Mechanics' Institute Chess Room Newsletter #63"In the opening a chess master should play like a book; in the middle game like a magician and in the endgame like a machine."Spielmann Pierre Saint-Amant Memorial (5 rounds G/45 at 1/2 k) this Saturday at the MI - Filipino IM Ricardo deGuzman will play!1) FIDE World Championship-Yermo Advances! 2) US Championship Qualifiers -Browne, Rey, Vucic and Strugatsky qualify! 3) Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon - NM Wong Leads 4) 1966 Visit by Bent Larsen to the MI 5) Odds and Ends 6) Upcoming Events 1) FIDE World Championship - Yermo Advances!Courtesy of Michael Aigner we have this breaking news from Moscow, reported by Mig from KasparovChess. Yermolinsky has advanced in the first set of tiebreak games, defeating Milov of Switzerland. Both of the classical games were won by black. He joins Shabalov in round 2, with Benjamin and Christiansen still playing in tiebreaks. On the women's side, Baginskaite is also in a tiebreak against Prudnikova (YUG) after both classical games ended in favor of white. All other Americans are out. Yermo will play Polgar in round 2 while Shaba gets Khalifman. FIDE's coverage has been dreadful, to be polite. Their games are often incorrect or incomplete, with Polgar missing several mates yesterday and someone winning after the stunning Ra1xg8 today. Yermo's opponent resigned on move 12 in a book position, if we were to believe FIDE yesterday (that's been corrected today). Michael reports that the best news seems to be from www.kasparovchess.com and their team of reporters at the site. However, they don't have live games, just some results. TWIC has coverage too, but nothing live. 2) US Championship Qualifiers- Browne, Rey, Vucic and Strugatsky qualify!Thanksgiving Day weekend produced the final qualifiers for the 2002 US Championship to be held January 5-13 in Seattle. The following information comes from the Seattle Chess Foundation website which is the sponsor for the US Championship. Note that there are still three spots in dispute as its not clear if Sevillano, Ambartsoumian and Lipman have met the residency requirement. The USCF will be making a decision on this shortly. Bay Area players GM Walter Browne, IM Guillermo Rey and SM Vladimir Strugatsky and former MI member IM Mladen Vucic, now living in Las Vegas all qualified in Los Angeles at the American Open. Congratulations! The other qualifier, the National Chess Congress, was held in Philadelphia. 23. GM Gregory Serper 2613 Am. Open 24. GM Walter Browne 2524 Am. Open 25. IM Jesse Kraai 2476 Am. Open 26. IM Mladen Vucic 2475 Am. Open 27. IM Igor Ivanov 2527 Am. Open 28. IM Anthony Saidy 2392 Am. Open 29. IM Guillermo Rey 2391 Am. Open 30. FM Levon Altounian 2549 Am. Open 31. FM Vladimir Strugatsky 2513 Am. Open 32. FM Slava Mikhailuk 2441 Am. Open 33. Armen Ambartsoumian*** 2523 Am. Open 34. GM Gennady Sagalchik 2570 NCC 35. IM Igor Khmelnitsky 2521 NCC 36. IM William Paschall 2476 NCC 37. IM Mikhail Zlotnikov 2417 NCC 38. FM Dmitry Schneider 2524 NCC 39. FM Stanislav Kriventsov 2480 NCC 40. FM Donny Ariel 2400 NCC 41. Aaron Pixton 2407 NCC 42. Matthew Hoekstra 2318 NCC 43. IM Enrico Sevillano*** 2571 NCC 44. Vladimir Lipman*** 2168 NCC *** Awaiting official USCF approval concerning eligibility issue. Women Qualifiers Chouchanik Airapetian 2080 Am. Open Anna Levina 2078 NCC 3) Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon - NM Wong LeadsRussell Wong defeated fellow National Master Igor Margulis to grab the lead in the Kurt Bendit Tuesday Night Marathon with three rounds to go. Wong has 4 1/2 from 5 followed by NM David Blohm, Expert Steven Gaffagan, veteran Ben Gross, rising star Nicolas Yap and upset king Charles Kleiman on 4. 4) 1966 Visit by Bent Larsen to the MIChess Review from October 1966 (page 293) reports that Danish great Bent Larsen gave simuls and lectures at the Mechanics' in late August. Cost for the August 20th exhibition open to all was $3 a board! "Bent Larsen, recent participant in the Second Piatigorsky Cup Tournament, gave a simultaneous exhibition with clocks at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in San Francisco against H. Gross, K. Bopp, M. Wilkerson, A. Benson, R. Currie, R. Walker and Dr. Ruys. The single player won all his games. Next day Larsen lectured on his two victories over World Champion Petrosian in the Piatigorsky tournament and followed with a simultaneous exhibition on 43 boards. His margin of victory was 34½ - 8½. Winning against Larsen were K. Zangerle, C. Savery, D. Blohm, E. Pruner, J. Pawlon, and T. Uskert. Draws were secured by P. Vayssie, R. Menaster, R. Tucker, A. Blomquist and J. Hurt." 5) Odds and EndsEd Hirsch presencechess@earthlink.net writes: "I'm still looking to share my room at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas with three other men, for the upcoming Kolty Conference. They can contact me by e-mail or by phone (510) 528-2704. Thanks." Berkeley Senior Master David Pruess, who finished second in the US Junior Closed this past summer, will be a special guest lecturer at the Mechanics' Institute on January 8th and 9th (5.15PM to 6:15PM). David will be substituting for GM Alex Yermolinsky and IM John Donaldson who will be playing in the US Championship. 6) Upcoming EventsThe latest issue of the California Chess Journal mentions that the Mechanics' will be hosting a memorial tournament for Bob Burger on December 1st. We are very happy to inform everyone that Bob is in fact quite alive and doing very well. We do hold a lot of memorial events at the MI and this may account for the mix-up. By the way the tournament will actually be held on January 5, 2002, and not December 1 which is the date set to honor the late Pierre Saint-Amant, one of the top players in the world in the 1840s, who served as the French consul for California in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. Bob Burger, best selling author of The Chess of Bobby Fischer, is a world famous problemist and has held the USCF Master title for almost half a century. He has been involved with Bay Area chess through the California Chess Reporter, Mechanics' Institute and Castle Chess Club his entire adult life. The modern day equivalent of the California Chess Reporter, The California Chess Journal, is going very well under the editorship of Frisco del Rosario. Membership in Cal Chess, which includes a subscription to the Journal, is available for $15 a year for adults and $13 for juniors. Mail to: CalChess, 2030 Mills Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025. For Additional Information E-Mail: dshaker@batnet.com We are very happy to list new events in Palo Alto and Hercules this coming January. Look below for more information.
December 1
December 8-9
January 5
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
PaloAlto Open Chess Festival
Hercules Amateur Championship |