The official publication of the Idaho Chess Association.

President

R.K. Hart
Box 547
Pocatello, Idaho

Editor & Treasurer

Dick Vandenburg
2316 Regan Ave. <----NOTE ADDRESS CHANGE
Boise, Idaho

Games Editor

Eugene Cowan
Box 431
Driggs, Idaho

Committeemen

Sterling Vaughn
1187 Morningside Dr.
Twin Falls, Idaho

Roy Parker
Box 137
Nampa, Idaho

Charles Buttcane
Box 595
Rupert, Idaho

Sven Gridseth
Box 363
Idaho Falls, Idaho

Where to play chess!

Boise -- meets 8:00 Wednesday nights at Y.M.C.A. building.

Canyon County -- meets 8:00 Thursday nights at Lakeview Parkhouse, Nampa.

Idaho Falls -- meets Friday nights 7:30 next to Masonic Temple.

Rupert -- reorganizing, meetings being held, contact committeeman.

Twin Falls -- meets Tuesday nights 8:00 at Harry Barry Park Building.

Pocatello -- meets Wednesday nights at Y.M.C.A. building.

Events during the next Quarter!

Oregon Centennial Open -- in Portland, February 21, 22, Hostess House.

Nevada Open -- date and place not known, contact Bill Taber.

Inland Empire Open -- date not known, contact Dr. Griffith Parker.

Idaho Team Tournament Matches -- Twin Falls-Rupert, Pocatello-Idaho Falls, then finals.

Montana Open -- in Missoula, May 3, 4, Florence Hotel.

Idaho Open -- in Boise, Memorial Day weekend, May 30, 31, Y.M.C.A.

Idaho Chess Quarterly -- price $1.00 per year, 4 issues, send money to Editor.

Washington Chess Letter -- price $2.00 per year, 12 issues, send money to W.H. Raleigh, 4312 Woodland Park Ave., Seattle 3, Washington

Glen Buckendorf of Buhl has regained his Idaho State Championship by winning the Class A section of the second annual "Closed" Tourney held January 10-11 at the American Legion Hall in Twin Falls. As in last year's event, we again proved the value of a two day, multi-class event which brought out 38 players -- even more than our previous record. Thanks for an excellent event go to the Twin Falls Chess Club and especially to Lloyd Kimpton and Sterling Vaughn, who directed and organized it. The playing quarters were the best possible and the availability of pop and coffee added much to the relaxed atmosphere.

The (we hope) temporarily weak condition of the Rupert Chess Club showed up in that only one player entered from the Rupert-Burley area. Last year 11 players entered from there and those not entering this year were sorely missed. Twin Falls and Boise countered with large delegations which helped make up the difference. Two players attended from Idaho Falls as the first ever in a State tournament. We hope more from there will become active in state-wide functions now that the new Idaho Falls Chess Club is doing so well. Several juniors from North Idaho also expected to attend but were unable to at the last minute.

Buckendorf convincingly won the Class A section 4½-½ allowing only a draw to C.H. Stewart of Boise who placed second, 3½-1½, drawing three games. Lloyd Kimpton, who almost didn't enter because of being tournament director, placed third, 3½-1½, losing to Buckendorf and drawing Stewart. Buckendorf replaces Dick Vandenburg of Boise as State Champion. Dick, who won easily last year (5-0) couldn't seem to go anywhere this year and wound up 8th, 2½-2½. Bryant Hanson who placed third last year had similar troubles and wound up 15th. Surprise of the Class A tournament was Ted Hartwell who placed 5th with an excellent 3½-1½ score. Ted won last year's Class B section.

The Class B Tournament was a real dogfight with Nick Skirmants of Boise finally coming out on top, 4-1. Sterling Vaughn won a long last round game with George Osterman and took second, 4-1. George could have won first with a final round win and maintained his winning ways -- he was last year's Class C Champion. It looked for a time as if he couldn't be beaten as he won five straight last year and his first three this time. However, 4th place M.W. Wright finally beat him in the fourth round to end his winning streak at eight games. A.L. Harle of Boise, and always a strong player, placed third, 3½-1½.

The Class C and Junior competition were run together and Kenneth Barclay of Jerome won his first tournament and the Class C title, 4½-½. He was drawn in the final round by Glen Peck of Pocatello who copped the Junior title. Second place in the C division went to Dorian Larsen of Pocatello who lost to Barclay but defeated Peck. Several of the Juniors were sons of Class B players and their friends and the kids had an excellent time.

Tournament rules were amended this year so that Class B and C winners don't automatically go up to the next class but have to win their division twice before they have to play in the next higher section.

Trophies were presented at the annual banquet and business meeting held Saturday evening. Officers elected for 1959 were R.K. Hart, President; Dick Vandenburg, Treasurer and Editor; Roy Parker, Sterling Vaughn, Charles Buttcane, and Sven Gridseth, committeemen. Gridseth and Buttcane were more or less appointed for one year as the most active in their respective clubs. Next year's tournament will again be held in Twin Falls on January 16-17. We hope to have all of this year's entrants back plus many more!

Ilmari Toumainen hung on in the last round against Farrell Clark and came out with the 1958 Utah Open Championship. Toumainen is the Finnish Junior Champion now an exchange student in Salt Lake. In a game, reprinted in the games section, which is all but lost in the last round, he managed to draw Clark, who was in bad time pressure, thus winning the tournament. Clark, who placed third, needed a win to annex the state title. Second place went to Richard Owen, amazing Salt Lake junior who really played excellent chess and surprised everyone with the high quality of his play. He defeated fourth place Ben Greenwald (who lost his first Nevada or Utah State Tournament game) in the second round. Tied from 5th through 8th were four prominent tri-state chess players, Ken Jones, Don Benge, Bill Taber, and Dick Vandenburg. Richard Owen was declared Utah State Champion, youngest ever.

Seven rounds were played and this provided an excellent test of the players' abilities. The first four finishers actually played a round robin amongst themselves with Clark taking the honors. Neither Toumainen nor Clark lost a game but drew three and four respectively. Toumainen won his first four games and proceeded to coast in with three draws at the end.

The tournament was played at the Y.M.C.A. Building in Salt Lake City on November 12-15. Don Benge, now of California, arrived late and forfeited the first round but still placed 6th. Richards Durham, defending Utah Champion was out of practice and lost heart after a couple of tough games and placed 21st. Both Ken Jones and Ben Greenwald had won two previous Utah Tourneys but neither could match the two youths winning this one.

Had U.S.C.F. rules been followed to the letter adjusting the scores of those that won (or lost) by default, bye or withdrew, the results would have placed Benge ahead of Jones, Vandenburg ahead of Taber, Stevenson ahead of Hunt, and Wigginton ahead of Morawski. ½ point is used to adjust scores of players winning or losing without actually playing their games.

The Northwest Rating system has now been expanded into a West Coast system to include all players in the Western states. There are over 1,000 names in the latest list, a copy of which may be obtained by mailing your name and address and 10¢ to Robert A. Karch, 1025 El Paseo Del Campo, San Lorenzo, California. It is impossible to list even most of those players rated in a small publication as this so we must sample from the big list to get one most meaningful to our readers. As has been our policy in the past, we list complete all players from Idaho, Utah, and Nevada with samples from other states that we believe our readers are interested in. The master and expert lists are complete for Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Nevada. Our sampling will be done on Classes A, B, and C. The ratings include all tournaments and matches published before this Quarterly plus the Utah Open! All other games reported here will be rated in time for our April issue.

Clark Harmon, 16 year old player from Portland, defeated Ivars Dalbergs of Portland in the final round of the "Central Washington Open" to help Olaf Ulvestad of Seattle continue his current winning streak through placing first, 5½-½. Dalbergs and Ulvestad were tied going into the last round, 4½-½, having drawn their individual game in the fourth round. Dalbergs was ahead on tie breaking Solkoff points but the upset loss to the amazing Harmon cost him victory. Harmon placed second, 5-1, losing only to Ulvestad. Fourth place went to Oliver LaFreniere of Yakima who was tournament director, and fifth went to Dr. Dave Groenig of Spokane. The tournament was held in the new Yakima Y.M.C.A. Building way back on November 8-9 and a total of 28 players entered. Others tied from fourth to tenth with LaFreniere and Dr. Groenig (4-2) were Mike Franett, Seattle; Robert Holzinger, Seattle; Deane Moore, Portland; Cliff Dolph, Maryhill; and Bill Hoge, Yakima.

With a perfect score of 6-0 Olaf Ulvestad of Seattle continued his current "red hot" winning streak in sweeping the 1959 Washington Open held in Seattle January 24-25. Another master, Jim McCormick, placed second, 5-1, losing to Ulvestad in the final round. Spokane's Dr. Dave Groenig reached the high point of his budding chess career by placing third, 4½-1½! Another always strong player, Dr. A.A. Murray of Seattle, placed fourth. others with identical scores of 4½-1½ were Dan Wade (editor of Washington Chess Letter), 5th; C.S.G. Patterson, Seattle, 6th; Oliver LaFreniere, Yakima, 7th; Don Kendall, Tacoma, 8th; and Edward Diedrich, Tacoma, 9th. Clark Harmon of Central Washington Open fame lost to Ulvestad and drew two games to place 10th.

A total of 50 players entered and they all played in one section. Players well known in this area other than the top ten were Duane Meador of Vancouver, Washington who ran into trouble in the last two games winding up 22nd, 3-3. Harold Hughart of Albany, Oregon also had his difficulties finishing 23rd, 3-3. Donald C. Crawford, formerly of Boise and now from Olympia, also had a 3-3 score to place 29th. Local players will remember Don well and welcome him back to the chess tournament scene.

As per the custom in Washington, the top finishers in the Open plus the State Champion and other strong players qualify for the Washington State Championships to be played February 21-23. This year the top nine finishers plus State Champion Viesturs Seglins and masters Zemgalis and Pupols are eligible.

Boise got plenty of revenge on Canyon County for its loss last year in the State Team Tournament preliminaries by beating their cross-the-valley adversaries 7-1 with the white pieces (in Boise November 26) and 8-4 with the black pieces (in Nampa December 4). The total winning margin gives Boise the right to play in the finals this spring against the winner of the Eastern Idaho vs. Central Idaho match. Double winners for Boise were Dick Vandenburg, C.H. Stewart, M.W. Wright, Nick Skirmants, Bob Babcock, and Dave Reid. Vic Waterman of Nampa played two games for his team in the second match and won them both! (not simultaneously!)

This issue of the Idaho Chess Quarterly is some three to four weeks late and your editor would like to apologize for this almost inexcusable occurrence! I am especially sorry that the issue comes out after the possibility of publicizing the Oregon Centennial Open and probably before being able to publicize the results. Several Idaho players were aware of this tournament but were unable to make it this year. I seem to have taken on too many projects this year and haven't had time for chess at all, these include being President of two different organizations connected with skiing and also acting as coach of a Boise Junior ski team. Now that the winter season is drawing to a close I hope to get back to the chess trail and will try to get future publications out on time! In addition to the above, you will notice on the front page that I have changed my address -- I'll not do that again for 20 years! Please change my address on your records.

PREVIEW OF COMING EVENTS

NEVADA OPEN -- this always excellent and powerful tournament will be held as usual on or about the Easter weekend. However, at this time it is not known whether it will be held in Las Vegas (as originally scheduled) or in Reno, and the date is not certain. It should probably follow closely the policy of previous years -- 7 rounds, monetary prizes, coast players excluded, etc. For further information contact Bill Taber, 440 Ridge St., Reno, Nevada.

INLAND EMPIRE OPEN -- no word has been received on this tournament annually held in Spokane the latter part of April. It will undoubtedly follow past history being six rounds, two days. For further information contact Dr. Griffith Parker, 416 Hyde Building, Spokane, Washington.

IDAHO TEAM TOURNAMENT MATCHES -- In the preliminaries, the new Idaho Falls Chess Club and the Pocatello Chess Club play a two round match in Idaho Falls on February 21 at the Western Army Store. The winner of this match gets the right to play the winner of the Twin Falls-Rupert game, should these two teams be able to schedule a match. The game between Eastern Idaho and Central Idaho will be played in either Idaho Falls or Pocatello. The winner of this game will play Boise, the game probably to be played at either Rupert or Twin Falls. The team championship trophy is now jointly held by Pocatello and Canyon County.

MONTANA OPEN -- Word was received from John Butler, Secretary of the Montana Chess Association that the 1959 Montana Open will be held in Missoula at the Florence Hotel on May 2-3. It will be a five round Swiss with two games played on Saturday and three on Sunday, and will probably start about 1:00 Saturday afternoon. Play will be divided into Expert, A, and Junior divisions with three trophies for each. Entry fee will be $3.00 for Expert and A and $2.00 for Junior. For further information contact Mr. Butler, 510 Plymouth, Missoula, Montana.

IDAHO OPEN -- again to be held in Boise, Memorial Day Weekend, May 30-31. This will also be a five round Swiss but with three rounds Saturday and two Sunday. Starting time will be about 10:00 Saturday morning, the location will be the Boise Y.M.C.A. Play will be divided into Class A and Class B divisions, as was done last year. This gives the better players more of a chance to play each other and gives the poorer players a chance to win a trophy. West Coast Ratings will apply to both Classes but the A Class will also be Nationally Rated. Trophies will be awarded in the B Class while monetary prizes will be awarded all plus-score finishers in Class A. Last year strong players were attracted from Montana, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington and it is hoped that Boise will again become a meeting place for chess talent from all over the Northwest and Intermountain region.

WITH THE CLUBS

The 1959 Boise City Chess Tournament has just started and play is again divided into three Classes -- A, B, and C. C.H. Stewart, John Cosho, Phil Dolph, and Dick Vandenburg make up the A Class. Nine players are entered in Class B including Mrs. Hazel Dolph who adds considerable beauty to the otherwise drab surroundings of quiet, bowed heads! Class C now has five entrants and more are expected. A double round robin will be played in each class. Currently, C.H. Stewart leads Class A, 2-0 and A.L. Harle leads Class B, 3-0.

A.B. Ellis is undefeated thus far in the Ninth Annual Canyon County Chess Tournament. His record is 9½-½ with only one draw, to John English, the winner of the first tournament in 1951. Roy Parker ranks second, 11-5 and C.E. Harris is third, 7-5. Other high ranked players are John English, 3½-2½, E.H. Horstman, 5½-4½, John Williamson, 7-6, Carl Solts, 7-6, and Vic Waterman, 7½-6½. 15 players are entered in Classes A, B, and C.

The new Idaho Falls Chess Club is really booming with more members than any other club in the State. They have adopted a constitution and elected officers for 1959. Sven Gridseth was elected President; Nigel Robinson, Vice President; Albert Hamp, Secretary; Russ Haynes, Treasurer; and Gene Guth, Tournament Director. Over 30 members are listed! That's almost twice what we have in Boise and the organizers should really pat themselves on the back for doing such a terrific job.

In the Idaho Falls Chess Club Bulletin, 1/30/59, the announcement of an Idaho Falls City Chess Tournament to be held on March 20, 21, and 22 was made. Play will be divided into three classes -- A, B, and Junior. First prize in A and B will be a chess clock! A ladder tournament is currently in progress and is scheduled to be completed March 6. A friendly match is tentatively scheduled with the Teton Valley Club on March 13.

Location of meetings has been changed to the Y.M.C.A. A match is scheduled in the State Team tourney with Idaho Falls. A match is being arranged with the Rupert Club which should help that Club get back on its feet.

Club activities came to a standstill after a summer recess. Charles Buttcane has revived the club and reports that about 10 players have begun meeting again. We hope players in the Rupert area will support the club and bring it up to former strength.

Chess interest in Teton Valley is picking up according to Club President Eugene Cowan. Meetings are now held at the members' homes once a week on Wednesday nights. Carlos Lauritzen is Vice President and Darrell Dalley is Treasurer.

The club has just completed its first (1958) Teton Valley Chess Tournament (in Driggs) and Eugene Cowan won handily, 6-0. A round robin with seven players was used. Alma Kunz was second and Ed Schiess third.

The 1959 Tourney is now in progress with play being considerably tougher than in 1958. Cowan is leading, 5-0; Lauritzen, 2-1; Shiess, 2-2; Dalley, 2-3; Kunz, 1-4; and Ervin Schiess, 0-2.

Word has been received of the formation of the "Inland Empire Junior Chess League (IEJCL)". The League consists of teams from Sandpoint, Wallace, Spirit Lake, Lewis & Clark (Spokane), and Coeur d'Alene High Schools. The new league is equipped with a charter and Bruce Fredstrom of Sandpoint has been named 1959 League Coordinator. At a meeting early in January an IEJCL Founders' Tourney was held with all of the original founders present except Bob Corder, Kellogg. Bruce Fredstrom and Don Britt (Wallace) came out on top-- 3-1. Steve Sala and Fred Pettit both of Wallace tied with 2-2. Jim Ashford of Kellogg placed last, 0-4. The newly formed League will start playing matches immediately to determine the 1959 winner.

Steve Sala came out on top of the 1958 Wallace High School 5 round Swiss tournament played during November and December. He recorded a perfect score beating out second place Fred Pettit, 4-1. Third was Pat Chaffney, 3½-1½. A total of 16 players entered.

News items received from Salt Lake include a simultaneous exhibition by Samuel Reshevsky. 18 players tried their skill at beating the champion and 17 went down to defeat. Gaston Chappuis was the only player able to get even a draw, his second in two years from Sammy. The next day Reshevsky encountered 35 players in Ogden and beat every one!

Starting immediately, the 1959 Salt Lake City Tournament will be played. A high school tourney will be played at the same time. Ogden is also having a city tourney, running about the same time. More about the Salt Lake Tourney in the next issue.

Late Flash!

Pocatello won the right to play further in the State Team Tourney by beating Idaho Falls 9½-6½ on February 21. Pocatello standbys R.K. Hart and John Anderson helped with 1½ wins apiece. Mansour Amini and Glen Peck both won two for Pocatello. Mrs. Millar won two for Idaho Falls from Dorian Larsen who placed second in the State Class C.

The new system works!---

KING'S FIANCHETTO DEFENSE

White: R.S. Vandenburg
Black: Glen Buckendorf

(a) According to theory, it is good strategy to allow the opponent to occupy the center, then counterattack, and take over. However, it is necessary to not allow him to get too complete a hold of it. I'm afraid that this defense either allows White to do that, or makes Black's struggle to recover the center too hard.

(b) P-QB3 is better, strengthening both the center and the diagonal. White, however, plays poorly and makes Black's job easier.

No it don't!---

KING'S FIANCHETTO DEFENSE

White: Eugene L. Cowan
Black: R.S. Vandenburg

Oh yes it does!---

KING'S FIANCHETTO DEFENSE

White: A.B. Ellis
Black: G.W. Buckendorf

SICILIAN DEFENSE

White: John Cosho
Black: Bryant Hanson

BUDAPEST COUNTER GAMBIT

White: Mel Schubert
Black: Lloyd Kimpton

More from this event next issue!

An interesting struggle with a theme of center pawns vs. attack.

KING'S INDIAN DEFENSE

White: Ilmari Tuomainen
Black: W.F. Taber

ENGLISH OPENING

White: Farrell Clark
Black: Ilmari Tuomainen

Notes and punctuation by F.L. Clark.

(a) Not 11...P-B4, B-Q5ch wins the exchange.

(n) A real, cool, hypermodern position Farrell! (ELC).

(b) Threatening a double check with the N at B6 winning.

(c) If NxB; QxNch, K-R, R-B7 wins.

(d) Missing the winning combination of R-B7, Q-K4; R-N7ch, K-R; Q-B2, and Q-B7.

(e) Time was running out. White had six moves to make in five minutes.

(f) With less than two minutes remaining and 3 moves to make, White didn't have time to analyze B-R7ch on move 45. The following shows a win for White: 45 B-R7ch, NxB; 46 Q-N6ch, K-R; 47 R-B7, QxPch; 48 K-B3, RxPch; 49 KxR -- and with the exchange up and a mating threat restricting Black's Queen from gobbling up pawns, White wins.

KING'S INDIAN DEFENSE

White: Richard Owen
Black: Farrell Clark

(a) If 18 PxN?, Q-N5ch; K-R, QxNch; K-N, B-R6.

(b) Capture of Black's KP by either the R or N loses a piece.

(c) Threatening the Q with B-Q3, B-N, B-N2. (Clark)

Un-evening the score -- Ervin Schiess, brother of Ed Schiess, is, that is was, the only player in the valley with an even score vs. me, of 2-2.

KING'S PAWN GAME

White: Ervin Schiess
Black: Eugene Cowan

It takes practice to keep an accurate game score during the tensions of tournament play. Very few of those turned in at this event were readable all the way through and, lack of regular club games and other events in Eastern Idaho can be blamed. Here is a sample of Sven Gridseth's abilities.

KING'S PAWN GAME

White: Sven Gridseth
Black: Russell Haynes

(a) A waste of time -- and White gets a pin on the knight which is a primary cause of disaster.

SICILIAN DEFENSE

White: Alois Cziep
Black: Eugene Cowan

White wins, move 49.

(a) Suddenly the queen is trapped!

(b) Should have taken the rook instead of the bishop later -- but I thought of that three months too late. The N on R4 can be saved by P-KB3!

PHILIDOR'S DEFENSE

White: Eugene Cowan
Black: Mrs. Bernice Millar

And White won, move 53.

(a) An aggressive variation, which I haven't seen in the books. B-K2, or (better) B-B4 and Q-Q3 answers it for White. Bernice plays a good game and the difficult ending is of theoretical interest -- two N's vs. two B's. Despite the blunder, White should have won with careful play.

(b) The plot of mate on Q8 only gets a reproachful glance.

QUEEN'S PAWN GAME

White: Eugene Cowan
Black: Eugene Guth

White resigns, mate in two.

I was impressed by Richard Brown's play. He nearly won from Gridseth, and I was lucky to draw with him.