Altounian Wins Second State Championship of the Year

Sept. 7, 2001

Position No. 5654: White to play and win. From the game S. Ernst -Cruz Lopez, Amsterdam 2001.

Solution to Position No. 5653: Black wins with 1 ... Rc1+ 2 Bf1 Rxf1+! 3 Qxf1 (or 3 Kxf1 Qh1 mate) e2 4 Qe1 Bc5+. If 2 Rd1, then 2 ... Rxd1+ 3 Qxd1 e2 4 Qe1 Qd4+ 5 Kh1 Qd1 wins.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA OPEN

The 23rd Southern California Open, held last weekend in San Diego, was the most successful in years. The turnout of 191 players, including 21 masters, enabled the sponsoring San Diego Chess Club to record a substantial profit on a tournament that had slumped badly since 1995.

Levon Altounian, who won the state invitational championship in July, collected his fifth state championship title with an undefeated 5-1 score. He defeated four masters and yielded draws to Michael Casella and IM Rashid Ziatdinov. It’s only the second time that a player has won both tournaments outright in the same year.

Ziatdinov and former state champion Cyrus Lakdawala tied for second place at 41/2-11/2. Lakdawala defeated IM Mark Ginsburg in one of the few decisive encounters among the contenders but hurt his chances for first place by taking two half-point byes.

Casella, Robby Adamson, high school star Minas Nordanyan and former state champion Armen Ambartsoumian were next at 4-2.

Other winners: Jorge Balares, 51/2-1/2 in the Express (under 2150) section; Rod Parayno, 51/2-1/2 in the Reserve (under 1850) section; and Mehrshad Mirkhan and Julieta Stepanyan, each 51/2-1/2 in the Special (under 1550) section.

WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP

Peter Acs, a 20-year-old grandmaster from Hungary, won the 2001 World Junior Championship in Athens. Acs scored 10-3 to outdistance a field of 89 young (born in 1981 or later) players representing 56 countries.

Next at 91/2-31/2 were 16-year-old IM Merab Gagunashvili (Republic of Georgia) and 18-year-old GM Levon Aronian (Armenia). On tiebreak, Gagunashvili took the silver medal.

Dmitry Schneider, 16, of New York, ranked 33rd at the start, scored 71/2-51/2 to tie for 18th place.

Younger competitors swept the medals in the 60-player 2001 World Junior Girls Championship. Humpy Koneru, 14, of India, and Zhao Xue, 18, of China tied for first place at 91/2-31/2. Koneru became champion on tiebreak. The bronze medal went to 16-year-old Nadezhda Kosintseva of Russia, who scored 9-4 and edged Gu Xiaobing of China on tiebreak.

Yelena Gorlin, 17, of Illinois, who recently described herself as “a bad player,” scored a creditable 7-6, tying for 21st place. She was ranked 39th at the start.

LOCAL NEWS

The Santa Monica Bay Chess Club plans two events. The club will begin quad tournaments (three games against similarly-rated players) at 7 p.m. Monday in its usual site in Joslyn Park. On Sept. 15, the club will experiment with the first U.S. Chess Federation-rated tournament at the chess park about 200 yards south of the Santa Monica Pier. The tournament consists of three 60-minute games, played outdoors, starting at 10 a.m. Bring chess clocks and sun protection. For information, call Pete Savino at (310) 827-2789.

The September Octos take place Sept. 15 in the Chess Center, 2651 Irvine Ave. in Costa Mesa. Entrants play three games against others in their eight-player group. For information, call Mike Carr at (949) 768-3538.

Eizo Hoshino upset three higher-rated opponents to win a 26-player tournament at the La Palma Chess Club with a perfect 4-0 score. Class prizes went to W. Leigh Hunt, Bill Martino, and Lisa Edmondson. The club, which meets Friday evenings in Central Park, 7821 Walker St. in La Palma, begins a five-round tournament tonight. Call Brian Scanlon at (714) 523-2550 for details.

David Bassett swept the Chess to Enjoy tournament at the La Habra Chess Club with a 6-0 score. Stanley Chung received the Superior Performance award for gaining the most rating points.

The La Habra Chess Club runs tournaments continuously on Friday evenings in a new location, the Community Center at 101 W. La Habra Blvd. A new six-rounder begins tonight. Call Jerry Schain at (562) 691-2393 or Bob Goulet at (562) 947-6739 for more information.

Nathan Hala, Mark Mehlert, Christian Jaime and Danyul Lawrence led their sections Sunday in the Exposition Park Chess Club’s free tournament. Frank Cipriani, Paul Townsend, Isaac Safran, Charles Marshall and Leroy Norris tied for first place in two other sections.

The Exposition Park Chess Club meets 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays in the public library, 3665 S. Vermont Ave. in Los Angeles. The club hosts a free tournament on the first Sunday of every month.

TODAY’S GAME

GM Sagalchik (USA)--GM Wojtkiewicz (Poland), U.S. Open, Framingham 2001: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 0-0 5 Bd3 A fairly new system against the King’s Indian Defense, popularized by former U.S. champion Yasser Seirawan. Nc6 6 Nge2 d6 7 0-0 a5 A more useful waiting move than White’s reply. 8 h3 e5 9 d5 Nb4 10 Bb1 Bd7 11 Be3 Nh5 12 a3 Na6 13 Bc2 Qe8 14 Rb1?! White underestimates the danger on the Kingside. He should insert 14 g4 or try 14 Qd2 f5 15 exf5 gxf5 16 f4. f5 15 exf5 Correctly rejecting 15 f3? f4 16 Bf2 g5, as Black will pry open a file by ... h7-h5 and ... g5-g4. gxf5 16 f4? This entails the loss of the QB, which leaves White vulnerable on the dark squares. The modest 16 f3 keeps chances roughly even. exf4! 17 Bxf4 No better is 17 Bd4 Be5, when Black will attack on the g-file. Nxf4 18 Nxf4 White probably imagined this Knight reaching e6, but Black attacks first. Nc5 Black could take control of the Queenside with 18 ... Bxc3?! 19 bxc3 Nc5, but White would get plenty of counterplay from 20 Qd4, intending 21 Rbe1 Qf7 22 g4. Even worse is 19