Hello world 2.0 - July 2014

*Wakes up from 6½-month hibernation*

Kindly check out the Chicago Chess Center Blog: I'll be hanging out there for the foreseeable future. As with all new web spaces, it may take us a little time to get up to speed....

Jim Froelich's Chicago Area Chess usergroup on Facebook is a great place to chat and gossip, and the Illinois Chess Association's tournament calendar, maintained by the indefatigable Maret Thorpe, keeps you up-to-date on where to play. It's because of these two great resources that I didn't feel guilty about a sabbatical.

I'll certainly keep this blog up, and I may occasionally post things over here that are incompatible with the CCC's nonprofit mission. And of course, my very nice co-editors are always welcome to continute to use this space for anything of interest to the Chicago chess community or to woodpushers in general.  Thanks to Keith Ammann, Vince Hart, Matt Pullin, Tom Panelas, and especially NM Frederick Rhine for their contributions. 

And thanks to you folks for visiting this site and giving us useful feedback! Your thoughts are always welcome: my personal email is billbrock1958@gmail.com and my Chicago Chess Center email is billbrock@chichess.org.

Mille felicitazioni!

Stolen from Tom Panelas on Facebook (and you are already a member of the Chicago Area Chess  Facebook group, no?)

Congratulations to Marco Codenotti of Pisa, Italy, who reports that he’s just earned his IM title. Marco is a former Chicagoan, Hyde Parker, and student at William H. Ray Elementary School. His father told me a few years ago that Ray was the place where Marco started getting serious about chess. He played for the school in the 2005 CPS elementary school championships at Lane Tech, at least one or two of Mike Cardinale’s YCFC tournaments, and possibly one of Zack Fishman's Navy Pier events, though I’m not sure about the latter. He also did Wayne Smith’s summer chess camp at Kennicott Park in Kenwood. Marco is 15 or 16, which means he’s certainly on track to make GM in due course.

 International Master Marco Codenotti of Chicago Pisa

Tom had blogged about Marco as early as 2007.

Congratulations to Marco and his family!  (Well, we still have the Leaning Tower Y....)

FM Albert Chow analyzes Abrahamyan-Dean

Enjoy Albert's wonderful analysis of this wonderful game between WGM Tatev Abrahamyan and FM Jim Dean.

Blaze annotations galore!

Many masterly annotations from Tom Panelas and the Blaze blog!

• Dmitry Gurevich and Trevor Magness annotate Sam Schmakel's win against Arizona
• Albert Chow annotates the exciting Friedel-Molner draw from the same match
• Mesgen Amanov annotates his Catalan win against Arizona

Grandmaster Mesgen Amanov (photo: Eric Rosen)

Chicago Blaze blog

Tom Panelas maintains the Blaze's team blog, which currrently features Albert Chow's and Trevor Magness's thoughts on last week's match, and the Game of the Week.

More Blaze coverage

More coverage of the Blaze's 3½-½ win over the Seattle Sluggers in the Skokie Review and on the team blog.

Changes to the Chicago Blaze lineup!

Tom Panelas reports.

"Florida Hurricane"

Tom Panelas wraps up the Blaze's playoff loss to Miami (so I don't have to...!)

"It's Win or Go Home Time"

Tom Panelas previews tonight's playoff match for the Chicago Blaze.

Permalinks for Chicago Blaze coverage

Trevor Magness and mom Cheryl

All on the ICA website!

Andi Rosen's article

Board 1: Gurevich—Bercys

Board 2: Sadorra—Amanov

Commentary on the "good stuff" (two Chicago wins) to follow shortly!  The raw game scores follow:

Board 3: Felecan—Hughes

Board 4: Lopez—Magness 

Tom Panelas exhibits his hometown bias here.

"This is it, folks"

Shoplifted from Tom Panelas on the Blaze's website (follow this link for the rest of the post)

On Wednesday night the Blaze play the Dallas Destiny, who themselves have a chance to make the playoffs, but they must win the match to do so. Here’s what it comes down to. If they Blaze win, they’re in the playoffs. If they draw, they’re in the playoffs. If they lose they’re out.

Here are the lineups. We have the white pieces on Boards 1 and 3. 

Chicago Blaze			Dallas Destiny
GM Dmitry Gurevich: 2481			IM Salvijus Bercys: 2467
GM Mesgen Amanov: 2508			IM Julio Sadorra: 2471
IM Florin Felecan: 2415			NM Tyler Hughes: 2384
NM Trevor Magness: 2195			NM Nelson Lopez: 2229 Publish Post
Avg Rating: 2400			Avg Rating: 2388

Please join us Wednesday night at 7:00 PM at the North Shore Chess Center, 5500 West Touhy, Suite A, in Skokie. Or watch the games on the Internet Chess Club. It's now or never. Go Blaze!

2010 Chicago Blaze schedule

Tom Panelas reports: check out the Blaze's blog.