The Marshall Spectator
August 9th Edition
In This Issue:
Welcome back, fellow chess players, to this edition of the Marshall Chess Club's fortnightly bulletin, The Marshall Spectator.
We were thrilled to learn that The Marshall Spectator was nominated for and won the Chess Journalists of America award for 2023 Best Club Newsletter. A full list of winners can be found here. We would like to congratulate Marshall Chess Club Member Pete Tamburro for winning Chess Journalist of the Year, as well as Marshall Chess Club member NM Aakaash Meduri for his honorable mention in the category of Best Tournament Report for his article When Gambling Pays Off: Meduri Goes All-in on Vegas. We would also like to congratulate GM Irina Krush for winning the category of Best Tournament Report for her article in American Chess Magazine, “A Triumph of Experience and Youth!”
In an effort to do a little house cleaning, the club is happy to offer some new and used books for sale for $5 each (and $2 for Informants!) We are selling Chess Informants, New in Chess Yearbooks, and other used chess books. The books have theoretical articles that will help you with the openings that you play. Please inquire in the office for more details!
Another housekeeping rule that we will be implementing is the periodic cleaning of the lost and found items. If you left a water bottle, jacket, book, or other item behind it will be located in the skittles room in our lost and found area for two weeks. After two weeks, we will clear the space to ensure the area is clean and neat for the enjoyment of our members.
There will be a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society held on Sunday, September 17th at 10:30 am at Next Jump Office HQ in Manhattan located at 512 West 22nd Street, New York, NY. You can register for the Chess Cares Tournament here. If you are unable to play but would still like to support the cause, you can make a donation at the Chess Tournament Donation Site. Every little bit helps, please help others.
In the last few weeks, we have had a plethora of rated chess events at our historic club.
The FIDE Premier that concluded on August 6 had 30 players registered and was won by Royal Buchanan who finished with 4.5 out of 5 points to win the $630 first place prize. FM Justin Chen and GM Michael Rohde finished with 4 points to win $180, and Michael Li, who finished with 3.5, won $180 as well. The Mixed Doubles prize for the FIDE Premier was awarded to Team 1212MIX who had an average rating of 2111.5, scored a total of 4 points and was made up of Leonardo Liu (2144) 2.5 and Chloe Gaw (2079) 1.5.
There was a 4-way tie for first in the Under 2000 section of the Premier that concluded on August 6 between Theodore Chachere, Jin Ma, Ari Drucker and Andrey Pichugov who all won $192.75 for their efforts. The class prize of $110 went to Rishan Malhotra and the Mixed Doubles prize for the Under 2000 was awarded to Team FUJINA with an average rating of 1711 and a score of 5. The team was comprised of two players: Lucas Moina (1833) and 3.0 Anjyu Fujita (1589) 2.0.
The Saturday Under 2000 Morning Action on August 5 had 33 players registered and featured a 3-way tie for first place between David Campbell, Claudio Martin Mariani and Nasir Rasheed who scored a perfect 3 out of 3 to win $93.33 each. The remaining prize went to Robert Fanjun Wei who was the only player to score scored 2.5 out of 3 and won $120 for his efforts.
The Steve Immitt Action on August 3 had 44 players registered and was won by FM Justin Chen and Aditeya Das who scored 4 out of 4 to win $151.50 each. Kole Henry Moses, Matheu Jefferson and Kevin Hass scored 3 points to share in a class prize, winning $33.67 each, while Kyle Chan, Harper Wallace, Leo Shen and Andrey Pichugov scored 2.5 out of 4 to win$25.25 each.
The Rated Beginner Open on July 30 had a full 40 players registered and finished with a 5-way tie for first place between Fred Walsh, Anderson Chen, Tiger Watson, Henry Zhou and Naveen Srinavasn who won $97.60 for their perfect 3 out of 3 score.
The Sunday Game 50 Under 1600 on July 30 had 16 players registered and was won by Benjamin Davar who scored a perfect 4 out of 4 to win $84, while Yidong Chen and Antonio Correia scored 3 out of 4 to win $49 each.
The Sunday Game 50 Open on July 30 had 56 players registered and was won by GM Michael Rohde who scored a perfect 4 out of 4 to win the $336 first place prize. FM Justin Chen, Aditeya Das and Jeremy Ratner scored 3.5 out of 4 to win $74.67 each, while Brian Gilbert, Theodore Pimanoff and Richard Koppenaal scored 3 out of 4 to win $56 each.
The Saturday Game 50 Open on July 29 had 49 players registered and finished in a 4-way tie between FM Justin Chen, GM Michael Rohde, Brian Arthur and Nick Panico who scored 3.5 out of 4 to win $120 each. There was a 5-way tie for the remaining prize funds between David Campbell, Tim Shvarts, Aaron Kudryavsky, Nicholas Belnky and Leqi Han who scored 3 points to earn $28.80 each.
The Saturday Game 50 Under 1800 on July 29 had 15 players and was won by Chris Shen who scored a perfect 4 out of 4 to win $84, while Kiaan Javeri and Leiland Olson scored 3 out of 4 each to win $49.
The Under 2000 Morning Action on July 29 had 23 players registered and was won by Hoang Huynh and Timothy Abbot who scored 3 out of 3 to win $96.25 each. The remaining class prize was shared by Malik Wilson and Rishan Malhotra who scored 2 points to earn $41.25.
The FIDE Blitz on July 28 had 42 players registered, including our current club champion as well as 3 former club champions. It was won by GM Nicolas Checa, who scored a perfect 9 out of 9 to win the $195 first place prize. Second place went to our current club champion, CM Zachary Tanenbaum, who scored 7.5 out of 9 to win $96. Jalen Wang scored an impressive 7 out of 9 to take home $49, and the remaining class prize was shared by Toshinori Underwood, Kole Moses and Neal Thio Hong who scored 6 out of 9 to win $49 each.
The Steve Immitt Action on July 27 had 44 players and was won by Toshinori Underwood who scored a perfect 4 out of 4 to win the $210 first place prize. What’s more, he saw his rating jump from 2183 to 2209, officially clearing the US Chess rating hurdle to earn the title of National Master. The editorial staff of the Marshall Spectator would like to congratulate Toshinori Underwood on this momentous achievement. David Campbell came in second place scoring 3.5 out of 4 to win $101.
The Monthly Under 2400 that concluded on July 23 had 62 players registered and was won by Ethan Kozower and Michael Li, who scored 4.5 out of 5 to win $343.50 each. Wyatt Wong and Timothy Ng scored 4 points to win $191 each, while Nicolas Marchese won a class prize of $229 for his 3.5 out of 5 performance, and Suvan Baranwal and Chance Noah Deas shared in a class prize winning $114.50 each for the same score.
The Rated Beginner Open on July 23 had 41 players registered and concluded with an astounding 5-way tie for first among Nicholas Washington, Rayane Chertouk, Isaac Varous, Van Vo and Henry Zhou who all scored a perfect 3 out of 3 to win $100 each.
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.
King’s Kibitzes: Beware of SCB, by FM Alex King
In Bronznik and Terekhin’s delightful book Techniques of Positional Play I came across the following ending:
Yuri Averbakh - Aleksandar Matanovic
Belgrade 1961
37…Nc6?
The losing move. White would be unable to force a win after e.g. 37…h5.
38.Nxc6! Kxc6 39.f4 f5 40.h4 Kd6 41.h5 gxh5 42.Kc3
Here Black resigned! After 42…Kc5 43.Be2 Bb7 44.Bf1 Bc8 45.Bd3 Black’s bishop is paralyzed and his king is too (or else White’s king reaches d4). He must play 45…h6 but then White repeats the process with 46.Be2 Bb7 47.Bf1 Bc8 48.Bd3 and soon Black must lose his a- or f-pawn, after which White has a passer and wins easily.
Something about this game seemed familiar. It wasn’t just its resemblance to this study by Averbakh that I had seen in Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual:
Yuri Averbakh, 1954
1.Be2 Be8 2.Bd3 Bd7 3.Bc2 Be6 4.Bd1 Bf7 5.Bf3
Look familiar? This is the initial position, but now with Black to move - White has triangulated, or rather made five moves while Black has made four moves. As in the previous example, Black is now in zugzwang and must lose either the d- or h-pawn (or else allow White’s king to advance).
No, the Averbakh-Matanovic game gave me déjà vu for a more subtle reason: because Black’s decisive mistake was entering the same-colored bishop ending in the first place. This was just like another game that I saw in Bronznik and Terekhin’s book:
Lev Polugaevsky - Henrique Mecking
Mar del Plata 1971
31…Ne6?
The losing move. Black could still hold with e.g. 31…Kd6.
32.Nxe6 fxe6 33.f4 e5 34.g3 Kd6 35.Kc3 Be6 36.Kb4
Now Black has to take on f4 in order to prevent 37.fxe5+ followed by 38.Kc5, but then White’s king will gain access to the d4-square.
36…exf4 37.gxf4 Bg4 38.Kc3 Bf3 39.Kd4 Bg2 40.h4 Bf3 41.b4 Bh1 42.Be2 Bg2 43.Bg4 Be4 44.Bc8 Kc7 45.Be6 Kd6 46.Bg8 h6 47.Bf7 h5 48.Be8 Bc2 49.Bf7 Be4
50.f5! Bxf5 51.Bxd5
With a passer White breaks through quickly.
Bc8 52.e4 Ke7 53.Ke5 g5 54.hxg5 h4 55.g6 h3 56.g7 h2 57.g8=Q h1=Q 58.Qf7+ Kd8 59.Qf8+ 1-0
Perhaps the moral of these examples is that pure same-colored bishop (SCB) endings can be more dangerous than they appear at first sight. In both cases, the defender would have been better advised to keep additional pieces on the board.
Here are two more modern examples of this principle:
Alexander Onischuk - Admah Fawzi Samhouri
Istanbul 2012
20…Rxc8?
Again the SCB ending will be deadly; Black is still okay after 20…Bxc8.
21.Rxc8! Bxc8 22.h3 f5 23.Kh2 Kg7 24.Kg3 Kg6 25.Kf4
As in the previous examples, Black’s weak pawns tie down his pieces to passive defense, while White is free to probe from all directions.
25…h5 26.Ke5 h4 27.Kd6 Be6 28.Kc7 Bd5 29.g3 Kg5 30.Bc4
1-0
As in the previous examples, it’s particularly satisfying when the opponent resigns even before we are up any material.
Another relatively recent example:
Vladimir Malakhov - Qun Ma
China 2010
35…gxf5+?
Instead 35…Ke7! was necessary.
36.exf5+ Rxf5 37.Rxf5 Rxf5 38.Rxd6+! Kxd6 39.Kxf5
The same danger signs in Black’s position: pawns on the same color as his bishop, and passive pieces.
39…Ke7 40.g6 Kd7 41.Bd2 e4 42.Kxe4 Ke6 43.Be1 Bf6 44.b4 Be5 45.bxa5 bxa5 46.Bf2 Bd6 47.Bh4 Bc7 48.Bg5 Bb6 49.Be3 Ba7 50.Bf4
White’s bishop finally forces its way into Black’s position.
50…Kf6 51.Bc7 Kxg6 52.Bxa5 Kf7 53.Kd5 Ke7 54.Kc6 Bb8 55.Bb6 Ke6 56.a5
1-0
Even when the simplification into an SCB ending is not itself a mistake, hazards are still present after you get there:
Yuri Averbakh - Gavriil Veresov
Moscow 1947
31…Rf6 32.Rxf6 Kxf6 33.Kf2
Black has not done anything wrong so far, but here he makes a fatal misjudgment:
33…e4?
Pawn on the same color as the bishop - a bad sign. 33…b6 (e.g.) was holding.
34.Ke3 Ke5 35.a3 b6 36.h4! Bd7 37.Bf1 a5 38.Bg2!
Now Black must either immobilize his own bishop with …Bf5, or play as he does in the game and allow White’s bishop to invade along the c8-h3 diagonal.
38…Bc6 39.Bh3 b5 40.cxb5 Bxb5 41.Bc8 Bc6 42.b4 axb4 43.axb4 Bb5 44.Bb7 g5 45.Bxe4 gxh4 46.gxh4
Even here the win requires some technique, but Averbakh is the man for the job:
46…Ba4 47.Bg6 Bd1 48.b5 Kd5 49.Kf4 Kc5 50.Kg5 Be2 51.Be8 Kb6 52.Bxh5 Bxb5 53.Bg4 Be8 54.Bf5 Kc7 55.Bg6 Kd8 56.Kf6 1-0
Beware of SCB! This kind of passive suffering defense (in vain) isn’t pleasant, and it often isn’t your only option. Next time, before simplifying, remember these examples and ask yourself whether it might be wiser to keep at least one additional pair of pieces on the board.
This has been an unusually practical King’s Kibitzes column - next month I promise to return to my normal useless esoterica…
FM Alex King, faithful parishioner of the bishopric
Visiting Steinitz and Lasker at Their Final Resting Places
One evening at the club in 2019, IM Yury Lapshun asked me if I would work with him on an article about the gravesites of the first two World Chess Champions. Even serious chess players often are surprised to learn that both William Steinitz and Emanuel Lasker are buried in Brooklyn and Queens, little more than a mile apart. Our collaboration grew into an article in Chess Life called “Pugilists at Rest” (pages 32-37)… and later articles in the British magazine CHESS (pages 30-32) and in ChessBase News. In our July 25 talk at the club and in our articles, Yury and I provided a wealth of first-hand details about each champion’s gravesite… and just as important, we gave precise directions for how to get there. Because although it’s easy to find the cemeteries, it’s a challenge to find the actual gravesites, because cemeteries don’t provide maps to individual graves.
Steinitz’s Grave
William Steinitz headstone (Evergreen Cemetery, Brooklyn/Queens)
The main entrance to the huge non-denominational Evergreen Cemetery where Steinitz rests is at Bushwick Avenue and Conway Street in Brooklyn. It’s near Eastern Parkway, the Jackie Robinson Parkway, and the Broadway Junction subway station. To see all the turns you’ll take and landmarks you’ll pass walking from the entrance gate to Steinitz’s grave, you can review the video of our talk from a link on the club website. You can also view our slides that show the landmarks plus details like operating hours for both Steinitz and Lasker’s cemeteries.
Steinitz’s headstone has a box-like shape, with a chessboard etched onto its top face… which even has a chess position etched into it! (although, it isn’t a legal position – only one king is present) We found mistakes in surprising places around Steinitz’s resting place. His headstone displays the wrong birth year: 1837, when in fact he was born in 1836. And the roadside sign pointing toward his grave -- placed by a wealthy descendant who published not one but two books about Steinitz -- lists the wrong grave number. More distressing, a large area around his grave has been neglected to a point that could eventually weaken the stability of the headstone. We saw many broken and toppled headstones, and others visibly sinking into the earth. Might Steinitz’s resting place someday sink into oblivion like the fallen soldiers in Carl Sandburg’s 1918 poem, Grass? (On the brighter side, we did find evidence, in a photo taken long ago by none other than Maxine Brady, that the ground below Steinitz’s headstone was shored up with concrete sometime after 1964.)
In this game barely a year before his death, Steinitz amusingly took down his old rival J.H. Blackburne. Notes by IM Yury Lapshun.
Lasker’s Grave
Emanuel Lasker rests in Beth Olam Cemetery, a relatively small Jewish cemetery jointly run by three Manhattan synagogues.
Beth Olam has two separate entrances on Cypress Hills Street in Queens, a few blocks apart. That section of Cypress Hills Street can be reached from the Jackie Robinson Parkway, or from Jamaica Avenue in Brooklyn, or from Cypress Hills subway station that’s served by the J train. In our talk we explained how to find Lasker’s grave from either cemetery entrance. As an alternative, you might be able to find Lasker by inputting the gravesite’s coordinates and letting your phone’s GPS app direct you: 40.69074, -73.87986. (The GPS coordinates of Steinitz’s grave are: 40.68973, -73.9008.) Lasker’s headstone is dark and glossy, while those surrounding it are light gray. We saw several small stones placed on top of it by admirers following an ancient Jewish mourning tradition. But we saw signs that other headstones might have been vandalized in Beth Olam, which suffered a large-scale theft of mausoleum doors and other equipment in 2019.
We presented brief details of Steinitz’s and Lasker’s lives, condensed from our Chess Life article. Steinitz died as a mental patient at Ward’s Island. Lasker died in Mount Sinai Hospital a year before Capablanca passed away in the very same hospital. See a short, brilliant win from late in Lasker’s life, with notes by IM Yury Lapshun.
Looking Ahead
Yury and I want to organize a live walking tour of both gravesites sometime this fall. We are also seeking to interest New York’s local news stations and public officials in the long-neglected tourism potential of these culturally and historically significant parts of the city’s heritage.
Material Imbalances, by Ed Frumkin
Cameron Hull (1705)-Edward Frumkin (2000) Marshall Wednesday U2200, Round 2 of 6, G90 +30, July 26, 2023 (A89)
(Play through the game here.)
1 d4 g6 2 Nf3 Bg7 3 g3 d6 4 Bg2 f5 5 c4 Nf6 6 Nc3 0-0 7 0-0 Through what some might consider a tricky move order I have managed to avoid several anti-Dutch gambits or sharp lines such as 2 Bg5. This is the key position of the Leningrad Variation and Black has several choices, including the text, 7…c6 as Nakamura played against Jeffery Xiong in the 2022 US Championship, 8…Na6, 8…e6 as played against me in the 80s by Igor Ivanov and the main line 8…Qe8.
7…Nc6 8 e4?
The main line here is 8 d5 Ne5 9 Nxe5 dxe5 10 e4 as played by Carlsen at age 12, more or less refuting the variation.
8…Nxe4 9 Nxe4 fxe4 10 Ng5 Nxd4 11 Bxe4 c6 Stockfish prefers 11…Bf5, but I didn’t want any piece incursions on d5.
12 Nxh7 Kxh7 Stockfish wants me to decline the knight with 12…Bf5 13 Nxf8 Bxe4 14 Ne6 Nxe6 15 f3 Qb6+ 16 Kg2 Bf5 17 g4 Qc5.
13 Qh5+ Kg8 14 Bxg6 Rf6 Obviously forced.
15 Qh7+ Kf8 16 Bh6 Missed that, so my next is also forced.
16…Rxg6 17 Qh8+ 17 Qxg6 Nf5 is unclear and 17 Bxg7+ Rxg7 18 Qh8+ Rg8 19 Qxd4 leaves Black with an extra minor piece.
17…Kf7 18 Qxd8
White will have queen and pawn for three minor pieces after I take the Bh6, which is theoretically about even in material BUT the key factor is that it is Black to move now and he can control the narrative.
18…Nf3+ Stockfish’s line begins with 18...Ne2+, but plugging up White’s f pawn is more natural.
19 Kh1 Rxh6 20 h4 Forced.
20…Rh8 Stockfish would have me sacrifice the a8 rook, too, but I felt it would be more sensible to keep the second rook. Note than White’s queen and rooks are useless for the rest of the game.
21 Qa5 Bg4! 22 c5
At this point I calculated the rest of the game to the final mate. 22 Qa3 stops the combo for a moment, but 22…Rag8 23 Qe3 Be5 looks decisive.
22…Nxh4 23 gxh4 Bf3+! 24 Kh2 Be5+ 25 Kh3 Rxh4+! 26 Kxh4 Rh8+ 27 Kg5 Rh5# A big win for my Lilliputian minor pieces.
The material situation kept changing throughout the game. I don’t pretend to have understood it all, but chess intuition triumphed this time.
En Passant
GM Ju Wenjun has won a wild final game of the 2023 FIDE Women's World Championship to claim her fourth title with a 6.5-5.5 victory over GM Lei Tingjie. The 17th women's world champion, who has held the title since 2018, also picks up the €300,000 ($334,000) winner's prize, while Lei takes €200,000.
World Chess Day is celebrated annually on July 20. It is the date when FIDE was founded, 99 years ago. The idea to celebrate this was proposed by UNESCO, and its purpose is to raise awareness of the game and its benefits (improving cognitive skills, problem-solving abilities, and strategic thinking). In an article in a German science portal mathematics professor Christian Hesse, who has written quite extensively about chess, tells us how chess offers a profound intellectual duel with a surprising thrill factor.
Round six of the U.S. Championships saw a mix of crushing attacks and subtle endgames, with the leader(s) in all three sections remaining unchanged. Read more in this recap by our very own contributor to The Marshall Spectator, FM Alex King.
Top players sign an open letter in support of GM Ivanchuk.
Chess Toons
Problem of the Week
G. Yacoubian, 1979
White to Mate in 2
So little material - and yet one has to think one's way through the pins and blocks!
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Last issue’s problem: O. Dehler, 1923
Solution to O. Dehler, 1923: 1.Bh2 Kc6/c8/a7 2.Qb5/c7/b8 mate.
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!
The Marshall Chess Club
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