Wisconsin State Quick Chess Championship

Saturday Dec. 13

Erik Santarius Wins his 3rd WI title of the year!





He is now:
WI State Champion
WI State Blitz Champion
WI State Quick Champion

75! (51 in the scholastic) players showed up for the last tournament at Union South. The building will be demolished to make way for a new student union.

This and that..

It looks like I will be able to play in the North American Open, after an 11 year break. In 1997 I scored 2.5/5.0 in the U1800 section.

I started coaching my son's scholastic chess team on a volunteer basis. I am enjoying the experience especially since I have a very enthusiastic group.(7 new USCF members)

We play in our 3rd tournament tomorrow. We placed 3rd in our very first, and tied for 4th the second time around.

Click here for the coaching blog.

Dissapointed

*Updated 11/18 - Pictures can be clicked to enlarge.

King's Island Open

Click here for CCA results, Click here for USCF reults

I went 3-2=0 in the U1900 section. The losses were hard to take as they were both in great positions, complicated by time trouble. I have to work on better time management!

It's ironic but my best games were my losses. Here is a position from my 3rd round loss to Daniel, who tied for first.

I am White here and if I played Nc6 Black can resign.

Click here to replay game

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This is the a position from the last round, where a win would have won $267

I played f4, which is still winning, but Nf5 is much stronger

Click here to replay game

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Four of us made the trip. Derek Paitrick had a great event in the U2100 section winning $320 and becoming Wisconsin's newest expert. Paul Fricano had a sub par effort in the Open Section with 1-4=0, but had winning positions in his first two losses, including one against GM Anatoly Lein. Ryan Jayne went 3-1=1, and won $18 in the U1700 section.
Derek Paitrick during his last round draw. (He has a notebook with pencil)We went to eat around 1am on Friday and ran in to the top two seeds GM Darmen Sadvakasov 2638 (and girlfriend) and GM Alexander Shabalov 2632

Last round action.
Front: IM Bryan G Smith(Right) upset GM Darmen Sadvakasov
Back: GM Alexander Shabalov(Right) beat IM Kirill Kuderinov.

Kings Island Open 2008

Click here for Tournament Information

Click here for pre-Entries (221)

Four of us will be travelling together (The only WI participants that have pre-registered)

Open Section - 2011 Paul Fricano 1-4=0
Under 2100 - 1940 Derek Paitrick 3-0=2
Under 1900 - 1883 Ivan Wijetunge 3-2=0
Under 1700 - 1692 Ryan Jayne 3-1=1

I played in the Under 2000 section in 2006 and scored 2.5/5.0

Elusive 1900

I was hoping to use last week's tournament as training before the Kings Island Open. I was in a confident mood, since I had a good chance of reaching 1900, but a first round draw put a dent in my confidence, and I could not recover ending with a dismal 1-1=3. If nothing else I got a good lesson in humility. The above position is from my loss. I am Black with the move.

Some observations:

My Bishop is better, therefore I should try to exchange off other pieces, I can challenge the e-pawn with either c5 or e5. If I had taken my time I would have seen that White's main idea is to put a Knight on e5, and as long as I have a Knight on d7, I can chop it off. In the game I instinctively played 15...Nf6 ?!

1. Nc3 c6 2. d4 d5 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 Bf5 5. Nf3 h6 6. Nd2 e6 7. O-O Bd6 8.e4 dxe4 9. Ncxe4 O-O 10. Re1 Be7 11. c3 Nbd7 12. Qe2 Re8 13. Nc4 Nxe4 14.Bxe4 Bxe4 15. Qxe4 Nf6 16. Qc2 Rc8 17. Bf4 c5 18. dxc5 Bxc5 19. Rad1 Qe7?? 20. Bd6 +-

17...Nd5 was better
19...Nd5 =

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My best performance in a chess tournament came a week after a dismal one, so I am hoping that history will repeat itself!

As training for the Kings Island Open I plan to:

1. do 45 min./day of aerobic training
2. get at least 7 hrs of sleep/day
3. play a G/90 game against Master William Williams
4. do 250 problems/day on the Chess Tactics Server

WCC Double Round Quads - G/90

Waukesha Chess Club

There are 6 quads and a 5 person section for a total of 31

Click here for results (Quads 1 & 2)

Click here for my uninspiring draw against Raymond Hayes. (I was behind on time and didn't really like my position so I took the draw that was offered)

I am White. We analyzed the game using Coon's quad-core 64bit machine running Rybka 3, and these are improvements she found:

9. d x e5
11. a3
12. B x f4
13. B x f4
15. Q d2 (e5 probably the worst move I made)
19. R e5

Wisconsin Junior Open / Veteran's Tournament

In the Junior Open HONGKAI PAN went 5-0. He will be Wisconsin's Denker representative at the US Open in 2009.

Round 5:
DEREK D SACHS(1767) vs HONGKAI PAN(1895) 0-1 and
JAMES FAN WU (2040) vs JOSHUA D MILLER (1610) 0-1 (closest to camera)

Click here for USCF results

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In the Veteran's event TIMOTHY P VOIGT & CHRISTOPHER BAUMGARTNER tied for first with 4.5/5.0

Although I was the 3rd seed I played poorly to end with 1-1=3! I don't have an explanation for this poor showing. I think I let the first round draw get to me, although I tried not to let it. My record in this event now is 12-3=8

Click here for USCF results

History - Number of players and the winner(s)
2008 34 TIMOTHY P VOIGT, CHRISTOPHER BAUMGARTNER
2007 45 ALEX BETANELI, TATIANA VAYSERBERG
2006 42 DANIEL L LINDQUIST
2005 29 GUY G HOFFMAN
2004 34 WILLIAM ELGER , WILLIAM R OLK, IVAN WIJETUNGE

Coach

I decided to volunteer as chess coach at my son's school. We've had only 2 lessons, and today the kids played in their first tournament as a team. (It was the first tournament experience for 3 out of the 4 team members)

We won third place!

Click here for the the team blog

Wisconsin State Blitz Championship

Open Champion - Erik Santarius
Scholastic Champion - Jordan Smith

Click here for complete results

Midwest Class Championships

Click here for Prize winners

Click here for USCF results

Click here for some pictures

Conrad Holt

I got a chance to ask Conrad a few questions, at the Midwest Class Championships but before we get to that a few facts:

Age : 15
Rating : 2262
Home town : Wichita, Kansas
Number of tournaments to get from 1600-2000 : six in 10 months
Number of tournaments to get from 2000-2200 : nine in 8 months

Click here for Conrad's USCF history

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You seem to have made the difficult transition from expert to master fairly easily, what helped you most to achieve this?

Conrad: Playing on ICC (mostly 3, 5 and 15 min. games) & studying opening books.

Do you have a coach?

Conrad: No

What's your record against GMs?

Conrad: I played GM for the fist time in round 1 and drew him. (Dmitry Gurevich)
(Conrad finished with 2.5/5.0 with losses to Yury Shulman & Benjamin Finegold)

Click here to see Fingold's analysis of his win over Holt

When do you think you will become a GM?

Conrad: In 2 years.

When is your next tournament?

Conrad: Not sure, but I will participate in the next US Chess School

Southwest Chess Club 4 round Swiss [G/100]

Click here for latest results

Car pooling : Mason Ohio Nov 14 (from Milwaukee)

Nov 14-16 or 15-16, 2008: Kings Island Open, Mason OH
3-day Schedule

Spots available : 3

HCC VIII

I finished with 2-1=1 and lost 3 rating points. The loss was to co-champion Allen Becker. I misplayed the middle game, but reached the following equal position as Black. But in mutual time trouble played Qxc4??, which loses a piece to Bxe4.

Hales Corners Challenge VIII

Emory Tate, Angelo Young, Steven Tennant & Allen Becker tie for first with 3.5/4.0

USCF Results

Nolan Hendrickson vs Angelo Young & Emory Tate vs David Sagunsky round 1

History: number of players (open+reserve) and the winner(s):
HCC VIII.10/2008 (33+32=65) TATE, YOUNG, TENNANT, BECKERHCC VII..04/2008 (22+30=52) BURGESS, TENNANT, PARKER
HCC VI...10/2007 (30+32=62) TENNANT, BREIDER, SANTARIUS
HCC V....04/2007 (40+22=62) TATE, STAMNOV
HCC IV...11/2006 (23+26=49) STAMNOV
HCC III..04/2006 (28+17=45) TENNANT
HCC II...10/2005 (20+18=38) BURGESS, BECKER
HCC I....04/2005 (34+36=70) BETANELI
Most wins:
4 TENNANT 2 TATE, BURGESS, STAMNOV, BECKER

LEPers II Coronation

Click here

1900?

There have been several times in the past when I was close enough to 1900 where a decent performance would have put me over. But each time I underperformed to fall further behind(Madison, Neenah, Rockford, Kansas City, Grand Rapids).

I am at that point again(1883). Since I plan to play in the u1900 section at the Kings Island Open, Nov. 14-16, I decided to wait till the cut-off for the November supplement(Oct 3), before I play again. (Just in case I cross over!)

I know, I know....ratings don't mean much, what really matters is playing good moves.

I have been re-reading Jeramy Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess . I am getting much more out of it this time around.

I have also been working on tactics(Understanding Chess Tactics, CTS) and openings.

My next week-end tournament will be the Hales Corners Challenge VIII . (Oct. 4)

And then the WI Veteran's Tournament (Nov. 8, 9)

I also plan to play in a couple of one game a week events at the SWCC & WCC
4 Round Swiss G/100 (Sep. 25, Oct. 2, 9, 16)
Double RR Quads G/90 (Nov. 5, 12, 19, 26 Dec. 3, 10)

Upcoming Wisconsin Events

Sep 27th, 28th 2008 Greg Knutson Memorial
Oct 4th Hales Corners Challenge VIII
Oct 18th Wisconsin State Blitz Championship
Nov 8th, 9th WI Junior Open/Veteran's Tournament

LEPers II Champion

I am proud to announce that I am the LEPers II Champion. I am eagerly awaiting invitations to prestigious chess events as a result of this :)

The LEPers II tournament was an online (FICS) tournament for Bloggers conducted by Donnie (Liquid Egg Product). That's where the name LEPers came from. The time control was 15 min. with a 30 sec. increment.

Click here for more information on who took part.

Click here for the final game against Polly(Castling Queenside).

Thanks Donnie for running the event. I can't wait for LEPers III.

Polly's account of the final is here.

39th Annual Badger Open

Paul Fricano wins clear first.

Click here for USCF results.