Archive for January 16th, 2010

The Kenilworth Chess Club Championship began Thursday night with its smallest field (just 17 players) in five years.

2008 Champion NM Mark Kernighan, expert Arthur Macaspac and 2009 KST winner Ian Mangion are the top-seeds.

Last year’s victor, SM Yaacov Norowitz, is not defending his crown. Past champs FM Steve Stoyko & NM Scott Massey are among others sitting-out.

1st round pairings & results:

All the higher-rated players won but boards 1 & 2 had major scares.

Mike Wojcio missed a win in the opening against Kernighan and Dan Komunicky time-forfeited in a winning, pawn-up ending versus Mangion.

1. Kernighan 1-0 Wojcio
2. Komunicky 0-1 Mangion
3. Mark Schwarcz 1-0 Ted Mann
4. Lou Sturniolo 0-1 Don Carrelli
5. John Moldovan 1-0 Mikhail Kruglyak
6. Bert Shiffman 0-1 Richard Lewis
7. David Pawlowski 1-0 Joe Renna
8. Jim Cole 0-1 Glen Hart

Macaspac received a 1/2 -point bye.

Java-replay
PGN

Late-joins are being accepted & one additional player would make an even number. Please see post #611 & contact TD Geoff McAuliffe before next Thursday, if you’d like to enter.

• The Sacred Key to All Rook Endings: The Lucena Position by Jeremy Silman at his site.
  
• The Lucena Position by David Surratt at Chessville
  
• Chess Endgame Lesson: Lucena Position
• Chess Lesson #10: Rook and Pawn Endings, Lucena
• DNAunion: Chess: Endgame: Rook&Pawn:Lucena 

Loek van Wely, playing in Wijk an Zee for the 19th time is succession, started
off with a fine text-book victory over Nigel Short, while Alexei Shirov, playing
the black side of Ruy Lopez Moeller, punished Peter Leko’s exchange sacrifice
in a fine endgame performance. Live coverage with audio commentary is available
on the Playchess server. Big pictorial report.

… Jan Timman wrote about this encounter between two absolute top grandmasters of the 70s and 80s. Here Black played
21…Bb5 and later succumbed in a remarkable attack. How would you assess the position after
21…Nxc7 instead?
A) The second player maintains his plus pawn without risk;
B) White gets the advantage;
C) the result is a draw by perpetual check.

The solution is here, but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.

What if you are a young chess fan – with crooked teeth? Braces is the answer, but now an orthodontic doctor has come up with a way to combine a healthy set of straight teeth with your love for the game. Chessmile offers braces in the form of chess pieces. You can set up endgames, puzzles and even checkmates. And this is the brainchild of? WIM Dr Carolina Blanco,
that’s who.