www.cilicia.com | Armenian sweep last week at the New York Open

Armenian sweep last week at NY Chess Open

Chess
By Lubomir Kavalek
Monday, March 30, 1998; Page D25

It was an Armenian sweep last week at the New York Open. Artashes Minasian, was a surprising winner, scoring 8 points in 9 games and collecting a $14,000 first prize. Smbat Lputian finished second with 7.5 points. The third Armenian, Vladimir Akopian, tied for third place with the Russian grandmaster Vladimir Epishin, both scoring 7 points. With some 60 grandmasters at the start, the tournament held its reputation as one of the most prestigious opens in the world.

Chess hit a high note in Armenia in 1960s after Tigran Petrosian won the world championship and became a national hero. After few decades of relative stagnation the Armenian players are making a new surge. Last October the Armenian team snatched the bronze medal from the English team in the last round of the World Team Championship in Lucerne, Switzerland. Lputian was their most valuable player with the best overall score. In New York Lputian won a brilliant game against a former world junior champion, grandmaster Max Dlugy, with an important theoretical novelty in the Queen's Gambit Accepted. The imaginative way of conducting the attack via the weak black squares makes this masterpiece astonishingly beautiful.

Lputian-Dlugy 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 e6 4.Bxc4 Nf6 5.Nf3 c5 6.Qe2 a

[I do not know what happened to the article at this point -RK]
two players who contributed to the Washington chess scene for many years. Local master Oscar Shapiro still competes vigorously in open tournaments. J.D Spear was secretary and treasury of the Washington Chess Divan, a popular chess club in 1950s and 1960s. Both had their 90th birthday this month. Congratulations! Solution to today's study by Y.

Afek (White: Ke5,Bd1,Nb4,P:c4; Black:Kd2,Na1,P:c5): 1.Nc2! Nb3 2.Na1!! Nxa1 3.Ba4 Kc3 4.Kd5 Kb4 5.Bd1 (Zugzwang) 5 . . . Ka5 6.Kxc5 wins.

Grandmaster Lubomir Kavalek, who has coached Bobby Fischer and Nigel Short, teaches chess to children in Reston. Joseph McLellan provided editorial assistance.

[Raffi's note: The current world champion, Gary Karparov is Half-Armenian, Half Jewish.]

Source: Moorad Alexanian

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