"My father taught me how to play chess at seven and introduced beautiful concepts that I try to pass on to my kids. The elements and concepts of life are so perfectly illustrated on a chessboard. The ability to accurately assess your position is the key to chess, which I also think is the key to life.

Everything you do in your life is a move. You wake up in the morning and you walk out on the street - that's a move. You've made a move and the universe is going to respond with its move. Whatever move you're going to make in your life to be successful, you have to accurately access the next couple of moves - like what's going to happen if you do this? Because once you've made your move, you can't take it back. The universe is going to respond. "

   Actor Will Smith

1) Mark Pinto International
2) MI Chess Club Members in Lindsborg, Kansas
3) Tserendorj leads TNM
4) Blitz at the MI
5) Advanced Chess Camp to start soon
6) Ulvestad at the Mechanics'
7) Here and There
8) Upcoming Events

The 4th Annual Charles Bagby Memorial will be held at the Mechanics' this Saturday. Details below in Upcoming Events.

1) Mark Pinto International

The Mechanics' Institute Chess Club will proudly host the Mark Pinto International from July 21-August 1. This Category 3 (approx. 2322 FIDE average) event, with a score of 7.5 from 11 necessary for an IM norm, is named after National Master and M.I. Trustee Mark Pinto as a small thank you for all the time and generosity he has given the Institute over the years. The Mechanics' Chess Club would never have been able to offer the many programs it has without his constant support. Thanks Mark!

The Pinto International will feature an interesting field with IMs Enrico Sevillano, Ricardo DeGuzman and Odondoo Ganbold and MI members Dmitry Zilberstein (2 IM norms), David Pruess (1 IM norm) and Alan Stein (1 IM norm) next by rating. Other participants include FMs Frank Thornally, Bela Evans and Richard Lobo plus NMs Shivkumar Shivaji and Michael Aigner as well as WFM Tuvshintogs Batchimeg. Participants come from Mongolia, England, Philippines and the United States.

The Mark Pinto International is one of a continuing series of international events at the Mechanics' offering norm opportunities that since the end of 1998 have produced 2 GM norms and 16 IM norms. Pointing to the lack of opportunities in the United States, particularly on the West Coast, Vinay Bhat and Vladimir Mezentsev made all their IM norms at the MI, while Jesse Kraai and Cyrus Lakdawala made two each. Only one player rated below USCF 2450 has ever made an IM norm at the Mechanics', FM Richard Lobo in 2000.

The Mechanics' Institute will be holding a FIDE rating tournament concurrent with Pinto International. If you have a FIDE rating and would like to play contact the Mechanics' Chess Club at chessroom@milibrary.org immediately as spaces are almost filled.

2) MI Chess Club Members in Lindsborg, Kansas

The Mechanics' Institute will be sending a mini-armada to the center of the country this summer. USCF Executive Board Candidate Mikhail Korenman (have you voted yet?) continues to amaze as he is organizing not only the US Junior Closed but the US Junior Open and US Cadet Championship as well.

IM Vinay Bhat, participating in the 10-player US Junior Closed, will lead the Bay Area delegation. He will have plenty of company as three of the 10 participants in the Cadet (Under 16) are MI members (Ho, Yap and Setzepfandt).

Igor Schneider 16 2304
Matthew Ho 15 2236
Elliott Liu 14 2226
Nicolas A. Yap 14 2199
Teddy Coleman 14 2197
Mackenzie S. Molner 15 2181
Daniel J. Ludwig 14 2132
Alexander Setzepfandt 14 2125
Kurt Schneider 15 2107
Alexander James Chua 16 2102

FM Eric Schiller plans to bring a group of Bay Area kids to the US Junior Open.

3) Tserendorj leads TNM

NM Batsaikan Tserendorj defeated number two seed FM Frank Thornally to grab the lead in the Summer Tuesday Night Marathon with two rounds to go. A half point behind Tsrendorj's 6-1 score are fellow Mongolian WFM Tuvshintogs Batchimeg and NMs Victor Ossipov, Igor Margulis, Russell Wong and Nicolas Yap.

4) Blitz at the MI

Teenager Drake Wang won the July 7 edition of the weekly Wednesday Night Blitz with an impressive 12-1 score. NM Jorge Lopez was second art 11 and NM Batsaikan Tserendorj was third at 10 1/2 in the 14-player round robin. The weekly blitz event will be held tonight at 7pm immediately following the lecture by GM Alex Yermolinsky.

Anthony Rozenvasser won the 2nd Louie Ladow Memorial held last Sunday at the M.I. Rozenvasser scored 8 from 10 in the five double round Swiss. Tying for second through fourth at 7 were Jason Childress, Yefim Bukh and Gary Lambert. Steve Brandwein directed for the Mechanics'.

5) Advanced Chess Camp to start soon

Spots are still open for the 4th Annual, MI Advanced Chess Camp which is open to all ages.

Advanced Players (1200-2200)

This is not a camp for players that want to jump two rating classes in five days. You won't learn how to win against the Sicilian every time using the Grand Prix Attack. So why our camp and not others? At the MI camp you will get a look inside a GM's laboratory and get a feel for how they work on their game from the ground up. You will learn not only the importance of analyzing your own games, but also how to do it properly. You will learn to identify the critical points of the game and to understand when and why things went wrong.

You will learn how to use ChessBase and Fritz efficiently as part of a daily training program as well as utilizing resources on the Internet such as TWIC and the Internet Chess Club. Today chess books are cranked out at an incredible rate. Some of them are very good, many are quite bad. We will help students learn to select that which is truly useful.

On the fun side our instructors have unique experience in international competition. Expect to hear stories and anecdotes about what it's like to play against Kasparov and defend first board in a Chess Olympiad. Instructors: Grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky, International Master John Donaldson, and MI Scholastic Director Anthony Corrales.

Who: Open to all ages from 8 and up.
When : August 2-6, from 10 am to 5 pm
Where: 57 Post Street, 4th floor (Montgomery BART station)
Cost: $320 for Mechanics' members, $355 for junior (under 21) non-members, $405 for adult non-members. All non-members will receive a one year membership in the MI. There is a limit of 40 players for this camp. If you can't attend the whole camp there is a drop in fee of $80 a day.

6) Ulvestad at the Mechanics'

Olaf Ulvestad gave an exhibition at the Hollywood Chess Group. He won 12, lost 3, to H. Gordon, I. Revise and A. Weiss and drew against G. Benedetti and M. Cook...and at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in S.F. with the clock, he beat H. Donnelly and V. Svalberg, drew against Leslie Boyette and lost to Earl Pruner.

Pruner,E - Ulvestad,O [C97]
Clock Simul, 1949

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 Na5 9.Bc2 c5 10.d4 Qc7 11.h3 0-0 12.Nbd2 Re8 13.Nf1 g6 14.a4 Bb7 15.axb5 axb5 16.g4 exd4 17.cxd4 Bf8 18.Ng3 Bg7 19.Bf4 Qb6 20.g5 Nd7 21.dxc5 Qxc5 22.Bxd6 Qc8 23.Bb4 Nc6 24.Rxa8 Bxa8 25.Bc3 Bxc3 26.bxc3 Nce5 27.Kg2 Nxf3 28.Qxf3 Ne5 29.Qe3 Nc4 30.Qf4 Ne5 31.Qe3 Qc7 32.Bb3 Rc8 33.Bd5 Bc6 34.Ra1 Bd7 35.Ne2 Qd6 36.Nf4 Qe7 37.Ne2 h6 38.gxh6 Qh4 39.Qg3 Qh5 40.Nf4 Qxh6 41.Ra7 Bc6 42.Nxg6 Nxg6 43.Bxf7+ 1-0

California Chess News 1949

7) Here and There

Former World Junior Champion Tal Shaked, currently studying at the U of Washington, gave a simul at the Microsoft Chess Club in Redmond on July 5.

We recently learnt from Everyman Chess that volume 3 of Kasparov's series will be out this October. Originally this was going to focus on Petrosian, Spassky and Fischer, but due to the overwhelming amount of material that Kasparov has put together, Everyman have decided that it just wouldn't all fit into one book. Therefore, in November they will be publishing volume 4, which will devoted to Fischer and will include 55 of his games.

Mike Goodall, who has been a member of the Mechanics' Institute for almost forty years was pictured on the inside cover of the latest Chess Life with his custom license plate and wearing his M.I. T-shirt.

IM William Paschall and FM Sean Nagle improved their Elo ratings by scoring 6/11 in the Category 7 (2411) July First Saturday event in Budapest won by Bosnian IM Borki Predojevic.

An unusual event was recently held in British Columbia FM Bruce Harper reports:
The second half of the Vancouver GM Festival was held on the evening of July 7, 2004, when Grandmasters Pia Cramling (Sweden), Juan Bellon (Spain), Yasser Seirawan (United States) and Duncan Suttles (Canada) squared off in three “Pairs” games.

The Pairs rules are simple. One player makes the first move for White, then the players alternate, each making two moves in a row. Partners may not talk about the game while playing or otherwise give hints or advice to their partner. They may tell their partner to move (“It’s your move.”) and tell them to move quickly (“Hurry up, we have 20 seconds left!!”). Profanity and physical violence is not allowed except under extreme circumstances. If a player moves out of turn, the opposing team may either allow the move or insist that the player who ought to have moved make a different move.

The final standings were: Seirawan (2.5), Cramling, Bellon (1.5), Suttles (.5). Go to http://www.chessbc.com/reports.html for more information and the ongoing Western Canadian Open.

Noted author, teacher and book dealer Fred Wilson has a "audio column", entitled "Fred Wilson Talks Chess", which began May 19th, 2004 on http://www.chesscafe.com/ . His third guest will be the always popular and candid GM John Fedorowicz.

Alex Wojtkiewicz and Alex Stripunsky tied for first inn the New York Masters last night scoring 3.5 from 4. Leonid Yudasin, Jaan Ehlvest and Julio Becerra tied for third at 3-1 as GMs grabbed all the top spots in the 26-player Action Chess event. Go to http://www.newyorkmasters.com/ for more information.

8) Upcoming Events

Upcoming Tournaments at the MI

Charles Bagby Memorial - July 17