USCF National Championship / 2012 U.S. Amateur East
English Opening (A14) Vinko Rutar (2113) Michael Lim (2055) U.S. Amateur East (5), May 28, 2012; Notes by Lim
1. c4 c6 2. b3 Nf6 3. Bb2 e6 4. g3 d5 5. Nf3 Be7 6. Bg2 0-0 7. 0-0 b6 8. Ne5 Qc7 9. d3 Bb7 10. Nd2 c5 11. cxd5 Nxd5 12. Nef3 Nc6
Instead, 12. … Bf6 13. Bxf6 Nxf6, trading
off the bishop, would be great in this position because he loses control of the e5- square.
13. Ne4 Rac8 13. … f5 14. Ned2—the knight needed to
be removed because it blocked key squares of my bishop.
14. Rc1 Rfd8 Again, 14. ... f5 would be good.
15. Qc2 h6 16. Qb1 Qb8 17. Qa1 Bf8 18. Rfd1 Nde7 Threatening to go Nf5-d6 and open up the
h1-a8 diagonal. 19. e3 Nb4 20. Ne1 Qa8 21. f3 Ba6
32. Bxa6 NATIONAL AMATEUR PLAYOFF CHAMPIONS 1994: Pedro Saenz (West)
1995: Jason Cohen (East), Christopher Eagle (North)
1996: Steven Minsky (East) 1997: Thomas La Forge (North) 1998: Michael Reading (West) 1999: Peter Irwin (East)
Beginning in 2000, there have been no playoffs. Make no mistake: All winners of each branch of the U.S. Amateur have been duly recorded in the USCF Yearbook and are thus a part of our celebrated heritage. That document is available in PDF format online at
uschess.org, and is a feast for any U.S. chess-history buff.
Those of you who have been around for a while will undoubtedly have crossed pawns with some of the champions on the list of Amateur winners below. (After 1989, those on the list are winners of the U.S. Amateur East.) There’s a USCF president (1958), a father of a U.S. woman’s champion (1968), the son of a renowned tournament director and world championship arbiter (1983), brother and sister (2010 and 2011), and one of the most important chess publishers in the world (2008). And one name appears twice on the list, with 29 years separating the entries. Was it father and son,
perhaps, or even grandson? No—that rare redux belongs to the late Edgar McCormick, a true lover of chess, who won for the first time when Kennedy was pres- ident and died as the reigning amateur chess champion in 1990.—A.L.
1942 E.S. Jackson, Jr. 1943 Ariel Mengarini 1944 E. S. Jackson, Jr. 1945 Paul Ellis 1955 Clinton Parmelee 1956 John Hudson 1957 Harry Lyman 1958 Erich Marchand 1959 L.R. Chauvenet 1960 Raoul Benedicto 1961 Edgar McCormick 1962 Max Cohen, Ben Greenwald 1963 Kenneth Clayton 1964 Michael Hailparn 1965 Frank Street 1966 Thomas Lux 1967 Ronald Lohrman 1968 Stephen Jones, Michael Shahade 1969 Kimball Nedved 1970 Charles Weldon
1971 Clarence Kalenian 1972 Edward Vano 1973 Paul Jacklyn, Robert Szendroi 1974 Bruce Rind 1975 Frank Metz, Tom Nelson 1976 Laszlo Ficso
1977 Thomas Sweeney, Dave Reynolds
1978 Alan Piper 1979 Milton Danon 1980 Robert O’Donnell 1981 John Tomas
1982 Steven Jacobi, Thomas Crispin
1983 Donald Connors, Jr., John Jarecki
1984 Mark Pinto, Daniel Pillone, Harlan Lee, Jeffrey Ivins, Michael Knighton, Randall Hough, Mark Schlagenhauf, Floyd Boudreaux, Tomasz
Kosinski, John Demos
1985 Michael Shvartsman, Carl Magnuson
1986 Eddie Falcon 1987 Ilan Kreitner 1988 Gregory Kotlyar 1989 Robert Kender 1990 Edgar McCormick 1991 Dave Collins 1992 Dean Ippolito 1993 Dennis Dawley 1994 Steve Anderson 1995 Jason Cohen (tied in playoff ) 1996 Steven Minsky (won playoff ); 1997 Matthew Traldi 1998 Omar Aguilar 1999 Peter Irwin (won playoff ) 2000 Thomas Bartell 2001 Lev Milman 2002 Steven Anderson
2003 Stephen Hrop 2004 Evan D. Ju 2005 Daniel Yeager 2006 Mark Heimann, Alec Getz
2007 David Grasso, Alisa Melekhina, Andrew Shvartsman,
2008 Hanon Russell 2009 Sandi Hutama 2010 Andrew Ding
2011 Leonard Chipkin, Kimberly Ding
2012 Michael Lim
2012 U.S. Amateur West and South Champions
WEST: Anthony Conyers II, Amrit Gupta, Rohan Mittal SOUTH: George Woodbury
21. … Nf5 22. Kf2 a5 is another plan that would get my queen into the game.
22. Bf1 Nf5 23. Kf2 Rd7 24. a3 Nc6 25. Ng2 Rcd8 26. Nf4 Qb8 27. g4 Nd6 27. … Nxe3 28. Kxe3 Nd4 might not get
material back right away, but there is good compensation for the piece. (After 28. ... Nd4, White can’t answer all of Black’s threats and his position falls apart in a few moves.—AL)
28. Ng3 Ne8 29. Qb1 Bd6 30. Nfh5 Be5 31. d4 cxd4
White wouldn’t be down material, but
Black has a better position after 32. exd4 Bxg3+ 33. Nxg3 Bxf1 34. Rxc6 Bb5.
32. ... dxe3+ 33. Ke1 Rxd1+ 34. Rxd1 Rxd1+ 35. Kxd1 Qd6+ 36. Qd3 Bxb2
It’s a win from here. I am going to get
another pawn on a3 and then trade off pieces.
37. Ke2 Qxd3+ (37. ... Nd4+, followed by 38. ... g6, looks
like an immediate kill.—AL)
38. Bxd3 Bxa3 39. Kxe3 Bc1+ 40. Kf2 Nd6 41. Ne4 Nxe4+ 42. Bxe4 Nd4 43. b4 Bd2 44. h4 Bxb4 45. g5 hxg5 46. hxg5 Bd2 47. f4 b5 48. g6 f5 49. Bd3 Kf8 50. Ng3 Bxf4 51. Ne2 Nxe2 52. Kxe2 b4 53. Kf3 Bc1 54. Ke2 Ke7 55. Kd1 Bb2 56. Kc2 Bd4 57. Kb3 a5 58. Kc4 Bc3 59. Kb3 Kf6 60. Ka4 e5 61. Kxa5 e4 62. Bb1 Kxg6, White resigned.
See full winner’s list at
www.entryfeesrus.com For a U.S. Amateur West crosstable, go to:
http://bit.ly/us_amateur_west. For a U.S. Amateur South crosstable, go to:
http://bit.ly/us_amateur_south.
www.uschess.org
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