Current USCF Leadership:



USCF President: Bill Goichberg

USCF VP: Jim Berry

USCF VP of Finance: Randy Bauer

USCF Secretary: Randy Hough

USCF ED: Bill Hall

Some basic USCF financial numbers:

YTD 2009 / YTD 2008 (Numbers are based on the information provided by USCF CFO Joe Nanna on May 18, 2009.)

Total Revenues: $2,952,904 (Bequests of $397,681 = $2,555,223 actual revenues) / $2,633,658

Total Membership Revenues: $1,457,224 / $1,568,324

(Down $111,100 from last year)

Magazine Expenses: $623,998 / $697,197

(Savings of $73,199)

Total Expenses: $3,015,457 / $2,619,019

(We outspent last year by $396,438)

Losses in 2009 so far: $79,494 + $397,681 = $477,175

Chess news from Susan Polgar

9th round (17.05.2009., 13:30h)

Eljanov – Predojević 1/2 : 1/2
Movsesian – Harikrishna 1/2 : 1/2
Sokolov – Wang 0 : 1

10th round (18.05.2009., 13:30h)

Predojević – Sokolov 1/2 : 1/2
Harikrishna – Eljanov 1/2 : 1/2
Wang – Movsesian 1 : 0

Final standings:

1. Eljanov (7)
2. Predojević (5,5)
3. Wang (5,5)
4. Movsesian (5)
5. Harikrishna (4)
6. Sokolov (3)

Official website: http://www.skbosna.ba/?jezik=bos&x=47

Chess news from Susan Polgar

Former World Champion and Women’s World Champion Topalov and Stefanova

Chess news from Susan Polgar

Iranian woman becomes chess Grandmaster
Payvand – 05/18/09

TEHRAN, May 18 (Mehr News Agency) — Iranian chess player Atousa Pourkashiyan became Chess Grandmaster on Monday. Pourkashiyan earned the title in the 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden after gaining eight points in 11 games. She competed with four Grandmasters and five International Masters in the event.

The title Grandmaster is awarded to excellent chess masters by the World Chess Federation FIDE. Apart from “World Champion”, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can achieve.

Pourkashiyan has played for Iran in the Women’s Asian Teams Chess Championships in 2003, 2005 and 2008.

Source: http://www.payvand.com

Chess news from Susan Polgar

During the past week, Junior took part in the 17th world computer chess championships held in Pamplona Spain.

After a brilliant start it conceded an unexpected draw against Equinox of Italy. In the final round held today, Junior played with black against the leader, Rybka. Prior to the round, Rybka held a half a point lead over Junior, thus only a win would make us champions…

Accordingly, Junior was deliberately set with a high contempt factor to avoid a draw. In a very complicated game, a doubled edged position was reached, where Junior could obtain a draw. However, due to the setting, Junior preferred to ignore it, and tried to win the game at all costs. Eventually it lost and Rybka retained the title.

Never the less, we are still happy with Junior’s performance (5 wins, 3 draws, 1 loss) especially with its win against Hiarcs.

Junior – Hiarcs
17th World Computer Chess Championship
Pamplona, Spain (4), 12.05.2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.h3 e6 7.g4 b5 8.Bg2 Bb7 9.0-0 Nfd7 10.f4 b4 11.Nce2 Nc5 12.Be3 Bxe4 13.a3 bxa3 14.b4 Bxg2 15.Kxg2 Na4 16.Ng3 d5 17.f5 e5 18.Rxa3 Nb2 19.Qf3 Qd7 20.f6 g6 21.Re1 Nc4 22.Rd3 Qb7 23.Ndf5 gxf5 24.Rxd5 Qc6 25.Nxf5 Nd7 26.Bc5 Rc8 27.Red1 Rc7 28.Qe4 Bxc5 29.bxc5 Rg8 30.Kh2 Qxf6 31.Qxc4 Rg5 32.Qe4 1-0

Report by Shay Bushinsky

Chess news from Susan Polgar

Football drama – Chess United won on penalties against PFC Levski

Berbatov scores again against Levski, Carlsen and Dominguez score 2 goals each, the Cuba player chosen for best player of the match

(Sofia, 18 May, 2009) Chess United and Levski created a real football drama at the Georgi Asparuhov stadium. The team of the Grandmasters from the super chess tournament M-Tel Masters 2009 won on penalties against a selection of PFC Levski. In the regular time the mega derby on a small football field ended 6-6. Referee of the game was the CEO of M-Tel Josef Vinatzer.

The two teams offered attractive attacking football. Daniel Borimirov opened the score in the 2^nd minute. The Grandmasters’ response came only 3 minutes later. A series of good passes exchanged between Carlsen and Dominguez, lead to Dominguez goal from short distance. Again Borimirov scored with a placed shot in the 7^th minute. He scored again for 3-1 in the 10^th minute. In the 11^th minute the GM from Norway Magnus Carlsen was alone against the keeper and after a miss scored with a backheel shot for 3-2. In the 12^th minute medical intervention had to me made on the Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov. He came back on the field with a protection mask on his face after a consultation with Dr. Nayden Kandilarov.

The head coach of the Blues Emil Velev scored two goals after good team combinations in the 12^th and 14^th minute to give Levski a 5-2 lead. This was followed by phenomenal saves from the keeper Vassily Ivanchuk who denied the blue attack several great scoring chances. Then came the moment of Kiprian Berbatov in the derby. In the 15^th minute his shot past the hosts’ keeper made the result 5-3. That was his second goal of Berbatov in two games against Levski.

In the 19^th minute Bojidar Iskrenov scored for 6-2 after he finished a good combination of multiple passes between the Levski players. It looked like the game would end in a comfortable victory for Levski, when their first-team keeper Georgi Petkov who played as a field player in this game, send the ball in his own goal. In the added by the referee Vinatzer time the team of Chess United created a unique comeback. After a good counterattack Dominguez made a trick on the keeper and scored for 6-5. In the next attack of the chess players Carlsen levelled the score. The referee Vinatzer blew the whistle for full time and the result of the game was going to be decided by penalties.

Both goalkeepers displayed their best during the shootout. Ivanchuk saved 6 out of the 7 shots of Levski and Kiprian Berbatov did not make a mistake from the spot. With the result level the last penalty was for Ivanchuk, He shot past the keeper Borimirov and the final result was 7-8 for Chess United.

Chess news from Susan Polgar

Central High School graduates are united in their quest for college degrees
By JOE ROBERTSON
The Kansas City Star

The three Central High School graduates admit they don’t have an appropriate fist-pumping, hand-slapping ritual.

What they do have is a pact.

Kaleig Mohammad, DeAndre Watson and Ronald Chaney will head off to the same university this fall.

They will live in the same dorm suite.

And through calculus, literature, science, parties and girls, they’re going to make sure they all come out on the other side with college degrees.

“We’re going to cover each other,” Chaney said. “We’re going to keep levelheaded.”

If the pact holds, they’ll move upward from a high school where fewer than half the graduates go on to any college or technical institute and only one in five goes to a four-year university.

Their friendship has brought them far.

Mohammad couldn’t be sure where he and his mother and two sisters would be living or whether they’d have a car, let alone what choices he’d have for schools.

Watson had figured himself a loner, resolved to recover from middle-school failures however he could on his own.

Chaney worries that all three of them are due a harsh awakening as they take their inner-city high school education off to Lindenwood University, a four-year liberal arts school in St. Charles, Mo.

They put their fists together while posing for a photographer and consider it a moment.

“We look like the Power Rangers,” one of them said, and they break up laughing.

•••

Ask them how the friendship started and they laugh.

“I killed him in chess,” Chaney said, pointing at a head-shaking Mohammad.

The after-school chess club had been Chaney’s haven at the start of his freshman year. There, whether freshmen or upperclassmen, “everyone was equal,” he said. “It was a peaceful environment.”

Here is the full story.

Chess news from Susan Polgar

So, Antonio boost Asian continental chess bids
05/18/2009 07:37 PM

Chess news from Susan Polgar

Can you create a clever (but clean) caption?

(I would like to thank the Mtel organizers and their media team for sending us information and photos daily!)

Chess news from Susan Polgar

White Plains man snags national chess title
By Aman Ali • May 17, 2009

WHITE PLAINS – It’s not often someone can refer to himself as a grandmaster, but the title is fitting for two-time national chess champion Hikaru Nakamura.

The 21-year-old from White Plains racked up his second U.S. Chess Championship today in St. Louis in a tournament featuring the country’s top 24 chess players. In 2004, he won the same tournament at age 16 making him the youngest national champ since the famous chessmaster Bobby Fischer took the title at age 14 in 1957.

“I was very happy with my play throughout and relieved to have won the title again,” Nakamura said after securing the win. “Winning the second title feels better to me than the first.”

Nakamura picked up the crown after a quick takedown against grandmaster Josh Friedel of New Hampshire.

The St. Louis tournament took place from May 7 to today and Nakamura didn’t lose a single match. He walked away with the tournament’s cash prize of $40,000.

Here is the full article.

Chess news from Susan Polgar

Final round results:

Chess news from Susan Polgar

[Event "Mtel 2009"]
[Date "2009.05.17"]
[Round "5"]
[White "GM Wang Yue"]
[Black "GM Carlsen"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D82"]
[WhiteElo "2738"]
[BlackElo "2770"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bf4 Bg7 5. e3 c5 6. dxc5 Qa5 7. Rc1 dxc4 8. Bxc4 O-O 9. Nge2 Qxc5 10. Qb3 Qa5 11. O-O Nbd7 12. a3 Nb6 13. Bc7 Bd7 14. Nd4 Rac8 15. Bxb6 Qxb6 16. Qxb6 axb6 17. Be2 Rc7 18. Ndb5 Rc6 19. Nd4 Rc7 20. Ndb5 Rc6 21. Rfd1 Rb8 22. Nd4 Rc7 23. Ndb5 Rc6 24. Nd4 Rc7 25. Ndb5 Rc6 {Game drawn} 1/2-1/2

Click here to replay the game.

Chess news from Susan Polgar

Can you create a clean but clever caption?

Chess news from Susan Polgar

Mtel round 5:

Shirov, A – Dominguez, L
Ivanchuk, V – Topalov, V
Wang, Y – Carlsen, M

Source: http://www.mtelmasters09.com/en/results.html

Standings after 4:

1-2. Carlsen, Shirov 2.5
3-5. Topalov, Wang, Dominguez 2.0
6. Ivanchuk 1.0

Chess news from Susan Polgar

About the Championship

Prize Fund

Total Prize Fund – $130,400

• 1st – $35,000
• 2nd – $15,000
• 3rd – $10,000
• 4th – $8,000
• 5th – $7,000
• 6th – $6,000
• 7th – $5,000
• 8th – $4,000
• 9th – $3,600
• 10th – $3,300
• 11th – $3,000
• 12th – $2,900
• 13th-16th – $2,600
• 17th-20th – $2,300
• 21st-24th – $2,000

Playoff Procedures

If the 2009 U.S. Championship ends in a tie for first, all tied players up to a total of four players will contest a playoff match for the title of 2009 U.S. Champion and for the $5000 Jackpot Bonus. If there are more than four players tied for first the following tie-breaks will be used to determine four players to contest tiebreak C below: (1) Modified median, (2) Solkoff, (3) Cumulative, (4) Cumulative of Opposition, (5) Most Blacks, (6) Score against other Tied Players (7) Most Wins. In all cases, the main prize pool will be split equally.

A. Two Players:

If two players tie for first, they will enter a tiebreak that begins at 5:00 pm or no earlier than an hour after the conclusion of either Player’s final round.

The base time for the game is 45 minutes+ 5 second increment. It will be a draw odds game (Black wins on a draw.) The players will both bid on the amount of time (minutes and seconds, a number equal or less to 45:00) that they are willing to play with in order to choose their color.

The player who bid the lower number of time chooses his or her color and gets the amount of time they wrote down; the other side always receives 45:00. If both players pick exactly the same number, the chief arbiter will flip a coin to determine who shall choose their color.

If either player wins, he or she gets the title of U.S. Champion and the $5,000 Jackpot Bonus. If the game is a draw, Black wins the title of U.S. Champion, but the Jackpot Bonus will be split equally.

B. Three players:

The Playoff for three players or more begins at 5 pm on May 17, 2009. If there are three players tied for first, the player with the highest tie-breaks in the math tie-breaks will choose between a.) getting a bye into the first round or b.) playing the preliminary round. If he or she chooses b.), the bye into the final round will be passed on to the next player by tiebreak, and if the second player by tiebreak also refuses the bye, it will be forced on to the final player by tiebreak.

Preliminary round:

Players ranked 2 and 3 by math tie-breaks will contest a bidding draw odds game like the one above except instead of 45 minutes base time the base time will be 25 minutes+ 5 second increment.

Final round:

After a ten minute break, the winner of the preliminary round will play the player with a bye in another 25+5 increment draw odds game. This will not be a bidding game. The player who won the preliminary round will chose whether he prefers White or Black and draw odds. The Jackpot Bonus and Championship title will be awarded to the players in the final match as described above.

C. Four players:

The Playoff begins at 5 pm.

Preliminary round

Math tie-breaks will determine which Players are paired for play: 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3. They will contest two preliminary 25+5 second increment bidding games as described above.

Final round

After a ten-minute break, the winner of each of the preliminaries will contest a final 25+5 draw odds bidding game. The title of U.S. Champion will be determined by this game, and the Jackpot Bonus will be awarded as described above.

Source: http://saintlouischessclub.org/US-Championship-2009-About

Chess news from Susan Polgar

Sinquefield goes from Wall Street to Main Street to help young people
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Story last updated at 5/17/2009 – 2:07 am

Last week, I visited the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, host of the 2009 $200,000 U.S. Chess Championship. During my visit, I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Rex Sinquefield, the sponsor of this prestigious event.

Rex, a businessman from St. Louis, recently made a big transition from Wall Street to Main Street, a move that could help thousands of kids in his hometown for years to come.

Who is Rex Sinquefield?

Raised in St. Vincent Home for Children in St. Louis, he graduated from St. Louis University in 1967 – where he is a member of the board of trustees – with a business degree before pursuing an MBA from the University of Chicago. He earned his MBA in 1972. In the 1970s, he conducted research on historical stock market returns and pioneered some of the nation’s first index funds. Sinquefield was the co-founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors and was its co-chairman until his retirement in 2005.

Along with business associates David Booth, Rex formed Dimensional Fund Advisors in 1981. Today, the company oversees nearly $160 billion in assets worldwide. He served as the company’s co-chairman until his retirement in 2005.

His wife, Dr. Jeanne Sinquefield, who has an MBA and a Ph.D. in demography from the University of Chicago, was instrumental in the achievements of DFA as well.

Here are excerpts of what former US Chess Federation Executive Director Al Lawrence wrote about Rex Sinquefield:

“Following his father’s death, little Rex moved from his protective home and family, a 7-year-old’s whole world, to a crowded, nun-strict orphanage in the northwest St. Louis suburb of Normandy.

“Some rise to meet adversity. Young Rex flourished, especially in competitive contexts, covering any personal pain with wisecracks and grins, not tears. Deciding early to become a priest but always interested in the stock market, he entered the seminary owning $200 of stock in Great Northern Paper. Three years later, he changed course, majoring in philosophy and business at St. Louis University.

“After a hitch in the Vietnam-era Army, he enrolled in the University of Chicago’s MBA program, where he studied under, among others, future Nobel Laureate Merton Miller. Rex went on in 1973 to pioneer the first passively managed indexing S&P 500 fund.

Sinquefield is a real chess enthusiast. He told me that once, years ago, he was on a trans-Pacific flight that happened to also be carrying Bobby Fischer and then-FIDE-president Florencio Campomanes. Rex instantly recognized Fischer, but Campo warned Sinquefield that Bobby was in a foul mood, not even talking to his traveling partner. ‘But you can try,’ Campo said.

“Even when faced with the force that cracked the biggest egos, Sinquefield couldn’t pass up an opportunity to meet the greatest ever, and he knew his audience. He stopped by Fischer’s seat. ‘I hope you beat those commies,’ he told Fischer. The champ came out of his pout. ‘I will,’ Bobby said.”

At the age of 13, he was introduced to this game by his uncle Fred, whom he beat in their second game. Unfortunately, due to his successful and busy business career, Rex was not able keep up with chess as much as he would have liked.

In recent years, Rex is once again focusing on the game he loves. Less than a year ago, he provided the seed capital for the creation of The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis (www.SaintLouisChessClub.org), which is a million-dollar project. The building selected for the club was built in 1897 by A.M. Eeinke. The renovation took seven months to complete.

Here is the full story.

Chess news from Susan Polgar

Larry Evans on Chess: The one that got away
May 17, 2009

“Had the umpire in any other sport stepped in, as FIDE President Florencio Campomanes did in 1985, to halt a championship final without result at its most interesting and climactic stage, that unfortunate official would undoubtedly have been lynched by a raging mob of frustrated fans!” — Grandmaster Raymond Keene

The longest title match in chess history began in Moscow on Sept. 10, 1984. Anatoly Karpov, 33, faced challenger Gary Kasparov, 22, under new FIDE rules where the winner would be the first to win six games, draws not counting.

After five months and 48 games, with Karpov leading 5-3 despite a late surge by Kasparov, Campomanes bent the rules to cancel the match, an infamous act that discredited FIDE.

FIDE rules gave Karpov the right to a rematch if he lost, but this seemed unlikely with four wins in the first nine games. After a record string of 17 draws, he won Game 27 to lead 5-0 and needed just one more win.

This is the one that got away.

With Kasparov’s back to the wall, he beat his nemesis for the first time in Game 32. They drew 14 more games until Kasparov won two in a row. Then the match was aborted by Campo “for medical reasons.”

Years later, in 1988, Karpov’s manager, Victor Baturinsky, revealed that his man was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He said he pleaded with Karpov over and over to continue, but in vain.

A frail Karpov tried to delay the contest for a week and keep his 5-3 lead. But he had already used up all his timeouts and, exhausted, had shed 22 pounds.

At a press conference held in Moscow on Feb. 15, 1985, Campo told the world: “At this very moment I don’t know what I intend to do.” The Soviet news agency Tass announced minutes earlier what Campo intended to do. CNN cameras caught him whispering to Karpov, “I told them exactly what you told me to tell them.’”

Campo announced that a rematch would start from scratch later that year. Karpov demanded that play resume but his plea fell on deaf ears.

Ironically, Campo’s attempt to save his friend’s title backfired. Kasparov won the next bout, and then infuriated the Kremlin by offering a title shot to Bobby Fischer, who declined.

Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com

Chess news from Susan Polgar