Showing posts with label portland chess club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label portland chess club. Show all posts

Saturday, August 20, 2011

One more game from PCC Centennial

A good time was had by all, including l. to r. GM Susan Polgar, Portland Chess Club Centennial TD Frank Niro and Natasha Niro. (photos courtesy of The Susan Polgar Foundation)

Recap of the extensive coverage of the 2011 Portland Chess Club Centennial:

View the summary
of the Portland Chess Club Centennial, with a complete list of prize winners and links to each of my blogs during the tournament (sincere thanks to Jeff Roland and Idaho Chess Association for making this coverage possible).

And see the extensive coverage on the Northwest Chess web site (thank you to Eric Holcomb).

The USCF cross tables reflecting rating changes as a result of the PCC Centennial are located here.

The Portland Chess Club main page is here (thank you to Grisha Alpernas).

Photos of the clock simul are located here, courtesy of the Susan Polgar Foundation.

Susan Polgar's blog entries at Chess Daily News about the Portland Chess Centennial:
August 15, 2011
August 14, 2011
August 13, 2011 (1)
August 13, 2011 (2)
August 13, 2011 (3)
August 11, 2011
July 31, 2011 (1)
July 31, 2011 (2)
July 30, 2011

It is rare to find a score sheet from one of FIDE Master Nick Raptis' games. Following is his winning effort from Round 2. Thank you to Brian Esler for graciously sharing the results of what must have been a painful struggle against one of the Portland Chess Club's strongest members. Raptis finished at 5-1, tied for first with IM Georgi Orlov, Canadian Junior Champion Loren Laceste and FM Bindi Cheng, also of Canada. Incredibly, Brian could have won the game with if he had played 21.Kb1 with a forced mate for White!

The 16-round blitz side event was also won by Nick Raptis with 13 points, 1/2 point ahead of Bindi Cheng. John Donaldson was third in the 24-player side event. Click here to see the final blitz crosstable.

Brian Esler vs. Nick Raptis
2011 Portland Chess Club Centennial
Round 2, August 12, 2011

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Nf3 Ngf6 6. Nxf6+ Nxf6 7. Ne5 Be7 8. Bd3 Nd5 9. Be3 Bf6 10. Qf3 O-O 11. O-O-O c5 12. h4 Nb4 13. a3 Nxd3+ 14. Rxd3 Qd5 15. Qg3 c4 16. Bg5 Bxe5 17. dxe5 cxd3 18. Bf6 g6 19. Qe3 Qc4 20. c3 Qa4 21. Qxd3 Qf4+ 22. Kd1 b6 23. h5 g5 24. h6 Bb7 25. Rh5 Be4 26. Bxg5 Bxd3 27. Bxf4 Rad8 0-1

Play online chess

Reigning Oregon co-champion Brian Esler vs. GM Susan Polgar in last Saturday's 10-board clock simul.

Note that my article for Northwest Chess will be added here as soon as it is available.

Susan Polgar with Steve Pettengill, maker of giant chess sets including a full 32-piece set made of Port Orford Cedar, a rare type of Cedar native to Japan and Southern Oregon.

These pieces were hand-carved from a stand of timber burned in a forest fire, so no trees were harmed to build this set! The king is over 4‘3” tall. The recycled metal set (pawn shown here) uses various types of metal for a lightweight, durable and attractive chess set.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

115 entries and counting...

115 players have entered the Portland Chess Club Centennial tournament with one day remaining until the start. This amount exceeds expectations but is only about 60% of capacity. So there is still time to enter. Door entries will be accepted. $12 tournament memberships are available for Canadians and others who are not current US Chess Federation members.

Mike Morris and I will be entering the data into the SwissSys pairing program tonight. Just heard from GM Susan Polgar who is en route to Portland from San Francisco to participate in the celebration. See her comments earlier today in her blog.

Top 25 players in each section right now:

Championship Section

1 Georgi Orlov 2541
2 Michael Lee 2438
3 John Donaldson 2402
4 Bindi Cheng 2386
5 Howard Chen 2359
6 Josh Sinanan 2288
7 Steven Breckenridge 2267
8 Nick Raptis 2261
9 David Bragg 2212
10 Carl Haessler 2200
11 Roger Patterson 2179
12 Corbin Yu 2162
13 Andy May 2129
14 Daniel Gay 2120
15 Samir Sen 2115
16 Mike Janniro 2098
17 Igor Ummel 2097
18 Nathan Lee 2085
19 Rich Gutman 2070
20 Steven Deeth 2062
21 Megan Lee 2059
22 Paul Bartron 2050
23 Alexandra Botez 2036
24 Carl Koontz 2027
25 Preston Polasek 2019

Amateur Section

1 Blake Salisbury 1993
2 Doug Sterclick 1976
3 Larry Ball 1955
4 Jerry Sherrard 1937
5 Ethan Peake 1907
6 Vlajko Lakic 1902
7 David Bannon 1892
8 Fisette Robert 1860
9 Randy Smolensky 1859
10 Paul Leblanc 1854
11 Lane Van Weerdhuizen 1854
12 Jofrel Landingin 1838
13 Michael Goffe 1836
14 Severo Caluza 1829
15 Noah Fields 1825
16 Sarah May 1807
17 Micah Smith 1806
18 Gordon Higbie 1805
19 Evan Whipple 1800
20 Scott Levin 1795
21 Bob Malone 1795
22 Ted Lundin 1789
23 Kyle Haining 1786
24 Chris Burris 1783
25 Aaron Nicoski 1771

The complete list of entries as of last night can be viewed here.