U.S. Championships: Shulman-Gareev, Round 4

In this variation of the Nimzoindian, the bishop looks oddly placed on a5. But it works in practice!

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!

Blaze - Dallas, Board 4: Dean 1 - Xiang 0

By point count alone, Black has the advantage of two rooks vs. queen. But the two rooks need to be coordinated to be effective, and king safety is paramount in middlegames with opposite-color bishops are on the board.

31.f6!, shaking up His Majesty's hizzle, is very nice. Black could have defended with 31...Ra8! 32.Qg4 (threatening both mate on g7 and the c4 bishop) 32...g6! 33.Qxc4 Rxd2.

Manager Daniel Parmet has a very pleasant task each week filling the lower boards: Jim Dean, Eric Rosen, Sam Schmakel, Angelo Young....

Board 1: Shulman ½ - Bhat ½

I really don't understand the opening on Board 1.  Usually in the Leningrad Variation of the Nimzoindian, Black will trade the Bb4 for the Nc3 to double White's c-pawns.  But Bhat played ...e6xd5 and deferred capturing on c3.  Strange to this amateur's eyes, but the proof is in the results.  It was Yury who had to force the draw with White.

Trevor Magness at the Denker

The Illinois representative is one of the early leaders at the Denker Tournament of High School Champions in Orlando.

In today's game, Trevor finds a nice shot in the hyper-theoretical Romanishin Variation of the Nimzoindian.

New video from Chess at Citadel

Matthias Pfau's comments are already interesting.  I enjoyed watching this game (even as King Ong was thrashing me on the adjoining board), and participated in a bit of the post-mortem.

Wonderful rook endgame lesson

GM Joel Benjamin lectures on today's game between Chicago Open champion Loek Van Wely and U.S. #1 Hikaru Nakamura.

The wily Nakamura drew a dead-lost ending today.  Crank up the air conditioning, grab a glass of iced tea, and enjoy!