Here’s his story: “It was a welcome twist of fate that I was able to play in a blitz tournament with the Canadian Olympic team! I met Ted Winick, the founder of the Chess Institute of Canada, by accident at the community center. I played a friendly game with him and learned that he was teaching chess to kids. I said that I did the same thing when I was on Saipan. He later invited me to [a] chess tournament to witness some lectures and simul exhibitions. When the blitz tournament was about to begin a participant backed out…. Ted asked me to play, so I did with the Canadian Olympians in the line up.”
Mon faced the under-16 Canadian champ Shiyam Thavandiran, WFM Dina Kagramanov and GM Mark Bluvshtein who led Canada to a 27th place finish in Dresden.
Mon assured me that our other friend who also lives in Canada now, former CNMI champ John Villamin, could have beaten Bluvshtein.
Welcome back to the beautiful world of Caissa Mon! As an American journalist once said, if that old chess bug ever bites, the victim is enthralled for keeps. Chessnuts may die, but they never quit. “The lure of the little playthings on the chessboard can be resisted just so long.”
Game of the week. This was played in the 11th and last round of the recently held Olympiad, with the second seed Ukrainian team up against the 10th seed USA. A win would give Ukraine the gold, a draw would secure silver and even a 1:3 loss would result in a bronze medal. But then Ukraine was smashed by the Americans 1/2- 31/2, which gave the U.S. the bronze!
According to ChessBase, Ukraine’s top board Vassily Ivanchuk, who lost his game against Gata Kamsky, “left the playing area in a highly emotional state, and began to vent his feelings. The Australian blogger Shaun Press describes the scene: ‘I was standing outside the playing hall, alongside New Zealand delegate Bob Gibbons, and witnessed Ivanchuk kick a large concrete pillar, then bang his fists on the food service counter a couple of times, before storming past where we were standing, into the cloak room area of the venue, all the time being followed by a couple of officials.’ ” FIDE failed a to get the distraught Ivanchuk to submit to a doping test and now wants to ban him!
Says Spain GM Alexei Shirov: “A player who has been in the very top for more than 20 years…gets banned simply because he wanted to calm down after a lost game?” FIDE, he adds, should stop destroying chess.
Here is one of the games from that dramatic match as annotated by GM Lubosh Kavalek.
“The last round began in the morning,” he reports, “and [America’s board 3 player] Onischuk, half asleep, forgot to play a promising novelty he had prepared against the Grunfeld Defense. But all turned out well and the American grandmaster secured a victory…with an astonishing tactical twist”
White: GM Alexander Onischuk (USA, 2644)
Black: GM Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine, 2720)
Grunfeld Defense
38th Olymiad, Dresden 2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 c5 8.Rb1 0-0 9.Be2 b6 10.0-0 Bb7 11.d5!? (GM Alexander Beliavsky’s enterprising positional pawn sacrifice.) 11…Bxc3 12.Bc4 Bg7 13.Qe2 (Preventing 13…Ba6, but Onischuk prepared 13.Bb2 and forgot about it. It weakens the black king by exchanging the dark bishops.) 13…Nd7 (Black can insist on the light bishop exchange with13…Qc8. The game Vitiugov-Morozevich, Moscow 2008, continued 14.Bb2 Bxb2 15.Rxb2 Ba6 16.e5 Bxc4 17.Qxc4 e6 18.d6 with compensation for a pawn.) 14.Bf4 (The central squeeze 14.e5 is met by 14…e6! 15.dxe6 Bxf3!) 14…Nf6 15.Rfd1 Qd7 16.Ne5 (Earlier in Dresden, Nakamura played against Mamedyarov 16.h3, allowing 16…Rad8 17.Ne5 Qc8 18.Bb5 e6!, undermining white’s center.) 16…Qc8 (Now the black rook is held in the corner.) 17.h3 Ne8 18.Nc6!? (With the sacrifice of the second pawn, white gains control of the light squares, but the position simplifies. After the game, Onischuk thought that he could have kept the pressure either with 18.Bd3 or with 18.Rbc1.) 18…Bxc6 19.dxc6 Bd4?! (Snatching the pawn 19…Qxc6 loses to 20.Bd5, but black could have prepared it with 19…e6! and it is not clear how white can gain any advantage.) 20.Rbc1 e5 21.Bh6 Ng7 22.Bd5 Qc7 23.Rd3 Kh8?! (Black is hoping to open the f-file.) 24.Rf3 f5 25.Qa6!(Threatening 26.Qb7!) 25…Rab8 26.Ra3! fxe4 (Winning the exchange after 26…Bb2 27.Qxa7 Rfc8 28.Ra6 Bxc1 29.Bxc1 spells trouble for black, for example 29…fxe4 30.Bb2 Qd6 31.Qd7! Qxd7 32.cxd7 Rc7 33.Rxb6! Rd8 34.Bc6 and the a-pawn becomes a dangerous passer.) 27.Qxa7 Rxf2 28.Kh2 Ne8 29.Bxe4 Bb2? (A tempting fork. After 29…Qd6 30.Ra6 white has the edge.) 30.Rc2!! (A beautiful deflection, deciding the game.) 30…Qxa7 (After 30…Rxc2 31.Rf3! the overloaded black pieces can’t cope with the threat 32.Rf8 mate, for example 31…Qd6 loses to 32.Qxb8!) 31.Rxa7 Rxc2 32.Bxc2 e4 (After 32…c4 33.Be4 Rc8 34.Rd7 b5 35.c7! wins, for example 35…Rxc7 36.Rd8 Re7 37.Bc6; or 35…Nxc7 36.Bb7.) 33.Bf4 Rc8 34.Bxe4 Nf6 35.Bf3 g5 36.Bxg5 Be5+ 37.g3 c4 38.Re7 Bd4 39.c7 Ng8 40.Re4 Bf6 41.Bf4 (Threatening 42.Bg4.) Black resigned.
Puzzler.
White — pawns on a2, c3, f3; Ba6, Ra7, Ne4, Kg3
Black — pawn on c6, Ke3
White to play and mate in four moves.
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