Shankland Nears IM Norm, But Faces Naroditsky

As the Alan Benson IM Norm Tournament wraps up this week at the Mechanics' Institute, it has become clear that a single game will determine the fate of both of the top norm contenders. FM Sam Shankland (photo at left) took care of business by defeating former US Champion IM John Grefe and now merely has to win his final game with the black pieces to earn his second IM norm. However, his opponent will be none other than FM Danya Naroditsky (photo at right), back home after several weeks of intense chess training in Moscow. In fact, Danya still hopes for his own norm, needing to score 3.0 out of 4 games, including today's contest against tournament leader IM Ricardo DeGuzman. Who will win the crucial Naroditsky vs Shankland game? Stay tuned on Thursday!

Update on Wednesday afternoon: Naroditsky lost to DeGuzman and now needs to win his final three games. Kudos to IM Ricardo DeGuzman for dominating the Alan Benson IM Norm Tournament!

Update on Thursday night: Naroditsky and Shankland drew their head-to-head encounter, thereby knocking both competitors out of norm contention. On the bright side, Naroditsky played a brilliant sacrificial attack this morning to defeat Grefe.

Final Standings

1. 8.0/9 IM Ricardo DeGuzman (2389 +287)
2. 6.0/9 FM Sam Shankland (2368 +69)
3. 6.0/9 IM Vladimir Mezentsev (2400 +34)
4. 5.5/9 FM Daniel Naroditsky (2311 +91)
5. 4.0/9 NM Michael Aigner (2234 +59)
6. 4.0/9 NM Gregory Young (2233 +60)
7. 3.0/9 IM Odondoo Ganbold (2380 -184)
8. 3.0/9 IM John Grefe (2369 -172)
9. 3.0/9 FM Richard Lobo (2261 -52)
   
10. 2.5/9 FM Bela Evans (2279 -117)

• +7 DeGuzman
• +3 Mezentsev, Shankland
• +2 Naroditsky
• -1 Aigner, Young
  
• -3 Ganbold, Grefe, Lobo
  
• -4 Evans

Benson IM Tournament Wraps Up Soon

The Alan Benson IM Norm Tournament will wrap up this week, just in time for the Labor Day weekend. Over 2/3 of the games are completed and the standings begin to take on some meaning. IM Ricardo DeGuzman (photo at left by Mark Shelton of ChessDryad) has been on fire, winning five games while yielding draws only to Grefe and Aigner. Moreover, DeGuzman already defeated both of his nearest competitors: IM Vladimir Mezentsev and FM Sam Shankland.

Current Standings (updated through Monday afternoon)

1. 6.0/7 IM Ricardo DeGuzman (2389 +249)
2. 4.5/7 FM Sam Shankland (2368 +44)
3. 4.5/7 IM Vladimir Mezentsev (2400 +6)
4. 3.5/6 NM Gregory Young (2233 +160)
5. 3.5/8 NM Michael Aigner (2234 +49)
6. 2.5/6 IM John Grefe (2369 -103)
7. 2.5/7 IM Odondoo Ganbold (2380 -172)
8. 2.0/3 FM Daniel Naroditsky (2311 +101)
9. 2.0/8 FM Richard Lobo (2261 -116)
10. 1.0/5 FM Bela Evans (2279 -167)

• +5 DeGuzman
• +2 Mezentsev, Shankland
• +1 Naroditsky, Young
• -1 Grefe, Aigner
• -2 Ganbold
• -3 Evans
• -4 Lobo
  

The three young participants all remain mathematically alive for an IM norm:

• Sam Shankland suffered a major blow by losing to DeGuzman on Saturday, but he pulled himself together in time to beat Mezentsev with black on Sunday. Sam needs to win both of his remaining games: white versus Grefe and black versus Naroditsky.
• As the lowest rated player in the field, Gregory Young wasn't expected to be a serious norm contender on paper. Yet after six games, he drew three of four IMs. He needs 2.5/3 for an IM norm, facing Naroditsky, DeGuzman and Evans all with black.
• Daniel Naroditsky returned from his trip to Moscow on Sunday and has to quickly recover from jet lag. He will be quite busy with six more tournament games plus a US Chess League contest, all before Friday afternoon.
  

Good luck to all three norm contenders as they finish this tournament. Will anyone succeed in reaching the necessary score for an IM norm? Stay tuned! Your reporter will follow the results closely while preparing for his own final game: white versus 1973 US Chess Champion IM John Grefe on Friday afternoon.

Update for the Benson IM Tournament

This summer's IM norm tournament at the Mechanics' Institute (see photo of chess room above) now stands at the halfway point, with 22 out of 45 games played. Everyone has played at least twice while two have six results and I finished eight (out of nine). The other half of this invitational event, aptly named after Berkeley area chess master Alan Benson, will be completed over the next week, finishing just before the Labor Day tournament begins. Click here for a complete list of participants, all ranging in rating from 2233 to 2400.

Since players have completed a different number of games, the following standings are presented in plus/minus format, e.g. number of wins minus number of losses.

Current Standings (updated through Thursday afternoon)

• +3 IM Ricardo DeGuzman
• +2 IM Vladimir Mezentsev (photo at right)
• +1 FM Sam Shankland, FM Daniel Naroditsky, NM Gregory Young
  
• -1 IM John Grefe, FM Bela Evans, NM Michael Aigner
• -2 IM Odondoo Ganbold
• -3 FM Richard Lobo

All three of the young norm seekers still have a majority of their games left to play. Sam drew his first three games and now has his work cut out for him: he nearly must run the table with 5.0 out of 6 to claim a norm. If anyone can do it, Sam can! Daniel (needs 5.0 out of 7) and Gregory (needs 3.0 out of 5) are both in considerably better shape. One interesting pairing that could change this outlook takes place on Thursday: Gregory white versus Sam (update: Sam won).

Readers of this blog may recall that I had a game against my longtime nemesis on Tuesday afternoon. This was the 31st time that IM Ricardo DeGuzman (see photo below) and I have crossed swords (prior record +1 =8 -21). While I am very pleased to have drawn this 110 move game as black, neither of us should be proud with the quality of play. Two monkeys would surely have found stronger moves than we both did at critical moments. Here is a sample of this blunderfest:

Ricardo DeGuzman (2389) vs Michael Aigner (2234)
1. d4 f5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 g6 4. c4 Bg7 5. Nc3 d6 6. Nf3 O-O 7. O-O Qe8 8. b3 e5 9. dxe5 dxe5 10. e4 Nc6 11. Nd5 Rf7?! {Nxd5 12.cxd5 fxe4 13.Ng5 Nd4 with approximate equality} 12. Ng5 Rd7 13. exf5 gxf5 14. Bb2 Nb4 15. Qb1 Nbxd5 16. cxd5 Rxd5? {anything that maintains material equality is better} 17. Bxd5+ Nxd5 18. Re1 Qh5? {Qg6} 19. Qd1 Qxd1 20. Raxd1 c6 21. Bxe5 Bh6 22. h4 Bd7 23. Nh3 Be8 24. Nf4 Bf7 25. f3 Bf8 26. Nxd5 Bxd5 27. Kg2 a5 28. Rb1 Bb4 29. Re2 a4 30. bxa4 Rxa4 31. a3 Bf8 32. Rxb7 Rxa3 33. Rf2 Re3 34. Bf4 Rc3 35. Rc7 h5 36. Be5 Re3 37. Bf4 Rc3 38. Bg5 Bg7 39. Rb2?! {simply Re7 followed by Re3 breaks the pressure against f3} Rxf3 40. Rb8+ Kh7 41. Rd8 Be4 42. Rf8? {Kg1 is +4.0 according to Fritz 11} f4 43. Bf6 Rxg3+ 44. Kf1 Bd5 45. Bd4 Kh6 46. Bxg7+ Rxg7 47. Rh8+ Kg6 48. Rxg7+ Kxg7 49. Rxh5 Kg6 50. Rg5+ Kf6?! {Kh6} 51. Kf2 Be4 52. Rg4 Kf5 53. Rg1? {Rg7} Kf6 54. h5? {Rg8} c5 55. Rc1 Kg5 56. Rxc5+ Kh6 57. Re5 Bc2 58. Rd5 Bb3 59. Rf5 Bd1 60. Rxf4 Bxh5 {We played on for another 50 moves until the game was officially drawn.} 1/2-1/2

Update on Thursday afternoon: I got word from the Chess Room staff that DeGuzman beat Mezentsev and Shankland beat Young. The standings above reflect these two results.

No IM Norm for Fpawn

(Black to move and win! Not all opposite bishop endgames are automatically drawn. This position arose in my game on Saturday evening against FM Richard Lobo. The main variation is a mate in 3, although white can give up his bishop to prevent checkmate.)

First of all, thank you to all of my fans who have left comments, either on this blog or per email. I am glad that people actually read this blog and am amazed to see folks from the East Coast or Canada who visit what is intended to be a Northern California blog. Welcome!

Unfortunately, my IM norm hunt came screeching to an end last weekend at the Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco. Simply said, if you seek to earn a norm, then you cannot lose with the white pieces--and certainly not twice in the same tournament. The Slav opening in my game against FM Bela Evans (2279 FIDE) did not go as planned and, after castling the wrong way on move 14, I was already strategically busted. My opponent left no doubt who was the better player that day and I resigned shortly after reaching move 40.

Now needing four straight wins for an IM norm, I earned the required result against FM Richard Lobo (2261 FIDE) as black in the Sveshnikov variation. Perhaps the opposite colored bishop endgame was objectively drawn, but there is no doubt that white must play more actively than he did in the game. His position was on life support already when he blundered into checkmate on move 51 (see diagram at the top of this article).

Alas, my last hope ended when I lost the very next day to the top seed in the tournament, IM Vladimir Mezentsev (2400 FIDE). He surprised me in the opening, although I managed to get some compensation for the pawn that I lost. At the very least, all of my pieces were active. Once again, it was not my day and I went down in flames in a complex endgame of two minor pieces against a rook. The improvement 43... Nd7 (instead of Kd5) gives black a significant advantage due to his dangerous g+h pawns.

Oh well, such is life. At least the kids, especially NM Gregory Young (3.0/4) and FM Danya Naroditsky (1.5/2) still have a legitimate shot at making a norm in the next two weeks. I play again on Tuesday as black against IM Ricardo DeGuzman. I have little at stake now, except to try to improve my "minus 20" lifetime record against him! Yes, after 30 games, I have 1 win, 8 draws and a whopping 21 losses to the Bay Area's resident 500 lb gorilla. Wish us all luck!

Alan Benson IM Norm Tournament

(Student Gregory Young, holding his trophy from the US Junior while posing with his teacher, continued his streak of strong results in the first half of the Benson IM.)

The Mechanics' Institute Chess Club (see photo at right) hosts at least one FIDE norm tournament each year to offer local masters the opportunity to face strong competition and perhaps even take a step towards the International Master title. The organizer is Chess Room Director IM John Donaldson, assisted by IM David Pruess. Scheduled for the last two weeks of August, this year's tournament is named after a longtime chess master, director and book collector living in the East Bay: Alan B. Benson.

The participants include four International Masters and six norm seekers for an average rating of 2323 FIDE. In order to achieve one of the three norms required for the IM title, the candidate must finish with a performance rating above 2450 FIDE, meaning a score of 6.5 in this tournament (6.0 for the four lowest rated players). This standard is difficult, but certainly not impossible for the young and talented masters in the field.

• IM Vladimir Mezentsev (RUS), 2400
• IM Ricardo DeGuzman (PHI), 2389, most active titled player in Bay Area
  
• IM Odondoo Ganbold (MGL), 2380
  
• IM John Grefe (USA), 2369, former US Champion (1973)
  
• FM Sam Shankland (USA), 2368, age 16, highest rated Northern California junior
  
• FM Daniel Naroditsky (USA), 2313, age 12, World U12 champion
  
• FM Bela Evans (USA), 2279
• FM Richard Lobo (ENG), 2261
• NM Michael Aigner (USA), 2234
• NM Gregory Young (USA), 2233, age 13, US Junior co-champion
  

Due to a variety of schedule conflicts, about a quarter of the games have already been played. The lowest seed, Gregory Young, started out well with an undefeated score of 3.0 out of 4, including wins against Lobo and Aigner. Despite the disappointing loss to my star student, I have 2.0 out of 4, including a surprising 16 move win with black against IM Ganbold. The two main norm hopefuls, Sam Shankland and Daniel Naroditsky, both have 1.5, but Sam has finished three games while Daniel only played two so far.

Stay tuned for further updates on this blog over the next two weeks as this tournament wraps up before Labor Day. I will play four of my remaining five games between August 16 and 19, including challenging pairings as black against both of the top two seeds. Please wish me skill and luck, because I'll certainly need a lot of both.

IM Ooops!

(White just retreated Nb2 to attack the c4 pawn. Black to move and win!)

No, this position is not an optical illusion, although I did spend a full minute to double, triple and even quadruple check all of the possibilities. Merely a couple of moves out of theory, white hung a piece to an elementary tactic and immediately resigned after black played the correct response. The shocking part of the story is that white is not an amateur, but rather an International Master! The Mongolian IM Odondoo Ganbold, rated 2380 FIDE, gave me this gift win with the black pieces on Monday afternoon in the Alan Benson IM norm tournament played at the Mechanics' Institute.

This quick victory improved my score to 50% after four games. On the bright side, I already played against all of the three youngsters in the 10-player round robin, drawing with both FM-elect Sam Shankland and FM Daniel Naroditsky but losing badly to NM Gregory Young. My performance rating going into the 2-week break in my playing schedule is 2324. However, to earn a norm, I will need to score 4.0 out of the remaining five games, including contests versus International Masters Vladimir Mezentsev (as black), Ricardo DeGuzman (as black) and John Grefe (as white). While not entirely impossible, this does seem like an incredibly steep mountain to climb. Wish me luck!