Blaze fundraiser - Grandmaster workshop this Saturday

Another email cut-and-paste

Introducing the 2011 Chicago Blaze Team!

Hello everyone! 3 years ago many people came together to form the Chicago Blaze. We were kindly supported by the local chess community and each season we challenged ourselves to do better, eventually reaching our first post season in 2010!

The 2011 season which begins at the end of summer will introduce our most vibrant lineup yet. As such I'm pleased to announce the 2011 Chicago Blaze team:

Grandmaster Yury Shulman
Grandmaster Josh Friedel
Grandmaster Mesgen Amanov
Grandmaster Dmitry Gurevich
International Master Florin Felecan
International Master Angelo Young
FIDE Master Jim Dean
National Master Eric Rosen
National Master Gopal Menon
National Master Sam Schmakel

As done last season, all games played by the Chicago Blaze will be done at the North Shore Chess Center in Skokie, IL. Supporters are welcome and we will have quick rated fundraising tournaments running in parallel.

Here's to a championship run in 2011!

Best regards,

The Chicago Blaze Management Team
Sevan A. Muradian, Daniel Parmet, Jae Lim, Brad Rosen, Tom Panelas, and Glenn Panner

***

Chicago Blaze Fundraiser - Train with 2 Grandmasters!

Chicago Blaze Fundraiser

4-hour training session with

GM Dmitry Gurevich and GM Mesgen Amanov

Saturday July 9th 11:30am - 3:30pm

Hosted at the North Shore Chess Center

100% of proceeds to benefit the Chicago Blaze!

Must be rated above 1600 to participate as we will break up into groups of 10-12 during the training session

Only $75 advance entry or $100 at the door

Spend 4 hours with two Chicago Blaze team members, as they review all aspects of the game from openings, to middle game planning, to endgame technique.

Lunch is included with this training session along with a simul with another local area master at 4pm.

Entry Fee: $75 received by 7/8 9pm online; $100 onsite

(onsite entries are not guaranteed and based on available space)

Questions: sevan@nachess.org or call 847.423.8626

Register online: http://www.nachess.org/training

The Chicago Blaze is the representative for Illinois in the US Chess League.

The Chicago Blaze is entering its 4th season of competition.

Last season we made it to the playoffs for the first time. With your support we can build a team that will aim for the championship this season!

The North Shore Chess Center is located at

5500 W Touhy Ave Suite A Skokie, IL 60077

Stamnov wins All American Double Class

NM Aleksandar Stamnov scored an impressive 4½-½ to take clear first in Larry Cohen's All American Double Class, held July 2-3 in Oak Brook.  IM Angelo Young, FM Albert Chow, NM Peter Gilruth, and NM Kevin Cao tied for second, a full point back.

Zhaozhi Li and Andrew Pheasant tied for first in the A/B section with 4-1 scores.  Rudy Padilla and Jordan Nach shared B/C honors, also with 4-1.  And Andrew Hochstadt's undefeated 4-1 score was good for clear first in the E/Unrated diviision.

Crosstable here!

Sapozhnikov-Amanov, Round 2, World Open

It's official: Mesgen tied for third place. 

"Youth Committee Sends Expanded Chicago Proposal to New Leaders"

Read the story and the proposal itself on the ICA website!

Beta version, Illinois Chess Database

Hard-working ICA President Tom Sprandel just gave us a new toy to play with: check it out!

It's a beta version, so your constructive criticism would be most appreciated.  I have another version of the database coming with more than 5,000 additional games.  It would be incredibly cool to get more complete collections of the games of Illinois masters and amateurs (is Alan Watson lurking somewhere??), it would be cool to get annotations online live, it would be cool to get a more robust search function.

Seeing this database makes me think of friends who are gone.

Bring back the Illinois Chess Tour!

Nothing's official yet, but the ICA Board is very excited about Mike Cardinale's proposal.  The spiffy logo means T-shirts (and substance) are soon to follow!

P.S.  Look for more coverage of this weekend's events shortly: I'm waiting on game scores, MSA, and (not least) the delivery of a new DSL wireless router.

More unofficial congratulations...

...to Grandmaster Mesgen Amanov, who just beat fellow GM Tamaz Gelashvili, an anchor of Georgia's Olympiad team. (Gelashvili beat Amanov earlier this year at the Philadelphia Open.)

Looks like a dropped flag in a position where Black's edge may be slight. All wins are good!

Mesgen should tie for third or fourth. Supergrandmasters Adams and Kamsky tied for first, with games still in progress.

Unofficial congratulations....

...to the newest National Master in Illinois, Sam Schmakel of Whitney Young High School!

Sam was the top Illinois finisher at the Continental Americas Amateur Class Championships, held July 1-4 in Rosement.

World Open: A cute mate

Eric Rosen drew GM Ray Robson in Round One last night.  Alexander Shabalov broke down Eric's Sicilian in Round Two, however:

You can follow top board action at monroi.com: Mesgen Amanov is playing an interesting double-rook ending right now.

Why Not Chicago?

Look for the text of the following proposal on the Illinois Chess Association's website shortly!

ILLINOIS CHESS ASSOCIATION

WHY NOT CHICAGO?

A proposal to set up a program of free chess

instruction in Chicago’s Title I schools to

* improve decision-making, strategic

thinking and emotional development

* improve academic performance

* bring Chicago’s youth chess program

into the nation’s top competitive tier

to

Mayor Rahm Emanuel

Jean-Claude Brizard

CEO, Chicago Public Schools

Chicago Board of Education:

David Vitale, President

Henry Bienen

Mahalia Hines

Penny Pritzker

Jesse Ruiz

Rod Sierra

Andrea Zopp

June 2011

computer cheating (in quite another sense)

Via ChessVibes: The International Computer Games Association claims that Vasik Rajlich lifted the code of Crafty and Fruit.

The claim is not a new one (it's been discussed on rybkaforum.net for some time), but ICGA bans Rajlich for life and strips Rybka of the 2007-2010 titles. (I hope Rybka takes the news well.)

What works in Brooklyn....

If it can work in Bedford-Stuyvesant, it will work in Chicago.

James Black of I.S. 318 has one half-brother doing 20 to life for murder; another did 33 months for selling drugs.   But James is choosing another path: Dylan Loeb McClain reports.

Nice budget quad in Kenosha

Hey, if it's at the end of my commuter line, it's sorta in Chicagoland.  I have to confess that the Kenosha Chess Association is new to me.  They have a quad on Saturday, July 1st.  (As you might guess, there are four players in a quad.  The top four players are in Quad 1, the next four in Quad 2, etc.  Each section is a three-round round robin.)  Advance entry fee is only $10, and the winner even gets a prize!

Info on the ICA website!

Choose one of two great tournaments this weekend!

On July 1-4 in Rosemont, it's the 2011 FIDE Continental America's Amateur Chess Championship. There's only one game on July 4th, so you'll have time to recover for work on Tuesday morning! And this event has a $15,000 guaranteed prize fund!!

I'll be playing in the All American Double Class on July 2-3 at the DoubleTree in Oak Brook. One IM and six masters have already registered. The schedule is a bit unusual in that play doesn't begin until Saturday afternoon, and Round 3 is 9:45 Sunday morning. (If you're not staying at the hotel, you may wish to consider asking for a ½-point bye at registration.). This tournament has a $12,000 based on 250 players; approximately $7,000 of the prize fund is guaranteed! (At least that's the way I read it; please correct me if I'm wrong.)

For info on these and other upcoming events (including summer camps, lectures, simuls, and classes), check out the ICA Tournament Calendar!

The fifteen-minute solution

I'm not terribly interested in a quarrel between New in Chess and ChessBase, but the idea of a fifteen-minute broadcast delay to make cheating more difficult is interesting.

This doesn't just affect grandmasters.  I'm half a class below master level, and I've had four of my games broadcast live on Monroi in the past three months.  On balance, I'm against the delay: the overwhelming majority of players wouldn't dream of cheating.

Free plugs

Last October, a pleasant gentleman asked me to plug his December event.  I'm embarrassed to say I forgot: my apologies!

My incipient senility aside, we're generally happy to give free publicity to any Chicagoland chess event, or any major Illinois even, or even Midwest & national events of particular interest to Illinois players.  Whether the editors of this blog like you is not relevant.  If it's a good event of interest to Chicago players, you're welcome to send it. 

I would appreciate getting copy that requires minimal formatting.

Chicago Blaze fundaiser on July 9th

Cut and pasted from my email.  Just like Cubs fantasy camp, except that the Blaze have a chance!

Hello Chess friends!

I am happy to announce to the first Chicago Blaze chess camp will occur on Saturday July 9th from 11:30am-3:30pm with a free simul for participants starting at 4pm [...].
Your value is here for only $75 advance entry (recommended as space is limited):

• Grandmasters Dmitry Gurevich and Mesgen Amanov will spend fours hours
• working in small groups of 10-12 with similar rating and ages (Kids will be broken off into groups separate from adults)
• Lunch will be provided
• Simul after the training
• You are supporting Chicago’s Professional Chess Team the Chicago Blaze as they head into their 4^th season!

You may call or email me with questions (or contact Sevan Muradian via sevan@nachess.org.

Register online via www.nachess.org/training

Please help spread the word to your community and friends!

Regards,
Daniel Parmet
Chicago Blaze Manager

See this link for details!

New video from Chess at Citadel

Matthias Pfau's comments are already interesting.  I enjoyed watching this game (even as King Ong was thrashing me on the adjoining board), and participated in a bit of the post-mortem.

Games from National K-1 Champion Aydin Turgut

Dr. Turgut's notes went up instead of mine.  Fixed!  Yours truly sent the wrong file.  But in the meantime, you can Enjoy the fine games of this handsome young man!

Peter Falk

The late actor (with Viktor Korchnoi, Pasadena 1983) was a strong amateur chess player. There are a couple more pictures here, including one in which he looks like his most famous character, Lt. Columbo. (The plot of one episode of Columbo was inspired by the Fischer-Spassky match.)

Pasadena is of course where the famous Kasparov-Korchnoi match was played, and where Bobby Fischer lived in seculsion for many years.

Mild disappointment for Nakamura in Bazna

I can't pretend to care about tiebreaks in a round-robin: Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin tied for first in Bazna with impressive 6½-3½ scores.  Hikaru Nakamura lost to Vassily Ivanchuk in the last round, and dropped into a third-place tie with Teimour Radjabov, each with 4½-5½.

Story and games at The Week in Chess.  Check out Ivanchuk's postmortem interview on ChessVibes:

160 years ago today

The Immortal Game was played by Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritsky on June 21, 1851.  Happy 160th anniversary!

Chess at Citadel emailed this comment today:

Kieseritzky liked the game so much [that] he looked for any opportunity to show and publish it, apparently with success. Two years later, utterly impoverished, he died in Paris. Only the waiter from his favorite chess cafe in Paris showed up for his funeral. So much for fame and immortality in chess.

White sacrifices a bishop, two rooks, then a queen!  By 21st century standards, portions of the game are a bit silly (the defense is not of a very high quality compared to the Evergreen Game), but the concluding combination is something to behold. For the short version, advance the video to the ten-minute mark.

Scholastic and Open events in Highland Park this Sunday

Can't beat the price.  $10 in advance; $15 at the door.  Details on the ICA tournament calendar!

Women's Grand Prix in August, Hou Yifan - Humpy Koneru match in November?

Alexandra Kosteniuk passes along a credible rumor from a Russian chess news site: Hou Yifan of China and Humpy Koneru of India may play their world championship match in Chicago later this year.

And look at the powerhouse lineup for the Grand Prix event to be held here in Chicago August 1-15!

When FIDE is involved and the lead time is short, I get a bit nervous. Please let us know if we can help!

Heh: see the comments for the (amusing) probable explanation!  You know, we'd be a great site for the Anand-Gelfand match....

Rafeh Qazi featured in Skokie Patch

Brad Rosen reports.

Remember those fabulous eighties?

Hikaru Nakamura is certainly trying to make something happen in the final rounds of the Bazna Kings, but it's not so easy to beat one's 2750+ peers. Today, Nakamura resurrected the Petrosian System against the Queen's Indian, a favorite weapon of Kasparov in the early 1980's.

Karjakin makes the position look like of these newfangled Grünfeld lines, and Nakamura can't do anything with his slight edge. A reasonable draw.

Houdini

And if your father is an übergeek, the strongest chess engine in the world is absolutely free!  Download here.

You will need a UCI-compatible chess graphical user interface.  ("A thingie that allows you to look at the game.")  I use ChessBase, but both Arena and Winboard are free.

From the Houdini homepage:

Houdini is appreciated by many players including top Grand Masters and the current chess World Champion. After his match against Alexei Shirov, chess World Champion Vishy Anand was asked "OK, three: Fritz, Rybka or Houdini?". Anand's reply: "Houdini" (read the full interview).   In another recent interview, when asked the question "If you had to pick one player to represent earth in a chess game vs. aliens, which active player would it be? You can pick different active players for the white and black side, if you feel it necessary", super GM Peter Svidler had the same simple reply: "Houdini".

Fathers' Day Emergency?

A few last-minute book recommendations.  Links are provided, but they ain't gonna arrive Sunday morning!

If Dad is a amateur who regularly plays in clubs, tournaments, or the Web, the fourth edition of Jeremy Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess is great.  And a classic by the late GM Larry Evans was recently republished, New Ideas in Chess.

If Dad just wants to read about chess, Frank Brady's Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall - from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness is a page-turner.

 
If Dad is into photography, Harry Benson's Bobby Fischer (just published this week: I haven't seen a copy yet) might be great for the coffee table.
 
If Dad doesn't mind the occasional reference to Bourdieu and Foucault, he may well enjoy Counterplay: An Anthropologist at the Chessboard (I just started reading this today).  (Fathers' Day P.S.: I finished it yesterday: refreshingly intelligent discussion of what it's like to be an serious amateur player.)

For the semi-serious player, Yakov Neishadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics: 700 Practical Lessons & Exercises is very good (I carry this with me on the train).  And if Dad likes to bore his opponents to death, Grandmaster Chess Strategy: What Amateurs Can Learn from Ulf Andersson's Positional Masterpieces is another book that's good for commuters.

If Dad wants to learn to play chess, then Bruce Pandolfini's Beginning Chess: Over 300 Elementary Problems for Players New to the Game is a fine start.

Last-minute shoppers might be able to find these books at the Barnes & Noble or Borders on State Street.

Nakamura-Carlsen: Spanish torture at Bazna Kings

Doesn't look like Hikaru got very much today with the White pieces.  World #1 Carlsen (still two years younger than the amazing Rory McIlroy) and child groom Sergey Karjakin are a full point ahead of Nakamura with four rounds to go: the rest of the field trails.

Niles North recruiting video

One hopes IHSA doesn't go overboard on sanctions ;-)

Click this link to view: http://vimeo.com/24758462 I removed the embedding because it was loading automatically.

Seriously, fun stuff! Could we get a list of the actors in order of appearance?

FIDE Continental Americas Amateur Chess Championship, Rosemont, July 1-4

This too is a cut-and-paste from my email.  In case you were wondering, the venue is the InterContinental Chicago O’Hare in Rosemont.

Hmm, two friends of mine are running events against each other on the July 4th weekend.  I'll most likely be playing in one of them, but I sure as heck am not going to tell you folks which one to play in.

As with the previous post, no endorsement, express or implied! 

$15,000 Prize Fund Guaranteed

FIDE Continental Americas Amateur Chess Championship

The only 4th of July tournament in Chicago with a Guaranteed Prize Fund!

7R-SS Game 90 + 30/sec increment

Only $75 until 6/18

The FIDE Continental Americas Amateur Chess Championship is brought to the US for the first time in the tournaments history. The event will provide the opportunity to meet and compete against international chess players from North, Central, and South America.

The $15,000 prize fund is guaranteed and will increase in accordance to participation. All participants will compete in a single section with prizes available based upon rating classes:

Overall: $2000-1250-750; Top Female: $800-400
Top 2199-2100 and 2099-2000: $500 each
(1999-1800): $1000-600-400-200
(1799-1600): $1000-600-400-200
(1599-1400): $1000-600-400-200
(Under 1400): $1000-600-400-200

To be eligible to participate you must have a FIDE rating below 2200 and no title or no FIDE rating at all. This makes the event eligible to almost all players!

To get the lowest entry fees REGISTER NOW or visit our website for full details.
Round times that are easy to remember, spacious enough to have a great meal between rounds and are holiday conscious:

Rds 1 and 2 - July 1st @ 12pm and 6pm
Rds 3 and 4 - July 2nd @ 12pm and 6pm
Rds 5 and 6 - July 3rd @ 12pm and 6pm
Rd 7 - July 4 @ 12pm or take a bye!

As with all North American Chess Association organized events, all equipment is provided for you to make your chess playing experience the simplest and most enjoyable that it can be!

You have the chance to create fireworks over the board and then head to Navy Pier to watch a fireworks celebration over Lake Michigan! Or spend time at the world famous Taste of Chicago and try out multiple mouth watering cuisines from local restaurants!

July 2-3: All-American Double Class in Oak Brook

Cut and pasted from my email (exclamations and all).  Mailed entries save several dollars over online entries: deadline is Friday.

Note the innovative/weird schedule of play (ideal for out-of-towners and members of Reform congregations): two games on Saturday at 2:15 and 7:15, three games on Sunday, 9:45 a.m.-2:15 p.m.-7 p.m..

NO LONG HOTEL STAY! NO HOTEL PARKING TO PAY!

NO SATURDAY MORNING ROUNDS! FREE TO MASTERS!

FREE RAFFLE for BREWER-CUBS Tickets [or Pirates-Cubs].

JULY 2-3 ALL AMERICAN DOUBLE CLASS.

In 4 sections rating restricted. M/X [1900 & higher],

A/B [1500-1999], C/D [1100-1599], E/U [Unrated & Under 1200]

At the Doubletree Hotel in Oak Brook, site of 2006 US Open.

UPSET PRIZE in EACH SECTION of $100 on 7/2, and $50 on 7/3.

GRAND PRIX EVENT. MAGNET SCHOOL JUNIOR GRAND PRIX EVENT.

Go to http://allamericaschess.eventbrite.com for credit card entry

and tournament details, or e-mail allamericaschess@gmail.com for

more information and any questions.

EF: M/X $97, A/B $86, C/D $75, E/U $64 if mailed by 6/17/11.

Unrated players $30 off, but Unrated can ONLY play in E/U section!

Mail Entries to: Lawrence Cohen P.O. Box 6632 Villa Park, IL 60181.

Details also available in JUNE Chess Life,& JUNE Chess Life for Kids.

Downers Grove Chess Club news

Brian Smith provides an update on the ICA Forum.

Bazna round 1: Carlsen beats Nakamura

...in a vigorous attack reminiscent of Nakamura!  Story at ChessVibes.

Nakamura will have White against Carlsen soon....

Three Eric Rosen games from the HS Nationals

See ICA's chess blog for annotations!

Aronian interview on Crestbook

Interesting reading!

Amanov lecture / simul at North Shore Chess Center this Saturday

Cut and pasted from my email:

The North Shore Chess Center is proud to present you with Grandmaster Mesgen Amanov for our June Special Event. GM Amanov will present a 90 minute lecture followed by a simultaneous exhibition.

The lecture will begin at 2:00pm and go until 3:30pm. We will take 30 minute break after the lecture and begin the simul at 4:00pm.

Anyone that can beat GM Amanov will receive a 1 year membership to the North Shore Chess Center.

Anyone that draws GM Amanov will receive 1 year extension to their USCF membership (if you are a Life Member then you will receive a prize of equal value).

This event is free to members of the North Shore Chess Center or $10 per event (lecture or simul) / $20 for both events.

For online registration and list of more events please visit - http://www.nachess.org/events

Space is limited!

I have no clue what happened

In the last round of the Chicago Open, I kibitzed this wild Najdorf between Tatev Abrahamyan (who was just awarded the WGM title) and our own Adarsh Jayakumar. After move 24 or so, I thought Adarsh was simply winning, but perhaps it's not so clear. In fact, Abrahamyan brought home the full point. Ouch!

P.S. The FIDE ratings of both players substantially lag their USCF ratings; Abrahamyan is around 2450; Jayakumar, 2260.

more on smartphone cheating

...at ChessVibes and Chess Ninja.

Time capsule: 2923 N. Southport

How many years has it been since the Chicago Chess Center closed?  Since Jules Stein passed away?

I stumbled across this 1988 article from the Chicago Tribune.

cellphone cheating

A law student (!!) with a FIDE rating of 2363 was consulting his cellphone during the just-completed German Championship.  Story on ChessBase.

Rumor has it that one local player consulted his iPod (chock-full of chess applications) during a recent national championship event.  Isn't your reputation, and your school's reputation, worth more than a win in an ultimately meaningless board game?

Game postponed due to stolen motorcycle :-(

I didn't get to play Rob Eaman in Citadel's CICL Summer 2011 event tonight, but I did get to watch Matthias Pfau's cool knight vs. pawns ending on YouTube.



So what happens if, instead of 1.Kg4, White simply pushes 1.b4?  Wouldn't poor horsie have his hooves full?

Shulman in 2011 World Cup

The city of Khanty-Mansiysk, known to chess fans worldwide as Yugra's answer to Elista, will host the 2011 World Cup this coming August and September.  The raw power of the invitees compensates for the unglamorous site.  Our own Yury Shulman, 2009 U.S. Champion and runner-up to Kamsky in both 2010 and 2011,  is one of seven invitees from the USA in the 128-player field.  He's done very well in this event before!

4 Illinois students qualify for World Youth Championships

Story here!

Congratulations to Illinois students Aydin Turgut (K-1 National Champion), Susanna Ulrich (Girls 8 & Under), David Peng (Boys 8 & Under), and of course Eric Rosen (K-12 National Champion).

I hope Brazil survives the onslaught of 8-year-old Awonder Liang of Wisconsin, the US's top-rated (currently rated 2005 on the June 2011 rating list).

Blood from a turnip

Mesgen Amanov has a gift for squeezing the maximum from apparently sterile positions on the White side of the Slav.

Not a grandmaster draw

I have a feeling that both Yury Shulman and Dmitry Gurevich wanted to win this game!

Quadrupled pawns in action

For those of you who (like me) enjoy such things, the June 2011 issue of Chess Life for Kids (accessible to USCF members via the USCF website) features an article by Jon Edwards with the finest (well OK, the only) collection of games with quadrupled pawns that I've ever seen. Edwards argues that quadrupled pawns aren't always bad - and indeed, the "quadruplet" owner achieves a 95% score (9.5/10) in the games he discusses. Edwards doesn't mention the granddaddy of them all - perhaps because it doesn't fit in with his thesis. Alekhine gets quadrupled pawns on move 38 and resigns five few moves later.

It was only blitz, but...

Leo Kaushansky played last weekend!

For the uninitiated, Kaushansky was Chicago's top player for at least one year in the pre-Gurevich 1980s.  He, Dmitry, and Albert Chow were among the co-champions of the 1994 U.S. Open in Chicago.

As long as we're posting articles from NY papers....

Great article on James Black in yesterday's Daily News.

Here's my challenge to Rahm: why can't we turn out greater champions in Chicago?

P.S. You can also watch the WNYC interview with James Black:

Handball, chess, scholastic competition, and the amateur ideal

Today's New York Times reports that two 17-year-old handball champions were disqualified from the Public Schools Athletic League handball championship "because they had entered a tournament that awarded cash prizes, which is against league rules."

In chess, as in handball, one becomes a better player by facing stronger opponents. I don't like teenagers playing games for money. But I think the definition of "amateur" needs to be re-examined by the Illinois High School Association and Chicago Public Schools. Merely competing against non-amateurs should not jeopardize one's amateur status. In my opinion, it's reasonable to ban students from accepting prizes.

Organizers can help (and possibly help their profit margins) by offering amateur entry fees to their events. If a high school kid can't accept a $5,000 prize, then why should that kid have to pay $200+ to enter the event?

Frederick's Sicilian traps video, embedded

This should work....

Sicilian Defense traps - YouTube video

I just uploaded my third video on opening traps to YouTube. To find all my videos (three so far) search for "Chicago Chess Blog."

Chess Drum on Chicago Open

International Masters Farai Mandizha of Zimbabwe and Oladapo Adu of Nigeria

Photo: Daaim Shabazz

The Chess Drum visits a suddenly-old friend from Jules Stein's Chicago Chess Center and takes some cool photos.

A cute minature from yesterday

Courtesy Dennis Monokroussos at The Chess Mind.

Chen-Stopa, Chicago 2011

Black to play and win immediately

Vanity combination (relegated to the notes)

So what was I thinking yesterday when I played 18...Ng4!? in the position below?  Yes, taking on f2 with check is threatened, but there is no mate, and it seems that White could play 19.dxc6 "for free." Don't let Rybka decide for you: use your noggin. Post the critical variation(s) in the comments.

In the post-mortem, my genial opponent (a NM from Virginia) and I suspected that the move was possibly not the best, but definitely the most fun to play in the last round.

NM Adarsh Jayakumar (left) and a Cro-Magnonesque blogger desperately trying to stay awake after Yet Another Giuoco Pianissimo

Courtesy DeKalb Chess

"Gareyev Hot in Chicago"

Photo: Betsy Dynako

So does the Chicago Open winner prefer the English transliteration "Gareev" (per Wikipedia, which is never wrong, and by analogy with Russian supergrandmaster Bareev) or Gareyev (per USCF)?  Nice article by Jamaal Abdul-Alim at Chess Life Online with several key games.

And here's a photo gallery by Betsy Dynako, and a mid-tournament story featuring GM Pentala Harikrishna.

Last but not least, USCF's Member Services Area has already rated the event: kudos to them!

Aurora-Naperville Chess Club event June 5

Details here!

The club itself meets every Tuesday (but not tonight): more info at the club's blog.

DeKalb Chess Club

Not strictly Chicagoland, but not that far: looks like a congenial place to play!

The club's next USCF event is June 25: details here.

Timur Gareev wins Chicago Open

Congratulations to Uzbek/Texan Grandmaster Timur Gareev, who won the $10,200 first prize in the 2011 Chicago Open with a very impressive 7½-1½ score.

GMs Pentala Harikrishna of India, Robert Hess of New York, and Alejandro Ramirez of Texas tied for second with 7 points.  GM Mesgen Amanov was tops among the four local grandmasters with 6½ points.

You can find results and prizewinners for all sections here: much more to follow!

YouTube Video on Modern/Robatsch Defense trap

I uploaded a second video to YouTube, this one about a trap in the Modern/Robatsch Defense. Check it out!

Caro-Kann YouTube video

I produced, and just uploaded to YouTube, a video on an opening trap in the Caro-Kann. Please let me know what you think of it.

Shipov on Game 6

Good stuff.

It's not too late to enter the Chicago Open, this weekend in Wheeling

The tournament site is the Westin Chicago North Shore Hotel in Wheeling.

For the top players (and patzers like me who wish to try their luck against them), play begins tomorrow night at 7 p.m.  But if one doesn't wish to devote 4½ days to chess, there are also 3½-day (1st round Friiday night), 3-day (Saturday a.m.), and 2-day (Sunday a.m.) schedules.

Details here!  Note the garish colors and vintage-1995 HTML layout.

Enter here!  The instructions say that you can enter online up to two hours before the first game, but I wouldn't cut it that close.

"Gelfand to Challenge Anand for World Championship!"

 Story at Chess Life Online.  A wonderful game for us spectators!

A bang or a whimper?

Boris Gelfand and Alexander Grischuk have been battling like sumo wrestlers or sprint cyclists.  The match looks maddeningly peaceful to the spectators, but the experts assure us that they're both playing to win.

If you're reading this post Wednesday morning, check out Game 6, the final game of regulation.  Chess in Translation has been live-blogging a translation of Shipov's commentary.

Hello, East Orange

For the next few minutes, today is still Bob Dylan's 70th birthday.  Dylan is best known for having reportedly had a conversation with Bobby Fischer circa 1980.  He also wrote a few songs.

Who Was That Masked Man?

I beg you, please check out this video from ChessNetwork about an utterly astounding combination played by some unknown player (Black) in an online game against a FIDE Master (White). One of the most amazing combinations I have ever seen. Frankly I can't recall ever seeing a finer combination by anyone, ever. Anyone who can find such a combination over the board is either extremely strong player or using an engine. I hope it was the former.

Queen to Play - last night!

It looks like tonight is the last night to see the chess-themed movie Queen to Play at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave in Chicago. Tonight's showtimes are at 5:15, 7:30, and 9:45 p.m. Be there or be an equilateral rectangle (or 64 of them).

Roger Ebert's review of the film is here. The trailer for the film is here.

Bad news, good news

Bad news for the U.S.: Gata Kamsky lost a thriller in the Candidates Semi-Final to Boris Gelfand of Israel.  Congratulations to Gata on a marvelous performance in the Candidates!  It's heartbreaking to be one move away from moving on....

Good news for Chicagoans: Boris has plenty of local connections.  Andi Rosen explained in this 2009 article for Chess Life Online.

I called Tamara Golovey immediately after the Gelfand-Kamsky playoff ended: she was positively giddy!

More at The Week in Chess and ChessVibes; trash talking (sometimes informed) at Chess Ninja.

Silly Internet game #964

CICL Playoffs Saturday!

Round 1 has already been played (results here).  Downers Grove Chess Club, Hedgehogs, Motorola Knights, and St. Charles Chess Club won their opening matches.

Rounds 2 & 3 will determine the 2011 Chicago Industrial Chess League Champion: if you're playing in Evanston, stop by the North Shore Chess Center afterwards to find out who wins!

Gelfand-Kamsky game 2 drawn

A very close call for Kamsky, and a very interesting fight!

Shipov annotates.  (Not a permalink.)

Kamsky-Gelfand game 1 drawn

I'm glad to see that Kamsky has decided to do battle in current theoretical positions: the line after 20.Qa5 has been played several times before at the GM level. Didn't work today; might work on Saturday!

In the other Candidates Grischuk was surprised by a Kramnik novelty

TWIC is back up

Grave of the greatest attacking genius (no, not Tal) ever?

Photo © Alex McFarlane.

More Candidates quarterfinals coverage at The Week in Chess.

Evanston CC Tri-Level this Saturday - only $5

Levy Senior Center
300 Dodge Ave
Evanston, IL 60202

Evanston Chess Presents:

Tri-Level

4SS G/45
Three Sections
USCF Dual Rated

May 14, 2011
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.

"Queen to Play"

I had a blog entry sixteen months or so ago about the French film Joueuse.  It's being released here as Queen to Play.  Roger Ebert reviews.

Kramnik-Radjabov press conference

As you may have read on ChessBase, at one point in the Kramnik-Radjabov tiebreaks, there was a moment when Radjabov was literally seconds away from winning the Candidates quarterfinal match: all he had to do was draw a tricky (but objectively drawn) rook plus opposite-color bishop ending.  After move sixty, there was a clock malfunction, and the arbiters took thirteen minutes (!!) to restart the blitz game.  Kramnik managed to win and force yet another two-game blitz tiebreaker, which he also won, and with it, the match.

Interview here: congratulations to Teimour Radjabov for acting in such a sporting fashion after such a heartbreaking turn of events.

Incidentally, interest in the match was so high (and English-language real-time coverage so wanting) that The Week in Chess crashed: the TWIC live site is still offline.

Candidates quarterfinals complete

Grischuk upsets top seed Aronian, and Kramnik somehow survives against Radjabov.  English-language coverage is spotty at best: I'll add links later today.  In the meantime, here's an English translation of Shipov's commentary on yesterday's Topalov-Kamsky game.

Semifinals pairings: Kamsky (USA) vs. Gelfand (Israel), and Kramnik (Russia) vs. Grischuk (Russia).  Play begins this Thursday.  The survivor will challenge Vishy Anand for the world title next year.

"Niles North teen is U.S. chess king"

From this morning's Sun-Times.  Don't take the headline too literally, as Kamsky and Nakamura might object.

"Frogs, Chessboards and Grids"

Victoria Livschitz, CEO of Grid Dynamics

Copyright The New York Times

An entrepreneuer explains how chess contributed to her success.

Daniel Wright JHS wins National Elementary Title

Good news from Dallas this weekend makes Illinois moms proud.  Congratulations to Daniel Wright Junior High School in Lincolnshire, which just won the National Elementary Title (K-6th grade) by two full points!

             BIAN, Alex (5.0,1839)             
             WEI, James (5.0,1856)             
             YU, Haoyang (5.0,1595)            
             HOLECEK, Zachary (4.5,1907)       
             OBERHAUS, Conrad (4.5,1888)

You can find the full results here.  More to follow, I'm sure. 

Unnaturally tough resistance brings Kamsky victory

In annotating the final game of the Kamsky-Topalov match for ChessBase, Alejandro Ramirez wisely writes, "In most cases in chess, the position is as natural as it seems."  In other words, most of the time, natural moves are sufficient to win a won game.  Only the strongest players have the fighting spirit to offer maximum resistance even when the game is objectively lost. 

Acccording to the computers, Gata Kamsky was hopelessly lost.  But Kamsky drew convincingly, without an obvious blunder by Topalov.

Veselin Topalov-Gata Kamsky

2011 Candidates Match, Kazan, Round 4

After 42...Ke8: White to play

What would you play as White?  How deeply would you calculate?

Veselin Topalov-Gata Kamsky

2011 Candidates Match, Kazan, Round 4

After 49.Qd8: Black to play

Black has several reasonable tries here (and perhaps more than one way not to lose), but only one move is clearly best.  Can you find it?

Congratulations to Gata Kamsky!  Later this week, he'll be facing Boris Gelfand, who has many friends in Chicago himself.

"How best to stimulate hair growth?"

At least that's what seems to be on the mind of the player in the foreground, who looks vaguely familiar.  Citadel offers one of the nicest playing sites in the city (check out the view!).

Matthias Pfau reports on Round 1 of Citadel's summer 2011 event on the Citadel Investment Group Chess League Blog.

My AMA Rogue Squadron teammate Jim Duffy may have missed some chances after pressing in the knight ending, but he won an objectively drawn pawn ending (the PGN appears to be wrong on the Citadel site):

The final two rounds of the CICL playoffs will be held next Saturday, May 14th, at the North Shore Chess Center. Details to follow.

Worst iPhone chess app ever?

It would be rather harsh to call ChessBase Online 1.1 (ChessBase GmbH, $4.95 in the iTunes Store) a bad application, because, strictly speaking, it achieves its modest and useful goal.

I can enter a position that I reached in a recent game...

..and discover the most popular replies and their performance...

...and load individual games to learn how top players handled the line.

Select one of the above games, and it loads painlessly.  So far, so good.  (Very handy for the bathroom stall at the Chicago Open, the cynic thinks.) 

But on the iPhone 4, the chess board interface is so buggy and annoying (compare the interfaces for iPhone engines such as tChess Pro, Shredder, and Stockfish, all of which are excellent), that I really can't recommend this app.

Perhaps this works better on the iPad (I don't own one), but if I'm at home, I'm going to be looking at ChessBase on a laptop with Rybka running.  That's not yet an option on the iPad..

The concept is great, and I love ChessBase products in general. But not this one: hold out for Version 2.0.

4th North American Amateur Open begins tonight

4th North American Amateur Open - 5R-SS G/90 + 30/sec increment. North Shore Chess Center, 5500 West Touhy Ave Suite A, Skokie, IL 60077. 847.423.8626.  Open to players with any established FIDE rating or an established USCF rating of 1600+. Max 50 players. All participants compete in a single section.  EF: $40 for non-members of the chess center, $30 for members of the chess center received by 5/5. All $10 more onsite. Onsite registration - up to 15 minutes prior to round 1 or round 2. If registering prior to round 2, you will receive a half-point bye for round 1. Round times: Friday - 7:00pm, Saturday 12pm and 6pm, Sunday 11am and 5pm. Half-point byes available in any round. Prizes: 1st - $60 Best Buy Gift Card, 2nd - $30 Barnes & Noble Gift Card, 3rd - $15 Starbucks Gift Card.  Parking: Free self-parking. Mail entries with registration information to: North American Chess Association (make checks payable to), 4957 Oakton Street Suite 113, Skokie, IL 60077. Online registration preferred. Additional questions email to: sevan@nachess.org . USCF and FIDE rated. For online registration and list of more events please visit - http://www.nachess.org/events

Kamsky blows Topalov off board with Black

Topalov's Exchange sac on move 23 looked scary, but Kamsky counterattacked quickly and accurately.  Gata leads, 1½-½.

Candidates Matches underway

Eight players play knockout matches this month: the survivor will challenge Vishy Anand for the World Championship next year.

Follow the action live at http://kazan2011.fide.com/live-games.html

"Rosen Tops High School Nationals"

 Story (but no games as of 1:30 p.m. - coming soon?) at Chess Life Online.

Catching up with the ICA website

Lots of good stuff on the ICA website just in the past week!

• Leo Vilker on NM Ken Wallach's win in Highland Park and the amazing Awonder Liang
• Jon Burgess on Sam Schmakel (hey, Maret, please add HTML permalinks as a feature!)
• Jeff Wiewel on Yury Shulman at the US Championship
• Jon Burgess on the Scott Silverman Memorial and NM William Aramil's draw against GM Mesgen Amanov

If you go to the main ICA page and scroll down to "Chess in Philly," you'll be able to play through Aramil-Amanov in Chess Flash (sorry, no permalink available).  Mesgen showed me the game afterward: he explained that William blundered a pawn in the opening (the right idea is to play Nh4 before Qb3, as in the game continuation, 8...Bc2! just wins a button).  But after that inaccuracy, Aramil defended flawlessly (when pawns are on one side of the board, R+N are much stronger than R+B).  33.Re5! is a particularly good defensive move.  

Eric Rosen wins National High School Championship!!

Stolen from proud father Brad Rosen's Facebook post:

It's official--- Eric won the 2011 National High School Chess Championship this weekend in Nashville scoring 7.0/7.0, including a final round victory over IM Marc Arnold. Pretty amazing....thanx to Deren Getz for the photo and keeping Andi and I posted during the final.

The crosstable has already been posted: there were 1134 players in six sections, including 294 players in the Championship Section.  Eric's rating went from 2274 to 2333. Performance ratings involving perfect scores are very misleading, but I'm calculating a 2700 performance rating for Eric in this event!

Two Illinois teams finished in the top ten in the nation (click on "Team Standings:" to see details).  Led by Rosen, Niles North finished fourth.  But all four players had outstanding events: based on pre-event ratings, Rafeh Qazi's 4½ points was a phenomenal performance.

ROSEN, Eric S (7.0,2278)
QAZI, Rafeh (4.5,1621)
SPIEGEL, Evan (4.0,1767)
GUPTA, Saagar (3.5,1809)

Whitney Young finished tenth, led by Sam Schmakel and National High School Blitz champion Michael Auger, each with an excellent 5-2 score.

SCHMAKEL, Sam A (5.0,2099)
AUGER, Michael W (5.0,2111)
SWAN, Charles (3.5,1930)
WAECHTER, Mark Woodbury (3.0,1617)
MEI, Brian (3.0,1309)
CHAN, Kessidy (3.0,1617)
PENA, Cristian (3.0,1431)