Oleg Shaknazarov leads the Fall Tuesday Night Marathon with 7 from 8 with two rounds remaining. Tied for second a point back in the 56-player-field are Dante Argishti and Evan Sandberg.

 

Michael Pearson and Dmitry Vayntraub tied for first at 4.5 from 5 in the 8th Annual Pierre Saint Amant Memorial held November 22. 11-year-old Expert Yian Liou defeated Ricardo DeGuzman to knock the veteran IM out of the running for first place.

 

Congratulations to Mechanics' member Josh Friedel who was awarded his GM title at the FIDE Congress in Dresden. Congratulations also go to NM Dennis Fritzinger on the publication of his new book Famous Once a collection of chess related poems.

 

Josh Friedel shared second place and Vinay Bhat tied for fourth in the Pan American Championship held in Boca Raton in early November. Winner GM Jaan Ehlvest qualified for the FIDE World Cup.

 

One home in El Cerrito has recently strengthened its claim to the title strongest chess house in the US. Add US Womens Olympiad first board Irina Krush to the mix of GMs Josh Friedel, Vinay Bhat and Jesse Kraai and IM David Pruess who call the small town north of Berkeley their base. These are not the only titled players in El Cerrito as former World Junior Champion IM Julio Kaplan has long called it home.

 

 

 

The first player to represent San Francisco in the international arena has passed away. William Addison came to San Francisco in the early 1950s after growing up in Baton Rouge and performing his military service. When he first arrived in the Bay Area Bill  was a low expert but in the next 15 years, through hard study and frequent practice, he developed into one of the strongest players in the United States playing half a dozen US Championships in the 1960s including a second place finish in 1969 which qualified him for the 1970 Interzonal in Palma. Bill played in two Olympiads - Tel Aviv where his score of 7.5 from 9 as second reserve was the second best in the competition, and Havana 1966 where the Fischer-led team took home the silver medals. When he retired in 1970 Bill's FIDE rating of 2490 easily placed him in the top 100 players in the world.

 

A few years before going to work for Bank of America Bill served as the Mechanics' Chess Director from 1965 to 1969 and is well remembered by older members for his friendliness, integrity and generosity. To give but one example I recall a story told to me years ago by many-time Washington State Champion John Braley, who was in San Francisco in 1967 during the Summer of Love. John, who was dressed quite casually with long hair and a beard and sans shoes, visited the Mechanics one day and got a rude reception from some of the regulars but not from Bill Addison. Bill had never met John before but he went out of his way to make him feel comfortable spending several hours playing and analyzing with him.

 

 

 

The US Mens ( Gata Kamsky, Hikaru Nakamura, Alex Onischuk, Yury Shulman and Varuzhan Akobian with John Donaldson as team captain) and Women (Irina Krush, Anna Zatonskih, Rusa Goletiani, Katerina Rohonyan and Tatev Abrahamian with Michael Khodarkovsky as Team Captain and Gregory Kaidanov as Coach) teams both won bronze medals at the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Dresden, the first time both teams have medaled in the same event. The next Newsletter will offer extensive coverage.

 

 

 

IM David Pruess (pruess@gmail.com) writes:

 

Dear Chess Player,

From December 14-23, 2008, an international chess tournament will be held in Berkeley , California ,

where California 's best will meet the nation's best, and the nation's best will meet top players from 

around the world.

The tournament will be open to anyone with a fide rating of 2200 or higher. It will be a 10 round swiss,

with games daily at 2 pm at the Berkeley Chess School . The time control will be 40/2, G/1. 

International title norms will be possible.