For Curt Brasket, Larry D. Evans, Ron Henley, Mike Valvo and John Watson this tournament was their first international event.
For 13-year old Joel Benjamin, 19-year old John Fedorowicz, 20-year old IM Mark Diesen and 18-year old IM Michael Rohde, they had some previous international experience, but needed more opportunities.
Other titled Americans were GM Anatoly Lein and IMs Edmar Mednis and Andy Soltis. Both Mednis and Soltis had one of the two required norms for the GM title.
It was an especially important tournament for Mednis because his previous norm result (Houston 1974) was about to expire and a couple of months previously he had narrowly missed his second GM norm at a tournament in Yugoslavia. As a result, if he didn't get his second GM norm in this tournament he would remain an IM.
Biyiasas had one GM norm, Helgi Olafsson and Roberto Kaimo each an IM norm, so they were hoping to achieve their titles, too.
The winner, Anatoly Lein, finally broke out of a long slump and Edmar Mednis scored one of his best results ever, but only came close to his goal of getting the GM title which he was finally awarded in 1980.
Anatoly Lein (March 28, 1931 – March 1, 2018) was a Soviet-born American player who was awarded the GM title in 1968. In 1976 Lein, who was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2005, emigrated to the United States, finishing equal first with Leonid Shamkovich in the US Open and equal first with Bernard Zuckerman in the World Open that year. He also played on the US team in the 1978 Olympiad.
After arriving in the US, he originally lived in New Jersey before moving to Beechwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Obituary
Tied for third place were Gudmendur Sigurjonsson and Vitaly Zaltsman. The 36-year old Zaltsman made the most of his opportunity and gained his first IM norm.
Finnish GM Heikki Westerinen "saved" the tournament whose last minute addition made the GM norms possible. Unfortunately, he was also the culprit when he defeated Mednis and ended Mednis' chance at getting the required second norm. He had to wait until 1980 before he was awarded the GM title.
Ron Henley, a 21-years old, did surprisingly well after a slow start, but missed the IM norm by one point. He was later awarded the IM title in 1980 and became a GM in 1982.
In the the following feisty little game, Peter Biyiasas (born November 19, 1950) defeats Filipino Master Roberto Kaimo.
Biyiasas was born in Athens, Greece and was awarded the IM title in 1972 and the GM title in 1978. He won the British Columbia championship 4 times between 1968-69 and 1971-72 and was Canadian Champion in 1972 and 1975. He played in two interzonals in 1973 and 1976 and was on the Canadian Olympiad team in 1972, 1974, 1976 and 1978.
He immigrated to the US in 1979, working in San Jose, California as an IBM programmer. He played in the US Championship in 1980. Biyiasas retired from competitive play in the mid-1980s.
Roberto Kaimo (1943-2016) of the Philippines was a National Master. He was born in Surigao City, Philippines and graduated from F.E.U. in Manila with a Bachelors Degree in Commerce. After graduation he worked for a paint company in the Philippines.
He quit his job in order to play in the 1974 Philippine Championship and was among the leaders for much of the tournament, but ended up in 7th place with a score of 11-9. As a result, he was just a half a point short of making the country’s Olympic team. Soon after this tournament he moved to the US where he worked for a chemical company in Newark, New Jersey as an Inventory Manager; he retired in 2006.
He passed away at the age of 72 on July 28, 2016 in South Plainfield, New Jersey. He was last active as a player in the year 2000. Kaimo also enjoyed bowling, singing, dancing, and was known as the life of the party.
Peter Biyiasas–Roberto Kaimo1–0E17New York GHI7New York, NY USA12.1977Stockfish 14.1
Queen's Indian 1.d4 f6 2.c4 e6 3.f3 By playing this white avoids the
Nimzo-Indian (3.Nc3 Bb4), but in both openings black's aim is to hinder
white's efforts to gain full control of the center by playing e2–e4. b6
With this move black increases his control over the center squares e4 and d5. 4.g3 This is the Main Line in which white contests the long diagonal. b7
This was the usual response back in the 1970s, but 4...Ba6 has since
supplanted it. Less usual is 4...Bb4+ with which black aims to exchange his
less useful dark-squared B. 5.g2 e7 6.0-0 0-0 7.c3 d6 8.b3 bd7 9.b2 e4 10.c2 xc3 11.xc3 f5 An aggressive move that's part of
the plan to control e4. 11...Nf6 was safe and solid. 12.d5 Biyiasas
responds sharply. Instead, he could have played the thematic 12.Ne1 with the
idea of exchanging off the light squared Bs. e5 After this white seizes the
initiative. 12...Bf6 would have equalized. 13.h3 13.d2 as played in
Petrukhina,O (2166)-Klichev,M (2227) Korolyov 2019 proved to be ineffective in
that it allowed black to proceed unhindered. c8 14.b4 e8 15.b3 f6 16.a4 h5 17.f3 f4 with the initiative and a slight advantage. 13...g6 14.e4 fxe4 14...f4 15.b4 c8 16.e6+ g7 17.g4 h6 18.h3 f6 19.xc8 xc8 20.h2 xg4+ 21.hxg4 xg4 and a draw was agreed to in Zhou,J (2635)-Wang,Y
(2723) Shenzhen CHN 2016 15.d2 Best as the Q would be exposed after 15.
Qxe4 15.xe4 c5 16.e3 c8 The B no longer has any future on b7. 17.xc8 xc8 and black's Q is in position to try and drum up play on the K-side. 15...f6 16.xe4 Also good was Be6+ c8 17.xc8 xc8 18.f4 g4 18...xe4 getting rid of the
dangerous N on e4 was a better try. 19.xe4 g4 19.fxe5 xf1+
This move looks quite natural, but it turns out to be a deadly mistake that
weakens black irreparably on the f-file. 19...xe5 is a better defense. 20.xf1 e3 This fork that wins the exchange turns out to be of no use. 20...xe5 was better, but not by much. After 21.c5 bxc5 22.xe5 dxe5 23.c4 d6 23...h8 24.f7 e8 25.d6 cxd6 26.e6 h4 27.f6 Black has no
good move. 24.f6+ h8 25.h4 White wins. 21.f2 White threatens Qf7+
and mate. xf1 This eliminates the threat of Qf7+, but allows white a mate
in 7 21...f5 doesn't save the game either. 22.e6 h5 He can only delay,
not prevent, g4. 23.h3 f8 24.g4 hxg4 25.hxg4 h6 26.d4 wins 22.e6
Black resigned. Flawless play by Biyiasas! Weighted Error Value: White=0.07
(flawless) /Black=1.06 22.e6 xe6 23.dxe6 f8 24.d4 f6 25.xf6+ h8 26.d5+ f6 27.xf6+ g8 28.g7# 1–0
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