#725 Massey To Lecture On Anand-Topalov

On Thursday, November 18th December 2nd, NM Scott Massey will give a lecture on the 2010 World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov.

Site: Kenilworth Chess Club
Admission: $5.

#724 Kenilworth G/30 (On Again)

The Kenilworth Chess Club's G/30 scheduled for November 11-18 has been canceled along the Garden State League match scheduled for December 2nd.

Update - 11/1 at 3:30 p.m.- The GSCL cancellation and rescheduling of S. Massey's lecture will allow the G/30 to take place after all.

#723 Kenilworth Quads Results

NM Mark Kernighan, Mike Wojcio, Ted Mann and Gordon Agress were winners at the Sy Fish Memorial Quads, aka Kenilworth Fall Quads, held October 14-28.

Ian Mangion placed 2nd in the top group and, on the strength of draws versus Kernighan and NM Steve Stoyko, raised his rating past 1900 for the 1st time again.

6 7 games will follow.

#722 Hess Wins Boardwalk Open

GM Robert Hess won the Boardwalk Open which was held in Asbury Park, NJ this weekend (October 22-24). GM Mark Paragua and IM Justin Sarkar tied for 2nd. GM Alex Lenderman, WIM Alisa Melekhina and NM Ed Allen shared 4th.

Final round play on the top 6 boards (back & center rows below) was delayed more than 20 minutes due to pairing foul-ups.

In the photo above Lenderman (red shirt), IM Mikhail Zlotnikov (beige suit) and Ms. Melekhina collect their belongings while, in the backround, Hess awaits the missing Paragua and NM Vladimir Lipman gets ready to play Sarkar.

When everyone was located and everything was straightened-out, boards 1-4 began as follows:

Paragua - Hess
E20 Nimzo-Indian Defense
Romanishin Variation
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 c5 5.g3 cxd4 6.Nxd4 Ne4 7.Qd3 Qa5 8.Nc2 (or transposition) Nxc3 (8...Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 Nc5 seems better) 9.Nxb4 Nxa2 10.Rxa2 Qxb4+ 11.Bd2 Qe7

Sarkar - Lipman
D36 Queen's Gambit
Exchange Variation
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 c6 6.e3 Bd6 (or transposition) 7.Qc2 0-0

Lenderman - NM Troy Daly
A40 Modern Defense
1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c5 4.dxc5 Qa5+ 5.Bd2 Qxc5

Zlotnikov - Allen
A05 Reti Opening
King's Indian Attack
1.Nf3 c5 2.g3 b6 3.Bg2 Bb7 4.0-0 Nf6 5.d3 e6 6.Nbd2 Be7 7.e4 d6 8.a4 0-0 (or something similar)


Actually, my primary reason for visiting the event was to see how Asbury Park, where my family vacationed in the late 60s and early 70s, looks now.

Not surprisingly, most of the places I remembered from that era are gone: the Golden Sands Motel (which apparently was on 3rd Ave.), the Taylor Pork Roll Restaurant and the horrible Homestead Restaurant...

 

... which was over the water and served a crappy meatball when you ordered a hamburger!

The Howard Johnson's Restaurant, which was boarded-up when No Reservations host Anthony Bourdain did a segment from there for his 2005 New Jersey episode, however, has re-opened as McCloone's Asbury Grille and Tim McCloone's Supper Club.

Anyway, I had a good time hanging-out with my 2009 USATE teammates Ziggy, Ari and Don V and going down memory lane. The weather was so great not even a pair of 1.5/4 scores could keep Eve and Ilya Zhurbinskiy from smiling as they strolled the boardwalk!!

#721 Spyware On Westfield CC Site??

Are any of the readers receiving a security alert when visiting the Westfield Chess Club site? I'm getting one from Spyware Doctor.

 

Even after removing the site from the banned list, attempts to visit it bring an alert.

What's the deal??

#720 Correspondence Games

Last week I started an unrated 2-game match on the ICCF Webserver.

Here are the moves played so far and the current positions:

Jonathan Gresham - John Moldovan

C17 French Defense

Winawer Variation

1. e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e4 c5 5.Bd2 Ne7 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 Nbc6 8.Qg4 Nf5 9.Bd3 h5 10.Qg5? N Qxg5 11.Bxg5 cxd4 12.Bb5? dxc3

John Moldovan - Jonathan Gresham

D38 Queen's Gambit

Ragozin Defense

1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Nc6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.e3 0-0 8.Qb3 a5!? 9.a3 a4 10.Qc2 N Bxc3+ 11.bxc3 h6 12.Bh4

Later this fall I'll be representing the United States in a match vs. the Ukraine. Details are on the ICCF-US site.

#719 5th Lecture Added To Stoyko Series

A 5th lecture has been added to Steve Stoyko's King's Indian Defense series in Kenilworth. It will take place on October 7th.

The Garden State Chess League match scheduled for that night has been postponed.

#718 Sorry.

While I was getting rid of spam from the comments area I accidentally deleted everything posted in there from Nov. 2009 to the present. My sincere apologies to those who took the time to make a genuine comment or point-out a mistake.

#717 Carrelli Wins NJ U1900 Title

KCC President Don Carrelli won the U1900 section at the NJ Championship, which was held in Somerset September 4th thru 6th.

Correspondent Lou Sturniolo reports:

The Kenilworth Chess Club did itself proud this weekend!

Don Carrelli won the Gold (Under 1900 section) outright! Congratulations to him for a stellar performance.

Ian Mangion and Ken Chieu also acquitted themselves well in the Gold section.

Yaacov Norowitz went into the final round a half a point behind Dean Ippolito and drew him to culminate a fine performance and high finish.

Steve Stoyko had his usual strong performance in the Open section, which was even more top heavy with masters than usual. Steve also seems to have enjoyed the fact his beloved Yankees were winning their 8th game in a row.

Joe Renna had to play in a higher section than last year and performed well against much tougher competition.

Yours truly played up (in the Under 1900 section) and, despite warnings of an impending calumny, had the tourney of my life, playing at close to an 1800 level, even with losing a five and a half hour game to fellow Kenilworth member Glen Hart in round 1.

Lou Sturniolo


edited 9/11 @1:01 p.m.

#716 French Lecture Links Repaired

The java and PGN links to Steve Stoyko's 2007 French Defense Lecture series, have been repaired.

All 44 games

Blog entries: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

#715 Summer Tourney Stats

Most Points Scored

• Total - 14.0 Ari Minkov (+13-9=2)
• With White - 6.5 Ken Chieu (+6-0=1)
• With Black - 9.0 Minkov (+9-8=0)

Highest Scoring of Possible Points (minimum 5 games)

• Total - .846 Chieu (+12-1=2)
• With White - .917 Chieu
• With Black - .812 Chieu (+6-1=1)

Highest Plus Score

• Total - +11 Chieu
• With White - +6 Chieu
• With Black - +5 Chieu, John Moldovan (+7-2=1)

Longest Unbeaten Streaks

• Total - 9 Chieu (+7-0=2 in weeks 6-13)
• With White - 7 Chieu
• With Black - 4 Chieu, Ian Mangion, David Pawlowski, Greg Tomkovich

Longest Winning Streaks

• Total - 5 Chieu (twice - rounds 2-4 and 9-12)
• With White - 6 Chieu
• With Black - 4 Mangion

Most Games Played

• Total - 24 Minkov
• With White - 8 Moldovan (+3-5=0), Tomkovich (+3-4=1), Joe Renna (+2-6=0)
• With Black - 17 Minkov

Most Wins

• Total - 13 Minkov
• With White - 6 Chieu
• With Black - 7 Moldovan, Mark Kernighan (+7-3=0)

Most Losses

• Total - 9 Minkov
• With White - 6 Renna
• With Black - 8 Minkov

Most Draws

• Total - 2 seven players
• With White - 2 Minkov, Geoff McAuliffe
• With Black - 1 twelve players

Biggest Upsets

1. Lou Sturniolo (-550) 1-0 Minkov in round 8
2. Renna (-503) w/Black vs. Moldovan in round 11
3. Max Sherer (-480) 1-0 Kernighan in round 1

honorable mentions :

• Dan Komunicky (-438) 1-0 Minkov in round 13
• Sturniolo (-436) 1-0 Mangion in round 7
• Tomkovich (-500) 1/2-1/2 Chieu in round 9

Game Length

• Fastest Win By White : Moldovan... 15 moves vs. Minkov, in round 13
• Fastest Win by Black : Tomkovich... 9 moves vs. Ed Delasandro, in round 7
• Shortest Draw : Minkov-Wojcio... 21 moves, round 5
• Longest Game : Pawlowski 1-0 Moldovan... 82 moves in round 2

Results Breakdown

• Total Number Of Games - 100
• Decisive Games - 88
• White wins - 32
• Black wins - 56
• Draws - 12
• Pct. of Points Scored By White - .380
• Pct. of Points Scored By Black - .620
• W-L-D Record of the Higher-rated Player : 69-19-12
• Pct. of Points Scored By the Higher-rated Player - .750

Miscellaneous (minimum 5 games)

• Highest pct. of games won - .800 Chieu
• Highest pct. of games won or drawn - .938 Chieu
• Highest pct. of draws - .333 Sherer

• Scores Collected - 58
• Most Popular Opening : Modern Defense (8 of the 64 games collected (+2 that transposed elsewhere)
• Latest novelty : Black's 15...Nf5 in round 1's Demetrick-Moldovan

#714 Summer Tourney - Round 13

Ari Minkov took 2 hits last night but emerged as Kenilworth Summer Tournament champ for the 2nd time in 4 years. He also won in 2007.

Ken Chieu, who only played 9 of the 13 weeks, drew FM Steve Stoyko and fell 1 point short. I finished-up with convincing victories versus Ari & Joe Renna to garner clear 3rd.

Also concluding with wins were NM Mark Kernighan, Don Carrelli, Joe Demetrick and Dan Komunicky.

There were 7 games last night, making a KST-record total of 100. Minkov played in 24 and smashed Ian Mangion's mark of 20 (set last year).

Results:

Chieu 1/2-1/2 Stoyko

Mangion 0-1 Kernighan

Moldovan 1-0 Minkov *
Komunicky 1-0 Minkov
Carrelli 1-0 Pawlowski

Mc Auliffe 0-1 Demetrick

Renna 0-1 Moldovan *

* = annotated

Final Standings: 

1. Minkov 14.0

2. Chieu 13.0
3. Moldovan 10.5
4. Kernighan 8.5
5. Tomkovich 7.0
=6. Mangion, Sturniolo 6.5
8. Pawlowski 6.0
9. Renna 5.0

10. Wojcio 4.0
=11. Demetrick, McAuliffe, Mazzillo 3.0

14. Stoyko 2.5
= 15. Sherer, Komunicky 2.0
17. Carrelli 1.5

18. Reinoso 1.0

=19. Lewis, Hart 0.5

=21. Chen, Delasandro  0.0 

Crosstable

Java-Replay (4 games)

PGN

A statistical wrap-up and ChessBase file with all the collected games will follow.