Friday, November 19, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
"Even my good games are bad...."
Matthias Pfau and I played an interesting opening variation in our Chicago Industrial Chess League game last night.
Interested in submitting games to the ICA's chess blog? Contact Maret Thorpe to find out how! (The current publishing process is a little tricky, so if you want to send PGN to me, I can help you publish until we get the process smoothed out.)
Interested in submitting games to the ICA's chess blog? Contact Maret Thorpe to find out how! (The current publishing process is a little tricky, so if you want to send PGN to me, I can help you publish until we get the process smoothed out.)
Levon Aronian wins 2010 World Blitz Championship
Crosstable here!
In the field of eighteen, Aronian, Radjabov, Carlsen, Gelfand, and Nakamura were the top finishers.
The field was amazingly strong: Fabiano Caruana (top player in the world age 18 and under) and Ruslan Ponomariov (former FIDE World Champion) finished at the bottom of the crosstable.
In the field of eighteen, Aronian, Radjabov, Carlsen, Gelfand, and Nakamura were the top finishers.
The field was amazingly strong: Fabiano Caruana (top player in the world age 18 and under) and Ruslan Ponomariov (former FIDE World Champion) finished at the bottom of the crosstable.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
World Blitz Championship - after 28 rounds
Aronian leads, Carlsen in clear 2nd; Nakamura tied for 5th, having recovered from a disastrous start.
Crosstable here!
Crosstable here!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Three tournaments to choose from on Saturday 11/20!
For scholastic players, there's the 37th Kumbaya event in Skokie.
The McHenry Chess Club will be running quads at the Elgin Holiday Inn open to all.
And there will be a swiss system and pizza (but no Swiss cheese?) in Orland Park.
We report; you decide.
The McHenry Chess Club will be running quads at the Elgin Holiday Inn open to all.
And there will be a swiss system and pizza (but no Swiss cheese?) in Orland Park.
We report; you decide.
Kings & Queens CC Event on Sunday, 11/21
Cut & pasted from the Internets: please note that this event is NOT USCF-rated! [nor are the rules of the uscf followed -mp]
Academy of Intellectual Games
Kings & Queens Chess
www.Kqchessclub.com
Chess Tournament
OPEN to ALL players – Novices to Masters – are welcome!
(USCF membership not required)
SUNDAY, November 21, 2010. 1st round will start at 10:00 a.m.
At Temple Judea Mizpah: 8610 Niles Center Road, Skokie, IL 60077Doors will open at 9:00 a.m.5 rounds Swiss - time control G/25 (or G/22 +3 sec)Please bring your own chess clocks, if you have them !!!There are 3 separate sessions – ALL PLAY 5 Rounds SWISS:OPEN and 2 Scholastic: Advanced and Beginners$300 in Prizes is guaranteed to the first 5 places in OPEN session:1st - $120; 2nd - $80; 3rd – 50; 4-$30; 5- $20.Top three in each advanced and beginner sessions will receive trophies.Family team prizes will be distributed as well across all 3 sessions.Any number of players from the same family may enter -- the top two individual results will be counted.The entry fee:[…]$35 per player at the doorRegister in advance by Internet or phone and save money:The field is limited to 200 players. FREE Parking. Food will be available for purchase 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. [...]
You may obtain further information by calling these numbers:(847) 657-9686, (847) 207-2819, 847-778-5259 or (847)-414-3730E-mail: lana@energy4action.com
Evans-Opsahl, Dubrovnik 1952
I'd guess that this is probably Evans's best-known game. Nothing flashy here, but I don't know of a better introduction to the minority attack in the Queen's Gambit Declined. You'll find beginner-friendly annotations of this game by Evans himself in Chess Catechism
and by Irving Chernev in The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played
.
and by Irving Chernev in The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played.
Monday, November 15, 2010
I, Robot
Hat tip to Daniel Parmet, who found this on Natalia Pogonina's blogNat:
Magnus Carlsen is one of the spectators.
Magnus Carlsen is one of the spectators.
Twitter posts....
Sometimes it is much more enjoyable to read Stieg Larsson and drink green tea than playing stress filled chess which destroys your nerves!
One of the single most disappointing oversights in my whole career. However, I am going to destroy Grischuk like a baby in the blitz.
or, even better, the wrap-up report at Chess Life Online.
Is this calcuation or pattern recognition?
This one is for Maret Thorpe, who thinks I've gone off my rocker!
Felix Zemdegs set a Rubik's Cube solving record in Melbourne this weekend. Trust me, you have time to watch. (If you give one to me, I should be able to solve it in five minutes or so: there was a time when I was much faster....)
The more interesting question: how does Felix (who is the best of many lightning-fast expert solvers) do what he does? I'd suggest that the answer might be of interest to chess players, and others.....
Jason Rihel has a wonderful first-person account at the Boylston Chess Club blog.
Felix Zemdegs set a Rubik's Cube solving record in Melbourne this weekend. Trust me, you have time to watch. (If you give one to me, I should be able to solve it in five minutes or so: there was a time when I was much faster....)
The more interesting question: how does Felix (who is the best of many lightning-fast expert solvers) do what he does? I'd suggest that the answer might be of interest to chess players, and others.....
Jason Rihel has a wonderful first-person account at the Boylston Chess Club blog.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
All Grade results (6th, 7th, and 8th grades)
There was a three-way tie for first in the 42-player 6th-grade section: Alec Feygin, Akash Mattu, and Colton Longstreth, all with 4-0 scores. Steven Do, Brayden Estes, Riley Brands, Nate Tracy-Amoroso, Matt Szarkowicz, Abraham Cornejo, Barry Brookins, and Harrison Burns tied for fourth with 3-1.
Joey Bikus and Allen Guo tied for first in the 47-player 7th-grade section. Phillip Parker-Turner, Jason Kitson, Samuel Heil, Ryan Toepfer, Justin Wang, Jonathan Hrach, Niresh Kuganeswaran, Narayan Karthik Karra, Elliana Faletsky, Alexander Pilia, Mark Jungo, and Michael May all scored 3-1 to tie for third.
Maximilian Zinski and Chase Walbert went 4-0 to tie for first in the 8th-grade section, which drew 48 players. Nathaniel Kranjc and David Dlott drew each other in the final round to finish with an undefeated 3½-½.
More photos:
Joey Bikus and Allen Guo tied for first in the 47-player 7th-grade section. Phillip Parker-Turner, Jason Kitson, Samuel Heil, Ryan Toepfer, Justin Wang, Jonathan Hrach, Niresh Kuganeswaran, Narayan Karthik Karra, Elliana Faletsky, Alexander Pilia, Mark Jungo, and Michael May all scored 3-1 to tie for third.
Maximilian Zinski and Chase Walbert went 4-0 to tie for first in the 8th-grade section, which drew 48 players. Nathaniel Kranjc and David Dlott drew each other in the final round to finish with an undefeated 3½-½.
More photos:
Chess can be a cruel game
You can play like a genius for 84 moves, and throw it all away in time pressure:
Grischuk-Nakamura, Tal Memorial 2010
(finished just a few minutes ago)
Black to play and win
There are two reasonable ways to threaten mate on g3: 84....Qe1 and 84...Qf3. Both moves have problems: after 84...Qe1, White can try to set up a stalemate defense by allowing ...Qxg3 and running the king to h1. After 84...Qf3, 85.Nxe5+ seems to force a draw: or does it?
Which move would you choose?
Grischuk-Nakamura continues
Both players are close to playing on the 30-second increment alone. Nakamura is probably winning, but Grischuk has serious drawing chances.
Jonathan Speelman is commenting live on ICC.
Jonathan Speelman is commenting live on ICC.
All Grade results (4th & 5th grades)
First, a few more pictures:
Miranda Liu won the 67-player 4th-grade section with a perfect 5-0. Chetan Reddy and Jonathan Tan drew with each other and won the rest of their games to take equal second with 4½. Matthew Stevens, Jack Xiao, Nikhil Kalghatgi, Cassie Parent, Adarsh Mattu, Ricky Roman, Brian Chung, and Andrew Lim tied for fourth with 4-1 scores.
Anshul Adve and Jack Curcio tied for first in the 58-player 5th-grade section with a draw against each other and wins in their other four games. James Wei, Abe Sun, Haoyang Yu, Shayna Provine, Lorenzo Barbin, Andrew Fei, Daniel Bronfein, and Mihir Bafna tied for third with 4-1 scores.
Miranda Liu won the 67-player 4th-grade section with a perfect 5-0. Chetan Reddy and Jonathan Tan drew with each other and won the rest of their games to take equal second with 4½. Matthew Stevens, Jack Xiao, Nikhil Kalghatgi, Cassie Parent, Adarsh Mattu, Ricky Roman, Brian Chung, and Andrew Lim tied for fourth with 4-1 scores.
Anshul Adve and Jack Curcio tied for first in the 58-player 5th-grade section with a draw against each other and wins in their other four games. James Wei, Abe Sun, Haoyang Yu, Shayna Provine, Lorenzo Barbin, Andrew Fei, Daniel Bronfein, and Mihir Bafna tied for third with 4-1 scores.
Amazing...
Nakamura (playing right now!) is on the cusp of tying for first in the Tal Memorial. (Mamedyarov lost to Gelfand...)
Great live video stream here.
Great live video stream here.
All Grade results (Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, & 3rd)
Unofficial nose count was 505 players!
Kindergarten: Nikolai Rhodes scored a perfect 5-0; Huaye Jeffrey Lin took second with 4-1.
1st Grade: William Zhu swept the field 5-0; Ivan Mitkov, Aydin Turgut, and Noah Greenberg tied for second, again with 4-1.
In the 50-player 2nd Grade section, Jason Daniels and David Wallach tied for first with 5-0; Ricky Wang, Vishal Chandrasekar, Shreya Mangalam, Owen Power, Christopher Gora, and Stevan Kamatovic tied for third with 4-1.
Vincent Do (USCF rating of 1643!) won the 69-player 3rd Grade section with a perfect 5-0. Nathaniel Sobery took clear second with an undefeated 4½-½. Harrison He, Ranadheer Tripuranaeni, Eric Gan, Henry Curcio, Ishaar Ganesan, Allan Lopez, Ezra Boldizsar, Christopher Yang, and Brian Suganraj tied for third with 4-1
Kindergarten: Nikolai Rhodes scored a perfect 5-0; Huaye Jeffrey Lin took second with 4-1.
1st Grade: William Zhu swept the field 5-0; Ivan Mitkov, Aydin Turgut, and Noah Greenberg tied for second, again with 4-1.
In the 50-player 2nd Grade section, Jason Daniels and David Wallach tied for first with 5-0; Ricky Wang, Vishal Chandrasekar, Shreya Mangalam, Owen Power, Christopher Gora, and Stevan Kamatovic tied for third with 4-1.
Vincent Do (USCF rating of 1643!) won the 69-player 3rd Grade section with a perfect 5-0. Nathaniel Sobery took clear second with an undefeated 4½-½. Harrison He, Ranadheer Tripuranaeni, Eric Gan, Henry Curcio, Ishaar Ganesan, Allan Lopez, Ezra Boldizsar, Christopher Yang, and Brian Suganraj tied for third with 4-1
Tamara Golovey knows a little bit about teaching chess:
she was the first teacher of Boris Gelfand, who just led Israel to a 2010 Olympiad bronze
The younger players played in the school library
Deep study of the initial position pays dividends
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