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!

Don't ask me what's going on....

As someone who gave up on the King's Indian more than twenty years ago, I always root for the queenside attack. So FM Eric Rosen (who usually doesn't throw pieces to the wind) makes me happy in the following game.  A piece gets sacked on 28, then an Exchange a few moves later...so I guess that's a deferred rook sacrifice.

Black sacs back to reach a not-quite-tenable rook ending, and Eric gets to display his typical outstanding technique.

The talented loser of this game, IM Daniel Naroditsky, is the author of the second third book I've ever read that was written by a teenager (I'm not sure that I finished Une Saison en Enfer, post pedantically amended to include Radiguet's Le Diable au Corps: oh you Frenchies). Naroditsky's Mastering Positional Chess is strongly recommended.

Ed. Lasker-Thomas redux

The king hunt and conclusion of the game below are a bit reminiscent of the famous game Ed. Lasker-Thomas, London 1912. Had my opponent and I played 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.h5 d6, we might have repeated Mora-Suttles, Tel Aviv (ol) 1964, another spectacular game that ended with a queen sacrifice and a draw by perpetual check.

New chess club in River North Wednesday nights

Bienvenido to UNAM Chess Club!  Keith Ammann reports on the ICA website.

6:00 to 8:30 Wednesday nights at 350 W. Erie (hmm: a leisurely stroll from my office).

Two more Yury Shulman chess camps this summer!

The 2008 U.S. champion (and third-place finisher in the just-finished World Open) is offering two more camps this summer.  One is next week in Barrington, the other is July 30 to August 3 in Palatine.

Both camps feature a four-grandmaster lineup: Yury Shulman, Mesgen Amanov, Alexander Onischuk, and Gregory Kaidanov: very impressive.  More info here!

Chess camps with IM Florin Felecan

Hot off the email.  As always, no warranty, express or implied...but Florin is a really nice person and a wonderful teacher :-)

Chess Camps with International Master Florin Felecan

July 16th - July 20th

August 13th - 17th

Location: North Shore Chess Center

Address: 5500 West Touhy Ave Suite A Skokie, IL 60077

Hours: 9:00am - 12pm for beginners (unrated - 899) | 1:00pm - 4pm for intermediate (900 - 1600)

Max # of Attendees: 16 per group

Fee: $225 per week

Cash / Checks ok - due the first day of camp. Snacks provided.

Send registration information to ffelecan2000@gmail.com and contain name, age, & rating of camper.

Tournament at North Shore Chess Center this weekend!

Another email cut-and-paste.  (I really like the Plus-Score format!)


12th North American Amateur Open
Saturday and Sunday July 14th & 15
Plus Score Event!

 

Saturday and Sunday July 14th and 15th - North Shore Chess Center (Skokie, IL) 12th NA Amateur Open - 4R-SS G/90 + 30/sec increment. North Shore Chess Center, 5500 West Touhy Ave., Suite A, Skokie, IL 60077.847.423.8626. EF: $40 for non-members of the chess center, $30 for members of the chess center received by 7/11.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: 11am and 4pm each day. Half-point byes available in any round except final round. Prizes: 4.0 = $100, 3.5 = $75, 3.0 = $50, 2.5 = $25; Top U1800 & U1600 - DGT 960 clock or DGT NA Clock. Comparble prizes provided if you have previously won these prizes. Biggest Upset (150+ points): Free entry to following month Amateur Open tournament + book prize. Parking: Free self-parking. Online registration only. Additional questions email to: sevan@nachess.org. USCF & FIDE rated. For online registration and list of more events please visit -www.nachess.org/events. More info and registration seehttp://www.nachess.org/events. Max 40 participants.

$5 chess in Evanston this Saturday!

Another email cut-and-paste:

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

Evanston Chess Presents:

July 14, 2012, 9:00am-5:00pm

Tri-Level, 4SS G/40 delay 5

Three Sections, USCF Dual Rated

Our guest master will be NM Jon Burgess

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 determines 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.

Four rounds. Digital clocks are required and will be set to G/40 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.

Pre-registration is encouraged: Help us start on time. 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.

Welcome to FM Carl Boor

...who, I learn from the World Open crosstables and the magic of Googling, is now teaching in Chicagoland!

Check out Carl's website.  I can't recall having met the gentleman, but he seems to be doing OK in the World Open (click on standings of the Under 2400 section, not yet final as of 2 a.m. Chicago time).

P.S. Monday a.m. - Carl tied for first.  NM William Aramil won his last two games to finish in the money in the same section.

Chess is hard, installment #17,421

Here's a position from a game that GM Yury Shulman played on Friday at the World Open:

Shulman-Ludwig, World Open 2012
Black to play

Try to find Black's best move in the above position: not easy!

From the World Open

GM Nikola Mitkov finds some weaknesses to exploit: