Gens Una Sumus!
Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club Newsletter #750
June 10, 2016
Possibly with the exception of Karpov, everybody gets into a bad position once in a while, so that's not a reason at all to simply lose them. You also have to find a way to save lost positions and try to win them. If possible.
—Tony Miles
1) Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club News
Three rounds into the 118-player Summer Tuesday Night Marathon International Master Elliott Winslow, FIDE Master Andy Lee, National Masters James Sun and Uyanga Byambaa and Experts Michael Walder and Ganesh Viswanath lead with 3–0 scores. It is still possible to enter the 8-round USCF- and FIDE-rated event with half-point byes for the first three rounds.
From round 3 of the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon:
 |  |
| Black to move (Harmon–Viswanath after 21 Qd1) | White to move (Hakobyan–Vickers after 29...Qxh5) |
 |  |
| Black to move (Ochoa–Smith after 53 Ke3) | Black to move (Babayan–Erickson after 17 f4) |
 |  |
| Black to move (Allen–Kim after 19 Kd1) | Black to move (Wonsever–Lesquillier after 21 g3) |
 | |
| Black to move (Starr–Nelson after 12 Ne2) | For the solutions, see the game scores for round 3. |
Wednesday Night Blitz, June 1
1st Jules Jelinek
2nd–3rd Patrick Donnelly and Christain Jensen
International Master Ricardo De Guzman dominated the 53rd Arthur Stamer Memorial, held June 4 and 5. The former member of the Philippines Olympiad team scored 5½ from 6 to top the 30-player event. Tying for second a point back were Expert Michael Da Cruz and Class A player Derek O'Connor. The latter had a very fine event, defeating Da Cruz, drawing with National Master Paul Gallegos (the only player to draw De Guzman) and losing only to De Guzman in a tough rook-and-pawn ending.
Other top finishers, ending up with 4 points, were Gallegos, Cailen Melville, Daniel McKellar and Alexander Tian Hu (rated 1710, with wins over two Class A players and losses only to De Guzman and Da Cruz). The upset prize winners were Alex Xiao, Nicholas Boldi, Agnes Wang, Ben Michaelsen and Nicholas Ziang, who were all awarded book prizes.
2) US Olympiad Teams for Baku Announced
Open
GM Fabiano Caruana
GM Hikaru Nakamura
GM Wesley So
GM Sam Shankland
GM Ray Robson
Women
GM Irina Krush
IM/WGM Anna Zatonskih
WGM Katerina Nemcova
IM/WGM Nazi Paikidze
WGM Sabina Foisor
John Donaldson will serve as captain of the Open team and Yasser Seirawan of the Women’s team. The Baku Olympiad runs from September 1 to 14.
3) Games of William Addison from the Monterey International 1969
Among the treasures large and small in Peter Grey’s chess archives were hundreds if not thousands of scoresheets. These were often passed on to him by George Koltanowski who was constantly receiving chess information in his duties as a tournament director and journalist.
The following three games by the late William Addison (International Master, MI Chess Director 1965–68, Interzonalist 1970, played on two US Olympiad teams in 1964 and 1966) come from Peter’s archives.
The William Addison Memorial (5 rounds G/45) will be played on Saturday, June 18 at the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club.
Old Indian A53
G. Oakes–William Addison
Monterey International (1) June 28, 1969
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nf3 Bf5 4.g3 h6 5.Bg2 c6 6.0–0 Nbd7 7.Nc3 Bh7 8.Nd2 e5 9.dxe5 dxe5 10.Nde4 Qc7 11.a3 Be7 12.b4 a5 13.b5 Bxe4 14.Nxe4 Nxe4 15.Bxe4 0–0 16.e3 Nc5 17.Bc2 Rad8 18.Qe2 Bf6 19.Bb2 Qe7 20.a4 e4 21.Bxf6 Qxf6 22.Rad1 g6 23.Rxd8 Rxd8 24.Rd1 h5 25.Rxd8+ Qxd8 26.Qd1 Qxd1+ 27.Bxd1 Kf8 28.f3 Ke7 29.Bc2 exf3 30.Kf2 Nd7 31.bxc6 bxc6 32.Be4 Ne5 33.c5 Kd7 34.h3 Kc7 35.Bc2 Nd7 36.Kxf3 Nxc5 37.e4 Kd6 38.Ke3 Ke5 39.Bb1 Nxa4 0-1
Nimzo-Indian E58
William Addison–Benjamin Gross
Monterey International (2) June 28, 1969
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 c5 5.Bd3 d5 6.Nf3 0–0 7.0–0 Nc6 8.a3 Bxc3 9.bxc3 Qc7 10.cxd5 exd5 11.Bb2 Re8 12.Re1 Bg4 13.Qb1 h6 14.Nd2 cxd4 15.cxd4 Rad8 16.f3 Bc8 17.Nb3 Qd6 18.a4 b6 19.a5 Nxa5 20.Nxa5 bxa5 21.Rxa5 Qb8 22.Ba3 Qxb1 23.Bxb1 Rd7 24.Bc5 Rb7 25.Rxa7 Rxa7 26.Bxa7 Ba6 27.Bc5 Bc4 28.Bc2 Rc8 29.Be7 Ne8 30.Bf5 Ra8 31.Bd7 Ra7 32.Bxe8 Rxe7 33.Ba4 Kf8 34.Rb1 Rxe3?? 35.Rb8+ Ke7 36.Re8+1–0
QGD Prins D50
William Addison–A. Van Gelder
Monterey International (4) June 29, 1969
Spencer Van Gelder was a better-known player, but the scoresheet clearly has A. Van Gelder written on it.
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 c5 5.cxd5 cxd4
This tricky and trappy line of the Queen’s Gambit is associated with the Dutch Grandmaster Lodewijk Prins.
6.Qxd4 Be7 7.e4 Nc6 8.Qd2
8...Nxe4
This piece sacrifice is theory. 8...Nxd5 and 8...exd5 have also been tried here.
9.Nxe4 exd5 10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.Qxd5 0–0 12.f3 Nb4 13.Qc5
13.Qc4 brought White victory in Saidy–Bisguier, Tallinn 1971.
13...Qxc5 14.Nxc5 Nc2+ 15.Kd2 Nxa1 16.Bd3 Rd8 17.Ne4
So far still theory!
17...Bf5
17...Be6 is more common.
18.Ne2
A novelty. 18.Nh3 Rxd3+ 19.Kxd3 Rd8+ 20.Kc3 Rc8+ 21.Kd3 Rd8+ soon led to a draw in Donner–Stahlberg, Goteborg Interzonal 1955.
18...Rxd3+
Otherwise White has two pieces for the rook.
19.Kxd3 Rd8+ 20.Kc3 Rc8+ 21.Kd2 Nc2
If 21...Rd8+ White would almost certainly have varied with 22.Kc1 when the knight on e2 is better placed than on h3 as it allows Nc3 in certain situations.
22.Rc1 Nb4 23.Rxc8+ Bxc8 24.Nd6 Be6 25.a3 Nc6 26.Nxb7 Ne5 27.Na5 Kf8 28.Nf4 Nc4+ 29.Nxc4 Bxc4 30.Kc3 Bf1 31.g3 Ke7 32.Kd4 Kd6 33.Nh5 g6 34.Nf6 h6 35.Ng4 h5 36.Ne3 Be2 37.f4 f6 38.h4 Bf3 39.Nc4+ Ke6 40.Ne3 Kd6 41.f5 g5 42.Nc4+ Ke7 43.Kc5 gxh4 44.gxh4 Kd7 45.Ne3 Be4 46.Kd4 Bb1 47.Nd5 Bxf5 48.Nxf6+ Ke6 49.Nxh5 Kf7 50.Ke5 Bc2 51.Nf4 Bb3 1-0
The game was adjudicated a win for White, who played the endgame with precision.
U.S. Team captain Isaac Kashdan and players (L-R) Pal Benko, Donald Byrne, Arthur Bisguier and William Addison at the 1964 Tel Aviv Olympiad. (Photo: Beth Cassidy)
4) Peak, by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool
“The major thing separating two chessplayers is not their intelligence ... but rather the quality and quantity of their mental representations (mental shortcuts) and how effectively they use them. Because these mental representations are developed specifically for the purpose of analyzing chess positions ... they’re far more effective for playing chess than simply using one’s memory and logic ... in the long run it is the ones who practice more who prevail, not the ones who had some initial advantage in intelligence or some other talent.”
—From Peak (2016), by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool, pp. 232–233.
National Master David Presser of Cleveland writes:
Ericsson is considered the world’s foremost authority on the new science of expertise. This is a great book which sheds light on how to improve. The major takeaway is that directed practice is the key. He explains this term in detail; for instance, practice aimed at one’s weaknesses.
At the US Open one year a group of Experts and Masters surrounded Larsen, then a top ten. One Master said, “I’m already over 2300 Mr. Larsen, how can I improve?”
Immediately Larsen replied, “What is your biggest weakness?” The questioner said he didn’t know.
5) CalChess Denker and Barber Qualifiers, by Michael Aigner
Near the end of yet another school year, many students look forward to a relaxing summer vacation. For two local chess juniors, this summer includes a trip to Indianapolis to represent Northern California at the Denker and Barber Invitationals from July 30 to August 2. After five competitive rounds over two days, the results are in.
The Denker http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201605150882.1 Qualifier (grades 9-12 only) saw five masters and four experts battle for the ticket to Indy. Half of the games were drawn and all but one of the masters finished undefeated. Nonetheless, one player managed to separate himself from the field to take clear first. Congratulations to ninth grader NM Michael Wang for a strong performance.
The Barber Qualifier (grades K–8) attracted 27 enthusiastic and talented participants, including a trio of masters. Alas, all three masters tasted defeat on the first day (rounds 1–3) and were out of contention. In the final round, a fifth grader faced a third grader for all the marbles. The game ended in a draw, allowing fifth grader Balaji Daggupati to claim clear first. Well done.
Go to http://fpawn.blogspot.com/ to read Michael’s excellent blog.
6) This is the end
This position is taken from a Grandmaster game, with the pawn moved from h3 to h2. How would you have played?
Black to move
Show solution
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