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Chess Life Online 2009 June Barbosa and Shankland Lead New York International
Chess Life Online 2009 June Barbosa and Shankland Lead New York International | Barbosa and Shankland Lead New York International |
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| By Elizabeth Vicary | |
| June 22, 2009 | |
IM Sam Shankland is currently tied for the lead at the New York International with IM Oliver Barbosa
Improbable events often occur with surprising frequency, but the number of upsets in this tournament is nothing short of remarkable. In round two, to take an extreme example, boards 1 to 8 were all unexpected results (4 decisive games, 4 draws). Many young players are having fantastic results, stringing together multiple GM and IM scalps. 12-year-old FM Darwin Yang of Texas drew GM Jaan Ehlvest and IM Jay Bonin in rounds one and two and continued by defeating GM Yudasin in round three. Darwin’s meteoric streak was halted (temporarily?) by IMs Jacek Stopa and Justin Sarkar. Kassa Korley insisted to me that he had no good games and was playing horribly, but his horrible is still good enough to beat IM Daniel Fernandez and draw IM Irina Krush. Igor Sorkin of Israel drew GMs Jesse Kraai and Sergey Kudrin and IM Dean Ippolito. 
Darwin Yang vs. Leonid Yudasin, Photo Dujiu Yang
This is great news, since upsets should mean lots of norms, right? IM Oliver Barbosa, Polish IM Jacek Stopa and IM Sam Shankland have chances for GM norms if they continue to score well and can avoid being paired too far down. But some other American players may face problems for two reasons: 1) Since many of the GMs lost early, the top scorers are not playing especially high rated opposition. 2) The scarcity of foreigners. To get a norm, FIDE requires that you play 4 players from a different federation (although this requirement is waived for individuals if there are more than 20 foreign players in the tournament as a whole and 10 of them are male or female GMs or IMs). There are 13 (out of 55) foreign players in New York, but seven of them are rated below 2400, and thus unlikely to be paired with the leaders, and three more are low-scoring GMs. IM Sam Shankland, has played three foreigners (including his seventh round game against Barbosa, scheduled for Noon EST Monday) so with 5/6 he is very much in contention for a norm. 
Sam shows Daniel Fernandez, Kassa Korley, and myself his fourth round win against Canadian IM Leonid Gerzhoy.
The NY International is the first leg of Sam’s summer chess marathon. From here he will go to Philadelphia for the Philadelphia International and the World Open (that’s 27 games in 17 days!). He then gets a five-day break before the start of the US Junior Closed in Milwaukee, followed immediately by the Chicago Class Championship. 
Shankland-Gerzhoy
On the last move of time control, Gerzhoy blundered with 40… Bg4. How does White win material?  IM Oliver Barbosa was proud of his win over GM Jaan Ehlvest. “The middlegame was very tricky, but we both saw some precise moves. Then I was in a slightly complicated endgame up an exchange, but he had a knight outpost on d3, so it was hard to move my rooks. But I found a sacrifice against the pawn on c4 that was defending the knight, and after that I was doing well."3253 A stereotype I hear frequently in the chess world is that Filipinos are tricky, tactical players. Although I was a little worried that the question would sound rude and/or racist, I asked Oliver if he gave any credence to this idea about a national style. He agreed that the characterization sounded true, and suggested a possible reason: economic conditions in the Philippines mean that most masters don’t have time to study middlegames or endgames in depth, and just play lots of blitz and look at openings. Barbosa contrasted this with the situation of former Soviet players, who have had a far more organized, comprehensive chess education. I asked Oliver if he would describe himself a tactical player, and he hesitated, then disagreed: “When I play I just try to think of every possible move, and I don’t take chances on moves that aren’t required by the position. In a choice between a safe, good move, and a sacrifice, I usually choose the non-sacrifice, although my tactics are ok, I think." 
IM Alex Lenderman
IM Irina Krush
3252 Look for a final report on the New York International later this week and watch the final games live on the Internet Chess Club , or check the Marshall Chess Club website for games and results. |