Chess Room Newsletter #473

---

1) Mechanics Institute Chess Club News
2) William (Bill) Cutler Haines 1939?-2009
3) Berkeley Chess Club News by Marc Newman
4) Here and There

---

Michael Pearson drew in a tough battle with fellow NM Andy Lee last night. This half point enabled Pearson to take home first prize with 7.5 from 9 in a 66-player field. Right behind him at 7 were Lee, and Experts Romy Fuentes and Evan Sandberg. This performance enabled Fuentes to regain his Master's rating while Sandberg's result puts him solidly in the 2100s. The next Tuesday Marathon, an eight rounder, starts January 5.

IM Sam Shankland has his own site. Go to http://www.samshankland.com/.

Congratulations to 12-year-old NM Yian Liou who was named as to the US Chess League All Star team. Go to www.uschessleague.com to read more about this.

First Team:

1. GM Hikaru Nakamura (SEA) (2759)
2. GM Boris Gulko (NJ) (2609)
3. IM Angelo Young (CHC) (2325)
4. NM Eric Rodriguez (MIA) (2290)

Average Rating: 2496

Second Team:

1. GM Julio Becerra (MIA) (2615)
2. IM Dean Ippolito (NJ) (2535)
3. FM Andrei Zaremba (QNS) (2398)
4. SM Yaacov Norowitz (NY) (2354)

Average Rating: 2476

Third Team:

1. GM Alex Stripunsky (QNS) (2628)
2. GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) (2565)
3. IM Marc Esserman (BOS) (2461)
4. NM Yian Liou (SF) (2149)

Average Rating: 2451

---

William (Bill) Cutler Haines, one of the pioneers of electronic chess databases, died in early December in Vallejo where he had been living for many years.

Most Bay Area players first got to know Bill in the 1980s, but he actually got his start at the Sacramento Chess Club in 1955. Two years after joining he played his first USCF rated tournament in the auditorium of the Spreckles-Russell Dairy Company located at 1717 Mission Street in San Francisco. Winning his first three games gave Bill the honor of playing 14-year-old Bobby Fischer who would win the event with a score of 8.5-.5, drawing only with second place finisher Gil Ramirez. Bill finished the event with a fifty percent score against strong opposition to earn an initial rating of 1950. He soon made it over 2000 and became an Expert. Haines was rated in the 2100s for much of his career but never quite earned the Master's title.

Bill left California for Missouri sometime in the mid to late 1960s and appears to have spent the next twenty years of his life there. Former USCF Executive Director Al Lawrence and International Master Elliott Winslow remember Bill from his days in Kansas City where he had an ongoing rivalry with fellow Expert Jack Winters, proprietor of the Chess House. The two players had a clash of styles with Haines always preferring positional play and Winters the role of the attacker.

Before he devoted himself to Chess Database work Bill Haines was a professional studio photographer. He once told IM Winslow that his two most famous clients were the Hearst family and Barbi Klein. The latter was a teen department store model in Sacramento when he photographed her. Later, under the name Barbi Benton, she became better known as a Playboy's Playmate of the Month and the girlfriend of Hugh Hefner.

A friendly and witty man, standing 6 feet tall and weighing over 350 pounds most of his life, Bill Haines was a colorful character who would often arrive at tournaments on his motorcycle. More than once he brought his bulldog to spectate at the People's Open in Berkeley.

Eric Schiller writes about his good friend:

His legacy is the many bulletins he did enriching our databases. A friend who was always offering to help, but whose physical ailments limited his work, which wasn't properly appreciated or rewarded.

Here are three of Bill's games from the 1957 US Junior Open. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.d4 Qc7 12.Nbd2 cxd4 13.cxd4 Nc6 14.d5 Nb4 15.Bb1 a5 16.a3 Na6 17.b3 Bd7 18.Ra2 Rfc8 19.Rc2 Qb7 20.Re3 Rxc2 21.Qxc2 Rc8 22.Rc3 Rxc3 23.Qxc3 Qc7 24.Qxc7 Nxc7 25.Nf1 Na6 26.Be3 Be8 27.N3d2 Nd7 28.f3 Bd8 29.Kf2 Bb6 30.Bxb6 Nxb6 31.Ke3 Nc5 32.Ba2 f5 33.Ke2 f4 34.Nh2 h5 35.Nhf1 Bd7 36.Nh2 Kf7 37.Nhf1 Kf6 38.Nh2 Kg5 39.Nhf1 Kh4 40.Kd1 g5 41.Kc2 Bxh3 42.gxh3 Kxh3 43.Kd1 g4 44.fxg4 hxg4 45.Ke2 Kg2 46.Bb1 a4 47.bxa4 Nbxa4 48.Bc2 Nc3+ 49.Ke1 Kg1 White lost on time 0-11.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.d4 Qc7 12.Nbd2 Bd7 13.Nf1 Rfe8 14.Ne3 cxd4 15.cxd4 Nc4 16.Nxc4 bxc4 17.Bd2 Rad8 18.Bc3 Bf8 19.Qd2 g6 20.Ba5 Qb8 21.Bxd8 Qxd8 22.b3 cxb3 23.Bxb3 Qb6 24.Rab1 Qd8 25.Bc4 Nxe4 26.Rxe4 Bf5 27.Ree1 Bxb1 28.Rxb1 e4 29.Nh2 Qh4 30.Rb7 Bh6 31.Qe2 Rf8 32.Ng4 Qg5 33.Qe3 Qxg4 34.hxg4 Bxe3 35.fxe3 h6 36.Rd7 Kg7 37.Rxd6 Rc8 38.Bb3 1-01.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 Be7 8.0-0-0 a6 9.f4 Qd7 10.Bc4 Na5 11.Be2 0-0 12.e5 dxe5 13.fxe5 Ne8 14.Ne4 Nc6 15.Qe3 Nxd4 16.Rxd4 Bxg5 17.Nxg5 Qe7 18.Bd3 g6 19.g3 Ng7 20.Nxh7 Rd8 21.Nf6+ Kf8 22.Qh6 Qc7 23.Rxd8+ Qxd8 24.Qh8+ Ke7 25.Qxg7 Qa5 26.Bxg6 Qxe5 27.Ng8+ 1-0

---

Please note that the next Berkeley Chess Club Friday tournament will begin on January 8th, not December 18th.

The signup page is here: http://www.berkeleychessschool.org/pages/show/20

On January 1st at 7 pm the club will hold a double blitz tournament with G/5 and $10 entry fee. Please call 510-843-0150 for details.

The next Saturday G/45 tournament will be February 13th, so please mark your calendars!

---

Texas has had some great tournaments ( Dallas 1957 and San Antonio 1972 come readily to mind) but who would have thought ten years ago that the Lone Star state would be the focal point for high level round robin tournaments in the United States. Just the past few months Susan Polgar's SPICE organization held two major round robins at Texas Tech in Lubbock and the University of Texas at Dallas Invitational ended in late November.

Here are the results of the UTD event.

1-2. GMs Izoria (GEO, 2589) and Kacheishvili (GEO, 2583) - 6 out of 9,
3. GM Ramirez (CRC, 2547) - 5½,
4. IM Wang Puchen (NZL, 2466) - 5,
5-7. Ludwig (USA, 2461), IM Zivanic (SRB, 2472) and IM Stopa (POL, 2493) - 4½,
8-10. GM Simutowe (ZAM, 2481), IM Bercys (USA, 2439) and IM Sadorra (PHI, 2478) - 3.