Chess gig on the Intertubes

Cut and pasted from here:

 Chess Team Advisor - South

Organization: Glenbard Township High School District 87

Type: Athletics/Activities : Activity Sponsor

Posted: 10/20/2011

Available: 2011-2012

Glenbard South

Glenbard South High School has an opening for an Assistant Chess Sponsor for the remainder of the 2011-2012 school year.  This is a Schedule B Group VIII position (0.80 FTE).

Interested candidates should fill out an online application at www.glenbard87.org .

Direct questions to:
Mr. Taff Nielsen, Assistant Principal for Student Services
Glenbard South High School
23W200 Butterfield Road
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
(630) 469-6500

Final reminder: register for All-Grades in Peoria!

If you're a scholastic player, parent, teacher, or coach, you should really make a road trip to Peoria to play in this great Illinois Chess Association event or to cheer on your kids.  The event determines the Illinois champion for each grade from 1st through 8th.  There's also a high school section.

The Greater Peoria Chess Federation is organizing this year's event on November 5th at the Peoria Grand Hotel.  Two of the top players in the state, Nikhil Kumar Kunche and Timur Aliyev, will be giving simultaneous exhibitions for the students.  Registration closes at 6 a.m. on November 4th: don't disappoint the kids, do it now!

More info here!

Top 200 in Illinois

Check out the November list!

A great deal of endgame wisdom condensed into one position

Jeff Coakley's Winning Chess Exercises For Kids  delivers a healthy dose of endgame wisdom along with the tactical exercises.

White to play and win 

In the general case, are rook endings easy to win?

Another title for Eric Rosen

Sevan Muradian just sent me an email: we have a new FIDE Master.

Eric scored a perfect 12-0 in Saturday's simul to publicize the return of the Illinois Chess Tour.  Having been paid appropriate hush money, we withhold the names of all victims.  Thanks to Mike Cardinale for organizing and for treating seven of us to a wonderful breakfast at Yolk (I hadn't seen Captain Streeter's statue before!), to the kind folks at Marbles for a very nice venue, for Grandmaster Dmitry Gurevich for stopping by to give Eric his good wishes, and to Eric for his volunteer service.

This was the first game to finish, if  only because a player with chess culture knows when to resign:

And here's the finale of the last game.  Black outplayed Eric in the middlegame.  A pawn up, our brave N.N. quite correctly turned down a perpetual check to press Eric for the win.  But it's hard to win a queen ending against a 2400, and no one has had more heartbreaking losses than Nomen Nescio:

P.S. Wow, what a boo-boo I made above! Pattern recognition is not the best substitute for thinking....

This Saturday: Evanston Tri-Level (only $5!)

Another cut-and-paste:

Levy Senior Center 300 Dodge Ave Evanston, IL 60202 Evanston Chess Presents: Tri-Level 4SS G/45 Three Sections USCF Dual Rated Nov 5, 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.

November Top 100 in world

ChessVibes looks at the just-released official FIDE rankings. Hikaru Nakamura (#10) and Gata Kamsky (#19) are the top Americans. Teenager Fabiano Caruana (#23) represents Italy in international play, and also holds dual citizenship in the U.S.

November 12 or 13: GM Akobian Training Session and Simul

Another email cut and paste.  Looks like a very nice event!  For those of you who would prefer to simply play in the simul, that option is also available.

2 sessions available - Saturday Nov 12 or Sunday Nov 13 Enjoy a 6 hour training session with one of the top Grandmasters in the United States - GM Varuzhan Akobian! GM Akobian helped the US team achieve a bronze medal twice in the 2006 and 2008 Chess Olympiads, and a Silver medal in the 2009 World Team Championships. In 2010 GM Akobian was tapped to become the trainer/coach for the US Men's Olympiad Team as well. You can join GM Akobian in a 6 hour marathon lecture covering openings, middle game, and end-game. He will review popular opening lines, the ideas behind them and how to transition to the middle game along with middle game strategy, and what to do (and not to do) in the end-game. You'll be invited to ask questions and discuss the pro's and con's of variations, along with testing your inner-GM against this battled hardened veteran with on the spot puzzles and challenges. The session will begin at 11:30am and continue until 5:30pm. After a 30 minute break, GM Akobian will perform a simul. Feel free to bring your personal chess boards if you want GM Akobian to autograph it for you also! Snacks and beverages will be available. This session is $75 for members of the North Shore Chess Center and $100 for non-members if registered by Friday evening 9pm on Nov 11. Add an additional $20 at the door. Onsite registrations cannot be guaranteed for space! Seating is limited to 30 people on a first registered basis. Register online - http://www.nachess.org/events

Easy combination with several cute points

We're cribbing once again from Jeff Coakley's Winning Chess Exercises For Kids

White to play and win material

Seirawan interview in ChessBase

 Back when I had hair, Yasser had an Afro....

A good read.  I love the following comment for acknowledging one of the major challenges facing players over fifty:

I’m disgusted with the (FIDE) time controls! My chief complaint is that they are not standardized. To my mind, there are three types of chess tournaments: classical, rapid and blitz. Honestly, I don’t care what the time controls for these three disciplines are, only that they should be the same for all tournaments! Today, a “Classical” tournament will have all kinds of different time controls. It is terrible. For a professional, they are constantly recalibrating themselves for all these controls which can be different from event to event in the extreme. This too, has been a failure from FIDE, official federations and the professional players. In fact, it is just stupid.

If I were chess dictator I would say: “For the next two years we will play our three disciplines with these and only these standard time controls. Full stop. At the end of two years, we will review the results. If we discover that some tweaking is necessary, we will change the standard and practice them for two years…” And so forth and so on, eventually settling on the three standards that we all like best, which works for all parties, including organizers.

I would start with a classical time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves with a thirty second bonus for all moves made from move one. For the second time control 30 minutes for 20 moves (with the thirty second bonus); for the third time control 15 minutes (with the thirty second bonus) for the rest of the game. My reasoning for this time control is that a classical game will obviously be the longest of the three disciplines. A player has physical needs, such as nutrition, drinks, visiting the restroom and so on. The three distinct time controls, allow the player to comfortably meet their physical needs. It is simply intolerable to be sitting at the board, with a strong physical need to go to the restroom and being unable to do so because you are playing on increment time only.

 Read the rest of his interview with IM Ana Matnadze at ChessBase.

Eric Rosen simul this morning: walk-ins welcome!

The exhibition starts at 11 a.m.: arrive by noon and we'll make sure you play! Click on the image to read the invite!

CICL: Watch out for Loyola!

I play for the Rogue Squadron in the CICL East Division, and we're very fortunate to have David Franklin as our first board.  David lost his first game ever in CICL this week, to John Gurczak of Loyola.

The innocuous-looking 4.e3 has teeth.  I don't like combining ....dxc4 with ceding the bishop pair after ...Bg4, but top players have done just this several times in 2011, including Bruzon and Gashimov at the World Cup.  Kamsky's 7...a6 scores very well for Black, but that could simply be attributable to the fellow pushing the pawns.

And on Board 3, USCF Expert Isaac Braswell was upset by Peter Dimpoulous of Loyola, who won a pawn, then sacked a couple pawns back for a fierce kingside attack.  (Isaac is a lightning-fast calculator and a time-trouble addict: even though he lost this game, realize that he was finding reasonable defensive moves in an instant!)

Of course, the Rogue Squadron won 4-2 because we are objectively awesome.  But hats off to John, Peter, and our other worthy opponents from Rogers Park!

Latvian-American beats six-time Russian champion

Lest we be accused of overhyping the nationalism card, we should note that the genial 1994, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2008, and 2011 Russian champion watches more Showtime series than either Andrew or I do.

ICA Banquet next Sunday, November 6th!

We're at the same location (Buca di Beppo in Lombard), at the same time (1 to 4 p.m.) with a new Broughton Award honoree (Senior Master Andrew Karklins)!  The genial Jim Brotsos will be our Master of Ceremonies.

Details here!

Buy your ticket here!

And yes, Andrew's father, 96-year-old NM Erik Karklins, plans to be there as well!

Defenders need to calculate, too

A simple but pleasing example from the very first quiz page of Jeff Coakley's Winning Chess Exercises For Kids.  (You may not have realized that you're teaching your students an introduction to geometry!)

 White to play: what's White's best move?

Board 4: Schmakel 1 - Rosenthal 0

NM Sam Schmakel provides one bright spot in this gloomy match.  A fun Steinitz Variation of the French leads to a pleasant endgame for White.

During the game, I saw the position after Black's 39th and thought that White's extra horsie was not enough to win.  But Sam demonstrates that just as knights have trouble dealing with rook pawns, the kings that escort rook pawns have trouble dealing with knights.

Perhaps knights are just better than bishops?

In the GM battle on Board 1, Miami's Julio Becerra rode his steed to a winning rook ending against Josh Friedel's Berllin Defense.

The knight can visit all 64 squares, but it is the lot of poor Mr. Bishop that he can only visit 32.  Of course, White also had a healthy 4-3 kingside majority and Black had to deal with an artificially isolated h4 pawn....

Board 3: Pelaez 1 - Rosen 0

Black's problem piece in the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit is the bishop on c8. The point of 6.Qc2 is to embarrass the bishop by taking away its best square: Eric's 6...g6 is a radical attempt to solve the problem. (I've tried it more than once myself: NM Steve Tennant swept me off the board at a Western Open some years ago from the position after 8.Qb3, which forces Black to weaken the queenside pawns slightly.)

FM Jorge Peleaz really played a model game with the White pieces. Once the hanging pawns are forced into the unfavorable c4-d5 formation, the bishop on e6 is much less powerful than the dancing knight. 46.f5! is real purty.

 If Black can find a way to get away with this line, the 6...g6 idea is golden. Until then, there's always 6...Be7.

Board 2: Young ½ - Rodriquez ½

Finally getting around to the games from Monday's loss to Miami. The adjective "benkogambity" is overused, but perhaps it fits here. Each player is ambitious in his own way; a correct draw seems the logical result. Take note of Angelo's good drawing technique in a slightly uncomfortable rook ending: he gets rid of the h-pawn (a potential target) before he widens the scope of the enemy rook by moving his f-pawn.

Requisite Hallowe'en post

Jennifer Shahade reports.

Register for Eric Rosen simul, Saturday at Marbles!

Click on the image to read the invite!

A deflection immortal

Once again, we are cribbing from Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011).  And once again, our theme is deflection.  An enemy piece is performing an important function: can you make it move so that it's no longer performing that function?

Two hints: I wrote "wow" in the margin of the book, and even Houdini took a second or so to find the winning line. But what would an American do at the Opéra de Paris?

Mackenzie-NN, Manchester 1889

White to play and win

Blaze 1½ - Miami 2½

In keeping with this blog's official "bad news can always wait" policy....

OK, Chicago once again lost a perfect season to Miami on Monday night (though I didn't see any mismatches comparable to Dwight Stephenson dominating the Refrigrerator).  PGN to follow....

More from my favorite

At the risk of repeating myself: if you are teaching advanced beginners (students above USCF 800) and you can afford 30 clams, you must stop what you are doing and buy Winning Chess Exercises For Kids right now!  (No, I'm not getting a commission!)

Another sample:

 White to play and win material

Those of you strong enough to see the correct solution immediately might not notice that there are two (!) traps in an alternative variation that looks completely plausible to beginners.

Deflection is an essential skill in the workplace, too

Over the next week or two, we'll be featuring tactical exercises from books for beginners, advanced beginners, and intermediate players..

This morning, our theme from Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011) is deflection. An enemy piece is performing an important function: can you make it move so that it's no longer performing that function? Two examples:

Atlas-Witrthensohn, Wohn 1993

White to play and win

I love the next one!

Füster-Balogh, Budapest 1946

Black to play and win

GM Shulman annotates Shulman-Bhat

Chess is hard, and chess is cruel.

Despite the header on Yury's PGN, the game was not played in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia.  Nor was either player banished to Siberia by their teammates for the exchange of "??" moves.

Both Kamsky and Nakamura in Wijk aan Zee 2012

Hikaru will defend his title against Gata and others: full lineup of the 2012 invitational at ChessVibes.

NM Trevor Magness annotates Byambaa-Schmakel

Lots of good stuff on the Blaze blog that I'd overlooked!  Trevor weighs in on the merits of 18...g5: he is somewhat less enthusiastic than I was.

Eric Rosen simul this Saturday at Marbles on Grand

The good folks at Marbles: The Brain Store are hosting a simul by the 2011 National High School Champion, Senior Master Eric Rosen, this coming Saturday, October 29th, beginning at 11 a.m. Get a jump start on your Christmas shopping, and Marbles will donate 15% of the proceeds to the rejuvenated Illinois Chess Tour. (I was going to say "back from the dead" instead of "rejuvenated," but I was reluctant to allude to zombies when the locale is a "brain store.")

Details here! Thanks to Eric and to Metro VP Mike Cardinale for making this event possible.

The one beginner's book you absolutely MUST buy!

I had never heard of Jeff Coakley before reading teaching guru Elizabeth Vicary's blog.   Follow this link to get some of Coakley's wonderful free chess lesson plans (a software download is required).

If you are teaching advanced beginners (students above USCF 800) and you can afford 30 clams, you must stop what you are doing and buy Winning Chess Exercises For Kids right now!  (The linked site is Canadian: I bought the book on Amazon last month, but they seem to be out of inventory at the moment.)  Be forewarned that these problems are far too difficult for players below USCF 600, and be careful to order the right title (Coakley has authored several books with similar titles: another book, Winning Chess Puzzles for Kids, is a tactics primer for true beginners.)

 

In the introduction to Winning Chess Exercises for Kids, Coakley promises, "This is at least a year's worth of material," and he delivers!  There are 100 exercise sheets in the book: each sheet is a quiz with nine diagrams: three mates, three combinations to win material, and three "find the best move" problems that develop defensive, middlegame, and endgame skills.  At the bottom of the page, there's a question generally designed to make students think about the way the pieces work. (For example: "What is the most total squares that can be attacked by two rooks?")  Most adults would find the material challenging, but Coakley and illustrator Antoine Duff present the exercises in a kid-friendly format.  (Adults rated 1000 to 1600 may wish to work through the book for their own benefit before using it to teach!)

Over the next couple weeks, I'll post some sample problems from Winning Chess Exercises for Kids.  Here's one:

White to play and mate

National Chess Day at Rudy Lozano Library

Keith Ammann reports on the action at Hector Hernandez's stomping grounds on the ICA website.


Here's an interactive version of the game featured in the article, as annotated by Keith:

Learning to count

I'm getting ready for the scholastic season, and I'm on the lookout for tactics books for beginners.  One of the best I've seen is Dan Heisman's Back to Basics: Tactics (Kindle edition available here).

Heisman argues (quite convincingly, in my opinion) that before one teaches students about pins and forks and such, one first has to teach them not to leave pieces en prise (chess speak for "giving pieces away for free") and to take your opponent's pieces when she leaves them en prise.

Sometimes the answer is rather easy:

White to play

Other things equal, the rook on g3 should eat the pawn on d3: a free pawn is a good thing!

Sometimes the answer is more complicated:

White to play

1.Raxd3 Qxd3 2.Rxd3 Rxd3 is approximately an equal exchange, so the correct answer is "It depends."  (Heisman provides the reader with a more sophisticated point-count system, still suitable for advanced beginners, that suggests that in the general case, the exchange is good for White.)

And sometimes the answer is surprisingly subtle:

White to play

Is the Black pawn safe?  (Three attackers, three defenders)

There are of course other pieces on the board.  To answer Heisman's question, just concentrate on these seven pieces; you may assume that when the missing pieces are taken into consideration, material is equal.

I'll have a few more examples from Heisman in the coming days....

Tactics, tactics, tactics...

Over the next week or two, we'll be featuring tactical exercises from books for beginners, advanced beginners, and intermediate players.

I've been reading Yakov Neistadt's Improve Your Chess Tactics (New in Chess, 2011) on the METRA for the past few weeks.     It's a great tactics refresher for the average tournament player.

Some of you will recognize the textbook combination in the following position immediately:

Glass-Russell, Belfast 1958

Black to play and win

This exercise (adapted from position #100 in Neistadt) has a similar theme (which is...?), but requires a bit more creativity:

adapted from Nette-Abente, Paraguay 1983

Black to play and win

Board 1: Gurevich ½ - Holt ½

IM Conrad Holt is ranked 36th in the nation.  He's 18 years old and still rapidly improving: I know a couple of GMs who don't look forward to playing him.  Maybe Dmitry had a little something from the unusual opening, but both players collaborated to play a creative and correct game.  After the e-pawn is traded for Black's a-pawn, neither player has any chances, so a draw was a natural result.

Blaze - Dallas, Board 4: Dean 1 - Xiang 0

By point count alone, Black has the advantage of two rooks vs. queen. But the two rooks need to be coordinated to be effective, and king safety is paramount in middlegames with opposite-color bishops are on the board.

31.f6!, shaking up His Majesty's hizzle, is very nice. Black could have defended with 31...Ra8! 32.Qg4 (threatening both mate on g7 and the c4 bishop) 32...g6! 33.Qxc4 Rxd2.

Manager Daniel Parmet has a very pleasant task each week filling the lower boards: Jim Dean, Eric Rosen, Sam Schmakel, Angelo Young....

Industrial League: UChicago / Citadel 6 - Tradelink 0

Trash-talking emanating from a certain Quadrangle duly noted.

Board 3: Kierwa 0 - Rosen 1

The best thing about tripled pawns is that there's three of them.  Newly-minted Senior Master Eric Rosen got very nice play against e5 out of the opening (a Frenchified anti-Sicilian), but FM Keaton Kierwa made the most of his tripleton and was at least equal in this very interesting middlegame.

But White slips, after which Eric exploits the dominated Nb1 and the f2 weakness.  (Why didn't Black play the immediate 35...Rxb1 winning a piece, you may ask?  There's a good reason.)

Blaze 3½ - Dallas Destiny ½

Today's text (equally relevant to Grandmasters and Class E players): "For what is a man profited if he shall gain a whole rook and lose his own king"?


Even though Josh Friedel got his opponent's king to walk all the way out to f4 in the middlegame, it was relatively safe because of the locked pawn center, and it was White who was pressing Black.  And this game could easily have gone the other way (the computer likes 45.h5!).   But White succumbed to temptation with 47.Qc8+, after which GM Friedel demonstrated the error of gross materialism.



 

"Maybe Teach Them Math, Science, and Chess"

Bonnie Trafelet for Chicago News Cooperative

I did not mention the Susan Polgar World Open for Boys and Girls, held October 7-10 in Oak Brook, because of pending litigation involving the U.S. Chess Federation that I really don't want to discuss here.

But this New York Times article (James Warren is, I assume, not Helen's husband, but the former editor of the Tempo section of the Chicago Tribune?) is too good to pass up.  Local teaching legend Shiva Maharaj is prominently featured.

This Sunday in DeKalb: Midwest Senior Open

Cut and pasted from the website.  (Hmm, I'm 53 years old....)

One Day Only - New VenueSunday, October 23, 2011 American National Bank of DeKalb CountyCommunity Room, 1985 DeKalb AvenueSycamore, IL

An exciting event for the Age 50-plus crowd:

• 3 rounds, Game/75 minutes

• Sections: Open & Reserve (Under 1600)

• Additional prizes for top scores in Under 1800 in 

• the Open Section and Under 1400 in Reserve Section

• Rated by the US Chess Federation 

 Playing Schedule:

• On-site registration: 9am - 9:20am

• Rounds: 9:30am, 12:50pm, 3:30pm (ending by 6pm)

 Money Stuff: 

• Modest $20 entry fee

• At least 70% of prize fund distributed as specified at site or available via advance request by electronic mail.

Amenities:

• For those wishing to arrive the night before, a $60/night hotel rate was arranged at the nearby NIU Student Center 
(private or shared room); theater tickets available to one of several excellent local performances

• Refrigerator and microwave available at tournament site

• Site is on "restaurant row" with numerous lunch options  

Further Details:

• With success of this preview event, it is hoped the Midwest Senior Open may grow into an annual multi-day, regional tournament -- your feedback is welcome

• Designed for comfort & convenience of mature players

• Reunite with old chess friends; make new ones!

• Completely handicap accessible

• Special assistance available upon request

• All equipment provided but you may bring your own

• Questions? 
e-mail SeniorOpen@DeKalbChess.com

Midwest Class: C, D, and E!

Our own Robert Gorodetsky and Angelo Fleming of Indiana drew with each other in the first round, then swept their remaining games to finish equal first with 4½-½ in Class C.  Ethan Brown and Souroush Kanideh, both of Illinois, tied with Michael Slosson of Indiana for third, all with 4-1.

Another local preteen, James Biondo (post-event rating 1566) and an adult who refused to be a victim, Talhah Chaudhry, split Class D honors, each scoring 4½-½.  Ben Marks and Tiffany Madson divided third with 4-1.

Willam Wang of Illinois and Andrew Trattner of Wisconsin, tied for first in Class E, each with 4½-½.  Jim Epley and Douglas Campbell, both of Illinois, tied for third with 4-1.

Chess can be cruel, as Keith Amman discovered in this final-round game against Alexander Breydburd from Class E:

34.Qd4! would have been a killer.  But White ate a rook, which made winning surprisingly hard.  38.Qc5! would have done the trick.

Steve Immitt, Wayne Clark, and Jeff Wiewel directed for the Continental Chess Association.

Midwest Class - More child-on-adult violence

This is getting ridiculous: ten-year-old Adream Liang of Wisconsin tied for first with Rick Lutzke, both with 4½.  David Paykin took third with 4-1.

Midwest Class - Expert / A

Thirteen-year-old cheesehead Alexander Velikanov earned his National Master title in style by winning the Expert Section  with 4½-½.  Sedrick Prude, Dane Mattson of Wisconsin, and Robert Keating of Iowa tied for second with 4-1.

Eleven-year-old Alex Bian of Lincolnshire (one of our Warren Junior Scholars) won the Class A section with a perfect 5-0 score.  Locals Rafeh Qazi and Robert Moskwa tied for second with 4-1 to complete the Illinois sweep.

For those of unfamiliar with tournament chess: this is not a scholastic event!

Midwest Class Championsips results-Master Section

This weekend's results are in from Wheeling!

Bulgarian Grandmaster and opening theoretician Atanas Kolev won the top section of the 20th Midwest Class Championship with a 4½-½ score.  Kolev  beating GM Dmitry Gurevich and Illinois Co-Champ Aun Thant Zin in rounds 3 and 4, and drawing Seth Homa of Michigan (who finished second with 4-1) in the final round.  This section was a tough one for the most of the locals: Aun Thant Zin did beat GM Nikola Mitkov in round 3, and Mitkov and Gurevich were paired with each other in the last round.

Age is catching up with 96-year-old Erik Karklins.  He lost all his games in the Expert Section: when he got a bye in round 4, he used the opportunity to play up to the Master Section, and beat NM James Ellis of Iowa.

Senior Master Eric Rosen

Congratulations (yet again) to Niles North senior Eric Rosen, who went to Texas this weekend and won the Dallas Open. 

Eric's post-event rating is (unofficially) 2404, which makes him a Senior Master.  Congratulations!

Illinois Chess Association Banquet Honoring Andrew Karkins

Please join us (this means you!) on Sunday, November 6th, from 1 to 4 p.m., at Buca di Beppo in Lombard.  Andrew Karklins will be receiving the Natalie Broughton Lifetime Achievement Award.  Preregistration is required: more info and online ticket link here.

The meal at last year's banquet was excellent: generous helpings (similar to Maggiano's), but more affordable.  I am on a diet, so there will be much more for others to eat.

The meeting will be preceded by the Illinois Chess Association's annual meeting (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.), open to all ICA members and pretty much anyone not carrying a Molotov cocktail.

An interesting endgame moment from Shulman-Bhat

After 50.Kf3: Black to play 

I don't want to try to anticipate what the master annotators at the Blaze Blog will have to say.  But at the very end of this game, it's a fair question as to whether Black found the best move.

Board 4: the move of the match (Byambaa 0 - Schmakel 1)

Is it correct?  I have no clue, but I do know that Black's 18th move is très cool, and shows a desire to fight for the full point.  Normally one does not wish to move pawns in front of one's castled king.  Especially not two squares.  Especially not the g-pawn. Especially not when the players have castled on opposite sides. Especially when one creates a lever that helps the enemy open lines to your king.

But rules of thumb are made to be broken: chess is a very concrete game. The idea is known from the Browne System of the Najdorf.  The e5 square is worth a lot: Black gets a horsie on c4 and a bishop on f6 soon afterwards.  So you could say that Black is attacking White's queenside with 18...g7-g5!?

And Sam Schmakel of Whitney Young must have been planning this shocker some moves earlier: otherwise, why 16...Qd8?

Board 3: Young ½ - Naroditsky ½

Board 3 was potentially a problem for Chicago: the young prodigy Naroditsky is the author of Mastering Positional Chess.  24...a5! looks strong to me, and a few moves later, White's c5 pawn fell.

But IM Angelo Young (no slacker at positional play) held on for the draw.

Board 1: Shulman ½ - Bhat ½

I really don't understand the opening on Board 1.  Usually in the Leningrad Variation of the Nimzoindian, Black will trade the Bb4 for the Nc3 to double White's c-pawns.  But Bhat played ...e6xd5 and deferred capturing on c3.  Strange to this amateur's eyes, but the proof is in the results.  It was Yury who had to force the draw with White.

Blaze 2½ - San Francisco Mechanics 1½

The Chicago Blaze are now 7-0!

On Board 2, Grandmasters Jesse Kraai and Mesgen Amanov played a sharp Catalan that fizzled out into a draw:

Point-count chess

The object of the game is checkmate, so all point-count systems are rules of thumb at best.  But the "primitive" values we teach beginners are surprisingly useful: bishops and knights are worth 3 pawns, the rook is worth 5 pawns, and the queen is worth 9 pawns.

Some years ago, IM (now GM) Larry Kaufman slightly revised these rules of thumb based on empirical data.  I just happened across the article today while looking up something else: it's still fascinating.

To summarize Kaufman's improved rules of thumb: bishops and knights are worth 3¼ pawns (but add ½ pawn for the bishop pair), rooks are still worth 5 pawns, and the queen is worth 9¾ pawns.

Blaze match begins in a few minutes

Tonight the Blaze face off against the San Francisco Mechanics: Brad Rosen previews the match here.  Mechanics first board Jesse Kraai went to Shimer College: I knew him back when he had a flowing mane of hair and I wasn't quite bald.

Carlsen wins Bilboa in blitz playoff

...and Hikaru Nakamura, bizarre round nine loss notwithstanding, takes third on tiebreaks.  A deserved win for Carlsen (who beat the red-hot Ivanchuk twice in regulation play) and a bittersweet step forward for Nakamura.

Coverage in the usual places....

ChessBase 

ChessVibes

WhyChess (all games available via drop-down box)

The Week in Chess

What tactic is more basic than pins and forks?

Dan Heisman (whose Chess Cafe column is wonderful reading for beginners and their teachers) has argued that teaching beginners to count is the indispensable first step in teaching tactics.

Blog contributor Vince Hart, who has been working with the Prospect High School chess team for the past nine years, emphasizes piece safety with his team, and points us to a wonderful Heisman column on the subject.

Bilboa Round 9: Vallejo 1 - Nakamura 0

Nakamura flagged on move 40 in a slightly superior position: he thought he had made the time control, and stepped away for a glass of juice.

As Carlsen beat Ivanchuk today, a win would have brought Nakamura into a tie for first.

Three decisive games today!