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Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever when they are only wasting their time. George Bernard Shaw |
1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News 2) Benjamin and Milov tie for first in US Open 3) Bruzon wins American Continental 4) Computer History Museum in Mountain View 5) Russian press analyses disaster in Goteborg 6) CalChess Meeting 7) Here and There 1) Mechanics' Institute Club NewsIM Ricardo DeGuzman scored 4.5 from 5 to win the annual Vladimir Pafnutieff Memorial held August 6 at the MI. Tying for second at 4-1, in the 40 player Swiss directed by Anthony Corrales, were NM Michael Aigner, Experts Batsaikan Tserendorj, Dmitry Vayntraub and Philip Pereplitsky and Class A players Varun Behl and Michael Zhong. This weekend the Mechanics' will hold the Bernardo Smith Open with sections for players above and below 1800. Next Tuesday evening is the start of the David Gee Tuesday Night Marathon. 2) Benjamin and Milov tie for first in US OpenVadim Milov and Joel Benjamin tied for first at 8-1 in the US Open in Phoenix which ended last Sunday. The two winners each received $4,500. Half a point back were Larry Christiansen, Alek Wojtkiewicz, Greg Shahade, Dave Vigorito and Amon Simutowe ($ 860 apiece), followed by a large group another half point back. US Championship qualifiers were: Christiansen, Shahade, Vigorito and Serper (top tiebreak on 7 points) with Elizabeth Vicary and Hana Itkis (6 points) taking the women's spots. Larry Christiansen played a great tournament and beat many good players before running out of gas in the last round.
Milov,V (2705) - Christiansen,L (2622) [D34] 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.g3 Nf6 7.Bg5 Be7 8.Bg2 0-0 9.dxc5 Bxc5 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11.0-0 d4 12.Nd5 Qd8 13.Nd2 Be6 14.Nf4 Bf5 15.Rc1 Bb6 16.Nc4 Re8 17.a3 Be4 18.Bxe4 Rxe4 19.Qd3 Re8 20.Qf3 Rc8 21.Nd3 Qe7 22.Rc2 Na5 23.Rfc1 Nxc4 24.Rxc4 Rxc4 25.Rxc4 Qd7 26.b4 g6 27.Rc2 Kg7 28.h4 h5 29.Nf4 a6 30.Rc4 Re5 31.Rc2 Re7 32.Nd3 a5 33.bxa5 Bxa5 34.Rc5 Bb6 35.Rg5 f6 36.Rd5 Qc6 37.Nb4 Qc3 38.Kg2 Ba7 39.Rd8 Qxf3+ 40.Kxf3 Bc5 41.Nd5 Re5 42.Rd7+ Kh6 43.Nf4 b6 44.a4 g5 45.hxg5+ fxg5 46.Nd3 g4+ 47.Kf4 Rxe2 48.a5 bxa5 49.Nxc5 Rxf2+ 50.Ke5 h4 51.Rd6+ Kh5 52.Ne4 Rf8 53.Nf6+ Rxf6 54.Kxf6 1-0 The second annual Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls (under 19) was held alongside with the US Open in Phoenix, Arizona this year. Approximately 3,000 girls participated in regional and state qualifying events in the last 12 months to earn the right to represent their states. A record 48 girls (as young as 11) represented their respective states in this year's tournament. At the conclusion of the tournament last night, three players tied for first with the score of 5-1 (4 wins and 2 draws). WFM Alisa Melekhina (PA), Abby Marshall (OH) and WGM Anya Cork (CA) were declared co-champions. They were also the top three seeds of the tournament. Each champion was awarded a full tuition and fees scholarship to the University of Texas in Dallas. MI member Louiza Livschitz (CA), Amanda Mateer (AZ), Emily Lau (HI) and Anjali Datta (TX) were tied for 4th place with the score of 4.5 - 1.5. A record $155,000 in cash, prizes and scholarships were awarded to the 48 young ladies. The third annual Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls will be held in Chicago, IL next August.
The three co-championsL to R: WFM Alisa Melekhina (PA), GM Susan Polgar, WGM Anya Corke (CA), Abby Marshall (OH) This event was sponsored by: The Susan Polgar Foundation (http://www.susanpolgarfoundation.org/) UTD (University of Texas in Dallas) (http://www.utd.edu/) Susan Polgar (http://www.susanpolgar.com/) 3) Bruzon wins American ContinentalGM Lazaro Bruzon of Cuban scored 8.5 from 11 to win the Championship of the Americas in Buenos Aires. Tying for second at 8 in the qualifier for the FIDE World Cup were Julio Granda Zuniga, Alex Onischuk, Gilberto Milos, Gata Kamsky, Ruben Felgaer, Gaston Needleman and Giovanni Vescovi. 4) Computer History Museum in Mountain ViewComputer History Museum Presents The History of Computer Chess: An AI Perspective In Conjunction with New Exhibit, Mastering The Game: A History of Computer Chess Evening presentation to highlight origin and development of computer chess and what it tells us about society and the machines humans build (AUGUST 14, 2005) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.-The Computer History Museum, the world's largest museum dedicated to preserving and presenting the artifacts and stories of the information age, will host Computer History Museum Presents: The History of Computer Chess: An AI Perspective, 7 p.m., September 8, at the Computer History Museum, 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, Calif. This special presentation, produced in conjunction with the opening of the Museum's newest exhibit, Mastering The Game: A History of Computer Chess, will feature Murray Campbell, Deep Blue project member, International Business Machines (IBM); Edward Feigenbaum, a Stanford artificial intelligence researcher; David Levy, International Computer Games Association, and John McCarthy, professor, Stanford University. The evening presentation will be moderated by Monty Newborn, professor, McGill University and organizer, ACM Computer Chess Championships (1970-1991). This panel, made up of AI's leading pioneers will discuss for the first time in the same room the origin and development of computer chess and what it tells us about ourselves and the machines we build. According to Dag Spicer, senior curator at the Computer History Museum, this panel will look at the source and expansion of computer chess and what it tells us about ourselves and the technology we develop. Does playing chess require thinking, or can thinking be approximated by that of a computer? "As a human activity, chess is believed to require 'thinking,' yet in 1997 a massively-parallel supercomputer, drawing on over four decades of continual advances in both hardware and software, defeated the best human player in the world," Spicer said. The event is presented in conjunction with the debut of Mastering The Game: A History of Computer Chess. This 1,000 square foot exhibit will follow a chronological plan, from the theoretical foundations developed by such computing pioneers as Alan Turing and Claude Shannon, to the development of PC chess software and the drama of IBM's chess-playing supercomputer, Deep Blue. Using chess as an entree, visitors can explore important software and other traditionally challenging topics to explain. The physical exhibit is supplemented with an online version of Mastering the Game: A History of Computer Chess that provides access to information made available in the physical exhibit as well as other content, such as original source materials, links to complementary organizations and computer chess stories shared by online visitors. Sponsors of the exhibit include Target and Ropes & Gray LLP. Reservations are required to attend Computer History Museum Presents: The History of Computer Chess: An AI Perspective. The presentation is free, with a suggested donation of $10 for non-members. The lecture starts promptly at 7:00 p.m. A reception will be held at 6:00 p.m. for invited guests and Computer History Museum members. For more information, please visit http://www.computerhistory.org/events http://www.computerhistory.org/events> Background The "Computer History Museum Presents" Speaker Series is an exclusive platform for open, passionate discussions about the computing revolution and its impact on the human experience. These landmark presentations and panel discussions present inside stories and personal insights of top information age leaders from industry, government and academia, and assist the Museum in bringing computing history to life.
About the Computer History Museum For more information, contact Steven Brewster, (650) 810-1036, or brewster@computerhistory.org. 5) Russian press analyses disaster in GoteborgThe following story first appeared in the Russian newspaper Kommersant on August 9. Russian Chess Doesn't Make Any Moves by Alexey Dospekhov The European Team Championship in Goteborg, Sweden, has ended up in the most crushing defeat for Russians in their chess history. The women's team at least made it to the top three, while the men landed only at the 14th place. The results of the European Championships can't but cause surprise with those who keep up with the chess news and know that Soviet and Russian teams have rarely lost team competitions and if they did they at least won medals. The last year's Chess Olympics in Spain was perhaps the worst performance of the team ever: none of the two teams won, the men's finished second, the women's - third. However, the Russian team outdid all other countries on aggregate and the topic of the Russian chess crisis never came up. It can be voiced now, though, since the failure of the men's team is too apparent. Chief executive of the Russian Chess Federation Alexander Bakh said in an interview with Kommersant yesterday he could not make it out for himself what had happened in Sweden. "We need to look into it thoroughly because even the third place of the women's team, even considering their young age, can by no means be called a success... I can only say that it is hardy a matter of coach's miscounts or blunders in training. Miscounts occur only when the first place slips through your fingers because of some circumstances. But when the team ends up 14th - that's another thing," he said. Alexander Bakh added that the Russians would have a chance to make up for the Swedish failure this fall. The World Team Championship starts in Israel October 31, and the team composition promises to be stronger that in Goeteborg, according to preliminary reports. Famous Grand Masters Alexander Grishchyuk and Alexander Morozevich, who missed the Goeteborg championship, gave their consent to play for Russia. However, even without them, the two Russian teams (men: Pyotr Svidler, Alexey Dreev, Alexander Motylev, Evgeny Bareev and Artem Timofeev; women: Alexanra Kostnyuk, Nadezhda and Tatyana Kosintsevs, Ekaterina Kovalevskaya and Alisa Gallyamova) surpassed their rivals, and quite noticeably. Leading chess experts have already concluded that causes of the defeat are far deeply rooted than in the team's composition. International Grand Master Yury Razuvaev, who coached the Soviet and Russian national team for many years and won with them many international competitions, including World Chess Olympics, gave a number of examples from his own work. "At the 1980 European Championship, Garry Kasparov made his debut at my team where then World Champion Anatoly Karpov played the fist chess-board. It was a debut of a 16-year-old. At the 1992 Olympics, great Kasparov played the first board for the team with a very young Vladimir Kramnik who had just made a debut... It was our tradition that the national team was made up of outstanding champions and young up-and-comers, who soon became great Grand Masters themselves as gleaned experience and got more self-confident. The link between the generations is now broken. It is other teams that put now into practice our ideas with seemingly better resources, for example Ukraine. Young Sergey Karyakin and Yury Kuguzov played for the team at the Championship in Sweden alongside famous Vasily Ivanchyuk. The team ranked only 5th but it is not a flop anyway, especially if you consider the fact that they mainly aimed at preparing the team for future events." Legendary Boris Spassky, 10th World Champion, is of the same view. "I think the ranks our teams occupied at the European Championship do reflect the real state of the Russian chess," he said. "I mean the situation with children chess, which I tried and paid much attention as the editor-in-chief of Shakhmatnaya Nedelya [Chess Week]. It is really true that we have fewer talented chess players now, especially boys: the case with girls is a bit better. What's the reason? We can certainly say that we are short of money. But anyway, I am convinced that one should not lose heart. We have only one way out: the older generation should pass on its experience to the youth. For example, I have a chess school in Urals, I also run a project in Orel... We need that everyone interested boost the chess together, not on their own." 6) CalChess MeetingDear Calchess members, The 2005 annual membership meeting will be held on Saturday Sept 3,at 3pm at the Golden Gateway Holiday Inn, Van Ness and Pine in San Francisco. Below are the CalChess bylaws and the changes proposed by your CalChess Board. Please read them carefully. The proposed changes are in italics. At the meeting the members attending will be asked to ratify these changes. If you cannot attend the meeting but have comments you wish to make on the bylaws, please forward them to the CalChess secretary, Roger Poehlmann, at rognmich@ix.netcom.com. Thank you. At this annual meeting the members attending will also vote for six board members. Please, if you live in Northern California as defined by the USCF and wish to be considered for membership on the board, send your name to Roger Poehlmann. Your name will then appear on the official printed ballot. You have up to Thursday September 1, 2005 to submit your name if you are new to the board and Friday September 2, if you are already on the board. Names of candidates will appear with a short bio, on the CalChess website as we receive them as of August 22, 2005. Current board members Green, Shaughnessy, Koepcke and Schiller are not up for election this year. Elizabeth Shaughnessy, President 7) Upcoming EventsUpcoming Tournaments at the MI Bernardo Smith Amateur Under 1800 - August 20-21 http://www.chessclub.org/Smith.html California and Nevada August 21 2nd Annual Westwood Open 5-SS, G/40, LAX Doubletree Hotel 10740 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024. $$1500 guaranteed. In 2 sections. Open: $400-200, U2200 125, U2000 125. Reserve(Under 1800): $$200-125, U1600 $100, Under 1400 $75, U1200 $75, Unrated $75 (unr. may win unrated prize only). Entry fee: $47 if received by 8-19, $56 at site; all $5 less to unrated. SCCF membership ($14, under 18 $9) required for rated Southern California residents. No checks or credit cards at door. Half point byes Limit 1, must be requested with entry. Registration 8:45-9:30 a.m., rds 10, 12, 1:45, 3:30, 5:30. Entries: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N. Wilton Place #1, Los Angeles, CA 90038, on line at www.westernchess.com. Inf: admin@westernchess.com. GP: 10. State Championship Qualifier
September 3-5 2005 CalChess Labor Day Championships GPP: 15 N. CAlifornia
2005 Reno Western States Open Chess Tournament
$52,400 PRIZE FUND!!! for this Six Round Swiss in Seven Sections (based on 500 paid players, $33,550 Guaranteed). At least 15 places paid in every section! Large prize fund made possible by the generosity of the Sands Regency Casino Hotel.
RUB ELBOWS WITH THE MASTERS: Reception with Former World Champion GM Boris Spassky on Wednesday night. FREE lecture by GM Larry Evans on Thursday evening. $100 simul with GM Boris Spassky on Thursday night. Book signing session with GM Boris Spassky on Friday morning. Clinic by GM Boris Spassky on Saturday afternoon. Favorite game analysis with GM Boris Spassky on Sunday afternoon
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