Mechanics' Institute Chess Room Newsletter # 95
"Amberly excelled in chess - one mark, Watson, of a scheming mind."
Honor Roll of Imre Konig Memorial donors: fund raising is now over
$14,000 - only $6,000 to go!
The Konig looks to be a category 12 event. July FIDE ratings for ten of the twelve players are as follows: 1.Ftacnik 2602 2.Yermolinsky 2592 3.Baburin 2580 4.Christiansen 2559 5.Wojtkiewicz 2555 6.DeFirmian 2551 7.Fedorowicz 2509 8.Nakamura 2494 9.Browne 2492 10.Akobian 2486. These ten players average out to 2542, just shy of category 13 (2551+). GMs Suat Atalik, of Bosnia and Yury Shulman, of Belarus were not on the initial FIDE July rating list because their federations were arrears in paying their FIDE dues. This situation should be rectified shortly and the average rating of the field will probably go up a little bit. 1) 9-way tie for first at the 2002 World Open 2) Vinay Bhat makes GM norm 3) Sacramento Chess Championship 4) Tie for first in Summer Tuesday Night Marathon with two rounds to go 5) Grochol wins Providian/Mechanics' Bay Area Scholastic Unrated Championship 6) Corrections 7) Upcoming events 1) 9-way tie for first at the 2002 World OpenThis year's addition of the World Open in Philadelphia was a rousing success. Over 1300 players spent the July 4 weekend at the Adams Mark Hotel with 9 players tying for first place and 18-year-old Polish IM Kamil Miton winning the special Blitz playoff: 1-9 GM I Smirin (Israel), GM A Onischuk (USA), GM A Yusupov (Germany), GM J Ehlvest (Estonia), GM A Wojtkiewicz (Poland), IM B Finegold (USA), GM J Rowson (Scotland), IM V Akobian (USA), IM K Miton (Poland) 7/9. Particularly noteworthy were the performances of IMs Ben Finegold and Varuzhan Akobian. The Continental Chess Association report on the World Open had not completed its article on norm performances as of press time, but I've read elsewhere that Finegold made a GM norm (long overdue). I would suspect that Akobian, the top ranked junior in the country, who will be playing in the Konig Memorial this September, also made a GM norm. He beat GM A. Ivanov and IM Lapshun and drew with GMs Smirin, Yusupov, Summerscale and Rowson. Qualifiers for the US Championship were: IM Perelshteyn at 6 1/2 and on tie-break at 6 were GM Kreiman, IMs Burnett and Lapshun and FM Tegshsuren. Among those missing out on tie-break were Bay Area SM Vladimir Strugatsky and GM Michael Rhode. Scores for other Bay Area US Championship aspirants: IM Rey 5 1/2, SM Pruess 5 and NM Shivaji 5. The women's' seed was Julia Shiver, on tie-break at 4. 2) Vinay Bhat makes GM norm
IM Vinay Bhat, who recently graduated from high school and will be
attending UC Berkeley this fall, hasn't played much the past year due to
academic responsibilities, but the layoff doesn't seem to have affected
his playing in the least. His father, Subru, reports the following
fantastic news: Well done, Vinay! We hope to have more information about this outstanding result and Vinay's performance in the USA/China match in the next Newsletter. 3) Sacramento Chess ChampionshipIM Ricardo DeGuzman continued his domination of Bay Area events, winning the Sacramento Chess Championship held July 5-7. DeGuzman scored 5 1/2 out of 6, yielding only a last round draw to NM Kenan Zildic, to win $300. NM Tom Dorsch on Menlo Park had an excellent result in taking second with a score of 5-1. He beat Zildic and NM James MacFarland, losing only to DeGuzman. Third place finisher John Barnard also had an excellent result with wins over IM Walter Shipman and NM Michael Aigner among his 4 1/2 points. MI Juniors Nicolas Yap and Ben Haun both had excellent performances in the Master/Expert section scoring 3 1/2 and 3 points respectively. A total of 91 players competed in three sections. 4) Margulis, Ossipov and Wong tied for first in Summer Tuesday Night Marathon with two rounds to goIgor Margulis defeated fellow National Master Russell Wong in round 6 of the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon to force a tie at 5-1 between these two players and Victor Ossipov. A record 69 players are competing in this traditional Mechanics' event which has been held continuously since 1975. 5) Grochol wins Providian/Mechanics' Bay Area Scholastic Unrated ChampionshipMike Grochol won the unrated section of the Providian Financial-Mechanics' Institute Bay Area Scholastic unrated section with a score of 5-0. Ken Wong was second at 4 and Daniel Vasilevitsky third at 3 1/2 in the 22 player section. Anthony Corrales organized and directed the event for the Mechanics' Institute. 6) CorrectionsIn the last Newsletter, it was reported that NM Robin Cunningham and Alex Setzepfandt scored 2 1/2 points in tying for second in the Jesse Jeans Open, in fact, they scored 3 points. 7) Upcoming events
Charles Bagby Memorial: July 20 Both these events are 5-round, G/45, Swiss system events starting at 10 AM. August 12-16 3rd Annual Mechanics' Institute Chess Camp for Intermediate and Advanced Players (1200-2200) This is not a camp for players that want to jump two rating classes in five days. You won't learn how to win against the Sicilian every time using the Grand Prix Attack. So why our camp and not others? At the MI camp you will get a look inside a GM's laboratory and get a feel for how they work on their game from the ground up. You will learn not only the importance of analyzing your own games, but also how to do it properly. You will learn to identify the critical points of the game and to understand when and why things went wrong. You will learn how to use ChessBase and Fritz efficiently as part of a daily training program as well as utilizing resources on the Internet such as TWIC and the Internet Chess Club. Today chess books are cranked out at an incredible rate. Some of them are very good, many are quite bad. We will help students learn to select that which is truly useful. On the fun side our instructors have unique experience in international competition. Expect to hear stories and anecdotes about what it's like to play against Kasparov and defend first board in a Chess Olympiad. Instructors: Grandmasters Alex Yermolinsky, International Masters John Donaldson and Guillermo Rey, and MI Scholastic Director Anthony Corrales.
Who: Open to all ages from 8 and up. Regional Events:
The John Easterling Memorial - August 3rd and 4th
Aug. 24-25 GPP: 6 N. California
Aug. 31-Sept. 2 GPP: 15 N. California |