Arpad Elo, Chess Life, 1962

 

 

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News

2)1894-1895 Mechanics Institute Championship by Neil Brennen

3) Peter Tamburro on Chess.FM

4) Upcoming Events

 

 

IM Ricardo DeGuzman and FM Ron Cusi shared top honors in the annual Carroll Capps Memorial this past weekend, scoring 5 from 6 to win the 52-player event. Tying for third at 4.5 were IM Walter Shipman, NMs Igor Margulis and Experts Peter Zavadsky, Sam Shankland, Daniel Malkiel and Dmitry Vayntrub. Anthony Corrales and John Donaldson directed for the Mechanics.

 

NM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs is the top seed in the MI Fall Marathon which runs until December 20. It is still possible to enter the event with byes for rounds one and two.

 

 

 

Miami vs San Francisco

1. GM Julio Becerra (MIA) vs IM Vince McCambridge (SF)  0-1
2. IM Dmitry Zilberstein (SF) vs FM Marcel Martinez (MIA)  1/2-1/2
3. IM Blas Lugo (MIA) vs FM David Pruess (SF)  1/2-1/2
4. NM Mark Pinto (SF) vs Jose Cabrera (MIA)  1-0


   The match on everyone's mind in the final week of the season was between Miami and San Francisco, as it would determine the champion of the West Division. San Francisco came into this match with a three match winning streak, but the Miami Sharks had never lost while fielding a lineup including Becerra, Martinez and Lugo. In fact, amongst those three players combined, the Sharks had only one loss all season, when Marcel was forced to play board 1 against New York and was ground down by GM Alex Stripunsky. To make matters more difficult for the Mechanics, they were forced to win the match to win the division, as a draw would maintain Miami's half point lead in the standings.

  San Francisco started things off with a bang, as Mark Pinto caught Jose Cabrera sleeping in a sharp Sicilian, and won the game very quickly. Marcel Martinez and Dmitry Zilberstein fought to a tough draw, and now the Mechanics needed just one point in their final two games to clinch the division. Their savior was a player whom had a terrible start to the US Chess League but turned it around big time this week:

 

Becerra,J (2622) - McCambridge,V (2502) [C11]
USCL Miami vs San Francisco (10), 02.11.2005

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Nbd7 6.Nf3 h6 7.Nxf6+ Nxf6 8.Be3 Bd6 9.Bd3 Bd7 10.0-0 Qe7 11.Ne5 Bxe5 12.dxe5 Nd5 13.Bd2 Bc6 14.Qg4 0-0-0 15.b4 h5 16.Qd4 Nb6 17.Qe3 Kb8 18.Rfc1 Qd7 19.Qe2 Qd5 20.f3

It's clear that black has achieved success in the opening stage of the game. McCambridge has centralized pieces, whereas Becerra's pieces seem to be placed very awkwardly. It's not so clear immediately how to increase the pressure, but McCambridge found the best method with 20....Bb5! and he was able to infiltrate the white position after 21. Bxb5 Qxd2.

21...Bb5 21.Bxb5 Qxd2 22.a3 Qd4+ 23.Kh1 Rd5 24.Re1 a6 25.Bd3 Qc3 26.Rab1 Qxa3 27.Be4 Rd4 28.Ra1 Qc3 29.h3 h4 30.Ra5 Qxb4 31.Rea1 Qd2 32.Qf1 Rhd8

Black's pieces are very well placed and Becerra felt that it was time to attempt to muddy the waters. The undefeated GM lunged out with 33.Bxb7! and although it looks dangerous, McCambridge found the efficient defensive tactic 33....Qxa5! 34.Rxa5 Rd1 35.Bxa6 Rxf1 36. Bxf1 Rd1. The position may seem equal, but black has some clear edge. The knight has a very nice square on d5 and the pawn on e5 can become weak. Many spectators expected a draw at this point, but McCambridge dismantled Becerra's position quite quickly and was able to win the game and the division for San Francisco. Even more painful for the Sharks was that if Becerra won this game, he would have been awarded the league MVP title. However the loss allowed other contenders to jump ahead of him.

33.Bxb7 Qxa5 34.Rxa5 Rd1 35.Bxa6 Rxf1+ 36.Bxf1 Rd1 37.Kg1 Kb7 38.Rb5 Kc6 39.Rb3 g5 40.Rc3+ Kd7 41.Kf2 Rd5 42.f4 gxf4 43.Kf3 Rxe5 44.Kg4 Nd5 45.Bb5+ Ke7 46.Rb3 Kf6 47.Bc6 Rg5+ 48.Kxh4 Ne3 49.Be4 Nxg2+ 50.Bxg2 Rxg2 51.Rc3 e5 52.Rxc7 f3 0-1

Zilberstein,D (2435) - Martinez,M (2469) [A57]
USCL Miami vs San Francisco (10), 02.11.2005

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.b6 e6 6.Nc3 Nxd5 7.Nxd5 exd5 8.Qxd5 Nc6 9.Nf3 Rb8 10.e4 Be7 11.Bc4 0-0 12.0-0 Rxb6 13.Qh5 d6 14.b3 Be6 15.Bxe6 fxe6 16.Qg4 Qc8 17.Bb2 Bf6 18.Bxf6 Rxf6 19.Nd2 Qf8 20.Nc4 Rb4 21.f4 d5 22.exd5 exd5 23.Ne3 Rd4 24.Rad1 Nb4 25.Qh5 Rfxf4 26.Rxf4 Rxd1+ 27.Qxd1 Qxf4 28.Nxd5 Qd6 29.Qe2 Nxd5 30.Qe8+ Qf8 31.Qe6+ Qf7 32.Qc8+ Qf8 33.Qe6+ Qf7 34.Qc8+ Qf8 35.Qe6+ 1/2-1/2

Miami Sharks			San Francisco Mechanics
GM Julio Becerra - 2622	0.0	1.0	IM Vince McCambridge - 2502
FM Marcel Martinez - 2469	0.5	0.5	FM Dmitry Zilberstein - 2435
IM Blas Lugo - 2426	0.5	0.5	FM David Pruess - 2432
Jose Cabrera - 2093	0.0	1.0	NM Mark Pinto - 2200
Avg Rating - 2401			Avg Rating - 2392
Miami Total -------	1.0	3.0	------- San Francisco Total

 

 

The Mechanics Institute Chess Tournament of 1894-1895 was a tourney that almost didn't happen. And as often is the case with a chess tournament, the primary stumbling-block was money. According to a report on the tournament that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle chess column of February 9, 1895, “the proposition was first discussed that a sum of money could be raised to purchase a number of prizes by charging the competitors a small entrance fee.” However, most of the Institute’s chess players objected to an entrance fee, and so the idea of a tournament was almost abandoned, until several members donated prizes for the event, “setting the project fairly on its feet.”  Club member J. Tittle contributed a “handsome” gold medal for first place, engraved with the words “Mechanics Institute Tourney 94 & 95” around a chessboard.

With the obstacle of a fee for participation removed and prizes to be awarded, the revived tournament soon drew twenty-five combatants from the chess room’s habitants. While the 1894-1895 tournament was not billed as a club championship, the awarding of a gold medal to the winner as well as the sheer size of the event implies something more than just pride was at stake.

On December 8, 1894, play began in the Tournament. There were only two first class players among the twenty-five entrants, V. Q. Quiroga and the twenty-five year old Walter Romaine Lovegrove, already at the beginning of his lengthy career at the Chess Rooms considered a leading player. The remaining combatants were ranked from second to fifth class. The tournament was run as both a double round-robin and a handicap event, with higher classed players giving piece or material odds to the lower-ranked. The odds for the difference in class ranking broke down like this:

Difference of one class - higher ranked player gives odds of Pawn and Move
Difference of two classes - higher ranked player gives odds of Pawn and Two Moves
Difference of three classes - higher ranked player gives odds of Knight
Difference of four classes - higher ranked player gives odds of Rook

What this meant for the tournament was that Lovegrove and Quiroga had to play forty-six of their forty-eight games with a material handicap, with no less than sixteen of them at Rook odds. Lovegrove was a strong master, capable of beating Harry Nelson Pillsbury and Emanuel Lasker during their visits to the Mechanics’ Institute. However, his very strength told against him in the 1894 tournament; in the first of his two games below, Lovegrove successfully copes with odds of Pawn and two moves, but in the second game, a Rook was just too great a gift to make to his opponent.

The large number of games led to an additional problem, one common to many amateur tournaments today. Since chess was still a gentleman’s game, the gentlemen of the Mechanics’ Institute Tourney were allowed to schedule their games whenever they liked, rather than be required to be at the club at a stipulated hour to play. As a result, some players finished their schedule before others, and nine weeks later, there were still a great many unfinished games. The Chronicle reported that “an effort is now being made by the committee to bring the present tournament to a speedy termination, so as to allow of a new engagement being made, and the players are being urged to do their best to bring about this result.”

Although the Chronicle’s report on the event was only current into the ninth week of the tournament, it appears the tourney was eventually won by Lovegrove, according to a list of club champions published in a November 1905 Chronicle article and reprinted in the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Room Newsletter #36. The 1895 Chronicle article predicted Lovegrove as the eventual winner, although they thought second-class player George Thompson, originally from Los Angeles but in San Francisco the previous two years, was “running Lovegrove very closely for the gold medal.” Thompson failed in this attempt, only to succeed in the following tournament, played later in 1895. Among the other players, “Senor Quiroga and Mr. Hallwegan have not fared as well as their abilities would warrant, but they will doubtless regain their lost laurels ere long.”

One curious follow-up event was suggested for the Tournament players from a transplanted San Franciscan in New York. “Dr. Dewey, a familiar figure in local chess circles previous to his taking up his residence in New York a year ago”, suggested that the Manhattan Chess Club would be willing to play a consultation correspondence match by postcard with the Mechanics’ players. The Manhattan even offered to “bar any one of its players agreeably with the wishes of the San Franciscans.” The Chronicle columnist suggested that “Steinitz, of course, would be a bad man to meet from a chess point of view, so he might with perfect propriety be discriminated against” when choosing the Manhattan’s team. Even the presence of such players as Albert Hodges, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, and Eugene Delmar on the Manhattan roster failed to deter the Bay Area columnist from predicting that “a team could be made up from the local players who would at least render a good account of themselves.”

Unfortunately, this proposed match appears to have never taken place. Had this coast to coast consultation postal match between the Manhattan and Mechanics’ occurred, it would have capped “a very successful affair”, as the Chronicle’s chess editor described the Championship. “There can be no question respecting the fact that the tournament has been productive of a great amount of good, not only as regards the additional popularity the game has received and the impetus it has thereby gained in this city, but the competitors themselves have reaped no small advantage by reason of their enforced contest with each other.” And truly, what more can you ask from a chess tournament?

 

 

    Hi folks:

    This week's guest on the internet radio show "Chess and Books
with Fred Wilson" will be PETER J. TAMBURRO, JR.  The show runs from
8:00 to 10:00 PM (EST) every Tuesday evening.  As always, there will
be replays of the show almost immediately afterwards for our chess
enthusiasts on the West Coast & elsewhere, and often there will be
several replays the following day.

       You can access it at the following website:
http://www.chess.fm, ONLY IF YOU ARE NOW AN ICC MEMBER (A DECISION
WHICH I DISAGREE WITH, RECENTLY INSTITUTED BY "THE POWERS THAT BE" AT
THE "INTERNET CHESS CLUB"):

    I AM TOLD THAT THOSE WHO WANT A ONE WEEK FREE TRIAL
MEMBERSHIP AT CHESSCLUB.COM (ICC) CAN DO THE FOLLOWING (WHICH WILL
ENABLE YOU TO LISTEN TO MY SHOW(S) BRIEFLY FOR FREE):

    "Those that have not had free trials CAN easily create a username and
    register THEN be able to hear shows!     They need to go to:

    WWW.Chessclub.com  Click register and create a username and password
    THEN they are set!"

    "Fred's next guest on Tuesday, Nov. 8th, 2005 will be the
very popular and entertaining chess author and teacher PETER J.
TAMBURRO, JR.   Pete, who has created, written and narrated the very
well-received series of flash presentation lectures, "Openings for
Amateurs", on Chess.fm, will discuss what he thinks the so-called
"average" or "intermediate" player SHOULD look for in a opening book,
and what to AVOID!  Pete is also the author of the best-selling
"Learn Chess From the Greats" (Dover Pub., $8.95)-a delightful &
unusual instructional book which I recommend highly as it contains a
lesson on each page!  Now is your chance to hear "straight from the
horse's mouth" about studying chess openings, what books really can
help improve your understanding of chess fundamentals, or how to
successfully teach chess classes to children, so please send good
questions for Pete Tamburro to fred@fredwilsonchess.com or Tony Rook".