THE WEEK IN CHESS 96 19/08/96 Mark Crowther --------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- E-Mail mdcrowth@netcomuk.co.uk www http://www.tcc.net/gmtchess.html Tel: 01274 882143 [Bradford England] Produced for Thoth Communications Corporation part of Grandmaster Technologies Incorporated. --------------------------------------------------- 1) Introduction 2) 1000 Years of Austria Chess Festival Sponsored by Bank Austria 3) Donner Memorial Tournament in Amsterdam 4) Foxtrot Chess Tournament 1996 5) US Open 1996. 6) USCF 1996 Policy Board Election Results 7) Games of the Junior computer program by Shay Bushinsky. 8) British Chess Championships Nottingham 1996 9) NINE CHESSPLAYERS QUALIFY FOR THE ARGENTINE CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS 10) KS Summer 1996 Tournament by Per Rasmussen of Under Uret 11) VISA NORDIC GRAND PRIX 1996/97 GAMES SECTION ----------------------- Vienna International Tournament 30 games Donner Memorial Tournament 12 games Foxtrot Veterans vs Ladies tournament 15 games Junior Man - Machine Games. 7 games British Chess Championships 1996. 34 games KS Tournament 45 games EXTRA GAMES SECTION -------------------- Semi-finals of the Argentinian Championships 37 games Quarter Finals of the Argentinian Championships 20 games Open 1 Vienna Austria. 292 games 1) Introduction --------------- My thanks to Karlheinz Zoechling, Dagobert Kohlmeyer, Martin Raubal, Eric van der Schilden (TASC), Rod McShane, John Henderson, Michael Atkins, John Henderson (Channel 4 Teletext Chess p.478), Shay Bushinsky, Roberto Alvarez, Einar S Einarsson and Per Rasmussen of Under Uret. Another long weekend, another large amount of chess to cover. I only finished my previous job on Friday so this was more or less business as usual. Please check out my new location as there will probably be updates on various pieces of chess news during the week. I will at the Donner Memorial over next weekend so TWIC 97 will appear after I get back. Hope you enjoy this issue. Mark 2) 1000 Years of Austria Chess Festival Sponsored by Bank Austria ------------------------------------------------------------------ There was a three way tie between Gelfand, Karpov and Topalov in the Category 18 Bank-Austria event in Vienna. Round 4 (1996.08.12) Karpov, Anatoly - Korchnoi, Viktor 1-0 42 Leko, Peter - Jussupow, Artur 1-0 75 Kramnik, Vladimir - Gelfand, Boris 1/2 35 Shirov, Alexei - Polgar, Judit 1/2 60 Ehlvest, Jaan - Topalov, Veselin 0-1 36 Round 5 (1996.08.13) Gelfand, Boris - Ehlvest, Jaan 1/2 21 Topalov, Veselin - Leko, Peter 0-1 28 Polgar, Judit - Karpov, Anatoly 1/2 19 Jussupow, Artur - Shirov, Alexei 1/2 27 Korchnoi, Viktor - Kramnik, Vladimir 0-1 42 Round 6 (1996.08.14) Gelfand, Boris - Korchnoi, Viktor 1-0 40 Karpov, Anatoly - Jussupow, Artur 1/2 17 Kramnik, Vladimir - Polgar, Judit 1-0 44 Shirov, Alexei - Topalov, Veselin 0-1 40 Ehlvest, Jaan - Leko, Peter 1/2 26 Round 7 (1996.08.15) Topalov, Veselin - Karpov, Anatoly 1/2 27 Leko, Peter - Shirov, Alexei 1/2 32 Polgar, Judit - Gelfand, Boris 1/2 91 Jussupow, Artur - Kramnik, Vladimir 1/2 36 Korchnoi, Viktor - Ehlvest, Jaan 1/2 37 Round 8 (1996.08.16) Gelfand, Boris - Jussupow, Artur 1/2 14 Karpov, Anatoly - Leko, Peter 1/2 24 Kramnik, Vladimir - Topalov, Veselin 1/2 79 Ehlvest, Jaan - Shirov, Alexei 0-1 60 Korchnoi, Viktor - Polgar, Judit 1/2 73 Round 9 (1996.08.17) Topalov, Veselin - Gelfand, Boris 1/2 20 Leko, Peter - Kramnik, Vladimir 1/2 17 Polgar, Judit - Ehlvest, Jaan 1-0 38 Shirov, Alexei - Karpov, Anatoly 0-1 40 Jussupow, Artur - Korchnoi, Viktor 1/2 37 Vienna AUT (AUT), VIII 1996. cat. XVIII (2690) ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Gelfand, Boris g BLR 2665 * 1 = = = = = = = 1 5.5 2772 2 Karpov, Anatoly g RUS 2775 0 * = = = 1 1 = = 1 5.5 2760 3 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2750 = = * 0 = = 1 = 1 1 5.5 2762 4 Leko, Peter g HUN 2630 = = 1 * 0 = = 1 = = 5.0 2739 5 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2665 = = = 1 * 0 = = 1 = 5.0 2735 6 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2765 = 0 = = 1 * 0 = 1 1 5.0 2724 7 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2685 = 0 0 = = 1 * = 1 = 4.5 2690 8 Jussupow, Artur g GER 2665 = = = 0 = = = * 0 = 3.5 2612 9 Ehlvest, Jaan g EST 2660 = = 0 = 0 0 0 1 * = 3.0 2567 10 Korchnoi, Viktor g SUI 2635 0 0 0 = = 0 = = = * 2.5 2529 ---------------------------------------------------------------- There has been an almost unbelievable run of category 17, 18 and 19 tournaments during the last 4 months. Since late April there has been Madrid, Dos Hermanas, Leon, Amsterdam, Dortmund, Novgorod, Biel and now Vienna. In addition Karpov has played his FIDE World Championships match against Kamsky. Yet the pace has not slowed and indeed the very players who have competed in these earlier tournaments are the players who were successful in Vienna. I cannot believe that this will continue for much longer. Possibly this will only continue until some sort of order is restored to the chess World and the young pretenders can have their goal of World Championship success restored to them. Right now they are battling for their names and accumulating tournament successes which will make their exclusion impossible in whatever brave new World we end up with. Although the top players in Vienna seemed a little tired they still managed to produce for the most part enterprising and entertaining chess. Karpov wins his second event in a row. In neither did he seem to over exert himself. However he yet again has revealed that no matter how impressive his younger rivals are they still lack his power in the endgame. In this tournament his victories against Kramnik and Shirov were fine demonstrations of winning by the simplest of means. Perhaps only Gelfand's technique is starting to match up to the Champions as he won a consistant, almost Karpovian ending against him. Probably Karpov's funniest game was his game against Yusupov in round 6. Karpov opened with 1.e4. The game created a strange impression and I have a theory as to what happened. Karpov presumably put quite a bit of work into the Petroff Defence for his match against Kamsky. Perhaps here he hoped that Yusupov would play his main-line defence. Yusupov smelled a rat and played the Sicilian instead. The game proceeded to get more and more critical, probably with both players wondering quite how they had come to get this position on the board. From their point of view perhaps they decided that they didn't really know what was happening after 17 moves so a draw was the fair result! The audience was left disappointed. The excellent on-line bulletin for the event contained interviews with the players. On the 14th of August Karpov gave his interview to Martin Raubal. In the United States Gata Kamsky has been complaining about not being paid for his FIDE match against Karpov. We did not know whether Karpov had been paid. Now we know that he hasn't, although he seems unconcerned. So what does he think about a match against Kasparov, the FIDE elections and his recent match against Kamsky? Extract from an interview with Dagobert Kohlmeyer translated by Martin Raubal 14th August 1996): " DK: Talking about your match against Gata Kamsky. It was a very tough fight. AK: Yes, because Kamsky didn't give up till the very end. Just look at the final game of the match. I can't remember any World Championship were there was such a hard battle. There were no short draws. DK: What do you think of the quality of the games? AK: Very high quality. We played chess the way people love it. No comparison to the Kasparov-Anand-match in New York. DK: Rustam Kamksy accused you of getting help from a computer during the games. AK: Of course this was complete nonsense. The Kamsky-team received a fine of 4000 dollars which will be deducted from their price fund. DK: Did you get any money yet? AK: Unfortunately not. After the match FIDE-President Kirsan Iljumshinov wanted to transfer the money in rubles. I refused. Due to our contract we have to get valuta [Sic but the meaning is clear!] . Now we are waiting. DK: Kamsky also didn't receive anything yet? AK: No. DK: Why such a delay? AK: Banks in Moscow work very slowly. They are basically working with our money. It's a big apparatus: Central Bank, State Bank, Branch Banks, ... DK: Do you think Iljumshinow is a serious person? AK: Yes, of course. DK: Will there be a match with Kasparov in 1997? AK: I think he is waiting for such a match more than I do. His position is weaker now. No sponsor. The PCA is finished so Kasparov tries to alter FIDE after his will. But he will not succeed! DK: Where could this duel happen? AK: If it ever happens it has to be in Russia. DK: Will you take part in the Chess Olympiad in Jerewan? AK: No, I don't play there. DK: Why? AK: As long as a swindler is leading the chess federation in our country I will not play on the Russian team. DK: There will be new elections at the FIDE congress? AK: Yes, but I'm not interested in that. I want to concentrate on my chess. DK: But you are on the team of Bachar Kouatly? AK: I would actually prefer an alliance between Iljumshinow and Kouatly. Iljumshinow wants to be sole candidate and afterwards nominate his team. If Kouatly won, he could give his position to Iljumshinow. DK: Why should he? AK: Because Iljumshinow has the most power. DK: What about the other candidate Sunye Neto? AK: Nice person but without any power. FIDE is bankrupt so he wouldn't even be able to get a decent salary. DK: Who do you think will win the election and become president? AK: He should be a strong president who helps chess and improves the financial situation of FIDE. If it isn't Iljumshinow then FIDE will cease to exist the next day." Boris Gelfand had a fine tournament. His long run in the FIDE World Championships and non-participation in the PCA Classics had left him short of top-level chess. He had quite a mediocre result in the VSB Tournament in Amsterdam, but in a crowded schedule his results have improved almost tournament by tournament. He has had some fine wins this year but his results were affected by too many losses. Here he was the only undefeated player and of course a fine win against Karpov was very helpful towards his final result. Veselin Topalov shares first place. I think even fellow professional players are astonished at his stamina. He has played almost all the top events since April, often with only a day or two's break between events. In that time he has had only one moderate result, in Dortmund and has shared first place in most of the rest of the events. In this extract for his interview he doesn't make much of his incredible stamina. "Martin Raubal: Mr. Topalov, after 4 rounds you are in the sole lead with 3 points. Where do you get the energy from after just having won the Novgorod tournament? Veselin Topalov: Well, I try to fully concentrate during tournaments and I also have a lot of energy although there are of course times when I'm getting pretty tired. But I also think that the other players have a lot of energy. MR: But you also win games! VT: It's going pretty well so far but the tournament is not over yet. MR: Last year I spoke to Gary Kasparov and honestly, I had never before met a person with such a lot of energy. I could actually feel it. You seem to be like that too. VT: Kasparov is a special person. He needs a lot of energy during his games but nevertheless has the power to do other important things when his games are over. Also Karpov is very good in that. If I have a tiring game I'm happy to get some rest and relax afterwards. MR: Is it anything special to you to play against Kasparov or Karpov? VT: Definitely! If you win a game against these guys that means something. It impresses people if you beat Kasparov or Karpov. MR: Which game was your hardest so far? VT: Today's game was pretty difficult. It wasn't easy to beat Ehlvest. But also the game against Judit Polgar was hard. She gave me a difficult time. MR: You don't have a lot of experience with matches. What's your opinion on the clash between FIDE- and PCA-cycle? VT: Right now I don't have this problem because we have no cycle. But I think we will need to have just one cycle in the future. Playing both of them takes too much energy. MR: How do you physically prepare for the games? Are you doing any sports? VT: Not during tournaments but before and after I like to swim a lot. I guess after the tournament I have to sleep for a while. MR: What about sleeping for two weeks? VT: Maybe!?" Peter Leko and Judit Polgar scored fine results and are showing signs of being comfortable at this level. Leko has had some deserved criticism for his numerous drawn games in recent tournament. In Dortmund he scored a poor result but was slightly unlucky as his more enterprising approach is clearly the way forward. Here he got the balance about right, winning two and losing one but many of his drawn games were also very interesting. He inflicted Topalov's only loss with some very risky play as Black, it was the result of some excellent preparation according to his post-game interview. Judit Polgar has proved both her stamina and her strength of will in the last few weeks. Losses seem to affect her less than most of her GM rivals and she continues to play at the same strength. Here she lost only to Vladimir Kramnik, gave Topalov a hard time (this is a friendly rivalry to watch as they play chess that is on the edge against each other) and she pressed right to the end of the event winning against Ehlvest in the final round. Vladimir Kramnik will be a little disappointed with his over all result. He did not help his cause by losing to Shirov with the white pieces in round 1 (Kramnik eventually lost on time but his position was hopeless) and then in round 2 he arrived 50 minutes late for a game against Karpov. In fact in this second game he seemed well on the way to drawing, he played 15 moves of book and had appeared almost to equalise. However then he wanted to simplify the position even more by trading Queens off at the expense of some King-side pawn weaknesses. This was a bad idea against Karpov. In the first round Vladimir Kramnik overstepped the time limit in a lost position. He sped to plus one with wins in rounds 3,5 and 6 before drawing out the rest of the event. Outrageously talented he can sometimes get frustrated when things aren't going his way. Martin Raubal talked to Vladimir Kramnik (15 Aug 1996) here is an extract: MR: Vladimir, have you ever played in a tournament where you lost two games in a row and then scored 4 out of 5? VK: Actually I can't remember having started a tournament with two losses. MR: Are you satisfied with the quality of your games here? VK: Not at all. Some were quite okay but most of them were average. No, actually they were below average. MR: That's not bad. You played below average and still have +1. If you played average quality games you'd probably have like +3 or 4. VK: (laughing) Well, I'm not sure about that but as a matter of fact I've played some better games in the past. MR: Do you still see a chance to win this tournament? VK: There are still two rounds to go and I'll try my best. MR: You'll play for a win in these games? VK: I always try to win. MR: What happened in your 2nd round game against Karpov? Why did you come 45 minutes late? Somehow it reminded me of Paris when Anand forfeited the active game against Kasparov. VK: The problem was that the first round started at 3pm so it was just natural to think every game will start at that time. But I was lucky to meet one of the organizers during my walk through the city. We got into his car and rushed to the City Hall. MR: Pretty tough to give away 45 minutes against Karpov? VK: Of course, but that was not the main reason for losing the game. I wasn't too healthy when I arrived in Vienna but now I'm okay again. MR: What do you think of the World Championship in Elista? I was a bit surprised to hear Karpov saying in an interview that the quality of the games was very high. VK: Well, he has to say that. But I think that the quality of the games wasn't really that high. We've seen much better World Championship matches. But it was interesting anyway. MR: Compared to Kasparov - Anand? VK: There were some short draws but the quality was definitely better. MR: Kasparov always says that you will be the future World Champion. Doesn't it get on your nerves? VK: Well, he knows me very well. If you include all of the active games we played about 25 times against each other. Of course it is also my goal to become World Champion but you can't force such a thing. MR: You are one of very few professionals who played in both cycles. Some people say that that was too exhausting and therefore you lost two matches. What do you think about it? VK: No, that wasn't a problem for me. If there are two cycles in the future I'll definitely play in both of them again. You gain a lot of experience playing matches. MR: What do you like more: Tournaments or matches? VK: Generally I like to play in tournaments. Somehow it's more interesting. Every round you get a new opponent. If you play in a match you have to be very tough mentally. Alexei Shirov had an up and down tournament. He led early on but losses against Karpov and Topalov took him back to 50%. I get the feeling he's finding the super-competitive nature of super-GM chess in the last year a little hard to adapt to. His opening repertoire does not seem sound enough and his early promise with solid result in successive Linares tournaments seems to have been lost. A great talent but he needs to go forward again. Yusupov and Ehlvest struggled hard in the tournament but it must be worrying that even though they were comparatively fresh they lost games without getting the compensating wins. Korchnoi had one of those tournaments where nothing would go right for him. To his credit he fought hard in every round. A loss to old rival Anatoly Karpov followed by a horrid loss to Kramnik were almost more than flesh and blood could take and he swept the pieces from the board at the end of that game. He recovered in time to hold a post-mortem however. Open 1 Tournament ----------------- A very strong Open Tournament 1 saw a 4 way tie between Dimitri Komarov, Ildar Ibragimov, Lev Psakhis, and Mladen Palac. Number one seed GM Igor Glek (Russia, 2670) lost to IM Silvio Danailov (Bulgaria, 2455) in an early round and finished on 3.5. Final standings after Round 9 ------------------------------ Rank Name Countr Elo Points 1 GM KOMAROV Dimitri UKR 2595 6 2 GM IBRAGIMOV Ildar RUS 2545 6 3 GM PSAKHIS Lev ISR 2590 6 4 GM PALAC Mladen CRO 2540 6 5 GM SMIRIN Ilia ISR 2625 5.5 6 GM ZVJAGINSEV Vadim RUS 2590 5.5 7 GM MAKSIMENKO Andrei UKR 2545 5.5 8 GM TKACHIEV Vladislav KAZ 2620 5.5 9 GM DREEV Alexey RUS 2645 5.5 10 GM KENGIS Edvins LAT 2560 5.5 11 GM LPUTIAN Smbat ARM 2595 5.5 12 GM BAREEV Evegeny RUS 2655 5.5 13 GM CVITAN Ognjen CRO 2535 5.5 14 GM HERTNECK Gerald GER 2565 5.5 15 GM LANDA Konstantin RUS 2570 5.5 16 GM LERNER Konstantin UKR 2580 5.5 17 IM SKOMOROKHIN Roman RUS 2450 5 18 GM HICKL Joerg GER 2600 5 19 GM KHALIFMAN Alexander RUS 2640 5 20 GM GOFSHTEIN Leonid ISR 2545 5 21 GM ONISCHUK Alexander UKR 2605 5 22 GM HUZMAN Alexander ISR 2575 5 23 GM LUTZ Christopher GER 2565 5 24 IM VAN DER WERF Mark NED 2400 5 25 GM ALMASI Zoltan HUN 2655 4.5 26 GM SVESHNIKOV Evgeny RUS 2535 4.5 27 IM GYIMESI Zoltan HUN 2480 4.5 28 GM KVEINYS Aloyzas LTU 2530 4.5 29 IM DANNER Georg AUT 2375 4.5 30 GM DAUTOV Rustem GER 2615 4.5 31 GM EPISHIN Vladimir RUS 2620 4.5 32 GM TISCHBIEREK Raj GER 2500 4.5 33 GM BLATNY Pavel CZE 2490 4.5 34 GM BOLOGAN Viktor MDA 2600 4.5 35 GM KHARLOV Andrei RUS 2605 4.5 36 GM KINDERMANN Stefan GER 2530 4.5 37 IM TESKE Henrik GER 2520 4.5 38 IM RUCK Robert HUN 2465 4.5 39 GM FTACNIK Lubomir SVK 2610 4.5 92 players: WWW --- There was an excellent www page for the event: page design and chief editor Karlheinz Zoechling (khzoech@xpoint.at) http://www.xpoint.at/schach/open.htm chief editor game database Werner Hinterberger editors Dagobert Kohlmeyer, Martin Raubal, Eric van der Schilden (TASC) many thanks for help to Phillip Moser, Oliver Lehner The Festival was sponsored by Bank Austria. Festival Initiator: Reinhard Baumgartner Organizer: Chess Club SK Loosdorf represented through Josef Hamberger Festival Director: Mag. Ing. Gerhard Bruckner Main Arbiters: IS IGM Lothar Schmid IS Gertrude Wagner 3) Donner Memorial Tournament in Amsterdam ------------------------------------------ Jan Hein Donner was a larger than life character in Dutch chess in the post-war years. An entertaining journalist and a successful player it was a natural thing to commemorate him. The Dutch have organised a fine series of tournaments over recent years trying to choose a field which is not only strong but also one that will produce interesting chess. This Category 16 tournament contains such well known entertainers as Alexander Morozevich and Julian Hodgson, strong local representation with Jeroen Piket, Jan Timman, Van Wely and Ivan Sokolov, and ex-candidates Vassily Ivanchuk, Valery Salov and Gata Kamsky. The event marks Gata Kamsky's return to chess after the FIDE World Championships in Elista and whilst Karpov waited one and a half tournaments before losing his first game Kamsky decided to get it out of the way on day one. Van Wely was one of Kamsky's seconds in Elista and was perhaps helped by some inside knowledge to win in only 34 moves in the first round. After two rounds Dutchmen Jeroen Piket and Loek Van Wely lead on their own. I will report more when I return from Amsterdam on August 26th. There are many side events and I will be playing in one over the weekend of the 24th and 25th. I hope there will be time to have a little socialising also! The event is organised by Stichting Bevordering Schaaksport Nederland, or the Foundation for the Promotion of Chess, the Netherlands. There will be coverage on TASC's and Inside Chess' www pages. Round 1 (1996.08.17) Piket, Jeroen - Morozevich, Alexander 1-0 23 Van Wely, Loek - Kamsky, Gata 1-0 34 Ivanchuk, Vassily - Hodgson, Julian M 1-0 28 Adianto, Utut - Timman, Jan H 1-0 45 De Firmian, Nick E - Sokolov, Ivan 1-0 40 Salov, Valery - Granda Zuniga, Julio E 1/2 42 Round 2 (1996.08.18) De Firmian, Nick E - Van Wely, Loek 0-1 49 Granda Zuniga, Julio E - Ivanchuk, Vassily 1/2 31 Hodgson, Julian M - Adianto, Utut 1-0 48 Kamsky, Gata - Salov, Valery 1-0 38 Sokolov, Ivan - Morozevich, Alexander 1/2 63 Timman, Jan H - Piket, Jeroen 0-1 17 Amsterdam NED (NED), VIII 1996. cat. XVI (2629) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Piket, Jeroen g NED 2580 * . . . . . . . 1 . . 1 2.0 2 Van Wely, Loek g NED 2605 . * . . 1 . . 1 . . . . 2.0 3 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2730 . . * . . = 1 . . . . . 1.5 2773 4 Adianto, Utut g INA 2605 . . . * . . 0 . . . . 1 1.0 2570 5 De Firmian, Nick E g USA 2575 . 0 . . * . . . . . 1 . 1.0 2637 6 Granda Zuniga, Julio E g PER 2610 . . = . . * . . . = . . 1.0 2702 7 Hodgson, Julian M g ENG 2550 . . 0 1 . . * . . . . . 1.0 2667 8 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2745 . 0 . . . . . * . 1 . . 1.0 2640 9 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2610 0 . . . . . . . * . = . 0.5 2432 10 Salov, Valery g RUS 2675 . . . . . = . 0 . * . . 0.5 2484 11 Sokolov, Ivan g BIH 2670 . . . . 0 . . . = . * . 0.5 2399 12 Timman, Jan H g NED 2590 0 . . 0 . . . . . . . * 0.0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Foxtrot Chess Tournament 1996 -------------------------------- The International Ladies vs Veterans match is organised by the Association Max Euwe has this year come to London. It is being held in the London Hilton on Park Lane from the 15th - 26th of August. The sides are often closely matched and they tend to be quite competitive affairs. Previous editions were : The Tumba Tournament held in Aruba 1992 The Waltzer Tournament held in Vienna in 1993 The Paladienne Tournament held in Monaco in 1994 The Polka Tournament held in Prague in 1995. This year with Judit Polgar and Women's World Chess Champion Zsuzsa Polgar missing the men have the best opportunity to win for a few years. Ex-World champions Boris Spassky and Vassily Smyslov are joined by ex-Candidates Hort, Portisch and Spassky. The Women's team has many of the best women players, with Pia Cramling in good form recently, ex-Women's World Chess Champion Xie Jun is a very solid player and Nana Ioseliani, Sofia Polgar and Ketevan Arakhamia are all very active players. In a wild time-scramble Hort-Ioseliani (1) saw a capture which was illegal on Black's 28th move! Hort still won the game. After three rounds the Veterans lead 8-7 Round 1 (1996.08.15) Portisch, Lajos - Arakhamia, Ketevan 1-0 37 E81 Kings indian; Saemisch Hort, Vlastimil - Ioseliani, Nana 1-0 28 D31 Queen's gambit Smyslov, Vassily - Xie Jun 1/2 59 A05 Reti (1.Pf3) Spassky, Boris V - Polgar, Sofia 1/2 47 B40 Sicilian Taimanov, Mark E - Cramling, Pia 1/2 50 A48 Queen's pawn Round 2 (1996.08.16) Cramling, Pia - Smyslov, Vassily 1/2 76 E12 Nimzo indian Arakhamia, Ketevan - Taimanov, Mark E 1-0 42 B46 Sicilian Xie Jun - Hort, Vlastimil 1/2 21 B04 Alekhine defence Ioseliani, Nana - Spassky, Boris V 1/2 40 A47 Queen's pawn Polgar, Sofia - Portisch, Lajos 0-1 42 B46 Sicilian Round 3 (1996.08.17) Portisch, Lajos - Ioseliani, Nana 1/2 34 D45 Queen's gambit Hort, Vlastimil - Cramling, Pia 0-1 39 A58 Wolga gambit Smyslov, Vassily - Arakhamia, Ketevan 1/2 34 B40 Sicilian Spassky, Boris V - Xie Jun 1/2 14 D77 1.d4 d5 2.c4 g6 Taimanov, Mark E - Polgar, Sofia 1/2 69 A06 Reti (1.Pf3) London ENG (ENG), VIII 1996. VETERANS -------- ------------------------------------------------------- 1 2 3 4 5 -------------------------------------------------------- 1 Portisch, Lajos g HUN 2600 . 1 . = 1 2.5 2751 2 Hort, Vlastimil g GER 2545 0 . = 1 . 1.5 2518 3 Smyslov, Vassily g RUS 2510 = = = . . 1.5 2503 4 Spassky, Boris V g FRA 2555 . . = = = 1.5 2496 5 Taimanov, Mark E g RUS 2470 = 0 . . = 1.0 2368 -------------------------------------------------------- 8.0 -------------------------------------------------------- LADIES ------ -------------------------------------------------------- 1 2 3 4 5 -------------------------------------------------------- 1 Cramling, Pia g SWE 2545 . 1 = . = 2.0 2633 2 Arakhamia, Ketevan m GEO 2455 0 . = . 1 1.5 2526 3 Xie Jun g CHN 2510 . = = = . 1.5 2536 4 Ioseliani, Nana m GEO 2500 = 0 . = . 1.0 2441 5 Polgar, Sofia m HUN 2480 0 . . = = 1.0 2416 -------------------------------------------------------- 7.0 -------------------------------------------------------- 5) US Open 1996. ------------- Michael Atkinsreports: (There will be some games in TWIC97) US open results The 97th Annual U.S. Open is complete! The moves have been made and the scoresheets signed and either remembered or forgotten. GM Gabriel Schwartzmann was the clear winner with 10.5/12 and along with his $5000 first place goes a seed in the 1997 U.S. Closed Championship. He clinched his title with a last round victory over local Arlington Virginia Senior Master and winner of the U.S. Open Blitz tournament, Alexander Reprintsev. Tied for Second-Third were GM's Alex Yermolinsky and Gregory Serper, a half point behind at 10/12. The current U.S. Champion, Yermo had led the field with 8-0 and suffered back to back losses to Serper and Schwartzman in the 9th and tenth round and didn't have time to recover. He defeated FM Ron Burnett in a tough 12th round game GM Serper held a very tough endgame a pawn dawn against GM Wojtkiewicz that went into sudden death for both players. There were four players tied with 9.5/12. GM's Alex Wojtkiewicz and Alex Ivanov, along with Angelo Young and IM Jon Schroer. Other scores were 9.0 GM Alex Shabalov (byes in last 2 rounds), FM Ron Burnett, IM Larry Kaufman,Alex Reprintsev Gregory Shahade, Michael Wierzbicki, Fred Garcia and Irina Krush 8.5 IM Vladislav Fedorov, FM Emory Tate, GM Arthur Bisquier, IM Walter Shipman, John Meyer, FM Miles Ardaman, FM John Curdo, George Kramer, James Wheat, Steve Szpisjak, Stanislav Ritvin and Jennie Frenklakh The final results of the Hall of Fame tournament were: 1. Kavalek 2.5/4 2-4 Benko, Bisquier & Curdo 2/4 5. Denker 1.5/4 6) USCF 1996 Policy Board Election Results ----------------------------------- Those on the internet could not have failed to notice that the USCF had elections for their Policy Board. The winners were: PRESIDENT 309 (82.8%) DON SCHULTZ VICE PRESIDENT 194 (52.0%) BILL GOICHBERG SECRETARY 211 (56.6%) RACHEL LIEBERMAN (reelected) TREASURER 260 (69.7%) TOM DORSCH MEMBER-AT-LARGE 186 (49.9%) JIM EADE 7) Games of the Junior computer program by Shay Bushinsky. ------------------------------------------------------- In the games section are 2 exhibition games played against Yudasin in May on the digital user convention (DECUS) plus five games from the recent Kfar-Saba open 8-9-10 August 1996. The hardware and software was different in both events with some considerable improvements after the Yudasin games. 8) British Chess Championships Nottingham 1996 ------------------------------------------- IM Chris Ward, with a score of 9/11, is the winner of the 83rd British Championships. The runaway leader for most of the event had to endure some nervous moments after his ninth round loss. After everyone had finished with their pocket calculators it appears that Ward also secured his third and final GM norm also. Second place was taken by Jonathan Parker who also was the British under 21 Champion. There was an excellent showing from 12 year old Luke McShane and step by step his promise increases. He was only just short of gaining an IM norm this time. My thanks to John Henderson of Channel 4 Teletext Chess p.478 for almost all the information and games that appear here. Final Scores: 1. Ward, Christopher............... m ENG 2460 16 9.0/11 2. Parker, Jonathan................ m ENG 2470 20 8.5 3. Summerscale, Aaron.............. m ENG 2500 45 8.0 4. Sadler, Matthew................. g ENG 2615 36 7.5 Emms, John M.................... g ENG 2500 58 7.5 Ferguson, Mark.................. ENG 2385 36 7.5 7. Hebden, Mark.................... g ENG 2530 38 7.0 Martin, Andrew D................ m ENG 2425 22 7.0 9. McShane, Luke J................. f ENG 2385 36 6.5 Lee, Graham D................... f ENG 2375 6.5 Cobb, Charles................... ENG 2260 12 6.5 Duncan, Christopher R........... f ENG 2340 39 6.5 Hunt, Harriet................... m ENG 2315 17 w 6.5 Phillips, Roy................... ENG 2120 13 * 6.5 Buckley, Graeme................. m ENG 2370 46 6.5 Dunworth, Christopher........... f ENG 2335 9 6.5 Ansell, Simon................... ENG 2420 27 6.5 Turner, Matthew................. m ENG 2425 9 6.5 20-28 Wilson, Williams, Cole, Wall, R Pert, Berry, Mason, Molyneux, Bates 6; 29-36 Trifunovic, S Ledger, Lilley, Vigus, Tebb, Sahu, Littlewood, J Cobb 5.5; 37-43 N Pert, Mordue, A Ledger, Tait, Merriman, Richardson, Spice 5; 44-52 Clarke, Wolstencroft, Rudd, Jackson, Baker, Hempson, Raynor, Watton, Lyell 4.5; 53-58 A Hunt, Bisby, Dyce, Savage, Moskovic, Wheldon 4; 59 S Buckley 3; 60-61 Fallon, Dauber 2.5; 62 Shah 1.5 * could be Alan. 9) NINE CHESSPLAYERS QUALIFY FOR THE ARGENTINE CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS --------------------------------------------------------------- by Roberto Alvarez GM Oscar Panno, IM Marcelo Tempone, FM Jorge Rosito, IM Maximiliano Ginzburg,IM Diego Valerga, FM Diego Pereyra Arcija, IM Guillermo Llanos, IM Raimundo Garcia & IM Jorge Szmetan finished in the first 9 places at the Argentina Chess Championship, semifinal step, and all of them qualified to the final championship, to be held after August 16th in Pcia.Roque Saezn Pena, Chaco, Argentina. The present semifinal was played in Buenos Aires, more exactly in "Casa de la Provincia del Chaco" rooms, during last week of July. Only 34 players took part of this event, playing by Swiss System, 9 rounds. The previously named masters, with play the final besides IM Pablo Ricardo (present champion), IGM Ariel Sorin (present vice- champion), and IGM Hugo Spangenberg, IGM Daniel Campora and IGM Pablo Zarnicki. I was unable to obtain the final standings, and the same for the last 3 rounds bulletins, because as always.. it was not produced. Here are some of the games from the semi-finals along with some played in the Quarter finals which were held in Buenos Aires City. 10) KS Summer 1996 Tournament by Per Rasmussen of Under Uret --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Copenhagen Chess Club called KS ran a tournament July 19th - 28th and it resulted in two GM norms. IM Lars Schandorff now has 3 norms and will be Denmarks next GM. IM Sune Berg Hansen has two norms and looks likely to follow him. Copenhagen DEN, VII 1996. cat. X (2490) ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Hansen, Sune Berg m DEN 2490 * 0 = 1 1 1 1 = = = 6.0 2615 2 Schandorff, Lars m DEN 2495 1 * = 1 = 0 = 1 = 1 6.0 2614 3 Nielsen, Peter Heine g DEN 2530 = = * = = = = = = 1 5.0 2528 4 Hector, Jonny g SWE 2525 0 0 = * 0 = 1 1 1 1 5.0 2529 5 Sher, Miron N g RUS 2475 0 = = 1 * = = = 1 0 4.5 2491 6 Hellsten, Johan m SWE 2490 0 1 = = = * 0 = = 1 4.5 2490 7 Kumaran, Dharshan m ENG 2495 0 = = 0 = 1 * = 1 = 4.5 2489 8 Parker, Jonathan m ENG 2470 = 0 = 0 = = = * = 1 4.0 2449 9 Volke, Karsten m GER 2475 = = = 0 0 = 0 = * 1 3.5 2411 10 Borge, Nikolaj m DEN 2455 = 0 0 0 1 0 = 0 0 * 2.0 2273 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 11) VISA NORDIC GRAND PRIX 1996/97 ------------------------------- The following table shows the score and standings in the VISA Nordic Grand Prix competition after the first three tournaments: 1st Reykjavik International Open, Iceland. March 2.-10. 1996 2nd Politiken Cup, Denmark. June 22nd to July 4th 1996 3rd [11.8.96] Arnold J. Eikrem Memorial 1996. Gausdal, Norway August 3–11 1996 Player Country NGP-1 NGP-2 NGP-2 Total 1. -- TIGER HILLARP PERSSON SWE - 21.50 21.50 43.00 2. GM MARGEIR PETURSSON ISL 13.00 5.00 24.50 42.50 3. GM CURT HANSEN DEN 13.00 24.50 - 37.50 4. GM SIMEN AGDESTEIN NOR 28.50 - 7.00 35.50 5. GM JOHANN HJARTARSON ISL 7.00 14.17 13.00 34.17 6. GM JONATHAN TISDALL NOR 26.50 - 2.50 29.00 7. GM JONNY HECTOR SWE 12.00 12.17 - 24.17 8. GM RUNE DJURHUUS NOR 7.00 4.00 13.00 24.00 9. GM EINAR GAUSEL NOR 4.50 12.17 7.00 23.67 10. GM HELGI ASS GRETARSSON ISL 9.00 - 13.00 22.00 11. GM HELGI OLAFSSON ISL 8.00 - 14.00 22.00 12. GM HANNES H. STEFANSSON ISL 17.00 - 4.50 21.50 13. GM THROSTUR THORHALLSSON ISL 6.00 - 13.00 19.00 14. IM NIKOLAJ BORGE DEN 17.00 - - 17.00 15. GM PETER HEINE NIELSEN DEN - 13.17 2.50 15.67 16. IM ERLING MORTENSEN DEN - 13.17 - 13.17 17. GM LARS BO HANSEN DEN - 12.17 - 12.17 18. GM RALF AKESSON SWE - 7.00 - 7.00 19. GM HEIKKI WESTERINEN FIN - - 7.00 7.00 20. IM LARS SCHANDORFF DEN - 6.00 - 6.00 21. IM JOHAN FURDOFF SWE - 4.00 - 4.00 22. IM STEFFEN PEDERSEN DEN - 4.00 - 4.00 23. IM SAMIR LEJLICS SWE - 4.00 - 4.00 24. IM BERGE OSTENSTAD NOR - - 3.50 3.50 25. -- STIG GABRIELSEN NOR - - 2.50 2.50 26. -- HELGE GUNDERSEN NOR - - 2.50 2.50 27. -- BRAGI HALLDORSSON ISL 1.50 - - 1.50 28. IM PATRIK LYBERG SWE 1.50 - - 1.50 29. -- MAGNUS ORN ULFARSSON ISL 1.50 - - 1.50 Individual results have been compiled and certified by Steen Juul Mortensen, special supervisor of the competition, according to the formal regulation. Further information about the Nordic Grand Prix Tournament Series is published on the Chess in Iceland WWW home page. The 4th VISA NORDIC GRAND PRIX tournament will be held in Sweden, as a part of The Rilton Cup in Stockholm, 27 Dec.-96 - 7. Jan. -97 and the 5th one in the Faeroe Islands, as a part of the Torshavn Open in February 1997. The best results and individual performance from 3 out of 5 NGP tournaments count for qualification to the Final Visa Nordic Grand Prix, a Round Robin tournament of 14 players with formidable prize fund, which will be held in Reykjavik, Iceland, in the autumn of 1997. In case of a tie results from the fourth and if needed fifth tournament will count. Further tie will be broken by lot. The 14 and last seat will be filled by special invitation. Reykjavik, 14 August 1996 - Einar S. Einarsson, Chief Administrative Officer of the NGP