Mechanics'Institute Chess Club Newsletter #371

The ‘great game’ of chess is primarily psychological, a conflict between one trained intelligence and another, and not a mere collection of small mathematical theorems.

G. H. Hardy – A Mathematician’s Apology

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News

2) Perelshteyn leads Spice tournament

3) US Championship News

4) US Olympiad Qualification Regulations

5) International News

6) Rediscovered Pillsbury Games

7) Upcoming Tournaments

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News

Experts Jules Jelinek and Nicholas Nip defeated Masters Sam Shankland and Igor Margulis to emerge with the only perfect scores after four rounds of competition. This win puts the 9-year-old Nip's rating at around 2130 in his quest to become the youngest ever USCF rated master . He has about 6 months left to gain another 70 rating points.

MI members IMs David Pruess and Josh Friedel have 3 from 4 in a big open in Bad Wiessee, Germany . Top seed Alex Shabalov has 3.5.

Sam Shankland, Daniel Naroditsky and Louiza Livschitz fly to Antalya , Turkey , on Thursday for the World Youth Championships.

This Saturday the MI will be hosting the 7th Annual Pierre Saint-Amant- honoring the great player who served as French Consul in San Francisco during the Gold Rush.

2) Perelshteyn leads Spice tournament

Spice Cup 2007 (November 9-16) Lubbock , Texas

Standings after 6 rounds ( average rating 2527)

1.GM Eugene Perelshteyn 2536 USA 4.5

2-5. GM Julio Becerra 2568 USA, GM Imre Hera 2544 Hungary, GM Kamil Miton 2628 POL  and GM Gilberto Hernandez 2536 Mexico 3.5 

6.IM Manuel Leon Hoyos 2495 Mexico 3

7-8. IM Irina Krush 2475 USA and  IM Dmitry Schneider 2502 USA 2.5

9. GM Boris Gulko 2571 USA 2

10.  IM Blas Lugo 2411 USA  1.5
 
Go to www.monroi.com for live coverage

3) US Championship News

The USCF is proud to announce the 2008 Frank K. Berry U. S. Championship and
the 2008 Frank K. Berry U. S. Women's Championship. These events will be
held simultaneously on May 13th - 21st in Tulsa , Oklahoma . On the weekend
following the initial event (Memorial Day Weekend), the two top finishers from
each event will square off in a championship match finale in Stillwater ,
Oklahoma .

The US Championship Qualifier Open will be held on March 28th - 30th in
Tulsa , Oklahoma . This tournament will have several qualifying positions into
the Championship. More details will follow soon on all of the events.

The 2008 FKB US Championship and Women's Championship Organizing Committee
consists of Frank Berry, Jim Berry, and Tom Braunlich. Special thanks to
Frank Berry as the primary sponsor of the event. More details forthcoming. 

4) US Olympiad Qualification Regulations

The following rules are presently in effect.

USCF REVISES OLYMPIAD QUALIFICATION RULES

The USCF Executive Board approved the following changes to Olympiad qualification
rules at its November 5-6, 2006 meeting. The first paragraph applies to other invitational
events as well, and is unchanged except for the revision date.

USCF INVITATIONAL EVENT REQUIREMENTS - (revised November 2005)

The following are the general requirements for USCF national and international
invitations. Contact the USCF office for more details. Whenever possible, invitations
shall be issued several months prior to the scheduled beginning of the event. Eligibility
for USCF invitations shall be based on several factors including: rating, age (if
applicable), activity, and residency. Players must be USCF members in good standing at
the time of invitation. Reasonable efforts shall be made to accommodate players with
expired memberships who would otherwise qualify for USCF invitations.

RATING
Players shall be ranked by invitational rating, calculated as follows:

3. FIDE Olympiad and FIDE Women’s Olympiad:

For all except one team member, the following method shall be used: Average of the 1)
current published USCF rating at time of invitation; 2) current published FIDE rating at
time of invitation; 3) average of peak published USCF rating and peak published FIDE
rating, both going back 24 months from time of invitation.
After invitational ratings have been calculated for the highest rated players for all but one
spot on the team, the following method shall be used to determine the final spot: Average
of the 1) current published USCF rating at time of invitation; 2) current published FIDE
rating at time of invitation. To this number shall be added the following adjustment
points based on the player’s age as of January 1 of the Olympiad year: 5 points for age
25, 10 points age 24, 15 points age 23, 20 points age 22, 25 points age 21, 30 points age
20, 35 points age 19, 40 points age 18, 50 points age 17, 60 points age 16 or below.
NOTE: For the 2006 Olympiad only, instead of using published USCF ratings as part of
each formula, the latest ratings at uschess.org/msa as of March 17, 2006 shall be used. If
any contending players have games played but not yet rated as of that date, they should
notify the USCF office of these results by March 22, and the office will adjust the March
17 MSA ratings for invitational purposes based on these games.

BOARD ORDER
Board order for the teams shall be determined by the team captain.

QUALIFICATION OF US CHAMPIONS
Automatic qualification of the U.S. Champions is currently not in effect, but the issue
will be reviewed after we have a decision on the date and format of the 2006 U.S.
Championship.

ACTIVITY REQUIREMENT
In the 12 months prior to computation of invitational rating, players must have completed
at least one FIDE-rated or USCF Grand Prix tournament of 6 or more rounds in the
United States. Half point byes are permissible so long as 6 games are actually played, or
are unplayed wins. Tournaments rated only by the USCF’s Quick Chess rating system do
not count toward the activity requirement. For the 2006 Olympiad only, a FIDE-rated or Grand Prix tournament of 5 or more rounds
is acceptable.

ACTIVITY POINTS
During the 12 month period prior to the computation of invitational rating, players should
have played at least 30 games against opponents rated 2200 or above (2100 or above for
the Women’s Olympiad) in FIDE-rated or USCF Grand Prix events. Foreign tournaments
are acceptable. For opponents with no established USCF rating, those with a FIDE rating
of 2100 or above (2000 or above for the Women’s Olympiad) are counted. Tournaments
rated only by the USCF’s Quick Chess rating system do not count. Unplayed games do
not count.
Players who complete all games in the US Open without taking byes are guaranteed a
minimum of 6 credits. While unplayed wins are not credited, they are adequate toward
having completed the tournament.
Players who do not play sufficient games will have one invitational rating point deducted
for each game by which they are short of 30 games.
For the 2006 Olympiad only, the standard shall be 20 games rather than 30. One
invitational rating point shall be deducted for each game by which the player is short of
20 games.

5) International News

The second Mikhail Tal Memorial Tournament is being held in Moscow from November 9 to 23, 2007 at the historic Moscow Central Chess Club, which now has a zippier name: "The Central House of Chessplayers, named after Botvinnik". This year the chess festival consists of three major contests: a round-robin classical Category 20 chess tournament, the World Blitz Championship, and an "Advanced Chess" match between Vishi Anand and Vladimir Kramnik – all taking place within the framework of the Memorial. The full line-up for the main tournament is as follows:

Mameyarov, Carlsen and Kramnik lead with 2.5 from 4. Gata has 1.5.

Average Elo 2740, Category 20. Play starts each day at 15.00h Moscow time (13.00 European time). Games will be broadcast live on Playchess.com.

American Pairings in the World Cup:(Khanty-Mansiysk,Russia Nov.22-Dec.18) 

 Gata Kamsky(USA, 2714)- Ahmed Adly (Egypt, 2494, World Junior Champion)
Alexander Onischuk (USA,2674)- Zaven Andriasian (Armenia, 2546)
Sergei Kudrin (USA, 2563)- Francisco Vallejo Pons (Spain, 2660)
 Alexander Ivanov (USA, 2565)- David Navara (Czech Republic, 2656)
Julio Becerra Rivero (USA, 2568)- Evgeny Bareev (Russia, 2653)
Varuzhan Akobian (USA, 2585)- Michael Roiz (Israel, 2644)
Gregory Kaidanov (USA,2597)- Mikhail Gurevich (Turkey, 2627)
 Alexander Shabalov (USA, 2626)- Dusko Pavaosovic (Slovenia, 2597)
 Yuri Shulman (USA, 2616)- Rafael Leitao (Brazil, 2601)

6) Rediscovered Pillsbury Games

Here are three Pillsbury games that are not in the definitive work Henry Nelson Pillsbury: American Chess Champion by Jacques Pope. Unfortunately they are more "for the record' than good games. They come from the Midwest Chess News and Nebraska Chess Bulletin edited by Jack Spence, who did so much to preserve American chess history.

Pillsbury,Harry Nelson - Barron,P.T. [D60]
Lincoln, 01.03.1900

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 0-0 6.Nf3 Nbd7 7.Bd3 b6 8.cxd5 Nxd5 9.Bxe7 Qxe7 10.Nxd5 exd5 11.Rc1 c5 12.0-0 c4 13.Bb1 f5 14.Re1 b5 15.Nd2 Nf6 16.Nf3 Nd7 17.Nd2 Bb7 18.Nf1 Rae8 19.Ng3 g6 20.Ne2 Rf6 21.Nf4 Nf8 22.Qf3 Rd6 23.g4 Qg5 24.Kh1 Qxg4 25.Qxg4 fxg4 26.Rg1 Ne6 27.Nxe6 Rdxe6 28.Rxg4 Rf8 29.Kg1 Bc8 30.Rg5 Ref6 31.Rxd5 Rxf2 32.Rd8 Rxb2 33.Rxf8+ Kxf8 34.e4 Bh3 35.d5 Rg2+ 36.Kh1 Ke7 37.e5 Rg5 38.d6+ Ke6 0-1

Source: Midwest Chess News and Nebraska Chess Bulletin, Vol.X, September-October 1956, page 33. Pillbury may have  played this game blindfolded.

Pillsbury,Harry Nelson - Hardy and Cornell [C67]
Lincoln, 1901

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Be7 6.Qe2 Nd6 7.Bxc6 bxc6 8.dxe5 Nb7 9.Nc3 0-0 10.Re1 d5 11.exd6 Bxd6 12.Qc4 Nc5 13.Bg5 Qd7 14.Rad1 Qf5 15.Be7 Ba6 16.Qh4 Bxe7 17.Qxe7 Ne6 18.Ne4 Nf4 19.Qxc7 Ne2+ 20.Rxe2 Bxe2 21.Ng3 Qxc2 22.Re1 Bxf3 23.gxf3 Qxb2 24.Qxc6 Qxa2 25.Nf5 Qd2 26.Qe4 h6 27.Qe5 Qg5+ 28.Kh1 Rfe8 29.Ne7+ Kh8 30.Qe4 Qxe7 0-1

Source: Midwest Chess News and Nebraska Chess Bulletin, Vol. X, September-October 1956, page 33.

Pillsbury,Harry Nelson - Clark,John [C67]
Lincoln, 1901

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Ba4 exd4 7.c3 Be7 8.cxd4 b5 9.d5 Na5 10.Bc2 0-0 11.Bf4 Nac4 12.Qd4 Bf6 13.Be5 Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Bxe5 15.Qxe5 Re8 16.Qf4 Bb7 17.Nc3 Qf6 18.Qxf6 gxf6 19.Bb3 a5 20.a3 b4 21.axb4 axb4 22.Rxa8 Bxa8 23.Na2 Re2 24.Nc1 Rxb2 25.f3 Nf5 26.Re1 Kf8 27.Ba4 Bxd5 28.Bxd7 Nd6 29.Rd1 Be6 30.Nd3 Re2 31.Kf1 Re3 32.Bxe6 fxe6 33.Nxb4 Nf5 34.Rc1 ½-½

Source: Midwest Chess News and Nebraska Chess Bulletin, Vol.X, September-October 1956, page 38.

7) Upcoming Tournaments

MI Events

Pierre Saint-Amant Memorial - November 17th
Jim Hurt Amateur - December 1st and 2nd
Guthrie McClain - December 8th

go http://www.chessclub.org/ for more information 

Northern California

I will be running USCF rated chess tournaments in Cupertino ! Events for scholastic (K-12) players will be on Nov 25, Dec 22, Jan 12, and Feb 16. These will all be
trophy prize quads. Please note the earlier start time of 2pm. Please check in before 1:45pm. I will also have an Adult tournament on Nov 24. These are octos, 3-SS. I expect some masters to play in this one. The players will be distributed into sections of 8 each. This allows a first prize of $100 for each section. If you have any questions, please contact me.

Albert Rich
USCF Tournament Director
USCF National Master

albertjrich@yahoo.com

He adds I had to change the date for the adult tournament. It is now on the Friday after Thanksgiving, November 23. There is supposed to be  an adult tournament in Los
Gatos that weekend. The kids tournament is still going to be held on Sunday.
Thanks!
Albert Rich
USCF Local Tournament Director
USCF Master

Regional

A Heritage Event!
An American Classic!
Nov. 22-25   43rd Annual American Open   GPP: 100   California Southern

8SS, 40/2, SD/1. LAX Renaissance Hotel, 9620 Airport Bl, Los Angeles , CA 90045 . $$40,000 b/o 400 entries, 50% of each prize gtd. In 6 sections (Unr. must play in Unr. or Open). Open: $4000-2000-1000-700-600-500, U2450/Unr. $1000-500, U2300/Unr. $600-300. U2200, U2000, U1800: Each $3200-1600-800-400. U1600: $2600-1300-650-350. U1400/Unr: $2200-1100-550, U1200 $1000-500 (not a separate section; U1200s also eligible for U1400 prizes), Unrated: $350-200 (Unrateds in this section eligible for these prizes only). EF: Open, U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400 $120 if rec’d by 11/20, $50 more for players rated under 2000 playing in Open, Unrated $40. All: $25 more at door. SCCF membership req’d, $14, $9 jrs under 19 includes Rank & File magazine, OSA. Elegant trophy each section winner. Special $1000 gtd. prizes in memory of Joyce Jillson: 100 (brilliancy), 100 (positional win by player 1700+), 100 (positional win by player U1700), 100 (known true gambit); biggest rating gain by established player rated over 1000: $400, 200 (latter female only). No checks at door – cash, credit card or money order only. 4-day schedule: Reg. closes noon 11/22, Rds. 12:30-7:30, 12:30-7:30, 10:30-5, 10-4:30. 3-day schedule: Reg. closes 11:30 a.m. 11/23, Rds. 12-2:30-5-8 (G/1), schedules merge in Rd 5 and compete for common prizes. Byes (2 max) with advance notice. CCA minimum ratings and TD discretion will be used to protect you from improperly rated players. November Rating Supplement used. Lectures and videos. HR: $99, (310) 337-2800, mention chess. Parking only $7. Info: NTD Randy Hough (626) 282-7412, randallhough@yahoo.com. Ent: American Open, PO Box 205 , Monterey Park , CA 91754 or www.americanopen.org. NS, W, F.

Special guests are GMs Melik Khachian and Alex Yermolinsky and lecturer IM Jeremy Silman.

Dec 8, 2006   3rd Annual Igor Ivanov Memeorial.

GPP 15

5SS, G/60, 1^st round is G/45, St. George Chess Club Tournament, 354 E. 600 S. #301, St George, Utah 84770, JUST 120 MILES NORTH OF LAS VEGAS. EF:$35.  GMs and IMs free entry. $150 appearance stipend for IMs and GMs; and free room and Lunch.  Prize fund: $1200 absolutely guaranteed. $400-225-125, other distributed as class prizes Reg: Friday Dec. 7th, 6:30pm- 7:30pm, Saturday Dec. 9, 8:00am to 8:45am.  Please register in advance if Possible.  Rds: 1st round 9:00am. Next rounds ASAP.  Byes must be submitted before the 2nd round for a half point.  Award Ceremony: there will be an Awards Ceremony immediately after the last round.  All cash prizes are unconditionally
guaranteed.  What to bring: chess clocks, pen.  Please turn cell phones off.  
Ent:  St. George Chess Center, the same address as given above.  You can also
register and have questions answered at: www.stgeorgechess.com or call Alan Crooks at1-888-GO-CHESS