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| 2010 UWI Masters (Jamaica) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Grand Master Timur Gareev from the University of Texas at Brownsville and International Masters, Marko Zivanic from the University of Texas and Giorgi Margvelashvili from the University of Maryland will debut at the UWI Chess Open from March 15-21, 2010. Also among the line up are National Masters, Damion Davy and Brandon Wilson from UWI, Mona. The tournament is also expected to attract at least 300 local chess players from high schools and colleges from across Jamaica. The Chess Tournament commences with an Opening Ceremony on Monday, March 15, 2010 at 10 am at the Undercroft, UWI, Mona and will be followed by Round 1 Masters Section matches at the Multifunctional Room, Main Library, UWI, Mona. The Tournament continues on March 16-19 with Masters Rounds and a special collegiate match featuring UWI vs UTech on March 17 at 3 pm. 
University of West Indies The Open section for all levels of chess players takes place on March 20-21 at the Assembly Hall, UWI, Mona. The event culminates with a closing ceremony on Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 8 pm at the Undercroft, UWI, Mona. Players in the Masters section will win over US $2000 in cash awards and players representing their colleges and university will compete for the title, “Caribbean Collegiate Champion” along with other prizes. Other players in the beginners and open section will also win cash prizes and medals. The Tournament is designed to promote Chess as an avenue for mental development among youth and provide opportunities to expand Chess in Jamaica. Registration fee for Men is JA$1550, Women and Juniors is JA$ 1250 and UWI/ UTech students is JA $1000. The event is sponsored by Jamaica National Building Society, National Commercial Bank, Pages Café, Supreme Ventures, The Gleaner Company and American Airlines. For more information visit http://www.jnbsuwiopen.com/
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Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:51:29 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scholastic domination | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 CAPE ELIZABETH THE MIDDLE SCHOOL CHESS team won the Junior High Maine State Scholastic Chess Team Championship with 17 out of 20 possible points. Top scorers included Matthew Reale-Hatem, seventh grade, Matthew Fishbein, sixth grade and Wesley Parker, fifth grade, all with perfect scores, and eighth grade students Danny Brett, Ethan Duperre and Nicholas Shedd. Also contributing were Leo Wing and Arden Wing, both in seventh grade. Source: http://www.pressherald.com  Chess daily news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-03-19T06:29:00.000-05:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Clark Chronicle: Players show talents in chess - my.hsj.org | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:57:54 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sharyland ISD chess teams going to national competitions - Monitor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:49:37 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess Movie - The Story of I.S. 318 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CHESS MOVIE (working title) from Rescued Media on Vimeo. Hi dear chess lovers! Today I got an email from Katie Dellamaggiore, that I'd like to share with you. She's working on a chess movie, with an inspiring story about scholastic chess, which I liked very much. It stars the I.S. 318 chess team of Elizabeth Vicary in Brooklyn, New York. A true marvelous chess story that definitely deserves to be shared with the world!
Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:58:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess Movie - The Story of IS 318 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 A Trailer of "Chess Movie" The Story of the best Jr. High School Chess Team in the USA. From Brooklyn, New York. Features Elizabeth Vicary's class. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Karjakin Alert | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Family update; Brooklyn school chess club. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-03-17T03:59:30Z | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lone Pine 1975: Kushnir, Tarjan and Denker, Noteworthy IM’s on the second shelf | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As I dig deeper into this tournament, more interesting nuggets turn up. This post will focus on a few IM’s who had a strong finish in this event. Alla Kushnir  Alla was the only woman IM at Lone Pines. She came over from Israel with her other Ex-Russian compatriots, Vladimir Liberzon and Leonid Shamkovich. She was the second ranking woman chess player in the world but in order to expedite her move to Israel in 1974 from the Soviet Union, she had to agree not to enter the current cycle for Woman’s World Championship. She had been the previous challenger three times against Nona Gaprindashvili. She was awarded the WIM title in 1962 and a year after Lone Pines, she earned her WGM title.Born August 11,1941 in Moscow, this 33 year old held her ground against GM’s at Lone Pine. She Drew against GM’s Reshevsky, Csom and Robatsch and beat GM Bilek of Hungary and most notably, the upset in round one against Larry Evans. This must have been the fire lit to drive him to place second in this event. In the game that was highlighted in the July 1975 issue of Chess Life and Review ( her photo is courtesy of that periodical), She is shown playing a very aggressive game against a Benoni. She is able to get a mobile pawn march on the e- and f- files. Larry tries to liquidate the center with a rook for a Bishop but it’s too late. She finished Lone Pine 1975 with 5 points following 3 wins ( Silman was her third), 4 draws and only 3 loses. I could not find much else on Alla following the 70’s. She is still listed on the FIDE website with a rating of 2430 but has been inactive since as indicated by the sparce records. If anybody knows a brief epilog of where she is now, feel free to leave me a message. James Tarjan:  James Tarjan was 23 at the time of Lon Pines and a native Californian. Five years before this event, he was selected to American Team for the World Student Olympiad. In 1974 he earned the IM title because of his strong performance in these international junior events. At Lone Pines, he also had a strong performance. His only loss came at the mercy of Walter Browne. He beat Rhodes and Ervin, two of the USA masters. He drew the rest of his games with 5 GMs and 2 IM’s . One of those GM’s was Gligoric and I want to highlight this game. IN round two, Tarjan played the Grunfeld as Black against Gligoric’s 1.d4. The veteran player took him down an old variation popular in Boleslavsky’s day. The game is an imbalance bishop pair versus Bishop and knight with odds favored for the bishop pair in the endgame. Gliga attempts an early queen exchange but Tarjan is allowed a strong centralized knight before White can deploy the second bishop. It’s a nice defensive endgame and worth going over. Following Lone Pines, Tarjan wins the next event, the Western Futurity-Qualifying Tournament against a roster very similar to the masters and IMs of Lone Pine and one year after Lone Pine 1975, he received his GM title. Tarjan continues to play in several US championships in the 1970-80’s but never was quite able to pull it off. One of his strongest finishes was in Passadena 1978 where he finished in 2nd place. This was a Zonal Qualifier and he went on to play in the 1979 Riga Interzonal World Championship Cycle. His last competitive tournament was in 1984 at the U.S. Championship at Berkley where he tied for third place. Arnold Denker: At 61 at Lone Pine 1975, this veteran player still had some kick in him. What else can one expect from a former boxer and once rival to Samual Reshevsky and Reubin Fine? He was a U.S.  Champion in 1944 and held on to it until Sammy took it back in 1946.He became an IM in 1950 ( the first year the title was awarded by FIDE). At Lone Pine 1975, he beats three GM’s, Rossetto, Pilnik, and Damjanovic of his four victories. He draws GM Bilek of his 3 Draws. I am disappointed in the tournament book not having any of his games annotated as the win against Rossetto is quite spectacular. In round eight, he plays a Modern Defense as Black and fights for early control of f5. This leaves a hole in the center for White to take advantage of and Denker walks right into a knight fork and loses his rook. Denker holds his ground as White waltzes into troubled waters on the King side. With a Knight and Rook, Denker threatens an unstoppable CHECKMATE! It was a beautiful win. I’m surprised it didn’t get any more recognition other than this humble blog. He’s famous for going on and become an important chess organizer, serving on the board of American Chess Foundation, The USCF and the U.S. Chess Trust. The Denker Tournament of High School Champions is in his honor. He earned an honorary GM title in 1982, inducted into the Chess Hall of Fame in 1992, and in 2004 was proclaimed the Dean of American Chess. He died in 2005 after a brief illness. In my opinion, he is a role model for all of us chess enthusiasts.   | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:03:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lone Pine 1975: Rohde, Silman and Weinstein : Upsets from the third shelf | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Lone Pine 1975 had three major groups. The top shelf included the list of Grandmasters who I’ll be chronicling in the coming posts. The next layer includes the international masters ( Ratings below 2500 and above 2300). My next post will include a few upsets from this category. What I’d like to cover in this post are few noteworthy games from the bottom that resulted in upsets from up and comers.  Michael Rohde: First up, is a very young 15 year old Michael Rohde. By the way, that is how it is spelled in the book and to spell it “Rhode” is not correct. Michael, born August 26, 1959, received the masters title at the tender age of 13 and in 1975 won the National Scholastic Champions Junior High School Champion. Even though he finished dead last at Lone Pine 1975, his attacking style was in noticeable form as he won a Brilliancy prize for the game listed here against International Master, John Grefe. He earned the IM title in 1976 and later became a GM in 1988. He went on to win the bri  lliancy prize in three consecutive U.S. Chess Championships from 1986-1988. Some of his strongest finishes includes first place in the 1991 U.S. Open, tied for first at the World Open, and winning the NY state Championship and a few other titles. He took a break from chess to attend Law schoolJeremy Silman:  Honored to be included at such strong event, a young Texan, Jeremy Silman was just 20 years old. He was listed as having a rating of 2258 ( the lowest in the event) in 1975. It is unclear when he first became a master, though in an interview by Robert Brunnemer (http://www.chessvideos.tv/article-Robofriven-interviews-Jeremy-Silman-5.php) he mentions being at master strength at the age of 16. In this upset over IM Dumitru Ghizdavu, he plays a brilliant c3 Sicillian and handles an IQP with ease. It’s a beautiful battle of the center as Silman demonstrates how to strike on two weaknesses. Silman goes on to get his IM title in 1988 but leading up to that, he had several no  table events under his belt, like winning the U.S. Open in 1981 as well as the National and American opens in that decade. He is a popular author of several chess books geared for the amateur class player. I know I have a few in my library. He was also a Chess consultant for the 2001 movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.Norman Weinstein: Norman Weinstein was rated 2372 in 1975 at Lone Pine and is listed as a Master for that event though some sources indicate he earned the IM title in 1973 following becoming the U.S. Champion in 1973. The game highlighted below is his upset over GM Leonid Shamkovich where he plays an older Levenfish Variation against the Dragon Sicilian. He demonstrates the advantage of initiative combined with opposite sides castling can have with a marauding pawn raid.  He left chess to become an investment banker at Banker’s Trust. In 1990 he convinced the firm to put an ad in Chess life reaching out to hire masters and Grandmaster. Max Dlugy was one of the GM’s to come on board. Weinstein’s name may ring an alarming bell for some as it is the same name associated with another chess player, Raymond Weinstein, who went to prison after killing an 83-year old. No worries, there was no relation to our current player turned banker/recruiter.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:59:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Part 4: Putting it all together | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| But first things first , the A.C.I.S. Update: I’ve added a couple new comers to the list on the side. Please take some time to welcome these folks. Wrimle to the fray. He’s working on board vision. Make sure you check out his simple declaration. The Scheming Mind also is new and seeks to transition from correspondence chess to OTB and outlines a nice plan that fits in with a busy person’s lifestyle of work and School. Tempo waxes philosophically over middle game to end game transitions and breaks it down in his mind’s eye. Steve channels Sherlock Holmes and solves a mystery of an extra pawn. Linux Guy posted some games from his recent “lessons” at the American Open .These are some fine games and if you scroll down, he offers a contrasting picture of two types of players at this event Pitting MDLM against Positional players who’ve taken the time to study Z53. ( LG, I fit in both categories!) “Pumpkin Chunkin” rook ( since it’s close to T-day), has some more of his nifty GIF animations on some memory chunks of a Scotch game. I have to learn that. It’s nice to see the new comers. I try to keep the door wide open for all who seek to declare an improvement plan and dare blog about. In return, we will off support and encouragement in your journey. Huzzah! Positive Reinforcement: So I have to report that since I made my 440 positions, I’ve played several games this month. Seven of these games were against Class A players. In the last week, I’ve managed to defeat 3 class A players in a row. I’ve been playing once a week at the chess club and on Sunday,  November 29th, I played at one of my favorite events, The Harry Nelson Pillsbury Memorial. I finished with 3 wins out of 4 games earning the U1750 cash prize, but my wife needn’t worry about me quitting my day job…just yet.The Jury is still out on whether my new training regimen had a great deal to do with it or am I just rebounding from my really bad slump and this is just the laws of averages working here. Nonetheless, it’s the most positive reinforcement I’ve had to date on this process of improvement. Earlier in the month, my USCF rating was at an abysmal ( for me) 1618. After Sunday and after picking up some points at the close of the Club’s monthly event, I jumped up to 1723. My all time highest is 1755 I had earlier in the year. So this is where my cautious optimism comes from. Earlier in the year, I had a goal of breaking 1800 by the end of the year. I just might have a chance of doing that depending on how I end December with at the club. I’ll be happy meeting my 1755 high. Putting it in motion Of the 440 positions, I had a set of 55 positions form my most recent games I went over daily. At first it took me over an hour. By the event, I had this down under a half hour and hitting them at 100%. I also took the 50 positions created from my repertoire database out lined in part 3 and reviewed them 3 times ( every other day before the event). One day, I did all 105 and plowed through another 20 positions of the games studies. In particular, I couldn’t resist going over the games of Hastings 1895 in preparation of the Harry Nelson Pillsbury Memorial. It just seemed like the thing to do. I am now in the process of weeding out my “daily dose” and moving the easier ones into the “once a week” review group. I am adding the recent games and pulling in some positional studies from the Zurich 1953. This is a work in progress as I fine tune this. I will do some opening maintenance and pull some new positions to study as I broaden my scope. These will be reviewed 2 or 3 times a week. I am shooting for a complete Brain Burner once a month with the entire set but this will take time. As I add new positions to the “daily dose” I have to build up my experience and keep the time to under an hour. So my formula is to have 50-ish daily, 50-ish opening rep training every other day on top of the daily dose. Once a week add 20 or more of the positional studies from the master game collections and eventually build of a rep of 50 of these to do once a week. The goal is to get the easier ones moved to the monthly brain burner. In the near future, I will be posting a couple of the recent games as some were pretty spectacular with inglorious blunders on both sides. For instance, I almost lost one game against a lower rated player because I got cocky and played a variation of a defense I never played before! Next thing I knew I was subjected to a Greek gift and almost mated. In general, where I won my games was all in tactics. Tactics I recognized over the board because I was comfortable enough knowing the positions. One last tip I will throw out there is that I use my training database in 3D format so I can visualize the moves better. That was one thing I learned back when I was a Knight Errant. CT-ART was all 2D and I had the hardest time transposing to OTB.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:55:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Part 3: Finding training patterns in your Repertoire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 In part 1 I proclaimed my new training regimen which basically consists of creating a personalized set of positions from my own games, repertoire and study material. In Part 2 I showed you how I used chess base to create my own training positions to have a set of tactical and positional puzzles themed from my own games. In this entry I will show you how I develop a repertoire data base and how I use this to create study positions. But first a brief update on the growing A.C.I.S of Caissa movement: Following an action from the playbook of Loomis, I plan on keeping the ACIS of Caaissa updates limited to THIS blog and not on my mirrored site at the greater community at Chess.com. I like the smaller closer circle of friends here as it tends to promote a more supportive environment. The "how to" stuff will get forward to chess.com. Unlike the brutish Knight’s errant DLM movement of the mid ‘00’s, A.C.I.S. of Caissa is proving to be more accessible to the “common folk” as the final circles of the MDLM method was just unreachable if you work, have a family and want to practice good hygiene. If the truth be known, most of the knights errant had modified the MDLM method to smaller circles and approached it in a more realistic manner. Loomis has joined in this universalistic approach and proclaims to be Baaaack. Steve (learn’s chess) Eddins is firing up the blog to declare his mission and thoughts. Chunky Rook has fired off a series of gif patterns worth checking out on his blog Linuxguy reviews a game he played on FICS and shows appreciation to having studied Zurich 1953 And finally, Chess tiger was lulled into this quest with this line: What pulled my attention is that one may choose his or her own study plan. So Building a repertoire database. I use chess base for a lot of reasons. One of the things I’ve done was create a blunder-rep database with games centered around my openings I play. First, I pull in games that I have studied from the classic tournaments that are in any shape or form close to what I play in my chess games. Hastings 1895, London 1924 and Zurich 1953 is not enough resources for what I am looking for. There are several ways to approach this. You can set up a position using chessbase and use the search online tool to pull games from their huge inventory. I find this tedious as I haven’t found a clean way to import the large volume of games as a result of this method. The best I was able to achieve was dumping them all into one huge game file or saving each one individually. I will use this method to find key players ( grandmasters) who play this variation but not as a means to build the volume I seek for the purpose of building a training database. I wanted a quicker method to build the base up. I use google to search for PGN or CBH data bases of specific variations. There are several websites that fill this gap. Chessgames.com will allow a search for the position and provide a collection of games to download as PGN. Chessopolis (http://www.chessopolis.com/openings.htm) is another resource I use frequently and they actually have CBH files that can import directly to Chess base. There are plenty more if you search. The trouble with “canned” data sets from some of these places is the quality of games are littered with amateur games. But my philosophy at this stage in my improvement path is that I can still learn from these amateurs. Panning for gold. Once you have a repertoire database built up, the next step is to use the search capability of chess base to find positions to study. Finding Traps in the opening to avoid or inflict: The first thing I do is to find the opening traps I want to avoid. I will set the search to find the games that end in 15 moves or less where the side I would most likely play loses.  I will create training positions described in my previous post for each of the unique wins. Some are duplicates and worth skipping over. What you get is a clear pattern of what not to play in certain lines. Optionally, you could run the engine on each of these to get some annotations and ideas what to play. I merely reference my books and make a quick note where to improve and what not to play. The opening tactical trap becomes the positional study that I solve for the aggressor. Then I look at the notes in the game centered around the failing position. This is where having an amateur database comes in handy as you will more likely have a lot of examples to chose from. On the flip side, from the same repertoire base I will change the search to games where my side wins and repeat the process. The result will build up tactical positions found in the openings of my games that I can inflict if my opponent doesn’t play exactly in this line. Positional themes start to come about from these and I get a better understanding of the opening. Finding Mating themes: Another search I will conduct in the bluder-rep is to find those games that have ended definitively with a check mate. To weed out the previous search I set the move order to a range greater than 15 to include the long games. I go through the same process of looking at wins for both sides to see the kind of attacks typical from both perspectives. I then create training positions from these making notes of the type of attack as a memory marker for the pattern. For added measure I use the same filter but instead of definitive mates, I search for results being my side to win. This will include winning endgame positions to come about in my games with higher probability. Middle game positions: There’s no way around this but to review games against masters who play the same openings in your repertoire. I am building on this with my tournament games studies and include several positions from each of the highlighted games. So far I have just over 100 positions as I build upon this. I think it’s a good start. I’d like to build this to at least 500 by Spring, but I don’t want to get stuck in the process before using it. 100 problems to start with will be a good litmus for the upcoming Pillsbury Memorial here at the end of the month.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:50:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Massive chess event in Europe sets yet another record - Games Festival, Thessaloniki, April 5th-18th | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Games Festival in Thessaloniki includes European Individual School Championship, International School Cup, Thessaloniki International Open Tournament 2010, International Open Blitz Tournament (all taking place 5-11th April 2010), as well as European Seniors' Individual Rapid Championship, European Seniors' Individual Championship (8-18th April 2010). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:05:56 +0100 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A busy chess calendar | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Normally the Canberra chess year gets off to a slow start, but this year has been very different. The ACT Championship has already been run and won, and the O2C Doeberl Cup is only 3 weeks away. Squeezed in between this are a couple of tournaments, including the Autumn Junior Weekender, which was held yesterday and today. The Autumn Weekender was the brainchild of Ian Rout a number of years ago, and serves both as a warm for juniors planning to play in the Doeberl Cup, and as a gentle introduction to tournament chess for juniors who are making the step up from schools chess. The tournament was won by Allen Setiabudi, fresh from his heroics at last weeks ACT Championships. Although I don't have complete scores to hand, I believe that second place was shared between Megan Setiabudi and Yijun Zhang. Although it is about 400km away from Canberra, next weeks Dubbo Open is always popular with ACT players. This year is the 10th edition of the event and GM Zong Yuan Zhao and IM George Xie are both playing in the event. Then a weeks break (for those not coaching) and then the Doeberl Cup. Entries have passed the 150 mark and significantly, there are only 18 spots left in the Premier. And finally for the very keen, there is the Sydney International Open starting on the Wednesday after the Doeberl. Throw in the ANU Masters (for a small group anyway) and it would be possible to play 36 FIDE rated games in the March/April period, a feat previously unachievable in Canberra chess.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:53:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Students learn strategy and planning through chess - ENC Today | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:30:33 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Efimenko and Jobava lead in Rijeka | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 11th European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship is held from 5th to 19th of March 2010 in Rijeka, in new Zamet Centre sports hall. The event is organized by chess club “Rijeka”, in agreement with the Croatian Chess Federation under the auspices of the City of Rijeka and the European Chess Union. It is open to all players representing the chess federations which comprise the European Chess Union (FIDE zones 1.1 to 1.9) regardless of their title or rating. There is also no limit of participants per federation. The championship is based on Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. As always, the European Championship is a qualification event for the next World Cup. According to FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 22 players will qualify. Rounds 6-7The four players on 4.5/5 obviously met in the sixth round on Thursday. Baadur Jobava reached a better ending which suddenly turned into an easily winning one, when his opponent exchanged a pair of knights. Position after 39…Kd7  After 40.Ne3?! Nxe3 41.Kxe3 Bb7! the b3 pawn was just too weak, and it kept the White knight passive on c1. Black didn’t even have to put his bishop on d5; the threat was enough. After winnin a few nice White games, Nisipeanu was on the wrong side of a devastating attack in round 6. Efimenko was in a killing mood: Position after 15…Rd8  White is better developed than Black, who desperately needs more space, but won’t get it in this game. 16.g4! Nhf6 17.Bf4 Qb6 18.g5!? The more quiet 18.h3 also gives White a clear plus. 18…Nh5 Perhaps 18…hxg5 19.Nxg5+ Kg8 was the lesser evil, but it looks very dangerous too. 19.Ne4 Nxf4 20.Qf4 Rf8  22.c5! Qxb2 23.Bc4 This extra piece pointing at the opponent’s kingside position decided the game. In the women’s section Monica Socko is the only player on 6/7. Today is a rest day in Rijeka. We brought the news unofficially last week already, and now according to the official website Karpov has now officially announced his candidacy for FIDE President:
 Selection of games rounds 6-7Game viewer by ChessTempo  Zahar Efimenko, in shared first place, here in his round 6 game, beating Nisipeanu  Baadur Jobava, also on 6/7 Photos courtesy of the official website, more here Links
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Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:24:05 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Support "Chess Movie" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 I.S. 318 at NY State Championships Katie Dellamaggiore, an independent documentary filmmaker from Brooklyn, is raising money for her Chess Movie, about the award-winning I.S. 318 team. Visit her "Kickstarter" page to learn more about the project and to pledge your support. Though they have already met their minimum goal of raising $4,000, they definitely need a lot more than that to finish this important documentary, which I think could do for scholastic chess what Mad Hot Ballroom did for kids' ballroom dancing. Here is Katie's appeal:Over the last 2 years I have been producing and directing a documentary about scholastic chess with my company Rescued Media. Chess Movie (working title) goes inside one of the best junior high chess program in the nation, Intermediate School 318 in Brooklyn, New York. Many students at 318 come from difficult circumstances and 60% are from low-income families, but being part of a winning chess team gives them a unique opportunity to experience success at a young age. Justus, Patrick, Alexis, Pobo & Rochelle are 5 of 50 team members that are learning on the chessboard the skills they need to face challenges of adolescence and their working class circumstances.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:37:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Piedmont Elementary wins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 March 12, 2010 Piedmont Elementary wins state chess tournament CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Piedmont Elementary School's chess team won the 42nd annual West Virginia Scholastic Chess Championships March 6 at West Virginia State University in Institute. One member of the K-6 team, Vardhan Kasireddy, also took home the individual championship. "We have a lot of children in Piedmont who are interested in chess," said parent Amy Weintraub. "It's become the cool thing to do." Other members of the team are: Clare Higgins, Malik Adams, Priscilla Richmond, Alex McMillian, Jeremiah Weintraub, Phillip Sears, Jakeen McNeil, Kevin Roy and Vaneshia Smith. The team's coaches are Becca Revercomb and Chris Higgins. The state Senate will recognize the chess team Saturday morning, and Charleston City Council will recognize them Monday night, Weintraub said. Source: http://wvgazette.com Chess daily news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-03-13T00:08:00.000-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Denker Qualifier FAQ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 (Group photo of prize winners at 2009 Denker Invitational in Indianapolis. Local hero Evan Sandberg is in front row at the right.)The 35th CalChess Scholastics will be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center (near Great America) on April 17-18. This year, there is a second worthy scholastic event for top players to consider: the Denker Qualifier at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara on March 19-21. The Denker Qualifier doubles as the K-12 section of the Bay Area Chess Regionals. Why are there two state championships? Last year, CalChess made the unfortunate decision to schedule the state scholastics on the same weekend at the National High School Championship in Columbus, Ohio. The High School Nationals have never drawn a large crowd from the Bay Area, although sometimes a few elite players attend with the goal of bringing home a national title (like Michael Zhong in 2007). My students at Saratoga High School also achieved some success, finishing as high as 3rd place team in the country. In order to allow top players a (theoretical) chance to attend the National High School Championship and still have a chance to represent CalChess at the Denker Invitational this summer, there will be two separate events, one in March and one in April. However, only the winner(s) of the April championship may call themselves state champs. What is the Denker Invitational?  The Denker is a prestigious invitational tournament open only to high school state champions each year. There are approximately 50 invitees, one for each state (two for California). Named after the late Grandmaster Arnold Denker (photo at right), the field includes many experts and usually tops out in the mid 2200s, with maybe one or two players above 2300. Only juniors currently in grades 9 through 12 are eligible; younger players cannot qualify. Recent Northern California representatives were: Evan Sandberg (2009), Steven Zierk (2008), Nicolas Yap (2007) and Daniel Schwarz (2006). The invitational takes place each August at the US Open, held in different places each year all around the country. This year is a bit special because the location will be in Irvine, Southern California. The dates are July 31 through August 3. After completing six rounds in the Denker, players may choose to also play in the 6-day schedule of the US Open. That's 15 games of chess (each up to 5-6 hours) in 9 days. Most likely, I will play in the more leisurely 9-day schedule of the US Open. Who should play in the Denker Qualifier? Technically speaking, any student in K-12 may enter the Denker Qualifier, although a minimum rating of 1200 is needed for those in elementary or middle school. Very few, however, have a realistic chance to qualify. Generally speaking, only high school students rated over 2000 have a decent chance to win. Seven high school players are rated over 2000: FM Steven Zierk, NM Gregory Young, NM Rohan Agarwal, Evan Sandberg, Hayk Manvelyan, Nicholas Karas and Arthur Liou. Players younger than 9th grade may play for practice, but cannot qualify for Denker even if they win. I suggest that you should play in the Denker Qualifier on March 19-21 if you fall into one of the following categories:
I expect most players to choose the 2-day schedule (three G/60 then three more G/120). Those who prefer slower time controls and are free on Friday night can play the 3-day schedule (three G/90 then three more G/120). The two schedules will merge in round 4. Note: based on early entries, the 3-day schedule is significantly stronger with nobody rated under 1800. Which tournament will be stronger? I predict that the March event may actually be tougher than the official state championship in April, for the following three reasons:
Click here for the advance entry list posted at the Bay Area Chess website. As of March 10, there are 28 entries in the Denker Qualifier. (2-day schedule: 10 players, median rating 1888. 3-day schedule: 18 players, median rating 1763.) Only three of the seven eligible high school students rated above 2000 have entered so far. However, there are seven elementary school kids rated above 1800 who have chosen to play up. Make sure to register for the Denker Qualifier before the entry deadline on Wednesday, March 17! (St. Patrick's Day) Follow this link to the Bay Area Chess online payment system.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:47:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SCHS chess team wins state championship - St. George Daily Spectrum | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:29:30 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Placing 1st in state | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Middle school students place first in state Updated: March 10, 2010 SPARTA — The Sparta Middle School Chess Team won its second consecutive New Jersey Middle School Championship at the New Jersey State Championships, held recently at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft. Austin Kasabri led the effort with three wins and a draw. Kyra Schluter, AJ Thomas, Dillon Mendel and Ian Clark each had three wins. Adding to the effort were Colin Casey, Thomas Wolfe, Travis Kasabri and Erich Schimpf. The Elementary team placed third behind Keith Johnson’s three wins and a draw. Lizzy Wolfe had three wins, and Daniel Bacon had two wins and a draw. Ryan Ryersen, Christopher H, Griffin Mendel, Alex Schimpf, Tyler Struble, and Emily Bettano contributed to the excellent showing. Cooper Waldo paced the Primary team with 3 wins, as the team placed fifth. Evan Johnson had two wins and a draw. The rest of team includes Cleary Waldo, Philippos Christodoulou, Reilly Kasabri, Morgan Kasabri, Daniel Lane, Alexis Lee, Brittany Brannigan, Ben Lipton, Christopher Johnson and Brandon Rabbitt. The Sparta High School’s varsity team placed twelfth in the NJ High School tournament at Rutgers. The team defeated Mountain Lakes and Monmouth Regional, and lost to Watchung Hills, the eventual champion. Rob Tessier won three times and Matt Finkle had two wins and a tie. Eryk Banatt, Natasha Sica, and Kyle Bay rounded out the team. Source: http://www.strausnews.com Chess daily news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-03-11T08:07:00.000-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Centralia Christian School to Host Kids' Chess Tournament - Centralia Chronicle | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:28:15 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newton rules | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Checkmate for kids at Newton's Cabot school By Staff reports Wicked Local Newton Posted Mar 10, 2010 @ 12:55 AM Newton — Four Newton children are chess champions, leading their grade in the annual competition held for high school, middle school, elementary and primary school students. Cabot School third-grade students Alex Fauman, Evan Meyer, Jonathan Cohen and Jacob Brockman swept the match in their section at this year’s State Scholastic Team Chess Championship held in Waltham’s Hilton Gardens Inn. Their coach, Newton resident Larry Eldridge, said the team won all four of its matches. “This is the second year in a row that the Cabot School has won in this grade category,” said Eldridge. “Returning champions are Alex and Evan.” The way the tournament works is that each grade category plays four matches. The Cabot School team “swept the match,” Eldridge said, winning all their games in the first match, all in their second, all in their third and winning three in their fourth and drawing the fourth. “They won quite decisively,” he said. “They won 15 games and drew the 16th.” Eldridge, who has been coaching for different Newton school chess teams for the past 15 years, said this annual event is run by the Massachusetts Chess Association every spring. This year, he said, there were 13 four-player teams in the Grade 3-and-younger category, so it was quite a feat that the Cabot School group won so many of the matches. Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com Chess daily news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-03-10T07:00:00.000-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Eagle Eye: SD 3rd Annual Chess Tourney! - my.hsj.org | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:38:21 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fremont high schooler wins Bay Area Chess Spring Open - Examiner.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:14:57 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess instructor takes 2BD condo in Park Slope - Blockshopper | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:52:01 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bulletin Board: March 9, 2010 - The Saratogian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:15:17 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The new Lubbock Chess Club story | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Founder of Lubbock Chess Club answers some questions about group Sunday, March 07, 2010 Story last updated at 3/7/2010 - 4:37 pm Avalanche Journal This week we have a special interview conducted by Chase Watters, member of the Texas Tech Knight Raiders nationally ranked chess team, and former president of the Texas Tech Knight Raiders Chess Club. His guest is Sam Houchin, founder of the new Lubbock Chess Club. 1. How did you revive the Lubbock Chess Club into existence? We were surprised to find that the previous Lubbock Chess Club had disbanded several years ago. In our online search we found a newsletter generated by the TTU Knight Raiders that led us to a “chess game night” at Barnes & Noble on a Friday night. There, we met several members of the Knight Raiders and the idea of reviving the Lubbock Chess Club was born. 2. What is the relationship of the Lubbock Chess Club with SPICE and/or the TTU Knight Raider Chess Club? Once we began playing routinely several nights a week with members of the Knight Raiders, it was brought to Susan Polgar’s attention that we were interested in starting Lubbock Chess Club. She immediately jumped in and helped us to initially organize our efforts and to locate a weekly meeting place. Combined with the ongoing support and participation of the Knight Raiders, we have had very successful club attendance to date. 3. Who is welcome to come and play with the Lubbock Chess Club? Are novice chess players and kids welcome to play? All are welcome. Male or female, any age or skill level. Chess is a game for people of all ages and you can learn to play at any time. So come play even if you have never seen a chess board or if you are a highly advanced player. 4. How many players typically come and play at the Lubbock Chess Club, and what is the typical strength of those players? It varies. We have an average of 18 to 20 regular players. Some nights we have as many as 30 plus players and 12 to 14 on others. 5. Is there a fee to join the Lubbock Chess Club? At this time there is not a fee to join the club. However, in order to provide for the membership in the future we are in the process of formalizing the club with officers, by-laws, constitution and, of course, fees. Preliminary discussion on fees has been $20 per year for an adult membership, $15 per year for college students, and $10 per year for persons younger than 18. 6. What are some upcoming events that the Lubbock Chess Club is planning? Since we are still getting off the ground we don’t have any events on the current schedule. We plan on sponsoring tournaments, leagues, chess ladders, and blitz tournaments in the future. 7. Why do you like playing chess? In my opinion, chess is the ultimate game having a positive effect on a player’s attitude toward learning and cognitive achievement. Chess play engages the human brain and employs new ways of thinking, imaginative processes, and creativity. Chess also develops your critical and analytical thinking ability and contributes to the increase of intelligence, problem solving skills, memorization and concentration. A little competition is also great for mental alertness, patience, sportsmanship, as well as challenging your sense of accomplishment. 8. How do you like playing chess at Lin’s Buffet on Mondays? Lin’s provides us with a large, open, comfortable area to meet and play along with a wide variety of delicious food items to choose from. They offer a 10 percent discount to all members and, while we encourage dining, it is completely optional. 8. Where do you see the Lubbock Chess Club six months from now, and one year from now? The current version of the Lubbock Chess Club is in its infancy. In the future we hope to offer chess instruction for any age and a comprehensive chess library available to all members. Our primary purpose is to have fun and to promote the popularity of chess. We hope to eventually conduct tournaments and other forms of chess competition. I feel that our membership will increase with time and advertising. As for the community, we hope to reach out to the school districts in the Lubbock area and promote the subject of chess and hopefully integrate it into their scholastic curriculum. Source: http://www.lubbockonline.com Chess daily news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-03-09T00:28:00.000-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Killip dominates chess qualifier, wins three team titles - Arizona Daily Sun | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:09:43 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The endgame technique of a 99-year-old | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Photo: Fred Lucas Professor Dr Johan Wilhelm van Hulst was born in Amsterdam on January 28th, 1911. He’s a Dutch emeritus professor of education and a politician. Starting as a teacher and mentor, from 1942 to 1960 Van Hulst was Principal of the Pedagogical Academy in Amsterdam and in that capacity he was responsible for rescuing hundreds of Jewish babies and children from the nursery of the Hollandsche Schouwburg. For this he received the Yad Vashem Distinction in 1973. About this period he said:
Van Hulst earned a doctoral education and psychology and graduated in 1961. From 1956 to 1981 he was member of the Senate of the Dutch government and from 1961 to 1968 Member of the European Parliament. He’s a former Chairman of the political parties CHU and CDA and held many other functions. Van Hulst is also author of numerous scientific publications and books; the last was published when he was 95.  Consultation between (L-R) Gerard Leijenhorst, Johan van Hulst (CDA chairman for the Senate) and Ruud Lubbers (chairman CDA for the Parliament) In the chess world he is no stranger either. He was quite a strong player himself and in fact was once invited to play for the Dutch team at one of the Olympiads. However, Van Hulst had to decline the invitation, with the knowledge that he would lose his job as School Principal if he would play. This was the moment he decided that he wouldn’t pursue a chess career. But for decades he has played in the special group for (former) parliamentarians at the Corus Chess Tournament, and won it many times, including the 2010 edition, at 99 years old.  Johan van Hulst giving one of his famous speeches, I play chess myself very little these days. This season I’ve probably played just three or four games at my Amsterdam club Caïssa. Last year the ‘Max Euwe’ chess club ceased to exist and its members transferred to Caïssa. On the first club night in September last year, we met with our new club members, and one of them was the distinguished Professor Van Hulst. He is an honorary member of the Caïssa Chess Club, and has been a member for about seventy years. “I have been a spectator at all of Max Euwe’s matches in Holland,” he told us on that Tuesday night. “During one of the early games of the 1935 match, Emanuel Lasker was one of the spectators. I asked him what he’d think of Euwe’s chances.” We were listening in awe to Mr Van Hulst, a magical figure already, who saw Euwe play, who talked to Lasker… Of course we immediately asked: “What did Lasker answer?” Van Hulst, smiling: “I remember very clearly. He said Alekhine should be considered slight favourite, considering the time control they were playing.”  Johan van Hulst in 2007 | Photo Fred Lucas Later that evening he also told about the period of the Second World War. “I was the chairman of a chess club here in Amsterdam. At the end of the 1930s the situation for our Jewish members became more and more difficult. At some point they weren’t allowed to play anymore, so we decided to secretly play at their houses instead of at the club. Later this had to stop as well. One night an SS officer walked into our club. ‘I want to be come a club member and play here,’ he told me. I had to think deeply, and then I responded: “Are you a Christian? You have to be a member of our Christian community too, you know.’ This way I managed to get rid of him.” Van Hulst still plays almost every week. He’s being brought and picked up by taxi, and needs a walker or a stick to move around. “Not long ago he had to skip a club night,” the current chairman of the club told me. “The next week he came and apologized for his absence, but he had a very good reason. His daughter had turned 60.” Last night I decided to go to my club, and to my surprise I was paired against Professor Van Hulst. Remembering the many stories, and with deep respect for my opponent, I had trouble concentrating. But that’s no excuse; I simply played badly. More importantly, except for the opening I believe he played quite strongly, as if there was no age difference of 65 years. Van Hulst-Doggers Game viewer by ChessTempo After the game I said: “I won the opening, you won the ending.” He answered with “I’m an old man, you know. I’m getting tired after a few hours of play.” Then he asked me about my rating. I told him it was a bit over 2200. “Aha! Well, perhaps I shouldn’t tell you mine, then. Well, OK, it’s 1600.” After that he stood up, grabbed his walker, adding “I’m satisfied about the game.” He went for his coat. “I’m satisfied too,” I replied, having enjoyed the evening, and feeling OK about a draw against this man. But he was quick in pointing out that this was just nonsense: “I don’t think you have any reason to be satisfied!” I smiled, knowing that he was right. In the end he was the one who had won.
Photo © Fred Lucas; | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:46:06 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dunbar Elementary team takes 2nd place in state chess tournament - St. Louis Globe-Democrat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:19:18 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Laos Ministries of Education and Sports Introduce Chess in Schools | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Following the visit this week by FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong and Asian Chess Federation Deputy President Casto Abundo to Vientiane, the Lao Ministry of Education and Ministry of Sports have agreed to establish a chess in schools program in Laos. From left, ACF Deputy President Casto Abundo witnesses FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong hand over chess manuals to Laos Deputy Minister of Education LyTou Bouapao who agreed to establish Chess in Schools in Vientiane. Looking on are Ministry of Education Director General for Physical Culture & Sports Mr Chantaly, and Soulasith Oupravanh, Director General, International Sport Relation Department.
Meeting at the Ministry of Sports are, from left, Director General International Sport Relations Department Soulasith Oupravanh, ACF Deputy President Casto Abundo, FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong, Director General Elite Sports Department Sengphone Phonhamath, Lao National Olympic Committee Vice President Kasem Inthara and Minister of Education Director General for Physical Culture & Sports Mr. Chantaly.
Left to right: FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong and Somphou Phongsa, Lao National Committee of Sports and Culture Vice President,exchanging copies of the Memorandum of Understanding witnessed by ACF Deputy President Casto Abundo (right). Looking on in back are Sengphone Phonhamath, Director General Elite Sports Department and Soulasith Oupravanh, Director General International Sport Relation Department.
In his capacity ten years ago as Southeast Asian Zone President, Leong had visited Laos and Cambodia to establish their national chess federations. During the recent 3-day visit from 24 to 26 February 2010, they met with officials of the Lao Ministry of Education, Lao National Committee of Sport and Physical Culture, and Lao National Olympic Committee and visited a model school in Vientiane. In the discussions, it was emphasized that children who learn chess perform better in school than those who do not.
FIDE and the ACF will send FIDE Trainers and Arbiters to train chess teachers, chess administrators and arbiters in Laos. FIDE and the ACF shall provide the technical expertise and chess equipment to help the development of chess in Laos. Leong invited the Lao National Committee of Sport to a familiarization visit to Singapore to witness firsthand the Chess in Schools program and a Chess Academy. The Lao National Committee of Sport pledged to restructure the Lao Chess Federation and participate in the 2010 Asian Games and 2011 Southeast Asian Games chess competitions.
FIDE General Secretary General Ignatius Leong (center) giving chess sets and clocks to Mr Ly Hout (left), President of Cambodia Chess Federation and Mr Vath Chamroeun, Secretary-General of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia. The chess federation officials from ten years ago had left Cambodia and hence communications with FIDE ceased. Chess is now under the Cambodia Chess Federation - re-organised in 2006 with Xiangqi, Cambodian traditional chess and International Chess. They had no information about Chess and appealed for a chess trainer who can teach in Mandarin language to all those who play Cambodian traditional chess so they could be converted easily, similar to the way China started in the '70s.
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Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:04:32 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FIDE Executive Director's visit to Colombia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Important working meetings were held in Cali, Colombia, on February 15th and 16th between the FIDE Executive Director, David Jarrett, the Continental President for the Americas, Jorge Vega, Head of Programmes and Field Operations for the organization Peace and Sport, Mr. Ludovic Hubler and the FIDE delegate of the Colombian Federation, Ing Alfonso Naranjo. Among the issues discussed were FIDE support to the Federation’s existing plans at the schools in the Department of Valle, the joint support of FIDE and Peace and Sport for the promotion of a scheme involving Peace and Sport’s partners in Colombia, Colombianitos, to encourage chess in disadvantaged areas where the violence level is very high, review of official events which Colombia will host in 2010 and seminars for arbiters and trainers. Colombia is a very active federation and offers strong support to the Continent through the organization of events. Events they are hosting in 2010 include the Continental Junior Under 20 Championships and the Pan American and Caribbean Youth Championships. The two seminars for trainers and arbiters are being aided by the annual grant from the IOC towards chess development. Peace and Sport, an organization under the patronage of H.S.H Prince Albert II of Monaco, aims to promote sustainable peace through the education and values of sport. Everyone visited the Colombianitos centres located in Puerto Tejada, Cauca Department, and it was agreed that Mr. Naranjo would formulate a budget regarding the needs of the children and young people attending chess events. Support would be provided by FIDE. There was a press conference attended by various sports media. Questions were dealt with by representatives from all interested parties.    | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:26:05 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| San Diego Student Spotlight: Daniel Sun | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Student Spotlight: Daniel Sun Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 12:05 a.m. Daniel Sun, 9, bested his opponent last month in the San Diego Winter Scholastic Chess Championship at the San Diego Chess Club in Balboa Park. Daniel lost one game. “I was beat by one of my best friends, so I’m sort of still recovering from that, but otherwise, I won every other game,” he said. “I also beat the? person who got first place last tournament, when I got second, so I’m happy about that.” Daniel is in the fourth grade at Dingeman Elementary School in Scripps Ranch. His father taught him to play chess when Daniel was in kindergarten. He later joined the San Diego Chess Club so he could improve. He plays a few times each week and recently started watching a DVD of multiple world champion chess player Susan Polgar. “I learned a lot, like what to do in a position. If there’s a certain position, I can think about whatever I want to do.” Daniel said he likes playing because he believes the game improves his skills in planning and thinking. He said his dad thinks chess will help him in school and possibly help him earn a scholarship. How would he rate his dad as a chess player? “He’s not really good. I can beat him,” Daniel said. When he isn’t mastering strategies on the chess board, Daniel likes P.E., math and art — in that order. He likes math because he finds it interesting, especially when his teacher brings in brownies to explain fractions or the number of chocolate chips in each cookie to illustrate multiplication. He’s not sure what he wants to be when he grows up — maybe a professional basketball player who plays chess for fun. — Lisa Deaderick Source: http://www.signonsandiego.com Chess daily news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-03-06T07:44:00.001-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Amateur and Intercontinental School Team Championships | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  MF in un colpo solo! Avete un elo inferiore ai 2001 punti e volete diventare in un sol colpo Maestro Fide con un elo di 2200? Allora il World Amateur Chess Championship fa al caso vostro! Se poi aggiungete che il vincitore riceverà anche un premio di 3000$,? converrete con me che l'occasione si fà davvero ghiotta. Un inconveniente però c'e' , e forse lo avrete intuito dalla valuta del premio, il torneo si disputa in Skokie, sobborgo situato nei pressi di Chicago, Illinois, Stati Uniti d'America.? Il montempremi complessivo del torneo è di 20.000 $ garantiti. Si, avete letto bene, garantiti, come nei tornei di Poker. Del resto siamo in America, la patria del Texas Hold'em. L'organizzazione, infatti, assicura un incremento del montepremi del 50% nel caso si iscrivano almeno 600 giocatori e del 100% con almeno 800 giocatori. Tra i 76 prescritti al 1? marzo troviamo, come era prevedibile, molti statunitensi anche se il giocatore con l'elo più alto (1963) è una ragazza portoghese, Bianca Jeremias. Ma in questo genere di tornei l'elo conta relativamente poco, e la serie di quindici giocatori russi senza elo preiscriti sarà senz'altro temibilissima.  Bianca Jeremias, ad oggi la numero uno del tabellone
Un paio di cenni storici. Nel 1924, quando per l'appena nata FIDE il World Amateur Championships era un evento legato alle Olimpiadi allo scopo di promuovere il gioco degli scacchi, a Parigi Edgard Colle si classificò terzo mentre nell'edizione del 1928, a l'Aia, vinse Max Euwe, futuro campione del mondo.. Nell'edizione del 2009, disputatasi a Thessaloniki in Grecia, ha vinto il rumeno Stefan Parlog (2200, ovviamente), che aveva un elo di 1971 punti e che dopo quella vittoria non ha più disputato tornei FIDE.? Il vincitore dell'edizione 2007 (Romania) ha avuto un futuro scacchistico migliore: il MF rumeno Alexandru-Gabriel Duca ha infatti un elo di 2298. Non altrettanto si può dire del MF greco? Panagiotis Galopoulos,? vincitore dell'edizione 2008 (Kallithea - Halkidiki, Grecia), che oggi ha un elo di 2094.   Euwe e Colle, rispettivamente 1? nel 1928 e 3? nel 1924.
  Duca e Parlog, 2 degli ultimi 3 campioni del mondo dilettanti
Segue qualche passo del regolamento dell'edizione 2010, che comunque vi consiglio caldamente di leggere integralmente qualora siate intenzionati a partecipare. Il torneo si svolge dal 19 al 25 marzo. Le iscrizioni possono esser fatte tramite la propria Federazione, che? può registrare un uomo e una donna a costo zero. L'iscrizione è 150 $ entro il 15 marzo e di 200$ in sala di gioco. Il campionato si svolgerà presso l'Holiday Inn North Shore Hotel and Convention Center e i giocatori stranieri (non USA) dovranno soggiornare nell'albergo, al costo di circa 110 $ al giorno. Sono previsti nove turni di gioco ed il tempo di riflessione è di 90' per terminare la partita +30" di incremento per mossa. La manifestazione prevede anche la disputa del Intercontinental School Chess Team Campionship, che si svolgerà subito dopo il mondiale amatori, dal 25 al 29 marzo. Il regolamento lo trovate QUI Tra gli eventi di contorno troviamo poi un torneo Blitz, l'immancabile torneo Fischer Random ed il 25? North American Master che ha già 3 GM e 3 MI preiscritti.
  un'immagine suggestiva della vicina Chicago, sullo sfondo il lago Mitchigan Un paio di curiosità cinematografiche. Skokie è stata la location di due film passati alla storia: Risky Business, del 1983, film che lanciò la star Tom Cruise e? The Breakfast Club, diretto nel 1985 John Hughes e considerato un cult che forse per primo descrisse la cosiddetta generazione X.
 il cartellone del film The Breakfast Club
? SITI UTILI  sito ufficiale regolamento | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-03-05T17:30:00+01:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Girls March Toward Checkmate in North Carolina | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
March is Girls Chess Month in North Carolina! On Saturday the 13th, from 1-3pm, we are having our monthly Girls and Women’s Academy—moms welcome and encouraged to join—at Borders Bookstore in South Park Charlotte. $15 or $25 mom/daughter 
Girls Chess!
Ladies at the Academy
Then on the 26th as a warm-up for the States we are hosting a Kings and Queens match, where boys are invited to challenge the girls! This is also at Borders from 3:45-5:00 pm. $5 On March 27th is the Annual Girls State Championships, for girls and young ladies up to 19 years old, from anywhere in the state of NC, at host site Myers Park Traditional School, from 9-3pm. There are two sections: Beginners and Championship. The Championship section vies for a $500 Scholarship to the college of her choice! This is a unique opportunity offered by the North Carolina Chess Association. Prizes for everyone! $20 by March 20/thereafter $30 
All ages are Welcome at the Academy
All events sponsored by Over The Chessboard, a proud affiliate of 9Queens. Please email Jessica Martin, founder of Over The Chessboard, and Vice President of Scholastic Chess in North Carolina, for more information, or to register for these events. jmartin@overthechessboard.com www.overthechessboard.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:17:44 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kuzo Zangpo La – chess projects in Bhutan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Located at the eastern end of the Himalaya Mountains, the Kingdom of Bhutan used to be one of the most isolated nations in the world. Today the country has embraced modernization while retaining its ancient culture and traditions. The President of the Asian Chess Federation sent a delegate to promote the game in schools and support the Olympiad team. Pictorial report by IM Ravi Kumar. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sacred Heart chess team rises against the odds to play for title - Lancaster Newspapers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:53:22 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jackson School to represent Hillsboro at state chess finals - Hillsboro Argus - OregonLive.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:03:36 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Giant chess game pits students against teachers - Hamilton Journal News (subscription) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:45:57 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Laos Ministries of Education and Sports Introduce Chess in Schools | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Following the visit this week by FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong and Asian Chess Federation Deputy President Casto Abundo to Vientiane, the Lao Ministry of Education and Ministry of Sports have agreed to establish a chess in schools program in Laos. From left, ACF Deputy President Casto Abundo witnesses FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong hand over chess manuals to Laos Deputy Minister of Education LyTou Bouapao who agreed to establish Chess in Schools in Vientiane. Looking on are Ministry of Education Director General for Physical Culture & Sports Mr Chantaly, and Soulasith Oupravanh, Director General, International Sport Relation Department.
Meeting at the Ministry of Sports are, from left, Director General International Sport Relations Department Soulasith Oupravanh, ACF Deputy President Casto Abundo, FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong, Director General Elite Sports Department Sengphone Phonhamath, Lao National Olympic Committee Vice President Kasem Inthara and Minister of Education Director General for Physical Culture & Sports Mr. Chantaly.
Left to right: FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong and Somphou Phongsa, Lao National Committee of Sports and Culture Vice President,exchanging copies of the Memorandum of Understanding witnessed by ACF Deputy President Casto Abundo (right). Looking on in back are Sengphone Phonhamath, Director General Elite Sports Department and Soulasith Oupravanh, Director General International Sport Relation Department.
In his capacity ten years ago as Southeast Asian Zone President, Leong had visited Laos and Cambodia to establish their national chess federations. During the recent 3-day visit from 24 to 26 February 2010, they met with officials of the Lao Ministry of Education, Lao National Committee of Sport and Physical Culture, and Lao National Olympic Committee and visited a model school in Vientiane. In the discussions, it was emphasized that children who learn chess perform better in school than those who do not.
FIDE and the ACF will send FIDE Trainers and Arbiters to train chess teachers, chess administrators and arbiters in Laos. FIDE and the ACF shall provide the technical expertise and chess equipment to help the development of chess in Laos. Leong invited the Lao National Committee of Sport to a familiarization visit to Singapore to witness firsthand the Chess in Schools program and a Chess Academy. The Lao National Committee of Sport pledged to restructure the Lao Chess Federation and participate in the 2010 Asian Games and 2011 Southeast Asian Games chess competitions.
FIDE General Secretary General Ignatius Leong (center) giving chess sets and clocks to Mr Ly Hout (left), President of Cambodia Chess Federation and Mr Vath Chamroeun, Secretary-General of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia. The chess federation officials from ten years ago had left Cambodia and hence communications with FIDE ceased. Chess is now under the Cambodia Chess Federation - re-organised in 2006 with Xiangqi, Cambodian traditional chess and International Chess. They had no information about Chess and appealed for a chess trainer who can teach in Mandarin language to all those who play Cambodian traditional chess so they could be converted easily, similar to the way China started in the '70s.
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Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:04:32 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| West High chess team wins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 West High chess team wins state championship Published: Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010 8:41 p.m. MST SALT LAKE CITY — West High chess students walked away in victory for the fifth year in a row. The team took first place in the 2010 Utah State High School Chess Championship and swept the top three spots of the speed chess championship competition. West High student Tony Chen was crowned the individual State Champion and will be Utah's representative to the United State Chess Federation Denker tournament. Three other West High students tied with students from other schools for second place. Source: http://www.deseretnews.com Chess daily news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-03-01T05:56:00.000-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Games Festival 2010 – Chess Events - A record participation and many titled players expected | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Games Festival 2010, one of the largest intellectual and games sports festivals in Europe, is going to take place in Thessaloniki, Greece, 4-18 April. In the chess section of the Games Festival more than 500 participants are expected to play in the 3 tournaments: European Chess School (International School Open), European Chess Seniors, and Thessaloniki International Open (with A and B section). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:32:18 +0100 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Local calendar Feb. 25 edition - Lexington Minuteman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:01:14 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ACT Primary Schools Girls Teams Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The ACT Junior Chess League kicks off the inter-school chess calendar with the Primary Schools Girls Team Championships. Today the North Canberra zone of the Championship, with 41 teams taking part. What was particularly good about this turn out (165 players btw), was that the event filled up within a day of entries being called for. The event itself was played in excellent spirit, with the arbiters job a fairly light one. Of course there were the usual set of bizarre stalemates, but overall the quality of chess seemed higher than in previous years. At the end of the day 2 teams shared first place, with the Turner Kingfishers edging out the North Ainslie Cockatoos on tiebreak. The Amaroo Amazers (from the school mentioned in yesterdays blog) finished in third place.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:32:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ziaur Rahman to become resident Grandmaster in Malaysia - Reported by Quah Seng Sun for The Star Onl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ziaur is a trainer at the Garry Kasparov School of Chess in Bangladesh and was the coach of the Bangladesh national women's chess team. He has trained many junior players in his homeland and neighbouring India. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:57:05 +0100 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| India National Team Chess Championship - Dibeyandu Barua Chess Academy Champions in Women Section | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top seed and favourite Dibeyandu Barua Chess Academy comprise of Mary Ann Gomes, Saheli Dhar Barua, Kiran Manisha Mohanty and Swati Mohota clinched the National Club Team Chess Championship for Women with perfect score of 8 points in the five team round robin league championship at DAV Public School here on Friday. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:40:46 +0100 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weber students hone chess skills with club - Iowa City Press Citizen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:19:00 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turkey's young chess players win 38 medals in 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Turkey's young chess players win 38 medals in 2009 Turkey's young chess players won a total of 38 medals in the tournaments they attended in 2009. Thanks to a protocol signed by the Turkish Ministry of National Education and Turkish Chess Federation, the number of successful chess players has increased recently, officials told the Anatolia news agency on Friday. Turkey, which collected 18 medals in chess tournaments in 2008, increased such figure to 38 in 2009 and aims at winning more than 50 medals this year, officials also said. In an interview with the Anatolia, Tahsin Aktar, the acting president of the Turkish Chess Federation, said that "chess classes" were formed in 2,650 primary & secondary schools all across Turkey and nearly 1.5 million students started to practise such sports branch thanks to the protocol between his federation and the education ministry. "Our federation currently has 140,000 licensed sportsmen, 41,000 trainers and 2,800 referees," Aktar said. Noting that Turkey would host 2 world chess championships in 2010, Aktar said his federation expected gold medals from young players, especially in the 8-12 and 12-16 age categories and the young women category. 26 February 2010, Friday THE ANATOLIA NEWS AGENCY ADANA Source: http://www.todayszaman.com Chess news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-02-26T07:08:00.001-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess in School | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| For 2010, Amaroo School (in Canberra, ACT) has added chess to the school curriculum. Each 3,4 and 5 grade classes (250+ kids in total) has 1 hour of chess per week one of its regular subjects. The classes are run in a specialised chess classroom, which is fitted out with sets, posters and will soon have a smart-board system installed. The classes are taught by one of the schools teachers, who has put together a chess course for the year. The school is also running 2 lunchtime chess clubs (one for primary school and the other for high school) and are getting 60+ children to each session. Of course the aim of the program isn't just to get more kids playing chess (although that is always a nice goal to achieve) but to also use chess as a tool to improve the educational outcomes of the school's students. At the school's Parent Information evening, the listed benefits of the program included improved concentration and problem solving skills, as well as better memory and strategic thinking. Hopefully the program will produce masses of happy, smart, chess playing kids (including my daughter) and that its success will encourage other schools in Canberra to implement similar programs.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:44:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Martha Fierro FIDE Goodwill Chess Events | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 ANNOUNCEMENT: The FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess (WOM) will be organizing in March 2010 several goodwill lectures and simultaneous exhibitions: in San Juan – Puerto Rico; in Guayaquil – Ecuador; and in Detroit – United States to help promote chess among female chess players. The events will be given by WGM Martha Fierro, reigning Women Continental Champion (South America) and Secretary of the WOM. The events are totally free, Martha is donating her time and travel expenses to promote chess. I am thankful to Martha for this beautiful initiative, if every woman chess champion would work as she does for the promotion of chess, it would be great! So if you're a woman champion, try to follow her example, at least once in awhile. And if you're a chess fan in the locations visited by Martha, go and visit her and give her your support! Planned events: Puerto Rico: March 9, 2010 - Two days full training sessions with young talent CM Danitza Vasquez (10 years old) March 11, 2010 - Simultaneous Exhibition at the Club de Ajedrez Guaynabo Ecuador: March 16-17, 2010 - Various visits to schools to give an impulse to girls to play chess March 18, 2010 Lecture at the Federacion Deportiva Del Guayas March 19, 2010 Simultaneous Exhibition at the Federacion Deportiva Del Guayas United States: March 23, 2010 Lecture for girls, Detroit (exact place to be confirmed) March 24, 2010 Simultaneous Exhibition, Detroit (exact place to be confirmed) The FIDE Commission for women’s chess thinks that these good-will events will encourage the participants to increase their interest in chess and will play an important role in promoting chess in general and women’s chess in particular in the world. The WOM is working on organizing different good-will events around the world every year, if you think your federation or local club who are doing a lot for chess but need an additional push to make chess even more popular, might be interested in hosting a FIDE Goodwill event, let us know by sending an email to Alexandra or to Martha. Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Co-Chair of the FIDE Commission on Women's Chess  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:14:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Speak to me so that I can see you | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Dear friends, It's with pleasure that I republish the poem I wrote when I was 15 years old, with the beautiful illustration above by Mister M, whom I thank wholeheartedly! Those were beautiful years growing up, with my family always close, chess keeping me busy and eternally learning, school in between tournaments, and the birth of love in my heart.
Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion (2008-present)  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:25:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| India Club Chess Championship - Petroleum Sports Promotion Board and Air India leading after round f | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top seed Petroleum Sports Promotion Board and second seed Air India share the lead with 8 match points after fourth round matches in the ongoing National Club Open Team Championship at DAV Public School here on today. Petroleum beat Railway Sports Promotion Board A team 3 -1 while Air India got better off Kerala in the fourth round encounters. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:03:39 +0100 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1st annual rated scholastic chess tourney | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Palm Beach Day Academy first annual rated Scholastic Chess Tournament By jtdock Your News contributor Posted February 23, 2010 at 3:30 p.m. updated February 23, 2010 at 3:31 p.m. WEST PALM BEACH — Palm Beach Day Academy hosted a Chess Scholastic Tournament on Saturday, Feb. 20. The tournament director was John Dockery, president of Palm Beach Gardens Chess Club. The assistant tournament director was Matthew DeLuca, also a member of Palm Beach Day Academy Chess Club. There were a total of 45 children participating in the tournament as well as several schools competing for team trophies. There were 50 trophies available to individual and team winners. Several schools participated and top honors went to The Benjamin School, Palm Beach Day Academy, Equestrian Trails Elementary and Crestwood Middle School. Everyone had a great time including the parents. Since some of the parents did not bring lunch, Dr. Rebecca vander Bogert, Head of Palm Beach Day Academy, very graciously donated 40 pizzas, juices and cookies to everyone at the tournament. The parents and children were very grateful for Dr. Bogert's generosity and for the help from the staff at Palm Beach Day Academy. Thanks to Dr. Bogert, Donna Tobey, Dorothea Cvelbar and Jim Danni everything was very well organized and the children and the parents enjoyed the event. Ourt next Scholastic Tournament will be held at The Benjamin School on Saturday, April 10, 1100 Ellison Wilson Road, North Palm Beach, Florida 33408. For more information please call John Dockery, president/tournament director, at (561) 762-3377 or visit our Web site at www.palmbeachchessclub.info. Source: http://www.tcpalm.com Chess news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-02-24T00:08:00.000-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Students young, old match wits at chess tournament - Dallas Morning News | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:30:37 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Brainerd Warrior chess team tournament set - Brainerd Daily Dispatch | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:30:15 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Daily Planner: February 23 - Enterprise-Record | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:04:07 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FIDE Executive Director's visit to Colombia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Important working meetings were held in Cali, Colombia, on February 15th and 16th between the FIDE Executive Director, David Jarrett, the Continental President for the Americas, Jorge Vega, Head of Programmes and Field Operations for the organization Peace and Sport, Mr. Ludovic Hubler and the FIDE delegate of the Colombian Federation, Ing Alfonso Naranjo. Among the issues discussed were FIDE support to the Federation’s existing plans at the schools in the Department of Valle, the joint support of FIDE and Peace and Sport for the promotion of a scheme involving Peace and Sport’s partners in Colombia, Colombianitos, to encourage chess in disadvantaged areas where the violence level is very high, review of official events which Colombia will host in 2010 and seminars for arbiters and trainers. Colombia is a very active federation and offers strong support to the Continent through the organization of events. Events they are hosting in 2010 include the Continental Junior Under 20 Championships and the Pan American and Caribbean Youth Championships. The two seminars for trainers and arbiters are being aided by the annual grant from the IOC towards chess development. Peace and Sport, an organization under the patronage of H.S.H Prince Albert II of Monaco, aims to promote sustainable peace through the education and values of sport. Everyone visited the Colombianitos centres located in Puerto Tejada, Cauca Department, and it was agreed that Mr. Naranjo would formulate a budget regarding the needs of the children and young people attending chess events. Support would be provided by FIDE. There was a press conference attended by various sports media. Questions were dealt with by representatives from all interested parties. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:26:05 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Magnus Carlsen, the prince of chess turned king | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
He recently completed high school without huge success, but 19-year-old Magnus Carlsen is now already at the top of the chess world, following the footsteps of his mentor, legendary chess champion Garry Kasparov. On New Year’s Day, the mop-haired, sulky-looking Norwegian teen became the youngest player to ever top the rankings of best players published by the International Chess Federation (FIDE). Now he is setting his sights on the title of world champion. “It’s been one of my goals for many years to become the number one player and that’s about as far as you can reach in chess without winning the world championship. Obviously it’s a big thing,” Carlsen said. “The downside, of course, is that you have to answer questions like this a lot,” he added, matter-of-factly. Initiated into chess early on by his father, as a boy Magnus nevertheless preferred other pastimes which he explored on his own. Aged two, he could recite all car brands; as a five-year-old, he built monumental creations out of lego; then he moved on to memorising the world’s countries, their flags, capitals, and areas… But he was soon brought back to chess by the desire to beat his older sister at the game. He played in his first tournament at the age of eight and burst onto the chess scene when in 2004, at 13, he beat former world champion Anatoli Karpov, pushed Kasparov to a draw and became a chess grandmaster. “The Mozart of Chess” was born, as the Washington Post put it. The teen quickly became a regular of the chess circuit, where he could be seen with his shirt untucked and at times yawning and stretching during games. Despite his sluggish appearance, he climbed the chess hierarchy at dazzling speed. So much so that only a month after his nineteenth birthday, he wowed the chess universe as the youngest player to ever top the world rankings. Kasparov, who has coached Carlsen since 2009, was 20 years and nine months old when he made it to that milestone. “Before he is done, Carlsen will have changed our ancient game considerably,” Kasparov told Time magazine in January. The Russian player has helped the young Norwegian add a good measure of calculation and a broader repertory of openings to the extraordinary intuition that guides his quick and exact moves. But Carlsen also seeks to be a regular teen, spending his free time chatting on the Internet and playing football, squash and tennis. School, on the other hand, is definitely not his cup of tea. “I’ve focussed on chess for many years, so I didn’t care too much in the last few years,” he said when asked about his final exam results. “Magnus has normally been excellent at whatever he is interested in and if he’s not interested, then the results are not necessarily excellent,” his father Henrik intervened, explaining “there were probably not enough subjects (in school) in the last few years that he was definitely interested in.” The benevolent figure has accompanied his son throughout his chess career, and is quick to admit he hasn’t beat Magnus at the game for nine years. “If I can understand what he’s doing when he is playing, then I’m happy,” he added. For Magnus, the only title left to conquer is that of world champion, which he can only aspire to obtain in 2011 or 2012, because of the unpredictability of FIDE’s system. The chess prodigy admits he thinks about the title, but without obsessing over it. “A lot of players have got lost waiting for world championship matches… And for me, it’s much easier to think that the World Championship is far in the future and I won’t focus on it too much,” he said. “As for now, I’m focussing more on playing in tournaments and on winning them and staying at the number one rank,” he added. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-02-22T12:28:23Z | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Topalov beats Vallejo, increases lead in Linares | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 27th Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez “Ciudad de Linares” takes place February 12-25 in Linares, Andalucia, Spain. As a result of the financial crisis, the event went back to the (nowadays almost universal) formula of six players, double round-robin. This year Veselin Topalov (2805), Levon Aronian (2781), Boris Gelfand (2761), Vugar Gashimov (2759), Alexander Grischuk (2736) and Francisco Vallejo Pons (2705) play. The rounds start at 16:00 CET; rest days are on the 17th and the 22nd. The rate of play is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20, then 20 minutes for the rest of the game, wit 30 seconds increment starting from move 61. The Sofia rules for offering a draw apply in Linares for the first time. Round 6 report by Rick Goetzee Ljubomir Ljubojevic Ljubojevic met his wife-to-be at the 1981 tournament. He then decided to settle in Linares, also because there was quite a bit of chess activity in the region, apart from the yearly grandmaster tournament. In those years there were plans to bring chess to schools, but unfortunately they didn’t materialise. According to Ljubojevic this is a great pity, as he was often approached by parents telling him that their children would love to learn chess and he visited schools to talk about the game.  The press room, at the first floor of the Teatro Cervantes Recently a second attempt has been launched. Only two cities in Andalusia have plans to integrate chess in the school curriculum: Sevilla and Linares. Ljubojevic says that it is a pity that it took almost thirty years before a second attempt was made but ‘better late than never’. Ljubo doesn’t like the Sofia rules: ‘they are funny’. In his view top chess players are artists and artists have good days and bad days and this should be accepted as part of the game. Also he thinks it’s hard to enforce the rule, because if strong players want to make a draw they will find a way through a perpetual check or move repetition. “It is done because organisers think it will favour chess. What they should do is invite the right people, then they won’t have to worry about short draws.” There was some confusion at the start of today’s round at the board of Topalov-Vallejo. A guest made the first move and started the clock but Vallejo’s clock started to run. The arbiter had to intervene to reset the clock.  Topalov and Vallejo pointing out the error to arbiter Faik Gasanov Then Vallejo took three minutes to reply to Topalov’s 1.c4. After an English opening the game became very sharp as Vallejo setup an attack against Topalov’s king. It was hard, even for Ljubo, to give a correct evaluation of the position although it seemed that Vallejo was better. His main problem was the clock, having only one minute left for the last twelve moves. He played well for a long time till he hung a full rook on the 38th move and overstepped the time limit on move 40. According to GM Larry Christiansen on ICC’s Chess.FM, Gashimov proved to have done a lot of good homework against Gelfand’s Petroff. He achieved a promising position from the opening without counterplay for Black. However, Gelfand defended accurately and a draw was agreed in a knight endgame.
Grischuk decided to burn the midnight oil against Aronian, trying to win a rook vs knight endgame with an extra pawn for Black. In an empty pressroom there was still the voice of Leontxo Garcia continuing his commentary for the tournament website. Finally, at move 101, the players decided to call it a day.
Before we’ll leave you, we’d like to point out that GM Anish Giri, reigning Dutch champion and winner of the Corus B group this year, is doing wonderful commentary for Chessbase each round. This round he did Topalov-Vallejo, over here. Games round 6 with brief annotationsGame viewer by ChessTempo Linares 2010 | Pairings and resultsLinares 2010 | Round 6 Standings
 The town hall of Linares which proudly shows...  ...the tournament poster - something the Spanish are really good at  Andalusian palm trees in sunny Linares  The entrance of the venue; the Teatro Cervantes Photos © Rick Goetzee Links | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:41:19 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess lets kids make some moves - Columbia Daily Tribune | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:10:58 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Girls' chess challenge - Santa Rosa Press Democrat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:28:56 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hundreds compete in scholastic chess tournament - WLBT-TV | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:36:42 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Magnus Carlsen, the prince of chess turned king - AFP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:30:14 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Is this position stalemate? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Is the diagrammed position stalemate? Clearly not, as White has 20 legal moves that can be played. Of course one piece that cannot move is the King, (amongst others), but that hardly matters now does it? However anyone arbiting school events, where the knowledge of the rules of chess usually exceeds the understanding of them, has often come across an incorrect stalemate claim based on the idea that 'the king has no safe squares but isn't in check'. Usually I listen to such claims before pointing out the other pieces on the board that can move. Interestingly such an explanation is often met with a look of confusion ('but the king cannot move'). So to drive home the point I ask them if the king can move at the start of the game. After they answer 'no' then the truth usually dawns. But to cheer them up I usually tell them that under 'their' rules, they could easily draw with the World Champion, by claiming stalemate on move 1!  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:45:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mississippi Scholastic Chess | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Hundreds compete in scholastic chess tournament Feb 20, 2010 8:33 PM CST It's the weekend, but even so, many of our school children put their minds to work by playing chess. A huge crowd gathered at Forest Hill High School in Jackson Saturday for the 2010 Mississippi Scholastic Chess Championship. Individuals and teams from across the state competed for medals and trophies. Each match lasts about an hour. Chess is a game that adults love as much as kids. "It helps with cognitive, analytical thinking. It's also good for study habits. You have to prepare if you want to play really well in chess," says Douglas Stewart, President of the Mississippi Chess Association. More than 300 students from kindergarten through grade 12 participated, including children from 12 Jackson Public Schools. Source: http://www.wlbt.com Chess news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-02-21T07:56:00.001-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Guadeloupe’s 2010 Chess Campaign | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
16 February 2010 Guadeloupe is a beautiful island with a budding chess community. Located in the eastern Caribbean and like Martinique, is a part of overseas department of France. Guadeloupe recently celebrated their carnival and federation President Olivier Mouëza was proud to show off pictures to the fete. The island has hosted an open chess tournament in June 2009 which drew a number of strong players including France’s GM Jean-Marc Degraeve and the USA’s GM Maurice Ashley. The tournament was won by GM Namig Guliyev of Azerbaijan with 6/7. Currently the Guadeloupe Championship in progress. The defending champion Yves Ber has already been upset by Mouëza. The federation is now planning an event to raise funds for Haiti, a fellow Francophone nation. Mouëza has been in touch with Sabine Bonnet of the Academie d’Echecs.
GM Maurice Ashley signing autographs for Guadeloupean schoolkids in June 2009. Photo from echecs-guadeloupe.com. (Photos by Olivier Mouëza) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:33:41 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Holley beats Brockport, Hilton in chess - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:33:21 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Baltazar still on top of NCR Palaro chess - ABS CBN News | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:20:32 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Justus-Josh battle at IS-318! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shaun Smith, Chess-in-Schools (CIS) has organized a training match between two of the brightest stars in the U.S. chess scene. Both Justus Williams (2141) and Josh Colas (2114) are well-known here at The Chess Drum, but the world will see both talents on display at the Internet Chess Club on February 17th and 18th. Below is a report written for the USCF Online by Smith. By Shaun Smith February 16, 2010
Joshua Colas and Justus Williams to face off. From February 17-18, Justus Williams and Joshua Colas, two of the highest rated 11-year olds in the nation (#2 and #4 respectively), will face off in a rated match at IS 318K (4 rounds of G/60). Justus and Joshua are both rated over 2100 and are both on pace to break the record for the youngest African American master, currently held by Kassa Korley who became a master at age 15. Close friends Justus and Joshua recently played on the same team at the USATE. The match will take place over two days (February 17 + 18th) with rounds at 9:30am and 12:30pm each day.This is a perfect time to host the match as New York public schools are currently not in session due to mid-winter recess. The games will be broadcast live on the Internet Chess Club. To watch (Follow J-Williams or J-Colas) at 9:30am and 12:30pm both days. The winner of the match will receive multiple prizes including a brand new Monroi PCM generously donated by Monroi. USCF Online: http://main.uschess.org/content/view/10161/576 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:02:03 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Elizabeth Vicary Tucson Chess Workshop | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CHESS MOVIE (working title) from Rescued Media on Vimeo. Hi everyone! I just found out from the 9Queens web site that Elizabeth Vicary will be the host of a free chess workshop in Tucson on Saturday February 20. Here is the announcement: Tucson chess players, coaches, parents, teachers and enthusiasts come by Lineweaver Elementary School on Saturday February 20 to meet Elizabeth Vicary- nationally renowned chess teacher from IS 318 Brooklyn and star of the upcoming documentary Chess Movie. Beginning at 12 noon Elizabeth will answer questions and provide information on how to create and sustain your own chess club, regardless of your skill level or experience. For more information email jhoffman@9queens.org. Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:54:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Edward James Olmos urges school to fund chess documentary - Monitor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:57:17 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 * Chess Release Press Release * Chess Release Press Release * "The Sport for the Mind" INDIALANTIC, Florida, February 16, 2010 World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and the organizers of the Space Coast Open Chess Festival jointly announced today that Grandmaster and reigning Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk will play a 50-board simultaneous exhibition at the 17th Space Coast Open (SCO) Chess Festival (Indialantic, FL, April 23-25, 2010). World Champion Kosteniuk’s simul begins at 8 AM on Saturday, April 24 at the Crowne Plaza Melbourne Oceanfront Resort and Spa, Indialantic, FL. The entry fee is $40. The event is free for spectators. Challengers can register on-line now for the SCO and for a board at the simul via the event website, http://sco2010.eventbrite.com. A portion of the boards for the simul will be reserved for local students. The remaining reservations will be sold on a first come, first serve basis. GM Kosteniuk’s exhibition’s often sell out quickly, so don't wait! GM Kosteniuk will also sign her books at the event including her latest, Diary of a Chess Queen. In announcing GM Kosteniuk’s appearance and her simultaneous exhibition at the Space Coast Open, Space Coast Chess Foundation President, Dr. Peter Koretsky said, “We are thrilled to have World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk at the Space Coast Open Chess Festival. The chess world could not ask for a more charismatic World Champion than Alexandra. She is an energetic promoter of chess and its many positive aspects, and serves as an outstanding role model for our young players. For many of our local scholastics players this will be the only time they have an opportunity to both meet and play against a reigning World Champion. We are especially honored as Alexandra will be celebrating her 26th birthday during our festival weekend. The Space Coast Chess Foundation looks forward to partnering with Alexandra and her family to create an unforgettable experience for all who participate.” About Alexandra Kosteniuk Alexandra Kosteniuk is the 12th Women’s World Chess Champion. She learned to play chess at the age of five after being taught by her father. She earned the Women Grandmaster title in 1998 and the men’s Grandmaster title in 2004. She became the World Champion by winning a series of matches at the Women’s World Championship held in Nalchik, Russia in 2008. Alexandra promotes chess by traveling around the world giving simultaneous exhibitions in front of large crowds. Her goal is to show the world that “chess is cool”. Alexandra has combined her promotion of chess with fashion modeling and also played a part in a movie. She is also a prolific and popular chess journalist (books, DVDs and web) and in 2009 she was named the Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. For more information about Alexandra, see www.kosteniuk.com and www.chessblog.com. About the 17th Space Coast Open and the Space Coast Chess Foundation The Space Coast Open is sponsored by the Space Coast Chess Foundation and is Brevard County’s longest running chess tournament. The 17th Space Coast Open is open to all and is offering projected prize fund of $10,000. It will be held at the Crowne Plaza Melbourne Oceanfront Resort and Spa, 2605 N. Hwy A1A, Indialantic, FL from April 23-25, 2010. The tournament schedule has been flexibly organized such that players may easily participate in both the tournament and the simultaneous exhibition. Details and entry information are available at http://sco2010.eventbrite.com. The Space Coast Open is sponsored by the Space Coast Chess Foundation (SCCF), a community supported organization dedicated to the promotion of scholastic chess in Brevard County, FL. SCCF provides sponsorship for the Brevard County Scholastics Chess Grand Prix and provides free chess sets to Brevard County schools. SCCF also subsidizes needy scholastic chess players unable to afford Chess Festival events. Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:00:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| All ages welcome | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Visalia Chess Club gives people of all ages a chance to play game of skill BY HILLARY S. MEEKS • February 16, 2010 “It’s the sumo wrestling of the mind,” Allan Fifield said as he watched members of the Visalia Chess Club play chess at Panera Bread. Fifield, a Bakersfield resident, doesn’t always get to join in the club’s fun, but he does devote a lot of his time to teaching chess to the younger generations in the Central Valley. “Allan is the one who really brought chess to this area. I don’t think anyone worked as hard as Allen to ingrain the game in Tulare County,” said Dr. Joseph Bakhoum, a Visalia pediatrician and allergist. Fifield accomplished this through Sequoia Chess for Kids, an organization that teaches kindergarten through 12th-grade students how to play the game. He organizes 10 tournaments for the children annually in the Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties area every year. The next tournament will be March 6 at Tulare Western High School. Chess can be the one thing children is really good at, and that can give him or her confidence, Fifield said. That’s why he provides an opportunity for them to learn what he calls a timeless game. “I can go in the classroom and in 20 minutes have the kids playing, and having a good time,” Fifield said. Chess not only teaches a child how to think in a different way, but learning the game’s etiquette can teach them how to be good sports, and polite, he said. The students learn to shake hands before and after games and to be gracious, whether winning or losing. His lessons have gone a long way. “Allan started teaching me chess when I was this tall,” said Patrick Enrico, as he held his hand about 4 feet above the ground. Now 23 years old, Enrico travels from his hometown of Fresno to Visalia three times a week to play with the Visalia Chess Club. “It’s dangerously addictive,” he said. Bakhoum agreed with the young man’s observation, and said he’s been addicted to the game for the past 50 years, ever since his father taught him to play. “There’s an enormous diversity in it. In all these years, I don’t think I’ve ever played two similar games. There’s always a new challenge,” Bakhoum said. Source: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com Chess news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-02-16T09:00:00.003-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ACT Chess Championships - A new approach | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The ACTCA is trying a new approach to the ACT Championship for 2010. After years of declining numbers and declining strength, the Championship this year will shift from the '1 round a week at whatever club will hold it' format, to a compressed double weekender schedule. The first 4 rounds will be held on the weekend of the 27/28th of February with the last 5 rounds on the Canberra day long weekend of the 6th, 7th and 8th of March. 2 rounds a day will be played , except on the 8th, which will have 1 round followed by prize giving. It will be once again run as an open swiss, in part because recent proposals to move it to a round robin format keep getting shot down at the AGM. Time limits will be 90m+30s per move. Venue will be the ACT Junior Chess League Centre at Campbell High School. Entries will be taken on the date of the first round (26 Feb) from 9am. (Disclaimer: I will be the arbiter for this event, and will be paid for my efforts)  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:39:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Free Chess Workshop with Elizabeth Vicary | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CHESS MOVIE (working title) from Rescued Media on Vimeo. Tucson chess players, coaches, parents, teachers and enthusiasts come by Lineweaver Elementary School on Saturday February 20 to meet Elizabeth Vicary- nationally renowned chess teacher from IS 318 Brooklyn and star of the upcoming documentary Chess Movie. Beginning at 12 noon Elizabeth will answer questions and provide information on how to create and sustain your own chess club, regardless of your skill level or experience. For more information email jhoffman@9queens.org | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:58:32 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| India National Team Chess Championship - 21-27th February in Gurgaon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 30th National Club Team Chess Championship and 8th National Club Team Chess Championship for Women is being organized by The Haryana Chess Association and Distt. Chess Association Gurgaon under the aegis of All India Chess Federation (AICF) from 21st to 27th Feb. at prestigious venue D.A.V. Public School, Sector -14, Gurgaon. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:11:55 +0100 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Local calendar Feb. 11 edition - Lexington Minuteman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:36:46 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wrestling is a chess game to Swindell - Libertyville Review | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:05:05 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Albion Middle School shuts out Brockport, Kendall, Hilton in chess - Rochester Democrat and Chronicl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:14:51 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Local Middle School Chess Team Wins State Chess Championships - Mirror | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:10:56 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bahamas hosts GM Norwood | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Contact: Mr. Kean A. Smith, President 242-323-5258 February 8th, 2010
plays Chess Simultaneous in The Bahamas Kean Smith, President of The Bahamas Chess Federation (BCF) said that “The Bahamas Chess Federation (BCF) was delighted to welcome Grand Master Dave Norwood (2503) to Nassau. Last year September, GM Norwood visited Nassau and agreed to play a 30 board chess simultaneous when he returns in February, 2010. In addition, he committed to raising $10,000 to help the BCF defray the costs of hosting the 15 country Caribbean Chess Sub Zonal which is schedule for June this year. We were delighted that he kept his commitments on both counts because without his support, we would not be the first country in the English Speaking Caribbean to host this tournament.” GM Norwood said that he is happy to assist with the development of chess in the Bahamas particularly because of its benefits to school age children and the community at large. He said that he looks forward to continue working with the BCF as much as his schedule permits. Permanent Secretary of The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Mr. Archie Nairn brought remarks on behalf of the Minister of Sports, Hon. Charles Maynard. Mr. Nairn said that the Ministry is happy to see the progress the BCF has made and is making as a developing sport in the Bahamas. He continued by saying that he is delighted to see an annual resident like GM Norwood become part of the Bahamian community and support our development in such a tangible way. Mr. Nairn encouraged the BCF to develop chess in other islands. Following his comments, the Chess Simultaneous began. 
GM Norwood begins his game with scholastic player Sanni Carlos GM Norwood is British born Grand Master who earned his title in 1989. In addition to being an Oxford graduate, he is the author of two chess books and is a former Chess Columnist at the Daily Telegraph. He is only the third GM to play a chess simultaneous in The Bahamas since the BCF became a member of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) in 1974. The other Grand Masters were GM Lothar Schmid who played a simultaneous in 1974 and GM Raymond Keene in the mid 1980’s. 
From left to right: GM Norwood, Wilshire Major, Polina Major and In the photo above Norwood makes his move while his fiancée Rebecca kibitzes. Eight-year old Polina Major (wearing red cap) ponders her next moves while National Champion, Yan Lyansky, does the same. Polina is one of the up and coming players having played in the World Youth Chess Championship 2009 which was held in Turkey. The Simultaneous was a great success. A total of 26 players from the Bahamian chess playing community participated in the simultaneous. Norwood won 24 games and was held to two draws. The players who drew with Norwood were 2008 National Chess Champion, Ken Gibson and Joseph Ferguson. They were both delighted with their result in the exhibition being the first Bahamians to draw with a GM in a chess simultaneous. The Simultaneous attracted players who had remained inactive for many years like Marvin Taylor, Andrew Moss and Dereck Moss. It also attracted Hadren Simmons who is visiting the Bahamas from New Jersey, U.S.A. participated in the event. 
From left to right: Kean Smith, Hadren Simmons and GM Norwood. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:50:40 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Boody-IS 228 wins Junior High Novice Chess Crown for third year - YourNabe.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:12:03 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess Movie - The Story of I.S.318 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scholastic chess is the lifeblood of our wonderful game. Most of us learned to play while in school and once bitten by the bug it stays with us for life! Despite it's demonstrated benefits to young people, chess is not usually a priority for s... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:07:26 -0800 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chernyshov first on tiebreak in Moscow | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 6th Moscow Open took place January 30-February 7 at the Russian State Social University in Moscow, Russia. The festival consisted of many different events, and attracted 1,500 participants from 30 countries worldwide. The main event, a very strong 9-round Swiss, consisted of 187 players, including 73 grandmasters and 49 masters. The time control was 1 hour and 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move 1. The tournament was surprisingly won by 46th seeded Konstantin Chernyshov. In the last round the grandmaster from Voronezh drew with Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem and so the two ended the tournament with 7 points, together with Evgeny Bareev and Ernesto Inarkiev. Chernyshov was declared winner as he had the highest number of wins. Le Quang Liem ended second and Bareev third. The prize fund of the main tournament was 2,500,000 rubles (60,000 Euros) and the first prize 500,000 (12,000 Euros).  Chernyshov and Liem shaking hands for their last-round game Moscow Open 2010 | Final Standings (top 40)
Selection of gamesGame viewer by ChessTempo
Apparently the two believe in the power of love. The interview was conducted when Sasikiran was leading the tournament. Shirov: “Naturally, he is very high class player. Besides, not so long ago he got married, and this also gives an additional impetus.”  Winter in Moscow, chess in Moscow  One of the playing halls in the university  Second on tiebreak: Le Quang Liem  Third on tiebreak, still going strong: Evgeny Bareev  Fourth on tiebreak: Ernesto Inarkiev  Krishnan Sasikiran had a good start, but finished on shared 5th-15th  Vladimir Belov, also shared 5th-15th  Bu Xiangzhi, also shared 5th-15th  Open tournament tiger Evgeny Najer, this time shared 15th-28th  Top seed Alexander Motylev, also shared 15th-28th  Giovanni Vescovi from Brazil, shared 15th-28th  Semen Dvoirys ended on 5.5 points  Ian Nepomniachtchi, also shared 15th-28th  Hou Yifan ended on a disappointing 4.5/9  Evgeny Sveshnikov still plays and ended on 4 points Photos © Maria Fomynikh, Eldar Mukhametov, Yana Melnikova Links | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:58:03 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MSU hosts children's chess tournament - MSU State News | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:50:00 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Is Nakamura the ‘Real Deal’? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hikaru Nakamura has quite a story to tell. Born in Osaka, Japan and arriving in the U.S. at the age of two, Nakamura has been gracing the pages of chess magazines since he began breaking many of Bobby Fischer’s records. One of the first indicators of chess talent is the age record for National Master. There have been many talented players to come through the scholastic ranks, but many either quit playing after high school, or shortly after reaching National Master. When Nakamura entered Dickinson College, there were fears that America would lose yet another promising talent along the likes of Grandmasters Michael Wilder and Patrick Wolff. Under the early tutelage of his stepfather FM Sunil Weeramantry and the mentorship of older brother Asuka Nakamura, young Hikaru shattered the record reaching the mark in 10 years, 79 days. In 2008, his record was later lowered to 9 years, 11 months by Nicholas Nip, a player who is no longer active. Five years later, he broke Bobby Fischer’s long-standing record by earning Grandmaster status in 15 years, 79 days. Media comparisons to Fischer immediately heightened when he won the U.S. Championship at age 16. However, Nakamura reminded everyone, “I’m not Bobby Fischer.” He was intimating the point that Fischer was an unbalanced individual who only thought of chess. Of course, this was only half the story with Fischer, but certainly he was one who could not operate comfortably outside of the chess realm. When you talk to Nakamura, he is comfortable talking about a wide range of topics including his beloved Vancouver Canucks hockey team. He also has a variety of interests including music, finance, sports and politics. Many of the existing stereotypes of Nakamura are based on history from his teen years and commentary from online chess servers.  Chief Organizer Erik Anderson (left) stands next to GM Hikaru Nakamura and WGM Rusudan Goletiani after both were crowned the 2004 U.S. Champions. Nakamura’s talent was hardly questioned on the U.S. scene as he had put together an impressive résumé of wins. At the closing ceremonies of the 2003 U.S. Championship, winner Alexander Shabalov singled out a young Nakamura and stated that he had a bright future in chess. In American tournaments, Nakamura’s brash style has become a breath of fresh air in a sport that had become stagnant with the same players competing every year in the U.S. Championships and the open tournaments. His victory the next year was definitely good for chess. Once Nakamura joined the elite class in the U.S., he carried a reputation as being an isolationist and distrustful of his colleagues. He rankled many when he made comments about collusion among the U.S. elite. “That’s actually why I still work alone. It’s very hard to trust anybody.” However, as Nakamura begin to ascend to a world-class level, he enlisted some help. After the 2009 U.S. Championship, he mentioned that he had been working with National Master Kris Littlejohn. This choice of a second puzzled many, but has paid dividends. 
Viktor Mikalevski ponders Gata Kamsky’s next move while Nakamura-Najer reaches the climatic stage of the 2009 World Open. Photo by Daaim Shabazz. In U.S. chess, there had been too many “friendships” between top players which resulted in many quick draws and dispirited play. Nakamura was dismissive of these tactics and forced the issue with his ‘play-to-win’ attitude. His determination affords him psychological capital when an opponent understands that they have to fight when they are already content on drawing. This fighting spirit came into great effect when he won his first U.S. Championship at age 16. However, in an important interview in Salon magazine, there were still had doubters.
Nakamura’s sales pitch to Europe was more difficult, but he was beginning to pick up momentum. Tournament organizers were attracted to his brash, no-nonsense style. He has since broken through in a number of strong tournaments and is now comfortably ensconced in the top 20. Many detractors rail at the notion that Nakamura has not gotten the opportunities to face the elite level. They cite his skipping Corus “B” in 2008 for the Gibraltar Masters as a snub. Nakamura cited inadequate conditions, but made good on his trip by winning Gibraltar. He added a few more accolades including the 2009 U.S. Championship, 960 World Championship and the Cap d’Agde Rapid Tournament (over Anatoly Karpov and Vassily Ivanchuk). There were still doubters who stated that he couldn’t win in a strong classical tournament. After playing poorly in the London Classic, Nakamura finally got his coveted invite to Corus “A” and made a strong showing with 7.5/13 (4th place). Magnus Carlsen, the winner of the tournament, identified Nakamura as a new rival. On various chess blogs, the conversation of Nakamura ascendancy is a popular topic. Naysayers continue to claim Nakamura is not worthy of “elite” status for very specific reasons. After he refutes these reasons, another set will be created and standards increased. At this point, pundits state that Nakamura has to make top 10 to be considered seriously as a World Championship. Last year, it was top 20. Of course, the candidacy of players such as Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin or Teimour Radjabov was recognized almost immediately. What is the difference? The theory was that the European stars were “battle-tested” and Nakamura had not faced tough competition. Many top chess journals, websites and blogs take liberties to print negative portrayals of the young American star. Even his head-to-head blitz victory over Carlsen in Norway was trivialized. So the question…”Is Nakamura the ‘Real Deal’?” Does he have World Championship potential? When Vladimir Kramnik was asked this question, he seems to believe that Nakamura is a legitimate talent, but stopped short of giving a full endorsement. Most of the fans and journalists believe that Carlsen is the heir apparent to Viswanathan Anand or Veselin Topalov, but it is not certain if Carlsen will maintain his level. The performance of Anish Giri turned some heads and the Chinese and Indians deserve attention. If one looks at Nakamura, he has many things going for him.
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GM Hikaru Nakamura at 2010 Corus in Wijk aan Zee. Will these factors mean that he has enough to win a World Championship? Time will tell. One thing that is true is that if Nakamura has his goal set and resources are not an issue, he will have more than an adequate shot at winning the World Championship. He is only 22 years old and he will continue to get better. The downside is does not have a sponsor and gets limited help from his federation which means that he does not have the luxury of focusing purely on chess development. In a 2005 interview with the New York Times, Nakamura summed up his chances.
Nakamura has the tenacity, the nerves and still has some areas of improvement in his game. Given Carlsen’s breach of 2800, there will be a new cadre of players to vie for the world crown. With the right combination of training, sponsorship and tournament invitations, Nakamura hopes to be one in that number. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:38:07 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Can Chess Get You Into College? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Conventional wisdom suggests that you must participate in a wide range of academic and extra-curricular activities to get into a top tier university. Examples include math club, debate team, band or a varsity sport. Where does chess fit into the picture? Over the years, there has been little evidence that competitive colleges view chess as more than another club.A parent pointed out this article from April 2008 about admissions at UC Berkeley. I wouldn't have thought much about it except for one 5-letter word in this paragraph. "The admitted class for fall 2008 also excels beyond academics. It includes a world champion in youth division sailing, a student who wrote a symphony during high school, a back-up dancer for a pop star on a U.S. concert tour, a national chess tournament champion, an international Irish dance competition winner, several Olympic and Junior Olympic medalists and a set of quadruplets."Perhaps there is hope after all! It is just a few short words, yet they say chess matters. The more frequently admissions officers see chess listed among activities, the better the chances that it leaves a positive impression. In fact, my teaching experience has shown that chess can indeed be one component of a successful college application, especially when supported by thoughtful essays.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:21:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Saratoga Wins Santa Clara County High School Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
   The top ranked Saratoga High School chess team dominated the 2010 Santa Clara County High School Chess Championship on February 6 at Monta Vista High  School. While Saratoga has won five straight CalChess state scholastic titles, Monta Vista won the county chess league two months ago and was looking for more. Order was restored to the universe as Saratoga players took home four of the top five place trophies, plus the perpetual trophy awarded to the top team.
 team standings, Saratoga's top three combined for 13.0 while Monta Vista only managed 11.0.Kudos to Charles and Evan, plus the rest of the Saratoga team! (Rolland Wu and Sankash Shankar both finished at 50%.) The players built on the success from the New Year's Open and Golden State Open, where Evan, Charles and Brian combined to pilfer over $1600. Next up are the Denker Qualifier in March and the CalChess Scholastics in April. Can the Saratoga dynasty capture a record setting sixth consecutive state K-12 team title?  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:37:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 13 year old phenom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 He's 13 and ready to enter university By Amelia Tan Sun, Feb 07, 2010 The Straits Times A SINGAPOREAN boy sat for the British equivalent of the GCE A-level examinations last year and aced all his papers - and he was not even 13 yet. Muhammad Haikal Abdullah Zain, a former student of Rosyth School, scored straight As in Biology, Physics and Chemistry, which he took last November. He turned 13 a month later and plans to apply to study medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS). The A-level exams Haikal sat last year carry the same weight as the GCE A levels taken by junior college students here, said the British Council, which administers the exam. NUS confirmed it would accept students with those qualifications. ...During Haikal's study leave, he also took time off to pursue his other interests such as chess and computer programming. He has won medals at international and national competitions for chess, holds a Grade 8 certificate in violin, and practises taekwondo. He studied for the exams without any coaching from anyone, said his mother. Haikal said he has dreamt of studying medicine since he was six and hopes to become a neurologist because 'the brain controls almost all the functions of the body and I think it will be interesting to study how it works'. Here is the full article. Chess news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-02-07T00:45:00.001-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| New Books and Articles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ChessOK has new, freshly printed chess books to offer:
Also don’t miss out two new articles: Aquarium Hidden Treasures, Part two which speaks of many not-so-obvious features and tricks of Aquairum and Networked Computers with Aquarium 2010 which describes how to use Aquarium in a network of the computers to increase the analysis power. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:58:23 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scholastic tournament in Orange County | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Published: Feb. 3, 2010 Updated: 6:10 p.m. Scholastic chess tournament on deck By BARBARA GIASONE THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER FULLERTON – Youths in grades kindergarten through 12 from throughout Orange County are invited to test their chess-playing skills at the 36th annual Morrison Scholastic Chess Tournament on Feb. 27 at Orangethorpe Elementary School. Registration, including name, grade and school, may be e-mailed to Amchesseq@aol.com. There is no entry fee. The tournament does not require a United States Chess Federation membership, and will not impact national ratings. Check-in time is 9 to 9:45 a.m. with all equipment provided. Tournament play, run as a round-robin event, begins at 10 a.m. Play will continue until noon when the tournament hall will close for a one-hour lunch break. At 1 p.m. play will resume and continue until all games are completed or until 3 p.m. Trophies will be awarded to the first-, second- and third-place winners in each section of each grade. The first place winner, based on tie-breaks, will also receive a 50 percent discount on the entry fee for the SoCal Super States Scholastic Championship in Irvine on March 27 and 28. Orangethorpe school is at 1400 S. Brookhurst Road in Fullerton. Information: 714-998-5508. Source: http://www.ocregister.com Chess news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-02-04T00:03:00.000-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess at I.S. 318: A Movie in the Making? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I.S. 318 has been one of the most successful scholastic programs in the U.S. They have won 26 national championships and boast a cadre of young stars that will help add to the tally. A wife and husband team of Katie and Nelson Dellamaggiore is trying to raise funds to film a movie about the school and have founded a company called, “Rescue Media.” The minimum goal is $4000. The company has various donor levels and offer a variety of awards based upon the award amount. On the right is a link to the promo page. The video features interviews of a number of players includings several who have been featured here on The Chess Drum. Justus Williams talks about his aspirations and also his challenges. I.S. 318 star Alexis Paredes is also featured. There is also a young player who talks about how chess has helped him to grapple with his ADHD condition. Darrian Robinson and Rochelle Ballantyne are also featured. Elizabeth Vicary has combined her passion for teaching with the raw talent of the players and along with John Galvin have helped to created a powerhouse.
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Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:13:15 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The 76 lbs little genius | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The Chess Champ Sheila Sarhangi Honolulu Magazine / February 2010 / Our Geniuses He’s 11 years old, weighs 76 pounds and he can kick your behind in chess with his eyes closed. In April 2009, Ford Nakagawa beat competitors in his age bracket to earn the title of United States Chess Federation 2009 national champion. (He’s actually co-champion since he shares the title with a kid from Massachusetts.) His parents taught him how to play when he was 8 years old, and, after roughly seven months, he entered his first tournament—a state scholastic championship in which he tied as the winner. He’s been the state champ or co-champ of his age group for three consecutive years since. “We don’t even try to play him anymore; we’re not even a challenge,” says his father, Bert, who adds that the game has helped Ford improve his concentration and schoolwork. So what does Ford think about when he’s knee-deep in a match? “Winning and the trophy,” he says, grinning. Source: http://www.honolulumagazine.com Chess news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-02-03T01:06:00.000-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Students gather awards at chess tourney - St. Cloud Times | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:36:38 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TTU the Victors | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 TTU the Victors: Red Raiders raked in the awards in 2009 By Matthew Mcgowan AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Monday, February 01, 2010 Story last updated at 2/1/2010 - 12:36 am The trophies have been lining up at Texas Tech. Forget football, basketball, track, or other sports. You won't find these - with one possible exception - on ESPN. Red Raiders have been racking up the victories against rival groups across the country. Chess Thirty-two pieces in two colors on 64 squares. Then add to that four national and two state titles on top of one open championship and you've got chess on Tech's terms. "Other schools have chess teams," said Paul Truong, assistant coach and director of marketing for Tech's 21/2-year-old Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence. "It's not about teams. We have an institute. It's not just about chess competitions. It's multi-faceted." And, judging from the string of victories above, all won by Red Raiders in the past six months, Truong is right. SPICE has become a hot-spot breeding ground of chess champions. The institute's select few Knight Raider chess teams have tacked a slew of accomplishments onto their resumes in the past few months. Knight Raiders A-Team members Gergely Antal, Davorin Kuljasevic, Gabor Papp and Chase Watters - all international masters - collectively came home from Houston with a Texas collegiate championship in November. In the same tournament, Hungarian-born Antal and Croatian-born Kujasevic won first and second place, respectively, in the individual competition. The next month, the same team tied for second place for Division 1 of the 2009 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship on South Padre Island. Again at South Padre, Antal and Kujasevic took individual honors, tying for first place. By that point, however, Antal, an economics student, had already been on a roll. He won September's 75th Annual Southwest Open in Fort Worth. That's to say he took the No. 1 spot out of 245 players at the open. But that was after he made history for Tech in August by winning the 2009 World Chess Live Tournament of College Champions - a major win, the first major national title for a Knight Raider. The Knight Raiders A-Team's win in December qualified them for a seat at the President's Cup in March, which Truong described as "college chess' Final Four Championship. Source: Avalanche Journal Chess news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-02-01T07:40:00.002-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| conscious exposure on a coathanger | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tentative said: "Yet in two very recent games against 1950 players I won by the basic pattern "Attack the Guard". They move, I attack the Guard, and they resign. This is a very simple pattern, yet they missed it in 1 move deep." This indicates an ommission in their arsenal. There are a few tactics that are not well known by the old school while those who have done the stepsmethod are well familiar with it. This is expressed by the fact that the old school has to consciously think about these combinations - which is prone to error, time and energy consuming and can easy be overlooked - while the stepsmethodists see it right away. More and more I'm beginning to believe that I look way too complicated towards training. Mere conscious exposure seems to suffice. No matter the form. The problem only being that we often think we are conscious while in reality we function on automatic pilot. Where did I park my car two weeks ago? It has disappeared in the blurr of all my parking memories. Just as the chessgames on the internet tend to dissappear in the chessblurr. What is the way out? We simply have to organize our experiences and hang it on a coathanger. Keep a diary and analize the tendencies in your experiences. Immediately sort new experiences out and hang them on an appropriate hanger on the rack. Only then the experiences don't disappear in the mist of time. In fact a blog like this is (a very simple form of) such diary. Which prevents me from making the same mistakes over and over again. Child prodigies assimilate this with ease. Adults have to make a conscious effort. The shere numbers of different topics in chess tends to hold us back. That's why we need an all covering system. My System, for instance:) Tentative said: "To resume my advice: learn tactics and positional play well and then move on to improving your calculation skills." Indeed calculation skills look different. There seems to be a part of the skills where specialized microdrills are needed. But enhancing the arsenal seems to have top priority for 1900 and below. BTW I'm doing well at Corus with 4.5/8 sofar. Margriet had to withdraw due to illness after two games, alas. I have now read My System twice, so I have an idea what it is about. Time to read it for the third time and go into the details.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:38:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Help for Haitian Chess Family | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The world has been gripped by the horrific images stemming from the Haitian earthquake. There has been support to various non-govermental and humanitarian organizations. However, there is no way to know whether a given person will get the assistance they need. Families lost their homes, prized possessions and family records, so the burdens are heavy. The impact of these losses are incaluable. The Bonnet family is one of thousands of families experiencing this ordeal at this time. Sabine Bonnet is a noted member of the Haitian chess community and led a major effort for youth chess with the L’Acadamie d’Echecs. The dream of teaching chess to the youth became a passion, but her dreams have been dashed for the time being. She is now facing a tremendous challenge in regaining a normal life. Fortunately, she, her husband and children were able to escape serious injury. I spoke to her and she stated that she lost everything and things are “very difficult”. Her main concern seemed to be getting her two children (ages 7 and 5) back into school, but of course there are day-to-day needs as well. Below is the link to a fundraiser for Sabine, her husband, Jean Rene and their children. While chess is the least of our concerns for Haiti at this moment, we hope that this will be a small example of the chess community supporting Haiti and its citizens. Please give what you feel you can give. (Note: Thanks to Adia Onyango of New York who brought to my attention the chess initiative of Sabine Bonnet. Thereafter, we tried contacting Sabine and she eventually responded to both of us!) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:57:25 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess Club: No pads, no helmets, just pawns - Philadelphia Public School Notebook (blog) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:42:47 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FM Zierk Wins Falconer Award | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Mechanics' Institute chess director IM John Donaldson reports that Los Gatos High School junior FM Steven Zierk won the 2010 Falconer Award as Northern California's top rated kid. The cash award, given by former US Senior Champion and longtime Mechanics' Institute Trustee Neil Falconer to the highest rated Bay Area player under 18 on the December rating supplement, is equal to the youngster's rating - in Steven's case $2,387. Past winners of this prestigious prize include IM Vinay Bhat (now a Grandmaster) and IM Sam Shankland.The fight for this year's came down to the final tournament in Reno, the Western States Open, with FM Daniel Naroditsky ahead by 45 points. Steven literally needed to pull off a 2700 level performance, which is exactly what he did by beating one Grandmaster and drawing with two others. I predict these two teenagers, both now rated above 2420 and ranked in the top 15 of the country under age 21, will compete neck and neck again in 2010. Here's a summary of Steven Zierk's many chess achievements. (Photo at top by Shorman.)
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Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:45:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Calabar 'A' top Corporate Area chess play-off - Jamaica Observer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:00:52 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Russia, USA, and China confirm participation in Intercontinental chess - Intercontinental school tea | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Intercontinental school teams chess championship is going to take place March 26 – 28, 2010. Players will be divided in U18, U16, U14, U12, U10 sections. Each National Federation may enter an unlimited number of School Teams. Team composition shall consist of four students from the same school and in the same age group; any combination of boys and girls is allowed. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:29:27 +0100 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Review: Revolutionize Your Chess | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I loved Moskalenko’s previous work, The Flexible French, hands down. I positively reviewed it back in 2008, and I also rather liked his book on the Budapest Gambit. This time, however, Moskalenko has written a completely different kind of book – a much more ambitious kind of book, to say the least. On the cover we read that this book is ‘a brand-new system to become a better player’. Now, I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear the word ’system’ together with the words ‘to become a better player’, I tend to turn sober right away and put on my most sceptical glasses. Haven’t we heard such claims before, and haven’t authors learned from the past? Apparently not. Well, as the saying goes, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so let’s just see what Moskalenko’s got up his sleeve. By the way, what’s with all these ‘improve your chess’ books recently? It’s almost as if all modern chess titles focus on the improvement of the reader, of you, rather than on providing amusement and interesting stuff. I think this is a misunderstanding of many reader’s motivations to buy books. I, for one, am not at all primarily interested in improving my chess by means of chess books – I read them because they tell me something interesting, not because I want to score points. The most important thing is to enjoy chess, no? Improving is only of secondary interest to me, but hey, that’s just me of course. More importantly, I think improving one’s chess can be achieved by studying any chess book seriously. As far as I’m concerned, this doesn’t have to be mentioned in the title time and again. Anyway, back to Revolutionize Your Chess. First, I would like to invite you to read the first few paragraphs of the book’s foreword in full. Then, I will comment upon it.
Frankly, I find this introduction amazing. Amazingly silly, that is. If, as Moskalenko claims, the general rules of the game have not been discovered yet, how come there are thousands of grandmasters adopting them, tens of thousands of IMs who play well above the level of the ‘most players’ Moskalenko intends as his audience? How did all these very strong players acquire their current or past level of play without these ‘general rules of the game’? Apparently, they’re all doing fine without Moskalenko’s new system! Even if we grant Moskalenko the idea that these players, too, have still not grasped the ‘right’ system, or that they somehow ’intuitively’ acquired it, how to explain why some players did ‘get’ this intuition and others didn’t? I hope you see the logical trap Moskalenko has set for himself on the very first page of the book. It makes his task for the other 340 pages considerably more difficult. But let’s not waste time with this introduction, which may, after all, have just been a commercial stunt. (Disappointing all the same, since I expect a more honest approach from the New in Chess editors.) More interesting are Moskalenko’s ideas about the history of the present ‘general rules of the game’, even if they, too, are hopelessly flawed. After introducing the well-known Elements of Steinitz (and, later, of Alexander Kotov), with its ‘permanent and temporary advantages’, Moskalenko mysteriously writes:
I’ve puzzled over this statement for quite some time, especially the part about temporary advantages becoming permanent, but I failed to understand it. My conclusion is that it’s either truly brilliant or truly stupid. I mean, isn’t it a characteristic of a temporary thing to be able to change into, well, something else – say, something permanent? For instance, according to Moskalenko, one of Steinitz’ temporary advantages is ‘bad piece position of the opponent’. Surely Steinitz understood that if the position of a bad piece didn’t change during the game, it could become a permanent disadvantage? Shouldn’t we give that credit to the first World Champion? I think we should. Of course, I acknowledge it’s entirely possible that it’s just me who doesn’t understand what Moskalenko is up to here. Perhaps his theory makes perfect sense to grandmasters and not to amateurs. Or it makes perfect sense to people who don’t like to think things through that much. After all, I like to see myself as a philosopher, too, and perhaps I’m just looking for problems that really aren’t there? But in that case, what kind of audience did Moskalenko have in mind, and shouldn’t he have done more effort to be a little more explicit in what he means, especially given the ambitions he has clearly expressed? And it gets worse. While describing Emanuel Lasker’s six general rules of attack and defence - based upon Steinitz’ - in Lasker’s Manual of Chess, of which the first rule is: ‘In chess only the attacker wins’, Moskalenko writes: ‘My problem here is that what Lasker explains are philosophical concepts. What can you do with these ideas concretely, when you’re sitting at the board?’ In the last paragraph of the foreword, Moskalenko promises to ‘make an attempt to systemize this dynamic approach to our game’. But in fact no such systemization is made in Revolutionize Your Chess at all. What Moskalenko does – and, fortunately, often quite well – is explain what chess skills a complete player needs, and what elements may play a role in determining these chess skills, and the ability to make good evaluations during practical play. First, there are the ‘Chess Skills’. Moskalenko mentions opening knowledge, endgame knowledge and middlegame knowledge (which consists of strategic and tactical skills) and then mentions tactical and strategical skills again as separate skills. The sixth skill he mentions is ‘Basic Knowledge of the Chess Rules’. This ‘chess rules knowledge’, Moskalenko explains, again include tactics and strategy. Rather confusing, if you ask me. Of slightly more interest are Moskalenko’s six ‘Personal Skills’: memory, disposition (the will to win), psychological skills, physical condition, discipline and concentration. Indeed these are useful and very important skills; still, identifying such skills is hardly original, let alone ‘revolutionary’, since it’s been done many times before by authors like Mark Dvoretsky, Jonathan Rowson and Alex Yermolinsky, to mention just a few recent ones. In the next chapter, Moskalenko elaborates on the ‘general chess rules’ mentioned before. He introduces his ’dynamic system with Five Touchstones’, the core of the book, as follows:
And sure enough, the author lists ‘Moskalenko’s Five Touchstones’ of dynamic chess as follows:
Again, Moskalenko stresses that a chess player should especially ’sense when the factor time (T5) is prevalent, in order to get a firm grip on the key moments of the key moments in the game.’ But doesn’t this all sound very, very familiar to you? Fans of Jonathan Rowson will no doubt recognize the five ‘dimensions in chess’ from chapter 7 of his book Chess for Zebras (material, opportunity, time, quality, psychology). Note the inclusion of ‘time’ in Rowson’s list. Tellingly, Moskalenko’s bibliography does not include Chess for Zebras, but we could forgive Moskalenko for this were it not for the fact that this talk of ‘dimensions’ – including a ’Time’ dimension - in chess is not at all Rowson’s invention but … Garry Kasparov’s. As Rowson had already discussed in an even earlier book, The Seven Deadly Chess Sins (talk about listing elements of chess!), Kasparov thinks of chess as a game of three dimensions: Material (piece value), Quality (positional features) and Time (initiative). In The Seven Deadly Chess Sins, Rowson even adds another ‘Time’ dimension to this list: time on the clock, or ‘ticking time’. The details are of no concern to us now – what is, is that Moskalenko is apparently unaware of this discussion, nor of the fact that Robert Hübner has discussed (and demolished) Kasparov’s dimensions theory as well (in ChessBase magazine, 2003). Particularly, Rowson writes in Chess for Zebras:
Rowson discusses the various aspects of these concepts in great detail, agreeing with Hübner as saying that ‘the significance of these expressions for the description of chess structures has been overestimated because they can be applied in every situation’, but at the same time conceding that such an approach can have ‘considerable pedagogical weight’. Again, let’s not go into too much detail – what’s important to note is that Moskalenko’s discussion on his own elements is extremely simplistic by this standard. (What about Moskalenko’s touchstones ‘collapsing into each other’? Can’t they, too, be applied in almost any situation?) And this is especially painful because Moskalenko boasts that ‘in most books about chess rules the concept of Time is simply ignored, and in practice their chess laws do not work – or do not make much sense – for this precise reason.’ He fails, however, to see that perhaps they fail in practice precisely because concepts like Time and Material (and indeed all other ‘touchstones’) are such tricky philosophical ideas in the first place. Summing up my problems with the theoretical part of Revolutionize Your Chess, I conclude that:
Let’s now turn to the practical application of Moskalenko’s theory in analysis and game situations. Moskalenko is a great chess instructor and, as always, he chooses his examples well. No doubt they are interesting, as was obviously the case in his previous books. But in the current book, the comments are often needlessly confusing because Moskalenko wants to include his touchstones all the time. Consider the following typical example:
First of all, all these T-numbers look extremely distracting. I kept leafing back to the page where the touchstones are listed to see which T is which, disrupting my concentration. Moskalenko himself admits this on the following page when he says that ‘keeping score on all the touchstones throughout the game is hard, if not impossible’, but then assures us we will acquire an intuition for it in due course. (By the way, recall what I said about having fun reading chess books. Did you enjoy all these T’s?) Another huge problem in just this one example is Moskalenko’s use of the word ‘dynamic’: he considers both 9.d5 and 9…e6 to be dynamic, but fails to give any reasons as to why he thinks this is the case. And wasn’t this precisely his problem with older methods – that they failed to define and realize the concept of ‘dynamics’? And even if we would have a definition, what use is dynamic play when the alternatives, such as 9.Be3, are sometimes better objectively? Shouldn’t we learn to play the best moves first? Okay, perhaps I’m reading way too much in this one example. To be sure, there are better examples in the book, but they all suffer from the same illness: too much focus on the touchstones for the sake of the touchstones only. I’m sure you can improve your chess if you study the examples closely - but then again you can also learn a lot from studing the examples of any other good chess book that offers good explanations. On top of that, there are numerous other flaws in the book. Moskalenko’s big chapter on the Opening features examples from 1.d4 openings only – bummer for 1.e4 players who thought they were being ‘dynamic’ by opening with the king’s pawn! (In fact most examples from the chapter on the middlegame are also taken from 1.d4 openings.) Finally, it struck me that, unlike an author like Lars Bo Hansen, Moskalenko mainly uses his own games as illustration to a specific topic when he’s winning them. For me, this was the final nail to this book’s coffin. Don’t get me wrong, Viktor Moskalenko seems like a sympathetic author and he sure is a respected and very strong grandmaster, but in this book he comes across as a bit of a show-off who pompously presents his ‘revolutionary’ ideas whithout any kind of self-reflection and knowledge of chess-philosophical matters. The book does contains good stuff, but I liked the Viktor Moskalenko of The Flexible French much, much better. I hope he returns soon. Links | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:38:33 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess tourney Saturday at CAHS - Cheboygan Daily Tribune (subscription) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:43:35 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Local calendar Jan. 28 edition - Lexington Minuteman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:00:41 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| North Rose-Wolcott, Marion win at chess - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:08:29 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Canberra Chess for 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Traditionally the chess clubs in Canberra normally start in the first week in February, but this year a couple are so eager to get going that there first tournaments for the year are underway. For those chessplayers coming to Canberra this year, or in fact are already here but hiding away here are the details for each of the clubs
Detailed calendars for each club can be found at Ian Rout's chess page.  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:46:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Fabulous 10s: Computer-Assisted Dragons | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Or, Maybe, Computers NOT Assisting on Dragons in HollandRandom, bizarre move sequences appear on the board! Or, maybe computers were NOT working – check the horrific blunder pair on moves 17 and 18! [Event "Corus C"] [Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"] [Date "2010.01.26"] [Round "9"] [White "Li Chao2"] [Black "Robson,R"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2604"] [BlackElo "2570"] [EventDate "2010.01.16"] [ECO "B77"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Bc4 Bd7 10. h4 Ne5 Since Robson was leading the tournament, this opening choice was a terrible idea! Why don’t American players have safety openings? 11. Bb3 h5 12. O-O-O Rc8 13. Bg5 Rc5 14. Kb1 b5 15. g4 hxg4 16. h5 Nxh5 17. Nd5 Nf6? (??) Maybe my theory is out of date, but 17…Re8 18. Rxh5 gxh5 19. Qh2 (as in an old Short game, Short-Mandl Germany 1986 where black botched the defense and went down in flames) is met by 19…gxf3! 20. Qxh5 Bg4! and black holds. This happened in a game Lagumina – Magalotti, Forli 1991 and black indeed drew. The computer shows no advantage for white. Readers? The game move looks really bad; i.e. immediately losing. Is it possible Robson was making stuff up in this, the sharpest of all opening choices? 18. Bh6?? A monumental blunder in return. It’s impossible to say what Chao was thinking. The guy is rated 2604 and he misses a win that any schoolboy would play – capture, capture, and mate! Isn’t that the entire point of the Yugoslav Attack? The elementary 18. Nxf6+ wins easily. If 18…Bxf6 19. Qh2! simply checkmates black. If 18…exf6 19. Bh6! forces 19…Bh8, since 19…f5 is crushed by 20. Bxg7 Kxg7 21. Qh6+ Kf6 22. f4 and wins. After 19…Bh8, white wins with the easy 20. Bxf8 Qxf8 21. Qh2 Qg7 22. fxg4 Bxg4 23. Rdg1 and wins. What was in the water in this game? (or the Dutch pea soup?) 18…Nxd5 19. Bxg7 Kxg7 20. Qh6+ Kf6
Did Chao miss the king could run? Embarrassing! But look what happens!
21. exd5 Nxf3 22. Ne2? 22. Nxf3 keeps the balance. Now Chao has overstepped even the bounds of an even game! 22…e5? 22…Bf5 consolidates and wins for black without too much trouble! 23. dxe6 Bxe6 24. Qf4+ Rf5 25. Qxg4 Kg7 26. Bxe6 fxe6 27. Nd4 Nxd4 28. Qxd4+ e5 29. Qxa7+ R8f7 30. Qe3 Qg5 31. Qd3 Qf6 Apparently black was down to increments. 33…Kg8! was bad (but not losing) for him after 34. Rxd6 Rf1+ 35. Rd1! but it was forced. But doesn’t white’s play over the last few moves look pretty random? Maybe he was in time trouble too. 34. Qh8+ Mate 1-0 For the gawking observers, what the HELL was going on this opening? Will we ever know?       | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:45:57 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2010 John Powell Open (Jamaica) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Jamaica will hold its 2010 John Powell Open on January 30th-31st. The tournament is in the honor of one of the federation’s founding members. Powell passed away in 2007. Below is the press release from Peter Myers. NEWS RELEASE
National Master John Powell (left) contemplates his next move during his last game played three days before his passing in October 2007. The Jamaica Chess Federation (JCF) will be staging the third John Powell Memorial Chess Open at the Campion College Auditorium this weekend. The tournament will be divided into three sections, an Open section in which anyone can play, an Intermediate section for entrants with a JCF rating under 1600 and an Amateur section for entrants with a JCF rating under 1300. Prizes will be awarded to the top three players in each section, the best Under 10, 12 and 14 year-old players, best rural player, best female player, best junior and best new player. The tournament, which was previously called the New Year’s Open, was renamed in honour of National Master John Powell, a founding member of the JCF and former President, who passed away in October of 2007. Powell was considered to be an extraordinary chess administrator who was one of the catalysts for the growth and development of the sport in Jamaica, particularly at the secondary school level during the 1980s and early 1990s. Powell was also one of the strongest players in Jamaica at the height of his chess-playing career during the 1970s and 1980s, achieving the title of National Master in 1975. He was widely considered to be the strongest Jamaican player never to have won the National Championships outright. He tied for first three times, 1973, 1980 and 1988, however he lost on tiebreak to NM Harold Chan in 1973, NM Robert Wheeler in 1980 and NM Robert Wheeler again in 1988. Powell represented Jamaica at many Chess Olympiads, winning a silver medal for Jamaica on board 4 in the Olympiad of 1984, which was held in Thessaloniki, Greece. Powell was still actively playing up to his untimely passing in 2007. Full details here! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:06:54 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aliyeva wins Winterfest under 12 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Azerbaijani chess player wins local US school tournament Wed 27 January 2010 13:59 GMT Young Azerbaijani chess player Ayshan Aliyeva has won in her category at the Winterfest Scholastic contest in the US city of Spokane. A tally of 4.5 points was enough for Ayshan to take first place amongst the under-12s. In 2009 Ayshan came fourth in the Azerbaijani championship for under-10s in Baku. Ayshan will return from the United States in March. She is staying in US with her parents who are on a business trip. Elmir AliyevNews.Az Source: http://www.news.az Chess news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-01-27T08:53:00.001-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sign up for my Atlanta Simul May 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The United States Chess Federation (USCF) just announced that I am going to give a 50-board simul at the Burt Lerner National Elementary Championships, that will take place in Atlanta, GA, on May 7:
Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:24:00 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess Club wins at SA tournament - Wilson County News | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:58:57 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTOS: Youth chess tournament - Daily Mail - Charleston | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:36:14 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Elementary schools prepare for annual chess tourney - Hamilton Journal News (subscription) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:37:33 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess tournament Feb. 6 at Sheboygan Christian School - Sheboygan Press | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sun, 24 Jan 2010 10:04:09 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TWCA Opens For Chess Training | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source: Republikein Online THE Weekend Chess Academy (TWCA) hopes that its chess students rested well and are ready to take chess by storm this year. Since 2007 there has been acceleration in chess training methods, student chess results, academic results and discipline. In 2007, TWCA students won two medals. TWCA only enrolled one team during the 2007 Namibian Schools team championship in which they achieved 12th position from 36 teams. In 2008, TWCA won nine medals out of 21 at the Namibian Junior championship. This time TWCA was represented by three teams during the 2008 Namibian School Team chess championship when the TWCA A-team won silver medals followed closely by the TWCA B-team who shared the third spot with two other schools. All in all, TWCA students participated in five events and brought home 15 medals. 2009, the WOW year... Once again the Academy claimed several top spots. This time round TWCA ended in the top three spots 36 times in only ten chess events. The highlight was the Khomas Regionals for boys and girls. The boys championship was won by Julian Isaak, who was 14 years old at the time. Remarkably he had to deal with players of every age group which also included u.18 and u.20 players. The girls section was dominated by the TWCA players, Patricia Teek, Jolly Nepanda and Nicola Tjaronda. Ten-year-old Nicola Tjaronda displayed great potential and discipline when she outplayed several high school boys and girls older then herself during the Namibian Schools team selection tournament. The top ten players represented Namibia in an invitational tournament in South Africa, bringing home bronze medals. In this event Nicola shared joint first place with Hange Tjingaete and Julian Isaak. All 3 scored 6/7 (5 wins, 2 draws and 0 losses). TWCA teams also came second, fourth and sixth in the School Team championship. Worth mentioning is the domination of the TWCA students during the 2008 and 2009 junior events. In both years TWCA students clinched the most medals per chess event compared to that of other chess academies and schools. 2010, History in the making... With several schools and chess academies getting ready to do their very best especially during the junior events TWCA is poised to take their position at the top. As in 2009, the club will rely on its students to do the talking across the chess board. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess champ is college-bound - Times Herald-Record | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:12:21 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Playing chess at 9, youngster faces high school students - Press-Enterprise | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:39:25 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A chess revival in Iran | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Iranian chess grandmaster Morteza Mahjoob, who holds the world record for the most number of simultaneous matches, is bent on reviving old Persia’s passion for the ancient game. Chess was outlawed for nearly a decade after the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew the Shah, sidelining Iran from the international chess map. The 29-year-old Mahjoob, one of seven Iranian international grandmasters — five men and two women, has worked to reverse this and “promote this sport nationwide,” he told AFP. This fueled his bid to break the record for simultaneous games when he played 500 opponents in Tehran’s Enghelab sports complex last August in a feat monitored by FIDE, the World Chess Federation. “I had less than five seconds for each move, while each competitor had 20 minutes for his or hers… And I had to walk more than 500 metres (yards) for each round. “It actually took 18 hours, from 10 am … until 4 am the next day, and given the high temperatures that month it was quite a challenge,” he said. Though Mahjoob was “really worried”, he won 397 games and “broke the record recorded in the Guinness Book of records,” confirmed Dave Jarrett of FIDE in an email. This sidelined Bulgarian grandmaster Kiril Georgiev who set the world record only six months months earlier playing 360 opponents. Now Filipino international grandmaster Rogelio Antonio will try to break Mahjoob’s score in April by playing 600 simultaneous matches at Ninoy Aquino stadium in Manila, according to organisers. The attempt was to have taken place this weekend but organisers said it had been postponed. But Mahjoob is undaunted. “I always knew that this record would some day be broken, but did not expect it would be this fast.” If sidelined by Antonio, he said he is already “working to regain the world record again during the coming summer.” “I don’t know how many more (players) but hopefully one hundred more,” he said — meaning 700 simultaneous games. Mahjoob trained for more than a year for last August’s event, including an exhaustive physical fitness regime. “In this kind of competition as well as having a trained mind, one has to be in good physical shape. But his real start came as a youngster when he saw his first game. Chess was outlawed in 1981 because it was thought to encourage betting, which is forbidden in Islam. But in 1988 the Islamic republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or Islamic religious decree, permitting chess as long as no gambling was involved. The game, driven underground, made a vigorous comeback. “One day I went to a park near my home to get a notebook from my friend and … saw two grown-ups playing chess on a bench,” Mahjoob told AFP. “To kill time I gazed at them moving their pieces around the board and it was there and then that I learnt chess. I asked one of them if I could play … I told him I had just learnt it by watching him! But the man let me play and I beat him in my first game. “I was 13 then and it made me realise that I had potential in chess,” he recalled. Mahjoob won grandmaster status in 2007 and today ranks 668 in FIDE’s list of active world players and 60 among active Asian players. He runs two chess schools with a dozen coaches and 800 trainees. Both his website and that of the Iranian Chess Federation feature a picture of Khomeini’s hand-written fatwa. “It paved the way for Iran’s progress in the world of chess,” Mahjoob said. The country, which had no grandmasters and only three international masters prior to the revolution, now ranks 49 on FIDE’s list of the 139 top chess countries and has some 200,000 residents playing competitively, according to national chess officials. Budding champions and chess classes abound, both privately and in city hall-run cultural centres. Competitions are held on every level from national down to local schools, and state-run television broadcasts key games, also showing women players in Islamic dress. Mahjoob, father of a three-year-old girl and married to a chess coach, has been wooed by neighbouring United Arab Emirates to train their national team — even more so since his world record — but says he’s not interested. “Like any athlete, I love to reach the summit,” said Mahjoob, who cites legendary Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov as a role model. “I would love to become the world chess champion.” | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-01-22T11:15:16Z | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BCF President Meets With Cuban Chess Federation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 January 22nd, 2010 BCF President Meets With Cuban Chess Federation In an effort to further the development and growth of Chess in The Bahamas, Kean Smith, President of The Bahamas Chess Federation (BCF) visited The Cuban Chess Federation in Habana during the weekend of Friday 15th January, 2010. Smith arranged to meet with GM Silvino Garcia Martinez, President of the Cuban Chess Federation, through the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture of The Bahamas and The Cuban Embassy in New Providence. While in Habana, Smith met with GM Silvino Garcia Martinez and his team comprising of IM Jose Luis Vilela and FM Danilo Buela Valdespino at the Headquarters of the Cuba Chess Federation in Habana. The parties discussed a wide range of issues including the state of chess in The Bahamas, Chess in Schools, Technical needs of the BCF, and areas of technical assistance that the CCF may be able to supply. After hours of discussions GM Silvino Garcia agreed in principle to provide technical assistance to the BCF through training of Chess Instructors to support a Chess in School Programme and training for Strong Players with a view of building a National Team. Smith said that "[he] appreciated the willingness of the CCF to assist with the strengthening of Chess in The Bahamas and the expansion of our Chess in Schools Programme." "Once I return to Nassau, I will report to the BCF Executive Committee and take the necessary steps to meet and discuss our proposal with the Ministers of Education and Youth, Sports and Culture or their representatives," noted Smith. Source: http://www.jonesbahamas.com Chess news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-01-22T01:08:00.000-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Please help Haïti | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The website of the United States Chess Federation reports a simultaneous exhibition in Charlotte, NC at Myers Park High School, where people who donated to Haïti could play against FM Mike Klein. Over on The Chess Drum, there are several articles on the earthquake in Haïti. Editor Daaim Shabazz wrote to colleague chess journalists:
Here at ChessVibes headquarters, too, we feel the situation in Haïti is so extreme that a little extra support won’t hurt. Therefore, we ask all readers to make a donation to a relief organization. For Dutch residents, we recommend a donation to Giro 555. For all others, we like The Red Cross and Partners in Health. If you’re not sure what will happen to your money, whether it will be well spent and other such questions, this recent article on Slate may help you decide. Even though there currently is a lot of chaos in Haïti, help is more needed than ever – not just for now, but also in the future. As the Slate article says:
We hope more chess players and chess sites will call for action and help the victims of the disaster in Haïti. Thank you for your support! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:55:14 +0000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess: SE Christian, Brighton, Webster Thomas, Victor win - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:04:13 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chess academy opens for training - New Era | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:56:37 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School raising money, offering prayer for Haiti - Port Huron Times Herald | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:15:49 GMT+00:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oregon Scholastic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Chess challenge teaches life skills Tuesday, January 19, 2010 The Hillsboro Argus A chess challenge is open to kindergarten through fifth-grade students in the Beaverton School District from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30 at Fir Grove Elementary School, 6300 SW Wilson Ave. Chess is a way for students to learn essential life skills for success in the classroom and beyond. Chess for Success, the only program of its kind in Oregon, is a leader in after school education. Children who do well at the regional tournaments qualify to compete in the Chess for Success State Championship Tournament March 12 and 13 at the Oregon Convention Center.Source: http://www.oregonlive.com Chess news from Susan Polgar  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2010-01-20T00:34:00.001-06:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Games Festival 2010 - Chess Events - Euro Chess School, Euro Chess Seniors and Thessaloniki Interna | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The registrations and preparations for the 2010 Games Festival are running and Thessaloniki is ready to host a huge chess event. In the chess section of the Gamesfestival more than 500 players are expected to play in the 3 tournaments: Euro Chess School (International School Open) - Euro Chess Seniors - Thessaloniki International Open. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:43:55 +0100 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8th Parsvnath International Open Chess Tournament - Maghami takes sole lead, Lalith Babu shocks Ziau | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Third-seed Iranian Grandmaster Maghami Ehsan Ghaem defeated International Master Oliver Dimakiling of Philippines in the sixth round to emerge as the sole leader in the 8th Parsvnath International Chess Tournament at the Modern School here on Sunday. With his sixth victory on the trot, Maghami remains the only player in the field to have won all his matches in the tournament so far. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:16:07 +0100 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jonathan Hawkins and Peter Williams shine at Hastings Masters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Hastings Masters, as ever generously supported by the local council, had two significant English successes besides the triumph of the 19-year-old David Howell and Mark Hebden, 51, who shared first prize with players from France and Romania. Jonathan Hawkins qualified for the international master title with his third IM performance in as many tournaments. The remarkable feature was that he did it aged 26, living in Durham away from major chess centres, and that he learned his skills from a computer without a human coach. Hawkins was graded 102, a weak novice, at age 14, and 158, moderate club standard, at 19, but he has surged in his mid-twenties. He lost only to Howell at Hastings, scored several impressive wins, and looked ready to make a serious bid for the higher grandmaster title. The other notable performer was 13-year-old Peter Williams, whose parents incurred the wrath of Hampshire education authorities five years ago when his primary school refused to allow time off for chess. They opted for home tuition, although his chess advance was slower than hoped. But at Hastings Williams made his breakthrough in style with a splendid 5.5/9 including a win and a draw against IMs, narrowly missing an IM score, and establishing himself in the top rank of English juniors. C Maduekwe v J Hawkins 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Nf3 O-O 6 h3 e5 7 d5 Nh5 8 Nd2 Qe8 9 g3 f5 10 Be2 Nf6 11 g4 Na6 12 g5 Nxe4 13 Ndxe4 fxe4 14 Nxe4 Bf5 15 Ng3 e4 16 Nxf5 gxf5 17 Rb1 f4 18 h4 Nc5 19 Bg4 Nd3+ 20 Kf1 Bd4 21 Be6+ Kh8 22 f3 Qg6 23 Rh2 exf3 24 b4 Qe4 25 Rb3 Nxc1 26 Qxc1 f2 27 Qb1 Qe5 28 Rhh3 Kg7 29 Qd1 Rae8 30 Rbd3 Be3 31 Qc2 Rxe6 32 dxe6 Qxe6 33 Qc3+ Kg8 34 Rh1 Qg4 35 c5 Qg1+ 0-1 3122 1 Rah1! Nxb 3 (better Qd7) 2 Qh3! Qf8 3 Rh7+ Rxh7 4 Qxh7+ Kf8 5 Qh8+ Kf7 6 Rh7+ wins the queen. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:11:19 GMT | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CalChess Top 20 for Age 12-17 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 (Photo of FMs Danya and Steven from the 2008 CalChess Scholastics, where they shared top honors in the High School championship.)The CalChess scholastic rankings keep becoming stronger and stronger. Ten players on the Top 20 for Age 12-17 are rated over 2000 and another 9 are over 1900; just 3-4 years ago, the 20th spot was well into the low 1800s. Incredibly, three ranked players are just 12 years old, with plenty of room to grow over the coming years. Even with the graduation of IM Sam Shankland last June, there are still five active young Masters in the Bay Area. Two recently broke 2400 USCF, earning the distinction of 'Senior Master' in addition to the FIDE Master title. Congratulations Danya and Steven! And Evan Sandberg is racing to break 2200, having gained an impressive 77 points in two months. CalChess Top 20 for Age 12-17 (February 2010 rating and points gained in last two months; fpawn students, both present and former, are shown in bold)
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Zahar Efimenko (Ukraine) and Baadur Jobava (Georgia) are sharing the lead at the European Individual Championship after seven rounds of play. The two are both on 6 out of 7.
He watched Max Euwe become World Champion. He chatted with Emanuel Lasker, and saved dozens of Jewish babies during the Second World War. Last night I had the privilege to play a club game against 99-year-old Professor Dr Johan van Hulst. I couldn’t beat him.
In the 6th round of the Linares super-tournament, Veselin Topalov was in trouble against Francisco Vallejo until the Spaniard suddenly blundered a full rook. By then Gashimov and Gelfand had already drawn in a very theoretical Petroff. The last game to finish was Grischuk-Aronian, which also ended in a draw. Thanks to his win, Topalov is the world’s number one player in the live ratings again.
42-year-old Konstantin Chernyshov won the strong Moscow Open with 7 out of 9. The Russian GM finished shared first with another 40+ grandmaster, Evgeny Bareev, and both Le Quang Liem and Ernesto Inarkiev also ended on 7 points. Chernishov had the best tiebreak: most wins.
Another famous name who could be found in the playing hall almost every day was Alexei Shirov. The reason? He came to support his girlfriend Olga Dolgov, who played in the women’s tournament (and who could be found in the playing hall of the Corus Chess Tournament almost every day, supporting her boyfriend). Besides, Shirov decided to meet with relatives and school friends, as he mentioned in an 
Here’s a confession: I’ve had Viktor Moskalenko’s latest book Revolutionize Your Chess in my possession for weeks already, but I’ve been reluctant to review it. The reason, quite simply, is this: I don’t like it at all. 
Following several initiatives in the chess world, ChessVibes takes the one-time opportunity to ask your help for the victims of the recent earthquake in Haïti.