Who Was that Guy at State?

Most of the top high school players in Illinois have been playing organized chess for the better part of a decade or more. It is interesting to see that the cross table for the the Primary Section of the 2003 Illinois K-8 Tournament includes the names of almost all the top players from last weekend’s IHSA State Championship: Niles North’s Eric Rosen took first in 2003 followed by Stevenson’s Kent Cen and Josh Dubin at third and fourth, Whitney Young’s Sam Schmakel at fifth, and Hinsdale Central’s Aakash Meduri at seventh. Also participating in 2003 were Buffalo Grove’s Matt Wilber and University Urbana’s George Ruan as well as Denker Tournament invitees Adarsh Jayakumar and Jonathan Kogen. One name is conspicuously absent from that cross table however, 2012 IHSA 1st Place Medalist on first board and Denker invitee, Robert Moskwa of Prospect High School. In fact, despite his 1998 rating, you won’t find Robert’s name in any USCF cross table before December 2010, a mere fourteen months ago.

I first met Robert in October 2009 at the Prospect Chess Club. Coach Don Barrett had the students playing a consultation game with two teams in adjoining computer labs. I first stopped in the lab that held the first board’s team and I saw that their position was rather dicey. Then I went into the other lab where a newcomer was talking about the other side’s weak squares as well as other positional factors. I didn’t agree with all his assessments, but his reasoning was sound and he was clearly thinking about the game at a more sophisticated level than any player we had had before.

I went outside the lab to ask Don who this kid was. He told me that his name was Robert and that he had been playing freshman soccer up until that time. Don said that he was thinking about trying him on fifth board that week. I said “Put him on first.” Don demurred however since Robert had only played chess on the internet and had never used a clock or taken notation before. Robert crushed his opponent that week and again I said “Put him on first,” but Don decided to move him up to third where he crushed his opponent again. Our next opponent was MSL powerhouse Barrington with its 2000 rated first board Zach Kasiurak. Don wasn’t sure whether to put Robert on first or second, but the choice was taken out of his hands when our first board came down with the flu.

Since Prospect was the home team, Robert would be playing White against Zach. I remembered that Zach had played the Kan variation of the Sicilian against our first board two years earlier so I played it against Robert at the Tuesday practice before the match. Unfortunately, I didn’t know much about the Kan and I didn’t feel like I gave Robert any insights. On the Thursday of the match, Robert asked me to play a quick game before Barrington arrived. I thought about playing the Kan again, but I decided that playing the Najdorf, which I knew much better, might do Robert more good.  As we played, we  discussed some of the nuances of that variation as well as the Sicilian in general.

As it happened, Zach decided to play the Najdorf against Robert and he found himself in a bind pretty quickly. Unfortunately, when it came time to go for the breakthrough, Robert couldn’t quite pull the trigger and Zach gradually untangled his position. Zach managed to win a piece, but Robert took advantage of an inaccuracy to gain a couple of advanced pawns. Robert still had chances but Zach put on one of the most amazing displays of blitz I have ever seen playing the last twenty or so moves with only one second on his clock. Zach won, but he knew that he had been in a game. (You can see it here).  After the game he expressed regret that he hadn’t played the Kan and he rolled his eyes when I told him I had been playing the Najdorf against Robert.

Robert played first board for the rest of the season and continued to improve. He lost to Palatine’s Shiny Kaur during the regular season match but got his revenge at the conference tournament. He didn’t get a shot at Buffalo Grove’s Matt Wilber because Matt missed the match with Prospect. He had a second shot at Zach at conference but again came up short. At State, he went a respectable 4-3. 

Robert continued at first board as a sophomore where he led Prospect to a best ever 7-2 finish and 1st place in the MSL Conference Tournament where he avenged a regular season loss to Matt Wilber. In February 2011, he went 4.5-2.5 at State with his only losses coming to Northside Prep’s Chengliang Luo and Glenbrook South’s Gauri Manoj. Prospect went 5-2 to finish 18th. Robert showed that he could stay in the game with anyone, but he wasn’t ready to beat the top players consistently.

Robert had entered his first USCF tournament in December of 2010 where he went 3-1 in an U1400 section for an initial provisional rating of 1518. By July of 2011, he hit 1884 after tying for first in B Class at the Chicago Class Championship and he followed that up with a tie for second in A Class at the Midwest Class Championship in October. The wins haven’t come quite as easily for Robert over the last three months as he played in the master/expert section of the Illinois Class, the U2100 section at the North American Open and the open section of Tim Just's Winter Open. Still, against sixteen opponents with an average rating of 2042, he managed eight wins against six losses with two draws.

So while Robert is relatively unknown among the high school players who have been competing against one another for years, I was not surprised when he went 7-0 at the IHSA State Tournament last weekend. His wins over Max Zinski and Kent Cen were enough to give him the edge on tie breaks for the 1st Place Medal on first board over Matt Wilber and Eric Rosen. Next up for Robert is the Denker Qualifier at the end of March where he will compete in a round robin against 2320 Adarsh Jayakumar, 2246 Sam Schmakel, 2151 Jonathan Kogen, 2060 Aakash Meduri, and 2010 Kent Cen. It is probably a bit much to expect him to come out on top of that group, but I have learned not to bet against him.

Hinsdale Central vs. Niles North for the title!

UPDATE: Niles North wins a sqeaker with Hinsdale Central for the IHSA title, 35½-32½.


Other round seven results on the top boards of this 125-team event (these are finals):


Whitney Young 46 - Naperville North 22
Northside Prep 48½ - Nequa Valley 19½
Evanston Township 47 - Illinois Math and Science Academy 21
University 42 - Benet Academy 26
Stevenson 51 - Prospect 17
Glenbrook South 58 - Downers Grove North 10


Round six results:


Hinsdale Central 35 - Whitney Young 33
Niles North 37 - Lincolnshire 31
Northside Prep 68 - Riverside Brookfield 0
Evanston Township 58½ - Downers Grove 9½
University (Urbana) 36 - New Trier 32
Glenbrook South 65 - Glenbard North 3
Neuqua Valley 54½ - Marengo 13½


All results are here!


Brad Rosen sends a mobile message from the front lines:

Round 7 just kicked off with Niles North facing off against Hinsdale Central. To get there, Hinsdale Central beat Whitney Young in a wild scramble at the end.  Aakash [Meduri] held Sam [Schmakel] to a draw on board 1 and edged out the Dolphins 35-33. Meanwhile, Niles North eked one out against Stevenson: David Paykin won a dead lost position on board 3 against Matthew Wang with drama and panache . And I do mean drama. A short respite and then they were back at it again... a bit of a fight club, warriors, cage match feel down here at the big dance. 

IHSA Team Championship update

After five rounds, four perfect scores remain: Niles North, Whitney Young, Stevenson, and Hinsdale Central.  Looks like one team may go 7-0, after all!

In the first clashes of pre-tournament favorites, Linconshire knocked off CPS powerhouse Northside Prep 44-24, and Whitney Young trounced Glenbrook South 52-16.  Niles North had a tough time with Naperville North, but won 44-24.  Hinsdale Central beat upstart Neuqua Valley 35½-34½.

http://www.ihsa.org/SportsActivities/Chess/StateSeriesInformationResults.aspx?url=/data/ct/1result1.htm

Round 6 (which should be wrapping up soon) features Hinsdale Central - Whitney Young and Stevenson - Niles North on the top two boards.

March of the Grandmasters

GM Kaidanov is at the North Shore Chess Center tomorrow!

My friend Noureddine Ziane (founder of USA Chess, Inc.)  took online lessons with Kaidanov some years ago.  He said that Kaidanov is a wonderful teacher, and passed along this bit of advice:

• Take your last ten losses
• Identify the final critical moment (the moment where you made the losing move)
• Look for similarities: you will find them!  

I did this once, and I was amazed to find that in three of my last ten losses, I had automatically rejected a move that allowed a double check.  Maybe your results won't be quite that specific.   Anyway, tomorrow's session is highly recommended!

Candidates 2012 in London?

That's the well-sourced rumor. Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan would be the wild card.

A final installment of games from TJWO

....as well as the crucial game from December's Illinois Class, in which Dr. Tansel Turgut beats eight-year-old Awonder Liang (whose name makes him a Wünderkind in more than one sense).

Dr. Turgut annotates his game (only the introduction was written by me).  I annotate my game with Patrice Connelly, in which two reasonably competent players each cram their share of mistakes into a short game: the Marshall Attack demands precise play.  All other annotations are by FM Albert Chow, who's covering the games of the 2012 Illinois Tour.

Other featured players include Dean Arond, Avinash Rahendra, NM Greg Bungo, Jiahua Zhang, Andy Applebaum, and NM Ken Wallach,


Games are here!

Adventures in the Botvinnik Variation

 Losing a won position in the first round of a Swiss System event is never fun.  But Akshay Indusekhar found an extremely cool tactical shot.  Such is chess.

I came up with a "better" move in the post mortem, but that move throws away the win, too.

Here's the critical position: can you do better than me?

Brock-Indusekhar

Tim Just's Winter Open, 2012

White to play and win

Also, the position after move 18 is a theoretical tabiya: some of the famous games I'd forgotten are included in the notes below.

IHSA finals in Peoria tomorrow and Saturday!!

The Illinois High School Association's team championship will be held tomorrow and Saturday in the Peoria Civic Center.  More info here!

Here are the round 1 pairings (oops, I'd omitted the link this a.m.): two Chicago selective enrollment schools, Whitney Young and Northside Prep, are the top seeds.  FM Eric Rosen is playing in his last state event for third seed Niles North.  Realistically, I think any of the top eight teams have a chance to win (FM Gauri [Shankar] Manoj and Gavin McClanahan both play for #8 seed Glenbrook South!), and it's going to be very hard for any team to go through this event with a clean score. 

More games from Tim Just's Winter Open

TJWO part three games are here: featured players include tournament winner NM Tenzing Shaw, NM Alexander Velikanov, David Peng, Dean Arond, Vince Hart, NM Sam Schmakel, and Avinash Rajendra.

2012 Illinois Tour commentary is provided by FM Albert Chow.

recovering nicely: Andrew Karklins

Andrew had a triple bypass on December 5th.  I spoke to him today, and he sounds pretty darn good!

Lunch with Kenneth Rogoff

From Friday's Financial Times.  (Thanks to Michael Aigner.)

Job listing crossposted from craigslist

This is a cut and paste: no endorsement, express or implied, and I don't recall having met the owner.

But Les Bale (who also has nothing to do with the following, and who's a Baptist!) was telling me great things yesterday about the Archdiocese of Chicago's "Protecting God's Children" course, and he strongly recommends it for all chess instructors working with young people.

Original ad with contact info here.

kids think inc. is a small company offering after school chess programs to K-8 kids in Chicago and the suburbs. We are looking for chess instructors who have a strong background in and love of chess, and who also have experience teaching or tutoring children. We will provide you with a well developed curriculum, all teaching materials, and training. You will need your own very reliable automobile transportation. You will need to pass a federal background check and must attend the "Protecting God's Children" course sponsored by the Archdiocese of Chicago. This is a part time job, limited to between 1 and 5 hours each week during the school year.

We currently have openings in Lemont and Elmhurst. Hourly rate (contact time) is $50 - $75.

Patience, humor, and the ability to instruct and encourage children are necessary traits of successful chess teachers. A strong presence in the classroom is very valuable. If you are interested and feel you have the skills needed, please include the following information in your response:

• Your level of chess knowledge and ability
• Your experience with children - teaching or tutoring
• Your resume
• The area in which you live and how far you would be comfortable traveling
• Which days you are available, and how many days you would like to teach
• Whether you would be available for the entire school year or only part of the year

We also have summer opportunities for chess and other "camps". Let us know if you are interested in working during the day during June and July.

Join our small but growing company in making a positive impact in the lives of small but growing children!

Evanston Chess: Unrated & Quick Quads this Saturday

Another email cut-and-paste.  Both events charge the usual $5 entry fee, experts and above play for free.

Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave, Evanston, IL 60202

Evanston Chess Presents:
Feb. 4, 2012, 9:00am-1:00pm

Rapid, 5SS G/26+3 second delay

Quads, Non-Rated

This is our experimental tournament. We're trying two things:

"Quick quads" — a format that allows players to fit in three games and still have Saturday afternoon free.

"Unrated" — Have you never been USCF rated? Have you never played a tournament? Were you rated in the past, but haven't played a tournament in years? This is your chance to test (or re-test) the waters of tournament play, without having to make a major investment in time and cash. We will play in regular tournament conditions, and we will follow USCF rules.

Quads

Published USCF Regular Rating (or tournament director's estimate, if the player is not USCF-rated) determines player seeding. Players will be grouped into 4-player quads starting with the top-seeded player. If the bottom group has between 5 and 7 players, the bottom group will be paired as a Swiss section. No byes. Please come planning to play three rounds.

Three rounds. Digital clocks are required and will be set to G/26 plus 3 seconds delay. Some club clocks are available for use by players who do not own clocks.

Schedule: Registration from 9:00 to 9:30 am. Registration/sign-in for pre-registered players will close and quads will be formed at 9:30 a.m. sharp. First Round 9:45 am, rest of rounds ASAP (estimated ending time 12:30 p.m.).

No byes, no lunch break. Out of consideration for your quad-mates, please plan on playing all three rounds.

Send name, USCF number (if you have one), and telephone number to enter@evanstonchess.org

Junior players (under fourteen years) rated USCF 900+ are welcome. Sorry, but we do not accept junior players rated under USCF 900. Must be accompanied by a parent throughout the event.

Bring clocks -- Wheelchair accessible -- No Smoking.

Greater Chicago Primary & Junior High Championships

This Saturday at the Hilton Northbrook.  Details on ICA website.

Spassky turns 75

Today (already yesterday in France) is/was Boris Spassky's 75th birthday!

Here's a ChessBase interview (still in German for the time being; Google Translate version here). Spassky is now confined to a wheelchair, but he reports that his second stroke only affected one hemisphere, and that he can still speak and think. With a self-deprecating laugh, he adds, "Above all, the side responsible for chess works, and is as reliable as before."

I met Spassky in a Mandarin restaurant in Grenoble in the summer of 1978.  It was Spassky who started making small talk with me: perhaps he caught my shock of recognition (I wasn't sure it was Boris, and only found out later that he and Marina indeed lived in Grenoble).  Perhaps he simply wondered what a grubby American college student was doing there.  I remember that I had mu shu pork, that he asked about my studies, and that we didn't talk about chess. He seemed like a very kind man.

More games from Tim Just Winter Open

FM Albert Chow annotates more games from the Illinois Tour for ICA's Chess Blog. Featured players include NM Gopal Menon, Robert Moskwa, NM Alexander Velikanov, Patrice Connelly, NM Mark Marovitch, Jonathan Kogen, and Chow himself.

Welcome to the blogosphere

Three-time Wisconsin state champion Jeremy Kane (now out East) has a new blog. Check out Minor Pieces.

Just another silly Internet game

As usual, the hapless NN proves unable to cope with the Black Knights' Tango. A double rook sacrifice ends the game. In the final position, I was expecting White to try 18.Nf4 exf4 19.Rae1+, when 19...Be3! ends matters. Instead, he resigned.

Three Americans in the top 14!

OK, one of them is a dual citizen who plays for Italy: #10 Fabiano Caruana, who is also the strongest teenager in the world after Anish Giri's collapse.

Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky both recovered from slow starts at Wijk aan Zee to finish in the top half of the Tata Steel crosstable: Nakamura is now #6 in the world and Kamsky (who truly has solved his Topalov problem) is #14.

Silly Internet game du jour

The Black Knights' Tango (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6!?) allows Black to get a big attack effortlessly if White plays passively. A case in point:

Gata makes Magnus say a bad word

Kamsky plays brilliantly in the opening, and the frustrated Carlsen admits he [messed] up, using a Norwegian dialect phrase not suitable for work. Cover your ears, children.

But Magnus buckles down and holds the draw: check it out at The Week in Chess. (Postscript 1/30/2012: GM Ian Rogers hits the highlights of this game in his article for Chess Life Online.)


Nakamura beats Van Wely and moves to number six in the world. Aronian beats Gelfand with Black, and will win Wijk aan Zee tomorrow if he can draw Radjabov with the White pieces.

Game/60 at North Shore Chess Center tomorrow

Details here.  Round one at 10 a.m., or skip round one and begin play a bit before noon.

New CICL bulletin is out!

In the December issue of The Chicago Chess Player, Chuck Dobrovolny tells us how he won $200 pushing pawns, and Tom Friske shares tactics problems from his online play.

Game of the year?

Carlsen may be #1 on the ratings list, and Anand and Gelfand may be playing for the FIDE title, but Levon Aronian gets my vote for "People's Champion."  Yesterday's win against Anish Giri was extremely cool:

The adventures of Isaac Braswell

Christopher Girardo - Isaac Braswell

Swiped from the Evanston Chess homepage 

My friend and CICL teammate Isaac Braswell rarely backs down from a tactical exchange!  (Also, this game gives us an excuse to refresh our memory of the Tarrasch Trap.)

Names omitted to protect the guilty

Checkmate is a little death: "shah mat," the king is dead.  (Pedantic footnote: Wikipedia says I'm wrong.  But please don't let facts spoil the following shtick.)

And when we think our own king is about to die, we may experience a series of emotions analogous to Kübler-Ross's five stages of grief. I deny that I'm getting mated (skepticism is healthy!), I'm angry that I'm getting mated (this gets the adrenalin flowing!), I'm desperately trying to avoid getting mated (seeking any possible escape), I'm depressed about getting mated (but hey, it's only a game), and then I finally accept reality and congratulate my opponent for her good play.

And whenever we have to deal with a surprising move, we may go through a miniature version of this drama: "I'm not losing this pawn, I'm angry at myself for blundering this pawn, I'll find a way to avoid losing this pawn, I'm depressed that I have to lose this pawn, ...hmm, maybe I can lose the pawn and stll draw this position."

In any case, these are typical emotions I try to manage during play: perhaps your experience is different! ;-)

With this in mind, let's look at a game from last weekend's Evanston event:

Black to play

Black played the inventive 1...Rd3.  White ate the free rook with 2.Bxd3, which Black answered with 2...Ng4, reaching this position.

 White to play

White to play sees that there's no way to prevent both 3....Nxe3 and 3...Qxh2 mate, and therefore resigned.  Your thoughts?

In chess, unlike life, the bargaining stage may be more productive than the acceptance stage.

January chess roundup

Dan Leroy highlights the action on the ICA website.

Evanston Three X Three results

FM Albert Chow swept the Gold section of Saturday's three-round event with a 3-0 score.  Chow beat Isaac Braswell with seconds to spare in the final round.  Jack Xiao scored 2½-½ against higher-rated players and picked up over 100 ELO in the process.

There was a logjam for first in the Silver Section: Sritej Vontikummu, Tae Moon, Hanson Hao all posted an undefeated 2½-½.

Matthew Ward took the Bronze honors with 3-0.

Maret Thorpe directed the 39-player tournament for Evanston Chess.

FM Albert Chow annotates games from Tim Just's Winter Open

Enjoy!  This is the first of several installments.  Players featured in this installment include Vince Hart, NM Sam Schmakel, Andy Applebaum, Jiahua Zhang, Jonathan Kogen, and David Peng.

Albert will be annotating games from all events of the 2012 Illinois Tour.

Take the darn pawn, Gauri!

Here's the game featured at the end of yesterday's YouTube coverage of the Whitney Young - Glenbrook South match.

The caption for this blog post is of course tongue-in-cheek. 8...Qxb2 is the famous Najdorf Poisoned Pawn: objectively, it's the best move in the position, but players who haven't done their homework are asking for trouble.

For more coverage of the tournament from a frankly biased CPS perspective (I'm cool with that!) and for some quality trash-talking in the comments, see the Chicago Public League Sports Blog.

Whitney Young vs. Glenbrook South

Whitney Young wins a close one at last weekend's Glenbard South Chess Tournament, but any team that can beat Whitney Young on three of the top four boards is a force to be reckoned with....

Slow start for Americans in Wijk aan Zee

 Big shoes to fill?

After four rounds of Tata Steel Chess, last year's winner Hikaru Nakamura and reigning U.S. Champion Gata Kamsky are both 1½ points behind leaders Aronian and Carlsen.  Macauley Peterson reports at Chess Life Online.  (Teenager Fabiano Caruana, who learned to play chess in Brooklyn but now represents Italy, is only half a point behind the leaders.)

Check out the action Thursday morning: play begins at 7:30 a.m. Chicago time.

ballot-box stuffing

US Chess Federation members, do you want a chance to win a free copy of Frank Brady's Endgame?


Enter this contest by sending an email to Jennifer Shahade with your USCF ID, mailing address, and the magic words, "Fischer-Unzicker, Siegen 1970."  (You're allowed to choose a different Fischer game, but why bother?)

Illinois Tour Standings

After one event!

http://www.il-chess.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=167

The formula looks rather darn simple: you get one point for playing in each event, then one point for every point scored.  But in order for you to claim your rightful place in the Tour standings, you'll need to renew your ICA membership.

Play in Evanston this Saturday ($5, such a deal)

FM Albert Chow will be there!  Another email cut-and-paste....

Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave., Evanston, IL 60202

Evanston Chess Presents:

Jan 21, 2012

9:00am-5:00pm

Three x Three, 3SS G/65 delay 5

Three Sections, USCF Regular Rated

Our guest master will be FM Albert Chow

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.

Wijk aan Zee round 1

Follow the live action at Tata Steel Chess.  Kamsky and Nakamura both drew with White: several games are still in progress.

"Library is heart of a neighborhood"

And the Rudy Lozano Public Library is the heart of the Pilsen chess community.  The city's budget cuts now mean that Rudy Lozano and the city's other neighborhood libraries are only open five days a week.

Story in today's Sun-Times.

2012 Illinois Tour Standings

Here they are!

You'll find an explanation of the prizes here (kids, please choose a chocolate milkshake or a root beer float instead of the complimentary glass of wine), and the Tour rules and leaderboard here.

Please note the membership requirement:

To qualify for either performance or participation awards, individuals must become ICA members by the end of the fifth Tour event, and maintain membership throughout the balance of the Tour. Membership will also be required to be listed in the Tour standings, and in any other articles or promotional materials associated with the Tour.

What, you're not showing up on the ICA Tour Standings? Renew your ICA membership today!

The next Tour event is the Greater Peoria Open on March 17-18.

Sam Schmakel featured on Chess Cafe

Here's a link to Steve Goldberg's "Scholastic Chess" column. Chicago's own Sam Schmakel of Whitney Young High School, who won the national tenth grade title this past November at the K-12 Nationals in Dallas, is one of two players featured in this month's column.

Sam Schmakel (second from left) with teammates Cristian Pena, C.J. Swan, and Mark Waechter

 Permalink (pdf) here.

The kids are alright!

I managed to keep my "undefeated against players under nine years old" streak alive, but eight-year-old David Peng gave me a serious scare.

We don't have the luxury of consulting the computer during play: as it turns out, David was closer to the brink of defeat than I was.  Lesson to be learned: if we adults believe in ourselves, we can win against any elementary-school-age player!

More seriously, the Warren Junior Scholars Program is working! 

Winter Scholastic 2012

Joseph Fennessey won the Under 1200 Section of the Winter Scholastic 2012 in Oak Brook, scoring a perfect 5-0.  Andrew Bean, Elliot Krueger, and Patrick Yasutake tied for second with 4-1.

Ross Fox Schneider won the Under 700 Section, also with a clean 5-0.  Yury Tytla, Mara Flaherty, and Adam Rubinberg tied for second with 4-1.

Crosstable here!

Daniel Parmet directed for Chess for Life LLC.

Shaw, Hrach, Ford win Tim Just's Winter Open XVIII

NM Tenzing Shaw won clear first in the Open Section of the 2012 Tim Just's Winter Open, scoring 4½-½.

Jonathan Hrach and Adam Ford tied for first in the Reserve Section, also with 4½-½.

Crosstable here!

More coverage to follow.  Look for extensive games coverage by FM Albert Chow on the ICA website.

"Giri wins Reggio Emilia as Nakamura falters"

Bummer.

Story at Chess Life Online.

Touch and Go Chess Party

On this unseasonably warm January afternoon, we really should be playing chess in front of the Art Institute.  I've spent several pleasurable afternoons at the "Touch and Go Chess Party."

The songbirds promised me this morning that springtime woud be here soon: in the meantime, enjoy!

Five studies by Richard Réti

The following study by the great Richard Réti shares a key theme with Wednesday's study by Frederick Rhine. Give it a whirl!

Réti

Teplitz Schönauer Anzeiger, 1922

White to play and win

Here's one of Réti's greatest hits:

Réti

Hastings and St. Leonards Post, 1922

White to play and win

In the rook versus pawn(s) battle, the defender can use a similar theme:

Réti

Shakhmatny Listok, 1929

White to play and draw

Réti's most famous study often appears in beginner's books (but it's far from simple!):

Réti

Deutsch Österreichische Tageszeitung, 1921

White to play and draw

Réti composed a variation on this theme that deserves to be better known:

Réti

Deutsch Österreichische Tageszeitung, 1921

White to play and draw

You'll find more Réti studies at this cool website and on the highly recommended HHdbIV.

Preregister today for Tim Just's Winter Open tomorrow!

You have until 6 p.m. today (Friday, January 6th) to preregister for this weekend's Tim Just Winter Open XXVIII!   The TJWO is the first event of the Illinois Chess Association's reboot of the Illinois Tour.  (Please thank Mike Cardinale for his work in resurrecting the Tour!)

Play begins at 9 a.m. tomorrow Saturday, January 7th, for the two-day Open and Reserve. Preregistrants in the Open Section include FM Chow and NMs Bungo, Schmakel, Macenis, and Shaw.

Play begins at noon tomorrow for the one-day Scholastic event (in two sections).

Enter here!

You can enter the Scholastic Section here!

The most famous study with a Chicago connection?

Emanuel Lasker & Gustavus Reichhelm

Chicago Tribune, 1901

White to play and win

This is probably the second-most famous study with a World Champion as (co-)composer (Lasker's famous 1890 rook ending gets top honors).  Solution here: block an hour out of your schedule and allow yourself to be mystified.  (But try it yourself first: if the White king makes it to b5, Black has no defense.  And if the White king makes it to g5, Black has no defense.)

HHdvIV gives the source as "Literary Digest 1901," but according to one Wikipedia editor, this version (with kings on a1 and a7) was first published in the Trib.  

Does this study have something to say about the postmodern condition?  (Two fools wandering aimlessly in a barren landscape?)  Marcel Duchamp co-authored a book with the endgame composer Halberstadt that was inspired by this study, L'Opposition et les cases conjugées sont réconciliées (not to be confused with the 1980s electronic music album of the same name by the French band Etant Donnés!).  Andrew Hugill has persuasively suggested that the theory of coordinate squares influenced Samuel Beckett's Endgame.  (Beckett, a chess player, knew Duchamp.)

And please: Vladimir Nabokov composed problems, not studies.

And have I indulged in enough pointless blather for one morning?

GM lecture series at North Shore Chess Center!

Another email cut and paste.  If you'd like me to plug your event, please drop me a copy with minimal formatting (blogger.com is picky).

March of the Grandmasters! Come learn from the best and then take them on!

I'm pleased to announce that the final Grandmaster has been secured for our first 4 months of the year. In March, Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan will be out guest GM joining others before and after him such as GM Akobian, GM Finegold, GM Shankland, GM Kaidanov, and GM Charbonneau!

Don't hesitate for minute about signing up for these great events. The lecture and simul together is $100 for non-members and $75 for members for a 6 hour lecture followed by a simul! Where else can you get that kind of instructional quality for an affordable price!

In the last 2 months of 2011 we brought you GM's Varuzhan Akobian and Ben Finegold. Thanks to the great demand it generated we have a great lineup of Grandmasters heading our way for 2012!

January 14 - Grandmaster Sam Shankland

February 11 - Grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov

 March 17 - Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan 

April 21 - Grandmaster Pascal Charbonneau

The Grandmasters will provide a 6 hour lecture from 11:30am - 5:30pm followed by a simultaneous exhibition.

For details and online registration visit - http://www.nachess.org/events

Inspired by the Saavedra position

Alexander Fishbein & Dmitry Gurevich 

Illinois Chess Bulletin, 1991 

White to play and win

Matt Pullin tried to solve yesterday's Karstedt study by sacrificing the horsie to transpose to the Saavedra position.  That made me think of this study, co-authored by our own GM Dmitry Gurevich and first published in the Illinois Chess Bulletin.

Solution to yesterday's study (Karstedt, 1911)

You're going to need a couple hints for this one....

This blog's very own Frederick Rhine is the author of today's study (cribbed once again from the terrific HHdbIV).

Frederick Rhine

Chess Life, 2002

White to play and draw 

There was a Karpov-Kasparov game in 1991 that reached the pawnless ending KBNN vs. KR.  The game was drawn, and subsequent research confirmed that this ending is theoretically drawn in the general case.  (The rook can sacrifice itself for the bishop, after which KNN vs. K is drawn.)

Black is threatening checkmate in the above position: do whatever it takes to stop Black!  But kindly do it in the right order.

New Lev Alburt website

Grandmaster Lev Alburt knows a little about chess: he's a three-time U.S. Champion, three-time Ukrainian Champion, and lead author of one of the most successful instructional series ever!

Former USCF Executive Director Al Lawrence, one of Lev's frequent co-authors, just rolled out the beta of Alburt's official website.  Check it out!  Doubtless more effective than those ads in the New York Review of Books...and you can order autographed copies for no additional charge!

First event of 2012 Illinois Tour this weekend!

Don't miss the inaugural event of the Illinois Chess Association's 2012 Illinois Tour.  It's the 28th edition of Tim Just's Winter Open!

Once again, the site is the DoubleTree in Oak Brook.  Play begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, January 7th, for the two-day Open and Reserve; play begins at noon Saturday for the one-day Scholastic event (in two sections).  No Bears in the playoffs, no snow in this weekend's forecast: why not play chess?

Enter here!  (Online preregistration closes Friday afternoon.)

You can enter the Scholastic Section here!

Parents will go to great lengths for their children

That study made me think of this one.  I had to dig out my copy of Sutherland & Lommer to find the position.

Max Karstedt

Deutsches Wochenschach, 1911

White to play and win

Solution to Kleiman study

Become the alpha nerd in your club with Dr. Harold van der Heijden's endgame study database HHdbIV!

M. Kleiman 

Chess Life and Review, 1968

White to play and win

Tim Just's Winter Open this coming weekend!

Don't miss the inaugural event of the Illinois Chess Association's 2012 Illinois Tour, the humpty-humpf annual Tim Just's Winter Open. (It's being called the 28th annual TJWO, but that appears to be a conservative estimate: last year, Wayne Clark said that Tim simply lost count!)

The site is the DoubleTree in Oak Brook.  Play begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, January 7th, for the two-day Open and Reserve; play begins at noon Saturday for the one-day Scholastic event (in two sections).

Enter here!  Even with the mildly annoying $3 "convenience" fee, you'd be wise to save time and money by preregistering.  The total cost of $67 (Open and Reserve) is very reasonable.  If you enter on site, it'll cost you $80, plus you'll have to arrive at the site before 8:30 a.m. in order to register.  (There's an additional $10 fee for players rated below 1800 to play in the Open Section.  Any ambitious player rated above 1600 should give this option serious consideration.)

You can enter the Scholastic Section on the same page: $26 for five good games is very reasonable.  (But consider playing in the Reserve section: this is an excellent event for scholastic players to test themselves against adult opponents!)

Check out pre-entries here!

Tournament wrapup on Chess Life Online

Story by Sevan Muradian.  Nice event, interesting format!

The most exciting opening?

One can make a strong argument for the Botvinnik Variation of the Semi-Slav.  The position after Black's 10th move was first reached by Grünfeld (!) in 1936,  Botvinnik came up with the amazing idea of castling queenside in 1941, and in 2012, I have yet to meet a person who claims to understand what's going on in this crazy opening.

Thanks for visiting!

Happy 2012 to you and yours!  In the past week, we've had visitors (more than 5 pageviews) from the US, Russia, German, Japan, France, Poland, the UK, Canada, China, and the Czech Republic.  Even allowing for bots and Chicagoans on the road, that's gratifying and most appreciated!

In lieu of a tip jar, I hope you'll consider donating to the Illinois Chess Association's Warren Junior Scholar Program.  If you choose to follow this blog or share a blogpost, I'd be grateful.

If you'd like to contribute to the blog, please drop me a line!  Always happy to plug upcoming Chicagoland events: lightly formatted HTML suitable for cutting and pasting is always appreciated.

The Nakamura Express pulls away at Reggio Emilia

GMHikaru tweets "The freight train appears to be back on track!"  Hopefully the train will have enough fuel to make it through Wijk aan Zee.  Nakamura's defense of his Tata Steel title begins on January 13th.

 Photo © |http://www.ippogrifoscacchi.it

In today's game, look at all the compensation Nakamura gets for the investment of a mere wing pawn.

One has to feel for Nikita Vitiugov, who's only 24 years old.  It's hard for a Russian grandmaster to get foreign invitations when the GM is not one of the elite dozen players in the world.  It's doubly hard to play in one's inaugural "2700+ only" event.  Even the teenagers Giri and Caruana are grizzled veterans,  relatively speaking.

For more coverage of today's action, check out The Week in Chess.