#603 National Chess Congress

GM Alexander Stripunsky, GM-elect Alex Lenderman, IM Bryan Smith & IM/WGM Irina Krush tied for 1st at the National Chess Congress in Philadelphia (11/27-29)

Don Carrelli, who tied for 5th place in the U1800 section, had the best showing among Kenilworth CC members.

Daniel Zhu beat a 1941-rated in the 2nd round, finished =10th in the U1800 &, according to the Ratings Estimator, is now up to 1787!

Here's how all the Kenilworth guys did :

U2000
Ari Minkov =44th

U1800
Don Carrelli =5th
Daniel Zhu =10th
David Pawlowski =37th
Mike Wojcio =47th

#602 Stoyko Point Count Lecture

I have uploaded the outline of FM Steve Stoyko's Oct. 15th lecture on "Evaluating Chess Positions, An Introduction" plus the java-replay & PGN of games that were presented.

If you have any thoughts about the system, please leave a comment. Any feedback will be forwarded to Steve.

#601 V. Shen Wins Westfield Grand Prix

NM Victor Shen took clear 1st in Sunday's Westfield Grand Prix, with a 4-0 score. FM Tom Bartell & SM Yaacov Norowitz tied for 2nd, a half-point back.

Other prize-winners included :

• Sam Chatsky, Leonid Fleysher, Kevin Dresher (U2100)
• Dr. Richard Lewis, Jackson Hueckel, John Moldovan (U1850)
• David Johnston, Anthony Decinque (U1600)
• Leon Wu, Robert Lachausse, Darren Knaub & Melissa Biegel (U1350)

There were 25 participants, including 9 who were rated >2100!
All the Kenilworth CC, Checkmate CC & Garden State CL players collected prizes!!


I had an up & down event. After missing a forced mate & losing the opener to Shen, I played like a zombie against tail-ender Sasha Prystupa (a lucky win after 2 lost positions) & NM Peter Radomskyj (a bad opening & quick loss) but closed-out with a nice victory over Konstantin Mazur to finish =8th.

Here are all 4 of my games (fully annotated) in java-replay & PGN.

#600 December KCC Schedule Changed

Yaacov Norowitz's Lecture & the Kenilworth Chess Club's Annual Business Meeting have been pushed back 1 week to accommodate a match between the Karpovs & Hamilton.

Here's the updated December schedule :

Dec. 3rd - Garden State League match : Karpovs vs. Hamilton
Dec. 10th - Yaacov Norowitz Lecture on Color Complexes ($5)
Dec. 17th - Business Meeting & Holiday Party
Dec. 24th - no meeting
Dec. 31st - no meeting

#599 Diagram Difficulties

At the moment, ChessBase 10 is not generating the desired diagrams for my HTML pages. I suspect its "Green Marble" board is the problem. Never had any trouble with the "Cherry" board or my custom purple & gray job.

I'll try to correct the situation early next week. Until then... sorry for the lack of visuals.

#598 Anand-Ivanchuk Blitz Game

I have annotated Anand & Ivanchuk's ...Qd7 Winawer game from the recent World Blitz Championship. Hope you like it.

Java-replay
PGN

#597 GSCL - 2nd Round Annotations

Notes to my 2nd round draw with Paul Corcoran have been posted on the Garden State Chess League blog.

#596 Westfield Grand Prix

On Sunday, November 22nd, the Westfield Chess Club will be hosting a 4-round, G/30 tournament. It will be their 500th event at the Westfield YMCA!

The entry fee is $30 for members; $40 for non-members. There is a $615 guaranteed prize-fund. For more details, go to the club's website.

#595 Kenilworth Quads - Wrap-Up

Yaacov Norowitz & David Pawlowski were clear winners in the top 2 sections at the Kenilworth Quads, which concluded last night. Gordon Agress and Bert Shiffman shared 1st in the other group.

3rd round results & final standings :

Quad 1

Mangion 0-1 Norowitz
Ferrero 1-0 Carrelli

1. Norowitz 3.0
2. Ferrero 2.0
3. Carrelli 1.0
4. Mangion 0.0


Quad 2

Wojcio 0-1 Pawlowski
Tomkovich 0-1 Sturniolo

1. Pawlowski 2.5
2. Tomkovich 1.5
3. Wojcio 1.0
3. Sturniolo 1.0


Quad 3

Shiffman 1-0 Renna
Ali 1-0 Agress

1. Agress 2.0
1. Shiffman 2.0
3. Ali 1.5
4. Renna 0.5


As promised, here are some games (9), in java-replay & PGN, plus the crosstables.

#594 Kenilworth Quads - Rounds 1 & 2

Kenilworth Quads #2

Standings after 2 rounds
+ Results & Pairings

Quad 1

1. SM Yaacov Norowitz (2431) 2.0
2. Steve Ferrero (2020) 1.0
2. Don Carrelli (1791) 1.0
4. Ian Mangion (1929) 0.0

11/5
Carrelli 0-1 Norowitz
Ferrero 1-0 Mangion

11/12
Norowitz 1-0 Ferrero
Mangion 0-1 Carrelli

11/19
Norowitz vs. Mangion
Ferrero vs. Carrelli

Players in quad 1 must toss for color! Those in quads 2 & 3 have already done so.


Quad 2

1. David Pawlowski (1777) 1.5
1. Greg Tomkovich (1698) 1.5
3. Mike Wojcio (1622) 1.0
4. Lou Sturniolo (1446) 0.0

11/5
Sturniolo 0-1 Pawlowski
Tomkovich 1-0 Wojcio

11/12
Pawlowski ½–½ Tomkovich
Wojcio 1-0 Sturniolo

11/19
Wojcio-Pawlowski
Tomkovich-Sturniolo


Quad 3

1. Gordon Agress (1283) 2.0
2. Bert Shiffman (1283) 1.0
3. Joe Renna (1359) 0.5
4. Umar Ali (1346) 0.5

11/5
Agress 1-0 Renna
Ali 0-1 Shiffman

11/12
Renna ½–½ Ali
Shiffman 0-1 Agress

11/19
Shiffman-Renna
Ali-Agress

A wrap-up, games & crosstables will follow on Friday or Saturday.

#593 Radomskyj Wins Westfield Championship

NM Peter Radomskyj took clear 1st at last month's Westfield Championship, with a perfect 4-0 score.

NM Todd Lunna, Jonathan Cohen (top U2100) & Ziping Liu (top U1850) shared 2nd place honors, with 3-1.

Lev Zilbermints, Ian Mangion & Eve Zhurbinskiy tied for 5th, at 2.5.

Andy Chen, Shivani Shanmigudas & Pat Mazzillo shared the U1600 prize.

Sasha Romayev was the U1350 winner.

#592 Clark & Listoch Tie In Scotch Plains Swiss

James Clark & Ivan Listoch went 3-0 to tie for 1st in last month's Scotch Plains Swiss.

Joe Renna, Bert Shiffman, Alexander Gorbach, Scott Seyffarth & Pablo Vasconez tied for 2nd place, with 2-1 scores.

All of the above received Kenilworth Chess Club membership for the rest of 2009. Current KCC members Renna & Shiffman will get 25% off their 2010 dues, in lieu of a pro-rated refund.

#591 GSCL : 2nd Round Report & Games

A report on the Karpovs & Kortchnois victories over West Orange & Staten Island has been posted on the Garden State League's blog, along with a recap of the other matches and a few games.

At the The Kenilworthian, Michael Goeller has posted notes to Steve Stoyko's win over Jose Fernandez.

#590 GSCL - 1st Round Annotations

Notes to my 1st round win over Richard Lewis & the Stoyko-Norowitz draw have been posted on the Garden State Chess League blog.

#589 Scotch Plains Simul : 7-0-1

I went 7-0-1 against 5 opponents at today's simul in Scotch Plains. There were just 3 foes at the start (all girls, interestingly) but 2 fathers showed pity & took seats.

#588 Simul Today!

This afternoon, from 12 noon - 4 p.m., I will be giving a free simultaneous exhibition at the Scotch Plains Public Library.

The announcement, (which was supposed to say correspondence chess expert not KCC president) states that only U1800s are invited but, since there still 13 spots available (at last count), the rating limit has been waived.