Wednesday, October 21, 2009

St. John Masters, October 20th

NM Yaacov Norowitz was the clear winner of the October 20th St. John's Masters tournament, as 3½ points in four rounds was good enough for the $300 first prize.. Norowitz drew top-seeded GM Leonid Yudasin in Round 3, when the Grandmaster was unable to make any dents in Yaacov's Carok-Kann Defense. A pawn to the good in the final round, Yudasin once again was unable to bring home the point against IM Jay Bonin, whose drawing technique more than made up for his pawn deficit.

Yudasin, Bonin and Ramon Manon-Og all tied for 2nd-4th with 3 points, winning $130 a piece. Manon-Og also took home the $40 Upset Prize, for his first round victory over IM Justin Sarkar, where he was the 289-point underdog. Zahar Hiklevich was a half-point further back, the only player with 2½ points, which was good enough to clinch the $40 Under 2300 prize.

The St. John's Masters tournaments are held on the third Tuesday of each month at the Marshall Chess Club. The next edition is Tuesday November 17th at 7 pm. The tournament is open to all players rated at least 2100. Players under 2100 may also qualify to participate by scoring at least 2½ points in one of the weekly "4 Rated Games Tonight!" Thursday Night Action Tournaments held at 7 pm at the Club since the previous month's St. John's Masters.

If you can't make it to the Club you can still follow the games on the top boards, which are broadcast live each round on ICC.

Thanks again to our sponsor, St. John's University, for making these tournaments possible.

Board 1 games from the Masters

Steve Immitt

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Monday, October 19, 2009

FIDE Thursdays - Hoffmann wins clear 1st

Asa had a slightly better position against Ed Scher, and once he saw Marc Widmaier upsetting Yefim Treger, offered the draw and clinched first. Ed Scher joined Frumkin, Treger, and Widmaier in splitting 2nd, 3rd, and the U2000 prizes. See below for the final results.
A reminder to all that Thursday, October 22nd, will be the first round of the Member's Only Swiss, and not a FIDE Swiss.

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Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Return of Frawley

Yes, for those us who have missed him, long time Marshall member and Assistant Manager Jim Frawley has re-entered the lists, holding William Dubinsky to a draw in the first round. Way to go, Jim!
If you think this is a blatant display of favoritism by the writers of this blog (the Marshall Staff), well...you're right! To offset this, we'll try to con(vince) Jim to post some of his games, and perhaps do the same to the other participants.
Standings after Round 1 below, enjoy!

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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

U1600 - Four tied for the lead

After three rounds, it's Chaklander, Rawlins, Genadinik, and Ean Fonseca tied with 2.5 out of 3. Results for the rest of the pack below.

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Monday, October 12, 2009

Clean Sweep for Treger

NM Yefim Treger swept all opposition in this weekend's U2300, winning clear first with a perfect 4 out of 4.

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FIDE Thursdays - Hoffmann & Treger down to the wire

FM Asa Hoffmann and NM Yefim Treger both won in Round 5, creating an interesting final round as Hoffmann & Treger drew in Round 4. To secure 1st place, we're likely to see both go all out in Round 6.

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Friday, October 9, 2009

Wednesday Night Showdown on Board 1...

...brought David Kantley a big win, earning him a tie with Steven Lamb for 1st place in the U2000 tournament. Results and prize winners are listed below.

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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Monday U1600 - Three tied for the lead

In his "going away from the U1600 party", Iqbal Chaklander is tied for first, with Guy Rawlins and Alex Genadinik (who may also shortly "graduate" from the U1600 section).
Further standings below.

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FIDE Thursdays Round 4 – October 1, 2009

A straw vote was taken among the players before the round on whether they would like the FIDE time control of G/120 to be utilized in future Members Only Swisses instead of the more traditional 30/90, SD/60. The vote was 6 to 3 in favor of G/120, so we will institute that change with the event beginning on January 7, 2010 (there are no further announcements in Chess Life of the event starting October 22, so that one cannot be changed). And now for the results:

Asa Hoffmann vs. Yefim Treger: ½-½
The battle of our top two players began with 1 b3. Despite castling on opposite wings, the game ended as a draw.

Sarathi Ray vs. George Berg: ½-½
This interesting Closed Sicilian went down to the wire, as George defended very well as an ending with Bishop vs. Knight, turned into Knight vs. pawns and then just pawns, ending in lone Kings just before George’s flag would have fallen.

Ed Frumkin vs. Tony Gonzales: 1-0
Our Friday night manager played an interesting King’s Indian, fighting White’s massive pawn center with tactical threats. Black didn’t move a pawn to his fourth rank until move 14 (!). After some brief fireworks, White ended up with Knight and extra pawn vs. Bishop and after putting his King on the wrong square, Black discovered that a Rook pawn can frustrate a Bishop as well as it does a Knight, so White prevailed in this battle of club-logo cap wearers.

Marc Widmaier vs. Sandra Oliver: 1-0
This one was over shortly after I saw White’s Queen at b7 with much of Black’s Queenside still home.

Serge Adelson vs. Jeff Tannenbaum: 1-0
A wild game in which Jeff resigned, overlooking a saving move (with a pawn about to promote, he could have given up Queen for Rook to prevent mate).

Tony Greco vs. Marian Waxman: ½-½
This game continued a new trend. With seven members of the Board of Governors playing in this tournament, all three intramural matchups of Board members to date have been drawn (Greco-Hoffmann in Round 1, Frumkin-Oliver in round 2, and now this one). Jeff Tannenbaum and Polly Wright have yet to be paired against fellow Board members, but there are still two rounds left). Oliver-Greco looks to be a possible Round 5 pairing.

William Dubinsky vs. Paul Rachlin: 1-0
Both sides passed up draws in a position where Black had two pawns and an attack for a Bishop, with a Rook for each side being the only major material swapped off. Paul unfortunately overlooked a cheapo in time pressure (about 1 minute left with about 6 or 7 for his opponent), leading to a sudden checkmate.

Paul Doganges vs. Fidel De Los Santos: 0-1
I didn’t get a chance to see any of this one; I think it was already over before my position settled down.

Polly Wright got a full point bye and played in the G/30 upstairs. Ed Scher took a bye this week. Lawrence Carlos, John Brendel and Jerry Monaco were too late to get byes for the week since they needed to be requested before Round 3. Hopefully all will be back next week.

Top board pairings will probably be Ray vs. Hoffmann and Treger vs. Frumkin (all 3-1)
and Berg vs. Widmaier and Scher vs. Adelson (all 2½-1½). Adelson has already played both Berg and Widmaier.

Submitted by Ed Frumkin

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Lamb sole leader

Steven Lamb leads the Wednesday night pack with a perfect 4.0. Even if he loses this Wednesday, Steven will still tie for first place, as his closest pursuers are a point behind.

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