Nimzovich became then for me more or less the author of the only book which could help me get away from these Euwe books, which, I admit, are very good for the ordinary club player. But once you've reached a certain strength you get the impression that everything that Euwe writes is a lie.

Bent Larsen ( in Nimzowitsch: A Reappraisal p.25)

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News
2) People Open by Michael Aigner
3) US Championship
4) Upcoming Events

1) Mechanics' Institute Club News

NM Paul Galegos defeated Victor Ossipov to grab the lead in the Winter Tuesday Night Marathon with two rounds to go. Trailing Gallegos score of 5.5 from 6 are Ossipov, Drake Wang and Louiza Livschitz with 5 points.

Kerry Lawless passes on two more MI simuls from the 1950s. Several readers sent along information on MI simuls which will appear in the next Newsletter.

Svetozar Gligoric April 1952 (+24, =9, -4) (Schmitt lost, Bagby drew, Gross drew, Currie drew, Linklater won, Mathews drew, Woolfe won) SACRAMENTO CHESS NEWS Vol 3 No 4 (May 2, 1952):

Gligoric,S - Woolfe,L [D16]
MI Simul - April 1952

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.a4 Nd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 b5 8.e5 e6 9.Ng5 h6 10.Ne4 Bb7 11.Qg4 Nd7 12.Ba3 Nb6 13.Nd6+ Bxd6 14.Qxg7 Bxa3 15.Qxh8+ Bf8 16.a5 Na4 17.Bxc4 Qxa5 18.0–0 Qxc3 19.Be2 Qd2 20.Bf3 Nc3 21.Qh7 Qxd4 22.Bh5 Qf4 23.g3 Qf5 24.Qxf5 exf5 25.e6 Be7 26.exf7+ Kf8 27.Rfe1 Nd5 28.Re6 a6 29.Rxh6 b4 30.Rh8+ Kg7 31.Rxa8 Bxa8 32.Rxa6 b3 33.Bd1 b2 34.Bc2 Bb7 35.Ra5 Kxf7 36.Bxf5 Nc3 0–1

Mechanics' institute Exhibition OLAF ULVESTAD TACKLES 21 PLAYERS
San Francisco, March 21, Olaf Ulvested of Seattle, Washington, took on 21 chess players in a simultaneous exhibition at the Mechanics' Institute. He won 17, lost 3 (to Curtis Wilson, J. R. Moore, and Allan Bourke), and drew 1 (with Lowell Tullis)
PRECITA VALLEY CHESS HERALD Vol 4 No 3, March 1959

2) People Open by Michael Aigner

The People's Tournament was rated by USCF today (2/21). Thanks to the guys from East Bay Chess Club (David, Andy and Vinay) for saving the event on short notice! Also thanks to Jamie Sawhill and Richard Koepcke for directing the 1800+ sections on President's Day weekend.

The turnout was a very respectable 111 players. A total of 51 came for the B and Reserve sections on February 11-12 while 60 participated in the Open and A sections on February 18-20. A few dedicated players even spent both weekends at the chess board!

February 11-12 results: (under 1800)
http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?200602126001
February 18-20 results: (over 1800)
http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?200602206011

Section winners:
Open = Michael Aigner, 5.0/6
U2200 = Uri Andrews, 4.5/6
Class A = Daichi Siegrist, 5.5/6
Class B = Ian Jones, 4.5/5
Reserve = Rahul Desirazu, Tejas Mulye, Vishal Dasari and Michael Shaw, all at 4.0/5
U1400 = Austin Lloyd, 3.5/5

I took a bunch of photos during the second weekend and will post them on the CalChess photo albums when I have a chance.

3) US Championship

The last spot in the US Championship was decided last weekend when the USCF Executive Board decided to not take action on the allegation that GM Boris Kreiman had bought his last round game against IM Ricardo DeGuzman at the American Open in Los Angeles in 2005. The tournament director and several of the top participants in the event pointed to the extremely poor play by DeGuzman with the White pieces and the absence of both players from the game for prolonged periods of time as evidence the game was fixed. The Executive Board circulated the game score to a group of GMs to evaluate the play and this group was unable to come to a unanimous decision whether it was rigged. The result was that the Executive Board, lacking a consensus among the consulted GMs and without a tape of the players discussing the deal, felt it could not prove beyond a doubt that the game was not legitimate. IM-elect David Pruess would have earned the spot had the Board come to a different conclusion. Below are the two groups of 32.

GROUP A						GROUP B
	TITLE	RTG	LAST	FIRST			TITLE	RTG	LAST	FIRST
1	GM	2774	NAKAMURA	HIKARU		1	GM	2729	KAMSKY	GATA
2	GM	2707	IBRAGIMOV	ILDAR		2	GM	2722	KAIDANOV	GREGORY
3	GM	2686	ONISCHUK	ALEXANDER		3	GM	2678	GULKO	BORIS
4	GM	2662	AKOBIAN	VARUZHAN		4	GM	2665	SHABALOV	ALEXANDER
5	IM	2662	FINEGOLD	BENJAMIN		5	GM	2657	IVANOV	ALEXANDER
6	GM	2642	GOLDIN	ALEXANDER		6	GM	2643	NOVIKOV	IGOR
7	GM	2642	STRIPUNSKY	ALEXANDER		7	GM	2633	CHRISTIANSEN	LARRY
8	GM	2627	KUDRIN	SERGEY		8	GM	2629	BECERRA	JULIO
9	GM	2624	BENJAMIN	JOEL		9	GM	2623	SHULMAN	YURY
10	GM	2604	DLUGY	MAX		10	IM	2614	PERELSHTEYN	EUGENE
11	GM	2600	DE FIRMIAN	NICK		11	GM	2593	FISHBEIN	ALEXANDER
12	GM	2577	SERPER	GREGORY		12	GM	2590	YERMOLINSKY	ALEX
13	GM	2562	GUREVICH	DMITRY		13	GM	2558	FEDOROWICZ	JOHN
14	IM	2548	GONZALEZ	RENIER		14	GM	2555	WOJTKIEWICZ	ALEKS
15	IM	2540	KRAAI	JESSE		15	GM	2535	KREIMAN	BORIS
16	IM	2525	SCHNEIDER	DMITRY		16	IM	2528	MILMAN	LEV
17	IM	2513	FRIEDEL	JOSHUA		17	GM	2507	BROWNE	WALTER
18	IM	2486	STEIN	ALAN		18	IM	2491	KRIVENTSOV	STANISLAV
19	IM	2479	FLOREAN	ANDREI		19	IM	2469	ZATONSKIH	ANNA
20	FM	2441	TATE, JR	EMORY		20	IM	2464	IPPOLITO	DEAN
21	IM	2440	BERCYS	SALVIJUS		21	FM	2458	MUHAMMAD	STEPHEN
22	IM	2427	LENDERMAN	ALEX		22	IM	2440	LUGO	BLAS
23	IM	2424	FERNANDEZ	DANIEL		23	IM	2425	GINSBURG	MARK
24	FM	2420	SCHNEIDER	IGOR		24	IM	2422	VIGORITO	DAVID
25	WGM	2393	GOLETIANI	RUSUDAN		25	IM	2399	SARKAR	JUSTIN
26	WGM	2331	BAGINSKAITE	CAMILLA		26	WFM	2325	ABRAHAMYAN	TATEV
27		2318	KLEIMAN	JAKE		27	WIM	2271	TUVSHINTUGS	BATCHIMEG
28	WFM	2238	ROSS	LAURA		28		2266	LIU	ELLIOTT
29	WIM	2172	EPSTEIN	ESTHER		29	WFM	2162	AIRAPETIAN	CHOUCHANIK
30	WFM	2118	VICARY	ELIZABETH		30	WFM	2149	ITKIS	HANA
31		2101	ZENYUK	IRYNA		31		2034	WEST	VANESSA
32		1663	COTTRELL	KELLY		32	WCM	1872	CHRISTIANSEN	NATASHA
		78946	Total rating points in section					79106
		2467.1	Average of section					2472.1
		2663	Average of top 10					2659.3