Fischer was an individual and so was I. Today, these players have coaches, physicians, cooks, psychologists, and parapsychologists. The championship has become a fight between two big collective farms.

Boris Spassky

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess News

2) Nine-way tie for first in World Open

3) 2007 US Womens Championship

4) July FIDE Rating List

5) USCF Election

6) Ivanchuk wins Aerosvits

7) Here and There

8) Upcoming Events

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess News

FM Frank Thornally and Expert Murray Newcomb lead the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon with 5.5 from 6 with two rounds to go. Thornally, who grew up in the Bay Area and played for the US team in the 1968 and 1969 Student Olympiads, is well known to MI members but Newcomb is not. Murray is a recent arrival from Maryland and has been playing in every MI event he can find in his quest to become a Master. Mr. Newcomb has been as high as 2187 in the past fifteen years, but his rating was down to 1998 when he showed up at the MI. Since then, It's been climbing every event and he is now solidly in the Expert category. We wish him well on his quest.

IM Ricardo DeGuzman, NM Peter Zavadsky, and Expert Gregory Young tied for first at 4.5 from 5 in the 58-player seventh annual William Addison Open. The result was particularly fine for twelve-year-old Gregory who defeated NM Michael Aigner and drew with DeGuzman. This result puts Gregory solidly over 2100. The event marked a return to the tournament arena by the Krubnik sisters, Ewelina and Emilia, the later upset a player rated 800 points above her! We even had a Christiansen playing in the Addison, but it was Larry's wife, Natasha and not the GM himself.

For those who don't know, William Addison is an IM who played twice for the United States Olympic team in the 1960s and had a plus score over 50 games played in US Championships during the same decade. Addison, who is still an MI member, served as Chess Director at the Mechanics' in the late 1960s. The first player of International standard to live in California was the late Herman Steiner who came to the Golden State in the mid 1930s. He was followed some years after by Isaac Kashdan, but both of them were already well established players when they arrived. Addison, who moved from his native Louisiana to San Francisco in the early 1950s, was a low Expert when he first stepped through the doors of the Mechanics'. The next decade, by dint of hard work with no outside support, he developed into one of the top eight players in the country.

Below find the playing schedule for the Konig, subject to minor modifications. The public is welcome to attend. Note that Mr. and Mrs. Atalik and GM Yermolinsky will be playing in the Canadian Open in Ottawa until July 15th which explains the scheduling.

Stein (1) - Baburin (1)

Fedorowicz (1) - Pruess (1)

Friedel (1) - Fedorowicz (2)

Baburin (2) - Pruess (2)

Fedorowicz (3) - Stein (2)

Friedel (2) - Baburin (3)

Pruess (3) - Fedorowicz (4)

Baburin (4) - Stein (3)

Zilberstein (1) - Baburin (5)

Mezentsev (1) - Fedorowicz (5)

Fedorowicz (6) - Zilberstein (2)

Baburin (6) - Mezentsev (2)

Baburin (7) - Zilberstein (3)

Fedorowicz (7) - Mezentsev (3)

Zilberstein (4) - Fedorowicz (8)

Mezentsev (4) - Baburin (8)

Fedorowicz (9) - Friedel (3)

Pruess (4) - Baburin (9)

K.Atalik (1) - Stein (4)

S.Atalik (1) - Mezentsev (5)

Yermolinsky (1) - Zilberstein (5)

Stein (5) - Fedorowicz (10)

Baburin (10) - Friedel (4)

Pruess (5) - S.Atalik (2)

Yermolinsky (2) - Mezentsev (6)

K.Atalik (2) - Zilberstein (6)

Stein (6) - Yermolinsky (3)

S.Atalik (3) - Zilberstein (7)

Mezentsev (7) - K.Atalik (3)

Mezentsev (8) - S.Atalik (4)

Zilberstein (8) - Yermolinsky (4)

K.Atalik (4) - Pruess (6)

Zilberstein (9) - S.Atalik (5)

Mezentsev (9) - Yermolinsky (5)

Friedel (5) - K.Atalik (5)

K.Atalik (6) - Mezentsev (10)

Zilberstein (10) - K.Atalik (7)

Yermolinsky (6) - Pruess (7)

S.Atalik (6) - Friedel (6)

Stein (7) - K.Atalik (8)

Friedel (7) - Yermolinsky (7)

S.Atalik (7) - Stein (8)

Pruess (8) - K.Atalik (9)

Yermolinsky (8) - Stein (9)

S.Atalik (8) - Pruess (9)

K.Atalik (10) - Friedel (8)

Stein (10) - S.Atalik (9)

Yermolinsky (9) - Friedel (9)

Pruess (10) - Yermolinsky (10)

Friedel (10) - S.Atalik (10)

2) Nine-way tie for first in World Open

The 35th World Open, held in King of Prussia, PA, from June 28 to July 4 saw nine GMs tie for first at 6 1/2 from 9. They were: Varuzhan Akobian, Leonid Yudasin, Hikaru Nakamura, Chanda Sandipan, Alexander Stripunsky, Victor Mikhalevski, Julio Becerra, Evgeni Najer, and US Champion Alex Shabolov.

Several Mechanics' members competed in the ultra tough open section with 35 GMs. Our top finishers were Josh Friedel and Batchimeg Tuvshingtugs with 5 from 9. Josh was hoping for more, and if not for a last round loss with black against GM Alexander Ivanov, he would have been among the prize winners. Batchimeg (aka Chimi), had a very eventful tournament. She started slowly but beat IMs Bonin and Simutowe in the last two rounds, showing excellent endgame technique.

Bonin,J (2374) - Tuvshintugs,B (2275)
World Open 2007 King of Prussia USA (8), 04.07.2007

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.Qa4+ Nc6 8.e3 0-0 9.Rc1 Bd7 10.cxd5 exd5 11.Qb3 Rfe8 12.Be2 Qg6 13.0-0 Bh3 14.Ne1 Rad8 15.Kh1 Bf5 16.Bf3 Be6 17.Ne2 Bd6 18.Nd3 Na5 19.Qc3 b6 20.Nef4 Qg5 21.b4 Nc4 22.Nxd5 Bxd5 23.Bxd5 Qxd5 24.Qxc4 Qh5 25.h3 Re4 26.Rc2 Rde8 27.Qc6 R4e6 28.Qf3 Qb5 29.Qe2 Re4 30.Qd2 Qf5 31.Ne5 Rxe3 32.Qxe3 Qxc2 33.Qb3 Qxb3 34.axb3 Bxe5 35.Re1 f6 36.f4 Kf7 37.dxe5 fxe5 38.fxe5 Ke6 39.Re4 Kd5 0-1

Tuvshintugs,B (2275) - Simutowe,A (2460)
World Open 2007 King of Prussia USA (9), 04.07.2007

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.f4 Qb6 8.Nb3 h6 9.Bxf6 Nxf6 10.Be2 Qe3 11.Qd2 Qxd2+ 12.Nxd2 g5 13.e5 dxe5 14.fxe5 Nd7 15.Nd5 Ra7 16.e6 Nf6 17.exf7+ Kxf7 18.Nb6 Bf5 19.0-0-0 e6 20.Ndc4 Bc5 21.Rhf1 h5 22.Nd6+ Kg6 23.Nbc8 Bxd6 24.Nxd6 Rd8 25.Nxf5 Rxd1+ 26.Kxd1 exf5 27.Bd3 Ne4 28.Bxe4 fxe4 29.Ke2 b5 30.Ke3 Rc7 31.Rf2 Rc4 32.c3 h4 33.Rd2 Kh5 34.Rd4 Rc8 35.Rxe4 Rc6 36.a4 bxa4 37.Rxa4 Rb6 38.Ra2 Re6+ 39.Kd3 Rd6+ 40.Ke3 Re6+ 41.Kd3 Rd6+ 42.Kc2 Rf6 43.b4 Rf1 44.c4 Rh1 45.h3 g4 46.hxg4+ Kxg4 47.c5 Rf1 48.Kb3 Kf5 49.Rc2 Ke6 50.c6 Rf8 51.Ka4 Kd6 52.c7 Rc8 53.Ka5 1-0

One interesting feature of this years event was an under 2400 section which attracted a large number of lower rated IMs looking at a chance for glory not possible when playing with the big boys. Eleven-year-old MI stalwart Daniel Naroditsky had a tremendous performance, scoring 6 out of 9. Daniel somehow won two games by forfeit (how come this never happens to me!), but in the seven games he played, he had a performance rating of 2354 to pick up 30 rating points and move up to 2180. Daniel is now about 200 points higher than any boy his age in the US.

3) 2007 US Womens Championship

Frank K. Berry 2007 US Women's Chess Championship

Over the week of July 16-20, 2007, ten of the top American women chess players will compete in a round-robin tournament in Stillwater, Oklahoma, to determine the Frank K. Berry 2007 US Women's Chess Champion along with a $7,000 first place prize. Also up for grabs will be three World Championship qualification places. and various players have the possibility of obtaining Woman Grandmaster and Woman International Master norms!

Competing in the Championship are:

4) July FIDE Rating List

Top 20 in the World

1. Anand 2792
2. Kramnik 2769
3. Topalov 2768
4. Ivanchuk 2762
5. Morozevich 2758
6. Mamedyarov 2755
7. Leko 2751
8. Aronian 2750
9. Radjabov 2746
10-12. Jakovenko, Shirov and Svidler 2735
13. Gelfand 2733
14. Adams 2731
15. Grischuk 2726
16. Kamsky 2717
17. Carlsen 2710
18. Akopian 2708
19. Polgar 2707
20. Ponomariov 2706

Top US players:

1. Kamsky 2718

2. Onishuk 2650

3. Nakamura 2647

4. Shabalov 2637

5. Seirawan 2634

6. Ehlvest 2629

7. Shulman 2610

8. Ibragimov 2599

9. Kaidanov 2596

10.Stripunsky 2589

Irina Krush is the 14th highest rated woman in the world at 2479 and Anna Zatonskih is number 22 at 2462.

5) USCF Election

In 2007 the USCF will hold an election to elect three (3) members to the USCF Executive Board for terms of four (4) years beginning at the conclusion of the 2007 Delegates Meeting and one (1) member to complete the remaining two (2) years of Robert Tanner's term, effective with the certification of election results.

The 10 candidates, in the order in which they will appear on the ballot, are:

Susan Polgar
Randy Bauer
Mike Goodall
Joe Lux
Sam Sloan
Stephen Jones
Paul Truong
Jim Berry
Don Schultz
Mikhail Korenman

Voting members who receive Chess Life will receive their ballots with the June issue. (It will be a cover wrap around the magazine.) Voting members who do not receive Chess Life, such as additional family members who are 16 or older, will receive their ballots via first-class mail in early June. Voting members who join or renew in May will also receive their ballots via first-class mail in early June.

All told, ballots will have been sent to 39,880 voting members, including 2163 ballots in the supplemental mailing that will go out via first class mail around June 8th. Voting members who have not received a ballot by June 25th should contact Pat Knight at the USCF office to request a replacement ballot.

The ballots will be counted in July. The ballot counting will commence at the USCF offices in Crossville TN on Wednesday, July 25th, under the supervision of the Chief Teller, Frank Camaratta. Any USCF member is welcome to observe the ballot counting. Preliminary results will be released by the USCF office by the 12 USCF regions as those regions are completed.

6) Ivanchuk wins Aerosvits

Vassily Ivanchuk had yet another brilliant tournament in winning this super strong event held in the Crimean section of the Ukraine, but the story for Americans was the excellent performance of Grandmaster Alex Onishuk who rebounded from a first round loss to tie for third place, despite being the lowest rated player in the tournament. Alex's performance rating was in the rating neighborhood of 2735.

This is the sort of tournament we need to have in the United States for our best players. Big Swiss tournaments are very helpful in developing talent to a certain level, but to rise much about 2600 and especially to make it into the 2700s, there's no substitute for meeting super strong GMs round after round with a playing schedule of one game a day.

Final Standings:
1. Ivanchuk – 7½
2. Karjakin – 7
3-6. Shirov, Onischuk, Van Wely and Svidler

6 7. Dominguez – 5½

8.Rublevsky – 5

9-10. Jakovenko and Eljanov 4½

11-12. Sasikiran and Nisipeanu – 4

7) Here and There

Norm hunters and those just looking to play a very interesting tournament in a new local, will definitely want to check out the Miami Open scheduled for late September. IM Blas Lugo deserves major congratulations for putting together this event. Look for complete details below under upcoming events.

IM Mark Ginsburg of Tucson writes:

i am constructing a 'life essay' of games and personalities at the above site. Some of the historical reminiscences will necessarily be incomplete so a blog comment feature is ideal for corrections & augmentations!

Mechanics' IMs will have their work cut out for them at the Konig. Two of the GMs, in particular, are in excellent shape. Suat Atalik recently tied for first in a very strong tournament in Serbia, finishing ahead of Karpov. The Irish Bear, Alex Baburin, won the Liechtenstein Open and then placed highly in the European Union Championship in Aosta, Italy. Note the fine placing of Italian-American teenager Fabiano Caruana.

Final standings:
1-2. Sedlak, Godena – 8 points
3-6. Luther, Caruana, Baburin, Cebalo
– 7½
7-9. Sulskis, Sulava, Llaneza Vega – 7
etc.

GM Baburin, who gave an excellent lecture at the Mechanics' on Tuesday night, is the chief editor and publisher of the excellent online daily Chess Today. Each issue features four to six pages of recent annotated games, tournament reports, book reviews, editorials, and more. Alex is offering a special rate to MI members of $25 for a six month subscription, (over 180 issues). This price is a discount of 30% over the normal subscription rate. Sign up in person at the MI any time in the next two weeks.

The following game, which makes one think of the old fashioned king hunts of long ago, was recently published in Chess Today. I've truncated the notes:

Ahn,Martin (2302) - Ruck,Tamas (2334) [C45]
BEL-chT 0607 Belgium (9), 01.10.2006

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nb3 Bb6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 d6 9.a4?

9.Qe2 occurred in the last tiebreak rapid game Rublevsky-Grischuk in Elista (and also in Ivanchuk-Morozevuch, Morelia/Linares 2007, etc.

9...Nxe4!!N

In 1992, GM Inkiov played 9...a6 against GM Smirin; 9...g5 was used too. The text just refutes White's 9th.

10.Bxd8

After 10.Qh5 White hardly has any compensation for the pawn. E.g. 10...g6!? 11.Bxd8 gxh5 12.Nxe4 Kxd8 13.a5 Nxa5 14.Nxa5 Re8]

The main point of the combination.

13.Kxe4 f5+ 14.Kd5 Rxd8!-+

Now Black's main threat is 15...Ke7 with inevitable mate.

15.Qxg4 c6+! 16.Ke6 0-0!

[Very spectacular! And also somewhat stronger than 16...fxg4 17.Kf5

17.Nd5

[If 17.Qxf5 Rfe8#]

17...fxg4 18.Bd3 g6

18...Rde8+!? wins in a more forced way;
while 18...Rf7! (with the idea of 19...Re8+, 20...Rd7#) was the simplest. But, generally, everything is good for Black here

19.Rhf1 Kg7 20.Nd4 Rfe8+ 21.Ne7 Bh4 22.Bxg6 Rxe7+ 23.Kf5 Rf8+ 24.Ke4 Nxg6+ 25.Kd3 Ne5+ 26.Kc3 Bf2 0-1

Three years ago, IM Igor Khmelnitsky, a three time participant in the US Championship, wrote the original and well received Chess Exam and Training Guide which won the 2005 Cramer Award for the best chess book produced in the United States. Now Igor has a new book out, Chess Exam and Training Guide: Tactics. Find out all about it at:

8) Upcoming Events

Charles Bagby - July 14th
Vladimir Pafnutieff - August 11th
Bernardo Smith Amateur - August 18th and 19th

Clark Harmon Memorial Open

July 14-15

$1500 Guaranteed!

Sponsored by Portland Chess Club and contributors to the

Harmon Memorial Fund

5-round Swiss: One open section

Time Control: Saturday 40/90, SD/30; Sunday 40/120, SD 60

Registration: Saturday 9-9:45 am. Registration is limited to first 50 entrants. Advanced registration is strongly encouraged.

Rounds: Saturday 10:00; 2:30 & 7:00; Sunday 9:30 & 4:30

Byes: 2 half-point byes available if requested before 1st round. GMs & IMs may enter in round 2 with 1 point or round 3 with 1.5 points.

1st $425 2nd $250 3rd $150

U2000, U1700, U1400 each 1st $150, 2nd $75

Entry: $50; $40 for PCC members.

Memberships: USCF and OCF/WCF required (OSA). Harmon NW Grand Prix.

This is the First Annual Harmon Memorial. We hope players will join in this tribute to one of the Northwest’s premier players and ambassadors of the game. The prize fund is underwritten through the generosity of contributors to the Harmon Memorial Fund. To date the following have contributed:

Sherry Harmon; Alexey Root; Neil Dale; Jonna Schuder; Taylor Bailey; Mike Morris; Shirley Venhaus; Marvin Hayami; Russell Miller; Mike Schemm; Grisha Alpernas; Jon & Barbie Fortune; Michael Ratliff; Laszlo Szalvay; Ted Lundin

Any net proceeds from this tournament will be added to the fund, so that this will become an annual event

The Miami Chess Open entry form:

Name _________________________________ Tournament_________________________________ Section_______________________ Number of days_______ USCF ID _____________ Rating ______

Entry Fee_______________Membership Dues___________ Address_______________________________________________________________________________

email address_____________________________________

Send to Miami International Chess Academy: 5880 SW 8Street, Miami Florida 33174.