Garry Kasparov

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News

2) Topalov and Kramnik

3) US Championship News

4) Here and There

5) Jude is back

6) Upcoming Events

San Francisco on fire; New York clinches East; Carolina scores first victory                              
The San Francisco Mechanics started the USCL struggling, with only a half point out of their first 3 matches, but in the last two weeks they have placed themselves on the verge of a playoff birth with 2 crushing victories and a 4-4 record, giving them a 1.5 point lead for the final playoff spot in the West, and putting them 1 point behind Miami for the division lead.
  The New York Knights continued their domination of the USCL with a victory over a weakened Miami Sharks lineup. After Baltimore fell to Carolina in incredible fashion, the New York Knights clinched first place in the division with two weeks remaining in the season. This means that New York will receive draw odds regardless of whom they face in the playoffs. Right now it seems as though New York, Miami, Baltimore and San Francisco are the clear favorites to qualify for the postseason. It should be interesting to see if any of the other teams manage to claw back into contention in the final two weeks of the regular season.

San Francisco vs Philadelphia

1. IM Vincent McCambridge (SF) vs NM Norman Rogers (PHI)  1-0
2. IM Richard Costigan (PHI) vs IM John Donaldson (SF)  0-1
3. FM David Pruess (SF) vs NM Elvin Wilson (PHI) 1-0    (GAME OF THE WEEK)
4. FM Boris Baczynskyj (PHI) vs NM Nicolas Yap (SF)  1-0

 McCambridge,V (2502) - Rogers,N (2307) [A16]
USCL San Francisco vs Philadelphia (8), 19.10.2005

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.d4 e5 6.dxe5 Ng4 7.f4 d6 8.Nf3 Nc6 9.h3 Nh6 10.exd6 cxd6 11.0-0 Be6 12.Nd5 Na5 13.Qd3 Nf5 14.Kh2 Rc8 15.Nd2 h5 16.e4 Nd4 17.b4 Bxd5 18.exd5 Re8 19.Bb2 Nf5 20.Bxg7 Re3 21.Qc2 Rxg3 22.Rae1 Qh4 23.Ne4 Rxc4 24.Qf2 Kxg7 25.Nxg3 Nxg3 26.Qxg3 Qxg3+ 27.Kxg3 Rxb4 28.f5 h4+ 29.Kh2 Rb2 30.fxg6 Kxg6 31.Re4 1-0

Pruess,D (2432) - Wilson,E (2239) [B14] Wilson had won his first seven matches!
USCL San Francisco vs Philadelphia (8), 19.10.2005

1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.d4 d5 5.Nf3 cxd4 6.exd4 Bb4 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Bd2 0-0 9.Bd3 Nc6 10.0-0 Be7 11.Qe2 Ndb4 12.Be4 f5 13.Bb1 Nxd4 14.Nxd4 Qxd4 15.a3 Nc6 16.Ba2 Qe5 17.Qxe5 Nxe5 18.Nb5 Bd7 19.Nc7 Rad8 20.Bc3 Nc6 21.Bxe6+ Kh8 22.Rad1 Bc8 23.Bxc8 Rxc8 24.Ne6 Rg8 25.Rd7 b5 26.Rb7 a6 27.Rd1 Rb8 28.Rc7 Rgc8 29.Rdd7 Bd8 30.Rxg7 Bxc7 31.Rxc7+ 1-0

This week:

(2.5-5.5) Dallas Destiny vs San Francisco Mechanics (4.0-4.0) 
                                  (Season Record in Parenthesis)

Starts at 8:30 PM ET      Time Control - Game 60 with 30 second increment

Dallas Destiny			San Francisco Mechanics
GM Alejandro Ramirez - 2565			IM Vinay Bhat - 2462
IM Peter Vavrak - 2476			FM Dmitry Zilberstein - 2435
FM Daniel Fernandez - 2389			FM David Pruess - 2432
Andres Suarez - 2087			NM Andy Lee - 2231
Avg Rating - 2379			Avg Rating - 2390
Dallas Total -------			----- San Francisco Total

EASTERN DIVISION	W	L	Pts./32 games
!! New York	7	1	20.5  (64%)
Baltimore	4.5	3.5	19     (59%)
Philadelphia	3.5	4.5	14     (44%)
Boston	3	5	13.5  (42%)

WESTERN DIVISION	W	L	Pts./32 games
! Miami	5	3	17      (53%)
San Francisco	4	4	16.5   (52%)
Dallas	2.5	5.5	14      (44%)
Carolina	2.5	5.5	13.5   (42%)

! = Clinched Playoff Birth
!! = Clinched Division Title


* Top two teams from each division qualify for the playoffs. Results are calculated by Total MATCH points.
Whoever has the most points in the "W" (win) column, is in the lead in the standings.
Total game points + win percentage are used as a tiebreaker. To see the rest of the tiebreak procedures click here
** Each division winner will get draw odds in the first round of the playoffs against the division runner up.

2) Topalov and Kramnik

Recently there has been a fair amount of discussion about the possibility of a Topalov-Kramnik match. At the Western States Open in Reno a few weeks back GM Larry Evans stressed how important it was to have this match to unify the line of succession of world champions. At the same event a former World Champion, Boris Spassky, took another view and said he viewed Topalov as the World Champion - full stop. Los Angeles Times columnist IM Jack Peters feels the chess world is owed a Topalov-Kramnik match, and thinks the latter might actually be a favorite. Peters' point is that Kramnik has done well against Topalov in the past and has a much better chance in a match than in a tournament. Garry Kasparov has quite a different take on it. In a recent interview on the Russian website Prochess he spoke on the results of the FIDE Championship in San-Luis and on the current situation around the world championship. The interview was translated and published in Alexander Baburin's excellent (!) online chess daily Chess Today (http://www.chesstoday.net) where it is mentioned that Kasparov does not wish to return to chess and that he praises Topalov and does not see much sense in the match between Topalov and Kramnik.

 "It is necessary to consider Topalov not as he was five or even three years ago, but as he is now. He is capable of winning several games in succession (as in Linares, and in Sofia, and in Dortmund), he has a desire to struggle - to struggle up to the end, all the time finding energy for the continuation of the game. I do not know another such player!"

 "For the first time since 1993 the title of the FIDE champion belongs to the chess player who is showing the most substantial play."

 "In my view, Kramnik does not have any weight [power] to affect the situation. He, probably, has very disputable legal rights (because of the Prague agreements), but there are neither moral, nor chess rights. Topalov can make any decision (...). But his match with Kramnik will only create additional chaos because it will not solve anything."

The translator of this interview, the Ukrainian GM Mikhail Golubev remarks:

"Well, perhaps no one has expected that Kasparov will try to make Kramnik happy by his comments. So, it is nice that he was willing to make Topalov happy at least.
The possibility of the unification match is now discussed elsewhere. My overall impression is that a significant number of players (I would not say a majority) consider Kramnik's title to be about as legal as Topalov's. Therefore, I think that the unification match is in the interest of chess - taken that there will be any guarantee that the classical world championship will be organized in a reasonable way in the future – no more KO's at least. Certainly, there is also the possibility that a Topalov-Kramnik match will not take place. In this case, Kramnik will probably try to organize an alternative championship. It may give a chance for the ACP to grow (taken that ACP members would support the idea of an alternative championship, related with the ACP). Still, I would prefer to see the unification match next year. Then I would be able to explain to my grandmother who is the world champion in chess now."

As one might expect Kramnik considers himself to be the legitimate Classical World Champion, and challenges Veselin Topalov to a match. In the opinion of Kramnik, the unification of the chess world now depends on FIDE and Topalov: they should give agreement for the unification match.

One of several players to defeat Kramnik in a match (Gelfand and Kamsky are others) GM Alexey Shirov begs to differ. In answer to the question "Does
Kramnik, in your opinion, have moral or juridical rights to challenge Topalov?" Shirov said: "Not a bit. It is sufficient to recall the year 1998."  Shirov is recalling his convincing match victory that year over Kramnik which was to have given him a match with Kasparov, but as we all know that didn't happen and Kramnik got the chance instead.

3) US Championship News

John Henderson of Americas Foundation for Chess writes: 

2006 US Championship rating seeds

October 22, 2005 – The USCF have published the October rating list (based on results up to August 31, 2005) that sees 14 seeds (8 overall, 6 women) go forward to the US Championships in San Diego next year.

As in previous championships, some of the seeds have already won through to San Diego from the many qualifying events held throughout the year, and therefore their spots have to be reallocated from whichever tournament they qualified from.

The eight overall seeds are: 1 Gregory Kaidanov; 2 Gata Kamsky; 3 Alexander Onischuk; 4 Boris Gulko; 5 Ildar Ibraigimov; 6 Alexander Shabalov; 7 Varuzhan Akobian; 8 Igor Novikov

Of these eight, three – Shabalov (Chicago Open), Akobian (World Open) and Novikov (Chicago Open) – have already qualified. These three now become seeds, and their qualifying spots defer back to the tournaments they qualified from.

Thus, GM Alexander Fishbein and IM Blas Lugo are now qualifiers from Chicago as they were next in line from that event. Fishbein already has a spot from the World Open, so his qualifying tournament now reverts to Chicago, which frees up another spot from the World Open.

The game of musical chairs continues as we now have two spots -- Fishbein and Akopian -- to fill from the World Open. These go to GM John Fedorowicz and IM Joshua Friedel. Of course with Friedel now having a qualifying spot, this blows the race wide open in the new Grand Prix event as he had an almost unassailable three and a half point lead at the top. Now the Grand Prix spot will go down to the wire of the final tournament of the 2005 cycle, namely the North American Open, where any one of the six contenders at the top now vying for the spot can win.

With the women's seeded spots, things are more static with no shuffling around of spots. The six going forward are: 1 Susan Polgar; 2 Anna Zatonskih; 3 Irina Krush; 4 Camilla Baginskaite; 5 Tatev Abrahamyan; 6 Jennifer Shahade.

4) Here and There

Former US Women's champion Jennifer Shahade, whose new book Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport (Siles Press, 2005)  was recently published, is interviewed by Howard Goldowsky at ChessCafe.com ( http://www.chesscafe.com/skittles/skittles.htm ). Shahade was in Los Angeles the past week and gave several readings and simuls.

The website is up for the World Team Championship ( http://wccisrael.com/schedule.asp). The US team in board order is: 1. Goldin 2. Onischuk 3. Gulko 4. Kaidanov 5. Novikov 6. Ibragimov . GM Gennadi Sosonko will be offering live online commentary via the internet.

FIDE report that today, 24 October 2005, the Parliament of the Republic of Kalmykia (Narodny Khural) has ratified the proposal of His Excellency Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, in respect of the candidacy of Kirsan llyumzhinov for the office of the President of the Republic of Kalmykia for the next five years.

Congratulations to Frank Berry of Stillwater, Oklahoma, who recently received his International Arbiter title from FIDE.