Baseball fans scream about the New York Yankees, but chess players
yearn to break up Caltech. For the second year in a row, a team from
Caltech dominated the U.S. Amateur Team Championship West. Billing
themselves as "Patrick Hummel and a Hat Trick of Pummelers," team
members Patrick Hummel, Eugene Yanayt, Graham Free and Howard Liu won
six straight matches in the 46-team event. The three-day tournament
took place at the Radisson Hotel in Los Angeles over the Presidents Day
weekend.
Five teams tied for second place with match scores of 4 1/2-1 1/2.
On tiebreak, Perfect by Nature (IM Melikset Khachiyan, Mike Zaloznyy,
Arkadiy Onikul, Sargis Hakobyan and Eugene Ivanov) took second prize
and a team from USC (IM Jack Peters, Simon Nielsen, Danyul Lawrence and
Reza Gholizadeh) finished third.
Individual honors went to Alan Stein, 5 1/2- 1/2 on Board One;
Ilia Serpik, 5 1/2- 1/2 on Board Two; Takashi Iwamoto, 5 1/2- 1/2 on
Board Three; Vanessa West, 5-1 on Board Four; and Stephan Airapetian,
best alternate at 4 1/2-1 1/2.
In its 21st year, the tournament has outgrown its youthful
goofiness. Not a single team competed in costume. Fortunately, silly
team names persist. The players voted for Lost in Transposition and
Shirov Me, Shirov Me Not as the best.
The seventh Southern California Scholastic Amateur Team attracted
14 teams. Academic Chess 2 (Jason Garfield, Eric Zhang, Scott Slupik
and Billy Slupik) emerged as champions with a score of 5-1, a point
ahead of four teams. On tiebreak, 2020 Olympians (Kevin Siu, Danil
Fedunov, Ryan Polsky and Michael Yee) received second prize and
Academic Chess (Kevin Johnson, Vincent Huang, Alexander Pusey and Yuki
Asami) third.
Siu (5-1), Harout Gekchyan (6-0), Scott Slupik (6-0) and Aaron Ong (5-1) achieved the best scores on their boards.
John Hillery and Elie Hsiao ran the tournaments for the sponsoring Southern California Chess Federation.
A record 276 teams participated in the U.S. Amateur Team
Championship East in Parsippany, N.J. Four teams scored 5 1/2- 1/2,
with Dean Ippolito LLC (IM Stanislav Kriventsov, IM Dean Ippolito, Mike
Bernshteyn and Scott Lalli) emerging as champions.
New U.S. Chess Federation Executive Director Bill Goich-berg ran
the 42-team USAT Midwest in Northbrook, Ill., with an odd multisection
format. Air Show (Jason Doss, Nick Adams, Jim Dean and Garrett Smith)
led the top section with a score of 4 1/2- 1/2.
Caltech will oppose the USAT East, Midwest and South regional
winners in an Internet playoff in March for the title of U.S. Amateur
Team champion.
Scholastic tournaments
The 2004 Southern California State Elementary Championship
will be held Saturday at Wiley Canyon Elementary School, 24240 La
Glorita Circle in Newhall. Students in grades K-6 are eligible and may
choose from five sections for players at various levels. For more
details, call Jay Stallings at (661) 288-1705 or visit http://www.cycl.org.
Local tournaments
John Harwell, Richard Martin and Dustin Strauch led their sections
in the February Octos, held Feb. 21 in Costa Mesa. Craig Clawitter, Jim
Diamond, Leo Raterman and Ilia Serpik tied for first place in the top
section. Call Mike Carr at (949) 768-3538 for information on the next
Octos, scheduled for March 27.
The Century West Open, a five-round tournament of 40-minute games,
takes place next Sunday in the Radisson Hotel, 6225 W. Century Blvd.,
in Los Angeles. For details or online entries, see http://www.westernchess.com.
The Exposition Park Chess Club will conduct its free monthly
tournament next Sunday in the public library, 3665 S. Vermont Ave. in
Los Angeles. Register at the site at 1 p.m.
The West Valley Chess Club, which meets Thursday evenings in the
Jewish Community Center, 22622 Vanowen St. in West Hills, will begin a
seven-round tournament on Thursday. For information, call John Price at
(818) 363-1379 or Duane Cooper at (818) 999-0837. Today's game
Mick Bighamian -- Max Landaw, USAT West, Los Angeles 2004: 1 Nf3 Nf6 2 g3 g6 3 Bg2 Bg7 4 0-0 0-0 5 c4 d6 6 d4 Nbd7 7 Nc3 e5 A familiar position in the King's Indian Defense. 8 h3 c6 9 e4 Qc7 Usually the Queen goes to b6 or a5. 10 Be3 Re8 11 Qc2 b5? Tempting but faulty, as White will exploit the opened c-file and hole at d5. Either 11 ... a6 or 11 ... a5 improves. 12 dxe5 dxe5 13 cxb5 cxb5 14 Qb3 a6 15 Rac1 Qd8?! A
little tougher is 15 ... Qa5 16 Ng5 Rf8, although 17 Nd5 Nxd5 18 exd5
Bb7 19 Ne6! Rfc8! (Black cannot stand 19 ... fxe6? 20 dxe6 Bxg2 21
exd7+) 20 Nxg7 leaves White on top. 16 Rfd1 Bb7 17 Ng5 Qe7 18 Nd5 Bxd5 After 18 ... Nxd5 19 exd5 Rab8 20 d6 Qf6, White wins material with 21 Rc7 Bxg2 22 Rxd7 Rb7 23 Rxf7 Rxf7 24 Kxg2. 19 exd5 Black cannot blockade this deadly passer. For example, 19 ... Qd6 20 Rc6 Qf8 loses to 21 Ne6! fxe6 22 dxe6. Rac8 20 d6 Qf8 21 Rc7! Intending 22 Bb7 or 22 Bc6. h6 White refutes 21 ... Rxc7 22 dxc7 Rc8 by 23 Qc2 and 24 Bb7. 22 Ne4 Rxc7 23 dxc7 Rc8 24 Nxf6+ Nxf6 25 Bb6 Qe7 26 Rd8+, Black Resigns. A powerful performance by White.
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