#1024 Ellner Memorial - Round 4

Here are the results of last night's Ellner Memorial games, by board number:

1. Kernighan 0- 1 Goeller
2. O'Connor 1/2-1/2 Sherer
3. Tomkovich 1-0 Mazzillo
4. Vinson 1/2-1/2 Senyatkin
5. Sturniolo 1-0 Lewis
6. McAuliffe 1-0 Constantino

Zilbermintz: 1/2 point bye

Pelican: 1/2 point bye

Mangion: 0.0 point bye

Ruales: 1 point bye

Standings after 4 of 6 Rounds

1. Goeller 3.5
2. Zilbermintz 3.0
= 3-6. Kernighan, Mangion, Sherer, Tomkovich 2.5
= 7-11. O'Connor, Pelican, Senyatkin, Sturniolo, Vinson 2.0

= 12-13. McAuliffe, Mazzillo 1.5

= 14-16. Lewis, Constantino, Ruales 1.0

17. Palakollu (wd) 0.5

Round 5 will be played on May 17th. The 6th/final round is May 24th.

#1023 Corr Update

Here's an update on my games in the Sweden-U.S. correspondence match:

Moldovan-Brissman

D35 Queen's Gambit
Exchange Variation
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3

Brissman-Moldovan

A21 English Opening

1.c4 g6 2.g3 Bg7 3.Bg2 d6 4.Nc3 e5

PGN of the games above.
PGN of all the SWE-USA games.

#1022 This Morning

This morning, on FICS, I won my May Mania opener:

jariv 1712 - John Moldovan 1814

C18 French Defense

Winawer Variation

At move 37, I mouse-slipped while trying to play 37...Rxf4 but my opponent, showing great sportsmanship, did not retreat his Bishop! I tried to return the favor by offering a draw, but he declined twice and blundered a few moves later.

Time-stamped PGN. Plain PGN

Annotations to follow.

#1021 Last Night

Last night I drew a Garden State League game at the Kenilworth Chess Club:

Aravind Kumar (DOCA) 1923 - John Moldovan (Summit) 1823

E58 Nimzo-Indian Defense

Rubinstein Variation

My opponent played the opening well and eventually got an edge but, with the match going in his team's favor (they won 3.5-0.5) and the clock in mine, he offered a Q trade instead of trying to squeeze with 25...Qc7.

PGN to copy & paste:

[Event "Garden State League 2011-12"]
[Site "Kenilworth, NJ"]
[Date "2012.05.03"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Moldovan, John"]
[Black "Kumar, Aravind"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E58"]
[WhiteElo "1823"]
[BlackElo "1923"]
[PlyCount "61"]
[EventDate "2011.10.06"]
[EventType "team-tourn"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "USA"]
[Source "John Moldovan"]
[SourceDate "2012.05.04"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Nf3 c5 5. e3 Nc6 6. Bd3 d5 7. O-O O-O 8. a3 Bxc3 9. bxc3 b6 10. cxd5 exd5 11. a4 Re8 12. Bb5 Bd7 13. Ba3 c4 14. Bxc6 Bxc6 15. Ne5 Qc7 16. Qc2 Nd7 17. Nxc6 Qxc6 18. Rfe1 Re6 19. a5 b5 20. f3 Rae8 21. Bc1 g6 22. Bd2 f5 23. Qb2 a6 24. Qb4 Nf6 25. Kf2 Qd6 26. Qxd6 Rxd6 27. Re2 Rde6 28. Rae1 Kf7 29. h4 h5 30. g3 R8e7 31. Ra1 1/2-1/2

Notes will follow

#1020 STC Update

The STC Bunch site is okay now and May Mania is proceeding as scheduled.

In round 1, I have Black against jariv.

#1019 SWE-USA Update

The clocks have officially started in Sweden vs. the U.S. 

8 of the games are into the 2nd time control and 1 of them, Thomas-K. Johansson, is already at move 14!

My opponent, however, has yet to play his 3rd move:

Moldovan-Brissman

D31 Queen's Gambit

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3

Brissman-Moldovan

A10 English Opening

1.c4 g6 2.g3 Bg7

PGN of all the games.

#1018 STC Bunch Site Hacked Again

The STC Bunch's website has been hacked again, just before the start of May Mania.

I entered the 4-SS, 40+20 tourney yesterday, to get some games in before the U.S. Amateur East, New Yorker Open, Chess Mates Championship and Kenilworth Summer Tournament, but now the event may be in doubt.

If we do play, my 1st round opponent in section B, where I am the 6th seed, will likely be 1722-rated Jariv.

#1017 Correspondence Update

It's been a while since I've posted an update on Team USA's correspondence matches.

The Czech Republic leads us 24.5-22.5 with 3 games remaining.

The match vs. Italy is over. We lost 48.5-33.5, despite 2-0 efforts from Jon Leisner (board 24), Karl Gellert (board 28) and Kyle Biedermann (board 33).

There is 1 game left in ARG-USA, 2 to go in UKR-USA, and 10 in GER-USA.

#1016 Fischer Random Wrap-Up

LM Mark Kernighan won the Kenilworth Chess Club's Fischer Random Tournament, which finished on April 5th.

The event was shortened to 3 rounds, due to a shortage of players.

In the final games... Kernighan beat Bob Sherry and Mitesh Shah defeated Geoff McAuliffe (colors and starting position unknown).

Standings:

1. Kernighan 3.0

= 2-3. Mangion (wd), Shah 2.0

= 4-5. Minkov (wd), Moldovan (wd) 1.5
6. Korn (wd) 1.0

7. Sturniolo (wd) 0.5

= 8-13. Sherry, McAuliffe, Renna (wd), H. Maini (wd), D. Maini (wd), Sims (wd) 0.0

#1015 Chess Cafe Article By David Korn

Chess Cafe recently published an article by West Orange CC blogger David Korn, who details a great act of sportsmanship by GM Robert Hess at this year's USATE.

HTML PDF

#1014 W. Orange Championship

Ari Minkov and Lev Zilbermintz lead the West Orange CC Championship with 1 round to play.

Doran Race, Roger Pedersen and Charles Hart are a half-point back.

#1013 Ellner Memorial - Round 3

Results of last night's games, by board number:

1. Goeller - Zilbermintz DRAW
2. Kernighan - Vinson 1-0
3. Sherer - Sturniolo  1-0
4. Pelican - O'Connor DRAW
5. Lewis - Tomkovich DRAW
6. Senyatkin - McAuliffe 1-0
7. Constantino - Ruales 1-0

Standings after 3 of 6 rounds:

= 1-4. Kernighan, Zilbermintz, Goeller, Mangion 2.5
= 5. Sherer 2.0

= 6-10. O'Connor, Pelican, Tomkovich, Mazzillo, Vinson 1.5

= 11-14. Lewis, Senyatkin, Sturniolo, Constantino 1.0

= 15-16. McAuliffe, Palakollu (wd) 0.5
= 17. Ruales 0.0

Thanks to TD Geoff McAuliffe for relaying the info.

Round 4 will be played on May 10th. Next week, the KCC will be hosting Garden State League matches.