Midwest Class results

Yes, I'm still blogging, but I've been doing procrastinators' tax returns for the past couple weeks.  Back in business later this week.

The Midwest Class was rather strong this year!  Check out the results.  Dmitry Gurevich won the top section 4-1, on tiebreaks over his GM colleagues Nikola Mitkov, Yury Shulman, and Swiss Gambiteer Mesgen Amanov.

Great way to start the summer: chess camp in Lisle June 10-4

Grandmasters Dmitry Gurevich, Nikola Mitkov, and Atanas Kolev will be conducting the Benet Academy Summer Chess Camp in Lisle on June 10-14. For more info, see the announcement on the ICA Calendar.

Swiped from Carl Boor

...as originally posted on the Chicago Area Chess Facebook page:

Chicago Masters Dmitry Gurevich, Carl Boor, Gopal Menon, and Zach Kasiurak played this past weekend at the Cardinal Open in Columbus Ohio. Gurevich and Boor shared 2-3rd place behind Brazilian champion GM Andre Diamant. The tournament was excellently conducted with generous prizes and a higher attendance than projected. In addition to GM Gurevich and Diamont former US champions Alex Yermolinsky and Alexander Shabalov (upset by Boor in the final round) competed.

Menon lost only to GM Gurevich (he nicked GM Shabalov for a draw), and Kasiurak lost only to Shabalov.  The local competition is getting rather intimidating....

Nine-year-old David Peng also played and lost a few rating points: he's still comfortably higher rated than your 55-year-old blogger.

Crosstable here!

A beautiful queenside attack

I asked David Peng's teacher, Grandmaster Dmitry Gurevich, to take a quick look at my light notes to this game, played a week ago Saturday at Kings Island.  Dmitry wrote back, "Those 9 years olds like David and Awonder [Liang] are going to beat IMs and GMs soon... that's impressive.. scary :)) "

White: David Peng (2076)
Black: NM Charles Diebert (2234)
Kings Island Open, Mason, Ohio
November 10, 2012
Philidor Defense

I had the pleasure of witnessing most of this game from the adjoining board. David Peng is 9½ years old!

 1. e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nbd7 4.Bc4 e5 5.d5 Be7 6.Nge2 a5 7.O-O O-O 8.Ng3 Nc5 9.f3 Ne8 10.Be3 g6

Black isn’t satisfied with a draw against his young opponent, and is willing to take some risks to win. From that respect, the opening has been reasonably successful for Black. The knight on c5 is particularly well posted, and the pawn on a5 restrains White from playing b2-b4, evicting the knight. On the kingside, Black hopes to play ...f7-f5 at an appropriate time: perhaps Black could bring pressure to bear on White’s e4 square, then play ...f5xe4 in a way that White has to reply f3xe4, and the pressure will begin to get serious. Black has the clear idea of exchanging his bad bishop on e7 with ...Be7-g5. It’s not clear what the future holds for White’s bishop on c4: the d5 pawn secures a space advantage for White, but also blocks the a2-g8 diagonal.  

11. a3 a4 12. b4 axb3 13. cxb3 Bd7 

White to play

14. a4!?

Prophylaxis is the art of figuring out your opponent’s plans, then making a move (sometimes mysterious-looking!) that does something to frustrate your opponent’s schemes while advancing your own.

White wants to roll up Black’s queenside! But here’s the problem: if White plays an immediate b3-b4, the horsie hops to a4. With the support of the bishop on d7 and the rook on a8, it’s an excellent blockading piece. But if White plays a4 first, then the a4 square is denied to Black’s knight.

Objectively, Black has more than one adequate response to White’s plan, but I think 14.a4!? is an incredibly sophisticated move for such a young player to make. And for all I know, there may be three or four moves that are objectively better.

The immediate 14.b4 can be answered by the intermezzo 14…Bg5!? (the immediate 14...Na4 works, too) 15.Bxg5 Qxg5 16.Qc1 (but not 16.bxc5?! Qe3+ and Black is better) 16... xc1 17. Rfxc1 Na4 18.Bb5 Bxb5 19.Nxb5 Rc8 20.Rc4 f5 and Black has sufficient counterplay.

14... Bg5 15. Bf2 b6!?

15... Na6!? would be a creative response, as White has weakened the b4 square.

16. b4 Nb7?

And now White can continue with his plan virtually unimpeded. At the same time, it’s hard to fault Mr. Diebert for making what seems to be a very pragmatic decision: suffer for a few moves, then counterattack on the kingside. Instead, 16... Nxa4! allows Black to retain equality because of the fork trick on b5.

17. Qb3 Ng7 18. Bb5! h5

Or 18... Bxb5 19. Nxb5 with enduring pressure. (Allowing doubled pawns with 19. axb5!? also looks strong. )

19. Bc6 Rb8 20. Nb5 Qe7 21. a5 Bxc6

21... bxa5 22. bxa5 Nc5 23. Bxc5 Bxc6 24. dxc6 dxc5 is a better try for Black, which suggests that White may have played a4-a5 a bit prematurely.

22. dxc6 +-

White’s technique in the remainder of the game is excellent: no need to hurry in a position like this!

22…Nd8 23.axb6 Nxc6 24.Qc4 Qd7 25.bxc7 Rxb5 26.Qxb5 Qxc7

Diebert offers stiff resistance in a lost position: beating a master is hard work!

27.Qc4 Qd7 28.b5 Nd4 29.b6 Nge6 30.Rfb1 Rb8 31.Ne2 Nxe2+ 32.Qxe2 Nd4 33.Qc4 Nc6 34.Qa6 Rb7 35.Qa8+ Kg7 36. Rd1 Rb8 37.Qa4 Rb7 38.Ra2 Bd8 39.Rc2 Nd4 40.Qxd7 Rxd7 41.Bxd4 exd4 42.Rb2 Rb7 43.Rdb1 Kf6 44.Kf2 Ke6 45.Ke2 d5 46.Kd3 dxe4+ 47.Kxe4 Kd6 48.Rb3 Bf6 49.Ra1!

White has accurately evaluated that a couple checks and a pawn push is nothing to fear. 49…Re7+ 50.Kd3 Kc6 50... Re3+ 51. Kc2 d3+ 52. Kd2 and the rook on a1 is immune, even after Re2+ 53. Kxd3

51.Ra7 Re3+ 52.Kc4 Rc3+ 53.Rxc3 dxc3 54.Kd3 Kxb6 55.Rxf7 Be5 56.h3 Kc5 57.Rf8 Kb4 58.Kc2 g5 59.Rf5 Bf4 60.h4! 1-0 
 

Finally, the real winner...

...of the Isaac Braswell Fighting Chess Award from the 2012 Illinois Open.

A couple Reinfeldian truisms to consider:  A pawn on the seventh rank is powerful, but a rook on the eighth rank guarding a pawn on the seventh is meh. When all the pawns are on one side of the board, the knight's flexibility generally trumps the bishop's mobility.

Dmitry has been playing 3...a6!? off and on since the 1980s and is probably the world's foremost practitioner: whose idea was this, Gurgenidze's?

(Not the) Isaac Braswell Fighting Chess Award

10:56 a.m.

I just read my morning email:

Dude - you posted the wrong game as winner - You posted Li-Gurevich instead of Ngyugen-Gurevich which I had stated! --Sevan

I'll have the real winner up sometime this evening. Until then, enjoy this worthy contender. (To add to the confusion, I have yet another game by Tam Nguyen scheduled to post this afternoon: oy.)

 There were a lot of worthy candidates: organizer Sevan Muradian chaired a committee that selected this game Dmitry Gurevich's win against Tam Nguyen.  The winner and loser split the $250 prize for their enterprising play.

The following game isn't the prizewinner, but it is pretty cool.  Enjoy until I fix the mistake.

***

Dmitry Gurevich had already won two tournaments in the past month: a share of the U.S. Open title and clear first in Indianapolis. Facing his 12-year-old student Zhaozhi (George) Li in round 2, Dmitry wasn’t afraid to take risks in order to win a third event. The light notes below have previously appeared in Chess Life Online.

Zhaozhi Li (2117) – GM Dmitry Gurevich (2529)
[A57]
2012 Illinois Open

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 a6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5 5.a4 b4 6.Nbd2 g6 7.e4 d6 8.a5 Bg7 9.Bd3 0–0 10.0–0 e6 11.Re1 Ra7 12.Ra2 Re7 13.b3 Rfe8 14.h3 Nbd7 15.Bb2 Nh5 16.Bxg7 Kxg7 17.Qa1+ e5 18.Nf1 Nf4 19.Bc2 Nf6 20.Ne3
 

Black to play 

Gurevich writes, "Here I got too excited after seeing some beautiful checkmating variations."

20...Bxh3?!

After the game, Dmitry suggested 20...Rg8 with the idea of a slow but sure kingside breakthrough.

21.gxh3 Qc8 22.Nh2

Black to play 

22...Qxh3?! 

In retrospect, Dmitry though that 22...Nxh3+, with more than sufficient compensation, would have been more prudent.   But prudence does not win awards for bloodthirstiness....

23.Qd1! 

George avoids Dmitry's fantasy mates.

23.Kh1?? Ng4 and White can only choose which square to be mated on; or 23.f3? N6h5! 24.Qd1

Black to play (variation) 

and now 24...Qg2+! leads to a beautiful smothered mate.

Back to the game:

23...h5 24.Qf3 Qc8 25.Qg3 h4 26.Qf3 Rh8 27.Kh1 Rh5 28.Rg1 Kf8 29.Bd1 Re8 30.Ng2! Kg7 31.Nxf4 exf4 32.Re2 Rhe5 33.Bc2 Nh5 34.Ng4 Rg5 35.Nh2 Rge5 36.Rg4! 

 George is not satisfied with a draw.

36...Qd8 37.Re1 Rh8 38.Qg2 Ng3+ 39.Kg1 Qf6 40.Nf3 Reh5 41.e5 dxe5 42.fxg3 hxg3 43.Be4 R8h6 44.Re2 Qd8 45.Bxg6! fxg6 46.Nxe5? 

46.Rxe5! would have put Black on the ropes.

46...Qf6! 47.Qe4 Rh1+ 48.Qxh1 Rxh1+ 49.Kxh1 f3! 50.Re1 g2+ 0–1 

 

2012 Illinois Open coverage in Chess Life Online

Dmitry Gurevich's game with George Li is featured: check it out!  (The first half of the article covers the U.S. Masters in North Carolina.)

Mitkov, Gurevich share Illinois Open title

Congratulations to Grandmasters Nikola Mitkov and Dmitry Gurevich, the 2012 Illinois state champions!

Grandmaster in motion: GM Nikola Mitkov (vs. NM Sam Schmakel)

Not the first time: GM Dmitry Gurevich took down Tam Nguyen in the last round

 I'll expand this blog post this evening:-)  soon—I'm waiting for Chess Life Online to publish my report, then I'll use what they didn't....

Here are the final standings.

Mitkov, Gurevich win Illinois Open

Congratulations to Grandmasters Nikola Mitkov and Dmitry Gurevich, the 2012 Illinois state champions!

Much more tomorrow.

Road trip to Indy

Chicago and Illinois players had outstanding results in last weekend's Indianapolis Open. GM Dmitry Gurevich won his second consecutive event with a 4½-½ score.  Gurevich's victims included GM Nikola Mitkov and NM Gopal Menon, both of whom tied for third with 3½ points.  FM Andrew Karklins and NM Jonathan Kogen, both undefeated, also tied for third.

Rene Anchata split first place in the Under 2100 section, while David Gilchrist and Matthew Holloway were part of a massive tie for the Under 1900 prize.

Andrew Fei, Ian Gilchrist, and Ube Leopoldo tied for third in the Under 1800 section, and Blair Hu won some Under 1600 money.  Shashank Bala and Yiliang Li tied for second in the Under 1500 section, and Aditya Sharma tied for fourth.

Matthew Demaro took top U800 and Brendan Brown was top U600.  Not bad, Illinois!

Prizewinners listed here; and post-tournament MSA rankings are here.

Gurevich-Mulyar

From left: USCF Executive Director Bill Hall, GM Dmitry Gurevich, GM Manuel Leon Hoyos, FM John Bryant

Dmitry Gurevich takes down IM Michael Mulyar in the style of Capablanca: classical minimalism.

I congratulated Dmitry not only for his fourth Open win but also for the great result of his student Zhaozhi (George) Li, who tied for second Expert. (In most years, 6½-2½ would be sufficient for the first expert prize, but a 2199-rated player from British Columbia scored 7-2.) I told Dmitry (who, as always, gave all the credit to his student and portrayed his own role as minor) how George (a sixth-grader!) explained move-order subtleties in the 4.e3 Slav to me.  Dmitry replied, "I know, George is already teaching me stuff, too...."

A must-win game

In round 8 (just finishing now), Dmitry Gurevich won with the Classical Sicilian. You can find this and many other games from the U.S. Open on the Monroi website. Tomorrow's final round begins at 3 p.m.: once again, the top boards (and the games of a few fish) will be broadcast live on Monroi.

U.S. Open, round 7 update

It's been a great weekend for Mexico in the Olympics, so perhaps it's appropriate that GM Manuel Leon Hoyos is leading the U.S. Open with two rounds to go. Nice coverage by Al Lawrence at Chess Life Online.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: you really don't want to defend a drawish endgame against Dmitry Gurevich.

At 6-1, Dmitry needs to pick up half a point in the last two rounds to contend for the qualifying spot in the U.S. Championship.

Checkmating the queen

On Tuesday night at the U.S. Open, Dmitry Gurevich made it look easy.

Chicago Class recap: Master Section

You know it's a tough event when you beat a GM and finish out of the money.  WGM Anna Sharevich knocked off GM Nikola Mitkov in round 4, but lost to GM Mesgen Amanov in round 2 and IM Qignam Liu in the final round: ridiculously difficult pairings.  And Gopal Menon defanged GM Mitkov's Grand Prix attack and drew IM Angelo Young in the first two rounds, but had less fun on Saturday night, as he got ground down by GM Dmitry Gurevich in a rather harmless-looking ending. You have just joined a very large club, Gopal.

Oh yes, prizewinners.  GM Amanov converted against IM Young in the last round and made his 4-1 first place on tiebreaks ($1,366.67) look routine.  FM Carl Boor continues to impress: he beat GM Gurevich's pet anti-Catalan system, grinding the grinder down in an ending (no mean feat). IM Qignam Liu also had a very steady event, highlighted by his last-round win against WGM Sharevich.  Both Boor and Qignam Liu won $1,266.67.

I had the pleasure of losing to Guijue Zhou in round 4: in the postmortem, she had the most kind and tactful way of suggesting to me the stupidity of my middlegame planning.  She, Matthew Marsh of Tennessee, and super-junior Kevin Cao of Missouri each won $466.67.

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.

US Amateur Team North - well, that was fun!

It's tax season, so this post is going to be far shorter than it deserves to be.  

171 players on 39 teams had a lot of fun this weekend!  GM Alexander Shabalov played for a team from Pittsburgh: GM Dmitry Gurevich (who won Saturday night's Illinois Blitz Championship) was a constant spectator.

GM Dmitry Gurevich 

2012 Illinois Blitz Champion

(swiped from Brad Rosen's Facebook page)

Full team results are here.  The event is already rated: MSA reports here.
Congratulations to the Chess X-Men (NM Mariano Acosta, MN Tenzing Shaw, NM Scott Allsbrook, and Dmitri Sergatskov) for keeping the USAT North title in Chicagoland!

Maret Thorpe was both an assistant TD and the sponsor of two Evanston Chess Club teams: her report is here. If you friend the South Suburban Chess Club of Greater Chicago, you can see lots of cool event photos! Thanks to TDs and organizers (who I'm not naming only because I'm afraid I'll leave a key person out!) for a very smooth and enjoyable event!

Sam Schmakel featured on Chess Cafe

Here's a link to Steve Goldberg's "Scholastic Chess" column. Chicago's own Sam Schmakel of Whitney Young High School, who won the national tenth grade title this past November at the K-12 Nationals in Dallas, is one of two players featured in this month's column.

Sam Schmakel (second from left) with teammates Cristian Pena, C.J. Swan, and Mark Waechter

 Permalink (pdf) here.

Inspired by the Saavedra position

Alexander Fishbein & Dmitry Gurevich 

Illinois Chess Bulletin, 1991 

White to play and win

Matt Pullin tried to solve yesterday's Karstedt study by sacrificing the horsie to transpose to the Saavedra position.  That made me think of this study, co-authored by our own GM Dmitry Gurevich and first published in the Illinois Chess Bulletin.

U.S. Chess League finals starting NOW!

Stolen from the USCL website.  I'll be stopping by shortly: good luck to the Blaze!

1. Chicago Blaze vs New York Knights                                   3:00 PM ET

If you are wondering why some teams have an average rating of above 2401, click here
All ratings listed below are August ratings - not always the ratings used for the league rating calculations!
Team listed first has White on Boards 1+3

---

Sunday, November 20th, 2011

Chicago Blaze (10.0 – 2.0) vs New York Knights (7.5 – 4.5)
                            
All Time Series Record:  (This is their first match)

Starts at 2:00 PM CST       Time Control - Game in 90 with 30 second increment    

Chicago Blaze			New York Knights
GM Mesgen Amanov: 2576			GM Giorgi Kacheishvili: 2653
GM Dmitry Gurevich: 2547			IM Irina Krush: 2560
IM Angelo Young: 2415			SM Matt Herman: 2426
NM Gopal Menon: 2222			John Fernandez: 2129
Avg Rating: 2440			Avg Rating: 2442
Chicago Total -------			------- New York Total

*Due to the World Youth and K-12 Nationals causing many players to be unavailable, Chicago agreed to allow New York to use John Fernandez on Board Four when generally that would not have been permitted as he had not played the requisite two games during the regular season


If the match ties 2 – 2, there will be a special tiebreaker.  Click here for the tiebreaker procedures.