Chess Room Newsletter #489

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1) Mechanics Institute Chess Club News
2) Field finalized for 2010 U.S. Chess Championship by Mike Wilmering
3) Smyslov-Gufeld, USSR 1967
4) Upcoming Events

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FM Andy Lee defeated tournament leader NM Peter Zavadsky last night to turn the Spring Tuesday Night Marathon into a race with two rounds to go. Lee (who took byes in the first two rounds), IM John Grefe, NM Romy Fuentes and Expert Hayk Manvelyan are tied for first with 5-1 scores in the 57-player event.

NM Keith Vickers won the annual Walter Lovegrove Senior Open held at the Mechanics' Institute last weekend with a score of 3.5 from 4. IM Walter Shipman and visiting Filipino Expert Warly Guinto tied for second with three points.

Mechanics' members GMs Vinay Bhat and Jessie Kraai and IM Sam Shankland will play in the US Championship in Saint Louis next month. SM Daniel Naroditsky is qualified to play in the US Junior Closed this summer and it appears likely SM Steven Zierk will as well.

John Blackstone sends in the following game from the match between Herman Steiner and A.J. Fink held at the Mechanics' Institute in May of 1930. Steiner won the planned three game match 2-0.

A. Fink - H. Steiner
San Francisco (2)1930

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.d3 d6 7.c3 0-0 8.h3 b5 9.Bc2 Ne8 10.d4 Bf6 11.d5 Ne7 12.Kh2 Ng6 13.Be3 Nf4 14.Bxf4 exf4 15.Nd4 Be5 16.Qf3 g6 17.Nd2 Qh4 18.Nc6 g5 19.Ne7+ Kh8 20.Nxc8 Rxc8 21.Qg4 Qxg4 22.hxg4 Nf6 23.f3 h5 24.Bd1 Kg7 25.Kg1 Rh8 26.gxh5 Rxh5 27.Kf2 c6 28.dxc6 Rxc6 29.Bb3 b4 30.Nc4 bxc3 31.Nxe5 dxe5 32.Rac1 Rd6 33.Rxc3 Rd2+ 34.Ke1 Rxg2 35.Rc7 Rhh2 36.Rxf7+ Kg6 37.Ra7 Rxb2 38.Rxa6 g4 39.fxg4 Kg5 40.Rg1 Nxg4 41.Bd1 Rb1 42.Re6 f3 0-1

Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle May 15,1930, p.28

The Ray Schutt Memorial Blitz, featuring the participation of 6-time US Champion Walter Browne is coming up soon.

4th Annual Ray Schutt Memorial Blitz Tournament

A chance to remember and pay tribute to an old friend
May 2 (Sunday)

When: Sunday, May 2nd from 1 to 5 pm. The blitz tournament will be held from 2 to 4 pm. There will be a chance to reminiscence about Ray over light refreshments both before and after the event.

Where: Mechanics' Institute, 57 Post St, San Francisco (Montgomery BART)

Format: Five Double-Round Swiss or Roundrobin depending on entries.

Prizes (guaranteed):
1st $300
2nd $200
3rd $100
4th $75
5th $50
6th $25

Entry Fee: $10. Free to IMs and GMs. Enter at tournament from 1pm to 1:45. Entries close at 1:45 pm please take note. No phone entries. Come honor Ray's memory and help make this the largest and strongest blitz tournament in the history of Northern California chess!

Young Senior Master and author Daniel Naroditsky was featured in a lengthy story in last Sunday's San Jose Mercury News which mentioned the Mechanics' Institute as the oldest chess club in the United States.

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SAINT LOUIS, April 20, 2010--The final four spots have been filled for the 2010 U.S. Championship, which is set for May 13-25 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL).

The 24-player field was finalized today with the four, official wildcard selections: Grandmaster Alexander Stripunsky (NJ), Grandmaster Vinay Bhat (CA) and International Masters Irina Krush (NY) and Sam Shankland (CA). This year's championship will feature a purse of more than $170,000, the largest per-capita prize fund in the tournament's history.

"Our four wildcards represent many aspects that are important to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis," said CCSCSL Executive Director Tony Rich. "By nurturing America's top juniors and women and inviting the top contenders, we have created an incredibly strong and dynamic field for this year's championship."

Stripunsky, 39, missed out on qualifying by rating for the 2010 U.S. Championship by a single point. On the February 2010 rating list used to invite rating qualifiers, he was rated 2615, right behind CCSCSL GM in-residence Ben Finegold, who was rated 2616. Last year, he also missed out by just one spot on the rating list. Stripunsky has an excellent record in U.S. Championships. In 2005, he was runner-up and lost in a playoff to reigning champion GM Hikaru Nakamura. In 2006, he had another strong run and finished in third place. Stripunsky also just tied for first in the Philadelphia Open.

Bhat may be the strongest eligible American who has never played in a U.S. Championship. The 25-year-old lives in the Bay Area and has been a chess professional ever since receiving the Samford Scholarship in 2008. Bhat maintains a blog, "An Unemployed Fellow," where he gives insightful analysis on his recent games and thoughts on the tournament circuit (vbhat.wordpress.com).

Krush is a renowned team player. The former Samford Fellowship winner led the 2008 bronze medal Olympic team in Dresden, Germany, and was part of the 2004 silver medal Olympic team in Mallorca, Spain. Krush, 26, hails from Brooklyn, NY, where she manages the New York Knights U.S. Chess League team. She is also a two-time U.S. Women's Champion and will be the only woman in this year's mixed event. Krush plans to play in the 2010 U.S. Women's Championship, set for Saint Louis from July 9-19.

Shankland, 18, is the top rated player under 21 who was not already slated to play in the U.S. Championship. GMs Robert Hess, Aleksandr Lenderman and Ray Robson qualified by rating and winning the U.S. Junior, respectively. Shankland won a gold medal for the U.S. at the 2008 World Youth Championship in Vietnam. He currently has two grandmaster norms, and is ardently searching for his third, which will qualify him for the title. The incoming Brandeis University freshman called the U.S. Championship his "dream tournament for the year." He maintains a blog (samshankland.blogspot.com) and website (www.samshankland.com).

Another recent addition to the U.S. Championship field is IM Levon Altounian of Arizona, who bested competitors from all over the country by winning the ICC Tournament of State Champions. Altounian wrote a story on Chess Life Online http://main.uschess.org/content/view/10313/141/ about his quest to qualification.

"It is very exciting to play at the U.S. Championship, the most important event of the year," Altounian said. "I am very proud to be a part of this elite group."

The complete list of players includes the following: