Lecture on Sunday at Berkeley International

Today was the sixth round of the Berkeley International. Four rounds remain to be played, one on each day through Tuesday. Good luck to the local players hunting for norms!

Standings after round 6:

• 4.5 G.Kacheishvili
• 4.0 Z.Izoria, J.Friedel, I.Krush
  
• 3.5 L.Milman, D.Sharavdorj, D.Naroditsky, D.Rensch
  
• 3.0 J.Sarkar, D.Pruess, M.Esserman
  
• 2.5 J.Kraai, V.Bhat, B.Evans, I.Zenyuk,
  
• 2.0 D.Haessel
  
• 1.5 S.Kustar

Unofficial norm watch:

• FM Daniel Rensch has +1 against 2515 average, including 2 foreigners
• IM Irina Krush has +2 against 2419 average, including 4 foreigners
• FM Marc Esserman has 50% against 2492 average, including 2 foreigners
• FM Daniel Naroditsky has +1 against 2374 average, including 2 foreigners

(Estimate the performance after six rounds by adding 65 points to the average for +1 and 120 points for +2. Need 2451 performance for IM norm and 2601 for GM norm.)

Check out the pairings for the next round daily after 11:00pm. My fellow blogger Dana Mackenzie comments on some of the more exciting games on his chess blog.

Finally, the organizer IM David Pruess kindly asked me to spread the word of a 30 minute talk by FM Daniel Rensch on Sunday before the eighth round. The lecture begins at 1:20pm at 1581 Le Roy Avenue in Berkeley. FM Rensch presently has 3.5 out of 6 after facing three GMs and three IMs. He is well above the IM norm threshold and may even earn a GM norm. He operates American Chess Events in Phoenix, Arizona, teaching chess to kids and running scholastic tournaments. He is also a great guy whom I first met nearly 10 years ago when he was an up-and-coming teenager.

Berkeley International is Underway

(White to move. What did the Bay Area's magician IM David Pruess play in this normal looking French defense? Click here to replay the entire game.)

The third Berkeley International features some of the Bay Area's top masters against competitors from around the country. The 19 player field put together by organizer IM David Pruess (see photo at right) includes Grandmasters, International Masters and foreign players so that GM and IM norms may be possible. In fact, there are six GMs: Zviad Izoria and Giorgi Kacheishvili, both representing the country of Georgia, Dashzegve Sharavdorj from Mongolia plus the three locals Jesse Kraai, Josh Friedel and Vinay Bhat. They are joined by five IMs and one WIM. For more, read the thorough preview by GM Friedel for Chess Life Online.

The rounds take place daily at 2:00pm in the Berkeley Chess School building at 1581 Le Roy Avenue. However, the best way to follow the action is to log onto ICC and check the events list using either BlitzIn or Dasher interface. Type "/finger EastBay08" for information or "/liblist EastBay08" for completed games.

Standings after round 2:

• 2.0 M.Esserman
• 1.5 Z.Izoria, G.Kacheishvili, I.Krush, D.Pruess, D.Rensch, D.Haessel
• 1.0 J.Sarkar, D.Sharavdorj, B.Evans, I.Zenyuk
• 0.5 J.Kraai, J.Friedel, V.Bhat, L.Milman, D.Naroditsky, S.Kustar, S.Shivaji
• 0.0 S.Jahedi

Check out the pairings for the next round daily after 11:00pm.

There have been numerous upsets so far. That's obvious just by looking up the leader, FM Marc Esserman, who started out rated #15 out of 19. He defeated a pair of Grandmasters in the first two rounds, including an entertaining tactical slugfest against GM Sharavdorj, but faces top rated GM Izoria in round 3. All told, the six Grandmasters have combined for more losses than wins after the first two days!

The local norm candidates, IM David Pruess and FM Daniel Naroditsky, both were paired against two GMs but with mixed results. The difference was that Pruess drew with GM Izora and won with a deep Bxh7 sacrifice against GM Kraai while 13-year old Naroditsky, easily the youngest player (see photo at left), lost to GM Kacheishvili and drew GM Bhat. Go David and Danya!

Also check out Dana Mackenzie's chess blog for an on-site report from the first round.