BCCF E-MAIL BULLETIN # 7
To subscribe to this Bulletin, go to the BCCF site and register - British Columbia Chess Federation To unsubscribe, just send me an e-mail. Stephen Wright WORLD YOUTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS The 2002 edition of this junior age-category tournament (U10, U12, U14, U16, and U18 sections for both Boys and Girls) has just ended in Heraklio, Crete. Twenty of our best juniors represented Canada in the 802-player event, and several of them were among the leaders in their respective sections: Dinara Khaziyeva placed 13th in the U16 Girls with 7/11, IM Mark Bluvshtein (U14 Boys) and Shiyam Thavandiran (U10 Boys) both placed 8th with 7.5 and 8 points respectively. Canada's best hope for a medal was Alina Sviridovitch (U10 Girls) - in the last round she played for the gold medal on board one. Unfortunately she lost to eventual section winner Lara Stock of Croatia and had to settle for 5th place, still a remarkable performance. B.C. was represented on the team by Fanhao Meng (U14 Boys) and Tiffany Tang (U12 Girls): Fanhao broke even for the event with 5.5/11, while Tiffany was at -1 (5/11). Here is a win by each of them. Meng,F (2313) - Barbosa,H [B22] WYCC - B14 Heraklio (1.11), 15.11.2002 1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nf3 e6 6.cxd4 b6 7.Nc3 Nxc3 8.bxc3 Qc7 9.Bd2 Bb7 10.Bd3 d6 11.0-0 Nd7 12.exd6 Bxd6 13.h3 Bf4 14.c4 Bxd2 15.Nxd2 Qf4 16.Nb3 0-0 17.Qg4 Qxg4 18.hxg4 Rfd8 19.Rfd1 Rac8 20.f3 e5 21.Bf5 exd4 22.Rxd4 Rc7 23.Rad1 Bc8 24.g5 g6 25.Bg4 h6 26.f4 Kf8 27.Nd2 Re8 28.Ne4 Nc5 29.Nf6 Bxg4 30.Nxe8 Kxe8 31.gxh6 Rc8 32.h7 Ke7 33.Rd8 1-0 Tang,T - Chierici,M [C60] WYCC - G12 Heraklio (2.9), 16.11.2002 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nge7 4.0-0 a6 5.Ba4 b5 6.Bb3 d6 7.h3 Bb7 8.c3 Qd7 9.d4 Rd8 10.Re1 h6 11.Nbd2 Ng6 12.Nf1 Be7 13.Ng3 0-0 14.Nf5 Bf6 15.d5 Nce7 16.Ng3 Nc8 17.Bc2 Nb6 18.Nh2 c6 19.dxc6 Bxc6 20.Ng4 Bh4 21.Nf5 Bg5 22.Nfxh6+ gxh6 23.Bxg5 Qc7 24.Bxd8 Qxd8 25.Nxh6+ Kg7 26.Nf5+ Kg8 27.Qxd6 Bd7 28.Rad1 Re8 29.Bb3 Rf8 30.h4 Qc8 31.Qxb6 Bxf5 32.exf5 Qxf5 33.Qe3 Nxh4 34.Qxe5 Qh7 35.Qf6 Rc8 36.Rd7 Rf8 37.Rd8 Qh5 38.Rxf8+ Kxf8 39.Re5 Qh7 40.Qd8+ Kg7 41.Rg5+ Ng6 42.Qd5 Qg8 43.Bc2 Qe8 44.Qd4+ Kh6 45.Rg3 Qc8 46.Bxg6 fxg6 47.Qf6 Qe8 48.Rh3# 1-0 Further games and results can be found on the official website, World Youth Chess Championships 2002, while WYCC 2002 has pictures and information from a Canadian perspective, thanks to Patrick McDonald. BUGHOUSE NEWS by Ben Daswani Unfortunately, only a worst-ever 9 players showed up to the November Open Bughouse Tournament... a mere 60% of the previous record low. Graham Sadoway won the November Open Bughouse Tournament with a score of 31/48. In second was Gavin Atkinson with 29.5 and in third was Ray Barrett with 27.5. The crosstable can be found at http://geocities.com/bughouse_bc/nov02xtable.html. JACK TAYLOR MEMORIAL We will have a report on this event in the next issue. However, the crosstable can already be viewed at Jack Taylor 2002. Among those who tied for second is an unfamiliar name: Valeriya Gansvind is a women's FIDE master from Russia - stay tuned for more details. JUNIOR GRAND PRIX # 3 Thirty-eight players took part in the third Vancouver Grand Prix event, held at the Vancouver Bridge Centre on November 24th. As before, the top half of the field were placed in quads and played three games each, while the remainder took part in a five-round Swiss. Winners in the quads were: Gavin Atkinson and Lucas Davies, Valentina Goutor and Lawrence Bau, Danny Yu and Nikhil Jain, Monika Prokopowicz and Lesley Cheng, and Steven Roller, Kevin Au and Lo-Ching Chow (three-way tie for first). Michael Wee came first in the Swiss with a perfect score, followed by Mihai Beschea on 4.0/5 and a tie for third between Alexandra Botez and Brianna Reid with 3.5. Congratulations to all! Junior Grand Prix 3 Quad A Junior Grand Prix 3 Quad B Junior Grand Prix 3 Quad C Junior Grand Prix 3 Quad D Junior Grand Prix 3 Quad E Junior Grand Prix 3 Swiss Current standings in the Grand Prix are as follows: Atkinson, Gavin 14.3 Davies, Lucas 11.0 Goutor, Valentina 10.9 Davies, Noam 10.6 Cheng, Lesley 10.6 Yu, Danny 10.0 Chow, Lo-Ching 9.5 Almasan, Ovidiu 8.9 Kostin, Andrey 8.7 Young, Bryan 8.4 Sum, Peter 8.1 Participants count their best six scores from the eight Grand Prix events to be held, so there is still plenty of time for the standings to change. The above players have played in all three of the events held so far, other players will close in on their scores as more events take place. READER'S GAME Reader Paul McNichol submitted the following game, played in a recent UBC Tuesday Night event: "In this tournament (I won the Under 1800 Division) I played perhaps one of my best games to date. . . I found move #19.Ne6+ interesting since I thought intuitively that it was the correct move. I do not have a mating attack as of yet, and I do not win any material (so in a sense, it is a true sacrifice), but I felt it was correct, because Black's Queenside pieces had not been developed, and White's pawn on e6 would be very strong positionally." McNichol,P - Hardy,J [B80] UBC September Vancouver (3), 17.09.2002 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Be3 a6 7.f3 b5 8.Qd2 Bb7 9.0-0-0 Be7 10.g4 h6 11.h4 Nfd7 12.h5 Ne5 13.f4 Nxg4 14.Rg1 Nxe3 15.Qxe3 Kf8 16.Qg3 Rg8 17.Bh3 Bc8 18.f5 e5 19.Ne6+ fxe6 20.fxe6 Bg5+ 21.Kb1 Bb7 22.Rdf1+ Bf4 23.Ne2 g5 24.hxg6 Rg7 25.Nxf4 exf4 26.Qxf4+ Kg8 27.Qf7+ Rxf7 28.gxf7+ Kh8 29.f8Q+ Qxf8 30.Rxf8+ Kh7 31.Bf5# 1-0 THIRTY YEARS AGO by Bruce Harper Today, as was the case 20, 30 and 50 years ago, players tend to place more emphasis on openings than on endings. Opening books outsell all others by a wide margin, and players tell themselves "if I really know this opening, I won't have to play an ending - or a middlegame, for that matter!" But interesting things happen in endings. A startling example was Robert Zuk's experience in the 1972 B.C. Open. Zuk, as everyone should know, was long a powerhouse in B.C. chess, and was one of Canada's top players in 1972. But luck was not with him in the 1972 B.C. Open, where he ran into not one, but two stalemates! And by "stalemates" I don't mean the "draws", as uninformed laymen often use the term, but the real thing.
Diagram: WK e1, WB h1, WP d5. BK e3, BB e5, BP d6, h2, h3. In the first game, Zuk had Black against Richard Pomfret, who had been outplayed in what I believe was a King's Indian Defence. Black is two pawns up in an opposite-coloured bishop ending, and while the pawns are doubled on the h-file, Black's more active king and bishop makes you think there is a win there somewhere. Zuk played 1...Bg3+ 2.Kf1 (the king obviously can't go the other way, as Black plays 2...Kf2-g1) Bh4. Now it looks like zugzwang, as White's king can't move and the bishop has no safe square. But after 3.Bf3!, Black is stuck, because 3...Kxf3 is stalemate! Lightening struck again later in the tournament.
Diagram: WK g1, WR d2, d7. BK g5, BQ h3, BP g4, f5. Here Zuk, again playing Black, had good winning chances against Alan Hill. I noted in my column that this was an adjourned position which was played out immediately after the conclusion of the Pomfret-Zuk game, "for the benefit of any psychologists who are interested". Black's winning plan consists of advancing his passed pawns and winning a rook by mate threats. If White's rooks don't remain connected, they will be vulnerable to Black's queen. The first step for Black is to centralize his queen, but Zuk ignored this general principle in favour of the immediate 1...g3?, only to run into 2.Rg7+ Kf4 3.Rd4+ Ke3 4.Re7+! Kf3 5.Re3+! Kxe3 6.Re4+ Kf3 7.Rf4+, with either a stalemate (if the rook is captured) or a perpetual check (if it isn't). I leave it to you to confirm that neither 2...Kh6 nor 2...Kf6 changes the result. Black's problem was that his queen was on a poor square and could never capture White's annoying rook, lifting the stalemate. In both of these games, you'll notice that White had no pawn moves available to him. Stalemates can arise even when the weaker side has pawns which can move, but very rarely (because the pawns have to use up their moves in some combinative way). If your opponent has no pawn moves, watch out for stalemate! Beginners should always leave their opponents some pawn moves (rather than taking them), but everyone has to watch for stalemate tricks. Fairly recently Tiffany Tang let slip a winning rook ending against Valentina Goutor by allowing a perpetual rook attack (as in Hill-Zuk, although Hill had two rooks!), so nothing has really changed in the last thirty years... B.C. - WASHINGTON MATCHES Due to their proximity and relative isolation from other major chess centres, there has always been a (generally!) friendly rivalry between players from British Columbia and the state of Washington. For many years this rivalry has had an official outlet in team matches: from the mid-1940s onwards a large annual match was held, sometimes on 50 boards or more. That particular series died out in the early 1960s, but was revived in 1985 as an individual match between the B.C. and Washington champions (or representatives), played on the large set at Park Royal Mall. This ended in 1992; instead we now have an annual junior match, with two players from each grade (1-12) squaring off against their respective counterparts from the other country. This year's event takes place in Seattle on December 7th, and we wish our twenty-four member team the best of luck as they attempt to repeat their winning performance from last year. One of the more unusual B.C. - Washington contests took place in 1968 - unusual, in that it was conducted by radio. Willie Skubi (Washington) set up the match, using the facilities of ham radio operators John Solbakken (Seattle) and Bob Eldridge (Vancouver). Seattle had requested the strongest possible opposition, so Elridge lined up Duncan Suttles, Bob Zuk (replacing Elod Macskasy on short notice) and Tim Anderson. The Vancouver players won the match fairly easily, with a final score of 2.5-1.5. "The game on board 1 went on after the other two had finished. Pupols was in trouble with a bad position and six moves to make in 3 minutes to the time control. He made them with full 40 seconds to spare, but by that time was dependent on some kind of a swindle to pull it out of the fire" Pupols,V - Suttles,D [A42] Radio match, 1, 1968 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.e4 d6 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.Be3 e5 6.d5 Nce7 7.f3 f5 8.Bd3 Nf6 9.exf5 gxf5 10.Nge2 0-0 11.Qd2 c6 12.0-0-0 cxd5 13.Nxd5 Nexd5 14.cxd5 Qc7+ 15.Qc2 Rf7 16.Nc3 a6 17.Kb1 b5 18.Bxf5 b4 19.Ne2 Bxf5 20.Qxf5 Nxd5 21.Qe4 Nxe3 22.Qxa8+ Rf8 23.Qe4 Nxd1 24.Rxd1 Qb6 25.Ng3 Kh8 26.Qd3 Qf2 27.Qd2 Qxd2 28.Rxd2 Rd8 29.Rd5 Bf8 30.Ne4 Be7 31.Kc2 Kg7 32.Kb3 Kf7 33.Kxb4 Ke6 34.Nc3 Rc8 35.Ra5 Rb8+ 36.Ka3 d5+ 37.Ka4 Rb4+ 38.Ka3 d4 39.Ne4 d3 40.Nc5+ Bxc5 41.Rxc5 d2 42.Kxb4 d1Q 43.Rc6+ Kd5 44.Rc8 Qd4+ 45.Kb3 Qd3+ 46.Rc3 Qd1+ 47.Ka3 Qd2 48.g4 Qxh2 49.Kb3 Qe2 50.a3 a5 51.Ka2 h6 52.Kb3 Kd4 53.Ka2 a4 54.Rc6 Qxf3 55.Rxh6 Qxg4 56.Rb6 Kd3 57.Rb4 Qd1 58.Rb8 e4 59.Rd8+ Kc2 60.Rxd1 Kxd1 0-1 ". . . on board 2 Bob Zuk mounted a crushing attack with a remorseless squad of peons pushing Jeff Fox back into his field . . . Bob noted afterwards: 'I think Black's 6-7-8 moves premature - he should castle. On move 17 Black should take the pawn. After White's 18th Black is lost.'" Zuk,R - Fox,J [E80] Radio match, 2, 1968 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 g6 4.e4 Bg7 5.f3 c6 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 b5 8.g4 Qa5 9.h4 h5 10.g5 Nh7 11.f4 Nd7 12.a3 Rb8 13.Nf3 Nhf8 14.Bd3 bxc4 15.Bxc4 c5 16.0-0 Ne6 17.b4 Qc7 18.Nd5 Qa7 19.dxc5 dxc5 20.Rad1 Qb7 21.f5 gxf5 22.exf5 Nc7 23.Bxc5 Nxd5 24.Bxd5 Qc7 25.f6 Qg3+ 26.Qg2 Qxg2+ 27.Kxg2 Bf8 28.g6 fxg6 29.f7+ Kd8 30.Ba7 1-0 "On board 3 Chris Corwin playing White considers he had an advantage which he let slip. Tim Anderson offered a draw around move 16 or so, and one was agreed on move 25 after his original 25th move had been incorrectly communicated . . . Both players were rather short of time, with 15 mins and 24 mins respectively for another 25 moves. The time control was 50 in 2." Corwin,C - Anderson,T [D04] Radio match, 3, 1968 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 g6 4.Nbd2 Bg7 5.Bd3 0-0 6.e4 dxe4 7.Nxe4 Nxe4 8.Bxe4 Nd7 9.0-0 Nf6 10.Bd3 Bg4 11.Be3 c6 12.h3 Bxf3 13.Qxf3 Qd5 14.Qe2 Rad8 15.Rfe1 e6 16.c3 Rd7 17.Bf4 Qa5 18.Be5 Nh5 19.Bxg7 Kxg7 20.Qf3 Qd5 21.Qg4 Nf6 22.Qg3 Rfd8 23.Re5 Qd6 24.f4 Kh8 25.Rae1 ½-½ [Quotations by Bob Elridge from Northwest Chess, June 1968, 12-14.] UPCOMING EVENTS Upcoming junior events: December 7 Annual BC - Washington Junior Match, Seattle December 8 Greater Victoria City Championship December 8 Christmas Party/Blitz/Siamese, Vancouver Bridge Centre For details visit British Columbia Chess Federation or Greater Victoria Junior Chess UBC Tuesday Night Swiss - November - December 2002 Dates: November 12th, 19th, 26th, December 3rd, 10th Place: UBC Student Union Building, Room 211 Rounds: 5 round Swiss System (one round per week) Time: Round 1; a.s.a.p. after 7pm, Rounds 2-5; 6:30pm Time Control: 40 moves / 90 minutes, game / 60 minutes Entry Fee: $15, $12 UBC CC members (available at site), $8 juniors, $Free to masters and those joining CFC/BCCF for the first time Registration: 6:30 - 7 pm before round 1 Prizes: Based on entries ($$BEN) Org & TD: Lyle Craver (604)980-2040 Misc: half point byes available for rounds 1-4 when requested at least 24 hours before game time (in person or by phone only please - no e-mail bye requests!) Please bring sets, clocks, etc. Saturday Chess Fever Date: Nov. 16, 23, 30, Dec. 7, 14 Location: at the Bridge Center 2776 East Broadway, Vancouver Rds: 5 Type: Regular Swiss, 2 sections Open and Under 1700 Time: Games start at 5:00p.m. Time Control: 30/90 G/60 Entry Fee: $25, $20 for Juniors and Masters Prizes: $$ BEN Org: James Kerry (604) 438-7666 and Luc Poitras (604) 438-0496 Northshorechess.com CM Invitational Date: Nov.30-Dec. 1, 2002 Place: New Westminster, BC Rds: 5 Type: 6-player RR Round times: 9, 2, 7/ 9, ASAP TC: SD 120 EF: $35 Prizes: 1st $100 plus Fritz 7 software Reg: interested expert players (2000-2199) e-mail chessfm@shaw.ca for invitations TD & Org: Vas Sladek Misc: no smoking, CFC membership required, one ChessBase magazine EXTRA issue to all players completing their schedule Mt. Seymour December Active Date: Saturday, 7.December, 2002 Place: Parkgate Branch, North Van District Public Library The Enid Dearing meeting room, 3675 Banff Court, North Vancouver, BC Rds: 6-player, 5 RR Type: Active, CFC-rated Times: 10 a.m. start TC: G30 EF: $12 for CFC members, non-members add $10 Prizes: 1st ChessBase magazine CD Reg: interested players must pre-register by e-mail: chessfm@shaw.ca Org/TD: Vas Sladek, www.northshorechess.com Misc: bring sets, digital clocks provided Dan MacAdam Memorial Tournament Date: January 18th and January 19th 2003 Type: 5 Round Swiss Entry Fee: $35 Regular, $25 for Juniors Prize Fund: 100% of EF minus Expenses CFC Rated Time Control 40/90 minutes - SD/1 Hour Location: University of Victoria, Human & Social Development Building, Room A-260 Registration: January 18th 8:30AM at the site. Organizer & TD: Lynn Stringer Contact: Lynn Stringer at lynnstringer@shaw.ca ; Tel (250) 658 5207 Kelowna Winter Fest Dates: Feb. 8 & 9, 2003 Type: 5 Round Swiss Times: 9/2/7; 9/asap Place: Sandman Inn Kelowna B.C. 2130 Harvey Ave across from Orchard Park Mall (250) 860-6409 Entry: $25, $20 Seniors, $15 Juniors Non CFC pay entry + $12 Prizes: BEN TD & Org Lynn Stringer, Wally Steinke & Ian Higgs wsteinke@sd22.bc.ca ph (250) 545-6677 ianofski@cablelan.net Kelowna Summer Fest Dates: July. 5 & 6, 2003 Type: 5 Round Swiss Times: 9/2/7; 9/asap Place: Sandman Inn Kelowna B.C. 2130 Harvey Ave across from Orchard Park Mall (250) 860-6409 Entry: $25, $20 Seniors, $15 Juniors Non CFC pay entry + $12 Prizes: BEN TD & Org Lynn Stringer Wally Steinke & Ian Higgs wsteinke@sd22.bc.ca ph (250) 545-6677 ianofski@cablelan.net
