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Topalov wants a rematch but Leko wants it too. The moment isn't appropriate for such serials which could become endless. To ignore other candidates is just unsporting. Vladimir Kramnik |
1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News 2) US Chess League - San Francisco defeats Tennessee 3.5-.5 3) Sergey Kudrin wins Western States Open by Michael Aigner 4) Upcoming Events |
1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club NewsThe Paul Vayssie Memorial Tuesday Night Marathon finished in a tie for first between NM Russell Wong and Expert Josh Gutman. NM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs could have joined them but was held to a last round draw by 15-year-old Expert Louiza Livschitz of San Ramon.
Tuvshintugs,B - Livshitz,L [B92] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.0-0 Be6 9.f4 exf4 10.Bxf4 0-0 11.Nd4 Nc6 12.Kh1 Qb6 13.Nxe6 fxe6 14.Bc4 Qxb2 15.Bxe6+ Kh8 16.Qd2 Qb4 17.Bd5 Nxd5 18.exd5 Bf6 19.Rf3 Ne7 20.Rb1 Bxc3 21.Rxb4 Bxd2 22.Bxd2 Rxf3 23.gxf3 b5 24.c4 h6 25.Bf4 bxc4 26.Rxc4 Nxd5 27.Bxd6 Rd8 28.Rc6 a5 29.a3 Ne3 30.Kg1 Nc4 31.Be7 Rd7 32.Bf8 Ne5 33.Ra6 Nxf3+ 34.Kg2 Ne1 35.Kg3 Rd5 36.Ra7 Rg5 37.Kf4 Nd3+ 38.Ke3 Ne5 1/2-1/2 Mechanics' members Daniel Naroditsky ( Boys Under 12), Nicholas Nip ( Boys Under 10) and Jessica Zhu ( Girls Under 10) are representing the United States in the World Youth Championships in Batumi, Georgia. The start of round one has been postponed due to the late arrival of some participants and the need to find a backup playing facility. There will be no participants from Russia participating due to the troubles between Georgia and Russia. During the FIDE Congress in Turin the decision to grant the event to Batumi, instead of proven venues in Greece and Spain, was partly explained on the need to spread the event around the world. However laudable this aim might have been there is a serious danger of a repeat of the last World Youth fiasco in France that cast a serious black eye on FIDE. Hopefully this will not be the case. Boris Spassky finished with 20 wins and five draws in his simul held at the MI on September 30th. Here are four of the draws. The fifth, with Ewelina Krubnik, will be in the next Newsletter along with a further selection of games from the simul.
Spassky,Boris V - Eng,Stan [B97]
Spassky,Boris V - Naroditsky,Daniel [A04]
Spassky,Boris - Naroditsky,Alan [B99]
Spassky,Boris - Reinhardt,Bryan [B33] 2) UUS Chess League - San Francisco defeats Tennessee 3.5-.5Tennessee vs San Francisco 1. IM Ron Burnett (TEN) vs IM Josh Friedel (SF) 1/2-1/2 2. IM David Pruess (SF) vs FM Todd Andrews (TEN) 1-0 3. NM Jerry Wheeler (TEN) vs FM Dmitry Zilberstein (SF) 0-1 4. NM Sam Shankland (SF) vs Gainer Phay (TEN) 1-0 Tennessee has had a tough
season but any team with an IM, two experienced masters and a young talent is
not to be underestimated and the final score of 3 1/2- 1/2 showed the
maximum the Mechanics' could achieve from the match.
The top board saw IM Ron
Burnett play a new move (15.Qh5) which was a clear improvement over the older
15.Qc2 which lead to trouble for White in Palatnik-Kasparov, Kislovodsk 1982
(15...Nc6 16.Bd3 Nd4 17.Bxh7+ Kf8 18.Qe4 Nb3 19.Qxe7+ Kxe7 20.Rb1 g6 and Black
won in convincing fashion) Black's exchange sacrifice on d2 lead to a forced
sequence of moves and Josh had to forsee that on 21.Qf4 he would have the nice
resource 21...Qxf4 22.exf4 Nd4 recovering the exchange. The last finesse was
24...Re8 driving the White King back. This was a very accurately played
game by both players.
Burnett,R (2449) - Friedel,J (2513) [A31] David quickly got a large advantage after Black played experimentally in the opening (10...Bc4?! gave up e4 and 14...h5?! the g5 square). When White soon won a pawn it looked like clear sailing for the Mechanics, but then Todd Andrews battled back, aiding by some inexact play by White. Somewhere right around move forty Todd missed his best chance to hold the position and his position quickly went downhill. Pruess,D (2459) - Andrews,T (2360) [C16] Dmitry played a novelty in the opening ( 11...Ne5 deviated from 11...b5 of Ilescas-Moreno, Seville 2004) and quickly got a comfortable game. With 14...e6 and 15...fxe6 he opened the f-file with good effect and when White essayed 17.Nc4?! ( 17.Re3, covering f2 looked more prudent) the fireworks commenced. 18...Ng4! offered a piece, which if accepted, would have produced a position in which Black would have had two or possibly three pawns for the piece ( 19.hxg4 Qxf2+ 20.Kh1 Qxg3 and if 21.Re2 Qxg4) and a loose White King. This still might have been the best course for Jerry Wheeler. He recaptured on e3 with the pawn as 20.Re3 was met by 20...Bd4 - though this might have been a better practical chance for White. In the game continuation Jerry postponed the lost of material for a few moves but when Black threatened to invade down the f-file the trade of all the Rooks led to the g3 pawn falling which decided the game. This was a smooth win by Dmitry who returned to the MI lineup after a few weeks off. Wheeler,J (2200) - Zilberstein,D (2435) [E62] Fourth board was the first to finish, due in part to the rapid play of 15-year-old NM Sam Shankland who would seemingly have no objections if league matches were played at G/1 ( as in game in one minute). Slow down Sam! White went into the middlegame with some advantage that quickly reached decisive proportions after 19...Rxe5?! (opening the f-file for White) and 22...Bc8?! ( 22...Qd8 intending ...Qg5 or ...Qh4 and ...Ng5). The final mistake was 23...g6?? ( 22...g5 was not pretty but would have allowed Black to continue play). Shankland,S (2106) - Phay,G (1983) [C01] The draw between Boston and New York has again left the Mechanics' with the best record in the league but eight rounds into the season nothing is decided. Next week we play Seattle who is just half a point behind us in the standings. GM Gregory Serper and fourth board Michael Lee have both had tremendous seasons for our neighbors to the North but don't overlook the excellent play of their third boards in recent weeks ( Readey and Milat) who have given them 2 from 2 in the last two matches with Black against players averaging around 2450 - over 100 points higher than the Seattle players).It will be a tough match. Another interesting match up will be between Dallas and Philadelphia. I have been saying all year long that Dallas is a dangerous team and they really showed it last week blowing out defending champion Baltimore 4-0! Philly hasn't lost a match in weeks and is a new team with GM Ehlvest on top board. This match will also likely determine who wins the inter division competition the West now leads 5-3. My prediction is that no teams will make the playoffs ( top three in each division) with a regular season record under 50 percent. 2006 Standings
@ = clinched Playoff Berth
# = clinched Division Title Whoever has the most points in the "W" (win) column, is in the lead in the standings. Total game points + win percentage are used as a tiebreaker. To see the rest of the tiebreak procedures click here
3) Sergey Kudrin wins Western States Open by Michael AignerThe annual Western States Open took place at the Sands Regency Hotel & Casino in Reno on October 6-8. This was the 24th year that Jerry Weikel and his wife Fran have put together a big chess tournament. Some things never change from year to year: friendly atmosphere, good chess, free lectures and simuls, large number of GMs and IMs and nearly 100 prizes paid in cash on Sunday night. A weekend tournament in Reno is almost like a mini vacation--many players bring their spouses, parents, children and non-chess friends to join in the fun. Unfortunately, this year's turnout was somewhat lower than in the past. Many chess enthusiasts appear to be reluctant to take a day off work (on Friday) in order to play a weekend of chess. Perhaps Reno needs a 2-day schedule to invigorate the attendance. This year's event was also impacted by the last minute illness of special guest GM Boris Spassky. After suffering a stroke in San Francisco less than a week before the tournament, Spassky followed doctor's orders and flew home to France rather than endure a weekend of lectures and public appearances. Nonetheless, 315 people came to Reno to play chess. Players competed in class sections ranging from Open to under 1400. The 56 player Open section was conquered by GM Sergey Kudrin of New Jersey, who scored an undefeated 5.0 out of 6. IM Enrico Sevillano of southern California, who led for most of the weekend, finished tied for second place at 4.5 together with GMs Eugene Perelshteyn, Jaan Ehlvest, Ildar Ibragimov and Gregory Serper. At the last minute, America's Foundation for Chess announced that two qualifying spots were available for the 2007 US Championship. These went to GM Kudrin and IM Sevillano. The top northern California finishers were GM Alex Yermolinsky, IM Josh Friedel, IM Vladimir Mezentsev and expert Dana Mackenzie, all at 4.0/6. IM Friedel, the 2006 CalChess state champion, faced four Grandmasters with a 50% score and ultimately lost to Kudrin in the money game of the last round. Mackenzie likely completed the tournament of his life, winning his last three games including scalps of FM Renard Anderson and IM David Pruess, the latter following a prepared queen sacrifice. To read more about the Western States Open and to view some games from the Open section (e.g. Kudrin-Friedel and Mackenzie-Pruess), please visit the USCF homepage. IM Friedel has added blogging to his bag of tricks and filed two reports in his own unique writing style. rounds 1-3: http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_140.php rounds 4-6: http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_146.php The lower sections saw plenty of action as well, including many local players. How often do you see a pairing in an adult tournament between a 10 year old and an 8 year old, both ranked #1 in the nation for their age? In this case, 10 year old Daniel Naroditsky and 8 year old Nicholas Nip squared off in the expert section. (Daniel won, in case anyone is keeping score). Many local players won money, but only one managed to win his section. Congratulations to Michael O'Brien of the South Bay for winning the B section outright! Please see below a list of northern California players who finished in the top five of their section.
Open:
Expert:
A section:
B section:
C section:
D section: One special feature of the annual Reno tournament is the club competition. The top 10 scores for each club are added together to earn additional money prizes. The Mechanics' Institute chess club ended up tied for second place, together with Seattle but behind the home club. In fact, the MI was so strong that the second squad finished in fourth place! There is no lingering doubt where the strongest concentration of local chess is located. 4) Upcoming Events
J.J. Dolan Memorial - October 28
Nov. 25-26 California Classic Thanksgiving Chess Festival GPP: 10 California Northern |