Mechanics' Institute Chess Club Newsletter #488
Chess does not make for insanity. The study of chess makes for sanity - makes
the sane more sane than before. Nations of chessplayers are the sanest, must be
the sanest, of nations. The Irish lunatic asylums are thicker on the ground than
in any other country. The Irish are not chessplayers. They become lunatics
because they lack the brain exercise that chess, or something like chess, could
give. Chessplayers are the sanest people in the world, just as athletes are the
strongest. Athletes are strong and healthy through using their muscles.
Chessists are sane because they keep their brains in working order.
R.J. Buckley, Birmingham Weekly Mercury July 1,1905 (p. 21) and
Chess Notes 6494
1) Mechanics Institute Chess Club News
2) Altounian qualifies for US Championship by John
Henderson
3) Good Game - a chess poem by Dennis Fritzinger
4) Berkeley Chess Club News
5) Here and There
6) Upcoming Events
1) Mechanics Institute Chess Club News
NM Peter Zavadsky remains
in the lead in the Spring Tuesday Night Marathon after drawing with IM John
Grefe in a hard fought game last night. Zavadsky has 4.5 points followed by a
large group on 4 which includes Grefe and FM Andy Lee and NMs Russell Wong and
Romy Fuentes.
Zavadsky,Peter - Grefe,John [B83]
Spring TNM
(5), 2010 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be2 Nf6 7.Be3 Be7
8.0-0 0-0 9.f4 Bd7 10.Kh1 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 Bc6 12.Bd3 Qa5 13.Qe1 Qb4 14.Nd5 Nxd5
15.c3 Qxb2 16.exd5 Bxd5 17.Qg3 f6 18.Rae1 Qxa2 19.Ra1 Qxg2+ 20.Qxg2 Bxg2+
21.Kxg2 Rfc8 22.c4 a6 23.f5 e5 24.Bb6 Kf8 25.Kf3 g6 26.Ra4 d5 27.cxd5 Rc3 28.Ke2
Kf7 29.Rc4 Rxc4 30.Bxc4 Rc8 31.Bd3 Bd6 32.Be3 Rc3 33.Rb1 b5 34.Ra1 Ra3 35.Rxa3
Bxa3 36.Kd2 Bd6 37.Be4 a5 38.Bb6 a4 39.Bc2 a3 40.Kc3 b4+ 41.Kb3 g5 42.Bd1 Ke7
43.Be2 Kd7 44.h3 Ke7 45.Kc2 a2 46.Kb2 b3 47.Bc4 Ba3+ 48.Ka1 h5 49.Bxb3 Kd6
50.Kxa2 Bc5 51.Bd8 g4 52.hxg4 hxg4 53.Bd1 Kxd5 54.Bxg4 Ke4 55.Bxf6 Kf4 56.Bh3
Kg3 57.Bf1 Kf4 58.Bh3 Kg3 59.Bxe5+ Kxh3 60.Kb3 Kg4 1/2-1/2
13-year-old Walnut Creek NM Yian Liou won the 10th Annual Imre Konig
Memorial held last Saturday at the Mechanics' Institute with a score of 4.5 from
5, drawing with IM Ricardo DeGuzman in the last round. De Guzman, who also drew
with Hayk Manvelyan, finished tied for second at 4 points with NM Romy Fuentes,
Expert Anish Das Sarma and visiting Filipino Warly Guinto.
George
Sanguinetti sends in results of the past two Wednesday Night Blitz Tournaments:
April 7 saw a first place tie between Jules Jelinek and Jorge Lopez with
10 from 12 with George Sanguinetti third at 6.5. George took top honors on March
31 with 7 from 8 followed by Homer Oca with 5.
Ben Finegold,
GM-in-Residence at the Saint Louis Chess Club and Scholastic Center will give a
free lecture at the Mechanics' Institute next Tuesday evening from 5:15 to 6:25.
All are welcome.
John Blackstone writes that an article in the
Brooklyn Daily Eagle on May 5, 1927, reports that the Mechanics'
Institute Chess Club had just joined the National Chess Federation, a precursor
of today's US Chess Federation.
2) Altounian qualifies for US Championship by John
Henderson
Congratulations to IM Levon Altounian (Arizona), who beat
Damir Studen (Georgia), 1.5-0.5, to win the 2010 US State Champion of Champions title hosted live
on the Internet Chess Club.
Altounian now goes forward to claim a spot in next month's
US Championship sponsored
by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis.
In his youth,
Altounian was an incredibly strong Armenian junior player in the early 1990s. He
was the U.S.S.R Junior Team Champion in 1991 and the Armenian Junior Champion
from 1992-1993 and, as his country's representative, tied for tenth place in the
1993 World Junior Championship.
Lev is a 6 time California State
champion (1996-2003) and has continued this streak by becoming both the 2008 and
2009 Arizona State Champion. He is currently among the top 40 chess players in
the country and is highly respected as a player with a profound understanding of
the game by the country's best players. He also qualified to play in the 2002 US
Championship in Seattle.
He is also one of the most successful coaches
in Arizona. Shortly after his arrival to the state in 2002, the school where he
taught, Castlehill Country Day School, became the 2003 National K-5 Champions.
He has coached numerous state champion teams as well as individuals among all
age groups. He also coached Landon Brownell who became the 2006-2007 National
Individual Champion.
For further Information:
John B.
Henderson
Director of Chess Content
ICC
Tel: 847-347-9593
Email:
jbhthescots@chessclub.com
3) Good Game - a chess poem by Dennis Fritzinger
good game
a jules verne-worthy scenario,
a chess set set up
in that great sub, the nautilus,
verne and captain nemo
engaged in
serious play.
verne's steady gaze
observes the board
while nemo's
eyebrows rise
and his mouth wrinkles.
they both sit motionless
for
years it seems (this was before clocks),
no brass and wood contraption
to urge them on.
finally a neat trick,
a swindle almost,
and one
of the kings is caught
in a net of pawns,
and hauled aboard, like a
fish.
"good game!" they congratulate each other,
and the novel proceeds
from there.
4) Berkeley Chess Club News
Tournament Director Frank Berry reports that the University of Maryland at
Baltimore County won the College Final Four in Brownsville, Texas, this past
weekend with 8 game points from possible 12. They were led by GM Sergey Erenburg
of Israel who went 3-0. The University of Texas at Brownsville was second with
7.5 followed by Texas Tech University with 4.5 and University of Texas at Dallas
with 4 points.
Players in this very international event:
UMBC
GM Leonid Kritz GER
GM Sergey Erenburg ISR
IM G
Margvelashvile GEO
IM Sasha Kaplan ISR
UT - B
GM Timur Gareev
UZB
GM Mauricio Flores Chile
GM Axel Bachmann Paraguay
IM Max Cornejo
Peru
Texas Tech
IM Davorin Kuljasevic Cro
IM Gabor Papp HUN
IM
Gergely Antal HUM
Chase Waters USA
UT - Dallas
IM Marko Zivanic
SERBIA
IM Dan Ludwig USA
IM Puchen Wang New Zealand
IM Sal Bercys
USA
ShSM-64 won the Russian team championship this past week with
Italian-American Fabiano Caruana playing an important role.
Magnus
Carlsen remains the top-rated player in the world at 2813 with Veselin Topalov
second a single point behind.
Others in the top 20:
3. Anand
2791,2
4. Kramnik 2790
5. Aronian 2783,2
6. Mamedyarov 2762,7
7.
Grischuk 2760,3
8. Wang Yue 2752,2
9. Eljanov 2751
10. Shirov
2741,5
11. Gelfand 2741,3
12. Ivanchuk 2741
13. Radjabov 2740
14.
Karjakin 2739
15. Leko 2735
15. Nakamura 2735
17. Svidler 2734,5
18.
Gashimov 2734,2
19. Ponomariov 2734,1
20. Jakovenko
2724,9
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