Illinois Blitz Championships

Saturday's Illinois Blitz Championship was unusually strong, as it was held in conjunction with the U.S. Amateur Team North in Schaumburg.  Let's hope this tradition continues!  Hungarian Grandmaster Denés Boros, a student at Webster University in St. Louis, won the Illinois Blitz Championship with an impressive 9-1 score.

NM Gopal Menon and NM Sam Schmakel tied for second with 8-2; as Illinois residents, they share the 2013 blitz title.

Israeli GM Anatoly Bykhovsky and our own GM Dmitry Gurevich tied for fourth with 7½ points; FM Eric Rosen, FM Albert Chow, NM Erik Santarius of Wisconsin, NM Pete Karagianis, George Li (still 12 years old?), and Aakaash Meduri tied for sixth with 7-3.

Notable results: Gopal shut out Brazilian GM Andre Diamant 2-0.  (But that's not really notable to those of us who have played Gopal.)  And eight-year-old Aydin Turgut shut out IM Angelo Young 2-0 in the first round!  Not sure whether I was jaded or gullible: the A. Turgut-Young result was a forfeit.  (Thanks to Gopal Menon.)

Full crosstables at chessweekend.com.

US Amateur Team North and Illinois Blitz Championship

Take your Valentine to Schaumburg, romantic home of the Bundys, next month! Better idea, pay the requisite obeisance to your beloved beforehand—candlelight dinner on Thursday the 14th— in order to play guilt-free for the next three days.  (Even if one is part of a "chess couple," someone has to stay home to watch the kids, no?  Or you could both be on the same team and alternate rounds....)

The U.S. Amateur Team North is February 15-17 at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg. I played for Evanston in the 2012 event with the late Jon Burgess and the late Isaac Braswell.  Free advice: your friends won't be here forever, so find three or four friends, form a team, and spend time with them while you can.

The Illinois Blitz Championship will be on the evening of February 16th.

Hope to see you there!