USATE 2008 Preview

The World Amateur Team & U.S. Team East is set to begin February 16-18 at the Parsippany Hilton (same as last year). You have until February 5th to send in your $140 for your team, otherwise it is $170 at the door. See the complete announcement at NJSCF and USCF for details. All teams must be under 2200 average rating.

The Three Tenors?

Rumor has it that there will be a three-GM team this year featuring GM Izoria (2705), GM Perelshteyn (2615), GM Dzindzichashvili (2586), and an unnamed youngster (max 894). If the rumor is true, that team's composition seems against the spirit of amateurism that the event intends to promote. But I guess Dzindzi was disappointed last year when his team with Perelshteyn kept losing on the two bottom boards (as they did against our Kenilworth B Team). If they don't have a team name yet, I suggest "The Three Tenors."

The Kenilworth A Team will be back in action, with the same players as last year: FM Steve Stoyko (2245), Scott Massey (2217), Ed Allen (2200), myself (2027) and Bob Rose (2052) as alternate, with an average rating of either 2178 or 2172, depending on how they calculate. Both Steve (in 1978 on The Westfield Winners) and Ed (in 1973 on The Independents) have been on winning teams before.

I'm told that last year's winning team Beavis and Butt-vinnik (featured on the cover of Chess Life) will also return, with James Critelli (2386), Evan Turtel (2205), Nick Panico, III (2120), Evan Rabin (2066), and Alan Kantor (2013) as alternate, giving them a very strong team average of 2194. We played a tough match with them last year in Round 5 on Board 1. Maybe we will get a second chance this year? A team has not repeated since the 1970s, when the GSCA four--featuring Ken Regan, John Fedorowicz, and Tyler Cowen--managed to do it. A team called "Mahko Ornst" won twice, but not back to back and not with any of the same players. If Beavis and Butt-vinnik repeat, that will be the second chess record in as many years that Tyler Cowen will have seen tied or surpassed.

No doubt Fedorowicz's team and teams from the University Texas, Dallas will also be in close contention. That is, if "The Three Tenors" don't just blow us all away!

South Wins USAT Playoffs

Jennifer Shahade reports that the South's "Four Found Fischers" won the US Amateur Team playoffs. Please note: I had previously (and mistakenly) reported that it appeared there might not be a playoff among the four US Amateur Team winners, based on information found online.

Two USATE 2007 Upsets and Other Games

FM Bartell - GM Yudasin, USATE 2007
White to play and win.

I have posted two upset victories from the 2007 US Amateur Teams East for your enjoyment.

Games from the tournament have finally begun to trickle in: I recently discovered that TWIC #644 (posted 3/12/2007 and also available in other formats) contains a number of games from the 2007 USATE, including several by players from our club. And The Chess Coroner has annotated two USATE miniatures by our players.

The file at TWIC contains the interesting upset win by Arthur Shen (1605) over NM David Gertler (2286), which was also annotated this Sunday by Pete Tamburro and Steve Doyle in their excellent Star Ledger column. Arthur has been a student of NM Scott Massey, who also taught his older brother Victor (who is New Jersey's youngest master). It is an interesting game with several fascinating features (not least the problematic ending position where Gertler resigned), so I have posted it online with some notes expanding on those offered in the Ledger.

I was disappointed, however, not to find the full score of another interesting upset win, where FM Tommy Bartell (the former NJ Champion and a frequent visitor to the Kenilworth Chess Club) won against GM Leonid Yudasin. Tommy was visiting the club last night and tried, on my request, to reconstruct the game for us from memory but with little success. He was, however, able to show us the critical position (see diagram above), which is what I had most wanted to see anyway. Yudasin had just played ....Qe5? setting up what looked like a deadly cross-pin on the Bishop at e3 along the e-file and the diagonal leading to g1. But Tommy demonstrated that it is actually White who has a win in this position, which came completely out of left field, as they say....

Crosstable for the World Amateur Team and USATE 2007

The rated Crosstable for the World Amateur Team 2007 (a.k.a. US Amateur Team East 2007) is available online for those interested in individual results.

One personal note: I am mistakenly credited with a fourth round win, which was actually scored by alternate Bob Rose (who played the even numbered rounds). At least they did not stick me with his last round draw! I don't think I'll register a complaint....

Examples of Underpromotion

Cole-NN, USATE 2007

White to play and win.

Play continued 1.Rf8!? Rxf8 ...

At the Kenilworth Chess Club the other night, I spoke with Jim Cole about his experience as captain of the Kenilworth CC Rookies at the US Amateur Teams East. It was his first rated tournament, so a lot was new and exciting to him. But he had one rather awkward experience that he was still having trouble digesting.

During one of his games, he reached the position in the diagram above as White against a young opponent. Seeing a quick way to Queen his pawn, Jim naturally played 1.Rf8!? and the game continued 1....Rxf8 2.gxf8, at which point Jim reached for and grasped the Queen that was sitting beside the board.

His opponent jumped up and declared, "Stalemate!"

"But I haven't even completed my move," Jim protested, just now realizing that a Queen on f8 would make an immediate draw.

"It doesn't matter," his young opponent declared with complete confidence. "Touch move rule! You touched your Queen! Stalemate!"

I assured Jim that his opponent was mistaken, and that he was allowed to touch any piece that was off the board without being forced to place it on the queening square. We analyzed the position a bit and it was clear that making a Bishop would win very quickly. I realized later that even a Knight would work. But the fact was past and, as a practical matter, it had been settled as soon as he shook his opponent's hand and signed the scoresheet--even if his move was never completed on the board.

When I got home that night, I immediately took out my rule book and looked it up. According to Rule 10H of the USCF's Official Rules, 5th edition, "There is no penalty for touching a piece that is off the board. A player who advances a pawn to the last rank and then touches a piece off the board is not obligated to promote the pawn to the piece touched until that piece has been released on the promotion square" (pp. 22-23). Jim was right to be upset.

But then I realized that, even if he had known the rule, Jim would have had a lot of trouble putting down his Queen and picking up a Bishop. Being an honest fellow, Jim would have had to admit that he had fully intended to place a Queen on f8 before his opponent had intervened by declaring "Stalemate!" Therefore to change his move would be unethical, practically like receiving "unsolicited advice" from others during a game (see 20E ff.)--even if the advice came from his opponent!

Best to just accept it as a lesson learned--and motivation for actually sitting down to read the Rules in full!

As I was puzzling over the position, I remembered an article by John Nunn on underpromotion that I had stumbled upon the other day in one of my chess files. I had torn it out of a magazine (likely New in Chess circa 1985-1986), so I can't give you the specific citation. It featured several fascinating tactical endings and a discussion of how rare it is to see a position where a player must underpromote in order to win. Having said that, he also gave the following interesting position, which I cover in my article.

Branimir Vujic - Marjia Petrovic
Yugoslav Ladies' Championship, Kula 1985
White to play and win.

Today's Chess Columns

Chua-Vigorito, USATE 2007
Black to play and win.

I read two newspaper chess columns on Sunday.

The first is always The New York Times's chess column by Dylan Loeb McClain, who has proven an excellent successor to GM Robert Byrne. I especially like to see more current and local games in his columns than had been the case previously. Today's piece is titled "At Amateur Team Tournament, Having a Good Costume Helps" and features Chua-Vigorito, USATE 2007, which is one of the few master games I have seen from the event. It opens with the ever-wild Botvinnik Variation of the Anti-Meran Semi-Slav. Unfortunately for students of the opening, the game only diverges from theory on move 19 (see the diagram above), and its 19th move is probably not the most incisive (see my notes).

The second article I always read is The Newark Star-Ledger's chess column by Pete Tamburro and Steve Doyle. I was hoping they would have a USATE game today and expect they will have several in the coming weeks (as they typically do following the event). Instead, today they feature the excellent game Grasso-Stoyko, NJ Open 2006, which we annotated shortly after the event in a blog article titled "FM Steve Stoyko at the NJ Open."

I am glad that these papers feature these excellent writers and hope their columns are never completely supplanted by us bloggers....

More USATE News

"Beavis and Butt-Vinnik" players James Critelli and Evan Turtel (right) sit down to play Kenilworth CC #1, led by Steve Stoyko (left).

I'm finally turning up some news stories about the US Amateur Team East, including a very good one out today by my fifth round opponent, Alan Kantor, titled "Beavis and Butt-Vinnik Take East" at Chess Life online. It includes some excellent photos, information about the event and a list of winners. It also presents Beavis and Butt-Vinnik's road to the championship. Of our teams' fifth round encounter Kantor writes: "We were paired against a tough New Jersey team. Despite Stephen Stoyko blocking the way we managed to squeak out victory with 2½ points." Very nice.

More details about the event can also be found at The Daily Record, which has a good story titled "Players from all over check in at Parsippany chess tournament." There you can get some numbers, which help to understand how big this event was (and why the bathrooms were so rank by day 3):

A total of 1,174 players --including nine international grand masters, 33 international masters and eight masters --are competing in the event, said E. Steven Doyle, past president of the New Jersey State Chess Federation. The field is diverse, with competitors ranging in age from five to 93 and hailing from various states on the eastern seaboard.

And, "this is the first time we are promoted to be the World Amateur Team," Doyle explained. "We are the largest world amateur team event in the world."

The tournament primarily has been held in New Jersey since 1972, and has taken place at the Hilton for the last 15 years, Doyle added.

I have already mentioned blog coverage by Jim West on Chess and Derek Slater of the Reassembler blog. Today I found Globular's Blog and The Rainy Day Blog.

And I think I discovered why they are now billing it as the "World Amateur Team Championship": there will apparently be no playoff among the four teams this year. I guess that means Beavis and Butt-Vinnik are World Champs.

USATE Wrap-up

White to play and win a pawn.

The New Jersey State Chess Federation website has the team results on their home page (just scroll down).

• First Place - Beavis and Butt-Vinnick (we lost to them on Board #1 in Round 5)
• Second Place - Whopper, Big Mac, Small Fry and a Lawyer (a BCC team)
• Third Place - Bonnets Fellows
• Fourth Place - Dean Ippolito LLC
• Fifth Place - Predecessors 2: Electric Booga

Beavis and Butt-Vinnik were the clear winners defeating Feds Up (2.5-1.5) led by GM John Fedorowicz in the final round. Team members were: James Critelli (2311), Evan Turtel (2206), Evan Rabin (2076), Nick Ponico (2022), and alternate Alan Kantor (2000).

Even if my team did not finish as well as I had hoped, at least I played up to my expectations. The reason to have an Expert on Board 4, after all, is to register early wins, which can basically secure the whole match since everyone else is given draw odds. I've posted my Two Quick Kills on Board Four (Rounds 1 and 3). If only I had won in Round 5... Next year, I guess.

USATE 2007 Update

The US Amateur Teams East Championship is ended. After a great 4/4 run and a visit to Board #1, the Kenilworth Chess Club A-team stumbled to a 4/6 finish. Though we won no prizes, I had a very pleasant experience because I split Board 4 duties with another Expert and only had to play in the mornings. I ended up with 2.5/3 after drawing in the last round. I may share the two wins (against much lower rated opposition but nicely executed and short) in my next post. Anyone who played all six games is probably completely wiped out.

I have been searching for news about who won the US Amateur Teams East with no luck. You can find a list of USATE Champions from 1971-2003 online and lots of old news, but nothing from 2007. I did discover that The US Amateur Team South was won by The Shocker and The US Amateur Teams West by Knights of the Republic, led by IM Enrico Sevillano. If anyone can enlighten me as to the East and the North, please do so in the comments.

I found a few US Amateur Team bloggers online. Jim West on Chess posts an interesting draw with his famous Philidor Counter-Gambit. Patrick of Chess for Blood (who played in the USAT West event) has several nice games here, here, and here. And Derek Slater of the Reassembler blog has several entries on his USATE experience.

USATE, Round 5 update

Well, that's a lame photo, but you get the picture.

Going into Round 5 out of 6 of the World Amateur Team and US Amateur Team East 2007, the Kenilworth Chess Club #1 team played on Board #1 against team "Beavis and Butt Vinni."

When I left, the match had not concluded. But, unfortunately, and barring some miracle, we likely lost. I drew my game relatively early on Board 4 against an Expert (my opponent described the position accurately by saying "if either of us tries to win, we lose"). Steve Stoyko on Board 1 likely could have had a draw by repetition but declined it in a tough time pressure battle which he lost to a young master. Meanwhile, Boards 2 and 3 had just made the time control, but it looked like Scott Massey was in a bit of trouble (having sacrificed the Exchange for complications in a worse position) and Ed Allen had only a slight edge at best.

There were six teams with perfect scores after Round 4: the two teams just mentioned plus ChessCafe.com, the Fed Ups (featuring GM John Fedorowicz), Khodarkovsky's Tycoons, and UTD Orange. It looked like UTD Orange had won their match. I'll make no other predictions, except to say it will be a sad homecoming at the club this Thursday.

USATE, Round 3 Update

GM Arthur Bisguier vs. FM Steve Stoyko

I left before the conclusion of Round 3, when Kenilworth Chess Club's A-Team played Arthur Bisguier's team on Table 5 at the 2007 US Amateur Teams East. I did my job on board 4, winning in 15 moves with the Urusov Gambit so that everyone else could take an early draw and get some rest. Our board 2 was still playing when I left, with a clear edge over his opponent--who knows the draw is his for the asking. Barring disaster, therefore, we should be 3-for-3 and have a shot at advancing to the top table by the time I play again tomorrow morning. Expert Bob Rose and I are sharing board 4 duties (I'm the morning person and he's the night owl), with NM Ed Allen on board 3, NM Scott Massey on board 2, and FM Steve Stoyko (smiling in the picture above) on board 1. We feel more confident this year than in previous years, but winning any tournament requires as much luck as skill....

Kenilworth has three teams entered. Our Kenilworth CC B-Team has had some tough pairings, playing the team of GM Perelshteyn and GM Dzinzichashvili in the first round. As third board Greg Tomkovich put it: "You know you are in trouble when Dzindzi is Board 2!" But, despite losing on the top boards (as expected), they managed to win on Boards 3 and 4 to get a team draw -- only to be rewarded for the effort by being paired with GM Yudasin's team in the second round! Needless to say, their first board, NM Mark Kernighan, is not likely to take home a clock....

We also have an unrated team this year, the Kenilworth CC Rookies, headed up by Jim Cole. They began paired against college students, then played some high school kids, and this round expect finally to get a point against the grade-schoolers. But they are having lots of fun.

More news and games in my next post.

US Amateur Teams East 2007

The 37th Annual World Amateur Team & US Amateur Team East tournament starts tomorrow. I will again be Board 4 Alternate for the Kenilworth Chess Club A-Team (playing just the odd-numbered rounds). We should be among the top contenders with an overall team rating of 2192. Last year, we finished in 21st place (blog coverage here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). In 2005, we won best NJ Team. If you visit the tournament, please say "hello." I'm always glad to meet and talk to readers.