Antics. Alabama Chess. Players gather before the first round of the Alabama State Chess Championship (Open Section) at UAH in Huntsville, Alabama.

Transcription

1 Alabama Chess The Official Publication of the Alabama Chess Federation Antics Fall 2016 Inside this issue: Bill Melvin wins 8th State Title 4 by Bill Melvin Fall 2016 Photo Gallery 7 by various contributors National Chess Day Report 8 by Caesar Lawrence Snapshots from the Troy Classic 10 by Scott Varagona General Principles from a School Principal by Charles Anthony Thoughts on the World Chess Championship by Scott Varagona Players gather before the first round of the Alabama State Chess Championship (Open Section) at UAH in Huntsville, Alabama. (Right, foreground: the eventual winner, NM Bill Melvin, has the Black pieces against Tim Bond in Round 1.)

2 Page 2 Alabama Chess Antics A lot has happened since our last issue, so let s get right to it. This issue looks at the Alabama State Championship, the World Chess Championship, and various other recent chess happenings. We have contributions from Bill Melvin (our newly crowned Alabama State Champion), Caesar Lawrence, Charles Anthony, and myself. Many others contributed photos. Thank you all! I would also like to thank Charles Smith and the ACF for making the new Alabama State Championship Series prize a reality. This prize (a House of Staunton chess set and matching chessboard) went to the player with the highest combined total of points from all four adult Alabama state championship events. The final standings were as follows: 1. Scott Varagona 17 points 2. Jonathan Rasberry 14 points 3. Sijing Wu 13 points 4. Stephen Adams 11.5 points 5. Arden Markin, Rochelle Wu 11 points Although I was grateful to get the first award of this kind, winning was bittersweet: I received the award right after suffering one of the most painful losses of my chess career, and losing the state championship in last-minute, tragic fashion! Oh well Bill Melvin has annotated that last-round game in this issue. Congratulations to Bill on his record-setting championship win. In other news, Rochelle Wu continues to impress us: since the last issue, she has not only broken into the Expert class, but also won a gold medal at the World Cadets international competition (Girls Under 10 section). If she keeps this up, she will make National Master before long. By the way, as you see on the leaderboard, Stephen Adams, Sijing Wu and Stephen Graveling are now among the top ten Alabama players, and stand within striking distance of the NM title. One last note, and an unfortunate one: Alabama chess recently lost two good friends. Bob Rieves, who was an active tournament player and organizer in the Birmingham area for Greetings from the Editor many years, and Lars Britt, a former Antics editor and player active especially in the Mobile area, have passed away. Balagee Govindan has already created a memorial tournament for Bob Rieves, and I hope that in a future issue, some of our members who knew these men better than I did will write a tribute to them. Please contribute to the Antics: send photos, articles and games (.pgn format please) to Alabama.Chess.Editor@gmail.com. Kindest regards, -Scott Varagona White to Play. (See p. 14 for the solution.) ACF Membership Any individual may become a Regular Member upon the payment of annual dues of $ Regular members may enter ACF tournaments and receive special publications or notices from ACF as they are issued. Any chess club seeking to become an Affiliate is required to file the Affiliate Information Form with the Secretary of the ACF and pay annual dues of $ Benefits of becoming an affiliate include the right to bid to host ACFsanctioned events, such as the Alabama State Championship, and to receive advertising through the ACF for your tournaments.

3 Fall 2016 Page 3 Alabama Chess Leaderboard Top 50 Ratings (retrieved from uschess.org on December 10, 2016) 1 FM BRADLEY J DENTON TERRENCE W EDINBURGH SCOTT VARAGONA JEFFREY BYRD BILL MELVIN CHARLES A SMITH MATTHEW V PUCKETT TIM BOND STEPHEN ADAMS GUENTHER HUBER-DELLE REX E BLALOCK CHARLES H ANTHONY GERALD A LARSON KENNETH W GOODMAN JOSEPH HAMILTON JURJEVICH RHODES PEELE SIJING WU TYLER C RHODES STEPHEN JAMES GRAVELING THOMAS H LAWRY TEJAS VINAYAK THORAT KENNETH JIAO DANIEL H THOMAS OM BADHE WCM ROCHELLE WU STEVE MENGXI CHEN ARDEN QUINLAN MARKIN CAESAR W LAWRENCE JOSHUA THOMAS MCCLELLAN SAMUEL CAVETT JONATHAN RASBERRY RAY DOWNS JOSH DIVINE LUIS J MORENILLA CHARLES L MEIDINGER KENNETH SLOAN GEORGE RUSYNIAK TRIET MINH VO JEFF TOBIN DOUGLAS STROUT ROGER DEAN JOHNSON BRIAN MCCORMICK MILES MELVIN III MARK PETERSON KIRK D PETTY DAVID HAYES WILLIAM BLACKMAN JAMES ROBERT GRIFFIN CHRISTOPHER TREES ADRIAN J MAJERLE 1715

4 Page 4 Alabama Chess Antics Bill Melvin wins 8th State Title By Bill Melvin S. Varagona (2274) - B. Melvin (2200) Alabama State Ch. 2016, Round 6 Huntsville, AL (9/4/2016) 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e Bd3 h6 8.Bh4 c6 9.Qc2 Nh5 10.Bg3 Nxg3 11.hxg3 Bg4 12.Nf3 Nd7 13.Nh4 Nf6 14.Nf5 Bb4 15.Rh4 Bxf5 16.Bxf5 Re8 17.Kf1 Bxc3 18.bxc3 Qd6 19.c4 dxc4 20.Qxc4 Qd5 21.Qc2 Rad8 22.Rc1 Re7 23.a4 Qa5 24.Kg1 Rd5 Black has draw odds to win the State Championship. Despite black s desire to keep the position boring, Scott is about to toss everything including the kitchen sink at black s king. 25.g4 Qd8 26.Rh3 Qa5 27.f4 h5 28.e4 Rxd4 29.e5 hxg4 Jonathan Rasberry at the 2016 Falcon Chess Invitational Left to Right: 2016 Alabama State Champion NM Bill Melvin; Reserve Champion Krishin Yerabolu; Chief Tournament Director Bill Nash. (Photo by Antics Editor.)

5 Fall 2016 Page 5 has one square to keep from going lost Nd2 [31...Qxa4? 32.Bh7+ Kf8 33.Bxe4] 32.Bh7+ Kf8 33.Qf5 Re6 Black has an objectively winning position. With slight time trouble, and the difficulty of defending an aggressive attack from a Master, the game can easily still be lost. 34.Qg4 g6 35.Qg5 Rxa4 30.Bxg4 [30.exf6 Re1+ 31.Rxe1 Qxe1+ 32.Kh2 gxh3 33.Bh7+ Kf8? (33...Kh8 34.Qc5=) 34.Qc5+ Ke8 35.fxg7 and black loses.] 30...Ne4 31.Bf5 Note that this move makes sense to setup Ra4-a1. The fact that a pawn was taken was meaningless. 36.f5 I miscalculated that black could play 31...Qxa4 here. However, white would play 32. Bh7+ Kf8, 33. Bxe4 and black cannot recapture because of the mate threat on h8. My knight randomly Editor s note: Although White is objectively lost at this point, I could have handed Black a terrible defensive task if I had played 36.Bxg6!!. The idea is that the natural 36...Rxg6?? leads to 37.Rh8+ Kg7 38.Qh5, with a mate threat on h7 that is practically impossible to prevent. Black would then have to try 38...Rxg2+ but

6 Page 6 Alabama Chess Antics after 39.Kh1! Black must sacrifice his rook on h2, and soon thereafter his position collapses. All that being said, with the correct defense of 36...Nf3+!!, Black would still be winning. Still, how dearly I wish I had thought of the idea of Bxg6 during the game instead of thinking of it while tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, the night after the tournament was over... Caïssa can be cold and cruel. SV Everything including the kitchen sink... Black can still lose! 40...Rxe5 41.fxg6 Qxe3+ 42.Qxe3 Rxe3 loses to 43.g7! 40...gxf5 41.Qg7 f4 0 1 Editor s Note: Congratulations to Bill Melvin on a magnificent tournament victory, which is made all the more impressive because it is his record 8th(!) Alabama State Championship win. Bill now has state titles from three different decades (spanning from 1990 to 2016), which makes him a remarkable example of chess longevity and further cements his status as one of Alabama s all-time chess greats Ra1! 37.Qh6+ Ke8 38.Rxa1 [38.fxe6 Rxc1+ 39.Kf2 Qc5+ 40.Ke2 Qc4+ 41.Rd3 (41.Kxd2 Rc2+ 42.Ke3 Re2+ 43.Kf3 Qe4+ 44.Kg3 Rxg2#) 41...Qe4+ 42.Qe3 Qg4+ 43.Qf3 Nxf3] 38...Qxa1+ 39.Kf2 Qd4+ 40.Re3 Alabama State Championship 2016: Top Performers Premiere Section: 1st place (5.5 points), Bill Melvin (2200) 2nd place (4.5 points), Matthew Puckett (2169) Reserve Section: 1st place (5 points), Krishin Yerabolu (1111) 2nd place (tied at 4.5 points), Joshua Lin (1540) Joel Friedman (1529) Jack Lyons (1459) Hudson Markin (1416)

7 Fall 2016 Page 7 Fall 2016 Photo Gallery By various contributors Top Left: The prizewinners from the Alabama State Championship, Reserve section. (Photo by Antics Editor) Middle Right: TD Caesar Lawrence with the Birmingham Challenge Reserve Champion, Christian Friedman. (Photo by Jessica Snow) Middle Left: Halloween Classic Pawn Section winners. (Photo by Ranae Bartlett) Bottom Right: The view in UAH s Charger Union, near the Alabama State Championship tournament hall. (Photo by Antics Editor)

8 Page 8 Alabama Chess Antics National Chess Day Report By Caesar Lawrence The 2016 National Chess Day Scholastic was held at Brookwood Village. A great many Thanks go to our host Cypress Equities (Anne Melancon). We had 32 players from 14 schools participate in the tournament. This charity chess tournament is in honor of our chess holiday in America. Proceeds are donated to Children s of Alabama. Here are the 2016 National Chess Day Scholastic top winners: Rook (K-12; Rated) Champions Rahul Boddupalli (4 points) Benjamin Kennedy (4 points) Kapil Nathan (4 points) Novice (K-12; Not Rated) Champion Nash Kreitlein (5 points) Primary (K-5; Not Rated) Champion Akhil Batchu (5 points) For more information about our upcoming chess tournaments and chess classes, send an to Caesar Lawrence: Caesarchess@gmail.com. Chief Tournament Director: Caesar Lawrence Assistants to the TD: Telura Hamilton, Archana Subramanian and Brad Fournier National Chess Day! (Photo by Duncan Lamb)

9 Fall 2016 Page 9 Organizer & Sponsor: Caesar Chess USCF Rating Report: h t t p : / / w w w. u s c h e s s. o r g / m s a / XtblMain.php? (Photos by Duncan Lamb)

10 Page 10 Alabama Chess Antics Snapshots from the Troy Classic By Scott Varagona A. Decord (1597) S. Varagona (2258) Troy Classic (11/19/16), Round 1 (Move 26; Black to play) Surprisingly, this move is a mistake. The computer (Fritz) found the non-intuitive 28.Re3!, with the defensive idea of Re3-f3 to meet Black s upcoming Rf8. After 28 e4 29.Qb1! Rf8 30.Qe1!, somehow White is holding things together. Instead, after 28.Rd1, Black s initiative gets more serious. 28 Qe2 White would really like to play Qd3 and trade queens, but the a-pawn would hang. 29.Rf1 Rf8 30.Kg1? What do you do if you want to play for a win, but you find yourself in an even-looking position with relatively few pieces left on the board? Try to use whatever active chances you have, poke at the opponent s weaknesses, and wait for a mistake. If you put your opponent under a little nagging pressure, a mistake usually comes. Allowing Black the immediate use of the f3 square leads to disaster. 30 Rf3 31.Qd Qc2! A most annoying move for White to face! The queen hits not just c4 and a2, but also f2. 27.Qb3 Qd2 28.Rd1? Jonathan Rasberry (above, right) was instrumental in bringing a chess tournament to Troy University. We hope this will be the first of many successful Troy Classic tournaments.

11 Fall 2016 Page Rxf2! 32.Qxe2 Rxe2 33.Rf2 Re3 34.Kg2 Rc3 Black wins a second pawn and with it, the game. Top Right: Troy Classic, Round 1. Bottom Right: Your editor, who despite having to wear a hat all day because he d been too rushed to wash his hair that morning still managed to play some pretty good chess. (Photo by TD Caesar Lawrence) Troy Classic 2016: Top Performers Classic Section: 1st place (4 points), Scott Varagona (2258); 2nd place (tied at 3 points), Tim Bond and Joseph Jurjevich Reserve Section: 1st place (3.5 points), Jerry Smith (unrated); 2nd place (tied at 3 points), Paul Chipman, Wendell Whitaker, Preston Helms, Joshua Shepherd, Christopher Wang, Luke Strole

12 Page 12 Alabama Chess Antics General Principles from a School Principal by Charles Anthony I believe that my fascination with chess can be traced back to the fall of 1972, as an incoming freshman starting college. We had followed the Fischer- Spassky World Championship in the newspapers with great interest and also watched Shelby Lyman s analysis on Public Television. As fate would have it, my calculus instructor, Mr. Jerry Killingsworth, and my biology instructor, Mr. Paul Thompson, had an interest and aptitude for chess and we quickly organized a chess club at our community college. We students were certainly no match for our instructors, so I went to the local library in search of chess books to help me. The first book that I checked out was Chess Made Simple (1957) by Milton L. Hanauer, a public school principal who held a Master s degree and a Law degree. He was also a former New York State Champion and a Marshall Chess Club Champion. This game contains various examples of Hanauer s rules for the opening and the middlegame that may prove instructive. This game is also memorable for the fact that it was the first time that this B player beat an A player, and it ends with a beautiful sacrifice. C. Anthony (1677) - W. D. Scott (1825) Scottsboro Chess Club vs. Fayette Chess Club (9/8/1984) 1.e4 e5 Fischer always played e4, so it was good enough for me. 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 The Ruy Lopez was an opening that I obviously had not studied much, because I am already out of my book. I will have to depend on general principles. Hanauer s opening rules go something like this: 1. Develop your pieces. 2. Put a new piece into play on each move. 3. Move only the pawns that you must move in order to develop your pieces. 4. Move the most limited pieces first. Knights before bishops, and rooks before queens. 5. Move your pieces toward the center, etc.

13 Fall 2016 Page a6 Rule 8. Castle to connect your rooks. And Rule 9. Castle when you want to, or when you have to, but not just to make a move. I may have violated that rule just now. 5.Ba4 Nf6 6.Re1 Be7 Moving my rook to the center (Rule 5). 7.Nc d3 Bg4 9.Ne2 Bxf3 Allowing Black to double White s pawns, but opening a file to attack Black s king. Pawn captures create open files. 10.gxf3 Nh5 corollary, Rule #2, says that a player cannot attack on the wings unless he has control of the center. Black also violates the old maxim Knights on the rim, his chances are grim. 11.c3 Bg5 White takes further control of the center before waging an attack on the wings. 12.Kh1 Qf6 White clears a square for the rook. Black builds up pressure on the king side with his queen. 13.Bxg5 Qxg5 Black could win a pawn with 13.Qxf3+ 14.Kg1 Qg4+ 15.Kh1 Qxg5, but that may not matter. 14.Rg1 Qh6 Gaining time and space for White s attack. Middle Game Rule #5: When you have the advantage in space and position, put your pieces in the places where they exert maximum power. The open file was definitely the best place for this rook. 15.Bxc6 bxc6 Black starts an attack of his own. Haunauer s Middle Game Rule #1 says that a player who has control of the center can attack on the wings, and its White removes a potential defender in the center. 16.Ng3 Nxg3+ 17.Rxg3 f5?

14 Page 14 Alabama Chess Antics Opening up Black s position. 23.Rxh7+! 18.Qb3+ Kh8 19.R1g1 g6 White doubles the rooks to intensify the pressure. Black violates Rule #7: Avoid pawn moves in front of the castled King. Black resigns: it is mate in three. 23.Kxh7 24.Qxg6+ Kh8 25.Qh5+ Qh6 26.Qxh6 mate. A rook sacrifice made this game especially memorable, in addition to my first win against an rated player. 20.exf5 Rxf5 21.Qe6 Qf8 Qe6 provokes Black s queen to leave the h-file. That proves disastrous for Black. 22.Rh3 Rxf3? Black doesn t see it coming! Two Rules are in play here: #9. Attack the base of the pawn chain. And #6. When your pieces have achieved maximum power, look for a sacrifice which may break open your opponent s position.

15 Fall 2016 Page 15 Hail, King Magnus! As I m sure you know by now, after many twists and turns, Magnus Carlsen finally defeated Sergey Karjakin to retain the World Chess Champion title. There were certainly a lot of nail-biting moments for die-hard Carlsen fans like myself, but in the rapid tiebreaks, Carlsen finally proved his dominance and also played some truly beautiful moves. Many back-seat chess players complained about the high number of draws and the allegedly timid style of play earlier in the match, but everybody agrees that the match ended with a bang: M. Carlsen (2853) - S. Karjakin (2772) (WCC Tiebreaker, Game 4, Move 49) 49.Rc8+ Kh7 Thoughts on the World Chess Championship by Scott Varagona After 49 Bf8 50.Rxf8+!, if 50...Kxf8 51.Rxf7+ then Black s king will soon get hunted down and mated. A trickier defense might be 50 Kh7!?, but then the same brilliant, winning move would come as in the actual game: 50.Qh6+!! Black resigned. Much has been said about the match already, but I do have a few points I d like to make. Some naysayers have claimed this match proves that, somehow, Carlsen s grip on the crown has grown weaker, or He is not as dominant as he used to be, etc., etc. I believe people who talk this way are missing the point. While it is true that Carlsen came close to losing this match, the more important factor by far is that just when it seemed the sky was about to fall on him he nevertheless found a way to fight back and save (even, win) the match. As so many great world champions have done. Remember the 1987 match between Karpov and Kasparov, in which Kasparov was down a point with one game to go? Kasparov had to win on demand to retain his title. He did. Against Karpov, no less! This is the stuff that legends like Kasparov and Carlsen are made of. Now, thanks to this match, Carlsen knows what it is like to struggle in a WCC; he knows what it is like to fall behind; and now, he has proven to us and to himself that he still knows how to recover and win. No doubt about it: this experience will only make him stronger. Congratulations, Magnus! Your next challenger s task will be quite well challenging.

16 ALABAMA CHESS ANTICS Upcoming Tournaments See for details on these and other events. December 17 Dothan Open XV Dothan, AL December 30 Magic City Classic IX Birmingham, AL January 14 MLK Classic VIII Montgomery, AL January 16 MLK Scholastic VIII Birmingham, AL February Queen of Hearts XLV Montgomery, AL February 25 Tom Nard Memorial III Montgomery, AL The Alabama Chess Federation (ACF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation and the United States Chess Federation affiliate for the state of Alabama. Our goal is to promote chess in this area for the benefit of all Alabama players. Toward that end, we provide advertising and other assistance for rated tournaments, as well as support for scholastic chess programs around the state. To submit articles, pictures and games to the Antics, the Antics editor at Alabama.Chess.Editor@gmail.com ACF OFFICERS President: Neil Dietsch Vice-President: Charles A. Smith Secretary & PR: Michael Ciamarra Games in.pgn format are strongly preferred. Treasurer: Education VP: Paul Nager Nancy Johnson Please contact president@alabamachess.org if you are interested in helping with the Alabama Chess Federation. Scholastic VP: Antics Editor: Webmaster: Member Admin: William Nash Scott Varagona Neil Dietsch Jonathan Rasberry Alabama Chess Federation All chess diagrams in this issue were produced using Fritz, a program by ChessBase. Tourn. Reports: Caesar Lawrence