Thursday, January 31, 2013

2013 Cardinal Open held in memory of Mike Anders



Michael Anders, 1955-2013

The 36th Cardinal Open held January 25-27 in Columbus, Ohio, was dedicated to a lost friend. Michael R. Anders, associate national tournament director, teacher, bookseller and USCF life member died in a plane crash on his 58th birthday. Mike was a private pilot who often flew between Kentucky and the Caribbean where he once lived and taught. On Friday January 4, 2013, while flying along the coast of Florida, from Fort Pierce, Florida, headed for Knoxville, Tennessee, Mike reported engine trouble and was attempting to make an emergency landing. Sadly, he didn’t make it. His plane crashed into a Palm Coast home, killing him and his two passengers, Duane Shaw, 59, a neighbor of Mike’s in Albany, KY, and Charisse Peoples, 42, of Indianapolis. Charisse was Shaw’s fiancée. Miraculously, the resident of the home, Susan Crockett, escaped with only a minor bruise. The plane was a 1957 Beech Bonanza H-35 and Anders was the registered owner.

Mike's full time job at the time of the crash was Spanish teacher for Clinton County High School in Kentucky. He previously taught school in Cincinnati, and was an active scholastic chess coach and tournament director. Recently he was living in Kentucky, but remained a familiar face at tournaments in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. He was the bookseller at the 2009 U.S. Junior Chess Congress, a USCF National event held in Anderson, IN and was the section chief at the K-3 SuperNationals in 2009. His most recent TD assignment was at the 21st Kings Island Open in Cincinnati this past November.

Whether he was directing or selling books and equipment, Mike was energetic, maintained a constant smile, and had jokes and stories to share with everyone. He was a class-B player, with a peak rating of 1774. But, more than playing, Mike always enjoyed conversation with other chess players.

Ohio chess organizer Grant Perks, who served as interim USCF Executive Director in late 2003, recalled that Mike was a teacher at Cincinnati Country Day School. “He ran concurrent scholastic and adult tournaments on a monthly basis during the school year,” Perks said. “It was an opportunity for me to bring kids to play in a scholastic event while I played in the open section. Mike organized at least one state scholastic at the school. He also directed the first two Queen City Classics.”

For a short time, Mike owned a barbeque restaurant in the Cincinnati area and then moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands before returning to Kentucky near to resume teaching. Mike enjoyed flying any time he could. “When I took the position at the USCF,” Perks recalled, “Mike willingly flew me to New Windsor at a moment’s notice. I wasn't scheduled to be there until the next week but wanted to reach out to the staff. Flying in for a quick turnaround wasn't feasible with commercial flights.” Mike, as always, was right there to help out.

Remembering Mike to the 190 players on hand for the Cardinal Open, tournament director Grant Neilley said, “It is rumored that Mike hadn’t yet passed the NTD exam, because he couldn’t help answering the questions with a humor the graders apparently didn’t share.” Neilley is president of the Fellowship of the King Chess Club, the sponsoring affiliate of Cardinal Open, a popular regional event held continuously since 1978. He concluded his customary announcements at the start of the event by asking for a few moments of silence and then declared, with a discernible combination of respect, affection and sadness in his voice, “We dedicate the 2013 Cardinal Open to the memory of our friend Mike Anders.”



Grant Neilley, Ohio-based tournament director

This was Neilley’s fourth year organizing and directing the Cardinal Open. He was assisted this year by Myron Thomas and Alex Neilley. Grant Neilley organized his first tournament in 2006 after starting a club the year before. “I was asking around to see how we could raise awareness of our club and boost attendance,” Neilley recalled, “and someone told me the best way was to organize a tournament. I wondered, Ok. How do I do that? I had never even been to one. If I had known then where it would all lead, I’m not so sure I would have taken the first step, and I’m pretty sure my wife wouldn’t have let me. But for some reason, I’ve come to really enjoy it, so I just keep going.”

The original Cardinal Open was initiated by Larry Paxton, who got his start in chess organization as The Ohio State University's chess club tournament director and editor of its weekly Phalanx back in the early 1960s. In 1971, he returned to Ohio and stepped into the presidency of the Ohio Chess Association, floating almost exclusively on the shoulders of David Wolford's Ohio Chess Bulletin and its signature tournament, The Ohio Chess Congress.

According to Larry, “Dick Fuller moved on to Baroque recorder music and I inherited his tournament staff including Susan Boone as O.C.A. treasurer. Susie made the O.C.A. look competent and professional.” Later, an outspoken critic from the Cleveland area said the O.C.A. was useless and hadn't done anything new for Ohio Chess in decades. “Susie and I were offended,” Fuller said, “and challenged.”

“But because of Fischer,” he continued, “the chess calendar was crowded, especially during fair weather months. We found a hole in late January, but had already decided that to rise above the routine, to make the O.C.A. ‘un-useless’, we needed the scale of the Ohio Chess Congress. For a new tournament to break in at that level would require guarantees. We not only wanted a big turnout, we wanted strong players. The risk of such an event in a ‘middlin’ state in mid-winter seemed huge.”

“We called the tournament the Cardinal Open for all its meanings, and held our breath. Although the Columbus Dispatch reported 200 players, we had, I think, 111 and that was enough. The tournament has never looked back. Grant Perks, Randy Ryan and David Hater popularized things like Friday rounds and second chance re-entries in Ohio, and attracted some of the Grandmasters. The Cardinal events have given the U.S.C.F. Grand Prix a strong launch each year.”

The entrants to this year’s Cardinal Open included Grandmasters Alexander Shabalov, Dmitry Gurevich, Alex Yermolinsky and Andre Diamant as well as International Master Justin Sarker and FIDE Master Atulya Shetty, 2012 Denker Tournament co-champion. The clear winner was Brazilian GM Diamant a member of the Webster University college chess team. Webster University will compete for the first time in the Final Four of College Chess in Rockville, MD, in April.

Diamont defeated Shetty in the final round to finish with a score of 4.5-0.5, his only blemish resulting from his fourth round draw with Dmitry Gurevich. FM Carl Boor defeated Shabalov in round 5 to take a share of second place with Gurevich at 4-1. Boor’s only loss was to Diamant in round 3 in what turned out to be the key encounter of the tournament.

John Marcsik of Kentucky and Tom Shutzman of Missouri shared Under-200 honors in the Open section. The Under-2100 section was won by Manis Davidovich of Michigan with 4.5 points, a half point ahead of Awonder Liang, Bill Turner, Chris Bush and John Miller. Tom Rosenbaum of Indiana swept the Under-1800 section with a perfect 5-0 score. Uner-1500 honors went to Matthew Yuan of Ohio (4.5 points). Michael Giglio and Ayush Sunkad, both of Ohio, shared the top prize in the Under-1300 section with 4.5 points each.



Grandmaster Andre Diamant (Brazil and Webster University), winner of the 2013 Cardinal Open

Games from the Cardinal Open will be presented in the next blog entry (February 7, 2013).

Portions of this article will be published in the March 2013 Chess Life magazine and the May 2013 issue of the Ohio Chess Bulletin.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Yermo comes to Cornell to meet with Chess Team



GM Alex Yermolinsky met with members of the Cornell University chess team in Ithaca, NY. yesterday. Pictured are Brian Liou, Robert Xue, Udit Gupta, Anna Levina (partially hidden), Tom Riccardi, Avjol Kapaj, Bo Tharma, Vitaliy Ryabinin, Adam Holmes, Alex Yermolinsky and Frank Niro (photo courtesy of Walter DeJong).

Click here to see similar post in Susan Polgar's blog (1/31/13).

Thursday, January 24, 2013

South Dakota to Ohio... via Missouri



We spent Wednesday night in Boonville, MO, where I was disappointed to learn that the poker room at the Isle of Capri casino has been closed down. Today we visited the campus of Webster University in Webster Groves near St. Louis. Alex met with Susan Polgar and some members of the Webster University Chess team.

Pictured above are (l. to r.): Chess Grandmaster Anatoly Bykhovsky (Israel), your friendly neighborhood blogger (US), Grandmaster and former women's World Champion Susan Polgar (Hungary, now US), Grandmaster and former US Champion Alex Yermolinsky (Soviet Union, now US), and Grandmaster Georg Meier (Germany).

Bykhovsky and Meier will play for the Webster University team in the upcoming Final Four of College Chess in Herndon, VA, in April.



Dinner in St. Louis with Meier, Bykhovsky, International Master Vitaly Niemer (Israel), Yermolinsky, and Women's International Master Inna Agrest (Sweden).

Tomorrow we head to Columbus, OH, for the Cardinal Open.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

What, no Harleys???


An empty Main Street in Sturgis, SD, bears little resemblance to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally held each year in August. One-eyed Jack's Saloon (pictured below) is open only six weeks of the year. Most people who have been to Sturgis have never seen it looking like the photo below.


Below is a look at Main Street in August!


From here I drove to Rapid City to get my oil changed, and then on to Sioux Falls to meet Alex Yermolinsky, Camilla Baginskaite and Danny Olim for dinner.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Lots of snowmobiles


For most of the morning I saw more snowmobiles than cars in western Wyoming (but no buffalo). Rested at Little Big Horn (Montana) for two hours and reached Spearfish before midnight.

Today I will drive about 400 miles to Sioux Falls where I will pick up a passenger, chess Grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky, 1993 and 1996 U.S. Chess Champion, who will join me for the remainder of the trip to NY.

Along the way I expect to stop in Sturgis to check my antifreeze and transmission fluid. Wonder what the town looks like without 500,000 bikers and their wheels...

Yesterday's mileage: 578
Two-day total: 912
ETA Ithaca: Monday evening, January 28
Planned stops en route: Boonville, St. Louis and Columbus (2013 Cardinal Open)
http://www.neilley.com/chess/2013cardinal.pdf

Monday, January 21, 2013

Day #2, Little Big Horn


Minus 6 degrees with a forecast of "freezing fog" as I head out this morning. God willing, today I will skirt the Tetons, drive past the west entrance to Yellowstone near the spot where Idaho, Wyoming and Montana come together, visit Little Big Horn National Monument (site of Custer's Last Stand) and finish the day in Spearfish, SD, in the shadows of the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore.

Will try to take some photos today along the route.

Yesterday's mileage: 334.2
Today's planned mileage: 578 (longest driving day of the trip)

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Heading East


The car is packed and the car fluids topped off. I'm leaving today for Cornell University. Should arrive in Ithaca 3 or 4 days before my class begins. Stops along the way in Sioux Falls SD, St. Louis MO and Columbus OH.

I chose a route that doesn't include Salt Lake City or Denver because of weather fears. Just learned that it will be 61 degrees in Denver on Tuesday and 63 on Wednesday. I hope the rest of my choices on this trip will be better. Look here for status reports along the way.

First sleep stop tonight in St. Anthony, Idaho (pictured above).