Last-round pairings at K-8 Nationals

I believe that play is already over; no results posted online yet....Board "65" is top board in this event.

65.     Mc Clanahan, Gav (5.5,ILG009,1958)     Karamsetty, Jeev (5.5,VAH001,2158) 
66.     Li, Brian S (5.5,VAC003,2044)          Black, James A,  (5.5,NYI318,2156) 
67.     Deatrick, Alexan (5.5,MIA007,1916)     Colas, Joshua (5.0,NYW006,2181) 
68.     Wang, Tianqi (5.0,NCJMRO,1998)         Pershad, Yash (5.0,AZS011,1755) 
69.     Feng, Danny (5.0,NYI318,1993)          Wolfe, Tip (5.0,VAMOOD,1908) 
70.     Attanagoda, Isur (5.0,VALOUA,1958)     Williams, Rashaw (5.0,NYI318,1778) 
71.     Best, Ronald, Jr (5.0,MDB015,1753)     Fishbein, Matthe (5.0,MEC002,1942) 
72.     Sen, Samir (4.5,WAV007,2067)           Mittal, Rohan (4.5,AZT003,1794) 
73.     Berman, Jacob (4.5,NYN007,1821)        Ainsworth, Micha (4.5,NYW006,1993) 
74.     Holecek, Zachary (4.5,ILDWJH,1907)     Kim, David (4.5,NYI318,1777) 
75.     Zinski, Maximili (4.5,ILW006,1770)     Li, Richard Zide (4.5,VAC003,1902) 
76.     Cao, Alvin (4.5,VAF001,1735)           Bian, Alex (4.5,ILDWJH,1839) 
77.     Mhaskar, Rohan (4.5,WIB003,1825)       Daniel, Tarun (4.5,GARIVE,1585) 
78.     Kobajlo, Jakob (4.5,NYI318,1643)       Moon, Kyle (4.0,NYP126,2045) 
79.     Chen, Jackson (4.0,COSUMM,1916)        Garcia, John Pau (4.0,NYI318,1697) 
80.     Song, Edward (4.0,MIBOUL,1912)         Mathine, Thomas (4.0,AZT021,1697) 
81.     Oberhaus, Conrad (4.0,ILDWJH,1888)     Bikus, Joey (4.0,ILM004,1689) 
82.     Dommalapati, Abh (4.0,VAF001,1692)     Bagley, Taylor M (4.0,KYL010,1885) 
83.     Schein, Aaron O (4.0,NYHORA,1867)      Cai, Jesse (4.0,VALONG,1686) 
84.     Zhou, Jonathan (4.0,INCANT,1699)       Marupudi, Pranav (4.0,NJM009,1857) 
85.     Chu, Ken N (4.0,NCC017,1839)           Lu, Mandy (4.0,MIP002,1685) 
86.     Tuff, Sean Theod (4.0,MNFALC,1652)     Nguyen, Kendrick (4.0,AZS016,1821) 
87.     Li, Hans (4.0,VAC003,1646)             Chen, Derek H (4.0,AZT003,1817) 
88.     Bhatta, Rohit (4.0,TXE008,1676)        Mendez, Fernando (4.0,TXVELA,1812) 
89.     Whitehorn, Grego (4.0,PAP002,1810)     Naguleswaran, Ann (4.0,OHDCE,1644) 
90.     Santoyo, Edgar A (4.0,TXVELA,1644)     Rivera, Randy (4.0,NYI318,1800) 
91.     Mo, Jack (4.0,PAP007,1614)             Coulter, Jarod M (4.0,AZC010,1791) 
92.     Shankar, Roshan  (4.0,ILW002,1592)     Khattar, Tanmay (4.0,VAF001,1765) 
93.     Rajasekaran, Vig (4.0,VAMOOD,1725)     Chandler, Camero (4.0,NCC003,1525) 
94.     Pennock, Joshua  (4.0,AZT003,1493)     Sun, Abe (4.0,ILG011,1717) 
95.     Lorenzon, Marco (4.0,MIA006,1715)      Li, Haoxuan (4.0,NCJMRO,1476) 
96.     Mc Clanahan, Bry (3.5,ILG009,1845)     Budejen-Jerez, A (4.0,PAJRMA,1256) 

4-round Swiss at North Shore CC tomorrow

If you drop me an email for your event, I'll generally cut-and-paste the notice "as-is."  Sometimes I forget: it's OK to remind me!

Sunday April 17 

North Shore Chess Center G/45 - 4R-SS G/45 + 10/sec increment. North Shore Chess Center, 5500 West Touhy Ave Suite A, Skokie, IL 60077.847.423.8626. EF: $20 for non-members of the chess center, $15 for members of the chess center received by 4/16. All $5 more onsite. Onsite registration - up to 15 minutes prior to round 1 or round 2. If registering prior to round 2, you will receive a half-point bye for round 1. Round times: 1pm for round one and then 15 minutes after final game from previous round completed. Half-point byes available in any round. Prizes: Book prizes for top three finishers. Biggest upset (150+ points): Free entry to following month G/45 + book prize.Parking: Free self-parking. Mail entries with registration information to:North American Chess Association (make checks payable to), 4957 Oakton Street Suite 113, Skokie, IL 60077. Online registration preferred. Additional questions email to: sevan@nachess.org. USCF rated. For online registration and list of more events please visit - http://www.nachess.org/events

Scott Silverman Memorial next Saturday

I made travel plans before I knew about this event.to honor the memory of our friend Scott....

Scott Silverman Memorial Tournament

Saturday April 23, 2011. The Scott Silverman Memorial. $750 guaranteed prize fund. 4R-SS G/60 + 5/sec delay. 

Prizes: 1st place - $250, 2nd place - $150, Top U2200, U2000, 1800, 1600, 1400 - $70 each, Biggest upset per round - chess prize (minimum 150 point rating difference).  The field will be limited to 6 players rated over 2200 by invitation only with the remainder to be U2200 by open registration. 

Rd Times: Rd 1 @ 10am; next rounds 15 minutes after final games complete from previous round. 

EF: $20 online (http://www.nachess.org/events) or onsite.  No postal entries. Hard limit of 40 participants. 

Other info: April supplement used. USCF rated. USCF Membership Required. All equipment provided. 

Location: North Shore Chess Center 5500 W Touhy Ave Suite A Skokie, IL 60077. Questions - sevan@nachess.org.

IS 318 in Chicago

Girls from Elizabeth Vicary's famous IS 318 team in Brooklyn came to Chicago to participate in the All Girls, and (not surprisingly) did rather well.  Read all about it!

Vicary analyzing with her student Mariah

Moya-Cogshell, Chicago 2011

White to play and win

Analyze forcing moves first!

Games from Downers Grove

Daniel Parmet presents a very nice overview of the action at ICA's Chess Blog.

The following howler makes me feel a little better about my own blunders (as it did for Daniel).  Strong masters do silly things, too...though not as often.

Monokroussos-Stamnov, Downers Grove 2011

Black answered 58.Qe5 with 58...Rf7?? 

2012 K-8 Championship scheduled for Rockford

Details on the ICA website!

Grandmaster Josh Friedel simul at North Shore Chess Center

 
19 wins; 2 draws.  Story and games at Chess Life Online!

So what do chess and tennis have in common?

Jim Egerton explains here.  (Via tennis dad Brad Rosen.)  Do check out Jim's Chess Now website!

Chess meetup in Evanston

Another cut-and-paste:

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

Apr 16, 2011
12 noon - 4 p.m.
Chess Meet-up

Evanston Chess Club will hold an open chess session on Saturday, April 16 from noon to 4 p.m. Stop by and play as many -- or as few games -- as you want. Players of all strengths, age 14 years and older are welcome.

We're sponsoring this Chess Meet-Up as part of the International chess.com meetup. We're extending a special welcome to chess.com online players in our area to come out and play over-the-board.

No registration required. For more information, please contact Maret Thorpe as noted below.
Send name, USCF number, and telephone number to Maret Thorpe enter@evanstonchess.org
Bring clocks. -- Wheelchair accessible. No Smoking.

Final results of All Girls National

...are on the Renaissance Knights website.

Congratulations to Penny Xu, who took 2nd place in Girls' Under 18, and to Adele Padgett, who tied for first (taking 2nd on the fourth tiebreak!) in Girls' Under 16.  Story to follow on Chess Life Online.

After three rounds of All Girls National Championships

Standings are on Renaissance Knights' website; play concludes tomorrow!

Dennis Monokroussos wins Downers Grove

FM Dennis Monokroussos won a powerful Swiss today organized by Daniel Parmet and the Downers Grove Chess Club.  Monokroussos beat Matthew Holloway, Gregory Bungo, Isaac Braswell, and FM Aleksandar Stamnov to score 4-0. 

IM Florin Felecan and FM Albert Chow drew on Board 1 in the final round to tie for second with 3½-½.

Alex Ziqi Ding beat NM Trevor Magness to earn a provisional USCF rating of 2286; Ding, Braswell, Stamnov, Chenliang Luo (who upset FM Aun Thant Zin in round 2), Awonder Liang, and Benjamin Stern tied for fourth with 3-1 scores.

Crosstable here!

IM Josh Manion featured in April Chess Life

Josh Manion & Julie Oberweis

...not that many years ago!

Courtesy of Chess Life, Andi Rosen's interview with Josh Manion is now available on the ICA website.  

As long as we've got the family photo album open, here's Julie on the cover of the July-August 1991 ICB.

Tireless Wikipedian Frederick Rhine

One of the co-editors of this blog gets well-deserved kudos at Dana Blogs Chess for his contributions to WikiProject: Chess.

Frederick and I rewrote large sections of Wikipedia's Bobby Fischer article a couple of years ago.  This reminds me that I need to write a review of Frank Brady's Endgame after tax season, as the article's weakness mirrors one of the biggest flaws in Brady's book (otherwise strongly recommended!): the coverage of Fischer's miracle years 1970-71 is embarrassingly thin.

223 preregistered for All Girls National Championship!

Here's the current registration list for this USCF National Event, here in Chicago this weekend!

There's still time to enter: fortunately for the out-of-towners, the All Girls is at the Doubletree Mag Mile (and not some godforsaken suburban location, far away from tourist attractions and public transportation).

Rosen-Magness, Skokie 2011

Here's one of the two decisive games from the last round of the Illinois Denker Qualifier (which, just to refresh your collective memory, is the Illinois Chess Association's High School Invitational Championship).

I'm very impressed by Magness's choicce on move three!

Rosen-Magness, Skokie 2011

Black to play

3...c5 was Karpov's choice against Korchnoi in the 1978 world championship.  The idea of swapping the c-pawn for White's d-pawn is positionally sound, and Black scores well with this variation.  But I always felt a little uncomfortable after 4.e5 Ng8.  The artificial isolation of the e5 pawn offsets White's space and time advantages, but doesn't make the opening fun to play!  And Karpov lost that game.

After 4...Ng8: White to play

Would you be comfortable with the Black pieces?

3...d5 is the most popular move here, but White just seems to have a nice position after 4.e5 d4 5.exf6 dxc3 6.bxc3 Qxf6 7.d4.

After 7.d4: Black to play

Seems pleasant for White!

Trevor's radical choice was new to me, but it's been played recently by the Filipino prodigy Wesley So:

After 3...e5!?

Beginner's move or brilliant idea?

One idea behind Black's deliberate waste of time is that White's combination of e2-e4 and c2-c4 is double-edged, as dark squares are weakened.  Another way of looking at this position: it's as if this were a Vienna Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6) in which White gets the move c2-c4 "for free," but the value of the extra tempo is unclear.  Anyway, 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.d4 cxc4 6.Nxd4 seems like a critical continuation.  White would love to trick Black into an advantageous version of the Scotch Four Knights (recall that there's a line in which White plays Nc3-a4 to gain space with c2-c4), but Black doesn't have to allow such nonsense.

In the game above, Eric played more quietly against Trevor, and didn't get anything from the opening.  If I can learn a new move on move three of an opening that I defended against for twenty years, then I've got to believe that chess is still full of surprises!

After busy season, I'll have more to say about this game on the ICA website.  Perhaps in the interim, folks can explain this opening to me :-)

Photos from this weekend on the "ICA Warren Junior Chess Scholars" Facebook page

Here's the link: enjoy! 

(Fixed broken link...I hope!)

Wendi Fischer of America's Foundation for Chess featured in USA Today

Check it out!  AF4C has a substantial Chicago presence.

Tragicomedy with major pieces

Here's the 2nd round game between NM Eric Rosen and NM Adarsh Jayakumar from this weekend's Denker Qualifier.  As both players had dropped points in the first round, the loser would be eliminated from contention for first. 

Rosen-Jayakumar, Skokie 2011 
Black to move

So you're playing the Black pieces in the position above.  You've just made the "standard" rook for five pawns sacrifice, and White's king is walking.  But you're living off the thirty-second increment, which means you've got to come up with the best move quickly.  What do you do?

Look for the answer (and annotations) on the ICA website  in a few days.

Special thanks to Adarsh Jayakumar for seeing the humor in this painful loss!

Chicago connections - Tim Redman

The Filipino IM Julio Catalino Sadorra, who plays for the University of Texas at Dallas, just earned his third GM norm in a grandmasters-vs.-UTD students "Scheveningen style" event.

So what's the Chicago connection, and why am I linking to an article in a Manila business paper?  The answer: Tim Redman.