Unofficial: GMs Robson, Friedel, Mitkov win 2013 Chicago Open

GM Nikola Mitkov held up the local honor this year. Here's his very nice win in the money round (finished just a few minutes ago).

ADDENDUM: The cross-tables for the event are available here.

Three GM events at North Shore Chess Center, right now!

Busy week for the North Shore CC:

GM Georg Meier of Germany (one of Germany's top players, currently #109 in the world) is playing GM Wesley So of the Phillippines (#99 in the world).  Game one of their four-game classical match was drawn today.

And there are TWO GM norm events going on this week: a six-player double round-robin, and a ten-player single round-robin.  Local participants include GM Mesgen Amanov, IM Angelo Young, IM Florin Felecan, and cheesehead GM Josh Friedel.  GMs Bykhovsky (Israel), Boros (Hungary), Diamant (Brazil), Moradiabadi (Iran), and IMs from the USA, Canada, Israel, and Azerbaijan make the fields truly international.

IM Mackenzie Molner might be the best US hope for a GM norm in these events.

More info here!

Chicago 2½, L.A. 1½!!!

Last night at the North Shore Chess Center, Dmitry Gurevich and Josh Friedel powered the Chicago Blaze to a 2½-1½ win over the L.A. Vibe.  On to the U.S. Chess League finals!

Must work: games here!

Board 2: Sadorra 1 - Friedel 0

Respect to GM Julio Sadorra, who managed to squeeze our GM Josh Friedel from an unpromising-looking QGD Tartakower.

Perhaps knights are just better than bishops?

In the GM battle on Board 1, Miami's Julio Becerra rode his steed to a winning rook ending against Josh Friedel's Berllin Defense.

The knight can visit all 64 squares, but it is the lot of poor Mr. Bishop that he can only visit 32.  Of course, White also had a healthy 4-3 kingside majority and Black had to deal with an artificially isolated h4 pawn....

Friedel ½ - Finegold ½

Hmm. Ben Finegold guaranteed victory, then played the passive 4...Bd7 variation of the Rubinstein French. It's not necessarily bad match strategy, but one would think that it's not fair to one's teammates to say the Blaze "are going down next week" without trying to win one's own game as Black.

Friedel got an edge, Finegold defended correctly: the draw was logical.

Blaze annotations galore!

Many masterly annotations from Tom Panelas and the Blaze blog!

• Dmitry Gurevich and Trevor Magness annotate Sam Schmakel's win against Arizona
• Albert Chow annotates the exciting Friedel-Molner draw from the same match
• Mesgen Amanov annotates his Catalan win against Arizona

Grandmaster Mesgen Amanov (photo: Eric Rosen)

Board 2: Friedel - Molner ½-½

Josh Friedel overpresses a bit, too, and is objectively busted after 25.Nc6.  But Molner does not find 25...Rc2!, after which Friedel saves the game with 26.Ne7+!  In the final position, Black can save the rook on a2 with 29...Qf7.  White must then play 30.Qc8+ Qf8 31.Qc4+, repeating the position.

Board 2: Eric Rodriguez 0 - Josh Friedel 1

No, the Sämisch Variation does not lose by force. But Josh Friedel's win is also very smooth. I enjoy sacking the Exchange for the two bishops myself, but in this game, the bishops have no scope.

Changes to the Chicago Blaze lineup!

Tom Panelas reports.

Grandmaster Josh Friedel simul at North Shore Chess Center

 
19 wins; 2 draws.  Story and games at Chess Life Online!

"Four GMs tie for first in St. Louis Open"

Great coverage at Chess Life Online.

Two of our local grandmasters were very much in the running for first (not easy when Nakamura is playing!), but Dmitry Gurevich lost to GM Robert Hess in round 4 and Mesgen Amanov lost to GM Josh Friedel in round 5.

Very impressive crosstable!