Nevada Chess, Inc.

Editor’s Message

(A. Magruder)

The Annual Members Meeting of Nevada Chess, Inc. will happen on Saturday, April 9th 2016 at the Las Vegas Chess Center, 3160 S. Valley View Drive, Las Vegas NV 89102. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 2 PM, but please check nevadachess.org for late changes if you wish to attend. The results of the 2016 election will be tabulated from the ballots and announced at that time.

This will be the last Nevada Chess Bulletin mailed to members, except for the January issue which will continue to include a ballot for members to vote in that year’s election of officers. For news about chess in Nevada, please check this website regularly.

Once again, Nevada Chess, Inc. sponsored our Annual Nevada State Scholastic Tournament, hosted by the Las Vegas Day School. There were 191 young players playing in the four sections, K-3, K-5, K-8 and K-12, with many individual and team trophies, medals and certificates distributed during the awards ceremonies. A report can be found below, including a link to complete cross tables of the final results. You might also check out USChess.org for the tournament tables to find pre- and post-tournament ratings of all the players.

Future Events

2016 International Chess Festival, June 22-27, includes

2016 U.S. Game/10 Championship, 2016 U.S. Women’s Open,

2016 National Open, International Youth Championship

See Chess Life and/or NevadaChess.org for details

The 2016 Nevada State Scholastic Chess Championship
will be held at the Las Vegas Day School 3275 Red Rock Las Vegas

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Entry Fees increase after February 25th and again after March 7th.

Click Here to Learn more about this event and enter today.

Nevada Chess Bulletin November, 2015

Editor’s Message

(A. Magruder)

This issue of the Nevada Chess Bulletin marks the 26th anniversary of our affiliate becoming the only official state affiliate recognized by the U.S. Chess Federation to represent USCF members in the State of Nevada. Nevada Chess Inc. was formerly known as the Nevada State Chess Association, or NSCA for short, before that name and acronym were stolen from us by scurrilous scoundrels.

I refer you for reports on Nevada chess activities to our website, NevadaChess.org, that might include recent reports on the Nevada State Individual, Team and Quick Chess Championship Events held in Tonopah at the end of September.

Finally, we welcome and encourage, at this time every year, members to throw their hat in the ring for a position on the Board of Directors of Nevada Chess, Inc. There are four (4) positions open this year. You can find a form for such beside the standard membership form near the end of this bulletin. The Election 2016 Ballot will appear in the January issue of this bulletin. We hope to see you there. Click here for full report

The term of service for a Nevada Chess board member is two years. Each year the term of service of either three or four of our seven board members expires. In 2016 the terms of service of four of our current board members (Charles Chinnici, Daniel Conver, Allen Magruder, and Jerome Weikel) will expire. In 2016 there will be an election to fill the four board member positions that will become vacant when these board members’ terms of service expire.

Nevada Chess is now seeking nominations for these four board positions that will be available in 2016. Nominees must be or become members of both the United States Chess Federation and Nevada Chess, Inc. on February 1, 2016. Nominees must also be at least 18 years of age. The deadline for nominations is December 31, 2015. If you would like to nominate yourself or some other person for a position on the Nevada Chess, Inc. board of directors please send an e-mail to tkbrownscombe@hotmail.com or send a letter to:

Nevada Chess BoD Nominations
c/o Tom Brownscombe
1213 East Saint Louis Avenue #3
Las Vegas, NV 89104

In 2016, the list of nominees will be published on the Nevada Chess website. A ballot will be sent to all Nevada Chess, Inc. members. Ballots will be counted at the annual membership meeting in the spring of 2016.

On Saturday March 21st, 2015, a record setting 206 young chess players came to the Learning Village in downtown Las Vegas to play in the 2015 Nevada State Scholastic Chess Championship. The tournament had four separate sections. The K-12 and K-8 sections were played in one building with a five round schedule, while the K-5 and K-3 sections were played in a nearby building with a six round schedule.

Twelfth grader Cameron Patterson from Advanced Technologies Academy managed to improve over his impressive 2014 performance in the K-12 section. In 2014, Cameron won the Nevada State High School Individual Chess Championship with a 4.5/5 score. But this year he repeated as Nevada State High School Individual Chess Champion with a perfect 5-0 score. Twelfth graders Jett Marcos, Jonathan Mikolic, and Jesstin Estavillo tied with ninth grader Royce Pereira for second place in the K-12 section with 4 points each. Patterson, Mikolic, Estavillo, and Pereira are all students at Advanced Technologies Academy. This means that Advanced Technologies Academy dominated the team competition, winning the 2015 Nevada State High School Team Chess Championship with a tremendous team score of 17 points, 6.5 points ahead of the second place team, Spring Valley High School. Ninth grader Naomi Santiago was the top scoring girl in the K-12 section with 3 points.

In the K-8 section, seventh grader Michelangelo Barozzi of the Meadows School matched Patterson’s achievement. Barozzi won the 2014 Nevada State Middle School Individual Chess Championship with a score of 4.5/5. And this year Barozzi defended his title in style by winning the K-8 section with a perfect 5-0 score. Grant Giovannetti, Richard Zhou, Rishabh Saran, Ricardo Vazquez, Nicholas Isacoff, Diego Santiago, Pancratius Ventura, and Ethan Silva tied for second through ninth place with 4 points each, with Reno resident Grant Giovannetti taking the second place trophy on tie breaks. Giselle Kimball, Amber Hankins, Katherine Van Voorhis, Nadya Perez-Martinez, and Aisha Sanwal were the top scoring girls in the K-8 section with 3 points each, with Kimball taking the honor of most successful girl in the K-8 section based on tie breaks. Richard Zhou, Rishabh Saran, and Diego Santiago led Hyde Park Middle School to the 2015 Nevada State Middle School Team Chess Championship with an impressive team score of 15 points, 1.5 points ahead of the second place team from The Meadows School.

Fifth graders dominated the K-5 section, winning all ten individual trophies. Top seeded Samira Prieto earned the title of 2015 Nevada State Elementary Individual Chess Champion by achieving a perfect 6-0 score in the K-5 section. Ryan Ornstein, Tanush Saran, Alexander Chang, Carson Abbott, and Zala Quinn tied for second place with 5 points each. Saint Viator Catholic School scored 16.5 total team points to win the title of 2015 Nevada State Elementary Team Chess Champions, narrowly defeating the second place team total of 16 points earned by The Las Vegas Day School.

In the K-3 section, second grader Chris Bao of the Las Vegas Day School showed all of the third graders who is boss by winning the title of 2015 Nevada State Primary Individual Chess Champion with a perfect 6-0 score. Third graders Sanjeev Chundu, Kyrus Huang, and Ben Garber tied for second place with 5 points each. The Las Vegas Day School dominated the team competition with a whopping 20 points to earn the title of 2015 Nevada Primary Team Chess Champions, 6 points ahead of the second place team from Saint Viator Catholic School. Unfortunately, a computer operator error, followed by a proof reading failure, led to a few mistakes during the K-3 individual awards ceremony. Sanjeev Chundu should have received the second place trophy due to his superior tie breaks. Chase Giovannetti should have received the ninth place trophy, and Angelina Huang should have received the tenth place trophy. Everyone associated with the tournament would like to apologize for these mistakes, and all three of these players will be properly recognized for their achievements during one of the youth awards ceremonies at the 2015 Las Vegas International Chess Festival.

Cameron Patterson has been nominated to represent the state of Nevada at the 2015 Denker Tournament of High School Champions. In the event that Cameron is not able to attend, second place finisher Jett Marcos will take his place. Michelangelo Barozzi has been nominated to represent Nevada in the 2015 Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions. Unfortunately, Michelangelo can’t attend due to a prior commitment. So Grant Giovannetti will represent Nevada at the 2015 Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions. Naomi Santiago has been nominated to represent Nevada at the National Girls Invitational Tournament, and Giselle Kimball has been nominated to represent Nevada at the 12th Annual Susan Polgar Foundation Girls’ Invitational Chess Tournament.

Al Losoff, Janelle Losoff, Juan Jauregui, and Sabrina Jauregui organized the 2015 Nevada State Scholastic Chess Championship on behalf of Vegas Chess Festivals, LLC and the Las Vegas Chess Center. Tom Brownscombe, Al Losoff, Juan Jauregui, Allen Magruder, and Janelle Losoff served as the tournament directors, while Gale Winds served as chief score keeper for the K-5 and K-3 sections.

For complete individual and team results in tie break order, please visit our results page. For complete individual results in rating order with official USCF rating changes, please visit the member services area of the US Chess Federation website.

The Nevada Chess Board of Directors has voted to hold the 2015 Nevada State Scholastic Chess Championship at the Learning Village in downtown Las Vegas. The Learning Village is the regular meeting place for the Las Vegas Chess Center and the site of several recent weekend chess tournaments including the Las Vegas Open. More information about the 2015 Nevada State Scholastic Chess Championship will be posted soon.

On the weekend of April 25-27, 48 chess players came to the Learning Village, located at the corner of Fremont Street and 8th Street in downtown Las Vegas, to compete in the Mantis Downtown Chess Fest. This five round swiss system chess tournament was named in honor of the fire breathing preying mantis sculpture located next door at the entrance to Container Park. The tournament had four rating based sections and featured four chess masters playing in the open section: Tom Brownscombe, Ronald Gross, Rockwell Shah, and Mike Zaloznyy.

After two rounds, the masters were leading the tournament. So in round three they started playing each other. The board one game between Rockwell Shah and Mike Zaloznyy was a very close affair that turned into a rook and pawn ending that featured competing passed pawns on opposite sides of the board. Shah was able to stop Zaloznyy’s passer, but an inaccurate king move by Zaloznyy allowed Shah’s passed pawn duo to go all the way for the win. On board two, the game between Brownscombe and Gross was even closer. Brownscombe pressed on the kingside, but he was not able to break through. Gross had some space on the queen side, but he was not able to create a breakthrough. So the board two game ended in a draw, leaving Shah in clear first place after three rounds. And then this confrontation occurred on board one in the fourth round:

FM Brownscombe,Tom (2221) – Shah,Rockwell (2344) [B01]
Mantis Open (4.1), 27.04.2014
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.Be2 Nf6 5.0–0 Nbd7 6.h3 Bh5 7.d4 Qd6 8.c4 c6 9.Nc3 a6 10.a4 e6 11.Be3 Qb4 12.d5 exd5 13.cxd5 Bc5 14.dxc6 bxc6 15.Nd4 15…Qxb2 16.Bxh5 Qxc3 17.Rc1 Qa3 18.Nc2 Qxa4 19.Bxc5 Nxc5 20.Re1+ Nce4 21.Qd6 Rd8 22.Qe6+ Kf8 23.Qxf7# 1–0

In the fifth round, Brownscombe sacrificed a bishop on h2 against Hugo Santiago. But he was only able to get a perpetual check. The draw on board one gave the players on boards two and three an opportunity to compete for first place. On board three, Earl Salazar developed a powerful attack against the exposed king of Ron Gross. Salazar was on the verge of achieving a checkmate or winning Ron’s queen. But Gross generated enough counter play to stave off defeat and turn the tide in his favor. When the dust settled, Gross had an extra bishop and an easily won endgame. On board two, Shah won a pawn and converted his extra material into an endgame victory. This left a four way tie for first place in the open section with Tom Brownscombe, Ronald Gross, Hugo Santiago, and Rockwell Shah sharing first place with 3.5 points each and splitting the prize money equally. Juan Jauregui and Jonathan Mikolic split the prize for the top scoring player rated under 2000 in the open section with 2 points each.

The Mantis Downtown Chess Fest was the second tournament in the southern Nevada state championship qualifier series. The first tournament was the Presidents’ Day Open, and the final tournament will be held in the summer. Players who play in the open section of two or more of these tournaments can combine their scores to create a qualifying score. The two players with the top qualifying scores will be invited to represent southern Nevada in the 2014 Nevada State Chess Championship. After two tournaments, Tom Brownscombe and Hugo Santiago have the top two qualifying scores with 6.5 points each. But with another qualifying tournament still to be played, any player who has scored at least two points in either of the first two qualifying tournaments has a chance to surpass Brownscombe and Santiago. Here is the list of players who are in contention (with their best score from either of the first two qualifying tournaments):

Elliot Liu 5; Patrick Lacey 4; Virgilio Reyes, Rockwell Shah, Ronald Gross 3.5; Mike Zaloznyy, Joshua Quint, Barry Lazarus 3; Damir Trtanj, Juan Jauregui, Glenn Bidari, Earl Salazar, Ryan Phillips 2.5; Scott Raymond, John Trivett, Jeffery Gallegos, Alejandrino Baluran, Jonathan Mikolic 2.

In the under 1900 section, Edgar Khachatryan had a strong start with four straight victories. This was enough for Edgar to secure clear first place, even though Jason Cruz defeated Khachatryan in the final round. Cruz tied for second place in the under 1900 section with Alan Losoff, who is best known in the chess world as the lead organizer of the Las Vegas International Chess Festival. Losoff had a rough day on Saturday, drawing with Cruz and losing to Khachatryan. He was so discouraged by these results that he almost withdrew from the tournament. But Losoff’s perseverance led to fourth and fifth round wins against John Currell and Todd Imada and an equal share of the second and third place prize money with 3.5 points.

In the under 1600 section, the ladies showed their mettle. Vivian Liu started the tournament with a half point bye in the Friday night round. She then proceeded to win four straight games to secure first place in the under 1600 section. Audrey Grigore continued to demonstrate the ladies’ superiority in the under 1600 section by scoring 3.5 points to take second place. Antonio Artuz rounded out the list of prize winners in the under 1600 section by taking third place with 3 points. Jonathan Luong won the under 1300 section with 4 points. Max Jackel took second place in the under 1300 section with 3.5 points, and Rhomer Johnson was third with 3 points.

All of the players would like to thank the Las Vegas Downtown Project for supporting this event. Juan and Sabrina Jauregui organized the tournament on behalf of the Las Vegas Chess Center. Tom Brownscombe and Juan Jauregui directed the tournament. For complete tournament results for all players, including all rating changes, please visit the member services area of the US Chess Federation website. And for more information about other Las Vegas Chess Center events, please browse the Las Vegas Chess Center website.