Gens Una Sumus!
~ John Nunn
1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News
2) Jack O'Keefe (1930-2008)
3) A new Bobby Fischer game
4) Here and There
Vladimir Mezentsev was second at 4.5 drawing DeGuzman in round four and defeating 19-year-old NM Drake Wang who was playing his first event since the 2006 US Open.
Top seeds NMs Michael Pearson and Andy Lee are among a large group with perfect scores after two rounds of the Irving Chernev Memorial Tuesday Night Marathon. It is still possible to enter the eight round event with half point byes for the first two games.
Northern California Top Ten under 21
1. Sam Shankland 2398 (age 16)
2. Daniel Naroditsky 2339 (12)
3. Nicolas Yap 2333 (18)
4. Matthew Ho 2281 (20)
5. Michael Pearson 2276 (20)
6. Daniel Schwarz 2249 (18)
7. Drake Wang 2247 (19)
8. Stephen Zierk 2237 (14)
9. Gregory Young 2227 (13)
10. Nicholas Nip 2207 (10)
NM Michael Aigner of Davis was the top Northern California scorer in the recent US Open in Dallas, tying for fifth with 7 from 9. IM Walter Shipman had 6.5 and NM Steven Zierk finished on 6 in the 375 player event in which GM Alex Shabalov and IMs Enrico Sevillano and Rade Milovanovic shared first with 8 points.
You may find two photographs of Jack O'Keefe, provided by his granddaughter Carla Campbell, at Edward Winter' Chess Notes http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/index.html - it's item #5708.
An obituary has appeared in the Ann Arbor News - http://obits.mlive.com/AnnArbor/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=114943188
The following game from Fischer's simul in Copenhagen was not in The Unknown Bobby Fischer by Tangborn and Donaldson which only has Fischer's draw with NM Allan Jensen, who provides quite a bit of background on the event which was quite strong (see pages 187-188).
Game submitted by Palle Henriksen (Birkeroed, Denmark)
Mr Henriksen comments:
‘The game was played in the only simultaneous exhibition Fischer gave in Denmark (+27 – 7 =7). As far as I remember, only players of master strength were allowed to participate. I offered a draw at about move 40, but Fischer either did not hear it or refused. He had a strong will to win even in a simultaneous exhibition, and at move 46 I made the final error.
At the end of the display Fischer expressed the view that the Danish players were bad in the endgame. Perhaps this game inspired him to make that pronouncement. The chairman of the Copenhagen Chess Union told me later that Fischer had said that the game was the most interesting he had played in the exhibition, but I do not know if that is right.’
The traditional chess festival M. Tal Memorial will take place in Moscow (GUM, Exhibition Hall- very close to Red Square) from 17 August (arrival date) to 31 August (departure date).
It will consist of two parts: a classical chess round robin tournament of ten top GMs, viz. V.Kramnik, A.Morozevich, E.Alekseev, V.Ivanchuk, A.Shirov, G.Kamsky, R.Ponomariov, Sh.Mamedyarov,P.Leko, B.Gelfand, and the Tal Cup Blitz tournament (qualification 27 and 28 Aug, final 29 and 30 Aug).
The classical tournament will be played with the FIDE time control, i.e.2 hours for the first 40 moves, 1 hour for the next 20 moves and another 15 minutes for the rest of the game withan increment of 30 seconds per move starting with move 61. The first round will be played on 18 Aug, the last round - 27 Aug, the rest day - 23 Aug. Each round starts at 3 p.m.The prize fund of each part of the Tal Memorial amounts to $100,000, i.e. $200,000 for the whole event.
Former US Champion Lubos Kavalek, who turned 65 on August 9, is one of the great men of American chess. A several time medal winner for US Olympiad teams and one of only a handful of US players to be rated in the top ten in the world, Kavalek is also the author of several excellent works on the game including Wijk aan Zee 1975, judged by NM Dennis Fritzinger to be one of the greatest tournament books of all time. Many will also remember his organizing the World Cup series for the GMA and seconding Nigel Short all the way to a World Championship match, but few will also know that Kavalek was Bobby Fischer's bowling coach. This might seem a little strange title as Kavalek has only bowled a few times in his life but there is a logical explanation as Lubos explains:
I was Bobby's "bowling coach" in Reykjavik in 1972. This is what the invitation to the closing ceremony said. Although I worked with Bobby from game 12 till the end of the match as his second, Bill Lombardy, who worked with him earlier, still had the official title. So, they invented "bowling" for me. We went bowling to the U.S. Army base in Keflavik often. I believe that Bobby's average was over 200, but how much over, I don't remember. Bowling was not my cup of tea after all.
Leonard Barden and George Koltanowski are the two iron men of chess columnists but an honorable mention goes to Harold Lundstrom who wrote from Dec 26, 1948 until about 1990 for the Desert News of Salt Lake City.
The American Chess Journal of February 1877 on page 152 writes that Mr. Jas. Mason will make a trip to California, giving exhibitions along the way. Does anyone know if he made it to San Francisco?
Mechanics' member Steven Gaffagan writes:
Hello John,
Many lectures ago you were showing a game you played with Black. Toward the end you had split pawns on b2 and d2. You asked whether there is a way to search for such complex themes. Were you aware of CQL? CQL stands for chess query language. One way it is used is to check the originality of study themes.
I stumbled upon the following: http://www.rbnn.com/cql/
You can specify complex themes, parameters, etc. and search pgn databases. CQL searches are also integrated into the commercial version of Chess Assistant: http://www.chesscafe.com/text/chessok15.pdf
This method of searching is far more powerful than the ChessBase search mask. On the other hand, before you apply it you must spend some time learning it.
Steven
IM Blas Lugo writes:
Dear over the board player:
You can still save money in your entry fee for this very exciting tournament by registering before the end of August 2008.
Save money in your Registration for the Miami Chess Open “featuring: $ 100,000 dollars prize fund” for more information visit: www.themiamichessopen.com
Don’t miss this great chess event, featuring:
- Blitz Tournament
- Free Grandmasters Lectures
- Free Grandmasters Simultaneous exhibitions and many other side events.
Best regards,
Blas Lugo
Tournament Organizer
www.themiamichess.com305-262-2700
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