CHESS : INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Deep Blue, the world’s strongest chess computer, will play a six-game match against world champion Garry Kasparov next February in Philadelphia. Deep Blue is the IBM computer developed by the programmers of Deep Thought, the computer world champion of the 1980s. The programmers claim that, by February, Deep Blue will be able to calculate one billion positions per second, using 1,000 parallel processors.
LOCAL NEWS
The Memorial Day Classic last weekend in Long Beach attracted 339 players, the biggest turnout for a local weekend tournament in several years. The 53-player Open section ended in a tie at 5-1 among GM Walter Browne, IM Igor Ivanov and GM Zsuzsa Polgar. Browne and Polgar gave up two draws in the early rounds, while Ivanov raced to a 5-0 start. But Browne defeated Igor in the final game to create the tie.
Next at 4 1/2-1 1/2 were Levon Altounian, GM Julian Hodgson, IM Anthony Saidy, Javier Torres and Jonathan Yedidia. Juan Quezada scored 4-2 to earn the under-2400 prize, and Marc Bernstein, WIM Sharon Burtman, David Kerman and Valdes Saulespurens shared under-2300 honors at 3 1/2-2 1/2.
Craig Heirigs topped the expert section with 5 1/2- 1/2. Other sections were won by: Art Ambray, under-2000, 6-0; Verne Applegate, under-1800, 5 1/2- 1/2; Isidro Oviedo, under-1600, 5 1/2- 1/2; Joe Higler, Christopher Lewis and Simone Sobel, under-1400, each 5-1, and Abundio Cudia, unrated, 5 1/2- 1/2.
Chess Palace and The Chess Set sponsored the tournament for the third consecutive year. This year’s bash, the 16th in the series begun in 1980, was also known as the Lina Grumette Memorial, in tribute to the woman who organized the first nine Memorial Day Classics.
Chess Palace, 3255 E. South St. in Long Beach, will host two evenings with a grandmaster this week. On Monday, Julian Hodgson will analyze the games of a small group of players. On Wednesday, he will play all comers in a simultaneous exhibition. Call (310) 634-8477 for details.
Casey McCracken and William Surlow registered perfect 4-0 scores in the Western States Scholastic Championship, a 116-player tournament at the same site. David Eastman took the best junior high prize, David de la Torre was first among elementary students, and Corey Evans was best-scoring primary (grades K-3) student. Max Landaw and Sarkis Oganesian tied for first in the Junior Varsity (under-1100) section. Chess Palace and John Surlow teamed up to run the event.
Ron Hermansen won the May Day Swiss, the latest tournament at the West Valley Chess Club. Arshan Dolmaian, Ron Latragna, Marcial Nieto, Chris Latragna and Richard Majchrowicz led their sections.
The club, which meets Thursday evenings in the West Valley Jewish Community Center, 22622 Vanowen St. in Canoga Park, will begin its seven-round Summer Swiss and Summer Round Robin tournaments on Thursday. The eight highest-rated players present at 7 p.m. will compete in the round robin. For details, call Herman Hess at (818) 346-5959 or John Price at (818) 363-1379.
The June Rating tournament, a four-round event in two sections, starts Monday at the Santa Monica Bay Chess Club, 1450 Ocean Ave. in Santa Monica. For more information, call Steve Hughes at (310) 450-7201.