Chess Room Newsletter #599 | Mechanics' Institute

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Chess Room Newsletter #599

Gens Una Sumus!

Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club Newsletter #599
September 19, 2012


I have a method for learning an opening or a defense that I strongly recommend for everyone. I choose a “guide” as my mentor. It really is a fabulous way to learn a main line. Had I, for instance, decided to play the Grunfeld Defense, as my guide I would have chosen Peter Svidler. I would study how he handled certain variations and mimic his solutions for them. If I had chosen the King’s Indian Defense, I would have picked Garry Kasparov or Teimur Radjabov’s. We should pick the greatest practitioners as our guide for our chosen line. After all, they would have spent weeks and months agonizing over the latest refutation to their favorite line. Let them blaze the trail.

—Yasser Seirawan, September 2012 Chess Life, p. 29-30

1) Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club News

Thanks to the generosity of Tibor Weinberger the Mechanics’ Institute will be holding the Third Imre Konig Memorial this weekend (September 22-23). The event, which commemorates the 20th anniversary of the death of International Master Konig, the first top rate player to reside in San Francisco, will be held as a seven-player round-robin, featuring a rapid chess time control of Game in 30 minutes, with a 15-second increment from move one.

The invited players consist of the top six rated players from the Bay Area-Grandmasters
Sam Shankland, Nick de Firmian, Vinay Bhat, Jesse Kraai and Walter Browne, and International Master Daniel Naroditsky.

The last player, Grandmaster
Emil Anka of Hungary, pays respect to Konig’s ancestry as an international cosmopolitan who was born in the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Kula, in today’s Serbia.

Konig studied in Vienna and improved his game in its chess cafe milieu, being particularly influenced by
Richard Reti. Like the Czech, he earned a reputation as a fine author with his Chess from Morphy to Botvinnik: A Century of Chess Evolution serving as a useful instructional guide to several generations of chess players.

Konig was not only a fine writer, but also an excellent player, who twice represented Yugoslavia in Chess Olympiads. He is fondly remembered by Mechanics’ old-timers for his Old World courtliness and generosity of spirit in sharing his chess wisdom. The Mechanics’ Institute is honored to pay tribute to his memory.

Round times are:

Saturday - 10am, noon, 2pm, and 4pm
Sunday - 10am, noon and 2pm

All are welcome to attend this event which will feature live complementary by the tournament participants (one is free each round) and
IM David Pruess (on Saturday).


IM Elliott Winslow won again in the Henry Mar Tuesday Night Marathon, and now stands on 8 from 8 after defeating Expert Demetrius Goins, but he hasn’t clinched clear first yet. NM Romy Fuentes, who lost to Winslow in round 5, is still chasing him with 7 points and is looking for some help in the last round.

The Mechanics’ entry in the US Chess League remains undefeated after the first three rounds, but has also still to win its first match. Last Monday (September 17) the result was 2-2 versus against the St. Louis Arch Bishops.
St. Louis 2 vs San Francisco 2

1.        GM Ben Finegold (STL) vs GM Vinay Bhat (SF) 1/2-1/2
2.        FM Yian Liou (SF) vs IM Priyadharshan Kannappan (STL) 1/2-1/2
3.        IM Levan Bregadze (STL) vs FM Samuel Sevian (SF) 1-0
4.        FM Andy Lee (SF) vs Matthew Larson (STL) 1-0
To learn more about the US Chess League go to http://uschessleague.com/

The Mechanics’ team blog is at http://www.chess.com/members/view/SFMechanics


Jules Jelinek, Weekly Wednesday Night Blitz Coordinator, writes:

Helllo everyone,

Come join the fun. The past several weeks we have been 7 players typically showing up. Why not come and be the 8th or 9th player tonight!

It is time for the weekly blitz tournament starts at Mechanics Institute Chess Club. As always, the last entry is accepted at 6:40 pm, with sign-up beginning at 6:20 pm. Entry is $10 with clock, $11 without clock. Prizes are 50%, 30%, 20% of entry fees. Time control preferably is 3 minute increment 2 seconds; otherwise 5 minutes no increment.

Last week’s winners were:
1st - Arthur Ismakov
2nd - Jules Jelinek
3rd - Gabriel Nguyen

Expert Nicholas Karas won the 12th Annual Howard Donnelly Memorial G/45 on September 15th in impressive fashion defeating top seeds NMs Romy Fuentes and Kesav Viswanathan in the last two rounds. Fuentes and Expert Arthur Ismakov shared second in the 42-player event. The next G/45, the J.J. Dolan, is October 6th.


2) News about Metropolitan Chess, Inc. for August 2012, by Ankit Gupta

Since there has been no reigning world champion that has been brought to the United States, in recent years, for the purpose of teaching or camp instruction, we, Metropolitan Chess, Inc., wanted to try something outside of the box, and felt that inviting World Champion Viswanathan Anand to our camp would therefore be a natural fit.

From August 9th to 13th, undisputed World Champion Viswanathan Anand, along with another eight instructors, coached over 100 youth participants that had flocked to Los Angeles, some from afar, to meet the World Champion at the 2012 Metropolitan Chess Camp.

Some of the instructional sessions with GM Anand—split over a morning and evening session—to the higher-rated camp groups lasted over 5 hours per day.

GM Robert Hess gives a video interview of the impression of attendees with GM Anand: http://vimeo.com/48577813.

On the last day of the camp, Anand played some of the top-performing participants at the camp in a 20-board simultaneous exhibition. The simul was somewhat unusual in that it had several 2300 FIDE-rated players partaking, and an additional “vote chess” board which allowed the online audience to participate. The end result was 15 wins and 5 draws for the Indian Grandmaster.

This simul concluded the 5-day camp with World Champion Viswanathan Anand, whom Metropolitan Chess, Inc. is looking forward to again hosting in a future year.

You can keep up to date with future Metropolitan Chess, Inc. events at www.metrochessla.com.

3) Here and There

NM John Blackstone of Las Vegas sends in the following two games which were published on page 53 of the American Chess Bulletin of 1925.

Ruy Lopez C66 Fred Christensen - M. Odhuer East Bay versus San Francisco, 1925
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 d6 5.d4 Bd7 6.d5 Nb8 7.Bxd7+ Nbxd7 8.Re1 Be7 9.Qd3 0-0 10.Nh4 Nc5 11.Qf3 Nfxe4 12.Nf5 Nf6 13.Qg3 g6 14.Nc3 Kh8 15.Nh6 Qd7 16.b4 Na6 17.Rb1 Rae8 18.f4 Nh5 19.Qf3 exf4 20.Bxf4 Nxf4 21.Qxf4 f5 22.Re6 Bf6 23.Rxf6 Rxf6 24.Ng4 Rf7 25.Qd4+ Rg7 26.Nf6 Qe7 27.Nxe8 Qxe8 28.Kf2 b6 29.Re1 Qd8 30.Nb5 Nb8 31.Nxc7 1-0

Alekhines B02 P.Ellis- W. Smith
East Bay versus San Francisco, 1925

1.e4 Nf6 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.d4 d5 4.e5 Ne4 5.Bb5 Bf5 6.Qf3 Bg6 7.Nge2 e6 8.h4 h6 9.Nf4 Bh7 10.Nh5 a6 11.Bxc6+ bxc6 12.Bxh6 gxh6 13.Nxe4 dxe4 14.Nf6+ Ke7 15.Qa3+ Qd6 16.exd6+ Kxf6 17.Qc3 Bxd6 18.d5+ Be5 19.Qxc6 Rab8 20.dxe6 fxe6 21.g4 Rb6 22.Qd7 Rd6 23.g5+ Kg6 24.h5+ Kxg5 25.Qf7 Bf5 26.Qe7+ Bf6 27.Rg1+ Bg4 28.Rxg4+ 1-0


The 13th Karpov Poikovsky tournament will take place from September 27 to October 8 in Poykovskiy, Russia. Competing in the round robin event are:
Ponomariov Ruslan UKR 2729
Jakovenko Dmitry RUS 2724
Wojtaszek Radoslaw POL 2713
Bruzon Batista Lazaro CUB 2713
Bologan Viktor MDA 2712
Short Nigel ENG 2698
Rublevsky Sergei RUS 2693
Wang Yue CHN 2691
Onischuk Alexander USA 2672
Motylev Alexander RUS 2658

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