New Smart Chip?

A New Smart Chip?
by John B Henderson

“Live like a man. Die like a dog,” is the mantra for Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (NECF-InSchools), who proved that lightning does indeed strike twice by winning the 2008 Dos Hermanas Internet Blitz tournament here on ICC.

The former Brazilian prodigy, who now plays under the Palestinian flag and lives in the U.S., battled his way through the record 2,167 players taking part in the week-long 12 qualifiers for a place in the final 32. And despite being untitled, he again defied the odds by unceremoniously beating-up on GMs Timur Gareev, Jobava Baadur, Dmitry Kononenko and Ronen Har-Zvi in the KO finals to claim the top prize of $3,400 (2,000 Euro) and online blitz bragging rights for another year.

Comparisons with Jorge are now being made with the legendary Soviet Blitz player Genrikh Chepukaitis (see the excellent NIC bookSmart Chip from St Petersburg). The little-known Russian welder was an untitled player and virtually unknown in the west – but he was the most revered Blitz player in all of the USSR, who was feared by the likes of Tal, Petrosian, Korchnoi, Spassky and Bronstein!

Chepukaitis put his many Moscow and Leningrad Blitz titles down to being simply “a lucky guy with a roguish hand.” In his latter years, before he died, aged 68 in 2004, he became extremely successful playing on the ICC (over 27,000 blitz games using the handle “SmartChip”), defeating many ‘stronger’ titled players who were unaware of his legendary status.

The ultimate compliment on Jorge’s performance in winning Dos Hermanas for the second successive year came from Israeli speed ace GM Ronen Har-Zvi, who lost 3.5-0.5 in the final. “The last player to beat me like this at blitz was Vladimir Kramnik!”