Where Organized Chess in America Began
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Where Organized Chess in America Began EMPIRE CHESS Fall 2012 Volume XXXV, No. 3 $5.00 Ready, Set…. 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 Salisbury Mills, NY 12577 NYSCA: The Value Membership [email protected] Vice President Polly Wright 57 Joyce Road In an effort to make NYSCA membership more attractive and to Eastchester, NY 10709 [email protected] obtain more members that actually purchase memberships Treasurer regularly, the organization is switching from a membership- Karl Heck required model to one where discounts are offered at a variety of 5426 Wright Street, CR 67 East Durham, NY 12423 tournaments, including the New York State Championships but [email protected] also including the Continental Chess Association and Chess Center Membership Secretary of New York tournaments. Phyllis Benjamin P.O. Box 340511 Brooklyn, NY 11234-0511 Therefore, in the future, it will be possible to save several times the [email protected] value of a NYSCA membership through tournament entry fees. Board of Directors Upstate Downstate NYSCA will actively promote tournaments that offer the discount Phil Ferguson Phyllis Benjamin in Empire Chess, as well as using the www.nysca.net web site Bill Goichberg Dr. Frank Brady and twitter feed to reach potential tournament customers. CCA and Vacant Mark Kurtzman Karl Heck Lenny Chipkin NYSCA are both exploring shopping cart options to make sure Ron Lohrman Ed Frumkin st William Townsend Carrie Goldstein easier to purchase memberships on the Internet- the 21 century Steve Immitt model of commerce. Gata Kamsky Sophia Rohde Harold Stenzel Since 2000, NYSCA has remained a vital organization for the New Carol Jarecki York chess player, but has changed its methods of business to adapt Polly Wright to rapidly-changing times in several ways. The State Scholastic, NYSCA’s largest tournament and revenue source, was anchored Tournament Clearinghouses due to lack of suitable sites around the state. The State Zip Codes under 12000 (downstate) Championship has been similarly anchored in Albany, partly due to Bill Goichberg [email protected] lack of bidders. The State Open has been revived as a spring event in Lake George, and the Marshall Chess Club has been the NYS Zip Codes over 11999 (upstate) gracious host of the State Senior an Women’s Championships. Karl Heck [email protected] On the web, the membership options have changed, and all issues Deadlines of Empire Chess now appear on our updated web site. December 15 for the Winter Issue March 15 for the Spring Issue June 15 for the Summer Issue However, the more everything changes, the one thing that stays the September 15 for the Fall Issue same is the need for a state chess association. NYSCA is Advertising Manager America’s oldest chess organization. It’s time to make it one of the Contact the Editor. strongest as well. 2 EMPIRE CHESS “The magazine of America’s oldest chess organization” Volume XXXV, Number 3 – Fall 2012 Cover: Players listen to the tournament director give direction before the third round of the New York State Championship, held in Albany over Labor Day weekend. From the Editor......................................................................................................................................................... 2 Table of Contents …...................................................................................................................................................3 New York State Championship Article by Bill Townsend………………...........................................................4 NYSCA's Discount Program ....................................................................................................................….......11 Endgames: Good Knight vs. Bad Bishop: The Scholastic Column by Zachary Calderon….......12 Buffalo/Rochester News from staff reports………………………………................................................................14 Twenty-Five Years of Four Rated Games Tonight by Karl Heck..............................................................16 Central New York Chess News by Frank Romano.........................................................................................19 A Legend Leaves Us: Norma Shelly Passes at 77 by Bill Townsend…..............................................20 News from the Marshall by Frank Romano.................................................................................................... 20 Capital Region News by Bill Townsend…...........................................................................................................21 2012 NYSCA Annual Meeting Minutes........................................................................................................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, 2012. 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]. 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 340511, 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, 2012, although earlier submissions are appreciated, and will more easily guarantee a space in the next magazine. Check out the new www.nysca.net, and we are now on Twitter! #nystatechess. GM Alexander Stripunsky triumphs at 134th New York State Championship in Albany Raven Sturt new State Champion by Bill Townsend The 134th New York State Championship was held 11th with 3-3 were: FM Igor Nikolayev, IM Danny from August 31 to September 3 at the Albany Kopec, Evan Rabin, Stanislav Busygin, Nafis Marriott on Wolf Road in Colonie. Overall 171 Talipov, Patrick Chi, Steven Taylor, Dore Sheppard, players competed in the five sections, down slightly David Bennett and Yuanchen Zhang. from last year’s total of 178. This is especially disappointing considering that the 2011 turnout was Going into the final round Stripunsky was leading hampered by Hurricane Irene hitting the Catskills and with 4½ out of 5, with GM Kudrin and Raven Sturt Capital Region the week before the tournament. right behind him with 4-1. In the final round Sturt took a half point bye and Kudrin lost when he played The winner of the Open section was New Jersey GM an unsound attack against IM Bryan Smith. Alexander Stripunsky with 5½ points out of six. Interestingly enough, all the games on the top 10 Stripunsky's only blemish was a third-round draw boards had decisive results. against GM Kudrin. In second place were IM Bryan Smith from Pennsylvania and college student Raven All of which leaves the question: who is New York Sturt from New York City with 4 ½ points. Both State Champion? Believe it or not, this took a while players drew GM Alexander Ivanov. Smith lost to to answer. According to the rules, it’s the top scoring Stripunsky in the fourth round, while Sturt drew New Yorker in the open section. GM Stripunsky, who Capital Region junior NM Patrick Chi in round two was previously champion in 2002, was listed as a and took a half-point bye in the last round. New Jersey resident, but there was some thinking that he’d recently moved back to New York. Tied for fourth with 4-2 were GMs Alexander Ivanov Unfortunately Stripunsky left right after his game of Massachusetts and Sergey Kudrin of Connecticut, finished, and nobody had a chance to ask him. While along with New York WGM Firuza Velikhanli and the USCF listed his state as New Jersey, a look at the Effim Tregar. WGM Velikhanli, originally from U.S. Championship website had them listing Azerbaijan, is the highest scoring woman in the Open Stripunsky as a New York player. Finally a day or so section that I can remember. later tournament director Steve Immitt contacted Stripunsky by email and the grandmaster confirmed Top boards get ready to play in the Championship, as that he still lived in New Jersey. This meant that shown below: Raven Sturt was the new state champion. Sturt had a great tournament, scoring an undefeated 4½-1½, drawing