Mechanics' Institute Chess Club Newsletter #483

1) Mechanics Institute Chess Club News
2) 2010 U.S. Women's and Junior Closed Championships Awarded to Saint Louis
3) Here and There 
4) Yasser Seirawan in the 2009-2010 Dutch Team Championship
5) Early California Chess Magazines
6) Upcoming Events

1) Mechanics Institute Chess Club News

This weekend the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club will host a doubleheader. Saturday and Sunday the Club will hold the A.J. Fink Amateur Championship, open to players rated under 2000. Complete details for the event are available at www.chessclub.org. Sunday, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. the club will host 14-year-old FM Daniel Naroditsky who will give a talk and sign copies of his book Mastering Positional Chess which will be available for sale. You can learn more about Daniel at his website - www.danielnaroditsky.com .

NM Michael Aigner has compiled a list of the top Bay Area juniors on the FIDE March rating list and noted there progress.

1. FM Danya Naroditsky 2388
2. FM Steven Zierk 2380 -- gained 74 points in 4 months!
3. NM Gregory Young 2268
4. NM Yian Liou 2229
5. NM Rohan Agarwal 2197
6. Evan Sandberg 2159
7. Samuel Sevian 2144 -- gained 84 points (provisional) in 4 months!
8. Hayk Manvelyan 2087
9. Kyle Shin 2061

Congratulations to IM and long-time Mechanics' Institute Trustee Vince McCambridge who celebrated his 50th birthday on March 8th.

Frisco Del Rosario is off to an excellent start with his new chess column in the online San Francisco Examiner.

His first article was a historical piece on the great SF problemist and master A.J. Fink ( in honor of this weekend's A.J. Fink Memorial) and his second was on last weekend's Bay Area Chess Spring Open where 16-year-old Fremont Expert Hayk Manvelyan took first prize and $500 for his 5.5/6 score. Salman Azhar directed the 55-player event.

2) 2010 U.S. Women's and Junior Closed Championships Awarded to Saint Louis Written by Mike Wilmering ( mwilmering@saintlouischessclub.org - www.saintlouischessclub.org )

The USCF has awarded the 2010 U.S. Women's Championship and the 2010 U.S. Junior Closed Championship to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The two events will be held concurrently July 9-19.

The U.S. Women's Championship will feature a prize fund at least as large as last year's record-breaking, $64,000 purse. The tournaments will take place simultaneously, and each will feature a 10-player field. The invitees will consist of 1. the defending champion for each event, 2. The US Women's Open Champion/The US Junior Open Champion, 3-9- Top players by rating (list to be used to be announced soon) 10. 1 Wildcard for each event.

"Encouraging more women and juniors to play chess are both vital goals of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis," said Executive Director Tony Rich. "So we are very excited to host the tournaments simultaneously."

The announcement of these two major tournaments are another step toward cementing Saint Louis as the premier chess destination in the country.

Anna Zatonskih will return to defend her title after winning the 2009 U.S. Women's Championship. That victory earned her a bid to compete in the 2010 U.S. Championship, scheduled to be held at the CCSCSL May 13-25.

The three most prestigious tournaments in United States chess are being held in Saint Louis this year, giving the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis the Triple Crown of chess.

Stay tuned to www.saintlouischessclub.org for more details.

Other Americans in the top 100

#34 Kamsky, Gata - 2702
#44 Onischuk, Alex - 2687
#88 Seirawan, Yasser - 2651

Other Americans over 2600

Shulman, Yury - 2614
Akobian, Varuzhan - 2610
Lenderman, Alex - 2601

Italian-American Fabiano Caruana, representing Italy, is #52 in the world at 2680.

Note Linares 2010 was not included on this rating list.

Washington state not only has a long running magazine (Northwest Chess - monthly since 1947 and coming up fast on issue 750) but has also held a round robin tournament to determine its champion since 1932! Thanks to Andy Ansel and Eric Holcomb the booklet for the state championship with a very nice caricature of the winner Olaf Ulvestad and information about the 1932 and 1933 championships is available at http://www.nwchess.com/articles/history/WA_chess_champions.htm.

The first chess magazine published in California was the Western American Chess and Checker Bulletin, edited by C.C. Kanaga of San Francisco. Unfortunately the magazine, started in January of 1919, only lasted three (possibly four) issues. The next chess periodical to grace the Golden State came from Beverly Hills and was a first rate production. The Chess Reporter ( later the North American Chess Reporter) was published from 1931-33 by Henry MacMahon to promote the Pasadena 1932 tournament which Alekhine won. All but one of the 21 issues of the magazine are available for viewing/printing at http://www.chessdryad.com/articles/lawless/art_12.htm thanks to the generosity of chessdryad.com founder and driving force Kerry Lawless. No one has done more to preserve the history of chess in California and his site serves as a template for similar efforts.

The third California publication, the Western Chess Chronicle (1935-36), also came from the Southland. Edited by Alfred Paul of Lomita , the Western Chess Chronicle was the official organ of the Southern California Chess League. The magazine lasted nine issues of which two are available for online viewing/printing. The last issue, which features the game Kashdan-Fine with annotations by Fine is available in .jpg format at www.chessdryad.com/articles/wcc/wcc_vol1_no9/index.htm , while issue one has been scanned into PDF format at www.scchess.com by Al Pena can be found under News and Notes halfway down the page.