Enrico Sevillano gets final GM norm

Credit:  Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis 

Cool! 

GM-elect Sevillano is based in California now, but lived in Chicago for many years. (In fact, he used to live less than one block away from my old home: circa 1997, he and I found ourselves in the same laundromat one Sunday morning.)

"A Note from Your Captain"

It's 3:30 a.m. I can't sleep and I'm heartbroken.

This would be a good post for young readers to skip.  (Text after the jump.)

Congratulations to Dmitry Gurevich!

With a last-round win, Dmitry grabbed a share of his fourth U.S. Open title. (No trophy for first on tiebreaks this year, but that's OK: Dmitry already has two of those.) Much more later: I'm sitting next to Harold Winston at a PDX gate. Good news and bad news to process.

Jon Burgess, rest in peace

We are shocked to learn of the death of National Master Jon Burgess. Our deepest condolences to Colleen and the entire Burgess family. Jon was a kind soul and a very dear friend. Much more later.

A must-win game

In round 8 (just finishing now), Dmitry Gurevich won with the Classical Sicilian. You can find this and many other games from the U.S. Open on the Monroi website. Tomorrow's final round begins at 3 p.m.: once again, the top boards (and the games of a few fish) will be broadcast live on Monroi.

Equalizing is only the beginnning

NM Sam Schmakel of Whitney Young High School reaches a completely equal middlegame against former US Champion Alexander Shabalov. Sam tries for a little bit more than equality, and gets punished...this time.

U.S. Open, round 7 update

It's been a great weekend for Mexico in the Olympics, so perhaps it's appropriate that GM Manuel Leon Hoyos is leading the U.S. Open with two rounds to go. Nice coverage by Al Lawrence at Chess Life Online.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: you really don't want to defend a drawish endgame against Dmitry Gurevich.

At 6-1, Dmitry needs to pick up half a point in the last two rounds to contend for the qualifying spot in the U.S. Championship.

Mesgen introduces Vishy

Cool!

Travel photos and woodpushing

FM Michael Langer of Austin, Texas (the grandson of Lev Abramov, who captained the Soviet team in the famous USSR vs. World match in Belgrade) drove me to Mount St. Helen's on Tuesday. I was amazed that the devastation wrought by the 1980 eruption is still so evident: a dozen miles away, the remains of entire forests effaced by the eruption indicate the direction of the lateral blast. Closer to the volcano, stumps remain where the rest of the tree was vaporized.

The blast zone, many miles away:
everything in the valley was devastated on May 18, 1980

As bad as 1980 was, the Mount St. Helen's eruption was small potatoes compared to prehistoric volcanic eruptions in the Cascades.  One doesn't want to be around when Crater Lake blows again. (I've always wondered what Strangelovian continuity-of-government plans are in place for the Yellowstone Caldera "event": but we chess players do tend to be paranoid.)

Oh yes, chess.

Sam Schmakel equal third at Denker

Our high school representative, Sam Schmakel of Whitney Young, also did Illinois proud.  The final crosstable is here, and Chess Life Online has a nice feature on the winners of the Denker and the Barber.

Sam has a perfect score in the early rounds of the U.S. Open (six-day schedule), and will be playing "behind the ropes" against GM Alexander Shabalov.  You should be able to follow the action at monroi.com: action begins at noon Pacific, 2 p.m. Chicago time.

Both Sam and Sean Vibbert of Indiana (who also had a great event) came out swinging in the following game from Round 5. As often happens in Golden Gloves, they neutralized each other without doing damage.

George Li equal fifth at Barber

Congratulations to George Li and his family for the sixth-grader's wonderful result at the 2012 Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions!

Final results are here!

Checkmating the queen

On Tuesday night at the U.S. Open, Dmitry Gurevich made it look easy.

Greetings from Vancouver, Washington

Looking west from the I-5 bridge: Columbia River and Mt. Hood

The US Open might as well be in the Loop: I keep running into Dmitry Gurevich and Harold Winston.  Former ICA President Al Losoff (whose Sears Tower office used to be around the corner from mine, and who lived across the street from my brother-in-law before moving to Nevada) is working the event, as is Wayne Clark.

"I've played ...a6 and ...h6, I must be winning..."

Our Illinois representative, NM Sam Schmakel, won his first two games in the Denker Tournament of High School Champions, then lost to #2 seed SM Atulya Shetty of Michigan.  The game is featured on Chess Life Online.  (Denker standings are here.) 

Sixth-grader George Li has an even score in the Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions and is paired against a fellow expert: no easy pairings in either scholastic event!  Barber standings are here.  Thanks to both George and Sam for representing our state so well.

Oh yes, the US Open.  Here are the standings after round two.

I had an excellent adventure last night: almost got mated twenty different ways, fianchettoed my rook, and was offered a draw while I was an Exchange and pawn up.  It didn't take me more than a minute to accept....

"Tip the king"

Ted Cox on Ron's death.

Photos from Ron Washington memorial

Many people shared many decades of memories of Ron.  Attendees included a couple National Masters, a member of the 1969 World Champion Boston Celtics, and others who loved Ron and who miss him.

The last two people who saw Ron alive spoke: he was going in "for a dip" with everything but shoes on ("I'll dry out in a minute").  The gentleman who was in the water with him turned around to head back to shore, and Ron was gone. He and others tried to save Ron, but it was too late.

Sorry I couldn't stay for food and blitz...but here are a few photos.

Rest in peace, Ron.

Game-30 event at North Shore Chess Center (and blogger travel) tomorrow

Details here.

I won't be there, as I'm flying to Portland tomorrow morning and playing in my first U.S. Open in twenty-three years! (Let's see, I played in the 1974 Canadian Open (11 rounds, Montréal, Place Bonaventure), the 1979 U.S. Open (12 rounds, Chicago, Palmer House), and the 1989 U.S. Open (9 rounds, Rosemont, O'Hare Expo Center). So this is only the fourth one-game-per-day event I've played in 45 years of tournament chess.

 The host city is Vancouver, WA, within striking distance of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helen's, Multomnah Falls and the Columbia River Gorge, Powell's City of Books, and the dream of the 90s....


And yeah, I know I'm staying at a Hilton in the burbs, with the I-5 bridge between the chess players and Portlandia....

Ron Washington memorial at Chess Pavilion

No official word, but I believe that folks are doing something at the North Avenue Beach pavilion at 5 p.m. today.

Hope to see you there as we pay respects to Ron's memory.

Not my g-g-generation, but maybe yours

And not strictly speaking a chess post, but hey, it came up in the Google feed, and even this geezer knows who GZA is (if only via Dave Chappelle and Jim Jarmusch). 

From Consequence of Sound:

This fall, GZA will embark on “The 64 Squares Tour” (named after his affinity for chess)....

GZA's knight's tour of the USA lands on the Chicago square at Metro this September 19th. Hmm, maybe the Piatigorsky Cup will be replaced by the Wu-Tang Clan Cup.

Brooklyn Castle at Siskel Center August 26th and August 30th

The chess documentary Brooklyn Castle (about the junior high students who, after this film was made, won the National High School Championship) is a featured film in the Black Harvest Film Festival 2012.  Read more about it in Time Out Chicago.

The Gene Siskel Film Center is at 164 N. State Street: call (312) 846-2800 for info.

Illinois Open in Oak Brook this Labor Day weekend!

Grandmasters Gurevich and Mitkov are among the preregistrants: action begins one month from today!


Sept 1-3. 2012 Illinois Open State Championship. 6R-SS. Open Section (40/90 SD/30 + 30/sec incr). Reserve and Booster Sections (G/90 + 30/sec incr). Doubletree Hotel 1909 Spring Road Oak Brook, IL 60523 - Phone 630-472-6000. $8500 Guaranteed + $250 Isaac Braswell Fighting Chess Award in Open Section. 


3 sections: Open, Reserve (U1800), Booster (U1400). Prizes (non-IL players eligible for max 3rd place in Overall Prizes and 2nd place prize for rating bracket prizes: Open - Overall: $1600-1000-300, (2399-2200): $350-275-200; (2199-2100): $250-200; (2099-2000): $200-100; (1999-1900): $200-100; (1899-1800): $200-100; Reserve (U1800) - Overall: $750-450-225; (1699-1600): $250-200-150; (1599-150): $150-100; (1499-1400): $150-100; Booster (U1400) - Overall: $250-125-75; (1299-1200) - $100-50; (1199-1100): $100-50. Open & Reserve FIDE Rated. Free Entry for IL FIDE titled players (WFM & above). 


EF: $64 by 08/04/2012, $96 by 08/18/2012, $128 thereafter and on-site. No checks at site, credit cards ok. Online registration preferred. No phone entries. Re-entry: $60 with 1/2 pt in first two rds only. Rd 6 bye must committ by end of Rd 2 otherwise zero pt. Players in contention for prizes must play final rd or have 1/2 pt bye committed to by the end of Rd 2 otherwise ineligible for prizes. Special Rules for Playing Up: $10 more if 150 pts or less from cut off of section, $25 more if 151-300 pts from cut-off, $50 more if 301+ pts from cut-off (Example: 1620 wants to play in open, 180 pts from cut-off, pay $25 more to play up).NOTE: Playing up fee paid in cash at the door - players will be registered in their normal rating section unless you come to the TD room to request playing up. 


Schedule: 10am and 4pm each day. Mailed entries: North American Chess Association 4957 Oakton Street Suite 113 Skokie IL 60077. All mailed entries must be received by 8/24/2012. Questions: sevan@nachess.org. No Phone Calls. Advance entries and online registration at: http://www.nachess.org/ilopen2012. 


Hotel: $91/night + tax. Ask for Chess Rate. 


Boards, Sets, Clocks Provided. Must use organizer provided equipment. Chess vendor onsite. August Rating Supplement. Special Workshops: Chess in Education plus TD/Rules Workshop. 1-day Scholastic Event. For registration on the 1-day scholastic event please visit http://chessforlife.com/chess/wint11/scholastic.html. 


USCF and ICA mbrshp required for main event.

Thinking: Fast and Slow

I'm about two-thirds through the audiobook version of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking: Fast and Slow.  This book is a useful corrective to Malcolm Gladwell's recent bestsellers Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking and Outliers: The Story of Success. Kahneman doesn't deny the usefulness of intuition, but argues that intuition has its limits, even for experts.  (For example, even the most experienced pediatrician assessing a newborn's health may be better off relying on the routine of the Apgar score than a subjective evaluation, even though that subjective evaluation is itself generally very accurate.)

Outliers popularized the 10,000-hour rule: years of deliberate practice in chess (or guitar, or corporate taxation, or...) will allow one to develop an expert's intution.  Kahneman (a behavioral psycholgist, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics) doesn't discount the usefulness of the grandmaster's intuition, but in summarizing his body of research for a popular audience, he argues that such intutition is a type of "fast thinking" that is wrong far more often than experts care to admit. Chess is a concrete game, and software engines have repeatedly proved the value of colorless algorithms over romantic intuition. (Botvinnik's highest praise for his archrival was—I paraphrase— "Smyslov had a very strong algorithm in the 1950s.")

But humans play chess with a clock, and in human-vs.-human play, we don't have time to figure everything out. (We try to do that in the post-mortem, and then at home, and after that we feed our analysis to the computer to check our results.)  So the intuition of a Capablanca, Kramnik, or Carlsen is a very good thing for human players to have.

How to translate these insights into studying chess and teaching chess? Algorithms are essential in pawn endings, but knowing general principles about the outside passed pawn, protected passed pawn, and the opposition are pretty darn important, too.  And knowing the general principles of rook endings (defending king belongs on the short side, checking distance, recognizing the preconditions for a successful frontal defense) is important, but sometimes you gotta calculate, too.

Thinking: Fast and Slow is strongly recommended reading for folks in business and the social sciences. It might even be tangentially useful to chess players, though I'm not sure how....

"Chicago's Ron Washington, 1951-2012"

Daaim Shabazz remembers Ron (click to read) .

Ron in 2007; swiped from The Knights of Castle Kimbark

9-year-old beats Grandmaster in tournament play!

Awonder Liang and his brother Adream have been playing a "killer" tournament schedule this summer: the Chicago Open, the Philadelphia International, the World Open, and (right now) the Washington International.

Yesterday, Awonder defeated his first Grandmaster!  The current World 8-and-Under Champion defeated the former World Senior Champion, GM Larry Kaufman, in Round 3 of the Washington International.

Proud papa Will Liang writes:

Awonder has become the record holder for the youngest chess player in the United States to have beaten a Grand Master in a tournament game of chess. The new record Awonder has just established is 9 years 3 months and 20 days. The previous record was established by now super GM and world number 8th chess player Fabiana Caruana on September 28, 2002. Caruana's record was 10 years one month and 29 days. Awonder has broken Caruana's record by 10 months and 9 days.

The very next round, Awonder drew with three-time U.S. Champion Joel Benjamin in the kind of technical ending that GMs routinely win against experienced International Masters.

To assuage Grandmaster Kaufman's pain, buy his wonderful book The Kaufman Repertoire for Black and White: A Complete, Sound and User-friendly Chess Opening Repertoire.  It's a wonderful one-volume reference for ambitious tournament players with limited time to study. But you may want to consider 8...Ba6 against the Scotch.

Cloud Gate cityscape

The talented Anna Yakimenko reimagines the "Bean."

"Chess hustler of North Ave. Beach drowned in Lake Michigan"

7-18-06 Chess Pavilion on the Lakefront at North Avenue. Ron Washington (Left) and Daniel Jones (Right) enjoy an evening of warm weather and chess as citizens come out and play and take to the bike paths. Photo by Scott Stewart/Sun-Times

Photo and story (follow this link) copyright Chicago Sun-Times.

Ron Washington: Gone but not forgotten

This impromptu memorial was set up at the Pavilion today:

And here are a few of Ron's friends who gathered to honor his memory today:

David Franklin, who sent these photos, writes, "Another, bigger, memorial will take place this coming Friday, August 3, 5 p.m. at the pavilion at North Avenue Beach." It's likely that there will be another memorial service on Saturday at Christian Funeral Home (3100 W. Irving Park), but that's only tentative...more tomorrow.

Chess in Lake Wobegon

Not that much to do with chess, but we could use a smile. Hat tip to Colleen Devlin.

Sad news

Updated 2:46 p.m.  it's confirmed that our friend Ron Washington drowned in Lake Michigan on Friday.

At 2 p.m., [North Avenue Beach] lifeguards attempted to rescue 61-year-old Ronald Washington, a former collegiate hoopster and self-described chess “hustler” who for years had been a fixture near the beach.

Washington, of the 100 block of West Maple Street, was fully clothed when a lifeguard pulled him from the water near 1400 N. Lake Shore Drive, according to police and park district spokespeople.

Washington was pronounced dead at 4:30 p.m. at Northwestern Hospital.

Earlier report (without Ron's name) on the WGNTV website.

Much more later: enjoy your summer day, but please enjoy it safely.

Chicago Class: Class D recap

Congratulations to two Illinois players, David Sye and Terrence Aguinaldo, who tied for first in Class D with 4½-½ scores. (Sye's prize was limited to $500 because he had recently had a rating more than thirty points over the class ceiling; Aguinaldo won a full $1,000.)  Another local player, Ga Luang Liu, shared third place with Hongbin Chen of Michigan and Sean Cramer of Ohio: each won $166.67.

David Sye shares nice analysis of what could have occurred in his pawn ending in the money round in his post on chess.com.

(David titles his post "A complicated endgame position from the Chicago Class," but really, the position is easy if you've taken the time to learn some basic tricks--and there are several cute finesses in this simple-looking position. There might even be lines that David correctly doesn't mention because they're not Black's best try, but are still worth looking at....)

  Class D crosstable is here!

HAL 2000 plays chess

Albert Chow reminds us that yesterday would have been the late Stanley Kubrick's 84th birthday. Here's the most famous chess scene from a Kubrick film:



And here's a nice recap of the game that was the basis of HAL's combination:



For a scene from the noir masterpiece The Killing, see this earlier post.

The scene in The Killing is based on the Chess and Checker Club of New York, also known as the "Flea House," frequented by Kubrick, Bobby Fischer, and many dubious characters. As an innocent teenager visiting Manhattan in the 1970s, I stumbled across the Flea House. On my way up the stairs, I passed a gentleman and two ladies leaving the Flea House attired in such a way that I assumed the "Chess and Checker Club" was a cover name for a house of ill repute. (It was a Saturday night: who knows, I might have been right.) So I turned around and went back down the stairs....

Mesgen Amanov lecture & simul at North Shore Chess Center tomorrow!

Dutch grandmaster Loek Van Wely had to postpone his lecture, but the winner of the 2012 Chicago Class is a more than capable pinch-hitter. Mesgen is not just a great player, but a wonderful teacher! To spend six hours with a grandmaster for the bargain-basement price of $16.67 per hour is a wonderful deal. Details here!

Self-analysis is cheaper than psychotherapy

I had narrowly escaped against NM Nolan Hendrickson at King's Island last year: one would think that I would have learned not to challenge him in an objectively dead-drawn ending.  (Right around the time I made the losing blunder, I told Albert Chow that the game would be over soon: I was right about the timing, but wrong about the result.)

Chicago Class recap: Master Section

You know it's a tough event when you beat a GM and finish out of the money.  WGM Anna Sharevich knocked off GM Nikola Mitkov in round 4, but lost to GM Mesgen Amanov in round 2 and IM Qignam Liu in the final round: ridiculously difficult pairings.  And Gopal Menon defanged GM Mitkov's Grand Prix attack and drew IM Angelo Young in the first two rounds, but had less fun on Saturday night, as he got ground down by GM Dmitry Gurevich in a rather harmless-looking ending. You have just joined a very large club, Gopal.

Oh yes, prizewinners.  GM Amanov converted against IM Young in the last round and made his 4-1 first place on tiebreaks ($1,366.67) look routine.  FM Carl Boor continues to impress: he beat GM Gurevich's pet anti-Catalan system, grinding the grinder down in an ending (no mean feat). IM Qignam Liu also had a very steady event, highlighted by his last-round win against WGM Sharevich.  Both Boor and Qignam Liu won $1,266.67.

I had the pleasure of losing to Guijue Zhou in round 4: in the postmortem, she had the most kind and tactful way of suggesting to me the stupidity of my middlegame planning.  She, Matthew Marsh of Tennessee, and super-junior Kevin Cao of Missouri each won $466.67.

Hangover P.S.

Not the kind that kills brain cells, but the hangover one gets from playing five masters in one weekend. It certainly doesn't feel like I'm imagining mental exhaustion, but this article suggests otherwise.

"A brain without sugar is not a brain": this quotation is traditionally attributed to Alexander Alekhine, though I can't find the source.

Chicago Class hangover report

It's normal to feel exhausted on the morning after a weekend event.  I did not enjoy (deservedly) losing a superior bishop-vs.-knight ending in the last round, but I had fun!

The Nikola Mitkov-Gopal Menon time scramble in round one sounded like an metronome: I have never heard players move as quickly in tournament play as they did.

And it was pure joy to watch Carl Boor and William Aramil analyze a speculative queen sac in another player's Dragon Variation game: they got so engrossed in the possibilities that they were looking at a plethora of variations fifteen to twenty moves deep.

More later: for now, the crosstables are here!

Belated congratulations....

...to the newest National Master in Illinois, Jonathan Kogen!

Jacqueline Piatigorsky obituary in L.A. Times

What a life!

A beautiful miniature

I'm sure some of you have not seen this beautiful miniature, played in 2001 by GM Alex Yermolinsky against Indiana's Emory Tate, who became an IM in 2007. Tate likes to go his own way in the opening. Here he played a type of Schmid Benoni with 1.d4 c5 2.d5 e6 3.Nc3 (Yermo could have played 3.c4, with a regular Benoni) exd5?! 4.Nxd5. On White's sixth move, Fritz much prefers 6.Bf6! to Yermo's 6.Bh4, analyzing 6.Bf6! d6 (6...gxf6?? 7.Nxf6#) 7.Nxe7 Bxe7 (7...gxf6 8.Nxc8 leaves Black with a gruesome pawn structure and a bad bishop) 8.Bxg7 Rh7 9.Bc3, when Black is a pawn down, and against the "Yerminator" might as well resign. After 6.Bh4 Qa5+ 7.c3, Black would have been OK (Fritz says even slightly better) following 7...Nxd5! 8.Qxd5 Nc6 9.e4 d6. Instead, his 7...Nf5?? allowed a stunning coup. Take a look at the diagram below. Do you see it?

Ever since I saw this game, I have tried to pull off the same thing myself in blitz games. I succeeded in Rhine-NN, 5-minute game, playchess.com, November 19, 2007: 1.d4 c5 2.d5 e6 3.Nc3 exd5 4.Nxd5 d6 5.Nf3 Nf6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.e4 Qa5+ 8.c3 Nxe4?? 9.Qa4!! Qxa4 10.Nc7#.

A trap in the Franco-Sicilian

The Franco-Sicilian (1.e4 e6 2.d4 c5!?) is a tricky line that usually transposes to a standard Sicilian Defense after 3.Nf3 cxd4, to a Schmid Benoni after something like 3.d5 Nf6 4.Nc3 d6, or to standard Benoni lines after something like 3.d5 d6 4.c4. After 3.d5 Nf6 4.Nc3, my opponent played the weaker 4...exd5?!, allowing the strong 5.e5!. Now Black would not be too happy after 5...Ng8 6.Qxd5 or 5...Qe7 6.Qe2, and would drop a pawn after 5...Ne4 6.Nxe4 dxe4 7.Qd5. Instead, he played the tit-for-tat 5...d4??, as several other of my Internet opponents have done. This sort of thing may work OK in lines like the Alekhine-Scandinavian 1.e4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.e5 d4, but not here. I played 6.exf6 dxc3 7.Qe2+!, forcing Black to drop a piece with 7...Be7. Black resigned. Note that the clever 6...Qa5!? 7.Bd2 dxc3 8.Bxc3 Qb6 9.fxg7 would not have helped Black.

An old chestnut

It's been a long time since anyone has blundered into this trap against me. It's one of the oldest known opening traps. This entire game was first noted (and perhaps played) by Greco in 1619. Note that 6...Bg7!, as in Lombardy-Regan, New York 1974, is a big improvement over 6...Nf6?? Unfortunately for Black, as I've previously written, that line is busted too. My opponent lost the old-fashioned way, 1619 style.

See you at the Chicago Class!

Still time to enter on site tonight or tomorrow a.m.!

Jon Burgess made me post this game

Both Marty Wilber and I were a bit embarrassed by our play.  But the proud father of the tournament winner made nineteen excellent moves before falling for a coffeehouse tactic.

The best thing about tripled pawns...

...is that there are three of them.

In the last round of Saturday's Evanston Tri-Level, Matthew Wilber never really let me in the game.  While I was worried about getting mated, White shifted attention to the queenside and won in spite of the tripleton.  Or because of it!

With this smooth performance, Matthew won the "Liberté" section of the Bastille Day Tri-Level, scoring 3½-½.  NM Jon Burgess, Matthew Stevens, Zachary Holecek, Abe Sun, and Bill Brock tied for second with 3-1 scores. 

Ansari Amir won the Egalité section with a perfect 4-0; David Sye took clear second with 3-1.

Michael Feldmann won the Fraternité section with 3½-½; Kevin Taylor, Brandon Zborowski, Jerry Neugarten, and Blake Wolf tied for second with 3-1.

Thanks to Maret Thorpe and Evanston Chess for hosting fifty players at the Levy Senior Center!

Only a few hours left for Chicago Class early entry

You can still enter online for this weekend's event (it's in Wheeling, July 20-22 or 21-22, take your pick) after Monday, July 16, but it'll cost more.

I don't like to play chess for money: I find it a distraction.  On the other hand, I do cash my prize checks, and I bet you do, too.  This weekend's guaranteed prize fund is $20,000!  (As always, not guaranteed by me, but Bill Goichberg has been doing this since the 1960s....)

So enter now!

Details on ICA Tournament Calendar.

Preregister for the Illinois Open in Oak Brook this Labor Day weekend

$64, such a deal!  GMs Nikola Mitkov and Dmitry Gurevich are among the preregistrants.  (Yury Shulman is coaching the U.S. team at the Olympiad, and Mesgen Amanov may be repeating his Board 1 appearance for Turkmenistan, so you only have to fight your way past two Grandmasters this year.)  Angelo Young and Albert Chow are among the many-time winners looking to add another title to the collection.

Here's a link.

Albert Chow annotates...

Albert selected some interesting games from the Chicago Open to annotate for the ICA website.  In this first installment, 1.e4 (best by test) is featured.

Enjoy!