Monday, October 03, 2011

Out of commission...until further notice

My performance or rather non-performance at the 2011 US Class has prompted me to take time off from chess.

After a 2nd place finish at the Southwest Open a few weeks ago I was hoping to build on my success,  But it was not to be.

Prior to this event it took 23 games for me to amass 3 losses, but I managed to lose 3 out of 6 and had only one win. to finish 1-3=2.  All three losses were to players rated well below me.

Well at least I will be eligible to play U1900.

I apparently even suck at sucking since I didn't even make it U1900 !!

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

2011 US Class Championship - Houston
Sep. 30 - Oct 3 or Oct. 2-3

243 Players  The  prize fund was increased by $1000 to $12,000

That breaks the 2010 record of 234.

TIMUR GAREYEV (7214)  & 
JULIO C SADORRA Tie for first in the Master section


YearCityMasterExpertClass AClass BClass CClass DClass ETotal
2011Houston, TX31294442352427243

Click here for pre-entries (scroll down)  and other info. 


Master Section
  1. GM AXEL BACHMANN 2614
  2. GM MAURICIO FLORES 2604 (Defending Champion)
  3. GM JULIO C SADORRA 2561
  4. IM SALVIJUS BERCYS 2573
  5. IM CONRAD HOLT 2536
  6. IM MILOS PAVLOVIC 2528
  7. IM PUCHEN WANG 2518
  8. IM MAX CORNEJO 2480
  9. IM ALFONSO A ALMEIDA 2442
  10. ALEXANDER CHUA 2332
  11. ARTUR K SAFIN 2320
  12. WGM KATERINA NEMCOVA 2295
  13. FM JEFFERY XIONG 2279
  14. WGM NADYA ORTIZ 2233
  15. JAROD PAMATMAT 2213
  16. KEVIN CAO 2211
  17. JOHN VEECH 2209
  18. WIM LUCIANA MORALES 2162
  19. ALEXANDER VELIKAVOV 2150
  20. SARAH CHIANG 2139
  21. JONATHAN CHIANG 2118
  22. NAVEEN BALAKRISHNAN 2048
  23. BOVEY LIU 2015
Click here for my 2010 report.

YearCityMasterExpertClass AClass BClass CClass DClass ETotal
2011Houston, TX












2010Houston, TX21203646443330234
2009Boca Raton, FL20173428221218151
2008Houston, TX1883637403031193
2007Houston, TX11173024352432173

Monday, August 08, 2011

77th Annual Southwest Open
September 2 or 3 - 5, Dallas

179 total players

Final standings here

USCF Results here

Open


GM Sadorra, Julio won clear first with 6.0/7.0

19 year old Polish WFM Labedz, Patrycja had an incredible result going 5-2, she beat 2 NMs and 2 GMs.  Her provisional USCF rating went from 2126 to 2387. She lost this 7th round game to the tournament winner GM Sadorra, Julio 

Patrycja has a  Wikipedia page (in Polish)

Click here for the game

There were 10 players(from 8 federations) rated over 2500!
  1. 2631 Yotov, Valentin (BUL) #7 in Bulgaria
  2. 2573 Bercys, Salvijus (USA) #64
  3. 2561 Sadorra, Julio C (PHI) #12 in Philippines
  4. 2554 Chirila, Ioan (ROU) #11 in Romania
  5. 2552 Boros, Denes (HUN) #30 in Hungary
  6. 2536 Holt, Conrad (USA) #70
  7. 2536 Pavlovic, Milos M (SRB) #15 in Serbia
  8. 2524 Diamant, Andre (BRA) #6 in Brazil
  9. 2518 Wang, Puchen (NZL) #2 in New Zealand
  10. 2504 Yang, Darwin (USA) #100

Reserve
Guerra, Anthony won clear first with 6.0/7.0 (He is playing black in the last round)

My results

I tied for 2nd with 2 others. My rating went from 1921 to 1942
  1. Win Metpally, Jason (1625)
  2. Draw Kotta, Venkat (1783)
  3. Win Kaliyur, Rohith (1712)
  4. Win Nguyen, Anthony (1883)
  5. Draw Su, Dion (2008)
  6. Draw Clark, Mike (1689)
  7. Win Prabhakaran, Karthik (1857) 
My record for the last 3 SWOs is  12-1=7



    Tuesday, July 26, 2011

    I would like another 15 minutes please!

    My 15 minutes of chess fame came when I tied for 3rd in the U1800 section  of the $500,000 HB Global chess tournament way back in 2005.  I played a great last round game where I tripled the major pieces on the 7th rank.

    My opponent even resorted to what could be termed "Gamesmanship" when he started staring at me and standing behind me (making his moves from there!) He gained 233 points in the event!

    The game is here

    Cross table here.

    Why am I bringing this up now?  That's the best way I can think of to get over the disappointment of losing my last round game at the NASNAJ Open in Houston last Sunday.

    A combination of good luck & good chess had me sitting pretty on 3.5/4.0 going into the last round half a point ahead.

    All I needed was a draw for a guaranteed share of 1st. A win would have given me $350, a nice plaque and a rating close to 1950.  I ended up with $50 and a rating of 1921 (Still an all time high) .
    The difference between winning and losing at the HB Global was $2500 vs $500

    After getting a huge positional edge, I didn't cash in on several tactical shots to bring home the point.

    I am Black here, with so many options including ...Nxe3, ...Bxf4, ...Bb4, I chose the weak ...Nxd2 and in a few moves White was able to get his pieces out. I had to sac the exchange to get counter play and even after that had a good position, but had eaten up too much time.

    The game is here.

    I think that I am playing at 2000 level positionaly but tactically I am probably playing at a 1800 level.

    Tuesday, June 28, 2011

    4th Summer Solstice Open
    July 8-10 or 9-10 Ft. Lauderdale FL

    129 Players
    JULIO J BECERRA & DANIEL FERNANDEZ tie for 1st-2nd in the Open Section with 4.5/5.0

    Complete results here
    GM Henley vs Daly (2-Day Rnd 1)
     
     Xanthos vs GM Bacera (2 Day Rnd. 1)
     CHRISTOPHER HEUNG vs IM Fernandez (Rnd. 4)




    I had a good result and finished with 3.5/5.0
    Tied for 3rd place U2100 and reached a all time high rating of 1918
    1. WIN DAVID A RAYMOND (1800)
    2. WIN ALDO F LOPEZ (2086)
    3. LOSS RACHEL GOLOGORSKY (1978) 13 year old who is ranked #10 in the US Girls U16
    4. DRAW ALBERT D HO (1847)
    5. WIN RAMOS YUNIER (1840)



    History (With open winners)
    2008  126 GM RENIER GONZALEZ, FM BRUCI LOPEZ, FM FABIO LA ROTA
    2003  130 FM BRUCI LOPEZ

    Thursday, June 23, 2011

    San Antonio City Championship
    June 25-26

    My 3rd round bye came back to bite me as I lost to an unrated player in round 2! So, instead of sitting pretty on 2.5/3.0, I ended up on 1.5/3.0

    This game was very instructive in terms both chess & chess psychology.

    I am playing Black and win a pawn early.  Instead of trying to find the best moves I decide to complicate matters since I figure the unrated will go down quickly.

    10...c x d5 and Black should eventually win, but I take with the Queen?!  After 11. Nf4, I should have retreated the Queen along the d-file, instead of getting her stuck on h7.  Although when Black castled q-side the queen on h7 didn't look too shabby.

    14...a5?? My sense of danger deserts me, completely missing 15. d5!

    The best reply to 15. d5! is 15...Bb4! and Black can hang on.







    SELBY K ANDERSON & MITCHELL VERGARA Tie for 1st-2nd with 4.5/5.0

    Complete USCF Results here

     Paul accepted Christian's draw offer in this position, but ....Re8 is winning.

    Round 1 action

    Corpus connections:
    1. 2010 Winner Paul Haney (2099) 3.5/5.0
    2. Ivan Wijetunge (1898) 2.0/3.0 (2 unplayed rounds)
    3. Christian Leos (1717) 3.5/5.0 3 way tie for 1st-2nd U1800 ($62.00)
    4. Ethan Rodriguez (1707) 3.0/5.0
    5. Henry Velasquez (1649) 2.5/5.0 (5th round bye)
    History
    2010 53 PAUL ANDREW HANEY
    2009 51 SELBY K ANDERSON, GREGG STANLEY
    2008 51 ERNESTO L MALAZARTE
    2007 54 DON C SUTHERLAND, GREGG STANLEY, ANDREW I SMITH



    Sunday, April 10, 2011

    Apr. 16-17 : Laredo Open

    $5600 Guaranteed


    73 Players 
     
    GM Axel Bachmann wins clear first ($1200)

    USCF Results here
    IM Del-Campo vs GM Axel Bachmann Rnd. 5 (The game was drawn)
     UTB vs UTB in round 4 Bd 1


     GM Axel Bachmann in Rnd. 1


     IM Roberto Del Campo just played ...Bg5 vs Joel Sauceda in Rnd 2.
    GM Axel Bachmann playing White in rnd. 2


    Rnd. 1: Lost to IM Roberto Del Campo (2415 FIDE) Mexico's #6 in Rnd. 1 


    Rnd. 2:  Beat an unrated in Rnd 2.


    Rnd. 3: Lost to Caissa Palang (1677) I don't feel so bad losing to the goddess of chess :)
    I played pretty well for most of the game, but lost my way in the end. 


    I should have never played 3 games in one day! 


    Rnd. 4: Won against a 1547


    Rnd. 5: Draw against a 1916

    Sunday, April 03, 2011

    Last Round Blues

    I had a pretty solid performance in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago.

    Round 1 White against NM JAMES V ROHRBAUGH (2200) Draw

    The last time I played James was way back in 1999 at the TEXAS ACTION CHAMPIONSHIP. Looks like I had a pretty solid performance there too. 
    We both felt that in this even position, playing for a win involved risk that we were not willing to accept. I offered the draw after my last move f4, and James accepted. I had ideas of a rook lift or g4 (after moving the King to the h-file of course)

    Round 2 Black against MITCHELL VERGARA (2117) Draw

    Mitch was playing 2 boards from me in round 1, and I noticed that he took 39 min. on one move.  I remember thinking to myself when I was paired against him that all I have to do is get him to do that a couple of times and I could easily win on time.

    Mitch dropped a pawn out of the opening and I had a dominating position, but I could not bring home the full point.
    After reaching time control (30 moves in 90 min then G/60) Mitch took more than 30 min. to play Nxe5. I took my time and am proud to have come up with the best move Qd6.  The other line is 31...Rxe5 32.Qxd3 cxd3 33.Rxc6 which looks good for Black, but Rybka likes Qd6 better.

    Round 3 White against GREGG STANLEY(2053) Draw 
     
    In this complex position Gregg offered a draw with about 90 sec. left on his clock to make 10 moves. I had about 15 min.
    The gambler in me wanted to play on, but I took too long to decide and in the end took the draw. 
    The move I was looking at was Qb6.

    Round 4 Black against MARTIN D GORDON (1965) Loss

    I felt invincible going into the last round. Although Martin is rated higher, he would be the lowest rated player I would face.  Confidence is great thing, but over confidence will usually get you in trouble.  I would normally never play a move like 5..h5

    Too much Rybka analysis is also to blame. Computers grab dangerous pawns and keep them.  It not that easy for us humans to do the same. The move that sent my position towards a loss was the pawn grab.  19...Bxa3. (18...Bxa3 is ok.)

    I was analyzing the game with the tournament winner ERNESTO L MALAZARTE (2177). He said he preffered my position before move 18. He scolded me for not getting my K-side pieces out before opening up the position.

     
    A last round win would have given me a 1947 rating. A draw 1927. Hey you know what they say, what ever won't kill you will make you stronger.


    Monday, March 21, 2011

    Spring Open
    March 26-27 San Antonio

    4-SS, 30/90, SD/60.

    Details here.

    Rnd 4

    Andrew Nat Lozano(2.5) vs Ernesto Malazarte(2.5) 0-1
    James V Rohrbaugh(2.0) vs Mitchell Vergara(2.0)
    Andrew Istafanous(1.5) vs Gregg Stanley(1.5) 0-1
    Martin D Gordon(1.5)  vs Ivan Wijetunge(1.5) 1-0
    Zhaosu Ye(1.5)  vs Anthony Guerra (1.0) 0-1
    Alfredo Garcia(0.5) vs Robert D Bradley(1.0)

    Rnd 3

    Ernesto Malazarte vs James V Rohrbaugh 1/2-1/2
    Andrew Nat Lozano vs Martin D Gordon 1-0
    Anthony Guerra vs Mitchell Vergara 0-1
    Ivan Wijetunge vs Gregg Stanley 1/2-1/2
    Robert D Bradley vs Andrew Istafanous 1/2-1/2

    1. #Name/Rtng/IDSt/TmRd 1Rd 2
      1Selby K AndersonTXW 7W 10

      2200 10380405
      0.00.5
      2James V RohrbaughTXB 8W 13

      2200 11047963
      0.51.5
      3Ernesto MalazarteTXW 9B 5

      2166 13517950
      1.02.0
      4Mitchell VergaraTXB 10W 8

      2083 12546673
      0.51.0
      5Gregg StanleyTXW 11W 3

      2057 10400481
      1.01.0
      6Andrew Nat LozanoTXB 12bye

      1998 13417670
      1.01.0
      7Martin D GordonTXB 1bye

      1943 12406332
      1.01.0
      8Ivan WijetungeTXW 2B 4

      1915 12511643
      0.51.0
      9Anthony GuerraTXB 3W 12

      1897 12722825
      0.01.0
      10Andrew IstafanousTXW 4B 1

      1882 13747667
      0.51.0
      11Robert D BradleyTXB 5bye

      1881 12522082
      0.00.0
      12Alfredo GarciaTXW 6B 9

      1806 12429518
      0.00.0
      13Zhaosu YeTXbye B 2

      1720 13181590
      1.01.0


       


      In the reserve

      Sadia beat Christian to tie for first with 3.5/4.0

      I predict that Christian will win the U1800 section. 


      Recent Open Events by the San Antonio Chess Club

      Tuesday, February 22, 2011

      2nd Jerry Hanken FIDE Winter Open


      I would like to thank the Berry twins for their hospitality and for running a great event. I had a great time and made many new friends.  I would also like to thank Prakash and his son Aadithya for tolerating me on the Dallas-Stillwater leg of the trip.

       Clear first with 6.0/7.0 was Serbian IM Goran Vojinovic 

      Complete results here

      Last round drama

      Jeffery Xiong was tied with the IM on 5.5/6.0
      Since they had already played, they were paired against two players on 4.5/6.0

      Goran Vojinovic vs William Orton(2200)
      Jeffery Xiong vs Sergey Galant(2142) 

      Most people predicted wins for the leaders.

      The IM drew relatively quickly leaving the door open for Jeffrey to get clear first with a win. But Sergey was having none of that and won in this very interesting Knight ending. Look at where the kings are!

       Ruifeng Li may have had the edge at one time in his game against the IM in Round 3
      Ruifeng Li vs Goran Vojinovic

      Sergey Galant had an interesting Knight ending against the IM in a losing effort in round 5. Perhaps what he learned in that game helped him to beat Jeffery Xiong in the last round.
       




      Queen-side? We don't need no stinking queen-side.


      My Third round opponent Jason Wawrzaszek contemplating the merits of the London System.

      Jeffery vs the IM from round 4




      Monday, February 21, 2011

      FIDE rating

      My first FIDE rating will be based on the following results. According to the FIDE rating calculator it will be: 1982
      1. Loss Feinstein, Michael 2261
      2. Win Pamatmat, Jordan James 1702
      3. Win Li, Zhichao 2176
      4. Loss Saheli, Nath 2123
      5. Win Fritze, Melvin P 1780
      6. Win Maldonado Jr, Ernest 1721
      7. Loss Wawrzaszek, Jason 2016
      8. Draw Markley, Jim 1952
      9. Loss Patton, Thomas A 2080
      10. Win Tuttle, Jeremy E  1882

      Thursday, February 17, 2011

      2nd Jerry Hanken FIDE Winter Open
      Feb 19-20-2 Stillwater,Oklahoma

      FIDE rated 7 Round Swiss G/90+30 sec

      Results here.

      Year Players Winner(s)



      Other recent events by this affiliate here.

      Tuesday, February 15, 2011

      Busy Chess w-end coming up. Feb 18-21

      The USAT events:

      East (Parsippany, NJ),
      West  (Southern California),
      North (Northbrook, Illinois), 
      South (Orlando, Florida)
       


      I will be getting my FIDE rating in Oklahoma at the 2nd Jerry Hanken FIDE Winter Open

      I need to play 5 FIDE players in the 7 round event.  Details of my first FIDE rating norm here.

      Thursday, January 27, 2011

      Team play, last round drama etc.

      There's nothing quite like playing in a team event.  

      I first played in a team event at the 2008 USAT- N : Click here

      We finished 3rd and won the U1900 Prize with the following team:
      1. 2000 WILLIAM M WENZ 1.5/4.0
      2. 1905 STANLEY T GARVIN 0.5/4.0
      3. 1851 IVAN WIJETUNG 3.5/4.0
      4. 1823 NEIL J GLEASON 2.0/3.0
      5. 1643 NOLAN R HENDRICKSON 3.5/5.0

      Yes, that's the same Nolan who played board 1 this time around. (3 years and 560 rating points later!)

      We also won the best team name prize with "Team Name Here". Mainly because it confused long time Wisconsin TD Guy Hoffman, who said somethig like "What's going on here, this team needs to tell me what their name is before I can do the pairings".

      That was such great experience that I have wanted to play in another team event ever since, but it took this long to actually do it! I talked to Ken last year about playing in the 2011 Texas Team event, so I just had to find two more members.  Once Donnie was in we just needed a board 1

      My goal was to win the U1900 prize, so board 1 had to be rated 2112 or less.  I didn't even consider Nolan at first since I knew his rating was around 2165, but when I looked at his Dec. rating it was 2110!  All I had to do to convince him to come down to Texas (from Milwaukee) was that the would get the opportunity play at least 3 masters and that the Texas Team was FIDE rated.

      The team was set! (Avg. rating 1899.5!)
      1. 2110 NOLAN R HENDRICKSON
      2. 1909 IVAN WIJETUNGE
      3. 1792 KENNETH CHARLES ARTZ
      4. 1787 DONALD BRIGGS JR
      All we needed was was to come up with a team name.  There was only one condition it had to be funny. I came up with "Ken and the Barbies".  

      Going into the last round this was the situation for U1900 honors:

      There were 2 other U1900 teams playing each other one on 1.0 point and the other on 2.0, if the 2.0 team won we would have to win our match against the higher rated UTD C team just to tie for first. Luckily for us the 1.0 team beat the 2.0 fairly quickly.

      All we needed was a draw!

      This was the match-up

      1    Nolan Hendrickson (2110) vs FM Tautvydas Vedrickas (2353
      2    WFM Saheli Nath (2133) vs Ivan Wijetunge (1909)   
      3    Kenneth Artz (1792) vs Gerald E Roberts (1891)   
      4    Rheanna English (1741) vs Donald Briggs (1787
       
      Nolan destroyed the FM fairly quickly!

      I was in trouble. 

      Ken was completely outplaying his higher rated opponent.

      Donnie was in trouble.

      But things were looking good for the team.

      Disaster strikes! Ken drops his Queen

      Looks like we are going down 3-1

      Donnie to the rescue!

      He comes back from a huge material deficit to win his game!

      We are now guaranteed 1st place 1900!
      Right about then my WFM opponent drops a rook! But I only have a few min. left and she has about an hour. Maybe I should have offered a draw, but hey I have a rook! It turns out that my advantage was worth less than 2 pawns, because she has several advanced pawns and aggressively placed King and Knight.
       In desperation I played ...f5+, and she replied e x f e.p. ??  we then get this position with White to play.

      Saheli Nath (2133)  - Ivan Wijetunge (1909) [A03]
      Texas Team Dallas (5), 23.01.2011


      1.b3 d5 2.Bb2 c5 3.e3 Nc6 4.f4 Nf6 [4...f6 5.Qh5+ g6 6.Qh4 Bf5] 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.Bb5 e6 7.0-0 Be7 8.h3 Bxf3 9.Qxf3 Qb6 10.Bxc6+ bxc6 11.d3 0-0 [11...c4 12.dxc4 dxc4] 12.Nd2 Nd7 [12...a5 13.a4 Qb4] 13.Kh1 Bf6 14.Bxf6 Nxf6 15.e4 Qb4 16.Qe2 g6 [16...Qc3 17.Rac1 a5] 17.c4 [17.f5 exf5 18.exf5 Rae8 19.Qf2 Nh5 20.g4] 17...Rad8 18.e5 Nh5 19.Kh2 Ng7 [19...Qc3 20.Rac1 (20.g4; 20.Rad1) 20...Qd4 21.g3 dxc4 22.Nxc4 Qxd3] 20.g4 Rd7 [20...f5 21.exf6 Rxf6 22.g5;
      20...dxc4 21.Nxc4] 21.Rac1 Qa5 22.Rc2 Rfd8 23.Rf3 Rb7 24.Qf2 Rc8 25.Qh4 Qc7 26.cxd5 cxd5 27.d4 c4 [27...Qb6;
      27...Qb6;
      27...Qa5 28.Rfc3 Rbc7 29.dxc5] 28.bxc4 dxc4 29.Rxc4 Qd8 30.Qxd8+ Rxd8 31.Rb3 Rbd7 32.Ne4 Ne8 33.Rbb4 Kg7 34.Nc5 Rd5 35.Rb7 Kf8 36.Nb3 Ra8 37.Ra4 a5 38.Kg3 Ng7 39.Kf3 h5 40.Ke3 hxg4 41.hxg4 Ne8 42.Nc5 Rdd8 43.Ke4 Rdc8 44.Rb5 f5+ 45.exf6 Nd6+ 46.Ke5 Nxb5 47.Nxe6+ Kf7 48.Ng5+ Kf8 49.d5 Re8+ 50.Ne6+ Kf7 51.f5 gxf5 52.gxf5 Rh8 [52...Rad8] 53.Rg4 Ra7 [53...Rag8 54.Rg7+ Rxg7 55.fxg7] 54.a4 1-0


      Frank Berry sent me this quote about team play:

      "When you play for a team you have the unanimous support of
      your teammates and the struggle is absolutely uncompromising!"  
      GM Eduard Gufeld  1936-2002

      The grand daddy of Team Events is the USAT East event that draws around 300 teams! Anatoly Karpov has played there.

      2010 WORLD AMATEUR TEAM 1139   
      2009 WORLD TEAM 2009 1203    
      2008 WORLD AMATEUR TEAM 1249

       #of players in bold.