Gens Una Sumus!
~ GM-elect Josh Friedel
From an interview at http://www.zenpawn.com/chessblog
1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News
2) Vinay shines in Spain
3) US Olympiad teams named
4) A poem by Dennis Fritzinger
5) Here and There
NM Michael Aigner writes on his excellent blog at http://fpawn.blogspot.com:
Three-time US Champion Grandmaster Nick DeFirmian, rated 2541 FIDE, taught the most recent session of the San Francisco School of Chess on July 12-13. Although he currently lives in Denmark, DeFirmian has strong ties to Northern California, growing up in Fresno and earning a degree in physics from UC Berkeley. For many years, he regularly played at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club, the venue for the weekend lecture. His claim to fame now lies in editing the encyclopedia "Modern Chess Openings" (better known as MCO).
Over two days, GM DeFirmian shared a number of opening concepts with the students of the School of Chess. He taught the top group (five students and two guests) for nearly four hours on Saturday, advocating a positional approach to understanding the move orders and strategies to play the 6.Be3 line of the Najdorf Sicilian. GM DeFirmian also demonstrated a "refutation" of the Petrov's defense from the game Naiditsch-Kramnik (Dortmund 2008) and showed some theory in the Zaitsev variation of the Ruy Lopez. It was interesting to watch how even an ultra-tactical opening such as the Najdorf could be understood by a calm positional approach.
The Danish-American Grandmaster returned on Sunday to teach groups 2 and 3, each for about two hours. He started out by going back in history and demonstrating an obscure simul game in the Two Knight's defense where Bobby Fischer played like Paul Morphy. GM DeFirmian spent a large portion of the class on the Yugoslav attack in the Dragon Sicilian, a line which every young player should study sometime in their development as a future master.
The San Francisco School of Chess will continue in August and September with lectures by local International Masters Josh Friedel (August 23) and Vinay Bhat (September 7). Both popular 20-something year old masters have the three norms necessary for the Grandmaster title; Josh is merely waiting for his paperwork to be approved while Vinay needs 17 FIDE rating points to reach 2500. A new group of students will be selected for classes starting this fall.
Here are some of Vinay's games from Benasque.
First a win against a very tough to beat player.
XXVIII OPEN INTERNACIONAL Benasque Huesca España (7.1), 09.07.2008
XXVIII OPEN INTERNACIONAL Benasque Huesca España (4.1), 06.07.2008
XXVIII OPEN INTERNACIONAL Benasque Huesca España (10.1), 12.07.2008
Women's Team:
Tatev Abrahamyan
Rusa Goletiani
Irina Krush
Katerina Rohonyan
Anna Zatonskih
Captain - Michael Khodarkovsky
Coach - Gregory Kaidanov
Men's Team:
Varuzhan Akobian
Gata Kamsky
Hikaru Nakamura
Alexander Onischuk
Yury Shulman
Captain - John Donaldson
invited
to vik's apartment
for a clambake
(he and a girlfriend
had been digging up
clams all day),
i walk in,
smell the clams steaming,
hear the sounds of five minute chess,
and find myself
irresistibly drawn
to five minute combat,
the sound of the clock
being punched as seductive
as clicking dice,
forget about all
the irresistible smells,
the steaming clams,
(perhaps they weren't
all that irresistible,
after all),
in favor of the sixty-four
squares, two armies,
clock, and combat.
A bit of an odd question: Is there any way we could find out if there was a Richard Gaikowski (a.k.a. Dick Gyke) who was a member of the MI back in the 1960s or early 70s?
Bruce Monson
Can any Newsletter reader help Bruce?
2008 SPICE Cup is the Highest Rated 10-player International Round-Robin in U.S. History
by Corey Chandler
Texas Tech University’s Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence announced Thursday it has assembled the strongest field of chess grandmasters in U.S. round-robin history for its 2008 SPICE Cup International Invitational Tournament.
The ten players – all grandmasters – confirmed for the event boast an average rating of 2605 according to World Chess Federation (FIDE) ratings.
This makes SPICE Cup a Category 15 tournament – the highest-rated tournament of its kind held on U.S. soil. The invitational round-robin tournament pits an international slate of 10 players against each other through nine rounds of play over ten days.
“We have secured a very prestigious roster of players from around the globe to compete in this tournament,” said SPICE Director Susan Polgar.
It will take place from Sept. 19-28 at the Texas Tech Student Union Building and is the main attraction of Texas Tech’s annual SPICE Cup Festival. Other activities include the 2008 Texas Women's Open Championship, SPICE Cup Grand Prix, SPICE Cup Scholastic and SPICE Cup Pro-Am.
Players with their U.S. Chess Federation (USCF) and World Chess Federation (FIDE) ratings are as follows:
Alexander Onischuk, United States, 2734 USCF / 2670 FIDE
Harikrishna Pentala, India, 2724 USCF / 2668 FIDE
Leonid Kritz, Germany, 2667 USCF / 2610 FIDE
Varuzhan Akobian, United States, 2660 USCF / 2610 FIDE
Gregory Kaidanov, United States, 2664 USCF / 2605 FIDE
Julio Becerra, United States, 2640 USCF / 2598 FIDE
Victor Mikhalevski, Israel, 2679 USCF / 2592 FIDE
Kamil Miton, Poland, 2703 USCF / 2580 FIDE
Hannes Stefansson, Iceland, 2597 USCF / 2566 FIDE
Eugene Perelshteyn, United States, 2619 USCF / 2555 FIDE (Defending Champion)
USCF Average Rating: 2669
SPICE website: www.SPICE.ttu.edu
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