Gens Una Sumus!
Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club Newsletter #591
July 4, 2012
It is no longer the old-fashioned game, when two big champions play the game and one is smoking a cigar while the other one is drinking coffee, and they look at the board, and it takes ages to make a move. Every move is like an enigma for those who do not belong to this temple of ultimate chess truths. Now they just look at the computer screen, push a button, move the mouse, touch the screen, and the machine can give you quite an objective evaluation. If it’s a bad move, the machine will show that it’s a bad move. The machines don’t know everything, but you can no longer hide behind the authority of the player who made the move.
—Garry Kasparov
• IM Marc Arnold (2612)
1) Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club News
NM Peter Zavadsky is in the driver’s seat with one round remaining in the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon. The 40-year-old native of Slovakia has reeled off five straight wins after entering the competition with two half-point byes. His score of 6-1 puts him a half point ahead of Class B(!) player Brendan Lacounte, who, despite being rated only 1772, has defeated four consecutive Experts. The two will face off in the last round, while a large group on 5 points, which includes IM Elliott Winslow and FM Andy Lee, will battle for the remaining top prizes.
The Mechanics’ roster for the 2012 US Chess League season will place an emphasis on youth, with half the players 16 years old or younger.
GM Vinay Bhat
GM Jesse Kraai
IM Daniel Naroditsky
IM Dmitry Zilberstein
IM John Donaldson
FM Samuel Sevian
FM Yian Liou
FM Andy Lee
NM Cameron Wheeler
NM Kesav Wisanadha
The season will start in late August, with matches played weekly on Mondays and Wednesdays.
The Mechanics’ Chess Club is proud to announce that Dr. Joseph Ponterotto of Fordham University will give a lecture on August 7th, from 5:15 to 6:15 pm, on his recently-released book Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer. All are welcome to attend this free talk.
The winners of the last two Mechanics’ Wednesday Night Blitz Tournaments:
June 20 - 1st IM Elliott Winslow; 2nd Brad Diller; 3rd Jan Jettel
June 27 - =1st IM Elliott Winslow and Carlos Davila; 3rd Brad Diller
2) Field, Prizes Increased for 2012 U.S. Junior Closed Championship, by Mike Wilmering
SAINT LOUIS, June 26, 2012 -- The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis has increased both the size of the field and the prize fund for the 2012 U.S. Junior Closed Championship, scheduled from July 10 through July 15.
Organizers increased the field from 10 players to 16 due to a misunderstanding on current regulations. The U.S. Chess Federation verified some invitations, but inadvertently overlooked one qualifying tournament and one invitation by rating. Thanks to additional sponsorship by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, the USCF and software development company ConRadical, the prize fund for this prestigious event has been increased to a record-breaking $18,000.
To accommodate the larger field, the organizers modified the format of the Junior Championship. The group of 16 will be split into two fields of eight players each. The eight players will play one another in a round robin, and the winner of each field will play a head-to-head, two-game match for the title. If the score is tied after two games, there will be a playoff to determine the 2012 U.S. Junior Closed Champion. The list of invited players and current USCF ratings is as follows:
• IM Conrad Holt (2580)
• IM Darwin Yang (2562)
• IM Daniel Naroditsky (2552)
• FM Victor Shen (2532)
• NM Robert Perez (2519)
• NM Will Fisher (2436)
• NM Eric Rosen (2422)
• FM Alec Getz (2410)
• FM Jeffery Xiong (2394)
• NM Raven Sturt (2387)
• NM Atulya Shetty (2379)
• FM Kayden Troff (2368)
• NM Justus Williams (2318)
• NM Kevin Cao (2230)
• Matthew Michaelides (2164)
The 2012 U.S. Junior Closed Champion also will receive invitations to the 2013 U.S. Championship, 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship and the 2012 World Junior Championship, scheduled to be held August 1 through August 16 in Athens, Greece.
For more information on the players, prizes, rules and tournament format, please visit http://saintlouischessclub.org/2012-us-junior-closed-championship.
3) Here and There
The July FIDE rating list is out and Magnus Carlsen is now at his highest rating, 14 points from Garry Kasparov’s peak.
1. Carlsen NOR 2837 9 1990
2. Aronian ARM 2816 15 1982
3. Kramnik RUS 2799 15 1975
4. Radjabov AZE 2788 9 1987
5. Anand IND 2780 12 1969
6. Karjakin RUS 2779 0 1990
7. Nakamura USA 2778 23 1987
8. Caruana ITA 2775 22 1992
9. Morozevich RUS 2770 9 1977
11. Grischuk RUS 2763 9 1983
12. Topalov BUL 2752 0 1975
13. Svidler RUS 2749 4 1976
14. Kamsky USA 2744 11 1974
15. Wang Hao CHN 2739 10 1989
16. Gelfand ISR 2738 12 1968
17. Gashimov AZE 2737 0 1986
18. Jakovenko RUS 2736 0 1983
19. Tomashevsky RUS 2733 9 1987
20. Bologan MDA 2732 9 1971
21. Jobava GEO 2730 10 1983
22. Leko HUN 2730 7 1979
23. Mamedyarov AZE 2726 0 1985
24. Ponomariov UKR 2726 0 1983
25. Dominguez CUB 2725 10 1983
26. Adams ENG 2723 14 1971
27. Riazantsev RUS 2720 13 1985
28. Nepomniachtchi RUS 2718 10 1990
29. Wojtaszek POL 2717 0 1987
30. Fressinet FRA 2714 9 1981
Top 10 Women:
1. Ju.Polgar HUN 2709 0 1976
2. Hou Yifan CHN 2617 15 1994
3. A.Muzychuk SLO 2606 14 1990
4. Koneru IND 2598 11 1987
5. Zhao Xue CHN 2556 19 1985
6. Dzagnidze GEO 2547 0 1987
7. Lahno UKR 2537 15 1989
8. Gunina RUS 2533 3 1989
9. T.Kosintseva RUS 2530 11 1986
10. Cmilyte LTU 2525 11 1983
FM Andy Lee won the Berkeley Open held June 30th and July 1st with a score of 3.5 from 4. Lee’s only draw was with young Expert Jack Zhu, who tied for second at 3 points with NM Hayk Manvelyan and another young expert, Alan Beilen.
The tournament was honored by the participation of 88-year-old Carl Pilnick, who scored 1.5 from 2 against Expert-rated opposition, before taking a bye in round 3 and then withdrawing. Pilnick is the second-oldest living US Championship participant (he first played in 1942) behind 91-year-old Phillip Geffe (Woliston), who played in the 1940 U.S. Championship.
The multi-section Berkeley Open, which attracted 72 participants, was organized and directed by Richard Koepcke.
Congratulations to 11-year South Bay Expert Cameron Wheeler, who beat his first GM (Gildardo Garcia of Colombia) in the recently concluded Philadelphia International and scored a very creditable 4½–4½.
The following news item about Northwest Chess, the oldest continuous regional magazine (published monthly since 1947) comes from Rusty Miller:
Frank Niro named as Northwest Chess interim editor
Northwest Chess Publisher Duane Polich announced today that Frank Niro has been named interim editor of Northwest Chess. He will serve in the role for a period of about six months and will be training Jeffrey Roland, currently the Idaho editor, to eventually step into the role of editor. While in training Jeff will serve as the assistant editor.
Frank has served as editor of Chess Horizons magazine of Massachusetts and brings considerable experience and chess background to the job. Frank and Jeff will start with the August issue, which will be a special U.S. Open edition, where additional copies will be printed out and given to participants in the event, scheduled for August 4-12 in Vancouver, Washington.
Fred Kleist, who returned as editor with the November 2011 issue of Northwest Chess, is thanked for his service as editor dating back to the May 1989 issue that he co-edited, and including 70 issues from November 2002 to August 2008 and October 2008. Fred now stands fourth on the all-time NWC editors list in term of number of issues edited.
Northwest Chess is a non-profit organization which publishes Northwest Chess magazine representing the Washington Chess Federation (WCF), the Oregon Chess Federation (OCF) and the Idaho Chess Association (ICA).
NM John Blackstone of Las Vegas passes along the following game, that won the best game prize in the California Major Tourney of 1934.
King’s Indian E67
C. Howland - D. Vedensky
California 1934
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 d6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.g3 0-0 6.Bg2 Nbd7 7.0-0 a5 8.Bf4 Nb6 9.b3 Bd7 10.Qd2 Re8 11.h3 Bc6 12.Bh6 Bh8 13.d5 Bd7 14.Ng5 Qc8 15.Rae1 a4 16.e4 axb3 17.axb3 Nh5 18.g4 Ng7 19.f4 f6 20.Nf3 e6 21.f5 gxf5 22.g5 Nh5 23.Nh4 Ng3 24.Rf3 Nxe4 25.Nxe4 fxe4 26.Rxf6 Bxf6 27.gxf6 Kf7 28.Qg5 Rg8 29.Bg7 exd5 30.Qh5+ Ke6 31.cxd5+ Nxd5 32.Rxe4# 1-0
Source: (Syracuse Journal, May 19, page 6)
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