Chess Room Newsletter #692

Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club Newsletter #692
December 12, 2014

There is no professional chess and non-professional chess, there is only chess. And we will have discipline.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, explaining FIDE’s zero tolerance rule to interviewer Danny King
http://en.chessbase.com/post/king-talks-with-kirsan

1) Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club News

11-year-old Hans Niemann’s seventh round win over National Master Uyanga Byamaa has clinched him no worse than a tie for first, with one game remaining in the Fall Tuesday Night Marathon. A point back of Niemann’s 7-0 score are National Master Russell Wong and Expert Ashik Uzzaman.

Black to move (Askin–Shaw after 24 Nd4)	White to move (Tsodikova–Poling after 9...Rg8)
White to move (Lkhagvasuren–Thornally after 12...Qc7)	White to move (Sherwood–Hakobyan after 8...Qb6)
White to move (Lin–Brown after 10...f5)	Black to move (Robertson–Yamamoto after 22 Bd3)
	For the solutions, see the game scores for round 7.

Hikaru Nakamura won the London Super Rapidplay Open with an outstanding score of 9½/10, drawing only Matthew Sadler. Second on his own, a full point behind Nakamura on 8½, was Anish Giri of the Netherlands. Ten players shared third place on 8 points: Fabiano Caruana (Italy), Vishy Anand (India), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Nigel Short, Nick Pert and Simon Williams (all England), Alex Lenderman and Daniel Naroditsky (both USA), Eric Hansen (Canada), and Alon Greenfeld (Israel).

Daniel had another great result, beating GMs Speelman and Van Wely and drawing Kramnik in the final three rounds.

Trompowsky A45
Loek Van Wely–Daniel Naroditsky
London Chess Classic (rapid) 2014

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 Ne4 3.Bf4 Nc6 4.Nf3 d5 5.e3 Bg4 6.h3 Bxf3 7.gxf3 Nf6 8.c4 e6 9.Qb3 Bb4+ 10.Nc3 0–0 11.0–0–0 dxc4 12.Qxc4 Qxc4 Bxc3 13.bxc3 Nd5 14.Bg3 Qe7 15.Kb2 a5 16.e4 Nb6 17.Qb3 a4 18.Qa3 Qd7 19.c4 Na5 20.Qc5 a3+ 21.Ka1 Qa4 22.Rc1 Qb3 23.Qb5 Qxf3 24.Rg1 Qxe4 25.Qe5 Qxe5 26.Bxe5 f6 27.Bxc7 Nd7 28.Bg2 Rfc8 29.Bxa5 Rxa5 30.Bxb7 Rc7 31.Bf3 e5 32.Rgd1 exd4 33.Rxd4 Kf8 34.Bd5 Nb6 35.Be4 Rac5 36.Bxh7 Nxc4 37.Rd3 g6 38.Bxg6 Ne5 39.Rxc5 Rxc5 40.Rxa3 Nxg6 41.Kb2 Ne5 42.Rc3 Rd5 0-1

Congratulations to former Mechanics’ U.S. Chess League member Samuel Sevian, who at 13 years, 10 months and 27 days old, recently broke the record for the youngest U.S. Grandmaster, eclipsing Ray Robson’s record by almost a year.

High-schoolers Yian Liou and Kesav Viswanadha, current and past members of the Mechanics’ US Chess League team, recently received their International Master titles.

Eduardo Bauzá Mercere kindly shares two more games he found from Emanuel Lasker’s visit to the Mechanics’ Institute in late 1902.

Champion Lasker yesterday afternoon, at the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club, played five blindfolded simultaneous chess games, winning four and losing one. The players who opposed him were T. D. Black, Dr. B. Marshall, Harvey Dana, Richard Ott and J. J. Dolan. The game the champion lost was won by Dr. B. Marshall, the well-known local player. In his game with Dolan, Dr. Lasker, after the twenty-third move, announced mate in four moves.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, December 28, 1902, p. 20

Ruy Lopez C62
Emanuel Lasker–Benjamin Marshall
San Francisco (blindfold simul) December 27, 1902

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. d4 exd4 5. Qxd4 Bd7 6. Bxc6 Bxc6 7. Nc3 Nf6 8. Bg5 Be7 9. O-O-O O-O 10. Rhe1 Nd7 11. h4 h6 12. Bxe7 Qxe7 13. Qe3 Qf6 14. Ne2 Rae8 15. Ng3 a6 16. Nd4 Qxh4 17. Ndf5 Qf6 18. Rg1 Bxe4 19. Nxg7 Qxg7 20. Nxe4 Nc5 21. f3 f5 22. g4 fxe4 23. f4 Kf7 24. g5 hxg5 25. a3 g4 26. Rd5 Rg8 27. Rg5 Qf6 28. R1xg4 Rxg5 29. fxg5 Qf1+ 30. Kd2 Ke7 31. b4 Ne6 32. Rxe4 Kd7 33. g6 Qg2+ 0-1

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, January 25, 1903, p. 25

The following little sparklet shows how Dr. Emmanuel [sic] Lasker defeated George Thompson, a well-known local expert, in brilliant style. The game was played New Year’s eve at the Mechanics Institute Chess Club and will be found exceptionally interesting, as the champion was conducting eleven other games and conceded the first move to all his opponents.

Albin Counter Gambit D08
George R. Thompson–Emanuel Lasker
San Francisco (simul) December 31, 1902

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 d4 4. e3 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 dxe3 6. Bxb4 exf2+ 7. Ke2 fxg1=N+ 8. Ke1 Qh4+ 9. Kd2 Nc6 10.Kc3 Bg4 11. Qd5 Rd8 12. Qe4 Be2 13. Qe3 Qxc4 0-1

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, January 25, 1903, p. 25

Many thanks to Jamie Duif Calvin, who recently made a very generous gift of chess books and chess clocks to the Mechanics’ Institute in memory of her chess mentor International Master Boris Kogan, “who believed that an interest in chess should be supported with a strong foundation of technical study as well as an appreciation for the great games of the past.”

Kogan (1940-1993) was the Soviet Junior Champion in 1956 and 1957, but not long after his successes was encouraged to become a trainer and stopped playing seriously. He only became an International Master in 1981, the year he immigrated to the United States. A nine-time Georgia state champion (he settled in Atlanta), Kogan played in three US Championships.

Encouraged to become a trainer at a time when Jewish players in the Soviet Union didn’t always get a fair deal, Kogan became an excellent coach. Upon his arrival in the United States he worked primarily with older players, but also coached Stuart Rachels who tied for first in the 1989 U.S. Championship. Rachels remembers the fantastic notebooks Boris complied of carefully-selected training positions. One wonders what happened to this “gold”, which deserves to be published.

At the request of Kerry Lawless I have undertaken the reprinting of Scaccic Voice and Chess Voice.

As you know, Scaccic Voice and Chess Voice was published from 1968 to 1985. It started off as a Central California chess publication but later became a Northern California chess publication. So far the first four volumes have appeared: Scaccic Voice / Chess Voice No. 1-21 1968–71 ISBN 487187978X. You can see this online at http://www.amazon.com/dp/487187978X

Central California Chess Voice 1971-1976 (including one issue inserted) ISBN 4871879798
Northern California Chess Voice 1976-79 Vol. 9-11  ISBN 4871879801
Northern California Chess Voice 1979-1982 Vol. 12-14 ISBN 487187981X

You can see them through the following links:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871879801
http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871879798
http://www.amazon.com/dp/487187981X

Could you please announce this in your newsletter. I believe many Northern California players will be interested in this. There are a lot of good games annotated, especially by R. E. Fauber.

Sam Sloan

2) Saidy wins tournament ahead of Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer unquestionably dominated American chess after winning his first US Championship in early January of 1958, but things didn’t always go his way in the late 1950s. Witness the following article on a blitz tournament that is definitely taken from the New York Times (we believe it was published on March 22, 1959). Hermann Helms is likely the reporter of this uncredited piece.

Saidy Takes Tourney

Anthony F. Saidy, a former Fordham player and captain of the United States team in the student’s tournament at Varna, Bulgaria, was the winner of the second masters’ rapid-transit tournament at the Manhattan Chess Club with a won-and-lost record of 10 1/2 - 1 1/2. He lost only to Arthur B. Bisguier and drew with Abe Turner. James T. Sherwin, with an 8-4 record, was runner-up and Pal Benko, 7 1/2 - 4 1/2 took third prize. Bobby Fischer had an off-day. His score of 7-5 was equaled by Walter J. Shipman.

Saidy remembers that he was Black in his game with Bobby and that the opening began 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.f4 (maybe 6.h4 h6 was interpolated) 6…e6 7.Nf3 Nd7 etc. He writes: “Fischer pressed on the kingside and played f4-f5 prematurely, so I castled long and broke open the center and ultimately won. I’m not certain but vaguely recall Fischer may have has a cold.”

3) Here and There

The Internet Chess Club (ICC) and the United States Chess Federation (USCF) started USCF online-rated tournaments on the ICC on October 6, when they held a 7-round blitz Swiss at a time control of 3 minutes per side plus 2 second increment from move one. Membership in both the ICC and USCF was required.

The London Chess Classic, a six-player event, takes place from December 10 to 14. The six players competing are Fabiano Caruana, Viswanathan Anand, Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura, Vladimir Kramnik and Michael Adams.

“He was the most humorous person I ever knew. Genius level”, writes International Master Anthony Saidy of Los Angeles. He recommends checking out Mikhail Tal’s final interview at http://www.chessmastery.co.uk/interviews/the-final-interview-of-mikhail-tal/.