• Garry Kasparov Retires from Professional Chess
  • After winning the Linares super-tournament yet again, Garry Kasparov announced his retirement from chess. Kasparov has cited a lack of goals in combination with increasing interests away from the board (notably Russian politics) as his main reasons for leaving the professional arena. Is he the best to ever play the game? Quite possibly so, although there are a select few who could lay claim to that title.
  • As Anand has said, “When he arrived on the international scene as the World champion in 1985, he was like a breath of fresh air.” At the moment, there is no heir apparent after Kasparov’s exit, although a number of promising juniors like Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin are already strong Grandmasters. We will have to wait and see whether there will be somebody in the years to come who can leave such a powerful mark on the chess world.
  • Here are some excerpts of a Kasparov biography put together by A. Matanovic for Sahovski Informator:
    • “In the interval between the second and the third encounters between Karpov and Korchnoi, at Baguio and Meran respectively, the youngest participant in the Banja Luka tournament secured the top position for himself five rounds before its end. Botvinnik sounded the warning: ‘His name is Garry Kasparov.’
    • “The bearer of this name swore by Botvinnik but admired Fischer. Fischer played chess in a swimming-pool, picked up errors in the games played in the last century, removed from his life everything other than chess … Most professional chess players think of their wives and children before they plunge into an adventure on the chess board. For Kasparov no such risks were entertained. Najdorf once said, ‘When Tal offers a sacrifice, take it first, then verify…’ To paraphrase him, when Kasparov offers a sacrifice, first verify, and then resign.”

  • Kasparov’s chess preparation is legendary, although in the past few years, a number of top chess players have narrowed the gap. First it was Kramnik and Anand, then more recently, Leko and Topalov. Games like Kasparov-Portisch (from Niksic 1983) with 21.Bxg7!! and Kasparov-Anand (from Game 10 of the PCA WCh) with 15.Nb3!! are examples of this preparation in action.
  • The annotated games section of this newsletter will focus on Kasparov’s achievements at the chessboard.

• EBCC March Swiss
  • The March Swiss featured $500 in guaranteed prizes, but this was not enough to lure any masters out of hiding. EBCC director SM David Pruess was the sole player over 2200, and despite several tough games, he took first with a perfect 4-0 score. Tying for second at 3-1 were Kenneth Voss, Larry Snyder, Salar Jahedi, and Nima Ferdosi, the first three only losing to Pruess, while Ferdosi had a bye and one draw. Second place for the under 1700 category went to Thomas Boyd with 2.5.
• EBCC March Scholastic Swiss
  • While the March Swiss did not draw many players, a record of 50 players turned out the following weekend for the Scholastic Swiss. Played in three section (K-3, 4-6, and 7-12), the Grades K-3 section was the largest, drawing half of the total number of players. After 5 rounds, Hemang Jangle emerged the untouched winner at 5-0. Right behind him with 4 points, losing only to Jangle, were Austin Lloyd and Jerome Sun. 10 place trophies were given out in each section, but additionally Jangle and Lloyd (on tiebreaks) won free private lessons at the EBCC.
  • Things were a little calmer on Sunday as the two older sections played the second half of their tournament. In the Grades 4-6 section (which featured quite an impressive level of chess), Rahul Desirazu dominated the event through 5 rounds, defeating the 4 highest rated players in the section. But in the last round Ray Hua Wu pulled out an amazing game to nick the winner. Rahul’s 5 points were still good for a terrific sole first. Pulling up behind him was the other top seed Kevin Zhu who reached 4.5, followed by 3rd-4th place Andrew Li and Wu at 4. Desirazu and Zhu also won free lessons.
  • In the Grades 7-12 section, there was another perfect score. Top seed Ted Belanoff mowed down his competition, and won the event with 6 points out of 6 games. Second seed Sreekar Jasthi took second with 5 points, and Arnold Hua (a very strong unrated) third with 4.
  • The event went pretty smoothly with rounds starting as scheduled, and awards ceremonies each day after the last game was done. The EBCC plans to hold another event like this in June or July.

• 5th Monday Night Marathon
  • Salar Jahedi took sole first in yet another Monday Night tournament, this despite being forced to take a zero point bye in the last round. In the four rounds he played, he scored a perfect 4-0, including wins against the players finishing in 2nd-3rd. It was an outstanding performance. Finishing half a point behind in 2nd-3rd, were Larry Snyder and Arthur Dembling with 4/6. Both had good tournaments, but it should be noted that Dembling is rated below 1700 and in fact was awarded the Under-1700 prize for this tournament. Arthur defeated two Class-A players and drew with expert Snyder in the course of the tournament. Even in losing, he may have made Salar say, “How is this guy 1600?” As usual with the Monday Night Marathons, 100% (!) in entries was given back in prizes. The next tournament starts Monday, March 28th at 7 PM.
• East Bay Chess Club GM Round Robin
  • On Tuesday March 29th, a high-level tournament begins at the East Bay Chess Club. In the strongest event held in the East Bay since the 1984 US Championship, Grandmasters Alex Yermolinsky, Suat Atalik (from Turkey), Dashzeveg Sharavdorj (from Mongolia), International Master Thomas Roussel-Roozmon (from Canada), and Fide Masters David Pruess and Alan Stein will meet in a double round robin event with IM and GM norms possible.
  • Rounds will begin daily at 1 pm at the East Bay Chess Club from the 29th through April 6th, except for Saturday April 2nd when two rounds will be played (at 11 am and 6 pm). Spectators are welcome. This will be free for EBCC members, and cost non-members the usual $5 for coming.
  • The Club could use some help from its members during these nine days, as one of our directors will be trying to devote his energies to playing chess. We could still use a place for one Grandmaster (Sharavdorj) to stay, we could use help broadcasting the games to ICC (you would be shown how to do this), and we will probably need other sundry support. Thanks for your help in bringing a great event to the area! We hope you’ll enjoy the event.

Questions or Comments about the website? Contact webmaster@eastbaychess.com