The Chicago Blaze was stung more than once in last night's match with the Arizona Scorpions, but Mesgen Amanov and Sam Schmakel were able to crush their opponents' cephalothoraces to bring home the 2½-1½ win. Cool!
Rogelio Barcenilla is the first opponent to take a full point from the Blaze. He finds a cool shot in response to Yury Shulman's 23...e5. But with best play it should only be good for equality: Yury overpressed on move 24.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Evanston Chess September Swiss
NM Jon Burgess and Christopher Girardo scored 3-0 in the Gold Section.
Four players were primus inter pares in the Silver Section: Abdulah Prijic, Edward Bustamante, Rahul Dhiman, and Ricky Wang all had 2-1.
Douglas Selph (first tournament!) and Aman Grover tied for first in the Bronze Section with 3-0.
Congratulations to the winners: crosstable here!
Maret Thorpe directed for Evasnton Chess.
Four players were primus inter pares in the Silver Section: Abdulah Prijic, Edward Bustamante, Rahul Dhiman, and Ricky Wang all had 2-1.
Douglas Selph (first tournament!) and Aman Grover tied for first in the Bronze Section with 3-0.
Congratulations to the winners: crosstable here!
Maret Thorpe directed for Evasnton Chess.
World Cup catchup
Lubomir Kavalek explains this act of sportsmanship.
The World Cup's knockout format can lead to some rather random results, which would have been particularly unfortunate given that this event is being used to qualify three players for the World Championship. But the four quarterfinalists are all among the world's elite: Grischuk faces Ivanchuk, and Svidler faces Ponomariov. The winners automatically qualify for the 2014 World Championship cycle; the losers play a match, the winner of which also qualifies.
Someone had to lose the match between fan favorites Gata Kamsky and Peter Svidler. Kamsky had the honor of losing to the most beautiful move of the World Cup:
Svidler's point after 26...Re2!! was that 27.Qxe2 loses to 27...Qg3! (The immediate 26...Qg3 is met by 27.Nc6, stopping the mate threat.) Someone (I don't remember who) described the combination as worthy of Frank Marshall. Edit a few days later—aha, it was Mig.
Early risers are urged to check out Game 1 of the semifinals tomorrow morning at the excellent tournament website! If you hear Russian, don't panic: there is an English-language simulcast.
Kasparov-Anand at the World Trade Center
On September 11, 1995, the Kasparov-Anand World Championship match began. The venue was the Observation Deck of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. More photos from that day (and from another day six years later, one of the saddest of our lives) here.
This day of remembrance is for the victims and the heroes of FDNY, NYPD, and Flight 93. After today, let's also remember good things like the games from one of the greatest World Championship matches.
Today's movie recommendation: James Marsh's Man on Wire.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Yury Shulman annotates...
...his come-from-behind win in the Chicago Blaze match.
Check it out!
ICA Metro VP Mike Cardinale and I briefly discussed the following position:
Mike noted that the non-standard 19.Kd2! (with the idea of 20.Rxh7! followed by 21.Rh1+ and 22.Qg6+) looks awfully strong. But Yury notes that he had an even stronger continuation.
Check it out!
ICA Metro VP Mike Cardinale and I briefly discussed the following position:
Shulman-LaRota
White to move
Mike noted that the non-standard 19.Kd2! (with the idea of 20.Rxh7! followed by 21.Rh1+ and 22.Qg6+) looks awfully strong. But Yury notes that he had an even stronger continuation.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Chicago Blaze blog
Tom Panelas maintains the Blaze's team blog, which currrently features Albert Chow's and Trevor Magness's thoughts on last week's match, and the Game of the Week.
Board 1: Yury Shulman 1 - Fabio LaRota 0
The best game of the round: LaRota does his best to pull off a big upset. But grandmasters make their living off the endgame. After 46.Kh2, would you have preferred 46...Nc5 or 46...Nf6? What's the difference?
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.
Board 4: Alejandro Allen ½ - Todd Freitag ½
Todd stepped in for NM Sam Schmakel, who couldn't play last night for personal reasons. Despite being outrated by 250 points, Todd drew comfortably.
The position after 18.g3 has been reached before: materialist that I am, I'd snap the pawn on h3. But unappeatizing as the broken kingside pawn structure may be, White never really challenged Black in the ending.
The position after 18.g3 has been reached before: materialist that I am, I'd snap the pawn on h3. But unappeatizing as the broken kingside pawn structure may be, White never really challenged Black in the ending.
Chicago Blaze 3½ - Miami Sharks ½
Last night's U.S. Chess League match was another one-sided affair, but Miami did not field its big guns. So two games into the season, cries of "Break up the Yankees!" are premature. But any team that can field Dmitry Gurevich on third board will cause matchup problems for opponents.
White just sits on Black and pushes the d-pawn through: one of those games that makes you think that the Modern Benoni is hopeless.
White just sits on Black and pushes the d-pawn through: one of those games that makes you think that the Modern Benoni is hopeless.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Evanston Chess G/65 this Saturday, Sept. 10!
Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave., Evanston, IL 60202
Evanston Chess Presents:
Saturday, Sep 10, 2011, 9:00am-5:00pm
Three x Three, 3SS G/65
Three Sections, USCF Regular Rated
Section Gold: 1700 and over
Section Silver: 1200 - 1699
Section Bronze: Under 1200 and Unrated
1600 - 1699 may play up to Gold.
1100 - 1199 may play up to Silver.
Published USCF Regular Rating determins eligibility.
Unrated players may be placed up at TD discretion.
From time to time Evanston Chess pays one or more titled players to play in our events. We usually do not pair them against each other. Even if they should lose (it does happen) we may pair them with the highest score groups.
Three rounds. Digital clocks are required and will be set to G/65 plus 5 seconds delay. Accelerated or decelerated pairings at TD discretion. Sections may be combined at TD discretion.
Registration from 9:00 to 9:30 AM. Players must check in by 9:30 am; players who arrive late will receive a half-point bye for the first round. First Round 9:45 am, last round over roughly 5:00 pm. No Lunch Break: We need to be finished by 5:00 PM, so there will be no extra time between rounds for lunch.
You may take one half-point bye in any round but the last.
Entry fee is $5, please pay cash (no checks) at the door. Masters and Experts play free.
Send name, USCF number, and telephone number to enter@evanstonchess.org
Junior players (under fourteen years) rated 900+ are welcome. Sorry, but we do not accept junior players rated under 900. Must be accompanied by a parent throughout the event.
Bring clocks. -- Wheelchair accessible. No Smoking.
Your opinion, please
We are currently scheduling tournaments for 2012, which will be held in January, March, May, July, September and November. We might also add one extra tournament in April, June or October, perhaps a different format from what we've been doing. Possibilities include rated blitz, rated quads, an unrated G/40 or suggest something. Let us know what you'd like to see by emailing us at enter@evanstonchess.org.