Chess Room Newsletter #429

Gary Kasparov

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1) Mechanics Institute Chess Club News
2) 2008 US Championship
3) Top Northern California Juniors by Michael Aigner
4) Regulations for the Training of Chess Arbiters
5) Here and There

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Last evening witnessed lots of action at the Mechanics'. The festivities started with Sam Shankland being presented a check for $2423 as the newest Falconer Award winner ( top rated junior player under 18 in Northern California) by Mechanics' Executive Director Jim Flack. Then Sam was presented his FM and IM certificates and pins from FIDE for both titles. Next up were Vinay Bhat and Josh Friedel who received certificates and pins as newly minted GMs to which GM Jesse Kraai quipped "Now we are colleagues!". Vinay then gave an excellent talk on his games from a recently finished event in India.

Oleg Shaknazarov was the only winner on the top boards in the 4th round of the Winter Tuesday Night Marathon and stands alone with 3 and a half points. Among those in large group half a point behind are IM Walter Shipman, Igor Margulis and Larry Snyder.

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For more information contact:
Mark Bretz, Slay & Associates
314-838-9371 or [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

NATION'S BEST PLAYERS TO COMPETE IN MAY
AT 2009 U.S. CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP IN ST. LOUIS

Two dozen contestants will vie for $130,000 in prizes at new venue

ST. LOUIS, January 27, 2009 -- Two dozen of the nation's best chess players will be invited to participate in the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship, which will be held at the new Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The tournament, which dates back to 1845, will take place from May 7 through 17, 2009 and will offer a purse of more than $130,000 in prize money.

The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, which Steve Goldberg of United States Chess Federation (USCF) Online calls "certainly one of the most impressive chess centers" in the country, opened in July 2008. Founded by retired investment fund manager Rex Sinquefield, it already has nearly 500 members, surpassing its original goal of 300 for its first year of operation by 67 percent.

The 24 invited players will include:

• the top 12 American players by rating, using the April rating supplement;
• the top two female players by rating, using the April rating supplement;
• the 2008 U.S. Champion;
• the 2008 U.S. Junior Closed Champion;
• the 2008 U.S. Open Champion;
• the 2009 U.S. State Champion of Champions;
• a total of six wild card spots, to be determined later.

The winner will receive $35,000, with additional cash prizes awarded to all participants, including $2,000 to the last-place entrant. Cash prizes will be divided equally among tied competitors. Additionally, top youths from throughout America will be invited to compete. Spectators will be welcome at the event.

The championship will be a 9-round event, using the Swiss system with one round per day and a rest day between rounds 5 and 6. Time controls will be the classical 40 moves in two hours, with one hour allowed for all remaining moves. Guest commentary will be provided by two world-class Grand Masters throughout the event.

"We are delighted to host the prestigious U.S. Chess Championship in our first full year of operation," said Tony Rich, executive director of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. "It is exciting and gratifying for us to bring together the nation's best players at our first-class facility."

The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis is a not-for-profit, 501(c)3 organization. The club, which has welcomed nearly 500 members since its July 2008 opening, offers free classes for beginners, discounted tournament entry fees and discounted merchandise for club members. For more information, please visit www.saintlouischessclub.org or call 314-361-CHESS.

The United States Chess Federation is the official, not-for-profit U.S. membership organization for chess players and chess supporters of all ages and strengths, from beginners to grand masters. Founded in 1939 with the merger of the American Chess Federation and the National Chess Federation, USCF has grown to more than 80,000 members and nearly 1,200 affiliated chess clubs and organizations. USCF sanctions 25 national championships award titles to both amateurs and professionals, ranging from elementary school students to senior citizens. For more information, visit www.uschess.org.

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It has long been established that Northern California is a mecca for scholastic chess that can compete with the rest of the nation. The February Top 100 lists confirm this fact. Impressively, 13 local juniors and college students are ranked on the most prestigious ranking list for juniors: Under Age 21.

At the top, IM Sam Shankland (#7) does not require much of an introduction after winning both the CalChess State Championship and World Under 18 Championship . Besides Shankland, the most impressive player over the past four months was NM Steven Zierk (#30), who gained 74 USCF points since Labor Day, thereby cracking 2300. The two youngest masters in the Bay Area are also well known to readers of this blog: 13 year old FM Danya Naroditsky (#17) and 10 year old NM Nicholas Nip (#70).

These rankings are also the last hoorah for the previous generation of junior masters, those who have now gone off to college. For many years, NM Daniel Schwarz (#25), NM Nicolas Yap (#27), NM Matthew Ho (#40) and NM Drake Wang (#49) dominated the local scene. Now Daniel and Matthew attend Stanford University together FM Elliott Liu (#15) from San Diego and NM Vaishnav Aradhyula (#60) from Tucson. Go Stanford!!

• #7 IM Sam Shankland (2441)
• #15 FM Elliott Liu (2398) - attending Stanford University from Southern California
• #17 FM Danya Naroditsky (2358)
• #25 NM Daniel Schwarz (2316)
• #27 NM Nicolas Yap (2315)
• #30 NM Steven Zierk (2308)
• #37 NM Julian Landaw (2292) - attending UC Berkeley from Southern California
• #40 NM Matthew Ho (2281)
• #49 NM Drake Wang (2262)
• #51 NM Gregory Young (2249)
• #60 NM Vaishnav Aradhyula (2225) - attending Stanford University from Arizona
• #69 NM Rohan Agarwal (2212)
• #70 NM Nicholas Nip (2211)

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To all National Chess Federations

Dear chess friends,
the FIDE General Assembly in Dresden approved the REGULATIONS FOR THE TRAINING OF THE CHESS ARBITERS ( see : FIDE Handbook, B.05 : “Regulations for the titles of Arbiter”, paragraph 7, Annex 1 ) and the REGULATIONS FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE ARBITERS ( see : FIDE Handbook, B.05 : “Regulations for the titles of Arbiter”, paragraph=2 08, Annex 2 ).

Regarding the REGULATIONS FOR THE TRAINING OF THE CHESS ARBITERS, actually they are in effect after Turin General Assembly (2006), but I would like to draw your attention to the Article 6.1, according which there will be examination fees for every participant in the Seminars and FIDE will invoice the organizing federation accordingly, after the approval of the report of the Seminar.

Regarding the REGULATIONS FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE ARBITERS, the Arbiters’ Council kindly asks for the cooperation of all national chess Federations, in order to produce the lists of the Arbiters of every category and bring them for approval by the FIDE General Assembly or Executive Board, in the next Congress.

For this purpose every Federation is kindly requested to produce the lists of their Active and Inactive International Arbiters (IA) and FIDE Arbiters (FA) and then to classify their Active IAs and FAs to Categories (A’, B’, C’ and D’), according to the approved regulations.

All these lists shall be sent to the Arbiters’ Council ( Chairman: Panagiotis Nikolopoulos, [email protected], Secretary: Dirk De Ridder, [email protected], Member: Werner Stubenvoll, [email protected] ), which will check the Federations’ proposals regarding the classification of their Arbiters, produce the lists of all the Arbiters (from all federations) of every Category and present them in the next FIDE Congress (June 2009), for the final approval by the General Assembly (or Executive Board).

The Federations are kindly requested to send their lists to the Arbiters’ Council until 10 May 2009.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

With best regards

IA Panagiotis Nikolopoulos
Chairman
FIDE Arbiters’ Council

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Newsletter 428 wrote about the sad passing of Julius Loftsson and how he came to Northern California in 1958. Now some information is available on his earlier career.

Gunnar Finnlaugsson checked in "Skák" the Icelandic Chess Magazine and found the following;

1956 Skákþing Reykjavíkur (Reykjavík Chess Championship) Júlíus 5th to 8th in group II A with 4/9 1957 Haustmót Taflfélags Reykjavíkur (Reykjavík Chess Club Championship) group II 3rd 7.5/10

Unfortunately there were no games.

The Ivanchuk drug testing affair is over. FIDE reports:

Drug testing is still relatively rare in chess. However, it does occur in various official events and was carried out during the course of the Dresden Olympiad. Unfortunately, a high proportion of the tests were scheduled during the last round and there was a lack of personnel, which lead to a procedural error: there was not a designated Doping Control Officer present at this match (USA v Ukraine).

After losing a crucial game for his country, Mr Ivanchuk was distraught. The Hearing Panel concludes that although the arbiter attempted to inform Mr Ivanchuk in English that he should accompany him for a doping test, Mr Ivanchuk apparently failed to understand the instructions, especially since English is not Mr Ivanchuk’s first language. If there had been a Doping Control Officer present, he would have immediately gone to Mr Ivanchuk’s board and there would have been communication between him and Mr Ivanchuk. In that case the outcome might have been different. Because there was no notification by the Doping Control officer, there was no refusal in the sense of the regulations.

The Conclusion:

The procedural error allied with Mr Ivanchuk’s state of mind led him unintentionally to miss the test. The Hearing Panel therefore concludes unanimously that there should be no penalty.