CHESS : INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Alexey Dreyev defeated his Russian Olympiad teammate Evgeny Bareyev, 2 1/2-1 1/2, to win the first prize of 15,000 guilders (about $8,800) in the knockout tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. Dreyev won the first game of the final match, then drew the next three.

Sergey Tiviakov, a third member of the Russian team, won a concurrent Open tournament with an impressive 9 1/2-2 1/2 score. Ivan Sokolov of Bosnia was second with 8-4. Former U.S. champion Yasser Seirawan, who reached the quarterfinal round of the knockout before losing to Dreyev, finished in a tie for third at 7 1/2-4 1/2.

LOCAL NEWS

Cal Chess, the organization which oversees chess in Northern California, conducted the Charles Linklater Memorial Invitational State Championship over the last three weekends at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco. In a mild upset, IM John Grefe took the $1,000 first prize and the Calchess state championship title with a 5-2 score. Grefe, the 1973 U.S. co-champion, has played infrequently in recent years, but he recovered from a first-round loss to Rich Kelson and inflicted the only defeat on the favorite, six-time U.S. Champion Walter Browne. Other scores: Ronald Cusi and Kasparov’s Gambit X, 4-3; Browne and Burt Izumikawa, 3 1/2-3 1/2; Kelson, 3-4; and Paul Koploy and Greg Kotlyar, 2 1/2-4 1/2.

The tournament awarded nearly $5,000 in prize money, thanks mostly to the sponsorship of the Mechanics Institute Chess Club, which received a $500,000 bequest from former member Charles Linklater. Electronic Arts Inc. also made a substantial donation, including an offer of $200 for each win against its computer (only Kelson succeeded) and $100 for each draw. This experimental version of Kasparov’s Gambit runs on a “Chess Genius” engine.

The Mechanics Institute will sponsor the 3rd Pan-Pacific International, beginning Feb. 21 in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The spectacular round robin tournament, one of the strongest ever held in this country, features six leading Americans (GMs Browne, Larry Christiansen, Nick de Firmian and Boris Gulko and IMs Maurice Ashley and Josh Waitzkin) plus GMs Robert Huebner of Germany, Victor Korchnoi of Switzerland, John Nunn of England, Zsuzsa Polgar of Hungary, Eugenio Torre of the Philippines and women’s world champion Xie Jun of China.

LOCAL CHESS CLUBS

Here is the second installment of our 1995 list of places to play chess.

Poway: The North County Chess Club meets at 6:30 p.m. Fridays in the Poway Senior Center, 13094 Bowron Road in Poway. Rated tournaments. Dues: $15/year. Call Alina Markowski at (619) 743-3044.

San Diego: The San Diego Chess Club meets at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays in Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, 4011 Ohio St. in San Diego. Rated tournaments, speed chess, action chess, instruction every week at 6:30 p.m. by state champion Cyrus Lakdawala, casual play. Dues: $30/year, $20/year for seniors, $15/year for juniors, military and spouses. Call David Saponara at (619) 420-7436 or leave a message at (619) 338-8676.

San Luis Obispo: The San Luis Obispo Chess Club meets 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Thursdays in the Church of the Nazarene, 3396 Johnson Ave. in San Luis Obispo. Casual play, tournament in August. Call Barbara McCaleb at (805) 544-0717.

Santa Monica: Chess tables are available from sunup to sundown daily at the Santa Monica International Chess Park, on the Promenade just south of the Santa Monica pier. Casual chess, blitz, chess bulletin board, large demonstration board. Free.

Valencia: The Knights of Valencia meet 7:30 p.m. to midnight Wednesdays in Cafeteria B of California Institute for the Arts, 24700 McBean Parkway in Valencia. Casual play, informal quads. No dues. Call Dale Nielsen at (805) 259-5802 or Michael Angelo Purcell at (805) 255-9338.

Van Nuys: The Van Nuys Senior Citizen Chess Club meets 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays at the Bernardi Center, 6514 Sylmar in Van Nuys. Casual play. No dues, but some players make voluntary donations. Call Nathan Day at (818) 782-8065 or George Schechter at (818) 780-5565.