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.