In This Issue: From The Skittles Room King's Kibitzes, by FM Alex King Mona Karff Memorial Wrap Up Chess Toons En Passant Problems, Problems, curated by Alexander George Editor's Note
Welcome back, fellow chess players, to this edition of the Marshall Chess Club's fortnightly bulletin, The Marshall Spectator.
Looking ahead on our calendar, we have a lot of special events coming up. We are looking forward to the 107th annual Edward Lasker Memorial and MCC Championship, which will be a 6 round tournament held over one weekend - December 7th through 10th - with a guaranteed prize fund of $10,000. The event is sure to be a strong tournament, with GM Mikhail Antipov and GM Andrew Tang having already registered to play! FM Nathan Resika will be commenting on Thursday night, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, while GM Alex Lenderman will be commenting on Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night.
For the Championship, we will have a watch party during each round with pizza served. Following each round, participants from the top boards will be invited to join the commentator to share their thoughts live on stream. We will also offer casual chess and an unrated, 3 round rapid tournament (time control 15+10, no entry fee) starting 30-60 minutes after the championship round begins. In addition, there will be wine and beer available in the evening sessions.
As a qualifier to the club championship, we also have our historical Jerry Simon Memorial and Amateur Championship, which will be a 5 round tournament held on December 1, 2 and 3. Please be sure to register in advance, as this event is likely to sell out.
The Marshall recently concluded a first-of-its-kind educational offering: a weeklong intensive for advanced adult players, helmed by our very own GM Djurabek Khamrakulov. Over the course of the evening sessions, a focused group of advanced members-- including five titled players-- delved into a variety of important topics such as refining middlegame plans, sensing critical moments, practical decision making in complex positions, efficient applications of engine analysis, and cultivating psychological resilience and flexibility. The attendees had glowing feedback on the experience: WIM Dorothy Teasley said that the sessions, "lit a fire" under her play, while IM Sal Matera said that he was so impressed with GM Khamrakulov's "ability to teach and communicate that I have asked him to coach me as I prepare to play in the World Senior Chess Championship."
Owing both to the success of the intensive itself and to the volume of requests to join for future sessions, the Marshall will organize several such intensives in the new year, each geared towards players within a targeted rating range (such as 1400-1700, 1700-2000, 2000+, etc). Keep your eye out for announcements of the next sessions for the opportunity to experience GM Khamrakulov's world class instruction.
We are also thrilled to announce that IM Jay Bonin has returned to be our resident game analyst on Thursday nights starting at 6pm, an hour before round 1 of the Thursday Night Action Tournament. Be sure to take advantage of this complimentary game analysis the next time you plan on playing in the Thursday Night Action tournament. If you missed last week due to the holiday, be sure to stop by this Thursday evening and IM Jay Bonin will analyze your games before the start of round 1.
Last night, Jennifer Shahade gave a lecture featuring tricky pawn promotion puzzles and spoke about how to make chess more inclusive for everyone. If you were unable to attend the event, a full video of Jennifer’s presentation will be viewable here soon.
In a related story of exciting news about women in chess, club member Rochelle Ballantyne was recently featured in the news for aspiring to be the first Black female chess master.
Over the past two weeks, we have had a full calendar of tournaments too.
The $500 FIDE Blitz on November 24 had 17 players registered and was won by Ian Dudley, who won $85 for his 8 out of 9 performance. Leandro Ulloa won $42.50 for his 7.5 out of 9 score, while his brother Luis Ulloa scored 7 out of 9 to finish in clear third place winning $21.25. Miguel Omar Garcia scored 5.5 out of 9 to win $21.25, while Gautam Narula, Joseph Otero and Tommy Kozlek won $14.17 each for their 5 out of 9 score.
The CM, IA, NI Andre Harding Memorial on November 24 was a sold out event, with more than 50 players coming together to play chess in memoriam of Andre Harding. The event was won by GM Aleksandr Lenderman who scored 5.5 out of 6 to win the $408 first place prize. IM Jay Bonin came in clear second, scoring 5 out of 6 to win $204. Each of the following 4 players won $38.25 for their 4.5 out of 6 performance: Oliver Chernin, Ian Dudley, Bryan Lin and Tim Shvarts, while Joseph Otero won a $153 class prize for his impressive 4 out of 6 performance.
The Marshall Masters on November 22 had 25 players registered and concluded with a two-way tie for first between FM Leif Pressman and GM Michael Rohde, who scored 3.5 out of 4 to win $167 each. Each of their following 6 players won $28 for their 2.5 out of 4 score: IM Justin Sarkar, IM Jay Bonin, Paris Prestia, Kiren Nasta, Kyle Dong and Ethan J Klein.
The Saturday Game 50 Open on November 19 had 29 players registered and was won by IM Jay Bonin who earned $168 for his perfect 4 out of 4 finish, while GM Michael Rohde and IM Justin Sarkar won $56 each for their 3.5 out of 4 performance. Cameron Hull, Kameron Grose, John Moina and Pat Sukhum scored 2.5 out of 4 to share in a class prize, winning $21 each.
The Mona Karff Memorial/Marshall Women’s Championship that concluded on November 19 had 22 players registered and was won by GM Irina Krush, who finished with a perfect score of 5 out of 5 to win the $2,500 first place prize. WFM Chloe Gaw came in clear second in the event, scoring 4 out of 5 to win $1,250, while WFM Megan Paragua scored 3.5 out of 5 – losing only to GM Krush – to win the third place prize of $500. Kameliia Sharuda and Hema Vikas scored 3 points to share in a class prize, winning $250 each, while Abigail Zhou, Leah Yang and Anna Radchenko won $83.33 each for their 2.5 out of 5 score. The event was a huge success, please see the wrap up article in this issue of The Marshall Spectator for more details on this historic event.
The Sunday Rated Beginner Open on November 19 had 39 players registered and concluded in a four-way tie. Alexis Feijoo, Jonathan Hsieh, Arlo Scherr and Stanley Millien won $118.75 for their perfect 3 out of 3 performances.
The Saturday Game 50 Open on November 18 had 34 players registered and finished in a three-way tie. GM Michael Rohde, IM Justin Sarkar and Henry Burton won $143 each for their 3.5 out of 4 finish in the event.
The Under 2000 Morning Action on November 18 had and even 60 players registered, and was won by David Campbell, Brendan Moran, Lucas Fugate, Takki Tanaka and Tolani Somefun who scored 3 out of 3 to win $105 each. Owen Morrow also had a perfect score of 3 out of 3, winning the class prize in the event of $225.
The Weekly Under 1600 that concluded on November 17 had 24 players registered in this cycle. Raymond Leu and Alexander Grynszpan won $160 each for their 5 out of 6 performances, while Kola Oyekole, Logan Mirza, Thomas DeDona and Daniel Fusco won $40 each for their 4 out of 6 performance.
The Nagib Gebran Action on November had 42 players registered and was won by IM Alexander Katz and IM Kevin Wang who won $148 each for their perfect 4 out of 4 performances. Daguy Vaval won $99 as a class prize as well as an upset prize. Kyle Dong, Michael Li and Grant Rheingold won $33 each for their 3 out of 4 performance.
The Weekly Thursday Open that concluded on November 16 had 29 players registered and was won by Caleb Klenoff, who scored a perfect 6 out of a possible 6 to win the $290 first place prize. George Berg, Sergey Nizhegorodtsev, Juan Luis Herrero Estrada and Theodore Pimanoff won $109.25 each for their 4 out of 6 performance.
The Weekly Under 2200 that concluded on November 15 had 45 players registered and was won by George Berg, who scored a near perfect 5.5 out of 6 to win the $358 first place prize. Robet Olsen came in clear second place, scoring 5 out of 6 to win $215, while Rochelle Ballantyne and Alexander Golosovker scored 4.5 out of 6 to win $143.30.
The FIDE Monday that concluded on November 13 had 28 players registered and was won by Alberto Arnedo Ruiz, who scored an impressive 5 out of 6 points to finish in clear first place, winning the $270 first place prize. Evan S. Rosenberg finished in clear second place with 4.5 out of 6, earning $180 for his effort, while Jacob A. Vogel and Wyatt Wong scored 4 points winning $45 each. Chase Knowles scored 3.5, winning a $90 class prize while Yohan Ghosh scored an even 3 points to net a $45 class prize.
The Monday U1800 that concluded on November 13 had 25 players registered and finished in a three-way tie for first. Thomas Edward Schankler, Michael Odonnel and Jephson Mathew scored 4.5 out of 6, winning $125.33 each for their effort. Chris Weldon, Zoe Wong, Dmitriy Guller and Raymond Leu scored 3 points to share the class prize, winning $31.50 each.
We look forward to seeing you at the club soon!
King’s Kibitzes
Queendemonium, by FM Alex King
In my February column I shared a position from one of my online blitz games where two queens beat three:
I have since reached an even more unusual material scenario in a correspondence game - one queen surviving against three:
Alex King (2310) - Bobby Taylor (2124)
ICCF 2023
Amazingly, the position is equal! But despite this being an engine-assisted game, my opponent later blundered and lost after somehow misreading his engine’s output:
35.Bd4! Qxd4 36.Rxd4 Qe8 37.h4 Kg7 38.Rdf4 Ra7 39.g4 Kg8? 40.Rf8+ 1-0
In the 10 million games in Mega Database, I only found two other examples of QQQ vs Q (remaining on the board for 2 or more ply) where the QQQ is not winning:
Anton Shomoev (2556) - Rauf Mamedov (2566)
Moscow 2007
31…Ng4! would be equal, but instead Black played 31…Rh4? and after 32.Qxf8+ Bxf8 33.Qe8 the moment had passed and White went on to win.
Alan Merry (2100) - Matthias Dann (2381)
Neustadt an der Weinstrasse 2012
Black correctly forced a perpetual with 39…Rf1+! 40.Kxf1 (40.Qxf1? Qh2#) 40…Nh2+ 41.Kg1 Nxf3+ 42.Kf1 Nh2+ ½-½
Even among composed studies, I found only three non-trivial examples of Q surviving against QQQ. The first is a fairly simple perpetual-or-stalemate drawing idea:
A. Kalinin
Uralski Problemist 1996
1.Bxc6+ Rb7 2.Bxb7+ Qaxb7 3.Qa2+ Q8a7 4.Qg8+ Qbb8 5.Qg2+! Qxg2 stalemate.
Here is a much more difficult and interesting example:
P. Olin
Shakhmatnaya Poezia 2009
3.Qxf4! Qd6 (3…Qxe5 4.Qxe5+ d6 5.Qe7! Qa1 6.Rf8! +- ) 4.Nc6+! dxc6+ 5.Qxd6+ Ka8 6.Re8! and White wins after further interesting play, but it is no longer QQQ vs Q.
But my favorite is this “grotesque”, which must be seen in full:
I. Bondar
Shakhmatnaya Kompozitsia 1998
1.f7 e1Q+ 2.Ka6 f1Q+ 3.Ka7 g1Q+ 4.Ka8
According to my research this is the only position, composed or played, where the side with four extra queens is losing.
4…Qxf5 5.gxf5 h5 6.g6! Qxg6 7.f8Q+ Kh7
8.fxg6+ Kh6 9.Qf4+ Kxg6 10.Qf5+ Kh6 11.Ra6+ 1-0
It’s hard to imagine anything topping that. But chess composition is full of “challenge accepted” types, so I look forward to baiting some composers I know into trying their hand at outdoing this example. I will report back with any success they have!
Until next month…
FM Alex King, chessboard polygamist
Mona Karff Memorial Wrap Up
The first annual Mona Karff Memorial and Marshall Chess Club Women’s Championship concluded on Sunday, November 19, with GM Irina Krush finishing in clear first place to win the $2,500 first place prize and the title of 2023 Marshall Chess Club Women’s Champion. The event was held in our newly renovated space, where many of the strongest women and girls in our community came together to compete in this prestigious event.
Throughout the event, we were thrilled to have the fantastic live commentary of GM Aleksandr Lenderman and FM Nathan Resika on our twitch stream. In case you missed the last round games, you can play through the moves with GM Lenderman’s annotations here. You can also view video recaps on our Youtube channel of the opening remarks by IM Rusudan Goletiani and Dr. Frank Brady, as well as highlights from each round, and the closing ceremony, which featured closing remarks made by the winners, GM Irina Krush and WFM Chloe Gaw, and featured speeches by Marshall Chess Club Vice President, IM Sal Matera as well as special guest speaker Maria Bryne, the wife of the late GM Robert Byrne.
If you’re interested in seeing analysis of the games from the event, please subscribe to our youtube channel where you will find recaps from each round. In addition, I cannot recommend enough the relatively new youtube channel of our Women’s Club Champion, GM Irina Krush, where she analyzes her games as well as reviews recent noteworthy games from international events. My personal favorite is this video, in which she analyzes a key moment from her game in Round 1 of the event. In addition to being our new women’s club champion, GM Irina Krush also recently won a blindfold game against Drew Carey while appearing as a contestant on the Price is Right.
Chess Toons
En Passant
After eleven exciting rounds, the World Youth Championships — under 14, 16 and 18 — in the open and girls categories concluded in Montesilvano, Italy. Americans WGM Rochelle Wu and WIM Iris Mou finished in the top three in their sections, placing 2nd place in the under 18 category and 3rd place in the under 14 category respectively.
World Champion GM Ding Liren will make his return to the global chess stage in Wijk aan Zee, while the former champion and eight-time Tata Steel Chess winner GM Magnus Carlsen is missing for the first time since 2014.
GM Levon Aronian joined GM Wesley So in the lead at the 2023 Sinquefield Cup after dispatching GM Alireza Firouzja in a rook endgame on Saturday. The game very nearly came to an end early as Firouzja came within one second of being flagged but in the end, Aronian was forced to convert a tricky endgame. Details can be found here.
Problems, Problems, curated by Alexander George
L. Prokes, 1947
White to draw.
Yes, draw. Despite the White pawn being within the reach of the Black king and the Black pawn being out of the reach of the White king! (Shades of Réti!) This looks like an impossible task. In order to achieve it, White will have to feign an interest in one side of the board - only to make a well-timed beeline to the other.
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B. Larsson, 1943
White to mate in 2:
a. diagram; b. move White rook to c7; c. move White rook to g7; d. move White rook to f7.
Solution to B. Larsson, 1943:
a.d8=Q b.d8=R c.d8=B d.d8=N+
I find it boggling that Larsson came up with this matrix. How does one even begin to learn how to do that?
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Alexander George
Editor's Note
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!
The Marshall Chess Club
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