Adarsh Jayakumar wins Cleveland Open, Life Master title

Adarsh tied for first last weekend with WIM Irnya Zenyuk and NM Atulya Shetty, and had the better tiebreaks.  Story in Chess Life Online!

Crosstable here!  This was Adarsh's fifth and final norm for the Life Master title--congratulations!

Anand-Gelfand match awarded to Moscow

Story in WhyChess.

Chicago Southside Classic (gotta love the logo)

Check out Daaim Shabazz's website The Chess Drum for details on the Chicago Southside Classic, to be held at the world-famous Mosque Maryam (7351 S. Stony Island) on Saturday, August 27th!

Brilliant win by Dmitry Gurevich

If you play either side of the Catalan, you should pay attention to this game!  The main line of the Open Catalan begins with 7.Qc2.  Black's reply 7...b5!? has been played before, but it's been considered an unimportant sideline.  In almost every previous game, Black met 8.a4 with 8...c6, with less-than-satisfactory results.

As Eric Rosen explained to me a couple weeks ago, Alexander Shabalov revived 7...b5!? against Sam Shankland in this year's U.S. Championship.  Shabalov's primary contribution seems to be the realization that after 8.a4, the critical move is 8...b4!

Dmitry is Eric's teacher, so I suspect the two of them have been working on this line together.  The engines tell me that in yesterday's game against six-time Dutch champion Loek Van Wely, Gurevich was better after 14 moves and simply winning after 16...Bf6!  Dmitry finished the game in style with a bishop sac and a rook sac. Impressive preparation and play against a super GM!

Louis Paulsen's blindfold exhibitions in Illinois

After Paul Morphy's retirement from active play in the early 1860s, Louis Paulsen may have been the strongest chess player in the world.  He emigrated from Germany in 1854 and lived in Dubuque, Iowa, until 1860, after which he returned to Europe.  Most chess players remember him for his famous games with Morphy from the First American Chess Congress, his contributions to the Sicilian Defense, and his proto-hypermodern playing style.

I never knew how strong a blindfold player he was until reading Olimpiu G. Urcan's Chess Cafe article on Paulsen's blindfold exhibitions.  In May 1858, Paulsen scored 9 wins, 0 losses, and 1 draw in a ten-game Chicago exhibition; later than month in Rock Island, Paulsen scored a perfect 10-0-0.  You'll find several of those games in Urcan's article.

Amateur historians may wish to help Urcan in filling the gaps of Paulsen's exhibition record.  And while you're at it (plants tongue in cheek), can you find any evidence that a certain avid amateur chess player from Galena (only a few miles from Dubuque) ever played Paulsen, and thus gained strategic insights put to use in winning the Civil War?  (One might argue that Gen. Grant's style was closer to Morphy's.)

Letter from Mike Zacate

Mike will receive a lifetime achievement award from the U.S. Chess Federation in Orlando this weekend.  Unfortunately, he won't be there, as his wife Betty is recovering from a broken leg.  As is typical for Mike, he's more interested in the future than in personal honors.  Here's a letter he wrote this week.

USCF Scholastic Chess Committee and interested scholastic chess individuals:

There is a plan under discussion between the Illinois Chess Association (ICA) and the Chicago Public Schools. This plan has been in development for several years and progress followed by, and contributed to, by officers of the ICA and members of the Illinois scholastic chess community. Scholastic chess in Illinois has been on a rise in Illinois for a number of years thanks to individuals whose volunteer efforts do not end as their children age, high school programs, and several companies providing chess instruction for pay. As a result, scholastic chess in Illinois has developed on a sustained basis in areas such as Rockford, Bloomington-Peoria area, northern Chicago suburbs, western Chicago suburbs, and, to a lesser extent, the southern Chicago suburbs (eastern Chicago is Lake Michigan). Thanks to some companies and the efforts of a few individuals in Chicago elementary and high schools there is some scholastic chess active in Chicago. Thanks to the companies (I know of three) chess at the elementary level has been on the rise even while chess at the secondary level has been waning. The recent growth of elementary chess in Chicago shows the potential for exponential growth if only a structure capable of managing it and (most important) providing a sufficient number of individuals to instruct and sponsor the students existed. The Chicago Public School system has such resources to enable the scale of growth other parts of the state have had.  

The proposal being shown to the USCF that the ICA is developing with Chicago officials will provide the chess expertise to an interested bureaucracy to develop scholastic chess in Chicago to an unprecedented level. The ICA has offered to provide an instructional foundation that can sustain itself. As part of the plan, the ICA will help raise the funds needed for the initial training that will jump start the program. Once operational the program can become self sustaining within the Chicago system. Part of the beauty of the program is that it does not replace existing individual or company endeavors. Rather the ICA/Chicago plan will not only supplement and complement it, but will make much more in demand for the services of existing companies.

Developed through the input of numerous, highly experienced scholastic organizers, the plan has been endorsed (and/or sponsored) by Illinois’ top rated players, many of the private [z]one chess providers operating in Chicago, the Illinois Elementary School Association, the Illinois Chess Coaches Association, the Chicago Public Schools’ Chess Association, the U.S. Chess Trust, and the Youth Chess Foundation of Chess. Not developed in a vacuum, the plan is based on the successful programs in Philadelphia, New York, and other cities tailored to fit Chicago. The potential for gain to chess and to the USCF commands that the USCF support the plan with input and endorsement.

Yours in chess,

Michael E. Zacate

Know your rook endings

There are two rook plus pawn vs. rook positions that every player should understand: the Philidor position and the Lucena position.

You will sometimes get positions very close to either the Philidor or the Lucena: in many (most?) cases, your job is to try to convert to the Philidor (as defender) or Lucena (as attacker).

In round one of the U.S. Open, Sevan Muradian handled the ending much better than his young opponent, but made one slip that could have thrown away the upset win. Very nice game!

time flies

It's August 2nd, and I haven't been to the Chess Pavilion yet this summer.

Dumas Technology Academy tournament

Barbara Radner, the director of the Center for Urban Education at DePaul's School for New Learning, runs a summer enrichment program at Dumas Technology Academy, 6650 S. Ellis.  This past Friday, Barbara, Gary Childers, and the other wonderful teachers in this program (my apologies for not having all your names!), invited Jerry Neugarten and me (on behalf of the Illinois Chess Association) to help run the program's chess championship.  It was a wonderful day: Jerry and I had a lot of fun, and the love these young players have for the game is palpable.

These pictures were taken at the end of a round: the crowd was much larger!

 

Shomari Tillett took first place.  Second was shared by Coriyana Richardson and Robert Redmond.  Other plus score awards were given to Royon McCoy, Michael Harper, Eddie Jackson, Demeatreas Whately,  Tevin White, Martinez Butler, Eaon Pier, Gregory Bennett, Zachary King, and Jamariah Crider.

Congratulations to all who played!

 Jerry Neugarten gets the tournament underway (courtesy Barbara Radner)

The end is near.... (courtesy Barbara Radner)

Trevor Magness at the Denker

The Illinois representative is one of the early leaders at the Denker Tournament of High School Champions in Orlando.

In today's game, Trevor finds a nice shot in the hyper-theoretical Romanishin Variation of the Nimzoindian.

Noodling around with the laptop

I was reading Kasparov's classic My Great Predecessors, Part 2 this afternoon (with Houdini running in the background). Houdini discovered a very cool variation that Kasparov doesn't mention, which suggests that White may have had more than one way to draw.

What's White's best move: 24.axb4, 24.Kb3, or 24.Qxb4?

Please check this!

Amazingly, the position after White's 19th move was home preparation by Botvinnik! This would be impressive in the computer age, let alone 1930.

P.S.  Fritz 6 also finds this same line easily, which makes me think that this is an editorial snafu.

Moving chess set from Chicago Robotics

Enjoyable video.

1st World Chess Games for Disabled in Dresden, Germany, October 24-30

I hadn't heard of this event before.  Link to details at Chess Life Online.  Please note that entrants must be sponsored by their national federation, which means that if you'd like to play, you need to get in touch with USCF as soon as possible.

There are separate titles for the blind, the deaf, and the physically disabled.  Unfortunately for me, "patzer" is not one of the disability categories.

Cool ratings site

Mesgen Amanov annotates

Mesgen steamrolled one of America's top juniors in the first round of this month's World Open in Philadelphia.  The game ends with a cute sacrificial flourish.

He discussed the game in a lecture at the North Shore Chess Center, and was gracious enough to share the game with those of us who weren't there.  Here's the link!

No-draw puzzles

Bill Smythe of Rogers Park posted some ingenious and amusing puzzles on the U.S. Chess Federation's "All Things Chess" forum.  Imagine some minor modifications to the rules of chess: repetitions of position are now prohibited, and the definitions of checkmate and stalemate are altered.

Can you figure out the theoretical result of king vs. king without resulting to brute force?  I can't!

Rachel Ulrich's first master scalp

I asked 11-year-old Rachel Ulrich if she could send the PGN of yesterday's win against NM Steve Tennant at the Downers Grove event. She modestly replied, "Yes, this is my first win against a master. Thanks to Mr. Tennant for playing in this event. I appreciate his time spent playing me."

And now we adults must be wary of another precocious young player.  White's play in this game is very smooth and very impressive! 

Young, Magness win Downers Grove #8

IM Angelo Young and NM Trevor Magness tied for first in yesterday's Downers Grove Chess Club #8 with 3½-½ scores.  In the final round, Young downed tournament leader NM Pete Karagianis, while Magness beat Mikhail Korenman. 

One-day, four-round Swiss System events are called "tornadoes."  This was certainly the strongest tornado in the Midwest this summer: two International Masters, three FIDE Masters, five National Masters, and several experts played.

11-year-old Rachel Ulrich (post-event rating 1714) beat NM Steve Tennant.  Tennant crushed me in the CICL playoffs a couple months ago.  Hmm.

Daniel Parmet organized for the Downers Grove Chess Club, assisted by Brian Smith.

Crosstable here!

Free tournament at Oak Park library tomorrow!

The event is unrated; it's also free!  Details here.

Downers Grove tomorrow!

Another email cut-and-paste:

Hello chess friends!

I am running the 8th Downers Grove swiss tournament tomorrow! It is already a very strong event with 10 masters and 8 experts signed up! We already have 40 players including IM Angelo Young, IM Mateusz Bobula, FM Albert Chow, FM Aleksanda Stamnov, FM Zin, Aung Thant, NM Trevor Magness, NM Petros Karagianis, NM Alex Ding, NM Sam Schmakel, NM Steven Tennant! 4 rounds of Game 60 EF $25

Announcement of DGCC's July 23, 2011 USCF tournament:

July 23, 2011 Downers Grove Swiss #8

4-SS G/60 plus 5 sec delay. Fairview Village, 200 Village Drive, Downers Grove, IL

IM Angelo Young 7 time IL State Champion and Chicago Blaze player is playing in this event. FM Albert Chow, FM Aung Thant Zin, NM Steven Tennant, NM Trevor Magness are playing in this event. More masters are expected to play, see here for a current list of pre-registered players.

Early Entry fee is $20, if you preregister and payment is received by July 18th. After that EF is $25.

This is a CICL-friendly event. For current Chicago Industrial Chess League members (those who played in the 2010-2011 season), the EF is $20 (including at the door), and you are eligible for the best CICL-player non-cash prize.

Prizes: Based on 40 entries: 1st $325, 2nd $150, 3rd $75. (At least 70% of EFs will be returned as cash prizes.) Book prizes, DVDs, or McDonald's gift certificates for best u2000, u1800, u1600, CICL-player, and upset. Unrated players can only win cash prizes.

Pre-registration: maximum number of players is 52, advanced registration is advised. Send mail with your name, phone number, USCF id number and a check payable to "Brian Smith" to

    Brian Smith

   483 Nantucket Road

   Naperville, IL 60565

Onsite registration: 8:45 to 9:15 a.m. If paying at the door, pay cash only (no checks).

Rounds: rd1 9:30am, rd2 12:30pm, rd3 2:45pm, rd4 5pm

Clocks and sets provided. Daniel Parmet is the TD.

Email questions to brs483@att.net More info at http://sites.google.com/site/downersgrovechess

USCF rated, USCF membership required. Players may take a half point bye in any round except the last round. A half point bye must be requested before the round starts. Zero point bye only in final round. Free parking, but park only in  a space marked for visitors. "200 Village Drive" is the "Village Apartments" building. Enter its main entrance, and tell receptionist you are there for the chess tournament. Multiple sections possible. Junior players (under sixteen years) rated 900+ are welcome, and must be accompanied by a parent throughout the day. Sorry, but we do not accept junior players rated under 900.


Regards,
Daniel Parmet
TD