Chess Room Newsletter #382

"Tal called Fischer 'the greatest genius to descend from the chess heavens.' Comparing Fischer to Kasparov is like comparing a lone warrior armed only with his wits to the pampered general of an army."
~IM Anthony Saidy (Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2008)

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1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News
2) Boris Bacynzskyj (1945-2008)
3) Bobby Fischer Remembered
4) People's Replacement Tournament
5) Northern California USCF Masters by Michael Aigner
6) Here and There

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The fourth round of the Winter Tuesday Night Marathon featured several interesting match ups.

Experience triumphed over youth on board one as IM John Grefe defeated World Under 12 Champion Daniel Naroditsky. 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.g3 d5 4.exd5 exd5 5.Bg2 Nf6 6.d3 d4 7.Nce2 Nc6 8.Nf3 Be7 9.0-0 0-0 10.Nf4 Bf5 11.Re1 Bd6 12.h3 Qc7 13.Nh4 Bd7 14.Nh5 Nxh5 15.Qxh5 Nb4 16.Be4 g6 17.Nxg6 fxg6 18.Bxg6 Bxh3 19.Bh6 Bxg3 A strange position with Bishops on g6 and h6 and g3 and h3. Black won shortly.

There were missed opportunities but plenty of entertainment on board three while Alan Naroditsky missed a chance to be tied for first by failing to convert a winning ending against veteran Expert Larry Snyder.1.d4 c5 2.e3 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Bd3 b5 5.a4 b4 6.Qe2 Bb7 7.Nbd2 Qc7 8.0-0 Nc6 9.b3 h5 10.Bb2 Ng4 11.h3 cxd4 12.exd4 Nf6 13.Nc4 Nd5 14.Bc1 Nc3 15.Qe1 Be7 16.Bd2 g5 17.Bxc3 bxc3 18.Qxc3 Bf6 19.Rfe1 g4 20.hxg4 hxg4 21.Nfe5 d6 22.Rad1 dxe5 23.dxe5 Bg7 24.Be4 Rd8 25.Na5 0-0 26.Nxb7 Rc8 27.Qxc6 Qxc6 28.Bxc6 Rxc6 29.Na5 Rxc2 30.Rd4 g3 31.fxg3 Rfc8 ½-½1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.cxd4 d6 7.Bc4 Nb6 8.Bb3 Bf5 9.Nc3 e6 10.Bg5 Be7 11.Bxe7 Qxe7 12.0-0 0-0 13.Rc1 Rfd8 14.Qe2 dxe5 15.Nxe5 Nxd4 16.Qe3 Nxb3 17.axb3 Nd5 18.Nxd5 Rxd5 19.Rfd1 Rxd1+ 20.Rxd1 Rd8 21.Rxd8+ Qxd8 22.h3 Qd1+ 23.Kh2 Qd6 24.g3 b6 25.Qc3 f6 26.Nc4 Qd3 27.Qxd3 Bxd3 28.Nd6 Ba6 29.b4 Kf8 30.f4 Ke7 31.Ne4 Bd3 32.Nc3 Kd6 33.Kg2 a5 34.bxa5 bxa5 35.Kf2 Kc5 36.Ke3 Kc4 37.Kd2 Bf1 38.h4 Kb3 39.Nd1 Ba6 40.Kc1 e5 41.fxe5 fxe5 42.Ne3 Bd3 43.Nd1 Be2 44.Ne3 Bf3 45.Nf5 g6 46.Ne3 a4 47.Nf1 e4 48.Ne3 ½-½ Standings after 4 of 8 rounds:

1-5. IM John Grefe, FM Frank Thornally, Steve Gaffagan, John Jaffray and Adam Goldberg 3 1/2 points

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FM Boris Bacynzskyj of Philadelphia passed away on January 16. A friendly giant who stood 6-foot-6 Boris was an institution at the Franklin Mercantile Chess Clubin Center City Philadelphia for four decades. Born in Vienna to Ukrainian parents who had been displaced during War World II Boris came to the USA in 1948 but he never forgot his roots. When the land of his birth celebrated its independence Boris was there to cover the action as a reporter.

Boris led an event filled life. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Thailand after graduating from Yale in 1967 and was working as a free lance journalist in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge overthrew the government in 1975.

Boris played a lot of chess in the late 1970s and early 1980s but by the middle of that decade he had become active in computer chess and co-authored two early books on the subject. He also found time to teach chess to thousands of kids including members of the Vaux Junior High School chess team which won seven national junior high chess championships. You can find a picture of Boris at http://uschessleague.com/BorisBaczynskyj.html.

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One of the better tributes to Bobby Fischer was written by former Washington State Champion NM Bobby Ferguson who serves on the King County Council in Seattle. You can find the article at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2004141350_bobbyfischer24.html.

Not to be missed is Bobby Fischer's appearance on I've Got a Secret which can be located at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7JcwOJADf8.

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Salman Azhar will be running the People’s Replacement tournament on February 16-17 in Santa Clara. Go to http://www.bayareachess.com/events/PeopleReplacement.phpfor more information.

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Here is a list of all masters who live in Northern California (according to USCF records) who have played at least one USCF rated game since the beginning of 2007. There are 47 names on this list. State champion IM Josh Friedel is registered in his home state of New Hampshire, but I manually added him to this list because he lives in Alameda.

FRIEDEL, JOSHUA E 2531
BROWNE, WALTER S 2512
PRUESS, DAVID 2497
MEZENTSEV, VLADIMIR 2474
BHAT, VINAY S 2472
DE GUZMAN, RICARDO 2463
DONALDSON, JOHN 2458
ZILBERSTEIN, DMITRY 2457
STRUGATSKY, VLADIMIR 2450
GREFE, JOHN A 2429
ISHKHANOV, TIGRAN 2393
MAR, CRAIG H 2389
CUSI, RONALD L 2343
EADE, JAMES V 2331
EVANS, BELA 2303
YAP, NICOLAS A 2297
TUVSHINTUGS, BATCHIMEG 2289
PEREZ, EMMANUEL 2282
HO, MATTHEW 2281
SHANKLAND, SAMUEL L 2279
BARBALAT, ALEX 2268
LEE, ANDY C 2267
ZAVADSKY, PETER 2258
ZILDZIC, KENAN 2252
FRANKLE, JONATHAN A 2252
POEHLMANN, ROGER M 2250
SCHWARZ, DANIEL 2249
SHIPMAN, WALTER J 2248
KEATINGE-CLAY, ADRIAN 2245
AIGNER, MICHAEL 2242
NARODITSKY, DANIEL A 2239
WANG, DRAKE 2239
RICH, ALBERT J 2230
SPLANE, MIKE 2229
VON KROGH, CHRISTOPHER J 2228
PEARSON, MICHAEL 2225
THORNALLY, FRANK 2223
VAN BERGEN, HENRY 2221
CRIPE, PAUL G 2217
GALLEGOS, PAUL A 2212
KOEPCKE, RICHARD W 2212
PINTO, MARK A 2212
SCHILLER, ERIC 2200
VICKERS, KEITH 2200
MAC FARLAND, JAMES S 2200
WANG, ARTHUR D 2200
ROSS, STEVEN G 2200

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Marek Soszynski ([email protected]) writes: I am researching into Sammy Reshevsky, and would welcome any games or memories of him.

The New York Times featured a half page story on Gata Kamsky (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/crosswords/chess/27kamsky.html) this past weekend which covered his life from the late 1990s to present.

Hi, GM Yasser Seirawan sent me this video that he made, explaining why he created S-Chess and wants me to share it with fellow chess enthusiasts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nht2TqabPr0

Regards,

Len Molden
Vancouver Chess Organizer

The Bay Area's George Koltanowski is the record holder for the longest running chess column (1948-2000) but not for much longer. That distinction will soon go to Leonard Barden. Stephen Ross of the Guardian has a proper tribute to Barden, who wrote his first column for the Manchester Guardian in September 1955, at http://sport.guardian.co.uk/chess/story/0,,2248222,00.html.