The Chess Coroner

Friday, September 24, 2010

#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.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

#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.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

#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.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

#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

Friday, August 27, 2010

#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

Lou Sturniolo (-550) 1-0 Minkov in round 8
Renna (-503) w/Black vs. Moldovan in round 11
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.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

#713 Stoyko To Lecture On King's Indian

FM Steve Stoyko will be giving a 4-part lecture on the King's Indian Defense at the Kenilworth Chess Club, beginning Thursday, September 9th.

The weekly series will run through 9/30. Admission is $5 per lecture.

I've enjoyed several King's Indian sessions with Steve in the past few years and always look forward to his presentations.

#712 Summer Tourney Concludes Tonight

The Kenilworth Summer Tournament concludes tonight.

Will Ari Minkov hold onto 1st place, collect 2 points & break Scott Massey's 2004 record of 15.5?

Will NM Ken Chieu overtake Minkov and become our 7th different winner in 7 years?

Will NM Mark Kernighan come from behind to grab 3rd place from me?

Will last year's record of 99 games be surpassed? (we need 6 to tie it)

Why not visit the KCC tonight, check out the action, play some skittles in the analysis room and schmooze afterward?!

Monday, August 23, 2010

#711 U.S. Chess League Season Opens Tonight

The 2010 U.S. Chess League season opens tonight with 4 matches, including New Jersey vs. Philadelphia, which begins at 7:15 p.m. The Internet Chess Club will have live coverage starting at 7:00.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

#710 Summer Tourney - Round 12

Ari Minkov extended his lead to 1.5 points with wins against Joe Demetrick and Don Carrelli. Ken Chieu clinched a top-two spot by defeating Mark Kernighan while I sewed-up a 4th place-tie or better with a draw versus Pat Mazzillo.

The event concludes next Thursday.

Week 12 Results:

Chieu 1-0 Kernighan

Demetrick 0-1 Minkov

Carrelli 0-1 Minkov

Mazzillo 1/2-1/2 Moldovan *

* = annotated

Current Standings:

1. Minkov 14.0

2. Chieu 12.5
3. Moldovan 8.5
4. Kernighan 7.5
5. Tomkovich 7.0
=6. Mangion, Sturniolo 6.5
8. Pawlowski 6.0
9. Renna 5.0

10. Wojcio 4.0
=11. McAuliffe, Mazzillo 3.0

=13. Stoyko, Sherer, Demetrick 2.0

=16. Komunicky, Reinoso 1.0

=18. Carrelli, Lewis, Hart 0.5

=21. Chen, Delasandro 0.0

Crosstable

Java-Replay (2 games)

PGN

Friday, August 20, 2010

#709 GSCL Meeting In Kenilworth On 9/2

There will be a Garden State Chess League meeting at the Kenilworth Chess Club on Thursday, September 2nd, starting at 8 p.m.

If a team captain cannot attend the meeting, he should send a representative or let it be known if his team/club will be participating in the 2010-2011 season, which would likely start on Tuesday, October 5th.