Mechanics' Chess Club Newsletter #569

Among this year's worst news, for me, was the death of Bobby Fischer. Telling a friend this, I got, "Are you out of your bloody mind? He was a Nazi-praising raving lunatic and anti-Semite. Death is too good for him."

He did, indeed, become all that. But none of it describes the man I knew. Towering genius, riches, international fame and a far from normal childhood might be too heady a mix for anyone to handle. For him they proved fatal. I'm still sad about his death. In our three encounters on my late-night show, I became quite fond of him.

Dick Cavett in "Was It only a Game" (New York Times, February 8, 2008)

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News

NM Russell Wong moved into clear first in the Winter Tuesday Night Marathon by defeating Expert Todd Rumph last night. Wong now has 5 from 5, a half point ahead of top-seed IM Elliott Winslow who took a first round half point bye. The two leaders are scheduled to meet in round 6, with three rounds remaining for the 67 competitors.

Last Saturday a group of chess players from Marin County and the Mechanics' met in a friendly match at the Institute with the M.I. winning 5-3 in the double round competition. Nils Delmonico was top scorer for the winners with 1.5 from 2 while Brendan LeCounte led Marin with two victories. Thanks goes to Digne de Linea for helping to organize the match.

Several Bay Area juniors, including several Mechanics' regular were named to the 2012 USCF All-America Team which is sponsored by Trophies Plus. Bay Area juniors are listed in bold.

Age 18 (minimum peak rating 2450):

Marc Tyler Arnold, NY

Age 17 (minimum peak rating 2400):

Steven Zierk, CA

Conrad Holt, KS

Victor Shen, NJ
Raven Sturt, NY

Alec Getz, NY

Age 16 (minimum peak rating 2350):

Ray Robson, FL
William Fisher, PA

Age 15 (minimum peak rating 2300):

Daniel Naroditsky, CA

Robert Perez, FL

Age 14 (minimum peak rating 2250):

Darwin Yang, TX
Alexsandr Ostrovskiy, NY
David Adelberg, AZ
Atulya Shetty, MI

Age 13 (minimum peak rating 2250):

Yian Liou, CA

Michael Bodek, NY

Kevin Wang, MD
Arthur Shen, NJ
Daniel Gurevich, GA
Varun Krishnan, CA
Michael William Brown, CA
Jarod Pamatmat, TX

Age 12 (minimum peak rating 2200):

Kayden Troff, UT
Luke Harmon-Vellotti, ID
Christopher Gu, RI
Justus Williams, NY
Mika Brattain, MA

Age 11 (minimum peak rating 2100):

Dachey Lin, TX

Kesav Viswanadha, CA

Andrew Tang, MN

Age 10 (minimum peak rating 2050):

Jeffery Xiong, TX

Samuel Sevian, CA

Tommy O. He, TX

Cameron Wheeler, CA
Jonathan Chiang, TX
Roland Feng, WA

Kadhir Pillai, NY

Age 9 (minimum peak rating 1900):

Albert Lu, CA
Ruifeng Li, TX
Bovey Liu, TX
Brandon Nydick, NY
John Michael Burke, NJ

Michael Wang, CA

Age 8 & Under (minimum peak rating 1800):

Praveen Balakrishnan, NJ

Awonder Liang, WI

Aravind Kumar, NJ

Rayan Taghizadeh, CA

David Peng, IL

Andrew Titus, MN

ST. LOUIS, January 31, 2012--Lindenwood University is putting out a call for some of the finest young chess players in America and abroad. And the university is willing to provide scholarship money to build the nation's top collegiate chess program.

Located in the St. Louis metropolitan area just west of the City of St. Louis, Lindenwood University is a private four-year liberal arts school that is dedicated to excellence in higher education.

What is unique about Lindenwood's plan is the number of competitors it plans to have in the program. Organizers say there could be 25-30 players on up to

six different teams.

We are planning to recruit some of the highest-rated competitors in the world, said Tim Canavan, Lindenwood's Director of Student Life Sports. We are also going to recruit people who aren't at the elite level yet, but want to get there. Our interest is competing, promoting the wonderful game of chess, and providing a way for young people to get a good education.

Canavan said the university has been collaborating with the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, which is known internationally for its quality. He praised the Chess Club for its guidance during the program's developmental stages. Canavan said Lindenwood has retained the club's Grandmaster-in-Residence, Ben Finegold, as coach.

I was immediately impressed with the level of commitment Lindenwood has demonstrated to launching this program, Finegold said. It's an exciting development for collegiate chess and also for the chess scene in the greater St. Louis area.

Lindenwood already is on the recruiting trail and is building a collegiate schedule with plans to compete in the fall. Barger said the university already has designated a spot in the Evans Commons for practice and competition.

For information about a chess scholarship at Lindenwood University, call Lauren Nystrom at (636) 949-4949. For more information about the university, visit www.lindenwood.edu.

3) Here and There

FIDE ratings after Wijk aan Zee. The numbers next to the player's rating are the rating change and number of games they have played since the January rating list came out.

1. Carlsen 2834.6 -0.4 13
2. Aronian 2823.9 +18.9 14
3. Kramnik 2801 0 0
4. Anand 2799 0 0
5. Radjabov 2784.4 +11.4 13
6. Nakamura 2770.8 +11.8 23
7. Karjakin 2766.2 -2.8 13
8. Morozevich 2764.8 +1.8 10
9. Ivanchuk 2763.7 -2.3 23
10. Caruana 2762.4 +26.4 23
11. Grischuk 2761 0 0
12. Topalov 2751.9 -18.1 13
13. Mamedyarov 2751 +4 7
14. Kamsky 2741.3 +9.3 13
15. Svidler 2740.8 -8.2 10

Ankit Gupta writes:

Metropolitan Chess, Inc. hosted an International Master norm round robin tournament on January 25th to 29th 2012. The tournament was sponsored by California Market Center, Fashion Business, Inc, Chess.com, MonRoi, LawyerFy, and Betty Bottom Showroom.

This tournament is the 15th in its series and was held in Suite C1002 of the California Market Center on 110 East 9th Street, Los Angeles 90079. The tournament was organized by Ankit Gupta and the chief arbiter was Randy Hough. The participants included: IM Zhanibek Amanov (KAZ), IM Andranik Matikozyan (ARM), IM Enrico Sevillano (USA), FM Harutyan Akopyan (USA), FM Mark Duckworth (USA), FM Konstantin Kavutskiy (USA), Vadim Kudryavtsev (RUS), Garush Manukyan (ARM), and NM Craig Clawitter (USA).

The tournament was a 10 player round-robin (all play all), with rounds scheduled as follows - 25th: 7:00 PM, 26th: 11:00 AM & 5:00 PM, 27th: 11:00 AM & 5:00 PM, 28th: 11:00 AM & 5:00 PM, 29th: 10:00 AM & 4:00 PM.

The tournament was won by IM Enrico Sevillano in a convincing fashion with a score of 7.5-1.5. No norms were achieved. The only non international master who was able to hold IM Sevillano to a draw -- FM Konstantin Kavutskiy -- came closest to an IM norm performance with a score of 5.5-3.5. 6.5 was necessary for the norm.

Keep updated with events by Metropolitan Chess, Inc, by visiting www.metrochessla.com and by visiting the standings page http://metrochessla.com/schedule.php