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| Sep-09-09 | | Albertan: Welcome back to CG Mariano. Congratulations on your three wins. Have you checked your performance yet using the USCF's ratings estimator? If not you might want to by going to this link: http://main.uschess.org/content/vie...
I look forward to studying the positions you will be posting for us.I hope you had a great time in Miami! |
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Sep-10-09
 | | Fusilli: Hi everyone!
<SirChrislov> Maradona sucks! Like most Argentines, I used to love Maradona (especially in 1986!) but enough is enough. It was always clear that he knew nothing about coaching. He was too talented a player to understand that individual talent is not all you need. And yet, they made him coach anyway. He seems intent on destroying his public image, not to mention the love of his own people. One night I went to dinner with Miami friends and my wife (who came along) to an Argentine restaurant, and I had a Quilmes. I hadn't had one in years, and I was glad to rediscover it actually tastes good! No, no Chess Hall of Fame Museum this time. It has tight business hours, and I couldn't make it... <zanshin> <You might have bumped into some jubilant Miami fans after their recent victory over Florida State here in Tallahassee ;-)> Well, not really... I spent way too many hours secluded in my downtown hotel! <WinKing> Thanks. I want to post some positions, but I want to run them by Fritz first and I am behind work (my real job, I mean!) I'll let everybody know when I do! <Albertan> <Congratulations on your three wins.> Thanks. Two of them were neat. The other one was sheer robbery after I blundered badly in the opening. Thanks for the tip on the rating estimator. It says my performance was 2165 and I should drop my rating from 2212 to 2205. For the time being, I'm happy as long as I don't drop below 2200. The tournament does not show up yet on my USCF rating page. I guess they are being slow in submitting it, but I also wonder if there is politics involved. The organizer, Blas Lugo, ran for the USCF Board and S. Polgar was endorsing him. In addition, I never saw the Miami Open listed among upcoming tournaments on the USCF website or in Chess Life. Jennifer Shahadeh even had an article on the USCF website commenting on all labor day weekend tournaments and didn't mention the Miami Open (I think her source was the USCF ads though). Either Lugo didn't submit the ad, or he did and they rejected it. Lack of publicity seems to have hurt the tournament. Last year there were seven GMs and 17 IMs. This year there were only two GMs (locals Becerra and Renier Gonzalez) and five IMs. BTW, the crosstable is up now:
http://www.themiamichessopen.com/ |
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| Sep-10-09 | | SirChrislov: <Fusili: He [Maradona] seems intent on destroying his public image, not to mention the love of his own people.> Don't be too harsh now, I'm sure it is not his intention to those things. He's a living lengend and I'm sure they made him coach for a good reason. sure he's having a little trouble with the team, most notably the recent losses to Brazil and Paraguay but I'm sure things will pick up and they'll classify to the world cup without a doubt. I only hope they don't make the mistake of firing him like they fired the legendary Hugo Sanchez after only one year of coaching Mexico. it was too premature. "Un mundial sin Argentina no es mundial." --Kaka. |
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| Sep-10-09 | | Jim Bartle: From what I can see, Maradona simply doesn't know what to do as coach. I'm sure he can get the players inspired to play, but in terms of tactics, he's out of his depth. How else could they lose 6-1 to Bolivia? Maradona didn't respect the effect of the altitude and had the players go all out from the beginning, with disastrous results. |
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| Sep-10-09 | | SirChrislov: yes, it has to be one of their worst beatings, a giant like Argentina losing to the poorest team of conmebol, it's unexplicable. current standings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_F...(CONMEBOL) |
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| Sep-10-09 | | Augalv: <Maradona sucks! Like most Argentines, I used to love Maradona (especially in 1986!) but enough is enough. It was always clear that he knew nothing about coaching. He was too talented a player to understand that individual talent is not all you need. And yet, they made him coach anyway. He seems intent on destroying his public image, not to mention the love of his own people.> I couldn't agree with you more, <Fusilli>. |
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| Sep-10-09 | | SirChrislov: 11 Teams have qualified so far to WC 2010, in chronological order: 1. South Africa(automatically qualified as host)
2. Japan
3. Australia
4. South Korea
5. Netherlands
6. North Korea (surprise, surprise! they last appeared in a WC back in 1966!!) 7. Brazil
8. Ghana
9. England
10. Spain
11. Paraguay
Where is Italy and Germany? oh well, I'm sure they'll qualify soon. |
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| Sep-10-09 | | WinKing: <<WinKing> Thanks. I want to post some positions, but I want to run them by Fritz first and I am behind work (my real job, I mean!) I'll let everybody know when I do!> Yes one must not lose sense of their priorities(family,job). Chess can do that sometimes to a person. Always take care of priorities first. :) |
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| Sep-10-09 | | NakoSonorense: Italy is almost in, but Germany will have one tough match against Russia. If they lose it, they will have to play two-legged playoffs against the other 7 best seconds. The US and Mexico are one step away from qualifying, too. |
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Sep-12-09
| | Fusilli: <Sir Chrislov> ... <they'll classify to the world cup without a doubt> Are you sure? I mean, really, really sure? I hope you are right, but you beat me (and <Jim Bartle>) on optimism. <Sir Chrislov> <NakoSonorense> Hey, what happened to the old rule that the champion was automatically in? Is Italy competing in the qualifiers? Has that rule been revoked? <WinKing> Yeah, I know... I am giving a talk at Penn on Monday the 21st and it's just not coming together yet. At some point I'll take a break and start posting Miami positions. |
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| Sep-12-09 | | WinKing: <<WinKing> Yeah, I know... I am giving a talk at Penn on Monday the 21st and it's just not coming together yet.> I know that you said you are doing a study on the migration of chess players to the U.S.A.. Some day I would like to hear your take on that. (Dr.) Milan Vukcevich a metallurgist & GM of chess composition used to play occasionally at our club in Parma, Ohio. I lost to him at least 5 times in simultaneous exhibitions he would give. He came from Croatia(ex-Yugoslavia). I believe he left because of the unrest there if memory serves me correctly. I spoke with him about it but that was 30+ years ago in the 70's. He taught metallurgy at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He wrote a book 'Chess by Milan' which I bought & he was kind enough to autograph for me. |
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| Sep-12-09 | | zanshin: <Milan Vukcevich a metallurgist & GM of chess composition used to play occasionally at our club> <WinKing> Have you told User: kutztown46 about him? <kutz> might be interested because he's also a metallurgist. |
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| Sep-15-09 | | SirChrislov: <Fusili>
Yes, the old rule that previous champion automatically qualifies has been completely dropped.
Now they must fight for a ticket in a qualification tournament. I don't know why they came to such agreement. what do you think? should the champ receive special treatment or have to fight for a spot like all the others? |
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Sep-17-09
| | Fusilli: <SirChrislov> <what do you think? should the champ receive special treatment or have to fight for a spot like all the others?> Hmmm... I never thought about questioning the champ's right to qualify straight, but now that I think about it, why shouldn't they have to fight like everyone else? |
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Sep-28-09
| | Fusilli: Well, I finally got around loading my Miami Open games on my computer. I ran them by Fritz and confirmed what I already knew. I played really badly. I made "??" moves in four games! I usually don't blunder badly, but I did in Miami, copiously. I will post some positions now. |
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Sep-28-09
| | Fusilli: Mariano Sana (2212) v. Jeffrey Haskel (2290), Miami Open 2009, round 3: After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 e5 4.Bxc4 Nc6 5.d5 Na5 6.Be2, Black played 6...Nf6?? 
click for larger viewInstead of the good (and rather obvious!) move, I played 7.Nc3?? The game ended in a draw after 34 moves. Does anyone want to volunteer the winning move/s? |
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Sep-28-09
| | Fusilli: Eric Rodriguez (2308) v. Mariano Sana (2212), Miami Open 2009, round 4. White to play and win:
click for larger view |
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Sep-29-09
| | Fusilli: Nicholas Rosenthal (1944) v. Mariano Sana (2212), Miami Open 2009, round 7. In this well-known position from the Max Lange attack: 
click for larger view... I couldn't remember what was wrong with 11...Rxb2, so I played it (??) White then played 12.f3 and then I realized that if 12...Ng5 13.Qc1. I chose to drop the exchange with 12...Rxb1, although Fritz says it's preferable to drop the piece playing 12...O-O, 12...Qe7 or 12...Qh4, because Black's position after 13.Qxb1 Ng5 is just desperately awful (by the way, not 13...Nxc3? 14.Qc2 Bxd4 15.Bxd4 Nb5 16.Bc5 and 17.a4 winning the knight). But lucky me, my opponent is still very young and began to make mistakes and, believe it or not, I ended up winning. I'm glad I played him now and not in, say, three years! Position after 40...Qf2: 
click for larger viewThe game ended: 41.Rxg7+ Kxg7 42.Nxf5+ Bxf5 43.Qe7+ Kg8 44.e6 Qxg2# |
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Sep-29-09
| | Fusilli: Mariano Sana (2212) v. FM Charles Galofre (2323), Miami Open 2009, round 8. After 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.d4 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 a5 7.Qc2 b5 8.a4 c6 9.axb5 Bxd2+ 10.Nfxd2! Fritz evaluates this as  1.32. 
click for larger viewThe same position was reached in Gulko vs Ljubojevic, 1990 (Gulko won in great style). And it looked indeed like a great position for me. Never mind, I sabotaged my position to lose the advantage by making dubious moves and then blundering a pawn. Even then, I managed to get equality and recover the pawn only to blunder a pawn again, and then a piece! An absolutely depressing game, in one word. |
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Sep-29-09
| | Fusilli: Ziyi Qin (2067) v. Mariano Sana (2212), Miami Open 2009, round 9. 
click for larger viewWhite just played 31.Nf2-d1, a bad move. Necessary was 31.Kf1 and Black still has some advantage, but it is easier to defend. 31...Nd3 (good move, but better was 31...c4) 32.Kf1 f4 (again, 32...c4 was better; I was planning to play c4 after fixing everything else) 33.b3 (now White needs to prevent c4; if 33.Ke2 c4 is just too strong) 
click for larger view33...Nc1 34.b4 cxb4 35.cxb4 axb4 36.Ke1 Nd3+ 37.Kd2 Ne5 
click for larger view38.Nf2 Nc4+ 39.Kd3 Nb2+ 40.Kc2 Nxa4 41.h4
click for larger view41...b3+ 42.Kxb3 Nc5+ 43.Kc4 gxh4 44.Kd5 Ke7 45.Kc6 Ke6 46.Kxb6 Kd5 0-1 
click for larger view |
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| Sep-29-09 | | hms123: <Fusilli> In the Haskell game, <Qa4+> looks kind of obvious. Why did you reject it? Surely you considered it? thanks--hms |
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| Sep-29-09 | | hms123: <fusilli> I am about 60 problems into Blokh's Combinative Motifs http://www.amazon.com/Combinative-M...
and all of the problems are this very theme (in the Rodriguez game) of knight forks. Easy for me to spot after drilling on them all week. Great problem position. |
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Sep-29-09
| | Fusilli: <hms123> You are right, it is kind of obvious. 7.Qa4+ c6 8.Bd2 (or 8.b4, but 8.Bd2 is stronger according to Fritz) b6 9.b4 and White has decisive advantage. I don't know what I was thinking! Maybe I moved automatically without thinking, I don't remember. |
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| Sep-30-09 | | WinKing: Hi <Fusilli>. I have been out of town the last few days. Will give your games a looking over tomorrow-have to get some rest now. Hope all is well with you! :) |
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| Oct-01-09 | | WinKing: <Fusilli: Eric Rodriguez (2308) v. Mariano Sana (2212), Miami Open 2009, round 4. White to play and win:>
click for larger viewYeah(sigh) it looks like Qxd7 does black in with the fork that ensues. You never had a chance to utilize your advantage on the queenside-what a pity :( . At first I didn't see that once the knight gives check on 'f6' his rook on 'd1' also hits 'd7'. You had a few heartbreaking losses but Caissa has a way of evening things out & you will get another chance in your next tournament. You played 50/50 with wins & losses in this event so your rating won't be affected too badly. I know that doesn't help how you feel about your performance but your fans here have faith that you will bounce back. Chess is like a lot of other sports & games-you need a short term memory. :) I will be eagerly awaiting your next event. Your fans here are still with you <Fusilli>! |
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