9-year-old beats Grandmaster in tournament play!

Awonder Liang and his brother Adream have been playing a "killer" tournament schedule this summer: the Chicago Open, the Philadelphia International, the World Open, and (right now) the Washington International.

Yesterday, Awonder defeated his first Grandmaster!  The current World 8-and-Under Champion defeated the former World Senior Champion, GM Larry Kaufman, in Round 3 of the Washington International.

Proud papa Will Liang writes:

Awonder has become the record holder for the youngest chess player in the United States to have beaten a Grand Master in a tournament game of chess. The new record Awonder has just established is 9 years 3 months and 20 days. The previous record was established by now super GM and world number 8th chess player Fabiana Caruana on September 28, 2002. Caruana's record was 10 years one month and 29 days. Awonder has broken Caruana's record by 10 months and 9 days.

The very next round, Awonder drew with three-time U.S. Champion Joel Benjamin in the kind of technical ending that GMs routinely win against experienced International Masters.

To assuage Grandmaster Kaufman's pain, buy his wonderful book The Kaufman Repertoire for Black and White: A Complete, Sound and User-friendly Chess Opening Repertoire.  It's a wonderful one-volume reference for ambitious tournament players with limited time to study. But you may want to consider 8...Ba6 against the Scotch.

Point-count chess

The object of the game is checkmate, so all point-count systems are rules of thumb at best.  But the "primitive" values we teach beginners are surprisingly useful: bishops and knights are worth 3 pawns, the rook is worth 5 pawns, and the queen is worth 9 pawns.

Some years ago, IM (now GM) Larry Kaufman slightly revised these rules of thumb based on empirical data.  I just happened across the article today while looking up something else: it's still fascinating.

To summarize Kaufman's improved rules of thumb: bishops and knights are worth 3¼ pawns (but add ½ pawn for the bishop pair), rooks are still worth 5 pawns, and the queen is worth 9¾ pawns.

Leonid Bondar posts an even score at the World Senior

Chicagoland's Leonid Bondar scored 5½-5½ at the World Senior Championship in Arco, Italy.  The 11-round event just ended yesterday.  Crosstable here.

Larry Kaufman tied for first once again, placing fourth on tiebreaks.  He reports at Chess Life Online.

Another cool Acosta game

Mariano is undefeated through four rounds: a commenter pointed out that he drew GM Larry Kaufman in Round 3.

More coverage at Chess Life Online.