Chess Room Newsletter #607

Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club Newsletter #607
November 14, 2012

Above all, not to lower the demands you put on yourself. You have to work constantly without giving yourself breaks or concessions. It’s very important, in my view, to constantly maintain your form i.e. constantly to be in the game. You need to be “up to date”, and if you don’t sit down directly at the board you should study and follow what’s going on around you... You should keep improving, always finding and learning something new for yourself. If you’re talented and do all that you’ll keep growing. I don’t think there’s any other recipe for self-improvement.

—Fabiano Caruana, in answer to the question “What does a professional chess player need to do in order to keep growing?”  (From an interview at Why Chess by Evgeny Atarov)

This Saturday the Mechanics’ Institute Chess will be holding the 12th Pierre St. Amant G/45 Open.

1) Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club News

Todd Rumph defeated NM Romy Fuentes in an exciting game last evening to take over the lead in the Fall Tuesday Night Marathon with a score of 4.5 from 5. Joining him in first is International Master Elliott Winslow, who took a half-point bye last round.

There are five players tied for third with four points—Fuentes, Uyanga Byambaa, James Jones, Steven Krasnov and Brendan LaCounte. Four rounds remain for the 69-player field.

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Thanks to Colin Ma for his donation of Victor Henkin’s 1000 Checkmate Combinations to the Mechanics’ Institute Library. Such donations help supplement the regular library annual budget of $1200 which is used to buy new books from Quality Chess, Everyman, Gambit, New in Chess, McFarland, Mongoose Press, Chess Stars and other publishers.

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Mechanics’ US Chess league team members Samuel Sevian and Cameron Wheeler are both doing very well in the World Youth Championship being held in Maribor, Slovenia. Samuel is first with 6.5 from 7 in the Open classification for those under 12, and Cameron is just behind him tied for second with 6 points. Mechanics’s Grandmaster-in-Residence Nick deFirmian is working as one of the American coaches.

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16-year-old International Master Daniel Naroditsky’s new book is out.

The following is from the publisher, New in Chess.

American chess prodigy Daniel Naroditsky has written an instructional book that is at least as ambitious as his acclaimed debut Mastering Positional Chess.

In his fresh, yet surprisingly mature style, he presents

• lively and entertaining lessons
• crystal clear explanations of ideas and plans
• useful insights into the minds of chess masters
• great practical advice throughout the book
• instructive exercises at the end of each chapter

Naroditsky’s systematic approach and didactic skills help you to understand rather than just memorize these endings.

2) Los Angeles   6 –   4   San Francisco 1913
 
An important team match by telegraph was contested on Decoration (Memorial) Day between the Chess Club of Southern California, of Los Angeles, and the Mechanics’ Chess Club of San Francisco. The result was in favor of Los Angeles by 6 points to 4. Several names well known in the East appear in the scorecard of each match. S. Mlotkowski, who only recently forsook Philadelphia to take up residence at Los Angeles, was paired against the redoubtable Dr. Lovegrove, defeating him with his favorite Evans Gambit. E. A. Perry, former Harvard champion, also played for Los Angeles. On the losing team was E. J. Clarke, at one time champion of the Queens County Chess Club.

At the close of the match the losers, according to the San Francisco Call received the following message: “It is a pleasure to play with square Californians.” About the same time the Western Union operator, after listening to the final tick-ticks from Los Angeles, announced “They’re dancing on the tables and breaking the furniture.”

Boards	Los Angeles		San Francisco
1	C.W. Waterman	1	F. Sternberg	0
2	O.E. Frazier	0	A. J. Fink	1
3	M.A. Woodward	½	A.B. Stamer	½
4	W. Struve	1	J. Ford	0
5	C.H. Whipple	1	B. Smith	0
6	E.R. Perry	1	L. Rosenblatt	0
7	L. Borrough	0	W. Smith	1
8	S.W. Petersen	0	G. Hallwegen	1
9	W. S. Waterman	½	E.J. Clarke	½
10	S. Mlotkowski	1	Dr. Lovegrove	0

American Chess Bulletin 1913, page 154

E.J. Clarke’s weekly column in The San Francisco Call (June 8, 1913) reports that the reason Masters Mlotkowski and Lovegrove met on board 10 is that Lovegrove was a last-minute replacement for another San Francisco player who was scheduled for board 10. When Los Angeles saw that Lovegrove was playing they brought the up-and-coming Mlotkowski from board two to match up with him.

We are indebted to National Master John Blackstone of Las Vegas for alerting us to the fantastic resource available at Jacques N. Pope’s Chess Archeology from which the following games come. There, at http://www.chessarch.com/excavations/excavations.php, you will find the Jack O’Keefe Project, which features a tremendous number of old chess columns from around the world in an easy-to-view format. This is real gold.

Giuoco Piano C50
Bernardo Smith – C. H. Whipple
Match SF-LA Telegraph, 1913 (board 5)
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Nc3 d6 5.d3 Bg4 6.Bb5 a6 7.Bxc6+ bxc6 8.Be3 Bxe3 9.fxe3 Rb8 10.b3 Ne7 11.0-0 0-0 12.Ne2 f5 13.Nd2 Qd7 14.h3 Bh5 15.Qe1 fxe4 16.Nxe4 Rxf1+ 17.Qxf1 Rf8 18.Qe1 d5 19.Nc5 Qd6 20.b4 Bxe2 21.Qxe2 a5 22.a3 axb4 23.axb4 d4 24.e4 Ng6 25.Qg4 Nf4 26.g3 h5 27.Qh4 Ne2+ 28.Kg2 Qh6 29.g4 Qd2 30.Kh1 g5 31.Nb3 Qe3 32.Qe1 Qxh3 0-1

Ruy Lopez C77
L. Borough - Smith, W 
Match SF-LA Telegraph, 1913 (board 7)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.c3 Be7 7.0-0 b5 8.Bc2 Bb7 9.Re1 0-0 10.Nbd2 Re8 11.Nf1 Bf8 12.Ng3 g6 13.h3 Qe7 14.Nh2 Nd8 15.f4 exf4 16.Bxf4 Ne6 17.Bd2 Bg7 18.Ng4 Nxg4 19.Qxg4 Bc8 20.Rf1 Nd4 21.Qd1 Nxc2 22.Qxc2 Bb7 23.Rf3 Rad8 24.Raf1 Rf8 25.Nh1 Ba8 26.Nf2 Rde8 27.Ng4 f5 28.Nh6+ Kh8 29.Qb3 c5 30.g3 c4 31.dxc4 Bxe4 32.R3f2 Bd3 33.Re1 Qxe1+ 34.Bxe1 Rxe1+ 35.Kh2 Be4 36.Rg2 Bxh6 37.cxb5 axb5 38.c4 Bxg2 39.Qc3+ Re5 40.Kxg2 bxc4 41.Qxc4 Rfe8 42.h4 Re2+ 43.Kh3 Rxb2 44.a4 Bg7 45.Qc6 Rbe2 46.a5 h5 0-1
 
Scotch C44
S.W. Petersen – George Hallwegen
Match SF-LA Telegraph, 1913 (board 8)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.Ng5 Nh6 6.Qh5 Qe7 7.0-0 Ne5 8.Bb3 d6 9.h3 0-0 10.f4 Nd7 11.f5 Nf6 12.Qh4 Bd7 13.Nd2 Rae8 14.Kh1 c6 15.g4 d5 16.exd5 cxd5 17.Ndf3 Qd6 18.Nh2 Qc6 19.Ngf3 Ne4 20.Bf4 f6 21.Bxh6 gxh6 22.Rad1 Qd6 23.Kg2 Kh8 24.Nxd4 Bxd4 25.Rxd4 Bc6 26.Rfd1 Ng5 27.R1d2 Re3 28.R4d3 Rfe8 29.Bxd5 Rxd3 30.Rxd3 Bxd5+ 31.Kg1 Re2 32.Rg3 Qc5+ 0-1

Evans Gambit C52
Stasch Mlotkowski - Dr. Walter R Lovegrove
Match SF-LA Telegraph, 1913 (board 10)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 d6 7.Qb3 Nxd4 8.Nxd4 exd4 9.Bxf7+ Kf8 10.Bxg8 Rxg8 11.0–0 Bb6 12.Bb2 Qf6 13.cxd4 Bxd4 14.Bxd4 Qxd4 15.Nc3 g6 16.Rad1 Qe5 17.Rd3 Kg7 18.f4 Qc5+ 19.Kh1 Rf8 20.Nd5 Rf7 21.Qb2+ Kg8 22.Rc1 Qxc1+ 23.Qxc1 Be6 1–0


3) Here and There

Brooklyn Castle

Brooklyn Castle tells the stories of five members of the chess team at a below-the-poverty-line inner-city junior high school that has won more national championships than any other in the country. The film follows the challenges these kids face in their personal lives as well as on the chessboard, and is as much about the sting of their losses as it is about the anticipation of their victories.

Brooklyn Castle begins playing on Friday, November 16 at the Landmark Opera Plaza,
601 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, CA  94102.

This is the only theater in the Bay Area currently showing this movie.

Late News Flash

International Master Daniel Naroditsky will be doing at Question and Answer session after the Saturday 7:15 PM screening of Brooklyn Castle. Don’t miss this.

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Louisiana legend Jude Acers is off to a fine start in the 2012 World Senior being held November 12-25 in Kamena Vourla, Greece. The 68-year-old Acers won his first game, and then nearly upset the tournament’s number-two seed in the second round after uncorking 21.Nxe5!

Queen Pawn D00
Jude Acers – Evgeny Sveshnikov
2012 World Senior (rd 2)

1.d4 d5 2.Bg5 f6 3.Bh4 Nh6 4.f3 Nc6 5.e4 dxe4 6.d5 Nf5 7.fxe4 Nxh4 8.Qh5+ Ng6 9.dxc6 bxc6 10.Nf3 e5 11.Bc4 Qd7 12.0-0 Bc5+ 13.Kh1 Qg4 14.Bf7+ Ke7 15.Bxg6 Qxg6 16.Qh4 Qg4 17.Qe1 Rb8 18.Nbd2 Ba6 19.h3 Qf4 20.c4 Be3 21.Nxe5 Qxe5 22.Qxe3 Rb6 23.Nf3 Qxb2 24.e5 Kd8 25.exf6 Bxc4 26.Qe7+ Kc8 27.f7 Bxf1 28.f8Q+ Rxf8 29.Qxf8+ Kb7 30.Rxf1 Ra6 31.Qf5 Rxa2 32.Rb1 Ra1 33.Rxa1 Qxa1+ 34.Kh2 a5 35.Qxh7 a4 36.Qd3 a3 37.Qb3+ Kc8 38.Qe6+ Kb7 39.Qb3+ Kc8 40.h4 a2 41.Qe6+ Kb7 42.Qb3+ Kc8 ½ - ½

To follow the World Senior go to http://www.worldseniors2012.chessdom.com