Alexander Khalifman, a 24-year-old from Leningrad, won the 1990 New York Open Tournament last week, taking the $20,000 first prize. A total of 710 players competed for an overall purse of $150,000 in six sections of varying playing strengths in the Open, now in its eighth year.
Khalifman, playing his first tournament in the United States, was the only player among 63 entrants in the prestigious "international section" to score seven points in the nine-round event.The field included 32 grandmasters, the highest title holders in chess (short of world champion) and 21 international masters, who are one level below grandmaster.
Eleven countries were represented in the competition played at the Penta Hotel, where players competed for a total purse of $48,600 in this section.
Khalifman, an international master, clinched first prize by defeating 21-year-old grandmaster Ferdinand Hellers of Sweden in a 46-move game.
"He sacrificed a pawn, but it was a very unclear sacrifice," said Khalifman after their five-hour game. "I made some good moves, and my chances became better and better. My pawn advantage was enough to win."
Gata Kamsky, 15, of Brooklyn, who defected from the Soviet Union with his father during last year's New York Open, tied with four others for second place.
In his tie for second place, Kamsky earned $4,825, as did grandmaster Helgi Olafsson of Iceland and international masters Leonide Yudasin and Vladimir Epishin, both of Leningrad, who finished with 61/2 points each.
Khalifman, Kamsky, Yudasin and Epishin also each won an international grandmaster norm, one of the achievements necessary to win the grandmaster title. Kamsky, unlike the others, does not yet hold an international title.
Khalifman will be one of the players representing the Soviet Union in June's interzonal tournament in Madrid, the first qualification event for the 1993 world championship. He said he hopes the International Chess Federadion (FIDE) would grant him the grandmaster title, which he believes is overdue.
"I already have four grandmaster results - I am ready to become a grandmaster," he said. It normally takes three norms to qualify for the title.
International master Patrick J. Wolff of Belmont, Mass., also earned a grandmaster norm. He tied for sixth place with grandmasters Joel Benjamin of Brooklyn and Smbat Lputian of Armenia. Each finished the tournament with 6 points and earned $1,033.
Former world champion Mikhail Tal of Riga, Latvia, earned 51/2 points and finished in a tie with 10 others for ninth place. Each won $518.
In the penultimate round, Kamsky drew loud applause from the spectators in the otherwise silent ballroom as he defeated Tal in 45 moves. Tal was competing in his first New York tournaments. He held the world title in 1960-61.
Former world champion Anatoly Karpov, who will be challenging Gary Kasparov for the world title in New York in October, dropped by the tournament during the fourth round to take a look at the activities.
The report of the New York Open Tournament was prepared by Marcy Soltis for the Associated Press.
-WILD BLUNDERS - "It was just pathetic," said Larry Christiansen about the finish of his game with Vereslav Eingorn in the Vias/IBM Chess Summit Match in Reykjavik. Larry made his observation to Robert Byrne, chess editor of the New York Times.
Christiansen, seeing that his Soviet opponent had only about a minute and a half on his clock, could not resist initiating an attack that was proved after the game to be "just a joke."
"The thing is," Christiansen said, "I couldn't control myself with these wild attacking possibilities in front of me, and all the time I was thinking that he would not be able to figure out the complexities even if there was a flaw."
This part of Christiansen's thinking was right on target. In the face of the sacrifices the American was throwing at Eingorn with abandon, the Soviet grandmaster went totally to pieces, elevated the unsound into the sublime, and resigned with three seconds on his clock - and a genuine checkmate staring him in the face!
-CONGRATULATIONS to the solvers! Scott Mitchell, Peter Rogers, Hal Harmon, Dean Thompson, Gene Wagstaff, Edwin O. Smith, Nathan R. Kennard, Raeburn Kennard, William DeVroom, Covert Copier, Kay Lundstrom, Ann Neil, Paula R. Lindeman, Jim Turner, Ardean Watts, William D. Price, Glannin Cloward, John N. Neilsen, David L. Evans, Joan Nay, Brian Harrow, Harold Rosenberg, Ted Pathakis, Dale B. Brimley and Joye McMulland.