Chess at Federal Plaza - Vendor Applications

The info in the original blog post is now outdated: we hope to update later this week.

Chicago Chess Center event at Federal Plaza on May 23 & 24!

Some of you already knew that this was in the works, but we didn't get the business logistics sorted out until this afternoon.  CCC President Keith Ammann (who is much better at these things than I am) and the Chicago Chess Center board will be working on the formal announcement this weekend. Please consider this a first draft....

It's very exciting to be offered 4,000 square feet of public space in the heart of the Chicago Loop (Federal Plaza, corner of Adams and Dearborn) to promote chess from 9 a.m to 4 p.m. on two consecutive dates, and specifically to promote the Chicago Chess Center.  It's also more than a little intimidating....

We probably won't draw the same crowds
as the 1972 Fischer-Spassky outdoor simulcast (round 6 is pictured above)

We will be set up to to the north of the Calder sculpture, directly in front of the Loop Post Office, on Thursday, May 23, and Friday, May 24, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.  Federal Plaza is at the corner of Dearborn and Adams.  

Directions via public transit: 

• take the Blue Line to Jackson and exit north; 
• take the Red Line to Monroe & walk one block west on Adams;
• take the Brown, Orange, or Purple Line to Library and walk ½ block west on Van Buren to Dearborn, turn right and walk 1½ blocks north on Dearborn; 
• take the Green Line to Adams/Wabash and walk two blocks west on Adams;
• for suburbanites, the site is a pleasant walk from Ogilvie, Union, LaSalle Street, and Van Buren Street stations. 

Useful map here.

Our focus is on public outreach: we want to let people know on the Chicago Chess Center and its nonprofit mission to establish a permanent home for chess near the center of the city; we want to let people know about ICA and its mission, we want to encourage people to join (or rejoin) USCF and play in the Chicago Open next weekend.  We want to teach businesspeople, tourists, and children the rules of the game in thirty minutes.  Maybe some impromptu simuls, maybe some intermediate lessons, certainly lotsa skittles.

Your volunteer assistance would be greatly appreciated next Thursday and Friday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.!  Please contact us for scheduling.

"Sheriff on Inaugural Cook County - Russian Tournament"

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart channels the swindling aptitude of inmates into more socially acceptable forms.  Sheriff Dart explains on Chess Life Online.

More on the UNAM Invitational

Co-winner Carl Boor at work / play

Check out Keith Ammann's Chess Life Online article.

And after you've done so, we'd sincerely appreciate your tax-deductible donation  in support of the Chicago Chess Center.

Busy weekend: Downers Grove repeats as CICL champions

Congratulations to DGCC on their second consecutive win! Motorola Kings, DRW Trading, and the Rogue Squadron tied for second.

I had never been to Fermilab before: what a great site! After the event, I turned the wrong way and had the pleasure of tracing the cyclotron's path above ground.

Round 1 was played during the workweek.  This painful game (well, painful for me) was instrumental in Motorola's win over the Rogue Squadron. The sac on move 27 was dictated by the match situation (a draw was worthless), but Black had missed a convincing win a couple moves earlier with 24...Nxe2! followed by the fork on f3. Igor's game continuation was good enough:

Saturday was more fun for us.  In the final round match Rogue Squadron-Fermilab, I had the pleasure of kibitzing this interesting Sicilian Rossolimo battle between David Franklin and Dmitri Sergatskov.  David annotates:

"Jailhouse Rook"

Story and bad pun in the Sun-Times: I never thought I'd routinely be referring to Tom Dart and Anatoly Karpov in the same sentence.

Busy weekend: Chicago Chess Center UNAM Invitational

Sometimes chess gets in the way of chess blogging: I'll try to catch up.

Congratulations to Senior Masters Eric Rosen and Carl Boor for sharing first at the Chicago Chess Center's UNAM Invitational.  TD Keith Ammann reports.

I was the house player in the final round, and I got to kibitz this cool game. Coffeehouse chess?  Perhaps, but if so, it's a very tony coffeehouse.