Thursday, November 11, 2010

Let's be less obscure....

Chess is certainly not a substitute for a liberal education (see the sad example of Bobby Fischer), just as, contra Wagner, a healthy culture requires a lot more than opera.  But chess, like music, adds immensely to a liberal education.  

One small example: in this information age, chess gives us insights into both the tremendous value and the sharp limits of computing operations.  My friends and I can't hope to compete with Rybka, but there's lot of chess understanding that we have--that YOU have, gentle reader--that hasn't be programmed into Rybka. and won't be, for years to come.  The human brain is uncannily good at "instinctive" knowledge: recognition of "fuzzy" patterns that computers can't interpret.  A simple example: CAPTCHA.  Experts often find it difficult to articulate the nature of their expert knowledge: see Jonah Lehrer's How We Decide for a wonderful introduction to this topic.

So what was the link to protein folding in the previous post all about?  Molecular biology is an information science, one in which computers are essential to research.  But humans can sometimes outperform computers in protein folding!  Keep in mind that the computers, as in chess, can calculate millions of more "variations" per second.  

And now I must do my football picks for the office pool....I picked New England, Detroit, and Buffalo last week, and finished dead last in a field of nineteen.

"Top Titled Players Endorse ICA's Program for Chicago Public Schools"


Jerry Neugarten reports on his group's proposal to bring free chess instruction to all of Chicago's Title I public schools.  

Bringing the joy of creative thinking to disadvantaged children is one of the greatest things we can do as a community!  Chess education will never be as popular as music education, another medium for prodigies.  And if you'll permit me a bit of heresy, chess education shouldn't be as important as music education.  (I rest my case.)  But I know from personal experience that chess introduced me to certain new ways of thinking that are particularly important in an information economy.

Of course, Chicago will soon have a new mayor, and Chicago Public Schools will soon have a new CEO, so it's hard to say how this proposal will play out.   (Did you know that the outgoing Ron Huberman is only 38 years old?  He probably knows something about developing prodigies....)

Check out the endorsement letter itself: cool signatures!

Original blog entry edited to correct hyperlink errors....any remaining weird hyperlinks are deliberately obscure. :-)

Oh, let's go ahead and embarrass Trevor


Follow the link for the charming explanation....Mom looks great then and now.  

Your present blogger, on the other hand, needs to lose weight AND grow hair.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

"Blaze Game of the (final) week"

NM Jeremy Kane annotates a creative struggle between Grandmasters Gurevich and Becerra.

Calling all computer gurus

If one were looking for a meat-and-potatoes laptop mainly for chess (ChessBase / Rybka, etc.), is this Toshiba a reasonable choice?  There's already an AMD Toshiba in our family: price (about $450) and features (4 GB RAM) seem just fine .

But I was wondering if there was a better price/performance sweet spot.

Helen Warren honored at ICA banquet

From left: Les Bale, Tim Just, ICA president Tom Sprandel, Vince Hart, honoree Helen Warren, Jerry Neugarten, Jim Warren, 40% of Jim Brotsos...
Photo Betsy Dynako

Banquet organizer Andi Rosen reports....

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

"Chicago Poised to Shine at Illinois All Grade"

Mike Cardinale previews this Saturday's event on the ICA website.  Rumor has it that preregistrations are already over 450 players!

Register here!   No onsite entries!
This event is free for the first 300 K-8 children on the Illinois Free and and Reduced Lunch Program. Verification from participating schools is required.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Nakamura may have missed a win against Kramnik today....

Hikaru Nakamura
Insane game against Kramnik today. Gotta love how we both didn't know what was going on and Rybka is like, "haha, you stupid idiots!"

Nakamura breaks into top ten on live ratings list

How about that!

We had fun yesterday!

Check out Betsy Dynako's photo gallery (you may need to enter your email first).

Our condolences to the Taylor family

To lose a loved one is always painful.  But to lose such a fine young man as Choice Taylor, who was a senior at Maine West....there are no words.

Story here.  Our condolences to the Taylor family and to his friends at Maine West.

"Florida Hurricane"

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

Evanston Chess Club Tri-Level

Thirty players turned out for Saturday's Tri-Level.  NM Ken Wallach, NM Jon Burgess, and Robby Hecht tied for first in the Gold Section with 3-1 scores.  Eduard Baev, Mark Spitzig, and Haoyang Yu tied for first in the Silver/Bronze section with 3½-½ scores.

Crosstable here!

North Shore Chess Center Game/45

Miomir Stevanovic won yesterday's four-player quad at the North Shore Chess Center. Crosstable here.

Best game prize: 1982 Midwest Masters

The Midwest Masters tournaments are one of Helen Warren's great legacies.  Here's Erik Karklins's amazing game that won the best game prize in the inaugural event.  Look for notes to this game (based on the gracious loser's annotations in the Illinois Chess Bulletin) in the December 2010 Chess Life!


Sunday, November 7, 2010

If you're not going to the banquet today....

G/45 + 10/sec increment tournament
We are holding a G/45 + 10/sec increment tournament today at the North Shore Chess Center. Based on numbers this can be a series of quads (3-rounds) or a regular swiss tournament (4 rounds). 
Entry fee is $20 for non-chess center members and $15 for chess center members. 
Registration starts at 12:30pm with Round 1 @ 1pm. All equipment is provided. 
Prizes:
  • 1st place - Free entry to the 2010 Illinois Class on 12/4/2010 and a 3-month extension to a 1 year chess center membership
  • 2nd place - 50% off entry fee to the 2010 Illinois Class on 12/4/2010 and a 3-month extension to a 1 year chess center membership
  • 3rd place - 3-month extension to a 1 year chess center membership
The North Shore Chess Center is located at 5500 West Touhy Ave Suite A, Skokie, IL 60077. You can visit our website at http://www.nachess.org/nscc or our Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/ChessCenter for more details on memberships, events, etc. 

Quad tournament in Elgin November 20th

Details on the ICA website!

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.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

A cute trap...

...as highlighted by Yasser Seirawan in his wonderful online commentary at the Internet Chess Club.

Aronian-Kramnik
Tal Memorial, Round 1
White to play and win

Only one move wins: everything else appears to lose!

Tal Memorial round 2: Nakamura shares the lead

Today in the Tal Memorial, Hikaru Nakamura pulled off a cool combination:

Hikaru Nakamura - Pavel Eljanov
After 25...h6: White to play

The knight on g5 is under attack: where to put it?

26. Rxd5!

Nowhere!

26...Rxd5 27. Ne4! 

White is temporarily down an entire rook, but Eljanov has no way to take advantage.

27...Qc4 28. Qxc4 Nxc4 29. Nxd5 Re8?! 

The engines suggest 29... Rd8 as a better defense, but 30. Ne7+ (and not 30.Nf4? Re8 embarrassing the knight on e4) 30... Kf8 31. Nf5 Rd5 32. g4 h5 33. h3 leaves White with a pleasant pawn-up ending.

30. Nef6+ gxf6 31. Nxf6+ Kf8 32. Nxe8 Kxe8 

Nakamura puts Eljanov away quickly:  crisp clean style reminiscent of Fischer. 

33. Rb1 Nd6 34. e4 b6 35. e5 Nb7 36. Rb4 Nc5 37. Rh4 Kf8 38.Rxh6 Kg7 39. Rc6 Nxa4 40. e6 1-0

The full game score is available at The Week in Chess and the official site.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Tal Memorial: Nakamura draws Round 1

If you're at the office like me, you may enjoy following on chesspro.ru.  (Don't be put off by the Cyrillic!)

Today's big game: Aronian takes down Kramnik.  Wang Hao may have Shirov in trouble (game in progress: Shirov resigns).

Grischuk-Eljanov still in progress.

Karjakin wins an interesting ending against Gelfand.

Carlsen withdraws from the World Championship Cycle

Story at The Week in Chess:

To: FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov & FIDE World Championship Committee.

Reference is made to the ongoing World Championship cycle.To: FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov & FIDE World Championship Committee.

Reference is made to the ongoing World Championship cycle.

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of my decision not to take part in the planned Candidate Matches between March and May 2011.

After careful consideration I’ve reached the conclusion that the ongoing 2008 - 2012 cycle does not represent a system, sufficiently modern and fair, to provide the motivation I need to go through a lengthy process of preparations and matches and, to perform at my best.

Reigning champion privileges, the long (5 yr) span of the cycle, changes made during the cycle resulting in a new format (Candidates) that no World Champion has had to go through since Kasparov, puzzling ranking criteria as well as the shallow ceaseless match-after-match concept are all less than satisfactory in my opinion.

By providing you with 4 months notice before the earliest start of the Candidates as well as in time before you have presented player contracts or detailed regulations, I rest assured that you will be able to find an appropriate replacement.

Although the purpose of this letter is not to influence you to make further changes to the ongoing cycle, I would like to take the opportunity to present a few ideas about future cycles in line with our input to FIDE during the December 27th 2008 phone-conference between FIDE leaders and a group of top-level players.

In my opinion privileges should in general be abolished and a future World Championship model should be based on a fair fight between the best players in the World, on equal terms. This should apply also to the winner of the previous World Championship, and especially so when there are several players at approximately the same level in the world elite. (Why should one player have one out of two tickets to the final to the detriment of all remaining players in the world? Imagine that the winner of the 2010 Football World Cup would be directly qualified to the 2014 World Cup final while all the rest of the teams would have to fight for the other spot.)

One possibility for future cycles would be to stage an 8-10 player World Championship tournament similar to the 2005 and 2007 events.

The proposal to abolish the privileges of the World Champion in the future is not in any way meant as criticism of, or an attack on, the reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who is a worthy World Champion, a role model chess colleague and a highly esteemed opponent.

Rest assured that I am still motivated to play competitive chess. My current plan is to continue to participate in well-organised top-level tournaments and to try to maintain the no 1 spot on the rating list that I have successfully defended for most of 2010.

Best regards,

IGM Magnus Carlsen
 Carlsen provides brief comments at ChessBase.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Big test for Nakamura

....at the Tal Memorial!  Black against Mamedyarov is not an easy way to open a supertournament!

Previews at ChessVibes and Chess Life Online

The games begin at 7 a.m. Chicago time: I'll link to updates sometime tomorrow morning.

Well, that was a bit of a bummer....

The Blaze lost to the Miami Sharks last night 3-1BUMMER!

But Miami deserved to win, and the games were interesting.  More shortly....

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Miami vs. Chicago tonight at 7 p.m.

You can follow the action in person or online: find out how here!

I'll be joining the match in progress sometime around 9 p.m.

new Carlsen website

Quite logically, it's magnuscarlsen.com!

"It's Win or Go Home Time"

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

A position from the U.S. Game/30 championship

Black to play
Mark Robledo, Jr.-Bill Brock, Skokie 2010

It was a mutual time-scramble, but both players had more than one minute plus delay remaining when the above position was reached.  Black sees that White's king on c4 and pawn on d5 are both on the diagonal of the bishop on f7, and gets an idea.  Is it a bright one?

Evaluate the position: you are invited to use your computers!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

A letter from Tom Sprandel






  Illinois Chess Association
Dear Chess Friend:

GM Dmitry Gurevich, GM Yury Shulman and IM Florin Felecan will be at the banquet to honor Helen Warren. We'd love to have you there too.

Below is an invitation to the 2010 Illinois Chess Association banquet honoring Helen Warren, founder of the ICA Warren Junior Program. I hope you’ll be able to attend.

Helen’s vision and tireless work has helped foster the growth of the state’s top youth chess players. Be sure to read Bill Brock's tribute to Helen Warren. It's on the front page at http://il-chess.org/. I think you'll enjoy it.

The Warren program has a simple mission: to identify nationally ranked Illinois chess players ages 7 to 18, and provide them with opportunities to study with masters and grandmasters and to participate in high-level invitational events. The program nurtures the highest-potential Illinois students so they can compete on a national and international stage, and provides students with an opportunity for rigorous study that will give them skills to become leaders in other fields as adults.

The program serves more than 35 Illinois children who are currently ranked among the top U.S. chess players for their age in the country. Many are academically gifted, and benefit greatly from the in-depth study required to learn chess at an advanced level. The program funds intensive individual instruction for those with financial need, organizes group instruction, and sponsors state high school and girls invitational competitions, with prizes for winners to attend U.S. national championship tournaments.

If you can’t make it to the banquet, I hope you’ll consider making a contribution in Helen’s honor to this worthwhile cause. You may purchase tickets online at http://shop.il-chess.org/ or, you may mail your ticket order or donation to: ICA Warren Junior program, c/o Andrea Rosen, 8214 Keystone Ave., Skokie, IL 60076. Thank you.

Sincerely, Tom Sprandel, President Illinois Chess Association, Inc.
ICA Banquet
Honoring Helen Warren
Former ICA president and founder, Warren Junior Program
Recipient of the ICA's Broughton Award for outstanding service to chess in Illinois.
Sunday, November 7, 2010, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Buca Di Beppo, 90 Yorktown Road, Lombard
Dear Illinois Chess Association Members and Friends, We hope you’ll join us at a luncheon honoring Helen Warren, one of the ICA’s original founding members and founder of the Warren Junior Chess Program. Back in 1992, Helen recognized that the state’s top junior chess talent needed mentoring and support in order to develop their full potential. Eighteen years later, the Warren Program continues to provide the top junior players in Illinois with financial assistance for private and group instruction, and sponsors invitational events for the state’s top high school and female junior players. MENU (Served Family Style): Apple Gorgonzola Salad Caesar Salad Ravioli al Pomodoro Chicken Limone Cheesecake Soft Drinks, Coffee and Tea PROGRAM: Remarks by Fred Gruenberg Blitz chess with Warren Scholars Note: The ICA annual meeting will take place at the restaurant from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., immediately preceding the banquet. All ICA members are welcome to attend.
TICKETS
$30 Regular $60 Patron $100 Benefactor $250 Sustaining
To reserve your place, go to Banquet Tickets or send check made payable to Illinois Chess Association, Inc. and # of tickets desired to:
Andrea Rosen 
ICA Warren Program Director
8214 Keystone Ave
Skokie, IL 60076.
Be sure to include your email address to receive confirmation.
All proceeds will benefit the ICA Warren Junior Scholar Program. Individuals or companies who purchase tickets at the Benefactor level or above will be acknowledged on the ICA website.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Loose ends

Jeremy Kane and Trevor Magness annotate the Blaze's wins from last week (so I don't have to !)

All Grade at Whitney Young November 13th!



2010 ILLINOIS K-12 ALL-GRADE STATE CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
Entry Fee: $125 per High School until Nov 10th. BRING Everybody for the fee of five.

Coaches can pay team registration fee at the tournament or online.

Register your teams at www.chessteachers.org 

USCF Membership required--However, we can provide a one day membership that is valid for this event only. The fee for the one-day membership is $7 per player.

USCF Memberships can be purchased at USCHESS.org. We recommend a yearly membership for each player. 

Presented by  Whitney Young Magnet High School, Chess Education Partners, and the Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago

Individual entry fee is $25/player until Nov 5th.
If you have any questions, contact Paul Kash at pjkash@cps.edu or 773-512-2811

Ivanchuk beats Nakamura in Cap d'Agde finals

Two King's Gambits!  Although Ivanchuk tricked Nakamura into a good-vs.-bad-bishop ending in the first game, Nakamura's anti-King's Gambit system is utterly respectable and fun!

1.e4 e5 2.f4 Nc6 3.Nf3 f5!?

Coverage at The Week in Chess (games are in drop-down box above the board) and Europe-Echecs.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Breakfast entertainment at Cap d'Agde


Saturday morning (perhaps beginning at 7:30 a.m. Chicago time, but I'm not sure!), you can follow Nakamura's match with fellow super-GM Le Quang Liem at many websites, including the official site and The Week in Chess.   

Heavyweights Ivanchuk and Bu Xiangzh meet in the other semifinal.

Saturday, Nov. 6th: Evanston Tri-Level

Lazily cut-and-pasted for your viewing pleasure.... The entry fee is only $5!!
Levy Senior Center
300 Dodge Ave
Evanston, IL 60202
Evanston Chess Presents:
Tri-Level
4SS G/45
Three Sections
USCF Dual Rated

Nov 6, 2010
9:00am-5:00pm
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 5:00 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.

Grandmasters Gurevich and Shulman....

...will be among the guests honoring Helen Warren at the ICA Banquet at Buca di Beppo in Lombard, Sunday, November 7, at 1 p.m.

Won't you please join us, too?

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: LopezMagness 

Tom Panelas exhibits his hometown bias here.

2011-12 World Championship cycle

The 2011 Candidates Matches are supposed to begin in March in Kazan, Russia.  This is FIDE; we'll see.

Gata Kamsky is the American representative in the field of eight. If Topalov withdraws (as seems likely), he'll be playing Alexander Grischuk.  Carlsen, Kramnik, and Aronian are the other top seeds.

Once again, Ivanchuk is passed over.

Carlsen clinches Pearl Spring with one round to go


Topalov-Carlsen, Nanjing 2010
(while you were sleeping last night!)
Black to play and win

Express report (and answer) at ChessBase.

(Edit Nov. 1: I had hyperlinked to the diagram of the position after Topalov's 32.Rc3??; you can go to ChessBase to see the diagram.  It's been replaced by the above photo: how many bottles of juice can Carlsen drink?)

Just a couple weeks ago, both Magnus Carlsen and Veselin Topalov were having crises of form, and Kramnik, Aronian, and current world champion Anand were making serious runs at the #1 rating spot.  (In fact, both Anand & Aronian have been briefly number one on the unofficial but highly respected live ratings list.)

Carlsen (+4 in Nanjing) is back in top form, but Topalov (-2) is obviously not.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Blaze coverage!

Andi Rosen reports on the ICA home page.

My report starts immediately below Andi's!

Hurrah Blaze!

Chicago 2½ - Dallas 1½!!!

Games and analysis will soon be on the ICA website.  Won't have it up for a few hours because of a glitch.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Memory jog

The final regular season match of the Chicago Blaze starts in a couple minutes.

See you online!

Congratulatons to NM Gopal Menon!

Gopal has been an unofficial master in the eyes of most Illinois players in the know for more than a year.  Now it's official! The South Suburban Chess Club of Greater Chicago's most recent Orland Park events put Gopal over the hump. 

Now Mr. Cool can take off the sunglasses indoors! (True confession: I once played a Master Challenge wearing a Panama hat.)

Hat tip to NM Len Weber.

"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
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!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Exchange Variation of the Slav: not so toothless?

On this windy morning, let's see how Adarsh Jayakumar blew me off the board on his way to his share of the U.S. Game/60 title.


After the game, Adarsh showed me some of his Exchange Slav prep: dangerous stuff!

Monday, October 25, 2010

"Juniors Excel in National Action Events"

Michael Auger repeats as U.S. Game/30 Champion
(photo: Betsy Dynako)

NM Matan Prilleltensky reports at Chess Life Online!

"Chess Fever"

Let's enjoy everyone's favorite Soviet silent comedy! Capablanca is our dashing leading man....

3rd Annual Mayor Daley's Chess Championship, 12/18/2010

At McCormick Place! Details here!

Romanticism in chess

There are objectively better openings than the Danish Gambit, but an opening has to fit your personality.  Michael Auger likes to go for the jugular. 

The Evans Gambit lives!

Michael Auger repeats as U.S. Game/30 Champion

Michael Auger played his usual entertaining chess to repeat as U.S. Game/30 Champion.  Michael won his first four games then held a draw against FM Albert Chow to clinch.  NMs Matan Prilleltensky and Aleksandar Stamnov tied for second with 4-1, Chow and Charles McMillan tied for fourth.

Jason Flanders and Gee Leong tied for first in the Reserve section with 4-1 scores.  Jason Daniels and Alexander Hu tied for first in the Booster, also with 4-1.

An impressive performance by Illinois juniors this weekend!

Crosstable here! 

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Three Illinois juniors win US Game/60 championship!

Congratulations to NM Adarsh Jayakumar, Tommy Ulrich, and Sam Schmakel!

The field included FMs Chow and Stamnov and NM Acosta. Here's the crosstable.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Pearl Spring, Round 3: three decisive games in Nanjing

Carlsen 1 - Wang Yue 0 (Google translate of annotations at chesspro.ru)

Topalov 0 - Anand 1 (another QGD Lasker variation: ouch!)

Gashimov 0 - Bacrot 1

Or you can play through the games via ChessBase.  Insomniacs only: ICC is covering the event live.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Two NATIONAL one-day events in Skokie this weekend!

This Saturday, October 23rd, it's the US Game/60 National Championship. Details on the ICA tournament calendar! The concept is simple: each player has sixty minutes (plus five seconds delay per move) for the entire game!

On Sunday, October 24th, it's the US Game/30 National Championship. Details on the ICA tournament calendar! As you might guess, each player has thirty minutes (plus five seconds delay per move) for the entire game! It's rumored that at least one of last year's National Co-Champions will be there to defend his title.

The site for both events is the congenial Holiday Inn on 5300 W. Touhy in Skokie.

Sets, boards, and clocks are being provided by the organizer, Sevan Muradian's North American Chess Association.  Bring your lucky pen, show up, and play!

Please note the sizable discounts for preregistration and for playing in both events: for one event, the cost is $60 if you register by 6 p.m Friday; for both events, it's a very reasonable $100. But if you don't preregister, the onsite cost is $20 per event higher.  (Also note that there are multiple sections based on rating: it's possible to play up one section for an additional fee.)

Free registration is avaiable to FIDE titled players!

You can register online here!

Another opinionated Russian

 
Kasparov on Carlsen's relative poor form, FIDE, and life in general, courtesy of ChessVibes.

At the end of this article, you'll find thirty games from a recent Kasparov simul against Belgian players: the 30-0-0 shutout was possibly bloodier than Waterloo.

Post-Bilbao interview with Kramnik


From Chess in Translation.

First CICL bulletin of the 2010-11 season!

The PDF file is here!  There's nice coverage of the CICL match against the Warren Junior Scholars.

Nanjing - Pearl Spring round 1


This is the first tournament ever with three 2800's participating!  Wang Yue (China's #1) and Gashimov (a young player formerly in the top ten) are logical picks, but I'm surprised that Bacrot was invited instead of someone like Vachier-Lagrave.

Sidebar: Topalov has fallen well below 2800 on the unofficial but widely quoted live rating list, but Levon Aronian now joins Anand and Carlsen now above 2800, so there are still three 2800s in the world.  Signs of the time: none of the four are Russian, and only one of the four current / recent 2800s (Aronian) was born in the former Soviet Union.  But Kramnik is over 2790 with a bullet....

Back to Nanjing: the games begin at something like 2:30 a.m. Chicago time, so check them with your morning coffeeCarlsen wins in round one and will probably reclaim the live #1 spot later today....

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

"Amanov Unstoppable at the Midwest Class "

Round 5 showdown: GM Mark Paragua vs. GM Mesgen Amanov

Andi Rosen reports at Chess Life Online!  Check out Mesgen's notes, especially the Paragua-Amanov ending!



Forget about the GMs and the child prodigies for a second, and give another round of applause to Erik Karklins, who (officially) gained 25 rating points at the age of 95!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Black is OK! Blaze is OK! Sharks are OK!

There's a famous opening book by the Hungarian Grandmaster Adorjan titled Black Is OK!  Adorjan advocates the opening philosophy popularized by Fischer: don't grovel for the draw, don't play to equalize, but try to win from move one!

Even though White typically scores 56% of total points in master play, the player of the Black pieces won all four of tonight's games, and in tonight's U.S. Chess League match, the Chicago Blaze drew the Miami Sharks, 2-2.  Now could someone please explain what this means for the Blaze's playoff hopes?

Board 1: Gurevich-Becerra

The Chebanenko Slav (4...a6) is notoriously hard to beat. Dmitry Gurevich (who really really wanted to win tonight!) opted for a slow positional squeeze, and came close to converting against fellow GM Julio Becerra. The match situation required Becerra to play for a win to tie the match, and he found a good move (35...f5!) in mutual time pressure.

Dmitry still would have been better if he had played the consolidating move 36.Be3: 36.Kh3? was just too risky. Even in the game, 39.Qb1! kept the pressure on Black.

41.Bxf4? lost by force: kibitzers pointed out that Dmitry probably rejected 41.Qb7!? because it doesn't really threaten anything: the Re8 covers the back rank, and the Ng5 and Bd4 protect the sensitive squares in front of the Kg8. But the queen-rook battery on the seventh would have tied down several Black pieces to the king's defense: for example, 41...Nxf3 allows 42.Qh7+ Kf8 43.Qh6+ with a perpetual check.

Easy for a computer!


Board 2: make a wish

You've probably heard this one before. When you don't know what to do in a closed position, identify your worst placed piece, then imagine what square you would like that piece to be on. 


First, use your imagination, then see if you can find a plan to make your dream come true!

Perhaps with the help of this technique, GM Mesgen Amanov beats his third grandmaster in three days....

If you had had the Black pieces, what would your plan have been after 24.Ra2?

Board 3: Creative attack and counterattack

Florin Felecan played the Sozin against the Najdorf, and had very good practical chances to break through with the attack.  But all credit to the opponent: Marcel Martinez was a cool customer!

Board 4: Eric Rosen crushes the Smith-Morra Gambit

If you play the Black side of the Sicilian, you need to have something prepared against the Smith-Morra.  In this game, we get a glimpse of Eric's preparation. 

But I suspect that White's move order was suboptimal: why not play 7.O-O and see how Black chooses to develop?  7.Bf4 is unnecessarily committal.

It's nice to get the first point on the board!

Backlog catchup: Blaze lost a heartbreaker last week

Jeremy Kane reports on the Blaze website.  It's easy for us spectators to see, especially when we're running an chess engine during play.  But making the moves is another thing...

Blaze play tonight!

Tonight at 7 p.m., the Blaze take on the Miami Sharks! After two consecutive losses, we could use a win tonight!

GM Dmitry Gurevich 2481 – GM Julio Becerra 2628

GM Renier Gonzalez 2540 – GM Mesgen Amanov 2508

IM Florin Felecan 2415 – FM Marcel Martinez 2475

Nicolas Rosenthal 2047 – NM Eric Rosen 2227

Read Daniel Parmet's blog entry here.




The games begin at 7 p.m. Chicago time.


Follow the action on the Internet Chess Club (subscription required). 


Or stop by the North Shore Chess Center at 5500 West Touhy Avenue, Suite A, in Skokie.

GM Mesgen Amanov wins Midwest Class

This was not your typical weekend Swiss: in the last three rounds, Mesgen had to beat current Illinois State Champion GM Dmitry Gurevich and four-time U.S. Champion GM Alexander Shabalov, then draw Filipino GM Mark Paragua.

95-year-old Erik Karklins tied for second in the Expert section and gained an estimated 21 rating points, for a net gain of 85 points this decade

10-year-old Warren Scholar Conrad Oberhaus won the Class B section with a perfect 5-0 score and is now an A player!  Warren Scholar James Wei (age 10) and grizzled veteran Zachary Holecek (age 11 or 12?) scored 3½ in the Class A section: both gained a bucket of ELO.

Crosstable here!  (USCF hasn't rated yet: I'll edit the post to add when it does.)

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

mini-hiatus

Between the ICA's Youth Chess programs and the new North Shore Chess Center and the Chicago Blaze and CICL and the theory of f- and g- versus h-pawn Rook endings (not to mention yesterday's cool Shirov-Carlsen game), there's a lot I'd like to blog about. 

But the October 15th tax deadline is looming...back shortly!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Midwest Class Championships in Wheeling, October 15-17

Clipped and pasted from CCA email!
MIDWEST CLASS DEADLINES COMING SOON!

Tuesday, October 12: Last day for advance entry.

Wednesday, October 13:
The special $98 chess hotel rate at Westin North Shore is expected to end on this date, at about 5 pm.
19th annual
MIDWEST CLASS CHAMPIONSHIPS


October 15-17 or 16-17, 2010
Westin Chicago North Shore, Wheeling, Illinois

$20,000 projected prizes, $16,000 minimum guaranteed
5 round Swiss in 7 sections:

Master (2200/up), Expert (2000-2199), Class A(1800-1999), Class B (1600-1799), Class C (1400-1599), Class D(1200-1399), Class E (Under 1200). 

Also side event: Midwest Rated Beginners Open, Friday night, Oct 15.

Rated players may play up one class, unrated may enter A through E but have prize limits.

$98 special chess rate for 1-4 in room at the luxurious, AAA 4 Diamonds Westin North Shore Hotel, 800-937-8461, 847-777-6500, ask for chess rate, reserve now or rate may increase.

FULL DETAILS

ENTER NOW

Meet the Warren Scholars

Jonathan Tan, Lincoln Elementary, Mundelein

Andi Rosen is adding bios of the Warren Scholars to the ICA website.  Check it out!

You can support the activities of the Warren Junior Program (and have more fun than watching the Bears play the hapless Buffalo Bills) by attending the ICA Banquet Sunday, November 7, at Buca di Beppo in Lombard.  Details here!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Shipov on Carlsen-Anand

From the great Chess in Translation site!

and also...

Here's a little video from Mesgen Amanov's simul yesterday. Should give you an idea of the cool space!



Chess Life Online also covered the North Shore Chess Center opening, as well as a Renaissance Knights event at Wright College.

Bilbao round 2: Anand beats Carlsen

The World Champion should now be is now over 2800 and #1 on the live rating list.  He's had Black in his first two games!  Carlsen tried hard to squeeze Anand, but overplayed a slightly better position.

Kramnik (who had White in rounds 1 & 2) leads the tournament after pounding Shirov.

"Chess center makes opening moves in Skokie"

GM Mesgen Amanov won 20 games and drew 1 in yesterday's simultaneous

  Photos Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune