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R aR aR ank & File JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 VOLUME XXX, NO. 1 $3.00

42nd Annual

American Open

Pruess, Khachiyan tie for fi rst

2 RANK & FILE JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007

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Around the Nation

CONTENTSAROUND THE NATION ........... .........................................................342ND ANNUAL AMERICAN OPEN ..............................5JOSEPH ILETO MEMORIAL ..................................................10TACTICS

by Tim Hanks .................................................................................................13HERE & THERE

Club news, local tournaments, scholastic scholastic schol eventsastic eventsastic and more .............................................................................and more .............................................................................and more 16THE LONG VIEW ........................................................................................THE LONG VIEW ........................................................................................THE LONG VIEW 20STATE CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERSSTATE CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERSSTATE CHAMPIONSHIP Q ...................21

UPCOMING EVENTS ...............................................................................22 CHESS QUIZ ................................................ .......................................................24

USCF news• Departures: USCF Secretary

Robert Tanner resigned from the Executive Board in Decem-ber, in consequence of a repri-mand from the Ethics Commit-tee concerning the submission of questionable rating reports in 1993. Tanner also stepped down from the position of FIDE Zonal President.

• Arrivals: SCCF Membership Sec-retary Randy Hough was chosen by his colleagues to serve as USCF Secretary. The reported vote was Hough 4, Sam Sloan 1 (Sloan), Hough abstaining. The EB recommended to FIDE that IM John Donaldson be named Zonal President.

• Petitions: A petition for the re-call of EB member Sam Sloan has been circulated by Delegate Donna Alarie of Massachusetts. Should the petition be signed by 2/3 of the Delegates, a special election will be held in March or April, and if 2/3 of the members participating vote in favor, Sloan will be removed from office for the remaining three months of his term. He would not, however, be precluded from running again (see below).

• Elections: Three seats on the USCF Executive Board will be up for election in July. In ad-dition, the Board has voted to combine this with a special elec-tion to fill Robert Tanner’s seat

— a two-year term will go to the 4th-place finisher. Currently de-clared candidates are Susan Pol-gar, Don Schultz, Randy Bauer, Mikhail Korenman, Paul Truong,

Joe Lux, Jim Berry, Mike Good-all, and perennial candidate Sam Sloan. Deadline for filing is Janu-ary 10.

All America Chess Team

The United States Chess Fed-eration announced the 2007 All-America Team at the National K-12/Collegiate Championship held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, De-cember 8-10. Each member of the 2007 Trophies Plus All America

Team who attended the event was presented with a team jacket and plaque. Mike Nietman and Aviv Friedman, USCF Scholastic Coun-cil members and USCF Scholastic Director Jerry Nash were present during the award ceremony.

The All America Team was cre-ated in 1987 to honor the very best players under the age of 19. The team, one of the highest national honors attainable by a young chess player, is selected on the basis of age, rating, and activities during that year, similar to the selection process of “all conference” sports


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SCCF OnlineThe SCCF Web

page is located at: www.scchess.com

President President President Joe Hanley Vice President Elliot Landaw Vice President Elliot Landaw Vice President Elliot Landaw Elliot Landaw Secretary Chuck Ensey Secretary Chuck Ensey Secretary Treasurer John Hillery Executive Board

Randy Hough Mike Nagaran Rick Aeria John Surlow Ivona Jezierska

Ron Rezendes Essam Mohamed Takashi Iwamoto Rank & File Editor John Hillery Editor John Hillery Editor 835 N. Wilton Pl. # Los Angeles CA 90038 [email protected]

Publisher David Argallublisher David Argallublisher

Contributing Editors Jack Peters Tim Hanks Al Pena Contributors Chuck Ensey Randy Hough Chris Roberts Cyrus Lakdawala Roel Sanchez 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 Rank & File — ISSN 8750-964 USPS Rank & File738-230, published bimonthly by the Southern California Chess Federation, 300 Ballista, La Puente CA 9744. Periodical postage paid at Industry, CA. POSTMAS-TER: Send changes of address to SCCF, PO Box 205, Monterey Park CA 9754. Subscriptions: $4 adult, $9 junior.

Copyright © SCCF 2007. One-time only publication rights have been obtained from signed contributors. All other rights are hereby assigned to the authors. Th e opinions expressed are strictly those of the contribu-tors and do not necessarily refl ect the views of the SCCF, its offi cers or members.

Rick Aeria John Surlow

Essam Mohamed Takashi Iwamoto

Southern California Chess Federation

PHOTOS: Cover: Khachiyan: John Hillery; Pruess: Al Pena. P. 6: Al Pena. P. 7: John Hillery. P. 10: Peters: John Hillery; Tay-lor: Chris Roberts. P. 17: top: Roel San-chez; bottom: Chuck Ensey. P. 18: Chuck Ensey.

teams. This year’s candidates were selected based on their age as of January 1, 2006 and their peak USCF post tournament rating for events held between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2006. The minimum rating limits are reviewed annually by the USCF staff and the USCF Scholastic Council.

For the third year in a row Trophies Plus of Temple-ton, Iowa, has sponsored the AllAmerica Team. In addition to pro-viding trophies for national tourna-ments, owner Doyle Engelen of Tro-phies Plus has also provided service with after-tournament trophy ship-ping. We are proud to have Trophies Plus as a part of the excitement by sponsoring this year’s All-America Team. You can visit Trophies Plus at their web site http://www.tro-phiesplus.com or call them at 800-397-9993. – USCF news release

Age 18 (minimum peak rating 2450)

GM Hikaru Nakamura, NYAge 17 (minimum peak rating

2400)Igor Schneider, NYAge 16 (minimum peak rating

2350)Sal Bercys, NYJoel Banawa, CAAge 15 (minimum peak rating

2300)Daniel J. Ludwig, FLAge 14 (minimum peak rating

2250)Robert Hess, NYAge 13 (minimum peak rating

2200)Marc Tyler Arnold, 2241Age 12 (minimum peak rating

2100)Alexander C. Heimann, PAVictor C. Shen, NJMark A. Heimann, PAMichael Lee, WAChristian T. Tanaka, CAAge 11 (minimum peak rating 1975)Ray S. Robson, FLParker Bi Guang Zhao, NY

Michael Yang, MNZachary A. Young, NYBoris Xu, GAAge 10 (minimum peak rating

1850)Daniel A. Naroditsky, CAGregory Young, CAChristopher Heung, FLRyan Joseph Moon, GAStuart S. Finney, RIJason Altschuler, TXAndrew C. Wang, MASam E. Silberman, FLAge 9 (minimum peak rating 1750)Darwin Yang, TXAtulya Arya Shetty, MIAleksandr A. Ostrovskiy, NYFernando L. Mendez, Jr., TXSylvia Yang, TXEric R. Zhang, CALucas van Buezekom, FLAge 8 & under (minimum peak rat-

ing 1650)Nicholas Nip, CAChristopher Wu, NJBrian J. Luo, WIBrennen Lee, AZFernando Spada, TXAlexander Velikanov, WIEric N. Liao, NJKevin Wang, MDDanil Fedunov, CADanny Balter, PAAndrew J. Jiang, NJ

World ChampionshipIn December, the Russian web

site ChessPro has conducted an in-terview with FIDE President Kir-san Ilyumzhinov, in which he con-firmed that Vladimir Kramnik has in fact agreed to take part in the World Championship which will be

Continued on page 19 ...


American OpenAmerican Open442nd2nd Annual Annual2nd Annual2nd2nd Annual2nd

After 42 years, the American Open is still going strong. While

other tournaments rely on prize fund alone, the American Open, with lectures, chess movies, chess art, and substantial brilliancy priz-es, remains one of a kind.

This year’s edition, held at the LAX Renaissance Hotel Novem-ber 23-26, saw 2004 champion GM Melikset Khachiyan and IM David Pruess share first place. Pruess took the trophy on tiebreak. Each scored an undefeated 6-2 in the Open sec-tion of the 249-player tournament.

Next at 5½-2½ were GMs Eu-gene Perelshteyn, Ian Rogers, and Alex Yermolinsky, and IM Dmitry Zilberstein. Perelshteyn, who faced three GMs and four IMs, led the tournament until his last-round loss to Khachiyan.

Other section winners included Ike Miller, 6½-1½ in Under-2200; Jeremy Kallen (rated only 1770!) and James Williamson, 6½-1½ in Under-2000; Ioannis Angouras, 7-1 in Under-1800; Varun Krishnan, 7-1 in Under-1600; and Vardan Betikyan, Alex Antonio Corea and Hariharan Ramachandran, 6½-1½ in Under-1400.

The American Open Scholastic attracted 111 players. Section win-ners were Eric Cuevas, Danny Ma-chuca, Sean Manross and Gerson Miro (K-12) with 4-1 Caleb Kesey (K-8), Michael Brown (K-6), and Daniel Lin (K-3).

GM Varuzhan Akobian, swept the 29-player 10-minute tourna-ment with a 10-0 score, while expert

comes 13. axb6 Nxb6 14. Rxa6 Nc4, with counterplay.

13. 0-0 Rc8 14. Nd5 Nxd5 15. exd5 Bf5 16. Rac1 Rc4!

An imaginative way to forestall c2-c4.

17. Bxc4 Worth a thought is 17. f4. 17. … bxc4 18 Na1 The misplaced Knight and loose

Queenside pawns offer Black fair compensation.

18. … Qc7 19. Qc3 Nf6 20. Rfd1

Black would not mind 20. Bb6 Qb7 21. Qxc4 Nxd5.

20. … Rc8 21. Qb4 Rb8 22. Bb6 Nd7!

Recovering a pawn. Black has the advantage now.

23. b3 c3 24. Qe4 Qxb6+ 25. axb6 Bxe4 26. fxe4

Hoping for 27. Rd3.

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26. … Nc5! 27 b4Yielding a second pawn, as 27.

Re1 Rxb6 28. Kf2 Rb4 29. Kf3 per-

Mark Sokolovsky led the 26-player Action tournament (30-minute games) with a half-point bye and four straight wins.

Randy Hough and Elie Hsiao directed. Complete standings for all sections may be found at www.americanopen.org.

Though the practice has largely been abandoned by today’s “big-money” tournaments, the American Open continues to reward excellence with three Best Game prizes. First prize went to tournament winner Melikset Khachiyan for his last-round victory over GM Eugene Per-elshteyn.

GM Eugene Perelshteyn – GM Melikset Khachiyan

American Open, Los Angeles 2006

B90 SICILIAN DEFENSE, Najdorf Variation(Notes by Los Angeles Times chess

columnist Jack Peters)1. e4 Khachiyan needed to win this

last-round game to overtake the leader, Perelshteyn.

1. … c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3

The English Attack against the Najdorf Sicilian.

6. … e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Be3 Nbd7 9. Qd2 h5

Preventing g2-g4-g5, White’s usual method of attack.

10. a4 Be7 11. a5 0-0 12. Be2 b5!?

Apparently a novelty. Black wel-


Prize WinnersOpen: 1st/2nd: David Pruess and Melikset Khachiyan, 6-2. 3rd/6th: Eu-

gene Perelshteyn, Alex Yermolinsky, Ian Rogers, and Dmitry Zilberstein (1st Under 2500), 5½. 7th/10th: Enrico Sevillano, Jesse Kraai, Joel Banawa, and Eugene Yanayt, 5. 1st/3rd Under 2300: Julian Landaw, Malcolm Tredinnick, and Sean Higgins, 4½.

Under 2200: 1st: Ike Miller, 6 ½. 2nd/3rd: Marian Nick Nita Jr and Cau Duong Le, 6. 4th/5th: Ricardo Perez-Marco and John Bryant, 5½.

Under 2000: 1st/2nd: James Williamson and Jeremy Kallen, 6 ½. 3rd/4th: James Masland and Boris Lanin, 6.

Under 1800: 1st: Ioannis Angouras, 7. 2nd: Krishna Kaliannan, 6 ½. 3rd/8th: Charles Ensey, Michael Kaye, Michael O’Brien, Eric Cornejo, Me-linda West, and Jaymie Baliwag, 5½.

Under 1600: 1st: Varun Krishnan, 7. 2nd/3rd: Friday Avila-Patricio and Tyler Bard, 6. 4th/9th: Wen Wu, Keith Motschman, Zachary Powers, Kelly Zhang, Numan Abdul-Mujeeb, and Elie Alster, 5½.

Under 1400: 1st/2nd: Hariharan Ramachandran, Alex Antonio Corea, and Vartan Betikyan (1st Unrated), 6½. 4th: George Kiaman (2nd Unrated), 6. 5th: Michael W Brown, 5½. 1st Under 1200: Samuel Meisner, 5. 2nd Un-der 1200: Jonathan Tak Lee, 4½.

Quick: 1st: Varuzhan Akobian, 10-0. 2nd: Nicanor Navarro, 8. 1st/2nd Under 2200: Ricardo Perez-Marco and Takashi Kurosaki, 7. Under 2000: Rick Bucaria, 6½. Under 1800: Eddie Chang, 6½. 1st/3rd Under 1600: Alan Hourmand, Arthur Skurskiy, and Jesus Hourmand, 3½. Unrated: Houman Haddadnia, 4½.

Action: 1st: Mark Sokolovsky, 4½ - ½. 2nd/4th: Stephen Sholomson, Ed-ward Foster, and Jared Tan, 4.

Scholastic K-12: 1st/4th: Danny Machuca, Gerson Miro, Sean Manross, and Eric Cuevas, 4-1.

Scholastic K-8: 1st: Caleb Kesey, 5. Scholastic K-6: 1st: Michael W Brown, 5. Scholastic K-3: 1st: Daniel Lin, 5.

mits 29. ... g5! 30. h3 g4+! 31. hxg4 hxg4+ 32. Kxg4 Nxe4, with vicious threats.

27. … Nxe4 28. Nb3 Rxb6 29. Ra1

Activity at last! 29. … Rxb4 30. Rxa6 Bg5 Threatening 31. ... Rxb3. White

is still suffering. 31. Rc6 Rb5 32. Rd3 f5 33. g3

Kf7 34. Kg2 Ke8 35. Rc7 Bd8 36. Rc4

Not 36. Rxg7? Rxb3 37. cxb3 c2, Queening.

36. … Kd7 37. Rd1 Bg5 38. Rd3 g6

Khachiyan thought he could have won with 38. ... Nf6!? 39. Rcxc3 e4 40. Rd4 Nxd5, but 41. Nc5+! Kc6 42. Nxe4+ Nxc3 43. Rxd6+! Kc7 44. Nxc3 Rc5 45. Rd3 may save White.

39. Kg1 Bd8 40. Kg2 Bb6 41. Ra4 Bd8?!

This was the moment for 41. ... Nf6!, as 42. Rxc3 Nxd5 43. Rd3 Ne3+ costs White another pawn.

42. h3 Bg5 43. Ra7+ Ke8 44. Rc7 Kd8 45. Rc4 h4 46. gxh4 Bxh4 47. Rxe4!? fxe4 48. Rxc3 Bg5

Probably stronger than 48. ... Rxd5 49 Re3.

49. Rc4 e3 50. Rg4 Bf4 51. Rxg6 Rxd5 52. Kf3 Ke7 53. Rg1 Rb5 54. Nd4!? Rc5

A draw is likely after 54. … exd4?! 55. Kxf4 Re5 56. Kf3.

55. Rg4 Kf6 56. Ne2 Rc4 57. h4?!

Maybe 57. Nxf4 exf4 58. Rg2 hangs on.

57. … d5 58 c3 Now 58. Nxf4 Rxf4+ is easy for

Black. 58. … Kf5 59. Rg8 e4+ 60.

Kg2 Be5 61. Rd8 Rc5 62. h5 Kg5 63. Ng3 Bxc3 64. Re8 Bg7

Not fearing 65. Rxe4 Rc2+. 65. Re6 Or 65 Rg8 Rc7 66 Rd8 Kg4! 67

Ne2 Rf7, and Black invades. 65. … Bf6 66. h6 Rc2+ 67.

Kh3 e2 68. Nxe4+ dxe4 69. Rxe4 Kxh6, White Resigns.

If 70. Kg3, then 70. ... Bc3 wins.

Second prize went to Texas Ti-tan Joe Bradford, as he enlivens a rather dull opening with clever tac-tical play on both flanks.

Cedric Pahud – Joseph BradfordAmerican Open, Los Angeles

2006C01 FRENCH DEFENSE, Exchange

Variation1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4.

exd5 exd5 5. Bd3 Nc6 6. a3 Be7 7. Nce2 Nf6 8. c3 0–0 9. Ng3 Re8 10.

N1e2 Bf8 11. f3 a5 12. a4 b6 13. 0–0 Nb8 14. Nf5 c5 15. Bg5 Nbd7 16. Bb5 Ba6 17. Bxa6 Rxa6 18. Re1 Qc7 19. Qd2 Raa8 20. Bh4 h6 21. Kh1 Qc6 22. b3 c4 23. bxc4

Qxc4 24. Bg3 Qc6 25. Ne3 Rac8 26. Reb1 Qe6 27. Bf2 Bd6 28. Rb5 g6 29. Re1 Bc7 30. Bg1 h5 31. Qa2 Kg7 32. Nxd5

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32. ... h4 33. c4 Nxd5 34. Rxd5 h3 35. Qd2 hxg2+ 36. Kxg2 Nf6 37. Nf4 Qxe1 0–1

JOSEPH BRADFORD


The Best Game prize for the non-Master sections went to veter-an Francisco Alonso, who offers a piece for far too many pawns.

Francisco Alonso – Mike Za-loznyy


A14 ENGLISH OPENING1. c4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4.

Bg2 Be7 5. 0–0 0–0 6. Qc2 Nc6 7. a3 dxc4 8. Qxc4 Qd5 9. Qxd5 exd5 10. d3 Na5 11. Nbd2 c5 12. b3 b5 13. Bb2 Bb7 14. Rac1 Rac8 15. Bh3 Rc6 16. Ne5 Rb6 17. e3 Rd8 18. f4 Ra6 19. g4 c4 20. g5 Ne8 21. b4 Nc6 22. Ndf3 Nxe5 23. Nxe5 Bc8 24. Bg2 f6 25. dxc4 fxe5 26. Bxd5+ Be6 27. cxb5 Rad6 28. Bxe6+ Rxe6 29. Bxe5

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29. ... Bxg5 30. Bd4 Bf6 31. Bxa7 Bb2 32. Rc6 Re7 33. Bc5 Rb7 34. a4 Ra8 35. Ra6 Rd8 36. b6 Nf6 37. Ra7 Rxa7 38. bxa7 Nd7 39. Rd1 Kf7 40. Rxd7+ Rxd7 41. a8Q Rd1+ 42. Kf2 Rd2+ 43. Kg3 h5 44. Qf8+ Kg6 45. Qd6+ Rxd6 46. Bxd6 Bc1 47. Kf3 1–0

Another worthy contender was David Pruess’s long-term Exchange sacrifice, featuring an imprisoned Rook.

IM David Pruess – Landon Brownell


C15 FRENCH DEFENSE, Wi-nawer Variation1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4.

a3 Bxc3+ 5. bxc3 Ne7 6. Bd3 c5 7.

dxc5 Qa5 8. Nf3 Nbc6 9. 0–0 Qxc3 10. Rb1 Qxc5 11. Re1 d4 12. Rb5 Qd6 13. e5 Qc7 14. Ng5 a6 15. Rc5 b6 16. Rxc6 Nxc6 17. Qh5 g6 18. Qf3 Bb7 19. Qf6 Rg8 20. Nxh7 Ne7 21. Bg5 Nd5 22. Qf3 Rg7 23. Nf6+ Nxf6 24. Qxf6 Rh7 25. Rb1 b5 26. Rb4 Bd5 27. Rxd4 Qc5 28. h4

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28. ... Kd7 29. Rb4 Qf8 30. c4 bxc4 31. Bxc4 a5 32. Bxd5 axb4 33. Bxa8 Qxa8 34. Qe7+ Kc8 35. Qf8+ Kb7 36. Qxb4+ Kc7 37. Qd6+ Kb7 38. Qd7+ Kb8 39. Be7 Qb7 40. Bd6+ Ka7 41. Qa4+ Kb6 42. Qd4+ Kc6 43. Qe4+ Kb6 44. Bc5+ Kc7 45. Bd6+ Kb6 46. Qd4+ Kc6 47. a4 Rh8 48. Qe4+ Kb6 49. Qb4+ Kc6 50. Qc4+ Kd7 51. Qf4 Kc6 52. Kh2 Ra8 53. g4 Ra5 54. h5 gxh5 55. gxh5 Qa7 56. Qf3+ Kb6 57. h6 Rxa4 58. Qe3+ Kc6 59. Qxa7 Rxa7 60. Bf8 f5 61. exf6 Ra5 62. Bg7 1–0

GM Eugene Perelshteyn – GM Alex Yermolinsky


B63 SICIL:IAN DEFENSE, Richter-Rauzer Variation1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4.

Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qd2 Be7 8. 0–0–0 Nxd4 9. Qxd4 0–0 10. f3 a6 11. h4 b5 12. Kb1 Bb7 13. Qd2 Rc8 14. Bd3 Qc7 15. Ne2 Rfd8 16. Nd4 Qb6 17. Be3 Qc7 18. g4 e5 19. Nf5 Rd7 20. Bg5 Bd8 21. Bxf6 Bxf6 22. g5 Be7 23.

h5 d5 24. g6 Bf6 25. gxh7+ Kh8 26. Qg2

dxe4 27. fxe4 Qd8 28. Rhg1 Qf8 29.

Rdf1 Rcd8

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30. Nh6 Rd6 31. Ng4 Bc8 32. Nxf6 Rxf6 33. Rxf6 gxf6 34. Qf3 Qe7 35. Qg3 Qf8 36. Qf2 Qe7 37. h6 Kxh7 38. Rg7+ Kh8 39. Qg1 Qf8 40. Rg2 Kh7 41. Rg7+ Kh8 42. a3 Be6 43. Qf2 Qe7 44. Qg3 Qf8 45. b3 Rb8 46. Kb2 Rc8 47. Bf1 b4 48. axb4 Rb8 49. Bh3 1–0

Ricardo Perez-Marco – John Daniel Bryant


B93 SICILIAN DEFENSE, Najdorf Variation1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4.

Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f4 e5 7. Nf3 Nbd7 8. Bd3 Be7 9. 0–0 exf4 10. Bxf4 Qb6+ 11. Kh1 Qxb2 12. Qe1 Qb6 13. Rb1 Qc7

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14. e5 dxe5 15. Nxe5 Nxe5 16. Bxe5 Qa5 17. Rxf6 gxf6 18. Bxf6 Be6 19. Bxh8 Bb4 20. Qe5 Bxc3 21. Qxc3 Qxa2 22. Rxb7 Rc8 23. Qb4 Bd7 24. Bf5 Rd8 25. Bf6 1–0GM EUGENE

PERELSHTEYN


GM Dashzegve Sharavdorj – Francis Chen


D37 QUEEN’S GAMBIT DECLINED1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4.

Nc3 Be7 5. Bf4 0–0 6. e3 b6 7. Bd3 Bb7 8. cxd5 exd5 9. 0–0 c5 10. Ne5 Nc6 11. Qf3 cxd4 12. Nxc6 Bxc6 13. exd4 Re8 14. Nb5 Rf8 15. Bc7 Qe8 16. Nd6 Qd7 17. Nf5

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17. ... Ne4 18. Rac1 Rfe8 19. Be5 f6 20. Qg4 Bf8 21. Bxe4 fxe5 22. Nh6+ Kh8 23. Qxd7 Bxd7 24. Nf7+ Kg8 25. Bxd5 1–0

IM Jesse Kraai – Michael AignerAmerican Open, Los Angeles

2006A80 DUTCH DEFENSE

1. Nf3 f5 2. b3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4. Bb2 g6 5. e3 Bg7 6. Bc4 c6 7. a4 Ne4 8. 0–0 Na6 9. Nbd2 Nxd2 10. Qxd2 Nc7 11. Rfe1 Be6 12. Bxe6 Nxe6 13. e4 f4 14. c4 0–0 15. b4 Nc7 16. d5 Bxb2 17. Qxb2 e5 18. dxc6 bxc6

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19. c5 Rb8 20. Rad1 d5 21. b5 Re8 22. exd5 Nxd5 23. Rxe5 Qf6 24. Rdxd5 1–0

Sergio Garcia Fuentes – Javier Lom


B82 SICILIAN DEFENSE, Najdorf Variation1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4.

Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f4 e6 7. Qf3 Qc7 8. g4 b5 9. g5 Nfd7 10. a3 Bb7 11. Be3 Nc6 12. 0–0–0 Nb6 13. Bxb5 Be7 14. e5 d5 15. Nf5

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15. ... axb5 16. Nxb5 Qd7 17. Nfd6+ Kf8 18. Bxb6 Ra6 19. Bc5 Ba8 20. Qh5 g6 21. Qh6+ Kg8 22. Ne4 f5 23. Nf6+ Bxf6 24. Qf8# 1–0

IM Tim Taylor – Gregg Small American Open, Los Angeles

2006D20 QUEEN’S GAMBIT ACCEPTED

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 c5 4. d5 e6 5. Bxc4 Nf6 6. Nc3 exd5 7. exd5 a6 8. a4 Bd6 9. Nf3 0–0 10. 0–0 Nbd7 11. Bg5 Qc7 12. h3 Ne5 13. Nd2 Ne8 14. Re1 h6 15. Be3 f5

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16. Bxh6 Nxc4 17. Nxc4 gxh6 18. Qh5 Ng7 19. Qg6 Bf4 20. g3 Bg5 21. h4 Bf6 22. Qxh6 Bd7 23. d6 Qc6 24. Ne5 Bxe5 25. Rxe5 Rae8 26. Rae1

Rxe5 27. Rxe5 Re8 28. Qf6 Rxe5 29. Qxe5 Ne8 30. Nd5 Qxd6 31. Qxd6 Nxd6 32. Nf6+ Kf7 33. Nxd7 c4 34. Nb6 Ke6 35. f3 Ke5 36. Kg2 Kd4 37. g4 fxg4 38. fxg4 Kc5 39. a5 Kb5 40. g5 Kxa5 41. Nxc4+ Nxc4 42. g6 Ne3+ 43. Kf3 Nf5 44. Kg4 1–0

Takashi Iwamoto – GM Ian Rog-ers


A42 KING’S INDIAN DEFENSE1. d4 g6 2. c4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. e4

e5 5. Nf3 exd4 6. Nxd4 Nc6 7. Be3 Nge7 8. Be2 0–0 9. 0–0 f5 10. exf5 Bxd4 11. Bxd4 Nxf5 12. Be3 Nxe3 13. fxe3 Rxf1+ 14. Qxf1 Be6 15. Qf4 Qe7 16. Rf1 a6 17. b3 Rf8 18. Qxf8+ Qxf8 19. Rxf8+ Kxf8 20. Bf3 Nd8 21. Kf2 Ke7 22. Ke1 c6 23. Kd2 Nf7 24. Ne4 Bf5 25. Ng3 Kf6 26. Be4 Bxe4 27. Nxe4+ Ke5 28. Kd3 Nd8 29. Ng5 h6 30. Nf3+ Kf6 31. Ke4 Ne6 32. b4 Nc7 33. a3 b5 34. Kd3 Ne6 35. cxb5 axb5 36. Nd4 Nxd4 37. exd4

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37. ... Kf5 38. Ke3 h5 39. Kf3 h4 40. g3 hxg3 41. hxg3 Kg5 42. Ke3 Kg4 43. d5 cxd5 44. Kd2 Kf5 0–1

Ike Miller – John Daniel BryantAmerican Open, Los Angeles

2006E35 NIMZO-INDIAN DEFENSE,

Classical Variation1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4.

Qc2 d5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bh4 g5 8. Bg3 Ne4 9. e3 c5 10. dxc5 Nc6 11. Bd3 Nxc5 12. Nge2 0–0 13. 0–0 Be6 14. Rfd1 Bxc3 15. Qxc3 Qe7 16. Rac1 Na4 17. Qc2 Nb6 18. Qd2 f5 19. Bb5 Rac8 20. b3 Rfd8 21. Nd4


Bd7 22. Bf1 Qf6 23. Nxc6 Bxc6 24. Qd4 Qxd4 25. Rxd4 Kf7 26. f3 Ke6 27. Rcd1 Nd7

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28. e4 fxe4 29. fxe4 dxe4 30. Bc4+ Ke7 31. Bd6+ Kf6 32. Ba3 b5 33. Rd6+ Kg7 34. Bb2+ Kh7 35. Be6 Rc7 36. Bf5+ Kg8 37. Rg6+ Kf7 38. Rg7+ Kf8 39. Rf1 Ne5 40. Rxc7 1–0

GM Melikset Khachiyan – IM Andranik Matikozyan


B23 SICILIAN DEFENSE, Closed Variation1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3

Bg7 5. Bc4 e6 6. f5 Nge7 7. fxe6 fxe6 8. d3 d5 9. Bb3 Nd4 10. Nxd4 cxd4 11. Ne2 0–0 12. Nf4 e5 13. Nxd5 Nxd5 14. Bxd5+ Kh8 15. h4 h5 16. Bg5 Qb6 17. Bb3 a5 18. a4 Be6 19. Bxe6 Qxe6 20. Rf1 Rac8 21. b3 Bf6 22. Qd2 Bxg5 23. Rxf8+ Rxf8 24. Qxg5 Rc8 25. 0–0–0 b5 26. Rf1 Kg7 27. axb5 Rb8 28. g4 1–0

The Winners 1965 Pal Benko 1966 Larry Kaufman, Robion Kirby 1967 Anthony Saidy 1968 James Lazos 1969 Ray Martin 1970 Robert Byrne 1971 Carl Pilnick, Larry Evans, Walter Browne, Ross

Stoutenborough, David Strauss 1972 Larry Remlinger 1973 James Tarjan 1974 Kim Commons, Peter Biyiasas 1975 Kim Commons, David Strauss 1976 Walter Browne, Yasser Seirawan, John Pike 1977 Jack Peters, Cicero Braga 1978 David Strauss, Paul Whitehead 1979 Perry Youngworth 1980 Walter Browne, John Grefe, David Strauss 1981 Nick de Firmian, John Watson 1982 Jack Peters, James Tarjan, Ian Rogers 1983 Larry Christiansen, David Strauss, Nikolai Minev 1984 Jack Peters, Igor Ivanov 1985 Yasser Seirawan, Igor Ivanov, David Strauss 1986 Lev Alburt, Walter Browne, Boris Gulko 1987 Yasser Seirawan 1988 Jack Peters 1989 Gata Kamsky, Larry Christiansen, Maxim Dlugy,

Walter Browne, Nick de Firmian 1990 Walter Browne, Igor Ivanov 1991 Joel Benjamin 1992 Cris Ramayrat, Jeremy Silman, David Strauss,

Anthony Saidy 1993 Loek Van Wely 1994 Dmitry Gurevich 1995 Igor Ivanov 1996 Alex Yermolinsky 1997 Alex Goldin, Igor Ivanov, Walter Browne 1998 Cyrus Lakdawala, Pavel Blatny 1999 Eduard Gufeld 2000 Andranik Matikozyan 2001 Melikset Khachiyan 2002 Pavel Blatny, Yuri Shulman 2003 Suat Atalik, Varuzhan Akobian, Pavel Blatny 2004 Melikset Khachiyan 2005 Vladimir Mezentsev 2006 David Pruess, Melikset Khachiyan


Three-way Tie In Ileto Memorial

by Randy Hough

The latest in a series of tourna-ments co-sponsored by SCCF and the City of Monterey Park brought out a fine crowd of 67 for the 8th An-nual Joseph Ileto Memorial on De-cember 9-10. One of the few “pure opens” around, the Ileto (and the identically-formatted LA County Open in springtime) offers players the opportunity for good competi-tion at a highly reasonable price. Young players have the option of paying just $10 and competing for trophies only.

IMs Jack Peters and Tim Taylor and Ike Miller (who earned back his master title after eleven years) emerged on top with 4½ of 5. Taylor pressed Peters in their last round encounter, but the Times chess col-umnist escaped into a drawn rook ending. Taylor had pulled off a critical win in the third round over Vadim Kudryavtsev, playing much of the game a piece down but ulti-mately prevailing with his attack and passed pawn on the sixth. Pe-ters and Taylor respectively downed the other two participating masters, Ron Hermansen and Ilia Serpik, in the penultimate round.

After yielding a second round draw to 1978-rated Julio-Cesar Marin, Miller finished with three wins, taking down his frequent rival Chris Lee in the last round. Each of the winners earned $200. A complete list of prizewinners ap-pears below. The biggest rating gain, 108 points, was achieved by young Guanyang Yu.

The tournament was enhanced by a $300 prize fund donation (as well as best game and best combina-

tion prizes – the latter in memory of David Bronstein) from Bill Con-rad. Chess Palace donated two sets, which went to raffle winners Leo Raterman and Jeffrey Ding. USCF’s failure to include the tournament announcement in Chess Life was ap-parently outweighed by its e-mail an-nouncing the increased prize fund.

Prize Winners1st/3rd: Jack Peters, Tim Taylor,

and Ike Miller, 4½ - ½. Under 2200: Show Kitagami, Mike Zaloznyy, Leo Raterman, and Roger Dellaca, 4. Under 2000: Michael Yee and Ju-lio-Cesar Marin, 3½. Under 1800: 1st: Brendyn Estolas, 3½. 2nd/7th: Ryan Yeung, Gary Ware, Jose Go-mez, Rolando Tenoso, Terrence Sun, and Richard Yang, 3. Under 1600: 1st: Kelly Zhang, 2½. 2nd: David Martin, 2. Under 1400: Robert Zuchini and Jonathan Tak Lee, 2. Under 1200: Alvin Huang, 1 ½. Un-rated: Salvador Calderon, 1. Scho-lastic: 1st: Jaymie Baliwag, 3. 2nd: Anand Kesavaraju, 3. 3rd: Sunil Deolalikar, 2½. 4th: Guanyang Yu, 2½. 5th: Nisha Deolalikar, 2.

Jeremy Stein – IM Jack Peters 8th Ileto Memorial, Monterey

Park 2006E97 KING’S INDIAN DEFENSE

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 0–0 6. Be2 e5 7. 0–0 Nc6 8. d5 Ne7 9. b4 Nh5 10. Re1 f5

11. Ng5 Nf6 12. f3 c6 13. Be3 cxd5 14. cxd5 Bh6 15. h4 Nh5 16. Rc1 f4 17. Bf2 Bxg5 18. hxg5 a6 19. Na4 b5 20. Nb6 Rb8 21.

8th Annual Joseph Ileto Memorial

Nxc8 Nxc8 22. Rc6 Qxg5 23. Qd2 Qd8 24. Rxa6 Ng3 25. Rc1 Qh4 26. Ba7 Rb7 27. Rac6 Nxa7 28. Rxd6 g5 29. Re6

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29. ... g4 30. d6 Qh1+ 31. Kf2 Nxe4+ 32. fxe4 g3+ 33. Kf3 Qh5# 0–1

IM Tim Taylor – Vadim Kudryavtsev

8th Ileto Memorial, Monterey Park 2006

E77 KING’S INDIAN DEFENSE, Four Pawns Attack1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4.

e4 d6 5. f4 0–0 6. Nf3 c5 7. d5 e6 8. Be2 exd5 9. exd5 Na6 10. 0–0 Ne8 11. Bd2 f5 12. Be1 Bf6 13. Qd2 Nac7 14. Bf2 Bd7 15. a3 Ng7 16. b4 b6 17. Rab1 Nh5 18. g3 Qe7 19. bxc5 bxc5 20. Rb7 Bc8 21. Rb3 Re8 22.

Re1 Qg7 23. Na4 h6 24. Qa5 Bd8 25. Nxc5 dxc5 26. Qxc5 Nf6 27. d6 Ne4 28. Qb4 a5 29. Qb6 Ra6 30. Qb8 Nxd6 31. c5 Ra8 32. Qb6 Ne4 33. Bd4 Bf6 34. Ne5 g5 35. Bh5 Re6 36. c6 Re7 37. Rd3 gxf4

IM TIM TAYLOR

IM JACK PETERS


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38. Ng6 Re6 39. Bxf6 Nxf6 40. Rd8+ Nfe8 41. Rxe6 Bxe6 42. Rxa8 Nxa8 43. Qd8 Bf7 44. Qxa8 Qd4+ 45. Kg2 fxg3 46. hxg3 Qd2+ 47. Kh3 Qg5 48. Nf4 Bxh5 49. c7 Bg4+ 50. Kh2 Qg7 51. c8Q Qb2+ 52. Qg2 1–0

The Best Game prize, judged by Los Angeles Times chess columni-ost Jack Peters, went to Ron Her-mansen for his fine attack against Jaime Baliwag.

Ron Hermansen – Jaime Baliwag 8th Ileto Memorial, Monterey

Park 2006B12 CARO-KANN DEFENSE, Ad-

vance Variation1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nd7 4. e5

e6 5. f4 c5 6. c3 Qb6 7. Ngf3 Ne7 8. Bd3 Nc6 9. dxc5 Nxc5 10. Bc2 g6 11. b4 Nd7 12. Nb3 Bg7 13. Qd3 0–0 14. Ng5 Bh6 15. h4 Ne7 16. Nd4 a6 17. g4 Nb8 18. Be3 Qc7 19. 0–0–0 Bd7

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9+-zPQvL-+-0

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9+-zPQvL-+-0

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20. Nxh7 Kxh7 21. h5 Kg7 22. hxg6 Qc4 23. Rxh6 Qxd3 24. Rh7+ Kxg6 25. Bxd3+ Nf5 26. Rdh1 1–0

Ike Miller recevioed the Best Combination prize for a clever idea against Chris Lee.

Ike Miller – Chris Lee 8th Ileto Memorial, Monterey

Park 2006E70 KING’S INDIAN DEFENSE

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Bd3 0–0 6. Nge2 e5 7. d5 a5 8. 0–0 Na6 9. Bg5 h6 10. Bh4 g5 11. Bg3 Nh5 12. f3 Nc5 13. Bc2 Nf4 14. Bf2 Bd7 15. Be3 Qf6 16. Qd2 Qg6 17. Ng3 b6 18. Nf5 Bf6 19. b3 Kh8 20. a3 Na6 21. Rab1 Rg8 22. g3 Nh5 23. Kh1 Ng7 24. g4 h5 25. h3 Kh7 26. Kg2 Rh8 27. Bd3 Kg8 28. Rh1 Kf8 29. b4 axb4 30. axb4 hxg4 31. hxg4 Rxh1 32. Rxh1 Nxf5 33. exf5 Qg7 34. Ne4 Be7

XIIIIIIIIY

9r+-+-mk-+0

XIIIIIIIIY

9r+-+-mk-+0

XIIIIIIIIY

9+-zplvlpwq-0

9r+-+-mk-+0

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9-zPP+N+P+0

9+-+PzpPzp-0

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9-zPP+N+P+0

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35. f6 Bxf6 36. Nxf6 Nxb4 37. Nxd7+ Ke7 38. Qxb4 e4 39. Bxe4 Ra2+ 40. Bf2 Qd4 41. Rf1 Kxd7 42. Qb3 Qd2 43. Bf5+ Ke7 44. Qd3 Qb2 45. Qe3+ Kf6 46. Rb1 Qe5 47. Qxe5+ Kxe5 48. Re1+ Kf6 49. Kg3 Kg7 50. Bd4+ f6 51. Re7+ Kf8 52. Bxf6 Ra4 53. Bg6 Ra8 54. Rh7 1–0

Gary Ware – Ilia Serpik 8th Ileto Memorial, Monterey

Park 2006B75 SICILIAN DEFENSE, Dragon

Variation1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4.

Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 a6 8. Qd2 Nbd7 9. 0–0–0 b5 10. g4 Bb7 11. h4 h5 12. g5 Nh7 13. Nd5 0–0 14. Be2 e6 15. Nc3 b4 16. Nb1 a5 17. Nxe6 fxe6 18. Qxd6 Rf7 19. Qxe6 Nhf8 20. Qd6 Be5 21. Qd2 Qc7 22. Rhf1 Ne6 23. f4

XIIIIIIIIY

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XIIIIIIIIY

9r+-+-+k+0

XIIIIIIIIY

9+lwqn+r+-0

9r+-+-+k+0

9+lwqn+r+-0

9r+-+-+k+0

9-+-+n+p+0

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9+lwqn+r+-0

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9-+-+n+p+0

9-zp-+PzP-zP0

9zp-+-vl-zPp0

9-zp-+PzP-zP0

9zp-+-vl-zPp0

9+-+-vL-+-0

9-zp-+PzP-zP0

9+-+-vL-+-0

9-zp-+PzP-zP0

9PzPPwQL+-+0

9+-+-vL-+-0

9PzPPwQL+-+0

9+-+-vL-+-0

9+NmKR+R+-0

9PzPPwQL+-+0

9+NmKR+R+-0

9PzPPwQL+-+0

xiiiiiiiiy

9+NmKR+R+-0

xiiiiiiiiy

9+NmKR+R+-0

23. ... Nxf4 24. Bxf4 Rxf4 25. Qxd7 Rxf1 26. Qe6+ Rf7 27. Qxg6+ Kf8 28. Qh6+ Bg7 29. Qxh5 Bxe4 30. Bd3 Bxd3 31. Rxd3 Rf1+ 32. Rd1 Qf4+ 33. Nd2 Rxd1+ 34. Qxd1 Rd8 35. Qf3 Be5 36. Qe2 Bc3 37. bxc3 bxc3 0–1

Paul Clift – Maroth De Marothy 8th Ileto Memorial, Monterey

Park 2006B18 CARO-KANN DEFENSE

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. Nf3 e6 7. Bc4 Bb4+ 8. c3 Bd6 9. 0–0 Nf6 10. Re1 Nbd7 11. Qe2 0–0 12. Bg5 h6 13. Bd2 Qc7 14. Ne5 Bxe5 15. dxe5 Nd5 16. Bb3 Rfd8 17. Rad1 a5 18. Bc1 a4 19. Bxd5 cxd5 20. h4 Nb6 21. h5 Bh7 22. Qg4 Kh8 23. a3 Rg8 24. Qf4 Nc4 25. Nf1 Qb6 26. Rd4 Raf8 27. Ne3 Nxb2

XIIIIIIIIY

9-+-+-trrmk0

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9p+-tR-wQ-+0

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9-sn-+-zPP+0

9zP-zP-sN-+-0

9-sn-+-zPP+0

9zP-zP-sN-+-0

9+-vL-tR-mK-0

9-sn-+-zPP+0

9+-vL-tR-mK-0

9-sn-+-zPP+0

xiiiiiiiiy

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xiiiiiiiiy

9+-vL-tR-mK-0

28. Ng4 Nd3 29. Rxd3 Bxd3 30. Nxh6 gxh6 31. Qxh6+ Bh7 32. Qf6+ Rg7 33. h6 1–0


24th Annual

U.S. Amateur Team WestFebruary 17-19, 2007

Marina San Pedro, 2800 Via Cabrillo Marina, San Pedro, CA 90731 A Fun Tournament An Affordable Tournament A Tournament for Everyone!

Four-player teams plus optional alternate, average rating of four highest must be U/2200. (Diference betrween boards 3 and 4 may noi exceed 1000 points)(Diference betrween boards 3 and 4 may noi exceed 1000 points)(Di

Entry fee: : $118 per team if received by 2/15, $136 at site,

Under age 18 $86/$100

Trophies and 4 clocks to top 3 teams, U2100, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400/unr.Trophies to top college, industrial

(if at least 3 teams), Junior (under 18), Senior (over 55), U1200. Clocks to best score each board and alternate. Gift certifi cate prizes for

best team names (1st & 2nd).

Registration 8-10 a.m. 2/17 Rounds 11-6, 11-6, 10-4:30Hotel rate: $89, (800) 222-TREE, mention chess.

Reserve by Feb. 1 or rates may go up.

Free parking!On-line entry, help in forming teams: www.westernchess.com

Entries: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N. Wilton Place #1A, Los Angeles CA 90038

Also: 10th Annual Scholastic Amateur Team, Feb. 18. 4-SS, G/1. Open to Gr. 12/below, average team rating must be under 1200AT Hexes, Feb. 19. 3-SS, G/90. Six-player sections by rating.

See reverse side for details

��February 18

10TH ANNUAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SCHOLASTIC AMATEUR TEAM. 4-SS, SD/45, Marina San Pedro Hotel, 2800 Via Cabrillo Marina, San Pedro, CA 90731. Four-player teams plus optional alternate, Grade 12/below, average rating of four highest must be U1200. (Dec. 2006 rating list used, Feb. 2007 used for previously unrated players.) EF: $69 per team received by 2/15, $84 at site. Trophies (team & individual) to top 3 teams, top U1000, U800, U400/unr. Reg. 9:00-10 a.m. Rds. 10:30-1-2:45-4:30. Info, help in forming teams: Joe Hanley, 714-925-3195, [email protected]. Web site, advance entry list: www.westernchess.com. HR: $89, 800-222-TREE, mention chess. Ent: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N. Wilton Place #1A, Los Angeles CA 90038. NS, NC, W.

February 19AT HEXES. 3-SS, G/90. Marina San Pedro Hotel, 2800 Via Cabrillo Marina, San Pedro, CA 90731. Six-player sections by rating. EF: $20 if rec. by 2-15, $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 Place #1A, Los Angeles CA 90038. on line at www.westernchess.com


You are most vulnerable to loss when you begin to “think” Ywhen you begin to “think” Y

you’ve already won the game before it’s over.

No game is ever won until you’ve achieved checkmate or your op-ponent resigns. In any chess game keen mental alertness must be sus-tained at all times. Period! We’ve all witnessed or participated in sporting events of one kind or an-other where a player makes a total-ly surprising, unnecessary and/or horrible mistake, which ends in an absolutely sickening loss. For exam-ple … a pro bowler needs only 3 pins to win and throws a gutter ball and loses. A pro football team need only to snap the ball one more time to let the clock run out, fumbles and the opposing team scores and wins. A pro basketball player need only inbound the ball to win but instead unthinkingly dribbles the ball, forc-ing a turnover and the other team scores and wins. With 2 outs, men on 2nd and 3rd base, and the de-fending team leading by one run in the bottom of the ninth inning, a ground ball is hit to the second baseman who fields the ball then throws the ball over the head of the catcher, (huh?) instead of to first base for the easy out, and 2 runs score to win the game. A pro boxer, way ahead on the score card, need

Tacticsby NM Tim Hanks

only dance around and stay away from his opponent for one more round, decides to try and knock his opponent out, but ends up being careless and gets knocked out.

Then … there’s a World Cham-pion Chess player, who need only defend his King from a mate-in-one for an easy draw (and maybe win over $1,000,000), instead has his mind fixed on “taking a bathroom break,” tries for some kind of phan-tom win and overlooks the mate and loses. When I first heard about this incident I thought it was a joke. We all know that this was no joke. Kramnik actually missed the com-puter’s direct mate threat and lost. In all of these cases one thing is clear – as long as humans are play-ing in these activities expect crazy things to happen sooner or later.

I teach my students to do a safe-ty check with every lesson, but time and time again they make horrible one move blunders and lose. But what is a safety check and how can you train and discipline yourself to remember it? My basic safety check comprises three rules:

Rule #1. Can I be checked and if yes … what will I do?

Rule #2. Are any of my pieces, especially my Queen, being at-tacked?

Rule #3. After I move what’s at least one reply my opponent will make and what will I do in that case? Of course … the more replies considered the better.

By following these rules you will always avoid an immediate loss.

The very fact we’re humans means we’re bound to violate a rule means we’re bound to violate a rule every now and then. Nature can be so cruel. Computers, of course

… never violate these rules. They also have absolutely no emotions, just raw calculating power. If you can manage your emotions during a game, you’ll play sharper and be less distracted. The more we focus and reinforce our concentration during a game, the less likely we’ll make a horrible blunder.

Rule #1 is the easiest to learn and practice (if not in severe time pressure). It should be as automatic as remembering to push your clock. When a World Champion forgets this most basic of all my safety check rules, especially when play-ing a tactical monster like Fritz, there’s no excuse. I’d can only won-der what Topalov said the instant he saw Kramnik played Qe3 and stood up?

Rule #3 is the hardest to imple-ment, and of course for advanced players is implemented at a con-siderably deeper level. Chess com-puters and software are helping us to remember these rules, since with one mistake against these machines the game will most likely end very quickly. Kramnik’s strat-egy against Fritz was well trained and precise in preparation. If not for the one-move horrible blunder he should have at least drawn this match.

Take a look at the following ex-amples and try to determine the right moves before reading the text solutions. See if you can find the right moves, remembering to apply your safety check algorithms.


Position No. 1: It’s White to move. What would you do?

XIIIIIIIIY

9rsnl+kvlntr0

XIIIIIIIIY

9rsnl+kvlntr0

XIIIIIIIIY

9zppzppwq-zpp0

9rsnl+kvlntr0

9zppzppwq-zpp0

9rsnl+kvlntr0

9-+-+-zp-+0

9zppzppwq-zpp0

9-+-+-zp-+0

9zppzppwq-zpp0

9+-+-sN-+-0

9-+-+-zp-+0

9+-+-sN-+-0

9-+-+-zp-+0

9-+-+P+-+0

9+-+-sN-+-0

9-+-+P+-+0

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9PzPPzP-zPPzP0

9+-+-+-+-0

9PzPPzP-zPPzP0

9+-+-+-+-0

9tRNvLQmKL+R0

9PzPPzP-zPPzP0

9tRNvLQmKL+R0

9PzPPzP-zPPzP0

xiiiiiiiiy

9tRNvLQmKL+R0

xiiiiiiiiy

9tRNvLQmKL+R0

a) 1. … Qh5+ is correct.b) 1. … Qh5+ is a mistake.Prove your conclusion with a

variation.

The answer is b. Qh5+ is a mistake. This example stems from a variation of the Damiano Defense and should give White an advan-tage if played properly. If White plays 1. Qh5+, then 1. … g6 2. Nxg6 Qxe4+! (not 2. … hxg6, in view of 3. Qxh8 and White wins) 3. Kd1 Qxg6 and Black is clearly better. Best for White is simply 1. Nf3; then after Qxe4+ 2. Be2, White has a lead in development with a good game.

Position No. 2: It’s Black to move. What would you do?

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9zppzp-+pzpp0

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9PzPPzP-zPPzP0

xiiiiiiiiy

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xiiiiiiiiy

9tRNvLQmK-+R0

a) 1. … f5 is correct.b) 1. … f5 is a mistake.Prove your choice with a varia-

tion.

The answer is a) 1. … f5 is correct. This position came from

the Queen Pawn Counter Gam-bit, where White has gone terribly wrong. Thus, if 1. … f5 2. Nxe5 Qd4! (2. … Qf6 is also good, but not 2. … fxe4?!, as White fights on with 3. Qh5+ and has chances) 3. Qh5+ g6 4. Nxg6 hxg6 and Black is win-ning (the Queen defends the Rook on h8!).


XIIIIIIIIY

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XIIIIIIIIY

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XIIIIIIIIY

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9zppzp-+pzpp0

9r+-wqkvlntr0

9-+nzp-+-+0

9zppzp-+pzpp0

9-+nzp-+-+0

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xiiiiiiiiy

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xiiiiiiiiy

9tR-vLQmK-+R0

a) 1. … Bh5 is best.b) 1. … Bh5 is not best.Prove your conclusion with a

variation.

The answer is a) 1. … Bh5 is not best. This position arises from the Philidor Defense. If 1. … Bh5 2. Nxe5! Nxe5 (not 2. … Bxd1, since 3. Bxf7+ Ke7 4. Nd5 is mate) 3. Qxh5 Nxc4 4. Qb5+ c6 5. Qxc4 and White emerges a pawn up with a good game. Best for Black is 1. … Bxf3 with equality.

Position No. 4: It’s White to move. What would you do?

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XIIIIIIIIY

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9zppzp-+pzpp0

9r+lwqk+-tr0

9zppzp-+pzpp0

9r+lwqk+-tr0

9-+p+-sn-+0

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9+-vl-+-+-0

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9tRNvLQmKL+R0

9PzPP+-zPPzP0

xiiiiiiiiy

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xiiiiiiiiy

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a) 1. Bg5 is a good move.b) 1. Bg5 is not a good move.Prove your conclusion with a

variation.

The answer is b) Bg5 is not a good move. This position arises from the Petroff Defense, where Black has sacrificed a pawn for rapid development. If 1. Bg5? then Nxe4! 2. Bxd8 (better is 2. Qe2 Bxf2+ 3. Kd1 Qxg5 4. Qxe4+ Be6, but Black is clearly better) Bxf2+ 3. Ke2 Bg4#. White should try 1. c3 and slowly build-up the position for a middle-game advantage.


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9PtrP+-zPLzP0

9tR-+QmK-+R0

9PtrP+-zPLzP0

xiiiiiiiiy

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xiiiiiiiiy

9tR-+QmK-+R0

a) 1. … dxe5 is a good move.b) 1. … dxe5 is not a good move.Prove your conclusion with a

variation.

The answer is b) dxe5 is not a good move. It’s a horrible move. If 1. … dxe5 then 2. Qxd8+ Kxd8 3. 0-0-0+! (Did you consider this in your safety check, rule #1?) Kc7 4. Kxb2 and wins. Actually better for Black is 1. … Qa5!, with a clear ad-vantage.


Position No. 6: It’s Black to move. What would you do?XIIIIIIIIY

9rsnlwqk+ntr0

XIIIIIIIIY

9rsnlwqk+ntr0

XIIIIIIIIY

9zpp+-+pzpp0

9rsnlwqk+ntr0

9zpp+-+pzpp0

9rsnlwqk+ntr0

9-+-+p+-+0

9zpp+-+pzpp0

9-+-+p+-+0

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9+-vlp+-+-0

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9-+-sNP+-+0

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9PzPP+-zPPzP0

9+N+-+-+-0

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9+N+-+-+-0

9tR-vLQmKL+R0

9PzPP+-zPPzP0

9tR-vLQmKL+R0

9PzPP+-zPPzP0

xiiiiiiiiy

9tR-vLQmKL+R0

xiiiiiiiiy

9tR-vLQmKL+R0

a) 1. … dxe4 is correct.b) 1. … dxe4 is not correct.Prove your conclusion with a

variation.

The answer is b) 1. … dxe4 is not correct. If 1. … dxe4, then 2. Bb5+ (the gotcha move!) Bd7 3. Nxc5 Bxb5 4. Nxb7! Qc7 5. Nxb5 and White is winning owing to looming forks on d6. Best is 1. … Bxd4 2. Qxd4 with chances for both sides.

Most of these examples demon-strate that you should not simply accept material offerings or try to hold on to material gains by over-extending yourself. By neglecting prudent development and funda-mental opening concepts, such as King safety, you open yourself up for tactical motifs and surprise countermoves that will quickly jolt you from a position of equality to a position of resignation.

Improving your ability to cal-culate and visualize tactical com-binations takes practice. Tactical problem solving will help in this development. The following four exercises, some easy, others a little more of a challenge, will test your tactical awareness. Avoid moving the pieces when solving problems so as to strengthen your over-the-board play. Be alert, play sharp and always remember to do your safety check. Good luck and happy solv-ing! Solutions on page 23.

Position No. 1. Black to move. What result?

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9-+-+k+-+0

XIIIIIIIIY

9-+-+k+-+0

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9+-+-+-+-0

9-+-+k+-+0

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9-+-+P+-+0

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9+-+-+-+-0

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9-+-+P+-+0

9+-+-mK-+-0

9-+-+P+-+0

xiiiiiiiiy

9+-+-mK-+-0

xiiiiiiiiy

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a) White winsb) It’s a drawProve your conclusion with a

variation.

Problem No. 2. Black to play. What result?

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a) White wins.b) Black wins.c) The game is drawnValidate your choice with a vari-

ation.

Problem No. 3. White to move. What result?

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9+-+-+-+p0

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a) Black wins effortlessly.b) White will win.c) The game is a draw.Prove your answer with a varia-

tion.

Problem No. 4. White to move – what result?

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a) The game is a draw.b) White wins.c) Black wins easily.Prove your answer with a varia-

tion.

Support the SCCF State Championship!Support the SCCF State Championship!Now you can donate on line at Now you can donate on line at

www.scchess.comwww.scchess.com


La Palma-La Habra Match

The La Palma Chess Club won its re-match with the La Habra Chess Club with a score of 4.5 out of 6, evening up the match score between these two long-time clubs. This 6-player event, that pitted players with similar ratings from each club, saw each club field a team with two experts and four players with lower ratings. Special thanks to Jerry Schain for helping arrange this swan song event for the La Habra Chess Club that sadly will close its doors at the end of this year. Schain has contributed much to the SoCal chess community with his tireless efforts as LHCC TD and club organizer. Complete stand-ings and pictures of this event, and a calendar for the La Palma Chess Club that has a full sched-ule of events going forward -- can be found at www.lapalmachess.741.com. – Chris Roberts

Pasadena Chess ClubThe Crown City Open, with

23 players, was won by Ike Miller, Randy Hough, and Tianyi He (3-1 in the Open section) and Ray Sol-lars (3½-½ in Reserve section). The club meets Friday nights, 7 pm, at Throop Church, second floor, 300 S.

Los Robles (northeast corner of Del Mar). For information, call Randy Hough at (626) 282-7412 or Neil Hultgren at (818) 243-3809. – Ran-dy Hough

La Palma Chess ClubThe 7-round La Palma Club

Championship ended in dramatic style on December 1st with expert Robert Hutchinson ending Rory Valle’s undefeated streak through the 32-player event’s first 6 rounds. Both finished with 5.5 and will reign as club co-champions. Class prize winners are Serio Pragale (U1700), Carmen Marie Childress (U1500), and newcomer Anderson Ju (U1300/Unrated). The best game prize as judged by IM Jack Peters went to Tim Galima, for his game against Eren Karadayi.

W. Leigh Hunt won the 29-player “Thrilla in La Palma” with a perfect score. The 3-round Swiss held at La Palma’s Central Park ended De-cember 22nd. Other prize winners were Serio Pragale, Best U1800, who only lost to Hunt; Daniel Ro-zsa, Best U1500; and newcomer An-derson Ju, Best U1200.

For a complete list of standings, games, and a full schedule of events see the club’s website at http://www.lapalmachess.741.com/index.html. – Chris Roberts

Chess PalaceThe “16th Anniversary” tourna-

ment at Chess Palace on October 22, with 44 players, saw Craig Clawit-ter and Jaime Gutierrez tie for first. Kiki Frankel led the Scholastic sec-tion. On October 29, Anderson Ju, Kyle Huang and Alexan Athanassi led their sections in the 52-player

Halloween Scholastic. For informa-tion on future Chess Palace events, call (310) 594-3475.

Westwood Charter Fall Scholastic

This scholastic event, held No-vember 4 at Westwood Charter School in Los Angeles, attracted 30 players. David Coles and Matthew Simon led the two grades K-8 sec-tions, while Jack Aronzon, Declan Gaffney, Vivian Bose-Pyne, Dillon Rangel and Jonathan Yasharel won Novice (grades K-5) sections. Ivona Jezierska directed.

Exposition Park Chess Club

On November 5, Fernando Co-rona and Vartan Ghazarian topped sections in the monthly free tourna-ment at the Exposition Park Chess Club. The December 3 event saw Marc Conde and Augusto Picardo win their sections. For photos of the club, see chess.expoparkla.com. The club meets every Sunday after-noon in the public library, 3665 S. Vermont Ave. in Los Angeles.

SCCF November OpenRoger Dellaca, Derek Tan and

IM Tim Taylor tied for first place with 4-1 scores in the SCCF No-vember Open, held Novmeber 18-19 at Hebrew Academy in Hunting-ton Beach. The turnout of 24 play-ers was satisfactory for the first

“friendly” tournament run by Joe Hanley, president of the Southern California Chess Federation. Car-


dinal Medical Group provided fi-nancial support. Dinh Tu Richard Truong, Alex Truong and David H. Yang led their sections in the 43-player SCCF November Scholastic at the same site.

John Thomas Dye Scholastic

This scholastic tournament at John Thomas Dye School in Los Angeles attracted 55 players on December 3. David Coles won the Championship (grades K-12) sec-tion, Patrick J. Tate finished first in Junior Varsity (grades K-8), and William Newhart, J.R. Olof-son, Kendall Smith, Andrew Weitz, Brandon Normand, Ben Cooper and Charlie Cooper led their Novice sec-tions. Ivona Jezierska directed.

Costa Mesa OctosThe November 11 Costa Mesa

Octos saw Randy Hough, Leo Ra-terman, and Vicnet Huang tie for first in the top section. The second section also ended in a tie, among Jason Garfield, Krishna Kalian-nan, and Henry Yan. Grant Yo-senick took clear first in the third section. On December 16, Chris-tian Tanaka and Miguel Cayetano led their sections. The next Octos are scheduled for January 20. For information, call Takashi Iwamoto at (949) 689-3511 or see members.cox.net/octochess.

San Diego Chess ClubIn September and October 70

players competed in the Fischer’s Fracas, a two section event with a Fast Section (The Hares), who played at G/90 and a Slow Section (The Tortoises), who played at our regular time control of 40/100, SD/1. We saw a boost in attendance from this idea as we attracted a number of players who joined because they knew they could get home at a rea-sonable hour by playing in the fast section. The problem with our slow

time control is that, even if we start right on time at 7 p.m., the games can go for 5 hours and 20 minutes, so that means a long game will end at 12:20 a.m., way too late for those people who have to work the next morning. The trend today seem to be towards faster time controls so we are trying to head that way too, but many players still demand to have as much time as possible. Ironically, many of the players most in favor of the long time controls are in the lower rated section, and of-ten their games end relatively early anyway. But there always seems to be one or two games that go the dis-tance and that makes for a grouchy, sleep deprived TD the next day.

The fast section of the Fracas ended in a rare 5 way tie for first place among David Hart, Bruce Baker, Jeff Arnold, Adam Corper and Dimitry Kishinevsky, all of whom scored 4 points. Dimitry won the BU2200 prize and Carey Milton was 2nd U2200, followed by John Funderburg, George Zeigler and Rick Aeria as 3rd U2200. Chris Borgan won the BU200 with 3½, trailed by Buddy Morris, Ben Bar-quin and James Mahooti with 2½. Joel Batchelor tied with Erik Mar-quis and Chuck Ensey for BU1800 with 2½, while Mark Lawless won BU1600 with 2 points. In the Slow Section, there was also a rare 5 way tie for first among Ed Baluran, Ma-rio Amodeo, Alfredo DeLeon, Rob-ert Draper and Theron Pummer, all with 4 out of 5 points. Draper won BU1800 and Pummer was BU1700. Sunny Chu and Luis Castaneda were tied for 2nd U1800 and Fausto Robles and Daniel Barone tied for 2nd U1700, all four with 3 points. Also scoring 3 were Daniel Bag-liazo, BU1600, and Pouyan Azar-shahri, Best Unrated. The 2nd U 1600 prize was split by David Hall, Mayra Murra, Rocio Murra and Jo-seph Sanna. Budding chess writer Caley Anderson won BU1400 all for himself. See his “Confessions of a Class Player” on our website mes-sage board.

For the Fall Swiss, we decided

to have ALL games played at G/90, but with an additional 10 second de-lay per move. Fifty-nine players at-tended this event which was divided into 3 sections. The Open Section was won by Rick Aeria with 4½, fol-lowed by Marc Duesterwald, a vis-iting German master, and Leonard Sussman, both with 4. The star of the event was really Maksim Gusev, who won BU2000 with 4 points. Maksim, rated 1978 at the start of this event, upset 3 masters and 1 strong Expert in the first 4 rounds

Diversity Educational Center

Cheston Gunawan won the “Champion of Champions” invita-tional at Diversity Educational Cen-ter in Arcadia in December. Second was Christopher Hung, followed by Anthony Zohrabian and Nicholas Hammond. All won scholastic tour-naments during 2006.

RICK AERIA AND MAKSIM GUSEV


before finally falling to Expert Rick Aeria in the last round. Maksim had been away from the club for about 6 months and now everyone wants to know how he boosted his playing strength so much, but so far he isn’t sharing his secrets. He is now rated as an Expert, but he is still doing quite well in our current Class Championships, where he has 2½ out of 3 so far in the Master/Expert section. In the Fall Swiss, the BU2000 was won by Esteban Escobedo. In the Premier Section (U1900) Bob Defore scored 4 points to win First Place, followed by Jim Malowney and Richard Jensen with 3½. BU1800 were Marty Lower and Pejman Sagart, also with 3½. Chuck Ensey was 3rd U1800 with 3. In the Reserve Section, Caley Anderson scored 4 for 1st, followed by newcomer Jason Flar with 3½ and BU1400 Karen Kaufman, also with 3½. Derek Cameron and Edu-ardo Sanchez also scored 3½ to tie for Best Unrated. Irakliy Khabur-zaniya was 3rd place with 3. The club seems to be gaining lots of new members and we are happy with the turnouts which are higher than normal for later in the year, when typically attendance had fallen off in past years. The current Class Championships have 70 players and we don’t count the house play-ers in our totals, just the paid par-ticipants.

Entry fees are $25 per event and the club annual dues are now $60 a year starting in January of 2007, which is still a bargain for all the services we provide. The SDCC meets on Wednesday nights at 7 PM at 2225 Sixth Avenue in San Diego and is also open for casual play every day starting at 3 p.m. Friday nights we have a children’s club, The Jedi Knights, taught by NM Bruce Bak-er, and Saturday we have a 4 round, G/45 event starting at 10 a.m, known as the Gambito Open; it is usually over by 6 p.m. We also often have group lessons on Wednesday at 5:30 PM before the rounds start for a nominal $5 charge, taught by Dimitry Kishinevsky and/or Bruce

Baker. Individual lessons are also available from several of the higher rated players in the club, including IM Cyrus Lakdawala. Please see our website, which is loaded with lots of games, pictures and stories at http://Groups.msn.com/sandi-egochess. – Chuck Ensey

Gambito Open News The November Super Gambito

drew 32 players to the SDCC in Balboa Park, including 4 Masters and 7 Experts. It was by IM Enrico Sevillano. Cyrus L a k d a w a l a tied for Second Place with Marc D u e s t e r w a l d . Leonard Suss-man was BU200 while John Bry-ant, Carey Milton and Richard Gimeno tied for 2nd U2200. Ben Barquin won BU2000, with Daniel Grazian and Richard Jensen coming in 2nd U2000. Varun Krishman, who has been making quite a splash lately, won BU1800, ahead of Roberto Aiello, Joselito Quiba and William Wijaya. Nestor Dagamat and Tom Kuhn tied for BU1600.

The December Super Gambito (#299) was the annual two day event known as the Super Double Gambito, 8 rounds of G/45 which is considered to be the Gambito Open Championship for the year. It drew a good crowd of 33 players to the San Diego Chess Club, with 18 players in the Open and 15 in the Reserve. Enrico Sevillano won first place with 7 points, worth $300. Newly minted Master John Bryant tied for second place with NM Romeo Ig-nacio with 5½ points for $150 each. Jorge Balares was BU2200 with 5 points for $200. Three players tied for 2nd U2200: Carey Milton, Raoul Crisologo and Richard Gimeno with 4½ points, winning $50 each. The to-tal prize fund was $2,000, including two $25 Best Game prizes, won by Richard Gimeno and Arthur Taylor, and two $25 upset prizes, won by

Jorge Balares and David Whitten. Four players tied for BU2000, with 4 points, winning $87 each: Ben Barquin, Varun Krishnan, Daniel Grazian and Chris Borgan. Varun and Daniel are two young scholas-tic players that have rocketed up the ratings charts this year, in part due to their frequent play and experience gained at the Gam-bito Open.

In the Reserve Section, Michael Taylor of Bakers-field had an out-standing performance, scoring 6½ out of 7 to win $200 before finally losing in the last round when it didn’t matter anymore. William Delaney was second with 6 points for $100. Three players tied for Third for $17 each: Chuck Ensey, Arthur Taylor and William Wijaya. The BU1600 prize of $150 was won by newcomer Nestor Dagamat with 4 points, while David Whitten won 2nd U1600 with 3 points for $75 and Tom Kuhn was 3rd U1600 for $25.

The Super Gambito is held on the first Saturday of every month and has a guaranteed prize fund of $600, although we almost always pay out more, depending on the turnout. The entry fee is $25. Reg-ular Gambito Opens have an EF of only $20 and are held on all the other Saturdays. This tournament has been running like clockwork for over 6 years now, and this year it has paid out more than $24,000 in prizes. The top ten money win-ners this year so far are Cyrus Lak-dawala, Enrico Sevillano, Dimitry Kishinevsky, Jorge Balares, Bruce Baker, Carey Milton, Daniel Gra-zian, Richard Jensen, Chuck Ensey and Ben Barquin. – Chuck Ensey

IM Enrico Sevillano (2574) – Bruce Baker (2208)

Gambito #295, San Diego 2006C45 SCOTCH GAME

(Notes by IM Cyrus Lakdawala)1. e4 e5 Enrico has not yet found a good

response to Bruce’s double King

IM ENRICO SEVILLANO

VARUN KRISHNAN


pawn opening. Bruce won the last Scotch Game they played.

2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. Nc3 d5 7. exd5 cxd5 8. Bb5+ Bd7 9. 0-0!?

9. Bxd7+ looks more accurate. Giving Black... c6 for free doesn’t help White. But I am guessing that Sevilliano just likes to keep his games as complicated as possible. After 9. Bxd7 Qxd7 10. 0–0 Be7 11. Bg5 c6 12. Re1 0–0 is equal.

9. ... c6 10. Bd3 Be7 10. ... Rb8!11. Qf3 0–0 12. h3 Re8 13. Bf4

h6 14. Rad1 Be6 14. ... Qb6! 15. b3 Be6 16. Ne2 c5

17. c3 Qa5 18. Bb1 Rad8=.15. Ne2! c5 16. Bb5 Bd7! This weakens the Black d-pawn

but remains very active. I don’t see any reason for Black to sac the Ex-change with 16. ... Rf8!? 17. Bc6 Rc8 18. Bb7 Rb8 19. Bxb8 Qxb8 20. Bc6 Rc8 21. Ba4 Qxb2 22. Nf4 Qb4 23. Nxe6 Qxa4 24. Nf4 d4 25. Rfe1 Bf8 26. Qb3 Qc6 27. c4! dxc3 28. Qxc3 and Black has decent chances to hold.

17. Bxd7 Qxd7 18. Be5 18. Ng3 d4! 19. c3 Rad8 20. Be5

d3 21. Nf5 Qd5! 22. Nxe7+ Rxe7 23. Bxf6 Qxf3 24. gxf3 gxf6

18. ... Rad8?! Black takes over the advantage

with 18. ... Qe6! 19. Bxf6 Qxf6! 20.

Rxd5 (20. Qxf6?! Bxf6 21. Nf4 Bxb2 22. Nxd5 Re2 23. Ne3 Bd4; 20. Qxd5 Qxb2 21. Qc4 Qb4! 22. Qa6 Bf6) 20. ... Qxf3 21. gxf3 Bf6 22. Ng3 Bxb2 23. Ne4 (23. Rxc5?! Rec8) 23. ... c4 24. Rb1 c3.

19. Rfe1 Qa4? This looks terribly risky to go

pawn hunting with a storm brew-ing around the Black King.

20. Ng3! Qxc2 21. Nf5 Bf8?! His only chance was 21. ... d4

22. Nxe7+ Rxe7 23. Bxf6 Rxe1+ 24. Rxe1 gxf6 25. Qxf6 Rc8 26. Qxh6 Qg6 27. Qxg6+ fxg6 28. b3±.

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22. Nxh6+ gxh6 23. Qxf6 Qh7 24. Re3 Rxe5

24. ... Be7 25. Rg3+ Kf8 26. Qc6+- and White has too many threats.

25. Qxe5 Bd6 26. Qf6 Bc7 27. Qe7!

A nice trick which disorganizes the Black defense.

27. ... Bb6 28. Rg3+ 1–0

Richard Gimeno (2055) – Rich-ard Jensen (1798)

Super Double Gambito, San Diego 2006

B00 NIMZOVICH DEFENSE1. e4 Nc6 2. Nf3 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4.

Bb5 Nge7 5. 0–0 a6 6. Bxc6+ Nxc6 7. d4 Be7 8. Re1 dxe4 9. Nxe4 0–0 10. c3 b6 11. Bf4 Bb7 12. Qe2 Bd6 13. Bg5 Be7 14. Rad1 Bxg5 15. Nfxg5 h6 16. Qh5 Na5 17. Rd3 c5 18. Rg3 Bxe4 19. Nxe4 f5

XIIIIIIIIY

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20. Qxh6 Rf7 21. Rxg7+ Rxg7 22. Nf6+ Kf7 23. Nh5 Rxg2+ 24. Kxg2 Qd5+ 25. f3 Ke7 26. Qg7+ Kd6 27. Nf4 Qxa2 28. Rxe6+ Qxe6 29. Nxe6 Kxe6 30. Qe5+ 1–0

staged from September 12 to Octo-ber 1st 2007 in the Sheraton Centro Histórico Hotel in Mexico City. The event will have the same format as the 2005 World Championship in San Luis: eight players, double round robin. Kramnik’s acceptance means that four players are now fixed: Vladimir Kramnik, Viswa-nathan Anand, Peter Svidler and Alexander Morozevich. The first by virtue of being the World Champion, the last three because they ended 2nd to 4th in the San Luis event. The remaining four players will be decided in the Candidates matches to be held next May in the Kalmyki-an capital Elista.

The ChessPro journalist Yurij Vasiliev, who conducted the inter-view with Ilyumzhinov, asked the president whether Kramnik was obliged to first play a return match against Veselin Topalov, if a chal-lenge was issued, in accordance with FIDE’s anyone-can-challenge rule. The president replied that FIDE has not received any official offer from the Bulgarian side. He added that under the current rules there must be an interval between any such match and the Mexico tournament of at least six months.

Immediately after this an-nouncement, Veselin Topalov’s rep-resentatives submitted a challenge to a rematch, to be played in Sofia,

Bulgaria in March or April. The sta-tus of this proposal is not yet clear. Current FIDE regulations appear to require acceptance by the World Champion of any properly-funded challenge. However, they also re-quire a minimum of five months for FIDE to organize and promote the event. This is clearly not possible if the “six-month” rule is also to be honored.

Further complicating matters is an interview recently given by To-palov to Chessbase. In it, he said, among other things:• “There were clear indications of

cheating.”• “When they inspected the bath-

rooms they found a network ca-

... continued from page 4


The Long Viewby John Hillery

White allows his opponent to obtain two passed Queenside

pawns in exchange for posting a Rook on the seventh rank. When the game was adjourned at move 31, Lipschütz and the spectators (Steinitz among them) were certain that Black must win. The combina-tion initiated by White’s 32nd move brought a rude awakening.

Blackburne – LipschützNew York, 1889D55 QUEEN’S GAMBIT DECLINED

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 b6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 Bb7 7. Rc1 Nbd7 8. cxd5 exd5 9. Bd3 0-0 10. 0-0 Ne4

Black has completed his devel-opment without difficulty (White should have tried to exploit the weakened c6 square with some com-bination of Qa4, Bb5 and Ne5), and he now begins to take the initiative, occupying his outpost on e4.

11. Bf4 c5 12. Qe2 f5 13. Rfd1 c4 14. Bxe4 fxe4 15. Ne5 Nf6 16. g4 Qe8 17. Qf1 Bd6 18. h3 Rd8 19. Qg2 b5

Black has a space advantage and chances to create a passed pawn on the Queenside, so White must try to stir something up on the g-file.

20. Ne2 b4 21. Ng3 Nd7 22. Nxd7 Rxd7 23. Ne2 Bxf4 24. Nxf4 Rdf7 25. g5 Rf5 26. Kh1 a5 27. Rg1 Bc8 28. Qg3 Qa4 29. b3 cxb3 30. axb3 Qxb3 31. Rc7 a4 32. g6 h6 33. Rxg7+

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Amazingly, White now has a win-ning attack. If 33. ... Kh8 34. Rh7+ Kg8 35. g7 Rg5 36. gxf8(Q)+ Kxf8 37. Ne6+ and wins.

33. ... Kxg7 34. Nh5+ Rxh5 35. Qc7+ Kf6 36. Qd6+, Black resigns

ble hidden in the stucco ceiling.”

• “Kramnik wants to keep the ti-tle without defending it over the board. He always wants some privilege.”

• “The Kremlin will never admit they poisoned that Russian spy, which seems obvious, or that Kramnik cheated.”

• Topalov guesses that his op-ponent was using an electronic device hidden on his body. "With the technology the Russians have, Kramnik will be invincible in a match." Such comments seem unlikely

to encourage Kramnik to grant a rematch.

SCCF BoardThe next meeting of the SCCF

Board will take place on February 19 at the Marina San Pedro Hotel, in conjunction with the U.S. Ama-teur Team West. All members are welcome to attend and observe. For further information, e-mail SCCF President Joe Hanley at [email protected].

David Bronstein, 1924-2006

We were deeply saddened to learn of the death of David Bron-stein in December at the age of 82. As the first challenger for the World Championship in the modern era, he drew his 1951 match with Mikhail Botvinnik 12-12. It was often said the he cared more for creativity than for victory. A man of limitless ideas both on and off the board, a fine writer, and a true gentleman of chess, he will be sorely missed.

David Bronstein - Ljubomir Ljubojevic

Petropolis, 1973B03 ALEKHINE’S DEFENSE

1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4 dxe5 6. fxe5 c5 7. d5 e6 8. Nc3 exd5 9. cxd5 c4 10. Nf3 Bg4 11. Qd4 Bxf3 12. gxf3 Bb4 13. Bxc4 0–0

14. Rg1 g6 15. Bg5 Qc7 16. Bb3 Bc5 17. Qf4 Bxg1 18. d6 Qc8 19. Ke2

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19. ... Bc5 20. Ne4 N8d7 21. Rc1 Qc6 22. Rxc5 Nxc5 23. Nf6+ Kh8 24. Qh4 Qb5+ 25. Ke3 h5 26. Nxh5 Qxb3+ 27. axb3 Nd5+ 28. Kd4 Ne6+ 29. Kxd5 Nxg5 30. Nf6+ Kg7 31. Qxg5 Rfd8 32. e6 fxe6+ 33. Kxe6

Rf8 34. d7 a5 35. Ng4 Ra6+ 36. Ke5 Rf5+ 37. Qxf5 gxf5 38. d8Q fxg4 39. Qd7+ Kh6 40. Qxb7 Rg6 41. f4 1–0

Amateur Team: Check, Mate

The U.S. Amateur Team West is almost here. Have you formed your team yet?

This year’s version, to be held February 17-19 at the Marina San Pedro Hotel, once again offers an inexpensive and fun tournament, in which you and your friends can compete for trophies, clocks, and a shot at a national championship!. An on-line playoff with the winners of the East, North and South will take place March 24.

The event is open to four-player


2006-2007 State Championship

Seeded into the Championship are the 2006 co-champions Enrico Sevillano and Andranik Matikozyan, two players selected on the basis of rating,

and four from the 2007 Candidates Tournament.

July 1-4 Pacific Southwest Open Michael Casella Julian Landaw

July 8-16 State Championship Jack Peters Cyrus Lakdawala Eugene Yanayt Christian Tanaka Francis Chen

July 20-23 Pacific Coast Open Tim Taylor Elliot Liu September 2-4 Southern California Open Varuzhan Akobian Joel Banawa Melikset Khachiyan Sept. 30-Oct. 1 San Luis Obispo Cty Champ. James Humphrey Vadim Kudryavtsev Chris Roberts

October 6-8 Los Angeles Open Ilya Sterin Mikhail Ginzburg Takashi Kurosaki Craig Clawitter Sargis Hakobyan Marian Nick Nita Francisco Alonso Bobby Hall

November 18-19 SCCF November Open Derek Tan Roger Dellaca

November 23-26 American Open Reynaldo del Pilar Ron Hermansen Ilia Serpik

December 10-11 Joseph Ileto Memorial Ike Miller Show Kitagami Mike Zaloznyy Leo Raterman

Upcoming

January 12-15 Western Class Championships Agoura Hills January 27-28 SCCF January Open San Diego May 28-30 Memorial Day Classic LAX

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 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.

Elliot Liu September 2-4 Southern California Open Varuzhan Akobian Joel Banawa Melikset Khachiyan Sept. 30-Oct. 1 San Luis Obispo Cty Champ. Vadim Kudryavtsev Chris Roberts

Mikhail Ginzburg Takashi Kurosaki Craig Clawitter Sargis Hakobyan Marian Nick Nita Francisco Alonso Bobby Hall

Roger Dellaca

Ron Hermansen Ilia Serpik

Show Kitagami Mike Zal Leo R

January 12-15 January 27-28 SCCF January Open San Diego May 28-30 Memorial Day Classic LAX

Solutions to Chess Quiz

(see page 24)

Taimanov-NN, USSR 1965:White exploits both diagonals and the 7th rank with 1. Bc4! Qxc4 2. Rxg7+ Kh8 (Or 2. ... Kxg7 3. Bxe5+) 3. Bxe5! Qxc2 (Instead, [3. ... Qxf1+ avoids mate, but it’s obvi-ously hopeless)] 4. Rf8+ Rxf8! 5. Rxg6+ 1–0

Rogers-Sitanggang, Jakarta 1986: White takes advantage of the isolated Black King with a Queen sacrifice: 1. Qg6+! Kh8 (Not 1. ... fxg6 2. hxg6+ Kh6 3. Rh2#) 2. f6 Qf8 (Or 2. ... fxg6 3. hxg6 gxf6 (3. ... Rf8 4. Rh2+ Kg8 5. Rgh1) 4. exf6 Rh7 (4. ... Rgg7 5. f7) 5. f7+ Rgg7 6. gxh7, winning) 3. Rdg2 1-0, for if 3. ... fxg6 4. hxg6 gxf6 5. Rh2+ Kg7 6. Rh7#.

Schwicker-Boudre, France 1981: A similar motif to the above, as the Black King is bereft of de-fenders after 1. Qxh6+ Kxh6 2. Rxg6+ Kh7 (Or 2. ... Kh5 3. Bf3+ Kh4 4. g3+ Kh3 5. Bg2#) 3. Ra3 1–0

teams (plus an optional alternate) with an average rating below 2200, so everyone’s contribution matters! Plus, there are prizes for each class, as well as best junior, senior, college and industrial team – and even a special prize for best team name!

If you don’t have a team yet, what are you waiting for? For help in forming teams (”… we need one more player rated 1743”), or to en-ter on line, go to www.westernchess.com. Don’t be left out!


Upcoming Events

January 12-15WESTERN CLASS CHAMPIONSHIPS. 7-SS, 40/2, SD/1 (3-day option, rds 1-2 G/75; 2-day option, rds 1-4 G/45), Re-naissance Agoura Hills Hotel, 30100 Agoura Road, Agoura Hills CA 91301. Free parking. $$G 20,000 prize fund, all unconditionally guaranteed. In 7 sections: Master (over 2199): $2000-Master (over 2199): $2000-Master1000-500-300, top U2400 $1200-600. FIDE. Expert (2000-2199): $1400-700-400-200. Class A (1800-1999): Class A (1800-1999): Class A$1400-700-400-200. Class B (1600-1799): $1400-700-400-200. Class C (1400-1599): $1300-600-400-200. 1100-1399: $1200-600-300-200. Un-der 1100: $800-400-200-100. Rated players may play up one section. Un-rated must play in A or below with maximum prize A $600, B $500, C $400, 1100-1399 $300, U1100 $200; balance goes to next player(s) in line. Top 6 sections EF: 3-day $103, 2-day $102 mailed by 1/4, all $104 on-line at chesstour.com by 1/9, all $110 phoned to 406-896-2038 by 1/9 (entry only, no questions), $120 at site. Un-der 1100 EF: all $40 less. EF if un-rated: 3-day $13, 2-day $12 mailed by 1/4, all $14 online at www.chesstour.com by 1/9 (entry only, no questions), $20 at site. All: Re-entry (except Mas-ter) $50. Advance EF $10 less if paid with $49 USCF dues. SCCF memb. ($14, jrs $9) required for rated South-ern CA residents. 4-day schedule: Reg. Fri to 6:30 pm, rds Fri 7, Sat 11-6, Sun 11-6, Mon 10-4:30. 3-day schedule: Reg. Sat to 10 am, rdsSat 11-2:30-6, Sun 11-6, Mon 10-4:30. 2-day schedule: Reg Sun to 9 am, 2-day schedule: Reg Sun to 9 am, 2-day schedule: Regrds Sun 10-12-2-4-6, Mon 10-4:30. All schedules: Bye all, Master must commit before rd 2, others before rd 4. HR: $82-82-82-82, 818-707-1220, re-serve by 12/29; after 12/29 rate is $97-97-97-97 if rooms still available. Car rental: Avis, 800-331-1600, use AWD #D657633. Questions: 845-496-9658. Ent: Continental Chess, c/o

Goichberg, Box 661776, Arcadia CA 91066. $10 service charge for with-drawals. GP: 100. State Champi-onship Qualifier

January 20COSTA MESA OCTOS. 3-SS, 30/75, SD/30. (Digital clocks with delay 30/70, SD/30). 8 player sections by rating. Odd Fellows/Rebekah Hall, 2476 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA. EF: $27 advance, $32 at site, $2 disc. to all Southern Calif. Chess Federation members. $$ prizes per entries. Reg. 9:30-10:15 a.m. Rds. 10:30-2:30-6:30. Rounds may start earlier if your opponent is present and ready. Info/Ent:Takashi Iwamoto ([email protected]), 24275 Tama Lane, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677. Home: (949) 643-2981 Cell: (949) 689-3511. Web site: http://members.cox.net/octochess/. NS, NC.

January 27-28SCCF JANUARY OPEN. 5-SS, Rds. 1-3 G/90, Rds. 4-5, 40/2, SD/1. San Diego CC, 2225 6th Ave San Diego 92101. One Section: $Gtd/$1,400 $$300-200-100, X 125-75, A 100-50, B 75-25, C 75-25, D 75-25, E 75-25, New/UNR 50. EF: IM’s Play Free. If win a prize, EF is deducted. All oth-ers: $40 if received by 1/25. $50 after or at site. SCCF membership req’d. Rds: 10-1:30-5 Sat., 10-4 Sun. One half-point bye any round with entry. Reg: 8-9 a.m. Sat. Inf: Joe Hanley 714-925-3195; [email protected]. Ent: Joe Hanley, 9050 Candlestick Lane, Cypress, CA. 90630. Online: www.chess4children.com ($2 more) Add. Info: Free Donuts/Bagels/Cof-fee! Raffles!! $Gift Certificate for any plus score not winning prize money! Free Parking! NS. NC. GP: 10. State Championship Quali-fier

January 28SCCF JANUARY OPEN SCHOLASTIC. San Diego Chess Club, 2225 6th Ave. San Diego, CA 92101. Three Sections: Open-USCF Rated: 4-SS G/45 or G/40 with 5 sec. delay. Open to all. Rd. Times: 9:30-11:15-1-2:45. Reserve-USCF Rated: 5-SS G/30 or G/25 with 5 sec. delay. Open to players rated between 551-999 USCF. Rd. Times: 9:30-10:45-12:30-1:45-3. Booster-USCF Rat-ed: 5-SS G/30 or G/25 with 5 sec. delay. Open to players rated from New/UNR-550 USCF. Rd. Times: 9:30-10:45-12:30-1:45-3. Trophies: Awarded in each section on either a 1:3 or 1:4 basis. EF: $15 before 1/25/07. After is $25. Discount: One free entry for every 10 entries paid by 1/25/07. Reg: Online at www.chess4children.com, click on Tour-nament Registrations 2007, and click on SCCF January Scholastic. On-site 9:45-10:15. These players will receive a ½ point bye for the first round. Info: One bye available in any round with your entry. K-12 event. Questions: Joe Hanley, 714-925-3195, [email protected].

February 10COSTA MESA OCTOS. 3-SS, 30/75, SD/30. (Digital clocks with delay 30/70, SD/30). 8 player sections by rating. Odd Fellows/Rebekah Hall, 2476 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA. EF: $27 advance, $32 at site, $2 disc. to all Southern Calif. Chess Federation members. $$ prizes per entries. Reg. 9:30-10:15 a.m. Rds. 10:30-2:30-6:30. Rounds may start earlier if your opponent is present and ready. Info/Ent:Takashi Iwamoto ([email protected]), 24275 Tama Lane, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677. Home: (949) 643-2981 Cell: (949) 689-3511. Web site:


http://members.cox.net/octochess/. NS, NC.

February 17-1924TH ANNUAL U.S. Amateur Team West. 6-SS, 40/2, SD/1. Marina San Pedro Hotel, 2800 Via Cabrillo Ma-rina, San Pedro, CA 90731. Four-player teams plus optional alter-nate, average rating of four highest must be U/2200, diff. between bds. 3 & 4 may not exceed 1000. Dec. list used. EF: $118 per team if re-ceived by 2-15, $30 individual (on line only), $136 at site, under age 18 $86 by 2-16, $100 site. Trophies and 4 clocks to top 3 teams, U2100, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400/unr. Trophies (1 large, 4 small) to top college, industrial, junior (under 18), Senior (over 55), U1200. Clocks to best score each board, alternate, and any 6-0. Gift certificate prizes for best team names (1st/2nd). Reg: 8:30-10 a.m. 2-17. Rds: 11-6, 11-6, 10-4:30. On-line entry, help in forming teams, advance entry list: www.westernchess.com. HR: $89, 800-222-TREE, mention chess. Reserve by Feb. 1 or rates may go up. Free parking. Ent: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N Wilton Place #1A, Los Angeles CA 90038. NS, NC, W. F.

February 1810TH ANNUAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SCHOLASTIC AMATEUR TEAM. 4-SS, SD/45, Marina San Pedro Hotel, 2800 Via Cabrillo Marina, San Pe-dro, CA 90731. Four-player teams plus optional alternate, Grade 12/below, average rating of four highest must be U1200. (Dec. 2006 rating list used, Feb. 2007 used for previ-ously unrated players.) EF: $69 per team received by 2/15, $84 at site. Trophies (team & individual) to top 3 teams, top U1000, U800, U400/unr. Reg: 9:00-10 a.m. Rds: 10:30-1-2:45-4:30. Info, help in forming teams: Joe Hanley, 714-925-3195, [email protected]. Web site, advance entry list: www.westernchess.com. HR: $89, 800 222-TREE, mention chess. Ent: SCCF, c/o John Hillery, 835 N Wil-

ton Place #1A, Los Angeles CA 90038. NS, NC, W.

February 19AT HEXES. 3-SS, G/90. Marina San Pedro Hotel, 2800 Via Cabrillo Marina, San Pedro, CA 90731. Six-player sections by rating. EF: $20 if rec. by 2-15, $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 Place #1A, Los Angeles CA 90038, on line at www.westernchess.com.

March 17COSTA MESA OCTOS. 3-SS, 30/75,

Solutions to Tactics by Hanks(see page 15)

Problem no. 1: b. It’s a draw. Yes. But you’d be surprised how many s a draw. Yes. But you’d be surprised how many s a drawtimes I’ve seen players throw a position like this away. It’s all about under-standing the opposition and not falling for any tricks. The main line goes 1.

… Ke7 2. Kd1 Ke6 3. Kd2 Kd6 (watch out, since if 3. … Kd5 or Kf6 you lose) 4. Kd3 Kd5 and the draw should now be evident. White cannot make prog-ress as long as Black sustains the opposition. Use your computer to practice the drawing techniques until this is fully understood.

Problem no. 2: c. The game is drawn. Hmmm … too easy this issue, eh? The main line goes 1. … Qh1+ 2. Kxh1 a1=Q+ 3. Kh2 Qh1+ 4. Kxh1 stalemate. Best I can tell White must have capture on f7 thinking it was game over for Black, but Black was ready to spring the sensational double Queen sacrifice forcing the draw.

Problem no. 3: c. The game is a draw. As incredible as the position Problem no. 3: c. The game is a draw. As incredible as the position Problem no. 3: c. The game is a drawlooks, yes the game is miraculously a draw! The main line goes 1. Rg2! e1=Q+ 2. Kf7 (threatening mate) Bg7 (Iif 2. … h5, then 3. Rg8+ Kh7 4. Rg7+ Bxg7 stalemate. Or if 2. … Qe8+ 3. Kxe8 and White will draw.) 3. Re2!! (Chess can be so beautiful. 3. … Qxe2 – stalemate.) 3. … Bc3 4. Rg2

- draw! Black can make no progress. You gotta love this solution.

Problem no. 4: b. White wins. This problem has definite advanced lev-el tactics and requires very deep insight to discover the winning technique. The main line is 1. c5! (Not 1. h7? as 1. … Rf8 2. c5 Kg4 3. c6 Kf5 4. d7 Ke6 and the White King hurriedly defends and will stop all the pawns dead in their tracks. Also 1. d7? has a similar fate.) 1. … Kg3 2. h7 Rf8 3. c6 Ra8 4. Kf1 Kf3 5. Ke1 Ke3 6. Kd1 Kd3 7. Kc1 Kxc3 8. Kd1 Kd3 9. Ke1 Ke3 10. Kf1 Kf3 11. Kg1 Kg3 12. h8=Q! Rxh8 13. c7 Ra8 14. Kf1 Kf3 15. Ke1 Ke3 16. Kd1 Kd3 17. Kc1 Kc3 18. Kb1 Rh8 19. d7! 1-0.

SD/30. (Digital clocks with delay 30/70, SD/30). 8 player sections by rating. Odd Fellows/Rebekah Hall, 2476 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA. EF: $27 advance, $32 at site, $2 disc. to all Southern Calif. Chess Federation members. $$ prizes per entries. Reg. 9:30-10:15 a.m. Rds. 10:30-2:30-6:30. Rounds may start earlier if your opponent is present and ready. Info/Ent:Takashi Iwamoto ([email protected]), 24275 Tama Lane, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677. Home: (949) 643-2981 Cell: (949) 689-3511. Web site: http://members.cox.net/octochess/. NS, NC.

SCCFPO BOX 205MONTEREY PARK CA 9754

TAIMANOV-NNUSSR 1964

WHITE TO MOVE

SCHWICKER-BOUDRÉ

FRANCE 1981WHITE TO MOVE

ROGERS-SITANGGANG

JAKARTA 1986JAKARTA 1986JAKARTA

WHITE TO MOVE

Solutions on page 21

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rarank & file - new sccf home

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