CHESS : INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Alex Yermolinsky, the 1993 U.S. co-champion, scored 8-1 to take the $12,000 first prize in the 23rd World Open, which finished July 4 in Philadelphia. Almost every year since its inception in 1973, the World Open has offered the largest prizes and attracted the most entrants of any open tournament. This year’s figures of 1,420 players competing for $160,000 will be 1995’s best, and they ensure a healthy profit for Bill Goichberg’s Continental Chess Assn.

Yermolinsky gave up only two draws and defeated grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov of Kentucky, who won $6,000 for his second-place score of 7 1/2-1 1/2. Tied at 7-2 were GMs Joel Benjamin (New York), Nick de Firmian (San Francisco), Vladimir Epishin (Russia), John Fedorowicz (New York), Alexander Goldin (Russia), David Norwood (England) and Alex Wojtkiewicz (Poland), and IM Nelson Gamboa (Colombia). Jonathan Yedidia of Irvine and IM Larry Remlinger of Pasadena finished among the prizewinners at 6 1/2-2 1/2. Yedidia achieved his second IM norm, and probably needs two more to earn the title of International Master.

LOCAL NEWS

Igor Ivanov won this area’s major summer tournament, the Pacific Southwest Open, over the holiday weekend in Long Beach. Romping to victory with a score of 6 1/2- 1/2, Igor gave up a draw only to his friend, IM Vladislav Fedorov of Russia, in a brief fifth-round encounter. Ivanov defeated three masters (Levon Altounian, Stephen Booth and Jack Peters) who dared to play the King’s Indian Defense against him.

Fedorov finished second at 6-1. Nick Schoonmaker and Tibor Weinberger shared under-2300 honors with 5 1/2-1 1/2. Altounian, Booth, Mark Duckworth, James Maki, top expert Honorio Nocon, Charles Van Buskirk, IM John Watson and Roel Yumol split the final prizes with 5-2 scores.

Edward Aldrich and Verne Applegate tied for first at 6-1 in the Amateur (under-1800) section. Class prizes went to Gary Yee (best under-1600), Scott Peterson, Jaime Reyes and David Wallace (under-1400), and Leo Richmond (top unrated).

The sponsoring Santa Monica Bay Chess Club suffered a small loss because of the disappointing turnout of only 144 players.

A national title is at stake in the U.S. Game/60 Championship, a nine-round tournament scheduled Friday through July 16 at the Holiday Inn, 7000 Beach Blvd. in Buena Park. The tournament uses a sudden death time limit, limiting each player to 60 minutes for an entire game. For details, call Randy Hough at (818) 282-7412 or Paul Shannon at (714) 891-6398.

The Exposition Park Chess Club has reopened. The club will meet every Saturday from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the public library at 3665 S. Vermont Ave. in Los Angeles. New organizer Tony Salvatierra may run tournaments if enough members show an interest.