UMBC Places Fourth at the 1995 Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Championship Alan T. Sherman Faculty Advisor, UMBC Chess Club January 16, 1995 The UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County) Chess Team placed fourth at the 1995 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship (Pan-Am), finishing ahead of Harvard, Chicago, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Toronto, and other traditional heavyweights in this world series of college chess. With a score of 5.5 out of 6, UMBC's Ilya J. Smirin---ranked 28th in world---won the prize for top player on Board 1. The six-round team Swiss-system event took place December 26-29, 1995, at Fiterman Hall in the Manhattan Conference Center in New York City. The 1995 Pan-Am was the strongest ever, with five International Grandmasters including New York University's Ilya Gurevich (USCF rating 2644) and Ferdinand Hellers (2591), Harvard's Patrick Wolff (2679), Brooklyn College's Gennady Sagalchik (2568), and UMBC's Ilya Smirin (FIDE 2630). Based on average team ratings, New York University (NYU) lead the initial rankings, followed by Harvard, Brooklyn College `A', and UMBC. Thirty-six four-person teams entered the fray, including the University of British Columbia (Canada), Unphu University (Dominican Republic), and San Marcos (Peru). Throughout the first five rounds UMBC lead the field, earning an impressive 16.5 individual points, including perfect 5-0 scores by Grandmaster Smirin on Board 1 and by 1995 Maryland Chess Champion William ``the terminator'' Morrison (2504) on Board 2. Playing Board 3 was former Sri Lankan Chess Champion Ishan Weerakoon (2142), and at Board 4 was freshman computer science major Derrick Longo (2072). The UMBC team was selected at the UMBC Chess Championship, held October 7-8. In the first two rounds, UMBC ripped through Iona College 4-0 and Hunter College `A' 3.5-0.5. In round three, UMBC won 4-0, overwhelmingly defeating The Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), who won the 1993 and 1994 Pan-Am's. In this match, Senior Master Morrison smashed BMCC's Jeff Mitchell with a nice knight sacrifice. In round four, UMBC outplayed Brooklyn College `B' 3-1. The first resistance came in round five, when UMBC faced Brooklyn College `A'. After Smirin beat Grandmaster Sagalchik and Weerakoon and Longo lost, the outcome of the match hinged on Morrison's game against Senior Master Alexander Kalikskteyn (2492). A crowd grew as Kalikskteyn flirted dangerously close to losing by time forfeiture: Kalikskteyn needed to play fifteen more moves in under thirty seconds to complete the required fifty moves in two hours. Morrison sacrificed a pawn to complicate the position, but after a series of simplifying exchanges, Kalikskteyn achieved a solid position. The two continued to move at lightning pace, with Kalikskteyn's quartz clock barely advancing. Hearts pounded through thick tension. Incredibly, Morrison blundered; but not realizing that he had already reached time control, Kalikskteyn overlooked a simple pinning of Morrison's bishop. Instead, Kalikskteyn walked into an X-ray attack, finding practically the only way to lose his rook in a simple position. Thus, UMBC tied Brooklyn College `A' 2-2. Entering round six, UMBC was tied with NYU and Brooklyn college `A' with 4.5 points. San Marcos, who tied NYU in round 4, lead the group of schools with 4.0 points. In a controversial last-round pairing, Chief Arbiter Alan Benjamin of New York paired NYU against UMBC, and Brooklyn College `A' against San Marcos, even though NYU and Brooklyn College were ranked first and second in the 4.5 score group by initial team ratings. Thus, UMBC faced two Grandmasters and one International Master, whereas Brooklyn College played a team rated 216 points beneath them. Benjamin defended his unusual pairings on the grounds of color equalization: in the first five rounds, UMBC had two Whites and three blacks; NYU and Brooklyn College each had three Whites and two Blacks. The rules of chess, however, clearly state that ``...colors are less important for team events with an even number of boards... .'' In the final round, UMBC lost to NYU 0.5-3.5, and Brooklyn College `A' easily beat San Marcos 4-0. As a result, NYU and Brooklyn College became co-champions, each with 5.5 team points. BMCC took third with 5.0 points. UMBC placed fourth with 4.5 points, even though UMBC tied Brooklyn College `A' and beat BMCC 4-0. Nine teams---including Harvard, Chicago, UPenn, Toronto, and San Marcos---tied for places 5-13 with 4.0 points. Meanwhile, UMBC alternates Alexander Shinn, David Ford, and Kalonji Collins, and I played in the Pan-American Open individual tournament. Alexander Shinn tied with Dimitry Sagalchik (BMCC) and William Arluck (Stuyvesant High School) for first. Although I lost my faculty title to Sagalchik and Arluck, I did manage to score an amusing seven-move checkmate in round two against a novice. In the Harvard Cup Human Versus Computer Chess Challenge, also held at same site, Grandmasters Benjamin, Gulko, Gurevich, Kaidanov, Rhode, Wolff upheld the human honor against Chessmaster 5000, Junior, M-CHess Pro, Socrates 95, Virtual Chess, and WChess, all running on Intel Pentium Pro processors. Recently, the United States Chess Federation (USCF) selected UMBC to host the 1996 Pan-American Chess Championships, which will take place December 27-30, 1996, in the Stouffer Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore. These championships will comprise three separate events: The Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championship, The Pan-American Scholastic Team Championship, and the Pan-American Open. Everyone is invited to attend. The 1995 Pan-Am was hosted by BMCC and organized by International Master Dan Edelman. Support for UMBC's participation in the 1995 Pan-Am was provided by the UMBC Student Government Association and the President's Office. --------------------------------------------------- Final Standings of Top Teams 1995 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championship FINAL TEAM INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL RANK POINTS POINTS 1-2 5.5 18.5 Brooklyn College `A' 1-2 5.5 17.5 NYU 3 5.0 17.5 BMCC 4 4.5 17.0 UMBC 5-13 4.0 Harvard, Chicago, UPenn, Toronto, San Marcos, ... --------------------------------------------------- Include Morrison's game from BMCC match---will send later. --------------------------------------------------- Pan-Am Miniature Round 2, 1995 Pan-American Open White: Desormes (unrated) Black: Alan T. Sherman (1865) 1 h3 d5 2 b5 e5 3 Nf3 e4 4 Nh4 Qh4 5 Ba3 Bd6 (threatening 6 ... Bg3!) 6 d4 e3 7 Nc3 Qf2 checkmate 0-1 On 7. Qc1 Qf2+ 8. Kd1 Bg3 9. c4, White avoids immediate mate, but Black can then easily increase his overwhelming grip with 9. ... Bf5 10. Qc3 Nf6 and ... Ne4. This game provides an instructive example for beginners on the consequences of violating basic principles of development, central control, king safety, and awareness of your opponent's plans. ---------------------------------------------------