Illinois Database project

Tom Sprandel recently posted the first version of the Illinois database on the ICA website.  It's got just over 10,000 games.

The current version of the database (not yet live on the ICA website) is almost 20,000 games: it begins with an 1858 Louis Paulsen simul in Chicago and ends with games from the 2011 Chicago Open.  The collection draws heavily from ChessBase, CICL, and the ICA archives.  We'd like to include as many annotated games as possible, but we don't want to infringe on any copyrights.  

What games belong in the database?  I'd like to err on the side on inclusiveness without being silly.  Any game by an Illinois master (no matter where in the world it was played), any master game played in Illinois, any interesting amateur game (you probably have hundreds of your own games!), and games played by "honorary Chicagoans" (Bill Martz, Emory Tate, Bill Colias).  The database also includes games of immigrants to Illinois from "the old country."  Simul games and postal games are most welcome.  (Maybe even endgame studies? The Lasker-Reichheim position was first published in the Chicago Tribune.) And please don't be bashful: send wins, losses, and draws!

Bobby Fischer was born at Billings Hospital Michael Reese (not the first time I've published this misinformation) and Sammy Reshevsky went to the University of Chicago, but one has to draw the line somewhere: I've only included Reshevsky's games from his Midwest years (roughly 1924-34) and essentially excluded Fischer unless he was playing someone from Illinois.

If you have a collection of games that you'd like to contribute to the project (clean PGN or CBV files strongly preferred: ask me about data formatting), please drop me a line!  Perhaps we can swap files....

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!