Hinsdale Central, Whitney Young, Niles North lead IHSA Championships

The Illinois High School Association team championships are going on right now in Peoria!

Standings are here: two more rounds to go today!  We should have final results by 6 p.m. or so.

Durn whippersnappers

IM Florin Felecan, the overwhelming favorite in last weekend's 1st North American Amateur Open at Skokie's North Shore Chess Center, tied with teenagers Sam Schmakel (9th grade) and Gavin McClanahan (8th grade) for first: each scored 4-1. 

What goes around comes around: not that many years ago, 2009 State Co-Champion Felecan (a veteran of the 1999 Kasparov vs. the World match) was once a young teenager destroying adults....

Schmakel (who almost beat me in the Illinois Open when he was eight years old!) upset IM Felecan and NM Jon Burgess in the final two rounds and is now on the cusp of 2100. 

Considering the blizzard and the minimum USCF rating requirement of 1600, a field of 23 was an excellent turnout!

USCF crosstable here.

The event has already been rated by FIDE: results are here.  (Note that games involving non-FIDE rated players may not always be rated.)

Living legend NM Bernard Parham, Sr.travelled to Skokie: that's an honor!

Sevan Muradian directed for the North American Chess Association.

List of top players by affiliate (do-it-yourself club ladder!)

Mike Nolan just added a cool feature to the USCF affiliates search in MSA (for the uninitiated, that's the "Member Services Area" of the United States Chess Federation).  If you go to the MSA homepage, then click on "Look up a club or affiliate," then type in your local club's name, then choose "Active Player List" from the search, you'll get a list of the top 200 players who have played at least two USCF-rated events at your affiliate in the past two years.

Very cool: please thank Mike Nolan!

Here are a few links to Chicagoland organizations and friendly carpetbaggers.  Some of the lists look a little strange because of the requirement that one must have played in TWO events before appearing on the list.  The ICA doesn't even have a listing because it bids virtually all of its events out, and the winning bidders submit under their affiliate listing:  So if you see an affiliate with only one member on the list, don't be put out: it may just be an artifact of the tight search requirements.

St. Charles Chess Club

North American Chess Association

Chess for Life 

Chess-Ed CC

Renaissance Knights Chess Foundation

Evanston Chess

Highland Park CC

Continental Chess Association (the largest US organizer; Illinois juniors Rosen and Jayakumar make the top 200!)


Midwestern Chess Adventures

Midway Chess Club

Joliet Junior College CC

Chess Education Partners

Dynamic Chess, Inc.

Touch Move Chess Center

McHenry Area Chess

Knights of the Forest CC

International Educational and Cultural Services

Downers Grove CC

Park Forest CC

South Suburban Chess Club-Oak Lawn

Village of Park Forest

Tri-County Chessmen Club

I'm happy to correct any errors & omissions.  If I left out an affiliate between 600xx through 608xx, please let me know!

180 in Greater Chicago Scholastic Championships!

Not bad for the weekend after a blizzard!

The final standings, day one photos, and day two photos are on the Renaissance Knights website.

The event was presented by the Kasparov Chess Foundation and Renaissance Knights.

IM Florin Felecan simul

Another cut-and-paste from email!

Simul by International Master Florin Felecan!

On Saturday Feb 12 at 4pm, International Master Florin Felecan will perform a simultaneous exhibition at the North Shore Chess Center

The simul is free to all members of the North Shore Chess Center.

Non-members can participate for $10 or can join as a member up to the time of the simul. If you enjoyed the simul, we will credit the non-member participation fee to your full year chess center membership. We do a simul or lecture each month that is free to members!

This is out second free event for members of the chess center. Last month IM Felecan took on over a dozen players over the course of a 4-hour simul!

These events are one of the many benefits you can enjoy by being a member of the North Shore Chess Center.

We will shortly announce our very special guest for the month of March who will provide us with an in-depth lecture on their recent international chess experience that has garnered worldwide attention.

For a list of complete events visit our website at http://www.nachess.org/events

Andi Rosen reports on the Illinois Girls Championship

K-3 winner Caitlin Hong

See the ICA website for the story!  Also check out Eric Rosen's photos of the event.

How to cheat at chess (freeware version)

• Load the open source program Stockfish on your quad core at home; you now have a beast that will beat any human.
• Install GlaurungServer on the same machine.
• Download the Stockfish for iPhone app.
• Configure your app to talk to your home computer with Stockfish's "remote engine" interface.
• At your next tournament, use the toilet strategically.

And even if the connection with your home computer were to go down, there are several native iPhone apps (tChess and Shredder are both excellent alternatives to Stockfish) that offer master-level tactical advice.

Human nature being what it is, I would wager that a handful of unethical players are already doing this.  (Something similar may have been committed by a member of the 2010 French Olympiad team and two accomplices: bravo to the French Chess Federation for commencing a painful investigation.)  This is one reason for FIDE's cell phone ban.  If you know a tournament director who has worked major national events (we are fortunate to have more than our share of these good folk in Illinois), he or she may share some horror stories with you.  And these are the bad guys who were caught, bad guys using yesterday's technology.

So could someone please explain to me the wisdom of continuing to have big entry fee, big money class events for amateur players?  Amateurs include masters, too; most of us with ratings below USCF 2450 or so play for the love of the game.  I don't think this is as big an issue at higher levels, as strong players have an idea of what other strong players are (and aren't) capable of.

I should add that Stockfish is an amazing engine and that GlaurungServer (which I haven't bothered to test-drive) looks like it could be incredibly useful for serious (and ethical!) players (amateur and pro) who want to consult it during kibitzing sessions..

Escape from Snowmaggedon, part 2 - 1st North American Amateur Open

There's a five-round event at the North Shore Chess Center, 5500 W. Touhy, Skokie, this weekend (Friday night, Saturday & Sunday afternoons). 

No prizes to speak of, but this looks like a very cool event--the time control is particularly friendly to serious amateurs.  But note the qualifications before you show up!  You must have either an established FIDE rating (you can check here if you're not sure) or a USCF rating above 1599.

Details on the Illinois Chess Association website!

Escape from Snowmaggedon, part 1 - Greater Chicago Scholastic Championships in Wheeling

Four one-day scholastic events in Wheeling this weekend presented by the Kasparov Chess Foundation and Renaissance Knights. 

Details on the Illinois Chess Association website!

"Frank Brady's masterpiece"

My Facebook friend (and former USCF Executive Director) Al Lawrence reviews Frank Brady's Endgame for Chess Life.  Also, a previously-unpublished Fischer-Euwe draw surfaces.

Order your copy today!

Kavalek on Nakamura's victory

The veteran grandmaster annotates two games in the Caro-Kann Advance Variation from Wijk aan Zee: Nakamura's win with Black against Nepomniachtchi and Carlsen's win with White against Wang Hao.

Column is here!

Shayna Provine wins Illinois Girls' Championship

Shayna Provine & Cheryl Liu each scored an undefeated 3-1 in Saturday's event; held at Niles North High School in Skokie.  I have unofficial word that Shayna won on tiebreaks.  Congratulations!

Annie Xu scored an undefeated 4-0 to take the K-8 section; Maya Malecki and Rithika Kyaw shared second with 3-1 scores.

Caitlin Hong and Samantha Moyer split the K-3 honors with 3½-½.  Nuha Mosunder, Erin Costigan, and Isabella Rhee shared third with 3-1 scores.

Crosstables here;  Betsy Dynako directed for the Illinois Chess Association.   Organizer Andi Rosen is working on a story for ICA.

Nakamura wins! Nakamura wins!

Nakamura and Wang Hao drew in 22 moves this morning in the category 20 Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee. In the final position, Wang Hao could have won an exchange with 23.Bxb4?! cxb4!, but that would have left him in a passive position and given Nakamura a very strong pair of connected passed pawns, supported by the two bishops.

World Champion Vishy Anand, who trailed by half a point going into the round, also drew, against Nepomniachtchi. Nakamura thus won the tournament outright with the impressive score of 9-4 (6 wins, 6 draws, and a loss to Carlsen). Anand was second with 8.5. Aronian can tie with Anand if he succeeds in grinding out an endgame win against Smeets. Carlsen drew against Grischuk, finishing with 8 points.

With this extremely impressive and gutsy performance, Nakamura establishes himself as a member of the world elite. The last time an American won a tournament of this caliber was Gata Kamsky's win at the 2007 World Cup. To find the last time an American other than Kamsky won a remotely comparable tournament, you'd have to go back a very long time, maybe to Yasser Seirawan's victory at Haninge 1990. Congratulations to Hikaru Nakamura on his well-deserved win of one of the strongest tournaments ever!

One round left

In the Tata Steel super-tournament, Nakamura and Kramnik drew a very dull game today. Anand, White against Giri, by his own admission played badly and was lucky to escape with a draw. Going into the final round, Nakamura leads with 8.5 points, followed by Anand (8), Aronian and Carlsen (both 7.5) (standings, cross-table). The leaders' last-round pairings are Wang Hao (5.5)-Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi (5.5)-Anand, Aronian-Smeets (4), and Grischuk (4)-Carlsen. Nakamura's performance rating thus far is about 2900.

You can follow the last-round games live tomorrow morning at the tournament website, as well as (just) Wang Hao-Nakamura live at chessgames.com. Unfortunately for us night owls, the games start at 5 a.m. Central Time. Go Naka!

"Another good day at the office...."

GMHikaru tweets:

Another good day at the office, but there are still two incredibly important rounds left!!

Today Nakamura beat another young star, Jan Nepomniachtchi of Russia.  (Jan's surname only looks unpronounceable: Alex Yermolinsky says it quite naturally on ICC.). Hikaru leads Anand by ½, Aronian (who has two Dutch GMs to play) by 1, and Carlsen and Kramnik by 1½.   This top group is in fine form, with performance ratings from Carlsen's 2795 to Nakamura's 2906.  

Details on Chess Life Online, ChessBase, and ChessVibes, among many fine sites.

Kenny Rogers warned us not to count our ELO when we're sitting at the table, but Nakamura is now #7 in the world on the live ratings list, and within one win of the #5 spot!

Here you go, Sevan

Sevan Muradian is very proud of having ground out a draw against Matt Pullin, GreenCastleBlock of YouTube fame.  Good play, but you might need some caffeine to avoid falling asleep:

"Nakamura close to a career-best triumph in Wijk aan Zee"

Read GM Ian Rogers at Chess Life Online.

And don't count your chickens....!

A trap in the Benko Gambit

A lot of players don't want to face the pressure that Black gets on the a and b files in the main lines of the Benko Gambit (1. d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5!? 4.cxb5 a6), so they decline the gambit with something like 4.Nf3, 4.Qc2, or 4.cxb5 a6 5.b6. The Bosnian-Dutch GM Ivan Sokolov essayed such a line against super-GM Vassily Ivanchuk at the Olympiad last year, but ended up on the wrong end of a miniature. Sokolov tried 4.Qc2 bxc4 5.e4 d6 6.Bxc4 g6 7.b3??, a move that had been played in previous games by several players, including Sokolov himself. Ivanchuk rudely awakened him with 7...Nxe4!, and suddenly Sokolov was the one playing a gambit, since 8.Qxe4? Bg7 would spear White's rook. After 12.Qe2, White seemed to have some compensation, since his pin on the e-file made it hard for Black to castle. However, Sokolov didn't help his cause with the caveman-like 13.h4?, allowing Black to plant his knight powerfully on e5. Ivanchuk then wrapped up the game in just 12 more moves.

"Carlsen shows his win against Nakamura"

Video at ChessVibes.

Nakamura is still co-leader: play resumes tomorrow!

Blogger in action

January 2011 Rapid
Clockwise from top left: NM Frederick Rhine,
Jiri Kabelac, Dmitri Sergatskov and Paul Gafni. 

NM Frederick Rhine emerged from retirement to win the January 2011 Evanston Chess Club Rapid this Saturday.  See his first-person report below.

OK, that's one master back in action: we look forward to seeing  NMs David Rubin and Marvin Dandridge in future Evanston events! ;-)