California Chess Journal 3 - 2004 | Page 3

ISSUE 2004.3 PAGE 3 DeGuzman dominates local scene In many chess communities throughout the United States, and indeed all over the world, one expects to find a player with a Russian, Armenian, or it Georgian taking top honors in the local competitions. However, here in San Francisco a member of the Filipino community is the man to beat. International master Ricardo de Guzman has been winning tournament after tournament in the Bay area. International Master Ricardo DeGuzman DeGuzman vs. Michael Aigner, Black Knight Halloween Swiss 1. c3 f5 2. d4 Nf6 3. f3 d5 4. Nh3 c5 5. Nf2 Nc6 6. e3 Qb6 7. Qb3 Qxb3 8. axb3 e5 9. Bb5 cxd4 10. exd4 exd4 11. cxd4 Kf7 12. Bxc6 bxc6 13. Nd3 Bd6 14. Bf4 Bxf4 15. Nxf4 Bd7 16. Nd3 Rhb8 17. Nd2 Ke7 18. Kf2 Kd6 19. h4 Ne8 20. b4 f4 21. Ra4 Rb6 22. Nb3 Nc7 23. Rha1 Bf5 24. Nbc5 Bxd3 25. Nxd3 Nb5 26. Nxf4 Rb7 27. Rd1 Re8 28. Rd2 Rbe7 29. h5 Re1 30. Ne2 Rh1 31. Ng3 Rc1 32. Nf5+ Kc7 33. Nxg7 Ree1 34. Nf5 Kb6 35. g4 Nc7 36. Ra3 1-0 There just seems to be no stopping IM Ricardo DeGuzman, who has been dominating the Bay Area Chess scene lately. Yefim Bukh was second at 4 followed by Filipino IM Ricardo DeGuzman Philipp Semenenko in the site. The event was directed by Nicolas Yap, Dmitry won the top section of 2004 Booster Section ( U1400 ) with the Author and Robert Blatt. Vayntraub, Sam Burlingame Open outright a 3.5 - 0.5 score. The tourna- The Burlingame Chess Club Shankland, Ewelina with a perfect 4-0 score. The ment drew 53 players which is was the host for the site. Krubnik and Rama- other two section winners slightly less than the 60 player On December 4, IM De- nathan Thirupathy at were Julian Standen in the Re- the organizers had hoped for, Guzman was again victori- 3.5. Anthony Corra- serve Section ( U1800 ), also but a respectable showing for ous the 4th annual Guthrie les directed the 28- with a perfect 4-0 score and a first tournament at a new McClain Memorial, scoring 4.5 player event for the from 5. Mechanics'. DeGuzman wins Black Knight Halloween Tourney International Master Ricardo de Guzman came out on top of the October Open at the Academic Chess BlacKnight Palace in San Jose with a score of 3.5/4. In his classic "trick or treat" playing style, DeGuzman defeated NM Michael Aigner on Halloween morning with the rare Saragossa opening (1. c3). Only FM Eric Schiller managed to escape with a half point after a difficult endgame against de Guzman. Second place went to Aigner with 3.0/4 while Schiller and Amarnath Mukherjee shared third place with 2.5. Mukherjee won the top under 2200 honors. 40 players took part in this event, which was capably directed by Albert Rich. Half of those players were in the competitive booster (1600-1999) section. Amazingly, nobody managed to score more than 3.0/4, resulting in a six-way tie for first place and top under 1800 between Jan De Jong, Eric Madriaga, Patrick Shepherd, Arnav Shah, Stephen Young, and Ken White. The only person to achieve a perfect score in the tournament was reserve section champion Alberto Calderon. The under 1400 honors went to Albert Gu, Jonathan Pak, and Yukihiro Suda. —Michael Aigner