U.S. teams trail at Olympiad

Position No. 6030: White to play and win. From the game Denys Shmelov-Larry Kaufman, U.S. Chess League, Internet 2008.

Solution to Position No. 6029: Black wins with 1 . . . Nde3! 2 fxe3 Qxg3+ 3 Kh1 Qxh3+ 4 Kg1 Qxf5. Worse are 3 Kf1 Nxe3+ and 3 Qg2 Ra1+ 4 Rf1 Rxf1+ 5 Kxf1 Nxe3+.

Six teams, including defending champion Armenia and heavy favorite Russia, shared the lead after five rounds of the Chess Olympiad in Bonn, Germany. Each had four match wins and a tie. The U.S. team, ranked 10th in the field of 146 teams, defeated three lesser teams but tied 27th-ranked Greece and lost, 1-3, to fourth-seeded Azerbaijan.

The most surprising early result was 19th-ranked Norway's upset of third-ranked China. The 11-round format gives China plenty of time to recover.

China leads the 111-team Women's Olympiad with five straight victories. Hungary has 4.5-0.5, and the seventh-seeded U.S. women remain in contention at 4-1.

The Olympiad continues through Tuesday. See dresden2008.de for the latest results.

International news

IM Larry Kaufman of Maryland shared first place with GM Mihai Suba of Romania in the World Senior Championship in Germany. Only players over age 60 were eligible. Kaufman is expected to receive the grandmaster title for his performance.

IM William Addison, one of the top American players of the 1960s, died in San Francisco at age 75. Addison competed in the Interzonal tournament in Spain in 1970 but retired from chess soon after.

Local news

The American Open, usually the largest local tournament of the year, begins Thursday at the Renaissance Hotel, 9620 Airport Blvd. in Los Angeles. The eight-round main event will pay at least $18,000 in prize money. Entrants who do not wish to play on Thanksgiving may choose the three-day schedule, beginning Friday.

The holiday weekend also includes chess lectures, nonstop showings of chess videos, a scholastic tournament (10 a.m. Saturday), a 10-minute event (8 p.m. Saturday) and a 30-minute tournament (noon Sunday). For complete information, see americanopen.org or call Randy Hough at (626) 282-7412.

Two Orange County youngsters excelled in the 455-player National Youth Championships in Brownsville, Texas. Michael W. Brown, already an expert at age 12, scored 9-0 to win the grades K-6 section, while Winston Ching-Tze Zeng led the K-3 section with 8-1.