Mechanics' Institute Chess Room Newsletter #55

1) Adrian Keatinge-Clay Leads Bay Area Masters

NM Adrian Keatinge-Clay of San Francisco leads the Bay Area Masters after the first weekend of play with 2 1/2 points from 3. Adrian has wins over IM Guillermo Rey and Italian master Mario Casadei. He drew with IM Walter Shipman. Standings after three of six rounds: 1. NM Keatinge-Clay 2.5; 2-4. IM Shipman, NM Casadei, NM Stearns 2; 5-7. IM Rey, SM Mezentsev and NM Nambiar 1.5; 8.NM Schiller 1 ; 9-10. IM De Guzman and NM Pinto .5 The event, organized by IM Guillermo Rey, finishes this weekend with rounds on Friday at 5PM and Saturday and Sunday at 2PM. Spectators are welcome.

2) Victor Ossipov and Michael Aigner tied for first in Fall Tuesday Night Marathon

NMs Victor Ossipov and Michael Aigner used the White pieces to good effect in round five of the Fall Tuesday Night Marathon, defeating David Blohm and Igor Margulis respectively. Ossipov and Aigner now lead with 4 1/2 points with two rounds to go. Tied for third through sixth at four points are NM Russell Wong and Experts Larry Snyder, George Sanguinetti and Steven Krasnov.

3) October USCF Top 50 Rating List

The USCF recently released its October Top 100 rated players list. This list inadvertently include a far number of players who currently represent other chess federations (July 2001 FIDE Rating list) and are currently ineligible to participate in the US Championship (including Yudasin, Shulman, Wojtkiewicz, Becerra, Blatancy, Sevellano, Khachian, Akobian, Tcherepanov, V. Gaprindashvili, Ambartsumian, Gamboa, Barcenilla, Andrianov and Leow). I Note that the former Ukrainian Grandmasters Alexander Onischuk and Igor Novikov, who have settled in the United States earlier this year, should be listed as USA on the October FIDE rating list, but still need to fulfill the three year residency requirement.

The adjusted list, with MI members in bold (#'s 15, 30, 32, 35, 43 and 48 follows).

1.  Alexander  Goldin 2728 
2.  Alexander Onischuk 2723 
3.  Yasser Seirawan 2707 
4.  Boris Gulko 2704 
5.  Gregory Kaidanov  2694 
6.  Joel Benjamin 2684 
7.  Igor Novikov 2681 
8.  Alexander Shabalov 2672 
9.  Larry Christiansen 2664 
10.  Nick DeFirmian  2663 
11.  Ilya Gurevich 2660 
12.  Alexander Ivanov 2648 
13.  Dmitry Gurevich 2640 
14.  Ben Finegold 2640 
15.  Alex Yermolinsky 2634 
16.  Gabriel  Schwartzman   2617 
17.  Sergey Kudrin  2615 
18.  Gregory Serper 2613 
19.  Alexander  Fishbein  2589 
20.  John Fedorowicz 2582 
21.  Roman  Dzindzichashvili 2581 
22.  Vivek Rao  2572 
23.  Gennady Sagalchik 2570 
24.  Sam Palatnik 2567 
25. Cyrus Lakdawala 2565 
26. Maurice  Ashley 2564 
27. Igor  Foygel 2558 
28. Levon  Altounian  2555 
29. Boris  Kreiman 2554 
30. Vladimir  Mezentsev 2551 
31. Eduard  Gufeld  2548 
32. John Donaldson  2538 
33 Igor  Shliperman  2528 
34. Igor Ivanov 2525 
35. Walter Browne  2524 
36. Dmitry  Schneider  2524 
37. Igor Khmelnitsky  2523 
38.  Eugene  Perelshteyn 2522 
39.  Yury Lapshun  2518 
40.  Michael  Rohde  2514 
41.  Gregory  Shahade 2511 
42.  Raymond Duque 2506 
43. Vinay  Bhat  2505 
44.  Victor Adler  2504 
45.  Florin Felecan  2498 
46. Michael  Mulyar 2497 
47.  Eric Tangborn  2496 
48.  Vince Mc Cambridge 2495 
49.  Robert Byrne 2495 
50. Jack Peters 2490 

4) Here and There

Veteran MI member Walter Dorne was featured in a piece on cab drivers over the weekend in the San Francisco Chronicle. Speaking of cab drivers, check out http://cab.com/chess/chess01.html for a nice selection of photos from the recent Taxi Cab Drivers tournament held at the MI.

Congratulations to Egle Morkunaite of Lithuania who is currently working in the Bay Area. She scored 4 1/2 from 5 in the Pafnutieff Memorial in August and the crosstable that was sent back from the USCF shows her with a provisional rating of 2495.

The Western States Open, one of the premier weekend Swiss events in the United States will be held October 19-21 in Reno. This event features not only individual competition but a team component as well. The MI will be fielding one or more teams depending on interest. If you are an MI member and would like to represent the Institute please let us know in advance by e-mailing us at chessroom@milibrary.org

This past weekend a new tournament and tournament organizer made his debut. Rico Adkins hosted a below 2000 Amateur Championship in Hercules. The final results are not yet available, but feedback from participants and spectators was very positive. Mitsuko Siegrist writes; "I think that it was a good tournament, even with a surprising small number of players. TD Rico Adkins is a wonderful person and he did a good job. That location is one of the best, close to the highways, easy parking, pleasant room for the players and parents, and safe place for the kids to play between the rounds. I want to see more players next time."

5) Upcoming Tournaments

MI EVENTS (check the MI website at www.chessclub.org)

October 20
J.J. Dolan Memorial (5 rounds G/45 at 1/2 K)

November 9-11
Carroll Capps Memorial (5 rounds)

December 1
Pierre Saint-Amant Memorial (5 rounds G/45 at 1/2 k)

REGIONAL TOURNAMENTS

Oct. 6-7 GPP: 6 N. California
33rd LERA Sunnyvale Class Championship.
4SS, 40/90, 30/60, 10/10 thereafter. LMERA Auditorium, Bldg. 163, located at the north end of J St. at 1st Ave. From 101 in Sunnyvale, go north on Mathilda to 3rd Ave. (Java St.); go left on 3rd Ave. to J St., which dead ends at 1st Ave. in two blocks. $$2100 b/90. Limited to first 100 ent. Championship: 2000 and up: $270-200-140, U2000: $160-130-100. Reserve: 1600-1999: $180-140-100, U1800: $120-100-60. Booster: U1600: $120-80-60, U1400: $90-50. EF: $45 Championship, $40 Reserve, $30 Booster. All: $5 more at site, $5 more to play in higher section, $3 CalChess disc., $15 disc. to Lockheed-Martin employees. Reg: 8-9. Rds:10-3:30,9:30-3. Ent/Info: Rod McCalley, 3489 Cowper St., Palo Alto, CA 94306, 650-424-2523 (day), rod.mccalley@lmco.com. NS,NC,W.

An American Classic & A Heritage Event
Nov. 22-25 or 23-25 GPP: 100 S. California
The 37th Annual American Open.
(US Championship Qualifier). 8SS, 40/2, SD/1. Furama LAX, 8601 Lincoln Bl, LA. Free parking. $40,000 b/400, 50% each prize gtd. Open: $4000-2000-1000-700-600-500. U2450/Unr $1000-500. U2300/Unr $800-400. U2200 $2600-1300-700. U2000, U1800 U1600 each: $3200-1600-800-400. U1400: $2200-1100-550, U1200 $1000-500. Unr: $350-200. Trophy 1st each section. EF: $119 by 11/20. +$20 at site,-$30 for Srs 65+ & Jrs U15. Unr: $39 adv, $49 at site. SCCF mem re ($12, $7.50 jrs U18), OSA. No checks at door. Reg: 4-day ends noon, Rds 12:30-7:30,12:30-7:30,10:30-5,10-4:30. 3-day ends 11:30 Fri, 12:30-2:45-5-8 G/1, merges rd 5. Byes rds 1-6 w/adv. notice. HR: $84, 310-670-8111. Credit Card Ent/Info: 626-282-7412, 323 257-9839, randallhough@yahoo.com. Ent: American Open, Box 205, Monterey Park, CA 91754. NS. FIDE.

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