MCA First Saturday event at Touch Move, tomorrow, July 3

Details, as always, on the ICA Tournament Calendar. 

Tomorrow's event is NOT FIDE-rated, but it is USCF-rated.  No prizes, but only $10 to play all day!  Preregistration is strongly recommended!

Gaddiel Tan wins MCA FIDE Futurity XI

Congratulations to Gaddiel Tan!

Mark Robledo Jr., George Stone, and yours truly tied for second; a good time was had by all.  Thanks to organizer Chris Baumgartner and arbiter Sevan Muradian.

And here's the crosstable....

Spectators welcome

The second half of the 26th North American Masters begins tonight!  Details here.

I'll be playing in a concurrent invitational event at the same site (the Holiday Inn on Touhy in Skokie), the MCA FIDE Futurity XI

MCA FIDE Futurity XI - after the first weekend

In the advanced duffers' event, Gaddiel Tan takes the early lead.  The handicappers' consensus is that I am old and tired and have no chance to keep up with him.

MCA FIDE Futurity XI begins tonight...

A good chess player always makes his excuses pre-event: I haven't played for months and I'm rusty!

Step by this weekend to say hello and kibitz at the Skokie Holiday Inn. Thanks to Chris Baumgartner and MCA for organizing the event for us fish. Details here.  The format is very cool: it's a 9-round round robin: five games this weekend and four more in June.

 

MCA FIDE Futurity XI	FIDE	USCF
Brock, Bill	2007	2009
Tutush, Dusan	1962	2028
Stone, George	1926	1773
Blackman, William	1848	1897
Penway, Mike		1591
Delay, Joe		1699
Vecanski, Dragomir		1732
Cohen, Fredric		1777
Robledo, Mark, Jr.		1987
Tan, Gaddiel		2049

Andrew Hubbard of Illinois wins World Amateur Championship!

Congratulations to Andrew Hubbard!  The world champ gets $3,000 and the FM title, and a scholarship to Texas Tech University!  (Hmm, didn't Andrew graduate from high school five years ago?)

Alybaev Djekshenbek of Kyrgyzstan, Mohammad Shaikh of India, Richard Huang of Canada, and Jeff Dixon (another Illinoisan) tied for second.

You'll find more info in the other winners here: details TK!

Phi-Kappa-Blanca - next Saturday, January 30, 2010

GM Amanov has confirmed his participation. G/60+10Sec, 4-SS, University of Chicago, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th St, Chicago, IL 60637 SETS ARE PROVIDED, ONLY BRING CLOCKS! EF: $25 pre-entry, $35 at-site entry, $10 off to U of C students, OR $10 special entry — play only (no discount and not eligible for prizes).  Schedule: Registration: 9:00am-9:45am. Round Times: 10am-12:30pm-3:00pm-5:30pm.  Prize fund: $850 b/60 regular paid entries: 1st $300 2nd $200 3rd $100 A $75 B $75 C $50 D/E + below/unr$50; all class prizes based on 4 per section. Info/Preentries: Chris Baumgartner, 9985 Linda Ln Apt 2E, Des Plaines, IL 60016 (please make checks payable to Chris Baumgartner) Phone:               847-609-2987         Email: mcafide@yahoo.com Upcoming tournaments are found at: www.mcafidetournaments.blogspot.com

Pawn endings are hard (part 2)

White to move

Bill Brock - Andrew Taylor, MCA FIDE, 6 Dec. 2009

Please consider the following notes provisional: I'm still not quite sure what's going on in this ending.

Every pawn ending starts as something else: in this case, a bishop ending.  In the diagrammed position, I thought I was slightly better despite the doubled f-pawns because the e5 pawn restricts the Black bishop's scope.  I should have been more worried about my kingside pawn structure.  My f2 pawn is on a dark square and part of a doubleton.

27. Kb4?! 

27. Be3 is equal

27... Bf8+ 28. Ka5

Is this king penetrating towards victory? Or is it hopelessly offsides?

28. Bc5 29. Be3 

After 29.Be3: Black to move

29...Bd4!

The pawn ending is not yet winning.  29... Bxe3 30. fxe3 g5 31.
Ka6?? h5 32. Kxa7 f5! 33. exf5 e4 34. fxe4 g4 35. f6 Kd7 is an easy win for Black.  But 31.Kb4! holds the draw.

30. Ka6??

I should have sacrificed a pawn to stay in the bishop ending with 30. Bg5!?

30... f5?

Black breaks through with 30... Bxe3!! 31. fxe3 g5 32. b4 h5 33. Kxa7

Analysis position: Black to move after 33. Kxa7

33...f5! is a beautiful breakthrough combination: if White takes the f pawn, then 34...e4! deflects the f3 pawn, after which the g5 pawn runs free.

31. exf5 gxf5 

After 31...gxf5: White to move

32. f4!

And somehow it's a draw again....
31... Bxe3 33. fxe3 exf4 34. exf4 b4!

I completely overlooked this strong and natural move (the b4 pawn paralyzes both a2 and b3).

White to move: 

there is nothing in the Rules of Chess that expressly prohibits counting on one's fingers

35. Ka5??

The only move is 35. Kxa7!: I simply did not believe that this move could possibly draw (it seems so time-consuming to grab a7, then run back to grab b4), but the a2 pawn runs quickly, and the Black king has to make a clearance move for the f5 pawn. 35... Kd5 36. Kb6 Ke4 37. Kc5 Kxf4 38. Kxb4 Kg3 39. a4 f4 40. a5 f3 41. a6 f2 42. a7 f1=Q 43. a8=Q

Analysis position: Black to play (looks like a draw)

Back to the game

35... Kc5 36. Ka4 h5 37. h4 Kd4 38. Kxb4 Ke4 39. Kc3 Kxf4 40. Kd2 Kf3! 41. b4 f4 0-1

Pawn endings are hard (part 1)

I managed to fish out a win from a totally drawn position, but both of us missed a lot of subtleties in this innocuously vanilla position.

Tales from the front

Larry Cohen steamrollered me last night at the MCA FIDE Futurity.

Stop by and say hello: rounds today are at 11 and 3. Touch Move Chess Club is at 5639 N. Ashland.

I don't know whether there are spots remaining in tomorrow's Futurity....

But if you're rated over 1500 USCF/FIDE and you feel like playing this weekend, you might call and ask. The event is being held at Touch Move (5639 N. Ashland): no on-site entries!

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Chris Baumgartner: there might be two or so spots still open.

MCA Fide Event at Touch Move Chess Center, December 5-6

Having eaten my turkey and returned to Chicago from Mom's, you'll probably see me at this event.  It's in my neck of the woods, too, Touch Move Chess Center.

As usual, I'm linking to the Illinois Chess Association tournament calendar, maintained by the vigilant Maret Thorpe.  Do you want your event on this calendar?  Then contact Maret to find out how!.

Martinovsky Memorial, November 27-29 in Elgin

Details here.  This MCA FIDE event will be rated by both FIDE (the World Chess Federation) and USCF.  It's an excellent chance for  amateurs to try to earn a FIDE rating.