USCF Drops Set & Clock

This is not a post I wanted to write, but it needs to be written. I followed the action at the 2021 US Open last week and immensely enjoyed the time spent watching. There were several interesting articles posted at the USCF website by J.J. Lang (https://new.uschess.org/author/jj-lang) during the event. I found an interesting game from round seven which became a post (https://xpertchesslessons.wordpress.com/2021/08/09/nm-steven-cookley-vs-im-victor-matviishen-us-open-round-7-bishops-opening/). In addition I managed to utilize two games from the last round which became the two previous posts. To do so I had to transfer all of the moves from the online DGT board to the analysis board at 365Chess (https://www.365chess.com/analysis_board.php). It would have made my task easier if the USCF had broadcast the games at ChessBomb (https://www.chessbomb.com/), or Chess24 (https://chess24.com/en). The Charlotte Chess Center & Scholastic Academy broadcast all their tournaments at Chess24, and also at the ChessBomb, as does the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco for their Tuesday Night Marathon (https://www.milibrary.org/chess). Yet the National Chess Organization, the United States Chess Federation broadcast the games on DGT in lieu of the much more popular previously named venues. Go figure…This matters because there is an immediacy today that was lacking ‘back in the day’. For example, back in that day and age one waited until the next issue of Chess Life appeared to see the games. During the Karpov vs Kasparov clashes, while driving a taxi for Buckhead Safety Cab overnight, I would nab the early edition of the New York Times newspaper, knowing which hotel was the first stop, to see the moves from the World Championship match. There is no waiting today, as one can watch the games in real time. Therefore, it is really true that by tomorrow everything is “yesterday’s news.”

While watching the last round of the US Open online I had a brainstorm, or fart, depending on how one looks at it, I suppose. Thing is, I have recently been helping a father of two children who were captivated by The Queen’s Gambit to learn the ropes, so to speak. One day he asked about the names of the openings and I was attempting to explain how an opening could start with one name but change to another by transposition. With that in mind I decided to go to 365Chess and copy the new names of the opening with the twelve games given on the DGT boards. My intention was to wait until they were posted at the USCF website and download them, saving me all the time necessary to transcribe all twelve games. As stated, I did record the two aforementioned games, which can be found in the two previous posts. Unfortunately, the games were not forthcoming. They did not appear Monday, the day after the event and neither did the final article at the USCF website. Ditto for Tuesday, the tenth of August. Finally, Wednesday morning, there was an article concerning the 2021 US Open, but it was not at the USCF website, but at Chessbase! The title read, U.S. Open: Chess games, awards, signings, meetings, by Alexy Root. (https://en.chessbase.com/post/u-s-open-chess-games-awards-signings-meetings) Hooray! I thought, but was soon disabused of that euphoric feeling when reading the article and finding only three, THREE!, games out of the many thousands of Chess games played during the US Open! Frankly, the article, although well written and somewhat interesting, was far below the usual Chessbase standard of excellence. The article contains what the title proclaims, which is much fluff; the kind of thing one expects from Chess Life magazine, or an USCF online article. I refuse to bore you with the details. After a quick check at the USCF website I see an article by J.J. Lang has finally been posted. (https://new.uschess.org/news/victor-goes-spoils) It is dated August 11, but I did not see it on the website yesterday, but I did turn in about eleven, leaving an hour for it to be posted…Seriously, I cannot recall the time the last time I looked for the article, so maybe it was posted earlier, but I would not wager on that being the case. I did not check this morning as was done each previous day because, frankly, I had given up all hope of ever seeing a final article on the 2021 US Open…

Every day I went to the USCF webpage looking for the last round, the ninth round, games to be posted. I just looked at four pm, August 12, 2021 and the last round games have still NOT BEEN POSTED! Check for yourself here (http://www.uschess.live/). It is sad…pitiful, really…In addition, the fifth round games cannot be downloaded, and have never been able to be downloaded…I asked someone to check and he, too, was unable to download the fifth round games.

So here’s the deal…What I am about to give you is my working notes, excepting the two aforementioned games already posted, to what would, and could have been a post about the top twelve games of the 2021 US Open. There were some interesting games and theoretical novelties in the opening, but you would not have known that if up to the USCF. That has got to say something about the organization, and I use the word loosely. Someone dropped the King, or Queen, or Rook, or even the Bishop and Knight, along with the pawns, and even the CLOCK, on this one.

Before reading the following please keep this in mind:

Board one: C01 French, exchange variation

Board two: B12 Caro-Kann, advance variation

Board three: After move 2: A48 King’s Indian, East Indian defence
After White move 3: E60 King’s Indian, 3.Nf3
After Black move 4: D90 Gruenfeld, Three knights variation
After White move 5: D91 Gruenfeld, 5.Bg5

Board four: After Black first move: B06 Robatsch (modern) defence. Timur came up with TN of 4…Nf6!

Board five: After Black 3…Nf6: C11 French defence
After White 4 e5: C11 French, Steinitz variation
After White 7 Be3: C11 French, Steinitz, Boleslavsky variation

Board six: After first move: C20 King’s pawn game
After White second move: C40 King’s knight opening
After Black second move: C44 King’s pawn game
After White third move: C60 Ruy Lopez (Spanish opening)
After White fourth move: C70 Ruy Lopez
After Black fourth move: C77 Ruy Lopez, Morphy defence
After White fifth move: C78 Ruy Lopez, 5.O-O
After Black fifth move: C78 Ruy Lopez, Moeller defence

Board seven: After first White move: A10 English opening
After first Black move: A20 English opening

Schmakel played 8…h5 (TN)

Nakamura, Hikaru (2746)
Caruana, Fabiano (2832)
Event: 10th London Classic 2018
Site: London ENG Date: 12/13/2018
Round: 1.3 Score: ½-½
ECO: A20 English opening
1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 c6 4.Nf3 e4 5.Nd4 Qb6 6.Nc2 d5 7.O-O dxc4 8.Nc3 Na6 9.d3 exd3 10.exd3 Be7 11.Re1 Be6 12.dxc4 O-O 13.Be3 Qa5 14.Bd2 Qb6 15.Na4 Qd8 16.b3 Re8 17.Bc3 Nc5 18.Bxf6 Qxd1 19.Raxd1 gxf6 20.Nc3 f5 21.Ne2 Bf6 22.Ned4 Rad8 23.Bh3 f4 24.Nxe6 Rxd1 25.Rxd1 Nxe6 26.Bxe6 Rxe6 27.Kf1 b5 28.cxb5 cxb5 29.gxf4 Re4 30.f5 Kg7 31.Rd5 a6 32.Rd6 Rh4 33.Ne3 a5 34.Ra6 a4 35.bxa4 bxa4 36.Kg2 Rd4 37.Kf3 h5 38.Ra5 Rh4 39.Kg2 Rf4 40.Kg3 Rb4 41.Nd5 Bh4+ 42.Kg2 Rd4 43.f6+ Kg6 44.Kf3 Bg5 45.h3 h4 46.Rb5 Bxf6 47.Ke3 Rd1 48.Nf4+ Kg7 49.Ra5 Rh1 50.Kf3 Rh2 51.Nh5+ Kg6 52.Nf4+ Kg7 53.Rxa4 Be5 54.Kg4 Rxf2 55.Nd3 Rg2+ 56.Kf5 Bg3 57.Nf4 Rf2 58.Kg4 Bxf4 59.Rxf4 Rxa2 60.Kxh4 Ra6 61.Rg4+ Kh7 62.Rf4 Kg7 63.Rg4+ Kh7 64.Rf4 ½-½
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?back=1&gid=4158698&m=15

Board eight: After White first move: A04 Reti opening
Aftere White second move: A07 Reti, King’s Indian attack (Barcza system)

7 Bb2 is a TN by FM Dov Gorman

Ladva, Ottomar (2513)
Sorensen, Hampus (2364)
Event: European Rapid 2019
Site: Tallinn EST Date: 12/05/2019
Round: 2.29 Score: 1-0
ECO: A07 Reti, King’s Indian attack (Barcza system)
1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nd7 3.d4 Nb6 4.Bg2 Bf5 5.O-O e6 6.b3 c6 7.Nbd2 h6 8.Bb2 Nf6 9.a4 Bb4 10.c3 Be7 11.Ne5 Nbd7 12.Nxd7 Qxd7 13.a5 O-O 14.b4 Qc7 15.Qb3 Rfc8 16.Rfe1 Bh7 17.e3 Bd3 18.c4 dxc4 19.Nxc4 Bxc4 20.Qxc4 Nd5 21.Ba3 b6 22.e4 Nf6 23.Rec1 Qd8 24.Bb2 Rab8 25.axb6 Qxb6 26.d5 exd5 27.exd5 Nxd5 28.Bxd5 cxd5 29.Qxc8+ Rxc8 30.Rxc8+ Kh7 31.Rd1 Bxb4 32.Bd4 Qe6 33.Rcc1 a5 34.Rb1 h5 35.h4 Qe4 36.Ra1 Qc2 37.Be3 Qf5 38.Bb6 Bc3 39.Rac1 Qe5 40.Rd3 d4 41.Rcd1 g6 42.Bxd4 Bxd4 43.Rxd4 Kg7 44.Ra4 f5 45.Rd7+ Kh6 46.Ra7 Qe1+ 47.Kg2 Qc3 48.Ra6 Qc2 49.R6xa5 Qc6+ 50.Kh2 Qb6 51.Ra2 f4 52.Ra6 fxg3+ 53.fxg3 Qe3 54.Ra7 Qd4 55.Rf7 Qd5 56.Raa7 Qd2+ 57.Kh3 1-0

Board nine: After Black first move: B20 Sicilian defence
After White second move: B27 Sicilian defence
After Black second move: B30 Sicilian defence
After White third move: B30 Sicilian, Nimzovich-Rossolimo attack (without …d6)
After black third move: B31 Sicilian, Nimzovich-Rossolimo attack (with …g6, without …d6)

Ennsberger, Ulrich (2368)
Breder, Dennis (2438)
Event: TCh-AUT 2012-13
Site: Hohenems AUT Date: 11/04/2012
Round: 3.5 Score: 0-1
ECO: B31 Sicilian, Nimzovich-Rossolimo attack (with …g6, without …d6)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 bxc6 5.O-O Bg7 6.d3 e5 7.a3 a5 8.a4 Ne7 9.Nbd2 d6 10.Nc4 f5 11.Bg5 f4 12.h3 Be6 13.Ra3 h6 14.Bxe7 Qxe7 15.Re1 g5 16.Nh2 h5 17.f3 Kf7 18.Rb3 Ra7 19.Qe2 Bf6 20.c3 Qc7 21.Ra3 Rb7 22.Ra2 Kg7 23.Raa1 Re8 24.Rad1 Rbb8 25.Rd2 Re7 26.Qd1 Kh8 27.Rf1 Rg7 28.Qe1 Rbg8 29.g4 Rh7 30.Rg2 Rb8 31.Rff2 Kg7 32.Qd1 Kg6 33.Qc2 hxg4 34.hxg4 Rbh8 35.Qb3 d5 36.Nd2 c4 37.Qc2 cxd3 38.Qxd3 Kg7 39.Qa6 Bc8 40.Qd3 Qb6 41.Ndf1 Ba6 42.Qc2 Be7 43.exd5 cxd5 44.Qf5 Qf6 45.Qd7 Qd6 46.Qf5 Rf8 47.Qb1 Qg6 48.Qd1 Bd3 49.Rd2 e4 50.Rxd3 exd3 51.Rd2 Rfh8 52.Rxd3 Qb6+ 53.Kg2 Qh6 54.Rxd5 Qxh2+ 0-1
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?back=1&gid=3833698&m=14

Board ten: After Black second move: B30 Sicilian defence

Board eleven: After first White move: A40 Queen’s pawn
After first Black move: D00 Queen’s pawn game
After second White move: D06 Queen’s Gambit
After second Black move: D10 Queen’s Gambit Declined Slav defence
After third White move: D10 Queen’s Gambit Declined Slav defence, exchange variation

Board twelve: After third White move: C03 French, Tarrasch
After third black move: C05 French, Tarrasch, closed variation
After sixth black move: C05 French, Tarrasch, Botvinnik variation

10 a4 by IM Alexander Katz appears to be new move.

An Epidemic of Loneliness

George Will

is a columnist for the Washington Post and his latest effort is titled, We have an epidemic of loneliness. How can we fix it?

Excerpts follow, but I would like to begin with this, which is frightening: “America’s largest job category is “driver” and, with self-driving vehicles coming, two-thirds of such jobs could disappear in a decade.”

I drove professionally and I do not just mean when driving a taxi. There were various driving gigs in varied places when younger. I once drove a brand new Ford Probe across the country from Atlanta to Los Angeles in less than three days. I slept, or more properly napped, only in rest areas, stopping to take only one shower in a truck stop along the way because of tremendous time pressure, something with which all Chess players can identify. The person contracted to drive the car to the architect who had won it in a raffle at an architectural convention in Atlanta pulled out at the last moment. The owner of the company called me because, as he put it, “You are the only driver who can get it there on time.” The car was delivered to the owner on time. He gave me a twenty dollar bill as a tip. Enraged, I said, While driving a taxi for Buckhead Safety Cab Mickey Mantle once gave me a fifty dollar bill for a three fifty fare!” The cheapskate just glared at me…

Another driving gig was transporting Bell South vehicles to various cities in Southern states. Vehicles heading to the larger cities would usually go via hauler because those drivers could transport multiple vehicles. The single vehicles heading to smaller cities had to transported by individuals such as yours truly. Some of the drivers had worked for an airline, which at the time meant Delta Airlines in Atlanta, and they could return home using their free miles, while I would have to return on my own, which meant the Greyhound bus or Amtrak. The older drivers had no desire to go to, for example, Lake Charles Louisiana.

I, on the other hand, loved heading to Lake Charles because it meant a trip to New Orleans, a visit with the sui generis Jude Frazier Acers,

the Chess King of Decatur street (https://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/456-the-chess-king-of-decatur-street) and a night on Bourbon Street, before heading to the Amtrak station, and a train leaving the next morning at seven, giving me plenty of time for sleep on the return trip.

George begins his column, “If Sen. Ben Sasse is right — he has not recently been wrong about anything important — the nation’s most-discussed political problem is entangled with the least-understood public-health problem. The political problem is furious partisanship. The public-health problem is loneliness. Sasse’s new book argues that Americans are richer, more informed and “connected” than ever — and unhappier, more isolated and less fulfilled.”

“In “Them: Why We Hate Each Other — and How to Heal,” Sasse’s subject is “the evaporation of social capital” — the satisfactions of work and community. This reflects a perverse phenomenon: What has come to count as connectedness is displacing the real thing. And matters might quickly become dramatically worse.”

“Loneliness in “epidemic proportions” is producing a “loneliness literature” of sociological and medical findings about the effect of loneliness on individuals’ brains and bodies, and on communities. Sasse (R-Neb.) says “there is a growing consensus” that loneliness — not obesity, cancer or heart disease — is the nation’s “number one health crisis.” “Persistent loneliness” reduces average longevity more than twice as much as does heavy drinking and more than three times as much as obesity, which often is a consequence of loneliness. Research demonstrates that loneliness is as physically dangerous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and contributes to cognitive decline, including more rapid advance of Alzheimer’s disease. Sasse says, “We’re literally dying of despair,” of the failure “to fill the hole millions of Americans feel in their lives.”

“Work, which Sasse calls “arguably the most fundamental anchor of human identity,” is at the beginning of “a staggering level of cultural disruption” swifter and more radical than even America’s transformation from a rural and agricultural to an urban and industrial nation. At that time, one response to social disruption was alcoholism, which begat Prohibition. Today, one reason the average American life span has declined for three consecutive years is that many more are dying of drug overdoses — one of the “diseases of despair” — annually than died during the entire Vietnam War. People “need to be needed,” but McKinsey & Co. analysts calculate that, globally, 50 percent of paid activities — jobs — could be automated by currently demonstrated technologies. America’s largest job category is “driver” and, with self-driving vehicles coming, two-thirds of such jobs could disappear in a decade.”

I hope you will read the entire column.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-have-an-epidemic-of-loneliness-how-can-we-fix-it/2018/10/12/e8378a38-cd92-11e8-920f-dd52e1ae4570_story.html?utm_term=.e87c12c89089

It Was Raining Hard In Buckhead

My life has been filled with synchronicity. While driving for Buckhead Safety Cab in the 80’s I was sent to an apartment at o’dark thiry. Some guy walked toward the car and even though it was dark and I had not seen the man in many years I called out his name, “Roger Chrysler.” He stopped dead in his tracks. “Who’s that?” he asked. “Mike Bacon,” was the reply. He began walking as briskly as possible while carrying luggage and skis. He greeted me warmly and we talked on the way to the airport. I asked why he had stopped playing Chess and he said, “I lost my wife, I lost my life, all to become a “B” player!” His wife was extremely pretty. I have no idea how I knew the man with the skis was someone to whom I had given Chess lessons many years earlier.

I had a short, intense relationship with a woman, Cynthia, who worked for an airline. The last time I saw her she ended the relationship by saying, “Michael, I love you, but will you never have any money and I want money, lots of it!”

Fast forward maybe seven years…I’m driving for Buckhead Safety Cab on a rainy night and was about to drop someone off near a call Fish, the dispatcher, was holding. His real name was Bobby Sisti. The first time we met at the office located on East Paces Ferry Road I asked if he were related to former MLBaseball player Sibby Sisti and his face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Yes! No one has ever asked me that before. You like Baseball?” he asked. “I LOVE Baseball,” was the reply. This was not the first time I had seen Fish. Over the years I had seen him in the afternoon at the Varsity, smoking his omnipresent long cigarette while carrying on a conversation with someone, anyone. Although the large television was on Fish usually captured my attention because as he talked he would look at me as if he knew me. Fish was pudgy then; later he would become overweight. I often wondered why he was always at the Varsity in the afternoon. He was a fine dispatcher, one of the best with whom I worked at any cab company. He had asked me to notify him when I “dropped.” I dropped the guy, who did not have all of the fare. He said, “Sorry man, that’s all I got, but you can have this.” He handed me an already rolled fatty. “That’s some real good shit, man,” he said. “That’s what they all say…” came the reply. He laughed before handing me a bag containing more of the “real good shit,” before saying, “Hope this covers it.” I put the “fatty” in the ashtray and the baggie in my omnipresent Urban Explorer bag because my cab driving motto was, “I don’t turn down nothing but my collar.” Fish was notified and he gave me an address near Powers Ferry. This is one of the best things that can happen to a cab driver because ordinarily after dropping someone “out of the zone” one would have to dead-head on the return trip. A driver cannot go into any area other than the one his permit allows without the possibility of being arrested for picking up in a forbidden area. Not that cab drivers are the most honest of people, but if you attempt to put any passenger in your taxi illegally, you take your chances and, if caught, you pay the money.

By now the rain was coming down in buckets. I loathed driving in the rain, especially at night, but it was a weekend night which was time to put some profit into the pocket. Once I was driving the cab owned by the night dispatcher, Terry Walker. I picked up a lovely young lady who asked me to pull around to the rear of the apartments so she would not have to walk so far in the rain. Unfortunately the rain had created a gully which I could not see and it caused the rear axle to break. Terry had a wife pregnant with twins and a young daughter. Terry would drive a shift, go home to catch some shut-eye, then dispatch the late night shift while I drove his taxi. The cab being down would hurt him tremendously. When I got back to the office Terry said, “Mike, you know that when you drive for someone else he is responsible for all the repairs. Thing is, Mike, I don’t have the money. Is there any way you can help me with half of it?”

“How much will it cost to have it repaired, Terry?” I asked. He gave me a figure. I took off my L.L. Bean glove leather money belt and took out the full amount, laying it on the desk. “I broke it, Terry, I’ll pay for it. Get us back on the road.” Terry was STUNNED, and so were the other drivers there at the time, including the supervisor. “I’m heading to Aunt Charley’s before heading home. Call me when the repairs are completed.”

I did what was needed at the time. I had no idea what it would mean for the future; it was simply the right thing to do. How could I have possibly known it would garner so much respect from not only the people at BSC but from so many people involved with the taxi business in the city of Atlanta? Later it got back to me that the supervisor, a crusty old curmudgeon named Scotty Pickering, a man who had been awarded every medal possible in World War II, and had a severe drinking problem because of it, said, “Bacon is not only the best cab driver I have ever known, but one of the best people I have known in my life. I’d want him in my foxhole.”

After arriving at the address given me by Fish I pulled up to a mansion where a party was breaking up. I could not get close because of the many vehicles, but saw two people heading toward the cab. I knew immediately one was Cynthia. I do not know how I knew, but I knew. The other person was an older man. You drive a cab and learn quickly to size up EVERYONE! The old guy opened the door, putting Cynthia in first, then he walked around to the other side of the cab. As he did, I turned around and said, “Hello Cynthia.” I’ll never forget the astonished look on her face…Her eyes blazed with incredulity. The older gentleman entered and I asked “Where to?” It was a side street off West Paces Ferry near the Governor’s Mansion. We rode in silence. Almost before we came to a stop at the mansion Cynthia opened the door and bolted toward the front door. “You know each other?” the old guy asked. I thought of a Dylan song before saying, “Twas in another lifetime…” The guy wanted to go after her so he tossed me a bill and got out. It was a C-note. Then he stuck his head back in before closing the door and said, “That was a fifty, right?”

“Right,” was the reply. Then he began trotting after Cynthia, shouting, “Cindy! Cindy!”

I drove down the half moon driveway of his mansion, checking the time, trying to decide whether to head right toward Steak & Shake, or left, back to the ‘Head. After reaching the bottom of the driveway I remembered the fatty,and nabbed it out of the ashtray. I fired it up and took a toke…”Man o’ man,” I’m thinking, “that is some PRIMO SHIT!” Just to make sure my initial judgement was correct, I took another tasty, lung wrentchin’ pull, and it was confirmed; this WAS some FANTASTIC WEED! It was so good I was afraid to take another toke, so I turned on the radio. It was quite for a moment and as I reached for the knob I heard the opening chords of this song: