Kasparov on Putin's Ninth Year

In his Wall Street Journal column, Garry Kasparov describes Dmitry Medvedev's first year in the Kremlin as Vladimir Putin's ninth year in power.

South Jersey Open 2009 Photo Gallery

The South Jersey Open 2009 took place on April 26th in Mount Laurel.

The Open section ended in a first place tie between IM Alex Lenderman and GM Michael Rohde at 3.5 points.

Atlantic Chess News editor Steve Ferrero participated in the Under 2000 section and snapped these photos of the tournament.

Pix from Hamilton 5/16/2009

In addition to the photos taken by Atlantic Chess News editor Steve Ferrero, these are pictures that were taken by me at the Hamilton quads on Saturday.

Richard Harry and Steve Ferrero play speed chess before the start of the tournament.

An interested bystander is blogger Atomic Patzer.

The speed game between Harry and Ferrero continues.

Meanwhile TD Ed Sytnik prepares the wall charts.

Blogger Diamondback, wearing the red cap, is in attendance.

That speed game is still in progress!

This pic shows first round play in quad two.

Here is first round play in quad one.

Article on Westfield CC

The Westfield Chess Club is the topic of this article.

Nakamura Wins U.S. Championship

The winner of the 2009 U.S. Championship is GM Hikaru Nakamura.

Hamilton 5/16/2009 Photo Gallery

Once again, Atlantic Chess News editor Steve Ferrero has e-mailed photos from the Hamilton quads. These pix were taken at yesterday's event.

Hamilton Quads 5/16/2009

Today I finished with a score of 3-0-0 at the Hamilton quads. These are my games.

Round One: Philidor Defense

Mark Kernighan (USCF 2205) - Jim West (USCF 2202), Hamilton NJ 5/16/2009

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d6 3.Nc3 Nbd7 4.e4 e5 5.Bc4 Be7 6.Ng5 O-O 7.Bxf7+ Rxf7 8.Ne6 Qe8 9.Nxc7 Qd8 10.Nxa8 b5 11.dxe5 dxe5 12.Nd5 Bd6 13.Be3 Bb7 14.a4 b4 15.Nxf6+ Nxf6 16.Bxa7 Bxa8 17.Bc5 Nxe4 18.Be3 Qf6 19.O-O Nc5

20.Qg4 Ne6 21.Rad1 Bf8 22.c3 bxc3 23.bxc3 Nf4 24.Bxf4 exf4 25.f3 Qxc3 26.Rfe1 Bc6 27.Qc8 Qc5+ 28.Kh1 Bxa4 29.Qxc5 Bxc5 30.Rd8+ Bf8 31.Ra1 Rd7 32.Rxd7 Bxd7 33.Kg1 Kf7 34.Rc1 Bd6


35.Kf2 g5 36.Ke2 h5 37.Kd3 Ke6 38.Re1+ Kf6 39.Kd4 Be6 40.Re2 g4 41.fxg4 hxg4 42.Ke4 Be5 43.Rf2 Bf5+ 44.Kd5 Bc8 45.Ke4 Bb7+ 46.Kd3 Kf5 47.Ra2 Be4+ 48.Kc4 Bxg2


49.Rxg2 f3 50.Rc2 Bxh2 51.Rxh2 g3 52.Rh8 g2 53.Kd3 g1=Q 54.Rf8+ Ke5 55.Rxf3 Qd1+ 56.Ke3 Qe1+ 57.Kd3 Qe4+, White resigns.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Round Two: Sicilian Defense, Sveshnikov Variation

Jim West (USCF 2202) - Dragan Milovanovic (USCF 2291), Hamilton NJ 5/16/2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Bxf6 gxf6 9.Na3 f5 10.Bc4 Ra7 11.Bd5 Nd4 12.Nc4 b5 13.Nd2 Bg7 14.O-O O-O 15.Ne2 Kh8 16.c3 Nxe2+ 17.Qxe2 fxe4 18.Nxe4 f5

19.Ng3 Qh4 20.Nh5 e4 21.g3 Qg5 22.Nxg7 Rxg7 23.f4 exf3 24.Bxf3 f4 25.Bg2 Bg4 26.Qd2 Qc5+ 27.Qd4 Qxd4+ 28.cxd4 Be2 29.Rf2 f3 30.Bf1 Re8 31.Re1 Rge7 32.Bxe2 Rxe2 33.Rfxe2 fxe2 34.Kf2 Re4 35.Rxe2 Rxd4 36.Rc2 Kg7 37.Ke3 Rb4 38.b3 a5


39.Rc7+ Kg6 40.Rc6 a4 41.Rxd6+ Kg7 42.Rd3 axb3 43.axb3 Kf6 44.Kd2 Ke5 45.Re3+ Kf5 46.h3 Rd4+ 47.Kc3 Rd5 48.Kb4 Kf6 49.Rc3 Rg5 50.g4 Re5 51.Rc5 Re3 52.Rxb5 Rxh3 53.Rh5 Rg3 54.Rxh7 Rxg4+ 55.Kc5 Rg3 56.b4 Ke6


57.Rc7 Rc3+ 58.Kb6 Rb3 59.b5 Kd6 60.Rc1 Kd7 61.Ka6 Rb2 62.b6 Rb3 63.Kb7 Rd3 64.Kb8 Rd2 65.b7 Ra2 66.Rd1+ Ke7 67.Rd4 Ra1 68.Kc7 Rc1+ 69.Kb6 Rb1+ 70.Kc6 Ke8 71.Rd5, Black resigns.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Round Three: Sicilian Defense, Paulsen Variation

Jim West (USCF 2202) - David Hua (USCF 2038), Hamilton NJ 5/16/2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Nf6 6.O-O Qc7 7.c4 d6 8.Nc3 Nbd7 9.Be3 Be7 10.Rc1 b6 11.f3 Bb7 12.Qd2 Rc8 13.b3 O-O 14.Rfd1 Rfd8 15.Bf1 Qb8 16.Qf2 Ba8 17.g3 Bf8 18.Bh3 Kh8


19.g4 Ne5 20.g5 Nfd7 21.f4 Nc6 22.f5 exf5 23.Nxc6 Bxc6 24.Bxf5 b5 25.cxb5 axb5 26.Bd4 Kg8 27.Rd3 Be7 28.Bxh7+ Kf8 29.Rf3 Ne5


30.Bxe5 dxe5 31.Rxf7+ Ke8 32.Bg6 Rd6 33.Rf8+ Kd7 34.Bf5+ Re6 35.Bxe6+ Kxe6 36.Rxc8, Black resigns.

Round 6 Recap

This video recaps round 6 of the U.S. Championship in Saint Louis.

GM Robert Hess to Lecture at Marshall CC

On Friday, May 29th, at the Marshall Chess Club, GM Robert Hess will give a lecture at 7pm on one of his recent games from the Foxwoods tournament, where he won his final grandmaster norm.

The lecture is open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

"Me & Bobby Fischer"

Here is a review of an Icelandic documentary Me & Bobby Fischer, based on the experiences of Saemi Palsson who was Fischer's bodyguard during his 1972 match with Boris Spassky.

Improvements for White in Tuhrim - West

Below is the position after Black's 36th move in Tuhrim - West, from Sunday's tournament at the Marshall Chess Club. The time control for this game was 30/90, followed by game/60. I was more than an hour ahead on the clock, which probably explains a couple of inaccurate moves by my opponent. First, he played 37.g3 when 37.g4 would have been better.

Next, take a look at the diagram after Black's 42nd move. Even though White has lost a pawn, he could still have drawn by 43.Kf2 Rc3 44.Kg2. As Frederic Fournier points out, this is where White made the losing move 43.Rc4, which I answered by 43...Rg4 with a winning position.

Pix from Marshall CC May Open

These are pictures that I took at yesterday's Marshall Chess Club May Open.

Frank Paciulli prepares for the first round.

Alex Ostrovskiy and Frank Paciulli chat before the start of the tournament.

In round one, FM Asa Hoffmann defeated Alan Zhang.

Meanwhile Alex Ostrovskiy bested Ben Kessler, and Jacob Berman lost to Richard Tuhrim.

In round three, Darrian Robinson and Yefim Treger played to a draw.