Chess by Ray Kerr

(Originally when I started this bl0g, I wanted to copy as many of the chess columns from the local Victoria, BC newspaper (they had chess/checker columns in the 1930s, for instance), in any case I stopped posting the articles, but I might as well start posting the articles I found again.

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Taken from the Times Colonist, October 5, 1980.
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(pg. 12) Chess: German dark horse in world playdown
By Ray Kerr
Looking at the world chess championship playoffs, one has to admit that things haven't gone exactly the way they were supposed to.

Before the Candidates' Matches started, I predicted that Victor Korchnoi would once again be in the semi-final and would win it, then going on to meet World Champion Anatoly Karpov of the Soviet Union for the title.

Korchnoi came through and qualified for the semi-final.

Former world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union and Lajos Portisch of Hungary seemed to be the top two choices to meet Korchnoi in the semi-final.

Spassky didn't make it past the opening round and Portisch lost in the semi-final to West Germany's Robert Huebner, who now takes on Korchnoi for the right to meet Karpov.

So there you are: If you like a dark horse in the Korchnoi-Huebner match, here's your chance.

I'm still calling Korchnoi but a Huebner victory would not surprize me in the least.

Korchnoi had difficulties in this series right from the start and did not look impressive in disposing of former world champion Tigran Petrosian of the Soviet Union.

Then came his match against Lev Polugayevski, another Soviet grandmaster, and Korchnoi had to go into "overtime" to qualify for the semi-final.

It was this same Polugayevski that Korchnoi trounced 5-1 in these same playoffs some three years ago.

So you have to say that Korchnoi is slowing down.

But he's still favored because of his fantastic experience and tremendous stamina.

Talent, too, but then they all have plenty of it at this stage of the world championship.

Huebner, incidentally, was the man who ousted Portisch in the quarterfinal but Portisch only has himself to blame - he tried to play it safe and as a result is in the safest place of all, on the sidelines.

It is also interesting that for the first time since I can remember in these matches, the Soviet Union does not have a representative in the semi-final (Korchnoi is now a Swiss citizen).

Portisch, incidentally, is featured in our game of the week, but on the losing side.

The winner is young Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman, the man I expect to see in these same world championship playoffs during their next cycle. Timman beat Portisch during the celebrated Tilburg, Holland, tournament won by Karpov earlier this year.

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Incredible pullout shakes world championship

(pp. 31, Times Colonist newspaper, January 11, 1981.)
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chess: Incredible pullout shakes world championship
by Ray Kerr

One of the most exciting events of the North American chess season would have to be the annual National Telephone Chess League competition.

The matches which concluded in late 1980 were interesting for Canada as well because the Seattle entry had several Canadian players, such as Vancouver's grandmaster Duncan Suttles, provincial champion Bruce Harper and former B.C. champion Bobby Zuk.

With world junior champion Yasser Seirawan of Seattle leading the way, the team did a tremendous job in the preliminaries and finished second in its eight-team group, just behind Philadelphia.

In the other division, Washington finished first with Westfield, N.J. in second place.

Those four teams then met in the playoffs, and Washington really creamed our Seattle team 4 1/2-1 1/2, while Westfield upset Philadelphia by 3 1/2-2 1/2.

The stage was thus set for the final, and and what a dandy it turned out to be.

Actually, it was an all-draw match except for the fifth board, where Washington's Charles Odendahl defeated Jack Shapiro, a veteran New Yorker playing for Westfield.

Washington thus took the 1980 championship by the slimmest of margins, while Philadelphia and Seattle fought to a 3-3 tie in the consoldation final but Philadelphia took third because of its superior seasonal record.

Still, Seattle's fourth-place finish wasn't bad considering the league had 16 teams to start with.

Our Game of the Week is from the competition with John Fedorowicz of Westfield defeating Ken Rowley of Phoenix in an excellent game.

As for the telephone league matches, the teams play in their own clubs or other locations.

A telephone line is opened between the two locations through the match.

Runners are assigned by each team to transmit moves to the telephone operator and recieve moves from the other team.

Players use the normal chess clock with two dials. Only the player's own dial must be controlled.

Because of the necessary transmission delays, the opponent's time cannot be kept accurately but this can be ascertained from time to time by telephone inquiries.

Anyway, the telephone league idea, which dates back a number of years, has certainly proved to be an interesting one and no one can call it an experiment anymore.

Now if we could only see a few more teams with Canadian players on them, it would be even more interesting for us on the northern side of the border.

Incidentally, in the world championship semi-finals, Soviet defector Victor Korchnoi led West German grandmaster Robert Huebner 4 1/2-3 1/2 after eight games of their 16-game match. Korchnoi won the seventh and eighth games.

And then came the shocker on Friday: Huebner resigned the match and Korchnoi now meets Soviet Union's Anatoly Karpov for the world championship sometime this summer.

Unbelievable!

Huebner blamed it all on bad nerves but Korchnoi felt it was a poor excuse. I hope to have more on it in the future.

And as far as I know, it's the first time something like this has happened in a world championship final.

City ace keeps fine streak alive

(Page 38, Times Colonist newspaper, Sunday, Jan 4, 1981.)
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chess
City ace keeps fine streak alive
By Ray Kerr

One of the more interesting Island tournaments was the Victoria Fall Open, which featured some interesting innovations.

The most interesting was that the players were divided into groups of six - except for one group at the end - and then held a six-player, five round round-robin tournament in each group.

It made for quite a tournament in the top group, where Victoria ace Jeff Reeve had to contend with Danny Scoones, another Victoria master, former B.C. champion Gordon Taylor of Vancouver as well as three Lower Mainland experts, Ross Cameron, Art Milne and Ian Skulsky.

But there was no stopping Reeve on this occasion.

The highest rated chessmaster on Vancouver Island allowed only a draw against Scoones and polished off the rest to finish first with 4 1/2-1/2.

This performance has lifted his rating past the 2300 mark, putting him in strong master class on the Canadian chess ladder.

Scoones also did well by not only drawing against Reeve but also defeating Taylor.

However, he also lost to Skulsky and had to be content with finishing alone in second place with his 3 1/2-1 1/2 score.

Taylor has one of his poorer weekends, losing to both Reeve and Scoones while knocking off the three lower-rated experts from the mainland.

All in all quite a showing by the two Victoria players, which must have pleased Lynn Stringer, who organized and directed the event.

The next group was also a strong one as it did not have a player rated under 1800 - in other words they were all Class A entrants.

Harry Moore of Victoria put on another excellent showing and won with a 4 1/2-1/2 score to likely boost his rating about the 2100 mark - a strong expert.

Al Holzknecht of Victoria was second with 3-2 while Darrel Hunt and Ed Seedhouse, both Victorians, finished next with 2 1/2-2 1/2.

In any event, it was certainly an interesting tournament and now we have to wait and see what Santa has lined up for us on the chess tournament front during the coming years.

Unfortunately, the reappearance of the talented chess star resulted in a sparkling victory for his opponent Boston senior master Jack Bono, who should be proud of this win achieved in a Boston-Seattle match during the U.S. Telephone League championship last year.

Suttles' team from Seattle, which also has several other players, did not make the playoffs, and Washington eventually took it all.

Junior competitions coming on strong

(from the Times Colonist newspaper, Sunday, October 12, 1980.)

Junior competitions coming on strong
chess by Ray Kerr
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Junior chess is again making its presence felt on Vancouver Island.

And in a big way.

A while back, a small junior tournament in Victoria showed there was still plenty of potential for this type of competition.

And then came the Island zonal chess championship, played in Victoria two weeks ago.

It was to provide two qualifiers for this month's provincial junior championship in Vancouver, in addition to Nanaimo's Tyler Johnson, who had qualified earlier.

As it turned out the Island got an extra qualifier into the provincial final, due to an unexpected threeway tie in the Victoria tournament.

The three players who tied for first place with 4-1 records were Kent Munro, the highest rated competitor in the tournament, Gary Basanta and John Banky, all from Victoria.

Originally, tournament director Lynn Stringer of Victoria was going to hold a special playoff to decide the two qualifiers.

However, when it was discovered there was not enough time, Munro advanced into the final by rating and Basanta and Banky as the two qualifiers from the Island zonal.

You would think then that everybody went home happy.

Hardly, especially the two Johnson brothers - yes, Tyler already in the final, is from the same family.

But brothers Damon and Chris had a fine chance of making it into the final as well, as they led the field in the Victoria tournament with 3 1/2-1/2 scores after four rounds.

The only half-points they lost happened to be through a quick draw against each other.

But in the final round disaster struck for the young brothers.

Munro, who has earlier lost to Damon Johnson, got even with the brothers by defeating Chris and putting him out of the running.

And Gary Basanta, a real dark horse, beat Damon in the final round to pass him and tie for first with Munro.

The first place troika was completed when little known Banky defeated Elisabeth Kneth and vaulted over the Johnson brothers into a three-way tie.

In any case, it was a fine tournament with an excellent turnout of 18 players.

We're staying with junior chess for our Game of the Week and we see Allison Bert of Atlanta defeating Ben Ault in a Georgia tournament. Even though Ault was rated 300 points higher than the 16-year-old girl facing him across the board.