Gens Una Sumus!
~IM Josh Friedel - referring to the time control of G/90 plus 30 seconds per move.
1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News
2) Gregory Kaidanov wins Arnold Eikrem Memorial
3) US Championship Online Qualifier
4) Here and There
5) Edmonton Internationl
Spring TNM (5), 15.04.2008
Spring TNM (5), 16.04.2008
Orinda high school student Sam Shankland followed his great success at the US Championship Qualifier by tying for second in the New York April Open with a score of 3-1 including a win over IM Jay Bonin. His only loss was to tournament winner GM Mark Paragua of the Philippines.
MI Chess Director IM John Donaldson, whose victory over WIM Mokriak in the Stillwater Winter FIDE Open was featured in the March 29 chess column in the Boston Globe ( written by Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolff) recently received his FIDE Arbiter title.
Congratulations to NMs Daniel Naroditsky, Gregory Young and Nicholas Nip who qualified for the 2008 US Chess Federation All America Team for kids. Another MI member, Adam Goldberg, was noted as a rapidly improving player to watch as he went up over 300 rating points in the last year.
Chess Historian and MI member Calvin Olsen of Vallejo, whose The Chess Kings Volume One has received excellent reviews, was a guest of IM John Watson's on his program Chess Talk at ICC Chess .FM . You can go to http://webcast.chessclub.com/preview/Watson/04_01_08/Watson_preview.html to hear part of it without being an ICC member.
Mike Goodall, a member of the Mechanics's Institute for over 40 years, will be directing the 3rd Annual Frank Doyle Open this weekend in Santa Rosa. Lookup below under upcoming tournaments for complete details.
Los Angeles GM Melik Khachiyan will be running a training seminar for strong MI juniors on May 3 and participating in the 2nd Ray Schutt Memorial Blitz on May 4 at the Mechanics'.
World Under 12 Champion Daniel Naroditsky will be featured on Foster City Cafe on FCTV, Comcast-27 and AT&T-99. The episode is slated to play on Wednesday, April 16th at 7:30pm and replayed at the 5:30pm, on Friday, April 18th.
Place Name Fed ELO Title Score Perf 1. Kaidanov, Gregory USA 2596 gm 7.0 27312. Gopal, Geetha Naraynan IND 2562 gm 6.0 26383. Kotronias, Vasilios GRE 2611 gm 5.5 25924. Sandipan, Chanda IND 2585 gm 5.0 25555. Ikonnikov, Vyacheslav RUS 2578 gm 5.0 25546. Macieja, Bartlomiej POL 2599 gm 5.0 25547. Lie, Kjetil A NOR 2558 gm 4.5 25148. Krush, Irina USA 2479 im 3.5 24429. Hole, Øystein NOR 2387 im 2.5 236710. Moskow, Eric USA 2229 1.0 2190
Kaidanov did not get big advantages out of the opening in his games or win by flashy attacks but simply outplayed his opponents with excellent positional play and plenty of determination. The following game was a nice squeeze.
Gausdal Classics GM-A Gausdal (5), 12.04.2008
Playing in the US Championship Online Qualifier (5 minutes plus one second increment - double-round robin) on April 12 on very short notice he dominated the Western Conference and joined IM Enrico Sevillano in qualifying.
12.5/14 CofC-NorthCalif -- IM Vinay Bhat
10.5 CofC-SoCal -- IM Enrico Sevillano
9.0 CofC-Arizona -- IM Levon Altounian
8.5 CofC-SDakota -- IM Sandor Kustar
8.5 CofC-Hawaii - NM Cornelius Rubsammen
Boston IM David Vigorito almost turned in a perfect score in crushing the opposition in the East.The young talent Ray Robinson was second.
17.0/18 CofC-MA -- IM David Vigorito
13.5 CofC-Florida -- IM-elect Ray Robson
13.0 CofC-Georgia -- FM Kazim Gulamali
11.0 CofC-PA -- IM Bryan Smith
10.5 CofC-Virginia -- NM Edward Lu
10.0 CofC-NCarolina -- NM Chris Mabe
The semifinals this Saturday have Bhat facing Sevillano while Robson takes on Vigorito. The two winners face off Sunday. The format for both the semifinals and finals will be two game matches at G/60 with a 3 second increment. If that fails to produce a winner then comes 2 five minute games with a 1 second increment and finally an armageddon game with White having 5 minutes to 4 but giving draw odds.
1. GM Caruana (ITA, 2620) - 7½/9;
2-4. GM Adams (ENG, 2729), GM Granda Zuniga (PER, 2609) and IM Khamrakulov (UZB, 2548) – 7.
In Newsletter #385 we reported that GM Yury Shulman had a new book out. Co-authored with Rishi Sethi, Chess! Lessons from a Grandmaster , an oversized 203 page paperback aimed at beginning players and loaded with instructive material and many exercises received excellent reviews and has already sold out. A new, improved edition is due out soon. Go to http://shulmanchess.com for more information. We can't help remarking how rare it is to find a world class player (+2600 FIDE) who actually enjoys working with youngsters who are just beginning to play.
It is old news (February) but still worth reporting that GM Gregory Serper won the 2008 WA State Championship with a score of 8 from 9, picking up $1500. Serper led from start to finish but going into the last round of the 10 player round robin he could still have been overtaken by defending Champion NM Ignacio Perez, formerly of Cuba, who was only half a point behind. Perez lost the head to head encounter but had the consolation of receiving $1000 for second place for scoring 6.5 points. Highly rated IM Georgy Orlov and SM Slava Mikhailuk shared third at 6 for $300 apiece. Erik Anderson and Jim Roberts donated $3000 to the prize fund which helped field the strongest ever lineup in the history of the Washington State Championship which has been held annually as a round robin since the late 1920s!
It was no April Fools. The Style section of the New York Times (page 14) on April 1 reported that a Chess-in-the-Schools fundraiser at the Rainbow Room raised over one million dollars. Chess-in-the-Schools promotes chess as a way to teach students to think.
Eligibility:
All FIDE titled players and Alberta Masters (Albertans rated 2200+ CFC or FIDE) are allowed to participate. A few spots may be available to high rated FIDE untitled players from outside the province. Please notify the organizers of your intent to play by email for instructions how to do so.
Entry fees:
Free for GMs, IMs and WGMs.
Before May 1st: FMs, WIMs, WFMs, juniors 18 and under-$100.
Everyone else: $130.
Before July 1st: FMs, WIMs, WFMs, juniors 18 and under-$120.
Everyone else: $150.
After July 1st: FMs, WIMs, WFMs, juniors 18 and under-$140.
Everyone else: $170.
Full refunds are available until June 15, payments can be made in Canadian Dollars, or in US Dollars for people sending cheques outside of Canada.
Round times:
July 31st: 7:00 pm.
August 1st: 11:00 am, 7:00 pm.
August 2nd-4th: 11:00 am, 7:00 pm.
Time control:
Game 90 for the first 40 moves, plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 seconds increment added to each move starting from move 1.
Anti-Draw rules:
- 1. Games may not be agreed to a draw before move 30.
- 2. Participants of games in which a draw was achieved quickly by a three-fold repetition and finished in a well known theoretical position may be asked to replay the game.
Prizes:
$1750 Canadian guaranteed ($1000 first, $500 second, $250). The prizes are expected to increase with fund-raising activities and they are expected to include some class prizes.
For more information contact Vlad Rehkson at [email protected]
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