Gens Una Sumus!
Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club Newsletter #716
August 21, 2015
Every World Champion is a reflection of his times. He is the stock market generation—all bottom line, no ideology.
—Garry Kasparov, speaking about Vladimir Kramnik, shortly after losing his title.
From an article by Dylan Loeb McClain, published in
the New York Times, November 18, 2000, page A3.
1) Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club News
International Master Elliott Winslow, FIDE Master James Critelli, National Master Russell Wong, and Experts Natalya Tsodikova, Bryon Doyle and Honkai Pan are the only remaining perfect scores after three rounds of the Leighton Allen Tuesday Night Marathon. It is still possible to join the nine-round event with half-point byes for rounds 1–3.
From round 3 of the Leighton Allen Tuesday Night Marathon:
 |  |
| White to move (Pan–Basak after 25...Rxc6) | White to move (Maser–Bayaraa after 23...b5) |
 |  |
| White to move (Andries–Paquette after 7...Qc6) | Black to move (Allen–Kondakov after 21 Rfc1) |
| For the solutions, see the game scores for round 3. |
Expert Ivan Ke and rapidly-improving Class B player David Deng were the winners of the Bernardo Smith Amateur tournament open to players rated below 2200 with scores of 5-1. Expert Eric Hon and upset king class-C-rated Craig Yamamoto shared third with 4½ points. Yamamoto defeated three players rated over 300 points above him to gain 121 rating points. Thirty-three players competed in the annual event, held August 15–16.
The Mechanics’ entry in the United States Chess League starts its eleventh season on August 26 against the defending champions, the St. Louis Bishops. Our team is lead by Grandmasters Daniel Naroditsky and Vinay Bhat, who, aided by a strong supporting cast, hope to maintain the team’s record of success (eight playoff appearances, and a championship in 2006).
We reproduced a quote about Walter Browne by long-time MICC supporter Chris Mavraedis in MI Newsletter #711, which was republished in the latest issue of New in Chess (issue 5 of 2015).
The memorial for Walter Browne on Saturday August 15, attracted around 60 attendees, who came to pay their respects to the late six-time U.S. chess champion. Among those present were his widow Raquel and siblings Susan and Roger. The latter came from the East Coast specially for the event.
Among those speaking were International Master Elliott Winslow and National Master Dennis Fritzinger, who shared their memories of Walter. Interestingly the two had very similar first impressions of the future Grandmaster Browne.
Fritzinger, then rated an Expert, remembers being drafted at the 1966 Seattle U.S. Open, along with four Masters, to play in an unusual speed-chess simul. The event, played at a time control of five minutes apiece, had Walter playing all five players simultaneously. Dennis recalls the event was something to see, as the 17-year-old Walter was racing back and forth, battling both five strong opponents and the clock. He scored 80 percent both times he tried this in Seattle.
The following year at the Atlanta U.S. Open, the 15-year-old Elliott Winslow was amazed to see a fellow teenager pulling off the same feat—it was Walter once again. Fellow MICC member Peter Grey also recalls Browne talking on all comers, in groups of five, for stakes in Atlanta, until future IM Norman Weinstein took one of the boards, to which Walter shook his head no. The teenage Walter had superhuman energy and confidence in his abilities, but even he knew when enough was enough.
The Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club would like to give a big thanks to Renate Otterbach and Will Clipson for helping to make this memorial possible.
2) Randy Bauer and Anjelina Belakovskaija elected to Executive Board
The United States Chess Federation announced on August 9 that Randy Bauer and Anjelina Belakovskaia were elected to at-large positions on the U.S. Chess Executive Board, for terms of three years each. A total of 1252 ballots were returned and validated.
Randy Bauer: 1087
Anjelina Belakovskaia: 642
Boyd Reed (write in): 468
Belakovskaija, who lives in Tucson, Arizona, is a three-time U.S. Women’s Champion and holds the Women’s Grandmaster title. Bauer, a 2300-rated master, is one of the strongest players in the history of Iowa.
3) Naroditsky-Schmidt, Politiken Cup 2015
Chess Evolution, a highly-respected weekly publication http://www.chess-newsletter.com/, produced by Arkadij Naiditsch and Csaba Balogh with support from fellow Grandmasters Etienne Bacrot and Kamil Miton, recently featured two games of Daniel Naroditsky from the Politiken Cup held a few weeks ago. The annotator, French 2700-rated Etienne Bacrot, notes that Daniel is currently the tenth-rated player in the world under 21.
Here is one of the games, with abridged notes.
Sicilian Rossolimo B30
Daniel Naroditsky (2622)–Kristen Schmidt (2254)
Politiken Cup 2015
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.0–0 Na5
4...Nge7 is the usual move in the Rossolimo.
5.d4 a6 6.Be2 cxd4 7.Nxd4 Qc7 8.c4! Nxc4
If he doesn’t play this, Black will simply have a bad version of the Hedgehog.
9.Bxc4
Normal play for development. The slow move also would have given an advantage:
9.Qc2 b5 10.a4 Bc5 11.axb5 Bxd4 12.Qxc4 Qxc4 13.Bxc4 a5 14.Rd1 with a clearly better endgame.
9...Qxc4
10.Nc3 Bb4
Let’s have a look at other defensive tries:
10...Qc7 Getting back with the queen is losing because of the following typical sacrifice: 11.Re1! Be7 12.Nf5! exf5 13.Nd5 and there is no defense. 10...Nf6 11.Bf4 followed by Rc1 is also hopeless.
11.Be3
The d4 knight should be defended!
11...Bxc3 12.Rc1 Qxa2
12...Qc7 13.Rxc3 Qd8 was a more solid option, but it is understandable that Black takes material in a bad position.
13.Rxc3 Qa5
14.Qg4
Provoking more weaknesses on the kingside.
14...Qe5 15.f4
15.Nf3 is a more trivial win: 15...h5 16.Nxe5 hxg4 17.Nc4 Black can’t avoid huge material losses. 17...Ne7 18.Nb6 Rb8 19.Bf4, winning.
15...h5 16.Qf3 Qa5 17.Rfc1
17.Qg3 Attacking g7 is also fine. 17...g6 18.f5 wins.
17...Ne7 18.Rc5 Qd8 19.Rxh5 Rg8 20.Rh7 b6 21.Qg3 Kf8
22.f5!
Black cannot survive with all his pieces on the last rank.
22...Bb7 23.fxe6 dxe6 24.Rf1 Qd7 25.Qe5 Ng6 26.Nxe6+ Ke7 27.Bg5+ 1–0
4) Here and There
As of August 16 the United States currently has seven players rated in the top one hundred players in the world.
4. Hikaru Nakamura 2814
5. Fabiano Caruana 2808
8. Wesley So 2773
58. Ray Robson 2780
59. Gata Kamsky 2679.7
76. Alex Onischuk 2662
91. Sam Shankland 2656
Newsletter reader Richard Reich of Madison, Wisconsin, passes along the following previously unpublished game, which he recorded as it was played.
Sicilian Keres Attack B81
Walter Browne (2470 USCF)–Ken Smith (2411 USCF)
New York (Empire City Open round 5), October 10, 1971
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Nc3 d6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nf6 6.g4 h6 7.g5 hxg5 8.Bxg5 Nc6 9.Qd2 a6 10.0–0–0 Qc7 11.f4 Bd7 12.h4 Be7 13.Bh3 0–0–0 14.f5 Nxd4 15.Qxd4 e5 16.Qg1 Bc6 17.Bg2 Kb8 18.Be3 Rdg8 19.Bb6 Qd7 20.Qe1 Rc8 21.Bf3 Ba4 22.Bf2 Bc6 23.Rg1 Rh7 24.Qe3 b5 25.a3 Qb7 26.Rd3 Nd7 27.Nd5 Bxd5 28.Rxd5 Rc6 29.Rd3 Nb6 30.b3 Qc7 31.Qd2 Nd7 32.Kb2 Nc5 33.Bxc5 Rxc5 34.h5 Rc6 35.Rg2 Bf6 36.a4 bxa4 37.Qb4+ Ka7 38.Qxa4 Rh8 39.Rdd2 Rc8 40.Kb1 Rc5 41.Be2 Ra5 42.Qc4 Qb7 43.Qd3 Rc6 44.Rg3 Qb4 45.c4 Ra3 46.Bd1 Ra5 47.Qc3 Qxc3
Black offered a draw: “I think I have the best of it, but I’ll offer a draw.”
48.Rxc3 Rac5 49.Rcd3 Bg5 50.Rb2 Bf6 51.Rh3 Rb6 52.h6 gxh6 53.Rxh6 Bd8 54.Rg2 Bc7 55.Kc2 a5 56.Rh8 Bb8 57.Kc3 Rc7 58.Rf8 Rbb7 59.Bh5 a4 60.bxa4 Re7 61.Rg7 d5 62.exd5 e4 63.Rfxf7 Be5+ 64.Kc2 Rxf7 65.Rxf7 Rxf7 66.Bxf7 Kb6 67.Be8 Kc5 68.Bb5
After some garbling of the score, we have the correct position.
68...Bd4 69.Kd2 Kd6 70.Ke2 Ke5 71.Bd7 Bb6 72.Be6 Bc5 73.a5 Bb4 74.a6 Bc5 75.d6 Kxd6 76.Bd5 e3 77.f6 Kc7 78.Kd3 Kb6 79.Bb7 Ka7 80.Bf3 Kxa6 81.Ke4 Ka5 82.Kd5 Kb4 83.Be2 Bf8 84.Bf1 Bc5 85.Kc6 Bf8 86.Kd7 Kc3 87.Ke8 Bc5 88.f7 Kd2 89.f8Q Bxf8 90.Kxf8 Ke1 91.Bh3 Kd2 92.Bg4 1–0
Casey Bush, the biographer of Arthur Dake (Grandmaster from Oregon) has written a piece on Dake for the Oregon magazine 1859 Magazine, entitled “King Arthur”; it can be found at https://www.1859oregonmagazine.com/2013-january-february-1859-magazine-chess-master-arthur-dake .
National Master John Blackstone of Las Vegas passes along the following game which was published in E.H. Bryant’s column in the Sunday Oregonian on November 6, 1921, and almost certainly elsewhere. Why? Because White was 7-year-old Celia Neimark of Youngstown, Ohio, and Black the reigning Ohio champion Irving Spero (1892-1955). According to Bryant, Neimark had supposedly only been playing nine months when this game was played, and Spero greatly underestimated her.
You can learn more about the short-lived career of Neimark at http://www.chess.com/blog/batgirl/girl-prodigy.
Petroff C43
Celia Neimark–Irving Spero
Austintown, Ohio, 1921
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 exd4 4.e5 Nd5 5.Qxd4 c6 6.Bc4 Qb6 7.Qxb6 Nxb6 8.Bb3 a5 9.Ng5 Nd5 10.a4 Be7 11.0-0 0-0 12.Bxd5 cxd5 13.Nc3 d4 14.Nd5 Nc6 15.Ne4 Bb4 16.c3 dxc3 17.bxc3 Be7 18.Nxe7+ Nxe7 19.Ba3 Re8 20.Nd6 Rd8 21.Nxb7 Bxb7 22.Bxe7 Rdc8 23.Rab1 Be4 24.Rbc1 Bd3 25.Rfd1 Bf5 26.Rd5 Be6 27.Rc5 Re8 28.Bd6 Bb3 29.Ra1 Re6 30.Rc7 f6 31.Rxd7 fxe5 32.Bc7 e4 33.Bg3 Rc8 34.Bc7 Ra8 35.Rd8+ Rxd8 36.Bxd8 Rd6 37.Bxa5 Bxa4 38.Bb4 Rd3 39.h3 Bc6 40.Kf1 Bb5 41.Ke1 e3 42.fxe3 Rxe3+ 43.Kf2 Re2+ 44.Kf3 Rc2 45.Ra8+ Kf7 46.Rf8+ Kg6 47.Rc8 Bd7 48.Rc7 Be6 49.Rc6 Kf7 50.Rc7+ Kf6 51.Be7+ Kg6 52.g4 Bd5+ 53.Kf4 Rf2+ 54.Kg3 Rf3+ 55.Kh4 Kh6 56.Rc5 Be6 57.Rc6 1-0
Source: http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83045782/1921-11-06/ed-1/seq-59.pdf.
5) This is the end
The following position occurred in a 1978 game. What is best play for each side?
White to move
Show solution
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