2012 Chicago Class in Wheeling July 20-22

Another mail cut-and-paste: (kids, this is what the internet looked like in 1994).  The Chicago Class is an Illinois Tour event!


5th annual
CHICAGO CLASS

July 20-22 or 21-22, 2012 - Wheeling, Illinois

$20,000 GUARANTEED PRIZES

July 20-22 or 21-22   Illinois
Trophies Plus Grand Prix Points: 120 (enhanced)

5 round Swiss, 40/2, SD/1, d5 (2-day option, rounds 1-2 G/75, d5).
No residence requirements.

At the luxurious Westin Chicago North Shore Hotel, 601 North Milwaukee Avenue, Wheeling IL 60090. From Chicago, I-294 north to US-45 north; from Milwaukee, I-94 to Lake Cook Rd to US-45 south). Free parking.  

In 8 sections; no unrated allowed in Master or Expert.  Rated players may play up one section.

Master Section (2200/up): $2000-1000-600-400, clear win or 1st on tiebreak $100, top U2400 $800-400. FIDE rated.

Expert Section (2000-2199): $1400-700-400-200.

Class A Section (1800-1999/Unr): $1400-700-400-200.  No unrated may win over $900.

Class B Section (1600-1799/Unr): $1400-700-400-200.  No unrated may win over $700.

Class C Section (1400-1599/Unr): $1200-600-400-200.   No unrated may win over $500.

Class D Section (1200-1399/Unr): $1000-500-300-200.  No unrated may win over $300.

Class E Section (Under 1200/Unr): $1000-500-300-200.  No unrated may win over $200.

Under 1000 Section: (Under 1000/Unr): $200-100-60-40, trophies to first 5, top Under 800, Under 600, Unrated.  No unrated may win over $100.

Balance of any limited prize goes to next player(s) in line.

PRIZE LIMITS: If any post-event rating posted at uschess.org 7/19/11-7/19/12 is more than 30 points over section maximum, prize limit $500.

Top 7 sections entry fee: 3-day $103, 2-day $102 mailed by 7/11, all $104 ONLINE at chesstour.com by 7/16, $110 phoned to 406-896-2038 by 7/16 (entry only, no questions), $120 at site. No checks at site, credit cards OK.

Under 1000 Section entry fee: $70 less than top 7 sections entry fee.

Online late entries accepted from 7/17 to 2 hours before your first game (same fee as on site late entries).

All: Online or mailed entry fee $5 less to ICA members; join/renew at ilchess.org. An ICA Tour event.

Special 1 year USCF dues with paper magazine if paid with entry.  Online at chesstour.com, Adult $30, Young Adult $20, Scholastic $15.  Mailed, phoned or paid at site, Adult $40, Young Adult $30, Scholastic $20.  Re-entry $50; not available in Master Section. GMs free, $80 deducted from prize.

Unofficial uschess.org ratings usually used if otherwise unrated.

3-day schedule: Reg. ends Fri 6 pm, rds. Fri 7 pm, Sat 11 am & 6 pm, Sun 10 am & 4:30 pm.
2-day schedule: Reg. ends Sat 10 am, rds. Sat 11 am, 2:30 pm & 6 pm, Sun 10 am & 4:30 pm.

Half point byes: OK all rounds, Master must commit before rd 2, others before rd 3.

Hotel rates: $103-103-103-103, 800-937-8461, 847-777-6500, reserve by July 6 or rate may increase.

Room sharing: If you want to share a room to save money, see or post this on the CCA FORUM, or email us and we will post it for you.

Car rental: Avis, 800-331-1600, use AWD #D657633, or reserve car online.
Bring set, board, clock if possible- none supplied.

Ratings:  July official USCF rating list used.  Foreign player rating info. 
Entry: Continental Chess, Box 249, Salisbury Mills NY 12577. $15 service charge for refunds. No smoking. Questions:chesstour.com, DirectorAtChess.us, 845-496-9658. Advance entries posted at chesstour.com. Chess Magnet School Junior Grand Prix Points available.

GM Maurice Ashley at North Shore Chess Center this Saturday!

Maurice Ashley is a wonderful "explainer" and very entertaining.  His broadcast persona is the "John Madden of chess," breaking down difficult concepts into easy-to-understand chunks for the general public.  But just like John Madden, GM Ashley understands his game at a much deeper level.

Info here!  The lecture and simul is at 5500 West Touhy in Skokie this Saturday.

Upcoming lectures include GM Loek Van Wely on July 28th and GM Alexander Onischuk on August 11th.

Carlsen in NYC August 20th-24th

So if you have a place to crash in the Village, you might be able to do this for less than $1000.  

Very cool, very pricey.

From the Twitterverse

How Not to Play Chess

In this game, White thoughtfully gives up his dark-squared bishop for a knight, weakening his dark squares and giving Black the bishop pair. He then allows Black to occupy e3, completely blockading White's position. A queen trade doesn't stop Black from developing a mating attack. White should have played 17.Bg2 Rhd8 18.Nf2 Rxc4, when he is busted but at least avoids immediate loss. Instead, he stumbled into mate.

"CCSCSL Partners with KCF on Elite Training Program"

Press release cut and pasted. Congratulations to the recipients, especially Midwesterners Awonder Liang and Kevin Cao!

SAINT LOUIS, June 18, 2012 The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL) is partnering with the Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF) on a five-year grant program to help develop several American chess prodigies from across the United States. The program, called Young Stars – Team USA, will begin with a kick-off training program in Saint Louis at the CCSCSL from June 18-20. Program participants range in age from nine to 15 years old.


The program’s players include:


• Awonder Liang, age 9, from Madison, WI – Won a gold medal in the under-8 section of the 2011 World Youth Chess Championship in Brazil.
• Ruifeng Li, age 9, from Plano, TX – Won the 2011 Arkasas State Championships and a silver medal in the under-10 section of the 2011 World Youth Championships.
• Jeffrey Xiong, age 11, from Coppell, TX – Recently, Xiong received a four-year scholarship to the University of Texas at Dallas.
• Sam Sevian, age 11, from Santa Clara, CA – Is currently the youngest-ever American chess master.
• Kevin Cao, age 15, from Saint Louis – Named to the 2010 All-American Team at the age of 12, participated in the Kings vs. Queens tournament in Saint Louis
• Kayden Troff, age 14, from West Jordan, UT – Troff participated in the Junior Championships at the CCSCSL in 2011.
• Sarah Chiang, age 15, from Southlake, TX – Tied for third place at the World Youth Championship in the girls U-14 division in 2011


“This inaugural group features some of the top young chess players in the country,” said CCSCSL Executive Director Tony Rich. “By fostering their talent now, we’re hoping to position the United States as a future chess super power.”


World Chess Champion and KCF Chairman Garry Kasparov personally coach the young players in the training program, which will be held at the CCSCSL every summer and in New York City each winter. The CCSCSL and KCF have established a five-year educational program for extraordinarily talented children to maximize their potential to achieve the highest level in chess and become members of the U.S. Olympiad Teams. The grant also provides individual coaching for each participant.


“The joint effort of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and the KCF provides these promising players a tremendous advantage,” said Michael Khodarkovsky, president of the KCF. “Their time spent in these training sessions will help prepare them for the demands of a career in chess – and hopefully the demands of winning championship tournaments as well.”

Tal Memorial Round 7

This is one of the greatest events of recent years, with wonderful fighting chess.

Alexander Morozevich has lost two games in a row, but seems likely to remain in a massive tie for first place (assuming McShane converts against Kramnik: follow the live action here).  Nakamura is only half a point off the pace, with two winnable games to play!

It's hard to believe that Luke McShane (who just won) does something else for a living....

"it's not a big secret that Garry and me are not the best friends anymore"

Check out part 1 of Peter Doggers's interview with Viswanathan Anand in ChessVibes.

Upcoming Illinois Tour events this summer

The next Tour event is the Chicago Class, July 20-22 or 21-22 in Wheeling.

The Bradley Summer Open is in Peoria on August 25th.  (The link to the Summer Open info is not on the ICA website yet, but the info is on the Greater Peoria Chess Federation website.)

And don't miss the Illinois Open State Championship in Oak Brook this Labor Day weekend!

Shaw, Froehlich, Fei lead Illinois Tour

NM Tenzing Shaw leads the Open Section of the 2012 Illinois Tour with 12 points, closely followed by Jonathan Kogen with 10 points.  NM Sam Schmakel and FM Albert Chow are tied for third with 8.5.

Jim Froehlich leads the Reserve Section with 12 points; Joe Delay and Michael Penway are tied for second with 11.5 points.

Andrew Fei leads the Reserve Scholastic section with 14.5 points.  Akshay Indusekhar is close behind with 13 points, and Jonathan Hrach is in third with 12 points.

Details at the Illinois Tour homepage: please remember that you must be a ICA member to appear in the standings!


Open

Shaw, Tenzing 12.0
Kogen, Jonathan 10.0
Schmakel, Sam 8.5
Chow, Albert 8.5
Amanov, Mesgen 7.5
Mitkov, Nikola 7.5
Brock, Bill 7.5
Shulman, Yury 7.0
Gurevich, Dmitry 6.5
Kasiurak, Zack 6.0
Wilber, Matthew 5.5
Aliyev, Timur 5.0
Karklins, Andrew 5.0
Tsyganov, Igor 5.0
Vishnuvardhan, Arjun 5.0
Ni, Viktorija 5.0
Moskva, Robert 4.5
Young, Angelo 4.5
Shankar, Gauri 4.5
Naff, William A 4.5
Magness, Trevor 4.0
Felecan, Florin 4.0
Rosen, Eric 4.0
Zin, Aung Thant 3.5
Cohen, Lawrence 3.5
Kunche, Nikhilesh Kumar 3.5
Gupta, Saagar 3.0
Luo, Chengliang 3.0
Nibbelin, Mark 2.5
Bourgerie, Dennis 2.0
Flaga, Krzysztof 1.5


Reserve Adult 

Froehlich, Jim A 16.0
Delay, Joe 11.5
Penway, Michael 11.5
Dolson, Carl 11.0
Nach, Jordan 10.0
Hart, Vincent 8.0
Plaines, Theron 7.5
Bungo, Gregory 6.5
Zafar, Mohammed H. 6.5
Leong, Gee 6.5
Villareal, Max 6.0
Lewis, Richard 6.0
Inumerable, Florentino 6.0
Gilvary, Brian 6.0
Cox, William 5.5
Cronin, Mike 5.5
White, David 5.5
Bustamante, Edward 5.5
Karklins, Erik 5.5
Hawn, Stephen 5.5
Craigmile, Charles 5.5
Knox, Terrance 5.0
Berman, Jeremy 5.0
Henderson Jr., S.E. 5.0
Dixon, Jeff 5.0
Gasiecki, Alan 4.5
Freeman, John 4.5
Callahan, Tom III 4.5
Lewis, Otis 4.5
Gamino, Everado 4.5
Barbian, Matthew Richard 4.5
Peterson, Gregory 4.5
Harvey, Frank 4.5
Mei, Mike 4.5
Titov, Fedor 4.5
Kreisman, Philip 4.0
Doyle, Dennis R 4.0
Griesmeyer, Walter J 4.0
Tums, Valdis 4.0
Duffy, James 4.0
Ammann, Keith 4.0
Feldman, William 4.0
Kosteris, Dimitri 4.0
Djordjevic, Vladimir 3.5
Damocles, Joe 3.5
Canavan, Dylan 3.5
Ancheta, Rene 3.5
Willmore, Floyd E. 3.5
Jackson, William 3.5
Doyle, Dennis C. 3.0
Vigants, Alberts 3.0
Cohen, Frederic 3.0
Gasunas, Anthony C 3.0
Richmond, Dr. M. Barrie 3.0
Levine-Weinberg, Adam 3.0
Coleman, Mark S 2.5
Marchert, James Sr. 2.0
Dupee, Arthur B 2.0


Reserve Scholastic

Fei, Andrew Yueyang 14.5
Indusekar, Akshay 13.0
Hrach, Jonathan 12.0
Pena, Christian 10.0
Peng, David Tianjian 9.5
Meduri, Aakash 9.0
Brown, Ethan 8.5
Daniels, Jason 8.5
Zinski, Maximilian 8.5
Qazi, Rafeh 8.0
Lehmann, Spencer 8.0
Harihara, Caeley 8.0
Sun, Abe 7.5
Liu, Miranda 7.0
Bian, Alex 6.5
Swan, Jr, Charles 6.5
Jungo, Mark 6.0
Adve, Anshul 5.5
Curcio, Jack 5.5
Stevens, Matthew 5.0
Spiegel, Evan 5.0
Hu, Alex 5.0
Chinitz, Michael 5.0
Dzelilovic, Adil 5.0
Margolin, Jeremy 5.0
Kavouras, Christian D 4.5
Yang, Matthew 4.5
Shepherd, Duncan 4.0
Paykin, David 4.0
Conjeevaram, Sahil 4.0
Biondo, James 4.0
Provine, Shayne 3.5
Watford, Everett A 3.0
Gant, Jourdain 2.5

Braswell Memorial Blitz results

I've known for a long time that Michael Auger and William Aramil are infinitely better blitz players than I am.  But I really got a kick out of losing to the third-place finisher, George Li. 

It's one thing to lose a game by overlooking NxK or to draw a game because one fails to look at the clock when one's position is overwhelming and one's opponent flagged several seconds earlier, which happened in my games with other honorable opponents.  It's another to get squashed like a bug in a theoretical line, which is what George did to me.  I forgot the event was USCF blitz-rated, and shouted in horror, "My position is wretched!" or something like that.

"SHHH!!"

(Only slightly more quietly): "But it is wretched." 

After the game, I peppered George with move-order questions in his deadly 4.e3 Slav, and he was kind enough to answer them.  George is 12 years old.

Crosstable here. The three prizewinners received enormous chocolate bars: Isaac would have approved

Before the event, organizer Maret Thorpe was honored by Mike Cardinale of the Illinois Chess Association for her past & current contributions to ICA. Thank you, Maret!

Gelfand interview, Part 2

Read it on ChessVibes.  But allow me to steal a passage of interest to readers in Chicago, the Twin Cities, and New Jersey (not to mention Belarus, Israel...)

It was wonderful to see that you brought your four coaches to Moscow: Tamara Golovey & Leonid Bondar, Eduard Zelkind, and Albert Kapengut. Please briefly describe what they meant for your chess development.

Sure, it's my pleasure because they did a lot and they're part of my success. I was very happy when they accepted my invitation and came to Moscow to see the match and to cheer for me. Eduard Zelkind was my first coach. I started to work with him when I was six and we worked until I was 11, when he moved to the United States.

So he was the one who taught you that rook ending?

Yeah, exactly! He taught me the rook endings. I still have notes with the rook endings. So it's kind of a disappointment for me that I didn't win this totally winning rook ending in game 3 but it has nothing to do with chess knowledge.

Tamara took over when he moved to the States, and she accompanied me to many events, in Soviet Union Championships, and she gave me some valuable lessons, like before each game you should not only try to remember what you'll play, but you should also move the moves at a chess board because then you'll remember them well. I still do this.

Leonid Bondar is her husband and he was my teacher at the Chess University, the same as where Andrei Filatov was studying, and Ilya Smirin, and Zsuzsa Polgar... He had a lot of prominent students. His passion for chess is incomparable. There we talked about cities, and he told me that Geneva is the best city in the world because in the city parks they have big chess sets! I learnt a lot from his passion and his love for chess.

And of course Albert Kapengut was my trainer for many, many years, till 1993. With his help I won the first Interzonal; I worked the whole first Candidates cycle with him. He taught me a lot of things. Most importantly, he taught me how to deal with information and the importance of information, and how chess players should work on chess. This is the most important thing, I think. You can have the best trainers, the best computers, but if you don't know how to work, if you don't have passion for it, nothing else can help you. These are the most important lessons I got from them. And of course all of them taught me that you should win dignity and lose with dignity.

CICL Banquet

Downers Grove Chess Club
2012 Chicago Industrial Chess League Champions

The Chicago Industrial Chess League held its annual shindig at the Alpine Banquet Hall on Friday, June 1st. The league champions, Downers Grove Chess Club, accepted the traveling trophy.

Rob Eaman of Rogue Squadron and other generous CICL members bought a chess table that will be donated to Lawson House YMCA in memory of Isaac Braswell later this month. CICL is also buying chess books and equipment to accompany the table: they're not yet ordered, so if you'd like to contribute to Lawson House in Isaac's memory, please drop Rob a line!

Some assembly required

Final reminder: Braswell Memorial Fundraiser

It's tomorrow! From the Evanston Chess website:

Blitz tournament will fund Braswell Memorial High School chess prize

The Evanston Chess Club and the Illinois Chess Coaches Association (ICCA) are very pleased to announce the Isaac Braswell Memorial Prize. This new prize will recognize achievement in IHSA (Illinois) high school chess competition by an African American high school senior, and will be awarded in 2013.

Evanston Chess Club will hold a USCF-rated blitz tournament on Saturday, June 9, 2012, to raise funds for the Braswell Memorial Prize. All entry fees ($5 at the door) and free-will donations beyond the entry fee will go to the prize fund.  Registration for the tournament is from 9:00-9:30 a.m. and it will be held at the Levy Activity Center, 300 Dodge Ave., Evanston. For more information, click here. Those who cannot attend the tournament but would like to make a donation should contact Maret Thorpe.

The Braswell prize will be awarded to the African American high school senior with the highest IHSA chess rating following the IHSA State Chess Team Championship in February 2013. The winner will receive a cash prize, a plaque and recognition on the ICCA and Evanston Chess Club web sites.

Evanston Chess hopes to hold the tournament annually and continue funding the prize.

Isaac M. Braswell (1979-2012) was one of the strongest active African American chess players in the Chicago area. He reached a peak USCF rating of 2104 (expert level), in spite of poverty, disability and health challenges. Everyone who knew Isaac remembers what a friendly, funny, enthusiastic and kind person he was, even as he was a fierce competitor over-the-board. Isaac’s friendships crossed all lines of race, age, class and profession, and chess was one of many ways he connected with others. Isaac probably played chess everywhere in Chicago; he was a regular at Evanston Chess Club, and in February 2012 played for an Evanston Chess Team at the US Amateur Team-North championships. He also played in the Chicago Industrial Chess League.

Standard rook-for-four-pawns middlegame

Mesgen Amanov punishes a hungry queen. (And what's the name of this opening?)

One mysterious move deserves another

GM Nikola Mitkov gets mysterious with a colleague in the last round of the Chicago Open, and it works:

Anand post-match trash talking

Vishy has the utmost respect for Boris Gelfand, but (politely) gets a few things off his chest.

I love the "family interview" format: we also hear from Aruna and two proud parents.



And I couldn't help being amused by the omissions on this list:


Chess players [Anand] likes
1. Bobby Fischer
2. Mikhail Tal
3. Boris Gelfand
4. Ljubomir Ljubojevic
5. Vladimir Kramnik

"Lady Gaga would never be invited to play in the Tretyakov Gallery"

 Peter Doggers interviews Boris Gelfand on ChessVibes.

 ***

 Tamara Golovey and Leonid Bondar (who taught young Gelfand in Belarus) went to Moscow to watch the match, as did Eduard Zelkind of Minnesota. Other former students of Tamara came from New York, Austria, and Belarus to lend support to Boris. Even the sponsor of the match, Andrey Filatov, was a former student of Leonid: he, Gelfand, Susan Polgar, and Ilya Smirin had all studied at the Academy of Sport in Minsk, where Leonid once worked. We're very fortunate to have Tamara and Leonid here in Chicagoland!

Some things are worth repeating

From the Evanston Chess website:

Blitz tournament will fund Braswell Memorial High School chess prize

The Evanston Chess Club and the Illinois Chess Coaches Association (ICCA) are very pleased to announce the Isaac Braswell Memorial Prize. This new prize will recognize achievement in IHSA (Illinois) high school chess competition by an African American high school senior, and will be awarded in 2013.

Evanston Chess Club will hold a USCF-rated blitz tournament on Saturday, June 9, 2012, to raise funds for the Braswell Memorial Prize. All entry fees ($5 at the door) and free-will donations beyond the entry fee will go to the prize fund.  Registration for the tournament is from 9:00-9:30 a.m. and it will be held at the Levy Activity Center, 300 Dodge Ave., Evanston. For more information, click here. Those who cannot attend the tournament but would like to make a donation should contact Maret Thorpe.

The Braswell prize will be awarded to the African American high school senior with the highest IHSA chess rating following the IHSA State Chess Team Championship in February 2013. The winner will receive a cash prize, a plaque and recognition on the ICCA and Evanston Chess Club web sites.

Evanston Chess hopes to hold the tournament annually and continue funding the prize.

Isaac M. Braswell (1979-2012) was one of the strongest active African American chess players in the Chicago area. He reached a peak USCF rating of 2104 (expert level), in spite of poverty, disability and health challenges. Everyone who knew Isaac remembers what a friendly, funny, enthusiastic and kind person he was, even as he was a fierce competitor over-the-board. Isaac’s friendships crossed all lines of race, age, class and profession, and chess was one of many ways he connected with others. Isaac probably played chess everywhere in Chicago; he was a regular at Evanston Chess Club, and in February 2012 played for an Evanston Chess Team at the US Amateur Team-North championships. He also played in the Chicago Industrial Chess League.

Endgames from the U.S. Championship and Women's Championship

Karsten Müller annotates two of Viktorija Ni's endgames (and two of Nakamura's) for ChessBase.