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!

Blaze 2 - Arizona 2: Shulman's Board 1 win

First, belated congratulations to the Chicago Blaze for a fabulous regular season (8 wins, 1 loss, and Monday's tie against the Arizona Scorpions), and best of luck in the playoffs!  (About which more later.)

On Board 1, Mackenzie Molner played a Nimzoindian line that I've always found attractive in the abstract, but never understood well enough to risk in tournament play.  (Black's bishop appears to be trapped after 6...Ba5, but not really.)  Shulman plays for the center, eliminates the pesky Nc5, and creates weaknesses in the Black camp on e6 and c6.  But Molner defends well until a slip on move 39.

Find White's winning move in the diagram below!

"In Chicago, a Tournament that Turns Out Grandmasters"

From today's New York Times chess column.  (The pedantic may substitute "Skokie" for "Chicago.")

Final standings, 25th North American Masters

GM Ben Finegold of St. Louis and Mackenzie Molner of New Jersey tied for first with 6.5 points in 9 games (+4).  Molner simulatneously earned his final IM norm and his first GM norm.  Siddarth Ravichandran of India also earned his final IM norm with a score of 5.5 (+2).

Jon Burgess has a preliminary report on the ICA forum.  (Apologies for falling behind with so many great events going on--it's my busy season!)