#520 STC Championship Starts July 6th

The 2009 STC World Championship, a 9-round swiss with a time control of 60+30, begins July 6th on the Internet Chess Club, Free Internet Chess Server and World Chess Live.

The registration deadline is July 5th at 21:00 GMT (5 p.m. EDT) but you can late-join during the first 2 rounds. Full details here.

I hope to improve on last year's =4th WCL finish but might switch servers.

#519 Karpovs Beat Summit 3.5-0.5

The Kenilworth Karpovs wrapped-up their 2009 Garden State Chess League campaign on a high note, with a 3.5-0.5 victory at Summit.

• Mike Wojcio put the victorious visitors ahead 1-0 by defeating Raoul Bertorello....
• Geoff McAuliffe made it 1.5-0.5 with a draw against unbeaten Donnally Miller...
• Max Sherer clinched the match with win over Steve Jesseph, &...
• Steve Stoyko put the icing on the cake by beating Simon Thomson.

The Karpovs finished the season with a 3-2 record while Summit ended at 2-2-1.

Games will follow later this week.

#518 Garden State Wraps-Up This Week

The inagural Garden State Chess League season wraps up this week with the following matches :

Monday 6/29

• Kenilworth Karpovs (2-2) at Summit (2-2-1), 8 p.m

Tuesday 6/30

• Kenilworth Kortchnois (4-0) vs. Sparta (0-4)
• Maplewood (0-4) vs. Hamilton (2-2)
• Staten Island (2-1-1) at West Orange (3-1), 8 p.m.

Spectators are welcome.

#517 Summer Tourney - Round 3

Ian Mangion extended his lead with 2 wins & is on-pace to smash Scott Massey's unofficial 2004 record of 15.5 points.

Mark Kernighan won again & has 2nd place to himself. Richard Lewis & Ted Mann joined Greg Tomkovich & Don Carrelli in a tie for 3rd. I arrived late & could not get a game.

Here's a crosstable, to let you know how all 23 players stand. Games will follow later this week but, unfortunately, the 4 I have aren't good.

#516 Chitra Goes +12 -3 = 2 In Simul

Chitra Sridhar scored 12 victories, 2 draws & suffered 3 defeats in less than 3 hours against 16 simultaneous opponents (1 board was re-filled) in Scotch Plains, yesterday. She played 1.e4 in every game.

Here's the critical moment & opening moves from her loss to Bert Shiffman :

Sridhar - Shiffman

After 12...Ng4+

[Event "Chitra Simul"]

[Site "Scotch Plains, N.J., USA"]

[Date "2009.06.28"]

[Round ""]

[White "Sridhar, Chitra"]

[Black "Shiffman, Bert"]

[Result "0-1"]

[ECO "C78"]

[WhiteElo "1880"]

[BlackElo "1316"]

[Annotator "Moldovan,John"]

[PlyCount "26"]

[EventDate "2009.06.27"]

[EventType "simul"]

[EventCountry "USA"]

[SourceDate "2009.06.28"]

[Source "the Chess Coroner #516"]

{C78 Ruy Lopez, Moeller Defense} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5.

O-O Bc5 6. d3 O-O $2 (6... b5 {Archangelsk Variation} 7. Bb3 Bb7 $11 ({or} 7...

d6 $11)) ({or} 6... d6) 7. Bxc6 dxc6 8. Nxe5 Be6 9. Bg5 $2 (9. Nd2 $14) 9...

Bd4 10. c3 Bxe5 11. d4 Bxh2+ 12. Kxh2 Ng4+ 13. Kg1 $4 (13. Qxg4

Bxg4 14. Bxd8 Raxd8 $11) 13... Qxg5 $19 {White resigned after another 19 moves.} 0-1

A java-replay will follow later this week.

P.S. - The other players who drew or won are invited to email their scores or leave them as comments.

#515 Simul At Scotch Plains Library Tomorrow

NJIT graduate student Chitra Sridhar will be giving a free simultaneous exhibition at the Scotch Plains Public Library tomorrow afternoon (Saturday 6/27), from 1 to 4 p.m.

To play, you must pre-register by calling 908-322-5007, extension 204 or sending an email to library@scotlib.org

Directions here.

Chitra Sridhar giving a simul at NJIT

The Kenilworth Chess Club will be supplying equipment for the display but bring your own sets & boards in case they are needed.

#514 Summer Tourney - Round 2

Ian Mangion leads after taking 1.5/2 from me. Don Carrelli, Mark Kernighan & Greg Tomkovich won their lone games & are half-point back.

Ted Mann, Pat Mazzillo, Bert Shiffman & Jim Cole also notched victories.

Here are the week's replays, PGN, standings & tactical highlights :

Sherer-Kernghan

after 18.Nge2??

Black to win

Mangion-Moldovan

after 16...Be6??

White to win

Pawlowski-Carrelli

after 12.Qe2+

Black to win

Mazzillo-Sturniolo

after 10.Bh6?

Black to win a pawn

P.S.- Apologies for the delayed report. Needed a few days away from blogging.

#513 Summer Tourney - Round 1

Top seed Mark Kernighan, Ian Mangion, Don Carrelli, David Pawlowski, Greg Tomkovich & Joe Renna lead the 2009 Kenilworth Summer Tourney after the opening round of play. Each has 1 point.

I opened with a dreadful draw against Max Sherer but have annotated it for you along with Joe's & David's wins. Here's the replay page & zipped PGN.

Hopefully a higher % of games will be submitted in the weeks to come. Last year, we got 65 of the 81 scores.

Maybe we should just be putting the cream of the crop online & publishing a weekly in-house bulletin with the complete set of games. Comments are welcome.

#512 Solution To & Game From #506

The solution to the puzzle in post #512 is 1...Bxg3! &, if 2.hxg3 (Nxg6 is best.), then 2...Rxg3! idea 3.fxg3 Qxg3+ & mate next.

Here's the complete game & analysis in java-replay & PGN.

#511 Summer Tourney Starts Tonight

The Kenilworth Summer Tourney begins its 13-week run tonight.

Here are the rules :

• Entry Fee is $5.00 for KCC members; $6.00 for non-members.
• The tournament will run from June 11th through September 3rd.
• The time control is G/60.
• You may play anyone in the tournament. The first time you play an opponent, the lower rated player has white, in subsequent games against the same opponent you alternate colors.
• You may not play the same opponent more than four times in the tournament.
• You get one point for a win, one half point for a draw, and zero for a loss.
• You may play as many or as few games as you like, but no more than two in one night. The more you play the more points you can win.
• All games are to be played at the Kenilworth Chess Club during normal operating hours.
• The winner is the person who has the most points at the end of the tournament.
• The prizes are 60% for first place, 30% for second, and 10% for third.

Among those expected to play in the event are : NM Mark Kernighan (who won in 2005), Greg Tomkovich (the 2006 victor), Ian Mangion (last year's undefeated runner-up) & yours truly (the defending champ).

As usual, Greg will direct.

Important Note - The calendar on the the club site is wrong. For future reference, use the link on my sidebar.

#510 Replays Of Thursday's Matches

Java-replays for Thursday's Hamilton-Karpovs & Summit-Kortchnois matches have been uploaded along with a revised West Orange-Maplewood page.

Zipped PGN for each match can be downloaded from the above links. For a single file with all 3, click here.

#509 Kortchnois Stay Perfect, Karpovs Fall

In Garden State Chess League action last night, the 1st place Kenilworth Kortchnois defeated Summit 3-1 but the Kenilworth Karpovs fell to Hamilton 2.5-1.5.

The 4-0 Kortchnois, playing without NM Yaacov Norowitz & Ari Minkov, got victories from top board Mark Kernighan, David Pawlowski & Greg Tomkovich to put themselves a full game ahead of 2nd place West Orange. They can clinch the GSCL title with a draw against 0-4 Sparta on June 30th.

The Karpovs, meanwhile, got a draw from FM Steve Stoyko & a convincing win by Ian Mangion but lost the bottom pairings. They will wrap-up a disappointing season vs. Summit.

Here are eight games from round 4 (including a revised version of my loss to Fernandez) in PGN format. Replays will follow.

#508 S. Island & W. Orange Win

In Garden State Chess League action last night, Staten Island defeated Sparta 2.5-1.5 & West Orange swept Maplewood 4-0.

I had a chance to keep Maplewood in the match with the score at 2-0 but missed equality at move 23 & had to resign after just 5 more turns :

Fernandez-Moldovan
after 23.Qxa7?

Black to play

Java-replay
PGN

#507 This Week's GSCL Schedule

Garden State Chess League
Round 4

Tuesday 6/2 at West Orange, 8 p.m.

• Maplewood (0-3) - W. Orange (2-1)
• Staten Island (1-1-1) - Sparta (0-3)

Thursday 6/4 at Kenilworth, 8:15 p.m.

• Hamilton (1-2) - Kenilworth Karpovs (2-1)
• Summit (2-0-1) - Kenilworth Kortchnois (3-0)

#506 Black To Win

Mann-Moldovan
Springfield 05/31/2009

Black to win

#505 Knockout Wrap-Up

Last night I defeated Bob Sherry in 22 moves to win the Checkmate Knockout tourney. Here's the replay & PGN.