Aronian interview on Crestbook

Interesting reading!

Amanov lecture / simul at North Shore Chess Center this Saturday

Cut and pasted from my email:

The North Shore Chess Center is proud to present you with Grandmaster Mesgen Amanov for our June Special Event. GM Amanov will present a 90 minute lecture followed by a simultaneous exhibition.

The lecture will begin at 2:00pm and go until 3:30pm. We will take 30 minute break after the lecture and begin the simul at 4:00pm.

Anyone that can beat GM Amanov will receive a 1 year membership to the North Shore Chess Center.

Anyone that draws GM Amanov will receive 1 year extension to their USCF membership (if you are a Life Member then you will receive a prize of equal value).

This event is free to members of the North Shore Chess Center or $10 per event (lecture or simul) / $20 for both events.

For online registration and list of more events please visit - http://www.nachess.org/events

Space is limited!

I have no clue what happened

In the last round of the Chicago Open, I kibitzed this wild Najdorf between Tatev Abrahamyan (who was just awarded the WGM title) and our own Adarsh Jayakumar. After move 24 or so, I thought Adarsh was simply winning, but perhaps it's not so clear. In fact, Abrahamyan brought home the full point. Ouch!

P.S. The FIDE ratings of both players substantially lag their USCF ratings; Abrahamyan is around 2450; Jayakumar, 2260.

more on smartphone cheating

...at ChessVibes and Chess Ninja.

Time capsule: 2923 N. Southport

How many years has it been since the Chicago Chess Center closed?  Since Jules Stein passed away?

I stumbled across this 1988 article from the Chicago Tribune.

cellphone cheating

A law student (!!) with a FIDE rating of 2363 was consulting his cellphone during the just-completed German Championship.  Story on ChessBase.

Rumor has it that one local player consulted his iPod (chock-full of chess applications) during a recent national championship event.  Isn't your reputation, and your school's reputation, worth more than a win in an ultimately meaningless board game?

Game postponed due to stolen motorcycle :-(

I didn't get to play Rob Eaman in Citadel's CICL Summer 2011 event tonight, but I did get to watch Matthias Pfau's cool knight vs. pawns ending on YouTube.



So what happens if, instead of 1.Kg4, White simply pushes 1.b4?  Wouldn't poor horsie have his hooves full?

Shulman in 2011 World Cup

The city of Khanty-Mansiysk, known to chess fans worldwide as Yugra's answer to Elista, will host the 2011 World Cup this coming August and September.  The raw power of the invitees compensates for the unglamorous site.  Our own Yury Shulman, 2009 U.S. Champion and runner-up to Kamsky in both 2010 and 2011,  is one of seven invitees from the USA in the 128-player field.  He's done very well in this event before!

4 Illinois students qualify for World Youth Championships

Story here!

Congratulations to Illinois students Aydin Turgut (K-1 National Champion), Susanna Ulrich (Girls 8 & Under), David Peng (Boys 8 & Under), and of course Eric Rosen (K-12 National Champion).

I hope Brazil survives the onslaught of 8-year-old Awonder Liang of Wisconsin, the US's top-rated (currently rated 2005 on the June 2011 rating list).

Blood from a turnip

Mesgen Amanov has a gift for squeezing the maximum from apparently sterile positions on the White side of the Slav.

Not a grandmaster draw

I have a feeling that both Yury Shulman and Dmitry Gurevich wanted to win this game!

Quadrupled pawns in action

For those of you who (like me) enjoy such things, the June 2011 issue of Chess Life for Kids (accessible to USCF members via the USCF website) features an article by Jon Edwards with the finest (well OK, the only) collection of games with quadrupled pawns that I've ever seen. Edwards argues that quadrupled pawns aren't always bad - and indeed, the "quadruplet" owner achieves a 95% score (9.5/10) in the games he discusses. Edwards doesn't mention the granddaddy of them all - perhaps because it doesn't fit in with his thesis. Alekhine gets quadrupled pawns on move 38 and resigns five few moves later.