The Marshall Spectator
September 20, 2023
In This Issue:
From the Skittles Room Endgame Corner, by IM Silas Lund Kibera Knights Update, by Ken Kaplan Chess in Prisons, by Tony Ballard En Passant: Chess News Chess Toons Puzzle of the Week, by Alex George
Welcome back, fellow chess players, to this edition of the Marshall Chess Club's fortnightly bulletin, The Marshall Spectator.
Earlier this month on September 5, the Marshall Chess Club hosted a lecture and book signing by GM Vinay Bhat to celebrate the publication of his new book entitled How I Became A Chess Grandmaster. The lecture was one of the most engaging events that we have held all year. If you were unable to attend, you can see it in its entirety here.
In another installment of our inter club matches, this past week a team of Marshall members faced off online against inmates from a Wichita, Kansas correctional facility. While the games were hard fought, the Marshall team eventually triumphed 7-1. The team of inmates was originally provided with equipment and resources by the Marshall Foundation, and the inmates who took part in the match are preparing to play in the 3rd Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners this October. The Director of Prison Outreach from The Gift of Chess, Tony Ballard, said via email “we had a great time and look forward to doing more with you all from Marshall Chess Club in the future. We would like to register other prisons throughout the state and possibly country in the future. As well as those located in prisons in Africa and Spain.” Stay tuned for more exciting matches between the Marshall and other clubs from around the country and the world.
The Marshall Chess Club would like to promote the below event to our readers. It is a chess tournament being organized at the Russian Samovar in the Theater District in Midtown Manhattan. All details can be found in the flier below:
Coming up in October, we are looking forward to a lecture by US Chess Hall of Fame inductee, GM John Fedorowicz! He was first inspired to begin playing chess as a child in 1972 by the Fisher-Spassky match. He earned his Grandmaster title in 1986 and in addition to being a professional player, he also became a coach and author of note. Over his career he has won the New York, US and World Opens, and he has twice represented the US Olympic team. GM Fedorowicz has been a coach for countless US Youth and Cadet teams and has captained both the men’s and women’s teams. He has been the head coach of the very successful Speyer Legacy School Chess Team since 2012.
We are also thrilled to offer a class via Zoom on Endgames, taught by our very own Tamar Chanadiri. This class will cover many of the most common basic endgames with a focus on practical concepts that can be easily remembered and applied over the board. The class is held from 6:00-7:00 pm on Friday. Nonmembers are welcome and you can register here.
Our historic club held more than a dozen rated chess tournaments over the last two weeks. Many of our events are selling out, so be sure to register in advance!
The Sunday Game 50 Open on September 17 had 45 players registered and was won by Aleksandr Lenderman who scored a perfect 4 out of 4 to win the $264 first place prize. Henry Burton and Manish Kashyap scored 3.5 out of 4 to win $154 each.
The Sunday Game 50 Under 1600 on September 17 had 26 players registered and was won by Daniel Leon Babakhan who scored a perfect 4 out of 4 to win $156. Alvin Lou and Alexander Vivado scored 3.5 out of 4 each to win $91 each.
The Under 2000 Morning Action on September 16 had 29 players registered and was won by Oliver Boydell and Timothy Abbot, who scored 3 out of 3 to win $127.50. Takki Tanaka, Kirill Tsydypov, Terrain Wu and Aditya Singh scored 2 out of 3 to win $27.25 each.
The Saturday Game 50 Open on September 16 had 58 players registered and was won by GM Aleksandr Lenderman and IM Mykola Bortnyk who scored 4 out of 4 to win $280 each. Ryan Chen won the class prize of $168 for his 3.5 out of 4 score.
The Saturday Game 50 Under 1800 on September 16 had 13 players registered and was won by Gilberto Astor who scored 3.5 out of 4 to win $72. Thomas Edward Schankler and Dylan Yu scored 3 points out of 4 to win $24 each, and Wesley Tang Huang won a $36 class prize for the same score.
The Friday Blitz on September 15 had an even 40 players registered and was won by GM Aleksandr Lender, who scored 8 out of 9 to win the first place prize of $200. IM Mykola Bortnyk won the clear second place prize of $100 for his 7.5 out of 9 perfromance, while FM Brewington Hardaway scored 6.5 to win the third place prize of $50. Alex Pakh also won a class prize of $50 for his 5.5 out of 9 score, while Roman Malyshev, Aakaash Meduri, Max Mottola, Chloe Gaw and Wyatt Wong won $20 each for their 6 out of 9 performance.
The Women and Girls’ Open on September 15 had 29 players registered and concluded with a 4-way tie. Raydily Rosario Almanzar, Abigail Zhou, Mahati Kashyap and Luoxi Lin had perfect 3 out of 3 scores to win $65.25 each.
The Nagib Gebran Action on September 14 had 40 players registered and was won by Kole Moses who scored a perfect 4 out of 4 to win $183. IM Michael Song and Bryan Weisz scored 3.5 to win $46 each, while Ian Nicholson won a $92 class prize for the same score. Finally, William Ren and Alvaro Lopez won $46 each for their 3 out of 4 performance.
The Rated Beginner Open on September 10 had 41 players registered and concluded with a 4-way tie for first. Brendan Tsang, David Huang, David Marcal and Nicholas Kan scored a perfect 3 out of 3 to win $128.25 each.
The Marshall Premier Under 2000 had 40 players registered and was won by Theodore Chachere, who scored 4.5 out of 5 to win the $455 first place prize. Connor Junda Wang and Theodore Pimanoff scored 4 points and won $179 each. Takki Tanaka won the class prize of $163, scoring 3 out of 5.
The Marshall Premier FIDE Open on September 10 had 39 players registered and was won by Mykola Bortnyk who scored 4.5 out of 5 to win the $907 first place prize. GM Andrew Tang, Joseph Zeltsan and FM Liam Putnam scored 4 out of 5 and won $170 each, while Bryan Lin scored 3.5 points to win a class prize of $284.
The Under 2000 Morning Action on September 9 had 46 players registered and finished in 5-way tie: Anthony Wang, Brendan Moran, Bas Jaspers, Hunter Quirk and Erik Liu all scored a perfect 3 out of 3 to win $79 each. Takki Tannaka scored 2.5 out of 3 to win $169.
The Nagib Gebran Action on September 7 had 32 players registered and was won by Aditeya Das and Grant Rheingold, who scored 3.5 out of 4 and won $112.50 each for their near perfect performance. Eric Moskow and Alec Hyunmook Choi won the class prize in this event for their 3 out of 4 score, winning $75 each for their efforts.
The Labor Day Action on September 4 had 43 players registered and was won by GM Aleksandr Lenderman and IM Yury Lapshun, who scored 5.5 points and won $336 each. Judah Schizer came in 3rd place, scoring 5 points and winning $126. There was a 4-way tie between Alec Hyunmook Choi, William Ren, Dylan Kang and John Kian Oneill who scored 4 out of 6 to win $31.50 each. Takki Tanaka and Chris Weldon won the remaining class prize of $63 each for their 3.5 out of 6 performance.
As always, there are many exciting events upcoming at our club and I encourage you to check out our calendar for the full list here.
Endgame Corner, by IM Silas Lund
This column contains two positions with N vs. B, with an additional theme that I will not reveal just yet. In both positions, the knight side has the upper hand. First, try to solve the positions as exercises. The solutions will be given later on.
Exercise 1: White to move. You can click through and review the positions and solutions here.
Olympiad-12 Preliminaries Rantanen, Matti vs Walsh, James J 1956, Moscow
Exercise 2: Black to move. You can click through and review the positions and solutions here.
L'Ami, Erwin vs Van Kampen, Robin, 2014, Reykjavik Open
Solution to Exercise 1:
58. Kg5 White should go for the h5-pawn.
58…Ke7 There is no reason to delay the only chance for counterplay. (58... Ke6 59. Nxh5 Kd5 is a better try, to seek counterplay against the b4-pawn. Once b4 falls, the pawns on a5 and c5 are likely to drop next. What should White do in this case? It is easy to be scared of Black's counterplay on the queenside, but the key to understand this position is to realize that Black's bishop will not be able to sacrifice itself on the h-pawn. If that were possible, Black's strategy for a draw would be to simply eliminate the remaining pawns on the queenside. 60. Nf6+ Kc4 61. Ng4 White is able to cut off the bishop, mainly because it's a rook's pawn: in this case, the bishop cannot 'move to the other side of the pawn'. Kxb4 62. h5 Bc2 63. Ne5 Kxa5 64. h6 Bh7 65. Kf6 Kb5 Staying out of the range of the white knight. (65... Kb4 66. Kg7 a5 67. Kxh7 a4 68. Kg6 a3 69. h7 a2 70. h8=Q a1=Q 71. Nxc6+ bxc6 72. Qxa1) 66. Kg7 a5 (66... Bc2 67. Ng6 a5 68. h7 ) 67. Kxh7 a4 68. Nd3 Kc4 69. Nc1 Picking up the knight will slow down Black decisively in the pawn race.)
59. Nxh5 Ke6 60. Nf6 Ke5 61. Ne8 Since Black got off to a slow start with the counterplay against b4, White is in time to capture b7. (Or simply 61. Ng4+ with similar lines as shown above.)
61... Kd4 62. Nd6 Kc3 63. Nxb7 Now it's a simple matter of winning the bishop for the h-pawn, using the king. So, the theme here is whether or not it is possible for a player to sacrifice a piece on the last pawn to make a draw. In this case, White could avoid this drawing idea with K and N because it was an edge pawn. In the next example, the bishop will outsmart the K and N. 1-0
Solution to Exercise 2:
62... b6 This move is not a mistake, but dubious as there is a much easier way to obtain the draw. In the game, Black succeeded in drawing the game, but only just: everything came down to one tempo. (The easy way to a draw is this: 62... Bg4 63. Ke5 Bf3 64. Kd6 Bh1 Black simply gives up the b7-pawn, and waits with the bishop on the long diagonal where it defends c6. White's only real winning attempt is to free the knight to win the c6-pawn, but that allows the black king to approach h4. The question then becomes: is White able to support and queen the c5-pawn, or can Black sacrifice the bishop on this last pawn? As it turns out, the bishop can fight the c5-pawn even without the help of the black king. 65. Kc7 Bf3 66. Kxb7 Bh1 67. Kc7 Bf3 68. Kd6 White improves the king to the maximum before releasing the knight. 68…Bh1 69. Ne2. Theoretically, White could also try to support the h4-pawn with the king, to then free the knight, chase the Black king back, and then try to advance the h-pawn. But this is not a realistic option, as the white king can easily be dislodged from the g4-square. 69…Kg6 (69... Kh5 70. Ng3+) 70. Nd4 Kh5 71. Nxc6 Kxh4 72. Nb4 Bb7 White threatened to block out the bishop with Nb4-d5. The problem for White is that the pawn is stopped on c6. From this square, there is a long diagonal (a8-h1, 8 squares) and a short diagonal (a4-e8, 5 squares). It's the shortest diagonal that matters. If this diagonal is more than 4 squares long, then there is no way for the K and N to control the B, as the K and N can each cover 2 squares on a diagonal, totaling a maximum of 4 squares. Therefore, in this case, the black king is not needed in the defense - apart from the occasional waiting move.)
63. cxb6 c5 64. Ke5 Bb7 Black's last 2 moves were forced. The problem for White is that he has to release the knight earlier than planned now (due to the c5-pawn), which allows Black to attack the h4-pawn sooner rather than later. In this position with the white pawn on b6, the shortest diagonal in front of it is only 3 squares (a6-c8), and therefore the king must take part in the defense.
65. Ne6 c4 66. Kd4 Kh5 67. Kxc4 Kxh4 68. Kc5 It is now a race, and the black king only just makes it to the queenside.
68…Kg4 69. Kd6 Kf5 70. Nd4+ After this move, the draw is not in doubt. (More testing is 70. Kc7 Ba8 (70... Bg2 loses to 71. Nd4+ Ke5 72. Nc6+ Ke6 73. b7) (70... Ba6 71. Nc5 The K and N combine to control the shortest diagonal in front of the pawn. Therefore, the bishop must stay on the long diagonal.) 71. Nd8 Ke5 72. Nb7 The bishop is trapped in the corner... 72…Kd5 73. Kb8 Kc6 Just in time to attack the b6-pawn.)
70... Ke4 71. Nc6 Ba8 72. Kc5 Bb7 73. Na5 Ba8 74. Nc4 Kd3 75. Ne5+ Kc3 76. Nc6 Kb3 77. Kb5 Kc3 78. Kc5 Kb3 79. Nd8 Ka4 80. Kd6 Kb5 81. Kc7 Bg2 82. b7 Bxb7 Well fought by our young and strong player, even though this drama wasn't necessary. 1/2-1/2
Kibera Knights Update, by Ken Kaplan
The Kibera Knights Chess Team has returned to Nairobi, Kenya after playing in their first International FIDE Event, The African Junior Championships in Cairo Egypt, September 1-9.
The six players faced very tough competition but adapted to the rigors of high level tournament chess in a 90 + Swiss format, and acquitted themselves well over the nine rounds.
The experience was a seminal moment for the players, as it was the first time they had left Kenya, first time in an airplane and first time in a hotel! They were also able to visit the Pyramids and ride along the Nile River.
The Knights have been supported in many ways by the Marshall Chess Club, the Marshall Chess Foundation and Greg Keener over the years. It has demonstrated the power of chess to change lives. The Knights are now joining a Junior Chess League in Nairobi and will receive instruction to raise the levels of their games.
Chess in Prisons, by Tony Ballard
On Friday September 15 th , 2023, Four Residents of Wichita Work Release Facility in Kansas, Sharvell Robinson, Rudy Anderson, Adam Anderson, and Tony Ballard participated in an on-line chess competition with members of the renown Marshall Chess club.
This was organized by the staff of Marshall Chess Club and the event was hosted on the platform Chess.com. Captain Kevin Oneth, who has been appointed to be the statewide Gift of Chess coordinator, helped to register these four former winners of the first ever online intrastate chess championship held within a Department of Corrections, to participate in this event.
The Gift of Chess has been supported by the kind donations and friendliness of the Marshall Chess Club to expand and scale throughout the Kansas Department of Corrections, with the goal to implement educational chess programming aimed to help those incarcerated develop essential life skills such as decision making, problem solving and critical thinking skills.
This online chess competition with The Marshall Chess club paired competitors with like ratings to have a fair competing level. Each player played two games apiece, one with white and one with black pieces. The time control was G/10+5. Marshall Chess Club members walked away with a 7-1 victory against the Residents of WWRF. Tony Ballard, a passionate chess player and director of prison outreach for The Gift of Chess was the lone win.
Tony learned to use the game of chess in his everyday life as a tool to help him rehabilitate himself from a life of crime and impulsiveness that led to serious and costly consequences. He has served 25 years of his life behind bars and learned while incarcerated the importance of translating chess skills developed on the chess board into one’s personal life for success. He has developed chess clubs and organized chess tournaments throughout KDOC to encourage those incarcerated to use chess to help rid them of impulsiveness and learn to make thoughtful decisions and responses that could lead to successful reintegration into society.
Tony And The Gift of Chess looks to involve Marshall Chess Club members in many more online tournaments with inmates from other facilities to promote awareness for chess as a cognitive rehabilitative tool.
Thanks to the Marshall Chess Club for their continued support.
En Passant
The game has a long history in the city. Now it’s part of nightlife for a new generation.
Ever since the historic moment the great GM Garry Kasparov lost to Deep Blue in 1997, artificial intelligence has transformed chess. Now Chess.com, the world’s leading chess platform, is launching an elite tournament to celebrate AI’s achievements in the game.
The inaugural AI Cup from September 25-29 will take its place as the sixth and last regular season knockout as the race to reach the Finals of this year’s prestigious $2 million Champions Chess Tour reaches its climax.
WGM Jennifer Shahade says she was greeted with "hostility instead of support" and "consistently minimized or ignored" by US Chess when she came forward with allegations of sexual assault. The former U.S. Women's Chess Champion resigned as the Director of the US Chess Women's Program on Monday.
Shahade on Wednesday had her last day as the Women's Program Director of US Chess, a position she has held since 2018. She has worked for the federation since 2006, when she was hired as a Web Editor and later promoted to Senior Digital Editor.
Chess Toons
Problem of the Week
P. H. Williams, 1904
White to mate in 3.
P. H. Williams was esteemed a genius. And beloved. Not a common combination. Edward Winter has a wonderful page of recollections and photographs here. After his death, in 1922 at the age of 48, Brian Harley wrote:
Williams’ position in the world of chess problems is a very assured one. In his enormous gallery of over 1,200 published positions, begun at the age of 15, are many masterpieces – usually on a small scale. He rarely attempted big canvases. It was not his métier. Elegance and piquancy are what we expect in a P.H.W. composition. He is par excellence the composer of ideas, often beautiful, often humorous, sometimes both …. We have lost a unique personality – a genius, without egoism, but with the kindest heart in the world.
Last Edition’s Puzzle: W. Speckmann, 1964
Solution to W. Speckmann, 1964:
1. Ke6 Kd8, 2.Kd6 Kc8, 3.g8=Q+ Kb7, 4.Qb3+ Kc8, 5.Qb6, and 6.Qc7. If 1...f1=Q, 2.g8=Q+ Qf8, 3.Qh7 Qh6+, 4.Qxh6 Kd8, 5.Qc1 Ke8, 6.Qc8.
Editor's Note
Have you played an interesting game at the Marshall recently? Submit it along with some light annotations to td@marshallchessclub.org and you may win a free tournament entry!
As always, if you have any feedback, comments, or would like to submit an article please contact us directly at td@marshallchessclub.org.
Enjoy, and thanks for reading!
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