CHESS : INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Two young stars, 26-year-old Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and 20-year-old Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, tied for first place in one of the strongest grandmaster tournaments of the year. Each scored 7-3 in the Credit Suisse Masters, the Professional Chess Assn. Super Classic event, which ended Wednesday in Horgen, Switzerland.

Ivanchuk, who also won the supertournament in Linares, Spain, in March, should move into second place in the world rankings, behind only world champion Garry Kasparov. Ivanchuk won five games in Horgen, including a surprisingly easy win over Kasparov. Kramnik went undefeated, drawing all of his games as Black and scoring four wins and a draw as White.

Jaan Ehlvest of Estonia and Nigel Short of England tied for third place at 6-4. Short, who battled enterprisingly throughout the tournament, beat Ivanchuk in the first round. Kasparov finished fifth at 5-5, his worst performance in a slow tournament (40 moves in two hours) since his 5 1/2-5 1/2 result in Tilburg, Netherlands, in 1981, when he was only 18. Kasparov had played listlessly while defeating Viswanathan Anand in the PCA world championship in October, and he looked even worse in Horgen. He was not cursed with bad luck; he simply could not gain an advantage in any game except for his lone win, over Victor Korchnoi.

The U.S. champion, Boris Gulko of New Jersey, scored a respectable 4 1/2-5 1/2, tying with Korchnoi (Switzerland) and Artur Yusupov (Germany). Other scores: Joel Lautier (France), 4-6; Rafael Vaganian (Armenia), 3 1/2-6 1/2; and Jan Timman (Netherlands), 3-7.

The World Youth Championships, a World Chess Federation (FIDE) tournament that finished last weekend in Sao Lourenco, Brazil, offered nearly 300 young talents the chance to win a world championship title. Five U.S. players, including two Californians, competed. Harutyun Akopyan of Hollywood scored 6-5 in the boys-under-14 category, which was won by Victor Gaprindashvili (Republic of Georgia), 9 1/2-2 1/2. Vinay Bhat of San Jose tied for second at 8-3 in the boys-under-12 section; Etiene Bacrot, the precocious French master who won the under-10 championship two years ago, dominated the field with a 10-1 score.

Boris Gratchev of Russia scored 9 1/2-1 1/2 to win the boys-under-10 category. A. J. Steigman of Florida had 6-5. There was no U.S. representative in the girls-under-14 section, which was won by Yuan Xu Xuun of China on tiebreak over Dana Reizniece of Latvia, each scoring 8-3. Viktorja Cmilyta of Lithuania finished first at 9-2 in the girls-under-12 section. Irina Krush of New York started strongly but fell ill and dropped out with a 5 1/2-3 1/2 score. Cindy Tsai of Florida finished fifth at 7 1/2-3 1/2 in the girls-under-10 category, a point behind the champion, Alina Motoc of Romania. Who knows how many future masters and grandmasters participated?

LOCAL NEWS

Charles Van Buskirk and Valdis Saulespurens shared first prize with scores of 3 1/2- 1/2 in the Santa Barbara Halloween, a 48-player Grand Prix tournament held last weekend in Santa Barbara. Top expert Tony Miller and Class “A” winners Eric Sakurai and Russell Scott finished at 3-1.

Jacob Lopez swept the Reserve (under 1800) section with a perfect 4-0 score, a half-point ahead of Bruce Campbell. Jeff Kaiser and Brian Walker split the Class “B” prize, and Bob Gruspe was best unrated. Irv Besen organized and directed the tournament.

Ron Hermansen took first prize with 5 1/2- 1/2 in the Fall Swiss, the latest tournament at the West Valley Chess Club. Tommy Kwee earned the over 2000 prize with 5-1. Other class prizes went to: Edward Bayer, on tiebreak over Antonio Sanchez, 4 1/2-1 1/2 in Class “A”; Harold Deutscher on tiebreak over Frank Przybyla, 4 1/2-1 1/2 in Class “B”; Duane Cooper, 4-2 in Class “C”; Christ Latragna, 4-2, best under 1,400, and Vaughn Steele, 3 1/2-2 1/2, best unrated. There were 40 players.

The West Valley Chess Club will host the Holiday Swiss, a six-rounder, on Thursday evenings, beginning Nov. 9 at the West Valley Jewish Community Center, 22622 Vanowen St. in Canoga Park. For more information, call Herman Hess at (818) 346-5959 or John Price at (818) 363-1379.

The San Diego County Championship takes place Nov. 11-12 at the Holiday Inn-Miramar, 9335 Kearny Mesa Rd. in San Diego. The tournament will be split into a four-round Open section and a five-round Reserve section for players rated less than 2,000. For details, call Alina Markowski at (619) 743-3044.

Dr. Hal Fairchild will give a lecture and a simultaneous exhibition from 2 p.m to 5 p.m. Nov. 11 at the Exposition Park Chess Club. The club meets Saturday afternoons at the public library, 3665 S. Vermont Ave. in Los Angeles. Call (213) 732-0169 for information.