Eric Rosen at the U.S. Open

Eric has six wins and a loss to the tournament leader, GM Aleksandr Lenderman.

Not a random shot

Albert Chow was already a strong player in 1979 (he won the Class B prize at the U.S. Open), but he was not yet a match for Erik Karklins. Chow counts on the "fork trick" 6.Nxe5 followed by 7.d4 to regain his piece, but Black has a different fork trick in mind.

Hat tip to Frederick Rhine.

Enormous win for Nakamura

A win with Black against the #2 player in the world is a great way to start the London Chess Classic!

The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat

We'll be posting games from the 2012 Illinois Open over the next few days, courtesy of FM Albert Chow.

Senior Master Carl Boor had an interesting summer.  Congratulations to Matthew Stevens: it's not every day that a Class B player knocks off a 2400.

Equalizing is only the beginnning

NM Sam Schmakel of Whitney Young High School reaches a completely equal middlegame against former US Champion Alexander Shabalov. Sam tries for a little bit more than equality, and gets punished...this time.

One mysterious move deserves another

GM Nikola Mitkov gets mysterious with a colleague in the last round of the Chicago Open, and it works:

William Aramil, hypermodern Shirov

One thinks of the c6-d5-e6 triangle as an incredibly sturdy defensive formation for Black.  NM William Aramil simply goes around the triangle and mates Black's king in a miniature. Very cool, very impressive!

This win was worth $1,533.34 to William, who took a share of second in the Under 2300 section with an undefeated 5½/7   The loser, NM Kevin Wasikuk of Minnesota, was an even bigger winner: he had already clinched the $5,000 first prize in the section by winning his first six games.

Board 2: Young ½ - Rodriquez ½

Finally getting around to the games from Monday's loss to Miami. The adjective "benkogambity" is overused, but perhaps it fits here. Each player is ambitious in his own way; a correct draw seems the logical result. Take note of Angelo's good drawing technique in a slightly uncomfortable rook ending: he gets rid of the h-pawn (a potential target) before he widens the scope of the enemy rook by moving his f-pawn.

Board 1: Gurevich ½ - Holt ½

IM Conrad Holt is ranked 36th in the nation.  He's 18 years old and still rapidly improving: I know a couple of GMs who don't look forward to playing him.  Maybe Dmitry had a little something from the unusual opening, but both players collaborated to play a creative and correct game.  After the e-pawn is traded for Black's a-pawn, neither player has any chances, so a draw was a natural result.

Rosen-Magness, Skokie 2011

Here's one of the two decisive games from the last round of the Illinois Denker Qualifier (which, just to refresh your collective memory, is the Illinois Chess Association's High School Invitational Championship).

I'm very impressed by Magness's choicce on move three!

Rosen-Magness, Skokie 2011

Black to play

3...c5 was Karpov's choice against Korchnoi in the 1978 world championship.  The idea of swapping the c-pawn for White's d-pawn is positionally sound, and Black scores well with this variation.  But I always felt a little uncomfortable after 4.e5 Ng8.  The artificial isolation of the e5 pawn offsets White's space and time advantages, but doesn't make the opening fun to play!  And Karpov lost that game.

After 4...Ng8: White to play

Would you be comfortable with the Black pieces?

3...d5 is the most popular move here, but White just seems to have a nice position after 4.e5 d4 5.exf6 dxc3 6.bxc3 Qxf6 7.d4.

After 7.d4: Black to play

Seems pleasant for White!

Trevor's radical choice was new to me, but it's been played recently by the Filipino prodigy Wesley So:

After 3...e5!?

Beginner's move or brilliant idea?

One idea behind Black's deliberate waste of time is that White's combination of e2-e4 and c2-c4 is double-edged, as dark squares are weakened.  Another way of looking at this position: it's as if this were a Vienna Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6) in which White gets the move c2-c4 "for free," but the value of the extra tempo is unclear.  Anyway, 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.d4 cxc4 6.Nxd4 seems like a critical continuation.  White would love to trick Black into an advantageous version of the Scotch Four Knights (recall that there's a line in which White plays Nc3-a4 to gain space with c2-c4), but Black doesn't have to allow such nonsense.

In the game above, Eric played more quietly against Trevor, and didn't get anything from the opening.  If I can learn a new move on move three of an opening that I defended against for twenty years, then I've got to believe that chess is still full of surprises!

After busy season, I'll have more to say about this game on the ICA website.  Perhaps in the interim, folks can explain this opening to me :-)