Dmitry Schneider wins Greater New York Junior Championship

NEW YORK, June 11 - Just back from winning the Pan American under-16 championship in Brazil last week, Dmitry Schneider has won the Greater New York Junior Championship with a 5-0 score. International Woman's Grandmaster Rusudan Goletiani of the Republic of Georgia finished second with 4-1.

The key game was Schneider's win against Grandmaster Goletiani, who was playing in her first rated tournament since arriving from her Republic of Georgia four weeks ago on May 12.

In spite of being black, Goletiani played an aggressive attack. Goletiani pushed up her pawns aggressively on both sides of the board, not bothering to castle and exposing her king to attacks.

It was a wild game. After the game, Schneider said that he felt he had been in control throughout. Goletiani however felt that she had had a good position but the shortness of time plus the sudden death time control prevented her from figuring the right way through.

Schneider vs. Goletiani
Position after Black played 27. .... Bh6

Somebody should do a computer analysis of this game to see where who went wrong.


[Event "New York Junior Championship"]
[Site "New York City"]
[Date "2000.06.11"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Schneider, Dmitry"]
[Black "Goletiani, Rusudan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B40"]
[WhiteElo "2439"]
[BlackElo "2425"]
[PlyCount "75"]
[EventDate "2000.06.11"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. Nc3 a6 4. g3 b5 5. Bg2 Bb7 6. d3 d6 7. O-O Nf6 8. Ng5 h6
9. Nh3 g5 10. f4 g4 11. Nf2 b4 12. Ne2 Nbd7 13. c3 h5 14. cxb4 cxb4 15. Bd2 d5
16. e5 Ng8 17. Qa4 Qb6 18. a3 Bc6 19. Qb3 Rb8 20. axb4 a5 21. f5 axb4 22. fxe6
fxe6 23. Nf4 Kf7 24. d4 Ne7 25. Nxg4 Nf5 26. Nxd5 Qxd4+ 27. Nge3 Bh6 28. Rxf5+
exf5 29. Nc7+ Ke7 30. Bxc6 Nc5 31. Ncd5+ Kf8 32. Qc4 Qxe5 33. Qxc5+ Kf7 34.
Ra7+ Kg6 35. Ne7+ Kf6 36. N3d5+ Kf7 37. Nxf5+ Kg6 38. Nxh6 1-0

The sensation of the tournament was 11-year-old Hana Itkis, who finished third on tie-breaks. Hana entered the tournament with a rating of 1813 but beat up expert Alex Averbukh in round four to enter the last round half point out of the lead. In the last round Hana battled against Schneider on board one for the top prize. Hana won the exchange early in the game and a fantastic upset seemed in the making. However, Schneider won a pawn and then another and finally squeezed her to death in a long struggle.

Hana Itkis

[Event "New York Junior Championship"]
[Site "New York City"]
[Date "2000.06.11"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Itkis, Hana"]
[Black "Schneider, Dmitry"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "1813"]
[BlackElo "2439"]
[PlyCount "90"]
[EventDate "2000.06.11"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 c5 3. e3 Nc6 4. c3 Bf5 5. Bd3 Bg6 6. O-O e6 7. Re1 Nf6 8. Ne5
Bd6 9. f4 Qb6 10. Na3 Bxd3 11. Qxd3 c4 12. Qe2 Bxa3 13. bxa3 Ne4 14. Bb2 O-O
15. Nd7 Qa5 16. Nxf8 Rxf8 17. Rac1 Ne7 18. g4 Nc8 19. Ba1 Qxa3 20. Qb2 Qe7 21.
Qg2 Nb6 22. Rf1 Rd8 23. f5 Nd7 24. fxe6 Qxe6 25. Rf4 Nf8 26. Rcf1 Rd7 27. Qh3
Qa6 28. Qh5 Ng6 29. Rf5 Nf6 30. Qh3 Qxa2 31. g5 Ne4 32. R5f3 Qa4 33. Rf5 Qc6
34. Qg4 Qe6 35. Qe2 b5 36. Qe1 a5 37. h4 Nd6 38. R5f4 Nxf4 39. exf4 Re7 40.
Qxe6 Rxe6 41. f5 Re4 42. Bb2 Rxh4 43. Bc1 f6 44. gxf6 gxf6 45. Rf2 Ne4 0-1

Even though Hana lost the game, it is evident that the chess world will be hearing a lot about her in the future. She was born in Moldova, but came to the US when she was three years old. Her father is an International Chess Master but stayed behind in Moldova when Hana and her mother came to America eight years ago, so Hana does not remember her father. There is little doubt that Hana will be challenging the top levels of chess very soon.

The Under-1400 section was won by 11-year-old Danny Smith, who tied with Tingting Lu. They drew each other and defeated everybody else. Danny and Tingting each won $120.

A potential sensation on the lower boards was five-year-old Parker Zhou, who is the National Kindergarten Champion. His much older opponents seemed upset as Parker mopped them up one-by-one. However, Parker lost in the last round to Luke Li and thus did not get a top prize.

The tournament was directed by Steve Immitt and held at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, through the efforts of Howard Prince, a professor at that college. Immitt awarded generous cash prizes to the kiddies, plus gigantic trophies.

Sam Sloan

More Games from the NYC Junior Championship:


[Event "New York Junior Championship"]
[Site "New York City"]
[Date "2000.06.11"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Winik, Peter"]
[Black "Goletiani, Rusudan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B22"]
[WhiteElo "1552"]
[BlackElo "2425"]
[PlyCount "48"]
[EventDate "2000.06.11"]

1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. Nf3 d6 5. d4 Nc6 6. dxc5 dxe5 7. c4 Ndb4 8.
Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. Na3 Bg4 10. Ng5 Ke8 11. Be3 Rd8 12. Be2 Bxe2 13. Kxe2 h6 14. Nf3
e4 15. Nd2 f5 16. Rhd1 Nd3 17. b3 e6 18. Nb5 Bxc5 19. Nc7+ Ke7 20. Bxc5+ Nxc5
21. Nb5 a6 22. Nc3 Rd3 23. Ncb1 Nd4+ 24. Kf1 Nc2 0-1

[Event "New York Junior Championship"]
[Site "New York City"]
[Date "2000.06.11"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Goletiani, Rusudan"]
[Black "Richardson, Jannelle"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A08"]
[WhiteElo "2425"]
[BlackElo "1456"]
[PlyCount "43"]
[EventDate "2000.06.11"]

1. e4 e6 2. d3 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. Ngf3 c5 5. g3 Be7 6. Bg2 Nc6 7. O-O d4 8. e5
Nd7 9. Re1 Qc7 10. Qe2 O-O 11. Nf1 f6 12. exf6 Nxf6 13. Ng5 e5 14. f4 Bd6 15.
Bxc6 bxc6 16. fxe5 Re8 17. Bf4 Bf8 18. exf6 Qxf4 19. gxf4 Rxe2 20. f7+ Kh8 21.
Rxe2 h6 22. Re8 1-0

[Event "New York Junior Championship"]
[Site "New York City"]
[Date "2000.06.11"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Goletiani, Rusudan"]
[Black "Rade, Danny"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C41"]
[WhiteElo "2425"]
[BlackElo "1735"]
[PlyCount "55"]
[EventDate "2000.06.11"]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nbd7 4. Nf3 e5 5. g3 Be7 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O c6 8. h3
Qc7 9. Nh4 Re8 10. Kh1 Nf8 11. f4 Ne6 12. Nf5 Nxd4 13. Nxd4 exd4 14. Qxd4 Nd7
15. g4 Bf6 16. Qc4 Nc5 17. e5 Be7 18. b4 Na6 19. exd6 Bxd6 20. a3 Be6 21. Qd4
Rad8 22. Bb2 Bxb4 23. Nd5 Bf8 24. Nxc7 Rxd4 25. Nxe8 Rd8 26. f5 Bd7 27. Rad1
Nb8 28. Nd6 1-0

[Event "New York Junior Championship"]
[Site "New York City"]
[Date "2000.06.11"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Cooper, Daniel"]
[Black "Goletiani, Rusudan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A60"]
[WhiteElo "1753"]
[BlackElo "2425"]
[PlyCount "72"]
[EventDate "2000.06.11"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c5 4. d5 exd5 5. cxd5 Bd6 6. e4 O-O 7. Nf3 Re8 8. Bd3
Bc7 9. O-O d6 10. Bg5 Bg4 11. h3 Bh5 12. Bc2 Nbd7 13. g4 Bg6 14. Nd2 Ba5 15.
Nc4 Bxc3 16. bxc3 Qc7 17. f3 b5 18. Ne3 Rab8 19. Rb1 a5 20. Qd2 Rb7 21. Qf2 c4
22. Rfc1 Reb8 23. Bd1 Nc5 24. Be2 Nfxe4 25. fxe4 Nxe4 26. Qf4 Nxg5 27. Qxg5
Bxb1 28. Rxb1 Qc5 29. Kh2 h6 30. Qf4 Re8 31. Bxc4 Rxe3 32. Rxb5 Rxb5 33. Bxb5
Re1 34. Qg3 Ra1 35. c4 Rxa2+ 36. Kh1 Qd4 0-1

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