EMPIRE CHESS Summer 2014 Volume XXXVII, No
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Where Organized Chess in America Began EMPIRE CHESS Summer 2014 Volume XXXVII, No. 2 $5.00 US Champion…New York Champion. Empire Chess P.O. Box 340969 Brooklyn, NY 11234 1 NEW YORK STATE CHESS ASSOCIATION, INC. www.nysca.net The New York State Chess Association, Inc., America‘s oldest chess organization, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting chess in New York State at all levels. As the State Affiliate of the United States Chess Federation, its Directors also serve as USCF Voting Members and Delegates. President Bill Goichberg PO Box 249 Salisbury Mills, NY 12577 Fab-ulous! [email protected] Vice President Polly Wright The incredible performance of Fabiano Caruana in the Sinquefield Cup in 57 Joyce Road Eastchester, NY 10709 St. Louis this summer electricified the chess world. Caruana won the first [email protected] seven games of the world’s first Category 23 tournament, and ended the event with an undefeated score of 8 ½-1 ½. Mr. Caruana’s performance Treasurer Karl Heck rating was about 3100, a record for any chess tournament. World 5426 Wright Street, CR 67 Champion Magnus Carlsen was second, three full points behind. East Durham, NY 12423 [email protected] The two Sinquefield Cups have brought world-class chess to the United Membership Secretary States in a big way. Both Cups held to date have been the strongest chess Phyllis Benjamin tournament of the year in the world. Live attendance and Internet viewing P.O. Box 340511 of the Sinquefield tournaments has been quite strong, and the events Brooklyn, NY 11234-0511 [email protected] provide a key media entry-point for world-class chess in the United States and throughout the world. Board of Directors Upstate Downstate William Townsend Phyllis Benjamin To date, seven Grandmasters have participated in the Sinquefield Cups. Bill Goichberg Dr. Frank Brady Three of them have strong New York roots: Fabiano Caruana, Gata Kamsky Shelby Lohrman Mark Kurtzman and Hikura Nakamura. No other country, much less state, has had more Karl Heck Lenny Chipkin Ron Lohrman Ed Frumkin than one player participate in this ultimate super-GM competition. Polly Wright Steve Immitt Meanwhile, while US Champion Gata Kamsky did not get to play in this Gata Kamsky Sophia Rohde year’s Sinquefield Cup, he did join the field at the New York State Chess Harold Stenzel Championship in Albany. The presence of the current US Champion in Carol Jarecki Albany definitely helped the atmosphere surrounding our more prestigious event, which offers a title that goes back to the 1870’s. GM Kamsky is on the front cover of this issue of Empire Chess, and we greatly appreciate his Tournament Clearinghouses Zip Codes under 12000 (downstate) participation in the tournament. Bill Goichberg [email protected] As the scholastic chess season begins again across the Empire State, just think that it is likely that somewhere within our borders, the next Nakamura NYS Zip Codes over 11999 (upstate) Karl Heck or Caruana will be walking in and setting up the board. While we enjoy the [email protected] current moment of having a strong heritage of New York Grandmasters and world-class players, we look forward to creating the next group of Deadlines December 15 for the Winter Issue champions as well. March 15 for the Spring Issue June 15 for the Summer Issue September 15 for the Fall Issue Advertising Manager Contact the Editor. 2 EMPIRE CHESS “The magazine of America’s oldest chess organization” Volume XXXVII, Number 3 – Fall 2014 Cover: GM Gata Kamsky (right) plays to win against IM Timothy Taylor at the annual New York State Chess Championship in Albany. Photo courtesy of Karl Heck. From the Editor................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Table of Contents ….........................................................................................................................................................3 Kamsky Wins Again at New York State Championship by Bill Townsend......………....................................4 NYSCA's Discount Program ....................................................................................................................…..............12 North Country Chess News by Don Klug……............................................................................................................13 A Complete Game by Richard Moody………………………………………………………..........................................................16 Don’t Believe Your Opponent by Neil Bellon…….....................................................................................................17 Harmony in Chess – The Scholastic Column by Zachary Calderon…............................................................19 Stripunsky Takes Manhattan by Karl Heck……………………………………………………...............................................20 Capital Region News from staff reports………………………..………………………………................................................21 Notes from the Marshall by Frank Romano.............................................................................................................21 Annual NYSCA Budget and Meeting Minutes….............................................................................................25 New York State Chess Club Directory………………………………….…..........................................................28 New York Tournaments………………………………...................................................................................,,,,,……...30 Editor: Karl Heck, [email protected]. Webmaster: Daniel Heck, www.nysca.net. Empire Chess, the official publication of the New York State Chess Association, Inc., is published quarterly. No liability is assumed with respect to the use of any information contained herein, or for any advertised products. Opinions expressed are solely those of the contributors, and not necessarily those of NYSCA. Empire Chess is COPYRIGHTED, 2014. Empire Chess accepts articles, games, tournament reports, art work and photos. No responsibility is assumed for unsolicited material. All material submitted for publication becomes the property of Empire Chess, and will not be returned unless accompanied by a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. Letters received by Empire Chess are accepted & subject to editing. Please send to: Karl Heck, [email protected] (note new e-mail address). Membership in the NYSCA: $20/year with four printed Empire Chess; $12/year with online Empire Chess (two printed). To join, write to: Phyllis Benjamin, P.O. Box 340969, Brooklyn, NY 11234. NYSCA membership now gets you discounts at Continental Chess Association events in New York State and all New York State Championship tournaments. Please send articles and advertisements in camera-ready format for publication. (TIF file, Adobe Photoshop, 100 lines per inch). Chess games should be in ChessBase, with boards and positions in final form. Articles should be sent via e-mail, in Microsoft Word, Times New Roman font, size 11. Deadline for the Winter issue is December 15, 2014, although earlier submissions are appreciated, and will more easily guarantee a space in the next magazine. 3 The winner, and still champion… US Champion Gata Kamsky wins 136th New York State Championship by Bill Townsend top. Andrew Ardito won his first five games and The 136th New York State Championship was held then took a half-point bye to finish with 5½. Second from August 29 to September 1 at the Albany Marriott on Wolf Road in the Albany suburb of through fourth with 4½ were Marijan Procyk, Brett Colonie. Of course the big news was the fact that Kildahl and Daniel Johnston. Tied for fifth through U.S. Champion GM Gata Kamsky came to play and twelfth with 4-2 were: former NYSCA president to the surprise of almost nobody, clearly won the Leonard Chipkin, Zachary Martin, Jeremy Berman, event by a full point. His score, 5½-½, was exactly Hall of Famer Joseph Felber, Louis Petithory, Daniel the same as the last time he won the State Pomerantz, David Kolb and Joseph Jones. Mr. Jones Championship, back in 2005. was top player under 1900. With my annoying obsession with history and Tied for thirteenth through twenty-fourth with 3½ statistics, the question that immediately occurred to were: Jacob Chen, David Phelps, Jason Li, Daniel me was: is this the first time that a sitting U.S. Minkin, Richard Knox, Benjamin Medina, William Champion has been New York State Champion? The Hu, Ron Lohrman, Alan LeCours, Jeffrey Shi and answer is no – it has happened at least twice before. Scott Boyce. GM Joel Benjamin was U.S. Co-Champion when he won the New York State championships of 1987 and Some of the action below: 2000. Albert Hodges was U.S. Champion in 1894, when he also won the New York State Championship, but he apparently retired immediately after winning the match with Jackson Showalter, so even though he is on the list of U.S. Champions, he had no reign. Anyway, two other former New York State Champions took second and third with 4½-1½: 1984 champion GM Maxim Dlugy and Hall of Famer IM Jay Bonin, the champion in 1982, 1997 and 1999. GM Dlugy was the only player that Kamsky granted a draw to. Their round four game, which I don’t have a copy of, was reportedly a very short draw. Tied for fourth through ninth with 4-2 were: Igor Once again 5½ took the top prize in the Under 1800 Sorkin, IM Timothy Taylor, Matan Prilleltensky, section as Alan Geiger won his first five games then Patrick Chi, Mahiro Abe and Joshua Rubin. The