Alberta Chess Report
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Alberta Chess Report Publication of the Alberta Chess Association September 2012 Eric Hansen becomes Alberta’s first Grandmaster Great summer for Alberta Masters as Richard Wang becomes an IM Organizer Micah Hughey with the while Rob Gardner and 7th Edmonton International winner- Vladimir Pechenkin earn GM Nigel Short their first IM norms Alberta Chess Report ● September 2012 2 ALBERTA CHESS INSIDE THIS ISSUE REPORT 7th Edmonton International The ACR is published 5 times each year. Pub- Calgary International Albertans lication months are January, April, July, Sep- “Imperfect information” tember and December. Contact the editor for 7th Edmonton International Qualifier submission deadlines and changes. We want Alberta Women’s Championship your submissions! We are always looking for Trumpeter Classic articles on chess as they relate to Alberta. Canadian Chess Challenge Alberta Chess Submissions are acceptable in any electronic Over/Under 1800 text form, while pictures can be submitted in Eric Hansen becomes Alberta’s first GM Association the following formats: tiff, jpeg, bmp, gif. CCC/ECC/Lethbridge/Ft. McMurray All articles are written by the editor unless club news President otherwise credited. 18th annual Medicine Hat Open Rick Pedersen Canadian Youth Championship Submit your request by email to: Canadian Closed/Zonal [email protected] Hansen wins Canadian Open Past President Or call 1.403.970.8032 Calgary Summer Open Ford Wong And more... Editor: Vlad Rekhson, #404-1913 11th Ave SW, Calgary, Alberta, T3C 0N9 TOURNAMENT ADS Vice-President Jim Daniluk 2012 Alberta Open The articles contained in this publication do 2012 Edmonton Fall Sectional not necessarily reflect the opinions of the 2012 Alberta Junior Secretary Alberta Chess Association. 2012 WBX Team Tournament Dale Haessel ACR Ad Rates CLUB ADS Treasurer Advertising in the ACR is an effective way to University of Calgary Chess Club Ali Razzaq promote your business, tournament, or sell University of Alberta Chess Club chess related articles. This is a great way for University of Lethbridge Chess Club chess teachers to get the word out. All ACA Directors sanctioned tournaments receive free ad space Calgary Chess Club Brad Willis while non sanctioned or out of province Grande Prairie Chess Club events are subject to ad rates. Edmonton Chess Club David Miller Lethbridge Chess Club 2 or more Roy Yearwood Size 1 issue Medicine Hat Chess Club issues Tim Pradzinski Fort McMurray Chess Club Leonard Steele Full page $100 $75 per issue Terry Seehagen Half Page $75 $50 per issue REGULAR LISTINGS Patrick Porter Quarter Page $50 $35 per issue Top CFC & FIDE Rating List Classified $20 $15 per issue The Alberta Chess Association in partner- Alberta Chess Clubs ship with the Alberta Sport, Recreation, Add $20 layout if you do not provide camera Road Warrior Update Parks and Wildlife Foundation, provides a ready material (does not apply to Classified more active lifestyle to Albertans by ads). Add $50 for colour (each issue). The providing programs to enhance living editor reserves the right to edit or refuse any through playing chess. The ACA greatly The ACR is online at acknowledges the support provided by ads submitted. www.albertachess.org ASRPWF Send your ads by email to [email protected] (requires Adobe Acrobat) or call 403.970.8032 Call the ACA by phone The Alberta Chess Association The ACR is printed by To find out more about chess in Alberta Scan Copy Print visit www.albertachess.org 5529 Gateway Boulevard. NW In Calgary call 403-970-8032 Edmonton AB T6H 2H3 Affiliated with the Phone: 1-888-732-2218 Chess Federation of Canada Fax: 780-436-3141 www.chess.ca 3 Alberta Chess Report ● September 2012 as he currently lives in Montreal. The third highest participant was GM Victor Mikhalevski (2519, Israel). This was Victor’s second appearance in the Edmonton International as he tied for first back in 2009. Instead of a hotel Victor together with IM Leon Piasetski stayed with me. It was quite a bit of fun to host the two of them as besides being great guests I was able to observe some high level preparation in person. Current US women’s champion, IM Irina Krush (2459) was ranked 4th . The first of the Alberta delegation, IM Edward Porper (2414) was ranked 5th. 6th through 8th were only separated by eight points. Edmonton champion, FM Vladimir Pechenkin (2312) just came off a great performance in the Calgary International where he earned his first IM norm. The Edmonton International hasn’t been traditionally a good event for Vlad as going into this GM Short emerges victorious at of all levels. event he only won one game in his 7th Edmonton International Even before the start it was evident that previous 28. 13 year old FM Richard By Vlad Rekhson Nigel’s participation would draw more Wang (2307), saw his rating rise quite people than usual to this tournament. The rapidly as of late, and an IM norm Suppose that our local tournament could night before the start Nigel conducted a appeared to be a real possibility for him. get an elite player who is a former world lecture at the Edmonton Chess Club. The 8th ranked IM Leon Piasetski (2304) championship finalist, and is also an There was barely any space left to sit in as was a good addition to the event as he interesting and a personable individual. over 40 club players of all levels came by brought a friendly demeanor and an Who would we rather have? Many would to see GM Short. This lead to an increased interesting approach to the game. NM answer this hypothetical question with: attendance for the IM Krush simul which Rob Gardner (2202) entered the event as GM Nigel Short! Lo and behold, this followed right after and was sold out at 20 the winner of a qualifier. Not too many year’s Edmonton International Chess participants. were giving him much of a chance in this Festival was honoured with the famous event beyond having some exciting games, Englishman’s presence. We found out which Rob is always good for. Boy were about Nigel’s arrival during the qualifier the naysayers surprised! Last but not least tournament. When the winner NM Rob was Calgarian FM Dale Haessel (2161). Gardner found out this piece of news he Dale has a reputation for being a streaky had to ask: Is this an April fool’s joke? player. He can have a tremendous result Well it wasn’t and Nigel in fact was like last year’s Calgary International coming to the city of champions as he followed by some really sub par accepted organizer Micah Hughey’s performances. invitation. Of course bringing a GM of The event itself saw an innovation in the this caliber isn’t cheap. While Nigel’s And now lets go on to the tournament. scoring system. In addition to the no draw appearance fee was not astronomic, it was First the competitors; GM Nigel Short before move 30 rule, the soccer scoring of course higher than that of a regular GM. needs no special introduction. His biggest system was now used. Winner gets 3 At this point, Micah went to work and did accomplishment was playing a world points, loser 0 and both players receive 1 a great job fundraising for this event. As a championship match against Garry point in case of a draw. It is difficult to result Nigel’s appearance was paid for Kasparov in 1993. Nigel qualified to this say whether this had much of an impact on through the chess community without even match after going through a very tough the games but the second place was in fact using public funds. At this point I would field which included Anatoly Karpov. At decided because of this system. like to thank all those that helped make it the age of 47 Nigel is the oldest of the The first round of the International happen. This event wouldn’t have been ‘2700 club’ as he entered the International provided quite an upset. GM Victor the same without the support of Dale with a rating of 2705! The second highest Mikhalevski took a poisoned pawn against Haessel’s company, Sardul Purewal, rated participant was GM Anton Kovalyov GM Short. With perfect play Nigel should Zhixiang Wang, Ali Razzaq, Rick (2619) who just shared first in the Calgary have punished the greed but he didn’t find Pedersen, Manuel Borja, Mike Sekuloff, International a month earlier. Anton is the right moves and Victor won in George Sponga, Joskin Cleto, Bradley J. still representing Argentina but he is in the complications. Surprisingly all other Willis and a number of other contributors process of switching federations to Canada games were drawn which resulted in GM Alberta Chess Report ● September 2012 4 Short being in last place all by himself. Pechenkin,V (2312) [A81] 13...Qg6 14.e3 7th Edmonton International Edmonton I have a lot of time, I want to prepare e4 as GM Mikhalevski,Victor (2519) - [GM Anton Kovalyov] well as possible. GM Short,Nigel (2705) [A26] 14...Bd7 7th Edmonton International (1) 1.Nf3 f5 2.b3!? [14...g4 15.Nf4 black prevents e4, but it I decided to not go into any theory, and just looks wrong for him.] just play a setup that I often play with 15.Qe2 Qh5 black against 1.f4. I thought if I play it temporarily preventing e4. with black and have good results why 16.Rae1 Rae8 17.h3?! not do it with white and an extra tempo.. [17.Qd2 preparing e4, this just looks close 2...d6 3.d4 g6 4.g3 Bg7 5.Bb2 Nf6 6.Bg2 to crushing.