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"Chess is matter of timing. It's not enough to play the right move, you've got to play it at the right moment. Restraint is one of the most difficult things for the average chess player to learn. " Bobby Fischer US Champion Alex Shabalov will give a free lecture at the Mechanics' Institute tomorrow (Wednesday) evening from 5:15 to 6:45. Shabalov, who dominated the US chess scene in 2003, shows no signs of slowing down with recent victories at the Chicago Open and CCA - ICC Vermont International. The personable GM will go over some of his recent victories and answer questions. The Wednesday Blitz will be held immediately afterward. The 4th annual William Addison Open will be held this Saturday to honor the strong IM and former Chess Room Director who has been an MI member for over 50 years. IM Ganbold of Mongolia will be playing. The MI Chess Camp for Beginners and Novice Players starts next Monday. 1) Richard Delaune Jr. (1954-2004) 2) Yermo wins National Open on tiebreak 3) Shahade leads 2004 US Womens Championship 4) Americans in Libya 5) Batsaikan Tserendorj wins MI Wednesday Night Blitz 6) Summer Tuesday Night Marathon 7) Gata Kamsky is back 8) Golod and Anka win Arthur Dake Memorial 9) Cal Chess Meeting 10) Here and There 11) Chess Camps at the MI 12) Upcoming Events 1) Richard Delaune Jr. (1954-2004)I am very sad to report that International Master Richard Delaune Jr. died of a heart attack on May 29th at the age of 49. Richard and I both played in many of the same tournaments the past two decades, but it was only last year at the World Open that we actually played each other. He looked to be in excellent health and I would never have guessed that he would die so young. Though born in Georgia, Richard lived most of his life in Virginia outside of Washington, DC. He was one of the strongest players to develop in Virginia, winning the State Championship four times as well as countless local tournaments. Richard was an International Master with a peak FIDE rating of 2410 and a top USCF rating of around 2470. Unlike many of the best over the board players in the United States, he was active in correspondence chess, holding a Master rating. Richard didn't write often but when he did he was very thorough. I still remember the excellent article he did on the 1992 Eastern Open, which was published in the March-April, 1993 issue of Joel Benjamin's magazine Chess Chow. It's customary when writing obituaries to emphasize the individuals good qualities and overlook their foibles, but Richard really was a nice guy. I never saw him getting upset or losing his temper, even after some tough losses. It was characteristic of Richard that after he drew with Kortchnoi in a tournament in Canada in the early 1980s his _expression made it impossible to guess whether he won, lost or drew. He will be very sorely missed. The Delaune family has asked that donations be made in his name to the U.S. Chess Center to help fund a Richard K. Delaune Memorial Tournament. Call 202/857-4922 for more information. My impression of Richard was that he was a very solid player that relied primarily on his excellent positional understanding. The following game is an exception as he outplays fellow IM Jeremy Silman in a complicated struggle:
Silman,J (2390) - Delaune,R (2360) [B09] 1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.f4 Nf6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Bd3 Na6 7.0-0 c5 8.d5 Rb8 9.a4 b6 10.Kh1 Nc7 11.Qe1 a6 12.Qh4 b5 13.f5 gxf5 14.Bh6 b4 15.Ne2 c4 16.Bxc4 Nxe4 17.Ng5 Bxh6 18.Qxh6 Nxg5 19.Qxg5+ Kh8 20.Nd4 e5 21.Qxd8 Rxd8 22.Nc6 Bd7 23.Nxd8 Rxd8 24.a5 Rg8 25.h3 f4 26.Rf2 Bf5 27.Ra4 Rb8 28.Kh2 Be4 29.Rd2 h5 30.Ra1 h4 31.Ra4 f5 32.Kg1 Kg7 33.Kf2 Kf6 34.Bb3 Ke7 35.Bc4 Kd7 36.Bb3 Rb5 37.Bc4 Rc5 38.Rxb4 Bxd5 39.Bxd5 Nxd5 40.Rb7+ Kc6 41.Rf7 e4 42.Re2 Ne3 43.c3 Rxa5 44.Rd2 Ra2 45.Rh7 Nc4 46.Rc2 Ne3 47.Rd2 Nc4 48.Rc2 Ne5 49.Rxh4 Nd3+ 50.Ke2 Ra1 51.Rh5 Rg1 52.Rxf5 Rxg2+ 53.Kd1 Nxb2+ 54.Kc1 Nd3+ 55.Kb1 Rg1+ 56.Ka2 f3 57.Kb3 f2 58.Rcxf2 Nxf2 59.Rxf2 Kd5 60.Rh2 e3 0-1 The following game, with abridged notes, appears with full annotations in a recent column by GM Lubosh Kavalek in the Washington Post. It was played in the 1996 US Open in Alexandria. Brandon-Delaune 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Be3 a6 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.a3?! d5! 9.exd5 exd5 10.Be2 Rb8 11.Rb1 Bd6 12.0-0 0-0 13.Na4 Re8 14..c4 Ne4! 15.cxd5 cxd5 16.g3?! Bh3 17.Re1 Nxg3! 18.hxg3 Rxe3!! 19.fxe3 Qg5 20.Bg4 20...Bxg4 21.Qd2 Bxg3 0-1 (After 22.Rf1 d4! 23.Qxd4 Qh5 24.Qd2 Be2 black wins.) 2) Yermo wins National Open on tiebreakHe's back and he is nationwide. Mechanics' Grandmaster-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky won the 2004 National Open on tiebreak repeating his performance from 2002. Alex defeated NM Jerry Hanken, NM John Bartholomew, IM Igor Ivanov, drew GM Vitali Golod, drew GM Daniel Fridman and beat GM-elect Melikhset Khachiyan. Tying for first with Yermo were GMs Jaan Ehlvest, Evgeni Najer, Varuzhan Akobian and Fridman. The qualifiers for the 2004 US Championship were Yermo, IM Stanislav Kriventsov, IM Blas Lugo and GM Anatoly Lein. 15-year-old Vanessa West, who is well on her way to breaking Jennifer Shahade's record for the youngest ever American born female to achieve a master rating, grabbed the women's spot. Vanessa is a student of former Mechanics' member IM Jeremy Silman. MI member MIichael Aigner had an outstanding tournament, defeating IM Jesse Kraai and FM Marcel Milat but lost in the last round to GM Akobian to narrowly miss qualification for the US Championship on tiebreak. This was the second time in six months that a lost round loss to GM Akobian prevented Michael from qualifying but he can take consolation in his 2451 FIDE performance which emphasizes his continuing improvement. There are not too many players out there, especially non-juniors, who have gained over 200 FIDE rating points in the last three years. Keep it up Michael! Here are two of Yermo's wins courtesy of Chess Today.
Ivanov,I (2512) - Yermolinsky,A (2620) [A30]
Yermolinsky,A (2620) - Khachian,M (2562) [D85] 3) Shahade leads 2004 US Womens ChampionshipJennifer Shahade is running away with the US Women Championship that is being held at the Manhattan campus of St.John's University Jennifer has 3.5 from 4 with a victory over her nearest rival Anna Zatonskih who has 2 out of 3. Other scores: 3-4. Irina Krush and Tatev Abrahamiyan 2/4; 5. Battsetseg Tsagann 1/3; 6. Anjelina Belakovskaia 1/4; 7.. Rusa Goletiani .5/3. The top finisher, aside from Zatonskih and Krush who are qualified by rating, earns a spot on the 2004 US Womens Olympiad team. Go to http://facpub.stjohns.edu/~kerrt/sju04.html for more information. 4) Americans in LibyaThe US started out with four players in Tripoli in the FIDE knockout, and after two rounds 16-year-old Hikaru Nakamura has made it to the final 32 players having defeated GMs Sergey Volkov (2629) and Alexey Aleksandrov (2668)! In the first game of his second round match Hikaru defeated Aleksandrov in 102 moves! Here is how he held the balance in round two.
Aleksandrov,A (2668) - Nakamura,H (2580) Hikaru, who is currently rated 2580, has 18 points in the FIDE rating bank for four solid results in the first half of 2004. Coupled with his performance in Libya and he is over 2600! Congratulations also go to Alex Wojtkiewicz who made it to the second round defeating Bulgarian-Macedonian GM Kiril Georgiev. It took Vadim Zvaginsev to defeat him in the quick chess playoff after they had gone 1-1 in regulation. 5) Batsaikan Tserendorj wins MI Wednesday Night BlitzLast Wednesday's event set a record with 23 entrants. Mongolian Master Batsaikan Tserendorj and NM Jorge Lopez won their respective sections with Batsaikan winning the first place playoff. David Karapetian defeated John Chung for third place. Ricardo DeGuzman, who was absent from last week's proceedings, continues to top the MI blitz ratings at 2649. Tommorow the Wednesday Night Blitz will be held immediately after US Champion Shabalov's lecture, beginning at 7pm. Entry fee for the Five Double Round Swiss (everyone plays 10 games) is $5. 6) Summer Tuesday Night MarathonVictor Ossipov defeated fellow Master Igor Margulis to grab the lead in the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon with a 4-0 score. A record 85 entries are competing in the nine round event. 7) Gata Kamsky is backGM Gata Kamsky returned to the tournament arena after a long layoff, playing in the New York Masters (Game/25) a week ago and tying for first at 3-1. Rumor has it that Gata recently graduated with a law degree and didn't want to start playing again until he finished his studies. This was the first event for Gata since the 1999 World Championship in Las Vegas where he lost to the eventual winner Alexander Khalifman. Here is Gata's last round game.
Kamsky,G (2717) - Blatny,P (2451) [B00] This evening (6/22) Gata played again in the Marshall Masters and was defeated by GM Daniel Fridman in round three. 8) Golod and Anka win Arthur Dake MemorialGrandmasters Vitali Golod of Isreal and Emil Anka of Hungry tied for first in the Arthur Dake Memorial held in early June in McMinnville, Oregon with scores of 7.5 from 9. Washington Master David Roper was a distant third at 5-4 in the category 3 (2322 FIDE average). MI member Dmitry Zilberstein was unable to follow up successfully on his IM norm in last Decembers Lindsborg Open, but we have no doubt that he will soon become an International Master with more opportunities. Other scores were: =4-5 IM Andrianov and NM Raptis 4..5; 6-7 FM Zilberstein and Stanford 4; 8 J. Berry 3.5; 9 Harmon 2.5; 10 Van Meter 2. A Crosstable, photos and all the games from the Arthur Dake Memorial are available at the Portland Chess Club website at http://www.aboutchess.org/ . 9) Cal Chess MeetingRichard Koepcke writes: All, Below is the agenda for the June 2004 CalChess meeting. You are welcome to attend as the meeting is Open to the public. I realise that this message is a little late for some of you. I can only promise to try to get these notices out with more advance notice in the future.
Date : June 26 Time: 2PM Here is the Agenda for that meeting: Presidents Report Treasuers Report Motion : An account held with Bank of the West should be closed and its moneys transfered to our non-operations account at the Bank of America (Koepcke) Old Business
1. Formal recognition of Board Changes since last meeting ( Koepcke ) New Business
1. Lessons learned review for the 2004 CalChess State Scholastic Championships (Shaughnessy) 10) Here and ThereIM Vinay Bhat, who hasn't played much the past two years due to academic responsibilities, is scheduled to play in the US Junior Closed in Lindsborg, Kansas. We wish the UC Berkeley Junior good luck. IM William Paschall and FM Sean Nagle finished with identical scores of 4.5 from 10 in the recently concluded Category 7 (2419) First Saturday event in Budapest. 11-year-old Fabiano Caruana of New York (USCF 2260) did well in the second group scoring 5 from 10 for a FIDE 2304 performance. Jude Acers, who made quite an impact on the Bay Area when he lived here in the late 1960s and early 1970s, will be in Santa Rosa this Saturday. Keith Halonen reports that Jude will give a 15-board Simul against Santa Rosa school kids, most of them winners from the city's Spring Youth Chess, on Saturday, June 26 at 1:00 PM. Immediately afterward there will be a book signing for Jude's recently published The Italian Gambit. The event will take place in front of Waldenbooks in the Coddingtown Mall, 733 Coddingtown Mall, Santa Rosa, CA 95401, just off Steele Lane at Interstate 101. For more information contact Keith Halonen at 16701 Spruce Grove Road, Middletown CA 95406-8426 - 707 987-0166. IM Jerremy Silman's new book on Pal Benko is getting rave reviews. Dutch GMs Jan Timman and Hans Ree give it high marks in the latest issue of New in Chess magazine. Last Sunday's New York Times had a very unfavorable article on King Kirsan and his reign in the kingdom of Kalmykia in the fromt section of the paper. Members of the opposition complained about the money Kirsan was spending on chess. The East Bay Express for June 14-20 on page 32 reports that the formation of a new chess group. The Oakland Chess Riders is operating at the Alice Arts Center (1428 Alice Street in Oakland) and all scholastic age kids are welcome. The program runs Mondays through Thursdays from 12-3 pm this summer. There will be scholarships for low-income children. To learn more visit oaklandchess.org . 11) Chess Camps at the MI5th Mechanics' Institute Chess Camp for Beginners and Novice Players (below 1200 USCF) This is a camp for players that want to learn how to play or who know the bare rudiments and would like to increase their understanding of the game. Instructor Anthony Corrales has a wealth of experience teaching youngsters. During this camp students will build up a solid core of knowledge. This will include learning all the basic checkmates, mastering the fundamentals of opening play, implementing middlegame plans and understanding simple endgames. Pupils will also learn how to take chess notation and to play using a chess clock.
Who: Open to youngsters 5-15 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: Grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky, International Master John Donaldson, and MI Scholastic Director Anthony Corrales.
Who: Open to all ages from 8 and up. 12) Upcoming EventsUpcoming Tournaments at the MI William Addison Open - June 26 http://www.chessclub.org/Addison.html Charles Bagby Memorial - July 17 http://www.chessclub.org/Bagby.html Mechanics' Institute Scholastic Quads 2004 Tournaments: April 17, May 8, June 19 and July 24 Open to players age 18 and under (Limited to first 80 players) Game/45 Rounds : 10:30am, 12:15pm, 2:00pm Late Registration: 9:30am - 10:15am Open: to the first eighty players Note: Quads based on rating. USCF Rated. Unrated players face each other. You must be a USCF member to play in the quads. Time Control: Game in 45 minutes Entry Fee: $20 / $30 day of tournament/ $15 for MI members Checks payable to Mechanics' Chess Club Prizes: Trophies for the winners of each quad. California Events The Sacramento Chess Club will be hosting the Sacramento Chess Championship July 3-5 at the Best Western Expo Inn, 1413 Howe Avenue, in Sacramento. For a complete flyer, please visit the Weekend Events page of the Sacramento Chess Club website: http://sacramentochessclub.org/ For questions or further information, please contact John McCumiskey at sactochess@sacramentochessclub.org /ym/Compose?To=sactochess@sacramentochessclub.org . Or, if you prefer, the on-line TLA information is below: July 3-5 2004 Sacramento Chess Championship GPP: 6 N. California 6SS, Full-K. Best Western Expo Inn, 1413 Howe Avenue, Sacramento, CA. On-site Reg: 7/3, 8:15-9:30am; 7/4, 8:15-9:10am. Rds: 3-day: 7/3, 10 & 3:30; 7/4, 11 & 5; 7/5, 10 & 3:30. 2-day: 7/4, 9:30, 11:45, 2, & 5; 7/5, 10 & 3:30. Time Controls: 3-day: 30/90 G/1. 2-day: Rds 1-3, G/60, Rds 4-6, 30/90 G/1. 5-second delay on all time controls. Sections: Master/Expert (above 1999), Reserve (1600-1999), Amateur (U1600). EF: 3-day $65 (Juniors $35) postmarked by 6/26. $75 (Juniors $40) after 6/26. 2-day $66 (Juniors $36) postmarked by 6/26. $76 (Juniors $41) after 6/26. IMs/GMs free. Entrants may play up one section for $10. $5 discount to CalChess members. Reentry after round 2 of the 3-day schedule: $40. Prizes: 1st Place in each section $325 & trophy (1st prize guaranteed in the Master/Expert section). Prize fund of $2810 b/o 75 full paid adult entries and 10 full paid junior entries overall (with 60 full paid adult entries and 10 full paid junior entries, the prize fund will be $1,900).. HR: Best Western Expo Inn, (916) 922-9833 or 1-800-643-4422. Ask for the Sacramento Chess Club rates. Adv. Ent & Info: John McCumiskey (TD), 6700 50th St, Sacramento, CA 95823-1306; e-mail: sactochess@sacramentochessclub.org /ym/Compose?To=sactochess@sacramentochessclub.org ; phone: (916) 428-5532, checks payable to Sacramento Chess Club. Full flyer: sacramentochessclub.org http://sacramentochessclub.org/ under Weekend Events. Other Info: 06/04 rating list only. Please bring clocks and equipment. Maximum of two ½ point byes per entry and are available in any round. ½ point byes for rounds 5 & 6 must be requested prior to round 1. NS, NC, W.
July 3-5 or 4-5 44th Annual Pacific Southwest Open |