vincent huang wins high school championship

R ank & File MAY-JUNE 2009 VOLUME XXXIII, NO. 3 $3.00

Vincent Huang wins High School

Championship

2 RANK & FILE MAY-JUNE 2009

2009 Lina Grumete

Memorial Day ClassicMay 23-25, 2009

$10,000 Prize Fund!(based on 200 players, 50% of each prize guaranteed)

at theLAX Hilton

5711 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90045Six Rounds — Swiss System

3-day schedule 40/2, SD/1; 2-day schedule rounds 1-3 G/1

Entry Fees: $83 if received by 5-22, $95 at door

U1400 or unrated: $67 by 5-22, $80 doorOn-line entry: www.westernchess.com

SCCF membership required of rated state residents ($18, jr. $10)On-Site Registration: 9-10 a.m. 5-23 (3-day), 8:30-9:30 a.m. 5-

24 (2-day)Rounds: 3-day 10:30-5 Sat. & Sun, 10-4:30 Mon.; 2-day 10-

12:15-2:30 Sunday (G/60), then mergesEntries: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N. Wilton Place #1, Los

Angeles, CA 90038HR: $109 single or double. (310) 410-4000, use group code

LDM.Parking $10/day

More details, advance entry lists: www.westernchess.com

Open1st: $1800 + T

2nd-5th: $750-$400-$300-$200U2400: $400

U2200: $700-$300- $200

Premier(Under 2000)

$750-$300-$200-$100

Amateur(Under 1800)

$750-$300-$200-$100

Reserve(Under 1600/unrated)

$750-$300-$200-$100U1400 $400-$200

U1200 $150 Unrated $150

Best Game Prize: $25 (all sections eligible)

AlsoMay 24

MDC SCHOLASTICS. 5-SS, G/30. LAX Hilton, 5711 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045. Open to gr. 12-be-low.

May 25MDC HEXES. 3-SS, G/90. LAX Hilton, 5711 W. Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045 . Six-player sections by rating.

May 25MEMORIAL DAY ACTION SWISS. 5-SS, G/30. LAX Hilton, 5711 W. Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045. $$500 b/40, else proportional:


CONTENTSAROUND THE NATION ........... .........................................................3SCCF SCHOLASTIC CHAMPIONSHIPS ..............57TH ANNUAL

WESTERN PACIFIC OPEN .....................................................7EDITORIAL: USCF ELECTION .........................................................8TACTICS

BY TIM HANKS .................................. .......................................................................9HERE & THERE

Club news, local tournaments, scholastic events and more ............................................................................. 13CLUB DIRECTORY .................................................................................. 17STATE CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS ................. 22UPCOMING EVENTS ............................................................................. 22CHESS QUIZ .............................................. ....................................................... 24


CONTENTSAROUND THE NATION ........... .........................................................3SCCF SCHOLASTIC CHAMPIONSHIPS ..............57TH ANNUAL

WESTERN PACIFIC OPEN .....................................................7EDITORIAL: USCF ELECTION .........................................................ELECTION .........................................................ELECTION 8TACTICS

BY TIM HANKS ..................................TIM HANKS ..................................TIM HANKS .......................................................................9HERE & THERE Club news, local tournaments, scholastic scholastic schol eventsastic eventsastic and more .............................................................................and more .............................................................................and more 13CLUB DIRECTORY ..................................................................................CLUB DIRECTORY ..................................................................................CLUB DIRECTORY 17STATE CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERSSTATE CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERSSTATE CHAMPIONSHIP Q .................22UPCOMING EVENTS .............................................................................22CHESS QUIZ .............................................. .......................................................24

CONTENTSAROUND THE NATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321ST ANNUAL U.S. AMATEUR TEAM

WEST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5WESTERN CLASS CHAMPIONSHIPS . . . . . . . . 10TACTICS

by Tim Hanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12HERE & THERE

Club news, local tournaments, scholastic events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

STATE CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS . . . . . . 19GAMES FROM RECENT EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . 21THE LIGHTER SIDE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24UPCOMING EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26CHESS QUIZ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Around the Nation

Around the Nation

SupernationalsThe big significance of 2009

to thousands of scholastic players across the U.S. is that it marks the quadrennial Supernationals, which brings the High School, Junior High, and Elementary champion-ships together under one big tent. In this case, the “tent” was again the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center (the equivalent of several hotels under a “green-house” atrium) in Nashville, with over 5200 entrants competing in no less than 20 sections April 3-5.

New York is often the big winner, and despite expensive airfares and weather-induced travel difficul-ties, such was again the case, with IM Robert Hess sweeping the K-12 Championship section and leading Stuyvesant High to a team vic-tory. Despite more favorable fares, Southern Californians turned out at a lesser rate than they did four years ago, but there were a few suc-cess stories.

Tianyi He took 13th place in K-12 with 5½ of 7, and led his Temple City High teammates (Robert Xue, Terrence Sun, and Jim Lee) to an eighth-place team finish with 17 points of 28. In the K-9 Champion-ship, Christian Tanaka was fifth with 5½, and our state high school winners, University High of Irvine (Vincent Huang, Paul Duncan, and Aaron Ong) was sixth team with 14 points. Huang and Duncan each scored 5 for tenth and 13th individ-ual places respectively. Daniel Gior-dani of Goleta was 18th with 4½.

Eric Zhang was ninth in the K-8 Championship with 5½. Varun Krishnan was tenth in K-6 cham-

TEMPLE CITY HIGH CHESS TEAM AT THE SUPERNATIONALS


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SCCF OnlineThe SCCF Web

page is located at: www.scchess.com

President Elliot Landaw Vice President Ron Rezendes Secretary Chuck Ensey Treasurer John Hillery Executive Board

Randy Hough Mike Nagaran Rick Aeria Jim Bullock Mick Bighamian Jerry Yee Anthony Ong Takashi Iwamoto Rank & File Editor John Hillery 835 N. Wilton Pl. # Los Angeles CA 90038 [email protected]

Publisher David Argall Contributing Editors Jack Peters Tim Hanks Al Pena Contributors

Chuck Ensey Randy Hough Anthony Ong Chris Roberts Steve Morford Subscriptions/Address Changes Randy Hough, Membership Secretary P.O. Box 205 Monterey Park CA 9754 (626) 282-742 [email protected]

Rank & File — ISSN 8750-964 USPS 738-230, published bimonthly by the Southern California Chess Federation, 300 Ballista, La Puente CA 9744. Periodical postage paid at Industry, CA. POST-MASTER: Send changes of address to SCCF, PO Box 205, Monterey Park CA 9754. Subscriptions: $8 adult, $0 junior.

Copyright © SCCF 2009. One-time only publication rights have been obtained from signed contributors. All other rights are hereby assigned to the authors. The opinions expressed are strictly those of the contribu-tors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SCCF, its officers or members.

Southern California Chess Federation

pionship with 5½. Michael Brown faded after a 5-0 start but finished 13th with 5 points. Leo Kamgar was 19th with 5½ in the K-3 Cham-pionship (his only loss was to an 1801-rated third grader – scary!). Other winners included David Shin, 11th with 5 points in K-12 Unrated; Gagik Papoyan (13th) and Jayson Tay-Son (15th), each with 5½ in K-6 Under 1000; Jared Tan, 7th in K-12 Blitz; and Cheston Gunawan, 22nd in K-9 Blitz. – Randy Hough

Amateur Team Champions!

“ACA Beasts!,” winners of the U.S. Amateur Team West in Wood-land Hills, won an Internet playoff March 21 for the title of 2009 U.S. Amateur Team champions. The team of John Daniel Bryant, Mi-chael Yee, Vincent Huang and San-ty Wong tied matches against the North and South winners but de-feated both of them in speed chess playoffs.

SCCF ElectionSix spots are open on the SCCF

Executive Board. Ballots will be in-cluded in the July issue of Rank & File, or you may vote at the Annual Membership Meeting at the South-ern California Open (September 5-7, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 2270 Hotel Circle North in San Diego). If you are interested in serving on the Board, please write to: SCCF Nominations Committee, PO Box 205, Monterey Park, CA 91754, or e-mail [email protected].

Photos: Cover, pp. 5, 6, 7: John Hil-lery. P. 3: Randy Hough. P. 14: An-thony Ong. P. 16: San Diego Chess Club.

2009 World Youth Championships

The USCF has announced the qualifiers for the 2009 World Youth Chess Championships, to be held in Antalya, Turkey from November 11 – 23. Invitees from California include Sam Shankland and John Daniel Bryant (Boys U18), Dan-iel Naroditzky and Gregory Young (Boys U14), Michael Brown, Yian Liou and Varun Krishnan (Boys U12), Samuel Sevian (Boys U10, Winston Zeng (Boys U8), Simone Liao (Girls U10), and Annie Wang and Alisha Chawla (Girls U8). – USCF news release

Reno Far West OpenThe 2009 Far West Open, held

April 10-12 at the Sands Regency Hotel and Casino in Reno, had a slightly disappointing turnout of 182. Tying for first in the 54-player Open section with 5-1 were GM Ser-gey Kudrin, IM Enrico Sevillano, and IM Gergely Antal of Hungary. Other Southern Californians in the Open included John Daniel Bryant (4½), Alexander Kretchetov (4), and GM Melikset Khachiyan (3½). Class section winners were Arthur Liou (A), Michael Don Jones (B), Benja-min Tong (C), and Stephen Mixsell (D). Jerome Weikel directed.


Huang Captures Scholastic Championshipby Randy Hough

The SCCF State Scholastic Championship attracted 151 players to the LAX Hilton on March 14-15. Four rapidly improving youngsters took top

honors.

In the High School section, the fourth seed, ninth grader Vincent Huang, topped the field with a 4½ - ½ score. He drew fifth-seeded Jared Tan in the fourth round, and in the finale downed young Austin Hughes, who had previously upset the first and third seeds, Christian Tanaka and Michael Yee. Tan and Yee trailed a half-point behind the winner.

Huang’s well-stocked team, University High of Irvine (other players were Paul Duncan, Aldrich Ong, Aaron Ong, David Shin, Robert Khachatryan, and George Yung) beat out Temple City High by a half-point for team honors, earning $500 in expense money from SCCF’s Scholastic Fund for their trip to the Supernationals. Joanne Koong scored 2½, ahead of Taylor McCreary on tiebreaks, the best result by a girl. She and Huang respectively will represent Southern California in the Polgar and Denker tournaments of state champions this summer, also with SCCF support.

In Junior High, form prevailed, as top seed Jeffrey Ding was clear first with 6-1, drawing with Alexander Pearson

SCCF Scholastic

Championships

TEAM WINNERS — UNIVERSITY HIGH OF IRVINE: VINCENT HUANG, AARON ONG, ALDICH ONG, ROBERT KHACHATRYAN, DAVID SHIN, AND PAUL RAYMOND DUNCAN.

and Zheng Zhu. These two, along with Gerard Boberg and Albert Lu, finished a respectful point behind the winner.

In Elementary (the largest section, with 57 players), fourth grader David Minasyan, the fourth seed, emerged on top with 6½ - ½, just ahead of Justin Tay. Yusheng Xia and Winston Zeng tallied 5½.


Coalinga (coming quite a distance from the Central Valley) was the best school.

Third grader Leo Kamgar was the favorite in Primary and prevailed with 6½; Annie Wang and Brett Wong were a half-point behind. Coalinga was also the best school in this group.

Beyond Chess took club honors in all four sections. Randy Hough, Anthony Ong, and Ivona Jezierska directed.

JUNIOR HIGH WINNER JEFFREY DING

AUSTIN HUGHES

ALLAN TSOI

JOANNE KOONG EARNED A SPOT IN THE SUSAN POLGAR NATIONAL

INVITATIONAL FOR GIRLS.

JARED TAN

MICHAEL YEE


7th Annual

Western Pacific OpenLAX Hilton

March 13-15, 2009

Emory Tate received the Best Game prize for his victory of youth-ful star Garnik Baghdasaryan.

IM Emory Tate (2393) – Garnik Baghdasaryan (2250)

7th Western Pacifi c Open, Los Angeles 2009

B75 SICILIAN DEFENSE, Dragon Variation1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6 4.

d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Bg7 6. Be3 d6 7. f3 Nf6 8. Qd2 h5 9. 0–0–0 Bd7 10. h3 Rc8 11. Kb1 a6 12. Qe1 Qc7 13. Nb3 b5 14. Bg5

Nb4 15. Na1 Nh7 16. Bd2 Be6 17.

a3 Nc6 18. Ne2 Nf6 19. Nf4 Bc4 20. Bc3 Ne5 21. Nb3 Bh6 22. Nd3 Bxd3 23. Bxd3 Nfd7 24. Rf1 Bg7 25. Be2 0–0 26. g4 hxg4 27. hxg4 Nc4 28. Bxc4 Qxc4 29. Rd3 Ne5 30. Re3 Qe6

Or 30. … g5 31. Rh1 Rc7 32. Rh5 Bf6 33. Re2 b4 34. axb4 Rb8 35. Reh2 Ng6 36. Bxf6 exf6 37. Qh1.

31. Qh4 Rxc3 32. Rxc3 Nc4 33. Rd3 Rc8 34. Nd4 Qd7 35. f4 Qc7 36. c3 a5 37. f5 g5 38. Qh5 b4 39. Ne6

XIIIIIIIIY

9-+r+-+k+0

9+-wq-zppvl-0

9-+-zpN+-+0

9zp-+-+PzpQ0

9-zpn+P+P+0

9zP-zPR+-+-0

9-zP-+-+-+0

9+K+-+R+-0

xiiiiiiiiy

39. … fxe6 The sharp try 39. … Nxa3+ fails

to 40. Kc1 (40. bxa3? Qc4) 40. … Qc4 41. Rh1 (41. Nxg5 Be5 42. Ne6 probably also wins, but more slowly) 41. … fxe6 42. fxe6 Qxe6 43. Rf3 Bh6 44. Qxh6 Qxh6 45. Rxh6 Nc4 46. Rg6+.

40. fxe6 Ne5 41. Rh3 1–0

Two other serious ciontenders for the prize:

Nathaniel Lagemann (1989) – IM Jack Peters (2396)


B33 SICILIAN DEFENSE1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4.

Nxd4 Qb6 5. Nb3 Nf6 6. Bd3 e6 7. Nc3 a6 8. 0–0 d6 9. Be3 Qc7 10. f4 Be7 11. Kh1 b5 12. Qe2 Bb7 13. Bg1 0–0 14. Rf3 Rfe8 15. Rh3 g6 16. Nb1 e5 17. Qf2 d5 18. exd5 Nxd5 19. fxe5 Nxe5 20. Be4

XIIIIIIIIY

9r+-+r+k+0

9+lwq-vlp+p0

9p+-+-+p+0

9+p+nsn-+-0

9-+-+L+-+0

9+N+-+-+R0

9PzPP+-wQPzP0

9tRN+-+-vLK0

xiiiiiiiiy

20. … Ng4 21. Qg3 Bd6 22. Qxg4 Rxe4 23. Qg5 Nf4 24. Rf3 Re2 0–1

The next game would prob-ably have won if White had found 27. Ne6+ Kb8 28. Nxf8!. The way he played it enver let the win slip, but it let Black fight on for quite a while.

Vadim Kudryavtsev (2206) – Ben-jamin De Vera (1817)


D48 SEMI-SLAV DEENSE, Meran Variation1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. d4 d5 4. Nc3

Although the prize fund was smaller, and a number of the usual suspect played in the concurrent SCCF Scholastic

Championships instead, the Western Pacific Open had a good turnout of 81. First place went to State champion IM Enrico Se-villano, who defeated three masters on the way to a 4½-½ score. Next with 4-1 were IM Jack Peters (the only one to nick Sevil-lano), Garush Manukyan, and Gregg Small.

In the Amateur (Under 2000) section, Ryan Polsky passed up the scholastic tour-nament to take first with 4½-½. Jason Kammerdiner (Polsky’s last-round victim), Steven Morford, Gautam Ni-panikar, Kenneth Poole and Michael Bynum were next at 4-1. John Hillery directed.

IM EMORY TATE


Prize WinnersOpen1st: IM Enrico Sevillano, 4½-½; 2nd-4th: IM Jack Peters, Garush Ma-

nukyan, Gregg Small, 4-1; 5th: John Daniel Bryant, Ryan Porter, 3½-1½; U2200: Ryan Richardson, Varun Krishnan, 3-2.

Amateur1st: Ryan Polsky, 4½-½; 2nd-3rd: Gautam Nipanikar, Kenneth Poole,

Steven Morford, 4-1; 1st-2nd U1800: Jason Kammerdiner, Michael By-num, 3½-1½; 3rd U1800: Ernesto Soto, Ronald Morriss, 3½-1½; 1st-2nd U1600: Michael Phalen, David Connors, 3-2; 3rd U1600: Babken Krbashi-an, Crescen Tolentino, 2½-2½; U1400: Joseph Reynolds, 2½-2½; U1200: Jospeh Calderon, 2-3; Unrated: Hovhanes Melkonyan, 1½-3½

Hexes: Section 1: Ray Wong, 2½-½; Section 2: Bryan Shapiro, Zaven Khachiyan, Antonio Malapira, Elijah Ullman, 2-1.

c6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 a6 9. e4 c5 10. d5 exd5 11. e5 Ng4 12. Bg5 Qa5 13. 0–0 d4 14. Nd5 Bb7 15. Qe1 b4 16. Be4 Rc8 17. Nf6+ gxf6 18. Bxb7 Rc7 19. exf6+ Kd8 20. Qe4 Qb6 21. Bd5 Ngxf6 22. Rfe1 Bd6 23. Bxf7 Rc8 24. Rac1 h6 25. Bh4 Rf8 26. Nxd4 Kc7

XIIIIIIIIY

9-+r+-tr-+0

9+-mkn+L+-0

9pwq-vl-sn-zp0

9+-zp-+-+-0

9-zp-sNQ+-vL0

9+-+-+-+-0

9PzP-+-zPPzP0

9+-tR-tR-mK-0

xiiiiiiiiy

27. Qe6 Kb7 28. Nf5 Bf4 29. Rcd1 Qxe6 30. Bxe6 Rc7 31. Bg3 Bxg3 32. hxg3 h5 33. b3 Nb6 34. f3 a5 35. Nd6+ Kc6 36. Nc4 Nxc4 37. Bxc4 Re8 38. Kf2 Rce7 39. Rxe7 Rxe7 40. Rd8 Rd7 41. Rxd7 Kxd7 42. Ke3 Kd6 43. Kf4 Nd5+ 44. Kg5 Ne3 45. Bd3 c4 46. bxc4 Nxg2 47. f4 Ne3 48. f5 a4 49. f6 Ke6 50. c5 b3 51. axb3 axb3 52. c6 Nd5 53. Bf5+ Kf7 54. Bg6+ Kf8 55. Bxh5 b2 56. Bg6 Nc7 57. Bb1 Ne6+ 58. Kg6 Ke8 59. g4 Kd8 60. g5 Kc7 61. Kh6 Nf4 62. g6 Kxc6 63. g7 Kc5 64. g8Q Kd4 65. Qg4 Ke5 66. Qxf4+ Kxf4 67. f7 1–0

EditorialUSCF election: Dark is the Day

There’s yet another USCF election coming up this July. Four seats on the seven-member Executive Board are up for grabs. Frankly, there isn’t anyone on the ballot I really want to vote for. But there are several we should all vote against.

TolerableMichael Atkins – Active TD in the Maryland-Virginia area. He’s shown

a certain lack of restraint in commenting on the USCF’s legal problems, but he’s qualified for the job.

Jim Berry – Coming off a two-year term. I am generally unenthusiastic about people running for re-election, but he’s performed satisfactorily.

Ruth Haring – Experienced player (she competed in the U.S. Women’s Championship a few times), excellent real-world credentials. A shot in the dark, but worth a try.

MarginalMike Nietman – I don’t know him well. Personally pleasant. Mainly

a scholastic person, which is not a plus in my book but not disqualifying either.

Bill Goichberg – I wish I could rank him higher. I have enormous re-spect for Bill’s accomplishments, but he’s a lightning rod for controversy and he’s been on the Board too long. He’s served with honor; now he should step aside with honor.

Mikhail Korenman – He did a good job a few years ago with the “Kar-pov Chess School” in Lindsborg, Kansas, but his performance since then has been unimpressive. Seems to lack follow-through.

Eric Hecht – He was one of Blas Lugo’s backers for the Miami Open (see below). Unless he dissociates himself from that fiasco (which he hasn’t even tried to do yet), I have to rate him as unacceptable.

AwfulBlas Lugo – IM and tournament organizer from Florida. Only one prob-

lem, but it’s a big one – at last year’s Miami Open, he reneged on a guaranteed prize fund, shorting the players by several thousand dollars. If you’ve ever

played in a tournament and expect-ed to receive your prize, don’t vote for him.

Brian Mottershead & Brian Lafferty – A pair of nasty, backbit-ing trolls with zero knowledge or experience in chess, who think they should be able to start at the top. In a better year, their candidacies would be a joke. Let’s make it so.

Sam Sloan – Perpetual candi-date. Serial and vexatious litigant. Walking cartoon. If you want to cast a protest vote, write in Mickey Mouse. He’d do a better job. – John Hillery


We learn more from our losses than from our wins.

Beginners often show skill im-provements more than experienced players and eventually they begin to play fairly consistently around a certain level. Rising above that level (or rating class) for just about any player usually requires more advanced study, training and in-struction. Studying tactics is one of the best ways to improve and offers one of the greatest benefits of rating points gained for the time invested. Sure, studying openings and end-games is important, too. However, in my opinion, tactical study should rule.

So what does it mean to “study” tactics? Studying tactics is famil-iarizing yourself as much as pos-sible with various patterns that are commonly experienced during all games. A simple example is the

“removing the guard” tactical motif where a defending piece is removed and this allows for a combinative gain of material or sometimes much more (like checkmate). See Posi-tion No. 1. It’s Black to move. What would you do?

TacticsTacticsby NM Tim Hanks

Position No. 1. Black to moveXIIIIIIIIY

9-tr-+-+k+0

9+-+-trpzp-0

9pzp-zp-+-+0

9+-zpP+R+q0

9-+P+P+n+0

9zPQ+L+-zPl0

9-+-+-+-zP0

9+-vL-+-tRK0

xiiiiiiiiy

The Black Queen is attacked by the White Rook on f5. Black wins by employing the “removing the guard” tactical motif with 1. … Qxf5. The Rook’s purpose was to defend the vital f2 square. Remov-ing the Rook allows White to force a winning advantage, since if 2. exf5then 2. …Nf2 checkmate. Thus Black uses tactics to win material, as White is hopelessly lost when down the full Rook. Other moves like 1. … Qg6 will allow White to escape with 2. Rf4.

The more you study tactical mo-tifs, such as deflections, skewers, forks, double-attacks, decoying, etc. the more you will become familiar with these themes during your own games and take advantage of the opportunities that arise. I can prac-tically guarantee for most players that if they review their games us-ing a computer program, like Fritz, Rybka and others that they will probably find a winning tactical combination that was missed dur-ing the game.

Here’s another position where knowledge of tactical motifs is im-portant to winning more games. It’s Black to move. What would you do?

Position No. 2. Black to moveXIIIIIIIIY

9-+r+-+-mk0

9zpL+-+pvlp0

9-zp-+-+p+0

9+-+-+-wq-0

9-zP-sn-+-+0

9+-sN-+-+-0

9P+-+-zPPzP0

9+-tR-wQ-mK-0

xiiiiiiiiy

A quick review of the position shows that materiel is equal. The only “obvious” threat is the Black Rook on c8 being attacked by the White Bishop. So what do you do? Do you move to defend the Rook or do something else? Studying tactics and recognizing the placement of the pieces helps us to find winning tactical combinations. In this posi-tion the Black pieces are arranged for a forced and winning combina-tion. Black wins with 1. … Qxc1!(deflection). This threatens mate, forcing White’s reply 2. Qxc1. Now Black continues with 2. … Rxc3(decoy). White observes that if 3. Qxc3 Black will play 3. … Ne2+, forking the Queen and King, and thus winning back the Queen and gaining a piece to boot. So instead White tries 3. Qd2. However, Black then plays 3. … Rc1+ anyway (de-flection) forcing 4. Qxc1 and then Ne2+ (fork) 5. Kf1 Nxc1 emerging a full piece ahead with a winning endgame.


There are many tactical mo-tifs. Some are much more common than others, and some are very rare and complex -- like a Novot-ny, named after Antonin Novotny who discovered this or a Grimshaw, named after Walter Grimshaw. You find these kinds of tactical motifs mostly in chess compositions and problems; however, they can and do occur in games. To quickly demon-strate an example of a Novotny, see Position No. 3. It’s White to move. What would you do?

Position No. 3. White to move. XIIIIIIIIY

9-+-+r+-mk0

9zp-+R+Qzp-0

9-zp-+-+-zp0

9+-+-+-+P0

9q+p+-+-+0

9+-vl-+-vL-0

9PzP-+rzPP+0

9mK-+R+-+-0

xiiiiiiiiy

This is from the game Miles vs Pritchett, 1982. White wins by em-ploying a Novotny with 1. Be5. This move threatens mate on g7, breaks the coordination between the 2 Black Rooks (threatens Qxe8), and defends b2 – all in just one move! Black only has one move to ward off an immediate loss, which is 1. … Qxd7, but after 2. Qxd7 his posi-tion is completely lost. The Grim-shaw motif works similarly to this and perhaps I’ll cover more on these themes in future tactics articles.

Along the lines of knowing your tactical themes is knowing when to resign. Mistakes or blundering in chess comes in all shapes and siz-es. You can drop a pawn due to an oversight right out of the opening or lose a piece from a crafty middle-game combination. These are very common blunders, to which all players are susceptible. But there are blunders that are much worse than these – so much so you can hardly get a good night’s rest as the

pain of the mistake keeps getting played over and over in your mind. I’ve been asked, “What is the worst blunder you’ve ever made?” I’ve made many, but I’ll never forget this game where in a time scramble my opponent’s flag fell. But I did not see or call it. Instead, with a to-tally winning position and thinking any move wins, I made the one and only worst move possible allowing a mate in 1 and thus I lost. I was shocked! USCF rules state that the checkmate overrules a fallen clock flag. That was a very painful loss. I have seen many games where play-ers actually resign with a winning position. In some of these games the player may never learn of the pre-mature resignation. Perhaps that was better as at least he got some sleep that night. However, it’s when you do find out that not only did you resign by mistake but also that you let a win get away that the real ag-ony of the loss sets in. Let’s review some examples. Take a look at Posi-tion No. 4. It’s White to move.

Position No. 4. White to move.XIIIIIIIIY

9-+ktr-+-+0

9zppzp-+-zPp0

6-+-+RzP-vL0

9+-tr-+-+-0

9-+-+-zP-+0

9+P+-+-+-0

9P+-zp-+-zP0

9+-+K+-+-0

xiiiiiiiiy

Black threatens 1. … Rc1+ 2. Ke2 d1=Q+ and Black will check-mate White rather quickly. The position looks absolutely hopeless for White. Most players looking at this give up and resign which is what happened in the actual game. But -- can you find any recourse for White? Try to solve this before reading the solution.

White wins with the sensation-al move 1. Rd6! Just that quickly, White employs a powerful deflec-

tion motif that turns the tables, as he immediately threatens 2. Rxd8+ Kxd8 and 3. g8=Q+ winning eas-ily. Black’s “best try” may be 1. … Rxd6 (as other attempts like 1…Rc1+ will fail), but then 2. g8=Q+ Kd7 3. Qxh7+ Kc8 4. Qg8+ Kd7 5. Qf7+ Kc6 6. Qe8+ Kb6 7. Qe3! seals the deal. After 7. … Kc6 8. Qxc5+ Kxc5 9. f7 Rd8 10. f8=Q+ Rxf8 11. Bxf8+, and White will win easily.

Let’s try another. See Position No. 5. It’s Black to move.

Position No. 5. Black to move. XIIIIIIIIY

9-+-tr-+k+0

9+-+-+p+-0

9-+-+-vlpzP0

9wQ-zp-+-+-0

9-+-+p+-+0

9+P+-+-zP-0

9P+p+-zP-+0

9+-vLqtR-mK-0

xiiiiiiiiy

This is from the game Kitagami vs Sevillano, LA 2008. Black has a totally won game with a good choice of moves that will win quickly. One example is simply 1. … Qf3, and if White tries 2. Qb5 then 2. … Bd4 and White is completely lost. But that’s not what happened in the game. Black played 1. … Qxe1+? 2. Qxe1 Rd1 and then astonish-ingly, thinking there was no de-fense, White resigned! But let’s say White had played 3. Qf1 – a kind of side-stepping Queen “retreat” what would happen next? See Posi-tion No. 6.


Position No. 6. Black to move. XIIIIIIIIY

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9+-+-+p+-0

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9+-zp-+-+-0

9-+-+p+-+0

9+P+-+-zP-0

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9+-vLr+QmK-0

xiiiiiiiiy

Best I can tell, in this complex endgame White has reasonable chances to draw mostly due to the outside a-pawn that could become dangerous. One variation is 3. … g5 (what else?) 4. Kg2 Rxf1 (now forced) 5. Kxf1 Kh7 6. Ke2 Kxh6 8. Ke3 Bd4+ 9. Kxe4 Bxf2 10. g4 Kg6 11. a4! and White looks to draw this game. It would be nice to hear what Enrico had planned with his 1. … Qxe1+ combination after 3. Qf1 for White.

In our next example it’s White to move. What would you do?

Position No. 7. White to move.XIIIIIIIIY

9-+k+-+-+0

9zppzp-+p+p0

9-+-+-+-+0

9+-+-+-+-0

9-+Nvl-+-+0

9+-+-+-wqP0

9PzP-+-+-+0

9+-+RtR-+K0

xiiiiiiiiy

This is from the game Kof-man vs Sacchetti, Bucharest 1948. Again, White’s position looks hope-less as Black threatens checkmate on the move. White resigned here and missed a winning combina-tion. The main line is 1. Re8+ Kd7 (Black now threatens checkmate with Qxh3 as well as winning the Rook by Kxe8) 2. Re3 (a forced

move that exploits the Bishop pin) 2. … Qf4 (note that 2. … Qg7 is no better for Black), and now White continues with 3. Rxd4+ (deflec-tion) Qxd4 4. Rd3 (pin) Qxd3 5. Ne5+ (fork) Kd6 6. Nxd3 and White, with this combinative flurry of moves, emerges with the extra piece and will win with some nifty endgame technique. You should practice this against your computer, set on a strong level, so as to prove this to yourself.

I owe my discovery and inter-est in chess to Bobby Fischer. It’s very possible that if he did not play and win the World Championship against Boris Spassky back in 1972 I may never had learned or took an interest in chess. I also credit Ar-thur Bisguier who strongly inspired me to pursue chess when he per-formed a simul at my high school. With all my friends and the hun-dreds of others who were exposed to chess in my school back then only I continued to play and took chess seriously. There’s a story that says Bisguier was in a game against Fischer when he looked up to find Fischer snoring lightly, his eyes closed, slumped back in his chair. A glance at Fischer’s clock shows that it won’t be too long before he will lose on time. History does not record how long Bisguier grappled with his conscience, but he said after the game, “I made the worst move of my career.” “I woke up Bob-by Fischer.” Fischer won the game a few moves later with a brilliant combination.

Improving your ability to cal-culate and visualize tactical com-binations takes practice. Tactical problem solving will help in this development. Avoid moving the pieces when solving problems so as to strengthen your over-the-board play. Be alert, play sharp and al-ways remember to do your safety check. Good luck and happy solv-ing! Solutions on page 21.

Problem No. 1. White to move. XIIIIIIIIY

9r+-wq-trk+0

9+pvll+pzpp0

9p+n+psn-+0

9+-zPp+-vL-0

9-+-zP-+-+0

9+-sNL+N+-0

9PzP-+-zPPzP0

9tR-+QtR-mK-0

xiiiiiiiiy

a) Black is better.b) White is better.c) The position is unclear.Prove your answer with analysis

and a variation.

Poblem No. 2. White to move. XIIIIIIIIY

9r+l+k+-tr0

9+pzpqvlpzpp0

9p+n+-+-+0

9+L+pzP-+-0

9-zP-sNn+-+0

9+-zP-+-+-0

9P+-+-zPPzP0

9tRNvLQmK-+R0

xiiiiiiiiy

a) 1. Qa4 is correct and White will win.

b) 1. Qa4 is incorrect and Black will be better.

c) 1. Qa4 is unclear leading to chances for both sides.

Validate you answers with anal-ysis.

Problem No. 3. White to move. The Bishop on d6 is under at-

tack. White’s wants to control the e5 square and to prevent Black from opening up the center with

… e5. White also wants to prevent Black from developing the Queen Bishop. White plays 1. … Bf4 as the best plan for this.


Open1st: $1400

2nd-5th: $700-$400-$300-$200U2200: $600-$300-$150U2000: $600-$300-$150

XIIIIIIIIY

9r+lwqr+k+0

9zpp+n+pzpp0

9-+pvLp+-+0

9+-+p+-+-0

9-+PzPn+-+0

9+Q+-zPN+-0

9PzP-+-zPPzP0

9tR-+-mKL+R0

xiiiiiiiiy

a) 1. Bf4 is correct and White will control the center.

b) 1. Bf4 is incorrectc) 1. Bf4 is unclear.Prove your choice with a varia-

tion.

Problem No. 4: White to move. White’s has a lead in develop-

ment. How do you proceed?

XIIIIIIIIY

9r+-wqk+-tr0

9+pzplsnpvlp0

9p+-+-+p+0

9+-+-zp-+-0

9-+-+P+-+0

9+-sN-+N+-0

9PzPP+QzPPzP0

9tR-vLR+-mK-0

xiiiiiiiiy

a) The game is dead even.b) White has an advantage.c) Black, with the two Bishops,

is slightly better.Prove your choice with a varia-

tion.s:

49th Annual

Pacific Southwest Open

July 3-5, 2009

at the

LAX Hilton5711 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90045

Six Rounds — Swiss System 3-day schedule 40/2, SD/1; 2-day schedule rounds 1-3 G/60

Entry Fees: $69 by 7-2, $79 doorOn-line entry: www.westernchess.com

SCCF membership required of rated state residents ($18, jr. $10)

Registration: 9-10 a.m. 7-4, 2-day 8:30-9:30 a.m. 7-5. Rounds: 3-day: 10:30-5 Fri-Sat, 10-4:30 Sun. 2-day: 10-12:15-2:30

Sat., then merges. Entries: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N. Wilton Place #1, Los Angeles,

CA 90038HR: $109 (310) 410-4000, use group code APS. Parking $10/day.

More details, advance entry lists: www.westernchess.com

$8,000 Prize Fund!(based on 200 players, 50% of each prize guaranteed)

Amateur(Under 1800/unr)

$600-$300-$150U1600: $500-$250-$150

U1400: $400-$250U1200: $150

Unrated: $150 (Unrated may win Unrated prize only in this section)


La Palma Chess ClubIn March, Merhdad Miralaie won,

on tiebreaks over Austin Hughes, La Palma Chess Club’s third Undisput-ed Milky Way Championships with an undefeated score of 5½. TD and club founder Mike Henebry tied for third with Kelly Zhang. Henebry also won the Best U1900 trophy. Other prizewinners were Chris-topher Kao, U1700; newcommer Christopher Sun, U1500; and Chris-tina Kao, U1300. Christopher Sun gained 91 rating points and won the Shooting Star prize. The 49-player player 5-round Swiss was held at La Palma’s Central Park Community Center and ended March 27th. Com-plete standings and a schedule of up-coming events are at the club’s web-site: http://www.lapalmachess.741.com/index.html. – Chris Roberts

Riverside GambitThe Riverside Gambit was held

at La Sierra High School on March 21st. A total of 22 players competed in two sections. Dwayne Edwards won the high school section and Kumann Liu was first in the K-8 section, both players scoring per-fect 4-0’s. Ramanjot Sandhu was the highest scoring middle school player and William Wang had the highest score, K-3.

The tournament was sponsored

by the Riverside Youth Chess As-sociation and the Rotary Club of Riverside. Steve Morford served as tournament director. – Steve Morford

Arcadia Chess ClubTop seed Tianyi He took the 42-

player Club Championship with 5½ of 6, a half-point ahead of Larry Stevens. Gordon Brooks and Mat-thew Hayes earned Class A honors with 4, though they trailed B win-ners Eduardo Linsangan and John Anderson, who tallied 4½. Alexan-der Xie and Christopher Hung split Class C honors with 3½, while 2½ was good for an Under 1400 tie among Jeff Schwartz, Huansheng Xue, Scott Xue, Annie Wang, and Evan Wang. The club meets Mon-days at 7:00 at the Senior Center, 405 S. Santa Anita Ave. For infor-mation call Mel Clark, (626) 447-9355. – Randy Hough

Pasadena Chess ClubA turnout of 51 players (the best

since sometime in the pre-MSA, pre-1992 era) marked the Pasadena Club Championship, the last tour-nament in the Senior Center, which ended in March.

Eighth-seed Konstantin Kavuts-kiy, playing in his first event at the club, notched a convincing vic-tory with 5½ points out of 6. Only a draw with defending champion Tianyi He marred his score. Trail-ing a full point behind were Dave Matson (who upset He), Greg Hall (who downed fourth-seed Larry Ste-vens), and Gerald Ruiz (who gained 179 rating points). Other class priz-es went to Richard Varela (Under 1600), Kevin Qian (Under 1400), and Jennifer Lu (Under 1200).

Kavutskiy also earned top hon-ors in the 18-player April Quick tournament; his 7-1 score led sec-ond place finisher Gordon Brooks by a point. Two young players, Al-bert Lu (1357) and Bill Kang (1140), pulled some nice upsets to score 5½.

The club has moved to the Boys and Girls Club, 3230 E. Del Mar. For further information call Neil Hultgren at (818) 243-3809. – Ran-dy Hough

Richard Borgen (2177) – Konstan-tin Kavutskiy (2020)

Pasadena Club Championship, Pasadena 2009

C02 FRENCH DEFENSE, Advance Variation 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3

Qb6 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. a3 Nh6 7. b4 cxd4 8. cxd4 Nf5 9. Bb2 Bd7 10. g4 Nfe7 11. Nc3 Na5 12. Na4 Bxa4 13. Qxa4+ Nac6 14. Bc3 Rc8 15. Bd3 Ng6 16. Bd2 a6 17. 0–0 Be7 18. Rfb1 Nh4 19. Nxh4 Bxh4 20. Be3 0–0 21. b5 axb5 22. Rxb5 Qc7 23. Rab1 Nd8 24. Rc5 Nc6 25. Qc2 f6 26. exf6 Rxf6 27. Qb2 Rf7 28. Bb5 Rcf8 29. Rc2 Qe7 30. Rf1 Bg5 31. Re1

XIIIIIIIIY

9-+-+-trk+0

9+p+-wqrzpp0

9-+n+p+-+0

9+L+p+-vl-0

9-+-zP-+P+0

9zP-+-vL-+-0

9-wQR+-zP-zP0

9+-+-tR-mK-0

xiiiiiiiiy

31. ... Rf3 32. Bxc6 bxc6 33. Rxc6 Qf6 34. Qd2 Bxe3 35. Rxe3 Rxf2 36. Qd3 Rf1+ 37. Kg2 Qf2+ 38. Kh3 Rh1 0–1


Exposition Park Chess Club

On March 1, Vartan Ghazarian, Mark Sokolovsky and Marc Conde won sections at the Exposition Park Chess Club’s monthly free tourna-ment. On April 5, winners were Kevin Daniels, Mark Sokolovsky and Tyrone de los Santos, as well as Marc Conde, Tony Grauso and Walter Robleto, who tied for first in their section. For photos of the club, see chess.expoparkla.com. The club meets every Sunday afternoon in the public library at 3900 S. West-ern Ave. in Los Angeles.

Chess PalaceOcho tournament – a once a

month long-game tournament at the club is gaining a popularity for prac-tice tournaments for amateurs and masters alike. The March 28 Ocho attracted sixteen players. It was topped by master Julian Landaw who was on Spring break as Fresh-man in Berkeley. Expert Show Kita-gami and class A Neil Bershad tied for second. Levon Bagramian and Brian Rountree tied for first for the under class prize.

Amateur Open – On March 29, a once a month faster time con-trol tournament was won by Randy Hough in a field of eleven in the top section but totaled twenty in the whole tourna-ment. Rising stars, Rahul Nair and Jen-nifer Lu tied in the pre-mier U1200 section.

Chess Pal-ace is open 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays, and 9:00 am to 5:00 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, at 12872 Valley View, Suite 5. For informa-tion, call the club at (714) 899-3421 or Alfred Ong at (310) 594-3475. Web site: www.chesspalace.com. – Anthony Ong

Los Angeles Chess Club

On March 7-8, the Los Angeles Chess Club conducted the Big Bang Open, a 32-player event won by GM Melikset Khachiyan with a score of 5½-½. Joel Banawa, who drew Khachiyan, finished second at 5-1. Tatev Abrahamyan, Robert Ako-pian and Roger Norman scored 4½-1½. Dennis Neymit took first in the the under-1800 section with 5½-½.

Kern County OpenMarch 28-29

IM Enrico Sevillano won the Kern County Open, a 32-player event held at the Clarion Hotel in Bakersfield, with a 5-0 score. James Castro, Indra Lahiri, Gary Latta and Matt Robertson tied for second place with 3½-1½. Raul Bugnosen (best B) and Alexander Pearson (best C) earned class prizes. Stan Liao took first on tiebreak over Matthew Poh and Joseph Constan-tine in the accompanying 23-player scholastic tournament.

San Diego Chess ClubThe Markowski Open

In January and February of 2009, a huge turnout of 90 play-ers competed in the 7 round Alina Markowski Open, always our big-gest event of the year. We fell just 2 players short of the all time re-cord of 92 set last year (non-paying

“house” players not included). The Markowski Open is the qualifying event for the Club Championship, and 12 of the top finishers were expected to move on to the Club Championship, joining 4 other seeded players. One of the unusual aspects of the Markowski is that de-spite the huge size, it is played with everyone in just one big section, sim-ilar to the way the US Open is often played. This gives the lower rated club members a chance to test their skills against the top rated play-ers, and every year there is at least one major upsets in the first round.

This year it was Julia O’Neill, visit-ing from Texas and rated 1818, who pulled off a brilliant upset of Carl Wagner. In later rounds, there were even more upsets than normal, in fact too many to list here.

Bruce Baker won the event, scoring 6 out of 7. Carl Wagner and Todd Smith tied for Second/Third Place with 5½. Also scoring 5½ and winning BU2200 were Alejandro Garamendi and Carey Milton, plus Ben Barquin, who won BU2000. Coming in with 5 points were Ex-perts Ignacio Sainz, Manuel Herre-ra, Raoul Crisologo and John Fun-derburg. Also scoring 5 were Class A players Brad Salz and Thomas Fries. NM David Hart also scored 5 to make into the group of 12 final-ists. But the player scoring 5 with the lowest tiebreaks was John Fun-derburg, and coming in 13th place, he almost didn’t qualify. In fact, John was initially excluded from the list of qualifiers, but it turned out that one of the 4 seeded players, IM Felix Villarreal, couldn’t play this year, and so Felix relinquished his spot to John, who was nervously waiting on the sidelines (Put Me In Coach, I’m Ready To Play – by John Fogerty, singer of the best baseball song ever). The other 3 seeds were last year’s Club Champion, Ronald Bruno, along with Peter Graves, the San Diego County Champion, and Dimitry Kishinevsky, winner of the year end “Masters” event. The great irony in all this was that this 13th qualifier, John Funderburg, went on to win the Club Champion-ship!

Going back to the Prize win-ners in the Markowski, Paul Agron and Jeff Turner scored 4½ and just missed qualifying, but tied for 4th U2000. 3 other Experts and 1 Mas-ter scored 4½ out of 7, but did not qualify and won no prizes. BU1800 were Buddy Morris and William Wijaya, with 4 points each. Fawsi Jose Murra and Jerry Soelberg were 3rd U1800. Larry Vikander was BU1600 with 4, followed by Tom Kuhn, Datris Robinson and Mayra Murra. Karen Kaufman was

RANDY HOUGH


BU1400 with several notable upsets, and Mike Friedel was 2nd U1400. Finally, Steve Gordon was BU1200 and Michael Wang 2nd U1200.

The Lakdawala ChampionshipsThis event started on Febru-

ary 25th and also ran for 7 weeks. It was divided into 5 sections and this year we decided to rename our Club Championship in honor of our famous long time club member IM Cyrus Lakdawala, who won the Club Championship 21 times out of 23 tries. [Trivia question: who won the SDCC Championship, stealing it away from Cyrus in 1987 and who was the other usurper in 1989? Answers given below] In 2004, Cy stopped playing on Wednesday nights and the Club Championship has been hotly contested ever since.

The Club Championship for 2009 was won by John Funderburg, but it wasn’t decided until the last few minutes of the last round. He did win clear first, though, scoring 5½ points to outpace David Hart, Todd Smith and Raoul Crisologo by a full point. John defeated Todd in the last round and Bruce Baker in round 6. He also defeated Carl Wagner in round 4 and had draws with Ronald Bruno, Peter Graves and David Hart. So he had 3 wins against masters, 3 draws with mas-ters and he also defeated Expert Alejandro Garamendi, who was rat-ed a few points higher than him. In fact John was rated 2080, making him the # 11th rated player out of the 16 players. There was only one Class A player in the section, Thom-as Fries, and he was rated 1985, so the 16 man field was very deep, and the strongest overall in club history with 6 Masters and 9 Experts. But it wasn’t like people were overlook-ing him; John won the club Cham-pionship in 2006, so we all knew he was quite capable. But after Bruce Baker got off to a strong start, ev-eryone figured it was Bruce’s year to win, especially since he had al-ready won the Markowski and had been playing very well against Cyrus Lakdawala in the Gambito

Opens this year. But then Bruce lost to Todd Smith in round 5, giv-ing Todd a full point lead with just two rounds to go. However, tragedy struck Todd in round 6 when Raoul Crisologo surprised him with a mate in one that Todd overlooked in a tricky, but apparently winning position for Todd. And then John defeated Bruce in round 6, so in the last round, Raoul, Todd and John were all tied with 4½ each. Raoul lost to David Hart and John won against Todd with the White pieces in a long technical grind-out type win - in 64 moves, how fitting! All in all a very impressive perfor-mance by John, who is so well liked and respected in the club as a true gentleman, but a terrific fighter on the board. I also believe he can be a great spokesman for our chess club over the next year and for chess in general for many years to come.

This year we also held a Wom-en’s Championship at the same time as the Club Championship. We had earlier polled the women to see if they wanted to have a separate tournament and they all said yes, that would be nice. The winner was Maria Elena Villarreal, who scored 5 out of 6, losing only to Second Place winner Monica Ness, who scored 4½. The 3rd Place winner was Mayra Murra with 4. Mayra’s sister Rocio Murra was last year’s Champion, but Rocio finished with only 3 points this year, behind Elena’s sister, Carolina Villarreal who scored 3½. Maria Murra, the mother of the Murra sisters, placed sixth and Karen Kaufman was 7th. We had only 6 rounds, as one of the other women players was unable to commit to the long event. Maybe next year we can get the Tapia sis-ters to play, they are another strong family from just south of the border who used to play here a few years ago and recently made a visit to the club.

The Reserve Championship (U1800) was won by William Wi-jaya with 6½ out of 7. Donald Klaas and Larry Vikander tied for Second Place with 5. In the Fred Borges

Open (formerly the Practice for Non-Qualifiers), Class A player Jeff Turner beat out five other

Experts to win the top prize with 5½ points. Joseph McDougall and Paul Agron tied for Second with 5 and Buddy Morris also scored 5 to win BU2000. Jason Qu was 2nd U2000 while David Delgadillo and Dayne Frietag tied for 3rd U2000. In the last of the five sections (77 players in all), the Fred Borges Re-serve, James Coulston won First Place, despite being unable to play in the last round (and no last round byes are given unless irrevocably reserved by round 2). Fred Borges himself was Second Place; David Tagatac was BU1400 and Bryan Harms 2nd U1400.

Answer to trivia question: Cyrus’ brother Jimmy Lakdawala won in 1987 and Carl Wagner won in 1989. Richard Russell tied with Cyrus in 1993, but Cy won the trophy on tie-breaks. That also happened in 1980 with Mark Knight (formerly Aiken). – Chuck Ensey

Gambito Open NewsIM Cyrus Lakdawala won the

March Super Gambito Open (#411) even though he gave up a draw to Expert Rick Aeria. His main com-petitors were also faltering a bit as NM Bruce Baker lost to Expert Alan Tsoi and NM Ron Bruno drew with Jesse Orlowski in round 1 and Alan Tsoi in the last round. Jesse, Alan, Kyron Griffith and crew have been terrorizing the higher rated players at the Gambito for months now as I mentioned in the last Rank and File, and there is no escaping these young upstarts. Alan won the U2200 prize with 3 while Bruce Baker bounced back and also scored 3 to take the U2400 prize, but they were both tied by Ron Bruno and Leonard Sussman who collected the 2nd Place and 2nd U2400 (all four prizes were pooled for $62 each). Rick Aeria took the 2nd U2200 for $25. Nikolay Arutyunov won BU2000 for $75 and 3 players tied for 2nd U2000: Jesse Orlowski,


Jason Qu and Madhavan Vajapey-am. In the Reserve Section it was a 3-way tie between Aaron Ibarra, Anthony Harbone and Kimberly Ogden. Scott Householder tied with Mike Friedel for U1600. 32 players in all competed in this popular Sat-urday event. The Best Game prizes were won by Cyrus Lakdawala and Aaron Householder.

In the April edition (#415) Cyrus once again allowed a draw with Rick Aeria and still managed to win First Place ($125), despite also offering a draw (but being turned down) to NM Ali Morshedi. Ali could have easily wrapped up First Place by accepting the draw, but having a slightly better position he went for the win against Cy, but, alas, in the end it didn’t work out and he lost. But sometimes you have to listen to your heart (no guts, no glory!) de-spite what calm logic says and what monetary concerns advise. Fortu-nately for Ali, he was able to re-cover from the tough loss and beat Rick Aeria in the last round to win clear 2nd Place. There was a 3-way tie for U2400/2200/2000 between Rick Aeria, Leonard Sussman and Class A player Hin Tsang, who beat Expert Raoul Crisologo in the last round. Alan Tsoi, Paul Agron and Class A player Roberto Aiello tied for 2nd U2400/2200/2000 for $25 each. In the Reserve Section, all the glory went to the phenom-enal 8 year old Aaron Householder, who swept through the field with a perfect 4-0 score. Carlos Marti-nez and Aaron Ibarra tied for 2nd Place. Chris Calbat returned to active play to win the U1600 prize while 4 players tied for 2nd U1600: Anthony Arciga, Tom Kun, Scott Householder and Mike Herzog. 30 players in all competed, not includ-ing a few house players that filled in when needed. Ali Morshedi and Aaron Householder won the Best Game Prizes. – Chuck Ensey

Santa Monica Bay Chess Club

In April, William Lykke scored 3½-½ to win the championship of the Santa Monica Bay Chess Club for the second consecutive year. Next at 3-1 were Robert Sale, Simon Kogan and George Witcomb. The club meets Monday evenings in St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, 11555 National Blvd. in Los Angeles.

Westwood Spring Open

State champion Enrico Sevil-lano and masters John Daniel Bry-ant and Garush Manukyan scored 4-1 to tie for first place in the 37-player Westwood Spring Open, held April 19 at the Los Angeles Chess Club. There were six masters in the 15-player Open section. Minas Badikyan, Leo Castro and Wendell Salveron shared top honors in the Reserve (under-1800) section. Or-ganizer John Hillery directed.

IM Enrico Sevillano (2542) – Garush Manukyan (2338)

Westwood Spring Open, Los Angeles 2009

B14 CARO-KANN DEFENSE, Panov-Botvinnik Attack1. e4 c6 2. c4 d5 3. cxd5 cxd5 4.

exd5 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nxd5 6. d4 g6 7. Qb3 Nxc3 8. Bc4 e6 9. bxc3 Be7 10. Bh6 Nc6 11. Nf3 Na5 12. Bb5+ Bd7 13. Qa4 Nc6 14. Qc2 a6 15. Bd3 Rc8 16. Qd2 Bf8 17. 0–0 Bxh6 18. Qxh6 Qe7 19. Rfe1 Qf8 20. Qf4 Qg7

XIIIIIIIIY

9-+r+k+-tr0

9+p+l+pwqp0

9p+n+p+p+0

9+-+-+-+-0

9-+-zP-wQ-+0

9+-zPL+N+-0

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9tR-+-tR-mK-0

xiiiiiiiiy

21. d5 Ne7 22. c4 Rd8 23. Rab1 Bc8 24. Qc7 Qf6 25. d6 Nc6 26. Be4 0–0 27. Bxc6 bxc6 28. Ne5 1–0

SCCF Senior/Junior Open

April 18-19

The 2009 SCCF Senior/Junior Open, held at the San Diego Chess Club, drew a total of 50 players. In the 32-player Senior, limited to players 50 and above, Bruce Baker took clear first with 4½-½. Next at 3½ were Avram Zaydenberg, Peter Graves, Carl Wagner, Craig Faber, Dennis Saccuzzo, and Leonard Sussman. Class prizes winners were Daniel Collins (U1900) and Steven Dahl (U1700). Age group prizes went to Michael Nagaran, John Rinaldo and Thomas Fries (93!). The 18-player Junior section, limited to players under 50, was won by Varun Krishnan with 4½-½, following at 3½ by Ignacio Sainz, Adam Corper and Hin Tsang.

Bruce Baker

Varun Krishnan


ARCADIA. The Arcadia Chess Club meets at 6:30 p.m. Mondays in the Senior Citizens building, 405 S. Santa Anita Ave. Continuous rated tournaments, casual play. Dues: $10/year. Call Mel Clark at (626) 447-9355. Web site: www.geocities.com/arcadiachessclub.

BAKERSFIELD. The Bakersfield Chess Club meets 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Thursdays at 3000 Mall View Rd. in the East Hills Mall. Rated tournaments, rated games, casual play, blitz, lessons. Dues: $35/year for adults, $25/year for youth. Call Kenneth J. Poole at (661) 304-7468. Web site: www.bakersfieldchessclub.com.

BURBANK. A group meets Wednes-days from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Joslyn Center, 1301 W. Olive St. (at Griffith Park Drive). Casual play, ages 55 and up only. No dues. Call (818) 238-5353.

BURBANK. A group meets Fridays from 5:15 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in Mc-Cambridge Park, 1515 N. Glenoaks Blvd. Casual play, tournaments pos-sible. Call Emil Klimach at (818) 845-1104.

CARLSBAD. A group meets 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Mondays in the Carlsbad Senior Center, 799 Pine Ave. Casual play. Most attendees are over age 50, but younger adults are welcome. No dues. Call (760) 602-4650.

COLTON. A group meets at 9:00 p.m. Friday nights in a private room at Denny’s restaurant, 160 W. Valley Blvd. Casual play, blitz. Call Denny’s at (909) 824-2132.

Santa Anita Ave. Continuous rated tournaments, casual play. Dues: $10/year. Call Mel Clark at (626)

Where to Play Chess

ARCADIA. The Arcadia Chess Club meets at 6:30 p.m. Mondays in the Senior Citizens building, 405 S. Santa Anita Ave. Continuous rated

Where to Playaya Chesssss

COSTA MESA. The Chess Center, 2482 Newport Blvd, hosts separate tournaments for children and adults on Thursday evenings, plus instruc-tion for children. Saturday tourna-ments may resume soon. Call Al Massip at (949) 646-6696 or (949) 422-1186. Web site: www.chess-cen-ter.com.

ESCONDIDO. The Escondido Chess Club meets at 7 p.m. Thurs-days at 2427 S. Centre City Park-way. Continuous rated adult and children’s tournaments. Dues: $20/year. Call the club at (760) 317-1744 or Alex Goddard at (760) 500-3417 or write to [email protected]. Web site: www.escondidochess.com.

ESCONDIDO. A group meets noon to 4 p.m. weekdays in the Joslyn Se-nior Center, 210 Park Ave. Casual play, ages 50 and up. No dues. Call (760) 839-4688.

FRESNO. The Fresno Chess Club meets 6:00 p.m. to midnight Mon-days and Fridays in Carl’s Jr. res-taurant, 6767 N. First St. (at Hern-don). Rated tournaments, non-rated quick chess quads, casual play, lec-tures, chess library, newsletter, new website. More than 200 members! Dues: $20/year, $10/year for stu-dents, women, and those who live outside Fresno County. Contact Bob Rasmussen at (559) 708-8100. Web-site: www.fresnochessclub.org.

GARDEN GROVE. Chess Palace is open 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Wednes-days and Fridays, and 9:00 am to 5:00 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, at 12872 Valley View, Suite 5. Closed

Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Wide variety of rated tournaments, Action chess, youth tournaments, scholastic chess camps, blitz, oc-casional lectures and simuls, large selection of chess books, computers, and equipment for sale, lending li-brary of chess videos, excellent web-site. Dues: $3/day or $169/year. Call the club at (714) 899-3421 or Alfred Ong at (310) 594-3475. Web site: www.chesspalace.com.

GLENDALE. The chess park at 227 N. Brand Blvd. is open day and night for casual play. Speed tournaments, occasional weekend tournaments.

HUNTINGTON BEACH. The Hanley Chess Academy Chess Club meets 6:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Thurs-days at 7390 Center Ave. Weekly rat-ed tournaments, Action chess, blitz tournaments, casual play. No dues. Bring your own equipment. Con-tact Joe Hanley at (714) 925-3195 or [email protected] or call Barry Lazarus at (714) 229-0792. Web site: www.hanleychessacademy.org.

HUNTINGTON BEACH. The HB Chess Café meets 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Fridays in Café Enchante, 328 11th St. Casual play, free chess les-son from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Bring your chess set. No dues. Web site: hbchesscafe.com.

IRVINE. A group meets at lunch time (11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) Fridays at Knowlwood Restaurant, 14952 Sand Canyon Ave. Speed chess, analysis. Bring equipment. Contact David Zechiel at [email protected].

JOSHUA TREE. The Joshua Tree Chess Club meets 6:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays at Faith Lutheran


Church , 6336 Hallee Rd. in Josh-ua Tree. Casual play, occasional tournaments, some instruction, ju-nior chess program. Contact Mark Muller at (760) 367-2311 or at [email protected].

LA PALMA. The La Palma Chess Club meets 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Fridays in Central Park, 7821 Walker St. Continuous rated tour-naments, blitz, casual play, free cof-fee, boards and sets provided. Entry fees: $45 for three months of rated tournament play or $25 per tourna-ment, $5 less to La Palma residents. Call Mike Henebry at (562) 370-2146 or Leigh Hunt at (714) 635-0448 or write to [email protected]. Web site: www.lapalmachess.741.com.

LAWNDALE. The Alondra Park Chess Club meets 6:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Tuesdays at 3850 Manhattan Beach Blvd. Rated six-round tour-naments at 7:00 p.m., speed chess or extra rated games on seventh Tuesday, no smoking. Dues: $5/year plus $5/tournament, $2.50/year for juniors. Call Richard Meller at (310) 227-2873. Web site: www.geocities.com/alondra_park_cc.

LAGUNA BEACH. People gather to play chess at the permanent chess table on the boardwalk.

LAGUNA WOODS. The Leisure World Chess Club meets 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mondays and 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Thursdays in the Com-munity Center building in Leisure World. Guests are welcome. Casual play, ladder competition, occasional simul. Call John Griffin at (949) 462-0722 or Stan Kahan at (949) 830-6699.

LONG BEACH. The chess room in Bixby Park, 130 Cherry Ave., is open for casual play from noon to 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and noon to 4:00 p.m. Saturdays. Free.

LONG BEACH. Players gather for casual play at Golden Burger, 2301 E. 4th St., after the chess room in

Bixby Park closes. Call the restau-rant at (562) 434-2625.

LOS ANGELES. A group meets at 5:30 p.m. Mondays in the Baldwin Hills branch of the public library, 2906 S. La Brea Ave. Casual play, instruction for beginners. All ages welcome, especially children and teenagers. Call the library at (323) 733-1196.

LOS ANGELES. The Exposition Park Chess Club meets 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sundays in the Exposition Park branch of the public library, 3900 S. Western Ave. Casual play, lectures, simuls, instruction, free tournament on the first Sunday of every month. No dues. Call the library at (323) 290-3113 or send a message to the club secretary at [email protected]. Web site: http://chess.expoparkla.com.

LOS ANGELES. The Los Angeles Chess Club (LACC) meets on the second floor of 11514 Santa Monica Blvd., above Javan restaurant. Vari-ety of tournaments and instruction for children and adults on Saturdays, Sundays and Tuesday evenings. Dues: adults $120/year, juniors/se-niors $100/year or $5/visit for non-members, first visit free. Call Mick Bighamian at (310) 795-5710 or send a message to [email protected]. Web site: www.lachessclub.com.

LOS ANGELES. The Santa Monica Bay Chess Club meets 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Mondays in St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, 11555 National Blvd. Variety of rated tournaments, casual play, simuls, over 50 years in business. Dues: $40/year, free to women and juniors. Call Pete Savino at (310) 827-2789. Web site: www.geocities.com/santamoni-cabaychessclub.

LOS ANGELES. Tang’s Donuts, 4341 W. Sunset Blvd., welcomes chessplayers for casual play and speed chess, especially late at night.

LOS ANGELES. A group meets from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays in the public library, 4591 Santa Mon-ica Blvd. Casual play. Free. Call the library at (323) 664-6418.

MORRO BAY. A group meets 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays at the big chess board on Embarcadero at Morro Bay Blvd. Chess pieces may be checked out weekdays from the Parks and Recreation Dept. Call Eugene Ar-camonte at (805) 528-4079 or Fred Brown at (805) 772-7074.

MURRIETA. The Temecula Val-ley Chess Club meets noon to 2 p.m. Sundays in It’s a Grind Cof-feehouse, 24520 Village Walk Place. Casual play. Free. Contact Peter Surowski at (951) 818-9771 or at [email protected].

NATIONAL CITY. The National City Chess Club meets 2:00 p.m to 10:00 p.m. daily at 1341 E. 8th St. Casual play, chess videos avail-able, free instruction for scholastic members ages 7 to 12, informal at-mosphere. Dues: none, but small do-nation welcome. Call Jorge Balares at (619) 477-3118 or (619) 788-8395. Web site: www.nationalcitychess-club.com.

ORANGE. The Orange Senior Club meets from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tuesdays in the Orange Senior Citi-zens Community Center, 170 S. Ol-ive St. in Orange. Casual play, all ages welcome. Call (714) 538-9633.

PASADENA. The Pasadena Chess Club meets from 6:45 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Fridays in the Boys and Girls Club, 3230 E. Del Mar Blvd. Contin-uous tournaments at 7 p.m. Fridays. Dues: $25/year. Call Neil Hultgren at (818) 243-3809. Web site: www.tim-thompson.com/pasadena.html.


REDLANDS. The Joslyn Center Chess Club meets 11:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Wednesdays in the Joslyn Se-nior Center, 21 Grant St. Casual play, non-rated tournaments. No dues. Call the Senior Center at (909) 798-7550.

RIDGECREST. The Ridgecrest Chess Club meets 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Saturdays in the Kern Coun-ty Library (west entrance), 131 E. Las Flores Ave. Casual play, occa-sional scholastic and club tourna-ments. No dues. Contact Dwight Morgan at (760) 377-0034 or at [email protected].

RIVERSIDE. A group meets for ca-sual play and blitz at 8:30 p.m. Thurs-day evenings in Back 2 the Grind Café, 3575 University Ave. “Quick Thursdays” G/15 quads on the first Thursday of every month, register at 8 p.m. Bring equipment. Call the café at (951) 784-0800 or e-mail Ty-rone Liddell at [email protected]. Web site: www.TheChessUnion.com.

SAN DIEGO. The San Diego Chess Club opens for casual play at 2:00 p.m. weekdays, 10:00 a.m. Satur-days and noon Sundays in Balboa Park at 2225 6th Ave. (between Ivy and Juniper). Tournaments Wednesday evenings and Saturdays, Jedi Knights children’s club with Bruce Baker at 7:00 p.m. Fridays, lessons available. Dues: $60/year, discounts for seniors, juniors and active military. Call the club at (619) 239-7166 or e-mail Chuck Ensey at [email protected]. Web site: http://sdchessclub.multiply.com.

SAN DIMAS. Home Brew Cof-fee, 661 W. Arrow Highway, wel-comes chessplayers. Bring your chess set. Call (909) 394-1964.

SAN LUIS OBISPO. The San Luis Obispo Chess Club meets 6:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Thursdays in the Church of the Nazarene, 3396 John-son Ave. Casual play, lectures, occa-sional tournaments. Dues: $5/year.

Contact Barbara McCaleb at (805) 544-0717 or [email protected].

SANTA MONICA. Chess tables are available from sunup to sundown daily at the Santa Monica Interna-tional Chess Park, on the promenade just south of the Santa Monica pier. Casual chess, blitz, chess bulletin board, large demonstration board, occasional summer tournaments. No dues.

SIMI VALLEY. The YMCA Chess Club of Simi Valley meets 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Mondays at the YMCA, 3200 Cochran St. Casual play, in-struction, rated and non-rated tour-naments. Dues: $15 for 7 weeks, free to YMCA members. Contact John Williams at (805) 529-1816 or [email protected].

VENTURA. The Ventura County Chess Club meets on the first Tues-day, the second Monday, and the later Tuesdays each month in the Church of the Foothills, 6279 Foot-hill Rd. Rated tournaments, casual play. Dues: $35.00/year, $17.50/year for juniors and military. Call Jimmy

Sweet at (805) 659-0356. Web site: www.vcchess.com.

VICTORVILLE. The Victor Valley Chess Club meets noon to 4:00 p.m. Saturdays in the Victor Villa Club-house, 13393 Mariposa Rd. Casual play, non-rated quad tournaments most months, instruction. No dues. Write to [email protected].

WEST COVINA. The West Covina Chess Club meets 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Senior Center, 2501 E. Cortez St. All ages welcome. Casual play, rat-ed and non-rated tournaments on Tuesdays. Bring chess equipment. No speed chess! Call Richard Wil-liams at (626) 966-6311.

WEST HILLS. The West Valley Chess Club meets 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Thursdays in the West Valley Jewish Community Center, 22622 Vanowen St. Open to all, continu-ous rated tournaments, blitz, casual play. One of the largest local clubs. Contact Jerry Yee at (818) 915-5572 or at [email protected]. Web site: www.geocities.com/westhillschess.

Solutions to Chess Quiz(see page 25)

Langeweg-Casa, Lugano 1968: 1. … Qf1+ 2. Kxf1 3. Ne3+ Kg1 4. Rf1 mate. In the game, Black played the weaker 1. … Bd4+, though he still won eventually.

Suess-Gerusel, Kiel 1967: White wins a piece with 1. Qxh5, since 1. … gxh5 2. Rg5+ is mate. Black struggled on for a while with two pawns for the piece – 1. … f5 2. Qh6 Rf7 3. Qe3 Rd8 4. Qd4 Kf8 5. Rd1 Ke7 6. Ba3 Rf6 7. Qe5+ Kf7 8. Bxd6 Qb7 9. Be7 Re6 10. Bxd8 Rxe5 – but now instead of 11. Rd7+, when he still had to work for a while, 11. Rxe5 is decisive.

Matz-Schuhmann, Ottawa 1962: White’s pieces are overloaded after 1. … Bxh2+! 2. Kxh2 (2. Kh1 Qh5 doesn’t help) 2. … Qh5+ 3. Kg1 Rxe4!, and since any recapture loses the Queen to 4. … Ne2+, White played 4. g3 Re6 and Black won easily.


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Date Name Qualifiers

June 28-29 My Kingdom For A Horse Enrico Sevillano Joshua GutmanJuly 4-6 Pacific Southwest Open Tim Taylor Gregg SmallJuly 17-20 Pacific Coast Open Melikset Khachiyan Joel Banawa John Daniel Bryant Eugene Yanayt July 27 Westwood Sumer Open Andranik MatikozyanAugust 9-10 San Diego County Open Peter Graves Craig Faber Bruce Baker Romeo Ignacio Michael YeeAugust 16-24 State Championship Jack Peters Cyrus Lakdawala Julian Landaw Christian Tanaka Danyul LawrenceAug. 30-Sept. 1 Southern California Open Tatev Abrahamyan Vadim Kudryavtsev Garush Manukyan Lawrence StevensSeptember 13 San Luis Obispo Cty Open Robert ReynoldsOctober 12 Westwood Fall Open Show KitagamiOct. 31-Nov. 2 Los Angeles Open Takashi Kurosaki Tianye He Michael BrownNovember 27-30 American Open Sergey Yurenok Robert AkopianDecember 13-14 Joseph Ileto Memorial Takashi Iwamoto Cau Duong Le Carlos Garcia

January 16-19 Western Class Champs Alessandro SteinflJanuary 25 Westwood Winter Open Kakha Khaburzania Ed CohenMarch 7-8 Big Bang Open Roger NormanMarch 13-15 Western Pacific Open Ryan Porter Garnik Baghdasaryan Ryan Richardson Varun KrishnanMarch 14-15 SCCF High School Champ. Vincent HuangMarch 28-29 Kern County Open Matt Robertson Indra Lahiri James Castro Gary LattaApril 19 Westwood Spring Open Ali Morshedi Remigio PampliegaApril 18-19 SCCF Senior Open Carl Wagner

Upcoming

May 2-3 Los Angeles Cty Open Monterey ParkMay 23-25 Memorial Day Classic LAXMay 30 San Luis Obispo Cty Open San Luis Obispo

Each event qualifies two players (highest scoring Southern California residents not previously qualified) except that 1) In the event of a tie, all tied players will advance; 2) A score of 60% is required to qualify; 3) The SCCF Amateur, SCCF High School, SCCF Senior, and any one-day event will each have one qualifying spot; and 4) All one-day tournaments shall require a 75% score and only one player shall qualify on tiebreak.

2008-2009 State Championship

Seeded into the Championship are 2008 co-champions Enrico Sevillano and Alexandre Kretchetov, two players selected on the basis of rating, and four from the 2009 Candidates Tournament.

Solutions to Tactics by Hanks(see page 11)

Problem no. 1: b. White is better. White develops a strong attack beginning with 1. Ne5. Black has many responses, but none will eliminate or parry the White threats. For example:

1… Nxe5 2. dxe5 h6 3. exf6 hxg5 4. Qh5 and White wins.1….Bxe5 2. dxe5 h6 3. exf6 hxg5 4. Qh5 and White wins.1….Nxd4 2. Nxd7 Qxd7 3. Bxf6 gxf6 4. Qg4+ Kh8 5. Qxd4 winning a piece.1…Bc8 2. Ng4 Nxd4 3. Nxf6+ gxf6 4. Bh4 Nf5 5. Bf5 exf5 6. Nd5 and White is clearly

better. Problem no. 2: b. 1. Qa4 is incorrect and Black will be better. This is from the

game Karapetyan vs Poole, LA Open 2008. The main line goes 1. Qa4 axb5 2. Qxa8 Nxd4 3. cxd4 Bxb4+ 4. Bd2 Bxd2+ 5. Nxd2 Nxd2 6. Kxd2 Qg4 7. Kc3 b4+ 8. Kxb4 Qxd4+ 9. Kb3 Qb6+ 10. Ka3 0–0 11. f3 Bd7 21. Qxf8+ Kxf8 and Black wins.

Problem no. 3: b. 1. Bf4 is incorrect. This is from the game B. Huang vs D. Con-nors, 7th Western Pacific Open, 2009. White’s move is a mistake as Black exploits the dark squares around the White King with a series of tactical sorties. The main line goes 1. Bf4 Qa5+! 2. Ke2 e5 (open lines) 3. Bxe5 Nxe5 4. dxe5 Bg4 (pin) 5. Rd1 Rad8 6. cxd5 Rxd5 7. Rxd5 cxd5 8. Qd3 Rc8 9. h3 Bf5 10. Qb3 Qa6+ 11. Kd1 Qc6 12. Ke2 Qc1 13. Qd1 Qxd1+ 14. Kxd1 Nxf2+ 0–1.

Problem no. 4: b. White has an advantage. White is clearly better but must react forcefully and quickly or the advantage will dissipate. The main line goes 1. Bh6! (a beauti-ful deflection that wins at least a pawn) Bf6 2. Bg5 Bxg5 [if 2. … Bg7 then 3. Nd5 winning more material] 3. Nxe5 Nc6 4. Rxd7 Qc8 5. Rd5 Be7 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Re5 and White has a clear advantage.


Upcoming Events

May 23-252009 LINA GRUMETTE MEMORIAL DAY CLASSIC. 6-SS, 40/2, SD/1 (2-day schedule rds 1-3 G/60, then merges). LAX Hilton, 5711 W Cen-tury Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045. $$10,000 b/200, 50% of each prize guaranteed. In four sections: Open: $$T+1800-750-400-300-200, U2400 400, U2200 700-300-200. Premier (under 2000): $$750-300-200-100. Amateur (Under 1800): $$750-300-200-100. Reserve (Un-der 1600/unrated): $$750-300-200-100. U1400 400-200, U1200 150, Unr 150. (Unrated may win Unrat-ed prize only.) Best game prize $25, all sections eligible. All: half-point byes available, limit 2, rds 5-6 must be requested with entry & cannot be revoked. SCCF membership req. ($18, jr. $10), OSA. No checks or credit cards at door Reg: 3-day 9-10 a.m. 5-23, 2-day 8:30-9:30 a.m. 5-24. Rds: 3-day: 10:30-5 Sat-Sun, 10-4:30 Mon. 2-day: 10-12:15-2:30 Sun., then merges. EF: $83 if re-ceived by 5-22, $95 door, U1400/unrated $67 by 5-22, $80 door. On-line entry: www.westernchess.com. Ent: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N. Wilton Pl. #1, Los Ange-les CA 90038. HR: $109 (310) 410-4000, use group code LGM. Parking $10/day. Inf: [email protected]. NS, W, F. GP: 40. State Championship Qualifier

May 24MDC SCHOLASTICS. 5-SS, G/30. LAX Hilton, 5711 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045. Open to gr. 12-below. In two sections: Open: Trophies to top 5, top 3 U1200, top 2 Unrated. Grade 6/below U1000: Trophies to top 5, top 3 U700, top 2 Unrated. Reg.: 8:30-9:15. Rds.: 9:30-11-12:15-1:45-3. EF: $16 if re-ceived by 5-22, $20 door. Inf: John

Hillery, [email protected]. On-line ent: www.westernchess.com. Ent: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N. Wilton Pl. #1, Los Angeles CA 90038.

May 25MDC HEXES, 3-SS, G/90. LAX Hilton, 5711 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045. Six-player sec-tions by rating. EF: $20 if received by 5-22, $25 door. $$ 40-20-10 each section. Reg: 9:30-10:30 a.m. Rds 10:45-2-5. Ent: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N. Wilton Pl. #1, Los Angeles CA 90038, online at www.westernchess.com

May 25MEMORIAL DAY ACTION SWISS. 5-SS, G/30. LAX Hilton, 5711 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045. $$500 b/40, else proportional: $150-70-40, U2100/Unr $80, U1800 $80, Under 1500 $80. EF: $20 if received by 5-22, $25 at door. Reg: 9-10 a.m. Rds 10:15-11:30-12:45-2:30-3:45. Ent: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N. Wil-ton Pl. #1, Los Angeles CA 90038, online at www.westernchess.com.

May 30SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY OPEN. 4-SS, G60 5 sec delay. South Bay Community Center, 2180 Palisades Avenue, Los Osos CA 93402. In 2 Sections: Open: EF $35; $45 at site. Reserve (U1400/Unrated): EF $25; $30 at site. All: Cash only at site. $5 discount to SCCF, SLOCC, Scholastic (Age 12 and Under). $$: 80% of entries. Reg: 9:00-9:30 at site. Rds: 10:00-12:15-2:45-5:00. One ½ pt. bye any round if requested with entry. Ent: Payable to San Luis Obispo Chess Club, c/o B. McCaleb, 234 Via La Paz, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401. Inf: Barbara McCaleb, 805-540-0747 [email protected].

Directions: Hwy 101 to Los Osos Valley Rd; 10 miles West to Pali-sades Ave. Note: A separate Scho-lastic Tournament with 3 sections will be held at the same site for tro-phy prizes. For details, call or write Maria Kelly, maria [email protected] or 805-423-5331. State Cham-pionship Qualifier.

May 30 OCHO. 3-SS, 30/90 SD/30. Chess Pal-ace, 12872 Valley View St. Suite 5, Garden Grove, CA, 92845. Format: 8-player section by rating. Prizes: 1st: $70 cash - 2nd: $25 Gift Card for each section, 3rd: may be added based on large rating difference. EF: $15 members, $22 non-members. Reg. 11-11:25 a.m. Rds: 11:30-3:30-7:30. Free parking. Ent: Chess Palace, 12872 Valley View St. Suite 5, CA 92845. Email ent: [email protected]. Phone (714)899-3421. Info: [email protected]. www.chesspalace.com. Phone: 1-888-34-CHESS.

May 31SO CAL STATE JUNIOR QUALIFIER. 4-SS, G/40. Whittier High School Li-brary, 12417 Philadelphia St, Whit-tier, CA 90601. Sections: In two rated sections and two non-rated sections. Main Event (USCF rated) - Open (under 21 years of age) & Amateur (under 1200 USCF). Side event (non-rated)-Varsity (6-12th) & Junior Var-sity (K-5th). EF: $20 main event (by May 27), $5 side event (by May 27)

- $10 after. SCCF memb. $2 less. Reg: 8:45-9:30 a.m. Prizes: trophies to top three in each section. Best Team award. The champion of the Main Event Open wins a seat to the 2009 SCCF Candidates Tournament. Rds: 10a.m, 11:30, 3, 4:30. Free parking. Ent: Chess Palace, 12872 Valley View St. Suite 5, CA 92845.


Phone (714)899-3421. Email ent: [email protected]. On-line registration - http://chesspalace.com/scholastics/tourney.htm#pay. Info: [email protected]. For details - http://chesspalace.com/scho-lastics/tourney.htm. Phone: 1-888-34-CHESS.

May 31 SO CAL STATE JUNIOR QUALIFIER. 4-SS, G/40. Whittier High School Li-brary, 12417 Philadelphia St, Whit-tier, CA 90601. Sections: In two rated sections and two non-rated sections. Main Event (USCF rat-ed)-Open (under 21 years of age) & Amateur (under 1200 USCF) Side event (non-rated)-Varsity (6-12th) & Junior Varsity (K-5th). Prizes: trophies to top three in each section. Best Team award. The champion of the Main Event Open wins a seat to the 2009 SCCF Candidates Tournament Reg: 8:45-9:30. Rds: 10, 11:30, 3, 4:30. EF: $20 main event (by May 27), $5 side event (by May 27) - $10 after. SCCF memb. $2 less. Free park-ing. Ent: Chess Palace, 12872 Val-ley View St. Suite 5, CA 92845. Phone (714) 899-3421. Email ent: [email protected]. On-line registration: http://chesspalace.com/scholastics/tourney.htm#pay. Info: [email protected]. www.chesspalace.com. Phone: 1-888-34-CHESS.

June 27-28

BAKERSFIELD CLASS ACT. 5-SS, East Hills Mall 3000 Mall View Rd Bakersfield, CA 93308. Inf: Kenneth Poole at 661-304-7468, www.bakersfieldchessclub.com.

July 3-549TH ANNUAL PACIFIC SOUTHWEST OPEN. 6-SS, 40/2, SD/1 (2-day schedule rds 1-3 G/60, then merges). LAX Hilton, 5711 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045. $$8,000 b/200, 50% of each prize guaran-teed. 2 sections: Open, $$1400-700-400-300-200, U2200 $600-300-150, U2000 $600-300-150. Amateur, open to U1800/Unr, $$600-300-150,

U1600 500-250-150, U1400 400-250, U1200 150, Unr. 150. Unr. May win Unrated prize only. All, EF $69 if rec’d by 7-2, $79 at site. SCCF memb. req’d of So. Californians ($18, jrs. U18 $10, includes Rank & File magazine). Reg.: 3-day 9-10 a.m. 7-3, 2-day 8:30-9:30 a.m. 7-4. Rds.: 3-day: 10:30-5 Fri-Sat, 10-4:30 Sun. 2-day: 10-12:15-2:30 Sat., then merges. Ent: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N. Wilton Pl. #1, Los Angeles CA 90038, on line at www.westernchess.com.. HR: $109 (310) 410-4000, use group code APS. Parking $10/day. Inf: [email protected]. NS, W, F. JGP. GP: 30. State Champi-onship Qualifier.

July 4PSW SCHOLASTICS. 5-SS, G/30. LAX Hilton, 5711 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045. Open to gr. 12-below. In two sections: Open: Trophies to top 5, top 3 U1200, top 2 Unrated. Grade 6/below U1000: Trophies to top 5, top 3 U700, top 2 Unrated. Reg.: 8:30-9:15. Rds.: 9:30-11-12:15-1:45-3. EF: $16 if received by 7-2, $20 door. Inf: John Hillery, [email protected]. On-line ent: www.westernchess.com. Ent: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N. Wil-ton Pl. #1, Los Angeles CA 90038.

July 5PSW HEXES. 3-SS, G/90. LAX Hil-ton, 5711 W Century Blvd, Los An-geles, CA 90045. Six-player sections by rating. EF: $20 if received by 7-2, $25 door. $$ 40-20-10 each section. Reg.: 9:30-10:15 a.m. Rds.: 10:30-1:30-4:30. Ent: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N. Wilton Pl. #1, Los Angeles CA 90038, online at www.westernchess.com.

July 16-1914TH ANNUAL PACIFIC COAST OPEN. 6SS, 40/2, SD/1 (2-day option, rds 1-3 G/50). Renaissance Agoura Hills Hotel, 30100 Agoura Road, Agou-ra Hills CA 91301. Free parking. Prizes $30,000 based on 250 paid entries (re-entries & U1000 count half), minimum $24,000 (80% of each prize) guaranteed. In 7 sec-

tions. Open: $3000-1500-700-400, clear or tiebreak win $100 bonus, top U2300/Unr $1800-1000. FIDE. Under 2100: $2000-1000-600-400. Under 1900: $2000-1000-600-400. Under 1700: $2000-1000-600-400. Under 1500: $2000-1000-600-400. Under 1300: $1800-900-500-300. Under 1000: $1000-500-300-200. Unrated may enter any section, with prize limit U2100 $900, U1900 $700, U1700 $500, U1500 $400, U1300 $200, U1000 $100; balance goes to next player(s) in line. Top 6 sec-tions EF: 4-day $144, 3-day $143, 2-day $142 mailed by 7/8, all $145 on-line at www.chesstour.com by 7/13, $150 phoned by 7/13 (406-896-2038, entry only, no questions), $160 (no checks, credit cards OK) at tmt. Un-der 1000 Section EF: all $60 less. Free unrated in U1000 or U1300 sections if paying 1 year USCF dues with entry. GMs free; $140 deducted from prize. SCCF membership ($18, jrs $10) required for rated South-ern CA residents. Re-entry $80; not available in Open Section. Unof-ficial uschess.org ratings based on 4 or more games used if otherwise unrated. Special 1 year USCF dues with Chess Life if paid with entry- $30 online at www.chesstour.com, $40 if mailed, phoned or paid at site. 4-day schedule: Reg Thu to 6:30 p.m., rds Thu 7 p.m., Fri 7 p.m., Sat 11-6, Sun 10-4:30. 3-day schedule: Reg. Fri to 11 a.m., rds Fri 12-7, Sat 11-6, Sun 10-4:30. 2-day schedule: Reg Sat to 9 a.m., rds Sat 10-12:45-3:15-6, Sun 10-4:30. All schedules: Bye all, limit 2, Open must commit before rd 2, other sections before rd 4. HR: $87-87, 818-707-1220, re-quest chess rate, reserve by 7/2 or rate may increase. Ent: Continental Chess, PO Box 249, Salisbury Mills NY 12577. $15 service charge for refunds. Questions: www.chesstour.com, 845-496-9648. Advance en-tries posted at chesstour.com. WCL JGP. GP: 150. State Champion-ship Qualifier.

SCCFPO BOX 205MONTEREY PARK CA 9754

LANGEWEG – CASA

LUGANO, 1968BLACK TO MOVE

MATZ – SCHUHMANN

OTTAWA, 1962BLACK TO MOVE

SUESS – GERUSEL

KIEL, 1967WHITE TO MOVE

Solutions on page 19

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vincent huang wins high school championship

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