Evanston Tri-Level is tomorrow!

Details here!

Fashion plate?

I admit that I was surprised.  This is certainly a step up from the ill-fitting sponsor-adorned clothing that Carlsen (and Anand) typically wear.

The eyes are Kasparovian.

Another classic Andrew Karklins game

Evanston Tri-Level this Saturday

Eight hours of fun for $5: not a bad deal!

Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave., Evanston, IL 60202
Evanston Chess Presents:
Jul 10, 2010, 9:00am-5:00pm
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 determines 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 5:00 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.

Sam Shankland quits (!?)

Check out Dana Blogs Chess.

I would not advise any brilliant 18-year-old to make a career of playing chess unless he or she were already well over 2600.  (The world needs molecular biologists, writers, physicists....)

But still....

Kavalek annotates World Open

Good stuff.

The dangers of mah-jongg

At least that's how I prefer to interpret an article titled "A Dangerous Blood Clot Is Linked to Hours Sitting and Playing a Game":

Doctors from Hunan Province in China reported a case of “mah-jongg-related deep-vein thrombosis.”

Of course, anyone who's been to a chess tournament knows that good players spend a lot of time away from the board.  Everything in moderation: Sitzfleisch is good, but so is walking!  Kotov's Think Like a Grandmaster offers suggestions for organizing your thinking time away from the board: walking is a good time for long-range planning.

Hat tip to Andi Rosen.  I'm off to get more coffee.

2010 Illinois Open Championship, Sept. 4-6 in Oak Brook

Have fun this Labor Day weekend!  2009 U.S Open Champion GM Dmitry Gurevich, GM Nikola Mitkov, 7-time Illinois Open champion IM Angelo Young, and defending Co-Champion IM Florin Felecan have confirmed participation!  (Rumor has it that ICA is working on other players as well....)

And for those who don't want to commit to the entire weekend, there's a Game/25 side event, and a Scholastic event, both on Saturday.

Details here!

Register here!

World Open through Round 7

Earlier today, Jon Burgess updated the results of top Illinois players on the ICA Forum. 

Round 9 is already underway: Angelo Young lost to Mark Paragua, Mesgen Amanov drew.  As of now, I don't know how William Aramil or the other Illinois players did.  If you're onsite, an update in the comments would be welcome....

Angelo Young knocks off a GM

Last night, Angelo beat Colombian GM Alonso Zapata.  Right now, Angelo has White against fellow Filipino GM Mark Paragua (who's perhaps best known to Chicagoans for winning the 2000 Master Challenge as a teenager).  You can follow the game live at the World Open website.

Three pieces is a mate!

As Black, I had the position diagrammed above in an online blitz game a few days ago. I blitzed out 1...Nfxh2+? without much thinking - how bad can it be to take a free pawn with check? Answer: very! After 2.Kg2, White threatened to win material with either 3.Bxg4 or 3.Rxh2, and I needed lots of help from White to ultimately win the game. Looking at the position after the game, I realized that I had missed an immediate win! What is it?

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World Open through round 5

Nice article by Jonathan Hilton for Chess Life Online!  There's a little color commentary on the Amanov-Robson game.

a cool game from the World Open

The field is so top-heavy at the World Open that GMs have been playing each other from Round 2.  Yesterday, Illinois Co-Champion Mesgen Amanov took down prodigy Ray Robson in a bizarre Botvinnik Semi-Slav sideline.