YouTube Video on Modern/Robatsch Defense trap

I uploaded a second video to YouTube, this one about a trap in the Modern/Robatsch Defense. Check it out!

Caro-Kann YouTube video

I produced, and just uploaded to YouTube, a video on an opening trap in the Caro-Kann. Please let me know what you think of it.

Shipov on Game 6

Good stuff.

It's not too late to enter the Chicago Open, this weekend in Wheeling

The tournament site is the Westin Chicago North Shore Hotel in Wheeling.

For the top players (and patzers like me who wish to try their luck against them), play begins tomorrow night at 7 p.m.  But if one doesn't wish to devote 4½ days to chess, there are also 3½-day (1st round Friiday night), 3-day (Saturday a.m.), and 2-day (Sunday a.m.) schedules.

Details here!  Note the garish colors and vintage-1995 HTML layout.

Enter here!  The instructions say that you can enter online up to two hours before the first game, but I wouldn't cut it that close.

"Gelfand to Challenge Anand for World Championship!"

 Story at Chess Life Online.  A wonderful game for us spectators!

A bang or a whimper?

Boris Gelfand and Alexander Grischuk have been battling like sumo wrestlers or sprint cyclists.  The match looks maddeningly peaceful to the spectators, but the experts assure us that they're both playing to win.

If you're reading this post Wednesday morning, check out Game 6, the final game of regulation.  Chess in Translation has been live-blogging a translation of Shipov's commentary.

Hello, East Orange

For the next few minutes, today is still Bob Dylan's 70th birthday.  Dylan is best known for having reportedly had a conversation with Bobby Fischer circa 1980.  He also wrote a few songs.

Who Was That Masked Man?

I beg you, please check out this video from ChessNetwork about an utterly astounding combination played by some unknown player (Black) in an online game against a FIDE Master (White). One of the most amazing combinations I have ever seen. Frankly I can't recall ever seeing a finer combination by anyone, ever. Anyone who can find such a combination over the board is either extremely strong player or using an engine. I hope it was the former.

Queen to Play - last night!

It looks like tonight is the last night to see the chess-themed movie Queen to Play at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave in Chicago. Tonight's showtimes are at 5:15, 7:30, and 9:45 p.m. Be there or be an equilateral rectangle (or 64 of them).

Roger Ebert's review of the film is here. The trailer for the film is here.

Bad news, good news

Bad news for the U.S.: Gata Kamsky lost a thriller in the Candidates Semi-Final to Boris Gelfand of Israel.  Congratulations to Gata on a marvelous performance in the Candidates!  It's heartbreaking to be one move away from moving on....

Good news for Chicagoans: Boris has plenty of local connections.  Andi Rosen explained in this 2009 article for Chess Life Online.

I called Tamara Golovey immediately after the Gelfand-Kamsky playoff ended: she was positively giddy!

More at The Week in Chess and ChessVibes; trash talking (sometimes informed) at Chess Ninja.

Silly Internet game #964

CICL Playoffs Saturday!

Round 1 has already been played (results here).  Downers Grove Chess Club, Hedgehogs, Motorola Knights, and St. Charles Chess Club won their opening matches.

Rounds 2 & 3 will determine the 2011 Chicago Industrial Chess League Champion: if you're playing in Evanston, stop by the North Shore Chess Center afterwards to find out who wins!

Gelfand-Kamsky game 2 drawn

A very close call for Kamsky, and a very interesting fight!

Shipov annotates.  (Not a permalink.)

Kamsky-Gelfand game 1 drawn

I'm glad to see that Kamsky has decided to do battle in current theoretical positions: the line after 20.Qa5 has been played several times before at the GM level. Didn't work today; might work on Saturday!

In the other Candidates Grischuk was surprised by a Kramnik novelty

TWIC is back up

Grave of the greatest attacking genius (no, not Tal) ever?

Photo © Alex McFarlane.

More Candidates quarterfinals coverage at The Week in Chess.

Evanston CC Tri-Level this Saturday - only $5

Levy Senior Center
300 Dodge Ave
Evanston, IL 60202

Evanston Chess Presents:

Tri-Level

4SS G/45
Three Sections
USCF Dual Rated

May 14, 2011
9:00am-5:00pm

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 determins 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.

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. 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.  Send name, USCF number, and telephone number to enter@evanstonchess.org.
 
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.

"Queen to Play"

I had a blog entry sixteen months or so ago about the French film Joueuse.  It's being released here as Queen to Play.  Roger Ebert reviews.

Kramnik-Radjabov press conference

As you may have read on ChessBase, at one point in the Kramnik-Radjabov tiebreaks, there was a moment when Radjabov was literally seconds away from winning the Candidates quarterfinal match: all he had to do was draw a tricky (but objectively drawn) rook plus opposite-color bishop ending.  After move sixty, there was a clock malfunction, and the arbiters took thirteen minutes (!!) to restart the blitz game.  Kramnik managed to win and force yet another two-game blitz tiebreaker, which he also won, and with it, the match.

Interview here: congratulations to Teimour Radjabov for acting in such a sporting fashion after such a heartbreaking turn of events.

Incidentally, interest in the match was so high (and English-language real-time coverage so wanting) that The Week in Chess crashed: the TWIC live site is still offline.

Candidates quarterfinals complete

Grischuk upsets top seed Aronian, and Kramnik somehow survives against Radjabov.  English-language coverage is spotty at best: I'll add links later today.  In the meantime, here's an English translation of Shipov's commentary on yesterday's Topalov-Kamsky game.

Semifinals pairings: Kamsky (USA) vs. Gelfand (Israel), and Kramnik (Russia) vs. Grischuk (Russia).  Play begins this Thursday.  The survivor will challenge Vishy Anand for the world title next year.

"Niles North teen is U.S. chess king"

From this morning's Sun-Times.  Don't take the headline too literally, as Kamsky and Nakamura might object.