CICL Playoffs - Round 1

Motorola Knights and the Rogue Squadron tied 3-3.

Downers Grove Chess Club beat the Motorola Kings 4½-1½.

The Wombats upset Citadel / University of Chicago 3-2 in games played.  (CITUC forfeited Board 4, so the official match score was 4½-2, with ½ point awarded to the Wombats for the upper board forfeit.)

Rounds two and three tomorrow, and the Chicago Industrial Chess League will have a new champion tomorrow night!

Round two pairings:

Downers Grove CC (1-0) - St. Charles CC (1-0)
Wombats (1-0) @ Motorola Knights (½-½)
Rogue Squadron (½-½) @ CitUC (0-1)
DRW Trading Group (0-1) @ Motorola Kings (0-1)

Irwin Gaines writes:

There may be a little confusion about the location of the playoffs.  Both the team and individual events take place at Concord Place, 16th floor, 401 W Lake St, Northlake, IL 60164.  Some early mailings used the same address but referred to Midwest Conference Center, which is a different building with the same address.  Please make sure all teams and lndividuals know that they should go to Concord Place.

Anand-Gelfand: Game 1 drawn

Small surprises, but no bombshell: Anand plays 1.d4, Gelfand plays the Grünfeld, Anand plays an obscure sideline, and Gelfand finds the critical equalizing move 14...Ra7!  If anyone had slight winning chances in the final moves, it was Black.

Nigel Short's running video commentary to Game 1 is archived on the official site

 Other free sites with coverage:

The Week in Chess
ChessBase
ChessPro (via Google Translate)

Game 2 begins at 6 a.m. local time Saturday.

How cool is this?

Above is the front cover of Archie Comics #112, dated August 1960 (the month I was born). It shows Archie studying a chess position! I just bought what appears to be the only copy available for sale on the Internet for the princely sum of $8.35, including shipping. Thank you, Bill and Jerry Wall, the publishers of White Knight Review! I learned of the comic from an article in the May/June issue of White Knight Review, a chess magazine that is available for free on the Internet here. It's a good read - check it out!

UPDATE: Here's an interesting article by Kerry Lawless (with a surname like that, let's hope he's never a criminal defendant), "Chess In Comic Books." There's no shortage of chess-themed comic book covers, it seems.

2012 CICL Individual Tournament

This tourney is open to all CICL members, and also open to all potential, future CICL members. You must be 16 years of age or older to play in this tournament. USCF membership is not required!

Email cut and paste follows:

2012 CICL Individual Tournament Announcement

To be played Saturday May12 starting at 9:00 am at

Midwest Conference Center, 16^th floor, 401 W Lake St, Northlake, IL 60164 

Please Pre-register for the 2012 CICL Individual Tournament by sending an email to:

Art Olsen
Email Address:  aolsen14@comcast.net
Cell phone: 224 829-7214 (Voice or Text)

with "Chess Tournament" in the subject line.  If unrated, please provide an estimate of rating. 

2012 CICL Individual Tournament

• Format: 3 round Swiss tournament, with multiple sections as needed
• Time Control: G/60
• Time & Date: Arrive by 9:00am sharp on Saturday May 14. Rounds expected to be at 09:15 am, 01:00 pm and 3:30pm.
• Location:

• Entry Fee: none
• Prizes: $30 for 1^st place and $20 for 2^nd place of each section. (But only for 1st place if the section has less than 7 players). All prizes are only in gift certificates or trophy (your choice).. If the value of a prize is less than $10 due to ties, cash only may be issued. Only members of the CICL are eligible for prizes..
• Registration: Please pre-register by sending email to TD Art Olsen (Email: aolsen14@comcast.net)  with Chess Tournament in the subject line. If unrated, please provide an estimate of rating.  
• Eligibility: This tourney is open to all CICL members, and also open to all potential, future CICL members. You must be 16 years of age or older to play in this tournament. USCF membership is not required.
• Ratings: Games are rated by the CICL for CICL members. Games add to CICL members' Centurion game count. Games are not rated by the USCF. Where reasonable, paring of unrated players will be avoided to help them get ratings quicker.
  
  
• Chess equipment: Please bring a chess set chess clock. and game scoresheets.
  
  

Directions to the 2012 CICL Individual Tournament  

• Midwest Conference Center is located on Lake St just off of I 290
• If you are running late on the day of the event, the tournament TD, Art Olsen, can be contacted via voice or text at 224 829-7214.

Chicago Industrial Chess League playoffs

Round 1 of the playoffs is underway: DRW (led by FM Igor Tsyganov) lost to St Charles (led by NM Tenzing Shaw) 5-1  Result here  (Any team that can put NM Mariano Acosta on Board 3 is kinda strong!)

Tonight, the Rogue Squadron plays the  Motorola Knights, and the Motorola Kings face the Downers Grove Chess Club.  Also this week, the Wombats face off against the Citadel/University of Chicago superteam.

Rounds 2 and 3 will be held this weekend at the 16th floor of Concord Place, 401 W Lake St, Northlake.

"A Couch Potato's Guide to the 2012 World Championship"

GM Ian Rogers previews the World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel.  Play begins this Friday, May 11th, at 6 a.m. Chicago time.

 

Anand and Gelfand earlier today: photo credit: H-W Schmitt for ChessBase

The players checked out the site this morning: see more photos at ChessBase.  Both players have known each other for decades: it's an interesting display of mutual respect that they agreed that no anti-cheating security measures would be needed.

Anand is a 5-1 favorite over Gelfand.  (And George Foreman was a 4-1 favorite over Muhammad Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle.)  Kids, don't disrespect the player who won the last two Interzonals.  (Here's a good trivia question: name all the players who won or tied for first in more than one Interzonal.)

Local angle: our own Tamara Golovey was the first teacher of young Boris. On a couple occasions (World Cup and Candidates Matches), I've called Tamara to congratulate her on her student's win.  It pains me to confess to her that I always root for Vishy in World Championship matches.

May 23rd in Downers Grove: GM Michael Adams clock simul!

Grandmasters blunder, too

Here's a position from today's play.

It's White to move in Stripunsky-Onischuk.  Find White's worst move: White made it, then immediately realized his hallucination and resigned.

White to play: What's the worst move?

 The worst move is also a very natural move to make....

Round 1, US Championship: Shulman and Kaidanov draw

Both players were going for the full point today.  Yury Shulman opens the h-file against the castled king, and Gregory Kaidanov strikes back in the center.

"Skokie honors Niles North’s champion chess team"

Article here!

Steve Jobs rules from the grave

I am extremely fond of Chess Flash: it's a great way to publish PGN on the Web.

But I've been putting off the completion of certain chess projects for the web because the iPad and iPhone don't naturally support Adobe Flash.  (Jobs explained why here; reality undistortion here.)

And, let's face it, it's becoming Apple's world. Suggestions?

U.S. Chess Championships begin shortly

Follow the play in St. Louis here.  Round one begins at 1 p.m. Central Time.

It's a very interesting field, and the championship format is much improved, with a traditional 12-player round robin.  Here are today's pairings:

1	GM Akobian, Varuzhan		2625	GM Seirawan, Yasser		2643
2	GM Shulman, Yuri		2571	GM Kaidanov, Gregory S		2594
3	GM Stripunsky, Alexander		2562	GM Onischuk, Alexander		2660
4	GM Lenderman, Aleksandr		2587	GM Robson, Ray		2614
5	GM Kamsky, Gata		2741	GM Ramirez, Alejandro		2593
6	GM Nakamura, Hikaru		2775	GM Hess, Robert L		2635

Both Kamsky and Nakamura would like to make a statement with White today, but both are facing strong opponents with exceptional opening preparation.

The Women's Championship is a ten-round event. As in the men's event, pre-tournament favorites Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih have the White pieces in round one:

1	WIM Ni, Viktorija		2228	WGM Abrahamyan, Tatev		2329
2	WIM Zenyuk, Iryna		2224	FM Melekhina, Alisa		2242
3	IM Krush, Irina		2457	WGM Foisor, Sabina-Francesca		2364
4	IM Goletiani, Rusudan		2333	WGM Baginskaite, Camilla		2358
5	IM Zatonskih, Anna		2510	WFM Kats, Alena		2137