Cookout to benefit the Chicago Chess Center!

Date:

Sunday, September 8

Place:


Lakeview Men's Club
2732 N Pine Grove Ave
Chicago, IL 60614

Donation:

$20

Come out and eat, drink and socialize at the Lakeview Men's Club at a cookout to benefit the Chicago Chess Center. All proceeds go to the CCC. Cash bar. Ages 21 and over.
 

Assassinating the Sniper

David Peng wins Under 10 Gold at Pan Ams!

Check out Aviv Friedman's article on Chess Life Online.

Photo courtesy Chess Life Online.  

Back row: Jessica Regam, Armen Ambartsoumian, Aviv Friedman, Andranik Matikozyan, Agata Bykhovtsev
Front row: Aasa  Dolammapati, Naomi Bashkansky, Aksithi Eswaran, David Peng, Kevin Cole.

U.S. Open decompression

Back from Madison!  I dropped 42 (!) rating points.  There's some rough justice: I'd been playing poorly & somehow gaining ELO.  At the U.S. Open, I played well enough to have a mediocre event: my opponents did not permit me that luxury.

As for real players: NM Sam Schmakel (right in below picture) was still in contention for the national title in the final round, but lost to IM Mackenzie Molner (left) in yesterday's final round. Schmakel, FM Eric Rosen, and NM William Aramil all finished with 7-2 scores, a full point off the 8-1 score posted by IM Molner, GM Julio Sadorra, and GM Joshua Friedel.


MSA crosstable here.

Another Internet game

White makes some instructive mistakes in this game, in effect a Sicilian Dragon by transposition from the Sozin, Benko Variation (6...Qb6).

William Aramil at the U.S. Open

It's really not fair to William and his excellent tournament to show this game: he has five wins and two losses to Grandmasters.

Eric Rosen at the U.S. Open

Eric has six wins and a loss to the tournament leader, GM Aleksandr Lenderman.

Is prosopagnosia related to "amaurosis scacchistica"?

Prosopagnosia (which Keith Ammann taught me how to pronounce) is a fancy word for "face blindness."  This is my third day at the U.S. Open, and it's embarrassing to me to speak to a new friend for ten minutes while desperately trying to remember who that person is.  So when you come to Middleton, Wisconsin, this week to play in the Open (or just to visit), kindly reintroduce yourself as you shake my hand.  It's not you, it's me, and I'll be grateful.

Amaurosis schacchistica is Dr. Tarrasch's tongue-in-cheek term for "chess blindness."  Wikipedia's definition: "the failure of a chess player, during a chess game, to make a normally obvious good move or see a normally obvious danger."  Well, that summarizes my Round 2.  In the position below, I have a clearly winning position, and managed to lose. 

Bill Brock - Mohammedreza Hajiarbabi
White to Play

My good-natured opponent apologetically showed me the move I missed, and a couple others.

But I'm having fun nonetheless. Immediately after drafting this blog entry, International Master John Watson (whose face I recognized!) sat down next to me in the hotel coffeeshop.  We chatted about this position, Daniel Kahneman's Thinking: Fast and Slow, and ways of thinking about chess positions.

Edit: here's the game.

"Dinos to the Slav"

Jeremy Silman does something for Chess Life Online that I'd been meaning to do: give an up-to-date review of iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch apps.

I'm a big fan of tChess Pro and I too have mellowed on ChessBase (which I may once have called "worst chess app ever," but now recommend).

Sorry for the relative silence: work (and playing chess!) get in the way of blogging sometimes.

Irrational Exuberance, or, Looking for Sacs in All the Wrong Places

Jim Abbott, the winner of this game, gained a ton of rating points at the Greater Midwest Classic.

My ...Bxh2+ was more than a bit too overoptimistic, and I understood this when I did it. But I still sacked the piece. Hmm.

David Franklin called this move "going Morozevich" (after the brilliant Russian GM who does something impulsive whenever the position bores him).

An argument for the fianchetto Grünfeld...

...is that some strong amateurs don't know about moves like 7...Nb6! It's annoying for the horsie on d5 not to have a buddy on c3 to trade lives with, and Black has to worry about White grabbing the center with tempo.

Incidentally, please let us know what you think of the various versions of this viewer.

A semi-correct game

Black mishandled the opening slightly, and White returned the favor with the slightly inaccurate 15.g4?!, which allowed the equalizing 15...Qc7, capitalizing on the weakening of the dark squares.  Otherwise, yawn.

4.Qc2 is an idea worth checking out: lots of strong players use it on occasion.  Sam impressed me in the postmortem with a couple variations that he assessed far more deeply and correctly than I.  Yes, masters have better instincts than we do, but they also analyze more variations more correctly than we do.

Agony column, installment 357

I think it was Raymond Floyd who once wrote an article for Sports Illustrated titled something like, "How Can a Pro Miss an Eighteen-Inch Putt?" I'm certainly no pro at chess, but I'd like to think I'm expert enough not to lose a bishop vs. knight ending when I have the bishop and I'm up two clean pawns with zero compensation.  Reality and "what I'd like to think" are two different things...

(The attentive reader may recall that I was the recipient of a similar gift in the final round of Kings Island 2012: the "equalizing injustice of chess" is a useful fantasy to maintain at times like these....)  I tried to squeeze my opponent in a dead equal position when we were both playing on delay, and received the loss I richly deserved.  Stubborn defense is often rewarded against careless play!

A streak of my own

My streak is even more impressive than Frederick Rhine's: I have just played 152 consective tournaments in which I have made at least one move worthy to be made by an absolute patzer.  (Sometimes these moves come by the dozen, but let's not talk about that.)

I have learned not to beat myself up too much over my very bad moves: the trick is to mix self-criticism with self-praise for the occasional good move. And sometimes the most creative player is not the player who wins: the following game is a great example.

The Black rook often "belongs" on a7 in the Chebanenko Slav (...typified by an early ...a6), including the Exchange Chebanenko.  If White can put a piece on b6, the Ra7 may feel a little silly.

This week, I'll post all the games from my last two tournaments.  Hey, it's a blog.

I got a call yesterday...

...from a friend in our chess community.  We played dozens of games of blitz in Rogers Park coffeehouses, back in the days when my now 21-year-old was kibitzing from a baby stroller.

Six weeks ago, his longtime significant other learned that she has a Stage 4 cancer.  She's getting great care at St. Francis's in Evanston, and he's spending all his time with her, essentially living at the hospital.

It'll soon be time to go home.  They live in a third-floor walkup, and he needs to find a ground-floor apartment ASAP (even one flight of stairs is too much).  Proximity to the hospital (Evanston, Rogers Park, West Rogers Park) would be ideal.

Please drop me a line if you know of something and I'll forward to our friend.

A trap in the Sicilian, Tal Gambit

Another game from my recently ended 151-0-0 winning streak on GameKnot.com.

and belated congratulations...

...to GM Yury Shulman for equal first in last weekend's World Open!  Our Downstate friend Nikilish Kumar Kunche had a nice result in the U2400, tying for second.

Evanston Chess - game/40 event this Saturday 7/13

Only $5!  (Free to masters & experts: truly the best deal in town....)  

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

Evanston Chess Presents:
July 13, 2013, 9:00am-5:00pm
Tri-Level, 4SS G/40 delay 5
Three Sections, USCF Dual Rated
Our guest master will be NM Sam Schmakel
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.

Please pre-register if you plan to attend.

Our space is limited and we will cap attendance at 56 players. Priority will be given to players who pre-register by email to enter@evanstonchess.org before 7 p.m. on July 12 and arrive at the tournament before 9:20 a.m. on July 13. Thanks for your understanding and support.
 
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.

Flogging the Fajarowicz

After three rounds of the Greater Midwest Classic this past weekend, Greg Bungo was the sole leader of the top section with 3-0. I was one of five players a half-point behind. We met on Board 1.

Greg surprised me - pleasantly - with the Fajarowicz Gambit, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ne4?! The regular Budapest with 3...Ng4, though rarely played by top GMs, borders on respectability. Black usually regains the gambit pawn and it's hard for White to get much advantage if Black plays well. The Fajarowicz, on the other hand, has never made much sense to me. There are a fair number of traps at Black's disposal, but if White avoids them Black doesn't get much for the sacrificed pawn. His knight on e4 often ends up retreating to c5, and then sometimes to e6.

IM Timothy Taylor writes in his excellent book The Budapest Gambit (2009), p. 225, "I don't understand this gambit. Black is a pawn down but, unlike in the regular Budapest, has no threat to get it back and no significant lead in development." "[M]y recommendation for Black is simple: don't play it!" But it has its fans. GM Lev Gutman wrote a whole book on the thing. In the Chicago area, its adherents include NMs Steve Szpisjak and Bungo, as well as Dean Arond.

Greg recovered well from this debacle with a win in Round 5. Unfortunately, a last round loss kept him out of the major prize money. I drew in Rounds 5 and 6 to tie with David Peng, Aaron Jing, Karthikeyan Pounraj, and Maggie Feng for second prize, each of us earning $700. Audrius Macenis, whom Greg beat in Round 2, won his other five games to win the $1500 first prize outright.

Extremely unofficial congratulations....

...(unofficial only because MSA hasn't updated yet) to our newest National Master, Michael Auger!

2216!