Chess Room Newsletter #707

Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club Newsletter #707
June 5, 2015

The 52nd Arthur Stamer Memorial will be held this Saturday and Sunday at the Mechanics’.

1) Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club News

International Master Elliott Winslow heads a group of 11 players who have perfect scores after two rounds of the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon. It’s still possible to enter the eight-round event, which currently has 95 players, with half-point byes for rounds one and two.

White to move (Manvelyan–Hack after 24...h6)	Black to move (Joyce–Anderson after 15 Bd3)
White to move (Senthilkumar–Chea after 21...cxd4)	Black to move (Agdamag–Khristoforov after 27 Qxc2)
White to move (Nyangar–Harris after 41...Ne5)	White to move (Chalissery–Kondakov after 37...Nd4)
White to move (Montoya–Delaney after 23...Bxe5)	For the solutions, see the game scores for round 2.

Grandmaster Sam Shankland will be playing in the Edmonton International from June 20-28. Among those participating besides Sam are Vassily Ivanchuk, Wang Hao and Indian Grandmasters Pentala Harikrishna and Surya Shekhar Ganguly.

14-year-old Jeffrey Xiong made his third and final Grandmaster norm in winning the Chicago Open over Memorial Day Weekend. Foster City Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky was among those tied for second. Daniel will play in the Benasque Open (Spain), the Politiken Cup (Denmark) and the Riga Open (Latvia) this summer.

Mike Anderson supplies the following game (with commentary) by former Mechanics’ Chess Club member Hans Niemann.

This game is an example of how to checkmate with only two knights ... when the opponent has an extra pawn. It is a fairly rare endgame where this happens. This is truly an exceptional endgame by young 11-year-old Hans.

King’s Indian E94
Hans Niemann–Vignesh Panchanatham
Chicago Open 2015

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0–0 6.Be2 Na6 7.0–0 e5 8.Be3 Ng4 9.Bg5 Qe8 10.h3 h6 11.Bc1 exd4 12.Nxd4 Nf6 13.Bf3 Qe5 14.Re1 Rd8 15.b3 Nh7 16.Be3 Ng5 17.Ndb5 c6 18.Bd4 Qf4 19.Bxg7 Nxf3+ 20.Qxf3 Qxf3 21.gxf3 Kxg7 22.Nd4 Bxh3 23.Rad1 Nc7 24.Kh2 Bc8 25.Rd2 Kf6 26.f4 Ne6 27.Nde2 a5 28.Red1 Ke7 29.Na4 Rb8 30.Nb6 Nc5 31.e5 Ne4 32.Rd4 Bf5 33.f3 dxe5 34.Rxd8 Rxd8 35.Rxd8 Kxd8 36.fxe4 Bg4 37.Nc1 exf4 38.Nd3 g5 39.c5 Be6 40.Ne5 Kc7 41.Nbc4 a4 42.Nd2 b6 43.cxb6+ Kxb6 44.bxa4 Ka5 45.Nxc6+ Kxa4 46.Nb1 h5 47.Nc3+ Ka3 48.Nd5 f5 49.Nd4 fxe4 50.Nxe6 e3 51.Nxg5 e2 52.Nf3 Kxa2 53.Nc3+ Kb3 54.Nxe2 h4 55.Kh3 Kc4 56.Kxh4 Kd3 57.Ned4 Ke4 58.Kg5 Kd5 59.Kf5 Kc4 60.Ke4 Kc5 61.Ne2 Kc4 62.Kf5 Kd3 63.Ned4 Kc4 64.Ke4 Kc5 65.Kd3 Kd5 66.Nb3 Kd6 67.Kd4 Ke6 68.Ke4 Kd6 69.Kd4 Ke6 70.Nbd2 Kd6 71.Kc4 Ke6 72.Nf1 Kd6 73.N1h2 Ke6 74.Kc5 Kd7 75.Ng4 Ke6 76.Nf2 Kd7 77.Ne4 Ke6 78.Nd6 Kd7 79.Nb5 Ke6 80.Nbd4+ Kd7 81.Kd5 Kc7 82.Ke6 Kb6 83.Kd6 Kb7 84.Nb5 Kb6 85.Nc3 Ka5 86.Kc5 Ka6 87.Nd5 Ka5 88.Nb6 Ka6 89.Nc4 Kb7 90.Kd6 Kc8 91.Na5 Kd8 92.Nb7+ Ke8 93.Ke6 Kf8 94.Nd6 Kg7 95.Kf5

Black to move

There is only one move that draws in this position... can you find it?

95...Kh6??

The draw is secured by Kh7. After Kh6 there is a mate in 10, but who can calculate a mate in 10, aside from Houdini and super strong GMs? Will the 11-year old Hans be able to find it?

Here is the only drawing line: 95 ... Kh7 96 Kf6 Kh6 97 Nf7+ Kh5 98 N7e5 Kh6 99 Kf7 Kh5 100 Ke6 Kh6 101 Kf6 Kh5 102 Kf5 Kh6 103 Nd7 Kg7 104 Ke6 Kg8 105 Ke7 Kh8 106 Kf7 and here Black can claim a draw under the 50–move rule (last capture was 56 Kxh4), although the position is won by 106 ... Kh7 107 Nf8+ Kh6 108 Kf6 Kh5 109 Kf5 Kh6 110 Ne6 Kh5 111 Ng7+ Kh6 and 112 Kf6 reaches the same position as after 98 Kf6 during the game.

An alternative 95 ... Kg8 96 Kg6 Kf8 97 Kf6 Kg8 98 Ne8 Kf8 99 Ng7 Kg8 100 Ne6 Kh8 101 Kg6 Kg8 102 Ne5 f3 103 Nd7 f2 104 Nf6+ Kh8 105 Nd8 f1Q 106 Nf7# has White winning just in time.

96.Ne8!!

He does. Ne8 wins.

96...Kh5 97.Ng7+ Kh6 98.Kf6 Kh7 99.Nf5 Kg8 100.Ke7 Kh7 101.Kf7 Kh8 102.Ng5 f3 103.Ne7 f2 104.Ng6# 1–0

Black is mated

2) Berkeley Chess School news

Six-time U.S. Champion Walter Browne and International Master Elliott Winslow tied for first in the Boris Siff Senior Championship, held May 29–31 in Berkeley. The two winners, who drew in round three, scored 3½ from 4 and split $600. Michael Walder, who lost only to Browne, was third with three points.

The tournament, which was open to players 55 and over, was directed by Kerry Lawless for the Berkeley Chess School. Organizer Elizabeth Shaughnessy hopes to make this an annual event.

Grand Master Sam Shankland will teach a special morning class for adults and juniors rated 1800–2200 in Berkeley the week of June 29th. There will be four classes, starting Tuesday June 30 and running through Friday, July 3rd. 10:00 am to 12:00 noon each day.

Cost is $160 for the class and it will be located at the site of the Berkeley Chess School's summer camp, 1581 Le Roy Avenue, in Berkeley Please contact Marc Newman at 510-843-0150 or [email protected] if you have any questions or are interested in registering

3) Anand on the effect of computers in chess

Former World Champion Viswanathan Anand gave a very interesting interview to Priyadarshan Banjan earlier this year; it appeared on the ChessBase website.

You can find the article in its entirety at http://en.chessbase.com/post/bringing-chess-into-the-spotlight-2.

Kunal: Anand, how much has the emergence of computers and all these information being available to you constantly all the time, changed your sport over the last 20-25 years?

Anand: It’s night and day. Computers have brought this forward so much. For instance when I was growing up in order to acquire the experience people used to say: well, he needs about seven or eight years of experience and then he’s ready to challenge for this or to try for that. Now, you think six months, because computers collect all the information, they present it to you instantly, and if you have any doubts you don’t need to discuss it with another strong player – you can just ask the computer, because quite often the computer itself will give you the answer. In the event you need to talk to another player, you do it online – on Skype or with a phone, whereas there are years I remember where I had to write down stuff I wanted to ask someone and then wait for the next time we happened to be in the same city together. The way you can consult and ask questions and clarify your thoughts has changed so much that people get much stronger much younger.

When I became a grandmaster at the age of eighteen, I was the youngest grandmaster in the world. Now I would have to be eleven to be the youngest grandmaster in the world. So that age is descending fast, and in fact chess is getting much, much younger, and one of the reasons is because of computers. The other thing computers have done is to level the geographic playing field. Once upon a time if you wanted to become a good chess player, it was ideal to be born in Russia. If you couldn’t be born in Russia, if you had to be born in India, then Chennai was a good bet, and so on. Now it doesn’t matter. You can be in some island in the Pacific – it’ll still hurt, the lack of contact, because you won’t make the initial friend and you won’t interact, but a big part of the gap has disappeared, which is why the top ten now is filled with players from countries which never had a top ten player for the last hundred years. You can see how computers are changing the game.

4) Carroll Capps Winners

Carroll M. Capps Memorial Winners (the event is traditionally held the second weekend of November)

1971 Julio Kaplan
1972 Craig Barnes
1973 James Tarjan
1974 Walter Browne
1975 David Strauss and Paul Cornelius
1976 Jay Whitehead and Max Burkett
1977 Jeremy Silman and Cicero Braga
1978 Tournament Cancelled
1979 (July) Nick deFirmian and (November) ???
1980 John Grefe, Jay Whitehead and Charles Powell
1981 Peter Biyiasas and John Grefe
1982 Jeremy Silman, Peter Biyiasas, Alan Pollard and Vince McCambridge
1983 Peter Biyiasa, Craig Mar and Victor Baja
1984 Charles Powell, Victor Baja and Bill Orton
1985 Nick deFirmian, Peter Biyiasa, Charles Powell and Rudolfo Hernandez
1986 Igor Ivanov and Jay Whitehead
1987 Marc Leski, John Grefe and Gustavo Darcy Lima
1988 Guillermo Rey, Bill Orton and Romulio Fuentes
1989 Vladimir Strugatsky, Charles Powell and Rudolfo Hernandez
1990 Loal Davis
1991 Walter Browne, Jay Whitehead, and Greg Kotlyar
1992 Walter Browne and Renard Anderson
1993 John Grefe, Emmanuel Perez and Adrian Keatinge-Clay
1994 Craig Mar, John Grefe and Rostislav Tsodikov
1995 Enrico Sevillano and Joe Weber
1996 Igor Ivanov and Omar Cartagena
1997 Alexander Baburin
1998 Mladen Vucic, Mark Pinto, Omar Cartagena, Ron Cusi and Jonathan Baker
1999 Russell Wong, Paul Gallegos, David Blohm, Walter Shipman, Agnis Kaugars, Keith Vickers and Larry Snyder
2000 Kenneth Hills and Ryan Porter
2001 Ricardo DeGuzman
2002 Ricardo DeGuzman and Victor Ossipov
2003 Ricardo DeGuzman and Batsaikhan Tserendorj
2004 Nicolas Yap
2005 Ricardo DeGuzman and Ron Cusi
2006 Batchimeg Tuvshintugs
2007 Ricardo DeGuzman
2008 Ricardo DeGuzman
2009 Ricardo DeGuzman and Andy Lee
2010 Vladimir Mezentsev
2011 Ricardo DeGuzman
2012 Hayk Manvelyan and Michael Lin
2013 Ricardo DeGuzman and Gabriel Bick
2014 Paul Gallegos and Andrew Hong

The 1978 event was scheduled for the normal dates, the second week of November, but canceled at the last minute. A tournament was held in July of 1979 and another was advertised in Chess Voice to be held in November of that year. All indications are that it was held. We have been unable to find results for this event and ask for assistance.

5) FIDE Arbiter Seminar, June 16-28, 2015 in Las Vegas

This seminar will take place immediately before the Las Vegas International Chess Festival. The cost is $125 until 5/25, and $150 after that date. The lecturer will be IA Carol Jarecki. For more information and registration, please visit http://www.vegaschessfestival.com/2015/01/fide-arbiters-seminar-added-to-festival/

The Arbiters Seminar is required for individuals interested in pursuing the title of FIDE Arbiter. Upon the conclusion of the seminar there will be a written examination which participants must successfully pass with a score of 80%. Topics of discussion include the FIDE Laws of Chess, tournament rules, tie-break systems, pairing procedures, title and rating regulations, anti-cheating, and electronic clocks.

Sign up soon!

6) This is the end

This is a classic study. Can Black win this one?

White to move

Show solution

This study is attributed to Giaocchino Greco (1600-c. 1634)

1 Ra8+ Rf8 2 Rxf8+ Kxf8

and now the point: 3 Bh6!!

Black to move

The idea is that a bishop and rook pawn cannot win unless the bishop is the same color as the promotion square (h1, which is light). Since Black has only a dark-squared bishop, if he has a single rook pawn, the position will be drawn. But the same is also true if he has two, three, or more rook pawns on the same file.

So if Black plays 3 . gxh6, it’s an easy draw for White; for example, 4 Kh5 Kg7 5 Kg4 Kg6 6 Kh3 h5 7 Kh2 h4 8 Kh3 Kg5 9 Kh2 Kg4 10 Kh1 Be5 11 Kg2 h3+ 12 Kh1 h2 13 Kg2 h5 14 Kh1 h4 15 Kg2 h3+ 16 Kh1 and Black must either give up the h2-pawn, or give stalemate.

Okay, taking the proffered bishop doesn’t win, so suppose Black doesn’t take it: 3 ... Kf7 4 Bxg7 Kxg7 and it’s the same draw.

Then why not avoid losing the g-pawn by playing 3 ... g6? You figure that one out.