Bulletin #411
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BCCF E-MAIL BULLETIN #411 Your editor welcomes any and all submissions – news of upcoming events, tournament reports, and anything else that might be of interest to BC players. Thanks to all who contributed to this issue. To subscribe, send me an e-mail ([email protected]); if you no longer wish to receive this Bulletin, just let me know. Stephen Wright HERE AND THERE BCCF Annual General Meeting Normally the BCCF AGM is held between the Sunday rounds of the Paul Keres Memorial tournament on the Victoria Day weekend, but last year the Keres was cancelled and the AGM postponed. It has now been decided to hold an Annual (OK, not quite annual) General Meeting online on Sunday July 11 between 3 and 5pm; further details will appear in the next Bulletin. Online adventures The May edition of the San Francisco Mechanics' Institute Tuesday Night Marathon (May 11-25) saw Azerbaijani GM Gadir Guseinov take first place with 5.5/6 – indeed, Guseinov has at least tied for first in every single TNM since last November. FM Max Gedajlovic and Ivan Zong continued their participation in these events, scoring 3.0 and 4.0 points in their respective sections (Max did not play the last Tuesday, see below). A total of sixty players were involved. This TNM will be the last online version, for the June edition the Mechanics' Institute will be returning to in-person chess, but a Thursday Night Marathon will remain online – details. This year's Washington Open (May 29-31), held in its usual slot on the American Memorial Day long weekend, attracted seventy-one players to the main event (there were also chess960, G/10, and blitz events over the weekend). The overall winners were GM Aleksandr Lenderman (New York), IM Mitrabha Guha (India), and FM Rohan Talukdar (Windsor, Ontario) who tied for first with 5.0/6. From this province Richard Ingram and Don Hack scored 2.0 and 3.0 points respectively. The time control was G/100 with a 30 second increment. Photos 2021 FIDE World Cup Scheduled for Sochi, Russia starting on July 10, the FIDE World Cup is a knockout event which determines several of the participants in the next Candidates Tournament. Some players are seeded into the World Cup, others qualify by rating, but the majority earn entry via zonal or continental tournaments. Due to the continuing pandemic FIDE has for the first time in its history allowed these latter events to be conducted online or using a hybrid format. Americas Continental Knockout (May 22-29) Normally the continental qualifiers are run as Swisses; perhaps in order to reduce the number of games and attendant fair play concerns this year's Americas Continental was organized as eight separate knockouts, each group consisting of fourteen or fifteen players. (Sixteen would be standard, but the highest rated player(s) in each group were seeded directly into the quarterfinal stage.) Each match began with two regular games at a time control of 120 + 30; if the score was level two playoff games followed at 10 + 3, then if needed a final Armageddon game at 5/4 + 2 seconds after move 60. The tournament was conducted using the hybrid format, that is games were played online but player(s) were monitored by an arbiter at their physical location. Joe Roback writes: Several Canadians competed in the qualification stage of the World Cup including GM Bator Sambuev (2514 FIDE), IM Mark Plotkin (2430 FIDE), and local Vancouver entry FM Max Gedajlovic (2270 FIDE). The tournament featured players from North and South America and comprised a knockout format to determine eight qualifying players. The local Vancouver contingent was hosted at an office space at Vancouver’s World Trade Centre beside Canada Place in downtown Vancouver. This was a FIDE event and included very strict security and monitoring such as a metal detector, constant in-person surveillance and escorting to bathrooms, no pens or electronics, two cameras with consistent Zoom video and audio feed. Arbiters included Joe Roback - LCA (Local Chief Arbiter) and Mavaddat Javid - LTA (Local Technical Assistant). Special thanks to Eric Gedajlovic for all your time and hard work organizing this event. Duarte, Leonardo – Gedajlovic, Max [D02] American World Cup qual KO (hybrid) tornelo (1.2), 22.05.2021 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 e6 3.Nd2 d5 4.e3 c5 5.c3 Nc6 6.Ngf3 cxd4 7.exd4 Nh5 8.Bg3 Nxg3 9.hxg3 g6 10.Bd3 Bg7 11.0–0 0–0 12.Re1 Qd6 13.Qe2 f6 14.b4 Bd7 15.b5 Ne7 16.c4 Rae8 17.Nb3 dxc4 18.Bxc4 Nd5 19.Nc5 Bc8 20.Qb2 b6 21.Ne4 Qe7 22.a4 Rd8 23.Qb3 Rfe8 24.a5 g5 25.axb6 axb6 26.Ra8 Bb7 27.Ra7 Qc7 28.Nc3 Nxc3 29.Qxc3 Kh8 30.Qb3 Qb8 31.Qa2 Bc8 32.Rf7 Qd6 33.g4 Here Black was able to take advantage of Black’s last move. IM Duarte was likely trying to create a battery on the seventh rank but Max was able to trap Black’s rook, win the exchange, and eventually, the game which advanced him to round 2. 33...Bd7 34.Rxd7 [Actually the rook is perfectly safe, the only piece that can attack it is the king but Kg8 invites tactics on e6, e.g., 34.Qb3 Kg8 35.Rxd7 Rxd7 36.Rxe6 – ed.] 34...Qxd7 35.Bxe6 Qxb5 36.d5 Qa5 37.Qb3 Qc5 38.Rb1 Rd6 39.Nd2 Rexe6 40.dxe6 Rxd2 41.Qxb6 Qxb6 42.Rxb6 Rd8 43.e7 Re8 44.Rd6 Kg8 0–1 [Editor: playing in Group 4, Max beat the Argentinian IM Leonardo Duarte 2.0-0.0 in the first round but lost to the group's highest-ranked player in the quarter-finals, 2600-rated GM Cristobal Henriquez Villagra of Chile, by the score of 0.5-1.5 – Henriquez Villagra went on to win the group. Most of the other Canadians were eliminated at the quarter-final stage with the exception of GM Bator Sambuev in Group 7. Bator had a semi-final match with Cuban GM Yusnel Bacallao Alonso which went down to the wire: Bator won the first regular game but lost the second, then did the same in the blitz playoff. Which left a final Armageddon game; Bator achieved a completely winning position with white but heartbreakingly lost on time on move 56, just four moves before a 2-second increment would have kicked in. The hosting platform was Tornelo, through which all the games are available.] Online Canadian Qualifier (May 31 – June 4) Hard on the heels of the Americas Continental came a second opportunity for Canadians to qualify for the World Cup, the Online Canadian Qualifier (Zonal). Organized on short notice by Aris Marghetis, the qualifier was held in two sections, a twelve-player open (eligibility determined by FIDE rating) and eight-player womens' (average of CFC and FIDE ratings), although in the end there were only five entries for the latter. Both sections were held on the Internet Chess Club platform with a time control of 25 + 10; two of the participants were playing from BC, FM Max Gedajlovic and WIM Bich (Penny) Ngoc Pham. 31 May - 4 June 2021 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 1 Preotu, Razvan 2487 * 1 ½ 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 8.5 2 Bareev, Evgeny 2638 0 * 0 1 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 7.5 3 Thavandiran, Shiyam 2420 ½ 1 * 0 1 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 6.5 4 Panjwani, Raja 2448 0 0 1 * 1 1 1 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 6.5 5 Gedajlovic, Max 2270 1 0 0 0 * ½ 0 1 1 1 1 1 6.5 6 Talukdar, Rohan 2341 0 ½ 0 0 ½ * 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 6.5 7 Kleinman, Michael 2387 1 0 ½ 0 1 0 * ½ ½ 1 1 0 5.5 8 Bellissimo, Joseph F. 2203 0 0 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ * 0 ½ 1 1 5.0 9 Plotkin, Mark 2430 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 1 * 0 1 1 5.0 10 Chen, Max 1997 0 0 ½ 1 0 0 0 ½ 1 * 1 1 5.0 11 Rusonik, Max 2047 0 ½ ½ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 * 1 2.0 12 Plotkin, Victor 2367 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 * 1.5 The open section featured two grandmasters, Razvan Preotu and Evgeny Bareev, who unsurprisingly finished at the top of the crosstable with 8.5 and 7.5 points respectively. Max (our Max, there were two others playing) was ranked ninth but a strong finish resulted in a tie for third place with Shiyam Thavandiran, Raja Panjwani and Rohan Talukdar, placing fifth on tiebreak. This unfortunately left him out of the top four who played off for the World Cup qualifying spots, won by Preotu and Bareev. Plotkin, Mark – Gedajlovic, Max (2270) [E16] Online Canadian Qualifier icc (10.5), 03.06.2021 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 e6 3.c4 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 g6 6.0–0 Bg7 7.Nc3 Ne4 8.Qd3 Nxc3 9.bxc3 0–0 10.e4 d6 11.Bg5 Qe8 12.h4 e5 13.Rae1 Nc6 14.h5 Ba6 15.hxg6 hxg6 16.d5 Na5 17.Nd2 Qa4 18.f4 exf4 19.Rxf4 Nxc4 20.Bf1 Nxd2 21.Qxd2 Bxf1 22.Rexf1 Qc4 23.Bf6 Bxf6 24.Rxf6 Rae8 25.Qg5 Qxe4 26.R1f4 Re5 27.Qh6 Qe3+ 28.Kg2 Qd2+ 29.Kh3 Rh5+ 30.Qxh5 gxh5 31.c4 Kg7 32.Kh4 Qh2+ 0–1 Gedajlovic, Max – Preotu, Razvan [D85] Online Canadian Qualifier icc (11.2), 03.06.2021 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.h3 0–0 9.Be3 Qa5 10.Bd2 cxd4 11.cxd4 Qa3 12.Be2 Nc6 13.d5 Ne5 14.0–0 Bd7 15.Rb1 Qxa2 16.Bg5 Ba4 17.Qe1 Bc2 18.Rxb7 Bxe4 19.Nxe5 Bxe5 20.Rxe7 Qxd5 21.Bf3 f5 22.Bxe4 fxe4 23.Qb4 a5 24.Qa4 Bd6 25.Qd7 Rfd8 26.Rg7+ Kf8 27.Bxd8 Rxd8 28.Rf7+ Kg8 29.Qxd8+ Kxf7 30.Qh8 h5 31.Rb1 Bb4 32.Rc1 Bc5 33.Qh7+ Kf6 34.Qc7 Bd6 35.Qd8+ Kf5 36.g4+ hxg4 37.Qd7+ Kf6 38.Qxg4 a4 39.Rd1 Qe5 40.f4 Qc5+ 41.Kh1 e3 42.Qh4+ Kg7 43.Qg4 Kf6 44.f5 Qc6+ 45.Kg1 gxf5 46.Qd4+ Ke6 47.Qxe3+ Qe4 48.Qh6+ Kf7 49.Rxd6 Qe1+ 50.Kg2 Qe2+ 51.Kg3 Qe1+ 52.Kf3 Qf1+ 53.Ke3 Qe1+ 54.Kd3 Qb1+ 55.Ke2 Qe4+ 56.Kf2 Qc2+ 57.Rd2 Qc5+ 58.Qe3 1–0 2-4 June 2021 1 2 3 4 5 1 Zhou, Qiyu 2229 * * 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 7.5 2 Demchenko, Svitlana 2071 0 ½ * * 1 0 1 1 1 1 5.5 3 Tsukerman, Julia 1523 0 0 0 1 * * 1 ½ ½ ½ 3.5 4 Pham, Bich Ngoc 2235 0 0 0 0 0 ½ * * 1 1 2.5 5 D'souza, Carina 1302 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 * * 1.0 The double round robin womens' section was dominated by WGM Qiyu Zhou who gave up but a single draw in taking first; WIM Svitlana Demchenko kept pace for a while but eventually finished in second place, 2.0 points behind.