BCCF E-MAIL BULLETIN #42
To subscribe, send me an e-mail (swright2@telus.net) or sign up via the BCCF
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let me know.
Stephen Wright
[back issues of the Bulletin are available on the BCCF web site:
www.chess.bc.ca/newsletters.html]
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VANCOUVER REGIONAL CHESS CHALLENGE
This year's Vancouver Regional attracted 134 to BCIT on March 28. Players
competed within their own grades, with the exception of grades 1-10 which were
combined due to low turnouts. Winners of the individual trophies were as
follows:
Grade 1: Alex Sabaratnam, Donovan Zhao, Christopher Li
Grade 2: Owen Chen, Christopher Jackson, Joward Tabucol
Grade 3: Alexandra Botez, Narek Bobloyan, Brian Zhou
Grade 4: Kristof Juhasz, Kelsey King, E'Zaaz Ali
Grade 5: Marko Mitrovic, Cristina Stoica, Richard Huang
Grade 6: Christopher Hui, Bryan Young, Kyle King
Grade 7: Noam Davies, Danny Yu, Stefan Trandafir
Grade 8: Brad Wong, Amrinder Bolina, Robert Coulson
Grade 9: Neil Atkinson, Colin Mah
Grade 10: Lucas Davies
Grade 11: Ilan Keshet, Jervyn Ang, Max Tikhomolov
Grade 12: Max Reznitsky, Daniel Dayan, Glen Nogayev
The Provincial Chess Challenge Finals will be held on April 10th at BCIT -
pre-registration for the tournament is available at
http://www.k-12chess.com/k-12chess2003/registration_provfin2004.php
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PAIRS 4000 ACTIVE/BLITZ TOURNAMENT by co-organizer Richard Reid
It was a beautiful day in March, when 18 teams of two met to tangle for the
right to say "They just played for the fun of it!" and to participate in the
latest fund-raising event for the 2005 Elod Macskasy Memorial.
The Vancouver Bridge Centre was again the battle scene for these 36 enthusiastic
players, tag teamed to duel in two events (Active and Blitz) throughout the day.
It was an uncommonly strong showing. GM Yasser Seirawan and GM Duncan Suttles
participated with their teammates, alongside various other teams. Masters Jack
Yoos, Bruce Harper and Fanhao Meng each partnered up with an eager young chess
aficionado. Moreover, the distinguished team of Nathan Divinsky and Doug Freeman
displayed their flair for the game.
The day consisted of a four-round Active event, followed by a four-round Blitz
event. Both events contained an amazing display of reverse expertise as the
time controls helped to equalize the teams. This is born out by the fact that
there was a small negative correlation of -0.12 between team rating and final
results. The negative correlation is a fancy term meaning the lower rated teams
did slightly better on average than the higher rated teams. It also means that
it gave a lot of lower rated players the marvelous experience of defeating
higher rated opponents.
The winner of the Pairs 4000 by far was the team of Lucas Davies and Graham
Sadoway with a perfect score of 4 out of 4 points in the Active event. Their
sterling performance was marred only in the last round of the Blitz event by the
team of GM Yasser Seirawan and Andrea Cheng. As a result, the Davies/Sadoway
team ended up with only 7 out of a possible 8 points in the Blitz event, edging
out 7 (!) other teams tied for second with 5 points each. This was an awesome
display of skill and endurance by these two young players.
Bruce Harper adds the following:
"The time handicapping worked, although the teams with higher rated players all
felt they were too rushed in every game, as their lower rated partners tended to
play too slowly. After the event it was also realized that it was pointless to
have, say, Seirawan/Cheng and Suttles/Harper playing with 16 or 17 minutes each,
rather than 30 minutes each.
If another Pairs event is held, the times will be allocated according to the
rating difference between the two teams. If two equally rated teams play, they
will each get 30 minutes, whether the teams are rated 4000 or 2500. Only when
teams with different ratings are matched will the times change - for every 50
rating points difference between the teams, the lower-rated team will receive
one minute more and the higher-rated team will receive one minute less, to a
maximum of 40 minutes for the lower-rated team and a minimum of 20 minutes for
the higher-rated team.
In this way, every game will be allocated 60 minutes, although the time
allocated to each team will vary."
My thanks goes to the GMs, Masters and to all the other participants for helping
us raise $244 for the 2005 Macskasy Memorial. My thanks also goes to Katherine
Davies and Lauren Lee for their help in TDing the event. And such an event
would not have been possible without the idea, preparation and hard work put in
by co-organizer Bruce Harper to make it such a success. Again, a big thank you
to all those involved for helping to raise funds that will provide an
opportunity for some of our local players to make an IM or GM norm in 2005.
N.Divinsky/D.Freedman - Y.Seirawan/A.Cheng [B07] Pairs 4000 Vancouver, 20.03.2004
[Bruce Harper]
1.e4 d6 2.h3 (DF) Was this part of Team Divinsky's plan? 2...g6 3.Nc3 c5 (YS)
Yasser steers the game into a Sicilian. 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.a3 Rb8! (AC) A very
sophisticated move which I'm sure Yasser liked. 7.d3 Nf6 8.Be2 Nd7 (YS) Team
Seirawan is playing very well. Yasser complete a two-move (not three-move!)
manoeuvre, leaving his partner to expand on the queenside. 9.0-0 b5 10.Bd2 a5
11.Qc1 0-0 12.Nd5 e6 13.Ne3 b4 14.axb4 axb4 15.c3 Bb7 16.Be1 f5! (YS) Blockading
the position so as to stifle White's pieces, with a possible threat against
White's f4-pawn. Unfortunately Andrea doesn't appreciate either idea. 17.Qd2
bxc3 18.bxc3 e5?! (AC) 19.fxe5 f4! (YS) A Grandmaster has to be adaptable.
20.Nc4 Ndxe5 21.Nfxe5 Nxe5 22.Nxe5 Bxe5 23.d4 cxd4 24.cxd4 Bg7 25.Rd1? (ND)
Oops. The e-pawn is hanging. 25...Bxe4 26.Bf3 d5 27.Qa2?! (DF) The best chance
was [27.Bxe4 dxe4 28.Rxf4 Qxd4+ 29.Bf2 Qxd2 30.Rxf8+ Rxf8 31.Rxd2] 27...Kh8
28.Bc3 g5 29.Rb1? (ND) 29...Bxb1 30.Rxb1 Rxb1+ 31.Qxb1 Qc7 32.Qd3 Qc4 33.Be2
Qxd3 34.Bxd3 Rb8 35.Be2 Rb3 36.Ba5 Bxd4+ 37.Kh2 Rb1! (AC) 38.Bf3?! Rb5? (AC)
Andrea! Yasser was shocked that his partner, having played 37...Rb1,
threatening mate, then retreated to defend her d5-pawn! 38...Bg1+ 39.Kh1 Bf2+
40.Kh2 Bg3 is a standard mate. Is is possible that Andrea hasn't been studying?
39.Bd8 h6 40.h4 gxh4 41.Kh3 Bf2 42.Bxh4 Bxh4 43.Kxh4 Kg7 44.Kg4 Kf6 45.Kxf4 Rb4+
46.Ke3 Ke5 47.Kd3 Rb3+ 48.Kc2 Rxf3! (YS) This makes everything simple, for
everybody. 49.gxf3 h5 50.Kd2 h4 51.Ke2 d4 52.Kf2 Kf4 53.Kg2 d3 54.Kf2 d2 55.Ke2
h3 56.Kxd2 h2 57.Ke2 h1Q A very impressive combined performance. We expect
visiting GMs to play like this, but Andrea carried her weight as well. Andrea
could easily be 600 points higher rated if not for school, basketball, net ball,
ultimate... 0-1
L.Davies/G.Sadoway - T.Johnson/V.Goutor [B06] Pairs 4000 Vancouver, 20.03.2004
[Bruce Harper]
This game epitomizes the ups and downs of pairs chess... 1.e4 d6 In their other
game with Black, Tyler and Val tried a Dragon. 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 Bg7 4.Nc3 a6 5.a4
(LD) 5...Nd7 6.Bc4 e6 7.Be3 Ne7 8.Qd2 Nf6 [(TJ) 8...d5!? 9.exd5 Nb6] 9.h3 0-0
[(VG) 9...d5!? ] 10.0-0-0?! (GS) Lucas must have had a heart attack when his
partner castled long... 10...Bd7?! (VG) Too passive. 11...b5! was strong, as
White can't take the pawn. 11.g4?! (GS) 11...b5 12.g5 bxc4? (TJ) Better was
12...Nxe4!, which wins a more important pawn, saves time, and keeps the kingside
closed. 13.gxf6 Bxf6 14.Qe2 Nc6? (VG) Giving back the pawn for no good reason.
After 14...d5, Black is still on top. 15.Qxc4 Bg7 16.h4 h5?! (TJ) 17.b3 Qb8
18.Na2 Qb7?! Better was 18...e5!, with the idea of 19...Bg4. 19.d5? (GS)
19...exd5 20.exd5 Ne5? (TJ) 20...Na5!, followed by ...Bg4, wins 21.Nxe5 Bxe5
22.Bd4 Rfe8?! (VG) 22...Bg4! 23.Rhg1 c5? (TJ) 24.dxc6 Bxc6 25.Bxe5 dxe5 26.Rd6?
(GS) 26.Rxg6+ wins. 26...Kg7?? (VG) 26...Be4! defends everything. 27.Qxc6 Qe7
28.Rd7 Qxh4 29.Qxg6+ 1-0
N.Davies/B.Daswani - T.Johnson/V.Goutor [B50] Pairs 4000 Vancouver, 20.03.2004
[Bruce Harper]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.f3 Bg7 7.Be3 0-0 8.Bc4 a6?!
(TJ) Tyler does not play the Dragon, and here it shows. But Ben doesn't play
1.e4, either... 9.Qd2 Nc6 10.0-0-0 Bd7 11.g4 b5 12.Bb3 Ne5 13.Bh6 Nc4 14.Bxc4
bxc4 15.h4 Kh8? (TJ) Panic? Moving the King to the h-file certainly is unlikely
to slow White's attack. 16.Bxg7+ Kxg7 17.h5 Rh8 18.hxg6 (BD) Sealing in Black's
h8-rook with 18.h6+ was a promising alternative. 18...hxg6 19.Nf5+ (BD) On
ChessTalk, Ben wrote "The highlight of the event (this may not be everyone's
opinion) was when I played Nf5+!!..." Noam's reply counts as one of the best
disses of the event: "Took you a long time to play it." However, many
considered the most outstanding dis to be [after a player had stumbled into a
knight fork]: "Go ahead and make another move, and show us your idea." 19...Bxf5
20.gxf5 Qb6 21.fxg6 fxg6 22.Qg5 Rab8 23.b3 (BD) After the game, Ben suggested
23.Rdg1 as "just crush[ing]", but in fact 23...Qxb2+ 24.Kd2 Kf7 is unclear.
23...cxb3 24.cxb3 Rbc8 25.Qd2 [(ND) Ben also gave 25.Rdg1? as winning, but this
actually wins for Black after 25...Rxc3+ 26.Kb2 Qf2+ 27.Kxc3 Qxf3+ 28.Kb2 Rxh1]
25...Qc5?! (VG) After 25...Rxh1 26.Rxh1 Qc6, White is in trouble. Maybe Ben was
talking about a different Nf5+? 26.Kb2 Qe5 27.f4 Qe6?! (TJ) Both players are
making mistakes because of time pressure. 28.f5 gxf5? (TJ) Much too fatalistic.
29.Qg5+ Kf7 30.exf5 Qe5 31.Qg6+ 1-0
D.Suttles/L.Harper - Y.Seirawan/A.Cheng [B08] Pairs 4000 Vancouver, 20.03.2004
[Bruce Harper]
This fascinating encounter between the two handicapped Grandmasters arose when
the traditional Pairs 4000 pairing system was used - the pairing was made in the
last round despite the fact the two teams had different scores and both had had
two Blacks in three games. Yasser graciously consented to having a third Black
in order to get these opponents, but his plan very nearly went awry.
Unfortunately, because of the rather silly (in retrospect) time controls, each
side had slightly over 15 minutes, rather than 30 minutes each, which wouldn't
have slowed down the tournament by a second. As a result, the finish of the
game was marred by an entertaining time scramble, in which Laura Harper would
have done well to have heeded Elod Macskasy's well known admonition: "Same move
faster is better!" We're still thinking of you, Elod. 1.e4 (DS) 1...d6 (AC)
2.d4 (LH) 2...g6 (AC) 3.Nf3 (LH) 3...Bg7 (YS) 4.Be2 Nf6 5.Nc3 0-0 6.0-0 Nc6
7.a3?! (LH) 7...Bg4 8.Be3 Nd7!? (YS) 9.Qd2 Bxf3 10.Bxf3 e5 11.d5 Ne7 12.g4 (DS)
This is probably the first time Duncan has ever played the White side of this
sort of position - is this the plan he always feared? 12...f5 13.Bg5 (DS)
13...f4?! (AC) 14.h4? (LH) 14...h6 15.Bxe7 Qxe7 16.h5 gxh5 17.gxh5 Qg5+ 18.Kh1
Nf6 (AC) Playing for the win. 19.Rg1 Qh4+ 20.Kg2 Kh8 (YS) Interestingly, Fritz
says to take the pawn with 20...Nxh5. 21.Rh1 Qg5+ 22.Kf1 (LH) Kingwalking is a
family tradition. 22...Nh7 23.Ke2 (LH) Laura should be proud of this move, which
harmonizes the White forces before starting any adventures on the queenside.
23...Rg8 24.Nb5?! (DS) 24...Qe7 25.Qc3? (DS) I hope we have it right - it's the
1400 player who consolidated White's position and the Grandmaster who is fishing
around on the queenside. 25...Rac8? (AC) After 25...a6!, White's queenside
attack would boomerang. 26.Bg4! (LH) 26...Rcf8 27.Qxc7?! (LH) 27.Be6! 27...f3+
28.Kd3 Qg5 29.Rhg1?! (DS) 29.Be6 is good no matter who plays it. 29...Qf6
30.Bf5?! (LH) 30...Rf7 31.Rg6? (LH) 31...Rxc7 32.Rxf6 Rc5 33.Rxd6 Rxb5 34.b4 Rb6
35.Rd7 a5 36.Rb1 Ng5 37.b5 a4 38.c4 Bf8 White lost on time. 0-1
L.Molden/D.Polich - D.Suttles/L.Harper [A40] Pairs 4000 Vancouver, 20.03.2004
[Bruce Harper]
1.d4 g6 2.Nf3 Bg7 3.e3 d6 4.c4 Nd7 5.Nc3 Ngf6 (LH) You can be sure Duncan
wouldn't have blocked his f-pawn like this! But it's a perfectly normal move.
6.Bd3 0-0 7.0-0 e5 8.Qc2 Re8 9.b4 a6 10.a4 Rb8?! (LH) At this point Laura didn't
quite know what to do. 11.Bb2 b6 12.Rad1 Bb7 (DS) Threatening 12...e4, and 13.d5
might be met by 13...a5, so White retreats. 13.Be2 exd4?! (LH) Having skillfully
gained control of e4, Black doesn't make the most of it. I'm sure Duncan had in
mind 13...e4, followed by a kingside attack. 14.exd4 Qc8 15.Rfe1 c5 (DS) Plan B.
16.dxc5 dxc5 17.b5 axb5 18.Nxb5 Qc6 19.Rd6?! (DP) 19.Nd6! 19...Qe4 20.Qd2 Qf5
21.Nc7?! (LM) 21...Ne4! (LH) 22.Nh4?? In the interests of B.C. - Washington
chess harmony, we will not reveal whether Vancouver Interclub League organizer
Len Molden or Washington Chess Federation President Duane Polich made this
horrible move. An interesting position would have arisen after [22.Nxe8 Nxd2
23.Nxg7 Nxf3+ 24.Bxf3 Qc2] 22...Qxf2+ 23.Kh1 Nxd2 24.Rg1 Rxe2 0-1
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JASON FENG ANNOTATES
Here are two annotated games from Jason Feng, played in recent events. Thanks,
Jason!
Y.Seirawan/A.Cheng - J.Feng/L.Cheng [E85] Pairs 4000 Vancouver (2), 20.03.2004
[Feng]
While this game is not really worthy of publication because of its ugliness, I
guess it is an example of the craziness of the Pairs 4000 Tournament....it ain't
over until it's over. In case you're wondering, GM Seirawan played White moves
1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, etc., partner Andrea Cheng played 2, 3, 6, 7, etc.
Lesley Cheng (Andrea's sister!) played Black moves 1, 2, 5, 6, etc., while yours
truly played 3, 4, 7, 8. Everybody follow? 1.d4 g6 Our preparation before the
game involed my asking Lesley what she liked to play as White ("1.d4 and 2.c4")
and Black ("THE RAT"). I guess I wasn't going to play any Chigorins or Dutch
Defences today. 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 Nf6 5.f3 We've transposed into the
Saemisch King's Indian, which I know nothing about. 5...0-0 6.Be3 e5 7.dxe5 GM
Seirawan pointed out that 7.d5 is much better in this position. 7...dxe5 8.Qxd8
Rxd8 9.Nd5 Seirawan played this rather quickly. I was expecting Lesley to
either take the knight or perhaps try stuff like 9...Na6 with a reasonable
position, but..... 9...Be6?? When Lesley played this move I did my best poker
face hoping Andrea would take the knight or something....please.... 10.Nxc7
Lesley looked at me with sad eyes and said "I'm sorry." Well, it's only a game.
10...Nc6 11.Nxa8 Rxa8 In other circumstances, I would have resigned here, but
since I wouldn't get the chance to play another GM for a while, and also that
Lesley and Andrea had some sort of sibling rivalry I figured what the heck, if
we can somehow win a pawn or two... 12.0-0-0 Na5 13.b3 Seirawan is sure good at
picking the best moves (at least according to Fritz, who incidentally has the
position at close to +3). 13...a6 14.g4? White is completely winning, and does
not need to complicate matters with unnecessary tactics. Fritz preferred 14.g3
with plans such as 15.Bh3, while Seirawan suggested that White just get the king
off the c-file, since that is pretty much the only place Black is capable of
attacking. 14...Rc8 15.h4 15.g5 and 16.Bh3 would be a better way to attack the
kingside. But again, Seirawan suggested getting the king off the c-file with
15.Kb1 15...b5 16.g5 Nh5 17.c5 Who am I to question a GM (as well as Fritz), but
I think 17.Bh3 to get rid of that pesky Bishop and eventually White's QR rules
the seventh. 17...Bf8 18.b4 Nc4 While I was hoping for 18...Nc6 with the idea of
...a5, Fritz was crazy about 18...Ng3! 19.Rh2 Nxf1 20.Rxf1 Nc4 with only a
minimal advantage to White. 19.Bf2 Surely 19.Bxc4 is much better. Now we are
able to weaken White's queenside enough for some decent counterplay. 19...a5
20.Bxc4 Bxc4 21.bxa5 For Black the bad news is they are down the exchange and
two pawns, but the good news is three White pawns are hanging. Time was also a
factor now. If anything I liked the fact that we had two fairly mobile Bishops.
21...Be7? I guess Lesley was thinking about 22...Bd8 next but the immediate
21...Ra8 seems better. 22.Kb2 Ra8 23.Rh2 After this move, White's advantage
according to Fritz goes under +2. It's more than we can ask for, and with the
impending time scramble, you never know. 23...Rxa5 24.a3 Nf4 25.Be1 Ra8 26.Rhd2?
White's last chance for an advantage was 26.Bb4. Now Black gets the c-pawn and
the bishops may get more and more powerful. 26...Ne6 27.Bf2 Nxc5 28.Bxc5 Bxc5
29.Rd8+ Rxd8 30.Rxd8+ Kg7 Fritz has amazingly given Black a miniscule advantage
here! It suggests 31.Rd1 with a probable draw. 31.Nh3?? Bd4+?? I was so busy
blocking the Rook that I didn't realize 31...Be6 or 31...Bf1 would have won the
White knight! 32.Kc1 Be2 33.Nf2?? Drops a piece, which Black didn't take for
some reason. At this point both teams were under two minutes and as it
happened, White blundered away the knight eventually. 33...Bxf3 34.Kd2 Bxf2
35.Kc3 Bxh4 36.Rd5 Be1+ 37.Kd3 b4 38.axb4 Bxb4 39.Rxe5 Bg4 We stopped recording
at this point, but Black's advantage is decisive and White resigned a few moves
later. Thanks to Bruce Harper for coming up with this interesting idea for a
tournament, and to GM Seirawan for attending, and insightful analyses throughout
the tournament. 0-1
Kostin,A (1758) - Feng,J (1627) [B00] Saturday Night Fever Vancouver Bridge Center (2), 27.03.2004[Feng]
Before this game I was discussing my slump with Stephen Wright. I had lost a
lot of confidence, but beating GM Seirawan in the Pairs 4000 Tournament the week
before brought some of that confidence back. Stephen suggested (joked?) that
perhaps I should play one of my weird openings that I used to be known for.
Knowing that Andrei is very well versed in the King's Gambit, I decided against
my usual 1...e5 in this game, and suddenly recalled a game I had played years
ago against Mark Barnes that was actually published in En Passant. Shall we
give it a shot again? 1.e4 a6 The St. George's, used by GM Miles to beat
somebody named GM Karpov years ago. However, that wasn't the only surprise I
had in mind this game. Incidentally after playing 1...a6 Andrei had a little
smile (probably the same smile Karpov had years ago). 2.d4 h6 I'm possessed by
the spirit of IM Basman! He has dubbed 1.a3 and 2.h3 (and vice versa) as the
Creepy Crawly Opening, and amazingly Fritz Powerbooks 2003 has 34 games (most of
which are played from the White side) in its database. 3.f4 b5 While 3...b5 has
been played by Basman, most of his games continue 3...c5, and often he avoids
any fianchettos. With 3...b5, Black transposes back into the St. George's with
an early ...h6 thrown in. If I was truly a "Basmaniac" I may have considered
3...g5 (which Basman has actually gotten away with) but that was too crazy even
for me. 4.Nf3 Bb7 5.Bd3 e6 6.Be3 6.0-0 or 6.c3 is preferred here, although 6.Be3
does have the advantage of stopping 6...c5 by Black. 6...Nf6 7.Nbd2 Be7 8.Qe2
Nc6 I opted against castling here, thinking that after 9.0-0-0 (9.0-0 Ng4 and I
get the B) Ng4 10.Bg1 White had no worries. 9.c3 d5 10.e5 Nd7 11.0-0 Nb6 The
Kingside looks kind of weak for my king to castle there, so I prepared a
possible queenside castling, although things don't look terribly safe there
neither. 12.f5 exf5 13.Bxf5 Bc8 14.e6 This move bothered me, as it was a typical
Andrei Kostin attacking move. Fritz 8 surprisingly prefers 14...0-0 here (with
an evaluation of 0.59) over the text. I stayed away from castling again because
the King seemed safer on d7 then g8. 14...Bxe6 15.Bxe6 fxe6 16.Ne5 This knight
should be kept for a future attack, so either 16.Bf4 or 16.Ne1 would keep up the
initiative for White, as the light squares are very weak for Black on the
kingside. 16...Nxe5 17.Qh5+ Kd7 18.Qxe5 Bf6 19.Qh5 Qe7 19...Kc8 was a lot safer
for Black, as the king would find safety on b7 or a7. I played the text because
I was worried about the White queen getting to f7. 20.Nb3 Na4 21.Rae1 Raf8
22.Re2 Bg5 This was the beginning of a bad plan which almost led to my defeat.
I thought that with my pawn advantage it was time to trade off some pieces.
While this is a good idea, I unfortunately also neglected to remember that my
queen was on the same file as White's eventually doubled rooks. Watch how
quickly I go from a pawn up to a pawn down. Incidentally at this point I had 16
minutes to reach move 30. 23.Rfe1 Bxe3+ 23...Qf6! (hoping for 24.Bxg5 hxg5
25.Rxe6 Qf2!) 24.Qh3 is safer for Black. 24.Rxe3 At this point I was down to
about 10 minutes, and totally forgot about the weak pawn on d5. Do I have
anything better than the text? Fritz does not seem to think so. 24...Rf6
25.Qxd5+ exd5 26.Rxe7+ Kc6 27.Rxg7 Rhf8 28.h3 Nxb2 29.Ree7 Rc8 30.Nc5 Na4 I
surived the first time control, but 30...a5 would have been better. The text
results in a rook ending down a pawn, and since "all rook endings are drawn"...
31.Nxa6 Nxc3 32.Rxc7+ Rxc7 33.Rxc7+ Kb6 34.Rxc3 Kxa6 And we have now reached an
ending that is probably drawn for players under 2000 and possibly winnable for
others. Luckily my opponent was under 2000. 35.Rc5 Rd6 36.Kf2 Ka5 37.g4 Kb4
38.Kg3 If White wants to win he should get those kingside pawns marching ASAP.
Now I can win the a-pawn and even create threats with my b-pawn. 38...Ra6 39.Rc2
Again, get those kingside pawns marching. 39...Ra3+ 40.Kf4 Rxh3 41.Ke5 Rg3
42.Kxd5 Rxg4 43.Rb2+ ½-½
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2004 B.C. CHAMPIONSHIP
This year's B.C. Championship will be an 8-player round robin held over the
Easter weekend:
Dates - April 9-12, 2004
Location - Vancouver Bridge Centre
Time control - 40/120, game/60
Round times - 4 / 10, 4 / 10, 4 / 9, ASAP
TDs - Lynn Stringer and Stephen Wright
CFC and FIDE rated
There were two qualifying events, but both of the qualifiers declined their
invitations, so apart from defending champion Jack Yoos all the other places
were chosen from the March 10th ratings list. Here are the final eight:
CFC FIDE
Jack Yoos 2426 2383
Bruce Harper 2337 2336
Fanhao Meng 2296 2298
Brian McLaren 2284 2142
Dragoljub Milicevic 2211 2187
Mike Stanford 2209 2176
Laszlo Tegzes 2204 2131
Nigel Fullbrook 2200 2222
Averages 2271 2234
Spectators are welcome, so come and see some of B.C.'s best players fight it out
for the provincial crown.
Next year the championship will again be an 8-player round robin but there will
be more qualifying tournaments - watch for advertising as we approach each
event.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BETA TESTERS REQUIRED
From Barry Bell: In your next bulletin can I ask you to add a request for beta
testers and project team members url is http://trillianchess.homelinux.com
Project's Purpose:
With chess as our main goal this project will try to develop, combine, and
organize a complete online chess system developed in PHP with the focus that
this system can be used on any service provider and cost the systems operator
nothing to promote the game of chess. No databases to buy from a provider no
reason to say your bandwith is too high and we will keep the size as small as
possible to insure your system can be hosted for free. And the best part of
this system is it will be Free under the open source program. When this project
starts to issue releases all credits to all individuals involved will be
displayed in the agreed format. The first official release (hosted version) is
scheduled for August 17 2004 and a (full site version) with mysql as the
database is scheduled for August 17 2005.
Our focus at this time will be on OCC (Online Chess Club) developed by Michael
Speck and the CMS program developed by Helge Langen. We hope to combine these
programs for the purpose of enhancing their features and providing a turnkey
solution to anyone who want to operate or promote chess online.
Developer's:
We need dedicated people who don't mind giving up a few hours a month to promote
chess. Anyone wishing to join the team is always welcome. We need people to
work on PHP code, graphic design for this site as well as the chess system, and
of course we need beta testers. If you feel you can help and you want to
participate please feel free to contact me at chess4us@shaw.ca
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BUGHOUSE FUNDRAISING EVENT
Come play bughouse - a great way to have fun, while helping to raise money for a
very worthwhile cause: the 2005 Elod Macskasy Memorial.
Date: Sunday, April 25, 2004.
Place: Van. Bridge Centre - 2776 E. Broadway @ Kaslo St.
Registration: 9:30-9:45 AM.
Start Time: 10:00 AM.
Entry Fee: $15; $10 for juniors and seniors. Entrants receive a $5 discount for pre-registering.
Pre-registration: E-mail devil1331@hotmail.com.
Format: Minimum 8 rounds of 6 games each.
Time Control: 3 mins.
More Info: Ben Daswani - devil1331@hotmail.com.
Note: All proceeds will go towards the Elod Macskasy Memorial. Tournament will
be rated using the Bughouse BC rating system (visit the link below).
Bughouse BC - www.bug.chessbc.com
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THIRTY YEARS AGO by Bruce Harper
Next week Nigel Fullbrook will be participating in the B.C. Championship.
Thirty years ago he played the following humdinger against Victoria expert Brian
Williams. Should this game be relied upon when preparing for Nigel? I give the
game without notes - my only comment is that such games are played today as
well; if White wants to get in an attacking race against the Pirc, he usually
can. They don't always end this happily for Black, either!
Fullbrook,N - Williams,B [B07] BC Class ch Vancouver (5), 13.04.1974
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f3 Bg7 5.Be3 c6 6.Qd2 b5 7.0-0-0 Nbd7 8.g4 Nb6 9.b3
h6 10.h4 Nfd7 11.Nh3 b4 12.Ne2 a5 13.Ng3 Qc7 14.f4 c5 15.h5 c4 16.Kb1 a4 17.e5
dxe5 18.hxg6 fxg6 19.Bg2 Bb7 20.fxe5 axb3 21.Bxb7 Qxb7 22.e6 Nf6 23.Qxb4 bxc2+
24.Kxc2 Rxa2+ 25.Kb1 Qa6 26.Nf4 Ra1+ 27.Kc2 Qa2+ 28.Qb2 Qa4+ 29.Kd2 Ra2 30.Rb1
c3+ 31.Kxc3 Nbd5+ 32.Nxd5 Nxd5+ 33.Kd2 Nxe3 34.Qxa2 Qxa2+ 35.Kxe3 0-0 36.Rb8
Qf2+ 37.Ke4 Qf3# 0-1
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A CHESS MASTER'S LIBRARY
I recently had the pleasure of visiting with the grandson of Jack Taylor (former
five-time B.C. champion), who has in his possession the chess books and
scrapbooks which formerly belonged to his grandfather. Jack Taylor's biography
has already appeared in these columns, but here is a short version for
reference.
Taylor, John ("Jack") Monteith (July 11, 1907 - September 9, 1974)
Born in Glasgow, Scotland. The Taylor family immigrated to Canada when Jack was
fourteen, arriving at Quebec aboard the S.S. Cassandra on July 1, 1922. They
first lived in Regina, Saskatchewan, but settled permanently in Vancouver a few
years later. After graduating from UBC Jack worked as a traffic manager,
initially for the David Spencer Department Store (bought by Eatons in 1948),
later for Forsts Ltd.
Jack Taylor did not learn to play chess until he came to Vancouver, but
progressed so rapidly that only five years later, in 1929, he won the B.C.
Championship. Taylor repeated as B.C. Champion in 1930, 1938, and 1945, and
tied for first in 1953; he was also Vancouver Champion on numerous occasions.
Jack never made much of a mark nationally, always finishing in the lower half of
the Canadian Championships he played in (Saskatoon 1945, Vancouver 1951,
Winnipeg 1953). However, he did win a number of miniatures in these
competitions due to his sharp eye for tactics; he won games in 12 and 10 moves
respectively in the 1945 and 1953 competitions. Jack was a very popular player,
and was instrumental in the development of the City Chess Club when it was
formed as an offshoot of the Vancouver Chess Club in 1948.
So what exactly did a chess master study in bygone times, before the existence
of Informator, ECO, ChessBase, and The Week In Chess? Here are the contents of
Jack Taylor's library that have survived, arranged by publication date:
Löwenthal. Morphy's Games (1860)
Steinitz. Modern Chess Instructor vol. 2 (1889)
Graham. Mr Blackburne's Games at Chess (1899)
Gossip and Lipschütz. Chess-player's Manual (1902)
Sergeant and Watts. Pillsbury's Chess Career (1922)
Mitchell. Chess (1923)
Emery. Chess of Today (1924)
Alekhine. New York 1924 (1925)
Griffith and White. Modern Chess Openings, 4th ed. (1925)
Sergeant. Morphy's Games of Chess (1925)
Lasker. Lasker's Manual of Chess (1932)
Marshall. Comparative Chess (1932)
Capablanca. Primer of Chess (1935)
Sergeant. Championship Chess (1938)
Fine. Basic Chess Endings (1941)
Kmoch. Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces (1941)
Fine. Ideas Behind the Chess Openings (1943)
Golombek. Capablanca's 100 Best Games (1947)
Reinfeld. Tarrasch's Best Games of Chess (1947)
Reinfeld. Nimzovich the Hypermodern (1948)
Alekhine. Alekhine's Best Games 1924-37 (1949)
Alekhine. Alekhine's Best Games 1938-45 (1949)
König. Chess from Morphy to Botvinnik (1952)
Korn. Modern Chess Openings, 8th ed. (1952)
Ed. Lasker. Chess Secrets I Learned from the Masters (1952)
Reti. Masters of the Chessboard (1953)
Tartakower. My Best Games of Chess, 1931-1954 (1956)
Green. Chess (1966)
At least one book on the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match.
Undated: booklets on the Janowsky-Marshall, Lasker-Tarrasch, and
Lasker-Schlechter matches.
Before proceeding, it should be noted that while Jack Taylor owned the above
works, in most cases we do not know when he acquired them - it could have been
soon after publication or possibly many years later. The only exceptions are
those volumes, won as prizes or received as birthday or Christmas presents,
which have the year of acquisition inscribed in them (normally within five years
of the date of publication). We also do not know how many items Jack Taylor may
have discarded from his library over the years.
It is striking how many of these titles are still available today, in Dover
reprints (the titles in Jack Taylor's library are original editions). Most of
the books consist of game collections, of players who were largely active before
the Second World War - the likes of Botvinnik and Smyslov are conspicuous by
their absence. Initially Taylor seems to have concentrated on "tactical"
players (Morphy, Blackburne, Pillsbury, Marshall), only later turning to
Capablanca, Nimzovich, Tarrasch, and Rubinstein. The volumes by Steinitz and
Gossip & Lipschûtz were among the standard primers of their day, while Lasker's
Manual is still highly regarded today. There is only one tournament book, but
it is a classic - Alekhine's annotations of the games from New York 1924
(another classic, Bronstein's book of Zurich 1953, was not issued in English
translation until 1979).
There are some reference works (notably the two Fine volumes, both of which are
still recommendable), along with two editions of the first English-language
openings bible, Modern Chess Openings (rather overlooked these days, although
still available in its 14th edition). In addition to these monographs, Jack
Taylor also had a large number of clipped games from newspaper and magazine
columns, arranged in a scrapbook by opening; presumably this is how he kept
up-to-date on the openings that interested him. Finally, he had a small
collection of his own published games, largely taken from the chess column in
the Vancouver Province newspaper; of the 82 Jack Taylor games available in
BCBASE, here are the first and the last:
Taylor,J - Yates,B [B01] BC ch?, 1929
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd8 4.d4 c6 5.Bf4 Nf6 6.Nf3 e6 7.Bd3 Bd6 8.Bxd6 Qxd6
9.0-0 Nbd7 10.Qe2 Nb6 11.Rae1 Nbd5 12.Nxd5 cxd5 13.Ne5 a6 14.f4 0-0 15.g4 Re8
16.g5 Nd7 17.Bxh7+ Kf8 18.Qh5 Nxe5 19.fxe5 Qc7 20.Bg6 1-0
Reeve,J - Taylor,J [C61] BC Class ch Vancouver (7), 14.04.1974
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Nxd4 exd4 5.0-0 Bc5 6.d3 Ne7 7.c3 c6 8.Ba4 d6
9.Nd2 b5 10.Bc2 Be6 11.Bb3 0-0 12.Bxe6 fxe6 13.Nf3 dxc3 14.bxc3 Qd7 15.a4 a6
16.d4 Bb6 17.e5 d5 18.Ba3 Rfc8 19.Qd3 Ng6 20.Ng5 c5 21.axb5 Bd8 22.Nf3 c4 23.Qd2
axb5 24.g3 Ra4 25.Ne1 Be7 26.Qb2 Bxa3 27.Rxa3 Ne7 28.Nc2 Rca8 29.Rfa1 Rxa3
30.Rxa3 Ra4 31.Nb4 Qa7 32.Ra2 Rxa2 33.Nxa2 Kf7 34.Kf1 Nc6 35.Qxb5 Qxa2 36.Qxc6
Qb1+ 37.Kg2 Qe4+ 38.Kf1 Qh1+ 39.Ke2 Qe4+ ½-½
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UPCOMING EVENTS
To save space, from now on I will only give basic information for events - date,
place, and type. Full details for all the events listed here may be found on
the BCCF site, www.chess.bc.ca.
Junior Events
Apr 3 K-12 Junior Open, Vancouver
Apr 10 Provincial Chess Challenge, Vancouver
Apr 18 Vancouver Grand Prix #7
May 1-2 Provincial CYCC, Vancouver
May 8 Body and Brain Open, Surrey
For full details see www.chess.bc.ca or http://members.shaw.ca/victoriachess/
Individual Chess Matches
Players interested in participating in rated individual chess matches with other
players of comparable or dissimilar ratings can contact Luis E. Azmitia at
azmitia@interchange.ubc.ca Please make sure to include in the e-mail: your
name, your rating, type of game preferred (i.e. active), and the rating range of
possible opponents. Note that the games will be held in the Vancouver area.
Vancouver Saturday Night Chess (2)
Dates: Saturdays March 13, 20, 27, April 3, and April 17
Place: Vancouver Bridge Centre, 2776 East Broadway (at Kaslo), Vancouver
Type: 5-round Swiss
UBC Tuesday Night Chess March/April 2004
Dates: March 16th, 23rd, 30th, April 6th, 13th
Place: UBC Student Union Building, Room 211
Type: 5-round Swiss
Weekend Chess Tournament at Kingsgate Mall
Dates: April 3-4, 2004
Place: Kingsgate Mall - Kingsway and Broadway in Vancouver.
Type: 4-round Swiss
Little Mountain's Regular Swiss - April
Dates: April 5, 12, 19, and 26.
Place: Little Mountain Neighbourhood House, 3981 Main St., Vancouver
Type: 4-round Swiss
B.C. Championship
Dates: April 9-12
Place: Vancouver Bridge Centre
Type: 8-player round robin
Kamloops Grand Prix #3
Date: April 9,10,
Eligibility: for < 2200 only
Place: South Kamloops Secondary School Cafeteria, 821 Munro Street, Kamloops
Type: 6-round Swiss
What a wonderful world
Date: April 24
Place: Fatima Church, Coquitlam (315 Walker st.)
Type: Regular 4-round Swiss
Daffodil Open
Date: April 24-25
Place: University of Victoria, Human & Social Development Bldg., Room A-260
Type: Swiss 5 Rounds
Apple Blossom Open
Date: May 1 & 2
Place: Holiday Inn Express, 4716 34th St., Vernon
Type: 5-round Swiss
29th Paul Keres Memorial
Date: May 21-24
Place: Croatian Community Centre, Vancouver
Type: 6 or 7-round Swiss
http://www.keresmemorial.com/
Vancouver Saturday Night Chess (3)
Dates: Saturdays June 5, 12, 19, 26 and July 3.
Place: Vancouver Bridge Centre, 2776 East Broadway (at Kaslo), Vancouver
Type: 5-round Swiss
Western Canadian Open
Date: July 9-18
Place: Vancouver Airport Conference Resort
Type: 10 round single-section Swiss
Vancouver Saturday Night Chess (4)
Dates: Saturdays July 24, 31, and August 7, 14, 21
Place: Vancouver Bridge Centre, 2776 East Broadway (at Kaslo), Vancouver
Type: 5-round Swiss
Rod Planas Memorial Chess Tournament
Dates: August 7-8, 2004
Place: Sandman Inn, 2130 Harvey Avenue, Kelowna
Type: 5-round Swiss
Kamloops Grand Prix #4
Date: Sept. 18
Place: South Kamloops Secondary School Cafeteria, 821 Munro Street, Kamloops, B.C.
Type: 4-round Swiss
Kamloops Grand Prix #5
Date: Oct. 23
Place: South Kamloops Secondary School Cafeteria, 821 Munro Street, Kamloops, B.C.
Type: 4-round Swiss
Silver Star Challenge (Interior Qualifier)
Date: Nov. 13 & 14
Place: Holiday Inn Express, 4716 34th St., Vernon
Type: 5-round Swiss
Kamloops Grand Prix #6
Date: Nov. 20
Place: South Kamloops Secondary School Cafeteria, 821 Munro Street, Kamloops, B.C.
Type: 4-round Swiss
