top 200 players in Illinois

Follow this link to see the list of Illinois's top players, updated every time USCF updates the rating reports.  (If you're a master who hasn't played for awhile, you can change the parameters of the search to feed your ego.)

Here are the top dozen: I'm told that a couple of the listed players (GM Georgiev, IM Morales Garcia) no longer live in Illinois:

Rank			Name	Current/Upcoming Published Rating
1			GM YURY SHULMAN	2668
2			GM VLADIMIR GEORGIEV	2581
3			GM NIKOLA MITKOV	2561
4			GM DMITRY GUREVICH	2514
5			GM MESGEN AMANOV	2469
6			IM FLORIN FELECAN	2411
7			FM AUNG THANT ZIN	2405
8			IM ANGELO YOUNG	2383
9			IM MEHMED PASALIC	2342
10			FM SERGIO MORALES GARCIA	2326
11			MICHAL SPIRIDONSKI	2317
12			IM VISHNUVARDHAN ARJUN	2291

Chicagoans in the City of Brotherly Love

Here's the Philadelphia Open crosstable.

More round 3 results: William Aramil drew GM Mark Paragua; Adarsh Jayakumar drew veteran IM Jay Bonin.

FM Andrew Karklins (how many Illinois state championships has he won?) has 1.5 points.

FM Alex Betaneli (3x Wisconsin state champion) and honorary Chicagoan Emory Tate have 2 points.

A tough pairing

Chicagoans at the Philadelphia Open

Jon Burgess notes that IM Angelo Young is playing Kamsky on Board 1 right now!

Fifteen-year-old NM Adarsh Jayakumar (soon to be moving back to Chicagoland from Texas) beat GM Eugene Perelshteyn in Round 2 earlier today.

In the same round, NM William Aramil nicked GM Alexander Ivanov for half a point earlier today (hardly an upset, however):

Check out the live action at Monroi.

wow

Via Jon Burgess & Maret Thorpe: Gata Kamsky just played this amazing game in the ongoing Philadelphia Open.

 After 13...Qc7: White to move

After 22...Be7: 

how does White to play justify the piece sacrifice?

After 48...Nb6:

White to play and win

Anand-Topalov countdown

The Champion: Viswanathan Anand

 The Challenger: Veselin Topalov

The World Championship match begins in 22 days at the Central Military Club (charming, I'm sure!) in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Not as impressive as the 107th floor of the World Trade Center, but nice enough....

Here's the schedule.

Here's the official website.

First US Championship Wildcard Determined

Story at Chess Life Online.

OK, enough of that.

Magnus Carlsen's American cousin

Story at ChessBase.

April Fool's game

A funny blitz game

I just played a funny 5-minute game, perfect for April Fool's Day: N.N.-Rhine, playchess.com, 4/1/10 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Bd3?? Nxd4 (I was reminded of the immortal game Klein-Myagmarsuren, Leipzig (ol) 1960, which concluded 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bd3?? Nxd4 0-1) 6.e5? Qa5+ 7.c3 Qxe5+ 8.Kd2 Nc6 9.Re1 Qxh2 10.Kc2 Qxg2 11.Nd2 Qxf2 12.Re2 Qb6 13.Nc4 Qc7 (Only move! Not 13...Qd8?? 14.Nd6# or 13...Qc5? 14.b4!) 14.Qf1 d5?! (Black has been very greedy, but 14...d6 still wins easily) 15.Bf4! (Uh oh! Suddenly White's massive lead in development is very threatening! Now what? 15...Qd8? 16.Nd6+ Kd7 17.Nxf7 Qe8 18.Bf5+ is ghastly and 15...e5 16.Nxe5 looks terrifying. Should I sac my queen with 15...dxc4 or 15...Qxf4?) e5! [After a minute and 15 seconds, I decided that I could probably survive 16.Nxe5 Nd4+! 17.Kd2 Nxe2 (attacking the bishop on f4) 18.Bb5+ Nd7!] 16.Qe1? dxc4 17.Rxe5+ Nxe5 18.Bxe5 exd3+ 19.Kxd3 Qd8+ (19...Bf5+!) 20.Kc2 Bf5+ 21.Kc1 Be6 22.Kc2 Be7 23.Rd1 Qa5 24.a3 0-0 25.Qh4? Rfd8? 26.Rh1? Qxe5 27.Re1 Bf5+ Now I end the game with a pretty mating pattern known as "Boden's Mate." 28.Kc1 Qxc3+! 29.bxc3 Bxa3#

Chess and autism

"Chess is a suitable sport for many children and adults with an Autism Spectrum Disorder," the author argues, and he has success stories to support his thesis.

Here's a permanent link (pdf file).

Notes from Downstate: Uni High at the IHSA state championships

Daniel Cheng gives a nice first-person report on Chris Merli's crew at Uni High.

"Darien chess champ eyes Chicago Open in May"

My competition keeps getting younger....  Nice writeup of one team's results in the FIDE World School/Chess Club Team Championships, held last Saturday and Sunday in Skokie.

From Sun-Times Media: "The Chess Octopus Team took the bronze medal in the under-12 age group at the FIDE World School/Chess Club Team Championships last weekend. The team includes Akash Mattu, Matthew Stevens, Sritej Vontikommu and Lorenzo Barbin. (Photo courtesy of Jennifer Stevens)"

Jon Burgess wins Greater Peoria Open

The winner reports on the ICA website.

Louis Uedemann

This Wikipedia article might be a good one to expand.  The Google search "uedemann chess chicago" gets 97 hits, so there might be a fair amount available online.

Smyslov on the meaning of life

2003 interview with Vladimir Anzikeev.

2005 interview with Radio Liberty (Google Translate).

Hat tip to mishanp at The Daily Dirt.

Vasily Smyslov, 1921-2010

Vasily Smyslov, World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958, died in Moscow today.  Smyslov was a genius, arguably the greatest player of the 1950s, and a decent human being.

Wikipedia.

ChessBase

Mig.

Smyslov was also a great composer of endgame studies: here's a page devoted to some of his most beautiful compositions.

Sergey Shipov interviewed Smyslov in 2006: here's the Google translation and the original Russian.

Vasily Smyslov: Endgame Virtuoso  is reasonably priced and still in print.  For a more complete look at Smyslov's career, see the autobiographical Smyslov's 125 Selected Games (unfortunately out of print).  If you don't mind descriptive notation, a used copy of this Dover edition of Smyslov's best games through 1957 is reasonably priced.

And Smyslov was much more than a quiet endgame grinder:

Andrew Hubbard wins World Amateur - continued

Coverage in Chess Life Online.

Masters of the Chicago Chess and Checker Club, 1899

Check out Olimpiu Urcan's article at Chess Cafe.

 

Chicago Tribune, December 10, 1899

Sidney P. Johnston vs. Frank J. Marshall 
at Chicago Chess and Checker Club 
Chicago Tribune, December 31, 1899

If you're interested in Chicago chess history, but too lazy to go to a proper research library, you can find a lot via Google.

"Chess for Educators" seminar tomorrow

On the odd chance that someone might want to attend at the last minute (I'm always happy to link to folks' stuff in timely fashion, but please ask!)

P.S.  "Where" is one of the 5 W's: I think this event is also at the Holiday Inn, 5300 W. Touhy in Skokie, but please confirm with Dr. Korenman.

Chess in Education Seminar

March 9th, 2010

March 27, 2010

10:00 am – 3:00 pm

CHESS  FOR  EDUCATORS

Professional Seminar

Designed for elementary and secondary school chess coaches, parents, and volunteers

5 CPDUs available for educators!  

Presented by

Dr. Alexander Kostyev, Moscow, Russia

Co-Chair, FIDE Chess Education Committee

Chair, Chess Department, Moscow University

GM Wang Rui, Beijing, China

The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China

  IM Vyacheslav Styazhkin, St. Petersburg, Russia

         School-Gymnazia #2, St. Petersburg

Dr. Mikhail Korenman

Seminar Facilitator

The seminar includes the following topics:

• How to design curriculum for elementary and secondary school chess clubs?
• How to motivate students to study chess themselves?
• How to improve chess tactics and strategies?
• How to plan chess activities for the academic year?

Seminar requirements: Participants should be involved in teaching chess at local level.
Tuition: $50; $75 with 5 CPDU’s. One FREE entrée for anyone represents teams participated at the Intercontinental Chess Team Championship!
For more information please contact Dr. Mikhail Korenman, at 785-906-0402 or via e-mail: intecsus@yahoo.com