Mechanics' Institute Chess Room Newsletter #61"I play chess every day and night, and nothing interests me more than finding the right move."Marcel Duchamp 1) Tony Miles 1955-2001 2) DeGuzman wins 31st Carroll Capps Memorial 3) Margulis, Wong, Ossipov, Gaffagan and Yap lead Tuesday Night Marathon 4) Yermo and Camilla off to Moscow 5) Here and There 6) Upcoming Tournaments 1) Tony Miles 1955-2001Earlier this week British Grandmaster Tony Miles passed away at the age of 46 due to complications related to his diabetes. Miles, who was England's first GM, was noted for his original style of play and engaging humor. He visited the Bay Area on at least three occasions, giving a simul at the MI after one of the Lone Pine tournaments, playing in the 1987 Pan Pacific and qualifying for the 1990 Interzonal in a special playoff held at the Mechanics'. He will be missed by many. 2) DeGuzman wins 31st Carroll Capps MemorialFilipino IM Ricardo DeGuzman defeated NM Adrian Keatinge-Clay in the last round to win the Carroll Capps Memorial held November 9-11 at the MI. Tying for second at 4-1, half a point behind DeGuzman, were IM Walter Shipman and NMs Keatinge-Clay, Paul Gallegos and Mauro Casadei. The event was quite strong with 10 players over 2200 in the 44 player field. Prize Winners:
First Prize: DeGuzman - $400 3) Margulis, Wong, Ossipov, Gaffagan and Yap lead Tuesday Night MarathonThree rounds into the Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon NMs Igor Margulis and Russell Wong, Experts Victor Ossipov and Steven Gaffagan and rising young talent Nicolas Yap all have perfect scores. 4) Yermo and Camilla off to MoscowMI GM-in-Residence Alex Yermolinsky and his wife Camilla Baginskaite, the reigning US Women's Champion, will be leaving later this week for the FIDE World Championship Knockout tournament. Go Yermo and Camilla! 5) Here and ThereReaders of the Newsletter have been writing in quite often of late. Frank Berry sent the following obituary for one of Bobby's early mentors. EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Archie Waters, an El Paso Times columnist who was a mentor to chess prodigy Bobby Fischer, died Monday after suffering a stroke a month ago. Waters was 83. Waters co-wrote two books on Spanish pool checkers or draughts, a complicated variation on the standard game of checkers. The New York native worked for 11 years at the Long Island Daily Press and served as a civic affairs columnist for the New York Daily News. He moved to El Paso in 1980 and was a columnist for the El Paso Times for about 20 years. He wrote about community affairs with an emphasis on the black community. Waters, who was the first black member of the prestigious Marshall Chess Club of New York, befriended a teen-age Fischer in Brooklyn in the 1950s and accompanied the chess genius to Iceland during his landmark world title match against Russian Boris Spassky in 1972. Waters was preceded in death by his wife, Elizabeth Josephine Waters. He is survived by two daughters and a sister. A couple of issues ago we wrote about Herman Steiner visiting the MI. Alan Freberg writes that San Francisco has honored Steiner by naming a street after him. Not quite, but close. Alan, who has written a well-received taxicab drivers guide to the streets of San Francisco, lives at the at the corner of Hermann and Steiner. He also mentions that Venus and Williams meet in the Bayview district. Frequent MI visitor, Irish GM Alexander Baburin, recently celebrated the first birthday of his excellent online daily Chess Today. He writes, "The first daily chess newspaper on the Internet - Chess Today - is one year old this week! The paper started in November 2000 and has 3 GMs (Ruslan Scherbakov, Alexander Baburin and Mikhail Golubev) and IM Vladimir Barsky writing for it. Chess Today provides news, quality annotated games, tactical puzzles, etc. The paper is delivered to your mail box every day in convenient PDF and PGN formats. Subscription is only 17.78 euro per 4 month or 45.71 euro per year. Please visit www.chesstoday.net or e-mail editor@chesstoday.net for more information Those of you who want to see precisely how your FIDE rating has changed will want to check out www.chessdaily.com which offers extremely detailed information. Thanks to NM Michael Aigner for pointing this out. Michael is at a all time high USCF rating of 2248 after winning the MI's Fall Tuesday Night Marathon. Congratulations! Several months ago the infamous Claude Bloodgood passed away. Jailed for much of his life for murdering his mother and later escaping from prison, Bloodgood was at one time rated number two in the United States at 2700+, though never more than a weak expert in playing straight. Rusty Miller points out that more information on him can be found at Click here: HAMPTON ROADS - News Planning on playing in the American Open and looking for a roommate? Ian Zimmerman of Oakland ( itz@speakeasy.org ) is looking to share. 6) Upcoming Tournaments
December 1
December 8-9
January 25 - 27, 2002. * Two other similar tournaments will be held during the first half of the year as part of the Grand Prix. The player who scores the most total points in all three tournaments will receive an additional $300. Tournaments dates will be announced soon.( Before the end of 2001). REGIONAL TOURNAMENTS
An American Classic & A Heritage Event NOTE: THERE WILL BE A WBCA BLITZ TOURNAMENT AT THE AMERICAN OPEN ON NOVEMBER 21, STARTING AT 8:30 PM, REGISTRATION BY 8 PM, WITH $400 GUARANTEED. ENTRY FEE, $25 ($20 WBCA MEMBERS) |