MI Chess Director John Donaldson, captain for the American silver-medal
winning team at the recently concluded World Team Championship in Turkey, will
give a free talk about the event next Tuesday, January 19, from 5:15 to 6:15 pm
at the MI Chess Club . All are welcome.
1) Mechanics' Institute
Chess Club News
2) Kip Poyser
3) Americans Aboard
4) Here and There
5) US Championship by Mike Wilmering
6) Upcoming Events
1) Mechanics' Institute
Chess Club News
IM Ricardo DeGuzman started off 2010 in familiar style winning the 10th Bob
Burger Open on January 9th with a score of 4.5. The winner was nicked for a last
round draw by San Francisco high school student Evan Sandberg
who shared second in the 38 player field with Dimitri Vayntraub, Michael Da
Cruz and Felix Rudyak. Evan, at 2173, is closing in on the Master title.
Two rounds into the Winter Tuesday Night Marathon seven players have
perfect scores: James Jones, Hayk Manvelyan, David Klinetobe, Dante Argishti,
Peter Grey, Steve Gaffagan and Hovik Manveleyan. It's still not too late to
enter the eight round event with half point byes for the first two rounds.
George Sanguinetti reports:
The winners for the Wednesday
Night Blitz tournament held January 13 are:
1st place: Carlos D'Avila 14/14!
2nd place:
Jules Jelinek 10
3rd place: George Sanguinetti 8
GM Vinay Bhat of Union City continued his string of outstanding results
with a shared first place in the recently 35th Seville Open. This was
Vinay's sixth consecutive 2600 plus result in the last six months which has
resulted in his rating rising from 2475 to near 2550.
Here is Vinay's most important game from Seville where he started out
as the 12th seed.
Bhat,Vinay (2540) - Lemos,Damian (2544)
[D46]
Seville Open (8)
2010
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6
7.Bd3 0-0 8.0-0 dxc4 9.Bxc4 b5 10.Be2 Bb7 11.Rd1 Qb8 12.e4 e5 13.dxe5 Nxe5
14.Nd4 Ned7 15.g3 g6 16. Be3 b4 17.Na4 c5 18.Nb3 Nxe419.Na5- f5 20.f3 Ndf6 21.Nxb7 Bxg3
22.Bc4+ Kh8 23.hxg3 Ng4 24.Bf4 Qxb7 25.fxg4 Rae8 26.g5 h6 27.Bd5 Qe7 28.Bxe4
1-0
Standings in tiebreak order ( all on 7-2)
1. GM R. Vaquez
2, GM H. Hamdouchi
3. GM V. Bhat
4. IM K. Berbatov
5. GM K. Spraggett
2) Kip Poyser
Kennedy
"Kip" Poyser, who edited 36 issues of Northwest Chess from November 1975
to October 1978, died suddenly of a heart attack in San Miguel de Allende,
Mexico, on November 30, 2009. He was
64.
You
can read about his life at his son's blog:
http://poyboy.livejournal.com/154172.html
Gata Kamsky defeated Zoltan Almasi In the last round of Reggio Emilia and
caught up with the leader, winning the tournament on tie-break. Gata committed
to playing in Reggio in the beginning of 2009, long before the dates of the
World Team Championship were switched from May 2009 to January 2010 ( preventing
his participation in Bursa).
1-2. Kamsky and Almasi - 6 ½ / 9
3-4. Caruana and Godena - 5 ½
5. Jobava
- 5 ½
6-8. Bologan, Landa and Safarli - 4
9. Brunello - 3
10. Vocaturo -
1 ½.
The World Open Leon Rapid held January 1-3, 2010, saw American GM
Boris Gulko turn in a good result.
1-2. GMs Krasenkow (POL, 2656) and M.Gurevich (TUR, 2597) - 8 out of
9,
3. GM Kir.Georgiev (BUL, 2672) - 7 ½,
4-8. GMs Gulko (USA, 2535),
Romanishin (UKR, 2510), Del Rio (ESP, 2524), Kurajica (BIH, 2519) and Cifuentes
(ESP, 2525) - 7, etc. (214 players).
4) Here and There
GMs Varuzhan Akobian, Alex Shabalov, Victor Mikhalevski, Josh Friedel
and Alex Yermolinsky scored 5 ½/7 in the North American Open, which took place in
Las Vegas from December 26th to 29th. Akobian, who had the better tiebreak,
was declared the champion.
The declining economics of newspaper publishing have ended one of the most
outstanding weekly chess columns in the world. GM Lubos
Kavalek's column on January in The Washington Post was his
last after 23 years and some 760 columns.
GM Vinay Bhat, who has been playing frequently in Europeans opens of late,
passes on the following tip for those seeking events:
"The chessmix site is at:
http://www.chessmix.com/. They
put out a set of games every 10 days (not every week like TWIC), and they have
some extra "tools" like a weather service and currency converter, but the real
gem of the site are the tournament listings, which are much more varied and
in-depth than anything else I've seen. It also beats looking through old TWICs
to try and find events."
Top FIDE Ratings, January 2010
- 1 Carlsen, Magnus 2810 (NOR, 19)
- 2 Topalov, Veselin 2805 (BUL, 34)
- 3 Anand, Viswanathan 2790 (IND, 40)
- 4 Kramnik, Vladimir 2788 (RUS, 34)
- 5 Aronian, Levon 2781 (ARM, 27)
- 6 Gelfand, Boris 2761 (ISR, 41)
- 7 Gashimov, Vugar 2759 (AZE, 23)
- 8 Ivanchuk, Vassily 2749 (UKR, 40)
- 9 Wang, Yue 2749 (CHN, 22)
- 10 Svidler, Peter 2744 (RUS, 33)
Top US Players
- 28 Nakamura, Hikaru 2708 (USA, 22)
- 40 Kamsky, Gata 2693 (USA, 35)
- 57 Onischuk, Alexander 2670 (USA, 34)
Note some players ratings have changed substantially since this list
appeared with Hikaru and Alex gaining substantially from the World Team and Gata
from Reggio while Gashimov's 2.5 from 7 in Bursa led to a substantial
drop.
5) US Championship by Mike
Wilmering
SAINT LOUIS -- The dates for the 2010 U.S. Championship have
shifted. The tournament is now scheduled from May 13-25 at the Chess Club
and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The U.S. Championship will have a
larger prize fund than 2009 with more than $170,000 up for
grabs.
The U.S. Championship was rescheduled to prevent overlapping
with the World Championship match between Veselin Topalov and Viswanathan
Anand in Bulgaria in order to ensure the highest quality of
coverage.
The format in 2010 is also a bit different and
promises a unique and exciting experience. The opening ceremony is
scheduled for May 13, and rounds one through seven (Swiss paired) will
take place May 14-20. The final three rounds, scheduled for May 22-24,
will feature a round-robin quad format that is sure to lead to some
thrilling games of fighting chess. A possible playoff may take place on
May 25, along with a community day for the players and a closing ceremony
featuring various awards and prizes.
The tournament will host 24 of
the best players in the country. Nine of the 24 spots have already been
filled, which leaves 15 invitations still to be determined.
The 24
invited players include:
€¢ The defending U.S.
Champion - GM Hikaru Nakamura
€¢ The winner of the
2009 U.S. Senior Open Championship - GM Larry
Christiansen
€¢ The winner of the 2009 U.S. Junior
Championship - GM Ray Robson
€¢ The 2009 U.S.
Women's Champion - IM Anna Zatonskih
€¢ The top
five qualifiers from the 2009 U.S. Open Championship - GM-elect Alex
Lenderman, GMs Sergey Kudrin, Alex Yermolinsky, Dmitry Gurevich, and Jesse
Kraai
€¢ The winner of the 2010 ICC State Champion
of Champions - TBD
€¢ The top 10 U.S. players by
rating of the United States Chess Federation -
TBD
€¢ Four wildcard spots - TBD
The Chess
Club and Scholastic Center also hosted the 2009 U.S. Championship in May
and the 2009 U.S. Women's Championship in October.
"It was our
privilege to host the 2009 U.S. Championship, and we're honored to be
chosen again," said Tony Rich, executive director of the Chess Club and
Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.
The top 10 U.S. players will be
determined by their ratings according to the February USCF rating
supplement. The ICC State Champion of Champions will be determined through
an online tournament that will pit state champions against one another.
Stay tuned for updates, special event information and a complete
prize-fund breakdown. |
6) Upcoming Events
2010
Local Events
Spring Chess
Festival
February 27-28, 2010
Sponsored by
Atlantis Business Insurance
Solutions, LLC
$9,000 Prize Fund b/150 paid entries.
One of the BIGGEST
tournaments of the year at the recently renovated 8,000 sq.f. facility!!!
6
rounds of exciting chess action in 6 sections!
Location: 415 Grand Ave 3rd
floor, South San Francisco, CA 94080
Entry Fee: Advanced Entries are $80 for
entries postmarked by February 14th. Entry at the
tournament site is $100.
Players may play up one section for additional $20. IMs and GMs have
free
entries ($50 will be deducted from the prize). Unrated players can play up in
Master €™s section
or Unrated section. Cash only at site.
Time Control: Game
in 90.
Regestration & Schedule: Registration: 8:30-9:45 am on 02/27. Rds:
10 am, 1:30 pm, 5:00 pm
both days.
Prizes: Open Section: $700-$500-$300,
Top U2300/Unr $300, Under 2200: $600-$400-350,
Under 2000: $600-$400-350,
Under 1800: $600-$400-350, Under 1600: $600-$400-350, Under
1400:
$600-$400-350, Top U1200 $300. Unrated may not win over $150.
Questions? -
Call TD Felix German at (415) 335-0900 or email: felix@atlantisbusinessinsurance.com
Join
our group on Facebook: Bay Area Chess
Tournaments
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mail
advance entries to: 723 Camino Plaza, PMB #170, San Bruno CA 94066. Make
checks
payable to: Felix German.
I want to play/play up in a section [ ]
Open, [ ] Expert, [ ] A, [ ] B, [ ] C, [ ] D/E. My rating is_____
I need a
bye in round: [ ] 1, [ ] 2, [ ] 3, [ ] 4, [ ] 5, [ ] 6, - max. 2 half pt byes,
must commit prior
to rd 1.
Name:
_________________________________________, USCF
ID#______________________
Address:________________________________________________________________________
Email:__________________________________________________________________________
Check
enclosed for [ ] $80 Advanced Entry fee + [ ] $_____ Play up Fee = $_____
Total
National
Events
Feb. 12-14 or 13-14
2010 U.S. Amateur
Team Championship - North
Wisconsin
Two sections: Open and Scholastic
(Saturday only). Open: 5SS, G/90+30/move/increment (G/120 if digital clocks not
available; 2-day: rd.1-2 G/60). Crowne Plaza Hotel Milwaukee Airport, 6401 South
13th Street, Milwaukee, WI 53221. 1-414-764-5300. $79.99 chess rate, please
reserve early. Open to 4 player teams with one optional alternate. Team average
(4 highest ratings-2009 Annual Rating List) must be under 2200. EF: 3-day $140,
2-day $141 per team if received by February 9th, $180 thereafter. Individuals
wishing to play, send $35 and request to be put on a team. Team changes on site
$20. Check out official website www.wichessacademy.com
All advance entries will be posted on February 10th. Prizes: Awards to top two
teams, top teams with average rating u1900, u1600, and u1300. Winning team
qualifies for national play-offs. Prizes to best team composed of juniors (high
school and younger). Prizes to top score on each board. Rounds: 3-day: on-site
registration/check-in 5:30-6:30pm, rds.: 7pm, 11:00am & 5:00pm, 10:00am
& 3:30pm. 2-day: on-site registration/check-in 9:00-10:30am, rds. 11:00am
& 2:00pm then merge with 3-day. **Saturday Only** Scholastic section. 4SS,
G/60. Open to 4 player teams with one optional alternate. Team average (4
highest-2009 Annual Rating List) must be under 1600. EF: $120 per team if
received by February 9th, $150 thereafter. Individuals wishing to play, send $30
and request to be put on a team. Team changes on site $20. All advance entries
will be posted on www.wichessacademy.com
on February 10th. Prizes: awards to top team overall, top three High School
Teams, top three Middle School Teams, top three Elementary School Teams. Prizes
to top score on each board. Rounds: on-site registration/check-in:
9:00am-10:30am; rds.: 11:00am, 1:30pm, 3:45pm, 6:00pm. Checks made payable to
and send to: VICA, 6822 North Crestwood Dr., Glendale, WI 53209. Please include
Team's name and roster, captain's email and phone number, and desired schedule.
Info: abetaneli@hotmail.com, ashish@vajachess.com, 608-334-2574,
414-234-1005. WCL JGP.