#677 Ellner Memorial - Final Round Pairings

Here are the offical pairings, courtesy of TD Geoff McAuliffe, for Thursday's Ellner Memorial finale :

1. Mann (2.0) - Kernighan (2.0)

2. Chieu (1.0) - Pawlowski (1.5)

3. Wojcio (1.5) - Tomkovich (1.0)

4. Sturniolo (0.0) - Shiffman (1.0)

5. Agress (0.5) - Mazzillo (0.0)

I could be wrong but shouldn't 4 & 5 be Shiffman-Agress & Sturniolo-Mazzillo?

#676 All-Army Championship - Day 1

Kenilworth Chess Club Champion Arthur Macaspac opened the 2010 All-Army Championship with a win but lost his 2nd game. So, at the end of day 1, he is tied for 5th place, a half-point out of 1st.

The 11-round event, which is being played at Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia, runs through Friday.

Arthur's Games

A30 English Opening
Symmetrical Defense
(by transposition)

A41 Modern Defense

PGN from rounds 1 and 2

#675 Ellner Memorial - Round 2

Results

Kernighan 1-0 Tomkovich
Pawlowski 1/2-1/2 Wojcio
Mazzillo 0-1 Chieu
Mann 1-0 Sturniolo
Shiffman 1-0 C. Chen

Gordon Agress could not play and received a half-point bye. Colby Chen filled-in.

Standings

= 1-2. Kernighan, Mann 2.0
= 3-4. Pawlowski, Wojcio 1.5
= 5-7. Chieu, Tomkovich, Shiffman 1.0
8. Agress 0.5
= 9-11. Sturniolo, Mazzillo, C. Chen (wd) 0.0

Java-replay
PGN

#674 U.S. Championship Starts Today

The 2010 U.S. Championship gets underway today at 3 p.m. EDT.

Defending Champion Hikaru Nakamura heads a 24-player field that includes 21 Grandmasters & 3 IMs.

The Internet Chess Club will provide live coverage, along with Monroi and Playchess.

#673 Going Postal... An Update

As you may recall, I recently expressed a desire to re-enter the correspondence chess arena (see post 646) but could not find a suitable event (see post 655).

Well, I have since volunteered to represent the USA in a future International match and may also join the 19th U.S. Championship Preliminaries!

For information on the latter, visit the ICCF-US web site.

#672 PGN Archive For 2010 Updated

My PGN Archive for 2010 has been updated. Sorry for the delay in adding the Consultation, Ellner & deciding WC games.

#671 Ellner Memorial - Round 2 Pairings

TD Geoff McAuliffe has issued this week's Ellner Memorial pairings. They are:

1. Kernighan 1.0 - Tomkovich 1.0
2. Pawlowski 1.0 - Wojcio 1.0
3. Mann 1.0 - Sturniolo 0.0
4. Mazzillo 0.0 - Chieu 0.0
5. Shiffman 0.0 - Agress 0.0

#670 Anand Retains Title!!

World Champion Viswanathan Anand retained his title by defeating challenger Veselin Topalov in today's 12th game.


Topalov opened with a Queen's Gambit and Anand, eschewing the Slav he used 3x in the match, varied with Lasker's Defense. Play followed a correspondence game until Black's 21st move and was balanced through move 30.


But Topalov's 31.exf5 was a mistake and his 32.fxe4 was a blunder.

Topalov-Anand

After 38.Qf1

Black to Win

Replay
PGN


[Event "World Chess Championship"]
[Site "Sofia"]
[Date "2010.05.11"]
[Round "12"]
[White "Topalov, Veselin"]
[Black "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2805"]
[BlackElo "2787"]
[Annotator ""]
[PlyCount "112"]
[EventDate "2010.04.24"]
[EventType "match"]
[EventRounds "12"]
[EventCountry "BUL"]


{D56 Queen's Gambit, Lasker's Defense}
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 O-O 7. e3 Ne4 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. Rc1 c6 10. Be2 Nxc3 11. Rxc3 dxc4 12. Bxc4 Nd7 13. O-O b6 14. Bd3 c5 15. Be4 Rb8 16. Qc2 Nf6 17. dxc5 Nxe4 18. Qxe4 bxc5 19. Qc2 Bb7 20. Nd2 Rfd8 21. f3 Ba6 22. Rf2 Rd7 23. g3 Rbd8 24. Kg2 Bd3 25. Qc1 Ba6 $146 {21...Qd6 22. Nb3?! Ba6 =+ 22. Rd1?? Qxd1 0-1 Bellman-Schulze : correspondence, Germany 1998} 26. Ra3 Bb7 27. Nb3 Rc7 28. Na5 Ba8 29. Nc4 e5 30. e4 f5 $1 31. exf5 {31. Nd2 =} $2 e4 $1 32. fxe4 $4 {32. Re3 =+} Qxe4+ $19 33. Kh3 Rd4 34. Ne3 Qe8 35. g4 h5 36. Kh4 g5+ 37. fxg6 Qxg6 38. Qf1 Rxg4+ $1 {Threat: 39... Rxe3! 40. Rxe3 Rh4+!! 41. Kxh4 Qg4 mate} 39. Kh3 Re7 40. Rf8+ Kg7 41.Nf5+ Kh7 42. Rg3 Rxg3+ 43. hxg3 Qg4+ 44. Kh2 Re2+ 45. Kg1 Rg2+ 46. Qxg2 Bxg2 47. Kxg2 Qe2+ 48. Kh3 c4 49. a4 a5 50. Rf6 Kg8 51. Nh6+ Kg7 52. Rb6 Qe4 53. Kh2 Kh7 54. Rd6 Qe5 55. Nf7 Qxb2+ 56. Kh3 Qg7 0-1


Full story at The Daily Dirt, The Chess Mind, & ChessBase.

#669 Ellner Memorial - Round 1

Mark Kernighan (2245), David Pawlowski (1786), Greg Tomkovich (1681), Mike Wojcio (1600) & Ted Mann (1485) lead the 3rd Irving Ellner Memorial Swiss after 1 round of play.

Ted's win came in a double Rook ending against 2193-rated Ken Chieu, who recently defeated IM Dean Ippolito & drew a GM. The 708-point upset may well be the biggest in Kenilworth CC history!

Chieu - Mann

After 13.Rd1??

Black to win

However, Greg's victory versus Pat Mazzillo, which featured a spectacular Bishop sac on f7, was far more impressive:

Tomkovich-Mazzillo

after 17...Nd3

White to win

1st Round Results:

Sturniolo 0-1 Kernighan

Chieu 0-1 Mann

Agress 0-1 Pawlowski

Tomkovich 1-0 Mazzillo

Shiffman 0-1 Wojcio 

Here are all 5 games in Java-replay & zipped PGN

#668 Consultation Wrap-Up

I have posted a fully annotated version of last month's Kenilworth Consultation Game in Java-replay & PGN.

Hope you enjoy it!

#667 Firebird 1.2

A couple of weeks ago, just before the Anand-Toplaov match (now tied 5-5) began, I came across & downloaded a free chess engine, Firebird 1.2, that rivals Deep Rybka 3 in strength but may be a fishy knock-off.

While not being qualified to debate or moderate the clone claims, I can offer the following observations:

• Firebird 1.2 is a "Deep" engine, able to use more than 1 processor.
• It calculates considerably faster (30% or more) than Deep Rybka 3; which is a big plus when you are reviewing & annotating games.
• Firebird loads effortlessly in ChessBase 10 whereas Rybka sometimes fails to.
• The 2 engines recommended the same move just 43x out of 59 in the 1 game I tested (Tomkovich-Moldovan : GSCL 2010) & had differing evaluations + lines or play.

Your comments are welcome.

#666 Ellner Memorial Starts Tonight

3rd Irving Ellner Memorial Swiss

Dates : May 6th, 13th, 20th

Site : Kenilworth Chess Club

Format : USCF-rated, 3/SS
Time Control : G/45

Rounds : 8:35 or 8:40 p.m. on 5/6, 8:30? p.m. on 5/13 & 5/20

Entry Fee : $10

Prizes : To be determined by the TD & Club President (Last year 80% of entry fees were returned)


Register : At site on 5/6 from 8:00-8:30 p.m.