Bourne Again

Diving suit from The Bourne Identity (London Film Museum)

In this year's Paramount tournament, I was surprised to find myself as the bottom player in my 6-person section, the top section of 3.  Carey Theil is top dog at 2194, and I am 1804 -- rather more of a spread than I am used to, for this tournament.  The distribution of player ratings has typically landed me in the second section, where the range of players' ratings tended to be less pronounced. 

I lost my first two games, then had very much the downside of my adjourned third game.  That was perhaps not an unexpected surprise statistically given my bottom ranking in the section, but I found little comfort in that.  As a bit of relief, I watched a great action movie, The Bourne Identity, again.  I was surprised to notice that the main character, Jason Bourne, while ranting in frustration about his loss of memory, utters:

"I can set up a chessboard."

as he describes other things he can still do.  There is indeed a chessboard set up in the background (Set up correctly?  Hard to say.)

In my case, the script would be more like:

"I can set up a chessboard, but I can't remember to stop trapping my rook where it cannot escape attack by a bishop!"

Here's how I did it in game 3 against Ed Astrachan:

White to move

18 e3?? Ba6

And then again in game 4 against Larry Eldridge (Apparently I have a very low MTBF, Mean Time Between Failures, or perhaps that should be MMBB, Mean Moves Between Blunders):

Black to move

 10...Qe8?? 11 Bxc6! Bxc6 12 dxe5 dxe5 13 Bc5

In game 4, however, as a testament to the adage that "He who blunders last, blunders best.", Larry subsequently overlooked something distinctly more consequential, and I eventually had this winning position:

Black to move

At Dana Blogs Chess, I had recently read the Human reasoning versus computer reasoning post, discussing resultant piece activity associated with two different capture options.  That was still prominently in my mind, and it did not take me too long to decide on 26...fxe4 over 26...Bxe4, feeling that:

• My dark-squared bishop would come to c5 and apply pressure down the diagonal to f2/g1
• My light-squared bishop remaining on c6 would prevent entry of a rook on d7
• My "straight pieces" along the f-file would add to the pressure on f2
• ...e4-e3 would eventually unleash my light-squared bishop's pressure down to g2/h1

26...Bxe4, while still winning, would leave the f-file closed, and reduce my immediate attacking potential.  After various additional moves, we arrived at this position:

White to move

After 43 Qb1 my forward e-pawn did indeed get moving with 43...e3 ("I have foreseen it."  -Darth Sidious), and although pinning someone's queen to their king with your rook is always tempting, 44 Rf1 was soundly answered with 44...Bxg2+ 0-1.


Once I was past the Bourne Again stage, I lost the next two games, then drew the next two against the highest-rated folks.  I believe I'm now due for two wins.  What do you say, Larry?  Greg?
:-)

Grand Prix Standings Update

ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT until the second half of this exciting Grand Prix cycle begins. With that in mind, let's take a look at the leader board:

MASTERS:
Chris Williams                 7.5
Eric Godin                       7

U2200:
Emmanuel Mevs              8
Jesse Nicholas                 5.5

U2000:
Natasha Christiansen       3.5
Greg Bodwin                   3
Howard Goldowsky        3
Harold Dondis                 3

U1800:
Arthur Tang                     6
Mike Griffin                     6
Bowen Wang                   5.5
Nithin Kavi                      5.5
Jerry Williams                  5.5

U1600:
Steven Stepak                 11
David Martin                   8

U1400:
Alyssa Stachowkski         3
Matthew Ding                  2

U1200:
Eddie Wei                       5
Akash Subedi                 3

Chess Duels and Character Sets

As some folks (or at least Howard G., according to my recollection) mentioned here previously, Yasser Seirawan's Chess Duels is quite a fun read. I eventually bought the Kindle app e-book version, and particularly enjoyed the Fischer-Byrne-table-patzer and the Fischer-Quinteros-Rubinetti-lunch anecdotes. I seem to remember Howard mentioned one anecdote he found particularly entertaining, although it may not have been one of those (buy and read the book!).

Anyway, as I was reading I was surprised to see a location spelled differently from what I'd always seen it listed as:

I'm curious about the print version, if any blog readers have access to it. Is the missing ć printed (the location name should be Nikšić)? Or does the print version also have cut-off proper nouns, including our old friends Gligori and Ljubojevi?


For those interested in the underlying technicalities, I suspect the book was originally produced using the Microsoft Windows 1252 ("MSWIN1252") character set, which lacks the ć character, but does have the š character (Nikši). However, knowing that at least one other print book (the wonderful historical fantasy Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell) underwent mild changes on its way to being a Kindle e-book, I suppose there is a small chance that the original text of Chess Duels was somehow shoehorned into MSWIN1252 for the Kindle version.

WereRihels of London! Ahooo!

Dear Boylston Chess Club,

After months of globe trotting, lab building, and flat finding, I was finally able to play my first European chess tournament.

To start off 'easy', I decided to play a one day quick chess event, 6 rounds of Game 30. Because of my US based rating, I was put into the Open section, with the 2nd section being roughly U2000. Why an estimate? It turns out the English use a very funny rating system, on a scale of roughly 1 to 300. To calculate from the FIDE rating, it is approxomately FIDE rating - 600 points, then divided by 8. That put me at 174, just over the 170 cutoff.

So, let's get right to the differences. First, these Game 30s don't count towards your regular rating here at all, which is a good thing, beause of difference #2-- for this event, I was the only player (about of about 75 people) with a digital clock. That means there is no increment and no delay. Have a great position but only 2 seconds left? Too bad.

Not for the faint (time trouble) hearted.

The second big difference is the number of rounds. We played 6(!) games today, with very little break in between. They had a modest sandwich/hot dog consession in the tournament site, but I was still going hungry most of the day.

The third big difference is that we didn't have to keep score, not even a little bit. US players of course are used to keeping score, even in the G30 matches.

The fourth difference was that they are still using pairing cards and doing all the pairings by hand! They were quick and on-time, however, and I didn't see any of that endless griping about the way the round should be paired, so typical in the US. Related to the lack of computers, they only update the English ratings twice a year, since they don't have the nice national rating computations like in the States.

OK-- on to my games!

In the first 3 rounds, I lost, mostly due to time pressure. In at least two of those games, I got so far behind on the clock that I had to go crazy, as without time delay, it was either mate or flag. In at least one of these games, having delay would have allowed me to save at least a draw, by trading down into an even ending.

Another more subtle difference-- the no writing moves down affected the cadence of the game for me. Normally, there is that little pause when either you or your opponent writes down their moves. Also, it lends an air of casualness, almost like playing blitz in Harvard Square. Crazy combination that will be great if it works? Why not, it is street chess! Except it isn't street chess.

After this return to chess debacle (against strong players in the Open section, true), I told myself I needed to get this time business under control. Playing much more rapidly, I got this promising position. White to play and win (ignore that arrow).





White wins with 1. Nxc7 Qxc7 2. d6 Qd8 3. dxe7+ Rxe7 4. Bc5 (a nice intermezzo) Re8 5. Bxb6 Qxb6 6. Qxd7 and White is up a piece.

After finding that combo, I felt I was on my way to improving my tournament, and I finished the last 3 games with 2.5 out of 3. Not too bad after a chess deep freeze.

Hope all is well in Boston!

Jason

April 10th Christiansen Simul Recap

And so, another simul was held at South Station, and once again, it was quite the scene. We at the Boylston love introducing new people to the world of tournament chess, and there's nothing like the rush hour crowds at South Station watching a three-time US champion play over two dozen people at once.
Once again, over 25 games were played, with new challengers coming in as games ended. GM Christiansen endured one loss and one draw, winning the rest of his games. The loss was to Nathan Smolensky, a very strange fellow who likes to refer to himself in the third person while writing blog posts. The draw?

Welcome back, Harold!

South Station Simul with Larry C - April 10

Larry can play with two dolphins at the same time,
but can he play with 25 fish simultaneously?

GM Larry Christiansen

will take on 25 players simultaneously
at South Station on April 10, 5-7 PM.

There is no fee. A prize of free entry to a BCC tournament goes to anyone who beats Larry.

.

Nathan Smolensky posted a poem about the March simul earlier in the BCF blog indicating that the only winner was Jesse Nicholas. Jesse won a free entry to a BCC tournament. There were no draws. We did not keep track of the number of games, but many more than 25 were played - not all 25 boards were filled at one time, but new players replaced players who had finished their games. Also, some players played multiple games successively - one person played 5 games or so.

Come to South Station and try your luck. It's a great opportunity to face a three-times US Champion and face the attacking Larry C you have read in his terrific books and watched on ICC.

Larry is America's most prominent attacking player, and that's no bull.

Thursday Night Swiss Clarification

Just a quick note on the April Thursday Night Swiss - there was an error in the calendar saying that the first round of this month's tournament would be played on March 29th. The correct date for the first round is April 5th (all other rounds' dates are correct).
IF YOU PLAYED ON THE 29TH, THEN YOU HAVE ALREADY PLAYED YOUR FIRST ROUND GAME, AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE TOURNAMENT ON THE 5TH. These first rounds will be merged, and the tournament will resume as normal on the 12th.
Sorry for the confusion.

Harold Dondis injured

Chris Chase:

While leaving his firm's building a week from this past Tuesday, Harold was knocked to the floor by someone in a hurry. The building actually has the accident filmed by their security cameras. A building security guard came and got me from the car and I found Harold sitting in a chair in much pain and badly shaken. I drove him to Mt. Auburn Hospital's ER and found out that he had broken a bone in his right shoulder (I don't remember which one.) He was lucky in the sense as he didn't hit his head nor break his hip and the fracture is clean and will not require surgery but Harold, in his rather gloomy Maine - born approach, does not agree with me on this.

.
Anyway, he was at Mt. Auburn Hospital for three nights. His right arm is in a sling and will be for a while. Last Friday he was transferred to the Belmont Manor Nursing Home for rehab and 7/24 care. He is doing much better now. His spirit is much better and he is in much less pain. He should be leaving Belmont Manor this coming Friday. Further rehab will take place at home and it should take about 4 to 6 weeks before he can go back to work. It will probably be a little less time before he can return to playing chess.



.
Get-well cards can be sent to his home address: 583 Belmont Street, Belmont, MA 02478

Grand Prix Standings Update

With the third round of the first 2012 Grand Prix only two days away, it's time to look upon the standings and gander who leads thus far in our great journey:

MASTERS
Chris Williams          4
Eric Godin               3.5
Carey Theil              3.5

U2200
Jesse Nicholas            5.5
Emmanuel Mevs         5
Michelle Chen            3
Sebastian Gueler        3

U2000
Greg Bodwin             3
Harold Dondis           3
Daniel Schmidt          2.5
Natasha Christiansen 2

U1800
Mike Griffin               4
Arthur Tang               4
Robert Holmgren       4
Nithin Kavi                3.5
Thomas Laaman        3.5
Jerry Williams            3.5
Bowen Wang             3
Carissa Yip                3

U1600
Steven Stepak           7.5
David Martin             5.5
Brandon Wu              3

U1400
Alyssa Stachowski    3
Matthew Ding           2

U1200
Eddie Wei                 3
Lucy Cai                   2
Justin Wu                  1.5

Remember, the tournament continues this Saturday, March 24th, at 10 AM!

Design a Chess Set

B.J. Richards 9:43am Mar 20 Have a great design for a chess set? Win a 3D printer! Design a Chess Set – Win a MakerBot! « MakerBot Industries www.makerbot.com As our fellow citizens at Thingiverse have proven time and time and time and time again, printing yo... B.J. Richards Have a great design for a chess set? Win a 3D printer! Design a Chess Set – Win a MakerBot! « MakerBot Industries www.makerbot.com As our fellow citizens at Thingiverse have proven time and time and time and time again, printing your own custom chess set can be one of the greatest joys of owning a MakerBot. Have you got a brilliant design for a chess set that you want to share? Want a MakerBot Replicator? · · · Share · Yesterday at 9:43am

Outstanding $10 Open

Saturday's $10 Open was outstanding, even for the ever-popular BCF event.

52 players entered [ 21 in the Open and 31 in the U1800 ].

Life Master Eric Godin topped the Open section with 3.5.
In the U1800 group Alexander Roy led with 4.0.

You can view details below, get a better view by clicking on each image or visiting the USCF cross table site.

Thanks to TD Bernardo Iglesias who handled the entire event over at a least a 12 hour day.

'Twas the Simul Last Week

As South Station clamored with rush hour thunder, 
At its center the crowds saw an int'resting wonder.
A great figure present, unbeknownst t' some of them, 
'Twas Larry. M. Christiansen, the famous GM. 

He played at a time up to two dozen and one, 
And as the games finished, more still would come. 
He had but one loss, and one loss alone
To the expert J. Nicholas, the Boylston club's own. 

Please know this event of its kind not the last, 
And far from the first, for now four we've amassed. 
And to those who more South Station Simuls should crave, 
The next's April 10th, so that date should be saved.  

REMINDER: Larry Christiansen Simul This Thursday!

Just a reminder to everyone, GM Larry Christiansen will be holding a 25-board simultaneous exhibition THIS THURSDAY, March 8th, at 5:00 P.M.
As the T.D. for this month's Thursday Night Swiss, I'd also like to remind people that that event will be held as usual, and the second round of the March tournament will begin at 7:00 P.M that same night. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THESE WONDERFUL EVENTS. If you aim to start your simul game closer to 5:00, you can still make the start of TNS. If you do choose to go this route, though, feel free to tell GM Christiansen of your intent, so he can show as little mercy as possible and help you get to the Boylston on time.
Good luck!

13th annual Paramount

For some people spring is signaled by the start of Red Sox reporting to spring training, by groundhog day, by the returning swallows to Capistrano...

But for many of us it is the Paramount.

This will be the 13th annual edition of the popular tournament, a ten-round, double round-robin. Initiated by Bryan Clark, this format [generous time control with two try's against known opponents bunched in competitive groups] remains popular. And it is one of the few tournaments left that incorporate adjournments.

Monday, March 5 – May 7: 13th Annual Paramount

10 Rounds, 2RR, Players divided into six player sections by rating; 40/120d5, G/50d5 Adjournments are allowed after 4 hours of play; Entry fee: $25, $20 to BCF members; Prizes: 50% EF Registration: 6:00 to 6:45 PM Round at 7PM.

TD Robert Oresick
assistant TD Bernardo Iglesias

Questions

• What happens if I have to miss a round? May I reschedule with my opponent? (Will we know the pairings ahead of time to allow that?)

Bernardo uses SwissSys to make pairings for the entire tournament on the first evening. So, you know your opponent and can prepare for him or her, except, of course, in that first round. If you need to reschedule a round, you just notify the TD and work it out with your opponent. All rounds should be completed by the end date of the tournament.

• I see that there are ten rounds and six players in each section (unless I'm misreading). How will the players be divided into sections? How are pairings determined? As in a Swiss?

The top six rated players will be in group one. If there are another six, they will be in group two. If there are more, another group of six or four will be formed, to maintain the double round-robin format.

• What level of participation do you usually see? What level players, approximately, and how many? Do you expect anything to be different this year?

We don't know what to expect this year, but in the past two years, we had 2 or 3 groups.

In 2011 we had two groups:



In 2010, we had three groups:

GM Larry Christiansen Simul at South Station

GM Larry Christiansen

will give a
25-board simultaneous exhibition

at South Station

on Thursday, March 8
(International Women's Day)

5 - 7 PM.

There is no pre-registration and no fee; as long as there is an empty board, you may sit down at any time up to 6:30 PM and try your luck.

E-mail natashaus@alum.mit.edu with any questions.

Note: starting a game against Larry closer to 5 PM will help ensure enough time to make it to the TNS at the Boylston starting at 7:00.

If you putter, your game will sputter - IM Silman on Cross v Franke, a game from the Boylston's Thursday Night Swiss

Natasha C. brought this post to our attention. IM Silman discusses a Benoni played recently at a Boylston Thursday Night Swiss.

[btw, if you have checked it out lately, the venerable TNS in recent months has grown larger and stronger than it has been in years.]

__________

If you putter, your game will sputter.

« Articles home

Submitted by IM Silman on Tue, 02/28/2012 at 11:02pm.

Franke: “

This is a game I’m quite proud of, even though I came away from it with a half point fewer than I should have.

With a USCF rating of 1984 and a recent peak at 2037, Ted is the strongest opponent by far whom I’ve ever achieved a draw against, and outcome aside, this is simply one of my best-played games.



I’ve only recently returned to tournament chess after abandoning it while in elementary school, so I’m still working my way up from my old rating of 778.

Although I’m therefore much stronger than my published rating, I feel that I typically play at about a 1650 level, which is quite a long way from Expert and makes this game a remarkable result.



I do feel like I’ve improved enough recently that I’m starting to discover my style, which I’d characterize as ‘tactical but conservative.’

I can literally calculate all day (even at the longest time controls, the clock is my nemesis), but I’ll always chose a solid positional move over a possible brilliancy whose soundness I’m not confident in, and I avoid getting into positions that are out of my depth, no matter if they’re out of my opponent’s depth as well.

I think all of these observations show through in this game.”

Ted Cross (1984) – Daniel Franke (1110), Somerville 2012

Read the detailed analysis and discussion of this game at:

http://www.chess.com/article/view/if-you-putter-your-game-will-sputter

with comments like these:

It’s clear that Franke is tactically astute. If he can add a bit more positional energy to his ability to calculate, and if he beats back his fear of enemy threats, he might find himself on a regular diet of baked/fried/boiled Expert (or Expert tartar, for those that like their meat fresh).

...

Franke: “With white’s light-squared bishop gone, my ...f6 sin is forgiven.”

Hey guy! I haven’t forgiven it! But I don’t look at your …f6 as just a bad move. Rather, I look at it as a misunderstanding about how to play chess. Meekly defending against perceived threats will ensure you never become the player you want to be. Refusing to bow to your opponent’s wishes will (faster than you imagine) change the way you look at chess, and propel you far ahead of the masses.

...

White was clearly having an off day. Or, as is common for players of all levels, he just wasn’t in tune with the nuts and bolts of this type of position. White needs to generate some activity, he needs targets (and hitting d6 by itself isn’t going to get the job done), and he needs to get his Rooks into the action. Thus, 22.a3 bxa3 23.Rxa3 Nc7 24.f3 Qxb2 25.Rb3 Qe5 26.Rb7 Rec8 27.Bf2 (heading for g3) and at least we’re having a bit of fun! That’s what active piece are – movable bundles of quivering fun. (None of that was forced, of course, but it does give you an inkling of what I’m trying to achieve.)

...

At this point Black needs to take a long look at the position and try and find the simplest, safest, and most deadly way to end the game. No need to be creative – keep it simple while simultaneously leading White to the slaughterhouse:

...

Now that you allowed him to block the pawn with his King, you need to have a deep think and find a way to follow the old, “simplest, safest, and most deadly way to end the game” formula. The fact is that in endgames, just puttering about will often allow your opponent to creep back into the game. You really need to hunker down at this final stage and look for the most incisive way to take home the point.

37...Rcxc7??

Yes, this is indeed winning. But you get two question marks because taking on c7 is a lazy decision that also creates a very bad mindset: you thought the game would win itself after this trade.

...

Franke: “Right after my opponent accepted my draw offer, I said to him, ‘I am probably going to shoot myself. I am going to get home, open up Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual, take one look at it, and then I am going
 to shoot myself in the head.’ IM Marc Esserman overhead this and looked at the position. After a single glance he said, ‘This is won.’ Then he sat down for five minutes pondering how he was going to back up that assertion. This made me feel a lot better!” 1/2-1/2.

_________

London Calling

After years of playing 1 c4, I finally traveled to the birthplace of the English Opening.

In the Tower of London (where the Beefeater guide at one point joked that we'd be heading off in such-and-such a direction), I happened upon the following image on an interior wall:

The artist rendered the board properly, all the way down to White's horrendous position with a blockaded pawn on a6 and multiple Black forces descending upon his king on g1. Ah, if only the folks who installed the immovable stone chess tables and chairs in front of the Somerville Library's Highland Avenue location had had such an eye for detail, they wouldn't have put a dark square at h1.


I made it to the London Chess Centre's well-stocked physical store, where I picked up a few items:

Dave Vigorito's new book on the Sicilian Dragon was displayed prominently:

I also caught up with our club's former President and First Lady, shown here standing next to the Lewis Chessmen in the British Museum.

Again the board is set up correctly. Here, White is up a pawn (okay, okay, it's the only pawn on the board).

£ for £, a pleasant trip across the pawned!

Amateur Team East

I am pleased to report that the

BU Terriers

won the

"Top College"

prize at this year's amateur team east.

NM Andrew Wang
Steve Chen
Lino Fabiani
Ben Burkholder



As you know Andrew is a long-time member of the Boylston Chess Club.

The Boston University team won 4 of 6 points.

__________

Al Lawrence gives a good account of the tournament at

http://main.uschess.org/content/view/11625/141/


Here are some photos of the many Boston, Boylston, and BU players
in Parsipanny.

More below:
__________________________________________

https://picasaweb.google.com/111141559718823650525/AmateurTeamEast2012
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