Curse of Emory

I played at the Emory Castle Grand Prix tournament for the second year in a row. And once again turned in a poor performance, scoring 2 out of 5 points. 2 out of 5 might not sound so bad, until you realize that I was playing in the U2000 section, and all of my opponents were B players playing up!

Round 1 - Paul Davis (1756), draw. A Sicilian Moscow where I felt I had a slight edge through most of the game, but was unable to convert it to a win. Paul is one tough defender.

Round 2 - Bryan Tillis (1647), I lost. A Glek Four Knights where I turned down a draw offer, found a neat tactic that should lead to a win if I had found the followup tactic. But I didn't, and after playing my last 10+ moves with 1 second on my clock, I finally resigned in a lost endgame. Great job by Bryan who never gave up.

Round 3 - Madhu Nair (1623), I won. A Spanish Berlin (without the queen trade) where I missed a simple tactic that almost got me into real trouble, but I found the sharpest continuation that presented all sorts of problems to solve for my opponent. He missed the best continuation and I soon traded down to a winning endgame.

Round 4 - Joshua Mu (1648), I lost. An Exchange Alekhine. Little kids who can't sit still in their chairs with a 1648 rating are not supposed to understand the subtleties of positional pawn sacrifices! Yet Joshua did, and I fell for it, munching a pawn and then struggling to survive the rest of the game. Joshua piled on the pressure and converted to a nice win. Very impressive.

Round 5 - Myles MacDonald (1648), draw. A double-fianchetto Reti where I forgot to consider such matters as pawn structure, and walked into an IQP position. Still, it had been played before by strong players, so I went with it, aiming for dynamic piece play, controlling the square in front of the IQP, and always looking for an opportune moment to push the pawn. But it quickly turned into a hanging pawn position when I got away with a major bluff: Myles made a move to prevent my pawn push, and I pushed it anyway. There were tactics if he munched the pawn incorrectly, but one line we both missed allowed him to safely keep the pawn with no compensation for me.

Lessons Learned

1. The amount of time I've studied chess in the last two months? Zero. And it's showing. I also haven't played any, except for a weekend tournament a month ago. My non-chess interests have exploded recently (playing guitar, which I used to do professionally, digital home recording, and World of Warcraft). I'm in the process of putting together a realistic study-plan to try and keep my chess muscles exercised.
2. A week of chess camp inspires players to perform well in the tournament. Maybe I should take part in the chess camp. It's mainly kids, but some adults do participate. Taking a week off from work to receive training by GMs and IMs sound like a blast.
3. It doesn't matter if all my opponents were B-class players. Sure, my rating will take a dive, possibly back into B, but I should be able to beat players below 1650 if I deserve to be in A. I'll come back again next year, until I finally break the Curse of Emory!

WGM Anna Zatonskih (co-winner)

I could say my poor performance was due to being distracted by WGM Anna Zatonskih, sitting in my direct line of sight several times, but the truth is, I sucked at chess. The open section was won by WGM Zatonskih and GM Becerra.

2005 Emory Castle Grand Prix

IM Jonathan Schroer, last year's winner

This coming weekend is the Fifth Annual Emory Castle Grand Prix. It culminates a week-long chess camp, where students (mostly kids, but adults can participate, too) receive intense chess-training for a week. Imagine receiving chess lessons from a variety of GMs and IMs all week long, and then playing in a Swiss weekend tournament afterward.

GM Julio Becerra, playing blitz...blindfolded

This is my second time playing in this tournament (I haven't signed up for the chess camp yet). Last year was tough. All my opponents were young kids whose ratings were deflated (there's a whole controversy about scholastic players having deflated ratings compared to the rest of us -- I try to stay out of it) and their brains were on fire from all the chess instruction they'd just received. I scored a dismal 1.5 out of 5 and lost a bunch of rating points. And from some other adult players I've talked to, their experience was very similar to mine. So I figure it's time to get back on the proverbial horse and jump right back in. Worst case is getting to watch a bunch of well-known chess players battling it out.

WGM Martha Fierro

The camp instructors include: GM Yuri Shulman, GM Julio Becerra, GM Gregory Serper, GM Boris Kreiman, GM John Fedorowicz, WGM Martha Fierro, WGM Anna Zatonskih, IM Carlos Perdomo, IM Jon Schroer, FM Alex Dunne, FM Andrew Whatley, NM Richard Francisco, Gary Southerland and Jim Mundy.

2005 Georgia State Championship

The Georgia State Championship was held this year at Emory University from April 29 to May 1. We had a decent turnout, fairly close to last year's numbers.

FM Miles Ardaman

FM Miles Ardaman won the championship section.

Lester Bedell won the U2000 section.

Hartley Chang won the U1600 section.

The GCA elections were held between the 4th and 5th rounds for the "member-at-large" position. Surprisingly, only one of the candidates, Steve Schneider, showed up to give a speech. Guess who won.

Steve Schneider

I played in the U2000 section and didn't have so great of a tournament.

My first game was quick and easy. It lasted 30 minutes, of which I spent 2 minutes on my 13th and final move (all my previous moves were known theory).

My second game was a Moller Attack where again my opponent wasn't up on the main line theory, and I was soon up a free pawn.

My third game was a bizarre Center-Game against the U2000 champ Lester Bedell, and I thought I handled the opening and early middlegame quite well. Then I made a few innacuracies and White equalized. Finally, amidst extreme fatigue I made a stupid one-move blunder and threw away the game.

In my fourth game I faced the French Rubinstein, and even though I managed to stay awake throughout this exciting opening, it resulted in a draw as Black had most likely planned.

My fifth game was another howler. I played well and then got tired and missed multiple opportunities to easily win, finally blundering the endgame and I lost.

I attribute the fatigue on my 3rd and 5th games to not having fully recovered from my flu a month ago, but there are still some valuable lessons in all of my games, so it was worth it.

The crosstables are here.

Three of my games are amongst those here.

Xiao Cheng Wins Scholarship

Xiao Cheng
(Photo by Daniel Lucas)

Awards Given to Winners of "SuperNationals" Competition In Nashville Over the Weekend RICHARDSON, Texas (April 11, 2005) — The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) awarded three separate full-tuition-and-fees, four-year scholarships to the top performers at the “SuperNationals” of chess competition held in Nashville over the weekend. The winners of the scholarships, each of which has a cash value of about $48,000 to non-Texas residents, were Joel Banawa, a 15-year-old from Los Angles, Ray Robson, a 10-year-old from Largo, Fla., and Xiao Cheng, a 15-year-old from Alpharetta, Ga. The only stipulation is that the winners must meet UTD’s rigorous entrance requirements at matriculation.

From GCA Web Site.

HB Global Chess Challenge Results

Lester Bedell scores highest of all people I've ever played with 7 points in the U2000 section.

Congrats, Lester!

Here's how players I've seen in Georgia tournaments did in this 9-round tournament:

Open
GM Wojtkiewicz, Alek - 6 points
lost to WGM Anna Zatonskih in round 2
lost to GM Gata Kamsky in round 8

FM Ardaman, Miles Ferdi - 6 points
lost to GM Alexander Stripunsky in round 2
beat GM Gregory Serper in round 7

FM Muhammad, Stephen A - 5.5 points
drew with GM Alexander Stripunsky in round 4
drew with GM Alexander Shabalov in round 5
beat GM Igor Glek in round 6
lost to GM Joel Benjamin in round 9

GM Becerra, Julio - 5 points

IM Burnett, Ronald - 5 points

Cheng, Xiao - 4.5 points
lost to GM Joel Benjamin in round 1

Gulamali, Kazim - 4.5 points
drew with GM John Fedorowicz in round 1
lost to GM Zviad Izoria (winner of open section) in round 3

GM Fedorowicz, John - 4 points
drew with Atlanta's own Kazim Gulamali in round 1

Pohl, Klaus - 4 points

FM Andrews, Todd D - 2.5 points
lost to GM Joel Benjamin in round 3
lost to WGM Anna Zatonskih in round 7

U2200

Francisco, Richard T - 6.5 points
White, Lawrence - 6 points
De Peaza, Terrence - 5.5 points
Widjaja, Muliadi - 5.5 points
Brookshear, Tim - 4.5 points

U2000
Bedell, Lester B - 7 points

U1800
Hoffa, Danny E - 5 points
Raman, Shanker - 4 points
Bledsoe, Spencer - 3.5 points
Burrus, Don A. - 2.5 points

HB Global Chess Challenge

Maurice Ashley's super-tournament with a guaranteed $500,000 prize fund started yesterday in Minnesota. Looks like a lot of fun. I just can't see spending the money and time off from work at this time to make the trip. Someday maybe.

Some people I know from (or have seen in) Georgia tournaments who are playing in this tournament are:

No.	Name	Rtg.	Rnd1	Score
53	Stephen Muhammad	2445	X	1.0
67	Todd Andrews	2404	W209	1.0
71	Miles Ardaman	2390	W213	1.0
139	Ron Burnett	2444	L100	0.0
168	Xiao Cheng	2249	L21 (GM Joel Benjamin)	0.0
192	Klaus Pohl	2214	L45	0.0

Open

No.	Name	Rtg.	Rnd1	Score
13	Terrence De Peaza	2157	W141	1.0
54	Muliadi Widjaja	2028	W122	1.0
151	Tim Brookshear	2023	L23	0.0
157	Lawrence White	2006	L29	0.0

U2200

No.	Name	Rtg.	Rnd1	Score
11	Danny Hoffa	1780	W179	1.0
27	Don Burrus	1757	W191	1.0
54	Shanker Raman	1723	W213	1.0
96	Spencer Bledsoe	1630	X	1.0

U1800

Sorry if I missed anyone. Hundreds of names to sift through.

Friday Cat Blogging

My co-worker rolled over to the other side of the bed one morning and guess where she discovered her cat was sleeping?

In the fine tradition of Friday cat blogging, here are some random thoughts having nothing to do with Georgia tournament chess:

A Big Hello to some great friends from long ago: Clay, Brian, Curt, Jason. Just heard from them recently and I feel twenty years younger. We had the best rock band for a bunch of young teenagers. Spectrum forever!

Weird Clocks seem to be everywhere. From a prototype digital clock to Clocky, the digital alarm clock from MIT that intelligently finds a new hiding place each morning so you're forced to get out of bed to turn him off, to the creepy Death Clock.

The Purpose of the Ninja is to flip out and kill people. (Sound warning)

Infinite cats! Just what the Internet was made for.