Gens Una Sumus!
Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club Newsletter #605
October 31, 2012
I can tell you that none of these matches between the top teams are easy. It’s only randomly once every few years that you get an easy win. Believe me, it’s usually 1.5-1.5 and in one game someone gets lucky. You can’t get by without that, and the times are long since gone when the Soviet Union could play three teams and you knew the winner in advance. That’s why I never believe in ultimate victory before a match is over, regardless of how winning a position is. Experience tells me that anything could still happen. Absolutely anything, as nerves are at breaking point.
—Armenian Team Captain Arshak Petrosian, in an interview with Vladislav Tkachiev at Why Chess about his team’s success at the Chess Olympiads.
This Saturday and Sunday the Mechanics’ Chess Club will hold the 40th annual Carroll Capps Memorial.
1) Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club News
International Master Elliott Winslow, National Masters Romy Fuentes and Russell Wong and Experts Todd Rumph and Igor Traub lead the 65-player Fall Tuesday Night Marathon with perfect scores after three rounds. FIDE Master Andy Lee, who took a second round bye, is among those on 2½. George Matchen, rated 1584, continues to be the over-achiever of the event so far drawing Byambaa Uyanga (2093) last night to go along with a win over a 1990 and a draw with a 2070 in previous rounds.
Correspondence International Master Walter Wood and Houdini supply notes to the following round-two game.
Budapest A52
Russell Wong – Mike Anderson
Fall Tuesday Night Marathon (2) 2012
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 4.Nf3 Bc5 5.e3 Nc6 6.a3
6.Be2 Ngxe5 7.Nxe5 Nxe5 8.Nc3 0–0 9.0–0 a5 10.b3 Re8 11.Bb2 Ra6 12.Ne4 Bf8 13.Qd5 Rae6 14.c5 Qh4 15.g3 Qe7 16.Rac1 h6 17.Kg2 Nc6 18.f3 Nb4 19.Qf5 Nxa2 20.Ra1 Nb4 21.Rxa5 b6 22.Ra7 bxc5 23.Rxc7 Qd8 Rybka book line.
6...a5 7.Qd5
7.Nc3 Ngxe5 8.Nxe5 Nxe5 9.f4 Ng6 10.Bd3 d6 11.0–0 f5 12.Rb1 c6 13.b4 axb4 14.axb4 Ba7 15.Kh1 0–0 16.Rf3 Be6 17.Rh3 d5 18.Qh5 dxc4 19.Be2 Rf6 20.Qxh7+ Kf8 21.Rg3 Bg8 22.Qh5 Bf7 23.b5 Kg8 24.Rh3 Bc5 25.bxc6 bxc6 26.Qh7+ Kf8 27.Rg3 Bg8 28.Qh5 Ne7 29.Qh8 Ng6 30.Rxg6 Rxg6 31.Bxc4 Ke7 32.Rb7+ Kd6 33.Qh5 Bxc4 34.Ne4+ 1–0 Beliavsky-Mamedyarov, San Luis 2005.
7...Qe7 8.Nc3 Ngxe5 9.Qe4 d6 10.Nd5 f5 11.Qc2 Qd8 12.Bd2 0–0 13.Be2 Bd7 14.Bc3 a4 15.0–0 Nxf3+ 16.gxf3 Ne5 17.f4 Ng4
17...Ng6
18.h3 c6
18...Nh6 19.Kh2 Qh4= Houdini
19.hxg4 cxd5 20.cxd5 fxg4 21.Kg2 Bf5 22.Bd3 Qd7
22...Bxd3 23.Qxd3 Qd7= Houdini
23.e4 Bg6 24.f5 Be8
24...Qd8! 25.Rh1 (25.fxg6? Qh4 26.gxh7+ Kh8 27.Bxg7+ Kxg7 28.h8Q+ Rxh8 29.Rh1 Qf6 30.Qc3= Houdini) 25...Be8.
25.Qe2 h5 26.f3 gxf3+ 27.Rxf3 b5
27...Qe7!?
28.Rg3 g6 29.Qxh5 Qh7 1–0
The Mechanics’ entry in the US Chess League saw their last-gasp hopes for a playoff spot disappear on Monday night, when they lost to Seattle 2.5-1.5. The final match of the season will be this following Monday against Miami.
Bright spots have few and far between this season, but IM Daniel Nardoditsky (3-1 with a win over GM Khachian), FM Andy Lee (2.5 from 3) and 12-year-old NM Cameron Wheeler (3-2 in his USCL debut for a plus-2300 performance) all deserve recognition.
Hello everyone,
It is time for the weekly blitz tournament at Mechanics Institute Chess Club. As always, the last entry is accepted at 6:40 pm, with sign-up beginning at 6:20 pm. Entry is $10 with clock, or $11 without clock. Prizes are 50%, 30%, 20% of entry fees. Time control preferably is 3 minute, increment 2 seconds; otherwise 5 minutes, no increment.
Last week’s winners were
1st - Jules Jelinek $30
2nd - Carlos D’Avila $18
3rd - Merim Mesic + Craig Walzer $6 each
Look forward to seeing you tonight.
Jules Jelinek
Weekly Wednesday Night Blitz Coordinator
2) Alex Yermolinksy Inducted into US Chess Hall of Fame, by Mike Wilmering, Communications Specialist Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis
The World Chess Hall of Fame is proud to announce that Alex “Yermo” Yermolinsky will be officially inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame on October 23, 2012. Yermolinsky becomes only the 48th person named to the Hall of Fame, joining luminaries such as Bobby Fischer and Benjamin Franklin.
We are thrilled to honor Yermo as he takes his place among the top players in US history. Besides his obvious personal gift for the game, he should also be recognized for his generosity helping others learn to play and improve their skills, said Harold Winston, chairman of the U.S. Chess Federation Hall of Fame Committee.
Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg, Russia), Yermolinsky immigrated to the United States in 1989 and became a grandmaster in 1992. He went on to share the title of U.S. Chess Champion with Alexander Shabalov in 1993 and was the sole champion in 1996. He has won countless other titles and was the Grandmaster-in-Residence at the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club in San Francisco from 1999-2007.
Yermolinsky is a noted chess writer and instructor. He has authored two books: The Road to Chess Improvement (winner of the Cramer Award for best instructional chess book and the British Chess Federation’s Book of the Year award) and Chess Explained: The Classical Sicilian. He broadcasts on the Internet Chess Club website and was instrumental in the development of the website ChessKid.com, which teaches the game to children in a fun, safe, and secure online environment.
Alex and his wife, Women’s Grandmaster Camilla Baginskaite, live with their two children in South Dakota, where he works with the South Dakota Chess Association as an instructor, lecturer, and tournament director.
Hosting this induction ceremony is a highlight of our year. “It is a reminder of the broad-reaching significance of chess, the impact that chess has had on our city, and the importance of the Hall of Fame’s mission to shine a light on the game’s greater meaning”, said Susan Barrett, director of the World Chess Hall of Fame.
3) Here and There
The US Game/30 and Game/60 Championships were held in Pleasanton this last week. The first event saw a four way tie for first at 4-1 between GMs Enrico Sevillano and Walter Browne, IM Cyrus Lakdawala and NM John Cline.
Sevillano was the sole winner of the G/60, going 4-0 after defeating Browne in the last round on the White side of a 2.c3 Sicilian. The well-run event was organized by Salman Azhar for his Bay Area Chess. John McCumiskey and Tom Langland shared directing duties.
International Master Jack Peters writes:
Here’s news about another Bobby Fischer movie:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/afm-2012-ed-zwick-tobey-maguire-pawn-sacrifice-383569.
Hikaru Nakamura bounced back from a sub-par result in London by winning the annual event in the small Dutch city of Hoogoveen in style.
Final standings:
1. Nakamura (USA, 2775) - 4½/6,
2. Tiviakov (NED, 2656) - 3,
3. Giri (NED, 2693) - 2½,
4. Hou Yifan (CNN, 2636) – 2
International Master Nikolay Minev celebrated his 80th birthday last November, but he is still going strong; witness his latest publication, Mikhail Chigorin and David Janowsky: Fifty Great Short Games.
Published by The Chess Library, this neatly-produced 112-page book chronicles two of the great attackers and tacticians of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and offers the reader 50 well-annotated games, two-thirds of them opening 1.e4 e5.
The book, which can be ordered from http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/nikolay-minev/mikhail-chigorin-and-dawid-janowsky-fifty-great-short-games/paperback/product-20351327.html , retails for $15.95.
Olaf Ulvestad, who went 1-1 against David Bronstein in the 1946 USSR-USA match, was the first national-caliber player to come from Seattle. Later on he lived more than 25 years in Spain (1961-1987), spending much of the time near Barcelona. Alejandro Melchor, who lives near the capital of Catalonia, has found several new games and unknown photos that cannot be found in John Donaldson’s pamphlet on Ulvestad or his Chess Base work Two Masters from Seattle (on Ulvestad and Zemgalis).
Here is one of Melchor’s finds, where Olaf beats one of Spain’s top players in the 1960s and 70s.
Reti A05
Olaf Ulvestad – Jesus Diez del Corral
Spanish team championship, Bilbao 1966
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.d3 d5 5.Nbd2 Nc6 6.c4 0-0 7.0-0 b6 8.a3 Bb7 9.Rb1 e5 10.b4 e4 11.Ne1 dxc4 12.Nxc4 Nd5 13.Bd2 exd3 14.Nxd3 Nd4 15.Rc1 Re8 16.e3 Nb5 17.Qc2 Rb8 18.Rfd1 Qf6 19.Re1 Rbd8 20.a4 Nd6 21.e4 Nxc4 22.Qxc4 Ne7 23.Bc3 Qc6 24.Bxg7 Qxc4 25.Rxc4 Kxg7 26.Rxc7 Rxd3 27.Rxb7 Rd4 28.Rc1 Rxb4 29.Rcc7 Kf6 30.Rxa7 Ke6 31.Bh3+ f5 32.exf5+ gxf5 33.Bf1 Nc8 34.Ra6 h5 35.Bb5 Kd6 36.Rc1 Rg8 37.Ra8 Ne7 38.Rxg8 Nxg8 39.Rc6+ Ke5 40.Rxb6 h4 41.Kg2 Ne7 42.Rb8 Nd5 43.Re8+ Kd6 44.Rd8+ Ke5 45.Rh8 hxg3 46.hxg3 Nc3 47.Rh4 Rb2 48.Bd7 Rd2 49.Bc6 Nd1 50.Rf4 Ne3+ 51.Kg1 Nc2 52.Rc4 Rd1+ 53.Kg2 Rd2 54.Kf1 Nd4 55.Bb7 Nb3 56.Rc3 Rb2 57.Re3+ Kd4 58.Bc8 f4 59.gxf4 Nd2+ 60.Kg2 Ne4 61.Rf3 Nd2 62.Ra3 Ne4 63.f5 1-0
4) GMs So, Meier Headline Thanksgiving Open in Saint Louis
SAINT LOUIS (October 31, 2012) -- Grandmaster Wesley So of the Philippines and Grandmaster Georg Meier of Germany headline the strongest field in the history of the Thanksgiving Open, scheduled to be held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis November 23-25. This FIDE-rated event features a guaranteed prize fund of more than $10,000.
The featured titled players that have committed as of October 31 include:
GM Wesley So
GM Georg Meier
GM Anatoly Bykhovsky
GM Fidel Corrales
GM Ben Finegold
GM Andre Diamant
GM Denes Boros
WGM Anna Sharevich
IM Steven Zierk
IM Priyadharshan Kannappan
IM Mac Molner
IM Justin Sarkar
IM Vitaly Neimer
IM Levan Bregadze
IM Angelo Young
The tournament features two-day and three-day options and three separate sections: Open (FIDE rated), U1800 and U1400. For more information or to register, click this link.
Immediately following the Thanksgiving Open, the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis will host the 2012 CCSCSL Invitational, a GM and IM norm event.
The GM Invitational will take place November 26-30, and will feature the following line-up:
GM Ben Finegold: USA 2493
GM Denes Boros: HUN 2492
GM Andre Diamant: BRA 2471
IM Mac Molner: USA 2489
IM Darwin Yang: USA 2485
IM Steven Zierk: USA 2483
IM Marc Esserman: USA 2445
IM Justin Sarkar: USA 2408
IM Priyadharshan Kannappan: IND 2407
IM Vitaly Niemer: ISR 2373
Tournament organizers expect players will need to score 6.5/9 to secure a GM norm.
The field features a number of strong contenders for norms. Both Zierk and Yang are perennial Junior Championship participants, and Kannappan has turned in an unparalleled performance in the U.S. Chess League, securing the MVP title with three weeks left in the regular season. Neimer recently earned a GM norm with a superb performance at this year’s SPICE Cup, which was held in Saint Louis this past week, and Esserman just wrote a thoroughly ground-breaking work in the Morra Gambit Sicilian published by Quality Chess.
The IM norm event will be held in conjunction with the GM norm event. A complete list of players is being finalized, so stay tuned for more details.
Since its inception in 2007, the CCSCSL has worked to promote chess locally and nationally by offering lessons and classes at its world-class facility, bringing chess programming to schools all across the greater Saint Louis area and by hosting major events like the U.S. Championships, international matches between the world’s best players and special training camps for the country’s top talent.
Hosting GM and IM norm events allows us to provide even more opportunities for U.S. chess players to bring their game to the next level.
For more information about the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, visit www.saintlouischessclub.org.
5) The 2nd Annual McKinley Williams / John Easterling Community Chess Tournament
Greeting Chess Players,
The City of Richmond, Contra Costa Community College and West Coast Chess Alliance are proud to announce; The 2nd Annual McKinley Williams / John Easterling Community Chess Tournament. To be held on Saturday December 8, 2012. The tournament is to recognize their contribution to chess in West Contra Costa County. The tournament is free and will be a Quad format. There be will both rated and non-rated sections. You can register by email or phone.
As always, everyone is invited young and old, bring the family out for some competitive fun.
TC Ball, West Coast Chess Alliance
West Coast Chess Alliance, “Building Bridges with Chess”
The McKinley Williams /John Easterling 2nd Annual Community CHESS Tournament
Saturday - Dec. 8, 2012
Registration: 9:30 to 10:30 AM
Rounds: 11:00 AM, 12:30 AM, 2:00 PM
Richmond Recreation Department
3230 Macdonald Avenue Richmond (next to Nicholl Park)
Free Quad Chess Tournament
Rated and Non-Rated sections.
Non-rated players grouped separately.
Non-rated students grouped by age.
For rated games: USCF membership required. Time control G/45.
Please bring chess clock.
Prizes: Trophies awarded to all Quad winners.
For more information and to register contact TC Ball at (510) 439-6311 or [email protected].
Everyone is welcome!
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