April Fool's game

A funny blitz game

I just played a funny 5-minute game, perfect for April Fool's Day: N.N.-Rhine, playchess.com, 4/1/10 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Bd3?? Nxd4 (I was reminded of the immortal game Klein-Myagmarsuren, Leipzig (ol) 1960, which concluded 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bd3?? Nxd4 0-1) 6.e5? Qa5+ 7.c3 Qxe5+ 8.Kd2 Nc6 9.Re1 Qxh2 10.Kc2 Qxg2 11.Nd2 Qxf2 12.Re2 Qb6 13.Nc4 Qc7 (Only move! Not 13...Qd8?? 14.Nd6# or 13...Qc5? 14.b4!) 14.Qf1 d5?! (Black has been very greedy, but 14...d6 still wins easily) 15.Bf4! (Uh oh! Suddenly White's massive lead in development is very threatening! Now what? 15...Qd8? 16.Nd6+ Kd7 17.Nxf7 Qe8 18.Bf5+ is ghastly and 15...e5 16.Nxe5 looks terrifying. Should I sac my queen with 15...dxc4 or 15...Qxf4?) e5! [After a minute and 15 seconds, I decided that I could probably survive 16.Nxe5 Nd4+! 17.Kd2 Nxe2 (attacking the bishop on f4) 18.Bb5+ Nd7!] 16.Qe1? dxc4 17.Rxe5+ Nxe5 18.Bxe5 exd3+ 19.Kxd3 Qd8+ (19...Bf5+!) 20.Kc2 Bf5+ 21.Kc1 Be6 22.Kc2 Be7 23.Rd1 Qa5 24.a3 0-0 25.Qh4? Rfd8? 26.Rh1? Qxe5 27.Re1 Bf5+ Now I end the game with a pretty mating pattern known as "Boden's Mate." 28.Kc1 Qxc3+! 29.bxc3 Bxa3#

Chess and autism

"Chess is a suitable sport for many children and adults with an Autism Spectrum Disorder," the author argues, and he has success stories to support his thesis.

Here's a permanent link (pdf file).

Notes from Downstate: Uni High at the IHSA state championships

Daniel Cheng gives a nice first-person report on Chris Merli's crew at Uni High.

"Darien chess champ eyes Chicago Open in May"

My competition keeps getting younger....  Nice writeup of one team's results in the FIDE World School/Chess Club Team Championships, held last Saturday and Sunday in Skokie.

From Sun-Times Media: "The Chess Octopus Team took the bronze medal in the under-12 age group at the FIDE World School/Chess Club Team Championships last weekend. The team includes Akash Mattu, Matthew Stevens, Sritej Vontikommu and Lorenzo Barbin. (Photo courtesy of Jennifer Stevens)"

Jon Burgess wins Greater Peoria Open

The winner reports on the ICA website.

Louis Uedemann

This Wikipedia article might be a good one to expand.  The Google search "uedemann chess chicago" gets 97 hits, so there might be a fair amount available online.

Smyslov on the meaning of life

2003 interview with Vladimir Anzikeev.

2005 interview with Radio Liberty (Google Translate).

Hat tip to mishanp at The Daily Dirt.

Vasily Smyslov, 1921-2010

Vasily Smyslov, World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958, died in Moscow today.  Smyslov was a genius, arguably the greatest player of the 1950s, and a decent human being.

Wikipedia.

ChessBase

Mig.

Smyslov was also a great composer of endgame studies: here's a page devoted to some of his most beautiful compositions.

Sergey Shipov interviewed Smyslov in 2006: here's the Google translation and the original Russian.

Vasily Smyslov: Endgame Virtuoso  is reasonably priced and still in print.  For a more complete look at Smyslov's career, see the autobiographical Smyslov's 125 Selected Games (unfortunately out of print).  If you don't mind descriptive notation, a used copy of this Dover edition of Smyslov's best games through 1957 is reasonably priced.

And Smyslov was much more than a quiet endgame grinder:

Andrew Hubbard wins World Amateur - continued

Coverage in Chess Life Online.

Masters of the Chicago Chess and Checker Club, 1899

Check out Olimpiu Urcan's article at Chess Cafe.

 

Chicago Tribune, December 10, 1899

Sidney P. Johnston vs. Frank J. Marshall 
at Chicago Chess and Checker Club 
Chicago Tribune, December 31, 1899

If you're interested in Chicago chess history, but too lazy to go to a proper research library, you can find a lot via Google.

"Chess for Educators" seminar tomorrow

On the odd chance that someone might want to attend at the last minute (I'm always happy to link to folks' stuff in timely fashion, but please ask!)

P.S.  "Where" is one of the 5 W's: I think this event is also at the Holiday Inn, 5300 W. Touhy in Skokie, but please confirm with Dr. Korenman.

Chess in Education Seminar

March 9th, 2010

March 27, 2010

10:00 am – 3:00 pm

CHESS  FOR  EDUCATORS

Professional Seminar

Designed for elementary and secondary school chess coaches, parents, and volunteers

5 CPDUs available for educators!  

Presented by

Dr. Alexander Kostyev, Moscow, Russia

Co-Chair, FIDE Chess Education Committee

Chair, Chess Department, Moscow University

GM Wang Rui, Beijing, China

The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China

  IM Vyacheslav Styazhkin, St. Petersburg, Russia

         School-Gymnazia #2, St. Petersburg

Dr. Mikhail Korenman

Seminar Facilitator

The seminar includes the following topics:

• How to design curriculum for elementary and secondary school chess clubs?
• How to motivate students to study chess themselves?
• How to improve chess tactics and strategies?
• How to plan chess activities for the academic year?

Seminar requirements: Participants should be involved in teaching chess at local level.
Tuition: $50; $75 with 5 CPDU’s. One FREE entrée for anyone represents teams participated at the Intercontinental Chess Team Championship!
For more information please contact Dr. Mikhail Korenman, at 785-906-0402 or via e-mail: intecsus@yahoo.com 

Andrew Hubbard of Illinois wins World Amateur Championship!

Congratulations to Andrew Hubbard!  The world champ gets $3,000 and the FM title, and a scholarship to Texas Tech University!  (Hmm, didn't Andrew graduate from high school five years ago?)

Alybaev Djekshenbek of Kyrgyzstan, Mohammad Shaikh of India, Richard Huang of Canada, and Jeff Dixon (another Illinoisan) tied for second.

You'll find more info in the other winners here: details TK!

Final standings, 25th North American Masters

GM Ben Finegold of St. Louis and Mackenzie Molner of New Jersey tied for first with 6.5 points in 9 games (+4).  Molner simulatneously earned his final IM norm and his first GM norm.  Siddarth Ravichandran of India also earned his final IM norm with a score of 5.5 (+2).

Jon Burgess has a preliminary report on the ICA forum.  (Apologies for falling behind with so many great events going on--it's my busy season!)

Fair and balanced tournament report at ICA website

 Penny Xu

 Eric Rosen

(Photos: Betsy Dynako)

Here's a link to the long-promised writeup.  Reports that the ICA correspondent is related to one of the players remain unconfirmed.

Eric Rosen wins 2009 Denker Qualfier

Oops! Eric actually won the 2010 title.  As I've left links in a couple places, I'll let the misinformation stand uncorrected in the title to avoid broken links.

 Full report  tomorrow later today: in the meantime, here's a great game played by the tournament winner and Josh Dubin.

tactics quiz

Hartmut Riedel offers yet another tactics quiz based on the 2010 Corus tournament.  You.ve seen some of these before, perhaps?  But repetition is good....

Congratulations to Penny Xu and Adele Padgett

Penny (who was only 12 years old as of February 2010) and Adele (15 years old as of 2/2010) tied for first in the Illinois Chess Association's Girls Invitational Championship this weekend. Each scored 3 wins, 1 loss, and 1 draw. Penny takes the title on tiebreaks.

In the following game, Penny and and her opponent Shayna Provine both display a very mature handling of the Sicilian.  (Chicagoans of a certain age know all about the dangers of the anti-Najdorf system 6.g3, as we all suffered at the hands of Leo Kaushansky.)  As I played through the game score on my iPhone, I found myself wondering who Penny's coach could be.

Then I saw Penny give Tamara Golovey a hug in the hotel lobby.  Aha!

P.S.  What cool shot did Penny miss on White's 24th move?  (I didn't notice it at first: she had to show it to me.)

Denker Qualifier update

Andi Rosen is posting updated results here.

I'm sorry to hear that Zack Kasiurak had to withdraw from the event due to illness (hard to play chess with a 102-degree fever!)

He's a very talented and complete player, as I learned last year:

Kramnik beats Carlsen in their blindfold game

Carlsen's idea is interesting: I have no idea why the promising attack fizzled so quickly.

Carlsen-Kramnik

After 9...O-O: White to move

Is the attack worth a pawn?

 

"Budget Cuts Could Check-Mate School Chess Programs"

CBS 2 Chicago visits the recent Renaissance Knights Chess Foundation / CPS event and reports on the threat to future years' funding.

Story here.

Video here.

from the Volokh Conspiracy, via Andrew Sullivan

Too smart to become the chess world champion?

Magnus Carlsen says he's not quite as bright as John Nunn. It's interesting that this Carlsen interview got mentioned in two influential political blogs....

K-8 coverage at ICA

Penny Xu vs. Sam Schmakel

Andi Rosen has the story, accompanied by some nice photos taken by Eric Rosen.

I want my PGN

Just sayin' 

Denker and Girls' Invitational players (and their TDs) are invited to send me raw / annotated game scores.  That goes for last weekend's winners as well.  Or if you're a geezer like me who's played an interesting game lately, just send it in!  If you're from Chicagoland, that helps.

And just what is Portable Game Notation (PGN)?  It's a broadly-accepted format for sharing chess games between computer programs.  You can enter your games in PGN and share them with the rest of the world.

2010 World Amateur Championships in Skokie!

The action starts tonight!

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

Illinois State Scholastic Championships

The 2010 Illinois State Scholastic Championships drew 594 players from kindergarten to 8th grade to the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles last weekend, March 13-14.

Jason Daniels (1286) took the K-1 section with a perfect 7-0; David Wallach and Sean Yu Li tied for second with 6-1.

Matthew Stevens (1587) won the Grades 2-3 section with a perfect 7-0 score.  Chetan Reddy, Nathaniel Sobery, Akhil Kalghatgi, Randaheer Tripuraneni, and Rishav Sinha all tied for second with 6-1.

Bryce McClanahan (1791) grabbed the Grades 4-5 section with 7-0; Zhaozhi Li (1808), Conrad Oberhaus (1692), Ian Gilchrist (1567), Lorenzo Barbin (1543), and Abe Sun (1506) tied for second with 6-1.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Yue Xu (1812) won the Grades 6-8 section, downing second place finisher Sam Schmakel (1960); Alex Bian (1796) and Samuel Heil (1528) also tied for second.

Jeff Wiewel and Gary Jannsen directed, assisted by Betsy Dynako, Erv Sedlock, Colley Kitson, Jeremy Von Hatten, Elizabeth Villaflor, Wayne Clark, James Greer, and Blair Machaj.  The event was organized by Machaj and Paul Raso of Illinois Chess Teachers.  Bill Barton served as bid liaison on behalf of the Illinois Chess Association.

ICA Denker Qualifier and Girls' Invitational this weekend!

Andi Rosen provides the details at the ICA website.

The "Denker Qualifier" is the Illinois Chess Association High School Invitational Championship.  Seven players face each other in a six-round round robin. As there's a odd player sitting out each round, the event actually takes seven rounds to complete.  Action begins tonight and continues through Monday.

The invitees this year are Michael Auger, Josh Dubin, Zach Kasiurak, defending champion Trevor Magness, Ashok Raife, Eric Rosen and Matt Wilber.

In this year's Girls Invitational Championship, the players are Victoria Bian, Adele Padgett, Shayna Provine, Rachel Ulrich, Sonya Vohra and Yue Xu (congratuations on making Class A in style, Penny!) . 

I've had the pleasure of playing against, analyzing with, or studying the games of virtually all this weekend's contestants.  Whoever wins, Illinois can be very proud of its representatives!

The People's Champion

Vasily Ivanchuk (happy 41st birthday!) retakes sole first place at the Amber Tournament.  See the official website for today's report.

CPS Elementary Schools Sports Program - Regional Playoffs

David Heiser reports on the March 6 playoffs.  CPS finals will be at King High School on March 20th.  Read all about it at Chess Life Online!

Only a few hours left...

For preregistration at this year's Chicago Open.  Last chance to save a buck!

Note the big change in this year's format:

Open Section: 9 rounds, May 27-31. 5-day schedule only, 40/2, SD/1.

In all other sections, one is free to choose between the 4-day, 3-day, and 2-day formats, just as in prior years.

Chess without Borders at Navy Pier

Go read Kiran Frey's story on Chess Life Online!  Helping another human being is grabbing a pawn: it's worth a little trouble.

More at this blog.

Craigslist cut-and-paste

Again, I haven't bothered to check out the ad: job seekers, do your own due diligence!  (Looks similar to the one I linked to earlier.)

Fun, Enthusiastic Chess Teachers Needed! (Chicago and Suburbs)

---

Date: 2010-03-14, 2:46PM CDT
Reply to: job-uztwe-1643894702@craigslist.org

---

The largest chess academy in Illinois is looking for people to fill teaching positions immediately. We are looking for energetic, enthusiastic instructors to fill part-time teaching positions in a classroom setting. If you love chess, have teaching experience, and are free in the afternoon, this is the job for you. Strong chess ability, reliable transportation and a positive attitude required. If you feel that you could make chess fun for kids of all ages, please reply with:

1) Resume and contact information
2) Availability
3) A brief paragraph describing why you would be a great chess teacher

This job is an excellent source of supplemental income for students, actors, teachers, and people who love chess!

• Location: Chicago and Suburbs
• Compensation: $36-60 per hour
• This is a part-time job.
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

PostingID: 1643894702

are you playing the Mid-America Open?

It's next weekend in St. Louis.... 

Chess Life Online needs a reporter!  Drop me a line if interested.

Knight Moves Chess Club Spring Open

At the Chicago Public Library, Lozano Branch, on Saturday, March 27:

Info is here:

Knight Moves Chess Club Spring Open

Date: Sat. March 27, 2010
Time: 9:00 am
Location:
Lozano
1805 S. Loomis Street
60608
About this event:
Section I is open to Players 15 years of age and older.
Section II is open to Players 14 years of age and younger.
The first of 5 rounds begins at 10:00 a.m., with a 30 min. per player per game time control. 

An award ceremony will begin at 4:30 p.m.
Registration:
Registration will take place from 9:00 am to 9:30 am the day of the event.

 And I bet you could find out details by calling our friend Hector Hernandez.

of interest to Chicago & chess bibliophiles

The Library of Congress offers online access to the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection.  (His father Julius Rosenwald, the president of Sears Roebuck & the founder of the Museum of Science & Industry, was Reshevsky's patron.)

Amber round 1 is finishing right now

Ivanchuk-Carlsen will be one of the three games.  (Ivanchuk won the blindfold game earlier today.)

You can follow the action here.

Sicilian Grand Prix with 5.a3!?

The former Sicilian player in me says "thanks for the tempo!"  But our own Matt Pullin and Michael Goeller of the Kenilworth (NJ) Chess Club are both pretty smart, so I'll suspend judgment.


 
Matt mentions that the late Billy Colias had played this line: does anyone have these games?

Rook Dreams

Somehow I missed this December 2008 Atlantic article.

I normally don't get excited about opening books....

a tabiya in the English Hedgehog

Black to play

Suba's out-of-print book on The Hedgehog is brilliant, and I've won at least one tournament game thanks to it.  But it's also one of the most disorganized and confusing books I've ever read.

But now there's a much better alternative.  I just got my copy of Sergey Shipov's The Complete Hedgehog, Volume 1.  So far, I've only thumbed through the 527 (!!) pages and read the introduction to various sections, I can tell you that it looks like an absolute masterpiece of clarity (considering how confusing this opening can be!).  Furthermore, it looks to me like that rare opening book suitable for both 1600 and 2400 players.

First ten thousand views

(How many views were mine when I wasn't signed in?  I don't want to think about that....)

Thanks to the many good people who have sent material to the blog: from grandmasters to my fellow patzers.  Please keep it coming!

And special thanks to the other editors on this blog....the less we hear of me, the better.

If you could take the time to follow this blog or link to this blog or send me something cool related to Chicago chess, it'd be appreciated!  I'm always happy to plug folks' events in Chicagoland (or even events of interest to Chicagoans): stuff already in html format is most appreciated.

Over 150 at Greater Chicago Scholastic Chess Championships

Jeff Caveney reports at Chess Life Online!

top-notch rerun

 GM Mesgen Amanov and friends

 Courtesy US Chess Online.

Opening night

...for Theo Ubique's production of Chess at the No Exit Café.

This coming Saturday the 13th, I'll be playing blitz risers during the the pre-show dinner against two much younger and stronger players.  (When three people are playing blitz, the loser, or "riser," gets up.)  My wife will be there, too, so my goal is modest: not to get wiped out.

Warren Scholars seminar

Andi Rosen reports at the ICA homepage.

Evanston Game/45 event on Saturday the 13th!

Levy Senior Center
300 Dodge Ave
Evanston, IL 60202

Evanston Chess Presents:
Mar 13, 2010
9:00am-5:30pm
Tri-Level
4SS G/45
Three Sections
USCF Dual Rated
Section Gold: 1700 and over
Section Silver: 1200 - 1699
Section Bronze: Under 1200 and Unrated

1600 - 1699 may play up to Gold.
1100 - 1199 may play up to Silver.
Published USCF Regular Rating determins eligibility.
Unrated players may be placed up at TD discretion.

From time to time Evanston Chess pays one or more titled players to play in our events. We usually do not pair them against each other. Even if they should lose (it does happen) we may pair them with the highest score groups.

Four rounds. Digital clocks are required and will be set to G/40 plus 5 seconds delay. Accelerated or decelerated pairings at TD discretion. Sections may be combined at TD discretion.

Registration from 9:00 to 9:30 AM. Players must check in by 9:30 am; players who arrive late will receive a half-point bye for the first round. First Round 9:45 am, last round over roughly 5:30 pm.

You may take one half-point bye in any round but the last.

Entry fee is $5, please pay cash (no checks) at the door. Masters and Experts play free.

Send name, USCF number, and telephone number to enter@evanstonchess.org.
 
Junior players (under fourteen years) rated 900+ are welcome. Sorry, but we do not accept junior players rated under 900. Must be accompanied by a parent throughout the event.

Bring clocks. -- Wheelchair accessible. No Smoking.

Coming Events:
--Mar 13, 2010, 4SS G/45 Tri-Level 9:00am-5:30pm
--Apr 24, 2010, 5SS G/29 Rapid 9:00am-4:30pm
--May 30, 2010, 0SS G/0 No May Tnmt
--Jun 12, 2010, 3SS G/70 Swiss Groups 9:00am-5:00pm

See http://evanstonchess.org/ for details.

Happy 75th!

 Bent Larsen

Best birthday wishes to the player who taught us all to push rook pawns and who never let us forget that Nimzowitsch was Danish, too.  

ChessBase

ChessVibes

FIDE

Skakbladet (in Danish, but lots of great photos)

And here's Flohr-Larsen, Copenhagen 1966.

P.S.  If you know Weiss from Schwartz, you might enjoy Larsen's collection of his games through 1973.

all in a day's work

I have a 9 a.m. business meeting with one of my clients. We finish by 10, and to my surprise he pulls up this position from his computer:

Larsen-Miles, Bled/Portoroz 1979

White to play and win 

I solve the puzzle in thirty seconds (go to Black's 59th move in this link: must remember to analyze forcing moves first!), think to myself how cute the postion is, then wonder how the heck my client got ahold of such an elegant problem.

Then he hits me with this one, and I start laughing:

Shirov-Dominguez, Corus 2010

Now I know that my client is not reading this blog, as I've previously posted on this combination, though admittedly I never got around to discussing this amazing position.  

Oh, what the heck!  Find White's only drawing move (which even gives White winning chances if Black blunders!):

I even show my client why 29.Qh5 would have lost (essential to closing any business deal!).

Now I really begin to wonder where my friend (an enthusiastic amateur whose initial rating would probably be below 1200) is getting this cool stuff. So he shows me the following app:


Aha! Very cool! We can all learn from our clients....

At 10:30 I give my client a ride from Oprah-ville to City Hall & tell him the story of the aborted Shirov-Kasparov match and how Kramnik became world champion. Somehow this is harder to explain than the combinations....

an oldie but goodie

We all make mistakes!

Post-Linares interview with Topalov

From ChessVibes!

The Chess Pavilion

Tobey Maguire?

After seeing The Aviator, I'd argued for DiCaprio.  But I could see Tobey Maguire.

Topalov-Gelfand annotated

On ChessBase.

Topalov wins Linares

Veselin Topalov wins clear first at Linares for the first time.  (He tied for first with Kasparov in 2005 in the latter's final event of his active career.)

His win against Gelfand is worth looking at! Amazing creativity in a "dead drawn" ending.

Greater Chicago Scholastic Championships this weekend!

It's the Greater Chicago Scholastic Championships (co-organized by Renaissance Knights and the Kasparov Chess Foundation) in Northbrook this weekend, February 27th and 28th!

Adamson on IM Norm #2 at the North American Masters

 Sevan Muradian & Robby Adamson

At Chess Life Online.

Topalov back on top

Veselin Topalov is +3 at Linares, and he may go to +4 shortly (he has Aronian on the ropes in a game going on right now).

Here are the top five according to the live ratings:

01     Topalov    2814,7
02     Carlsen     2812,9
03     Kramnik   2789,9
04     Anand       2788,7
05     Aronian     2779,8

Hmm, GM Sergey Zagrebelny at the Russian site ChessPro is saying that Topalov just blundered.

P.S.  Game drawn.

Pinoy Pride

Alex Betaneli recaps the victory of Pinoy from Chicago (IM Angelo Young, NM Camilo Pangan, Florentino Inumerable, Rene Ancheta and Virgilio Forro) in Chess Life Online.

Camilo Pangan is an incredibly creative player: it's great to see he's in action again!

Interested in becoming a part-time chess instructor?

I do not vouch for this Craigslist entry, but it came up in my Google alert, and it appears interesting and legitimate on its face.

Learn to play chess at Kelly Library, 6151 S. Normal, Chicago

Every Tuesday and Thursday (at least through the end of April) at 1 to 3 p.m., at Chicago Public Library's Kelly Library, 6151 S. Normal, in Chicago.

The library is convenient for folks in Washington Park / West Engelwood: more info here.


View Larger Map

Fields set for Illinois Chess Association Denker Qualifier & Girls' Invitational

On the ICA website!

Linares midpoint

Topalov is +2 after beating Grischuk today; nobody else is above breakeven.  Details at TWIC.

Anish Giri annotates the epic Topalov-Grischuk battle on ChessBase.

North Shore Chess Club

From the listing in Wilmette Life:

The North Shore Chess Club meets from 7 to 9 p.m., Wednesdays, at Starbucks, 347 Park Ave., Glencoe. The club has a relaxed, drop-in atmosphere and is open to players, adults and teenagers, at all skill levels. The club doesn't offer any formal classes but advanced players are always willing to help those who are less experienced. There are no tournaments and no fee. Members need only bring their own chess sets. E-mail: guntherrice@gmail.com.

Hunkering down....

"Trio Wins Bid for November 2010 All-Grade Tournament at Whitney Young"

Garrett Scott reports:

The ICA Bid Committee recently went through its initial trial, reviewing two bids for the 2010 Illinois All Grade Championship. Six committee members had input on the bid and participated in a thorough and lively email discussion of the options before us. The committee ultimately recommended to the Executive Board that it approve the bid submitted by Paul Kash (Whitney Young), Zack Fishman (Chess Education Partners) and Michael Cardinale (Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago). The Executive Board unanimously approved our recommendation at its February 11th meeting.

The tournament will be held on Saturday, November 13, 2010. The site will be the Whitney Young Magnet High School in the West Loop area of Chicago. Entry fees will be waived for anyone enrolled in a school’s free or reduced fee lunch program.

The second bid was submitted by Glenn Panner and Tim Just of Bubbacat Chess. We were pleased that each bid was well thought through and of very good quality. All committee members felt both bids were more than acceptable and would have created a good tournament well worthy of being an ICA state title event [...]

Read all about it at the Illinois Chess Association website.

I had a chance to assist in this process.  It was a pleasure to be able to choose between two such attractive bids, and to work with such a cordial committee chaired by the cordial Garrett Scott.

One question about the Auger-Rosen game....

You'll find the players' annotations at Chess Life Online. I do have one question:

White to play: can Black still draw?

Matthew Wilber - Eric Rosen, round 3 of IHSA Championships

I've had the pleasure of playing against both these talented young gentlemen.  They'll be facing off again at the Illinois Denker Qualifier, the ICA's invitational championship for high school players.

the eternal duel of bishop vs. knight

I think it was Dmitry Gurevich who compared bishops to dogs and knights to cats....

White to play

Anyway, Chicago's Jeff Caveney and GM Karsten Müller analyze an interesting ending at Chess Cafe. (This link will expire in a month or so, but you should be able to find it in the archives.)

Chicago Blaze shines at US Amateur Teams

Daniel Parmet reports on the Chicago Blaze blog.

IHSA coverage in Chess Life Online

 
Great article by my neighbor Betsy Dynako.

P.S.  Betsy's photo of Palatine HS first board Shiny Kaur is now on the USCF home page.

Pioneer Press coverage of IHSA championships

The Niles North Vikings chess team dominated the competition during the weekend's state chess tournament, coasting to a well-deserved championship. 

 Article continues here.

Good players are lucky

Eric Rosen (Niles North) - Nic Nogulich (Glenbard West)

Black to play

This time, White has two pawns for the Exchange: that's rough material equality.

What's Black's best move?

P.S.  As in the previous game, the horsie was triumphant.  Niles North beat Glenbard West 41.5 to 26.5.  This first board game was worth 12 points.  Hmm.

Light notes to the game are here.

Losing the Exchange

Matthew Wilber (Buffalo Grove) - Eric Rosen (Niles North)

White to play

So bishops and knights are worth 3 pawns or so and rooks are worth 5 pawns or so.  So if you lose a rook for a knight plus a pawn, you've lost one point, right?

Losing a rook for a knight or bishop is called "losing the Exchange".   In the above position, Black is down the Exchange for a pawn.  (We capitalize "the Exchange" to distinguish it from plain old exchanges of pieces, I suppose.)

If you've lost the Exchange for a pawn, don't fret!  Your extra pawn can hope to become a queen, but your opponent's rook is trapped in its body!  Knights are more fun than rooks!  And you now have one more piece than your opponent!

Check out the above position.  Black's knights are getting frisky, the center pawns look scary, and the White rooks don't have enough room to come out and play.  What's White's best move?

P.S.  If you haven't figured out the answer already, enjoy the full game.

catching up on Linares

The big news: Carlsen, who's taking a breather this year, will play in 2011! (Somehow, Carlsen is beginning to make a Fischeresque imprint on the game: he's the biggest presence even when he's not playing.)

The Ciudad de Linares tournament has been the unofficial tournament championship for over two decades. This year's event is shorter and somewhat weaker, but any event with Aronian, Topalov, Gashimov, Grischuk, Gelfand, and Vallejo is still incredibly strong. Topalov and Grischuk lead with +1 after 3 rounds. Let's catch up via ChessBase:

Round 3
Round 2
Round 1

Magness - Yermolinsky, US Amateur Team North

Please send me your games, even if they're not quite as good as this one!

Auger - Rosen from the IHSA Championships

Scotch Gambit? Mr. Auger is advised not to try such weak (ahem) stuff against yours truly.

But seriously...this is a fun game to watch. The advantage changes hands a couple times until Black loses the thread in time pressure. (Is the piece-down ending salvageable?)

Trevor Magness earns Master title

Congratulations to Illinois's newest master and to his family.  Mom's (Cheryl's) blog entry is here.

Trevor beat GM Alex Yermolinsky this weekend at the US Amateur Team Championships in Milwaukee. (That's Trevor in the upper left, playing White.)

Chicago Public League perspective on states

Lane Tech was the top finisher among Chicago public schools, at 7th.

 Read all about it on the Chicago Public League Sports Blog.

Niles North wins IHSA State Championship

Niles North High School

2010 State Chess Champions

(swiped from Eric Rosen's Facebook album)

Led by coach Harry Kyriazes, Skokie's Niles North High School won the 2010 state title in impressive style.  Their perfect match score of 7-0 included three 68-0 shutouts.  Stevenson HS of Lincolnshire and Hinsdale Central HS took second and third.

Michael Auger of Whitney Young and Zachary Kasiurak of Barrington were two of the four (!) perfect scores on Board 1.  Gauri Manoj of Glenbrook South and Curtis VanPetten of St. Charles North also scored 7-0.

Final results are here!