Chess for Chicago's youth

I've read a string of wonderful stories in the last week about young Chicago-area players making their mark on their chessboard:

• The Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship is winding up today in Lubbock, Texas. Most of the young masters on the University of Illinois team are from the Chicago area. Today, the "walk-ons" play a much stronger team from Texas Tech (international players on chess scholarships!) to try to return to the Final Four of chess for a second consecutive year. Please join me in wishing Eric Rosen, Michael Auger, Xin Luo, and Akshay Indusekar the best of luck today! By the time you read this, you may be able to see whether the Illini qualified.
• David Peng of Wilmette (whose coach is Grandmaster Dmitry Gurevich of Chicago) just won a silver medal in the World Under-10 Championship in Al-‘Ain, United Arab Emirates. Who won the gold medal in the same section? Awonder Liang of Wisconsin, who often studies with Chicago grandmasters.
• And just a couple of weeks ago, Sam Schmakel of Chicago's Whitney Young High School won his fifth national scholastic title. For this accomplishment, Sam was featured in yesterday's New York Times.

I've played tournament games against six of these seven young people, and have analyzed with the seventh.  I feel honored to know them!

So chess in Chicago must be doing wonderfully, no? Not according to Dylan Loeb McClain, the author of the Schmakel feature:

Schmakel's school, Whitney Young High, is a magnet school that is part of the Chicago public school system and is where Michelle Obama graduated. It was the only representative at the K–12 Championships from the city, which is not known as a chess stronghold. More students are enrolled in scholastic chess programs and are sent to tournaments across the country from schools in New York, which sends more teams to competitions than any other city; Miami; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and even Brownsville, Tex.

It is unusual for a city as large as Chicago, with 2.7 million people, to have only one school enter a tournament as prestigious as the K–12 Championships. By comparison, Los Alamos, N.M., population 18,000, also sent one school.

It helps to go to a great magnet school. It helps to have parents who are willing to make financial sacrifices in order to give their children the opportunity to succeed. But most of the talented young people in our city won't be admitted to Whitney Young. And many of their parents would love to give their children greater opportunities but are barely making ends meet.

In my last fundraising pitch, I also asked for financial assistance to send teams from two Chicago West Side schools to the same Florida event at which Sam Schmakel won his fifth title. In the end, the schools could not accept the money that several kind people (including a CPS administrator) pledged. The airfares jumped in price as the deadline approached, and the trip was called off.

Could these kids have succeeded at Nationals? Of course they could have: the team from Faraday Elementary, which draws its students from some of the most dangerous neighborhoods on the West Side, just finished third in a December 14 Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago event.

The Chicago Chess Center does not want to turn children away because their parents can't afford to pay us. Please help us open our doors: please help us help them.

Speaking only for myself, I don't have very much interest in turning young players into grandmasters. It matters more to me that one of my former students is a freshman at an Ivy League school than his having earned an International Master norm. Chess is a fun way to teach critical thinking skills, the skills that turn kids into high achievers.

Children don't get to choose how much money their parents have, and they don't get to choose the neighborhood they are raised in. We want to be there for all of these children, but we can't do it without your support.

We are fortunate to have GMs Dmitry Gurevich, Yury Shulman, Nikola Mitkov and Mesgen Amanov on our advisory board, which also includes leaders from Chicago's nonprofit and business community.

My friend and fellow board member Dave Ducat made a compelling pitch on Facebook the other day. I can't improve on it, so I'll steal Dave's words:

Of course you're thinking that this is Chicago and that there has to be such a place already . . . an actual "Chicago Chess Center" somewhere . . . right?

Nope.

There is no physical "Chicago Chess Center" location in the city, and there hasn't been one within the city limits for over 20 years. Cities like St. Louis and Dallas have developed premier chess clubs, have set the new standard and have seen their international exposure and tourism increased over the last three to five years. I want that for Chicago. I want Chicago to become the center for chess in the United States, and I want it to set the example for other cities to follow.

I need your help to make the Chicago Chess Center a reality. I need your financial contributions to create a physical location, centralized and within easy access of public transportation, so that chess-playing people of all ages, all walks of life, and all neighborhoods in and around the city can have a place to call their own. I need your help to shape the future of chess in Chicago and shape it with our youth in mind.

When the CCC was founded, the board put together a campaign to raise $30,000 within a year to fund the acquisition, furnishing and rent of a suitable space to call the Chicago Chess Center. To date, through tireless solicitation by the board of directors as well as through key personal and corporate investments [...], we've been able to raise over half that amount [we're now over $18,000—BB]. It's my hope that you can find a few dollars to contribute to this worthy cause and help the CCC reach its goal of opening the doors of a new location in early 2014. We need your support to make this happen.

Please take a moment to review our website and click the "Donate Now" button. Please consider a donation of $50; however, any amount will be gratefully accepted. For the price of one latte a day for one week, you can make a lasting contribution to a worthwhile cause and help us achieve our mission.

Bill again.  Without your financial support, we may not be able to fulfill our mission. And we are so close to opening our doors . 

Please make your tax-deductible year-end donation now. Thank you for caring.

Bill Brock
Treasurer
Chicago Chess Center NFP Inc.

P.S.  If you'd like to make your donation by check, here's our mailing address:

Chicago Chess Center NFP Inc.

P.O. Box 180095

Chicago, IL 60618

U of I press release

The Fighting Illini's very successful chess team has more than its share of Chicagoans: story here.

U.S. Open decompression

Back from Madison!  I dropped 42 (!) rating points.  There's some rough justice: I'd been playing poorly & somehow gaining ELO.  At the U.S. Open, I played well enough to have a mediocre event: my opponents did not permit me that luxury.

As for real players: NM Sam Schmakel (right in below picture) was still in contention for the national title in the final round, but lost to IM Mackenzie Molner (left) in yesterday's final round. Schmakel, FM Eric Rosen, and NM William Aramil all finished with 7-2 scores, a full point off the 8-1 score posted by IM Molner, GM Julio Sadorra, and GM Joshua Friedel.


MSA crosstable here.

Eric Rosen at the U.S. Open

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

29th North American Masters

The 29th North American Masters just wrapped up at the North Shore Chess Center; Sevan Muradian reports on Chess Life Online. Both co-champions scored an IM norm: it's Eric Rosen's second norm, and Tom Bartell has earned the title. You can download the games on the North American Chess Association website.

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.

More Final Four hype

...thanks to Whitney Young grad?  DNAinfo.com adds its own spin.

"University of Illinois is a bracket-buster — in chess"

Story in the Chicago Tribune. It's amusing that Illini freshman Eric Rosen, the 2011 National High School Champion, is given credit for "having captured the third-grade Illinois state championship."

Go Illini!

The Illini Schmakelers win U.S. Amateur Team North

Congratulations to The Illini Schmakelers (in board order: FM Eric Rosen, NM Sam Schmakel, Michael Auger, and Akshay Indusekar), who won the 2013 U.S. Amateur Team North title this past weekend in Schaumburg with a team score of 4½-½ and 16 game points out of a possible 20.

Taking second on tiebreaks was another local team, Touch Move Chess Center: Mating Specialists (IM Angelo Young, FM Albert Chow, Florentino Inumerable, and Robert Loncarevic), who scored 4½ match points and 14 game points.

Many heavy hitters came to this amateur event. The average team ratings must be under 2200, but one can allocate power between boards in any fashion one pleases. This year, the balanced strategy did well.

Inscrutably, the best team name was awarded to "We Always Need a 4th," which is neither amusing nor groanworthy.

Final team standings are here; look for the ratings and individual performances soon.  Update: here are the individual performances on MSA.

Chess Life Online at the Pan Ams

Local freshmen Darrian Robinson (U of Chicago) and Eric Rosen (U of Illinois) are featured, along with some familiar faces:

Round 5 at Pan-Ams: U of Illinois 2½, U Texas Brownsville 1½

Four very interesting games, and a great upset victory for the Illini!

University of Illinois ties for first in Pan-Am Intercollegiate

Results are in from this weekend's Pan-Am, hosted by Princeton University.  The University of Illinois finished in a five-way tie for first place with four teams that offer full chess scholarships.  Illinois drew Cornell and the University of Chicago, and won its other four matches. Crosstable is here.Congratulations to the Illini!

 The team includes three names long familiar to Chicago chess players, Eric Rosen, Aakaash Meduri, and Michael Auger. The Illini's fourth board, Xin Luo, scored a spectacular 6-0.

Look for story on Chess Life Online shortly. In the meantime, here's a game from U of I's last-round win over Columbia University, which proves once again that queen endings are too hard for mere human beings:

Don't ask me what's going on....

As someone who gave up on the King's Indian more than twenty years ago, I always root for the queenside attack. So FM Eric Rosen (who usually doesn't throw pieces to the wind) makes me happy in the following game.  A piece gets sacked on 28, then an Exchange a few moves later...so I guess that's a deferred rook sacrifice.

Black sacs back to reach a not-quite-tenable rook ending, and Eric gets to display his typical outstanding technique.

The talented loser of this game, IM Daniel Naroditsky, is the author of the second third book I've ever read that was written by a teenager (I'm not sure that I finished Une Saison en Enfer, post pedantically amended to include Radiguet's Le Diable au Corps: oh you Frenchies). Naroditsky's Mastering Positional Chess is strongly recommended.

Eric Rosen in U.S. Junior Closed

Nice interview with Eric on WLS TV here:

 

Of course, Eric is no stranger to the Closed: he did very well last year, and he has the knack of raising his game a notch in top-level events.

The event starts July 10th: more info at the St. Louis website.

Adarsh Jayakumar wins second IM norm

The International Master title requires three norm performances: the 5th New York International Open is Adarsh's second.  He scored 6-3 in a strong field.  Congratulations to Adarsh!

FM Eric Rosen just missed a norm with 5½-3½.  Another veteran of the Illinois Chess Association's Warren Junior Program is IM Zhe Quan, who is now a Canadian citizen and who plays top board for New York University.  Zhe Quan scored 6-3 and was in contention for a Grandmaster norm.

Wait until next year...?

I met NM Ben Gershenov of New York last year; he's a very pleasant young man and a phenomenal talent.  Ben and NM Dipro Chakraborty of Arizona (½ point behind Ben's 6-.0) are playing on Board 1 of Nationals: winner takes the title.

Board 2 is all-Illinois!  FM Eric Rosen (an undefeated 5-1) and NM Sam Schmakel are likely playing for second place.  So no repeat championship for Eric: Sam will have two more tries.

Aakaash Meduri made a phenomenal recovery from a first-round loss and also sits on 5-1.

Coverage from CBS's Minneapolis affiliate

I guess this would be Mary Richards' station....



Thanks to Chess Life Online for the link.

National High School: standings after four rounds

Very interesting!

It will likely take 6½ points to win this year, so NM Adarsh Jayakumar is probably out of the running for first.  But NM Sam Schmakel of Whitney Young is one of the co-leaders, and Gauri Shankar of Glenbrook South, defending champ FM Eric Rosen of Niles North, and Rafeh Qazi of Niles North are still in contention for the title.

From a selfish perspective, I feel honored to have played against and analyzed with so many of these top young players.  You can, too!

National High School Championships - prelims

The 2011 United States High School Champion, FM Eric Rosen of Niles North, is in Minneapolis to defend his title.  Eric already has one 2012 title in the bag: the illustrious High School Bughouse title: Eric and his teammate NM Matthew Dahl of Minnesota scored 11-1 to take first on tiebreaks.

Also today, NM Sam Schmakel of Whitney Young keeps the U.S. High School Blitz trophy in Whitney Young's trophy case (Michael Auger of Whitney Young won the title last year).

Hat tip to Brad Rosen on the scene: main event starts tomorrow.

Another good fight

FM Nikhilesh Kumar neutralized Eric Rosen's anti-Grünfeld system and had a pleasant middlegame advantage. But if you have to trade punches with Eric Rosen, try to stay out of the endgame. Very impressive play by Eric!