Alan Schaefer

Alan with his niece and sister

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Alan Schaefer was a regular at the Waukesha Chess Club. In fact he played in the last tournament I played there. That’s why I was surprised to hear that he was in bad health.

I visited him a few days ago, and we talked about his chess history. Alan moved back to Wisconsin in June 2007, after spending many years in Massachusetts. He got into chess as an adult, and got more than he bargained for when he visited the local chess club for the first time. Not only did he find himself signed up as a USCF member, he also got to play his first rated game against a strong opponent. Although he was soundly beaten, he was determined to get better. In time, he was able to get his rating up to class B.

Alan says that one of the main reasons he didn't get better was the fact that he didn't take the game seriously enough. He recalled a game where at one point, 7 pieces were lined up on the same file. Instead of trying to find the best move, he was intent on putting an 8th piece on the vacant square. He lost two moves later!

Alan currently resides at the Angels Grace Hospice in Oconomowoc, (920) 474-7800, he welcomes visitors and/or email alan_schaefer@hotmail.com

Link to Alan's chess history

Spring Swiss [4 Rnds. - G/90]

Waukesha Chess Club

7 time Wisconsin Champion WILLIAMS, WILLIAM P

There were 30 players

WILLIAMS, WILLIAM P (2200) won clear first with 4.0, I was clear second with 3.5 (1 bye)

Prior to today my record against SOUVIK ROYCHOUDHURY (1985) was 0-4, I finally won one.

USCF Results

World Open 2008

likesforests http://likesforests.blogspot.com/,
chessloser http://chessloser.wordpress.com/,
BlunderProne http://blunderprone.blogspot.com/ and me

Most go to the World Open with dreams of finishing high enough to snag a nice prize, but only about 5% of the participants come home richer than they went in. The rest of us are left dreaming of what might have been. Just for the record it is not impossible for a regular Joe to make a decent showing : My tie for 3rd place in the HB Global U1800

I was in a confident mood going in, but this was definitely not my year. I was going to play in the 5 day with 2 byes for rounds 1 and 2, but car trouble on the way forced me to decide between taking 3 byes or playing in the 3-day event. I decided to play in the 3-day although playing five games of G/45 in one day was not going to be easy. Further delays forced me to take a bye for round 1. I finally started in round two but 2 losses in a row did me in.

Although I had a disappointing result, I enjoyed the trip to Philly and got to meet several old friends and fellow bloggers. There is always next year!

Click here for more pictures

CCA Results

World Open 2008 - Road Trip

Toronto (June 28,29,30) -> NY (July 1,2) -> Philadelphia (July 3,4,5,6)

I will play in the 5-day U2000 section with byes for rounds 1 & 2.

2008 Rochester Grand Summer Open June 13,14

2008 Rochester Grand Summer Open, Rochester, MN hosted by the Rochester Chess Club.

Despite high gas prices and flooding rivers more than 80* players from 4 states attended this year's event. Matt Jensen and his crew ran a great tournament, with lots of extras including: upset prizes for every round, drawings for ICC memberships and a chess set, multiple playing schedules etc.

I have played in four states in 14 days! Not sure when my next w-end tournament will be. I was thinking about the World Open, but it does not look likely at this point.

USCF results

*including the unrated section

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Tournament winner IM VICTOR-EDVIN ADLER checking out the last round game RON R DEIKE vs MATTHEW D DAHL

DAHL won this game

Bad planning (actually no planning!) turned a 4 hr drive into a 7 hour one (due to road closings). I was forced to take two half point byes.

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Round 3
Win against BILL GRAYDON(1603)

I arrived 30 min late for the 60 min game. I played the opening well, but then gave my opponent several chances to equalize that he did not take advantage of. Later, I was winning on the board when my opponent went over the time limit!

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Round 4
Loss to KEVIN BU (1966)

I was 30 minutes late again* but this time I was facing the nation's 10th ranked 12 year old. I was in the process of congratulating my self on lessening my time disadvantage and obtaining a fairly equal position when I missed a simple tactic that forced mate.

*had to drop the family off at the hotel

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Round 5
Win against ROBERT J DONAHUE (2064)

My opponent misplayed the opening and I was able to win a nice game.

Click here for the games

Mind Games Open - Indiana

Mind Games Open
Mishawaka, IN 46545

I finished clear first with 3.5/4.0 including a last round win against top seed Leslie Kistler (2029)

USCF Results

There were 14 players. I was the 4th seed

Chicago Open 2008

Although I didn't play I stopped by during the 6th round. This year's edition attracted 702 players. Attenedance since 2001:

Final results here.

Notable performances by WI players:

Under 2300
Alexander Betaneli tied for 1-2 with 6 points (worth $4000)
Alexander Velikanov, 10 years old and rated 2028 played up to finish with 3 points, beating 2 masters.

Under 1900
Alex Gianos-Steinberg clear first with 6.5 (worth $5000)
Alex has played in only 7 tournaments 6 of them Chicago Opens. His rating jump: 1786 => 1927. He also won the under 1600 section in 2005 with an identical score.

Under 1500
David Jin clear first with 6.5 (worth $5000)
*Correction - Jin was limited to $1500 due to rating over 1530 in past year
Under 700
Edward Larkin clear second with 5.5

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I had a chance to meet Chessloser and he gave me a couple of his "HARDCORE PAWNOGRAPHY" stickers. (Click here for his interview with Hikaru Nakamura)

Chessloser anlyzing after round 6

Back

After starting the year on a high note (highest published rating), I am back on my floor after a dismal 0-7 performance in my last event. I took two weeks completely off of any chess acivity.

I will not be able to go to the Chicago Open this year.

On a personal note, my daughter was born on May 16th

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

I managed to lose seven games in a row. Lack of chess skill had a lot to do with it, but there was a big phsychological barrier that I was not able to navigate around once I lost a few early games.

In todays game I got a great game after my oponent misplayed the opening. I am Black in the following position. There is absolutely no reason not to play ...e5 here. In fact playing ...e5 was my plan all along, but for some reason I decided to delay it. Then lost to a simple tactic.

Click here to replay game

Starting tomorrow I am going to take a 2 week break completely away from chess. I am going to concentrate on physical fitness and practicing my violin.

Waukesha Chess Club Championship

There are a record 42 players in 5 sections.

Bill & Sasha are joint champions. Congratulations!

Section 1

2200 WILLIAMS, W
2100 HAYES, R
2027 VELIKANOV, A
1961 ROYCHOUDHURY, S
1882 VELIKANOV, P
1858 COONS, J
1839 WIJETUNGE, I
1784 GARVIN, S

6.0 WILLIAMS ,VELIKANOV,A
5.0 ROYCHOUDHURY
4.0 VELIKANOV,P
3.5 COONS
2.0 HAYES
1.5 GARVIN
0.0 WIJETUNGE

Week 1 (March 19)
1-0 ROYCHOUDHURY vs VELIKANOV,P
0-1 COONS vs VELIKANOV,A
1/2 GARVIN vs HAYES
0-1 WIJETUNGE vs WILLIAMS

Week 2 (March 26)
PPD VELIKANOV,P vs WIJETUNGE
1-0 WILLIAMS vs GARVIN
1/2 HAYES vs COONS
PPD VELIKANOV,A vs ROYCHOUDHURY

Week 3 (April 2)
1-0 VELIKANOV,A vs VELIKANOV,P
1-0 ROYCHOUDHURY vs HAYES
1-0 COONS vs WILLIAMS
1-0 GARVIN vs WIJETUNGE

Week 4 (April 9)
1-0 VELIKANOV,P vs GARVIN
0-1 WIJETUNGE vs COONS
1-0 WILLIAMS vs ROYCHOUDHURY
0-1 HAYES vs VELIKANOV,A

Week 5 (April 16)
0-1 HAYES vs VELIKANOV,P
0-1 VELIKANOV,A vs WILLIAMS
1-0 ROYCHOUDHURY vs WIJETUNGE
1-0 COONS vs GARVIN

Week 6 (April 23)
1-0 VELIKANOV,P vs COONS
0-1 GARVIN vs ROYCHOUDHURY
0-1 WIJETUNGE vs VELIKANOV,A
1-0 WILLIAMS vs HAYES

Week 7 (April 30)
1-0 WILLIAMS vs VELIKANOV,P
1-0 HAYES vs WIJETUNGE
1-0 VELIKANOV,A vs GARVIN
1-0 ROYCHOUDHURY,S s COONS

Make up games - May 7
1-0 VELIKANOV,P vs WIJETUNGE
1-0 VELIKANOV,A vs ROYCHOUDHURY

0-6

Can I be this bad? I hope not. The timing coudn't be worse as my next tournament is the Chicago open. I was speaking to my friend Jose and he suggested that after next weeks game I take two weeks completely off of chess.

Here Black has a good game after ...d4, but I played Rc8

Clich here to replay

0-5

I lost my 5th game in a row to 10 year old expert Alexander Velikanov, who should be the #1 rated 10 year old after this tournament is rated. It was an even opening and middle game, I then went astray and was worse, but later got the following chance to even things up. Here I should have played Bc4, but played Ke3 and was not able to hold.
Click here to replay

K-12 Nationals

Several WI players are participating in the K-12 Nationals. Alexander Velikanov is the 44th seed out of 341.

Parings/Results

Monroi link

Yet another loss!

I am now 0-4. But as they say, "What does not kill you will make you stronger". I am also increasing my probability of winning in the future :)

The opening was good for me. Inaccurate play in the middle game cost me a pawn, but I was sure that I could hold the resulting Bishop endgame. My opponent then sacrificed a pawn, so the material was equal.

We reached the following position. My last move was Kd5-d6. This move is a blunder because it allows White to play Bf6! It is interesting to note that Bf6 only draws if I had played Kd5-c6!

I lost this game because I failed to look at winning plans for White, was too confident of my drawing chances in my opponents time trouble.

I have seen Bishop endings where the theme was to sacrifice a bishop to queen a pawn, but in this game I forgot all about it. There is so much to remember!

I spent a lot of time going over this game and learnt a lot about Bishops of same color endings.

Local News

Looks like there won't be a "Cedric Thompson Memorial Tournament" this year. (formally known as Milwaukee City Championship) . Thie event was scheduled for 5/3 - 5/4 and was a Wisconsin Tour Event.

Event History (Players / Winner)
2007 31 / BETANELI
2006 22 / VAJA

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The winners of the 4 USAT tournaments met on April 12th to determine an overall winner. The team from the South won.

The mainly WI based team of

1) 2282 Betaneli Alexander
2) 2239 Vaja Ashish
3) 2175 Santarius Erik
4) 2003 Magness Trevor (IL)

lost to

"We have Cox"
1) 2386 Robby Adamson
2) 2246 Landon Brownell
3) 2115 Jonathan Cox
4) 2100 Benjamin Marmont

in the semi final with a score 0f 1-3 (Trevor won)

Hales Corners Challenge VII.

Burgess, Tennant and Parker tie for 1st.

USCF Results

Event History (players/winner(s))

HCC VII 52(22+30)/ BURGESS,TENNANT,PARKER
HCC -VI 62(30+32)/ TENNANT,BREIDER,SANTARIUS
HCC --V 62(40+22)/ TATE,STAMNOV
HCC -IV 47(23+24)/ STAMNOV
HCC III 45(28+17)/ TENNANT
HCC -II 38(20+18)/ BURGESS,BECKER
HCC --I 70(34+36)/ BETANELI

Can't win to save my life!

I am 0-3 in my current tournament at the Waukesha chess club, but am determined to make a 2nd half come back. Yesterday I played 1.b4 for the first time in my life. I ended up losing a pawn, but my opponent handed me the game when he played Bb4. There are several ways to win here. I chose Ng6 (not the best if Black finds Qf6), but he played Qd6, I then played the obvious Bxf7+, Black replied Kh7, I should have just played BxB QxB, Rb1 and then picked up the rook on e8. I played dxe Qc5,Bxb4 Qxb4, Rb1 Qxe4, Bxe8 Bc4, Qb2 Bd5.

If I had not played dxe earlier, Black would not have had mating threats. Here the best defence is f3, then after Qxf3 I can play Bxd7. Instead I chose f4, I am still winning but in bad time trouble didn't realize that in order to defend properly I had to approach the Black bishop with my King, instead I ended up getting mated on the q-side.

2008 Arpad Elo Open, Wisconsin Dells April 5-6

There were 58 players, but only 12 in the top section.

10 year old Alexander Velikanov rated 2028 won all his games(+3rd round bye) to finish clear first. He gained 20 points to close in on Brian Luo in the USCF age 10 list.

1) Luo, Brian J WI 2068
2) Velikanov, Alexander WI 2028
3) Pamatmat, Jarod TX 2002

USCF results

I didn't play so well and finished with 1-1=1, I could not play the last round(sick family member) and took a first round bye. I started with a draw against Nietman (1921). In the second round I misplayed the opening and had a bad position, but just after I fought my way back to equal played a horrible move that lost the game. I had a slight edge for a while in round 4, then went from being horribly lost to winning in my opponent's time trouble.

Velikanov vs Nietman, Round 5 (The secret must be to drink lots of water!)

Event History (players/winner(s))
2008 59 (13+46) , ALEXANDER VELIKANOV
2007 56 (21+35) , ALEX BETANELI, JEREMY KANE
2006 47 (20+27) , DANE M MATTSON
2005 48 (20+28) , STANISLAU SMIATANKIN

Critical position from my last loss

I am Black, I have about 5 min. White has 1 min.(with 5 sec. delay). I spent too much evaluating the position after 1...Qh1+ 2. Ke2 Qxc1 3.Bxe6+ Kxe6 4. Qxg6+

Considering the time factor, I should have played ...Qg2+, now that my rook is protected I can move my king to e7.

During the game I didn't even look at ...Qg2+

In the actual game I ended up being up a Bishop, but lost too many pawns, and lost in a wild time scramble.

Check out this site

http://web.jrn.columbia.edu/newmedia/2008/masters/chess/