The First and the Old Place of the Boylston Chess Club

July 17 -- it was a Friday and I had just been having an early dinner in the Chinatown area with family and friends visiting from Costa Rica. Walking at the intersection of Washington St. and Beach St. - where not long ago this section of Boston was known as the "Combat Zone." Just around the corner was 48 Boylston St. - YMCU - and “the headquarters of the Boylston Chess Club” from the 1870’s to 1989.

I saw from a close distance a clear landscape now, where in the past, about 30 years ago, I can recall there were a movie house and other weird stores around.

[Editor's note: I found a photo of how it looked in 1899. rjo]

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In from of me, I can distinguish the back of the old place where the BCC main playing room was - big, tall windows and the high lights decorating the big room, I can see it now as a flash from the past. That room never had AC and the heat in winter was very light.

There was always thunder coming down and shaking the ceiling from time to time from the third floor. [Editor's note: I have heard that the "thunder" was from wrestling lessons being given by "Killer Kowalski" from the old studio wrestling days. rjo]

The summers when the temperature reaches 75-80F, everyone used to sweat crazy and wear light clothes and in winter you needed to wear a jacket or sweater all the time when the temperature was getting 30-25F.

And now I believe there will be new buildings covering this zone and covering this present view,- I do not know if the small and closed alley will remain there too, to peek the wall.

I have a lot of memories from this old place that maybe in the future I can share with anyone who interested to know: little pieces of the past of the BCC.

Bernardo Iglesias

Chess and Vacations

Chess and Vacations

Greetings from Stinson Beach CA where my wife Pat and I are vacationing with our two boys.


For a dozen years (mid 80's thu the 90's) typically our vacations used to consist of loading up the pop-up trailer, strapping on the Old Town 17'4" canoe and trucking up to the northern part of Moosehead Lake ME. During those times I would choose a chess agenda and spend a couple of hours a day. Subject material could be end game improvement, a world championship match, or a famous tournament from the past. In the trailer I would pack my best set , board, along with several books.

My three kids are all good chess players and the solitude of the woods, having a limited choice of activities, guaranteed opportunities for chess games, as well as a myriad of card games. Some time in the mid eighties my daughter Melissa pulled of the upset of the last century by beating this old man. Victories by my kids were very rare. In fact my wife has said that I would pummel my grandmother into submission if I had the opportunity. I am simply passing on the philosophy my first coach great uncle Justin "Ducky" Power (a BCC member) had to be unmerciful at all times. BTW Melissa's real forte is in checkers.

As a college student in the early 70's in the summer, working at Fenway Park allowed me many Tuesdays to visit the old Boylston Chess Club and work with Harry Lyman to fine tune my game. Each fall I would return to Westfield State College and win board one on the chess team, only to lose it during the year to Dave 'Wiz" Copy. Then return again the next fall to reclaim it again.

As for this California trip we had to pack light and so the only chess book I brought was Lev Alburt's Chess Training Pocket Book: 300 Most Important Position & Ideas. The main plan being that I would borrow my wife's notebook to log into the ICC. But this is only a partially effective as we are roughing it in paradise and have such low bandwidth that high lag time precludes me from playing much. So you won't be seeing FENWAY1 on very often.

Nonetheless Stinson Beach, secluded on the west side of Mt Tamaplais, of which Muir Woods sits on the east side, consists of a series of coastal cottages where people have accounted for the relative coolness of the ocean breezes by using architecture and civil engineering to trap warmth in outside settings. So even with ambient temperatures in the high 50's low 60's you can sit in the sun in places that climb into the mid 80's if you want to. And the water temperatures are more like Nantasket Beach than Bar Harbor, so you can jump in without stopping your heart.

What are some of you summer chess rituals?
Please Comment.

Thank You.

Mike Griffin 07/29/2009

Reubens Landy round 3

Greg Kaden defeated Ben Goldberg in a tense game to move into sole possession of 1st place with 3.0.

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Simon Warfield and Farzad Abdi are close behind at 2.5. Next week Greg plays Simon.

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Farzad will play Zaroug Jaleel who has been improving very quickly in the last 6 months.

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For more details, check the current crosstable at http://www.boylstonchessclub.org/News.html

Reubens Landey round 2

Last evening we played round two of the Reubens Landey.

Ben Goldberg, Greg Kaden, and Daniel Leach emerged with 2 points each.

Farzad Abdi and Simon Warfield played to a draw by repetition of position, and so now have 1.5 each, as do Ken Newman and Philip "there's gotta be a planet somewhere out there" Nutzman.

Natasha Christiansen joined the group, but unfortunately both Ken Ho and Jason Rihel had to withdraw because of other commitments.

As usual, the current crosstable is posted at http://www.boylstonchessclub.org/News.html

My Great Pretentiousness (or, Damn the Pronoun Agreement, Full Speed Ahead!)

Thumbing through some of Kasparov's My Great Predecessors got me idly thinking about, even at my vastly inferior level of play, which of the World Champions I most resemble in terms of style. I'm sure they would all resemble such a remark.

Perhaps I should instead write about which of the World Champion's playing styles I most strongly identify with.

I can barely combine myself out of a wet paper bag, so out went Alekhine, Tal, Spassky, Fischer, Kasparov, and Anand. I have long greatly admired the endgame and other successes of Capablanca and Smyslov, but my style might be closest to Petrosian's (although after my savage attacking loss to him in the Reubens-Landey, I think I will never persuade Farzad Abdi of that).

Giving an opponent the torture treatment:

After the game, Dick grunted that it was just the kind of game he hates, where I dictated the pace and he was always defending. It's certainly pleasant to hear that your opponent felt they were under your thumb the whole game, but I was still miffed that I hadn't won, having labored under the mistaken impression that I'd had a meaningful edge for most of the game. One of Joe Shipman's (excellent) 1989 Chess Horizons opening analysis columns stated that 10...Bxe4 is equal, but I didn't know that at the time of the game. It would be great to have enough Petrosian-like python technique to be able to squeeze more points out of opponents (ah, Pars-s-seltongue).

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In the recently completed Weaver Adams tournament, I had what might have been my most smoothly flowing Petrosian style win ever (sorry, John, but anyway we both made it to the Reubens-Landey). I dictated play all over the board, and in this game I did squeeze the point out.

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If it is at all accurate that I align myself with Petrosian, Spassky being Mike Griffin's chess hero may partially explain why our chessboard battles to date have been full-blooded struggles, given the 2 slugfests those giants fought for the World Championship.

Does your play resemble that of any World Champion? Come join me in inciting World Champions, or their spirits, to resemble remarks about shared chess styles. Maybe we can get one of those who has passed on to rise up again -- Korchnoi may be looking for another spiritual opponent (although I doubt Petrosian would be his top choice!).

Andrew Tichenor hits 2200 and becomes a National Master

In the May rating supplement Andrew Tichenor, who often plays at the club, achieved the 2200 rating which makes him a National Master. Congratulations.

Early Bird Rapid Quads, July 15, 2009

NM Chris Williams won his quad with 2 points. He defeated NM Carey Theil and Joshua Lee, losing to NM Lawyer Times.

Max Lu and Seth Lieberman won the 6-player small Swiss with 2.5 points; Robert Oresick, Daniel Bromberg, Anthony DiNosse and Eden Hochbaum rounded out the field.

As usual on the second installment of the bimonthly Early Bird Rapid Quads, Chris Chase directed with his undivided attention.

Mass chess synergies in recording events and history

Mass chess synergies in recording events and history.

Recently in the Blog we copied the MACA release of the Somerville Open tournament. We got some comments implying that the BCF should not have ripped off MACA but written their own article. George Mirijanian gave us permission to copy the post and we felt that this was a well written article of the facts so why duplicate effort? Re-use what is good; it's the way of the green ethos, the lazy ethos as well.

Some suggest perhaps it would be nice if some BCF member hand crafted their own version of the Somerville Open but surprisingly most chess players like to spend their surplus time playing or studying chess?! And if such reporting was deemed a necessary requirement it would fall on the few BCF volunteers that already do so much. Regardless lately more BFC members have been writing for the blog and contributing quality/fun entries. I hope these guys continue to contribute.

I look at this "borrowing" from MACA as leveraging a good report of the facts of an event from George Mirijanian who was nice enough to write it. In fact perhaps there are other ways that BCF, MACA, and other organizations could work together sharing information and resources creating other synergies that enhance each other and therefore all of local chess. I think the MACA site has it’s audience and BCF has its audience, and while they may intersect they are also partially exclusive. So why not borrow from each other at times?

Hopefully soon Steve Dann, George Mirijanian, and myself are trying to start a Mass chess oral history archive. We missed Gus Gosselin but are hoping to catch the likes of Irving Yaffee before they pass. Also I'm thinking of trying to use our records and these guy's memories to create a Mass Chess history timeline.

The pool of chess volunteers is very limited, it would be nice if every chess player could find a way to contribute some time to chess and their beloved organizations. Even if it's 15 minutes a year to help move chairs and tables at the Herb Healy. Or even if it was 30 seconds to pick up after themselves. Take a look at the average chess day of Bernardo Iglesias: every tournament directed by him is an act of dedication to the game. And realize that every empty cup, piece of paper, un set chess set, has to be picked up and set up by someone and it's usually the director?! While it would take almost no time for an individual to pick up after themselves at the end of day there are many cumilative/multplactive tasks that add much time to the director before going home. Per Bob Oresick "Reduce Entropy."

Do you have any ideas about where these organizations could borrow, cooperate, and co contribute?

Please Comment

Thank You

Mike Griffin

07/15/2009

Reubens Landey off to a predictable start

The Reubens Landey has a field of 20 expert and A players. In the first round.

All the top ten ranked players defeated the ten bottom -- no draws; I found this rather remarkable given the rather restricted range of ratings.

You can view the crosstable at the BCF news page, posted by Alex, at http://www.boylstonchessclub.org/News.html

Reubens Landey 2009

As you can tell from the comments, this is a very special tournament - it is highly competitive for expert and A players under very good playing conditions - a slow time control, one game/ evening, and a five week event.

In reviewing our membership and playing list over the last year, I noticed that there are about 220 expert and A players who are eligible for this event. Please consider playing - starting tomorrow, Monday, July 13.

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If you are rated 1800+ but U2200, you are invited to play in a terrific five round Swiss - the Reubens Landey.
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It is a traditionally a very competitive yet friendly tournament. Only club members can enter, but if you aren't a member, this is the perfect excuse to join.
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The 2009 Reubens Landey begins Monday, July 13. It is the second component of the club championship cycle. The winner becomes the BCC U2200 champion and moves into the club championship to compete against club masters.

Monday, July 13, 20, 27 August 3, 10: Reubens/Landey BCC Qualifier U2200 Championship 5SS; 40/90 G/20; Open to BCC members rated between 1800 and 2199; Entry fee: $20: Winner receives free entry into the BCF Championship beginning on 9/14. Registration: 6:15 to 6:55; Rounds: 7:PM

Simon Warfield won the 2008 BCC U2200 championship - the Reubens Landey with 4 of 5 points.. Ben Goldberg and Carey Theil tied for second with 3.5 of 5. Simon was invited into the 2008 BCC club championship to play against the club masters.


http://picasaweb.google.com/oresick/ReubensLandey2008#

Tempete sur L'Echiquier redux

Paul MacIntyre writes:

Ken Ho mentioned “Storm over the Chessboard” at a recent chess event in Quebec, and I think what that means is the French game “Tempête sur L’Echiquier.” It’s a really intriguing and pretty wacky game that involves cards and the chessboard. In lieu of making a normal chess move, you can make use of a card which may give a piece special powers, allow you to swap positions of pieces, resurrect dead pieces, and quite a few other variations. The cards all have wonderfully silly art on them. Here’s what the box that the deck comes in looks like:

Here are some examples of the cards:

Translation: Your opponent wants to take one of your pieces, but this one defends itself! The attacked piece stays where it is, and it’s the attacking piece that is eliminated.

Translation: You move one of your pieces onto a square occupied by another of your pieces. These two pieces “fuse” into a new piece which from then on moves like either of the two original pieces, which stay together on the same square. The King may not fuse!

Translation:
This card is particularly meant for players of “SuperGang,” an excellent game available at all good game stores. You choose one of your opponent’s pieces excluding the King and you place it on the edge of the table, then you move to a spot four meters away with a dart gun. If using three darts you are able to hit the piece, it is removed from the game. If not, the piece is put back where it came from.

Translation:
You transform an opposing piece of your choice (except the King and the Queen) into a “neutral” piece. A neutral piece can be moved in turn by each of the players, and can take pieces belonging to both players.

I’ve never actually had the chance to play this game, as it requires having wacky French chess players around. This Quebec chess marathon seems like just the place, though.

Paul MacIntyre

Mentally, the pieces are on two squares at once!

"When you come to the chessboard after a long break, the pieces tend to fall back to their original squares in your mind."


So said a player in the West Virginia Chess Bulletin, after annotating a game from his victorious run at the WV Championships that year (back in the 90's, kids). That observation stuck with me, but now, after my own six month break, I appreciate it even more. In my calculations, I'm finding I often have two of the same piece-- one on the square where I plan to move it and a ghost piece on the original square. (aside to Adam Yedidia, maybe ghost chess could be yet another new variant for you to invent-- every move leaves a ghost piece behind for a few moves...)

In my first tournament back, I managed to dispell those ghost pieces mid-calculation. That led to a few thought moments like, "Calculate, calculate, OK, now I'm better here, and DUH! my piece isn't there anymore, time to rethink." As long as it stays in your head, only precious time gets wasted.

In the G30 event I played Wednesday night, the ghost piece stayed on its square just a little too long:

In the following position, if Black challenges the open file with a rook, Black has achieved equality. The dark squared bishop will likely find freedom with Bf8. Black will grip the open file and redeploy the knights on the weak queenside squares.
After assessing Rfd8 as a fine move, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to throw in Be6 to b3 first, controlling the d1 square and soon the open file will forever be mine: In my mind, this looked great. In the quantum mechanics world, my piece might be called Schrodinger's Bishop-- both alive and dead at the same time, until the box gets opened with White's next move, the "impossible" Rd7!Poof! goes the ghost on e6, and ugliness ensues.

Ghosts are always creeping into my calculations, but rarely are they so vivid.

Jason

That guy really knows his chess clocks!

At the 1986 U.S. Open, I walked by as Larry Christiansen and his opponent (Kamran Shirazi, I think) were in a postmortem of their just-drawn game. According to my recollection, Shirazi had some extra pawns as compensation for some sort of piece deficit. Larry (who won the U.S. Open outright that year) appeared to be making the case that he had a better position, and looked up at Boris Spassky, who was standing to the side looking things over.

Boris apparently considered it a draw and, in response to Larry, waved his hands encouragingly over Shirazi's pawns, wafting them onward to a queening square. It was perhaps the following day when Joel Benjamin, who I think had been present for some analysis by Spassky (for the aforementioned game?), exclaimed with a playful smile, "That guy really knows his chess!"

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Since 2008 I've played two opponents at the club who had the black Chronos GX Touch Chess Clock. In both games I was struck by how useful and elegant the clock was, and I finally decided I should buy one for the upcoming Reubens-Landey tournament to eliminate clock functionality issues from distracting me.

First, however, I looked back at my August 2008 And Time won't give me Time... blog entry, in which, although it was not my main topic, I touched on differences between digital clocks. For my intended purchase, I kept in mind a comment from Jason Rihel about the drawback of single time control clocks, and I also scanned the Internet (a Series of tubes) for other information to increase my confidence that that particular GX model was truly the right clock for me.

In the process I came to the shocking realization ("I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!") that, despite my claim in that blog entry and its ensuing comment trail that I understood the differences between time-delay / time-increment / Bronstein settings, I...didn't.

One of the things I turned up on that fabled Series of tubes was DG's Are time delay and time increment the same? entry on this very blog(!), from two years before my own post. At that time (December 2006), I wasn't yet a regular reader here. Just as he did for my later blog entry, Matt Phelps came to the fore, attempting to dispel confusion about digital chess clocks. After reading his comments there, I now really know the difference between time-delay, time-increment, and Bronstein.


"Matt Phelps? That guy really knows his chess clocks!"

Chess, Michael Jackson, Various Politicians, and UAC's

What drives a person to get in the position Michael Jackson got into?

Some social psychologists claim that we all have "UAC's" Underlying Automatic Commitments that are behaviors learned (many unconsciously) that can cause a person to act and decide in certain ways. Successful people and leaders that have battled their way up the competitive ladder are even more susceptible to behaving in a risky way as their experiences in gaining success and power sometimes provide a "king of my hill" mentality that blinds them from some seemingly obvious simple stupid self destructive behaviors. Granted addiction is the god of UAC's. Parallel to this is the common trait of many people to eschew medical care, this attitude toughens them up, until ultimately the quality and length of their lives gets diminished by a problem they take too long to deal with. Nonetheless, psychologists say many times people can't change until enlightened about, and worked thru, their hidden/uncontrollable dominant UAC's.

In chess we have certain biases and prejudices and usually revel in them. I know my outlook about chess was framed by my early coaches and teachers. Although upon my return to OTB chess I was enticed by the "Soviet/Botvinick approach" which I think instills in a player the drive to be disciplined to play the perfect game every time. But during the past two years I have really focused on how Harry Lyman wanted me to play, although stylistically to be questioned, it has lifted my strength to a place I have never been before and has been a lot of fun. I play the opponent and not the position, many times letting my gut override my brain. I'm willing to sacrifice to nick my opponent, have a brawl, and see what happens. Objectively this is all bad stuff. A situation occurred last Saturday in my game against Arthur Nugent:

YOUNG PLAYERS DON'T DO THIS AT HOME! [full score below]

Move 15. Bxe6??!! All in.............

Later David Vigorito told me. "Mike that was unsound as hell -- you should have lost!" From the tone of his voice you could tell he wasn't happy with me getting a half a point with junk like this. To that Arthur said "Harry would have played it the same way." Upon home analysis I feel I was delusional and lucky.

What are some of your UAC's of chess?

Please Comment Thank You Mike Griffin 07/01/2009

Mike Griffin,1 (1800) - Arthur Nugent,2 (2000) [B01]
BCF - Swiss #23,

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.d3 c6 6.Bf4 Bf5 7.Nf3 e6 8.Qe2 Bb4 9.Bd2 Nbd7 10.0-0 0-0 11.a3 Bxc3 12.Bxc3 Qc7 13.Nh4 Bg6 14.Nxg6 hxg6 15.Bxe6 Rfe8 16.Bxf7+ Kxf7 17.Qf3 Ne5 18.Qg3 Nd5 19.Rae1 Nxc3 20.bxc3 Re7 21.f4 Nd7 22.Rxe7+ Kxe7 23.Qxg6 Kf8 ½-½

http://leesinsights.com/?p=8

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-manager/?p=1570&tag=nl.e106

Thank You and have a Happy Fourth

Mike Griffin

Those madcap Québécois

I never played in the masochistic all-night Monadnock Marathon chess tournaments once held in New Hampshire, but it seems the madness continues in Québec.

If I am reading the French write-up ("Le 25 heures d'échecs") correctly, starting this coming Saturday (July 4th) there will be 25 hours straight of chess activities, starting at 1 pm, punctuated by dinner, breakfast, and lunch breaks ("game analysis"). (Those wild enough to play should arrive by noon with 50 Canadian dollars.)

Between the eminently appropriate hours of 5 am and 7:30 am, the scheduled activity appears to be "Storm over the chessboard" -- whoever "loses," wins. I imagine that means you throw your king and other pieces at your opponent in a violent attempt to get your opponent to checkmate you. Now THAT game might not be good for your chess....

Anyone whose "French language rating" is higher than mine (Adam? Nicholas?), please jump right in and correct me.

Lawyer Times and Eric Strickland win in the Boylston's Swiss #23

On Saturday, June 27, Lawyer Times (3.5) won in the Open Section (n = 14) of the BCF Swiss #23, including a victory over Dave Vigorito.

Carey Theil and Mika Brattain tied for 2nd with 3.0 each.

Eric Strickland drove down from Brattleboro, VT and won all of his games for a clear 1st in the 10 player U1800 section.

Daniel Bromberg scored 3.0 and took 2nd. His loss was due to a blunder, much to the consternation of Marc Esserman, his teacher, who was just as upset that Daniel was playing in the under section.


In a strategy you don't see every day, Jesse's King led his Rook and Queen on a valiant but ultimately fatal charge down Zaroug's e-file.


Robert Oresick was the TD.

David Vigorito Gets Married

IM David Vigorito, Boylston Chess Club President, recently married Heather Kroll and honeymooned in Italy.

For a take on chess and marriage inspired by this marriage, check out Dana MacKenzie's blog. For the MACA announcement, click here. IM Mark Ginsburg has some photos of the wedding on his blog here. Other photos can be found here and on their wedding page here.

Congrats from all of us at the Boylston Chess Weblog.
Kroll-Vigorito chess piece cake.

Satisfactory Return

Hello everyone,


As I posted this week, this weekend I played in my first tournament in six months. I played in the Open section of the Swiss, as #4 on the wallchart and finished with 2 wins against A players with White and 2 losses with black against a master and an IM. I am pleased; all the games were hard fought, I managed my time well, and I didn't have too terrible tactical blindness, save for a time pressure one against IM Vigorito in Round 2 (OK, OK, I did almost hang my queen to a one mover).


My game against master Carey Theil in Round 3 was a curious one, in which I made a deep stratego-tactical oversight that led to an unpleasant position. Plus, I missed a single late-game chance to fight for a draw.


Theil-Rihel, 2009

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3. e4 d6 4.g3 Bg7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. Nge2 e5 7. d3 Nc6 8. h3 Bd7 9. Be3 Qc8 10.Qd2 a6

Funny: Up to now, we are both following a single game in my database, Valkesalmi- Computer MChess Pro 5.0, from 1996. I'd better be careful following those computer moves or someone will think I'm cheating! In the original game, White played Rc1, and eventually lost. Carey tried a different idea.

11. Bh6 Rb8 12. Nd5 Nxd5 13. exd5 Nd4!?

An important decision. Yes, Black will be sacking the pawn on d4, but I figured I could get away with this because to win the pawn, White's king will have to stay in the center of the board where he will be quite exposed. White is having difficulty castling kingside, and queenside castling at least looks optically dangerous with Black already gunning on that side of the board. That is illusory, though, for White can quickly put pressure on Black's king. One line goes 14. Nxd4 exd4 15. O-O-O c5 16. h4 and now Black must be careful- 16...Bxh6 17. Qxh6 f6 (a clever way to prevent h5, because then g5 and Black's king is quite safe). 18. Rde1 Rf7 19. Qf4 Qc7 and white is slightly better, but Black is holding everything together.


Carey takes the pawn. As he said after the game, "A pawn is a pawn." 14. Nxd4 exd4 15. Bxg7 Re8+ 16. Kf1 Kxg7 17. Qf4 hits the pawn on d4.
I saw all this and thought Black's lines will open quickly now. One thing I didn't realize was important enough-- Black's dark squares are very weak. This turns out to be critical.



17... c6 The start of a long-range plan that turns out to fail. White's command of the dark squares AND the white squares in the center gives him enough time to move the king to a safe square and keep black out of the position.

18. Qxd4+ Kg8 (f6 had to be considered) 19. Re1 Rxe1 20. Kxe1 cxd5 (b5 looks like a better try; the text just forces white to make good squares for his king) 21. Bxd5 Bc6 22. Kf1 b5 23. Kg2! bxc4 24. dxc4 Bxd5+ 25. cxd5

Oops. Here I thought I was about to get my pawn back and penetrate White's 2nd rank. This was a position I had in mind when I played c6 on move 17, and only now, in the end, do I see a fatal flaw. If 25. Qc2 Re1! and my back rank is too weak. 26. Qxb2?? 27. Re8+ wins the queen. This suggests that 18... f6 would have been better than Kg8 as well.

I now burn a lot of clock to find some kind of active defence.

25...Qe8 26. Rc1 a5 27. Rc7 Rb4 28. Qf6

And here, late in the game, I miss my best chance to force a rook and pawn endgame that I might be able to hold with 28...Qe4+ 29. Kh2 Qf5! and now white has to trade queens and give up some important pawns. For example, 30. Qxf5 gxf5 31. b3 Rd4 32. Kg2 Rxd5 33. Ra7 and now black has a good chance to hold the draw. Or 30. Rxf7 Qxf6 31. Rxf6 Rxb2 32. Kg2 Rxa2 33. Rxd6 Kf7 Rd7+ Kf6 and again, Black has at least practical chances.
But I played 28...Rb6. So much for my active defence. 29. Re7 Qf8 30. Rd7 Rb8 31. b3 Qe8 32 Re7 Qf8 33.Qxd6 Rd8 34. Qe5 Rxd5 35. Qxd5 Qxe7 36. Qxa5 Qe4+ 37. Kh2 Qc2 I hit upon the idea of attacking the f-pawn way too late 38. Qa7 h5 39. h4 f6 40. Qd4 Kg7 41. a4 Qxb3 42. a5 and some more moves were played but is soon becomes clear that Black can't stop the a-pawn.


Clearly, in the critical positions, I made some bad evals and under-analyzed critical lines like f6 and b5. Still, considering my other games as well, I must be happy with my play after six months of rust.

Six-Month Hiatus, What Will Happen?

Hello everyone,

Although I have been managing the blog from a distance, I stopped playing tournaments back in January to focus on my science.

Three grant applications and a submitted paper later, I am ready to frequent the club again. This is my first blog entry about my return and my current chess perspective.

Six months is not very long compared to Mike Griffenesque breaks from the game, but this was quite an intense scientific period for me: within the past month, I had a 30 page grant, a 60 page grant, and a 75 page paper to submit. If accepted, the paper will be condensed to 3 pages of a science magazine, with the rest of it hidden away in what is called "supplemental online material." Depressing in a way, but that is the current state of science publication -- more is expected, but less is shown up front.

Many will remember my last tournament result. Some chess friends remind me weekly about it (you know who you are). After two creative and very fun games against masters, I uncorked this scorcher:

Black, an expert, crushes himself with Nxe4??.

Let me say for the record that I had planned to take this break BEFORE the event. Looking back, that decision was fortuitous-- instead of replaying the tournament 100000000 times in my head that week, my decision to take a break lent a cosmic-comic air to the result.
Even so, six months later, I am ready to return and clean that one from my synapses.

I'd like to share two thoughts at the outset:

1) We all know skills erode without practice, and, if that last game of mine is any evidence, some of us don't have many skills to erode. To keep up, I have been doing my daily chess tactical problems. I am currently using Anatoly Lein's "Sharpen Your Tactics!" which I found in a used bookstore (support local bookstores!).

I love this tactics book. No text, just problems. The problems get hard at the half-way point. I am nearing problem number 1000, and now they are difficult enough that I can only do 1-2 a day.

2) I have also been sneaking short lunch breaks at Harvard Square, where blitz chess rules, and the hustlers are pretty decent chessplayers. I am no good at blitz, but I did discover one useful fact: There are certain openings in which I don't understand the plans, the pawn structure, or anything. I would lose dozens of games in these openings, and all the gawkers and kibbitzers were more than happy to point out my opening errors. So, in preparation for my return, I have borrowed from Harvard library several opening books on each of these and am going over my nightly master games. I dislike opening books and those endless variations that start on move 4, but I think if I stick to the main games/main lines and get a feel for the plans, I can improve a lot.

Up next, a weekend event, then the Ruebens-Landy.

Congratulations to the new International Master Marc Esserman

Congratulations International Master Marc Esserman on your IM title!

Photo: Tony Cortizas

On June 19th, in the second round BCF board member Marc Esserman defeated GM Zbyneil Hracek at the 2nd Annual Marshall Chess Club New York International at the world-famous Marshall Chess Club in New York City.
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Marc already had 3 IM norms, with the third one being earned in Berkeley 2008. A final requirement for the IM title, Marc needed to get his Fide rating over 2400 and he reached that milestone after his round 2 game with Hracek. Since a rating requirement for a title may be achieved at any point during a tournament so even if Marc finishes under Fide 2400, he has still fulfilled the IM rating requirement.
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And Markc did it with a Smith Morra gambit an opening that Esserman has used with great success, and one of my favorites as well. Harry Lyman recommended that I use it in the early 70's and I have come back to e4 and playing the Smith Morra against c5 again. You have a lot of play for the pawn and many people decline taking the pawn, as did GM Hracek against Marc.
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Marc Esserman 2441 GM Zbyneil Hracek 2664
1. e4 c5
2. d4 cxd4
3. c3 d3
4. Bxd3 g6
5. c4 Bg7
6. Nf3 d6
7. h3 Nf6
8. O-O O-O
9. Nc3 Nbd7
10. Be3 b6
11. Rc1 Bb7
12. Bb1 a6
13. Qe2 Re8
14. Rfd1 Qb8
15. b3 Nc5
16. Nd2 e6
17. b4 Ncd7
18. Nb3 Rc8
19. f4 Qc7
20. Qe1 Re8
21. Qf2 Rac8
22. Bd3 h5
23. Nd2 Rb8
24. Nf3 Ba8
25. Rf1 Qd8
26. f5 exf5
27. exf5 Bxf3
28. Qxf3 Ne5
29. Qd1 d5
30. cxd5 Nxd5
31. Nxd5 Qxd5
32. fxg6 fxg6
33. Bc4 Qxc4
34. Rxc4 Nxc4
35. Bf4 Rbc8
36. Qd7 Kh7
37. Bg5 Ne5
38. Qb7 Rc6
39. Bf6 Rxf6
40. Rxf6 Kh6
41. Rd6 h4
42. Qe4 Kh5
43. Rd5 Bf6
44. Qf4 1-0
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Another interesting note is that BCF member Andrew Wang is also playing in this tournament.
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Thank You
Mike Griffin
06/22/2009