Stoking the starmaker machinery

Chicago Public School (CPS) chess master key to success of Chicago area professional chess team  

SKOKIE, IL, NOVEMBER 12, 2011:  Whitney Young Magnet High School sophomore Sam Schmakel has been the key that unlocked the success of Chicago’s professional chess team, the Chicago Blaze, which set a regular season best record of 8 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss.

The Blaze entered its fourth season in 2011 with a roster that included wily veterans -- mostly Grandmasters and International Masters -- and energy filled youth players who have achieved much from a young age.

Schmakel, the best chess player ever in CPS and currently a student of Grandmaster Dmitry Gurevich, began playing chess during the summer between kindergarten and 1^st grade.  He is a product of the chess program his mother Eileen began at Decatur Classical, a CPS Gifted Program. In short order, Schmakel began to dominate the local and national scene, winning 2 national championships and winning a key game in the 2010-2011 school year, to secure the Illinois State High School Team Championship for Whitney Young.

Schmakel, who earned his title of National Master only a few months ago, has been the linchpin of success for the Blaze. He was tapped during the summer months to become part of the team and has proven himself by being undefeated in his games thus far (5-0).

Largely due to his performance, the Blaze has won its way into the Divisional Championships to take place on Monday night November 14^th at 8 p.m. Schmakel will play again that night as the Blaze try to win their first ever Divisional Championship.

The Chicago Blaze is a member of the United States Chess League (USCL), which oversees online matches among the nation’s top 16 teams.  Blaze team members gather each week during the season to play their matches at the North Shore Chess Center, located at 5500 W Touhy Ave Suite A in Skokie, IL. 

For more information on the Chicago Blaze visit http://www.chicagoblazechess.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/chiblazechess

Last call - Akobian seminar

Greetings from Mason, Ohio.  I may not be posting much this weekend....

Here's a cut-and-paste from tonight's email.  The North Shore Chess Center is at 5500 West Touhy Ave. in Skokie: looks like a great event!

2 sessions available - Saturday Nov 12 or Sunday Nov 13

Enjoy a 6 hour training session with one of the top Grandmasters in the United States - GM Varuzhan Akobian! GM Akobian helped the US team achieve a bronze medal twice in the 2006 and 2008 Chess Olympiads, and a Silver medal in the 2009 World Team Championships. In 2010 GM Akobian was tapped to become the trainer/coach for the US Men's Olympiad Team as well.

You can join GM Akobian in a 6 hour marathon lecture covering openings, middle game, and end-game. He will review popular opening lines, the ideas behind them and how to transition to the middle game along with middle game strategy, and what to do (and not to do) in the end-game. You'll be invited to ask questions and discuss the pro's and con's of variations, along with testing your inner-GM against this battled hardened veteran with on the spot puzzles and challenges.

The session will begin at 11:30am and continue until 5:30pm. After a 30 minute break, GM Akobian will perform a simul. Feel free to bring your personal chess boards if you want GM Akobian to autograph it for you also! Snacks and beverages will be available.

This session is $75 for members of the North Shore Chess Center and $100 for non-members if registered by Friday evening 9pm on Nov 11. Add an additional $20 at the door. Onsite registrations cannot be guaranteed for space!

Seating is limited to 30 people on a first registered basis.

Register online - http://www.nachess.org/events

Board 4: Xiong 0 - Schmakel 1

FM Jeffrey Xiong of Dallas is only 10 years old! Sam Schmakel may be the first to get his GM title, but I'd put my money on Jeffrey to win the World Championship first.

This Najdorf is a wonderful theoretical battle that does credit to both young players.  All of this has been played before until Sam's novelty 23...Na4!?

Board 3: Amanov 0 - Holt 1

Another fascinating game on Board 3. Mesgen's preparation in the Exchange Slav is deep, but Holt deals with the homecooking and wins a complex ending, avenging his Chicago Open defeat at Mesgen's hands.

Board 2: Sadorra 1 - Friedel 0

Respect to GM Julio Sadorra, who managed to squeeze our GM Josh Friedel from an unpromising-looking QGD Tartakower.

Chicago Blaze ties Dallas Destiny 2-2, advances in playoffs!

The Blaze came in with the best regular season record and only needed to tie Dallas on Monday night to make it to the semi-finals. A tie was all they could manage, but that was enough to advance!

Here's the Board 1, matchup GM Yury Shulman of the Blaze vs. GM Cristian Chirila:


White eliminated Black's "good" bishop on move 10, but Black's position is still fully playable. After move 36, it's easy to see that White wants to evacuate the king from the kingside in preparation for the breakthrough. So White moved the king from h1 to d4 in the middle game!

To me, phase 1 of White's redeployment (moves 36-60) wasn't so hard to understand, but I was really impressed by Yury's second reorganization (moves 60-66). Every available unit is needed for the attack, including the lowly h-pawn!

This was the last game to finish: Yury kept the draw comfortably in hand and patiently improved his position until it became clear that he would need to win for the Blaze to advance.  And win he did: congratuations, Grandmaster!

BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD: Chicago premiere, this Friday at Facets!

BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD

"All I want to do, ever, is just play chess." -Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer Against the World is a fascinating documentary that charts the turbulent life – from a childhood of isolation and neglect to young chess prodigy, world champion and subsequent madness and disgrace – of one of chess's undisputed masters. The World Championship of 1972, Fischer vs. Spassky, was replete with Cold War implications as a nation pinned its hopes on Fischer as the man to end Soviet dominance. As the center of media attention, Fischer was never equipped for a life in the spotlight and veteran filmmaker Liz Garbus (The Farm: Angola USA), exposes the disturbingly high price Fischer paid to achieve his legendary success as well as the resulting toll it took on his psyche. Fischer was a recluse for decades before resurfacing for a bizarre final chapter as a fugitive and rare archival footage alongside insightful interviews with those closest to him expand this captivating story of a mastermind's tumultuous rise — and fall.

Directed by Liz Garbus, U.S.A./UK/Iceland, 2010, 93 mins. In English and Russian with English subtitles

Showtimes: Fri., Nov. 11 at 7 & 9 pm Sat.-Sun., Nov. 12-13 at 3, 5, 7 & 9 pm Mon.-Thurs., Nov. 14-17 at 7 & 9 pm

Facets Multimedia is a Chicago treasure: it's at 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. Call 800.331.6197 for more info.

Stunning decoys

(And no, we're not talking about carved wooden mallard ducks.) One final tactical example from Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011): buy this book!

The legendary Nona Gaprindashvili missed an amazing shot in her 1979 game from the Soviet Championship with Irina Levitina. I'll quote from Neistadt's explanation, but I'll leave out the amazing move she missed.

Levitina-Gaprindashvili, Tbilisi 1979

White to play has to stop mate on g2 somehow....

Neistadt writes:

"Black has just played her queen to f3, to threaten mate.  In reply to 1.Qc6 (or 1.Qxe5+ Bf6 2.Qe4 Rfe8, Gaprindashvili's original calculations had gone 1...e4 and after 2.Qxe4 the decoy sacrifice 2...Rge8 3.Nxe8+ Rxe8.  But when the white queen appeared on c6, she realized that at the end of this variation, White in her turn can attack the queen with 4.Nd4

Levitina-Gaprindashvili, Tbilisi 1979

Analysis after 4.Nd4: Black to play

(4...Rxe4 5.Nxf3), and Gaprindashvili was forced to abandon her original intention.  Instead of 1...e4 she played 1...Qf5 and soon lost.

However, [...]"

So what did Nona miss?

Stolen from Facebook

...specifically from Blaze manager Daniel Parmet's post.

Tonight in the first round of playoffs the Chicago Blaze takes on the Dallas Destiny! Tune in to ICC at 7pm CST to watch the fiery match! Board1: GM Yury Shulman fresh off his GOTW win! vs GM Cristian Chirilia Board2: GM Julio Sadorra vs GM Josh Friedel Board3: GM Mesgen Amanov vs IM Conrad Holt Board4: FM Jeffrey Xiong vs NM Sam Schmakel Blaze advances on a draw!

Or stop by the North Shore Chess Center!

The pin must win

With the absolute pin (pins?), all things are possible, as demonstrated by this puzzle from Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011).

Parr-Wheatcroft, London 1938

White to play and win

Of course you see the solution immediately....

...but can you imagine carelessly missing this shot (or, even worse, allowing it) in a tournament game?

White to play and win

Once again, this is from  Winning Chess Exercises For Kids, a fabulous workbook for advanced beginners!

Board 4: Young 1 - Adamson 0

Parents will make sacrifices so their little ones can get ahead in life. So too bishops. With his killer shot on move 60, Angelo Young saved the Blaze from defeat. Well done!

Board 4: Atoufi 1 - Menon 0

Trendsetter Gopal Menon plays the fashionable 4...Qb6!?  (I don't even know the name of this line: 2...Nc6 and 4...Qb6 is the Grivas Sicilian proper, and the Grivas is reached in the game by transposition.)

25...Qb3?! 26.Rda1! did not work well for Black in the game.  Instead, Black could have played 25...Bxc4! 26.Qxc4 Rxa5, the point being that the pawn fork 27.b4 can be met by 27...Ra4 with messy play.

Board 2: Altounian 1 - Felecan 0

Black gets overambitious against White's hypermodern noodling-around and doesn't get enough for the sacrificed pawns.  But Florin sets a beautiful coffeehouse trap on move 32.  Black doesn't take the poisoned queen, but doesn't find one of the several clear winning lines, either, and Felecan is back in the game.

Then 37...Rf6? allows 38.d5!  Ouch.  Chess is hard.

Blaze 2 - Arizona 2: Shulman's Board 1 win

First, belated congratulations to the Chicago Blaze for a fabulous regular season (8 wins, 1 loss, and Monday's tie against the Arizona Scorpions), and best of luck in the playoffs!  (About which more later.)

On Board 1, Mackenzie Molner played a Nimzoindian line that I've always found attractive in the abstract, but never understood well enough to risk in tournament play.  (Black's bishop appears to be trapped after 6...Ba5, but not really.)  Shulman plays for the center, eliminates the pesky Nc5, and creates weaknesses in the Black camp on e6 and c6.  But Molner defends well until a slip on move 39.

Find White's winning move in the diagram below!

Yury Shulman lecture / simul TODAY at Ida Noyes!

Details here.  Might be too late to grab a board, but it's not too late to hear Yury's lecture and kibitz!

University of Chicago

Ida Noyes - East Lounge 1212 East 59th Street

Chicago, IL 60637

Saturday, November 5, 4:30PM

Lecture is open to all. Spaces limited for simul, please RSVP to reserve space. You will be sent an email before the event telling you if you have a spot or if you are on the waiting list.

Priority given to active chess club members. Members of the public welcome.

The Pillsbury mate

Another exercise from Jeff Coakley's Winning Chess Exercises For Kids.

 White to play and mate

Be honest: did you have to calculate the solution, or did you solve it instantly because you knew the mating pattern?  (But please don't ask the author of this blog entry to be honest.)

A Larsen shot

Stealing yet again from Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011).

Like Petrosian, Bent Larsen was best known as a positional player.  But he too was an outstanding tactician, and in his wonder year 1967, he didn't miss too many shots.

Black has some chances in the knight ending, but does he need to make the game last that long?

Westerinen-Larsen, Havana 1967

Black to play and win

Similar Sandrin slugfests

Irving Chernev, who wrote "Wonders and Curiosities of Chess," would have loved this. The following two games were both played at the U.S. Open, five years apart. The White players were brothers from Chicago named Albert and Angelo Sandrin, who both became Life Masters. In both games, White played exf7+, to which Black responded with ...Kh8. A few moves later, White captured Black's rook on f8 for free and with check, checked again with the capturing piece in order to vacate the f8 square, and then underpromoted his f-pawn to knight, checkmating Black. Commenter "Phony Benoni" (David Moody) at chessgames.com calls the games "definitely a case of sibling rivalry."

Albert's game is from the 1949 U.S. Open, which he won ahead of such luminaries as Larry Evans, Arthur Bisguier, and Anthony Santasiere.

Come join us this Sunday in Lombard...

...to honor Senior Master Andrew Karklins. We're at the same location (Buca di Beppo in Lombard, adjoining the Yorktown Shopping Center), at the same time (1 to 4 p.m.) Jim Brotsos will be our Master of Ceremonies.

Details here!

Buy your ticket here!

If you won't be able to join us this Sunday, please consider making a donation to the Illinois Chess Association's Warren Junior Program in Andrew's honor. (Details here.) Or consider a patron membership in the Illinois Chess Association in Andrew's honor! Details here.

And don't forget that ICA's annual meeting will precede the banquet, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.!