$10,000 in prizes at Greater Midwest Class Championships in Rosemont 11/29 to 12/1!

Yes, folks, that's $10,000!

You can choose between three-day and two-day schedules, too.

Details here.

Enter here!

XX1 Chicago Latino Championships in Pilsen on November 30th

Thanks to Hector Hernandez for running the 21st edition of this labor of love!

5SS G/30. Non-rated. Chicago Public Library Lozano Branch, 1805 S. Loomis Street, Chicago, IL 60608. Schedule: Registration is from 9-9:30 am on the day of the event only. Time: 9:00 am - 4:30 pm 5. Rounds: 10:00 am, 11:15 am, 1:00 pm, 2:15 pm, 3:30 pm. Sections: Section I: Open to players 15 years of age and older. Section II: Open to players 14 years of age and younger. Prizes: 10 trophies awarded in each section. Entry fee: Free. For more information: hernande@chipublib.org or (312) 746-4329

Hmm, November 16th is a busy day....

Two nice events at Whitney Young (but a bit of a scheduling snafu), as there's a great unrated scholastic event in the city and a great USCF-rated state championship event in the Twin Cities.  Oh well: there are only so many weekends in the year, and stuff like this happens.  The trick is to minimize the calendar conflicts....

But note the Winter Camp on January 2-3, 2014.  Michael Auger is simply wonderful with children!  (He's not bad with AARP members like me, either.)

K-8 Chess Tournament:
Date:  November 16th, 2013

Place:  Whitney Young High School (2nd Floor Library)  211 S Laflin, Chicago
Schedule:  4 rounds, Game 30, Check in 9:00-9:45am, 1st round begins at 10am, last round ends around 2pm
Sections: All USCF Rated: K-2, K-8 Open, and K-8 U1000; USCF membership is required and can be purchased at the event.

Entry Fee:  $20 online registration by 11/15, $25 on site.
Awards are given to the top 5 individuals and top team (3 players) in each section.

Register at www.chesskash.com



Winter Camp Details:

All Camps run from 9am - 2pm, feature master level instruction, include lunch, both casual and tournament play, including blitz and bughouse, and recess usually in a gym or outside.

January 2-3 @ Whitney Young High School

211 S Laflin, Chicago, IL 60607

Featured instructors:  National Master Michael Auger and State Champion Chess Coach Paul Kash
Entry Fee $50 per day

All-Grade Championship this November 16th in Bloomington!

Mark Nibellin and the Bloomington-Normal crew always run a great event.  My personal opinion: if your child has USCF tournament experience at any level and is grades K-8, a road trip to the All-Grade is not to be missed!

(For high school students, it's skippable. Again IMO.)

ICA announcement here.

The  Illinois All Grade state championship is coming up on November 16th.  This is one of the two most important events for Illinois’ scholastic players in grades K-12.  

Event Details: Bone Student Center, Illinois State University, 100 N. University St., Normal, IL 61761

Schedule: Arrive by 8:30 Rd 1 begins at 9:00 am.  Subsequent rounds begin a minimum of 15 minutes from the last game completed in each section’s previous round.

Sections: 10 sections by grade, K-8, and 1 combined high school section, 2 if numbers warrant:

K-3: 5 rounds, Swiss system, G/30 

4-5: 5 rounds, Swiss system, G/45

6-12: 4 rounds, Swiss system, G/60

Players must come from the state of Illinois. Top three players count toward team score. No Club Teams. No byes last round. Byes for any single round must be requested before the end of the first round. Only one bye allowed for tournament. All other rules/regulations shall be in accordance to ICA By-laws and the USCF Rulebook.

Awards:

Each grade K-1 and 6-8 10 individual trophies and 3 team trophies.

Each grade 2-5 15 individual trophies and 5 team trophies.

Each grade 9-12 3 individual trophies and 3 team trophies.

Entry Fee and Registration: Online registration at www.bnasc.org or directly at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/8746313459/es2/?rank=1&sid=4a7b7551346311e39e5e123139057c14.  Entry fee $25 if received by Nov. 9, $40 if received after Nov. 9. No registration on site.

Contact info: marknibb@comcast.net cell: 309-532-7815

• Welcome and Overview
• ICA Youth Committee
• Youth News

Learning Chess

• Getting Kids Started
• The Value of Chess
• Progressing in Chess: 

"Anand-Carlsen duel fires up chess fervor in India"

Story in the Tribune.

I'm glad that parents support their chess-playing children, but stuff like this makes me slightly suspicious:

Tamilarasi and her husband, a government official, gave it a shot, even letting their children take time off school to concentrate on chess.

Although chess sets are cheap, travelling to other states for tournaments can cost anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 rupees ($160 to $800).

"We don't plan leisure trips or buy the latest clothing. Instead we direct our money towards the game," said Tamilarasi. "It is a risk but we are hopeful that our plans for our children to become chess champions will click."

Parents will do anything for their children.  Yes, for a middle-class person in India or the USA, spending $800 on the kids' chess isn't crazy.  But when parents prioritize chess over school (and to be fair, I'm not sure Ms. Tamilarasi is doing that: could be an overemphasis by the reporter), then I get suspicious.

Becoming a chess champion is a longshot. Transferring the skills learned in chess (both soft skills and cerebral firepower) happens all the time.

Oh yes, the world championship: games 1 and 2 have been non-events (I got up at 5 a.m. twice this weekend, and was back in bed by 5:30 both days).  ChessBase is one of many free sites with excellent coverage.

Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago season begins at Lane Tech on Nov. 16!

Fresh from the inbox:

Please join us next Saturday, November 16th, for the first

YCFC tournament of the year, at Lane Tech College Prep.  A

location guide is attached.

All rosters are due Thursday, November 14th.  This is for

everyone - both new and returning players.  Once a player is

submitted on a roster, they are eligible to play in all six YCFC

tournaments this year.

I hope to see you next Saturday!

November 16th Tournament at Lane Tech

Albert G. Lane Technical High School.

2501 W. Addison (3600 North)

Schedule:  Registration   9:00 - 9:30

                  Tournament  10:15 - 3:00

                  Trophy Presentation  3:15 (est.)

   All players must check-in at the tournament site by 9:30!

   Late arrivals will not be paired in the first round

3 Sections:  Novice K-4, Novice 5-8, Advanced

   Unrated, no entry fee 

   Swiss-style, 5 rounds (est.), USCF standard tiebreaks

   G/20 + 3 sec. increment in Advanced section when clocks are available

   Notation required in the Advanced section

Awards:  Individual trophies to the top 10 in both novice

   sections.  Individual trophies to the top 6 in the advanced

   section.  Team trophies to the top three teams in both novice

   sections.  Team trophy to top team in the advanced section.

   Team score calculated by top four scores in novice sections,

   top three scores in advanced.

Entries:  YCFC uses a roster system for tournament entries.

  All players on submitted rosters are eligible to play in any

  YCFC tournament during the scholastic year.  Submit

  rosters, including name, grade, school and section to

  accounting@apartmentpeople.com, or by fax to 773-248-1007,

  attn: Mike Cardinale, no later than Thursday, November 14th.

  All players must check-in on site by 9:30.

Coaches:  Please let me know if you plan on attending with a

  rough estimate of the number of players by Thursday, November 14th.

Many thanks to athletic director Brian Hofman for welcoming us to

the school, and to Cindy Frapolly and to Debi Prince for suggesting

Lane Tech and for doing all of the groundwork.  A great effort!

U of I press release

The Fighting Illini's very successful chess team has more than its share of Chicagoans: story here.

Chess for Kids at Chicago Public Library - West Town

The West Town branch is at 1625 W. Chicago Ave.; the next Chess for Kids event will be November 14th at 6 p.m.

Details here.

Timur Gareev: blindfold exhibition at Cook County Jail

Most strong players can do two or three simultaneous blindfold games, but ten games is always something special.  Nice coverage in the Chicago Tribune. Video after the jump break.

Evanston Chess $5 tournament this Saturday, such a deal

Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave., Evanston, IL 60202

Evanston Chess Presents:

November 2, 2013, 9:00am-5:00pm

Tri-Level, 4SS G/40 delay 5

Three Sections, USCF Dual Rated

Our guest master will be FM Kevin Bachler

Section Gold: 1700 and over

Section Silver: 1200 - 1699

Section Bronze: Under 1200 and Unrated

1600 - 1699 may play up to Gold. 
1100 - 1199 may play up to Silver. 
Published USCF Regular Rating determines eligibility. 
Unrated players may be placed up at TD discretion.

Please pre-register if you plan to attend.

Our space is limited and we will cap attendance at 52 players. Priority will be given to players who pre-register by email to enter@evanstonchess.org before 7 p.m. on November 1 and arrive at the tournament before 9:20 a.m. on November 2. Thanks for your understanding and support.

From time to time Evanston Chess pays one or more titled players to play in our events. We usually do not pair them against each other. Even if they should lose (it does happen) we may pair them with the highest score groups.

Four rounds. Digital clocks are required and will be set to G/40 plus 5 seconds delay. Accelerated or decelerated pairings at TD discretion. Sections may be combined at TD discretion.

Registration from 9:00 to 9:30 am. Players must check in by 9:30 am; players who arrive late will receive a half-point bye for the first round. First Round 9:45 am, last round over roughly 5:00 pm. Lunch Break: We will allow time for a lunch break if the schedule at the center permits. Round times will be posted after round 1 begins. As always, we will order in pizza from Sarpinos for those who would rather not go out for lunch. $5 gets you a minimum of two slices (specify pepperoni or cheese) and one can of pop (Coke, Diet Coke, Orange, Rootbeer, Sprite, Iced Tea).

You may take one half-point bye in any round but the last.

Entry fee is $5, please pay cash (no checks) at the door. Masters and Experts play free.

Junior players (under fourteen years) rated 900+ are welcome. Sorry, but we do not accept junior players rated under 900. Must be accompanied by a parent throughout the event.

Bring clocks. -- Wheelchair accessible. No Smoking.

Reminder: FREE lecture by GM Alex Yermolinsky lecture this Sunday, October 20th!

GM Alex Yermolinsky Lecture

The Chicago Chess Center is sponsoring a free public lecture by GM Alex Yermolinsky at Faraday School, 3250 W. Monroe, this Sunday, October 20th, at 2:00 P.M.

Driving directions (coming in from the west)  

Take Eisenhower inbound to Exit 27A (Sacramento).  Turn right on to Sacramento (3000W), go a couple hundred feet and take the first right onto Harrison (600S), then go 0.3 blocks west to Kedzie (3200W), turn right, and go north on Kedzie a few blocks .  You will soon see John Marshall Metro High School on your left (west) side.  Make a left on Monroe: Faraday Elementary will be on your right side, immediately north of Marshall, 1/2 block west of Kedzie

It is perfectly safe to park on the Faraday / Marshall campus.  (There is overflow parking on the south side of Marshall.)  I do not recommend parking on the street or taking public transportation.

Please feel free to share with friends!

GM Alex Yermolinsky to speak at Faraday The Chicago Chess Center invites you to a free public lecture by Grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky at Faraday School, 3250 W. Monroe St. (at Kedzie Avenue), Chicago, on Sunday, Oct. 20, at 2 PM. Free parking is available on campus. In his 1999 book The Road to Chess Improvement, Alex Yermolinsky at age 41 looked back at a crisis in his career at age 28. Back in 1986, Yermolinsky, who was then still living in the Soviet Union and who had had some success as a player and trainer, found himself unable to move to the next level. In his own words: [In 1986] I was already an established player somewhere between strong [International Master] and weak [Grandmaster] strength, even if I held no international title. I could cite the lack of opportunities afforded to me by the Soviet state, but honestly, I am not sure I deserved many of those. Year after year, I went through the same mesh system of qualification tournaments, only to prove once again that I was good enough to reach the First League of the USSR Championship, but not good enough to get into the Premier League. Seven years, man, it was going on for seven years, and back to Square One every spring! . . . I felt like I was back in my junior years, when in every tournament there would be someone else, not me, taking that next step. I think I could have easily quit chess, but to my surprise, I never did. The problem I had to acknowledge was the stagnation of my development. I was simply going nowhere. It's not that I lacked experience—I was 28 years old then, and I have been playing chess for some 20 years up to that point—it was rather a sad realization that my game was not improving. Alex Yermolinsky turned his career around by beginning to seriously study his own games. This hard work led to significant results. After emigrating to the United States, Yermolinsky earned the Grandmaster title in 1992, won the 1993 U.S. Championship and a second U.S. title in 1996, became one of the top 20 players in the world, and represented the United States twice on first board of the Olympiad team. In the past decade, GM Yermolinsky has focused on teaching and training other players—he is one of the most popular lecturers on the Internet Chess Club. He offers no magic bullets or easy answers to aspiring players: A good teacher should leave students enough room to try different things on their own. One common mistake is to teach based on "one's own experience." It's not objective or even truthful. The wrong turns taken and mistakes made by the teacher tend to be swept under the carpet, and the former player, now teacher, begins to idealize his or her past as a straight path to knowledge and skill that all students must diligently follow. Teachers should remember how they learned skills through their own trial and error, and therefore students are better off choosing their own path. GM Yermolinsky's lecture will be of interest not only to chess players and coaches but also to educators interested in a field report on the acquisition of expertise and in methods of passing hard-won knowledge down to one's students and teaching students to think critically and independently.

Midwest Class results

Yes, I'm still blogging, but I've been doing procrastinators' tax returns for the past couple weeks.  Back in business later this week.

The Midwest Class was rather strong this year!  Check out the results.  Dmitry Gurevich won the top section 4-1, on tiebreaks over his GM colleagues Nikola Mitkov, Yury Shulman, and Swiss Gambiteer Mesgen Amanov.

FREE GM Alex Yermolinsky lecture on Sunday, October 20

The Chicago Chess Center invites you to a free public lecture by Grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky at the Faraday Elementary School, 3250 W. Monroe (Monroe and Kedzie), Chicago, on Sunday, October 20^th, at 2 p.m.  Free parking is available on campus.

In his 1999 book The Road to Chess Improvement, Alex Yermolinsky at age 41 looked back at a crisis in his career at age 28.  Back in 1986, Yermolinsky, who was then still living in the Soviet Union and who had had some success as a player and trainer, found himself unable to move to the next level.  In his own words:

[In 1986] I was already an established player somewhere between strong [international master] and weak [grandmaster] strength, even if I held no international title.  I could cite the lack of opportunities afforded to me by the Soviet State, but honestly, I am not sure I deserved many of those. Year after year, I went through the same mesh system of qualification tournaments, only to prove once again that I was good enough to reach the First League of the USSR Championship, but not good enough to get I to the Premier League. Seven years, man, it was going on for seven years, and back to Square One every spring! [....] I felt like I was back in my junior years, when in every tournament there would be someone else, not me, taking that next step.  I think I could have easily quit chess, but to my surprise, I never did.

The problem I had to acknowledge was the stagnation of my development. I was simply going nowhere. It's not that I lacked experience—I was 28 years old then, and I have been playing chess for some 20 years up to that point—it was rather a sad realization that my game was not improving.

Alex Yermolinsky turned his career around by beginning to seriously study his own games.  This hard work led to significant results.  After emigrating to the USA, Yermolinsky earned the Grandmaster title in 1992, won the 1993 US Championship and a second US title in 1996, became one of the top twenty players in the world, and represented the USA twice on first board of the Olympiad team. 

In the past decade, Grandmaster Yermolinsky has focused on teaching and training other players—he is one of the most popular lecturers on the Internet Chess Club.  He offers no magic bullets or easy answers to aspiring players:

A good teacher should leave students enough room to try different things on their own.  One common mistake is to teach based on "one’s own experience."  It's not objective or even truthful.  The wrong turns taken and mistakes made by the teacher tend to be swept under the carpet and the former player, now teacher, begins to idealize his or her past as a straight path to knowledge and skill that all students must diligently follow.

Teachers should remember how they learned skills through their own trial and error, and therefore students are better off choosing their own path.

Grandmaster Yermolinsky’s lecture will be of interest not only to chess players and coaches, but also to educators interested in a field report on the acquisition of expertise and in methods of passing hard-won knowledge down to one’s students, and methods of teaching students to think critically and independently.

The risky Katalimov Sicilian

Boris Katalimov (or Katalymov) (1932-2012) was a strong Soviet (later Kazakh) master who played against the greats of Soviet chess, often successfully. FIDE finally awarded him the International Master title in 1996, although at his best he surely would have been a grandmaster by today's standards. According to Chessmetrics, at his peak in May 1978 he was the No. 84 player in the world. He was still playing actively and well the year before his death, scoring a respectable 7-4 (no draws!) at the 2011 World Senior Championship.

Katalimov played imaginatively in the openings, often playing the Sokolsky (1.b4) as White. In the Sicilian Defense, the Katalimov Variation of the Sicilian Defense (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 b6) is named for him. It is probably playable if Black knows what he is doing. The French GM Christian Bauer is a devotee, and seems to score very well with it. A few other GMs, such as Humpy Koneru and Stuart Conquest, play it occasionally. However, it is a demanding line for Black, who can easily get blown off the board if he plays carelessly. This is well-illustrated by the following game, where Black greedily grabbed two pawns in the opening and was annihilated by White. The notes to the game illustrate some other crushing wins by White.

Hou Yifan regains Women's World Championship

Congratulations to Hou Yifan, who decisively regained the Women's World Championship, beating Anna Ushenina 5.5-1.5 in the match, scheduled for 10 games. In an unusual reversal of the classic "win as White, draw as Black" formula, Hou won all three of her games as Black, while drawing her first three games as White. As White in the seventh game, she routed Ushenina, giving her the 5 1/2 points necessary to secure the title. All of the games are available on the match website.

Hou Yifan's 78.6% score is the most decisive match result in Women's World Championship history since Gaprindashvili routed Bykova 9-2 (+7 =4, 81.8%) in 1961. Even Vera Menchik's two match wins, against Sonja Graf in 1934 (+3 -1, 75%) and 1937 (+9 =5 -2, 71.9%) were less lopsided. Here is the decisive game:

King's Gambit silliness

I recently got GM John Shaw's amazing new 680-page tome The King's Gambit. It may be the greatest book ever written on a single opening! Well worth getting if you play either side of 1.e4 e5, and maybe even if you don't.

You might even want to give the King's Gambit a try. No doubt you'll lose some games, but on the other hand you'll win others like this. I guarantee that you're not going to win many 13-movers with the Ruy Lopez! A lot of people, even strong players, don't take the King's Gambit seriously, and spend little if any time preparing against it. Just take a look at the games that GM Joe Gallagher (author of an earlier book on the King's Gambit) won in 20 or fewer moves.

'Computer Chess' Coming to Music Box Sept. 27

Computer Chess is coming to Chicago next week! An official selection of the 2013 South by Southwest and Sundance film festivals, Computer Chess is "an artificially intelligent comedy" (not, repeat not, a documentary) about computer chess programmers, set in an Austin, Texas, hotel over one weekend in the 1980s during a tournament for chess software programmers. It's been rated 86 percent fresh by Rotten Tomatoes and received an A− from AV Club (which is notoriously stingy with its grades).

The movie opens at the Music Box Theater, 3733 N. Southport Ave., Chicago, next Friday, Sept. 27. And on Friday and Saturday of opening weekend, writer-director Andrew Bujalski, local stars Gordon Kindlmann and Anne Dodge, Chicago-born producer Alex Lipschultz and special guests will introduce and conduct post-show discussions. Ray Pride, film editor of Newcity, will facilitate the post-screening Q&As. Showtime is 7:15 PM.

Tickets are $9.25 . . . unless you visit the Chicago Chess Center Facebook page tomorrow and win a pair of free passes, good for any showing of Computer Chess, courtesy of the Music Box and the Chicago Chess Center. (The speedy Todd Freitag nabbed today's pair of passes before I even finished writing this post.)

The best chess deal in town....$5 at Evanston Chess this Saturday

OK, slightly outside of town...another email cut-and-paste.  I will only be there in spirit.

Levy Senior Center

300 Dodge Ave. 

Evanston, IL 60202 

Evanston Chess Presents: 

Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, 9:00am-5:00pm 

 Three x Three

3SS G/65 delay 5 

 Three Sections, USCF Regular Rated
 Our guest master will be NM Mariano Acosta Section

Gold: 1700 and over Section
Silver: 1200 - 1699 Section
Bronze: Under 1200 and Unrated

1600 - 1699 may play up to Gold. 1100 - 1199 may play up to Silver.
Published USCF Regular Rating determines eligibility. Unrated players may be placed up at TD discretion. 

From time to time Evanston Chess pays one or more titled players to play in our events. We usually do not pair them against each other. Even if they should lose (it does happen) we may pair them with the highest score groups.

Three rounds. Digital clocks are required and will be set to G/65 plus 5 seconds delay. Accelerated or decelerated pairings at TD discretion. Sections may be combined at TD discretion.

Registration from 9:00 to 9:30 AM. Players must check in by 9:30 am; players who arrive late will receive a half-point bye for the first round. First Round 9:45 am, last round over roughly 5:00 pm.

Lunch Break: We may need to be finished by 5:00 PM, so we cannot count on extra time between rounds for lunch. We will schedule a lunch break if the center will be open late. You may take one half-point bye in any round but the last.

Entry fee is $5, please pay cash (no checks) at the door. Masters and Experts play free. Pre-registration is encouraged: Help us start on time, and save yourself a spot (we're limited to 52 players). Send name, USCF number, and telephone number to enter@evanstonchess.org

Food! As always, we will order in pizza from Sarpinos for those who would rather not go out for lunch. $5 gets you a minimum of two slices (specify pepperoni or cheese) and one can of pop (Coke, Diet Coke, Orange, Rootbeer, Sprite, Iced Tea).

Junior players (under fourteen years) rated 900+ are welcome. Sorry, but we do not accept junior players rated under 900. Must be accompanied by a parent throughout the event. Bring clocks. -- Wheelchair accessible. No Smoking. 

The rarely-sprung trap

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 e6?! 4.c4 Bb4+?? is an ingenious but bad way of playing Alekhine's Defense. It is seen 19 times in Mega Database 2013. Some good players had White, including the Filipino GM and former Candidate Eugenio Torre, and two other players rated over 2300. In 16 of those games, White played 5.Bd2; in the other three, he played 5.Nd2. In none of the games did White play 5.Ke2!, winning a piece, since after either 5...Nb6 6.c5 or 5...Ne7 6.a3, Black's bishop is trapped and will be lost. White, modestly rated 1197, did find the sockdolager (as the old-time writers liked to say) in the below correspondence game, presumably aided by the greater time available for reflection.

This game is from Karsten Müller and Rainer Knaak's book 222 Opening Traps After 1.e4, p. 18. I first learned of this trap in Tim Krabbé's wonderful Open Chess Diary (scroll down to No. 381). As I have previously noted, I have myself won with the mirror image of this trap, 1.d4 Nc6 2.d5 Ne5 3.e4 d6 4.f4 Bg4?? 5.Qd2! and Black loses a piece just as in the original version.

Like déjà vu all over again

Earlier this month, I showed you a trap in the Fort Knox Variation of the French Defense where White traps Black's queen on f6 with 8.Bg5! Bxf3 9.Qd2! and if 9...Qxd4, 10.Bb5+. Here's a variant of the same trap with the players' c-pawns exchanged. This requires a small refinement by White, but Black's queen stays trapped. Note that if only future GM Sherzer had read Chernev's The 1000 Best Short Games of Chess, he wouldn't have fallen into this trap!