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Scholastic Chess Steve Goldberg
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David Adelberg This month we profile the twelve-year-old who has been called “the brightest star in the Arizona scholastic chess scene.” His name is David Adelberg. Everyman Quiz of the Month
We will accept all contest answers for two weeks following the appearance of this column, then randomly select our three winners from this group. In order to meet the two-week deadline, please e-mail your responses to me by June 24, 2009. Send your answers to scholasticchess@chesscafe.com. Good luck! Problem #1
It is Black to move. What do you suggest? Problem #2
It is Black to move. What do you suggest? Described by Daniel Rensch as “the brightest star in the Arizona scholastic chess scene,” twelve-year-old David Adelberg is also one of the brighter stars nationally as well. The Scottsdale, Arizona native carries a current rating of 2154, which places him third in the U.S. Top Age 12 category. He is ranked tenth in Quick Under Age 13 nationally, and among all current Arizona players of any age, ranks eighteenth. His father, Dr. Dan Adelberg, explains that “When David was growing up, he was very precocious. When he went into kindergarten, it wasn’t very challenging. We got him involved with music, which he was interested in at the time, and we also put him in the after-school chess club in kindergarten. He really got extremely interested in chess through this club.” Initially, David didn’t play in many tournaments; rather, he enjoyed playing his Chess Master program at home. “Really in third grade was the first time he really played in a USCF-rated tournament – the spring nationals,” Dan said. “He hasn’t played in that many rated events compared to some of his contemporaries. He’s been a little late to the rated environment. Nevertheless, he improved rapidly and has done quite well.”
For the past couple of years, David has enjoyed the regular tutelage of IM Nikolay Adrianov, with whom he now meets weekly. He also has attended two sessions of IM Greg Shahade’s prestigious U.S. Chess School, the most recent of which was held in January 2009 in Scottsdale and was arranged with the help of the Adelberg family. For the earlier session, GM Gregory Kaidanov served as the primary trainer, with GM Yury Shulman fulfilling that role in the later session. Not surprisingly, it’s not just chess that David excels in. His father explains that “For a number of years, the public school system has had a self-contained gifted program and he was part of that program. He is very accelerated in mathematics. For several years, he took mathematics through the Johns Hopkins program, so instead of math in class, even in the gifted program, he took math through the Johns Hopkins online program as a replacement to his math curriculum. Now he is in sixth grade, he’s twelve-years-old, and he’s in a public middle school. But he goes to the high school and is in eleventh grade honors Algebra 2. He starts off the day in the morning with math at the high school. The schools are fortunately adjoining, so he walks across the parking lot and goes to the middle school for the rest of the day.” For his chess studies, David enjoys using ChessBase and Rybka 3, and New In Chess magazine. Among chess books, he especially finds Dvoretsky’s works helpful: “All of them! But the ones that helped me improve the most were the School of Chess Excellence and the School of Future Champions,” David said. Speaking to the young man leaves a clear impression that he is mature beyond his years. “I don’t know if it’s good,” he explained, “but I spend a lot of time on openings, studying the games of players in the openings. I want to learn the Scheveningen, so I’ll study some games of Kasparov because he was good at that. I spend a lot of time studying sharp openings.” He said that there really aren’t any specific players that he tries to emulate, but added, “When I looked through Kasparov’s games – when I was studying the Najdorf – I thought it was amazing how in his games, more than anybody else, he always got the initiative, at whatever cost.” Other hobbies include tennis and golf, but the vast majority of his day is taken up with school work and chess. A couple of years ago, David defeated an international master at a simul. Then in April 2008, as a fifth grader, he took clear first place in the Arizona State K-12 Championship. Last fall, he was honored to be one of the U.S. representatives at the World Youth Chess Championship in Vietnam, and he took top honors in the K-6 blitz tournament at the most recent grade nationals. The experience in Vietnam was especially memorable. “The three of us went [David and his parents],” said his father. “I have three children – David’s the oldest – but we left the younger children with grandparents. My wife and I went with David and it was a tremendous chess experience. It was a most memorable opportunity. As far as the chess experience for David, it was outstanding. I was really impressed – we all were really impressed – at what a serious spectacle it was. In the United States, where you might see a little sign with an arrow that says ‘Chess Tournament,’ this was different. When we arrived at the airport, there were people greeting us, taking pictures, giving us water, escorting us to the buses. There were banners and flags and a lot of pomp associated with the event. The formality and the seriousness, and a lot of different countries, it was great to see what a serious event it was. The opening ceremony – it was all very exciting. “Most of the players were able to speak English, so language difficulties were not a significant factor. As far as the chess tournament itself, we were just happy to go and participate in this experience. We weren’t sure whether we would ever have this opportunity again, so we wanted to enjoy it and make the most of it. We were just glad that he could be there. During the event, David had an excellent performance. He played some excellent games against highly ranked players his age group in the world and did very well. It was just extremely exciting. In the first nine games David was undefeated, with wins and draws. He played I think against the number two player in the world and the number four player in the world and the number nine player, for his age. David was FIDE unrated, going against highly rated FIDE players. As an unrated player to do so well was just extremely exciting. In the final two rounds, he lost both games. Maybe he just petered out a little bit, but nevertheless he still finished nineteenth. As a team, they won a bronze medal for their age category 12 and Under. We Adelbergs were very impressed with his performance, very excited. It had a significant impact on our perspective on his progress, on his abilities, his potential, so that was a very pivotal point in evaluating further efforts.” In contrast to many players, David spends little time online at the Internet Chess Club. Although he has done well with blitz tournaments, it’s not a significant part of his chess training. Similar to a number of other highly-rated young players, most scholastic tournaments hold less interest for David than they had in the past. The problem is that now that he is often one of the top players at such events, he may only encounter a like-rated opponent in the last round or two, if at all. The challenge is not as great as can be found in many “adult” tournaments, and that’s where David intends to concentrate his efforts. He is playing in this month’s Copper State International event in Arizona – his first “norm” tournament. Later he’ll attend the Las Vegas Chess Festival, and the World Open in Philadelphia. He’s planning on taking in a month-long chess camp in New Jersey over the summer. There is also a chance that he may earn a berth on the Arizona Scorpions U.S. Chess League team. David has kindly annotated two games for our readers. The first below, against Mezensev, was his first victory over an international master. The second is from his eighth round victory against a strong Russian opponent in the World Youth tournament. Mezensev,Vladimir (2450) –
Adelberg,David (2122)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e6 7.Bg5!? An extremely unusual move that I had not seen before. I just played normally, knowing the bishop is not well placed on e2. 7...Be7 8.Qd2 0–0 9.0–0–0 Qc7 10.g4 Nbd7 11.f4 Re8?! 11...b5! 12.Bxf6 Nxf6 13.g5? b4 14.Nd5 exd5 15.gxf6 Bxf6 16.exd5 Re8 17.Nc6 with Black slightly better. I reached this position during my calculations in the game, and underestimated my position. 17...Bd7 18.Nxb4? Reb8–+ 19.a3 a5 20.Nd3 Bf5. 12.h4? This is unnecessary! 12.Bxf6 is better, leading to an unclear game. 12...b5 13.Bxf6 Nxf6 14.g5?! 14.a3 was better, but Black is still doing fine after 14.a3 Bb7 (14...b4!? 15.axb4 Bb7 16.Qd3 d5 17.e5 Nd7 18.g5 Bxb4 19.h5 with an unclear position) 15.Qd3 with Black slightly better. 14...b4
15.Ncb5? This mistake is decisive. White should have tried to hold the ending after 15.gxf6 bxc3 16.Qxc3 Qxc3 17.bxc3 Bxf6. This is difficult for White, but he is at least not getting mated. 15...axb5 16.gxf6 Bxf6 17.Qxb4 Rxa2 18.c3 18.Nxb5 Qb6 19.c3 Bd7–+. 18...Bd7 19.Nxb5 Bxb5 20.Bxb5 Rb8 21.Kb1 Rxb2+!? 21...Ra5! 22.c4 Rba8 with the idea of …Qb7 with unstoppable threats. I was attracted to a more flashy finish. 22.Qxb2 Qc5!? 22…Bxc3 would have been a bit more precise. 22...Bxc3! 23.Qb3 Qc5 24.Kc2 Be5+ 25.Qc4 Rxb5 26.Qxc5 Rxc5+ 27.Kd3 Bxf4 and Black is better.
23.Qd2?? Losing. Better would be 23.Rd4 Bxd4 24.cxd4 Qxb5 25.Qxb5 Rxb5+ 26.Kc2 with Black better. 23...Bxc3 24.Qxd6 Rxb5+ 0-1 White resigned, as, apart from the loss of the queen, there are now two different ways to mate in eight moves: 25.Kc2 Rb2+ 26.Kd3 Qxd6+ 27.Kxc3 Qb4+ (27...Qa3+ 28.Kd4 Rb4+ 29.Ke5 Qc3+ 30.Kd6 Rb7 31.Rc1 Qd4+ 32.Kc6 Qb6#) 28.Kd3 Rb3+ 29.Ke2 Qxe4+ 30.Kf2 Rb2+ 31.Rd2 Rxd2+ 32.Kg1 Qg2#. Antipov,Mikhail Al (2177) –
Adelberg,David (2031)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.0–0 b5 8.Bb3 Be7 9.Qf3 Qc7 10.Qg3 Nc6 11.Nxc6 Qxc6 12.Re1 Bb7 13.Qxg7 Rg8 14.Qh6 0–0–0 15.f3 Rg6 16.Qh3 Kb8 17.Be3 Rdg8
18.g3? Why weaken the kingside? 18. Re2 is the book move. 18.Re2 h5 19.Rd1 Qe8 20.a4 b4 21.Na2 e5 22.Nxb4 a5 23.Nd3 Bc8 24.Qh4 Ng4 25.Qxh5 Nxe3 26.Rxe3 Rxg2+ 27.Kh1 R8g5 28.Qh7 Rg7 29.Qh5 R2g5 30.Qh6 Qg8 31.Ree1 Rh7 0-1, Nijboer,F (2580)-Sutovsky,E (2604), Essen 2001. 18...h5 19.Ne2 Qe8!? I borrowed this idea from games such as the one above. It is not as effective since the white queen will not be trapped, but I wanted to be able to swing my queen over to the kingside. 20.Nf4 R6g7 21.Bf2 Bc8 21…h4 immediately might have been more accurate, but I wanted to guard e6 first. 22.Qf1 h4 23.Qd3 hxg3 24.hxg3 Nd7 25.Qe3 Nc5 26.Rad1
26…Rxg3+! At this point I had a huge time advantage, and I used it to work out this combination. I spent thirty minutes. I wanted to check this with the extra time and make sure it wins. 27.Bxg3 Rxg3+ 28.Kf2 Qg8 29.Rg1 29.Rh1 e5 30.Nd5 Bg5 31.Qe1 Bd8 32.Ne3 (32.Qe3 Rg2+ 33.Kf1 Qg3 34.f4 Qg4 with Black better) 32...Nxe4+ 33.fxe4 Qg5 34.Qd2 Qf4+ 35.Ke2 Bg4+ 36.Kd3 f5. 29...Bh4 30.Kf1 e5
31.Rxd6? This gives up any hope of resistance. Better would be 31.Rxg3 Qxg3 32.Ng2 Bh3 33.Rd2 Bg5 34.Qf2 Qh2 35.Re2 with an unclear position. 31...exf4 32.Rb6+ Ka7 33.Rg6!? I missed this move. Luckily I am still winning. 33...Qxg6 34.Qxc5+ Qb6 35.Qxb6+ Kxb6 36.Rxg3 fxg3 37.Kg2 Be6 38.Bxe6 fxe6 39.b4 Be7 40.Kxg3 Bxb4 41.Kf4 Bd6+ 42.e5 Bb8 43.Ke4 Kc5 44.f4 Kc4 45.Kf3 Kd4 46.Kg4 Ke4 47.Kg5 b4 48.Kf6 Kxf4 49.Kxe6 Bxe5 50.Kd5 Bc3 51.Kc4 a5 52.a3 Ke3 53.axb4 axb4 54.Kb3 Kd2 55.Ka2 Kc1 0-1 Answers to Last Month’s Quiz Problem #1
White to move. Can he draw? How? Answer: The game proceeds 1.Kg7 h4 2.Kf6 Kb6 (2...h3 3.Ke6 Kb6 4.Kd6 draws) 3.Ke5 Kxc6 4.Kf4 and White saves the draw. This position is from a 1921 Réti construction shown in the Steve Giddins book 101 Chess Endgame Tips. Problem #2
Black to move. What would you suggest? Answer: 1…b4! 2.Nce2 (2.Bxg7 bxc3!) 2...Nxe4 3.Qf4 Bxh6 4.Qxh6 Nxf2 From Practical Chess Exercises by Ray Cheng. © 2009 Steve Goldberg. All Rights Reserved. |
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