aesthetically pleasing

Black to move 

NN (966) -Maret Thorpe (988)

Chess.com, January 13, 2010

Evanston Chess Club TD and Secretary of the Illinois Chess Association Maret Thorpe sends us the finish to one of her online two-minute games.  Although White is formally up material (rook + knight + extra pawn > two bishops), the incredible activity of Black's pieces plus the marooned fellow on h8 should mean that White is not long for this world.  And indeed, something simple like 1...Ba3+ is crushing.

But Black found something even stronger.....

answer to birthday self-indulgence

interview with Vugar Gashimov

...in New in Chess 2009.8 (sorry, no online link is available to the interview).  His story is really remarkable: despite having had brain surgery three times, this 23-year-old is ranked number seven in the world on the January 2010 FIDE list.

World Team wrap-up

 
U.S. captain John Donaldson on Chess Life Online:

The many great players who struggled (Gelfand, Gashimov and Morozevich were all below 50 percent) is testimony to how difficult the event was. Russia was a deserving winner with their depth the deciding difference. This was my eleventh time as US captain, and although the teams have been pretty successful (1 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze team medals) I cannot ever recall anything resembling the performances of Hikaru and Alex on boards one and two. They played exceptionally well with Hikaru showing yet again that he is among the best in the world and Alex that he plays like a 2700 player.

Birthday self-indulgence

Too old to play good chess; .too young to stop playing.  (Erik Karklins is my hero!  And he's 42 years older than I am....)

I finished last in this 2009 tournament, but had one decent game:

White to play and win 

Bill Brock - Oliver Koo, Skokie 2009

Cursed Blunders!

White resigned after 21. Qxf7+, and you can hardly blame him/her/it. Moral of the stoy, kids: When you send in that protected queen to mate your opponent, first make sure there isn't another piece that can capture the lady.

Ben Finegold annotates Aronian-Nakamura

From the St. Louis CC site: again, not to be missed.  It's funny that 41...Ng7? may have been Nakamura's losing move, as you don't see shots like 42.Rb6!! every day.  This is an early entry for Best Game of 2010: both players should be proud.

USA takes silver in World Team Championships!

Russia blew out Israel 3-1, and the US and Azeri teams made four draws.  

Congratulations to John Donaldson and the US team, and congratualtions to our own Yury Shulman!

Armenia 2.5 - USA 1.5 :-(

You've got to see the Aronian-Nakamura game. 

Update: link to US Chess Online.  There's a series of amazing & amusing moves after Aronian's 35.Rc6!

In Paul We Trust

Skokie Barracuda

Not the tournament leader

Sevan Muradian engages in blatant self-promotion via Chess Life Online (which I seem to be linking to a lot lately!)

USA 2.5, Greece 1.5!

And I think Armenia is beating Russia!  (All games in progress in that match, so who knows....)

Here are Nakamura's own notes to his game against Gelfand, again from Chess Life Online.

2nd UPDATE: Armenia  2 - Russia 2.  Chess Life Online coverage is here.

Malcolm Pein annotates Nakamura-Gelfand

Hikaru Nakamura

© John Saunders

At The Week in Chess.

The Greatest Story Ever Told?

(Some PG-13 romance in the above clip.)

Love and chess (and class struggle and self-realization of the oppressed) in the same film? Jouer, c'est jouir! Reviews of the new movie Joueuse and links to YouTube clips on ChessBase.  Kevin Kline does the French!  Strangely, the trailer has no scene of the inevitable lovers' quarrel when New in Chess 2009.8 arrives in the mailbox.

(With respect to the title of this post, please credit this chess nerd with a sense of irony.  Much as I loved the Nabokov novel, I hated The Luzhin Defense.)

P.S. It was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival as Queen to Play.

Miracle save by Jon Burgess

Adamson-Burgess, Skokie 2010

Black to play

White may be winning, but can you find the move that offers maximum resistance?  The first move isn't that hard, but the follow-up is harder to spot.

Here's the game with light notes.  Hat tip to super organizer Sevan Muradian. Look for a full report on the first five rounds of the 24th North American Masters on Chess Life Online and this blog.

World Team: Standings after Round 6

Rank after round 6
Rank	Team	Gam.	+	=	-	MP	Pts.	Res.	SB.
1	RUSSIA	6	5	0	1	10	15½	2	56,50
2	UNITED STATES	6	5	0	1	10	15½	0	49,50
3	AZERBAIJAN	6	3	1	2	7	13½	0	34,50
4	ARMENIA	6	3	1	2	7	13	2	34,25
5	ISRAEL	6	3	1	2	7	13	0	37,75
6	INDIA	6	3	1	2	7	12½	0	39,00
7	GREECE	6	3	0	3	6	13	0	37,50
8	EGYPT	6	1	1	4	3	9	0	16,00
9	BRAZIL	6	1	0	5	2	9	0	9,00
10	TURKIYE	6	0	1	5	1	6	0	4,50

As you can see, the US and Russia are tied for first in match points. The first tiebreak is game points: USA and Russia are tied in that, too. The second tiebreak is face-to-face: Russia would win that.

Russia's remaining pairings:

• Armenia (super-tough) 
• Egypt (easy) 
• Israel (super-tough) 

 USA's remaining pairings

• Greece (on a hot streak) 
• Armenia (super-tough) 
• Azerbaijan (super-tough) 

Even if Armenia (which will face Russia, USA, & Egypt) wins out, it would be not guaranteed a tie for first based on match points, even if tiebreaks were favorable. Azerbaijan (facing Brazil, Greece, USA) has the easiest schedule, but may already need a miracle to catch up.

So USA is in strong position to grab the silver, with every chance to contend for gold.

USA on a roll!

Big win against Israel 2.5-1.5!

Big win against Brazil 3-1!

And kudos to Jennifer Shadade and Chess Life Online for the excellent coverage....

Searching for Jeff Sarwer

Julia and Jeff Sarwer, late 1980s?

Jennifer Shahade interviews Jeff Sarwer in Chess Life Online: a truly wonderful story for those of us who remember the Vanity Fair article.

World Team after 4 rounds

Rank after round 4
Rank	Team			+	=	-	Match Points	Pts.
1	ARMENIA			3	0	1	6	10
2	UNITED STATES			3	0	1	6	10
3	RUSSIA			3	0	1	6	9½
4	ISRAEL			3	0	1	6	9½
5	INDIA			3	0	1	6	9
6	AZERBAIJAN			2	0	2	4	8½
7	GREECE			1	0	3	2	7
8	BRAZIL			1	0	3	2	7
9	EGYPT			1	0	3	2	6
10	TURKIYE			0	0	4	0	3½

Will Tim be wearing the blue shirt?

Come to Oak Brook this weekend to find out!

You can still pregister for Tim Just's Winter Open for another two hours, and there will be registration on site tomorrow as well.  Details here.

Games from USA - Egypt

On Chess Life Online.

Win with White, draw with Black...

is the traditional recipe for success in team events.

USA 3, Egypt 1.  Onischuk and Hess win, Robson and Akobian draw.

GM Mitkov's chess clinic: January 18th in Rockford

Details here!

" 2010 K-8 Scholastic Championship Awarded"

Here's ICA President Tom Sprandel's post on the Illinois Chess Association forum earlier today:

The ICA Executive Board voted yesterday to permit Illinois Chess Teachers to run its March tournament as the 2010 Illinois State Scholastic Championship and to confer state titles. The vote reflected a recent change in circumstances.

The background has been explained in my previous posts on the Youth Forum. Following the pattern of earlier years, in early 2009, CoChess solicited bids and awarded the 2010 State Scholastic Championship to Illinois Chess Teachers (ICT). The event was to be held on March 13-14, 2010. Shortly thereafter, ICA gave written assurances to FIDE and the USCF that we would fully support the FIDE World Amateur Chess Championship and the FIDE World School Chess Teams Championship, both to be held during late March of 2010.

Problems set in when ICT ran into trouble with their original hotel site and changed not only the tournament site (to the Sheraton Hotel in Arlington Heights) but its date, to March 21-22, 2010, such that the new date coincided with the first of the two FIDE/USCF events.

Because of its commitments to the FIDE/USCF events, ICA decided in July that it would be improper to officially support the re-scheduled CoChess event. When ICT was unable to change its date because of its commitment to the Sheraton, ICA and ICT reached a compromise  in which ICT re-named its tournament the “CoChess 2010 K-8 Scholastic Championship” and ICA agreed not to sanction, support or award a K-8 Illinois State  Championship for the 2009-10 school year.

All of that changed in late December, when the Arlington Heights Sheraton announced it was closing its doors on January 1st. Knowing that ICT would be looking for new space, ICA decided to review the situation. After much internal discussion, we raised the possibility with ICT that if it wished to change its date again, to earlier in March -- which would remove the conflict with the FIDE/USCF events -- ICA would consider restoring the tournament to state championship status. This seemed a sensible solution consistent with our Bylaws, which encourage ICA to sponsor an official state championship, allow us to recognize an event held by another organization, describe the “duty of the Executive Board to determine how to award the title for the year in question,” and impose an obligation on the Board to “construct an event to best suit the interests of Illinois chess.” (Bylaw Article VII).

On January 4th, ICT made a formal request to ICA to sanction its event if it were held on March 13-14 at Pheasant Run. On January 6th, the ICA Executive Board approved the request  subject to the conditions that it be held on that date at Pheasant Run, and that ICT  accept Bill Barton as the ICA’s Bid Liaison as spelled out in the new bid guidelines.

It has been said that ICA might have re-bid the event. We could not do that because ICT had  the option to relocate their tournament and run it on their 3/20-21 date. Unless we offered them the state title, they had no motivation to change the date and then we would have remained committed to our previous agreement not to sanction a state title.

There are other reasons we have acted as we have. One was that it removed a conflict with the March elementary school championship held for Chicago’s public schools. More important, many long time ICA and CoChess people have worked to move beyond the difficult events of last year. Our substantial collaborative efforts are detailed in an article in these pages. As of today, more than thirty new people, including many from CoChess, have joined ICA’s new Bid Committee, new Youth Committee, and Board of Directors in an ongoing effort to bring  fairness, strength, and new energy to chess in Illinois.

Working through this situation and making the state championship title available to the young chess players of Illinois was another step along that path.

Games from today's Russia - USA match

Here they are.

It's been over a week since we've featured a Harvard professor on this blog

Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff is a familiar name to Wall Street Journal readers, and he's also a grandmaster.  I played him in a 1977 simultaneous exhibition at MIT: he scored 24 wins and 6 draws against very tough opposition.  (I played the then-obscure gambit line 3...Nxe4?! in the Petroff, based on analysis from a recent Shakmatnaya Biuletyn; he refuted it without thinking.)

Will AI stimulate the economy in the coming decade?  (H/T to David Quinn on the USCF forums.)

Ouch

Russia 3, USA 1

Bargain shopping (and help USCF)

USCF is selling shopworn copies of the following great books here:

Follow this link to see the shopworn books (Below, I've included links to the books on Amazon for comparison purposes):

These great books from the Kasparov series are strongly recommended for serious players:

Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part 1
Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part 2
Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part 3
Garry Kasparov on Fischer: Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part 4
Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part 5
Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, Part Two: Kasparov vs Karpov 1975-1985
Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess, Part Three: Kasparov v Karpov 1986-1987

Here are some more classics:

Russians versus Fischer
Attack with Mikhail Tal
Chess Secrets: The Giants of Strategy: Learn from Kramnik, Karpov, Petrosian, Capablanca and Nimzowitsch
Nunn's Chess Openings
Excelling at Chess

And these great beginner books:

Play Winning Chess
Winning Chess Endings
Winning Chess Strategies
Winning Chess Brilliancies
Winning Chess Combinations
Winning Chess Tactics, revised
Modern Chess Self-Tutor (by David Bronstein: strongly recommended!)

There are a bunch of good openings books, too, notably from the Starting Out and Dangerous Weapons series.

If you're on a budget, this is a great way to fill holes in your library

U.S vs. Russia going on right now...

Russia got upset by Greece yesterday; I wouldn't want to play them today.

Live games are here.  Boards 1 through 3 look OK to me, but maybe Akobian is in a little trouble against Vitiugov.  What do I know?

Ray Robson annotates the U.S. - India match

At Chess Life Online.

The Hawk Defense

Next year, Santo?

"Minimize your shortcomings": chess players can benefit from Dawson's advice in this article:

2010 World Amateur Chess Championsihp in Skokie!

You'll find more info on the ICA Calendar and at the official website.

Kamsky wins Reggio Emilia

GM Gata Kamsky

(from Chess Life Online; Photo: Betsy Dynako)

Congratulations to Gata Kamsky, who just beat GM Almasi to tie for first at the traditional Reggio Emilia tournament.  Brooklyn did very well in Italy: Fabiano Caruana finished equal third. 

More coverage at Chess Life Online.

USA 3, India 1!

Nakamura & Onischuk both win: 2-0 after two rounds is a very nice start for the USA!

Games are here for the time being.

Here's the Chess Life Online report.

Tim Just's Winter Open

See you this weekend at the DoubleTree in Oak Brook!  More info here.  My understanding (perhaps Tim and Wayne can confim) is that registration online is open until 6 p.m. Friday: it's cheaper to pay in advance, and you can hit the snooze button on Saturday morning.

USA beats Turkey 3-1 in round 1

Nakamura, Onischuk, and Akobian win; Shulman loses.  No PGN is available as of yet, but the games are here.

Here's coverage at Chess Life Online and nice annotations of the Nakamura game by St. Louis's GM-in-residence Ben Finegold.

pinball at Coney Island, 1962

Copyright TIME Inc., 1962

The full 2008 photo essay is here.

Don't cry for me, Mama Mia

 
Coming soon to the legendary No Exit Café: Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre's production of Chess opens on March 8, 2010! 

Yury Shulman at World Team Championships

Yury is representing the USA (and Chicagoland) on Board 3.  Play begins tommorow!

Hat tip to Mig.

Wikipedia main page...

features you-know-who.

 Here's a link to the main page, but this will change soon. 

Chess Meetup Tomorrow

At the Starbucks at Ohio and State, 3:00 PM. Details here. Beat the post-holiday blues: Play chess.

Reposted from The Knights of Castle Kimbark.

Chess at McCormick Place

See Larry Cohen's article on the USCF website.

yet another TIME feature on Carlsen

Copyright TIME Inc. 2009

Follow the link.

I am absolutely stumped!

A mindbender from GM Sandipan Chanda is today's ChessBase Christmas puzzle

Compose a position where White has only a bare king and Black has king and three pawns (no double pawns). It is Black to play and the result is a draw.

And no, tripled h-pawns don't count, either.

My best idea (I thought) was to have a formation like this

Black to play; several moves win

 or this

Black to play; several moves win

or this

Black to play; only 1...f2 wins

But none of these work.  Any ideas?

another Amanov game

Adamson - Gurevich in Las Vegas

Relatively uneventful draw....

White could have taken Black's knight with 15.exf5: why would this have been a bad idea?

Chicagoans in Las Vegas

Several Illinois players are doing well in the ongoing North American Open at Bally's in Las Vegas.

With his round 4 win (see last post), GM Amanov is now tied for second with 3.5 out of 4 (FM Daniel Naroditsky of California knocked off GM Shabalov in a model Najdorf and leads with a perfect 4-0). FM Andrew Karklins has 2 points and is still playing round 4. In the three-day section, GM Dmitry Gurevich began with a perfect 2-0.

In the U2100 section, Zach Kasiurak has a perfect 3-0 going into round 4.

In the U1300 section, Harris Sefo and Nick Xiao each have 2.5 going into round 4 (and are paired with each other). In the three-day U1300, Lester Leong has 2-0.

GM Mesgen Amanov at the North American Open

This game just finished:

Fischer birth certificate

I've been meaning to contact the Department of Vital Records in Springfield.  If  you'd like to beat me to it, this might be useful.

 If you do, I'd appreciate a copy!

rest in peace, Ralph Elliot

I would like to keep the tone light on this blog.  Senseless murders on Christmas Eve have a way of catching one's eye, however.  (While the murder was in Bronzeville, Mr. Elliot was a Hyde Park resident.)

In retirement, [Mr. Elliot] was an avid chess player. "If he couldn't find a chess partner, he'd play advanced chess with the computer," she said. He liked to fish off Hilton Head, S.C., one of his favorite vacation spots. He was also a bowler.

I used to play at Harper Court in the 1970s, and even at a little chess & backgammon club not too far from Mr. Elliot's home on 55th St.    Perhaps some readers of this blog played Mr. Elliot more recently at the Hyde Park Borders?

Deepest condolences to Mr. Elliot's family and friends.

a note from the WWE (formerly WWF)

I've gotten some strange junk mail in my online life, but I'm particularly amused by this sender (who always changes his handle and never seems to hit my spam filter). The following is typical of emails I've received in the past year or so:

"Rugged" Ronnie Garvin (2475) vs. "The Conquistador" (2075)

[Wrestler: "Ronnie Garvin" 2475]

[Wrestler: "Conquistador" 2075]

[Date: "12.??.1989"]

[Location: "Fort Wayne, IN"]

[Site: "???"]

[Event: "???"]

[Result: "*"]

 

(links to spam video removed)

Questions: So how do professional wrestlers get ELO ratings? Whose idea was it to use PGN headers for wrestling matches? Was the toilet controversy in Kramnik-Topalov real or kayfabe? And doesn't Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov remind you of Vince McMahon?

a note from Prof. Elkies

A commenter on [...] chicagochess.blogspot.com may have found a blockade draw after all: 1.Nd7+! Kf5 2.d4 [...]

Yes, this was noted by several people on chessbase too, see the last paragraph of http://www.chessbase.com/puzzle/christmas2009/chr09-03.htm. I've seen at least one case before where a study contains both a refutation of the intended solution and a dual solution, so formally they cancel each other out and the study is sound, but rarely of nearly as much interest as the intention. Here the new fortress of some interest (in that the g-file comes into play as well), but we lose the spectacular self-stalemating point 4 Rh1! ... 7 Kg1!, and the move order in the introductory play is still not unique (2 Nf7 works too).

Perhaps Nunn should have found this, since he was tasked with vetting soundness and so might have looked for alternative solutions once he agreed that the intended solution works. For myself I might claim the excuse that I recognized the intended solution and, having found that it seemed unsound, stopped analyzing for further flaws...

Happy 2010,
--Noam D. Elkies

On the third day of Christmas, I retracted second thoughts....

Reader "Jo" may have found an nice "cook to the cook" of the Rodriguez study.  (I'd found the same idea back on December 25th, but I wrongly assumed that it wasn't good enough because Black had an h-pawn to push.)

The Ne5 is the best piece on the board, and the Black bishop is useless, so a draw wouldn't be that surprising. I had trouble believing that Black couldn't exploit the open g-file to hit h2 or f2. Jo doesn't see a way, and I don't, either.