Gens Una Sumus!
~ Elizabeth Vicary
From http://lizzyknowsall.blogspot.com
1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News
2) Trying to track down former Mechanics' Member Joel Pugh
3) International Tournament in Berkeley this December by David Pruess
4) Bay Area Chess News
5) Americans Abroad
6) Spice Cup
The Mechanics' will host the 9th Annual Vladimir Pafnutieff Memorial G/45 this Saturday.
MI member Rebekah Liu scored an undefeated 4.5 from 6 to tie for fourth in the Susan Polgar Girls Championship in Lubbock, Texas. The event, won by Courtney Jamison of Texas, attracted 52 of the strongest girls in the country.
FM Daniel Yeager defeated NM Matt Parry to create a 3-way tie for 1st place at 5.0 from 6 between Yeager, Southern California NM Julian Landaw and Scott Low in the 2008 Arnold Denker Tournament of High School Champions held in Dallas, Texas. MI member NM Steven Zierk scored 3.5
Some games have been pre-played in the Alan Benson IM norm tournament at the Mechanics', which officially starts August 16, due to FM Sam Shankland and Gregory Young attending the US Chess School in mid August in New Jersey and Daniel Naroditsky playing in Europe until August 23. The early leader in the event, which features IMs Vladimir Mezentsev, Ricardo DeGuzman, John Grefe and Ganbold Odondoo, is the lowest rated player - Gregory Young - who has 3 from 4.
GM-elect Vinay Bhat concluded his European summer tour by turning into solid performances in Mainz, Germany. Vinay played in both the FiNet Chess960 Open (Fischer Random chess) and the Ordix Rapid. Hikaru Nakamura won the former, tying with fellow GMs Sergei Movsesian and Alexander Motylev at 9 from 11, but getting the nod on tiebreak. Vinay shared 9th place (out of 232 players) with 9 from 11. The Rapid event was won by Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia with 9.5 from 11 on tiebreak over Pavel Eljanov. Hikaru tied for third at 9 while Vinay was equal 12th with 8.5. Among his victims were 2641 rated Murtas Kazhgaleyev and 2574 rated Robert Ruck. Vinay almost collected an even bigger scalp.
Here is the game and the story.
Mainz 2008
Here is a sharp win by Hikaru.
Mainz 2008
Ukrainian GM Alexander Moiseenko won the 2008 Edmonton International a few days ago with a score of 7 from 9. Former US Champion Alex Shabalov was second and MI member Josh Friedel and Indian 2600+ rated GM Seyar Ganguly shared third at 5.5 in the 28-player invitational swiss. Other US scores: =5th. GM Jessie Kraai and IM Robert Hungaski 5; =11th WFM Elizabeth Vicary 4.5.
From December 14-23, 2008, an international chess tournament will be held in Berkeley, California, where California's best will meet the nation's best, and the nation's best will meet top players from around the world. Further details will be released as they are available, but this first announcement will allow players to put this event on their calendars well in advance.
The tournament will be open to anyone with a fide rating over 2200. It will be a 10 round swiss, with games daily at 2 pm. The time control will be 40/2, G/1. International title norms will be possible. Before, during, and after the tournament, there will be events where local chess players may meet some of the elite competitors.
Entry is free to all Grandmasters. The tournament will also cover travel expenses and provide rooms for some (depending on entries and sponsorship). Non-grandmasters will pay an entry fee based on their fide rating and date of registration.
Here is the current prize fund, based on our present sponsorship commitments, and a projected 30 players. As more sponsorship and entries come in, this will be increased!
Overall: 1400, 1100, 900, 700
Under 2500: 700
Under 2400: 600
Under 2300: 600
As we have a target ratio of Grandmasters to non-Grandmasters, we currently have:Airfare/board for the next 4 Grandmasters to register.Room for 13 more non-Grandmaster entries in the tournament.This will also be updated over time.
For questions or entry, contact David Pruess (pruess@gmail.com) or got to http://dotq.org/chess
The Silicon Valley Challenge #5 was held at Susan’s Dance Studio in northeast San Jose on July 27th. A total of 35 chess enthusiasts participated,four of whom were national masters ! No doubt the Open section had plenty of competition.
Before I go on, I would like to take some time to thank my chess coach, Michael Aigner. Mr. Aigner has been my teacher for the past three years and has helped me tremendously both as a chess player and a tournament director. Since the beginning of 2007, he has come more than 100 miles from Davis, California to play and also help me direct. I can easily say that without his help, none of this would be possible!
Also, I would like to thank Colin Ma for his generous donation. Colin Ma is new to the chess community, only starting to play in tournaments since last year. Your altruistic gesture means a lot!
Congratulations to Steven Zierk for winning the section outright, defeating National Master Richard Koepcke and only yielding a draw versus his teacher, Michael Aigner. The SVC5 has only been one of the numerous successes Steven has encountered while his rating has skyrocketed from 1550 to 2246 over the past two years. Good luck to Steven as he travels to Dallas, Texas for the Denter Tournament of Champions and US Open.
Kudos also to Evan Ye (photo at left) for taking the U1700 prize with an incredible 3-1 score. After losing to Mr. Koepcke in the first round, Evan easily defeated one C player and two B players. The result was a rating jump of nearly 100 points from 1576 to 1669. Second place was a six-way tie between Brian Wai, Daniel Liu, Alex Radu, Daniel Zheng, Eric Xu, and Partha Vora.
The U1600 section was rather small with only nine players. Congratulations to Pranav Nagarajan for winning with a 4-0 score. Kiarash Mavandad, John Canessa, Micah Pruyn Goldstein, and Andrew Couse also won money prizes.
Fremont Open
IM Ricardo DeGuzman and newcomer Damien Vincent ( who earned a provisional rating of 2296) tied for first in the 36-player Fremont Open held August 2-3 at 3 1/2 from 4. DeGuzman was held to a draw in round three by Expert Jason Mueller who also split the point in the last round with Andy Lee. Joining Mueller in a tie for third with three points were Lee ( who also drew with Expert Larry Snyder) and rapidly improving Yian Liou, who at 11 is rated 2029.
Tournament organizer Ken Zowal writes:
See the link below for photos from the 2008 Fremont Open, courtesy of the Incomparable Richard Shorman. Thank you, Richard!
http://www.chessdryad.com/photos/fremont/open_08/index.htm
Steve Gaffagan, David Petty and Steven Krasnov are tied for the lead with 3 1/2 from 4 with two rounds remaining in the 30-player Josh Friedel Friday Night Marathon at the Berkeley Chess Club. Krasnov defeated top-seed Larry Snyder in a game he was justifiably proud of.
Josh Friedel Marathon, Berkeley 2008
We are looking for the individuals who:
- have previous experience working with children ages 5–12 , passionate about chess, available after 3 PM during the week to teach on school campuses, have own transportation, reliable
- Please email to faec_chess @ yahoo.com
1-3. Radjabov, Cheparinov and Grischuk - 3,
4-12. Gashimov, Svidler, Gelfand,Jakovenko, Kamsky, Wang Yue, Al-Modiahki, Ivanchuk and Aronian - 2½,
13. Karjakin - 2,
14. Navara - 1½.
Larry Christiansen, Luis Javier Bernal Moro and Joel Benjamin shared 1st place in the Curacao Chess Festival 2008 with 7 from 9. Bernal Moro, who was leading throughout and made a GM norm, lost in the last round to Dutch IM Thomas Willemze while the husband and wife team of Daniel Fridman and Anna Zatonskih, lost respectively to Joel and Larry.
Official website: http://www.SPICE.ttu.edu SPICE Cup , 19-28 ix 2008. Category 15 (2605)
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