K-12 Girls' Championship next weekend in Skokie!

2011 Illinois State K12 Girls Chess Championship Tournament Date: Jan 29, 2011

Niles North High School
9800 Lawler Avenue
Skokie, Illinois
(East Cafeteria and Commons)

Format: 4-round G45 swiss.
USCF rated; USCF membership is required.
Sections: K-3, K-5, K-8, Championship (open to K12; anyone rated 1000 or more must play in Championship section)

Prizes: Trophies to top 5 individuals in each section; winner of championship section earns invitation to play in the 6-player round robin invitational girls tournament the weekend of March 26-28. (If the winner would otherwise qualify by rating, the player with the highest score not otherwise qualified will receive the invitation).

Check-in: 9 to 9:30
First round: 10 a.m. Other rounds ASAP.

Entry fee: $25 if received by Jan. 21; $35 by Jan. 28. No on-site entries.
Send entries to Andrea Rosen, 8214 Keystone Avenue, Skokie, IL 60076. Checks should be made payable to the ICA Warren Program.
--- or ---
Register and pay online (http://www.il-chess.net/goto.php?a=shop).

Other: Sets and clocks will be provided by North American Chess Association.

Hotel: Comfort Inn, 9333 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie, 847-679-6200.
Group rate $94.99/night, includes full hot buffet breakfast, must reserve by January 3. When making reservation, be sure to ask for Illinois Chess Association rate.

Net proceeds will benefit the Niles North High School chess club and the ICA Warren Program. For more information, contact: warrenprogram@il-chess.org

Л'Ами – Накамура 6-й тур (0-1)

I think that means that Nakamura beat the Dutch GM Erwin L'Ami in Round 6!  Viswanathan Anand and Alexander Grischuk drew, so Nakamura reclaims a share of first place.


The game is here: a nice grind from absolutely nothing.


P.S.  Nakamura tweeted:

A nice win today, but I feel horrible for l'Ami after that travesty yesterday. Anyway, Smeets tomorrow!about 2 hours ago via web

The "travesty" was L'Ami's blundering against Carlsen when defending a dead drawn rook & knight vs. rook ending (no pawns).

Fischer film at Sundance

The documentary Bobby Fischer Against the World just premiered at Sundance; it will be on HBO this summer.  More info here.

North Shore Chess Center G/45 this Sunday!

Another email cut-and-paste, especially for non-football fans:

North Shore Chess Center G/45- 4R-SS G/45 + 10/sec increment. North Shore Chess Center, 5500 West Touhy Ave Suite A, Skokie, IL 60077. 847.423.8626. EF: $20 for non-members of the chess center, $15 for members of the chess center received by 1/22. All $5 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: 1pm for round one and then 15 minutes after final game from previous round completed. Half-point byes available in any round. Prizes: Book prizes for top three finishers. Biggest upset (150+ points): Free entry to following month G/45 + book prize. 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 rated. For online registration and list of more events please visit http://www.nachess.org/events

Evanston Chess $5 Game/29 event this Saturday!

Details here!

I won't be there (tax season), so please play for me!

Nakamura blogs from Wijk aan Zee

 He was tied for first with Anand until today's draw with Ponomariov: still in great shape at +2!

The caudate nucleus is well developed in rats, mice, and chess masters

 Chess masters use different parts of the brain than the rest of us: story here (Bloomberg) and here (MSNBC)

General conclusion: "Expertise is the result of long, serious training."  If you're interested in the subject (or if you want interesting reads with many thoughts applicable to many things beyond chess), I again recommend Gladwell's Outliers and Lehrer's How We Decide.

Sideshow Bob gets engaged

Everyone's favorite chess instructor, Elizabeth Vicary, is getting married!  Details (sort of) here.

Congratuations!

A tweet from Wijk (no, that doesn't rhyme)

http://twitter.com/#!/GMHikaru/status/27106381320429568

@GMHikaru Hikaru Nakamura

 

Some of the best technique I've ever shown in an endgame under pressure! Off to a great start, but it will only get more difficult!

 

2 hours ago via web

Nakamura leads Wijk aan Zee after Round 3

After three rounds, Hikaru Nakamura, America's top-rated player, is leading the super-GM field of Tata Stell Group A in Wijk aan Zee, Holland.  Nakamura has beaten Alexander Grischuk and (today) Alexei Shirov, while drawing Levon Aronian with Black yesterday.

All the major chess sites have coverage: I went to The Week in Chess.

An unexploited blunder

This one is a doozy. In the position below, it is White's move. Judit Polgar, the strongest woman player ever, is playing former World Champion Boris Spassky. Polgar played 12.Nf1 and eventually lost. Do you see anything better?

Trying to form a team for the US Amateur Team?

I'm not able to play myself, except possibly as an alternate on Sunday (and for that I already have a standing invitation, thanks!)

If you'd like to play and you want to form a team (four players plus one optional alternate), feel free to post a request in comments here or on the Illinois Chess Association message board.

The U.S. Amateur Team returns to Chicago!

Another cut-and-paste from my email:

U.S. AMATEUR TEAM NORTH February 18-20, 2011 or February 19-20, 2011 Crowne Plaza, 2875 N. Milwaukee, Northbrook, Il 60062 $79 Room Rate + FREE BREAKFAST BUFFET! 847-298-2525 February 19 Si de Events: Scholastic Team & Illinois Blitz Championship USAT North 2 playing schedules: 3-day or 2 day Early EF $140 per team (4 player team + 1 alternate) Individual EF (we assign team), $35 early EF G/90 inc 30 On-line entry USPS entry SETS-BOARDS-CLOCKS provided by NACA Book Dealer scheduled to be t here Team rating = average of top 4 boards Team's average rating must be U2200 Top team plays for National Championship Team awards: Top Team with average rating U1900 Top Team with average rating U1600 Top Team with average rating U1300 Best Team Name Best Junior Team (HS & younger) Best individual score on each board Side Events 2/19/11 Scholastic Team (daytime) Team rating = average of top 4 boards Team average rating must be U1600 $120 Early EFIndividual EF (we assign team) G/60 Club and mixed school teams welcome! Bring Boards-Sets-Clocks Team awards Top Team Top 3 High School Teams Top 3 Middle School Teams Top 3 Elementary School Teams Best Individual Score On Each Board BLITZ  (pm) $500 b/30 $25 Early EF Bring sets-boards-clocks More USAT Info USAT on-line entry USAT USPS entry Scholastic Team Info & Entry IL Blitz Chmp Info & Entry Team Rules Team FAQ Contact

A typical Benesa game?

As long as I've got ChessBase open and we're remembering the Chicago players we lost last year....

This game gives one a hint of how strong Arnulfo Benesa was in his prime. His "quiet" positional play was backed by sharp calculation: one would expect this from a virtuoso of the Grünfeld and the Najdorf! Out of nowhere, Black's queen is trapped.

Parenthetically, the loser of this game, NM Noureddine Ziane, is alive and well. Sometime after this game was played, Noureddine transferred from Shimer College to the University of Texas at Dallas. While in Dallas he founded USA Chess with Katie Stone. Look for him in Tangiers or Las Vegas!

From the 2002 Chess Olympiad

Ricardo Szmetan represented Barbados in the 2002 Olympiad.  I don't know whether he was related to Jorge Szmetan (born 1950), who drew Bobby Fischer in 1971 and who represented Argentina in several Olympiads.

I did not have the pleasure of knowing Ricardo, but many of my friends knew him well.

Ricardo Szmetan, 1952-2010

Sad news.  Sevan Muradian writes:

For those of you that may have known him, I just learned that Dr. Ricardo Szmetan, originally from Barbados, passed away on December 31, 2010.

Ricardo had a PhD in Latin American Studies and recently completed a MS in Library Sciences at University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. He was also a FIDE Master.

While Szmetan was indeed the 2002 national champion of Barbados, he was of Argentinian descent (not sure where he was born--were his parents part of the Central European Jewish diaspora?).  His Midwest tournament victories included the 2008 Greater Peoria Open and the 2007 David Mote Memorial, and he played in numerous master-level events in Chicago over the decades.

US Amateur Team: February 18-20, Crowne Plaza, Northbrook!

More info at the ICA website!  Tim Just and Glenn Panner are organizing, so you know it'll be a quality event.

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

(continued from previous post)
In Round 4, Tim Ailes and I reached a typical Benko Gambit position.

Bill Brock-Tim Ailes

Black to play after 21.Ne2

As usual, all Black's pieces are pressing (or, in the case of the Nd7, about to press) the a- and b-pawns.  Black has to decide how to handle the threat of Nxd4.  Doesn't 21...Rb4 look natural?

Bill Brock-Aun Thant Zin

After 27.Qe3

Doubtless encouraged by my toothless opening, Black played 27...Qb4.  How would you respond?  (And how do you think I responded?  There's more than one good move here: I saw a "hard" one and overlooked an "easy" one that my good-natured opponent pointed out to me immediately after the game.)

I'm not trying to embarrass my creative opponents (who, aside from these lapses, played extremely well) or flagellate myself for our collective blunders.  What can we do to blunder less often?

Answers later!

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!