Mechanics' Institute Chess Club Newsletter #505

Being a very nervous man, my father could never stand any smells and particularly the smell of cigars, while such serious opponents as Lasker, Steinitz and others wouldn't let a cigar leave their mouths while they were playing. They enveloped my father in cigar smoke, which he couldn’t stand. He became stressed and made blunders. Someone wrote: there was the impression that Chigorin was almost too lazy to “seize the crown”. He wasn't lazy, but given his nervousness the cigar smoke simply prevented him from concentrating in the manner required to work out combinations.

Reminiscences of Chigorin's daughter originally published in the Russian newspaper New Russian Word in New York ( Novoye Russkoye Slovo No. 16290, 2 February 1958)
 
 

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News
2) Craig Van Tilbury 1957-2010
3) Here and There
4) Upcoming Events
 
1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News
 
FM Andy Lee and NM Romy Fuentes are the only remaining perfect scores after four rounds of  the 61-player Peter Grey Tuesday Night Marathon. They defeated, respectively, NM Oleg Shaknazarov and Expert Steven Gaffagan last night. Expert Edward Perepelitsky is alone in third with 3.5 points with five rounds remaining.
Expert Jules Jelinek was first in the MI Wednesday Night Blitz held August 11 with a score of 12-0. Arthur Ismakov took second with 10 points.
 
Uyangaa Byambaa and Tyler Bischel tied for first in the 6th Annual Bernardo Smith Amateur open to players rated under 1800. The two winners, who drew with each other, scored 5.5 from 6 in the 29-player-event held August 20-21 at the M.I.
 
Congratulations to M.I. member GM Jesse Kraai who shared top honors in the 123 player, multi-section, 2nd Central California Open in Fresno last weekend. Jesse was joined at the top at 4.5 from 6 by fellow GM Rogelio Antonio and IM Enrico Sevillano.
 
This evening the Mechanics' opens it 2010 US Chess School League season against the Dallas Destiny. Spectators are welcome at the M.I. (starting time is 5:30 pm) or can watch the action live on the Internet Chess Club. GM Patrick Wolff and FMs Daniel Naroditsky, Steven Zierk and Andy Lee will be playing for the Mechanics'.
 
2) Craig Van Tilbury 1957-2010
 
The chess world lost one of its best people and ablest ambassadors with the passing of FM Craig Van Tilbury on August 13 in the Tampa area. Tradition holds that nice things be said about those who have died but Craig really was a good guy who made friends everywhere he went.
 
A number of touching tributes about Craig can be found at Dylan Loeb McClain's Nerw York Times chess column - http://gambit.blogs.nytimes.com/ 
.
The following excerpt from a piece that Andew Meachem wrote for Tampa Bay.Com first appeared at http://www.tampabay.com/news/obituaries/craig-van-tilbury-was-a-master-of-two-minds-for-chess-and-music/11 .

Craig Van Tilbury was a man of two minds, one for chess and one for music. The guitarist and chess teacher went further in both fields than most devotees go in either.
A professional guitar player, over a 30-year career he backed up numerous well-known musicians and groups, including Steve Winwood, Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, the Coasters, the Shirelles and Gary U.S. Bonds.
 
Off the stage, he tried to instill in children a love for chess, a game that captivated him. He was an internationally rated master chess player who competed in 16 countries. He taught chess at Tampa Bay area private schools and also gave lessons to homeschooled children.
 
Mr. Van Tilbury died Friday of a heart attack, his family said. He was 53.
 
"Craig was a consummate professional," said Skipper's owner Tom White. "He was that connective tissue between the band and the audience. If there were any problems on stage, he knew how to fix anything, and he knew how to play anything — the '50s, the '60s. Punk, blues, rock."
 
He was just as devoted to chess.
 
"One of the real big connections between chess and music is accuracy and attention to detail," said David Goodman, an international chess master and colleague of Mr. Van Tilbury's. "You've got to be technically very accurate. You've got to make the exact right moves all the time in chess, not almost. And in music, of course, you've got to hit the right note, or everybody sees."
 
"Some people are either left-brain or right-brain," said Waddey. "He was both."
 
"He was unusual in that he was the only person who made half his living in chess and half his living playing lead guitar in rock bands," Goodman said. "There is a crossover, sort of an abstract kind of truth. You're trying to win but it's also creative."
 
A Washington, D.C., native, Mr. Van Tilbury grew up playing chess with his sister. He liked rockers like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page and learned their licks.
When his buddies went to college, Mr. Van Tilbury pursued his dream of establishing residency in the U.S. Virgin Islands and playing chess. For years, he lived in St. Croix and was the Virgin Islands' top player.
 
He played in 10 Chess Olympiads, winning a gold medal in 1984 in Greece for the highest individual score.
 
Mr. Van Tilbury's heart had given him trouble recently, resulting in an operation to insert stents. He echoed a Billy Joel song, telling friends, "I had a heart a-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-tack."
He died at home, in his bed.
 
Craig grew up near fellow master Bill Hook in the Washington D.C. area and it was the latter that introduced him to chess in the Caribbean. Both represented the US and British Virgin Islands in numerous Olympiads and played in many tournaments in Cuba at time when few Americans did.
 
The following game against Colombia's long-time top player was one of Craig's best. It was published in Chess Informant number 29.
 
C. Van Tilbury - A.Zapata [E73]
Havana 1980
 
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 0–0 5.Be2 d6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Qc2 c5 8.d5 a6 9.Nf3 Qc7?! 10.0–0 e5 11.dxe6 fxe6 12.Rad Rf7 13.Bh4 Nf8 14.h3 Rd7 15.Qd2! Rb8 16.Qe3 e5 17.Nh2! 17...Ne6 18.Ng4 Ne8 19.Nd5 Qa5 20.Nh6+ Kh8 21.Ne7! Bf6 22.Nf7+ Kg7 23.Qh6+! Kxf7 24.Qxh7+ N6g7
 
(24...N8g7 25.Qxg6+ Kxe7 26.Qxf6+ Ke8 27.Rxd6! winning)
 
25.Qxg6+ Kxe7 26.Bxf6+ Nxf6
 
26...Kf8 27.f4!
 
27.Qxg7+ Ke6 28.Bg4+ Nxg4 29.Qxg4+ Ke7 30.Qg5+ Ke8 31.f4! Qd8 32.Qg6+ Ke7 33.fxe5 Qh8 34.e6 1–0
 
 
3) Here and There
 
Hikaru Nakamura qualified for the 2011 edition of Melody Amber by first catching Anish Giri in the last round of the NH tournament in Amsterdam and then beating him in a blitz playoff in convincing fashion. Boris Gelfand, leader of team "Experience" scored an outstanding 7-3 but it was not enough as the Nakamura/Giri led "Rising Stars" edged out the veterans 26-24.
 
The following win by "Rising Stars" member David Howell sees him end up with the killer center - pawns on e5,d5,e4, d4.
 
Howell  - Nielsen
Amsterdam 2010
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0–0 Qe7 6.Nxe5 Qd4 7.Qh5 g6 8.Qg5 Bg7 9.Nd3 f5 10.e5 c5 11.b3 b6 12.Bb2 Qg4 13.Qe3 Nd5 14.Qe1 f4 15.f3 Qg5 16.c4 Bf5 17.Nxc5 bxc5 18.cxd5 Bd3 19.Nc3 0–0 20.Ne4 Qf5 21.Nxc5 Bxf1 22.Kxf1 Rad8 23.Qe4 Rfe8 24.d4 Qxe4 25.fxe4 1–0
 
A recent Armenian Chess Festival featuring natives and those of the diaspora saw several American-Armenians taking part including Californians IM Andranik Matikozian, US Women Olympiad team member Tatev Abrahamian and young Samuel Sevian.
 
The following report comes from Armchess.am .
 
FM Pogos Nakhapetiane (Russia), GMs Tigran L. Petrosian (Armenia) and Krikor-Sevag Mekhitarian (Brazil) scored 6,5 points each out of 9 and shared the 1st-3rd places in the Pan-Armenian Chess Olympiad which was held in Yerevan, Armenia. Nakhapetiane was awarded the 1st prize in the tie-break.

WGM Diana Arutyunova (Ukraine) had the best result among the women - 5 points. WFM Tatev Abrahamyan (USA) was the second with similar result. WIM Siranush Andriasian (Armenia) took the 3rd prize with 4,5 points and was ahead of WGM Katerina Rohonyan (USA) in the tie-break.

The team of CIS (GM Arutinian, GM Y. Ajrapetjan, Pogosian, WGM Doluhanova), which scored 21 points, won among the 10 teams. The second were the representatives of Yerevan (GM T. L. Petrosian, GM Kotanjian, GM D. G. Petrosian, WFM A. Hairapetian) with similar result. The teams of Europe and Armenia scored 19 points each. The representatives of Europe (GM Mirumian, Inants, Giroyan, WGM Arutyunova) took the third place in the tie-break.
 
Several participants of the Pan-Armenian Olympiad received international norms. WFM Tatev Abrahamyan fulfilled the norm of Women's Grandmaster, Diana Arutyunova - Men's International Master, FM Pogos Nakhapetiane, Manuel Petrosyan and FM Ovik Hayrapetian - International Master.
 
4) Upcoming Events
 
Howard Donnelly Memorial - September 18
J.J. Dolan Memorial - October 9
Carroll Capps Memorial - November 6-7
Pierre Saint-Amant Memorial - November 20
 
  Northern California Events

 

Sept. 4-6   2010 CALCHESS LABOR DAY CHAMPIONSHIPS   GPP: 20   California Northern

A State Championship Event! 6-SS, 30/90, SD/1 (2-day option rds 1-3 G/60). Golden Geteway Holiday Inn. Van Ness at Pine, San Francisco. $$B/160 paid entries (not counting free or unrated entries). Six Sections: Master $1200-$650-$400 U2300 $250; Expert $600-$300-$150. "A" $600-$300-$150. "B" $600-$300-$150. "C" $600-300-150. "D/E" $600-$300-$150 U1200 $150. Unr: Trophy First. Trophy to top finisher (State Champion) in each section. All, EF: postmarked by 8/30, $95; $105 at site. Unrateds $20 in the D/E section or may play up to the Master section for the regular fee. $5 discount to CalChess members. USCF memb. req'd. May play up one section for add'l $10 (Jrs $5). GM/IM free entry. Reg.: Sat 9/4 8-9:30am, Sun 9/5 8:15-9:15am. RDS.: Choice of schedules: 3-day, 2-day merge at round 4, all compete for the same prizes. 3-day schedule: Sat 10:00-3:30; Sun 11:00-4:45; Mon 10:00-3:30. 2-day schedule: Sun 9:30-11:45-2:00-4:45; Mon 10:00-3:30. 1/2 pt bye(s) any round(s) if requested in advance (byes rds 5-6 must be requested before rd 1). 2010 August Ratings List, CCA minimums and Directors discretion will be used to place players as accurately as possible. Please bring clocks and equipment. HR: Golden Gateway Holiday Inn (415)-441-4000. INFO: Richard Koepcke (650)-224-4938. Ent: Richard Koepcke, P.O. Box 1432, Mountain View, CA 94042. No Phone entries. Master Section FIDE Rated. Chess Magnet School JGP.

 

Sept. 25-26   2nd Annual Exchange Bank Open   GPP: 6   California Northern

Exchange Bank, 444 Aviation Blvd., Santa Rosa, CA 95403. 4 round Swiss, G/120. In 3 Sections, Open: $$GTD: $250-175. Reserve: Open to 1899 & under. $$GTD: $200-125. Booster: Open to 1499 & under. $$GTD: $150-100. Unrated plays in Booster Section. ALL: EF: $35 advance until 9/22, $45 at site. Reg.: 09/25, 8:30am - 9:30am. Rds.: Sat 10,3; Sun 10,3. ENT: Paul Stagnoli, 4233 Kintyre Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95409. INFO: (707) 478-4385 paulgs@sonic.net. NS. NC. W. Chess Magnet School JGP.