I want my PGN

Just sayin' 

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

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

2010 World Amateur Championships in Skokie!

The action starts tonight!

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

Illinois State Scholastic Championships

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

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

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

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

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

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

ICA Denker Qualifier and Girls' Invitational this weekend!

Andi Rosen provides the details at the ICA website.

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

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

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

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

The People's Champion

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

CPS Elementary Schools Sports Program - Regional Playoffs

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

Only a few hours left...

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

Note the big change in this year's format:

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

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

Chess without Borders at Navy Pier

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

More at this blog.

Craigslist cut-and-paste

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

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

---

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

---

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

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

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

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

PostingID: 1643894702

are you playing the Mid-America Open?

It's next weekend in St. Louis.... 

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

Knight Moves Chess Club Spring Open

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

Info is here:

Knight Moves Chess Club Spring Open

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

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

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

of interest to Chicago & chess bibliophiles

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

Amber round 1 is finishing right now

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

You can follow the action here.

Sicilian Grand Prix with 5.a3!?

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


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

Rook Dreams

Somehow I missed this December 2008 Atlantic article.

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

a tabiya in the English Hedgehog

Black to play

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

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

First ten thousand views

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

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

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

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

Over 150 at Greater Chicago Scholastic Chess Championships

Jeff Caveney reports at Chess Life Online!

top-notch rerun

 GM Mesgen Amanov and friends

 Courtesy US Chess Online.

Opening night

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

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