#778 Kenilworth Ch. - 5th Round Games

5 games from the Kenilworth Championship's final round, including my 3rd place-clinching win over Greg Tomkovich, have been uploaded in java-replay and PGN.

#777 ICCF Cheats Me, Cancels Games

After I agreed to draw my match on board 32 of the UKR-USA match, the ICCF canceled my games and cheated me out of a 2300+ rating for the 2nd time!

In the 15th U.S. Championship Prelims, I defeated Donna Marie Kremen (who promptly withdrew) and the result was nulled after she died.

I'm supposed to play against the Czech Republic next but am so damn angry and tired of getting screwed that I may withdraw and go back to plant collecting.

Piper crocatum

(Saffron Pepper)

Strobianthes dyerianus

(Persian Shield)

At any rate, there will be no further updates on the joke of a match. For the record, however, here are the hijacked games:

B38 Sicilian Defense

Accelerated Dragon

Maroczy Bind

John Moldovan - Vladyslav Tiba

1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 g6 6.e4 d6 7.Be2 Bg7 8.Be3 0-0 9.0-0 Bd7 10.Qd2 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 Bc6 12.Bd3 a5 13.Rae1 1/2-1/2

C06 French Defense

Tarrasch Variation

Vladyslav Tiba - John Moldovan

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e4 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ndf3 cxd4 8.cxd4 Qb6 9.a3!? Nxd4 10.Nxd4 Qxd4 11.Nf3 Qb6 12.Qa4 Be7 1/2-1/2

PGN

#776 Chieu Wins Kenilworth Championship

NM Ken Chieu defeated Michael Goeller last night to win the 21st 20th Kenilworth CC Championship. Chieu becomes the club's 7th Champion overall and 4th in 4 5th in 5 years.

5th round pairings and results:

1. Chieu 1-0 Goeller (QP - London System) 
2. Kernighan 1-0 Mangion (QG Accepted)
3. Sherer 1/2-1/2 Chen (Spielmann Nimzo-Indian)
4. Tomkovich 0-1 Moldovan (Nimzo-Hybrid Q's Indian)
   
5. Hart 1/2-1/2 McAuliffe (Rubinstein French)
6. Sturniolo 0-1 Demetrick (2 Knights Caro-Kann) 
7. Mann 1/2-1/2 Renna (Winawer French)
8. Mazzillo 1-0 Shiffman (?)

Kernighan and Renna received a 1/2-point byes.
Mann received a 1 point bye.

Final standings:

1. Chieu 4.5
2. Kernighan 4.0
3. Moldovan 3.5
= 4-5. Goeller, Chen 3.0
= 6-12. Mangion, Sherer, Tomkovich, McAuliffe, Hart, Demetrick, Agress 2.5
= 13-15. Sturniolo, Mazzillo, Renna 2.0
= 16-17. Mann, Carrelli (wd) 1.5
18. Shiffman 1.0
19. Komunicky (wd) 0.0

Crosstable

Prize Winners: 

1st - Chieu
2nd - Kernighan
3rd - Moldovan
U2050 - Goeller

U1800 - Tomkovich

U1600 - Agress

U1400 - Renna

Biggest Upset: Agress (-200) over Mann in round 2.

Best Game - to be announced

Games will follow.

#775 Kenilworth Ch. - 5th Round Pairings

The final round pairings in the Kenilworth CC Championship are:

1. Chieu-Goeller
2. Kernighan-Mangion
3. Sherer-Chen
4. Tomkovich-Moldovan
5. Hart-McAuliffe
6. Sturniolo-Demetrick
7. Mann-Renna
8. Mazzillo-Shiffman

Agress gets a half-point bye.

#774 Kenilworth Ch. - Tiebreak Orders

21st 20th Kenilworth Championship

Suggested Tie-breaking Orders

For 1st place:

1. Head to head result(s)
2. Modified Median
3. Solkoff
4. Cumulative
5. Cumulative opponent's score.

For other places:

1. Modified Median
2. Solkoff
3. Cumulative
4. Cumulative opponent's score.

TD Geoff McAuliffe will have the final say.

#773 ICCF FM/1194 Wrap-Up

I have annotated my 2 victories from ICCF FM/1194 and uploaded them in java-replay and zipped PGN.

#772 Correspondence Updates

My opponent in ICCF FM/1194, Jonathan Gresham, time-forfeited in both games. He had not moved since Dec. 28th. See post #749 for the plain PGN and the replay links. Annotated versions will follow rather quickly since I've been writing along the way. I just need to edit-out some excess analysis.

In the UKR-USA match, my original opponent, Vladyslav Tiba (aka Chiba), is being replaced and I am not happy about it. IMO, his board should be forfeited. Upon resumption I may just offer a pair of draws, instead of being party to the tag-team farce.

Btw, Peter Radomskyj lost one of his games and we now trail 18-6.

#771 Kenilworth Ch. - Round 4 Games

5 games from the Kenilworth Championship's 4th round, including my less than stellar win vs. Gordon Agress & the Chieu-Mangion see-saw, have been uploaded in java-replay and PGN, along with an updated crosstable.

#770 Kenilworth Championship - Round 4

NM Ken Chieu defeated Ian Mangion and is in clear 1st going into next week's finale. NM Mark Kernighan, who took a weather-related bye last night, and expert Michael Goeller, who beat Max Sherer, are a half-point back.

As in the two previous rounds, the pairings had to be changed.

I'll post replays, PGN, a crosstable, projected match-ups and tiebreak methods later on (tonight or tomorrow).

For now, here are the results, standings and prize picture:

4th round pairings and results:

1. Mangion 0-1 Chieu (O'Kelly Sicilian)
2. Goeller 1-0 Sherer (Labourdonnais French)
3. Chen 1/2-1/2 Tomkovich (Lasker QGD)
4. Moldovan 1-0 Agress (King's Indian)
5. Demetick 0-1 Hart (3...g6 Steinitz Spanish)
   
6. Mazzillo 0-1 McAuliffe (Scandinavian)
7. Shiffman 0-1 Sturniolo (Dutch Stonewall)

Kernighan and Renna received a 1/2-point byes.
Mann received a 1 point bye.

Current standings:

1. Chieu 3.5
= 2-3. Kernighan, Goeller 3.0
= 4-7. Mangion, Chen, Moldovan, Tomkovich 2.5
= 8-12. Sherer, Hart, McAuliffe, Sturniolo, Agress 2.0
= 13-15. Carrelli (wd), Demetrick, Renna 1.5
= 16-18. Mann, Shiffman, Mazzillo 1.0

= 19. Komunicky (wd) 0.0

Current prize leaders: 

1st - Chieu 3.5
2nd & 3rd - Kernighan, Goeller 3.0
U2050 - Mangion, Chen, Moldovan 2.5

U1800 - Tomkovich 2.5
U1600 - Sturniolo, Agress 2.0
U1400 - Renna 1.5
Biggest Upset: Agress (-233) over Mann in round 2.

#769 Kenilworth CC Meeting Tomorrow

The Kenilworth Chess Club will be meeting tomorrow night, as scheduled. Round 4 of the Club Championship is on tap. You may have to park further from the community center than usual. Please be careful walking as there will likely be patches of black ice.

#768 Kenilworth Ch. - Round 4 Pairings

The pairings for round 4 are:

1. Kernighan-Mangion
2. Goeller-Chieu
3. Chen-Agress
4. Sherer-Tomkovich
5. Moldovan-Demetrick
6. Shiffman-Hart
7. Mazzillo-McAuliffe
8. Renna-Sturniolo

Mann gets a 1 point bye.

If this week's meeting has to be postponed due to the ice storm or road conditions, I will email the membership late Wednesday/early Thursday and post the announcement here.

#767 U.S. Trails Ukraine 14-4

Team USA dropped 5 games to the Ukraine in January, drew 6, and now trails 14-4. However, we finally have some winning positions (2) and should soon bottom-out at -13.

My games, which ChessBase 11 claims are among those with the least theoretical weight (bottom 6 of 128!!), are at moves 13 and 12. I've used 5 days in the Maroczy Bind and 1 in the Tarrasch French while my opponent, Vladyslav Tiba, has has used 31 and 39 days, respectively.

Btw, Tiba, who now has a FIDE-rating of 2127, is currently playing in the otb Mukachevo Cup (that would partially explain his 16 days w/o a reply) where, in round 2, he followed our game 'A' until Vasily Guivan varied with 6.g3.

Downoads:

• CBV archive of the 18 finished games, arranged chronologically. ECO codes, opening headers, novelty annotation, end dates and match scores added. Time stamps removed.
• PGN file of all the UKR-USA games, in board order, with 5-move delay. Timestamped. No ECO codes.

In other matches, the U.S. is ahead of Argentina (2.5-0.5) and behind Italy (5-1).