Mechanics' Institute Chess Club Newsletter #491

Chess is a scientific game and its literature ought to be placed on the basis of the strictest truthfulness, which is the foundation of all scientific research.

William (Wilhelm)_Steinitz

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News

2) Combat : A Chess Poem by Dennis Fritzinger

3) Here and There

4) Upcoming Events

The Mechanics' Institute Chess Club will be holding the 10th Annual Charles Powell Memorial G/45 this Saturday.

 

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News

The Mechanics' hosted two dramatic events the past few days. Sunday afternoon the 4th Ray Schutt Memorial became the largest and strongest blitz tournament ever held at the Mechanics' Institute with two GMs, 5 IMs, and 11 NMs competing in a 46 player field. The rating cutoff for round one saw top seed IM Sam Shankland meet an expert rated 2062. Despite the number of GMs and IMs competing the surprise winner was newly-minted FM Andy Lee who scored an impressive 9-1 in the five double round Swiss. Andy, who has been playing extremely well of late,

split only with IM Shankland.

Among those further down the prize list special mention needs to be made of Expert Arthur Ismakov, a well-known blitz specialist, who surprised many including himself by going 1-1 against IM Mezentsev and defeating six-time US Champion Walter Browne 2-0 before losing to Lee in the fight for first place in the final round.

Increasingly enough, while one thinks of blitz as a game for the young, at the Ray Shutt Memorial it was more for the young �at heart as junior players represented less than a quarter of the field. Hopefully next year more kids will play and the tournament will continue to increase in size and strength.

The Ray Schutt Memorial was not only about honoring Ray's memory by playing his beloved blitz. The extended Shutt clan, who sponsored the event, was out in force not only bringing all manner of food and drink to fuel the contestants but also with several competing including Ray's brother Bill. Robert Martinez, a close friend of Ray in his later years, gave an excellent speech before the start of the event, extolling Ray's generosity of spirit in helping others. Ray would have liked that so many of his old friends got together and had such a nice time.

Here are two key games courtesy of the winner.

Andy Lee - Jorge Lopez

Ray Schutt Memorial Blitz (4) 2010
Sicilian B44

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.c4 a6 6.Nc3 Qc7 7.Be3 d6 8.Rc1
Nf6 9.Be2 Be7 10.O-O Nd7 11.Nd5 exd5 12.cxd5 Nc5 13.dxc6 bxc6 14.b4 Nxe4
15.Bf3 d5 16.Nxc6 Be6 17.Nxe7 Qxe7 18.Bxe4 dxe4 19.Bc5 Qd7 20.Qe2 Qb7
21.Rfe1 f5 22.f3 Bd5 23.fxe4 Bxe4 24.Qf2 Kf7 25.Rxe4 Qxe4 26.Re1 Qd5
27.Re7+ Kg8 28.Qb2 Qd1+ 29.Kf2 1-0

Sam Shankland - Andy Lee

Ray Schutt Memorial Blitz (8) 2010
Benko Gambit A57

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.f3 e6 6.e4 c4 7.Bxc4 axb5 8.Bb3 Bc5
9.Nh3 Qb6 10.Qe2 O-O 11.Nf2 exd5 12.e5 Re8 13.Nc3 b4 14.Nxd5 Nxd5
15.Bxd5 Ba6 16.Qd2 Rxe5+ 17.Ne4 Nc6 18.Kd1 Bd4 19.Bb3 d5 20.Ng3 Rae8 21.Qc2 Bf2
22.Bd2 Nd4 23.Qb1 Bxg3 24.hxg3 Be2+ 25.Kc1 Rc8+ 26.Bc3 Nxb3+ 0-1

Final standings:

1. FM Andy Lee 9/10

2-3. GM Jesse Kraai and IM Sam Shankland 8.5

4. IM Ganbold Odondoo 7.7

5-9. IMs Elliott Winslow and Vladimir Mezentsev, NM Yian Liou, Experts Arthur Ismakov, Jules Jelinek 7

10-11. IM Michael Baturin and NM Dennis Fritzinger 6.5

12-17. GM Walter Browne, FMs Eric Schiller and Richard Koepcke, NM Greg Young, Experts Carlos D'Avila and Igor Traub 6

Ray Schutt Memorial Blitz Winners

2007 GM Walter Browne (32 players)

2008 GM Melik Khachian (32 players)

2009 IM Ricardo De Guzman (28 players)

2010 FM Andy Lee (46 players)

NM Romy Fuentes continued his excellent for of late by winning the Spring Tuesday Night Marathon last night with a score of 7-1. He defeated FM Andy Lee on the black side of a Poison Pawn Najdorf in the last round. Expert Igor Traub, who was seeded outside the top ten of

the 58-player event, also turned in an impressive performance in taking second with 6.5 points. FM Andy Lee and Expert Hayk Manvelyan shared third at 6-2. The Summer Tuesday Night Marathon, an eight round Swiss, starts on May 25th.

The Mechanics' Institute will host a ten-player Category 3 (2306 average) IM norm round this June. The field for the Vassily Smyslov Memorial consists of IMs John Grefe, Ganbold Odondoo and Ricardo DeGuzman, FMs Andy Lee, Richard Lobo, Daniel Naroditsky and Steven Zierk, and

NMs Peter Zavadsky, Yian Liou and Evan Sandberg.

George Sanguinetti reports the results of the April 28 edition of the Mechanics' Institute Wednesday Night Blitz

1. Mezentsev 7/ 8
2. Ismakov
3. Jelinek 4.5

Good luck to GMs Vinay Bhat and Jesse Kraai and IM Sam Shankland who will represent Northern California in the US Championship in Saint Louis in just over a week.

2) Combat : A Chess Poem by Dennis Fritzinger

combat

looking forward
to another blitz tournament
with trepidation--
i can no longer
call on the reserves
of a young body
to see me through,
win the game by being
faster than my opponent,
having more lightning reflexes,
or taking in the position,
analyzing it
and spitting out the correct move,
all in the time allowed.
no, i have to
call on every memory
i have, opening first
then middlegame followed by endgame,
i have to marshal my cool
in unfamiliar positions
against unfamiliar opponents
and strike! like a rattlesnake.
let others sit down and play
the game of five-minute chess;
i'll be in full combat mode
and we'll see who wins.

 

3) Here and There

Gata Kamsky showed he is in good form for the upcoming US Championship by tying for first in The President Cup held in Baku.

1-3. Kramnik (RUS, 2790),Mamedyarov (AZE, 2760) and Kamsky (USA, 2702) - 5 out of 7,
4. Radjabov (AZE, 2740) - 3 1/2,
5-6. Ju.Polgar (HUN, 2682) and Sutovsky (ISR, 2650) - 3,
7. R.Mamedov (AZE, 2639) - 2,
8. Guseinov (AZE, 2609) - 1 1/2.


May FIDE rating list

1. Carlsen NOR 2813
2. Topalov BUL 2812
3. Kramnik RUS 2790
4. Anand IND 2789
5. Aronian ARM 2783
6. Mamedyarov AZE 2763
7. Grischuk RUS 2760
8. Wang Yue CHN 2752
9. Eljanov UKR 2751
10. Shirov ESP 2742
11. Gelfand ISR 2741
12. Ivanchuk UKR 2741
13. Radjabov AZE 2740
14. Karjakin RUS 2739
15. Svidler RUS 2735
16. Leko HUN 2735
17. Gashimov AZE 2734
18. Ponomariov UKR 2733
19. Nakamura USA 2733
20.
Almasi HUN 2725

 

Top Women:

1. Ju.Polgar HUN 2682
2. Koneru IND 2622
3. Hou Yifan CHN 2589
4. Stefanova BUL 2560
5. N.Kosintseva RUS 2553
6. Cramling SWE 2536
7. T.Kosintseva RUS 2534
8. A.Muzychuk SLO 2529
9. Lahno UKR 2527
10. Sebag FRA 2524
11. Kosteniuk RUS 2519

US Top Ten

1. Nakamura 2733

2. Kamsky 2702

3. Onischuk 2699

4. Seirawan 2644

5. Shulman 2613

6. Akobian 2599

7. Lenderman 2598

8. Ehlvest 2591

9. Hess 2590

10. Shabalov 2585

IM Sam Shankland turned in an excellent result in tying for first in the Western Pacific Open held April 23-25 in Los Angeles. He scored 2-1 against other players tying for first beating IM Stopa and drawing with GM Ramirez and IM Matikozian in the event directed by John Hillery.

Standings:

1-6. GM M. Khachiyan, GM A.Ramirez, IM A. Matikozyan, IM E.Sevillano, IM S. Shankland and IM J.Stopa 4/5.

Here is Sam's round 2 win over the always dangerous Michael Casella.

Michael Casella (2272) - Sam Shankland (2486)

Western Pacific Open 2010

Slav D17

1.c4 Nf6 2.d4 c6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Qc7 8.g3 e5 9.dxe5 Nxe5 10.Bf4 Nfd7 11.Bg2 f6 12.0-0 0-0-0 13.Nxe5 Nxe5 14.Qb3 Qf7 15.Qxf7 Nxf7 16.a5 a6 17.Rfc1 Bd6 18.Be3 Rhe8 19.Na4 Be4 20.Bh3+ Kb8 21.Bb6 Bc7 22.Bxc7+ Kxc7 23.Nc5 Ng5 24.Bg4 f5 25.Nxe4 Rxe4 26.Bxf5 Rxe2 27.h4 Nf3+ 28.Kg2 Nd4 29.Bg4 Rxb2 30.Re1 c5 31.Re7+ Kc6 32.Rxg7 Rf8 33.Bd7+ Kd6 34.Rxh7 Rfxf2+ 35.Kh3 Rh2+ 36.Kg4 Rb4 37.Rd1 Ke5 38.Re7+ Kd6 39.Rf7 Ke5 40.Re7+ Kd6 41.Rf7 Ke5 42.Bc8 b6 43.axb6 Rxb6 44.Re7+ Kd5 45.Rd7+ Kc4 46.Rc1+ Kb4 47.Rd5 Nb3 48.Re1 a5 49.Bd7 c4 50.Ree5 a4 0-1

IM Ricardo DeGuzman and NM Jimmy Heiserman tied for first with 5-1 scores in the 51-player Summer Open held May 1-2 in San Jose.