#212 New Chess Server

There's a new chess server, Chesspark, that you may want to check out. They have free trials until the beta (testing) stage is over.

Playchess or ICC it isn't but memberships are cheap ($2.49 for 1 month, $24.00 for 1 year) & the client will save your games.

Here are two I played there last night (both losses) in java-replay & zipped PGN.

#211 Two From Kernighan

I've uploaded a pair of recent games by NM Mark Kernighan - his draw against Peter Radomskyj from the West Orange-Kenilworth match & his Kenilworth G/30 win over Max Sherer.

Here again are the links :

• WOCC-KCC replays... PGN
• G/30 replays... PGN

#210 Checkmate Fall Swiss Underway

NM Mark Kernighan, Ari Minkov, Bob Sherry & I won the opening round games of the Checkmate Fall Swiss in Springfield.

The pairings for next Sunday (10/21) are :

1. Minkov (1.0) - Kernighan (1.0)
2. Moldovan (1.0) - Sherry (1.0)
3. Carrelli (0.0) - Mann (0.0)
4. Shiffman (0.0) - Azzarello (0.0)

Here are 3 of the 4 games from last night in java-replay & zipped PGN.

Kernighan - Carrelli
after 12...Be4

White to win

#209 Upcoming Posts

Notes on part 1 of Steve Stoyko's French Defense lecture series will be posted before Steve gives part 2 (October 25th) & the Westfield Championship wrap-up should appear October 22nd or 23rd.

I apologize for the delay in getting to the former & regret not being able to cover round 3 (today) of the latter.

#208 G/30 Update

I have annotated my 1st round win over Bert Shiffman & updated the G/30 replay page & zipped PGN file. Notes to my loss vs. Steve Stoyko are still to come.

Moldovan - Shiffman
after 8...Nge7

White to play

#207 Fall Swiss - 1st Round Pairings

Here are the pairings for the opening round of the Springfield Fall Tournament (the player having White is listed first) :

1. Kernighan 2208 - Carrelli 1723
   
2. Mann 1450 - Minkov 1947
   
3. Sherry 1812 - Shiffman 1434
   
4. Azzarello 0000 - Moldovan 1774

Remember, the games start at 9 p.m. & Black has his choice of time control... G/40 + :02 delay or G/50+ :02 delay.

#206 Westfield Ch. - Round 2 Update

I have uploaded a java-replay page & zipped PGN file of the games in post #204.

#205 Stoyko, Minkov, Demetrick lead Kenilworth G/30

FIDE-Master Steve Stoyko, 2-time defending champ Ari Minkov & KCC President Joe Demetrick are tied for first after 2 rounds of this year's USCF-rated Kenilworth G/30. NM Mark Kernighan & Greg Tomkovich are a half-point back.

Despite the rainy weather & no Tournament Life/blog announcement, 14 players entered the event! The 4-round swiss concludes next Thursday night.

Here is a selection of games in java-replay & zipped PGN (annotations to follow in the future) ... the full standings

... the official 3rd-round pairings for boards 1-3, courtesy of director Geoff McAuliffe :

1. Minkov 2.0 - Stoyko 2.0
2. Kernighan 1.5 - Demetrick 2.o
3. Moldovan 1.0 - Tomkovich 1.5

& my guesses for boards 4-7, barring withdrawals :

• Cavaliere 1.0 - Yampolskiy 1.0
• Renna 1.0 - Mann 1.0
• Sherer 0.0 - Mazzillo 0.0
• Shiffman 0.0 - Agress 0.0

#204 Westfield Championship - Round 2

Peter Radomskyj, Todd Lunna & Jonathan Cohen lead at the halfway point of the Westfield CC Championship. They have perfect 2-0 scores. Pat Mazzillo is next with 1.5. Six players are tied at 1.0

Three early-ending, lightly annotated games from yesterday are given in PGN format below. Java-replays & a zipped file will follow when I make room on the server.

[Event "Westfield CC Championship"]
[Site "Westfield, NJ"]
[Date "2007.10.07"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Cohen, Jonathan"]
[Black "Zilbermintz, Lev"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C23"]
[WhiteElo "2046"]
[BlackElo "1932"]
[Annotator "Fritz 8 + color by Moldovan"]
[PlyCount "59"]
[EventDate "2007.09.30"]
[SourceDate "2007.10.08"]

{Bishop's Opening : Calabrese Counter-Gambit} 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 f5 $2 (2... Nf6)
3. Bxg8 $2 (3. exf5 $16) 3... Rxg8 4. exf5 Qg5 5. g4 d5 $2 (5... g6 $44) 6. d4
Qf6 7. dxe5 Qxe5+ 8. Qe2 Bd6 $2 (8... Qxe2+ 9. Nxe2 g6 $14) 9. Bf4 $1 Bb4+ 10. c3 Qxe2+ 11. Nxe2 Ba5 (11... Bc5 $142 $16) 12. Na3 $18 Bd7 13. Nd4 (13. O-O-O $142) 13... Kf7 (13... Na6 $142) 14. O-O-O c6 15. Rhe1 Na6 $2 16. Nac2 $2 (16. Nf3 Moldovan) 16... Bb6 $2 17. Nf3 Rge8 18. Ne5+ Rxe5 19. Bxe5 Bxf2 20. Re2 Bh4 21. Bd4 Nc7 $2 22. Ne1 Bg5+ 23. Kc2 Ne8 24. Nf3 Be7 $2 25. Rde1 Bd6 26. Ne5+ Bxe5 27. Rxe5 Nf6 $2 28. Re7+ Kf8 29. Bxf6 gxf6 30. Rxd7 {& Zilbermintz, ridiculously, played on for another 19 moves. At the end, White had an extra Rook & 5 pawns!} 1-0

[Event "Westfield CC Championship"]
[Site "Westfield, NJ"]
[Date "2007.10.07"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Yang, Yuxing (Jack)"]
[Black "Cohen, Bill"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C54"]
[WhiteElo "1723"]
[BlackElo "1657"]
[Annotator "Fritz 8 + color by Moldovan"]
[PlyCount "41"]
[EventDate "2007.09.30"]
[SourceDate "2007.10.08"]

{Italian Game : Giuoco Piano (by transposition)} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4
4. Bc4 Bc5 5. c3 Nf6 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Bd2 Bxd2+ 8. Nbxd2 d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Qb3 Na5 ({My old books recommend} 10... Nce7) 11. Qa4+ c6 $2 (11... Nc6 $14) 12. Bxd5 Qxd5 13. O-O O-O 14. Rac1 b6 15. b4 Nb7 16. Qxc6 Qxa2 $2 (16... Be6 $16 {was right. Now Black is lost.}) 17. d5 Rd8 $2 (17... Rb8 $2 18. Ra1 Qb2 19.
Rfb1 Qf6 {Weber - Xander 21st Seniors Open, Bad Woerishofen 2005}) (17... Qb2 $142) 18. Rfe1 h6 $2 19. Re8+ Rxe8 20. Qxe8+ Kh7 21. Rxc8 {& despite being a piece down, Cohen played on for another 24 moves.} 1-0

[Event "Westfield CC Championship"]
[Site "Westfield, NJ"]
[Date "2007.10.07"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Radomskyj, Peter"]
[Black "Rose, Bob"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B42"]
[WhiteElo "2232"]
[BlackElo "2057"]
[Annotator "Moldovan, Fritz 8 & Radomskyj"]
[PlyCount "50"]
[EventDate "2007.09.30"]
[SourceDate "2007.10.08"]

{Sicilian Defense : Kan Variation} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5.
Bd3 Nf6 6. c4 Qc7 (6... Nc6 $142 {Moldovan = M}) 7. Nc3 Bc5 8. Nb3 Be7 9. Qe2
d6 10. O-O Nbd7 $6 (10... Nc6 $142 11. f4 O-O $11 {leaving d7 open for the f-Knight. - M}) 11. f4 O-O 12. Be3 b6 13. g4 $2 (13.Bd4 $14 {Fritz 8 = F}) 13... g6 (13... h6 $142 14. h4 {Radomskyj = R} h5 $11 {F}) 14. Rac1 Bb7 15. g5 Nh5 16. Nd4 Rfe8 17. Qf2 $146 (17. b4 Bf8 18. a4 e5 19.fxe5 dxe5 20. Nd5 Qd8 21. Nf3 a5 22. b5 Bc5 23. Kh1 Bxe3 24. Qxe3 Nc5 25. Bc2 $14 {Lamastus - Midoux : MTO Open, Biel 2005}) 17... Bf8 18. b4 Rac8 19. Be2 Ng7 20. a3 e5 $4 (20... f5 $16 {R - Now Black is lost.}) 21. fxe5 Nxe5 22. Nd5 Bxd5 23. cxd5 Qb7 24. Nc6 b5 25. Bd4 Qe7 {& White won in another 5 moves or so.} 1-0

#203 Springfield Fall Swiss

A 3-round Swiss will be held at the Checkmate Chess Club in Springfield, starting Sunday, October 14th & running thru 10/28. The time limit will be G/40 + :02 delay or G/50 + :02 delay, with Black making the choice in each pairing. Full details here.

Register by 10/13 by contacting TD Bob Sherry

#202 Westfield Championship Underway

NM Peter Radomskyj, NM Todd Lunna, expert Jonathan Cohen & Lev Zilbermintz were among the 1st-round winners in the Westfield CC Championship, which started Sunday 9/30.

Pat Mazzillo, Tim Hall & Bill Cohen are also among the 14 playing in the 4-week swiss, which will run thru October 21st.

Pat & Tim were in the midst of an unbalanced Rook ending when I left. If any one knows what happened in their game or has results of the 2 other contests, please leave a comment.

#201 West Orange & Kenilworth tie 3-3

The September 27th match between the West Orange CC & Kenilworth CC ended in a 3-3 tie.

Bill Sokolosky's upset win (over 1503-rated Joseph Fortunato) staked Kenilworth to a 1-0 lead. Visiting West Orange went up 2-1 on victories by Charles Hart & Bryan Cohen (vs. Ari Minkov & Greg Tomkovich) & was on the verge of clinching.

However, John Hagerty couldn't convert a winning advantage (against Max Sherer), Paul Corcoran blundered in a slightly worse position (to Mike Wojcio, see diagram) & the score was all-square again, 2.5-2.5.

Wojcio-Corcoran
after 34.e6

Black to play

In the final game, the home side's Mark Kernighan had 2 extra pawns against fellow NM Peter Radomskyj but missed a win in time-pressure.

In the 6 matches between the two clubs from 2005-2007, Kenilworth holds a +3-2=1 edge.

Annotations will follow at some point. For now here the replay & PGN of Sokolosky & Wojcio wins.