|
What distinguishes a Grandmaster from a Master? ...You can pick out two essential qualities in which those with higher titles are superior to others: the ability to sense the critical moment in a game, and a finer understanding of various positional problems. Artur Yusupov The 4th annual Vladimir Pafnutieff Memorial, a 5 round G/45 event, will be held this Saturday at the MI. 1) Shabalov wins US Open 2) Anand defeats Polgar 3) Goodall Tuesday Night Marathon 4) Here and There 5) Lubosh Kavalek turns 60 6) Upcoming Events 1) Shabalov wins US OpenUS Champion Alex Shabalov won the U.S. Open, held August 3-15 at the Radisson Hotel in Los Angeles, by defeating fellow GM Artashes Minasian in a tough last round battle. Shaba's score of 10-2 netted him $8,000 and continues his reign of dominance in big money American Swisses. Tying for second at 9 1/2, good for $2340 each, were GMs Leonid Yudasin, Sarunas Sulkis, Alex Wojtkiewicz, Gregory Kaidanov and IM Ricardo DeGuzman. Kaidanov was the leader throughout the event, but fell behind in the last round when he elected to take a half point bye. This option, which had to be made before the start of the event, was available to all players who were participating in the Continental Championship in Buenos Aires which started immediately after the US Open. Local hero Ricardo DeGuzman was near the top from the start. His score, which was just a half point short of a GM norm, included draws with GMs Alex Stripunsky and Leonid Yudasin as well as a last round victory over former Candidate Jaan Ehlvest. The Bay Area contributed approximately 10 percent of the participants in the 458-player Open. Other top scores after DeGuzman were: 8 1/2 points - IM Donaldson, NM Ilfeld, SM Mezentsev, FM Wang and FM Zilberstein; 8 points GM Browne, Experts Haun and Peckham; 7 1/2 points FM Pruess, NM Shivaji and Experts Setzepfandt and Yap; 7 points NM Aigner, Expert Ho, and E. Perepletsky. MI Chess Director John Donaldson recovered from a bad start and was tied for second with two rounds to go but lost the money game to GM Sulskis of Lithuania. FM David Pruess of Berkeley started very well beating GM Handoko and IM Ganbold but lost a heartbreaker when he pushed too hard in a drawn ending with GM Ibragimov. NM Michael Aigner and Expert Monty Peckham both collected GM scalps, Blatny and Handoko respectively. Peckham, Dmitry Zilberstein, and Philip Wang all took home prize money. With the U.S. Open being one of the selected major tournaments on the U.S. circuit chosen by the America's Foundation for Chess to act as a qualifier to the 2004 U.S. Championships, two spots were up for grabs. And in a fiercely fought contest, they went to former champion GM Larry Christiansen (9-3), and WGM Rusa Goletiani (8.5-3.5). The latter was in a last round dogfight with Vanessa West and was fortunate to avoid being checkmated. West, a fourteen-year-old high school student from Los Angeles, impressed as she made a plus score against Masters in the open. No doubt, we will be hearing more from her and several other juniors who shined including Tatev Abrahamian, and Marc Arnold. When one thinks of Los Angeles chess, one of the first names that comes to mind is Life Master Jerry Hanken who has been a fixture in the Southland for more than four decades. Hanken was the man who made it possible for the US Open to return to Los Angeles and who also insisted that it be a traditional 12-rounder. He personally guaranteed the success of the event serving as the guarantor in case the tournament incurred a loss. Though the tournament broke even financially and his streak of plus scores in the US Opens continued, I don't think Jerry was entirely happy with the turnout. Just a little more than a decade before the US Open in 1991 had attracted several hundred players more. Of course the best attended US Open ever was the record setter in Pasadena in 1983 which had almost double the number of this year's event. Attendance at this year's US Open was in the range that the event has been attracting for the last decade or so, despite the fact that the prize fund was one of the highest ever for this annual tournament. Southern California boasts one of the largest concentrations of USCF members, especially adults, in the nation. So why the low turn out? One could point to a strong causality between the location next to LAX and the fact that the event was two weeks long. This is certainly true, but the 1991 US Open was held just down the street. Of course, that event was only nine rounds, but this year's event offered many different playing schedules that didn't require players to spend any more time than six or eight days, if they wished. While playing in the Open this year, I had a chance to chat with Larry Christiansen, last year's US Champion. Larry was happy to be playing in the 2003 Open but couldn't help remembering back to the days when tournaments in LA were held in Santa Monica in a hotel on the beach. He fondly remembered US Opens in Aspen and Ventura. It certainly is true that few people would plan a vacation and stay next to LAX. The flip side, of course, are the cheap hotel rates that such locations offer. The Radisson offered a rate of around $89 a night. I would guess a third of the people from out of town used Priceline or the equivalent and paid no more than $40 a night to stay at the official site or neighboring hotels. It's possible to theorize that American society goes faster and faster each decade and that today people don't want to or can't commit to two weeks of vacation time. Certainly there is some truth to this, but when you look at tournaments like the World Open, the National Open, and the Western States Open that have all been drawing consistently well for more than two decades, it does suggest that this theory isn't so clear cut. I'm not really sure what the answer is but you would want to spend your vacation time in Florida or Arizona in August of 2004 and 2005 if there wasn't a US Open? I can't help but mention that while conditions for the 2003 US Open were quite good for almost all of the event, the last round was abysmal. First a public disclaimer: I lost in the last round! That said, being forced to move into a space a third of the size of the regular playing venue for the most important game of the tournament was not a pleasant surprise. As might have been expected, the spectators finally surfaced for the last round and created a formidable barrier between the top boards and the water and restrooms. Those who deigned to run the gauntlet in the hot playing hall risked losing five to ten minutes on their clock for each excursion. I would imagine that when the tournament bid was being discussed with the Radisson, the hotel staff mentioned there would be a problem on the final day as the regular playing space had already been committed to a different group. No matter what the case, one was left with the feeling that in the Radisson's eyes chess players were second class citizens. A selection of games with an emphasis on Bay Area players follows.
A Minasian - A Shabalov
(1) Handoko,E (2429) - Pruess,D (2331) [B10]
(2) Pruess,D (2331) - Ganbold,O (2417) [A26]
(3) Aigner,M (2158) - Blatny,P (2503) [B15]
(4) Zilberstein,D (2357) - Rowley,R (2291) [E59]
(5) Browne,W (2480) - Akopyan,H (2266) [E17]
(6) Peckham,M (2170) - Handoko,E (2429) [C63] 2) Anand defeats PolgarViswanathan Anand defeated Judit Polgar 5-3 in an exciting rapid chess match in which all games were decisive.
J Polgar - V Anand
J Polgar - V Anand 3) Goodall Tuesday Night MarathonEgle Morkunaite, Larry Snyder, David Karapetian and Guy Argo lead the 77-player MI Mike Goodall Tuesday Night Marathon with scores of 3-0. It is still possible to enter the 9 round event with half point byes for each of the first three rounds. The event is named for long time Bay Area organizer Mike Goodall who began his directing career in the 1960s and is still going strong. 4) Here and ThereIrish FM Sam Collins, who taught at the Berkeley Chess School this summer, made his first IM norm at the Lancashire Chess Festival held August 4-9. Final standings: 1-3 GM N Davies (England), GM A Kunte (India), IM J Shaw (Scotland) 6/9; 4-6 FM S Haslinger (England), FM S Collins (Ireland), IM A Hunt (England) 5; 7-8 IM R Palliser (England), IM D Gormally (England) 3.5; 9 GM C McNab (Scotland) 3; 10 FM C Hanley (England) 1.5. X3D Technologies have now announced a new $1m challenge: the ultimate "Man vs Machine" showdown, as Kasparov goes head to hard drive with X3D Fritz - except this time its in total virtual reality, with the chessboard floating in the air between man and computer. The four-game classical match - officially sanctioned by the International Computer Games Association and the United States Chess Federation as the First Official World Chess Championship in total virtual reality - will take place 11-18 November in the New York Athletic Club in New York City. This year the traditional German GM tournament in Lippstadt was won by one of Fritz's stable mates from the Hamburg chess software specialists ChessBase, Brutus.
O Romanishin - Brutus FM Bruce Harper of Vancouver, British Columbia, is planning on holding a ten-round tournament next summer, July 9-18, 2004. For information on the proposed event and some interesting poll questions, see chessbc.com. Armenian GM Artashes Minasian has bounced back from his last round loss in the US Open and leads the Los Angeles International with a 2-0 score. Results for the 10 player GM norm round robin can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Field/8184/lai03.html 5) Lubosh Kavalek turns 60Congratulations to GM Lubosh Kavalek who recently celebrated his 60th birthday. Kavalek, who was one of the top rated players in the world during the 1970s, was a true renaissance chess figure who enjoyed considerable success as a second (World Junior Champion Mark Diesen and Nigel Short), organizer (Montreal 1979 and the GMA World Cup) and author. I still remember NM Dennis Fritzinger telling me that while Bronstein's Zurich 1953 was always praised to the high heavens he personally preferred Kavalek's book on Wijk aan Zee 1975. Dennis is right, Wijk aan Zee 1975 is a great book. Here are two games that will live as long as chess is played.
Gufeld,E - Kavalek,L [C64] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bc5 4.c3 f5 5.d4 fxe4 6.Ng5 Bb6 7.d5 e3 8.Ne4 Qh4 9.Qf3 Nf6 10.Nxf6+ gxf6 11.dxc6 exf2+ 12.Kd1 dxc6 13.Be2 Be6 14.Qh5+ Qxh5 15.Bxh5+ Ke7 16.b3 Bd5 17.Ba3+ Ke6 18.Bg4+ f5 19.Bh3 Rhg8 20.Nd2 Bxg2 21.Bxg2 Rxg2 22.Rf1 Rd8 23.Ke2 Rxd2+ 24.Kxd2 e4 25.Bf8 f4 26.b4 Rg5 27.Bc5 Rxc5 28.bxc5 Bxc5 29.Rab1 f3 30.Rb4 Kf5 31.Rd4 Bxd4 32.cxd4 Kf4 0-1
Portisch,L (2635) - Kavalek,L (2555) [E80] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 c6 6.Be3 a6 7.Bd3 b5 8.e5 Nfd7 9.f4 0-0 10.Nf3 Nb6 11.b3 N8d7 12.a4! bxc4 13.bxc4 c5?! [13...a5 14.c5] 14.a5 cxd4 15.Nxd4 [15.Bxd4 dxe5 16.fxe5 Nxe5 17.Bxe5 (17.Bxb6? Nxd3+) ] 15...dxe5 16.Nc6 Qe8 17.axb6 exf4! 18.Nd5 [18.Bd4 e5=] 18...fxe3 19.Nc7 Bc3+! 20.Kf1 Bb7 21.Nxe8 Bxc6 22.Nc7 Rad8 23.Rc1 Bd2 24.Nd5 Bxd5 25.cxd5 Nxb6! 26.Rc5 Nxd5 27.g3 Rd6 [27...Nf4 28.gxf4 Rxd3] 28.Kg2?! [28.Qb3 Rfd8 29.Ke2] 28...Rfd8 29.Rxd5 Rxd5 30.Bc4 Rf5 31.Qb3 [31.Bf1 Ba5] 31...Rf2+ 32.Kh3 Rd6 33.Qb8+ Kg7 34.Qa7 g5 35.Qxe7 g4+ 36.Kxg4 Rg6+ 37.Kh3 Rh6+ 38.Kg4 Rg6+ 1/2 - 1/2 6) Upcoming EventsUpcoming Tournaments at the MI Full details at www.chessclub.org Vladimir Pafnutieff: August 23 Bay Area Events Aug. 30-Sept. 1 CalChess Labor Day Championships GPP: 15 California 6SS, 30/90, SD/1 (2-day option rds 1-3 G/60); Golden Geteway Holiday Inn. Van Ness at Pine, San Francisco. $$ b/130 paid adult, 20 paid junior entries. Seven Sections: Master $700-$350-$200; U2400, $300; Expert $400-$200-$100. "A" $350-$175-$100. "B" $350-$175-$100. "C" $350-175-100. "D/E" $350-$175-$100; U1200 $225. Unr: Trophy First. Trophy to top finisher (State Champion) in each section. All, EF: postmarked by 8/25 $65 (Jrs. $55) 3-day schedule, $64 (Jrs $54) 2-day schedule. $75 at site (Jrs. $65). Unrateds $40 in the D/E section or may play up to the Master section for the regular fee. $5 discount to CalChess members. USCF memb. req'd. May play up one section for add'l $10 (Jrs $5). GM/IM free entry. Reg: Sat 8/30 8-9:30am, Sun 8/31 8-9am. RDS: Choice of schedules- 3-day, 2-day merge at round 4, all compete for the same prizes. 3-day schedule Sat 10:00-4:00; Sun 11:00-4:30; Mon 10:00-3:30. 2-day schedule Sun 9:30-11:45-2:00-4:30 Mon 10:00-3:30. 1/2 pt bye(s) any round(s) if requested in advance (byes rds 5-6 must be requested before rd 1). 2003 August Ratings List, CCA minimums and Directors discretion will be used to place players as accurately as possible. Please bring clocks and equipment. HR: Golden Gateway Holiday Inn (415)-441-4000. Info: Richard Koepcke (415)-964-2640. Ent: Richard Koepcke, P.O. Box 1432, Mountain View, CA 94042. No Phone entries. FIDE. Regional and National The following is now the third largest Labor Day event in the nation after New York and Southern California. Aug. 29-Sept. 1 22nd North American Open GPP: 40 Oklahoma 10SS, 25/80, SD/60. Holiday Inn (Holidome), 2515 W. Sixth Ave (HWY-51) Stillwater. EF: $60, $30Jrs U19. OCA req $10, OSA. EF refunded to rating +2300 men, +1700 women who finish tnmt. $$Gtd: $800-$600-$400-$200. Eleven class plaques and $ per entries. Reg: Noon-1:30pm Fri, Rds: 2-7, 9-2-7, 9-2-7, 9-2. 2 byes rds 1-8. Free Parking. HR: $60(1-4) 405-372-0800. Ent: Jim Berry P O Box 351, Stillwater, OK 74076. 405-624-2281. Email: jaberrycg@aol.com. 2003 Oregon Open - Richard Wood Memorial
August 30, 31, September 1 Mount Hood Community College - 26000 SE Stark - USE THE SOUTH ENTRANCE - Registraion is in the Gym Directions: I-84 to exit 17, go south on Kane/257th past Stark street. Turn left on 17th Street. TriMet: Bus 20 Motel: Gresham Super 8 Motel, 121 NE 181st, $55/night 503-661-5100 Sponsors: PCC, MHCC Chess Club, Oregon Chess Federation, www.novacoins.com $3000 Guaranteed Increased if more than 100 non-junior entriesOpen: All - 1st $550, 2nd $300, 3rd $200 U2200 - $200, $115, $90 U2000 - $200, $115, $90 Reserve: All - 1st $325, 2nd $180, 3rd $115 U1600 - $110, $75 U1400 - $110, $75 U1200 - $90, $60 Limited class prizes for unrated $100 Open, $60 ReserveAdult $60, Preregister by August 23rd for $50 Junior(U19) $15, Compete for non-cash prizes in reserve section, or may pay full entry for Open or Reserve. USCF and OCF/WCF membership required (OSA), 2 Byes, commit before round 3, irrevocable Online registration: http://www.aboutchess.org (Credit card payments accepted on-line only) Blitz Score - $15 Simul $10.00 Side Events Blitz Score at Gresham Super 8 Motel - Friday 8/29 Reg: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM, 6 round Double Swiss: Score: 12 -$50, 11.5 -$37, 11.0 -$25, 10.5 -$20, 10 -$15, 9.5 -$12, 9.0 -$10, 8.5 -$9, 8.0 -$5 Simul: Mike Janiro of PCC will play a simultaneous exhibition. (Limited to 10 boards) - Sunday 3:30 - 4:30 OCF Business meeting Get involved - Sunday 3:30 - 4:30 Western States Open (Reno) October 17-19 21st ANNUAL SANDS REGENCY RENO-WESTERN STATES OPEN GPP: 150 Nevada 6SS, 40/2, 20/1. Sands Regency Hotel/Casino, 345N.Arlington Ave., Reno, NV 89501. 1-800-648-3553 or 775-348-2200. $$50,000 b/500 $$30,250 Gtd. FREE LECTURE/ANALYSIS by GM LARRY EVANS! G: $3,000-1,500-1,100-1,000-900-800-700- 600-500-400 in Open Section plus 1/2 of all other prizes. 7 Sections: OPEN: EF: GMs and IMs free, Masters $135, (2000-2199) $156, (1999-below) $206. $$3,000+trophy- 1,500-1,100-1,000-900-800-700-600-500-400, (2400-2499) $1,000, (2300-2399) $1,000-600-400, (2299-below) $1,000-600-400. If a tie for 1st overall, then (G/15 min.) playoff for $100 from prize fund. (Note: GM/IM w/free entry not eligible for class prizes (2499/below) ,may elect to pay EF and become eligible). EXPERT: (2000-2199) EF: $134. $$2,000+trophy-1,000-700-500-300-200-200-200-200-100-100-100-100-100- (U2100 $700). "A" SECT. (1800-1999): EF: $133. $$1,900+trophy- 1,000+trophy-700+trophy-500-300-200-200-200-200-200-100-100-100-100-100. "B"SECT. (1600-1799): EF: $132. $$1,800+trophy- 1,000+trophy-600+trophy-500-300-200-200-200-200-200-100-100- 100-100-100. "C" SECT. (1400-1599): EF: $131 $$1,700+trophy- 1,000+trophy-600+trophy-500-300-200-200-200-200-200-100-100- 100-100-100. "D" SECT. (1200-1399 including adult unrated) EF: $130 (Unr.free entry but must join USCF for 1 full yr. thru this tournament. If already a member must join for 1 additional yr.-($49 adults,$25jrs.) $$1,500+trophy-1,000+trophy-500+trophy-400-300-200-200-200-200-200-100-100- 100-100-100, 1st unrated-1yr. USCF membership+trophy. "E" SECT. (1199/below,including unrated Jrs.). EF: $65 (Unrated free but must join USCF for 1 full yr. thru this tournament, if already a member must join for 1 additional yr.-$25/Jrs.). (NOTE: Each entry in this section counts as 1/2 of entry for total prize fund). $$500+trophy- 400+trophy-300+trophy-200+trophy-100-100-100-100-100-100-100- 100-100-100- 100, 1st Unr.-1 yr. USCF membership+trophy. SENIORS: (65yrs./older) $$500- 300-200-100 (Srs. not eligible-provision l rated, unrated, "E" Sect., and Masters). CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP: $$1,000-500-300-200 decided by total score of best 10 scores from one club or area in main tournament (Not eligible- Masters, unrateds, or SECT."E"). ALL: $11 more if postmarked after 9/30, and $22 if postmarked after 10/12 or at site. $20 off EF to Sr. (65yrs. and +) and Jrs. (19/under) (Does not apply to SECT. "E"). Players may play up. Provisionally rated players may only win "up to" 50% of 1st place money except in Open Sec. 1-10. CCA ratings may be used. NOTE: pairings not changed for color alternation unless three in a row or a plus 3 and if the unlikely situation occurs 3 colors in a row may be assigned. REG: 5-9pm (10/16), 9-10am (10/17). RDS: 12-7, 10-6, 9:30-4:30. Byes available any round if requested before 1st round. ENT: Make checks payable and send to: SANDS REGENCY (address above).HR: $39! (Sun-Thurs) and $54! (Fri-Sat) + 13.5% tax. Info: Jerry Weikel (775) 747-1405 (Email: wackyykl@aol.com) FIDE.W. |