Chess Room Newsletter #649

Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club Newsletter #649
October 31, 2013

Do you think this is something biological? Are women less able in chess?

No, no. This has nothing to do with ability. This is the social factor. Women make up less than five percent of registered players. When children start to play chess, up to 10 or 12 years old, girls and boys are roughly in equal amounts. Later, the ratio varies, the girls drop out.

—Judit Polgar, in an interview at Whychess:
http://whychess.com/en/node/6938

1) Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club News

IM Elliott Winslow heads the list of those with perfect scores after two rounds of the Fall Tuesday Night Marathon. The surprise name on the list is 1452-rated Albert Starr, who has upset two opponents rated 500 points above him. It’s still possible to play in the 9-round event with half-point byes for rounds one and two.

Black to move (Sarafian–Grey, after 12 Qxd4)	White to move (Maser–Nyangar, after 16... Qh5)
Black to move (Ebert–Morton, after 37 Bc3)	Black to move (Lacounte–Ivanov, after 43 Rf4)
For the solutions, see the game scores (when available) for round 2.	Lacounte–Ivanov annotated below.

Brendan Lacounte (1921)–Aleksandr Ivanov (2103)
San Francisco (2) 2013

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.b3 c5 3.Bb2 Nc6 4.e3 d5 5.Bb5 Bg4 6.h3 Bh5 7.g4 Bg6 8.Ne5 Qc7 9.Bxc6+ bxc6 10.d3 Nd7 11.f4 e6 12.Nd2 f6 13.Nxd7 Kxd7 14.Qf3 Bd6 15.Rg1 a5 16.a4 Rab8 17.g5 Rhf8 18.0–0–0 Kc8 19.Rdf1 Kb7 20.h4 Qf7 21.Qg3 Rbd8 22.Nf3 Bh5 23.gxf6 gxf6 24.Qg7 Kb6 25.Qxf7 Rxf7 26.Rg3 Rdd7 27.Rfg1 d4 28.Kd2 e5 29.fxe5 fxe5 30.Ng5 Rf2+ 31.Kc1 e4 32.Nxe4 Bxg3 33.Nxg3 Bf3 34.Nf5 dxe3 35.Nxe3 Re7 36.Nc4+ Kc7 37.Bc3 h5 38.Bxa5+ Kb7 39.Bb6 Rg2 40.Rf1 Bd5 41.Bxc5 Ree2 42.Ne3 Rh2 43.Rf4
43...Be6

Black has the amazing resource 43...Bxb3!!, based on a stalemate theme. 44.Rb4+ (44.cxb3 Rh1+ 45.Nd1 (45.Rf1 Rxf1+ 46.Nxf1 Re1+) 45...Ree1) 44...Ka8 45.Rxb3 Rxc2+ 46.Nxc2 Rxc2+ 47.Kd1 Rxc5.

Unfortunately for all Black’s brilliant play he is still struggling to draw the rook-and-pawn ending because of his poor king placement. One possible survival try is 48.Kd2 Ka7 49.Rc3 Ra5 50.Rxc6 Rxa4 51.Rc4 Ra2+ 52.Ke3 Kb6 53.Rf4 Rh2 54.Ke4 Kc6, but after 55.Kf5 it looks like Black might need another miracle.

44.Rb4+ Kc8 45.a5 1–0

Jules Jelinek, Weekly Wednesday Night Blitz Coordinator, writes:

Last week we had 10 players, and the winners were

1st/2nd - Jules Jelinek, Arthur Ismakov
3rd - Steven Schlichter

2) US Chess League

The Mechanics’ won their last match of the regular season against Seattle by a score of 3-1, and face a strong Los Angeles team in round one of the playoffs. Despite finishing under 50 percent in the regular season, LA is now one of the strongest teams in the league with the late season addition of 2300-rated junior Craig Hilby to the lineup.

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

@ = Clinched playoff berth    # = Clinched division title    X = Eliminated from playoff contention

The Mechanics’ were very likely the only team in the league to use all of its roster, with each of the ten players playing at least three matches.

3) Here and There

Frank Berry, long-time editor of the Oklahoma Chess Quarterly and sponsor and organizer of the 2007 and 2008 US Championships, reports that former Bay-area junior talent Ted Belanoff has been playing a lot of late. Now a NM, Ted is probably best known for playing in all 50 states last year. His desire to compete and travel show no sign of slowing down as he played 11 events this October - from Mississippi to Vermont !

IM Jeremy Silman sends in the following game featuring the beautiful and surprising 28...Bf1+.

Hans Gao–Chen Wang
New Zealand 2013

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Bc4 g6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.Nd4 cd4 7.Qf3 Nh6 8.Ne2 O-O 9.O-O d6 10.h3 Kh8 11.d3 Ng8 12.Qg3 f5 13.f3 e514.Bd2 Nf6 15.c3 b5 16.Bb3 dc3 17.Nc3 Bb7 18.Bg5 b4 19.Bf6 Bf6 20.Nd5 Bh4 21.Qh2 Rc8 22.g3 Qg5 23.Kg2 fe4 24.de4 a5 25.Rad1 Ba6 26.Rfe1 Bb5 27.Ne3 a4 28.Bd5 Bf1 29.Kf2 Rf3 30.Kf3 Rf8 31.Nf5 Rf5 32.ef5 Qf5 0-1.

Bay Area International organizer Arun Sharma writes about his event starting this coming January.

Just wanted to remind everyone that the second entry fee deadline for my tournament is only about a week away so those who expressed interest might wish to take note of that. Hope many of you can make it—the event is looking really good right now, should be extremely strong and easily a super-swiss. The current player list is here:

http://sfinternationalchess.org/players.php

Top seeds are 2600+-rated GMs Bu, Ipatov, Roiz, Kovalyov and Shankland.