Groucho and Kashdan

Evanston Chess update

Bill Smythe vs. FM Albert Chow
How many times have these two played each other?

Maret Thorpe writes:

Evanston Chess Club usually holds open chess for high school age and over on Tuesday evenings. Problem is, this year Christmas Day and New Year's Day both fall on Tuesday. But we have a solution! For two weeks only, Tuesday night chess will migrate to...Wednesday night. That's right, you can come to the Levy Activity Center on Wednesday, December 26 and Wednesday, January 2 and play chess from 6:30-9:00 p.m. As always, sets are supplied and there is no entry fee. On January 8, we'll be back to our usual Tuesday night schedule. Look forward to seeing you all there.

Follow the link for a report on last month's Tri-Level.

A trap in Philidor's Defense

Philidor's Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6) has experienced a resurgence of popularity in recent years. However, Black often tries sophisticated move orders, such as 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.Bc4 Be7, to reach the main line. The traditional 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nd7, the Hanham Variation, seen in the game below, has tactical problems. After 4.Bc4!, Black must already be careful. Then 4...Be7? loses a pawn to 5.dxe5 Nxe5 (5...dxe5?? 6.Qd5!) 6.Nxe5 dxe5 7.Qh5!. So does 4...Nf6?, after 5.dxe5! Nxe5 (5...Nxe4?? 6.Qd5!; 5...dxe5? 6.Ng5!) 6.Nxe5 dxe5 7.Bxf7+ Kxf7 8.Qxd8 Bb4+ 9.Qd2 Bxd2+ 10.Nxd2. Also bad, though complicated, is 4...h6?, when White has 5.dxe5 dxe5 (5...Nxe5 6.Nxe5 dxe5 7.Bxf7+) 6.Bxf7+! Kxf7 7.Nxe5+! Kf6 (best) and now White's best is 8.Nc3!, offering another piece. Instead, Black usually plays 4...c6!, when the main line is 5.Nc3 Be7 6.dxe5 dxe5 7.Ng5! Bxg5 8.Qh5!, winning the bishop pair, which scores very well for White.

An unusual but promising alternative is 5.Ng5!? Nh6 6.a4. Then 6...exd4 may be best, although White won crushingly in Blehm-Popek, 2000. Also possible is 6...a5, although Black fared badly in Pavasovic-Barle, 1997. Nimzowitsch played the eccentric 6...Qf6?!, got a horrid position, but somehow managed to draw in Leonhardt-Nimzowitsch, match 1911.

The most plausible move is 6...Be7?. Amazingly, however, it loses Black's queen by force! After 7.Bxf7+! (again this shot!) Nxf7 8.Ne6! Black has only two squares for the queen. Best is 8...Qa5+ 9.Bd2 Qb6 10.a5! Qxb2 11.Bc3!, trapping the queen, as in Philidor (!) -NN, 1795. Even worse is 8...Qb6 9.a5!, also losing the queen, but for less material. In our subject game, Black resigned after 9...Qb4+ 10.c3! Qc4 11.Nc7+ Kd8 12.b3!

"Mate in 196"

Daniel Parmet reports from behind the scenes at the London Chess Classic for Chess Life Online.

Thirty Days

Imagine yourself playing chess in an attractive and comfortable gathering place, surrounded by players of all ages and backgrounds, knowing that you're part of a community and a larger scene. One of the things you love about it is that there's a rated tournament going on whenever you're in the mood, on weekday evenings as well as on weekends, including events for beginners and players new to tournament chess. Another is that, whatever your strength, there's a class you can take that will help you reach the next level. And it's not in New York, San Francisco or St. Louis, but right here at home in Chicago.

You can donate now to the Chicago Chess Center, because you'll be giving to support the creation of a new civic and educational institution.

Your donation will help the Chicago Chess Center secure a site, open its doors, and begin holding classes and tournaments starting this coming May. To make this happen, we're starting a 30-day fundraising campaign to raise $30,000 by Jan. 18, 2013. We're ready to fulfill our promise to you, and we need your support right now:

• Make your tax-deductible donation now for 2012, or send us an e-mail and pledge the amount you'll give after the new year in 2013.
  
  
• If you've already donated -- and even if you haven't yet -- share our message with family and friends, along with other chess enthusiasts, curious beginners, and anyone who supports education or civic improvement causes.
  
  
• We've announced our membership rates and benefits! Have you thought of giving a Chicago Chess Center membership as a gift? Whether you join as a member yourself or buy a membership for a friend or family member, all memberships purchased before we open our doors will include free entry to up to three tournaments.
  
  In addition, whether you buy a regular membership or donate $250 or more and join our Founders' Court, you'll receive discounts on classes, lectures and tournament entry fees; eligibility to compete in the annual Chicago Chess Center championship tournament; free admission during open play hours; and wireless Internet access on-site.
  

Thank you for your interest and your support. As always, please feel free to e-mail us with any questions you may have.


P.S. Thirty thousand dollars in 30 days . . . that's $1,000 a day! We can do this with your help. Please give now and show that after 22 years without one, Chicago is ready to support a centrally located metropolitan chess club again. And please spread the word to everyone you know.

"Don't Stigmatize Asperger's Syndrome..."

As we've previously mentioned, chess is a wonderful activity for our friends with Asperger's syndrome.

Last week's tragedy might lead otherwise well-meaning people to jump to incorrect conclusions.  That would not be cool.

2013 Winter Open Scholastic

If your child is new to tournament chess and you feel that playing in Tim Just's Winter Open might be a bit too challenging for her or him, there's a nice one- day event running alongside the TJWO on Saturday, January 5th.

Play begins at noon and you can be home in time for dinner: info here.

The clock is ticking....

We're trying to get the Chicago Chess Center open by May 1, 2013, and in the next 35 days, we need to raise another $27,955—give or take a buck or two —to turn this vision into reality.

What's in it for you and me?  The CCC will be a home for serious tournament play virtually ever weekend, and for for individual and group instruction from absolute beginners to advanced levels.  And we want to make it accessible to everyone in Chicago—at the risk of setting an impossibly lofty goal, the CCC aspires to be to chess players what the Old Town School of Folk Music is to guitar players.

If you haven't already visited the CCC's home page, please stop by to learn more!  And if you have already donated, we'd appreciate it if you could consider upgrading your donation level to join our Founders' Court.  It's OK not to donate before December 31st—this stage of our fundraising campaign is open until January 18th, and we appreciate that many charitably inclined folks like to take the tax consequences into consideration.

Finally, if you'd like to make an in-kind donation (whether it be books for the Center's library or that 2005 Mercedes taking up space in your garage), please drop us a line.  We can turn cars etc. into cash via eBay's Giving Works auction program and provide you with the paperwork to making the charitable contribution kosher in IRS's eyes.  (Or if you'd like to go for the Caissic equivalent of sainthood, you can run eBay Giving Works auctions yourself, and the proceeds can be automatically donated to the Center via Missionfish: please don't hesitate to ask for help on this!)

It's been humbling to get so much support from the community: thank you all for you interest and your support!

Jan 5-6 in Oak Brook: Tim Just's Winter Open

Officially, they're calling it the XXVIIIth edition of the TJWO, but it became clear a couple years ago that Tim had lost count, so let's just say it's the "umpteenth" edition of this great event.

Details on the ICA website.

Enter here!  It's a fun weekend that draws a lot of underrated young players.

ChessFlash KnightVision

This looks like a nice app for beginners: training in manuevering the horsie!  Available in Android now; Apple version under development.

The author, Glenn Wilson, wrote the ChessFlash reader used on this blog.

Provisional congratulations....

...to Chicago's newest National Master (a title that's more than a decade overdue, in my opinion). Out of Senn High School, meet NM Tam Nguyen!

Hat tip to Sevan Muradian via Chicago Area Chess.

Soundness never tasted so good

Another silly but amusing Internet blitz game. The reader will doubtless be able to find several thousand refutations of my play. 14.Kc2 e3+ 15.Bd3 looks like a good start.

As for the opening, after my 3...dxe4 we transposed to a Blackmar-Diemer Gambit. White's offbeat 4.Bg5!? seems to score very well in the databases, though I suspect that not too many of the players were GMs. Note that 3...Nxe4 4.Nxe4 dxe4, the Hubsch Gambit, was also possible. Gallagher in his book Beating the Anti-King's Indians (1996) says that "the Hubsch Gambit is not so bad and . . . Black can probably only obtain an equal game." OTOH, John Cox in Dealing with d4 Deviations (2005) says that White "finds it awkward to demonstrate any compensation at all" after 5.Bc4 Nc6 6.c3 e5 7.d5 Ne7 8.f3 exf3 9.Nxf3 c6! 10.Nxe5 Nxd5 (10.d6 Nf5 11.Nxe5 Qh4+) 11.Qe2 Be7 12.Be3 Be6 13.O-O O-O 14.Rad1 Qc7; 5.Be3 Bf5 6.g4 Bg6 7.Ne2 e6 8.h4 h6 9.Nf4 Bh7; or 5.f3 e5! 6.Be3 (6.fxe4 Qxd1+ 7.Kxd1 Bf5 8.fxe4 Bxe4 9.Nf3 Nc6 10.Bd3 Rd8 "may still offer White some chances to hold on") cxd4 7.Bxd4 Nc6 8. Be3 Qxd1+ 9.Rxd1 Nb4.

London Chess Classic winding up

Daniel Parmet, who is working the London Chess Classic for the second consecutive year, passes along this link to a charitable auction of LCC memorabilia.  As of now, the prices are reasonable!  (Warning: you'll be bidding against me in one of them.)  Daniel posted photos of the event via the Chicago Area Chess Facebook page.

As you can find out from the usual chess websites (ChessBase for example), Hikaru Nakamura is doing well in London, and Magnus Carlsen is playing phenomenally.

In the romantic style

I had the pleasure of analyzing with Stefan Musikic this afternoon, who showed me one of his recent games.  He's an attacking player who thinks in paragraphs, and he's not quite eight years old.  Stefan was the top finisher in the Advanced Section of today's YCFC event at Rickover Naval Academy.

This game was played earlier this year in the All Grade; the loser, Jai Mahajan, tied for second in the event, and had a promising position in this game until Jai fell into Stefan's trap.

White has three mates in two in the diagrammed position: which one is the prettiest?

YCFC event this weekend at Rickover Naval Academy

Mike Cardinale reminds us that the Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago will have an event this Saturday at Rickover Naval Academy (Rickover is part of the Senn High School campus in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood, on the Far North Side).  Email cut-and-paste follows:

A final reminder that the second YCFC tournament of

the year takes place this Saturday, December 8th, at

Rickover Naval Academy, with details reprinted below.

 New rosters and roster additions are due Thursday.

Also, please reply with a an estimated number of players

if you haven't already done so.  This is also important

for coaches who wish to reserve a team room! 

Once again, we'll put Will Tseng to the test with a

warm-up clock simul, beginning at approximately 9:30.

All are welcome to participate.

December 8th Tournament at Rickover

Rickover Naval Academy

5900 N. Glenwood (1400 West), just south of Thorndale

Entrance/Parking:  we will be using Door 10 on the west

   side of the building, facing Ridge Ave.  We'll have use of

   the parking lot adjacent to the entrance at Door 10.  The

   entrance to the lot is on Thorndale, which is the street

   bordering the north side of the school.  Thorndale is a

   one-way street heading west, so you will need to approach

   the school from the east on Thorndale to enter the lot.

   There should also be some street parking available.

Schedule:  Registration   9:00 - 9:30

                  Tournament  10:00 - 3:00

                  Trophy Presentation  3:15 (est.)

   All players must check-in at the tournament site by 9:30!

   Late arrivals will not be paired in the first round.

3 Sections:  Novice K-4, Novice 5-8, Advanced

   Unrated, K-8, no entry fee 

   Swiss-style, 5 rounds (est.), USCF standard tiebreaks

   G/20 + 3 sec. increment in Advanced section when clocks are available

   Notation required in the Advanced section

Awards:  Individual trophies to the top 10 in both novice

               sections.  Individual trophies to the top 6 in the

               advanced section.  Team trophies to the top

               three teams in both novice sections.  Team trophy

               to top team in the advanced section.  Team score

               calculated by top four scores in novice sections,

               top three scores in advanced.

Entries:  YCFC uses a roster system for tournament entries.

              All players on submitted rosters are eligible to play in

              any YCFC tournament during the scholastic year.

              Submit rosters, including name, grade, school and

              section to accounting@apartmentpeople.com, or by

              fax to 773-248-1007, attn: Mike Cardinale, no later than

              Thursday, December 6th.

              All players must check-in on site by 9:30.

Coaches:  Please let me know if you plan on attending with

                a rough estimate of the number of players by

                Thursday, December 6th.

Thanks to Principal Michael Biela for welcoming us back to Rickover this year!

Wrapup - 2012 Illinois Class Championships

Jim Froehlich (left) plays  Mario Bartocci

Keith Ammann reports on the ICA website!

There are more photos at illinoisclass.com.

Speaking of which, didn't Ruy López de Segura advise his readers to place the chess board in such a way that their opponents would be blinded by the light of sun?  Two veteran Illinois tournament players  discovered that artificial light works equally well:

Giving a new meaning to "reflection":
neither player has been identified at the time of this post

Hardware from Orlando

Sam Schmakel (left) already has more than his share of national trophies; Matthew Stevens has plenty of time to catch up.

Photo: Jennifer Stevens

National K-12: finals

Final results are in from Orlando. Trash talk: were I allowed to play hors concours at age 54, I am confident I could win the 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-grade sections, and I think I could be competitive all the way through eighth grade. (But against the high schoolers, I'd be hopelessly outclassed.)

Congratulations to Sam Schmakel, who tied for the 11th-grade title: unofficially, Sam is second on tiebreaks.

 Nathaniel Kranjc and Gavin McClanahan tied for fifth in the 10th-grade section.

Matthew Stevens tied for second in the 6th-grade section.

Shreya Mangalam was playing for the 4th-grade title in the final round.

Stolen from NM William Aramil's Facebook page:

Nationals in Orlando has officially ended. Overall, it went pretty well. I didn't find anytime to go to Disney World though.

Whitney Young won a National Blitz Championship!! Two players placed 4th and 5th. Two pairs of teammates came in 3rd and 4th in bughouse. The Seniors came in 4th place as a team in the main tournament.

Sam Schmakel did it AGAIN and is a National Co-Champion for all 11th graders!! He was a champion his freshman and sophomore year of high school. Can he win next year and make it a clean sweep for all four years of high school? I don't think it has ever been done!?

Overall, most players played well and gained rating points. Good job to the Whitney Young team!

Support Makes All the Difference

Although I learned the rules of chess when I was 8 years old, for much of my life the game was an exercise in frustration: getting clobbered by computer programs for reasons I couldn't understand, gleaning morsels of knowledge without being able to apply them, believing there must be something about it (or about me) that kept it just beyond the reach of my intelligence. It wasn't until five years ago that I finally began to acquire a real understanding of the game. Now I know that chess is within anyone’s reach -- if you can find the right books or the right teacher. But how much sooner could I have discovered this, how much more success could I have enjoyed, if only I’d had access to a welcoming, encouraging community of chess players who showed me how much more there is to learning chess beyond simply knowing the rules? What if there had been an open and inclusive chess scene that celebrated and rewarded the interest of the novice as well as the triumphs of the expert? What if I could have taken a class someplace to get brought up to speed?

These questions, among others, motivated me to form Chicago Chess Center NFP Inc. in the hope of establishing a new metropolitan chess center in Chicago -- not just a club, but the heart of a vibrant and expanded chess scene that reflects the diversity of our city. A comfortable destination and gathering place. An educational and civic institution. A home as much for the casual player and the curious beginner as for the rising prodigy and the accomplished master.

Please donate today to help us open our doors in 2013.

Your generosity will help us secure a lease on a site, obtain furniture and equipment, and begin offering classes for players of all ages and skill levels, along with a full calendar of U.S. Chess Federation–rated events.

Contribute $250 or more to become a member of our Founders' Court and receive all the benefits of membership plus free instruction, access to exclusive events and more—or give whatever amount you can afford.

For more information, visit our website or e-mail us at info@chichess.org.

Sincerely,

Keith Ammann

President

Chicago Chess Center NFP Inc.

P.S. We need at least $30,000 just to open our doors, and we can't get there without your help! We're serious about creating a stable and viable institution that will survive through our first year of operation and beyond. The sooner we reach our goal, the sooner we can offer our programs to you. Please donate today—and please share our message with your family and friends.

"Every Russian Schoolboy Knows" Akhmilovskaya

Grandmaster Alexander Yermolinsky's lecture series is itself justification for Internet Chess Club membership.

Yermo's most recent lecture is an appreciation of the chess career of Elena Akhmilovskaya Donaldson, who died of brain cancer last month.

Our condolences to her family, friends, and students in Seattle and around the world.