Top 500 players in Illinois

Not on the list?  Play in a tournament and show us you belong!

Rank	Name	Rating
1	GM YURY SHULMAN	2632
2	GM NIKOLA MITKOV	2577
3	GM DMITRY GUREVICH	2576
4	GM VLADIMIR GEORGIEV	2568
5	GM MESGEN AMANOV	2556
6	ANGEL YOSIFOV ANGELOV	2491
7	IM FLORIN FELECAN	2421
8	IM ANGELO YOUNG	2396
9	BOYAN ANGELOV ANGELOV	2387
10	FM CARL BRANDON BOOR	2382
11	FM ERIC S ROSEN	2381
12	TANSEL TURGUT	2366
13	FM NIKHILESH KUMAR KUNCHE	2355
14	WIM VIKTORIJA NI	2353
15	TIMUR ALIYEV	2350
16	FM ADARSH JAYAKUMAR	2349
17	WILLIAM J ARAMIL	2332
18	IM VISHNUVARDHAN ARJUN	2309
19	FM IGOR TSYGANOV	2294
20	FM GAURI SHANKAR	2293
21	FM AUNG THANT ZIN	2291
22	SAM A SCHMAKEL	2283
23	TENZING W SHAW	2277
24	FM ALEKSANDA STAMNOV	2256
25	STEVEN TENNANT	2254
26	GOPAL S MENON	2248
27	FM ANDREW KARKLINS	2241
28	KONSTANTINOS STOUMBOS	2236
29	FM DAVID E FINOL	2234
30	JONATHAN S KOGEN	2226
31	PETROS DEMETRIOS KARAGIANIS	2223
32	FM DAN WOLF	2219
33	STEVEN J SZPISJAK	2214
34	ZACH KASIURAK	2210
35	FM KEVIN BACHLER	2206
36	TREVOR S MAGNESS	2202
37	MARIANO A ACOSTA	2200
38	FM ALBERT C CHOW	2200
39	TAM NGUYEN	2200
40	KENNETH T WALLACH	2200
41	LEN J WEBER	2200
42	FM CAMILO C PANGAN	2200
43	XIN LUO	2190
44	DJEKSHENBEK ALYBAEV	2187
45	AUDRIUS MACENIS	2186
46	MATTHEW K WILBER	2183
47	MICHAEL W AUGER	2183
48	GORDON J RUAN	2163
49	DAVID PLOTKIN	2160
50	DANYUL LAWRENCE	2158
51	ALEX ZIQI DING	2158
52	ILAN MEEROVICH	2157
53	STEVE ARLINSKY	2145
54	JOHN M KROM	2141
55	MICHAEL E ELLIS	2135
56	ZHAOZHI LI	2131
57	STEFFEN HELMUT KLUG	2118
58	ARMANDO GARCIA	2114
59	KENT CEN	2110
60	DAVID TIANJIAN PENG	2106
61	MARK ROBLEDO JR	2104
62	KURT W STEIN	2100
63	GLEN E GRATZ	2098
64	DAVID FRANKLIN	2096
65	AAKAASH MEDURI	2096
66	SHAIKH MOHAMMAD	2087
67	KRZYSZTOF FLAGA	2083
68	RENE ANCHETA	2079
69	FRED SCOTT ALLSBROOK	2079
70	JAMES MICHAEL PAVESE	2072
71	WILLIAM H BROCK	2069
72	JOSEPH ST PIERRE	2065
73	WFM ANU BAYAR	2064
74	JAMES A MARSHALL	2063
75	KARTHIKEYAN POUNRAJ	2063
76	ROBBIE S KLEINMUNTZ	2060
77	FLORENTINO V INUMERABLE JR	2059
78	GAVIN JACOB MC CLANAHAN	2056
79	SERGE MININ	2055
80	BRENDAN FAN	2051
81	SEDRICK PRUDE	2049
82	ROBERT JAMES RASMUSSEN	2049
83	ROBERT MOSKWA	2048
84	HONORIUS CONSTANTIN	2045
85	GENE G SCOTT	2042
86	NATHAN WONG	2039
87	ALEX BIAN	2038
88	JORDAN S COHEN	2033
89	KEVIN JOSEPH VELAZQUEZ	2032
90	STANIMIR M ILIC	2029
91	MAXIMILIAN JOSEPH ZINSKI	2027
92	DAVID LONG	2026
93	VINCENT J HART	2025
94	BEN ROTHSCHILD	2019
95	LEONID BONDAR	2018
96	THOMAS D MURPHY	2017
97	ERIK KARKLINS	2016
98	D GREGORY BUNGO	2014
99	DMITRI A SERGATSKOV	2014
100	SPENCER BLEDSOE	2013

"Henry Hosmer: A forgotten western player"

Commodities traders were strong chess players in the nineteenth century, too!  Check out A Chess Reader for a generous sample of Henry Hosmer's games.

GreenCastleBlock on the Two Knights

Like much of Chicago, I've been home sick with the latest bug. This gave me a good excuse to catch up on Matt Pullin's videos.




The position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.e5 d5 6.Bb5 Ne4 7.Nxd4 Bc5!? is trappy and critical:

White to play: is it OK to take on c6?

Andrew Karklins demonstrated Black's fantastic attacking potential in this 1988 game:

And the following trap shows that White's back-rank weakness exists even in lines when White castles:

And White can resign: 13.Qxc4 Qd1+ 14.Qf1 Bxf2 mates, and 13.Qxd8 Rxd8 threatens mate and attacks the Ba8.

Illinois Chess Database update coming soon

I received my update of ChessBase's Mega Database 2013 a couple weeks ago.  This gives me a good reason to stop procrastinating and update the Illinois Chess Association's Illinois Games Database in the next month or so.  I expect to have the update completed before March 1st: might take a bit longer for the goodies to appear on the site.

Folks who make substantial contributions to the database (please send me your games in PGN or CBV format) and/or who are current members of the Illinois Chess Association as of February 28, 2012 (time to renew!), can, upon request, receive the PGN file of the completed 2013 database.

Submitted games should have been played under tournament conditions by an Illinois resident or in an Illinois event.

We're particularly interested in adding missing games of the friends we've lost in the past year: Morris Giles, Jon Burgess, Tom Fineberg, Isaac Braswell, Ron Washington, and Fidel Serrano, among others.

More Smith-Morra fun

Wijk aan Zee update

Anand & Carlsen lead; Nakamura and Karjakin tied for third.

Follow the live action every morning beginning at 6:30 a.m. Central at this link!  The players have Monday the 21st and Thursday the 24th off.  (Play concludes next Sunday, January 27; on that day only, play begins at 5 a.m. Chicago time: exciting as it may be, I'll skip the beginning of that round.)