoeuvres in an effort to avoid book theory. Often the games are said to resemble his latest development for chess, "Fischerrandom". As ever, all playing stories such as this is taken with a healthy pinch of salt, but it would be good for the game if substantiated.
Fischer even made it into the pop charts this year! The Sydney-based indie guitar band Lazy Susan managed to get a lot of airtime recently in Australia with a single, simply entitled, "Bobby Fischer", telling of the life and struggle of their hero.
Certainly no candidate for an Ivan Novello or Grammy award, the catchy lyrics go something like:
"Bobby Fischer beat Spassky in Iceland '72.
I know a girl who's better looking but who thinks like Bobby Fischer too.
When Booby Fischer was a kid they knew he was a prodigy.
I know a girl who's somewhat older but no less of an authority."
I wish I had the smarts to understand her charts.
If I don't concentrate she'll have me in checkmate.
In Tampa Bay and Lafayette they all knew Bobby Fischer's name.
I know a girl who made her mark in smaller cities but her fame's the same.
When Bobby Fischer made his comeback in the 90s he was worse for wear.
I know a girl who made a comeback but her mind was altogether there.
She said, 'I drink chocolate milk from a cow I built.
Doot n'doot doot doot. Doot'n doot doot doot.'
They're all saying that you'll never play again.
They're all saying that you're finished, that you're washed up as a friend.
All my life I have 'feather-dustered' but that's not how it's going to end. Oh no.
Spies in hideouts send their secret messages.
There's a thief caught in the headlights of a car beneath a bridge.
There's no lights on in the house except the light in the fridge. Oh yeah.
Reykjavik, no one ever says Reykjavik in a song.
Reykjavik, no one ever says Reykjavik in a song."
Despite persistent rumours that he'll play at some time a "Fischerrandom" or Shuffle Chess match against a top GM (one rumour had it that he would play his long-time friend, the Philippines GM Eugene Torre), nothing ever materialised. Yet, despite declaring on winning the world crown in 1972 that, "all I want to do, ever, is play chess", he never officially touched another piece for twenty years - and only then when he had reputedly run out of money."
Courtesy of John Henderson from his column in The Scotsman
Summer FIDE Rating Tournaments
Rated over 2000 USCF and interested in playing in a FIDE Rating Tournament This June? The MI will be running an event(s) June 16-24 at the MI. The format will be dictated by entries, but we are aiming at two 10-player roundrobins with 7 rated and 3 unrated in each group. Entry fee is $50 and all money is returned in prizes. If you are interested in playing please contact John Donaldson ASAP.
Newsletter #37, 05/23/2001
"I play honestly and I play to win. If I lose, I take my medicine."
Bobby Fischer
Vinay Bhat and David Pruess to Play in US Junior Closed
Bay Area junior stars Vinay Bhat of San Jose and David Pruess of Berkeley have been invited to play in the US Junior Closed scheduled for late July in Tulsa. Other invitees are Dmitry Schneider, Irina Krush, Justin Sarkar,
Hikaru Nakamura, Steven Winer, Paul Kolinko, Andrei Zaremba and Asuka Nakamura. The first two alternates are Todd Andrews and Stanford student Philip Wang.
Jerry Weikel to Hold "Have a Good Knight" Tournament June 29-July 1
Noted Reno organizer Jerry Weikel will be putting on the biggest open tournament in the Bay Area in the past two years the weekend before July 4th at the Holiday Inn at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. The five round
event, which features a free lecture by GM Alex Yermolinsky, features a $8,000 prize fund based on 150 entries. Full details will appear in the July Chess Life and flyers are available at the MI.
Contact Jerry at [email protected] for more info.
Four-Way Tie in April-May Marathon
Wins by David Blohm (over David Steel) and Michael Aigner (against Victor Ossipov) have forced a four-way tie for first between Blohm, Steel, Aigner and Steven Gaffagan with 5 1/2 from 7 with one round to go.
Akopian wins San Joaquin Spring Open
Top-seed Artak Akopian won the San Joaquin Spring Open held last weekend in Fresno. 11-year-old Alexander Setzepfandt had an excellent result beating NM Tom Dorsch and Expert John Barnard.
Newsletter #38, 05/30/2001
"Ideas. I never memorize lines."
Bobby Fischer
1)Kramnik leads Astana Supertournament with two rounds to go
Not content with taking Garry Kasparov's world crown, Vladimir Kramnik looks as if he's determined to take his former mentor's coveted world No.1 spot. With just two rounds left of the Astana Supertournament in Kazakhstan, Kramnik continues to hold a slender half-point lead over Kasparov, with the "2K's" scheduled to meet in a final round showdown that could well decided the destination of first prize.
Having beaten Kasparov in the match in London last year and also in Korchnoi's 70th Anniversary rapid finals in Zurich last month, Kramnik, who now holds a lead in games played between the top two, is on course to narrow the gap even further between first and second place on the rating list.
Apart from a share of first place with Kramnik at Linares 2000, Kasparov has taken first place at every classical chess event stretching back to Wijk aan Zee in January 1999 - a record that is now in grave danger of falling at this tournament.
Ironically, the last player in the tournament, former world junior champion Darmen Sadvakasov, is the reason for Kasparov lagging behind. Whilst Kramnik managed a 2-0 scoreline against the local player, Kasparov fell behind by his standards by conceding a draw in their first game, and now needs to go all out to win in his second game against Sadvakasov today to stay within reach of Kramnik.
1 V Kramnik (Russia) 6/8; 2 G Kasparov (Russia) 5.5; 3 B Gelfand (Israel) 4.5; 4 A Morozevich (Russia) 3.5; 5 A Shirov (Spain) 3; 6 D Sadvakasov (Kazakhstan) 1.5.
Astana (8)
Slav Defence
Thanks to John Henderson. This article originally appeared in The Scotsman.
Aigner and Gaffagan win April-May Tuesday Night Marathon
National Master Michael Aigner and Expert Steven Gaffagan won the April-May Tuesday Night Marathon last evening with tough last rounds wins. Gaffagan reached 6 1/2 from 8 by defeating early front-runner Expert David Steel, while Aigner matched his score by winning a long endgame against NM David Blohm. A total of 57 players competed in this event.
Top Scores: 1-2. NM Aigner and Gaffagan 6 1/2; 3-4. Ossipov and Samatra 6;
5-10. NM Blohm, NM Hills, Steel, Snyder, Grey and Peckham 5 1/2.
Complete results and games from the event can be found here
Chicago Open
Grandmasters Alexander Goldin and Julian Hodgson scored 6 from 7 to win the Chicago Open held May 25-28 at the Hyatt Hotel in the Chicago suburb of Oakbrook. The two winners each received $7,500 for their efforts in finishing ahead of 13 other GMs and many IMs and NMs. Among the close to 900(!) players participating were MI members Vinay Bhat, David Pruess and Kayven Riese, each of whom turned in excellent performances. Vinay, who was tied for the lead with 4 from 4 at one point, ended up scoring 5-2, including a win over Latvian GM Normunds Miezes and a draw with GM Yury Shulman. Pruess, defeated the first GM in his career in round two (Alex Fishbein) and immediately followed up with a win over another GM (Dmitry Gurevich) in round three in
route to 4 1/2 points. Kayven, who traveled from the Bay Area to Chicago and back by train, scored 6-1 to tie for first in the under 1600 section. Congratulations to these players for a job well-done!
William Addison
This Saturday the Mechanics' Institute will be holding a one-day tournament (5 round; G/45) to honor one of the giants of Bay Area Chess. International Master William Addison was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1933, but his transformation from amateur to one of America's best began when he moved to San Francisco in 1952. Prior to Addison, the MI had strong amateurs like Walter Lovegrove and A.J. Fink, but no players who consistently participated in US Championships and on the American Olympiad team. Since Addison we have had Walter Browne, Nick deFirmian, Jay Whitehead and Vince McCambridge in US Championships, but it was Addison who paved the way.
He played in almost all the US Championships in the 1960s and capped off his career with an excellent result in 1969 which qualified for the 1970 Interzonal in Palma de Mallorca where he scored 9-14 against a strong field
(Reshevsky had 9 1/2) to finish equal 18th. Addison played on the United States Olympiad teams at Tel Aviv 1964, where he won a bronze medal as secondreserve with 7 1/2 point from 9 games, and Havana 1966, where the US Team, led by Bobby Fischer won the silver medal.
Addison served as chess director of the MI from 1965 to 1969. He retired from tournament play in 1970 and went to work for Bank of America where he is still employed. He is approaching the 50 year mark as an MI member and we salute his contribution to American and Bay Area chess. Please come out and support the tournament this Saturday! Full details of the event are available here
Gens Una Sumus
The August 20, 2000, edition of the Dallas Morning News had a very interesting article about Dallas International Master Rade Milovanovic who escaped war-torn Bosnia to make a new home for his family in Texas. The article brings home the point that chessplayers tend to be much more independent thinking and internationally minded than the population at large.
Here is a brief excerpt from the piece. The entire article can be found at: dallasnews.com
"Rade also came away from his war experience with a greater appreciation for his "chess family." The extreme nationalism and ethnic hatred that incited the civil war in Yugoslavia was fueled by propaganda and self-serving politicians, he says. "Suddenly it's very important who you are, what's your religion. I see people break long friendships with people of another nationality." But he never saw this among chess players. "They supported each other. I think this is because they think independently." He points out the motto of the international chess organization, Federation International Des Echecs (FIDE): "Gens Una Sumas" - Latin for "We are all one people." "I know this was true for chess players during the war," Rade says. "I've seen this."
Newsletter #39, 06/06/2001
"Genius. It's a word. What does it really mean? If I win, I'm a genius. If I don't, I'm not"
Bobby Fischer
Rey Salvatierra Wins William Addison Open
Expert Rey Salvatierra won the William Addison Open, a G/45 event held June 2, with a 5-0 score. Salvatierra defeated NM Ryan Porter, and Experts Victor Ossipov and Juan Luaces in route to the $200 first prize. Tying for second at 4-1 in the 42 player (12 over 2000) tournament were Porter, Ossipov, Luaces and NM Michael Aigner. Sharing 6th-11th at 3 1/2 were top seed Alexander Kretchetov (2401), NMs Eric Schiller and Mark Pinto, visiting Austrian Guenther Steinmiller and Yefim Bukh.
Class Prize winners were: Under 2000 Yefim Bukh 3.5; Under 1800 Wesley Chen and Willie Campers 3; Under 1600 Ewelina Krubnik 3; Under 1400 Gilbert Yap, Stephen Wilson and Daniel Schmidt 2; Under 1200 Ryan Dooley 2.
The one day, five round G/45 events, which are rated at 1/2 K (that is one half the normal USCF rating formula) are drawing more and more players from all over the rating spectrum. One pleasant surprise in the Addison was the large number of players in Class D (below 1200). We hadn't advertised a prize for this class, not expecting many entries, but added one the day of the event. Look for more class prizes in our next G/45 events which will be July 21 (Charles Bagby Memorial) and August 18 (Vladimir Pafnutieff Memorial).
The 38th Arthur Stamer Memorial this weekend
This Friday night, Saturday and Sunday the Mechanics' Institute will be hosting the 38th Arthur Stamer Memorial. This annual event is held each June to honor the longtime MI member and Chess Director who passed away on February 17, 1964. Registration is from 5 to 6 PM on Friday night, with round one starting at 6:30 PM . Complete details for this event can be found at the MI Chess Room website at Mechanics' Chessroom
The September 1964 issue of the California Chess Reporter ran the following article on Arthur Stamer, who served as the Chess Room's first director from 1951 to his passing.
"A.B. Stamer, one of the last of the old-timers of the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club, died in San Francisco in early 1964 after a short illness. Arthur was a veteran of the famous team which played telegraphic chess in the 1920s (and started the North vs. South, over-the-board team matches by meeting Los Angeles at Atascadero in 1926), and he was a contemporary of E.W. Gruer, Dr. W.R. Lovegrove, A.J. Fink, E.J. Clarke, Dr. G.E.K. Branch, Bernardo Smith, W.H. Smith, J.F. Smyth, L. Rosenblatt, E.O. Fawcett and many other members of the Mechanics' Institute Hall of Fame. Arthur won the premier tournament of the Mechanics' Institute in 1908. He sometimes showed the inscribed gold medal to youngsters: One side read "Champion, Mechanics' Institute Premier Tournament." Then came his little joke when he showed the date on the reverse: Stamer was in his seventies and was a retired superintendent of city deliveries, US Post Office. He was Chess Director of the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club, and his death was a sore blow to the club. However, his brother Walter and his son Chet are still holding up the chess tradition of the family. (Chet won a special prize in the A.B. Stamer Memorial Tournament held in May, 1964). The first Stamer Memorial was held a few months after his death and according to the California Chess Reporter the event was the largest ever held by a San Francisco club with 52 participants. William Addison won with a score of 4 1/2 - 1/2, defeating Duncan Suttles in a dramatic last round game. Tying for second at 4-1 were Suttles, Earl Pruner, Roy Hoppe, John Blackstone, Robert Burger and Neil Falconer. Falconer won the best game prize for his last round victory over Blazo Sredanovic.
San Francisco (Arthur Stamer Memorial) 1964
Suttles annotated this game in the June 1964 issue of the Washington Chess Letter. He commented " I lost $190 by losing this game, a draw being sufficient for clear first. I seem to have a habit of messing up last round games, although my opponent in this one probably deserves some of the credit; judge for yourself."
1.g3 Nf6 2.Bg2 d5 3.d3 c6 4.Nc3 e5 5.e4 Bb4
The opening is now a reversed Ruy Lopez.
6.Bd2 d4 7.Nce2 Bxd2+ 8.Qxd2 Qe7 9.f3 c5 10.Nh3 Nc6 11.Nf2 Rb8 12.0–0 0–0 13.f4 Ng4 14.Nxg4 Bxg4 15.Rae1 b5 16.h3 Bxe2 17.Rxe2 c4 18.Kh2 Qc5 19.b3 Rfd8 20.Ref2 Rb6 21.h4 h6 22.f5 f6 23.g4 Kf7 24.g5 hxg5 25.hxg5 Rh8+ 26.Kg3 Rbb8 27.Bf3 Qb4 28.Qe2 fxg5 29.Bh5+ Kf6 30.Rg2 Rh6 31.Qg4
The California Chess Reporter suggests that White could have won with 31. Kh2, but this seems very optimistic. After 31.Kh2 Rbh8 32.Rxg5 cxd3 33.cxd3 Kxg5 34.Qg4+ Kf6 35.Qh4+ g5 36.fxg6+ Ke6 Black's King runs away.
31...Rbh8 32.Rh1 cxd3 33.Kf3 Ke7 34.Qxg5+ Kd6 35.Qxg7
Suttles in his analysis points to 35.cxd3 as the best chance. It works fine after 35...Qc3 36.Rc1 Qxd3+ 37.Kf2 Qe3+ 38.Qxe3 dxe3+ 39.Kxe3 Nd4 40.Be2 and even better after 37...Rxh5 38.Qg6+ Ke7 39.Qe6+ Kf8 40.Qd6+ Kf7 41.Rxg7+! mating. However, Black has every chance of winning after 37...Qxe4 38.Bf3 Qe3+ 39.Qxe3 dxe3+ 40.Kxe3 Nd4 41.Be4 Rh3+ 42.Kf2 Rh2.
The last word on this complicated game will likely be provided by Vancouver FM Bruce Harper's massive two volume work on Suttles which is nearing completion after more than ten years of work. Inside Chess Enterprises of Seattle will publishing what looks to be one of the most entertaining and instructive game collections ever written.
35...Kc5 36.Rg6 Qd2 37.b4+ Kb6 38.Qxe5 Qe3+ 39.Kg2 Rxg6+ 40.Bxg6 Nxe5 41.Rxh8
Qf3+ 0–1
Newsletter #40, 06/13/2001
"Chess is like life." - Boris Spassky
"Chess is life." - Bobby Fischer
Nine-Way Tie for First in Stamer Memorial
The 38th Stamer Memorial, held June 8-10 at the M.I., finished in a nine-way tie for first at 4-1 between IM Walter Shipman, NM Eugene Levin, Experts Jennie Frenklakh, Larry Snyder, Steve Gaffagan, Rey Salvatierra, and Andy Lee, visiting Austrian player Guenther Steinmuller and 15-year-old Monty Peckham. The latter was the sensation of the tournament as he defeated two masters. Larry Snyder had slightly the better of it almost the entire game against Jennie Frenklakh in the last round, and came very close to winning the tournament outright with a win. Solid defense by the several-time US Womens Championship participant held the draw and made her the first female player ever to ever tie for first in a Stamer.
The field of 61 players included 17 participants under the age of 18 and six women. The Brett, Haun, Ho, Karnazes and Krubnik clans made this a real family event. Peter Brett and his daughter Jamie tied for first Class D. Zachary Karnazes had an excellent result defeating Master Rudy Hernandez in a nice game.
Bruce Pandolfini Featured in the New Yorker
Articles on chess are popping up all over. The June 4th issue of the New Yorker has an eight page article on noted chess teacher Bruce Pandolfini by Paul Hoffman. Among other things the reader learns that Mr. Pandolfini makes $250,000 a year teaching chess and that corporate executives once paid him $7500 an hour for a conference to see how a chess master thinks and to apply these concepts to business. Who said all chess masters were starving!
The article is well written and pretty accurate, but there are a few glitches. The author claims Steinitz boasted of having defeated God in spite of odds of pawn and move. Actually Steinitz is alleged to have made the
challenge, but, as far as I know, God never accepted. This anecdote seems to be a favorite of non-chess playing authors. It was also used by Rudolph Chelminski in his 7 page article "Your Opponent Must Be Destroyed" which appeared in the January 1998 Smithsonian.
The New Yorker article is fairly positive, but the final paragraph may make you wonder whether some of Bruce's students are distant relatives of Steinitz. One of his young prodigies, pleased as punch after winning his last
round game, is quoted as saying “I wish I could fly so that I could play chess with God.”
Odds and Ends
Newsletter #38 reported on the results of Vinay Bhat, David Pruess and Kayven Riese in the Chicago Open. They were not the only success stories. Vivek Nambiar tied for the top finish in the U2200 section, and Shivkumar Shivaji finished 5-2 in the Open section to tie for the top U2400 prize. Both players hail from Milpitas and are playing in the MI Summer FIDE Rating Tournament.
International Arbiter Mike Goodall writes in reference to the Stamer piece in Newsletter #39 that contrary to the California Chess Reporter's obituary, Stamer won the 1905 MI Club Championship and not 1908. Guthrie McClain's history of the MI supports Michael. How did Mr. Goodall know this? Stamer showed him the medal that he was given for taking first. One wonders what happened to it. By the way Stamer repeated his victory in the 1923 Club Championship.
Longtime MI member Pam Ford, who played in many US Womens Championships in the 1980s is an accomplished painter of note. Her work appears on the cover of the May/June issue of the magazine Open Exchange.
Newsletter #41, 06/20/01
"Chess is 99% tactics"
Richard Teichmann
Haessler Leads in MI Summer FIDE Rating Tournament A
Portland master Carl Haessler leads the MI Summer FIDE Rating Tournament with one game remaining. The lowest rated player in the field, Haessler scored an excellent 4-2 in the four player double round robin. He split with SM David Pruess and NM Ryan Porter and won both games against top seed Bela Evans, but Haessler is still nor assured first place or even a share of the top spot, as Porter has 31/2 from 5 and one game left to play with Evans. This has been a nightmare tournament for Bela who is coming off a long layoff, but he is to be commended for his good sportsmanship in staying the course when many other players would drop out claiming illness.
Rating tournaments B and C, both 11 player round robins, have started. Standings will appear in the next Newsletter.
Summer Tuesday Night Marathon Starts
The MI Summer Marathon started last night with 53 players including Masters David Blohm, Kenneth Hills, Russell Wong and Rudy Hernandez. The eight round event, played every Tuesday evening, has been running for over 25 years! It's is still not to late to enter the event and receive a half point bye for round one.
Newsletter #42, 06/27/01
"Chess is the art of analysis."
Mikhail Botvinnik
Carl Haessler MI Summer FIDE Rating Tournament A
Portland National Master Carl Haessler may have been the lowest rated player going into the MI Summer FIDE Rating Tournament A, but he proved the form charts wrong scoring 4-2 against a field averaging well over 2300 USCF. Haessler split with Senior Master David Pruess and National Master Ryan Porter and beat top-seed Bela Evans 2-0 in the four player double round robin. Pruess and Porter shared second at 3 1/2 in the event held June 16-21. Evans scored only 1-5, but his single victory in the last round over Porter not only showed his strong character, but also decided first place.
Michael Aigner wins Summer FIDE Rating Tournament C
National Master Michael Aigner has won Group C of the Mechanics' Institute FIDE Rating Tournament series with a round to spare. The popular Stanford graduate student has scored an impressive 7-1 with one game remaining for a USCF performance rating around 2400. Aigner's only loss was to Vivek Nambiar of Milipitas who is currently in third with 3 1/2 from 6. Felix Rudyak, whose was ranked near the bottom at the start of the tournament is having an excellent result with 4 1/2 from 7 plus a victory over Berkeley Expert Larry
Snyder who was forced to dropout.
Shivkumar Shivaji leads Group B with 5 points from 7 followed by Adrian Keatinge-Clay with 4 1/2 from 7. Young up and comer Matthew Ho looks set to earn a FIDE rating with his excellent, undefeated score of 5 from 8.
PACIFIC SOUTHWEST OPEN
The Pacific Southwest Open, the Santa Monica Bay Chess Club's traditional summer tournament held on the Fourth of July for 40 years, shifted to June 15-17 this year and still attracted a fair turnout of 126 players. The field, bolstered by recent Armenian immigrants, was the strongest in years.
Top-rated IM Melikset Khachian led the 58-player Open section with an impressive 51/2-1/2 total that included wins on Sunday over IM Andranik Matikozyan and state champion Cyrus Lakdawala. Only IM Varuzhan Akobian, who finished second at 5-1, held him to a draw. Next at 41/2-11/2 were Matikozyan, state champion Levon Altounian, IM Nikolay Andrianov and top experts Scott Haubrich, Sid Morris and Gennady Titkov.
Frank Berry scored 51/2-1/2 to win the 68-player Amateur (under-1800) section. Moheb Boules, Bobby Hall and Harut Keshishian tied for second at 5-1.
Class prizes went to Ron Hoffman and Bruce Margolin (tied for best under-1600); Tongzhou Wang (best under-1400); Sarkis Toneryan (best under-1200); and Anatoliy Manko (best unrated).
Randy Hough directed. The next major open tournament is the Southern California Open, scheduled Labor Day weekend in San Diego.
Thanks to Frank Berry
Newsletter #43, 07/04/01
In the spirit of celebration of the Glorious 4th we would like to offer the following quote from a great American patriot:
"Any player, no matter how strong he is, can overlook quite simple moves in the course of a game."
GM Bobby Fischer [1963]
Wojtkiewicz wins Firecracker Open
Peripatetic Polish GM Alex Wojtkiewicz won the Firecracker Open held June 29-July 1 at the Holiday Inn at the Marina in San Francisco. Wojt scored 4-1, yielding draws to NM Michael Aigner and IM Guillermo Rey. Tying for second at 3.5 - 1.5 were Rey and SM David Pruess. A very disappointing turnout of just 40 players caused organizer Jerry Weikel to lose $4,000 on the event. Considering the losses that Tom Dorsch suffered running his Universe Open, and what just happened to Jerry, San Francisco doesn't appear to be fertile ground for running a weekend Swiss with large guaranteed prizes.
Kasparov tops new FIDE rating list
The "Big Three" of Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Vishy Anand continue to be in a league of their own in the chess world after the publication of the July rating list from the games governing body, FIDE.
After losing his world crown last year, world number one Garry Kasparov saw his rating dip alarmingly by 14-points - most of which went to his nemesis, Vladimir Kramnik. However, Kasparov isn't yet ready to relinquish his No.1 spot - which he was held since 1984 - and continues to win big with first places in the likes of Wijk aan Zee, Linares and Astana, seeing his stock rise again by 3-points to 2838.
After a "recount" in the last list that showed that Fide had miscalculated Kramnik's rating to put him above 2800, the Brain Games world champion, with a new rating of 2802 now looks as if he has finally gained entry into the
exclusive "2800 Club", thus becoming only the second player in history to do so.
Fide world champion Vishy Anand, fresh from his victory over Kramnik in their Mainz Chess Classic Duel of the Champions in Germany, is not far off entry into the club, and a good result at the forthcoming Dortmund tournament could see him (deservedly) gain entry. However, the news wasn't so good for the temperamental Spaniard Alexei Shirov. His rating dropped by 16-points - a result that very nearly saw him being removed from the influential top- ten.
Top ten: 1 G Kasparov (Russia) 2838 +3; 2 V Kramnik (Russia) 2802 +5; 3 V Anand (India) 2794 =; 4 A Morozevich (Russia) 2749 =; 5 M Adams (England) 2744 -6; 6 V Ivanchuk (Ukraine) 2731 =; 7 P Leko (Hungary) 2730 =; 8 E Bareev (Russia) 2719 +10; 9 V Topalov (Bulgaria) 2711 +4; 10 A Shirov (Spain) 2706 -16.
Thanks to John Henderson
Atalik and Ftacnik to serve as guest instructors at Advanced Chess Camp
Grandmasters Suat Atalik of Bosnia and Lubomir Ftacnik of Slovakia will be serving as guest instructors at the MI Advanced Chess Camp held from July 30-August 3. The two GMs join full-time staffers Alex Yermolinsky, John Donaldson, Robert Haines and Anthony Corrales. This will be the strongest staff of instructors for any chess camp held in the United States this year. This camp is intended primarily for youngsters, but there are a limited number of spots for adults. Besides doing some teaching at the camp, Atalik and Ftacnik will be playing
an exhibition game at the MI on August 1. Full details for this event and a special ChessBase users workshop by GM Ftacnik will appear in the next Newsletter.
Newsletter #44, 07/11/01
"In the art of chess, there are no unalterable laws governing the struggle which are appropriate to every position, otherwise chess would lose its attractiveness and eternal character."
Vassily Smyslov
Goldin wins World Open Playoff
GMs Alexander Goldin, Ilya Smirin, Joel Benjamin, Yury Shulman, Leonid Yudasin, Alexander Onischuk, and Alexander Ivanov tied for first in the 2001 World Open held at the Adams Mark Hotel in Philadelphia from June 28 to July 8. The winners scored 7-2, with everyone having five wins and four draws except Ivanov who lost in rounds three and five. Goldin won a five minute playoff held late in the evening on July 8 that earned him the title of World Open champion plus an extra one percent of the winners earnings which totaled around $4200 apiece.
This year's event didn't approach the record attendance of 1500 set back in the mid 1980s, but the turnout of 1302 players including reentries was up from 2000 and once again makes this the largest non-scholastic event held in the United States and very likely the world. Organizer Bill Goichberg guaranteed a prize fund of $175,000 for his 29th World Open, making this by far the largest prize fund in North America in 2001.
Several Bay Area players ventured east. IM John Donaldson was in contention after seven rounds with five points, but a tough loss in round eight knocked him out of the box. Milpitas NM Shikumar Shivaji played very well for much of the tournament before fading at the end to finish with 4 1/2 - 4 1/2. His result included a draw with GM John Fedorowicz and a win over SM Andrew Karklins.
The big result for Northern California was young Steven Zierk's tying for first with two other players in the Under 1400 section with 7 1/2 from 9. Steven won $3,666.66. Congratulations!
Firecracker Open Revisited
The report in Newsletter #44 had an inaccuracy in it. FM Ryan Porter tied for second and not IM Guillermo Rey. NM Michael Aigner passes on the following information.
Final Standings: 1st 4.0 GM Wojtkiewicz, 2nd-3rd at 3.5 SM Pruess, FM Porter, 4th-5th at 3.0 IM Rey, NM Aigner
Wojtkiewicz drew Aigner in round 2, beat Pruess in round 3, beat Porter in round 4, and drew Rey in round 5. Rey and Aigner drew on board 2 in round 3. Pruess and Aigner drew on board 2 in the last round. That summarizes all of the master versus master pairings in the entire tournament. Rey, Porter, and Aigner each had one half point bye. There were merely 14 players in the open section, competing for 8 prizes! After three
withdrawals, I think 9 of the 11 finishers won something.
Irina Krush Makes GM Norm
There was an added Independence Day celebrations in the Brooklyn household of 17-year-old Irina Krush, as just beforehand she made a little bit of chess history to become the first American woman to earn a full grandmaster title norm.
Playing in the Mayor's Cup in New York, a new category 10 tournament organized by former women's world champion Susan Polgar, and endorsed by the city and its outgoing mayor, Rudy Giuliani, saw the popular teenager play the tournament of her life to tie for first place with the Ukrainian GM Igor Novikov - and come ahead of some very experienced players.
The popular teenager first sprang to worldwide prominence as the leading force in the Kasparov vs. The World Internet match nearly two years ago. She became the first female player in US chess history to ever achieve the title of International Master, and in 1998, at the age of 14, she became the youngest ever US Women's Champion.
Final standings: 1-2 GM I Novikov (Ukraine), IM I Krush (USA) 6/9; 3-4 GM Y Gruenfeld, GM L Yudasin (both Israel) 5.5; 5 GM P Blatny (Czech Rep) 5; 6-7 D Schneider, G Shahade (both USA) 4.5; 8 IM A Simutowe (Zambia) 3.5; 9 IM E Perelshteyn (USA) 2.5; 10 H Nakamura (USA) 2.
Mayor's Cup (5)
King's Indian Defense
Rb8 41 Ba2 Qg3 42 e6+ f6 43 Rd1 Qg4 44 e7 Rh8 45 d7 Rb2 46 Bd5 Rhb8 47 e8Q Rb1 48 Qe1 1-0
Thanks to John Henderson and The Scotsman
Alexander Beliavsky Leads Vidmar Memorial
Alexander Beliavsky kept sole lead after the 8 th of the 9 rounds of the 14th Milan Vidmar Memorial. On the last day he will play against his old friend and second Adrian Mikhalchishin and a draw looks the most probable result (especially because Adrian has drawn all his 8 games!). And if Alexander’s main rival Boris Gelfand wins with White vs. Zdenko Kozul he’ll share first place. But let’s wait a little…
Results of the 8 th round:
Crisan – Macieja 0:1
Volokitin – Gelfand ½:½
Kozul – Pavasovic 1:0
Sermek – Beliavsky ½:½
Mikhalchishin – Mohr ½:½
Standing after the 8th round:
1. Beliavsky – 6 points
2. Gelfand – 5½
3. Volokitin – 5
4. Kozul – 4½
5-6. Pavasovic, Mikhalchishin – 4
7-9. Mohr, Sermek, Macieja – 3½
10. Crisan – ½
Pairing for the 9 th round:
Mohr – Crisan
Beliavsky – Mikhalchishin
Pavasovic – Sermek
Gelfand – Kozul
Macieja – Volokitin
This information came from GM Alexander Baburin's daily Internet chess magazine Chess Today which is currently offering free two week trial subscriptions. Contact http://www.chesstoday.net/ if you are interested.
The Vidmar is especially of interest because of the participation of 38-year-old Alexandru Crisan. Rated 2635 by FIDE he has been accused of rating manipulation by other Romanian chess players and others for years.
They charged that he had received his high rating and GM title in fraudulent events that had been reported by corrupt officials of the Romanian chess federation. The consensus before this event was that Crisan was really 2300 strength at most, but this was difficult to judge accurately as he hadn't played for some time. His performance in this event leaves little doubt that he should be stripped of his GM title by FIDE ASAP!
Newsletter #45, 07/18/01
"If you wait for your luck to turn up, life becomes very boring."
Mikhail Tal
1) Grandmasters Atalik and Wojtkiewicz to visit Mechanics' Institute
Grandmasters Suat Atalik and Alex Wojtkiewicz will be involved in activities at the Mechanics' Institute the next few weeks. Turkish GM Atalik, who represents Bosnia, will be a guest lecturer for the Mechanics' Advanced Chess Camp which starts July 30. GM Wojtkiewicz of Poland, the 2000 USCF Grand Prix winner, will be giving a special lecture next Wednesday (July 25) at the MI from 5:15 PM to 6:15 PM. Don't miss this special opportunity to hear about the life of a professional from one of the great chess troubadours. The two
GMs appearance at the Mechanics' continues a tradition of almost 150 years of bringing top players from around the world to the Institute. Previous guests have included the likes of Alekhine, Fischer, Tal and Karpov.
2) Want to be World Champion?
Borrowing a page from Yasser Seirawan and the Seattle Chess Foundation the Brain Games Network has opened up the qualifying event to determine Vladimir Kramnik's next challenger. John Henderson reports in his daily column in The Statesman.
"The race is on to find a challenger for Brain Games world champion Vladimir Kramnik, with the announcement in Dortmund that next year's event will be a special Candidates-style tournament, the winner going through to challenge for the crown.
Defeated champion Garry Kasparov gets a chance of revenge over his nemesis with an automatic invitation to the tournament, and likewise Fide world champion Vishy Anand. Four top players from the FIDE
rating list, who will also receive invitations, will join them in the tournament. Another two slots will be contested in a worldwide Internet tournament, which for the first time will open a world championship event to the general public.
The special online tournament (costing $10 to join) will start this August, and will be organised through the BGN site (www.braingames.net). Eight online qualifiers will be joined in a tournament with another eight specially invited players, the top two going through for a shot at the title challenge.
The announcement was made during a press conference featuring World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, the president of Brain Games Network, Raymond Keene, and representatives of the organizers of the Dortmund super-tournament.
The world championship qualifier, with a prize fund of over $200,000, will take place next year, running from July 6-21. The eight players will be seeded into two groups, in which two double-round robins will be held. Two winners from each group will go on to play in the semifinals (2 game KO) and then the final (4 game KO). The winner of the final will challenge Kramnik in a 16-game $2m plus match in Bahrain in October 2002."
3) Hernandez, Ossipov and Becco lead Summer Tuesday Night Marathon after Five Rounds
NM Rudy Hernandez and Experts Victor Ossipov and Michael Becco are tied for first with 4 1/2 points after five rounds of the MI Summer Tuesday Night Marathon. Hernandez defeated Vladimir Todortsev, Ossipov beat Peter Grey and Becco won against Rey Salvatierra. Nine-year-old Emilia Krubnik beat John Chan (1485) in the biggest upset of the event so far.
4) Odds and Ends
MI GM-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky will be traveling to Cali, Colombia, to play in a special FIDE World Championship Event this August. Yermo will use the upcoming Continental Open in Las Vegas as a tune-up.
IM Vinay Bhat of San Jose scored 4 1/2 - 4 1/2 in the strong Andorra Open a few weeks ago. Vinay and David Pruess of Berkeley will be playing in the US Junior Closed in Oklahoma later this month. The winner of this event qualifies for the World Junior Championship and is seeded into the US Championship.
Michael Aigner of Stanford University continues to improve by leaps and bounds. His USCF rating is heading toward 2300 with his 8-1 victory in an MI FIDE Rating tournament. The average rating of that field was around 2100 USCF, but Michael has also shown he can play with top players, witness his draws with GM Wojtkiewicz and IM Guillermo Rey at the recent Firecracker Open.
The Berkeley Voice, carried an article on Friday, July 13, about the Berkeley Bishops playing the Irish Chess Union. Last summer Berkeley visited Dublin, this year they hosted the Irish. MI members Daichi and Yuki Siegrist played for the Berkeley Chess School which is run by Elizabeth Shaughnessy
The Charles Bagby Memorial, a one day five round (game in 45 minutes event) will be held this Saturday to honor the late Master and MI Trustee. The past few one day G/45 events have attracted over 40 players and we are hoping that this event will get fifty.
5) Atalik and Ftacnik to serve as guest instructors at Advanced Chess Camp
Grandmasters Suat Atalik of Turkey and Lubomir Ftacnik will be serving as guest instructors at the MI Advanced Chess Camp held from July 30-August 3. The two GMs join full-time staffers Alex Yermolinsky, John Donaldson, Robert Haines and Anthony Corrales. This will be the strongest staff of instructors for any chess camp held in the United States this year. This camp is intended primarily for youngsters, but there are a limited number of spots for adults. Besides doing some teaching at the camp, Atalik and Ftacnik will be playingan exhibition game at the MI on August 1. Full details for this event and a special ChessBase users workshop by GM Ftacnik will appear in the next Newsletter.
A camp for intermediate and advanced youngsters will be held July 30-August 3 and a camp for beginners and novices from August 6-August 10.
Newsletter #46, 07/25/01
"Once man starts designing electronic brains analagous to human chess
players, the inadequacies of chess thinking will be revealed." 1961
Mikhail Botvinnik
Special Announcement: Former Chess Room Director Kurt Bendit has been moved to a skilled nursing home in San Francisco and would very much like visitors to drop by for a game. Please call Karen at (415) 543-2121 for more information.
1) US Junior Closed
The US Junior Closed just started in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Three Bay Area players are participating in the ten-player round robin.
IM Vinay Bhat 16 CA 2496.5
FM Dmitry Schneider 16 NY 2494
FM Justin Sarkar 19 NY 2448.5
IM Hikaru Nakamura 13 NY 2421.5
FM Steven Winer 19 VT 2407.5
David Pruess 19 CA 2376.5
FM Andrei Zaremba 19 TX 2376
Asuka Nakamura 14 NY NA
FM Todd Andrews 19 TN 2360.5
FM Philip Wang 17 CA 2349
2) Victor Ossipov wins Charles Bagby Memorial
70-year-old Victor Ossipov defeated Senior Master Dmitry Zilberstein in the last round of the Charles Bagby Memorial to take first place. Ossipov scored 4 1/2 from 5, taking a bye in round three. He received $200 for his victory in the Game in 45 Minutes event held July 21 at the MI. Tying for second at 4-1 in the 40-player event were NMs Eric Schiller, Rudy Hernandez and MikeArne as well as Mike Cardillo and Jeff Mallett. Anthony Corrales directed for the Mechanics'.
The Chess Room Office computer was hit during the tournament by the sircamworm virus and we are very happy to report that we now have a clean bill of health thanks to the efforts of Shivaji Shivkumar, Eric Schiller, Kevan Gross and John Heymann. Thanks!
3) Altounian Southern California Champion
Senior Master Levon Altounian won the 2001 Southern California Championship, held July 14-22 in Los Angeles by the Southern California Chess Federation. Los Angeles Times chess columnist IM Jack Peters reports the last round was particularly dramatic and completely altered the standings. Varuzhan Akobian,the sole leader, lost to Cyrus Lakdawala, while Altounian beat Andranik Matikozian. Altounian was the only undefeated player in one of the strongest Southern California Championships in recent memory. The rejuvenation of Los Angeles chess by Armenian players was evident as half of the players in this event were born in the small country located in the Caucasus.
Final Standings: 1. SM Levon Altounian 5-2; 2-3. IM Varuzhan Akobian and SM Cyrus Lakdawala 4.5; 4. IM Jack Peters, 4; 5. IM Andranik Matikozian 3.5; 6.IM Melikset Khachian 3; 7. NM Ron Hermansen 2 and 8. NM Karl Yee 1.5
4) Ossipov leads Tuesday Night Marathon
Victor Ossipov is on a roll. After defeating SM Dmitry Zilberstein on Saturday to win the Bagby, he came back last night and defeated NM Rudy Hernandez to take over undisputed first place in the Tuesday Night Marathon.Ossipov, who is originally from Leningrad, but has made the Richmond area of San Francisco his home for many years, has 5 1/2 points from 6 with two round to go. NM Kenneth Hills, who defeated Expert Michael Becco is second with 5 points. The next Tuesday Night Marathon will start on August 28th.
Newsletter #47, 08/01/01
"I shall observe for the thousand and first time: years of analysis and
minutes of play are not quite the same thing."
Mikhail Tal
1) Onischuk, Goldin and Lputian tie for first in Continental Open
The Continental Open, held in Las Vegas from July 26-29, attracted 576 players including 13 GMs. Top rated Alexander Onischuk (formerly representing the Ukraine and now living in Denver), as White, defeated MI Members GMs Walter Browne and Alex Yermolinsky and IM John Donaldson in rounds 2, 4 and 5 to tie for first at 5-1 with fellow GMs Alexander Goldin and Smbat Lputian.
Six-time US Champion Walter Browne, who came very close to drawing with Onischuk, battled back, defeating GM Yury Shulman in the last round to join the prize winners. Shulman played a Kings Indian, but the game soon
transposed into the Modern Benoni, a opening that Walter seems to beat almost evey time he faces it.
Chess Room Director John Donaldson was leading the event after four rounds with a perfect score courtesy of victories over GM Alexander Wojtkiewicz and FM Emory Tate, but as mentioned earlier, was then ground down by Onischuk who is the now the highest rated player living in America at 2667 FIDE.
Chethan Narayan and Vivek Nambiar of Milipitas both played well, each collecting several scalps enroute to 3 1/2 - 2 1/2 scores in the Open section.
Final Standings: Tiebreak by FIDE Rating
1-3 Onischuk, Alexander g 2667 UKR; Lputian, Smbat G g 2608 ARM; Goldin, Alexander g 2594 USA - all 5 points
4-11 Sulskis, Sarunas g 2573 LTU; Gurevich, Dmitry g 2550 USA; Finegold, Benjamin m 2522 USA; Ivanov Igor V m 2461 USA; Browne, Walter S g 2447 USA; Akobian, Varuzhan m 2442 ARM; Donaldson, John W m 2435 USA; Anka, Emil m 2390 HUN - all 4½ points
12-15 Yermolinsky, Alex g 2571 USA; Gufeld, Eduard g 2466 USA; Mulyar, Michael A m 2430 USA; Tate, Emory f 2377 USA - all 4 points
2) Nakamura wins US Junior Closed
Hikaru Nakarmura tied Bobby Fischer's record by winning the US Junior at the age of 13 by scoring a record 7 1/2 points from nine rounds. Nakarmura, whose older brother was also playing in the event, rebounded from an early loss to Dmitry Schneider by winning his last six games in a row.
Bay area players did very well. UC Berkeley student David Pruess led for much of the way and finished in a tie for second with a score of six and a half points, which is usually enough to win. Vinay Bhat lost his first two games but rallied to take fourth at plus two. Stanford student Phillip Wang's score of 3-6 was a little unlucky.
Final standings:
1. H Nakamura 7 ½ 2-3. D. Pruess and D.Schneider 6 ½ 4. V. Bhat 5 ½ 5. A. Zaremba 4 ½ 6-8. T. Andrews, J. Srakar and P. Wang 3 9. S.Winer 2 ½ 10. A. Nakamura 2
Newsletter #48, 08/08/01
"To lose one's objective attitude to a position, nearly always means ruining
your game."
David Bronstein
1) Ossipov and Hills tie for first in Summer Tuesday Night Marathon
Expert Victor Ossipov and National Master Kenneth Hills tied for first in theSummer Tuesday Night Marathon which ended last evening. The two winners scored 6 1/2 points from 8 rounds. Tying for third through fifth with 6
points were NMs Russell Wong and Rudy Hernandez, plus Expert Michael Becco. The next Tuesday Night Marathon starts on August 28th.
2) Shutt, McCrary, Camaratta and Brady elected to USCF Policy Board
Today the votes for the 2001 Policy Board election were tabulated. The first four listed were elected to three year terms, and join Doris Barry, Helen Warren and Robert Smith who all have one year left to serve.
1. Steve Shutt 244
2. Robert McCrary 232
3. Frank Camaratta 231
4. Frank Brady 212
5. George John 190
6. De Knudson 171
7. Bob Holliman 133
8. Jim Pechac 125
9. Bruce Draney 73
10. Sam Sloan 22
Newsletter #49, 08/15/01
"For however magnificent his best games, however impressive his match
victories, Spassky is destined to be remembered primarily one thing: He was
the man who lost to Bobby Fischer."
William Hartston
1) US Open
The 102nd US Open, held August 4th-12th in Framingham, Massachusetts, ended in a four way tie for first at 7.5-1.5 between GMs Joel Benjamin, Alex Wojtkiewicz, Alex Stripunsky and GM-elect Fabian Doettling, each receiving $2225. Wojtkiewicz, who won a key game with Black against GM Gennady Sagalchik in the last round, won the event on tiebreak.
This year's Open will be remembered as the beginning of a great experiment. For the first time in over 50 years, many of the spots in the United States Championship are to be decided in qualifying events, and the US Open was the first qualifier. At stake were 10 open qualifying positions, with two more to the top finishing women. The status of the US Open as a qualifier led to the event being much stronger than the 2000 Open in St. Paul. Probably only the 1999 US Open in Reno, held at the same time as the FIDE World Championship Knockout in Las Vegas, compares with Opens held in the last decade.
Among the 487 participants were 17 GMs and 9 IMs, which is pretty amazing considering that the $40,000 guaranteed prize fund offered only $10,400 in place prizes (usually prize money is allocated 50 percent to place prizes and 50 percent to class prizes) . Normally the US Open is essentially an amateur event, but this year a chance to play in the US Championship (January 4-12, 2002 in Seattle with $200,000 in prizes) changed the routine.
The race for the qualifying spots ended dramatically. The four players who tied for first had either qualified previously by winning the 2000 Championship (Benjamin), qualified by rating (Stripunsky), or were ineligible
as foreign players (Doettling and Wojtkiewicz). This meant that the 10 open spots went to players on 7 points. Going into the event the thought was that 7 points would easily qualify and that maybe one or two spots would go to players on 6 1/2 with good tiebreaks. It didn't turn out that way! No less than 23 players tied for fifth!!
In tiebreak order:
5. IM Michael Mulyar 2476 48.5
6.GM Alex Fishbein 2578 48
7. GM Leonid Yudasin 2673 47
8. GM Sergey Kudrin 2627 46
9. GM Alexander Kalinin 2612 46
10.GM John Fedorowicz 2607 44.5
11.Yury Lapshun 2516 44.5
12.IM John Donaldson 2525 44.5
13.Alex Kalikshteyn 2366 44
14.Josef Friedman 2200 44
15.GM Suat Atalik 2654 43.5
16.Igor Schneider 2119 43.5
17.Alexander Danilovic 2499 43.5
18.Igor Foygel 2552 43
19.IM Larry Kaufman 2441 43
20.GM Roland Schmaltz 2549 43
21.GM Maurice Ashley 2580 42.5
22.GM Sam Palatnik 2573 42.5
23.IM Greg Shahade 2501 42.5
24.Mikhail Perelshteyn 2482 42.5
25.IM William Paschall 2506 41.5
26.Stanislav Ritvin 2310 41.5
27.William Kelleher 2417 40
The ten qualifiers are Mulyar, Fishbein, Kudrin, Fedorowicz, Lapshun, Donaldson, Kalikshteyn, Friedman, Foygel and Kaufman. A word on the tiebreak. The system used was Modified Median, which means that for events of less than nine rounds the low score is dropped. What wasn't clear to many participants
was that in an event from 9 to 11 rounds, the two lowest scores are dropped. The tiebreak was so close for the last two spots that if you only dropped one score, instead of two, GMs Ashley and Palatnik were in and Friedman and Kaufman were out. Friedman, on his floor at 2200, had the event of his life defeating IMs Paschall and Ippolito as well as WIM Jennifer Shahade in the last round.
One last thing. Finishing in the group at 7 was 12-year-old Igor Schneider, younger brother of IM Dmitry Schneider. The vagaries of the tiebreak in a tournament this size show as Igor, although having an outstanding result, played only one player over 2335 (Mulyar who he lost to). One of the conditions of being eligible for the US Championship was paying a special $50 fee before the start of the event to declare your intentions. Approximately 35 players did, but Igor was not among them so he didn't qualify! Had he paid, IM Kaufman was out. Igor did have the consolation that he won $2000 as the top finishing Expert. Friedman and Kaliksteyn were the real financial winners of the 2001 US Open as they not only qualified for the US Championship (where last place is close to $2000) but also received $1466 each by tying for first Under 2400 with Stanislav Ritvin (another 7 pointer, but with bad tiebreaks). Fate was brutally cruel to GMs Ashley and Palatnik who just missed qualifying for the Championship. What did they win for tying for fifth? The grand sum of $31.57!
The two women's qualifying spots were won by teenagers. Cindy Tsai of Florida, rated close to 2200, was no surprise, but the performance of 12-year-old Hana Itkis, rated only 1827, who beat Experts in the last two
rounds to make it to Seattle, was. Itkis, who turns 13 in October, will become the youngest player ever to play in a US Championship breaking Bobby Fischer's record set in the 1950s.
The Mechanics' had a large contingent at the Open. Besides Chess Director Donaldson, eight other members made the trip east. IM Guillermo Rey was undefeated with 6.5 points and MI Trustee Mark Pinto finished with 5.5, while also working during the event. Monty Peckham and Matthew Ho had the highest scores of the several juniors who participated with 5.5 points. Other results: Michael Goodall and Drake Wang 5, Ricky Yu and Paul Vayssie 4.
2) American Intercontinental Championship
American GMs are dominating the American Continental Championships being held in Cali, Colombia. Alex Goldin of Chicago is leading with 5 from 5 followed by Alex Shabalov, MI GM-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky and Dimitry Gurevich on 4.5. Among those on 4 points are some of South America's best (GMs Campora, Leitao, Zapata, Zarnicki , etc.). The fifth American participating in the 11 round qualification event for the World Championship is Boris Gulko, who has 3.5 points.
3) August First Saturday
MI member Vinay Bhat has battled back from a slow start to join the leaders in the August First Saturday Tournament being held in Budapest. IM Bhat started with 2.5/6, but then won three games in a row. He is now tied for second with 6.5/11 in the 14 player robin , Category 7 (2413) event with two games left. The GM norm is 10 and the IM norm is 7.5.
4) Odds and Ends
UC Berkeley graduate Nick deFirmian tied for first in the recent Politiken Cup held in Copenhagen with fellow GMs Mikhail Gurevich, Alex Rustemov, Peter-Hiene Nielsen and Lev Psakhis.
A few Newsletters back it was reported that Stanford student Philip Wang finished with a score of 3-6 in the US Junior Closed in Tulsa. That information, which was taken off the USCF website, was inaccurate. Philip
actually scored 4-5, and had a 50 percent result for the asking. He lost in the last round to tournament winner Hikaru Nakamura after declining a draw while trying to help his friend David Pruess tie for first.
The Sacramento Chess Club is doing very well and has an excellent website that can be reached at http://www.lanset.com/jmclmc/default.htm . On July 7-8 the club hosted a strong weekend event that was won by Filipino IM Ricardo de Guzman with a score of 4 1/2 from 5. de Guzman, who is currently living in the Bay Area, beat NMs Michael Aigner and Adrian Keatinge-Clay before drawing in the last round with Sacramento's top player, SM Andrey Chumachenko. Chumanchenko tied for second at 4 points with IM Walter Shipman, Giedrius Suskis and Emmanuel Perez.
Last Newsletter we reported the election of Steve Schutt, Frank Camaratta, John McCrary and Frank Brady to the USCF Policy Board. Monday the four joined with the three holdovers from the last PB, Helen Warren, Doris Barry and Bob Smith in electing officers for the Board. They are:
John McCrary - President
Steve Shutt - Vice-President
Frank Camaratta - Vice-President for Finance
Bob Smith - Secretary
Frank Brady, Helen Warren and Doris Barry - Executive Board members at large.
Newsletter #50, 08/22/01
"Do you realize, Fischer almost never had any bad pieces. He exchanges them, and the bad pieces remain with his opponents".
Yury Balashov
1) Yermo wins in Cali VENI, VIDI, VICI !!!
MI GM-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky won the American Continental Championship held August 10-20, in Cali, Colombia. Seeded number nine, Alex was always among the leaders. His result qualifies him for the FIDE World Championship to be held later this year.
American GMs did particularly well in this event as Alexander Goldin, Boris Gulko and Alexander Ivanov also qualified.
Final standings: 1. Alex Yermolinsky (USA) 8.5 2. Alex Goldin (USA) 8.0 3. Leinier Dominguez (CUB) 8.0 4. Boris Gulko (USA) 8.0 5. Alonso Zapata (COL) 8.0 6. Daniel Campora (ARG) 8.0 7. Alejandro Hoffman (ARG) 8.0 8. Alexis Cabrera (CUB) 8.0 9. Alex Ivanov (USA) 7.5
There were seven qualifying spots for the World Championships. Yermo, Goldin, Gulko, Campora, Hoffman, Cabrera and Ivanov made it. Dominguez and Zapata had already qualified from previous events.
2) deGuzman, Chumachenko and Morkunaite win Pafnutieff
Filipino IM Ricardo deGuzman split top honor in the Vladimir Pafnutieff Memorial held August 19 with SM Andrey Chumachenko of Sacramento and Egle Morkunaite of Lithuania. The three players, who scored of 4 1/2 from 5, each won $130 in the one day G/45 event. This was the second success for Morkunaite, one of Lithuania's top young women players, at the MI. She also just won a FIDE rating tournament going away. More details on this event in the next Newsletter.
The Pafnutieff, held to honor the memory of the late San Francisco Master who was one of the Bay Area's top players for several decades, attracted a very positive turnout of 47 players including six masters. There were several family combinations including Ilya Pereplitsky and his two nephews, Edward and Phillip (both teammates of Vinay Bhat at Lynbrook High School in San Jose), as well as Mariusz Krubnik and his daughters Ewelina and Emilia.
Class Prize Winners:
First Class A: Milo Nelson
First Class B: Mariusz Krubnik, Kris MacLennan, Kevan Gross, Salar Jahedi
First Class C: Michael O'Brien, Ilya Perepelitsky and Royce Reece
First Class D: Edward Perepelitsky
First Class E and Unrated: Arivoli Tirouvingadame
3) Vinay ties for third in First Saturday
Falconer Award winner Vinay Bhat turned in an excellent performance in tying for third in the recently concluded August First Saturday GM Round Robin held in Budapest. VInay scored 7 1/2 from 14 in the Category 7 (2413) event for a performance of 2470. The event was won by IM Zoltan Medvegy of Hungary with 10 points (GM norm). IM Dennis Breder of Germany was second at 9 1/2.
Newsletter #51, 08/29/01
"People really believe they can survive in the French Defense. Let us
allow the believers to play it, and we will reap the harvest."
GM Lubosh Kavalek
1) World Junior Championship
Hungarian GM Peter Acs (2514 FIDE) won the World Junior Championship held August 16-29 in Athens, Greece. Seeded seventh at the beginning of the event, Acs defeated Chinese GM Bu in the last round to take top honors with the excellent score of 10 from 13.
Players from the Caucasus took the remaining medals. Surprising Georgian IM Merab Gagunashvili (2444) of Georgia was second, ahead of well-known Armenian GM Levon Aronian (2562), with 9 points. Top seed Ni Hua of China (2568) was among those tied for fourth at 8 1/2. American representative Dmitry Schneider of New York City (seeded 33 at 2405) tied for 18th-30th with a score of 7 1/2.
The World Girls Under 20 Championship was won on tiebreak by Humpy Koneru (2387) of India ahead of Xue Zhao (2372) of China. American representative Yelena Gorlin turned in a good performance. Seeded #39 at 2106 she defeated several higher-ranked players to finish equal 21st-25th at 7/13.
2) Elo Rating Thief
The last issue of The Week in Chess (#355) reports on the latest shenanigans of the world's most overrated player, Romanian pretend GM Alexandru Crisan. Crisan, who appears to be around 2200, judging from his performance in Portoroz, Slovenia, earlier this summer (1/2 from 9), recently won two tournaments in Yugoslavia.
In Kladovo, a Category XII event(2539), Crisan racked up a 2669 performance. He topped this in Tekija, winning the Category XIII (2552) round robin with a result that made Vladimir Kramnik and Garry Kasparov look like pretenders to the throne - 2846 FIDE!
Kladovo (double round-robin): 1-2. Crisan, Ruck 7 points out of 10, 3. Ivanisevic 5½, 4. Rajkovic 5, 5. Sulypa 4½ 6. Maksimovic 1. Crisan beat Yugoslavian GM Dusan Rajkovic and IM Branimir Maksimovic twice, all his other games were short draws. In Tekija (also a double round robin, Crisan was unstoppable with three victories and only one draw (1. Crisan 3½ points out of 4, 2. Markovic 1½, 3. Jacimovic 1).
At a minimum FIDE should refuse to rate these events and if it had any backbone would strip Crisan of his title and rating. Of course this fake GM could not get anywhere without accomplices. One hopes that the players that participated in these events would not be prime candidates for invitations to upcoming events.
3) Fall Tuesday Night Marathon
The Fall Tuesday Night Marathon got off to a good start last night with 56 players competing. All rating classes were well-represented from Master to unrated. There is still time to enter round two next Tuesday with a half point bye.
4) Odds and Ends
MI GM-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky will be a busy guy this fall and winter. November 25 will find him playing in the World Championship Knockout in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Alex qualified for this event by winning the Championship of the Americas with a score of 8 1/2 from 13 for a performance rating of 2663. January 4-12 Alex will play in the US Championship in Seattle where he will be joined by his wife Camilla and MI Chess Director John Donaldson. The final 24 qualifying spots for this event will be determined by the results of the National Chess Congress and American Open this Thanksgiving weekend.
Mechanics' Institute Members Daichi and Yuki Siegrist recently participated in the All Japan Elementary Championship and All Japan Junior Championship. Daichi won 1st place and Yuki won 2nd in the Elementary Championship and Daichi tied for top honors in the Junior Championship, taking the trophy home on tiebreaks. Congratulations!
Newsletter #52, 09/06/01
"Real combinations cannot result if one stirs together pawns, pieces, and
weak points in a pot, heating this mixture on the fire of time pressure."
GM David Bronstein.
1) Sonoma County Open
Veteran NM Eugene Levin of Sunnyvale won the open section of the Sonoma County Open held in Santa Rosa over Labor Day Weekend. Levin's score of 4-0 was good for $250. There was a six way tie for second at 3-1 between top seed NM Robert Sferra, Dean Howard, John Jaffray, Alex Setzepfandt, Ben Gross and Erik Stewart. A total of 54 participated in the two section event which was sponsored and directed by NTD Mike Goodall.
2) MI Fall Tuesday Night Marathon
David Blohm, Igor Margulis, Russell Wong, Michael Aigner, Kenneth Hills, Victor Ossipov, Larry Snyder, Peter Grey, Ed Bogas, Mario Samatra and Ben Gross led the Fall Tuesday Night Marathon with perfect scores after two rounds. A total of 58 players are competing in this edition of the long running event which dates back over 25 years.
3) 20th North American Open (The Real Thing)
Dallas GM Yury Shulman won the 20th North American held in Stillwater, Oklahoma, over Labor Day weekend. Shulman, a native of Belarus, scored 8 1/2 from 10 to take first in the 65-player field. IMs Michael Brooks and John Donaldson tied for second at 8-2. Former MI member NM Bill Orton, now back in Arkansas, scored 6.5 including draws with Brooks and Donaldson.
Newsletter #53, 09/19/01
"When a good position begins to collapse, it normally collapses not into equality, but into
ruins."
Boris Gulko
1) Morkunaite wins MI Future Hopes FIDE Rating Tournament
2) Hills leads Tuesday Night Marathon
3) San Francisco defeats Portland 9 1/2 - 2 1/2 in Telegraph Match held in 1921
4) Upcoming Tournaments - The Howard Donnelly Memorial is this Saturday, September
22, (10 am at the MI)
1) Morkunaite wins MI Future Hopes FIDE Rating Tournament
Egle Morkunaite, one of Lithuania's top young female players, won the MI Future Hope FIDE Rating Tournament held in August and September. Her undefeated score of 7 1/2 just barely edged out NM Michael Aigner who continues to improve each event. Complete standings for the 10-player round robin, directed by Anthony Corrales, are given below. For crosstable click here.
1. Morkunaite 7.5; 2. Aigner 7; 3-4. Peckham and Wong 5.5; 5. Ho 5; 6. Grijalva 4; 7.Setzepfandt 3.5 ; 8. Rudyak 3; 9. Huang 2.5; 10. Wang 1.5
2) Fall Tuesday Night Marathon
Kenneth Hills jumped into the lead in the Fall Tuesday Night Marathon by defeating Ben Gross. This puts Hills at 3-0, half a point ahead of 11 players on 2 1/2 (Blohm, Snyder, Bogas, Margulis, Grey, Samatra, Aigner,
Krasnov, Luke, M. Krubnik and Wong).
Newsletter #54, 09/26/01
"Your body has to be in top condition. Your chess deteriorates as your body does. You can't separate body from mind".
Bobby Fischer
Special Announcement - Players over 2200 the Bay Area Masters begins this Friday night at the MI. IMs Rey and Shipman are among those already signed up.
1) 6th Governor's Cup
The 6th Annual Governor's Cup, held September 21-23 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, saw Grandmasters Yury Shulman and Alex Wojtkiewicz repeat as champions with a score of 4 1/2 - 1/2. Two-time US Champion Patrick Wolff, currently living in Vallejo, ended a three year layoff from the game in Sioux Falls. He tied for third at 4-1 with fellow GM Alex Ivanov, IM John Donaldson and FM Emory Tate. A total of 244 players, including Burlingame Chess Club President Tom Dorsch, participated in the multi-section event organized by De and David Knudson for the Sioux Empire Chess Foundation.
2) Donnelly Memorial
IM Ricardo DeGuzman of the Philippines won the Howard Donnelly Memorial, held September 22, with a score of 4 1/2 - 1/2. Tying for second in the G/45 event held in honor of the late MI Chess Director, were NMs Mauro Casadei and Victor Ossipov and young talent Daichi Siegrist. A total of 31 players participated in the event directed by Anthony Corrales.
3) Taxi Driver's Tournament
National Master Oleg Shaknazarov and Expert Joe Tracy shared first place in the Taxi Driver's Tournament held September 23 at the MI. The two winners each received $232 for their scores of 8-1 in the ten player round robin. Organizer Alan Freberg was third at seven points and Cliff Lundberg was top unrated with a score of 5-4. This event, which was only open to cabdrivers, was made possible by the generosity of local cab companies and the MI. Anthony Corrales directed.
4) Fall Tuesday Night Marathon
David Blohm defeated tournament leader Kenneth Hills to force a six-way tie for first at 3 1/2 - 1/2 with three rounds to go. 1-6. David Blohm, Victor Ossipov, Russell Wong, Michael Aigner, Larry Snyder and Igor Margulis.
Newsletter #55, 10/03/2001
"Chess, like literature and the arts, often suffers a premature loss. The poems that Keats and Shelley might have written, the music that Mozart and Schubert might have composed, these have their counterparts in the missing games due to the early deaths of such masters as Charousek, Breyer and Reti. Fortunately for us, however, just as the poets and composers managed to pack into their brief life an abundance of poetry and music, so these chess masters produced a wealth of beautiful games!"
Harry Golombek
1) Adrian Keatinge-Clay Leads Bay Area Masters
NM Adrian Keatinge-Clay of San Francisco leads the Bay Area Masters after the first weekend of play with
21/2 points from 3. Adrian has wins over IM Guillermo Rey and Italian master Mario Casadei. He drew with IM Walter Shipman. Standings after three of six rounds:
1. NM Keatinge-Clay 2.5; 2-4. IM Shipman, NM Casadei, NM Stearns 2; 5-7. IM Rey, SM Mezentsev and NM Nambiar 1.5; 8.NM Schiller 1 ; 9-10. IM De Guzman and NM Pinto .5
The event, organized by IM Guillermo Rey, finishes this weekend with rounds on Friday at 5PM and Saturday and Sunday at 2PM. Spectators are welcome.
2) Victor Ossipov and Michael Aigner tied for first in Fall Tuesday Night Marathon
NMs Victor Ossipov and Michael Aigner used the White pieces to good effect in round five of the Fall Tuesday Night Marathon, defeating David Blohm and Igor Margulis respectively. Ossipov and Aigner now lead with 4 1/2 points with two rounds to go. Tied for third through sixth at four points are NM Russell Wong and Experts Larry Snyder, George Sanguinetti and Steven Krasnov.
3) October USCF Top 50 Rating List
The USCF recently released its October Top 100 rated players list. This list inadvertently include a fair number of players who currently represent other chess federations (July 2001 FIDE Rating list) and are currently ineligible to participate in the US Championship (including Yudasin, Shulman, Wojtkiewicz, Becerra, Blatny, Sevillano, Khachian, Akobian, Tcherepanov, V. Gaprindashvili, Ambartsumian, Gamboa, Barcenilla, Andrianov and Leow). Note that the former Ukrainian Grandmasters Alexander Onischuk and Igor Novikov, who have settled in the United States earlier this year, should be listed as USA on the October FIDE rating list, but still need to fulfill the three year residency requirement.
The adjusted list, with MI members in bold (#'s 15, 30, 32, 35, 43 and 48 follows).
1. Alexander Goldin 2728
2. Alexander Onischuk 2723
3. Yasser Seirawan 2707
4. Boris Gulko 2704
5. Gregory Kaidanov 2694
6. Joel Benjamin 2684
7. Igor Novikov 2681
8. Alexander Shabalov 2672
9. Larry Christiansen 2664
10. Nick DeFirmian 2663
11. Ilya Gurevich 2660
12. Alexander Ivanov 2648
13. Dmitry Gurevich 2640
14. Ben Finegold 2640
15. Alex Yermolinsky 2634
16. Gabriel Schwartzman 2617
17. Sergey Kudrin 2615
18. Gregory Serper 2613
19. Alexander Fishbein 2589
20. John Fedorowicz 2582
21. Roman Dzindzichashvili 2581
22. Vivek Rao 2572
23. Gennady Sagalchik 2570
24. Sam Palatnik 2567
25. Cyrus Lakdawala 2565
26. Maurice Ashley 2564
27. Igor Foygel 2558
28. Levon Altounian 2555
29. Boris Kreiman 2554
30. Vladimir Mezentsev 2551
31. Eduard Gufeld 2548
32. John Donaldson 2538
33 Igor Shliperman 2528
34. Igor Ivanov 2525
35. Walter Browne 2524
36. Dmitry Schneider 2524
37. Igor Khmelnitsky 2523
38. Eugene Perelshteyn 2522
39. Yury Lapshun 2518
40. Michael Rohde 2514
41. Gregory Shahade 2511
42. Raymond Duque 2506
43. Vinay Bhat 2505
44. Victor Adler 2504
45. Florin Felecan 2498
46. Michael Mulyar 2497
47. Eric Tangborn 2496
48. Vince Mc Cambridge 2495
49. Robert Byrne 2495
50. Jack Peters 2490
4) Here and There
Veteran MI member Walter Dorne was featured in a piece on cab drivers over the weekend in the San Francisco Chronicle. Speaking of cab drivers, check out http://cab.com/chess/chess01.html for a nice selection of photos from the recent Taxi Cab Drivers tournament held at the MI.
Congratulations to Egle Morkunaite of Lithuania who is currently working in the Bay Area. She scored 4 1/2 from 5 in the Pafnutieff Memorial in August and the crosstable that was sent back from the USCF shows her with a provisional rating of 2499.
The Western States Open, one of the premier weekend Swiss events in the United States will be held October 19-21 in Reno. This event features not only individual competition but a team component as well. The MI will be fielding one or more teams depending on interest. If you are an MI member and would like to represent the Institute please let us know in advance by e-mailing us at [email protected]
This past weekend a new tournament and tournament organizer made his debut. Rico Adkins hosted a below 2000 Amateur Championship in Hercules. The final results are not yet available, but feedback from participants and spectators was very positive. Mitsuko Siegrist writes; "I think that it was a good tournament, even with a surprising small number of players. TD Rico Adkins is a wonderful person and he did a good job. That location is one of the best, close to the highways, easy parking, pleasant room for the players and parents, and safe place for the kids to play between the rounds. I want to see more players next time. "
Newsletter #56, 10/10/2001
"When I am trying to find the best move, I just look at the positions, trying to find a general idea. I follow my intuition. After that, when I think that THIS is the best move, I start to calculate variations. You must calculate and you must also use your intuition."
Boris Spassky
1) Bay Area Masters
The Bay Area Masters, held September 28-30 and October 5-7, finished in a three-way tie for first at 4.5-1.5 between Senior Master Vladimir Mezentsev and National Masters Aaron Stearns and Adrian Keatinge-Clay. All three winners played well. Stearns, in particular, showed his character by bouncing back from his result at the Linklater Memorial (0-10) earlier this year. Aaron started off with a draw with NM Mark Pinto, then he defeated Mezentsev, took a half point bye, beat Keatinge-Clay, drew NM Mauro Casadei and finished off with a win over IM Walter Shipman for a performance rating of around 2550 USCF. Mezentsev, one of the highest-rated players in the United States (2551 USCF) not to hold the IM title, took a half point bye in the first round, lost to Stearns and then won his final four games. Keatinge-Clay, the leader after the first weekend, played steadily throughout.
Other scores: 4-5. IM Rey and NM Casadei 3; 6-7. IM Shipman and NM Nambiar 2.5; 8. NM Schiller 1.5/4; 9-10. IM de Guzman 1/4 and NM Pinto 1/5
International Master Guillermo Rey, the organizer of this event, recently announced more upcoming events for players rated over 2200. Details for the first, to be held January 25-27, 2002, are in the upcoming events section below.
2) LERA
National Master Michael Aigner of Palo Alto reports on the welcome return of tournament activity to Sunnyvale.
"76 players showed up to play in the resumption of the LERA tournament series. Although the prize fund was based on 90, Rod McCalley paid 100% of the advertised prizes. Richard Koepcke directed. LERA is one of the few tournaments in the country that feature an infinite time control: 40/90, 30/60, 10/10 ad infinitum.
The open section saw two 2400+ masters and four other masters. Senior master Craig Mar came out of chess retirement to play. IM Ricardo de Guzman won the tournament outright with 3.5/4, despite taking a round 1 bye because he showed up too late. He crushed your reporter in the last round. In clear 2nd with two wins and two draws came 12 year old Mechanics whiz kid Drake Wang. He calmly refuted NM Robert Sferra's treatment of the Bird-Larsen attack in the last round. Tied for 3rd at 2.5 were NMs Michael Aigner and David Blohm, and experts Agnis Kaugars, Michael Pearson, Frisco Del Rosario, and Jim Uren. The story of the tournament was the remarkable 2300+ performance rating of 14 year old Michael Pearson. He was in clear first after the first day, defeating SM Mar with black pieces. On Sunday morning, Pearson outplayed IM de Guzman, again with the black pieces, to reach a won endgame. Then time pressure intervened not once, but twice! Your reporter had a mixed tournament with two smooth wins with white but unfortunate games with black (one endgame blunder and one opening disaster)".
In other news, the CalChess annual membership meeting took place on Sunday with about 15 people in
attendance. New officers and board members were elected: President Tom Dorsch, Vice President Richard
Koepcke, Secretary Hans Poschmann, Treasurer Frisco Del Rosario, members at large Alan Kirshner, John
McCumiskey, Carolyn Withgitt, Michael Aigner, Chris Torres, and Doug Shaker. A possible membership fee
increase, restructuring scholastic dues, and the CalChess website were also discussed.
3) Fall Tuesday Night Marathon
Michael Aigner defeated Victor Ossipov in round six of the Fall Tuesday Night Marathon. The leader board shows Aigner with 5.5 points followed by Larry Snyder at 5. David Blohm, Igor Margulis, Russell Wong, Michael Becco and George Sanguinetti are tied for third with 4.5.
4) Hercules 2001 Amateur Championship
Rico Adkins sent in the following information on his directorial debut which was held September 29-30 at the Mechanics' Bank in Hercules. More events of this type are planned for the future at this excellent site.
"Number six seed Simion Kreimer won the 16-player event with a score of 5-0(!). Kris MacLennan and Glen Leotaud shared second at 3.5, with Ewelina Krubnik and Felix Rudyak tying for fifth with three points apiece".
5) Joshua Tree Chess Festival
Tournament organizer Mark Muller reports on the latest event in Joshua Tree. These tournaments, which are held twice a year, make for a nice combination of chess event and vacation. For more information write [email protected] .
"The Joshua Tree Chess Festival held on October 6th was a great success. There were 25 entrants. Igor Ivanov and Alvaro Rabinovich both had perfect 4.0 scores, and split 1st and 2nd place money. There was a four way tie at 3.0 for U2000 between Kermit Norris, Axel Vandervelden, Robert Alaniz, and Mark Muller. Lisa Edmondson took the U1600 prize with 2.5 points, Miles Nichols won the under 1400 prize also with a score of 2.5, and the unrated prize was split by brothers Jonathan and Christian Crase with 1 point each".
6) October FIDE Ratings
FIDE recently released its list of the top 100 players in the World.
1.G Kasparov (Russia) 2838
2. V Kramnik (Russia) 2809
3. V Anand (India) 2770
4. A. Morozevich (Russia) 2742
5. P. Leko (Hungary) 2739
6. V. Topalov (Bulgaria) 2733
7. M. Adams (England) 2731
8. V. Ivanchuk (Ukraine) 2731
9. E. Bareev (Russia) 2719
10.L Van Wely (Netherlands) 2714
Top American players are:
#29. Onishuk (still listed as Ukraine) 2660
#41. Seirawan 2644
#66. Goldin 2612
#74. Gulko 2608
#80. Kaidanov 2605
Ratings for mortals (i.e., not in the top 100 players in the world) are still not out. FIDE has produced a list of events that were rated for October including the Charles Linklater Open which was held at the MI this past spring. It appears many USCF tournaments that were played this summer (World, Continental and USCF Opens for example) will not be rated on the October FIDE list. This appears to be the result of events not being submitted in timely fashion by the United States Chess Federation. It would appear that the USCF, which has laid off several employees, is suffering from serious staffing shortages.
7) Crisan and Najdoski
Readers of the Newsletter may recall the strange case of Romanian player Alexandre Crisan who manipulated his FIDE rating to earn IM and GM titles and later to gain a place in the top 100 hundred players in the world. FIDE, which is loath to challenge national federations, was slow to answer the increasing complaints about Crisan, but eventually asked him to play in three tournaments this past summer. Crisan played in a super strong tournament in Portoroz (1/2 from 9), but did not meet the three event requirement. He was recently stripped of his rating and titles (IM as well as GM). Full details are available at http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/fidecrisan.html
Never heard the name Toni Najdoski? The 31-year-old Macedonian appears to be the new Crisan of international chess. Currently rated 2600 FIDE, he has been ranked in the top 100 in the world for several rating lists. The graduate of the Moscow Physical Institute of Chess is not without some chess culture, but his rise to the top is at best mysterious. Since January 2000, his rating has gone from 2548 to 2600 with a dip in July of 2000 to 2492. This reflects a particularly awful result in the Goodricke International in India where he scored less than fifty percent against a field rated below 2300. One of his losses was to a ten-year-old girl. Everyone can have a bad game or bad tournament, but it appears rather strange that in the only event in which Najdoski's games appear, he didn't even perform at the FM level. Yes, it's true. Try to find games of Najdoski's from 1992 to 1999. All I could locate was a loss in 1999 at a team tournament in Budapest to Hungarian 2300 Monica Grabics.
8) Patrick Wolff
Former US Champion, Vallejo-based GM Patrick Wolff, writes that he has started up a new website for aspiring amateur players.
" The Website address is www.wolffchess.com. For $20/year, anyone can get a membership to the Website and have access to all the Web-based exercises. I have created each of the exercises, sorted them into various themes, and identified how easy/hard they are. People can see two demo exercises for free so they can see how the exercises work. There are over 300 exercises now, and the Website is continually updated and refined. "
9) Walter Browne
The six-time US Champion from Berkeley would like to inform players going to the Western States and American Opens about the World Blitz Chess Association events that will be held in conjunction with them.
" I'd appreciate if you could update your info on the American Open to include that around 200 complementary issues of Blitz Chess will given to those in the main event plus a complementary videotape in the Blitz which I'll direct Wednesday night. In Reno I will be doing the same thing as well."
The World Blitz Chess Association was founded by Walter Browne more than ten years ago and its flagship, the quarterly Blitz Chess, is now one of the longest running magazines in the United States.
Speaking of Reno, don't forget that the Western States Open, one of the premier weekend Swiss events in the United States will be held October 19-21 in Reno. This event features not only individual competition, but a team component as well. The MI will be fielding one or more teams depending on interest. If you are an MI member and would like to represent the Institute please let us know in advance by e-mailing us at [email protected] . Details for both the Western States and American Opens can be found below.
Newsletter #57, 10/17/2001
"Chess is a scientific game and its literature ought to be placed on the basis of the strictest truthfulness, which is the foundation of all scientific research."
William (Wilhelm) Steinitz
1) Aigner Wins Fall Marathon
Stanford graduate student Michael Aigner won the Tuesday Night Fall Marathon by drawing with Larry Snyder in the last round. Aigner finished with 6 from 7, a half point ahead of Snyder, David Blohm, Victor Ossipov and Igor Margulis. This victory is another step forward for the popular Aigner who solidified his Master rating with this result. If you would like to learn more about Michael, check out his website at http://www.stanford.edu/~maigner
A full list of prize winners for the Fall Marathon will appear in the next Newsletter. The Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon, honoring the long time MI member and former Chess Room Director, will start on October 30, running eight consecutive weeks. Three half point byes are available for rounds one through six.
2) Karpov to Play in FIDE Knockout
Former World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia announced that he will join the World Championship organized by FIDE starting 25th November at the Kremlin in Moscow.
“The time is right for me to make a comeback,” Karpov said. “I celebrated my 50th birthday this year with close to 2000 guests at the Bolshoi Theatre and many of my friends encouraged me to make this move. My recent victory at the Najdorf Memorial Cup in Buenos Aires has inspired me to seek the title again,” he said. Another reason was the change of the World Chess Championship cycle rhythm from 1 year to 2 years. Karpov said that the World Championship being held in Moscow would enable him to give to his beloved Russia his best. “I brought the title back to Russia from the West in 1975. Now in 2001 I feel it is my duty to wrest the crown from the East and take it back to Mother Russia".
"The defending champion Viswanathan Anand of India won the title last year when the World Championship was held in New Delhi and Teheran. “Anand had the home court advantage then. Now I shall have the edge since the World Championship is in Russia,” Karpov added.
Concerning the 3K tournament, Karpov said, “I approached the Organizing Committee to coordinate another date at the beginning of next year. I strongly support the idea of that tournament in honour of the great M. Botvinnik.”
ANATOLY KARPOV Vienna, 10.10.2001
3) Wojtkiewicz lecture this Tuesday
Polish Grandmaster Alexander Wojtkiewicz will give a lecture this coming Tuesday from 5:15-6:45 PM at the Mechanics' Institute. This will be the third visit by Wojt to the Bay Area this year. This past spring, he tied for first with Yuri Shulman in the Charles Linklater Memorial and won Jerry Weikel's Firecracker Open over the summer. Wojtkiewicz, who is one of the great globetrotters of the world, has won the USCF Grand Prix the past two years and is near the top of the standings once again. A former second for Mikhail Tal, Wojt has a wealth of interesting stories and experiences that he loves to relate. He will talk about recent events in the chess world and show some of his games from the Western States Open. This event is free to all. Please come and enjoy!
4) Odds and Ends
We wish GM Patrick Wolff of Vallejo good luck in his new job with Capital One, a credit card company based
outside Washington, DC. The two-time US Champion made a comeback at the Governor's Cup this past September and we look forward to seeing him play again with regularity.
IM Vinay Bhat of San Jose will represent the United States in the World Youth Championships which will be held from October 21-November 2 in Oropesa del Mar, Spain. MI Chess Room Director IM John Donaldson will be serving as a coach for the American team, along with GM Joel Benjamin.
Grandmaster Maurice Ashley of New York City was among the contestants on the October 4th edition of the TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
Following on the heels of fellow MI member Walter Dorne's appearance in the San Francisco Chronicle, National Master Robert Hammie was featured in the UC Berkeley Daily Californian this past Monday.
Congratulations to Ewelina and Emilia Krubnik. This past Sunday Ewelina (age 11) turned in a perfomance of almost 1800 to capture first prize in her section in the San Leandro Quads. Younger sister Emilia (9) tied for first in her group.
Kerry Lawless has long been known as one of the most knowledgeable chess personalities in the Bay Area. Check out his website at: http://www.chessdryad.com for a look at California chess history.
Alan Benson played Boris Spassky in a simul on July 18, 1980, in downtown San Francisco. Alan remembers that the exhibition was not played at the MI, but fairly close by. Does anybody remember exactly where?
Steve Cohen will be hosting a chess extravaganza on December 8 at the Park School at 161 Clark Drive in San Mateo. The triple-header will offer over $2,000 in prizes. The featured event is the: 5th Annual Peninsula Game/15 Championships. There are also five and one minute events. Flyers for these events are located in the Chess Room. Steve mentions that this will probably be the last triple-header event, so don't miss it! For more information, call (650) 349-7746.
Newsletter #58, 10/24/2001
"...Objectively, I guess both continuations are about equally strong. Chellstorp's is sounder, mine livelier. It is through such choices that chess allows up to express our temperament, our personality, even our moods."
Jullio Kaplan
1) World Youth Chess Championship in Oropesa del Mar, Spain
John Donaldson reports from Oropesa del Mar:
"Three American players are on 3/3. They are Hikaru Nakamura (under 14), Aaron Pixton (under 16) and Fabriano Ciruna (under 10). Vinay Bhat is at 2/3 for under 18. There are over 1,000 youngsters competing in this eleven round competition. This event began on October 20th and will end on November 3rd." For more information, you can go to: http://www.worldyouthfestival2001.com/
2) J.J. Dolan Memorial Results
1st place was Mauro Casadei with 4.5/5, Eric Schiller, Drake Wang and Daniel Nakamura with 4 tied for 2nd and u2000, Monty Peckham won the u2200 with 3.5, Mariusz Krubnik, Charles Kleiman, Andrew Mueckenberger, and Daichi Siegrist tied for u1800 with 3.0, and Juan Carlos Ventosa with 2.5 for best u1600. There were 28 players for this event, with 3 masters and 4 experts. Thanks to Anthony Corrales for tournament information.
3) Prize winners from Tuesday Night Fall Marathon
Here is a complete list of the prize winners:
1st Michael Aigner
Shared 2nd-3rd and 1st Expert David Blohm, Larry Snyder, Igor Margulis and Victor Ossipov
1st A Steven Krasnov
Shared 1st B Mariusz Krubnik and Julian Standen
Shared 1st C Tom Allen and Jack Regan
1st D Clifton Rhodes
4) Steiner at the MI 1930
Herman Steiner (1905-1955) was not only one of the strongest American players of his era, but was also one of its greatest promoters. He spent much of his life in Los Angeles where he was well-connected with Hollywood celebrities. Several Chess Review covers from the late 1940s feature Steiner playing with stars like Humphrey Bogart. He was also the first prominent player to write a weekly chess column for the Los Angeles Times (roughly 1932 to his death), a tradition carried on by GM Isaac Kashdan from 1955 until August, 1982, when he handed the baton to IM Jack Peters. Peters recently passed the twenty year mark for his column!
According to the San Francisco Chronicle of May 5, Herman Steiner, New York champion, gave an exhibition of simultaneous play at the rooms of the Mechanics institute Chess Club on April 26 against seventeen opponents. He was defeated by Johnny Tippin and R. Mitchell. With the exception of a draw with E. J. Clarke, chess editor of the "Chronicle," Steiner won all the rest.
Before his departure from the Golden Gate, Steiner was matched to play three games against A. J. Fink, noted problem composer of the Pacific Coast, who has also won the highest honors in over-the-board play in California. The first game was stubbornly contested, but the loss of it tended to undermine the Californian's morale and he also lost the second.
5) Western States Open
Thanks to Michael Aigner for the following report from the Western States Open:
"The 19th Western States tournament in Reno ended in a 3-way tie at 5.0/6 between GM Alexander Onischuk (#31 in the world), GM Alexander Ivanov, and IM Enrico Sevillano. Ivanov won the blitz tiebreak for the trophy. In a marked contrast to last year's four last round draws within 18 minutes on the stage, all four final round stage games lasted until the first time control and all were decisive: GM Onischuk defeated GM Stripunsky, GM Ivanov defeated GM Browne, and IM Sevillano defeated GM Wojtkiewicz. Other GMs included Yermolinsky, Serper, Shulman, Christiansen and Novikov. There were a total of 40 FIDE titled players in the open section!
385 total players showed up, allowing Jerry Weikel and the Sands Regency hotel to pay a based on prize fund of about $37,000. After the September 11th terrorist attacks, expectations for the turnout were much lower. Needless to say, everyone was quite pleasantly surprised. Next year is the 20th Western States, and
Weikel promises "something special" will be offered".
Newsletter #59, 10/31/2001
1) World Youth Chess Championship in Oropesa del Mar, Spain
Hikaru Nakamura (Boys Under 14) and Alisa Melekhina (Girls Under 10), each with 7 from 9, lead the US medal hopes with two rounds to go in the World Youth Championships being held in Oropesa del Mar, Spain. San Jose IM Vinay Bhat has 5.5 points in the Boys Under 18, having just won his round nine game. Vinay, who was seeded number 19 going in, can finish in the top ten with a strong finish. This event began on October 20th and will end on November 3rd. For more information, you can go to: http://www.worldyouthfestival2001.com/
2) SF 6 1/2 - Los Angeles 5 1/2 1925
"February 22, 1925
As has been their custom for many years, San Francisco and Los Angeles contested a match by telegraph on 12 boards on Washington's Birthday, the opposing teams being stationed at the rooms of the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club and the Los Angeles Chess and Checker Club, respectively. After a fighting finish, San Francisco won by the score of 6 ½ to 5 ½. The report, with which we have been favored, states: As usual, the captain of the San Francisco team was Bernardo Smith, who has handled his team for seven years without the loss of a match. We append the summary, together with another specimen of the play.
1. Fink 1 Ruth 0
2. Gruer ½ Borochow ½
3. Lovegrove 0 Mlotkowski 1
4. Clarke 1 Scharader 0
5. Branch ½ Mugridge ½
6. Woskoff 0 Short 1
7. Ryder 0 Perry 1
8. Epsteen 0 Scholtz 1
9. Bailou 1 Weinbalum 0
10. Fawcett 1 Hart 0
11. Maynard ½ Grabill ½
12. Hallwegen 1 Whipple 0
American Chess Bulletin 1925 p. 53"
Newsletter #60, 11/07/2001
"For in the idea of chess and the development of the chess mind we have a picture of the intellectual struggle of mankind."
Richard Reti
1) World Youth Championships
The World Youth Championships, held in Oropesa del Mar, Spain from October 20-November 2, went very well for American participants. Hikaru Nakamura won the silver medal in the Boys Under 14 Championship. This was the first medal that the US had won since 1996 when Vinay Bhat took the bronze in the Boys Under 12.
Other highlights of the event in Oropesa were Alisa Melekhina's fourth place finish in the Girl's Under 10 (She was tied for second going into the final round but lost her last game trying to win to get the silver) and ninth place finishes by Katie Pelletier in the Girls' Under 12, and Aaron Pixton in the Boys' Under 16. Aaron's result was good for a ten game International Master norm. This is his second IM norm. He made his first norm earlier this year at the World Open.
The competition was very strong. In the Boys Under 18, IMs Dimitry Schneider and Vinay Bhat were ranked around number 20 at approximately 2400 FIDE at the start of the event. There were several GMs and many IMs competing. Here are the final results for all the American players.
Note: There were approximately 900 players participating in the five age group categories for Boys and Girls.
Girls Under 10:
Alisa Melekhina 8/11 4th out of 71
Louisa Livshitz 7/11 = 9-17 (13th on tie-break out of 71)
Boys Under 10
Fabiano Caruana 6.5/11 = 17-27 (17th on tie-break out of 87)
Michael Thaler 6.5/11 = 17-27 (24th on tie-break out of 87)
Girls Under 12
Katie Pelletier 7.5/9 = 5-10 (9th on tie-break out of 78)
Boys Under 12
Teddy Coleman 5/11 = 65-83 (66th on tie-break out of 117)
Girls Under 14
Laura Ross 6/11 = 24-30 (26th on tie-break out of 79)
Boys Under 14
Hikaru Nakamura 8.511 = 2-3 (second on tie-break out of 106)
Ruixin Yang 6/11 = 31-44 (42 on tie-break out of 106)
Girls Under 16
Cindy Tsai 6.5/11 = 15-25 (20th on tie-break out of 76)
Boys Under 16
Aaron Pixton 7/11 = 9-20 (9th on tie-break out of 102)
Girls Under 18
Yelena Gorlin 6.5/11 = 11-16 (15th on tie-break out of 55)
Boys Under 18
Dimitry Schneider 7/11 = 11-16 (13th on tie-break out of 83)
Vinay Bhat 6.5/11 = 17-26 (23rd on tie-break out of 83)
Fabiano Caruana (GM Miron Sher) and Teddy Coleman (IM Greg Shahade) had private coaches. GM Joel Benjamin and IM John Donaldson coached the rest of the team.
2) Pairing for World Championship
Pairings for the first round of the FIDE World Knockout Championship, which starts in late November, were recently released. Pairings are not done by the normal Swiss System, but rather with number 1 playing number 128, number 2 versus number 127, and so forth. The Mechanics' Institute is being represented by its GM-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky and his wife US Women's Champion Camilla Baginskaite.
Pairings for American players:
Men
37 Dautov (GER) 2630 92 D. Gurevich (USA) 2550
46 Tiviakov (HOL) 2618 83 Christiansen (USA) 2570
47 Milov (SWZ) 2614 82 Yermolinsky (USA) 2571
49 Pigusov 2613 (RUS) 80 A. Ivanov (USA) 2573
53 Kaidanov (USA) 2605 76 Shabalov (USA) 2574
57 Gulko (USA) 2602 72 Vescovi (BRZ) 2581
59 Baklan (RUS) 2594 70 Benjamin (USA) 2587
64 Goldin (USA) 2594 65 Nielsen (DEN) 2593
Women
7 Ioseliani (GEO) 2497 58 Groberman (USA) 2105
17 Kosteniuk (RUS) 2445 48 Shahade (USA) 2286
21 Prudnikova (RUS) 2411 44 Baginskaite (USA) 2324
Newsletter #61, 11/14/2001
"I play chess every day and night, and nothing interests me more than finding the right move."
Marcel Duchamp
1) Tony Miles 1955-2001
Earlier this week British Grandmaster Tony Miles passed away at the age of 46 due to complications related to his diabetes. Miles, who was England's first GM, was noted for his original style of play and engaging humor. He visited the Bay Area on at least three occasions, giving a simul at the MI after one of the Lone Pine tournaments, playing in the 1987 Pan Pacific and qualifying for the 1990 Interzonal in a special playoff held at the Mechanics'. He will be missed by many.
2) DeGuzman wins 31st Carroll Capps Memorial
Filipino IM Ricardo DeGuzman defeated NM Adrian Keatinge-Clay in the last round to win the Carroll Capps Memorial held November 9-11 at the MI. Tying for second at 4-1, half a point behind DeGuzman, were IM Walter Shipman and NMs Keatinge-Clay, Paul Gallegos and Mauro Casadei. The event was quite strong with 10 players over 2200 in the 44 player field.
Prize Winners:
First Prize: DeGuzman - $400
Second and Third: a four-way tie between Shipman, Casadei, Keatinge-Clay and Gallegos - $100 each.
Best Expert: a two-way tie between Snyder and Sanguinetti - $100 each.
Top A: Rudyak - $150.
Top B: Oza - $125.
Top C: Regan, Rhodes and Rose - $38.33 each.
Top D: Frank - $110
Top E: Emilia Krubnik - $60
3) Margulis, Wong, Ossipov, Gaffagan and Yap lead Tuesday Night Marathon
Three rounds into the Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon NMs Igor Margulis and Russell Wong, Experts Victor Ossipov and Steven Gaffagan and rising young talent Nicolas Yap all have perfect scores.
4) Yermo and Camilla off to Moscow
MI GM-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky and his wife Camilla Baginskaite, the reigning US Women's Champion, will be leaving later this week for the FIDE World Championship Knockout tournament. Go Yermo and Camilla!
5) Here and There
Readers of the Newsletter have been writing in quite often of late. Frank Berry sent the following obituary for one of Bobby's early mentors.
"EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Archie Waters, an El Paso Times columnist who was a mentor to chess prodigy Bobby Fischer, died Monday after suffering a stroke a month ago. Waters was 83.
Waters co-wrote two books on Spanish pool checkers or draughts, a complicated variation on the standard game of checkers. The New York native worked for 11 years at the Long Island Daily Press and served as a civic affairs columnist for the New York Daily News.
He moved to El Paso in 1980 and was a columnist for the El Paso Times for about 20 years. He wrote about community affairs with an emphasis on the black community.
Waters, who was the first black member of the prestigious Marshall Chess Club of New York, befriended a teen-age Fischer in Brooklyn in the 1950s and accompanied the chess genius to Iceland during his landmark world title match against Russian Boris Spassky in 1972.
Waters was preceded in death by his wife, Elizabeth Josephine Waters. He is survived by two daughters and a sister."
A couple of issues ago we wrote about Herman Steiner visiting the MI. Alan Freberg writes that San Francisco has honored Steiner by naming a street after him. Not quite, but close. Alan, who has written a well-received taxicab drivers guide to the streets of San Francisco, lives at the at the corner of Hermann and Steiner. He also mentions that Venus and Williams meet in the Bayview district.
Frequent MI visitor, Irish GM Alexander Baburin, recently celebrated the first birthday of his excellent online daily Chess Today. He writes,
"The first daily chess newspaper on the Internet - Chess Today - is one year old this week! The paper started in November 2000 and has 3 GMs (Ruslan Scherbakov, Alexander Baburin and Mikhail Golubev) and IM Vladimir Barsky writing for it. Chess Today provides news, quality annotated games, tactical puzzles, etc. The paper is delivered to your mail box every day in convenient PDF and PGN formats. Subscription is only 17.78 euro per 4 month or 45.71 euro per year. Please visit www.chesstoday.net or e-mail [email protected] for more information."
Those of you who want to see precisely how your FIDE rating has changed will want to check out www.chessdaily.com which offers extremely detailed information. Thanks to NM Michael Aigner for pointing this out. Michael is at a all time high USCF rating of 2248 after winning the MI's Fall Tuesday Night Marathon. Congratulations!
Several months ago the infamous Claude Bloodgood passed away. Jailed for much of his life for murdering his mother and later escaping from prison, Bloodgood was at one time rated number two in the United States at 2700+, though never more than a weak expert in playing straight. Rusty Miller points out that more information on him can be found at HAMPTON ROADS - News
Planning on playing in the American Open and looking for a roommate? Ian Zimmerman of Oakland ( [email protected] ) is looking to share.
Newsletter #62, 11/21/2001
"Ivan Sokolov complained to me 'I can't understand how they play. What are people doing with White?' I retorted, 'Ivan, everyone knows that if Black gains the initiative after building his defenses, it is usually decisive. So modern players play with White as if they are Black and only then do they look for the initiative!'"
Yasser Seirawan
1) Kasparov vs. Kramnik Match
2) Igor Margulis Leads Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon
3) Bay Area Grandmasters
4) Upcoming Tournaments
1) Kasparov vs. Kramnik Match
Mark Crowther reports on TWIC:
"There was a press conference in Moscow to announce the Kasparov vs. Kramnik match in honour of Botvinnik in December. The event will consist of three matches: classical, fast chess and blitz. Four classical games 2 hours for 40 moves, 1 hour for 20 and 30 minutes to the end of the games (in this last control the players will receive 10 more seconds per move). These four games will take place 1st , 2nd , 4th and 5th December 2001. Six rapid games (30 minutes for the entire game) will take place 7 th – 8 th December. The ten blitz-games will be on December 9 th – 5 minutes per game + 2 seconds per move (without accumulation) when at one of the players has less than 20 seconds (as in their blitz match in 1998).
The winner of the Botvinnik memorial will be the one with the most points at whatever time rate.
The prize fund is $500,000 ($250,000 – classic games, $200,000 rapid and $50,000 blitz). The money is shared in a ratio of 3:2 to the winner."
2) Igor Margulis Leads Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon
National Master Igor Margulis defeated fellow veteran Victor Ossipov in round four of the Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon to grab the lead in the eight round event. Margulis has four points, followed by NMs Russell Wong and David Blohm and Expert Steve Gaffagan with three and a half. The big news of the evening was the hat trick turned in by the Krubnik clan. Father Mariusz's defeat of MI stalwart Jack Regan was no upset, but victories by twelve-year-old Ewelina (over an Expert!) and ten-year-old Emilia were! Ewelina is currently rated = 8th on the October 2001 USCF list for top girls under 13 in the country at 1481. Her latest USCF rating is 1574, so she should move up in the standings shortly. Younger sister Emilia is also nationally ranked and seems poised for a breakthrough.
3) Bay Area Grandmasters
We have just learned that former MI GM-in-Residence Roman Dzindzhihashvili has relocated from Sausalito to Denver. This action, coupled with the move of GM Patrick Wolff to Washington, DC, reduces the number of active Bay Area Grandmasters to two - six time US Champion Walter Browne and MI GM-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky. Northern California also has two other GMs who have been inactive for many years, Peter Biyiasas who lives in the San Jose area, and James Tarjan of Santa Cruz.
Tarjan is featured in the latest column by MI Chess Director John Donaldson on the Chess Cafe http://www.chesscafe.com/ic/donaldson/donaldson.htm . The Chess Cafe also features a review of IM Donaldson's latest book Elmars Zemgalis: Grandmaster Without the Title. http://www.chesscafe.com/reviews/books.htm
Newsletter #63, 11/28/2001
"In the opening a chess master should play like a book; in the middle game like a magician and in the endgame like a machine."
Spielmann
Pierre Saint-Amant Memorial (5 rounds G/45 at 1/2 k) this Saturday at the MI - Filipino IM Ricardo deGuzman will play!
1) FIDE World Championship - Yermo Advances!
Courtesy of Michael Aigner we have this breaking news from Moscow, reported by Mig from KasparovChess.
"Yermolinsky failed to advance in the first set of tiebreak games against Milov of Switzerland. Both of the classical games were won by black. Shabalov's in round 2, with Benjamin and Christiansen still playing in tiebreaks. On the women's side, Baginskaite is also in a tiebreak against Prudnikova (YUG) after both classical games ended in favor of white. All other Americans are out. In round 2 Shaba gets Khalifman.
FIDE's coverage has been dreadful, to be polite. Their games are often incorrect or incomplete, with Polgar missing several mates yesterday and someone winning after the stunning Ra1xg8 today. Yermo's opponent resigned on move 12 in a book position, if we were to believe FIDE yesterday (that's been corrected today)".
Michael reports that the best news seems to be from www.kasparovchess.com and their team of reporters at the site. However, they don't have live games, just some results. TWIC has coverage too, but nothing live.
2) US Championship Qualifiers- Browne, Rey, Vucic and Strugatsky qualify!
Thanksgiving Day weekend produced the final qualifiers for the 2002 US Championship to be held January 5-13 in Seattle. The following information comes from the Seattle Chess Foundation website which is the sponsor for the US Championship. Note that there are still three spots in dispute as its not clear if Sevillano, Ambartsoumian and Lipman have met the residency requirement. The USCF will be making a decision on this shortly.
Bay Area players GM Walter Browne, IM Guillermo Rey and SM Vladimir Strugatsky and former MI member IM Mladen Vucic, now living in Las Vegas all qualified in Los Angeles at the American Open. Congratulations! The other qualifier, the National Chess Congress, was held in Philadelphia.
23. GM Gregory Serper 2613 Am. Open
24. GM Walter Browne 2524 Am. Open
25. IM Jesse Kraai 2476 Am. Open
26. IM Mladen Vucic 2475 Am. Open
27. IM Igor Ivanov 2527 Am. Open
28. IM Anthony Saidy 2392 Am. Open
29. IM Guillermo Rey 2391 Am. Open
30. FM Levon Altounian 2549 Am. Open
31. FM Vladimir Strugatsky 2513 Am. Open
32. FM Slava Mikhailuk 2441 Am. Open
33. Armen Ambartsoumian*** 2523 Am. Open
34. GM Gennady Sagalchik 2570 NCC
35. IM Igor Khmelnitsky 2521 NCC
36. IM William Paschall 2476 NCC
37. IM Mikhail Zlotnikov 2417 NCC
38. FM Dmitry Schneider 2524 NCC
39. FM Stanislav Kriventsov 2480 NCC
40. FM Donny Ariel 2400 NCC
41. Aaron Pixton 2407 NCC
42. Matthew Hoekstra 2318 NCC
43. IM Enrico Sevillano*** 2571 NCC
44. Vladimir Lipman*** 2168 NCC
*** Awaiting official USCF approval concerning eligibility issue.
Women Qualifiers
Chouchanik Airapetian 2080 Am. Open
Anna Levina 2078 NCC
3) Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon - NM Wong Leads
Russell Wong defeated fellow National Master Igor Margulis to grab the lead in the Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon with three rounds to go. Wong has 4 1/2 from 5 followed by NM David Blohm, Expert Steven Gaffagan, veteran Ben Gross, rising star Nicolas Yap and upset king Charles Kleiman on 4.
4) 1966 Visit by Bent Larsen to the MI
Chess Review from October 1966 (page 293) reports that Danish great Bent Larsen gave simuls and lectures at the Mechanics' in late August. Cost for the August 20th exhibition open to all was $3 a board!
"Bent Larsen, recent participant in the Second Piatigorsky Cup Tournament, gave a simultaneous exhibition with clocks at the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club in San Francisco against H. Gross, K. Bopp, M. Wilkerson, A. Benson, R. Currie, R. Walker and Dr. Ruys. The single player won all his games. Next day Larsen lectured on his two victories over World Champion Petrosian in the Piatigorsky tournament and followed with a simultaneous exhibition on 43 boards. His margin of victory was 34 ½- 8 ½. Winning against Larsen were K. Zangerle, C. Savery, D. Blohm, E. Pruner, J. Pawlon, and T. Uskert. Draws were secured by P. Vayssie, R. Menaster, R. Tucker, A. Blomquist and J. Hurt."
5) Odds and Ends
Ed Hirsch [email protected] writes: "I'm still looking to share my room at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas with three other men, for the upcoming Kolty Conference. They can contact me by e-mail or by phone (510) 528-2704. Thanks."
Berkeley Senior Master David Pruess, who finished second in the US Junior Closed this past summer, will be a special guest lecturer at the Mechanics' Institute on January 8th and 9th (5.15PM to 6:15PM). David will be substituting for GM Alex Yermolinsky and IM John Donaldson who will be playing in the US Championship.
6) A small but significant correction
The latest issue of the California Chess Journal mentions that the Mechanics' will be hosting a memorial tournament for Bob Burger on December 1st. We are very happy to inform everyone that Bob is in fact quite alive and doing very well. We do hold a lot of memorial events at the MI and this may account for the mix-up. By the way the tournament will actually be held on January 5, 2002, and not December 1 which is the date set to honor the late Pierre Saint-Amant, one of the top players in the world in the 1840s, who served as the French consul for California in San Francisco during the Gold Rush.
Bob Burger, best selling author of The Chess of Bobby Fischer, is a world famous problemist and has held the USCF Master title for almost half a century. He has been involved with Bay Area chess through the California Chess Reporter, Mechanics' Institute and Castle Chess Club his entire adult life.
The modern day equivalent of the California Chess Reporter, The California Chess Journal, is going very well under the editorship of Frisco del Rosario. Membership in Cal Chess, which includes a subscription to the Journal, is available for $15 a year for adults and $13 for juniors.
Mail to: CalChess, 2030 Mills Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025. For Additional Information E-Mail: [email protected]
Newsletter #64, 12/05/2001
"Geniuses like Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare and Fischer come out of the head of Zeus, seem to be genetically programmed, know before instructed."
Jack Collins
This weekend the MI will be hosting the 2nd Koltanowski Memorial Masters/Experts (4 rounds)
1) Jack Collins Passes Away
John W. Collins, better known as Jack, passed away last Sunday at the age of 89. Collins was best known for his role in mentoring Bobby Fischer and several other top American players including William Lombardy and the Byrne brothers. The author of My Seven Chess Prodigies and Maxims of Chess, Collins also helped Fischer edited the first collection of his games, Bobby Fischer’s Games of Chess, which was published by Simon and Schuster in 1959.
Collins was a strong master and played actively from the 1930s into the 1960s. He was an excellent correspondence player and played in the inaugural World Correspondence Chess Championship. Collins had a regular column in Chess Life when it appeared as a newspaper in the 1950s.
The New York Times ran an excellent obituary by Dylan Loeb McClain on this kind and caring chessmaster which can be accessed at: Click here: John W. Collins, 89, Dies; Was Fischer's Chess Tutor
2) FIDE World Championship
Last week we reported that MI GM-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky had won his first round in the FIDE World Championships being held in Moscow. When the Newsletter was being prepared this was what FIDE was reporting on its website. Unfortunately this and much of the other information they were giving was simply wrong. Alex actually lost to GM Vadim Milov in the second set of playoff games after having gone 1-1 in regulation and again 1-1 in the first tiebreaker series.
He was not the only American player to be eliminated in the opening round of the 128 player competition. GMs Benjamin, Christiansen, Goldin, Gulko, D.Gurevich, Kaidanov, A.Ivanov and WIMs Groberman and Shahade all lost in round one. Of the men, only Shabalov, who beat Kaidanov, advanced to round two where he was stopped.
The sole bright spot for America was US Womens Champion Camilla Baginskaite of El Cerrito. Seeded in the bottom half at 2324 FIDE, Camilla had a fantastic run.
Round One
Camilla - WGM Prudnikova (2411) 1-0, 0-1, 2-0
Round Two
Camilla - WGM Bojkovic (2453) 1/2-1/2, 1-0
Round Three
Camilla- WGM Yuhua Xu (2502) 0-1, 1-0, 0-2
It took the 5th seed beating her in a playoff to keep Camilla from reaching the round of 8. Congratulations on an excellent result!
3) Paul Gallegos wins Saint Amant Memorial
National Master Paul Gallegos of Windsor, California, won the Pierre Saint Amant Memorial held December 1 at the MI. Gallegos scored 4 1/2 from 5, drawing only with Filipino IM Ricardo De Guzman. The latter, who also took a half point bye, shared second through fourth with Expert Keith McDaniel and rapidly improving B player Ramesh Mantri at 4. 17-year-old Hungarian exchange student Judit Papp and Monty Peckham tied for fifth with Glen Leotaud who took home the top A prize. Juan Carlos Ventosa was best under 1600 in the 39-player field directed by Anthony Corrales.
4) Russell Wong and Steve Gaffagan Lead Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon
The Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon is heading for an exciting finish with two rounds to go. National Master Russell Wong and Expert Steve Gaffagan are tied for first at 5-1.Right behind them at 4 1/2 are NMs David Blohm and Igor Margulis, Experts Victor Ossipov and Peter Grey plus Class A player Dr. Ben Gross.
5) American Open Recap
Last Newsletter we reported the successful qualification of GM Walter Browne, IMs Guillermo Rey and Mladen Vucic and SM Vladimir Strugatsky into the US Championship. This week we were kindly forwarded the crosstable of the American Open from Frank Berry and can now make a more detailed report.
IM Melikset Khacian, formerly of Armenia and now living in Los Angeles, won this year's American Open held over Thanksgiving weekend. Khacian scored an undefeated 6 1/2 from 8 in a tough field. His key win was over Czech GM Pavel Blatny. Tying for second through fifth at 6 were Blatny, Polish GM Alex Wojtkiewicz, IM Igor Ivanov and SM Armen Ambartsoumian. There was a huge tie at 5.5, which produced many happy US Championship qualifiers and some unlucky souls: GMs Serper and Browne, IMs Vucic, Saidy, Rey, Kraai, Szuk, Matikozian, Ziatdinov, SMs Kretchekov, Strugatsky, Mikhailuk, Akobian, Altounian, NMs S. Jones and Casella (bolded players qualified). The MI did very well placing Browne, Rey, Kretchetov and Strugatsky in the top 21.
Just outside the magic score was 2001 US Junior Closed runnerup David Pruess with 5, a score also achieved by fellow Bay Area Master Jon Frankle. IM Walter Shipman of San Francisco had 4 1/2 as did fellow MI members Shikumar Shivaji, Vivek Nambiar, David Steel and Ricky Grijalva.
Longtime MI member Ian Zimmerman of Oakland dominated the Class A section winning 7 games in a row before drawing in the last round. Another MI member from Oakland, Mike Maloney, tied for second with six points. Well done!
Newsletter #65, 12/12/2001
"A master sweats and squirms to find the right square for a piece. A grandmaster tosses a piece in the air and it lands on the right square!"
Olaf Ulvestad
1) Aigner wins 2nd Koltanowski Memorial
Michael Aigner of Stanford University won the 2nd Koltanowski Memorial held December 8-9. Aigner took home $300 for his 4-0 score in the Master/Experts event which included victories over fellow National Masters Eugene Levin and Igor Margulis. Sharing second at 3 in the 20-player field were Margulis and IMs Walter Shipman and Ricardo de Guzman. Mikhail Semionenkov and rapidly improving Monty Peckham divided the top under 2200 and top junior prizes. GM Alex Yermolinsky and Anthony Corrales directed for the MI.
2) Wong and Gaffagan Lead Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon
NM Russell Wong and Expert Steven Gaffagan won in round seven to maintain their lead in the Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon with one round to go. The two leaders have 6 points with NM David Blohm right behind at 5.5.
3) Browne Dominates Peninsula Quick Chess Events
GM Walter Browne dominated Steve Cohen's Peninsula Chess Challenge held December 8 in San Mateo. The Six-time US Champion won the G/15 and 5 Minute events, while tying for first in the G/1 tournament with SM Vladimir Mezentsev. Other MI members also did well. Drake Wang won the Amateur (Under 2000) section of the G/15 with Mariusz and Ewelina Krubnik sharing second with H. Gazit. Emilia Krubnik was second in the Junior Amateur behind Robert Hsu.
4) Western States Open Revisit
Michael Aigner covered this event a few Newsletters ago, but we would like to add to it by sharing the following game and reporting top MI finishers.
GM Alex Yermolinsky-SM Emory Tate (round 4)
1.d4 c5 2.d5 e6 3.Nc3 exd5 4.Nxd5 Ne7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 Qa5+ 7.c3 Nf5 8.Qa4! Qxa4 9.Nc7 CHECKMATE!
OPEN:
=10-16. GM Yermolinsky, GM Browne, SM Strugatsky 4-2 ;=17-29. NM WAng, FM Keatinge-Clay, IM De Guzman, SM Morkunaite , SM Pruess, IM Rey 3.5
EXPERT:
=2-5 Ossipov 4.5-1.5; =6-10. Fomin 4
Class A
=3-6. Krasnov and Zimmerman 4.5
Class B
1. Bukh 5.5-.5; 2-4. Leotaud 5
Newsletter #66, 12/19/2001
"The Rook endgame is considered to be an integral part of the endgame technique. I agree with that, particularly if I add that even the imperfect mastership of this incredibly complex technique is so unapproachable for the majority of the players that nowadays there is not a single player that can be called perfect in rook endings, the last two world champions included."
A.Alekhine 1927
1) Gaffagan and Wong win Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon
They entered the last round tied for first and that is how they finished. Expert Steve Gaffagan of El Cerrito and National Master Russell Wong tied for first in the Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon, courtesy of wins over Yefim Bukh and Larry Snyder respectively. Gaffagan made short work of Bukh, but Snyder-Wong was the last game to finish, with a dozen stalwarts still watching at the end around 1O:30 PM.
The two winners, who each received $207.50, scored 7-1, drawing only with each other and third place finisher NM David Blohm who had 6. The score group on 5 1/2 yielded most of the remaining prize winners with Victor Ossipov and Peter Grey splitting the Expert prize, Eric Brody taking top A and Charles Kleiman top B. Booksellers dominated the lower ranks with Stacey's manager Tom Allen taking the top C prize and Bryan Bilby, owner of the Chelsea Book Shop, finishing as the first player under 1400.
The event was held to honor longtime MI member Kurt Bendit who was serving as the Chess Director in 1964 when Bobby Fischer gave his famous exhibition in San Francisco.
2) Chess Books and Equipment in the Bay Area
A short disclaimer: The Newsletter is not a commercial enterprise and we get no kickbacks in book, clocks or boards. Alas! The following is presented as a public service for those who may still be stuck wondering what to get chessplayers for Christmas.
Every week the MI staff gets about a half dozen calls inquiring where to buy chess books and equipment locally. It's getting harder and harder to answer this question as stores like Games of Berkeley phase out their chess section, but there are still some excellent local companies. For new books Stacey's (415) 421-4687 at 581 Market in San Francisco tops the big chains as the manager, Tom Allen, is a chessplayer. Recent releases from Gambit, Everyman and Batsford make up the bulk of the collection. Those that prefer used books have two good choices. In San Francisco the place to go is Chelsea Book Shop (415) 566-1507 at 637 Irving where owner and chessplayer Bryan Bilby typically has 150 to 200 books in stock in a variety of languages. In the East Bay it's Moe's (510) 849-2087 at 2476 Telegraph Avenue, not far from the UC Berkeley campus. This huge bookstore is open long hours and features an excellent selection of used chess books with a fairly rapid turnover.
Places to buy equipment are more limited. Grants Tobacco is right down the street from the MI, not far from Staceys on Market. Its window display features chess boards and clocks. A larger selection can be found at Gamescape at 333 Divisadero in San Francisco which carries many different sets and clocks as well as a small selection of books.
3) MI Events FIDE Rated
The United States Chess Federation was very slow in getting events FIDE rated earlier this year, but they have done an excellent job the past month. We are happy( very happy!) to say that the following events will be rated on the January 1, 2002, list.
#368 August FIDE Rating Tournament
#448 Bay Area Masters
#553 July FIDE Rating Tournament A
#554 July FIDE Rating Tournament B
#666 Summer FIDE Rating Tournament 1
#667 Summer FIDE Rating Tournament 2
Note that the last two events are from the four player double round robin won by Carl Haessler. They were rated as two separate round robin events. A big thanks to Michael Aigner for his help in making sure these events got rated.
All told on the January 2002 FIDE rating list there will 37 American events rated, 6 of them from the MI. This puts us number two in the country behind only the Continental Chess Association (Bill Goichberg and Steve Immitt). Credit for this surge in activity goes to MI Scholastic Chess Director Anthony Corrales.
4) Additions to MI Library Chess Collection
The Mechanics' Institute is noted for having one of the best public collections of chess books and periodicals on the West Coast. It has nearly complete runs of the British Chess Magazine, The American Chess Bulletin and Chess Review. Now, courtesy of Neil Falconer, we have bound sets of the California Chess Reporter in both the Library and the Chess Room. This publication, which ran from 1951 to 1976, set a standard for state magazines and is an invaluable record for California chess.
The MI has a good selection of Deutsche Schachzeiting, Deutsches Wochensach and the Wiener Schachzeitung from the early 1900s, but until recently its collection of more current foreign periodicals was not very impressive. That has changed overnight with a very generous donation by Val Zemis of Davis, California. Mr. Zemitis, who worked with Bob Burger and Neil Falconer on the California Chess Reporter in the 1950s, and wrote The Unknown Tal in 1960. Now the Library has extensive runs of the Hungarian journal Magyar Sakkelet plus large holdings of Romana de Sah (Romania), Schachnytt (Sweden) and Schach (East Germany) to mention just a few. If you have magazines or books that you are no longer using consider making a donation and get a tax writeoff.
The next time you make a visit to the MI check out the interesting chess display in the 3rd floor lockcase room. Put together by MI Library staffer Maria Pinedo with the support of Head Librarian Inez Cohen, it features a look back at the rich chess history of this institution.
Newsletter #67, 12/26/2001
"There is no secret: with the advancing years you have to work more. That's all."
Yefim Geller after winning the USSR Championship at the age of 54
Lindsborg Rotary Open
IM John Donaldson won the Lindsborg Rotary Open held December 22-23, in Lindsborg, Kansas, with a score of 4-1. Tying for second at 3.5 in the 24 player Open section were: GMs Alexander Onischuk, Igor Novikov and Yuri Shulman, IMs Michael Brooks and Enrico Sevillano, plus FM Emory Tate. Onischuk, the highest rated player in the United States, now living in Denver, played by far the toughest field, drawing with his two fellow GMs and Sevillano while beating Brooks.
This event, the strongest ever held in Kansas, was made possible by the Lindsborg Rotary Club, the Lindborg Chamber of Commerce and Bethany College. Mikhail Korenman organized the event with the help of GM Shulman, Wes Fisk and others. Jim Berry directed the multi-section event which attracted 74 players.
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