Mechanics' Institute Chess Club Newsletter #377

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News

3) Frank Anderson - Munich (ol) 1958

4) Anand vs Kramnik WCh Match Announced

5) Upcoming Events

IM John Grefe won the Fall Tuesday Night Marathon with a score of 7.5 from 9 ( 6 wins and 3 half point byes). This was only the second event that the former US Champion (1973) has played in after recovering from a life threatening illness that caused him to lose over 100 pounds. His victory was well received by MI regulars.

Tying for second at 7 points were FM Frank Thornally (who was undefeated) and young NM Sam Shankland. Among those on 6.5 was 9-year-old Nicholas Nip who saw his rating advance from 2128 to 2144. He has approximately 6 months left to raise his rating to 2200 and become the youngest master in the history of the USCF.

January 2-6 the Mechanics' will host the US Chess School with GM Yury Shulman as the GM trainer to 8 of the strongest 9-12 year olds in the US. MI members Nicholas Nip, Daniel Naroditsky and Greg Young will be among those attending.

The Pivdenny Bank will hold the 2nd ACP World Rapid Cup in Odessa, Ukraine, January 4-7, 2008.

March 10-20 US Womens Champion Irina Krush will play in a strong women's only event in Turkey.

Newsletters #348 and #349 had material on Frank Anderson, the first strong player to live in San Diego. Almost 50 years he won the gold medal for best score on board two in the Munich Olympiad and received the IM title for his efforts, the first native born Canadian to be so honored.

Anderson was inducted into the Canadian Chess Hall of Fame in 2001. You will find bios of him and the two GMs to play in both US and Canadian Championships (Duncan Suttles and Peter Biyiasas) at http://web.ncf.ca/bw998/canchess.html#FAME.

Suttles and Biyiasas both have Bay Area ties. The former was born in San Francisco and played a number of tournaments in California in the early and mid 1960's while attending the University of Nevada at Reno. Biyiasas moved to Northern California in the early 1980s and continues to make it his home.

The following game was played in the first round of the preliminaries at Munich 1958 and is annotated by Anderson.

Frank Anderson – Gideon Stahlberg

Sicilian Four Knights Game [B45]

This is the Four Knight's Variation that has been popular with many Masters, notably Reuben Fine who used it on many occasions.

In this position the Yugoslav Grandmaster Trifunovic tried against Ivkov the simplifying 9...Nxd5 and an even game was soon the result. We believe that with best play. White should still get the advantage (a small but enduring advantage).

This is the new move that is being tried out this year. In answering this, Fridrik Olafson, the Icelandic Grandmaster, has consistently chosen 13.Ne2, a move that is sound but not aggressive enough. We had analyzed this position just before we went over to Europe and had come to the conclusion that we would like to try out the new move 13.Nb5. Little did we guess that we would be given the opportunity, in the first round against a Grandmaster!

Stahlberg played this after much deliberation. He was perhaps surprised at our move. An interesting move is 13...Nd5 14.Bg3 and white still appears better.(not 14.Bd6? a6)

This is better than 15.f3 when 15...Be6 16.Nxb7? Qe7 17.Nd6 Nh5! wins for Black.

Here White misses a better chance. With 17.Nc4 Rae8 18.Ne5 White would have won a pawn. 18...Qd5 19.Nxc6 Qxc6 20.Be5 with a pawn plus and an attacking position, Black would not have been able to hold out too long.

After some difficult positional play White emerges with a tremendous Kingside attack for 30.h4 and h5 are threatened. Stahlberg finds the best resource, a clever pawn sacrifice, to give his pieces "some air".

Definitely Black's best counter-attacking chance.

A sad position for the Knight but it will not remain here too long.

The first sealed move. Stahlberg asked us whether we were playing for a win and we were forced to tell him that this was the case. With a shrug of his shoulders he continued.

White's previous moves were for gaining time on the clock. His last move is essential to restrict the Black Knight.

Certainly forced because White had a winning maneuver in Re8+, Rb8 and R8b7 threatening.

I thought during the game that 49...a5 was best although it loses a pawn by 50.Rb6 Black gets his Knight into play by ...Ne7 and ...Nd5.

The winning move, although a hard fight still remains.

Winning the pawn by 53.Rxf6+ would not win the game.

The second sealed move. White's pieces are now too active and the King entry is the key to the win.

The Rook must not be allowed to enter White's position.

Canadian Chess Chat, October 1958, page 5-6.

* When: From October 11 – 30, 2008
* Where: Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn
* Overall Prize fund: 1,5 Million Euro* Patron: German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück
* Main sponsor: Evonik Industries AG

The match will consist of twelve games, played under classical time controls, in the period from October 11 to October 28, 2008. If there is a tie at the end of these games a tiebreak will be played on October 30, 2008. The prize fund, which will be split equally between the players, is 1,5 million Euro (approximately 2,1 million US dollars) including taxes and FIDE licensee fees.

Bob Burger Open - January 12
Henry Gross Memorial - February 9
A. J. Fink Amateur Championship - March 1
Max Wilkerson Open - March 29
Walter Lovegrove Senior Open - April 5
Imre Konig Memorial - April 26

Thanks for your regular newsletters… they have become my main source of local chess information. I would appreciate any comments or suggestions you have on a Journal that my son and I plan to publish every quarter. You can see the first attempt at http://www.bayareachess.com/newsletter/08-1-BayAreaJournal.pdf.

4SS G/60. 3003 Scott Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95054. EF: $39, Juniors $35. $16 more after 1/15, $1 Cal Chess Discount, Additional discount if combined with other tournament entries. $850 b/40: Open 200-100, U1800 50, highest rating increase 50. Reserve (u1600): 200-100 U1400 50, U1200 50, highest rating increase 50. Reg: Sat 9:15-9:45 AM, Rds: 10:15-12:15, lunch, 12:50-2:50 PM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 5:10-7:10 PM. Ent: Online at http://www.bayareachess.com/pay_online.php or mail to Azleena Azhar, 1551 Garvey Pl. San Jose, CA 95132. Payable to Azleena Azhar or paypal to sazhar@yahoo.com. Info: http://www.bayareachess.com/. NS NC W

4SS G/60. 3003 Scott Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95054. EF: $39, Juniors $35. $16 more after 3/4, $1 Cal Chess Discount, Additional discount if combined with other tournament entries. $850 b/40: Open 200-100, U1800 50, highest rating increase 50. Reserve (u1600): 200-100 U1400 50, U1200 50, highest rating increase 50. Reg: Sat 9:15-9:45 AM, Rds: 10:15-12:15, lunch, 12:50-2:50 PM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 5:10-7:10 PM. Ent: Online at http://www.bayareachess.com/pay_online.php or mail to Azleena Azhar, 1551 Garvey Pl. San Jose, CA 95132. Payable to Azleena Azhar or paypal to sazhar@yahoo.com. Info: http://www.bayareachess.com/. NS NC W

4SS G/60. 3003 Scott Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95054. EF: $39, Juniors $35. $16 more after 5/20, $1 Cal Chess Discount, Additional discount if combined with other tournament entries. $850 b/40: Open 200-100, U1800 50, highest rating increase 50. Reserve (u1600): 200-100 U1400 50, U1200 50, highest rating increase 50. Reg: Sat 9:15-9:45 AM, Rds: 10:15-12:15, lunch, 12:50-2:50 PM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 5:10-7:10 PM. Ent: Online at http://www.bayareachess.com/pay_online.php or mail to Azleena Azhar, 1551 Garvey Pl. San Jose, CA 95132. Payable to Azleena Azhar or paypal to sazhar@yahoo.com. Info: http://www.bayareachess.com/. NS NC W

6SS 30/90 G/60 (2-day option first 3 rounds G/60 merges in round 4). 3003 Scott Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95054. EF: $55, Juniors $49. $16 more after 5/20, $1 Cal Chess Discount, Additional discount if combined with other tournament entries. $1475 b/55: OPEN 300-150, u2000 100-75, u1800 100-75, highest rating increase 50. RESERVE (u1600): 200-100 u1400 100, 75, u1200 100, 75, highest rating increase 50. Reg: Sat 10-10:30 AM, Sun 8:15-8:45 AM, Rds: 3-day = 5/24 11am, 4pm; 5/25 11am, 4:30pm; 5/26 10am, 3pm. 2-day = 5/25 9:20, 11:30am, 2pm, round 4 merges with 3-day schedule. Ent: Mail to Azleena Azhar, 1551 Garvey Pl. San Jose, CA 95132. Payable to Azleena Azhar or paypal to sazhar@yahoo.com. Info: http://www.bayareachess.com/. NS NC W