"When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."

   Buckminster Fuller

1) Northern California Scholastic Championships
2) 1st SF International 1985
3) Bobby Fischer Goes To War
4) Spring Tuesday Night Marathon
5) Here and There
6) Upcoming Events 

This Friday, April 2, at 12:30 pm the Mechanics' will be hosting the authors of Bobby Fischer Goes To War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time. This will be your only chance to see both authors, David Edmonds and John Eidinow, at the same time in the Bay Area. Details are given below. Don't miss this event!

1) Northern California Scholastic Championships

Mechanics' Institute Scholastic Director Anthony Corrales reports on the performance of M.I. members at the recently concluded Northern California Scholastic Championships held in Santa Clara.

Kindergarten: Leo Kitano 3/5 = 6 - 13
K-3 Championship Daniel Naroditsky 5/5 = 1st
K-3 unrated Will Rothman 4.5/5 11th on tiebreak
K-3 Premier Jack Damon 4/5 = 12 - 38
K-6 Championship Davis Xu 6/6 1st
2nd Hugo Kitano 5.5/6 2nd
10th Jeremy Lowenthal 5/6 10th
14th Trevor Lowenthal 5/6 10th
17th Evan Sandberg 4.5/6 17th

The Mechanics' won the K-6 Team Championship with 21 1/2 out of 24 points.

K-8 Championship Daichi Siegrist 6/6 1st
Shaun Tse 4/6 21st
Evan Frost 4/6 33rd
K-12 Championship: The Mechanics' team of Drake Wang (5), Erin Harrington (5), Nicolas Yap (4.5), and Ewelina Krubnik (4) took first place in this section.

2) 1st SF International 1985

This event, held in the fall of 1985, was the first Bay Area event to offer IM norms. It was directed by Francisco Sierra and Kerry Lawless (the 2nd SF International was directed by Mike Goodall) and organized by Guillermo Rey. Andy Ansel has entered all the games which will soon be available at www.chessdryad.com. Here are some of the more interesting ones.

Standings:
1. IM Ramayrat 7/9; =2-3. J. Whitehead and Winslow 6 (IM norms) 4. IM Frias 5; 5-6. GM Biyiasas and P. Whitehead 4; 7-9. IM Strauss, Awate and Lobo 3.5; Rey 2.

Ramayrat,C - Frias,V
San Francisco 1st Int (5), 1985

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 Bxa6 6.Nc3 g6 7.f4 d6 8.Nf3 Bg7 9.e4 Bxf1 10.Rxf1 0-0 11.e5 dxe5 12.fxe5 Ng4 13.Qe2 Qc7 14.d6 Qb7 15.h3 Nh6 16.dxe7 Re8 17.Bg5 Nf5 18.Qb5 Qc8 19.Ne4 Nc6 20.g4 Nfxe7 21.Nd6 Qb8 22.Qc4 Nxe5 23.Nxe5 Qxd6 24.Qxf7+ Kh8 25.Qxe8+ 1-0

Strauss,D - Lobo,R
San Francisco 1st Int (9), 1985

1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e6 4.g3 b6 5.Bg2 Bb7 6.0-0 Be7 7.Re1 d6 8.e4 Nbd7 9.d4 cxd4 10.Nxd4 Qc7 11.Be3 0-0 12.Rc1 a6 13.f4 Rfe8 14.f5 Bf8 15.b3 h6 16.Bf2 Rac8 17.fxe6 fxe6 18.Bh3 Kf7 19.Qe2 Qb8 20.Rf1 Qa8 21.Nxe6 Rxe6 22.Bxe6+ Kxe6 23.Nd5 Be7 24.Bd4 Ne5 25.Nxb6 Qb8 26.b4 Rf8 27.c5 dxc5 28.bxc5 Bd8 29.Rf5 Bc7 30.c6 Bc8 31.Rxe5+ Bxe5 32.Qc4+ Ke7 33.Bc5+ Bd6 34.e5 1-0

Whitehead,J - Frias,V
San Francisco 1st Int (9), 1985

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 Nbd7 6.Bg5 c5 7.d5 0-0 8.Nf3 b5 9.cxb5 a6 10.a4 h6 11.Bf4 axb5 12.Bxb5 Ba6 13.0-0 Ng4 14.Qe2 Qa5 15.Bd2 Rfb8 16.h3 Nge5 17.Nxe5 Nxe5 18.f4 Nd7 19.Qe1 Qd8 20.Qe2 Qc8 21.e5 Bxb5 22.Nxb5 dxe5 23.Bc3 Nb6 24.Bxe5 Bxe5 25.fxe5 Nxd5 26.Qf3 Qe6 27.b3 Rf8 28.Rac1 Rac8 29.Rfd1 Nb4 30.Qe3 Rfd8 31.Na3 Rxd1+ 32.Rxd1 Nc6 33.Nc4 Nd4 34.Nd2 Kg7 35.Rc1 Rb8 36.Rxc5 Nxb3 37.Rb5 Rxb5 38.axb5 Nxd2 39.Qxd2 Qb6+ 40.Kh2 Qxb5 41.Qd4 Qb8 42.Kh1 Qb1+ 43.Kh2 Qf5 44.Qc5 Qf4+ 45.Kh1 e6 46.Qd6 h5 47.Qc7 g5 48.Qc3 g4 49.Qe1 Kg6 50.hxg4 hxg4 51.g3 Qd4 52.Kg2 Qd3 53.Kh2 Qc2+ 54.Kh1 Qf5 55.Kg1 Qf3 56.Qb1+ Kh6 57.Qc1+ Kh5 58.Qe1 Kg5 59.Kh2 Kf5 60.Kg1 Qd3 61.Qf2+ Kxe5 62.Qf4+ Kd5 63.Qxg4 f5 64.Qg8 Ke4 65.Qa8+ Qd5 66.Qb8 Qd1+ 67.Kh2 Qd2+ 68.Kh1 Kd3 69.Qb6 Qe3 70.Qb7 Qe4+ 0-1

3) Bobby Fischer Goes To War

The authors of Bobby Fischer Goes To War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time, David Edmonds & John Eidinow, will be giving a talk at the Mechanic's Institute, on Friday, April 2, at 12:30 PM. The event is free for members and $5 for the public. Go to http://www.milibrary.org/events.html for more information.

David Edmonds will be appearing at Kepler's books in Menlo Park (1010 El Camino Real on Friday night at 7pm : 650.324.4321) while John Eidinow will be at Cody's in Berkeley (2454 Telegraph Avenue at Haste: 510-845-7852) at 7:30pm the same evening.

4) Spring Tuesday Night Marathon

Upsets continue in the Spring Tuesday Night Marathon. 1800-rated Harry Plotkin defeated his second Master in a row, downing Igor Margulis. Joining Plotkin with 3-0 scores are Larry Snyder, Steven Krasnov and Victor Todortsev. The seventy player event has six rounds to go.

5) Here and There

Pal Benko: My Life, Games and Compositions by Pal Benko and Jeremy Silman is receiving some excellent reviews including one at ChessCafe that called it one of the best game collections of all time. Benko was one of the top American players for close to two decades. He is not the only chessplayer in the family. Go to http://www.math.tamu.edu/~benko/chess.htm and you will find the website of his son David, who is an Expert strength player and a member of the Math department at Texas A&M. He has a great picture of his father playing Tal at Curacao on the site.

Looking for a chess camp and live near Wisconsin? Check out NM Alex Betaneli's site at http://www.wichessacademy.com for more information.

Candidates running for two spots on the USCF Executive Board will soon be announced. I know of at least four individuals that will be running. They include the Bay Area's own Elizabeth Shaughnessy who divides her time between the Berkeley Chess School and serving as President of the Northern California Chess Federation, National Master Randy Bauer of Iowa who is an accountant and Mikhail Korenman of Kansas who organized the Lindsborg Chess Festivals and Karpov Chess School and is in charge of the College Final Four this weekend where the University of Maryland at Baltimore County and UTD will be renewing their rivalry. The fourth Candidate is chess gadfly Sam Sloan who is rapidly becoming the Harold Stassen of USCF politics.

6) Upcoming Events

Upcoming Tournaments at the MI

Lovegrove Senior - April 3-4
Imre Konig Memorial - April 24

American chess players have two double headers coming up in early April. Those on the East Coast will go for the Millennium Open in Virginia Beach and Foxwoods while West Coast players have events in Burbank and Reno. Go to http://www.westernchess.com/wpo04/wpo04.html for details of the LA area event.

Ernest Hong reports that information is up for Jerry Weikel's Reno Far West Open scheduled for April 9-11.

The website is http://www.renochess.org/fwo/index.html and the printable PDF flyer is at http://www.renochess.org/fwo/flyer.pdf.

$25,000 PRIZE FUND!!! for this Six Round Swiss in Five Sections (based on 300 paid players, $16,250 Guaranteed). Large prize fund made possible by the generosity of the Sands Regency Casino Hotel. ADDITIONAL PRIZES! Top Senior (65 & over) and Top Club Money Prizes. Trophies awarded to top three places in sections A through D, top unrated player in section D. Free entry to main tournament for GMs and IMs. Free entry with a one-year USCF membership for unrated players (but ineligible for cash prizes).ADDITIONAL EVENTS: FREE lecture by GM Larry Evans on Thursday evening. FREE game/position analysis clinic by GM Larry Evans on Saturday afternoon. GM Sergey Kudrin Clock Simul on Thursday night. Five Minute Blitz Tournament on Thursday night. HOSTED BY THE SANDS REGENCY CASINO HOTEL in Reno, Nevada. Site of the 1999 100th U.S. Open. Coffee and coffee cakes served each morning. SPECIAL HOTEL RATES. Discounted rates are Sunday-Thursday $19 (nineteen!!). Friday or Saturday $45, single or double occupancy, plus 13.5% room tax. To guarantee hotel reservation with credit card by telephone call 1-800-648-3553, group code CHE 408. (Please, no tournament entries by telephone.)

Contact chief organizer and head TD Jerry Weikel at wackyykl@aol.com .