Critical moments, or, Why do smart players make foolish choices? (Part I)

The words "criticism" and "crisis" share an etymology.  Sometimes we recognize a critical moment in our games.  Having watched reruns of House, we may be able to make a differential diagnosis.  Being human, our reasonable guess may not be right, as we discover in the post-mortem.

I haven't really begun to analyze my games from this weekend's Tim Just's Winter Open XXV, but I think this may be an example:

Charles Swan-Bill Brock

After 16.Qxf3: Black to move

I have to choose how to give my extra piece back.  I played 16...Bxh3, but I now suspect (despite my engine's initial enthusiasm) that it's a mistake to cede the f5 square to the White Nf1.  My guess (which may well be wrong!) is that 16...Qe7 17.dxe6 fxe6, covering my light square weaknesses and creating a second semi-open file for my rooks, would've been stronger.  But either choice is reasonable: even Dr. House's initial diagnosis is usually wrong.

But sometimes the crisis is self-inflicted.  I found it humbling to try to explain my mental lapse a few moves later (my second senseless blunder of the week!)

Charles Swan-Bill Brock

After 18.Kh2: Black to move

I analyzed the piece sacrifice 18...O-O-O 19.Qxf6 Bxf2, hitting both the hanging Re1 and the g1 square.  If one peers deep into the position ;-) , one might notice a refutation.  (I did manage to generate some cheapo potential in the game continuation, but Swan put me away very calmly and efficiently.  His other games, including his loss to Aliyev, were even more impressive.)  

It was a consolation that other strong players could make equally strange oversights.

Bill Brock-Christopher Girardo

After 17.c5: Black to move

Black's choice, 17...Rc8, certainly looks natural.  However....

Dmitry Sergatskov-Bill Brock

White to move after 14...f7-f5

Dmitry's 15.e4 seeks to take advantage of the loose knight on d7.  However....

New K-8 Invitational Announced

Andi Rosen reports on her hard work at the Illinois Chess Association website.

In the course of skimming Andi's report (I do actually work for a living), I noticed an embarrassing omission from my Tim Just's Winter Open XXV report below.  The winner of the Booster Section, David Peng, was only 7 years old in December 2010!

Eric Rosen wins Tim Just's Winter Open XXV(?)

The consensus this weekend is that this was not the 25th annual TJWO.  Wayne Clark thought it was the 27th; Chief TD Daniel Parmet said that it had been run as early as 1983, which (assuming no skips) would make it the 29th.  I remember when it was held at Illinois Beach State Park: great location if you don't get a blizzard!

Eric Rosen won comfortably with 4½-½.  Timur Aliyev, Under 2000 winner Charles Swan of Whitney Young, and Under 2200 winner Bill Brock tied for second with 4-1 each.  Swan picked up 120 rating points in one weekend: not bad!  Congratulations to Fredric Cohen for making Class A!

David Peng won the booster with 4½-½.  Roger Wang, Saagar Gupta, Avinash Rajendra, and Ryan Toepfer (who went from 1481 to 1647!) tied for second with 4-1.

Thanks to Tim Just, Wayne Clark, and Daniel Parmet for another very nice event.  The clocks provided by the North American Chess Association allowed the event to use the thirty-second increment setting.  Even with only 90 minutes each for the game, one can approximate Real Chess.  Very pleasant for us old folks!

Crosstable here!

Hou Yifan makes the New York Times op-ed page

She's featured in Nicholas Kristof's column.  It's much better than the rest of today's depressing news.

I'm playing chess this weekend; back to blogging soon!

Hedgehogs win; blogger loses

This Board 1 matchup was crucial to the Hedgehogs' 4-2 victory over the AMA Rogue Squadron in Chicago Industrial Chess League play last night.  Both of us had read (and forgotten) the relevant chapter of Mihail Marin's Beating the Open Games....

Very nice preparation and play by Michael Rauchman!

Illinois State Girls' Championship in Skokie on January 29th

Details here!

December 2010 CICL Bulletin

Still catching up....

The Chicago Industrial Chess League published the latest issue of the Chicago Chess Player in timely fashion, even if one sometime blogger blew a deadline promise.

Sam Schmakel wins second national title

Andi Rosen reports on the ICA website!

(OK, so I took most of December off...)

Tim Just Winter Open XXV!

Another cut-and-paste from my email: see you there this weekend!

Tim Just's
Winter Open/Reserve XXV
A Heritage Tournament

 

Chicagoland's longest continuously run chess torunament organized by the same organizer for the past 25 years!
January 8, 2011 - January 9, 2011
DoubleTree Hotel : 1909 Spring Road , Oakbrook, Illinois 60523, (630) 472-6020, (630) 472-6000 

             
Same $64 Early EF - 2 Sections - Book Dealer - one day Winter Scholastic ($25) - $70 Hotel Room Rates -
Sets, Boards, & Clocks provided by North American Chess Association  for Winter Open/Reserve

Winter Open/Reserve info and registration: http://chessforlife.com/chess/wint11/index.html

Winter Scholastic info and registration: http://chessforlife.com/chess/wint 11/scholastic11.html

Another silly Internet game

The loser is the hapless but long-lived N.N., who has lost 99.9% of his games over the last 500+ years.

ChessBase Christmas puzzles

Enjoy!

Daniel Parmet on Gata Kamsky

The newest expert in Illinois has nice things to say about the winner of the Atlantic City International.

Webcomic: "Explorers"

Courtesy of xkcd.com

A simple little ending

White to play

Zhu Chen-Zhao Xue, Ulanbaatar 2010

There are only four pieces on the board, but the "simple" position is still complicated enough for former Women's World Champion Zhu Chen to make a fatal blunder.  Notes based on Dejan Bojkov's comments in New in Chess 2010.7. 

How many of us would have made the same blunder as Zhu Chen?

Last-minute chess present

Free plug: I can't think of a nicer gift than New in Chess magazine.  If you follow the link, you can buy a one-year subscription (8 issues) for only $59.  (List price, which I just paid for my renewal, is $96.)  Offer is good only for folks who haven't subscribed in the past 18 months.

Eric Schiller update

Our friend in the Bay Area recently lost a leg to complicatons from diabetes.  Now he's lost an arm as well, and looking at an arduous recovery.

Please send Eric your best wishes!  You can friend him on Facebook here.

Interview with Tim Just

On the ICA website!

Carlsen-Nakamura live commentary

The game just started! I'm listening to Alex Yermolinsky on ICC. You can follow for free at Chess in Translation and The Week in Chess, among other places.

Benesa visitation

ICA President Tom Sprandel writes:

NM Arnulfo Benesa, 2000 US Senior Champion, is gone. He had suffered from strokes for the past two years, but had continued to play chess until the last several months. The chess players of Illinois will miss him. Visitation will be this Saturday afternoon.

Drake & Sons Funeral Home
5303 N Western Ave
Chicago, Il 60625
Dec. 11, 2010
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm

With sadness,
Tom Sprandel

Shipov on Anand-Nakamura

Via Chess in Translation (not a permanent link). 

Nakamura draws, McShane spanks Carlsen, Kramnik beats Short with Black.

Live coverage of London Chess Classic

Streaming video commentary is here!

Sad news

Benesa poses with his portrait of Tigran Petrosian

Former Illinois state champion and US Senior Open champion NM Arnulfo Benesa has passed away.  I'll miss my Edgewater neighbor!  Please send games, photos, and memories for publication on the ICA website.

25th Tim Just's Winter Open - January 8-9 in Oak Brook

Details on ICA website!

A trap in the King's Indian

In the King's Indian Defense, after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2, usual is 6...e5 7.0-0, and now Black's most popular moves are 7...Nc6, 7...Nbd7, and even 7...Na6. Sometimes Black futzes around and first plays 6...Nbd7 7.0-0, and now a waiting move like 7...Re8?! or 7...c6?!, thinking that Black need not rush to play ...e5. This is a bad idea, since 8.e5! followed by the pawn sacrifice e6! wrecks Black's pawn structure. In the game below, Black made things worse (as he/she usually does) with 8...dex5 9.dxe5 Ng4 (better is 9...Ne8!, allowing the pawn sac 10.e6! fxe6 11.Ng5) 10.e6! fxe6? (10...Nde5! is better) 11.Ng5! (diagram). I have reached this (or a similar position with Black's pawn back on c6 and ...Re8 having been played) dozens of times in Internet games. Black is already lost in light of White's threats of 12.Bxg4 (winning a piece) and 12.Nxe6 (winning the exchange). Like most of my opponents, Black responded with the "traditional" 11...Nde5?, losing a piece, and lost quickly.

Reminder: Illinois Class Championship in Skokie this Saturday!

Details here!

Greater Chicago Scholastic Championships, Feb. 5-6, 2011

,Sponsored by the Kasparov Chess Foundation and Renaissance Knights.  Details on the ICA Tournament Calendar!

Peter Svidler interview

From Crestbook, via Chess in Translation.

How to beat Nigel Short in a simultaneous

Tim Nesham explains.

(In his excitement, Tim gets the date wrong: the game was played two days ago, on November 29, 2010.)

"Erik and Andrew Karklins: 143 years of chess, and counting...."

 Photo: Betsy Dynako

Ken Marshall's wonderful article is in this month's Chess Life!

This article is currently available to USCF members only: it will be available on the ICA website next month.

It's not *billed* as a Hannukah tournament...

On Sunday, December 5th, Chess Scholars is holding a K-8 tournament at the Solomon Schechter Day School in Skokie. 

Details on the JUF website!

"A big feast of chess over Turkey Day weekend"

 A report on the amateur closed round robins at the North Shore Chess Center from TheChessDad.com. 

a cool and free iPhone app

Any chess player (absolute beginner to master) with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch should enjoy Chess Problems, a free application by PsyGames.

The interface is simple and intuitive.  One can choose from directmates (e.g., "mate in two moves"),  helpmates, and selfmates, sorted by level of difficulty (pawn to queen)

I knew the answer to the following one right away because my grandmother owned a mid-nineteenth century edition of Hoyle.  The chess section gave this problem (or one like it!), accompanied by a version of the legend of Princess Dilaram.

Bonus Socius manuscript, circa 1266 (!)

White to play and mate in two moves

Helpmates are fun!  In a helpmate in two moves, Black moves first, and the two sides work together to allow White to checkmate Black on White's second move.

Lind 1941

Helpmate in two moves

(remember that Black moves first in a helpmate!)

Selfmates are fun, too!

 Widlet, 1982

Selfmate in two moves

(White to play and force Black to checkmate White on Black's second move: unlike the helpmate, the two sides are not cooperating)

Some of the positions are easy enough for absolute beginners to solve.  But the simple king and queen vs. king position below took me 1:18 to solve.  I guarantee that anyone who knows the rules of chess and has a little patience should be able to solve it.  Some of you will see the solution at sight, others might need five minute to explore all the possibilities.

Courtenay, 1868

White to play and mate in two moves

And I sat staring for almost 17  minutes at this famous Mansfield two-mover even though I knew I'd seen it before.  As soon as one sees the key move, one slaps one's head and says, "Of course!"  But the trick is to find the key move...

I think that chess problems are of more than marginal benefit to practical players: they force us to understand the powers of the pieces, they push us to think outside the box, and they train us in brute-force calculation in bizarre positions.

Mansfield 1933

White to play and mate in two moves

I have one trivial complaint about this app.  When you find the key move, only one defense is offered, no matter how many times you play through the solution.  (Part of the beauty of these problems is that various defenses to the key move lead to various mates.)  But that's a quibble.

Strongly recommended!

North Shore Chess Center - Amateur Closed events

Jon Burgess reports on the ICA website!

Congratulations to Matt Pullin (the runaway winner of Group A), and to Aakaash Meduri, Sam Schmakel, and James Wei, the joint winners of Group B.

Final results from St. Louis

Chicagoans Dmitry Gurevich and Yury Shulman tied for first with fellow American grandmasters Alexander Onischuk and Gregory Kaidanov.  Young John Veech of Wisconsin tied with GMs Nigel Short and Ray Robson for fifth place.

Crosstable here!

Round 2 pairings, St. Louis

Many familiar international and local names!

"IESA Launching Major Middle School Chess Event in February"

Jerry Neugarten reports on the ICA web site.  The inaugural IESA Championship will be in Bloomington on February 18-19, 2011.  It's a two-day event for 5th through 8th graders.

The registration deadline is January 12, 2011.  Registration must be made through the school, and the school must be an IESA member.  Find out more here (pdf document).

Kasparov & Short in St. Louis this coming Monday

Another cut-and-paste from my email.  One correction to my earlier post: the under-$100 entry fee for this weekend's tournament is only available to club members: it's $20 more for non-members.  In the weekend tournament, GMs Gurevich, Shulman, and Amanov, and IM Young will be among those representing Chicagoland.

Kasparov and Short in St. Lou after Thanksgiving Tourney

SAINT LOUIS, November 23, 2010 – Grandmaster Garry Kasparov, widely recognized as the world’s greatest chess player, has announced he will be making an appearance at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis on Monday, November 29, just one day after the conclusion of the Thanksgiving Open tourney featuring renowned GM Nigel Short and an $11,000 prize fund.

Kasparov, who is coming to Saint Louis to deliver a political lecture, will make an appearance at the CCSCSL from 4-5 p.m. The club has arranged a special setting in which club members and the general public can meet and greet the living legend.

Short, who was already scheduled to conduct a special lecture and simul beginning at 6 p.m., will also be in attendance. His lecture is free for club members but will cost the general public $10. The simul, scheduled to follow the lecture at 7:30 p.m., has been capped at 30 participants, but those interested can still submit their name for the wait list.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet two of the best players in the world, who once battled one another for the World Chess Championship title in 1993.

The festivities follow the largest prize fund tournament ever offered by the CCSCSL excluding a U.S. Championship event. The Thanksgiving Open, which takes place November 26-29, features an $11,000 prize fund, and two-day and three-day options are available to make the tournament easily accessible for all.

In addition to Short, a host of other titled players have committed including:

    * Resident GM Ben Finegold
    * GM Yury Shulman
    * GM Alex Onischuk
    * GM Ray Robson
    * GM Gregory Kaidanov
    * GM Dmitry Gurevich
    * GM Timur Gareev
    * GM Mesgen Amanov
    * IM Michael Brooks
    * IM Istvan Sipos
    * IM Angelo Young
    * IM Raja Panjwani
    * WGM Sabina Foisor
    * WIM Alisa Melekhina

Registration costs $119 for the three-day option and $118 for the two-day option. There will be a re-entry option available for $60.

This event will be a FIDE-rated, six-round, G/120 event in three sections: Open, U1800 and U1400. The prize breakdown is as follows:

Open:
    * Overall: $1,600-$1,000-$600-$400
    * U2400: $550-$450
    * U2200: $500-$300
    * U2000: $450-$250

U1800:
    * Overall: $1,000-$500-$300
    * U1600: $450-$250

U1400:
    * Overall: $1,000-$500-$300
    * U1200: $250-$150
    * U1000: $225-$125

Don’t miss your opportunity to meet two living legends and play in a fantastic tournament in Saint Louis. For more information, please call 314.361.CHESS (2437) or visit www.saintlouischessclub.org

Judit Polgar beats Topalov & Ivanchuk to win in Mexico City

Story at ChessVibes.

Cool Thanksgiving tournament in St. Louis

Join legendary GM Nigel Short along with GM Yury Shulman, GM Ben Finegold, GM Dmitry Gurevich, GM Gregory Kaidanov and others in helping us start a NEW tradition, November 26-28. The CCSCSL presents the 2010 Thanksgiving Open featuring an $11,000 prize fund!

Info here!  The entry fee is under $100 under $120, and the hotel rates are reasonable enough for an impromptu family vacation.  If you're looking for a ride, I might be able to play matchmaker (no warranties, express or implied).

I won't be able to play because of family commitments, but I've extracted an oral commitment (my hopeful interpretation of "maybe") from Claire for 2011.

2010 Illinois Class Championships

Snipped and pasted from my email:

2010 Illinois Class Championship
Saturday December 4, 2010
Holiday Inn Chicago North Shore --- 5300 West Touhy Ave --- Skokie, IL 60077
847-679-8900 --- Google Map

ICA will pay the entry fee for FIDE titled players (FM IM GM WFM WIM WGM) who list Illinois as their residence on their USCF registration.

Free 90 days added to all players' ICA memberships. All they need to do is send their name, section, USCF number and contact details to freemembership@il-chess.org by Feb 28, 2011.

$2,000 Prize Fund Details at: http://il-chess.net/goto.php?a=class

Time control will be Game-60 with a 5-sec delay. All equipment provided. All you have to do is show up, register (or pre-register), and play! --- Register On-line

Round Times: 10:00am, 12:30pm, 3:30pm, 6:00pm (extra 30 minutes provided between Round 2 and 3 for lunch)

Dr. Nunn's guide for the perplexed

From chapter 8 of Nunn's Chess Endings, Volume 2 (I haven't gotten around to buying Volume 1):

8.2 Rook vs Pawns

There are a surprising number of subtleties in endings in which a lone rook faces enemy pawns, and here we shall focus on those which are of greatest importance in over-the-board play.

8.2.1 Hesitation checks

By hesitation check I mean that a piece traveling from square A to square B gives an intermediary check on square C before moving to B.  The point is that if the enemy king is already on its best square, the hesitation check forces the king to an inferior square.  It might seem unnecessary to give a special name to such an elementary concept, but it often helps to have a label to refer to a particular theme.  Hesitation checks play an important role in rook endings and are often overlooked in practice.

 Have another go at it!

Rook endings (or, the love that dare not speak its name)

If you enjoy rook endings as much as I do, you'll love Nunn's Chess Endings, Volume 2.  John Nunn's books are always full of top-rate material, but unfortunately, much of it has often whizzed over my head.  (For example: Secrets of Rook Endings.)  But Nunn has put a lot of work into organizing his mind-bending examples thematically and giving the reader guidance.  The examples are still difficult, but Nunn has never been this reader-friendly before!

For example, here are the first three diagrams in Nunn's book:

Fries Nielsen-Plachetka, Rimavska Sobota 1991

White to play and win

Usually when I get such a position, I have three minutes left on the clock and am reduced to counting on my fingers: "I go here, he goes there, I go here..."

Analysis diagram
White to play and draw

Hey! Didn't I learn in one of my beginners' books that two pawns on the sixth rank always win against an unassisted rook?  And indeed, 1.Rxh3? does lose.  Why?  And where's the darn draw?

Penrose-Perkins, British Championship, 1972
White to play and draw

I found the first position hard and the third position mind-numbingly difficult.  Back with Nunn's guidance in a little bit.

GreenCastleBlock on rook endings

I always learn a lot from Matt Pullin's videos on endgames. He relies on his brain, not a computer engine or database, and he's a very good explainer.



But it just so happens that James Fagan and I had this very ending in 1997. I think Matt misses a win for Black at one moment in his video.

You really should be subscribing to Matt's YouTube channel, GreenCastleBlock!

Kavalek remembers Evans

Mark Taimanov-Larry Evans

USSR-USA match, New York 1955

Black to play

Taimanov has just sacrificed material with 19.Rxc7.  If Black plays the natural 19...Qxc7, White plays the powerful 20.d6.  What to do?

Kavalek annotates this beautiful win by Evans.

Garry @ Google

From the amazing Authors@Google series: another hat tip to Daniel Parmet.

Cheaper than long-term care insurance

Study suggests that chess postpones dementia.

"Even my good games are bad...."

Matthias Pfau and I played an interesting opening variation in our Chicago Industrial Chess League game last night.

Interested in submitting games to the ICA's chess blog?  Contact Maret Thorpe to find out how!  (The current publishing process is a little tricky, so if you want to send PGN to me, I can help you publish until we get the process smoothed out.)

Levon Aronian wins 2010 World Blitz Championship

Crosstable here!

In the field of eighteen, Aronian, Radjabov, Carlsen, Gelfand, and Nakamura were the top finishers.

The field was amazingly strong: Fabiano Caruana (top player in the world age 18 and under) and Ruslan Ponomariov (former FIDE World Champion) finished at the bottom of the crosstable.

World Blitz Championship - after 28 rounds

Aronian leads, Carlsen in clear 2nd; Nakamura tied for 5th, having recovered from a disastrous start.

Crosstable here!

Three tournaments to choose from on Saturday 11/20!

For scholastic players, there's the 37th Kumbaya event in Skokie.

The McHenry Chess Club will be running quads at the Elgin Holiday Inn open to all.

And there will be a swiss system and pizza (but no Swiss cheese?) in Orland Park.

We report; you decide.

K-8 event (three sections) at Whitney Young this Sunday 11/21

Three sections: K-2, K-5, and K-8.  Details on the ICA Calendar!

And welcome to Dynamic Chess, Inc.!

Kings & Queens CC Event on Sunday, 11/21

Cut & pasted from the Internets: please note that this event is NOT USCF-rated! [nor are the rules of the uscf followed -mp]

Academy of Intellectual Games

Kings & Queens Chess

www.Kqchessclub.com       

 Chess Tournament

OPEN to ALL players – Novices to Masters – are welcome!

                            (USCF membership not required)

SUNDAY, November 21, 2010.  1^st round will start at 10:00 a.m.

At Temple Judea Mizpah:  8610 Niles Center Road, Skokie, IL 60077         

Doors will open at 9:00 a.m.

     5 rounds Swiss - time control G/25 (or G/22 +3 sec)

             Please bring your own chess clocks, if you have them !!!

                   There are 3 separate sessions – ALL PLAY 5 Rounds SWISS:

        OPEN and 2 Scholastic: Advanced and Beginners

$300 in Prizes is guaranteed to the first 5 places in OPEN session: 

1^st - $120; 2^nd - $80; 3^rd – 50; 4-$30; 5- $20.

Top three in each advanced and beginner sessions will receive trophies.

 Family team prizes will be distributed as well across all 3 sessions.

Any number of players from the same family may enter -- the top two individual results will be counted.

The entry fee:

[…]

$35 per player at the door

Register in advance by Internet or phone and save money:

www.aoigames.com/tournaments.htm,

The field is limited to 200 players. FREE Parking.  Food will be available for purchase 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. [...]

You may obtain further information by calling these numbers:

(847) 657-9686, (847) 207-2819, 847-778-5259 or (847)-414-3730

E-mail:  lana@energy4action.com

Evans-Opsahl, Dubrovnik 1952

I'd guess that this is probably Evans's best-known game.  Nothing flashy here, but I don't know of a better introduction to the minority attack in the Queen's Gambit Declined.  You'll find beginner-friendly annotations of this game by Evans himself in Chess Catechism and by Irving Chernev in The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played.

GM Larry Evans, 1932-2010

Larry Parr pays tribute at Chess Life Online.

I, Robot

Hat tip to Daniel Parmet, who found this on Natalia Pogonina's blogNat:



Magnus Carlsen is one of the spectators.

Twitter posts....

GMHikaru Hikaru Nakamura

Sometimes it is much more enjoyable to read Stieg Larsson and drink green tea than playing stress filled chess which destroys your nerves!

from Moscow, Moscow

13 hours ago

GMHikaru Hikaru Nakamura

One of the single most disappointing oversights in my whole career. However, I am going to destroy Grischuk like a baby in the blitz.

from Moscow, Moscow

14 Nov

For the context, see Chess can be a cruel game or, even better, the wrap-up report at Chess Life Online.

Is this calcuation or pattern recognition?

This one is for Maret Thorpe, who thinks I've gone off my rocker!



Felix Zemdegs set a Rubik's Cube solving record in Melbourne this weekend. Trust me, you have time to watch.  (If you give one to me, I should be able to solve it in five minutes or so: there was a time when I was much faster....)

The more interesting question: how does Felix (who is the best of many lightning-fast expert solvers) do what he does?  I'd suggest that the answer might be of interest to chess players, and others.....

Jason Rihel has a wonderful first-person account at the Boylston Chess Club blog.

I'll post the high school results later....

...but in the meantime, you might enjoy this link to event photographer Betsy Dynako's website. 

November Chicago Industrial Chess League bulletin

Read it while it's fresh!

All Grade results (6th, 7th, and 8th grades)

There was a three-way tie for first in the 42-player 6th-grade section: Alec Feygin, Akash Mattu, and Colton Longstreth, all with 4-0 scores.  Steven Do, Brayden Estes, Riley Brands, Nate Tracy-Amoroso, Matt Szarkowicz, Abraham Cornejo, Barry Brookins, and Harrison Burns tied for fourth with 3-1.

Joey Bikus and Allen Guo tied for first in the 47-player 7th-grade section.  Phillip Parker-Turner, Jason Kitson, Samuel Heil, Ryan Toepfer, Justin Wang, Jonathan Hrach, Niresh Kuganeswaran, Narayan Karthik Karra, Elliana Faletsky, Alexander Pilia, Mark Jungo, and Michael May all scored 3-1 to tie for third.

Maximilian Zinski and Chase Walbert went 4-0 to tie for first in the 8th-grade section, which drew 48 players.  Nathaniel Kranjc and David Dlott drew each other in the final round to finish with an undefeated 3½-½.

More photos:

Chess can be a cruel game

You can play like a genius for 84 moves, and throw it all away in time pressure:

Grischuk-Nakamura, Tal Memorial 2010

(finished just a few minutes ago)

Black to play and win

There are two reasonable ways to threaten mate on g3: 84....Qe1 and 84...Qf3.  Both moves have problems: after 84...Qe1, White can try to set up a stalemate defense by allowing ...Qxg3 and running the king to h1.  After 84...Qf3, 85.Nxe5+ seems to force a draw: or does it?

Which move would you choose?

Grischuk-Nakamura continues

Both players are close to playing on the 30-second increment alone.  Nakamura is probably winning, but Grischuk has serious drawing chances.

Jonathan Speelman is commenting live on ICC.

All Grade results (4th & 5th grades)

First, a few more pictures:

Miranda Liu won the 67-player 4th-grade section with a perfect 5-0.  Chetan Reddy and Jonathan Tan drew with each other and won the rest of their games to take equal second with 4½.  Matthew Stevens, Jack Xiao, Nikhil Kalghatgi, Cassie Parent, Adarsh Mattu, Ricky Roman, Brian Chung, and Andrew Lim tied for fourth with 4-1 scores.

Anshul Adve and Jack Curcio tied for first in the 58-player 5th-grade section with a draw against each other and wins in their other four games.  James Wei, Abe Sun, Haoyang Yu, Shayna Provine, Lorenzo Barbin, Andrew Fei, Daniel Bronfein, and Mihir Bafna tied for third with 4-1 scores.

Amazing...

Nakamura (playing right now!) is on the cusp of tying for first in the Tal Memorial.  (Mamedyarov lost to Gelfand...)

Great live video stream here.

All Grade results (Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, & 3rd)

Unofficial nose count was 505 players!

Kindergarten: Nikolai Rhodes scored a perfect 5-0; Huaye Jeffrey Lin took second with 4-1.

1st Grade: William Zhu swept the field 5-0; Ivan Mitkov, Aydin Turgut, and Noah Greenberg tied for second, again with 4-1.

In the 50-player 2nd Grade section, Jason Daniels and David Wallach tied for first with 5-0; Ricky Wang, Vishal Chandrasekar, Shreya Mangalam, Owen Power, Christopher Gora, and Stevan Kamatovic tied for third with 4-1.

Vincent Do (USCF rating of 1643!) won the 69-player 3rd Grade section with a perfect 5-0.  Nathaniel Sobery took clear second with an undefeated 4½-½.  Harrison He, Ranadheer Tripuranaeni, Eric Gan, Henry Curcio, Ishaar Ganesan, Allan Lopez, Ezra Boldizsar, Christopher Yang, and Brian Suganraj tied for third with 4-1

Tamara Golovey knows a little bit about teaching chess:

she was the first teacher of Boris Gelfand, who just led Israel to a 2010 Olympiad bronze

The younger players played in the school library

Deep study of the initial position pays dividends

No Hindi required

Hat tip to ChessBase.