Monday, October 29, 2007

#220 More Players Needed For Labate Grand Prix

The Westfield Chess Club is honoring long-time member Ernesto Labate by holding a Grand Prix tournament on November 4th (details below) but I've been told that there have been just 6 entries so far.

There is a guaranteed $2000 prize fund & the event cannot be cancelled. So, the hosts are going to be in the red if 2 dozen additional players don't sign up. Please consider doing so.


Nov. 4 Ernesto Labate Grand Prix GPP: 30 New Jersey 5 Round Swiss Game/40 Westfield Y, 220 Clark Street, Westfield N.J. $2000 Gtd: $650-$350-$250-$150-$100 U2200: $200 U2000 $150 U1800: $100 Best game prize $50 (Judge Ernesto Labate) EF: $75, $60 by October 28th Reg: 9:30-11:30 a.m. Rds: 12:00,1:35,3:10,4:45,6:20 p.m. early EF: Todd Lunna, 36 Maple Drive, Colts Neck, New Jersey 07722. Make checks payable to Westfield Chess Club please bring identification to enter the building. www.westfieldchessclub.com Todd Lunna 732-946-7379.

#219 Kernighan Wins Checkmate Fall Swiss

NM Mark Kernighan beat Bob Sherry last night to win the Checkmate Fall Swiss. Bob & Don Carrelli tied for 2nd.


Kernighan-Sherry
after 18...Bb7

White to win

Here are the event's full standings, replay page & zipped PGN file.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

#218 Checkmate Swiss - Round 2 annotations

I have annotated & uploaded my Sunday loss to Bob Sherry as well as Don Carrelli's win over Ted Mann. Minkov 0-1 Kernighan is also included but, as you'll see from the replay, the game wasn't up to the players' usual high standards. The updated PGN file with 6 of the 8 games played thus far is here.

In all 3 games, the winner had a lost position by move 21.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

#217 French Defense Lecture - Part 1

Being a long-time French Defense practitioner (26 years) & knowing that the illustrated games would be in The Kenilworthian archives or my database, I probably took fewer notes than others who attended FM Steve Stoyko's October 4th lecture but I hope the following synopsis suffices for those who missed it.


Stoyko French Defense Lecture
Part 1 of 4


Exchange & Advance Variations

General Comments
  • Steve has a slight bias for Black in the Exchange & Advance Variations... has never played them as White!
  • Although recognized as an opening authority, Steve doesn’t memorize theory. Instead, he comprehends positions by playing over key Grandmaster games – going over them slowly to understand the ideas behind the pawn structures. Thus, his games often follow book for 15-20 moves.
  • Anytime Black surrenders the center with ...dxe4, White gets a slight advantage because a pawn on the 4th rank (d4) is worth more than one on the 3rd (e6).

Exchange Variation (2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5)
  • If White plays exd5, he’s usually looking for a draw.
  • The onus is on Black to create winning chances though White can play c2-c4, as Kasparov did once... only once.
  • We can say that White is better because he has an extra move in the symmetrical position but the person who goes 1st is possibly at a disadvantage because he commits himself.
  • The Bc1 is a theoretically bad B & Black can sometimes win a Knight vs. dark-squared B ending.
  • Games presented were : West-Stoyko (in part), where White made mechanical development & soon ran out of good moves; Melekhina-Stoyko : USATE 2006 (0-1, 32), where the game was basically over after 11.h3; & Kovacs-Kortschnoi : Sarajevo 1969 (0-1, 25), which the Melekhina game paralleled.
  • Also mentioned was M. Gurevich-Short : Manila Interzonal 1990 where Short created a piece imbalance, rather than a pawn imbalance (...c5) & won the aforementioned N vs. B (+ rooks) ending.

Advance Variation (2.d4 d5 3.e5)
  • After 3...c5 4.c3, Steve advocates the Wade Variation (4...Qb6 5.Nf3 Bd7 idea 6.Bd3 cxd4 7.cxd4 Bb5, trading off Black's bad Bishop) to avoid the Milner-Barry Gambit (4...Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Bd3 cxd4 7.cxd4 Bd7 8.0-0 Nxd4 9.Nxd4 Qxd4 10.Nc3), which he says is tricky.
  • Due to time constraints, only Grasso-Stoyko : NJ Open 2006 (0-1, 23) where Black dominated the light squares, was demonstrated.
  • Ivanovic-Beliavsky : Igalo 1994, mentioned as a model Wade Variation game, was included in Steve’s printed handout.
The zipped PGN file for part 1 has Stoyko's annotations to the Advance games & Michael Goeller's notes to the Melekhina & Grasso games.

Part 2 of the series is tomorrow, Thursday, October 25th at 8:00 p.m., & will cover
  • the King’s Indian Attack
  • 3.Bd3
  • Rubinstein’s Variation (3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7)
  • the Fort Knox Variation (3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bd7).
Admission is $5.00.

Monday, October 22, 2007

#216 Checkmate Fall Swiss - Round 2

Mark Kernighan & Bob Sherry won last night & will face-off for 1st place next week. Mark defeated Ari Minkov on the Black side of an English while Bob beat me with a King's Indian, though I was ahead (according to Fritz) until erring on move 33.


Moldovan-Sherry
after 22....h6

White to win

You can view the above on the tourney's replay page or download the PGN. Notes & the Minkov-Kernighan score should follow toward the weekend.

The pairings for next Sunday's (10/28) finale are :
  1. Kernighan (2.0) - Sherry (2.0)
  2. Moldovan (1.0) - Minkov (1.0)
  3. Shiffman (1.0) - Carrelli (1.0)
  4. Mann (0.0) - Azzarello (0.0)

#215 Kenilworth G/30 Wrap-Up

I've uploaded Mark Kenighan's last-round win over Steve Stoyko & amended the event replay-page & PGN file

#214 Lunna & Jon Cohen Westfield Co-Champs

Todd Lunna & Jonathan Cohen tied for 1st place in the Westfield Championship, which finished yesterday. Each scored 3.5 from 4. Peter Radomskyj was 3rd, a half-point back. U2050-winner Lev Zilbermintz & U1850-victor Jack Yang, were = 4th-5th with 2.5. Full standings here

I've added 6 unannotated games to the event's java-replay page & zipped PGN file, including the title-deciding Jo. Cohen 1/2 Radomskyj & Rose 0-1 Lunna.

Friday, October 19, 2007

#213 Kernighan wins Kenilworth G/30

NM Mark Kernighan beat FM Steve Stoyko in the final round to win the USCF-rated Kenilworth G/30 last night. Steve, Ari Minkov & I tied for 2nd.

The only available 3rd & 4th-round games, at the moment, are my wins over Greg Tomkovich & Dmitri Yampolskiy. Here they are with notes; in java-replays & zipped PGN, along with the standings

Thursday, October 18, 2007

#212 New Chess Server

There's a new chess server, Chesspark, that you may want to check out. They have free trials until the beta (testing) stage is over.

Playchess or ICC it isn't but memberships are cheap ($2.49 for 1 month, $24.00 for 1 year) & the client will save your games.

Here are two I played there last night (both losses) in java-replay & zipped PGN.

Monday, October 15, 2007

#211 Two From Kernighan

I've uploaded a pair of recent games by NM Mark Kernighan - his draw against Peter Radomskyj from the West Orange-Kenilworth match & his Kenilworth G/30 win over Max Sherer.

Here again are the links :

#210 Checkmate Fall Swiss Underway

NM Mark Kernighan, Ari Minkov, Bob Sherry & I won the opening round games of the Checkmate Fall Swiss in Springfield.

The pairings for next Sunday (10/21) are :
  1. Minkov (1.0) - Kernighan (1.0)
  2. Moldovan (1.0) - Sherry (1.0)
  3. Carrelli (0.0) - Mann (0.0)
  4. Shiffman (0.0) - Azzarello (0.0)
Here are 3 of the 4 games from last night in java-replay & zipped PGN.


Kernighan - Carrelli
after 12...Be4

White to win

Sunday, October 14, 2007

#209 Upcoming Posts

Notes on part 1 of Steve Stoyko's French Defense lecture series will be posted before Steve gives part 2 (October 25th) & the Westfield Championship wrap-up should appear October 22nd or 23rd.

I apologize for the delay in getting to the former & regret not being able to cover round 3 (today) of the latter.

#208 G/30 Update

I have annotated my 1st round win over Bert Shiffman & updated the G/30 replay page & zipped PGN file. Notes to my loss vs. Steve Stoyko are still to come.


Moldovan - Shiffman
after 8...Nge7

White to play

#207 Fall Swiss - 1st Round Pairings

Here are the pairings for the opening round of the Springfield Fall Tournament (the player having White is listed first) :
  1. Kernighan 2208 - Carrelli 1723
  2. Mann 1450 - Minkov 1947
  3. Sherry 1812 - Shiffman 1434
  4. Azzarello 0000 - Moldovan 1774
Remember, the games start at 9 p.m. & Black has his choice of time control... G/40 + :02 delay or G/50+ :02 delay.

Friday, October 12, 2007

#206 Westfield Ch. - Round 2 Update

I have uploaded a java-replay page & zipped PGN file of the games in post #204.

#205 Stoyko, Minkov, Demetrick lead Kenilworth G/30

FIDE-Master Steve Stoyko, 2-time defending champ Ari Minkov & KCC President Joe Demetrick are tied for first after 2 rounds of this year's USCF-rated Kenilworth G/30. NM Mark Kernighan & Greg Tomkovich are a half-point back.

Despite the rainy weather & no Tournament Life/blog announcement, 14 players entered the event! The 4-round swiss concludes next Thursday night.

Here is a selection of games in java-replay & zipped PGN (annotations to follow in the future) ... the full standings

... the official 3rd-round pairings for boards 1-3, courtesy of director Geoff McAuliffe :
  1. Minkov 2.0 - Stoyko 2.0
  2. Kernighan 1.5 - Demetrick 2.o
  3. Moldovan 1.0 - Tomkovich 1.5
& my guesses for boards 4-7, barring withdrawals :
  • Cavaliere 1.0 - Yampolskiy 1.0
  • Renna 1.0 - Mann 1.0
  • Sherer 0.0 - Mazzillo 0.0
  • Shiffman 0.0 - Agress 0.0

Monday, October 08, 2007

#204 Westfield Championship - Round 2

Peter Radomskyj, Todd Lunna & Jonathan Cohen lead at the halfway point of the Westfield CC Championship. They have perfect 2-0 scores. Pat Mazzillo is next with 1.5. Six players are tied at 1.0

Three early-ending, lightly annotated games from yesterday are given in PGN format below. Java-replays & a zipped file will follow when I make room on the server.


[Event "Westfield CC Championship"]

[Site "Westfield, NJ"]

[Date "2007.10.07"]

[Round "2"]

[White "Cohen, Jonathan"]

[Black "Zilbermintz, Lev"]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "C23"]

[WhiteElo "2046"]

[BlackElo "1932"]

[Annotator "Fritz 8 + color by Moldovan"]

[PlyCount "59"]

[EventDate "2007.09.30"]

[SourceDate "2007.10.08"]


{Bishop's Opening : Calabrese Counter-Gambit} 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 f5 $2 (2... Nf6)

3. Bxg8 $2 (3. exf5 $16) 3... Rxg8 4. exf5 Qg5 5. g4 d5 $2 (5... g6 $44) 6. d4
Qf6 7. dxe5 Qxe5+ 8. Qe2 Bd6 $2 (8... Qxe2+ 9. Nxe2 g6 $14) 9. Bf4 $1 Bb4+ 10. c3 Qxe2+ 11. Nxe2 Ba5 (11... Bc5 $142 $16) 12. Na3 $18 Bd7 13. Nd4 (13. O-O-O $142) 13... Kf7 (13... Na6 $142) 14. O-O-O c6 15. Rhe1 Na6 $2 16. Nac2 $2 (16. Nf3 Moldovan) 16... Bb6 $2 17. Nf3 Rge8 18. Ne5+ Rxe5 19. Bxe5 Bxf2 20. Re2 Bh4 21. Bd4 Nc7 $2 22. Ne1 Bg5+ 23. Kc2 Ne8 24. Nf3 Be7 $2 25. Rde1 Bd6 26. Ne5+ Bxe5 27. Rxe5 Nf6 $2 28. Re7+ Kf8 29. Bxf6 gxf6 30. Rxd7 {& Zilbermintz, ridiculously, played on for another 19 moves. At the end, White had an extra Rook & 5 pawns!} 1-0

[Event "Westfield CC Championship"]

[Site "Westfield, NJ"]

[Date "2007.10.07"]

[Round "2"]

[White "Yang, Yuxing (Jack)"]

[Black "Cohen, Bill"]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "C54"]

[WhiteElo "1723"]

[BlackElo "1657"]

[Annotator "Fritz 8 + color by Moldovan"]

[PlyCount "41"]

[EventDate "2007.09.30"]

[SourceDate "2007.10.08"]


{Italian Game : Giuoco Piano (by transposition)} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4

4. Bc4 Bc5 5. c3 Nf6 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Bd2 Bxd2+ 8. Nbxd2 d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Qb3 Na5 ({My old books recommend} 10... Nce7) 11. Qa4+ c6 $2 (11... Nc6 $14) 12. Bxd5 Qxd5 13. O-O O-O 14. Rac1 b6 15. b4 Nb7 16. Qxc6 Qxa2 $2 (16... Be6 $16 {was right. Now Black is lost.}) 17. d5 Rd8 $2 (17... Rb8 $2 18. Ra1 Qb2 19.
Rfb1 Qf6 {Weber - Xander 21st Seniors Open, Bad Woerishofen 2005}) (17... Qb2 $142) 18. Rfe1 h6 $2 19. Re8+ Rxe8 20. Qxe8+ Kh7 21. Rxc8 {& despite being a piece down, Cohen played on for another 24 moves.} 1-0

[Event "Westfield CC Championship"]

[Site "Westfield, NJ"]

[Date "2007.10.07"]

[Round "2"]

[White "Radomskyj, Peter"]

[Black "Rose, Bob"]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "B42"]

[WhiteElo "2232"]

[BlackElo "2057"]

[Annotator "Moldovan, Fritz 8 & Radomskyj"]

[PlyCount "50"]

[EventDate "2007.09.30"]

[SourceDate "2007.10.08"]


{Sicilian Defense : Kan Variation} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5.

Bd3 Nf6 6. c4 Qc7 (6... Nc6 $142 {Moldovan = M}) 7. Nc3 Bc5 8. Nb3 Be7 9. Qe2
d6 10. O-O Nbd7 $6 (10... Nc6 $142 11. f4 O-O $11 {leaving d7 open for the f-Knight. - M}) 11. f4 O-O 12. Be3 b6 13. g4 $2 (13.Bd4 $14 {Fritz 8 = F}) 13... g6 (13... h6 $142 14. h4 {Radomskyj = R} h5 $11 {F}) 14. Rac1 Bb7 15. g5 Nh5 16. Nd4 Rfe8 17. Qf2 $146 (17. b4 Bf8 18. a4 e5 19.fxe5 dxe5 20. Nd5 Qd8 21. Nf3 a5 22. b5 Bc5 23. Kh1 Bxe3 24. Qxe3 Nc5 25. Bc2 $14 {Lamastus - Midoux : MTO Open, Biel 2005}) 17... Bf8 18. b4 Rac8 19. Be2 Ng7 20. a3 e5 $4 (20... f5 $16 {R - Now Black is lost.}) 21. fxe5 Nxe5 22. Nd5 Bxd5 23. cxd5 Qb7 24. Nc6 b5 25. Bd4 Qe7 {& White won in another 5 moves or so.} 1-0

Saturday, October 06, 2007

#203 Springfield Fall Swiss

A 3-round Swiss will be held at the Checkmate Chess Club in Springfield, starting Sunday, October 14th & running thru 10/28. The time limit will be G/40 + :02 delay or G/50 + :02 delay, with Black making the choice in each pairing. Full details here.

Register by 10/13 by contacting TD Bob Sherry

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

#202 Westfield Championship Underway

NM Peter Radomskyj, NM Todd Lunna, expert Jonathan Cohen & Lev Zilbermintz were among the 1st-round winners in the Westfield CC Championship, which started Sunday 9/30.

Pat Mazzillo, Tim Hall & Bill Cohen are also among the 14 playing in the 4-week swiss, which will run thru October 21st.

Pat & Tim were in the midst of an unbalanced Rook ending when I left. If any one knows what happened in their game or has results of the 2 other contests, please leave a comment.

#201 West Orange & Kenilworth tie 3-3

The September 27th match between the West Orange CC & Kenilworth CC ended in a 3-3 tie.

Bill Sokolosky's upset win (over 1503-rated Joseph Fortunato) staked Kenilworth to a 1-0 lead. Visiting West Orange went up 2-1 on victories by Charles Hart & Bryan Cohen (vs. Ari Minkov & Greg Tomkovich) & was on the verge of clinching.

However, John Hagerty couldn't convert a winning advantage (against Max Sherer), Paul Corcoran blundered in a slightly worse position (to Mike Wojcio, see diagram) & the score was all-square again, 2.5-2.5.


Wojcio-Corcoran
after 34.e6

Black to play

In the final game, the home side's Mark Kernighan had 2 extra pawns against fellow NM Peter Radomskyj but missed a win in time-pressure.

In the 6 matches between the two clubs from 2005-2007, Kenilworth holds a +3-2=1 edge.

Annotations will follow at some point. For now here the replay & PGN of Sokolosky & Wojcio wins.