Where Organized Chess in America Began EMPIRE CHESS Spring 2014 Volume XXXVII, No. 1 $5.00 States Alive! 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 We're simply the best! [email protected] Vice President Thank you for the almost 800 players and caravan of parents and coaches Polly Wright that made the 2014 State Scholastics in Saratoga Springs the best-attended 57 Joyce Road Upstate scholastic ever. We congratulate our champion, IM Alexsandr Eastchester, NY 10709 Ostrovsiky, who will be representing the Empire State in the Denker [email protected] Tournament of High School Champions in Orlando, Florida this summer. Treasurer Karl Heck Our other representatives will be Daniel Brodsky in the Barber K-8 5426 Wright Street, CR 67 East Durham, NY 12423 Champion Tournament and Lilla Poteat in the National Girl's Invitational [email protected] Championship. This will be the third year that Ms. Poteat will be representing New York at an invitational national. We wish them all the Membership Secretary best in Orlando. Phyllis Benjamin P.O. Box 340511 Brooklyn, NY 11234-0511 Along with our scholastic being the best, New York also has the richest [email protected] chess history of any state in the Union. Practically every great chess player in the country's history, from Marshall to Kamsky, has spent at least some Board of Directors of their career in New York State. Upstate Downstate William Townsend Phyllis Benjamin Bill Goichberg Dr. Frank Brady The Annual Meeting of NYSCA last fall approved using 2014 as a year to Shelby Lohrman Mark Kurtzman Karl Heck Lenny Chipkin find a way to honor some of our historical figures through our Hall of Ron Lohrman Ed Frumkin Fame. Sorting through Fischer, Reshevsky, Marshall and so many others Carrie Goldstein will be a multi-year process, and I am requesting the assistance of Steve Immitt Gata Kamsky membership in making some selections and developing a process to go Sophia Rohde through our rich historical record. Harold Stenzel Carol Jarecki Polly Wright The general theme from the meeting was to honor one or maybe two historical persons each year, along with potentially a current nominee. When the New York State Chess Hall of Fame was started in the 1990's, Tournament Clearinghouses Zip Codes under 12000 (downstate) current players and organizers were inducted. Now is the time to look at Bill Goichberg the historical figures. [email protected] Please e-mail any suggestions you have to me at NYS Zip Codes over 11999 (upstate) Karl Heck [email protected], which is the new e-mail for Empire Chess. I [email protected] appreciate your assistance, and look forward to the next honoree at our Deadlines State Championship in Albany over Labor Day weekend. December 15 for the Winter Issue 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 1 – Spring 2014 Cover: Part of the Upstate-record crowd plays at the 2014 New York State Scholastic Chess Championship in Saratoga Springs. Courtesy Karen Merker. From the Editor................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Table of Contents ….........................................................................................................................................................3 Ostrovisky wins NYS Scholastic by Bill Townsend......………..............………............................................................4 NYSCA's Discount Program ....................................................................................................................…..............11 Harmony in Chess – The Scholastic Column by Zachary Calderon…...........................................................12 Central New York News by Don Klug and Karl Heck...............................................................................................13 Mid-Hudson Chess League by Larry King................................................................................................................15 The Case for Random Pairings by Neil Bellon............................................................................................,,,,.......17 GM Kamsky and Dean-Kawamura win Marchand Open by Josh Rafrano…...........................................19 Fried Liver Indigestion by Richard Moody, Jr............................................................................................................24 Notes from the Marshall by Frank Romano............................................................................................................25 Greater New York Scholastic Sets Record by Steve Immitt………………………………......................................26 New York Tournaments………………………………...................................................................................,,,,,....29 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 Summer issue is June 15, 2014, 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 and Facebook. #nystatechess. 3 47th NY State Scholastics in Saratoga 3 Smashes Attendance Record Again IM Alexander Ostovskiy wins High School; Daniel Kostovetsky wins Junior High by Bill Townsend The 47th Annual New York State Scholastic Championships took place March 1 and 2 in Saratoga By virtue of her high finish here Lilia Poteat will be the Springs. The total of about 775 players in the nine New York representative to the National Girls K-12 sections easily beat last year’s record total of 686. Championships, held in April in Illinois. While some downstate scholastics have had four-figure turnouts, this total is probably the biggest chess Top High School team was Brooklyn’s Edward R. tournament ever held in Upstate New York, never mind Murrow with 20 points. They so dominated the the Capital District. It was clear from the start that the competition that they won first place with a round to turnout would be huge, and the tournament organizers spare – three of the top four players were from were ready for it: the High School and Junior High Murrow. In second place with 14 points was sections were not held at the Saratoga Hilton as in Rochester’s Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School previous years, but at the much larger convention Commencement Academy. Brighton High School, also center next door. from Rochester, was third with 13. Last year IM Alexandr Ostrovskiy finished second in In the Junior High championship section there were the High School Section, but this year he dominated, two players who finished with 5½-½. Daniel being the sole player to finish with 5½-½. This result Kostovetsky took the first place trophy on tiebreaks. was sort of to be expected since Ostrovskiy was the David Brodsky was second, and he will be the New only player rated over 2500 and outrated the rest of the York representative to the Barber tournament of State field by over 200 rating points. However, this was not K-8 champions. Kostovetsky, a ninth grader, was not readily apparent until the very end: Ostovskiy drew eligible. Like the High School Section there was also a with Canadian player Olivier Chiku-ratte in round five player that outrated the rest of the field by over 200 and then managed to beat Joshua Rubin in the last rating points, and that was Nicolas Checa. However he round while Chiku-Ratte lost to Joshua Colas. wound up losing to Brodsky in round five and so finished third with 5-1. Fourth and fifth,