Warren Scholars seminar

Andi Rosen reports at the ICA homepage.

Evanston Game/45 event on Saturday the 13th!

Levy Senior Center
300 Dodge Ave
Evanston, IL 60202

Evanston Chess Presents:
Mar 13, 2010
9:00am-5:30pm
Tri-Level
4SS G/45
Three Sections
USCF Dual Rated
Section Gold: 1700 and over
Section Silver: 1200 - 1699
Section Bronze: Under 1200 and Unrated

1600 - 1699 may play up to Gold.
1100 - 1199 may play up to Silver.
Published USCF Regular Rating determins eligibility.
Unrated players may be placed up at TD discretion.

From time to time Evanston Chess pays one or more titled players to play in our events. We usually do not pair them against each other. Even if they should lose (it does happen) we may pair them with the highest score groups.

Four rounds. Digital clocks are required and will be set to G/40 plus 5 seconds delay. Accelerated or decelerated pairings at TD discretion. Sections may be combined at TD discretion.

Registration from 9:00 to 9:30 AM. Players must check in by 9:30 am; players who arrive late will receive a half-point bye for the first round. First Round 9:45 am, last round over roughly 5:30 pm.

You may take one half-point bye in any round but the last.

Entry fee is $5, please pay cash (no checks) at the door. Masters and Experts play free.

Send name, USCF number, and telephone number to enter@evanstonchess.org.
 
Junior players (under fourteen years) rated 900+ are welcome. Sorry, but we do not accept junior players rated under 900. Must be accompanied by a parent throughout the event.

Bring clocks. -- Wheelchair accessible. No Smoking.

Coming Events:
--Mar 13, 2010, 4SS G/45 Tri-Level 9:00am-5:30pm
--Apr 24, 2010, 5SS G/29 Rapid 9:00am-4:30pm
--May 30, 2010, 0SS G/0 No May Tnmt
--Jun 12, 2010, 3SS G/70 Swiss Groups 9:00am-5:00pm

See http://evanstonchess.org/ for details.

Happy 75th!

 Bent Larsen

Best birthday wishes to the player who taught us all to push rook pawns and who never let us forget that Nimzowitsch was Danish, too.  

ChessBase

ChessVibes

FIDE

Skakbladet (in Danish, but lots of great photos)

And here's Flohr-Larsen, Copenhagen 1966.

P.S.  If you know Weiss from Schwartz, you might enjoy Larsen's collection of his games through 1973.

all in a day's work

I have a 9 a.m. business meeting with one of my clients. We finish by 10, and to my surprise he pulls up this position from his computer:

Larsen-Miles, Bled/Portoroz 1979

White to play and win 

I solve the puzzle in thirty seconds (go to Black's 59th move in this link: must remember to analyze forcing moves first!), think to myself how cute the postion is, then wonder how the heck my client got ahold of such an elegant problem.

Then he hits me with this one, and I start laughing:

Shirov-Dominguez, Corus 2010

Now I know that my client is not reading this blog, as I've previously posted on this combination, though admittedly I never got around to discussing this amazing position.  

Oh, what the heck!  Find White's only drawing move (which even gives White winning chances if Black blunders!):

I even show my client why 29.Qh5 would have lost (essential to closing any business deal!).

Now I really begin to wonder where my friend (an enthusiastic amateur whose initial rating would probably be below 1200) is getting this cool stuff. So he shows me the following app:


Aha! Very cool! We can all learn from our clients....

At 10:30 I give my client a ride from Oprah-ville to City Hall & tell him the story of the aborted Shirov-Kasparov match and how Kramnik became world champion. Somehow this is harder to explain than the combinations....

an oldie but goodie

We all make mistakes!

Post-Linares interview with Topalov

From ChessVibes!