: TOURISTS OF PNG TEAM IN 2012 WCO IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Except
for Stuart Fancy, 2nd from left, all other members of PNG team in
2012 WCO in Istanbul, Turkey are non-residents of PNG—from left: Rupert Jones,
Shaun Press, GM Team Captain from Bulgaria, Craig Skehan and Helmut Marko. Due
to health reason, CM Joselito Marcos didn’t make it 2 weeks prior to Olympiad.
He is the other one that resides/works in PNG for 21 years (1996-2017).
(Photo by Shaun Press)
CRAZY 9th ROUND OF
U. S. A. CHAMPIONSHIP!
AS USUAL, the 12 qualifiers of the 2017 USA Chess
Championship will have a single round-robin championship with the top 3 seeds
Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. The other qualifiers and their
FIDE Ratings are Jeffrey Xiong (2674), Alexander Onischuck (2667), Varushan
Akobian (2645), Ray Robson (2668), Gata Kamsky (2659), Daniel Naroditsky
(2646), Samuel Shankland (2666), Yaroslav Zherebukh (2605) and Alexander
Shabalov (2556).
Xiong, the reigning US and world junior
champion, and Zherebukh (qualified by rating), are first time participants.
Shabalov qualified by winning the 2016 US Open (his 4th), that’s why
he is called the King of US Open. In 1963, Bobby Fischer won the USA
Championship with a perfect 11-0 slate by beating Edmar Mednis, Larry Evans,
Robert Byrne, Arthur Bisguier, Samuel Reshevsky, Robert Steinmeyer, William
Addison, Raymond Weinstein, Donald Byrne, Pal Benko and Anthony Saidy. In 1965,
he lost to Reshevsky and R. Byrne, drew with Addison and won the other 8 games.
In
the 7th round, Kamsky came out of the cellar by clobbering Naroditsky
(the youngest ever chess author at 11 years old) in 45 moves of a Ruy Lopez
(Zaitsev Variation); Shabalov with the Black pieces, crushed Xiong in 26 moves
of a Caro-Kann defense by transposition; Nakamura could only draw with Baku
teammate Shankland in 51 moves of Slav Defense; Robson got a draw with So after
playing his last 10 moves on increment. Zherebukh won vs. Caruana! He now
shares the lead with So at 4.5 points apiece. WHO IS ZHEREBUKH?
Yaroslav
Volodymyrovych Zherebukh (rating 2605) is a Ukrainian-American chess
Grandmaster. In 2006, Zherebukh was a member of the Ukrainian national youth
team, which won the U-16 Chess Olympiad in Turkey. In the 2011 World Cup, held
in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, he caused a sensation by eliminating 2
super-grandmasters, Pavel Eljanov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the 1st
and 3rd rounds. In May 2015, Zherebukh switched his affiliation from
Ukraine to the United States. He is the tourney’s wildcard; others qualified by
rating.
Zherebukh
is another example of a player who changed federation, which is not new and not
necessarily have to reside in that country like the tourists Shaun Press,
Rupert Jones, Craig Skehan and Helmut Marko, who are all non-residents of Papua
New Guinea.
This
2017 USA Chess Championship is very competitive. In 2015, Wesley So is +2 while
last year, he, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, the defending champion, are
both +4. As they said prior to the start of the tourney, So needed +6 this year
to be the 2017 champ. But he’s just +2 currently.
What
a crazy round this 9th of the US Championship! Flash result: Top seed Wesley So
(black), who drew with Nakamura in the 8th round, defeated Jeffrey Xiong
in 32 moves of a Catalan to reach 6 points in 9 games. All other games are still
in progress…
Third
seed Nakamura is 2 pawns down vs. Onischuk; Second seed Caruana is in a tight
bind but with equal materials vs. Akobian, both are short in time though, where
Akobian just played moves to reach time control at move 40, wherein he lost 2
pawns in the process and now losing vs. Caruana. Nakamura still hopes to
survive after queen trade vs. Onischuk.
Wow!
Onischuk beat Hikaru, now just half-point behind Wesley, to play Xiong &
Kamsky in last 2 rounds. Wesley will be playing Kamsky and Naroditsky in the next
2 rounds.
Strange!
Caruana has blundered big time vs. Akobian, who kept share of lead with Wesley!
In time trouble in the second time control, Fabiano unable to convert his pawn
advantage in the ensuing queen and knight ending. Varushan was only hoping for
a draw but got a gift instead.
Conspiracy
theorists believe Nakamura would rather see Akobian be the champion than So by
taking a dive in his last round game vs. Akobian.
Unless
that happen, it will just be purely speculation. Nakamura would like to save wounded
pride as he now drops to No. 8 in live rating behind former world champion
Viswanathan Anand, and Sergey Karjakin, the challenger to Magnus Carlsen for
world chess title in New York last year. Caruana is down to No. 5 after another former
world champion Vladimir Kramnik and France’s Vachiere-Lagrave. Varushan plays
Robson and Nakamura in last 2 rounds.
Solution
to last week’s puzzle No. 3861: 1. Qxh7+!! Kxh7 2. hxg6++ Kxg6 3. Rh6#
This
week’s puzzle No. 3862: White to move and mates in 3 (Solution next issue)
Sources: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 9-10
Volume 26
Issue 28
April 10, 2017
Chess and Music (Perfect Combination)
The Beginning of Chess in Palau
By Roberto Hernandez
Soon to be published as a book
Music and Me by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
March 15, 2012 -- April 18, 2013
http://palau-chess.blogspot.com
April 25, 2013--April 10, 2017
The History of Chess in Palau
By Roberto Hernandez
June 09, 2002 -- April 10, 2017
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