Alekhine's Parrot

TheParrot Says…Welcome to the archive of the weekly leader of chess events around the world.  Chessville welcomes your Feedback to TheParrot on this week’s news by writing to TheParrot@Chessville.com where selected letters will be featured.

Canada explains thinking on Canadian Ratings Rise – Official!

In the past ten years a large increase in the participation levels of junior players in key Canadian markets has led to pronounced rating deflation.  The talented juniors have been rapidly taking points out of the system as their own strengths and ratings have improved.

A National Rating Committee was established to review the rating system and decided to take two measures.  The first was a retroactive rating increase for all members who had been active in the past few years. T he second is the impending introduction of an ongoing review process for ensuring rating stability.

Essentially, the retroactive boon applied to all games played between July 1, 2004 and September 1, 2006.  Players below 2200 were awarded 1 point per game; players below 2400 1/2 point; and players above 2400 1/4 point. Source: Chess Canada.

Local Chess Traffic, Cincinnati: Susan Polgar, Maurice Ashley, and Gregory Kaidanov, will kick off the Queen City Classic at Paul Brown Stadium's Club West Friday evening March 30 when they each play 40 chess matches simultaneously and play a blindfolded game of chess.  The next morning, the sixth annual Queen City Classic Chess Tournament will begin at 9 a.m. Students will play five rounds of chess, say Cincinnati.com.

Local Chess Traffic, New York:  The Parrot picked up a local tournament a few weeks ago, here are the final results: 2007 Dutchess County Championship.  Congratulations to the trophy winners for this year’s Championship:

First Place: Ernie Johnson
Second Place: Scott Strattner
Top A&B Class: Jim Lynch
Top C Class: Tom Marvullo
Top D Class: Aidan Hite
Top E and Below: Aaron J. Stokes

2007 Dutchess County Championship such an exciting event.

1 Ernie Johnson...............1994 W 10 W 14 W 12 D 2 W 6 4.5 12.5 14.5 14.5
2 Scott Strattner.............1678 D 11 W 13 W 7 D 1 W 8 4.0 12.5 14.5 14.5

Next up: SATURDAY, April 28 is our annual Memorial Tournament at MARIST COLLEGE, Room 125 of the Lowell Thomas Building.  For those who would enjoy a day, instead of an evening, of chess, and especially those who find Monday nights difficult for any reason, put this date firmly on your calendar.  It is a 4 round Swiss, Game 50. Information courtesy: Michael O’Connor.

Other Local Traffic:

US Championship, Correction?  The Parrot has been challenged in Chessville’s Forum by ‘ALPHETA’ concerning the list of players entered for the US Championship – and a more careful look at the USCF website says that the list show here last week are ‘qualified so far’.  Source.  Further investigation of what this statement means, and who has signed up reveals… nothing!  The page http://www.uschess.org/index1.php lists events after the Championship, but not the championship itself.  Therefore: Good Challenge!  ‘qualified so far’ does not mean the listed players intend to take part – and may even have said ‘no!’

The same reader also challenged the Parrot to obtain first-hand news of participants, independently of USCF if possible, but three weeks ago a list of questions was received by USCF’s Executive Director, who readily agreed to answer them.  Then Bill Hall missed three deadlines [his own] and did not answer at all – We can suppose that instead he is dealing with hundreds of letters which are appearing in every chess forum on the three subjects put to him by Chessville: (1) The Championship, (2) Current Finances, (3) The USCF Forum.

Chess Press:

An e-magazine Womens’ E News picked up a chess story reported by Angeli Rasbury, WeNews correspondent:

“Last year Darrian represented the United States at the World Youth Chess Tournament in 2006 in the Democratic Republic of Georgia. She was the only African American from the United States.  It is common for her to be the only black competitor. At nationals, boys can outnumber girls 15 or 20-to-1.  At invitational's, such as the World Youth Chess Tournament, girls and boys are equally represented.”

Read the whole thing at http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=3109 and continues to talk about barriers in the chess world which may be invisible to white males but not black females!  It is well written, worth the attention of any coach or any father of daughters.

The 12 year old subject of the interview is from Brooklyn, currently rating 1771, and wants to be a grandmaster.  Someone else from Brooklyn did quite well.  You Go Girl!

The Parrot has incidentally asked Darrian via journalist Angeli Rasberry, if she would like to annotate one of her own games for Chessville.

The 16th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament

Organizers have ensured small photographic news of their event by ensuring that photos can’t be copied from the site.  But here are the full results for perhaps the most demanding chess engagement on the entire calendar.

While Kramnik won the blindfold 2 points clear, and Anand did the same in the Rapid, the combined scores demonstrate just how strong Kramnik’s overall performance was at this year’s event – 2 points clear in this company is a handsome winning margin.  Official website

Combined Final Standings:
1 Kramnik - 15.5
2 Anand - 13.5
3 Ivanchuk - 13.0
4-5 Svidler, Aronian - 12.0
6-7 Morozevich, Gelfand - 11.5
8-9 Carlsen, Leko - 10.5
10 Radjabov - 9.0
11-12 Vallejo Pons, Van Wely - 6.5

The 8th A. Karpov tournament took place 14th-25th March in Poikovsky (Russia).  US Participant and current US Champion Alex Onischuk did particularly well. Caption is of Dmitri Jakovenko, who did even better.

Final standings:
1 Jakovenko - 6.0
2-4 Onischuk, Alekseev, Bologan - 5.0
5-6 Istratescu, Rublevsky - 4.5
7-8 Dreev, Sutovsky - 4.0
9-10 Tkachiev, Zhang Pengxiang - 3.5

The 1st Ruy Lopez International Festival took place in Zafra, birthplace of Ruy Lopez, from 16th to 25th March. What a great result for Sargissian finishing way above the rest, and beating out Pono and Soko! As well as this picture of the winner from the difficult to negotiate web-site, here is a handsome snap of Felipe II (who I think chess players have to thank for his early patronage of the game) as well as this truly handsome illustrated page on the origins of the modern game.

Final standings:
1 Sargissian - 6.5
2-3 Granda Zuniga, Ponomariov - 4.0
4 Sokolov - 3.5
5 Perez Candelario - 3.0
6-7 Sasikiran, Stefanova - 2.5
8 Hou Yifan - 2.0

Official site

Canadian ratings debate; which way to go, towards USCF or Fide?  Here is a summary conversation from a chess newsgroup:

Ø      But *over the years* the USCF, for instance, has deliberately manipulated their ratings pool up or back down, and this is what I was referring to, not "normal" attempts to keep things smooth and steady. Essentially, my barb was directed specifically at the ridiculous USCF, at its long history of tinkering with members' ratings like a cat with a play toy.

Ø      Canada is in the middle of this right now.  CFC has started to increase ratings based on how many games a person has played. The CFC seems to think that Canadian ratings should mirror the USCF ratings and not FIDE ratings.  I’ve heard many people complain of this at the last couple of Tournaments I’ve been to.

The previously named US National Championship, now the Frank K. Berry US Championship will go ahead.

A 9-round swiss with at least 34 players, 31 qualifiers plus 3 sponsor's exemptions at a time control of G/150 with 30 seconds/move increment starting on move 1.  Prizes: $12000, 8000, 5000, 4000, 3500, 3000 down to 500 for last place.  If a tie for 1st, money is split evenly and the top two on tiebreaks play two G/10 for the title. Five players qualify for FIDE World Cup with ties broken by computer tiebreaks.  All players are required to use the MonRoi electronic scoresheet.

Frank K. Berry has contributed $50,000 and may raise or donate more, and USCF has committed to raising or donating $15,000.  Presumably the 3 ‘sponsor players’ contributed money to enter the tournament witch will be held at a ‘Quality Inn’ in Stillwater Oklahoma.

Though… USCF’s website adds “If enough money is available, it is possible that the top two players in the Swiss will qualify for a match to be played in Stillwater several months later to decide the US Champion. Whether or not this format will be used has not yet been decided.”

We hope that’s clear to Chessville’s readers, since is as clear as mud to the Parrot.

Interestingly two top US Women players will take part: Susan Polgar, New York and Irina Krush, also of New York.  The defending champion is Alex Onishuk of Maryland, as will Gata Kamsky, New York, and the new US #1, Hikaru Nakamura, of New York.

Reaction to the current buy-in Championship has been ‘mixed’ to say the least! – but to give USCF credit they have published negative reactions to their new scheme, which is led by this one, which seems typical, while other commentators do not like the buy-in arrangement:

Wow!  $65,0000 Total Prize fund for the Chess Championship of the richest country in the World?!!!!!!

The USCF board should resign immediately and let more capable people run the show if the board is unable to secure corporate sponsorship for the main US tournament of the year. Then we wonder why our most talented kid turned away from the game when they have so many other options.

At the very least the USCF should match the $50,000 private donation.

Local Chess Traffic: Chess in Connecticut – Yale are sponsoring a big chess event this weekend, though sadly detail of what is going on is scarce according to either website: http://www.edutechchess.com/ or http://www.ctchess.com/.

Red Ink Report: After a good February USCF is only $163,000 in the hole, and if things continue well will finish the year at ‘only’ -$50,000. That is the unofficial official report, and the most optimistic cited anywhere. In order to investigate the truth Chessville asked USCF’s Executive Director to reply – and though he agreed to do so, he did not. Meanwhile one board member has publicly suggested that the red number is actually -$300,000.

That is an alarming number to follow the original Alarie Red Ink report, and perhaps it is no more than an alarmist number to speculate on? But why is it a secret number? The answer for keeping it secret is according to our investigations of both board and executive director, also a secret.

Other Chess Traffic:

Paul Troung, candidate board member for USCF, recently told Jack LeMoine in an interview: http://jacklemoine.blogspot.com/search/label/Chess

JL: 5) What assistance in local club promotion can the promoter presently expect from the United States Chess Federation (USCF)?  And/or what assistance should the promoter expect in the future?

PT: Right now, he or she can expect very little if anything from the USCF.  The USCF has no such department and no such person who can devote time to help him in this aspect.

     Chess Press:

Documentary on Chess from India, SHRIKANT BARVE (shri8131@yahoo.com) has sent me this note:

We are making a Documentary on "Chess as Educational Tool". This documentary will be ready by April 30 and CD's of this documentary will be given to over 1200 Educational Institutions in Goa.  It will be played at First Parent Teachers Association (PTA) meet for Academic year 07/08 in all the schools of Goa. Documentary will include debate on "Chess in Education" by (to be recorded on April 20th)
1. Prominent Educationist Prof. Ramesh Sapre, (Ex.Headmaster of Mustifund High School)
2. Goa State Chess Association Executive Member Prof. Augusto Pinto, (Dempo College of Commerce & Economics
3. Clinical Phycologist I.P.H.B. Bambolim Dr. Mita Majumdar,
4. Senior Session Judge Anuja Prabhudesai,
5. NIO Scientist Sujata Kaisary and many others.

Other activities is support of Chess as learning tool like one act play etc. will be included in this documentary.  Note: The gentleman says that if anyone has a CD of Knights of the South Bronx – he would like one.  Write directly, or to the Parrot.

Letter from Budapest: [this is from a correspondent who has run norm-tournaments for players across the world for the past 10 years to the Parrot’s knowledge]. “Hi, Chessfriends, We have every month GM-IM-FM closed tournaments in Budapest. The next one will be from 7th until 19th of April. Who does wish to come to play chess this time?”  Regards: N a g y , L a s z l o, E-mail: firstsat@hu.inter.net  http://www.firstsaturday.hu.

The 16th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament takes place in Monaco March 17th-29th. The participants are Visvanathan Anand IND 2779 (born 1969), Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2766 (1975), Vasily Ivanchuk UKR 2750 (1969), Peter Leko HUN 2749 (1979), Levon Aronian ARM 2744 (1982), Alexander Morozevich RUS 2741 (1977), Boris Gelfand ISR 2733 (1968), Teimour Radjabov AZE 2729 (1987), Peter Svidler RUS 2728 (1976), Magnus Carlsen NOR 2690 (1990), Loek van Wely NED 2683 (1972) and Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2679 (1982). The total prize-fund is 216,000 euro.

BLINDFOLD Round 5 standings:
1 Kramnik - 4.5
2-4 Gelfand, Svidler, Ivanchuk - 3.5
5 Aronian - 3.0
6 Leko - 2.5
7-9 Morozevich, Radjabov, Anand - 2.0
10 Carlsen - 1.5
11-12 Van Wely, Vallejo Pons - 1.0

RAPID Round 5 standings:

1-2 Aronian, Anand - 4.0
3 Ivanchuk - 3.5
4-8 Kramnik, Morozevich, Carlsen, Leko, Svidler - 2.5
9 Vallejo Pons - 2.0
10-11 Gelfand, Radjabov - 1.5
12 Van Wely - 1.0

The 8th A.Karpov tournament takes place 14th-25th March in Poikovsky (Russia). Participants: Dmitry Jakovenko RUS 2691, Sergei Rublevsky RUS 2677, Alexander Onischuk USA 2663, Evgeny Alekseev RUS 2661, Alexey Dreev RUS 2658, Viorel Bologan MLD 2658, Vladislav Tkachiev FRA 2649, Chzhan Pansjan CHN 2643, Emil Sutovsky ISR 2629, Andrei Istratescu ROM 2619.

Round 7 standings:
1 Jakovenko - 5.0
2-3 Onischuk, Rublevsky - 4.0
4-6 Bologan, Istratescu, Alekseev - 3.5
7-9 Dreev, Tkachiev, Sutovsky - 3.0
10 Zhang Pengxiang - 2.5

US Interest lies with Alex Onishuk who is hanging in there, one point short of the lead, having scored 4/7, and whose improved rating will rival current the new US #1 … the very active GM Nakamura! Media interest in this event is very strong, and daily press and TV sessions are held.

The 1st Ruy Lopez International Festival takes place in Zafra, birthplace of Ruy Lopez, from 16th to 25th March.

Round 6 standings:
1 Sargissian - 5.5
2 Granda Zuniga - 4.0
3 Ponomariov - 3.5
4 Perez Candelario - 3.0
5-6 Sasikiran, Sokolov - 2.5
7 Stefanova - 2.0
8 Hou Yifan - 1.0

Caption of Concentration: Hou Youfen [or Yifan] trails the table, but not by want of attention.  Official site

In order to clarify many current and contentious issues the USCF Executive Director, Mr. Bill Hall, agreed to be interviewed, and published next week here at Chessville. Topics were to be (a) Red Ink, (b)The US Championship? and [at his own request] resolutions about communication ‘issues’ at (c) the USCF forum.

BUT! Mr. Hall had said he would deliver on Tuesday, On Tuesday he said Wednesday, and on Thursday, in order to inquire what was up after 5 calls to USCF in the middle of the business day revealed no operator was available… zzzzzz

Since Mr. Hall wanted to discuss USCF’s communications as his own topic, I suppose this is an answer of a sort. What is unknown is if it his own answer, or someone has squashed his reply.

Meanwhile, the red ink issue above is thought to be more of a concern than previously <yikes> and while current politicos wonder what the new board will do with ‘all the money’ they will inherit, the new board might be wondering if there will be any, and how could you tell?

Local Traffic:

Trouble in the Windy City. Chicago Public Schools City Chess Championships walk-out of meeting with organizer. Then school teams leave the tournament during the second round. Read both sides of the story here: http://blog.chess4chicago.com/2007/03/tom_larson_cps_.html and for other news on what’s good and what isn’t in the Chicago area as viewed by Lamarr Wilson. Caption, a ‘good’ Tournament at Normal, Il.

Chess Press:

I have never done this before – started writing a review of any book after a 30 minute look – so after politely accepting a review titled How To Fool Fritz, I feared it was going to contain poor writing, and a triumphing-of-the-machine approach. How good it is to be wrong! The book’s subtitle is “Explorations in Man Assisted Machine Chess [MAMS]” and its author is Albert H. Alberts. I suggest it deserves serious attention from the chess community, and while I will properly review it for Chessville, serious investigators should immediately get hold of a copy of the 256 page title.

After beginning with an Essay on the Traxler gambit, and ending with strategic advice on beating computer opponents, there is a special appendix on Kramnik/Fritz matches. Particularly insightful are comments everywhere between, and just to give one example J. Polgar - Berkes, Budapest 2003, where GM insight is compared with Fritz. Utterly fascinating is Polgar's choice of a move [14. h4] compared with Fritz's own high evaluation [a 14. g4 move], but when Fritz is shown Polgar's continuation it changes its mind! Since in effect she winds up the game by move 18 but Fritz couldn't see it.

It is also good to read an analytical person who can write in respectful colorful and human terms of what it took from a human perspective - so that of this game Alberts comments:

In comes the Grandmaster old school handcrafted magic move full of  courage 19. Rad1 !!

Another 30 minutes into the book and I have not scratched much below the surface, but since well written titles are rare, and this one addresses highly topical interest – the reader will excuse this glossing. It might be hard to obtain this Jan 2007 copyrighted title – interested readers contact the Parrot. Keyword = MAMS

Fide Talks about World Championship: – In a follow up to the ACP proposals cited here last week, they don’t matter – its off! In official parlance “The proposal is to terminate the World Championship Tournament and keep the World Cup as a Candidates tournament to find a challenger for a World Championship match.” And this means that the World Cup will play the World Champion in 2008, 2010, etc. The challenger will emerge from Cup events in “November and /or December of each even year for the first 6 players according to the rating list (Double Round Robin system), with the minimum prize fund of 500,000 (five hundred thousand) USD.”

Newsbriefs:

Chessville Candidate Interviews for USCFG board positions have been widely discussed, and the blogsite http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/ offers one specific set of responses to one of the questions about short and long-term goals for Chess in the USA, from 4 candidate board members, Randy Bauer, Paul Truong, Dr. Mikhail Korenman, and Susan Polgar.

Meanwhile, an existing board member has declined to be interviewed in writing on the same questions! – (adapted only for what has been achieved during his tenure) – and Chessville has elsewhere been called “anti-USCF” for asking! This is a rather odd opposition, since Chessville has given more air-time to past USCF President Marinello than ChessLife ever did  – and also currently extends its pages to interviewing the Executive Director, which CL has never done. Though perhaps I now understand better why Polgar Foundation is all over mainstream media, to the tune of about 100 articles per year, and USCF manages 2. They answer the phone or do what they say they will do.

Linares is over for another year, and while Vishy absolutely deserves the top spot, a star was born, or at least continued to rise up to the stratospheric realms of chess and to hold his own up there against the current active best players in the world. Chessbase reported about this photo, that the Fide President ‘knows a winner when he sees one’. From the look on his face, so does Magnus.

Photo Credit: Nadja Woisin for Chessbase.

A slow week to report on world chess, but here are some big annual tournaments coming up, with many strong Linares contestants taking part in this year’s Amber Blindfold:

The 16th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament takes place in Monaco March 17th-29th. The participants are Visvanathan Anand IND 2779 (born 1969), Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2766 (1975), Vasily Ivanchuk UKR 2750 (1969), Peter Leko HUN 2749 (1979), Levon Aronian ARM 2744 (1982), Alexander Morozevich RUS 2741 (1977), Boris Gelfand ISR 2733 (1968), Teimour Radjabov AZE 2729 (1987), Peter Svidler RUS 2728 (1976), Magnus Carlsen NOR 2690 (1990), Loek van Wely NED 2683 (1972) and Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2679 (1982). The total prize-fund is 216,000 euro.

The 8th A.Karpov tournament takes place 14th-25th March in Poikovsky (Russia). Participants: Dmitry Jakovenko RUS 2691, Sergei Rublevsky RUS 2677, Alexander Onischuk USA 2663, Evgeny Alekseev RUS 2661, Alexey Dreev RUS 2658, Viorel Bologan MLD 2658, Vladislav Tkachiev FRA 2649, Chzhan Pansjan CHN 2643, Emil Sutovsky ISR 2629, Andrei Istratescu ROM 2619.

The Cappelle la Grande open took place 3rd-10th March 2007 with more than 600 players: 87 GMs, 81 IMs and 465 fide rated players from 56 countries. Final leading standings were 1-6 WANG Yue, MIROSHNICHENKO, GASHIMOV, ARUTINIAN, DROZDOVSKIJ, YEMELIN - 7.0  Official site

Friends of the Parrot

Chess-cop doing his rounds uncovered… in Duchess County, New York, after three Rounds, sometimes correspondent to the Parrot, Ernie Johnson [hello Ernie! surprise!] with sole lead of 3-0 at the Vassar-Chadwick CC. Tied for 2nd-4th are Scott Strattner, Tom Marvullo and Angelo Limardo all at 2.5-0.5. The club meets Monday nights at 7PM with most tournaments starting between 7:15 and 7:30 PM.  From Labor Day to Memorial Day the club meets in rooms 101 and 104 of Rockefeller Hall on Vassar College Campus.  From Memorial Day to Labor Day the club meets in room LT125 of the Lowell Thomas building on beautiful Marist College campus. www.vassar-chadwick.com  Ernie Johnson recently remarked that if Morozevich can do it, [at last!] so he can he!

In order to clarify many current and contentious issues the USCF Executive Director, Mr. Bill Hall, has agreed to be interviewed, and published next week here at Chessville. Topics will be (a) Red Ink, (b) The US Championship? and [at his own request] resolutions about ‘issues’ at (c) the USCF forum.

More US Chess in the shade.

I thought this was a joke when I read it at a chess newsgroup, and immediately referenced USCF’s official site to confirm it – and yes, it’s the US Championship for sale. Check your rating, then check how much USCF ask from you for taking part, depending on your rating:

Rating/Entry Fee Structure:
2500 & up $5,000
2400-2499 $10,000
2300-2399 $15,000
2200-2299 $20,000
2100-2199 $30,000
2000-2099 $40,000
Under 2000 $50,000

The event which used to be called the US Championship, but is now, in USCF’s own words, “… the Frank K. Berry 2007 US Championship” to be held May 15-23 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The latest news is that this measure did not go before USCF’s board, was not voted on, and some board members first read about it on a news forum.

Read all about the new ‘patron-chess’ at http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_289.php

Candidates for 3 board positions with 4-year terms in the forthcoming USCF elections [plus one candidate for 2 years to replace Robert. Tanner, resigned] in the order in which they will appear on the ballot, are:

Susan Polgar
Randy Bauer
Mike Goodall
Joe Lux
Sam Sloan
Stephen Jones
Paul Truong
Jim Berry
Don Schultz
Mikhail Korenman

Chess Press:

A new book, The Kings of New York, A year among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses who make up America’s Top High School Chess Team, by Michael Weinreb, was reviewed in last week’s NY Times Review of Books by James Kaplan. It follows ‘a year with a Brooklyn high school chess team’, and the Edward R. Murrow HS. Reviewer Kaplan can be forgiven for mentioning Fischer 3 times in the first 4 paragraphs, since this is Brooklyn after all, and continues to mention the typical remote and nerdy image chess has. He then says, “the author has a gift for getting into the skin of his characters – moving in with them in effect – and making them completely sympathetic”. It’s a good appreciation of a strong scholastic team, heartbreaks and all. Illustrated, 288 pages, Gotham Books, $26.

And here is another ‘new’ title, probably for collectors only. The book Match-tournament 1941 will be re-published next month. It has been out of print since 1951. The circulation is just 200 copies and available from the Russian Chess Publisher http://www.ruschess.com/index.php

Garry is in the news again, but for old people, only? Perhaps the strongest chess player of all time is unknown to young people in Russia according to this report. "Kasparov's problem," a St Petersburg journalist tells me, "is that no-one under the age of 30 really knows who he is." Apparently he is better known in the West than the East, and the same journalist reports, that one Russian commentator argues that Kasparov has had his day: "Chess always was an elite sport and a lot of ordinary people never cared that much about it, even in Soviet times," he says, "His fate was not that interesting to people in chess and it's even less interesting in politics." Reports the editorial of an outfit called FirstPost.

Chess Analysis:  Surprise statistics about most popular correspondence chess openings:
 

This information is derived from statistics compiled at www.letsplaychess.com for all players, which also shows as comparison the mainline Ruy Lopez with only about 5,000 games and main Sicilian variations with about 4,000 each. [Presumably the King’s Pawn game above is not a Ruy, but irregular.]

Newsbriefs:

(1) ACP to FIDE, Fix cheating!  The Association of Chess professionals ask Fide to do something about increasing reports of cheating in chess, since the reputation of the game suffers. (2) In another message from ACP to FIDE the player’s organisation doesn’t like Fide’s plans for the world championship, in fact, they do not like it in 7 different major respects.

Rybka Chess Program offering Pawn-Odds to GMs!

A unique match of 8 games between leading Grandmaster Jaan Ehlvest (ELO 2607) and the strongest playing program, Rybka 2.3. Playing White in all 8 games, Rybka will be giving pawn odds - with a different pawn missing in every game!

After the first three games Rybka was ahead 3-0! But, ah! It drew the fourth.

Friday was Fischer’s birthday, he is 64. Here is a blast from the past of perhaps the strongest Blitz tournament of the C20th:

Herceg Novi Blitz Tournament (5-Minute Chess)

1. Fischer 19
2. Tal 14½
3. Korchnoi 14
4. Petrosian 13½
5. Bronstein 13
6. Hort 12
7. Matulovic 10½
8. Smyslov 9½
9. Reshevsky 8½
10. Uhlmann 8
11. Ivkov 7½
12. Ostojic 2

One might wish RJF the same success he achieved at chess in his personal life, which, I think it is fair comment to note, has some ways to go. At least there are biblical precedents. I mean, for both us and him. Thou…

Linares super-tournament Round 12 standings haven’t changed much since last week, the drama with one round to go was Anand maintaining his lead, and Carlsen hanging in there at second place, after a good round 12 win with the black bits against Ivanchuk, and Peter Svidler who also won with black against Peter Leko to emerg as clear 3rd place, with just two more rounds to go:

1 Anand - 7.5, 2 Carlsen - 7.0, 3 Svidler - 6.5, 4 Aronian - 6.0, 5-7 Morozevich, Topalov, Ivanchuk - 5.5, 8 Leko - 4.5

Pairing for the last round were Round 13 (9th March) Aronian v Ivanchuk, Carlsen v Svidler, Morozevich v Topalov, Anand v Leko; so if Anand slipped, then the result of Carlsen or Svidler would be paramount.

AND… they were all draws except Moro beat Toppy!  Therefore, the top 3 remain unchanged and at time of going to press, on Saturday it will be Anand’s to hold.  Official site

Here is a new tournament:  The 1st Ruy Lopez International Festival takes place in Zafra, birthplace of Ruy Lopez, from 16th to 25th March.  The Festival is planned around the following three activities: a top class Tournament with the participation of Ponomariov, Sargissian, Sokolov, Granda, Manuel Perez Candelario, Hou Yifan and Antoaneta Stefanova (from 17th to 23rd March).  The Children's Tournament and "Linex" Youth in the active chess class will have three laptop computers as prizes for the winners in the following categories: Under 18s, Under 14s, and Under 10s (17th and 18th March). The Ruy Lopez Open active chess where all the games will be played in this order: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 will have a total of 12,000 Euros in prizes (24th and 25th March.)  Official site

The Cappelle la Grande Open takes place 3rd-10th March 2007 with more than 600 players: 87 GMs, 81 IMs and 465 fide rated players from 56 country.

Round 7 leading standings
1 BOCHAROV - 6
2-10 WANG Yue, MIROSHNICHENKO, VOROBIOV, BOBRAS, POSTNY, DROZDOVSKIJ, ARUTINIAN, DVOIRYS, NINOV - 5,5

Official site

Friends of the Parrot

You read it here first, now GM Joel Benjamin agrees.  It was about the ‘new rule’ forbidding writing down your move before you make it.  International arbiter Guert Gijssen proposed this rule, which Fide adopted, and USCF rubber-stamped into US Rules – though… apparently without adequate discussion.  So, if GM Benjamin says:

“The one thing I am quite sure about is that the rule change is disastrous for scholastic chess. I can’t be sure that all scholastic organizers will be wise enough to eschew the new rule. Given that scholastic chess represents a significant portion of rated play in America, I would still favor going back to letting everyone write the move down first.”

...at USCF’s own site, how about at least discussing the issue with strong players and chess educators?  I know this has never happened before, but it’s the twenty-first century already!

UTD honor MacEnulty

UTD's annual ChessFest, Feb. 27-28, will feature a talk by chess educator David MacEnulty, who will receive the "Chess Educator of the Year" award at the festival.

MacEnulty is currently head of the Dalton Chess Academy and will be speaking of "Chess and Emotional Development: Helping the Child," 7 p.m. on Feb. 27 in the library's McDermott Suite. His effort to improve the lives of children through the game of chess was showcased in the 2005 A&E Network movie "Knights of the South Bronx."

"David MacEnulty's knowledge is born out of many years of actual classroom experience of teaching chess to children," UTD Chess program Director James Stallings said. "His ideas are down to earth and practical."

The annual festival, which is in its sixth year, is organized by the McDermott Library and the UTD Chess program. Readers who would like to see the movie based on MacEnulty, who is played by Ted Danson, should read: Knights of the South Bronx.
 

O! Oklahoma!

Strange sort-of official news about the 2007 US Championship has ‘been leaked’ by one board member before the final vote is in.  [quote="chessoffice" is USCF President Bill Goichberg] The vote is currently 3-1 in favor of Frank Berry's bid, with two Board members yet to vote, but I do expect this bid to be approved and will post further details when this happens.[/quote]

Although… another board members writes “Unfortunately, the board was never informed of this deal until this past Sunday, February 25, 2007, and we still have not received a copy of the contract.”
Maybe we’ll see the 2007 national Championship produced as a farce-musical? How there can already be a vote without review of the contract, is of course, known best to half of USCF’s board.

Already promised by personal, rather than board approval, for inclusion are players rated 21xx whereas a glance at the top 10 list in the US shows that these players are all 2600+, who will all, incidentally, have to pay their own expenses for a total prize fund of $50,000.

2007 Junior Chess Congress complete.  Sorry, can’t find any pictures.  Results are posted by section at the official site, and additional text coverage is at http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/press_33_59.php

A slightly sour note is recent USATE results and Round 1 scores by eventual winners, The Passed Pawns, might not stand up to scrutiny!  Since this will not effect their final placement – any gentlemen out there want to correct the record?

US Chess in the shade:  This report looks at Jennifer Shahade’s report on top US players, but instead of a concentration on rating changes, this report emphasizes activity.  In short, 2 of the 3 top players in the country have been inactive since last Summer, and 4 of the top 10 haven’t played in at least 9 months. While the huge emphasis is on Nakamura, whose very energetic schedule results in his now being only 4 points behind the #1 spot.

 Read the full article: http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_268.php

Chess Press:  New Fischer title announced from Lawrence Totaro.

The following site will tell you more about it: www.fischingforforgeries.com.  It also offers readers a graphologists' opinion on Fischer's handwriting from Sheila Lowe www.sheilalowe.com.  Intro written by GM Larry Evans.  Chessville is currently obtaining review copies.

Squawwwk Back to the Parrot (continued…) :

Here is a blast from the past – from a chess newsgroup, which follows Quigley’s Marshall bust. Last week  the Parrot asked in anyone can address this Marshall-bust question which emerged from the newsgroups rec.games.chess.misc and rec.games chess.analysis circa march 1998? It was all about a poster called Quigley and his line 19. axb5. The key move proves to be Spassky’s intervention with 17. …Qh5.

A good mail-bag produced this contribution from Pete Tamburro: historically both Marshall and Milner-Barry came up with c6 in the Marshall apparently independently, and then Alexander gave it all publicity with his game vs. Dulanto at the Buenos Aires Olympiad in 1939. Here is the game with notes from British Chess Magazine in 1939 (p. 436):

Harry Golombek's notes except for the "--PT"

A. Dulanto--C.H. O'D. Alexander, Ruy Lopez. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 A recent improvement by Marshall on his own attack. 12.Bxd5 cxd5 13.d4 Bd6 14.Re1 If 14.Re3 then f5 with a strong attack. 14...Qh4 15.g3 Qh3 16.Qf3 If 16.Be3 Bg4 17.f3 Bxg3 wins. 16...Bf5! 17.Qg2 White cannot capture the Pawn at once for after [17.Qxd5 Rae8 18.Re3 (18.Bd2! Bd3 19.Na3 Bxa3 20.bxa3 Bc4 21.Qb7 Rd8 22.Re5 f6 23.Rc5 Rfe8 24.Qg2 Qg4= --PT) 18...Qh5 19.Qxd6 Bh3 he is quite lost.] 17...Qh5 18.Qxd5 Rad8 In order to release the pin on the queen bishop. 19.Qg2 Rde8 An alternative is 19...Bh3 and if 20Qh1 Bg4 21Nd2 Rde8. or if 20.Qc6 Be6 21Rxe6 fxe6 22Nd2Qd1+ followed by Qc2. 20.Be3 Bh3? An error which allows White to consolidate his position. Correct was: [20...Be4 21.f3 Bxf3 22.Qf2 Bc6 23.Nd2 Qd5 24.Kf1 Re6 25.Bf4 Bxf4 26.gxf4 Rg6 winning.] 21.Qh1 Be6 Black had intended [21...f5 22.Nd2 f4 with a winning attack; but he now observes that after 21...f5 22.Qd5+ Kh8 23.Nd2 Qg6 24.f4 his attack completely disappears.] 22.Nd2 Bd5 23.f3 f5 24.Bf2 g5 25.Qg2 g4 26.Rxe8 [If 26.fxg4 fxg4 and (i) 27.Qf1 Bxg3 and wins or (ii) 27Ne4 and now not Qf5 because of 28Nf6+ but 27...Rxf2] 26...Qxe8 Not now 26...RxR because of 27.fxg4 27.Re1 Qg6 28.b3 gxf3 29.Qh3 [If 29.Nxf3 Qh5 30.Re3 Kh8 followed by 31...f4] 29...Bf4 30.Nf1 Kh8 31.Be3 If [31.Kh1 Bh6 followed by f4.] 31...Bxe3+ 32.Nxe3 32Rxe3 loses after f4 Rook moves and f2 32...f4 33.Nxd5 fxg3 34.Rc1?? [Throwing away the fruits of his previous excellent defence. Correct is 34.Rf1 gxh2+ 35.Kxh2 (35.Kh1 Qg1+! (Must be a typo. Had to mean: 35...Qg2+ ) ) 35...Qd6+ 36.Qg3 Qxd5 37.Qe5+ with a draw.] 34...f2+ 35.Kh1 [If 35.Kf1 g2+ 36.Qxg2 Qd3#] 35...Qe4+ Resigns.
 

Russia elects new chess politicos:  VIII congress of chess players of Russia took place on February 24th 2007 in Moscow’s in Izmailovo hotel.  The agenda - election of the President, Vice-presidents, members of Executive committee and Presidium. After ballot Alexander Zhukov has been elected as president of Russian Chess Federation for the next four years with votes from 75 of 79 electors. The first vice-president became Arcady Dvorkovich. Vice-presidents - Vyacheslav Beresnev, Valery Bovaev, Alexander Kryukov and Alexander Bakh.

The Parrot has learned that as well as his duties in the Dumas parliament, where he is the first vice-President to leader Putin, Gospodin Zhukov likes to play blitz chess during his lunchtimes.

The Linares super-tournament took place in 2 stages like last year: in Morelia (Mexico) 16th-25th February and in Linares (Spain) 2nd-11th March. Results for the Mexico-based first half:

Round 7 standings:
1-2 Anand, Carlsen - 4.5
3 Ivanchuk - 4.0
4-5 Aronian, Svidler - 3.5
6-7 Leko, Topalov - 3.0
8 Morozevich - 2.0

Of course, the big news is seeing 16 year-old Carlsen up there with Vishy, and both of them ahead of Topalov who Carlsen scalped after Toppy resigned in a drawn position, but good marks for showing up, since all players are ahead of World Champion Kramnik who didn’t. Last year Toppy also had a miserable first half, and then in Linares played perhaps the most devastating sequence of games seen anywhere in 2006.  The tournament now resumes in Spain on March 4th.

Also completed is the Polish Championship which took place in Opole 9th-22nd February 2007. Participants: Final standings:
1 Markowski - 10.0
2 Socko - 9.5
3 Bartel - 8.5
4 Wojtaszek - 7.5
5-6 Bobras, Macieja - 7.0
7-9 Kempinski, Cyborowski, Heberla - 6.5
10 Bobula - 6.0
11-12 Grabarczyk, Tomczak - 4.5
13-14 Lubczynski, Grabarczyk - 3.5

Chess in the bright-lights: The Susan Polgar National Open Championship for Girls and the Susan Polgar National Chess Challenge for boys in Corpus Christi, Texas went over very well. The media could not get enough of chess today in Lubbock, Texas.  Local networks and print media were competing to interview Susan and her children.  Some of them hung around from 1 PM to 9 PM.	Susan with the local NBC affiliate.
Hundreds of kids and parents showed up for the tandem simul with Susan and her elder son Tommy.  Once again, her day started at 7 AM with various Deans, the President of the University, and many other important people.  The Polgar tandem won all their games. Thanks to Paul Truong for this report.  http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/	Tommy getting used to media attention.

USATE 2007 Special Coverage Report by Ernie Johnson (who the Parrot previously featured as a player when he drew a very tough fight with a GM lat year).  The USATE is a team event, with 1,100 players, held annually in New Jersey – this year there were 276 teams.

This years winning team overall went to Beavis And Butt-Vinnik with a perfect 6-0 match score. They defeated Feds-Up in the last Round 2.5-1.5. Winning team members were 1.James Critelli (2311) 2.Evan Turtel (2206 3.Evan Rabin (2076 4.Nick Ponico (2022) Alt. Alan Kantor (2000).

Feds Up, Beavis and Butt-Vinnik and UTD Orange were all tied at 5-0 going into the last Round Beavis defeated Feds Up with the 4th Board player securing the only win.  UTD Orange was beat by Bennets Fellows (1-3) who went into the round with a fine 4.5-0.5 score.

Feds Up Beavis And Butt-Vinnik

1.John Fedorowicz    1/2-1/2    1.James Critelli
2.Mark Arnold          1/2-1/2    2.Evan Turtel
3.Thomas Riccardi     1/2-1/2    3.Evan Rabin
4.Linda Diaz                 0 -1      4.Nick Ponico

Going into Round 6 the leading teams (Class Prizes) and not all sections.

Under 2100 1.Britneys Exposed Center Hole,Guys and Girls Looking For Mate,BU Baku each with 4 (there were multiple teams with 4 ) but these teams had the best tie breaks going into Round 6

Under 2000 1.Anands Knights (4) (in sole possession of 1st) closely followed by West Orange Krush,MMAD,Hanging Pawns Sadaam's Shame 3.5 each

Under 1900 Mr Kramnik's Harmony 3.5 followed by SMF's United and Schenectady CC "A" with 3

I could not get the other sections but at least you have a little something. My team (with 2 no shows) went 2.5-3.5. As for me I went 5-1 with 2 draws but the level of competition due to our poor team performance had me paired down each round. There is always next year.

Ernie! Thanks for this report. I wish more people would do it, and we want to see more GM bashing from you before next year. Cordially, The Parrot.

USCF is having a membership sale:  From October 1st, 2006, through March 31st, 2007, a regular adult membership (normally $49) will be available for just $39 if purchased online.

Chess in the shade:   This report is dated 18 February 2007.

USCF is announcing its objective of holding the 2007 US Championship over the dates of May 15-23.  Any dates after June would not allow a Zonal, and June is undesirable because some top players are committed to teach at chess camps, and because of the National Open.

Potential bidders have been asked to tentatively hold space for the dates of May 15-23, and qualified players are advised to avoid making other commitments then.  There are at least three serious likely bidders, and USCF hopes to be able to place the tournament within a few weeks.

It is likely that the 2007 US Women's Championship will be held later in the year, probably in the summer.

Special Report: Chess and Education

Perhaps the most important ever chess and education conference is still calling for papers.  The Parrot was pleased earlier this week to link a PhD thesis in chess from India with the Scottish organizers, and now understands that some 1,100 educators will attend. For more information visit the official site: http://www.scottishjuniorchess.co.uk/cisccon/cisccon.html.

Chess Press:  Gary Kasparov is not active in chess as a player anymore, though…  In addition to his work with the Other Russia, Mr. Kasparov continues to write books about chess--he's up to Volume Six in a series about his great predecessors--and he has a mass-market book coming out this year called "How Life Imitates Chess," about the decision-making process in chess, business, politics and history. But at least for now, politics has taken the place of chess as the big game in his life: "I just don't see any other choice for me," he says. "As I used to say for 25 years, I am defending the colors of my country. I'm still doing the same, just not at the chessboard. At a much larger board." Here he is addressing US foreign policy experts in New York. Read what else Gary is up to, and who is taking notice written by Brian Santhumayor who seems to like the game very much:

“My brother and I used to be huddled in front of the TV watching Kasparov win yet another Grandmaster Chess title. Kasparov was an inspiration to all budding chess enthusiasts in India and all over the word.”

Chess Press, Archive:

Here is a blast from the past – from a chess newsgroup, which follows Quigley’s Marshall bust. Can anyone answer our Marshall-bust questions from r.g.c.m.?  Its all about Quigley's line with 19.axb5
---
> Speaking of the Marshall, does anyone know if Quigley's refutation ever
> got much in the way of high-level tests.
>
> (The line, for those who don't remember it, is: 1 e4 e5 2
> Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 0-0 8 c3 d5 9
> exd5 Nxd5 10 Nxe5 Nxe5 11 Rxe5 c6 12 d4 Bd6 13 Re1 Qh4 14 g3 Qh3
> 15 Be3 Bg4 16 Qd3 Rae8 17 Nd2 Re6 18 a4 f5 19.axb5)
> -Ron

Here's some history of the variation, Ron:

FOLLOWING: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 0-0 8 c3 d5 9 exd5 Nxd5

9. ... Nxd5 is now common and the Steiner var, 9. ...e4 doesn't seem to offer black enough.

11. ...c6 was introduced in 1956! - by Shamkovitch, and Wade eg, thought it might be good enough for a draw. In 1918 the original Marshall had 11. ... Nf6, which is decidedly weaker - see Hansson v Westerinen, Esbjerg, and as late as 1983 ! [with 20. Rf2! as Byrne-Mednis]

Therefore, the 'new' move for white is 12. d4, and the old alternate was 12. Re1. [although Kevitz analysed 12. Bxd5 to white's advantage, and this found an outing in I. Ivanov v Hebden NY 1984, not sharp but fully playable.

Subsequent main branching comes at move 16. alternatives are 16. ...f5 which is 'complex', and 'inexplicably fallen from favour' according to Shamkovitch. On 17. f4 black choses either 17. ... g5 [25. Bf3! Fischer, eg, and on 24. ... Bh3 Boleslavski's 27. Qxe3 does the trick] or 17. ... Rae8 which Tal tried Leningrad 1962, but Boleslavsky was already better at 22.

And this brings us back to the line in question above, and follows 17. ... Re6!?!

[in passing, the reason for all this is White's other try: 18. c4 which can be met by 18. ... Bf4 as Byrne-Geller, Las Palmas 1976. And then lovely fireworks!
19. Qf1! Nxe3!  20. Qxf3 Bxh3 21. cb Nc2! 22. Bxe6! fe 23. gf Nxa1 24. Rxa1 Rxf4,
Now, says Samarian after 25 ba White has nothing better than perpetual and after 25. ...Rg4+ 26. Kh1 Bg2+ etc, is a sequence white loses. And after the interim move 25 f3! Rxd4, 26. Ne4, cb 27. Kf2 black according to Shamkovitch still "stands slightly better, but there are drawing chances."]

All this is a necessary preamble, since unusually the onus is on White to come up with a decent game against the @pain@ of the Marshall, hence the current line 18. a4

18. a4... f5
19. ***axb5***, Quigley’s new move, and the only move, since all other moves prove unsatisfactory - though, in 1986 not entirely explored.

Shamkovitch and Schiller didn't analyze it at all in their1986 Spanish Gambits title, and give the mainline response as 19. Qf1 [while rejecting 19. f4 as dubious with analysis by Henken and Boleslavsky].

This has us arriving back at the start position of Ron's reference and stem game above. If readers here can bust White's play they will be famous for more than a day! :)

VIII congress of chess players of Russia takes place on February 24th 2007 in Moscow in a hotel complex "Izmailovo". In the agenda - election of the President, Vice-presidents, members of Executive committee and Presidium. On behalf of Presidium RCF on a post of the President of RCF the nominee of present President of RCF Zhukov A.D., the vice-president of the Government of the Russian Federation is offered.

The Linares super-tournament takes place in 2 stages like last year: in Morelia (Mexico) 16th-25th February and in Linares (Spain) 2nd-11th March.

I’m getting used to this picture, with Anand out in front, but Carlsen 2nd!  Peter Svidler and Leko like to hide in the middle, Topo of course is near the bottom just like last year, and Moro last.  The odd-man out is Carlsen who already lost a game to Vishy, but is still only half a point behind.  Official site

Round 4 standings:
1 Anand - 3.0
2 Carlsen - 2.5
3-6 Ivanchuk, Svidler, Leko, Aronian - 2.0
7 Topalov - 1.5
8 Morozevich - 1.0

The International Chess Festival "Aeroflot Open 2007" took place in Moscow 14th-22nd February 2007.  Congrats to Petersburgher Evgeny Alekseev for taking the tile in Group A.

Final leading standings
1 Alekseev - 7.0
2 Tomashevsky - 6.5
3 Jakovenko - 6.5
4 Wang Yue - 6.5
5 Ni Hua - 6.5
6 Almasi - 6.0
7 Jobava - 6.0
8 Sutovsky - 6.0
9 Volkov - 6.0

Noteworthy and worth a visit are hundreds of great chess pictures from the Official site.

The Susan Polgar National Open Championship for Girls and the Susan Polgar National Chess Challenge for Boys begin today in Corpus Christi, Texas.  The main event will begin this Saturday at 10 AM with the Grand Opening Ceremony and a LIVE concert! The blog site says Susan will post some video feeds from the event in the next few days – http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/.

The Parrot hopes to feature the progress of this 4-month tournament, with leader scores and feature-games.  Serious Tournament chess is good for you!  And perhaps a sample will encourage players to get back into it.

Registration for the Hackettstown, NJ Chess Club's Spring Round Robin begins on Monday, February 26, at 7 PM in the Hackettstown Community Center , Hackettstown, NJ.  E.F. = $14. Prizes (from USCF Catalog) awarded to 30% of the field. Time limit is 40/90 and 40/60 thereafter (or G/60 by mutual agreement). Equipment is provided. We play one game each Monday night until Memorial Day.  Hackettstown is easy to reach from Route 80 or Route 46 in NJ: http://www.google.com/maps?q=Hackettstown,+NJ&sa=X&oi=map&ct=image.

Email questions to Angelo DePalma angelodp@gmail.com or TD Harold Darst at darst111@comcast(net), or call 908-852-5925.

Special Report: Chess and Education

Chessville has offered the organizers of a huge International Conference on Chess in the Schools and Community whatever publicity they need on an on-going basis. Stay tuned for further reports. Talking with a NY GM this week she mentioned 1,000 educators would attend: University of Aberdeen – Scotland, August 30th - September 1st 2007

CURRENT MAJOR THEMES:

     THE GAME OF CHESS: HISTORY, EVOLUTION AND ART
     CRITICAL THINKING
     EMOTIONAL AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
     POVERTY AND SOCIAL INCLUSION
     GENDER
     COACHING
     MENTORING
     CULTURAL CAPITAL
     SOCIAL CAPITAL

What are the effects of chess in the school and community programmes on teaching (informal and formal), emotion and social inclusion of children and young people?

How do chess development programmes assist new methods of formal teaching and informal education?

What is the relationship between chess play, chess coaching and mentoring?

How can the lessons from chess in the schools and communities help to generate social and cultural capital?

Currently calling for papers, read more at http://www.scottishjuniorchess.co.uk/cisccon/cisccon.html

Chess Press And when they were bad they were awful…

Look for a forthcoming report on Chess Journalists of America, to be published soon by Chessville, by ‘someone who knows’.  The editorial question posed the writer was, “what effect does the current internal conflict at CJA have on the chess public?”

Chess Press, Archive:

The Parrot goes to the (Bill) Wall once again on the occupations of chess players.

Boxers include Arnold Denker (Golden Gloves) and Max Euwe.  And here he is again; Arnold Denker was a businessman in the meat packing industry and became a millionaire.  Painters include Samuel Boden, Marcel Duchamp, Henry Grob, Bernhard Horwitz. Editor of early MCOs, Walter Korn directed the U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration after World War II, helping relocate concentration camp survivors.

Read the whole thing here.

VIII congress of chess players of Russia takes place on February 24th 2007 in Moscow in a hotel complex "Izmailovo". In the agenda - election of the President, Vice-presidents, members of Executive committee and Presidium. On behalf of Presidium RCF on a post of the President of RCF the nominee of present President of RCF Zhukov A.D., the vice-president of the Government of the Russian Federation is offered.

The Linares super-tournament takes place in 2 stages as well as the last year: in Morelia (Mexico) 16th-25th February and in Linares (Spain) 2nd-11th March. Participants: Veselin Topalov BUL 2783, Vishvanatan Anand IND 2779, Peter Leko HUN 2749, Levon Aronian ARM 2744, Alexander Morozevich RUS 2741, Teimur Radjabov AZE 2729, Peter Svidler RUS 2728, Magnus Carlsen NOR 2690.  Playing days are 17th-19th, 21st, 22nd, 24th, 25th February, 2nd-4th, 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th March. The total prize fund is 314000 euro (1st place - 100000, 2nd - 75000, 3rd - 50000, 4th - 30000, 5th - 20000, 6th - 15000, 7th - 13000, 8th - 11000).

Unfortunately Teimour Radjabov, one of the top players, has withdrawn after visiting Mexico – he made a statement:

“The Mexican Organizers of Morelia/Linares 2007 instructed the participants to acclimatize from travel in the small city of Patzcuaro, Mexico.  I came very well prepared and completely ready to play in this tournament for first prize.  Unknown to my father-coach or me, Patzcuaro is a very high crime rated town.”

He and his father were robbed in what seemed to him like a planned professional job.

“We immediately asked for assistance and reported the crime, but received absolutely no help at all from the local authorities, not even a police investigation.”

Continued his press release, and:

“The Mexican Morelia/Linares Organizers have refused my request for fair compensation of incurred damages and I have been forced to withdraw from participating in this tournament due to the complete lack of any support and emotional reasons.  I have provided them several options and time to come to a reasonable decision, but to no avail."

The International Chess Festival "Aeroflot Open 2007" takes place in Moscow 14th-22nd February 2007.  The festival consists of four tournaments.  Each tournament is a nine rounds Swiss Tournament.  The total prize fund of the four tournaments is 200 000 USD.  The Tournament A for chessplayers with FIDE rating higher than 2549, total prize fund is 100 000 USD with 1st prize 30 000 USD. The top participants of Tournament A: Vladimir Akopian ARM 2700, Krishnan Sasikiran IND 2700, Dmitry Jakovenko RUS 2691, Francisco Vallejo Pons ESP 2679,

Pentala Harikrishna IND 2673, Zoltan Almashi HUN 2669, Artyom Timofeev RUS 2663, Arkadij Naiditsch GER 2663, Evgeny Alekseev RUS 2661, Viorel Bologan MDA 2658, Alexey Dreev RUS 2658, Gabriel Sargissian ARM 2658, Ilia Smirin ISR 2654, Baadur Jobava GEO 2650, Andrei Volokitin UKR 2645, Alexander Areschenko UKR 2644, Yue Wang CHN 2644, Sergei Movsesian SVK 2637, Vugar Gashimov AZE 2637, Sergey Volkov RUS 2636, Karen Asrian ARM 2634, Hua Ni CHN 2632, Emil Sutovsky ISR 2629, Alexander Riazantsev RUS 2629, Alexander Moiseenko UKR 2627, Evgeny Tomashevsky RUS 2624, Hao Wang CHN 2619, Alexander Khalifman 2619, Zahar Efimenko UKR 2616, Csaba Balogh HUN 2616, Alexey Korotylev RUS 2615, Darmen Sadvakasov KAZ 2615, Jaan Ehlvest USA 2610, Evgeniy Najer RUS 2605, Dmitry Bocharov RUS 2602, Vladimir Belov RUS 2600.  Time control for Tournament A is 40 moves in 2 hours, then 20 moves in 1 hour, finally 15 minutes for the remaining moves with an increment of 30 seconds per move in the last period.

Round 2 leading standings:
1-7 Predojevic, Areshchenko, Tomashevsky, Ganguly, Novikov, Minasian, Hou - 2.0
8-32 Jakovenko, Ehlvest, Akopian, Almashi, Aleksandrov, Najer, Naiditsch, Timofeev, Jussupow, Bocharov, Dreev, Gashimov, Svetushkin, Belov, Jobava, Movsesian, Laznicka, Ni, Lysyj, Popov, Khalifman, Wang, Harika, Sadvakasov, Maslak - 1.5

Official site: www.aeroflotchess.com.

The 2007 Canadian Youth Chess Championships will be held in Ottawa, ON. July 3-6, immediately prior to the Canadian Open.  Details of CYCC at http://www.chess.ca/cycc.htm and the Open is Date: July 7 - 16, 2007.  Venue: Carleton University. Details at http://cocycc.pbwiki.com/.

News is that Super-Grandmaster Nigel Short has confirmed his participation, and joked: "I look forward to coming," said the amiable 41-year-old British chess legend. "I noticed in the wikipedia entry for Ottawa that there are even some cricket clubs in the city -- so it is obviously a very civilised place,"

The Millennium Chess Festival is back for 2007.  The tournament started in 2000 and continued for another five years before missing 2006.  Despite an accidental non-appearance in Chess Life TLA, it is back for 2007 on the weekend of March 1-3 at Virginia Beach.

This year's GM Exhibition match will be GM John Fedorowicz taking on GM Nick De Firmian.  See http://ramadaplazavabeach.com for details.

USCF Financials are out for 2006 so far, and the interim picture is grim.  $131,858 spent in ‘Professional fees’, and $38,000 lost on the World Youth tournament, and the Pan Am is showing a loss of $18,807 – again.  A loss of $20,000 for the National Open?  And then the Olympiad for a $20,000 loss?  Chess Life Advertising was under budget by $32,422.  Royalties - under budget by $14k to-date.  Salaries over budget by $27k and Professional Fees over budget by $10k.  Building improvements $13k over budget.  Miscellaneous Expenses are $26k over budget.  Balance Sheet bottom line as of December 31, 2006:

Net Loss: $344,225.  This interim analysis was conducted by Donna Alarie, Massachusetts Delegate.

Chess Press Archive

More mining with Bill Wall on the occupations of chess players:

Insurance salesmen include Al Horowitz, Issac Kashdan, Miguel Najdorf, and William Napier (vice-president of Scranton Life Insurance).

Mathematicians and chess players include C.H.O'D Alexander, Adolf Anderssen, Magdy Assem, George Atwood, Christoph Bandelow, John Beasley, Otto Blathy, Hans Boumeester, Nathan Divinsky, Noam Elkies, Arpad Elo, Max Euwe, Ed Formanek, William Hartston, Paul Keres, Martin Kreuzer, Emanuel Lasker, Anatoly Lein, Lev Loshinksi, Vladimir Makogonov, Geza Maroczy, Vania Mascioni, J. Mauldon, Jonathan Mestel, Walter Morris, John Nunn, Nick Patterson, Miodrag Petkovic, Ken Regan, Hans-Peter Rehm, Ken Rogoff, and Duncan Suttles.

And as everybody knows Miguel Najdorf was a porcelain importer.

Read the whole thing here.

Chess Press:  And when they were bad they were awful…

Special Report on the State of World Chess: Bill Kelleher, Vice President FIDE, has issued a report on the FIDE Presidential Board Meeting, Antalya Turkey, January 26-28 2007 – Mr. Kelleher is a FIDE-fan, and while his report is bad enough, it is still designed for American consumption by a pro-Fide fan.

Move to Lausanne: FIDE's office will not be moving to Singapore, as was proposed at the last Presidential Board meeting. Kirsan has a new "bee in his bonnet".  He wants to move the office back to Lausanne and into a building owned by the IOC.  He is intent on making a new effort to join the Olympics.  To this end he suggested that FIDE rent a 200 sq meter office in the IOC building.  The Board balked at moving the entire office back to Lausanne, and we suggested opening a small liaison office instead.  Kirsan did not like this approach, and announced that he personally would rent the space at the IOC.  He is obviously hoping to ram this idea through the board at a later meeting.

On February 1st after the PB meeting he traveled to Lausanne to meet with IOC president, Jacques Rogge.  It's difficult do understand what he hopes to accomplish since Rogge is on record as saying that the Olympic Games are currently too unwieldy, and that he wants to reduce the number of sports participating in the games and not increase them.

Zonal Realignment: The initiative to realign the FIDE zones is dead, at least for the moment.  It was basically the idea of Deputy President Makropoulos, but since the rapprochement between Kirsan and Bessel Kok, and the consequent alienation between Kirsan and Makro, the steam has been taken out of the initiative.

Friends tell me that Makro has not been in the FIDE office in Athens since the Elista World Championship Match, even though the headquarters of the Greek Chess Federation, of which he is president, is located only 200 yards away from FIDE.

Topalov Challenge: Veselin Topalov submitted a challenge to Vladimir Kramnik for a revenge match.  He found sponsors who were willing to guarantee a $2 million dollar prize fund with match taking place in Sofia, Bulgaria.  Topalov was taking advantage of a recently introduced FIDE rule stating that any player rated over 2700 who can find at least $1 million in prize money can challenge the world champion to match.

However the fine print of the FIDE rule states that the challenge is subject to the approval of FIDE.  After a lengthy debate we decided to reject the challenge.  The following excerpt from a FIDE press release summarizes our reasoning:

Global Chess: Negotiation between Global Chess, Bessel Kok's company, and FIDE are ongoing and have so far been successful.  However Kirsan failed to make a payment to Global Chess of $1.9 million which was due on January 26th.  Needless to say, the sunny FIDE press release about relations between the two entities made no mention of this fact.

But this isn’t the news!  At least Najer’s great performance in group A was matched by that of Illya Nyzhnyk who won Group B.  And Illya is 10 years old!!  Here he is from his Fide card pictured in 1996, and also as pictured last year.

The Linares super-tournament takes place in the same 2 stages as last year: First in Morelia (Mexico) 16th-25th February and in Linares (Spain) 2nd-11th March. Participants: Veselin Topalov BUL 2783, Vishavanatan Anand IND 2779, Peter Leko HUN 2749, Levon Aronian ARM 2744, Alexander Morozevich RUS 2741, Teimur Radjabov AZE 2729, Peter Svidler RUS 2728, Magnus Carlsen NOR 2690.

The first stage of the French team championship takes place 9th-11th February 2007 in the town of Chalons (in Champagne). In this preliminary contest four teams will compete : Paris Chess 15, Clichy, Montpellier and Drancy.

Here is the list of the best players expected to play at Chalons: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Paris Chess 15), Michael Adams (Paris Chess 15), Peter Svidler (Paris Chess 15), Alexander Grischuk (Paris Chess 15), Etienne Bacrot (Paris Chess 15), Dmitry Jakovenko (Clichy), Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Clichy), Sergei Tiviakov (Paris Chess 15), Arkadij Naiditsch (Clichy), Joel Lautier (Paris Chess 15), Laurent Fressinet (Clichy), Christian Bauer (Paris Chess 15), Oleg Korneev (Montpelllier).  Official site.

Go Canada!  MonRoi company of Quebec have announced the world's premier International Woman's Grand-Prix.   The International Woman Grand-Prix Finale will be held July 21-28, 2007 in Montreal, Canada.

The company also announced The Chess’n Math Association, Andre Langlois (Tournament Organizer and Sponsor of Montreal International) and the Quebec Chess Federation, have put their experience and enthusiasm together with MonRoi to create the Montreal Chess Festival in July 2007.  In addition to the International Woman’s Grand-Prix Finale, the Montreal Chess Festival also features the Quebec Open Chess Tournament with a projected prize fund of $40,000 (min 22,000), the Montreal International organized by Andre Langlois (Category 17!), and the Scholastic Chess event organized by Larry Bevand, President of the Chess’n Math Association.  For more information click here.

Meanwhile, down here in the States USCF have still made no announcements about the US 2007 Championship, except that they welcome bids. CJA, the Association of Chess Journalists are currently imploding with legal letters flying about among members and resolutions being made about, primarily –you guessed it! – ethics and fair and transparent procedures. CJA haven’t seemed to notice the lack of chess from USCF, as such, but some officers are on both boards :(

Other US news is egg on Kasparov Foundations’ face as reported in the NY Times in respect of Mr. Michael Khodarkovsky. No one can think who is responsible for checking anything, even titled players – even following a resignation from the current USCF board for the very same thing.

Chess Press (Archive)

While researching Google records, I encountered an interesting article at Chessville [!] written by Bill Wall, listing many famous players and their occupations. Among other occupations there are Cryptographers; C.H.O'D Alexander, Reuben Fine, Harry Golombek, and Stuart Milner-Barry. Taxi drivers include Victor Frias and Nicolas Rossolimo. Members of the clergy include Bill Lombardy (former Catholic priest), George MacDonnell, Ruy Lopez, John Owen, Domenico Ponziani, Charles Ranken, Arthur Skipworth, and William Wayte.  Read the whole thing here.

Next up is a big Russian tournament The Moscow Open which is well covered by mainstream Russian media, ITAR-TASS press conference devoted to the international chess festival was overcrowded. Many central and specialized editions, 4 TV channels sent their journalists.

Reading the English from the official site is often amusing, and includes this, no doubt unintended, gem on the benefit of playing chess compared with some other things:

“Even Bologan didn’t join “+2” group.  That’s not strange: because of small amount of participants, Grandmasters had to “grab” points from each other, not from lovers, whose level of playing is lower.”

...yes, a keyword is intense!

Top participants of Open A: Malakhov,V 2663, Zvjaginsev,V 2658, Dreev,A 2658, Riazantsev,A 2629, Moiseenko,A 2627, Fedorov,A 2624, Smirnov,P 2621, Korotylev,A 2615, Najer,E 2605, Malakhatko,V 2604, Bocharov,D 2602, Aleksandrov,A 2601, Belov, V 2600, Khismatullin, D 2599, Shipov,S 2591, Svetushkin,D 2588, Rychagov,A 2586, Lastin,A 2583, Kornev,A 2582, Kazhgaleyev,M 2579, Yakovich,Y 2577, Burmakin,V 2568, Vorobiov,E 2563, Amonatov,F 2559, Chernyshov,K 2556.

Eugeny Najer [pictured top, in Orange shirt] takes off into an astounding lead scoring a maximum 6 out of 6!

Round 6 leading standings:

1 Najer - 6.0
2-9 Askarov, Svetushkin, Amonatov, Yemelin, Malakhov, Chernyshov, Yakovich, Smirnov - 5.0
10-29 Riazantsev, Ulko, Chudinovskikh, Gareev, Turov, Dreev, Zvjaginsev, Fedorov, Grachev, Chuprov, Chadaev, Korotylev, Novikov, Yandemirov, Vorobiov, Rychagov, Oleksienko, Kazhgaleyev, Dobrov, Gabrielian - 4.5

Official site: www.moscowopen2007.ru/main/index.html

Chess is also being played in Gibraltar at the Gibtele.com Chess Festival where going into the final round Ivan Sokolov re-took sole lead again with 7 points.  Another big performance was from the American Hikaru Nakamura – pictured right, who dropped a point in an early round, then came storming back to join an incredibly close finish – and surprise surprise – Here are the round 9 pairings and dramatic results, success going to Vladimir Akopian – but read on!

American Irina Krush gave the eventual winner a shock when she defeated him in the first round! Jen Shahade says in her CL on-line column that Akopian is the highest ever rated player Irina has defeated. In the background of this round-1 photo by Cathy Rogers is U.S. Senior Champ Joseph Bradford. Play over The Krush-Akopian 53 move game here.

Novelty Chess?  But how interesting!  Susan Polgar first mentioned this form of chess to me almost 2 years ago, and Chessbase have issued a good report on an actual event this week, as performed by former world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

“Clock simuls are something special: the master has the same time as each of his opponents, to whom he has to attend individually. They can move whenever they want. Under such circumstances to face a team of five players, including a bevy of grandmasters, is a daunting task.”

Read the entire article at www.chessbase.com.

Regional Focus: Chess Action in Canada. The upcoming Victoria B.C. Canada Social will take place in the Maple Room of the Strathcona Hotel in downtown Victoria http://www.strathconahotel.com on Feb. 10, 2007 between noon and midnight. Rooms are available right at the hotel at off season rates. $59.00-69.00 single or double. The reservation manager is Steve McColeman. Bancroftkid will be our Chessworld contact person.

To compare Chess USA with activities in other countries the Parrot is asking for readers’ reports on chess organization and their health from correspondents around the world. This week features a letter from India, plus this comment by GM Ray Keene on the evolution of the game in England:

"Wade was struck by the phenomenal ability of USSR training methods to produce seemingly endless legions of world class Grandmasters.  He took it upon himself to distil the essence of Soviet methods and to implement what he could in the UK environment."

Chess Press Worldwide

New York Times DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN has featured another ratings scandal in his chess column, this time naming names and citing the status of a questionable IM title.  Somewhat embarrassing for US Chess entities, Michael Khodarkovsky also has associations with the Kasparov Chess Foundation and with the previous US Olympiad team – which seemed to oust top-board Susan Polgar from the selection process, and in consequence the US team could not defend its Silver medal.  It is of course more complicated than that, though these bald facts might save the viewer from scandal-fatigue.

First , very good news for chess and a view of a high level series of studies in this Letter from India - sent by a gentleman who is undertaking a PhD in chess studies, after already achieving a masters degree in robotics in the USA:

Delighted to get a mail from you. I understand that Christmas should be busy for people in the west.

Yes! The projects are going fine. Hopefully if things are moving as planned, I would be successfully organizing an exclusive tournament for blind students post April- with psychologist, teachers, Doctors, Professors, Software Engineers and Engineering undergraduates as observers for the chess -tournament to propose on measurements. Some time in end of Feb will be a proposed date to send circulars for different schools around Southern India, calling for students to participate.

In India, High-school examinations are over by April and Hence I wish: there will be good interest for my event. Post this Event. [Editorial note: we will!]

The second chess tournament will be an all category event, which will have a similar measurement taken. From these tournaments, Awareness of chess to academic world will be created. From there, I hope, things will see its beginning

I am just looking for attractive funding opportunity from local companies: so that I can completely video tape all the events. I have spoken to one such sponsor, who is willing to fund this event.

The chief Arbiter of the World Blind Chess Championship, V. Kameshwaran, also from my home town, should be able to help me out in this regard. We share good amount thought for chess. Although, I am also a National Chess Arbiter, I wish his experience will definitely make a difference to the goals of Chess reaching Universities.

Today, I had an opportunity to interact with some student community, which goes to blind schools to teach. They have promised me to extend their help in converting normal teaching activity to research based activity - like documenting their stimulus and response in learning and related activities.

I hope these chaotic effort freeze to a level, where I have more control on activities.

The good news is that I am being accepted by people and I owe the thanks to Chessville for your complete support.

Should any reader here be willing to participate in chess studies in support of these doctoral studies, or wish to write about the infrastructure and chess health in their own country, drop TheParrot a line.

The Corus tournament continues to be the biggest international event on the scene, and at round 10 Topalov had not only joined the lead, but steamed out into a clear 1 point lead.  This is how the tournament looked at that stage:

The Parrot’s Group A and Group B Decisive Game Analysis over 11 rounds:

White-wins Draws Black-wins analysis
Group A = W16 D46 B12 Ratio Decisive : Draw = 28:46
Group B = W30 D32 B14 Ratio Decisive : Draw = 44:32

It must be said that the drama of the entire tournament has been provided by Veselin Topalov, taking over the front running from Radjabov, when Toppy hit his form and shot ahead of the entire group to the extent that Chessbase ran an article saying he was unstoppable.

But…Round 11 gave Topalov the black pieces against the formidable and super-solid Peter Svidler, and indeed, Toppy managed to contrive a very strong initiative. But once more he indulged in complications too deep even for himself, gambled unnecessarily in a won position, and lost! Probably his 35… f5 was the critical turning point which allowed Svidler the relatively straightforward response of pushing his passed-pawn down the board to achieve a resignation.

With one day to go [Round 11 standings] Group A leaders looks like this: 1 Topalov - 7.5. 2-4 Aronian, Svidler, Radjabov - 7.0 5-6 Anand, Kramnik - 6.5 and Group B 1 Eljanov - 7.5. 2-8 Bologan, Sargissian, Vachier-Lagrave, Bu Xiangzhi, Jakovenko, Stellwagen, L'Ami - 6.5
Photographs: Fred Lucas;  Official site: www.coruschess.com

Chess is also being played in Gibraltar at the Gibtele.com Chess Festival where world #9 2735-rated Michael Adams is doing well, and 2651-rated Hikaru Nakamura is also taking part.  Live games are being broacast by the MonRoi company.  At Press time round 3 had just been completed in a 9 round event.  Adams shares the lead with 3 players at 3 points, and Nakamura has 2 points and so does the formidable Victor Korchnoi!

The Parrot would have made a broader report, but there is none at the official site, including no bulletins.  From scanning games in progress Ivan Sokolov seem to be leading with 4.0 points, then five players following with 3.5.  One feature game to replay is Nakamura’s 4th round demonstration against Ramesh in a currently hot line of the English.  Somewhere in this giant slug-fest there has to be a more direct win rather than what I take to be a resignation on time.  Games are still in progress, and at press-time, Adams seems to be ahead a [passed] pawn, and have the two bishops against Epishin.

Chess in the shade? Suggestions that USCF is going bankrupt are being strenuously ignored.  Look-aheads to future obligations and income sources are similarly scarcely attended.  This raises questions about what will happen to US Chess if the 30 salaried USCF staff in Crossville, TN, goes as belly up as the national championship.  The USCF site is currently advertising for a sponsor for the national Championship:

Those interested in bidding should contact Executive Director Bill Hall at (931) 787-1234 or bhall@uschess.org. There is no bidding deadline, as USCF reserves the right to accept a bid at any time.

The Parrot suspects that a bid that establishes a championship for 2007 so that participants can clear their calendars and plan to actually attend, will be the actual participants ‘deadline’.  Otherwise chess USA will remain in the national shadow, even for the most active and strongest chess players in the country.

USCF are known to have long mortgage obligations and no cash reserves or other substantial assets.  Rich-uncles should call Mr. Hall, or contact the Parrot, since running a round robin for the country’s top players is not rocket science, does not require 30 staff members for a year; instead it needs a legitimate TD plus a staff of locals chess players to hold the doors open.

USCF Members express their own opinions in response to the Championship appeal above, including this extract:

I am not in the US championship obviously, but I have strong feelings for where the USCF is going, as a member because I want to live my life and play chess and not have to worry about it folding because of poor sponsorship and management.

http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_236.php

Meanwhile, market raiding is on – Kasparov Chess Foundation [KCF] rolled out its chess curriculum for school last Oct 11, and Fide are also interested in USCF’s bread and butter chess market, scholastics, and have announced new Fide ratings down to 1000.

USCF are arguing with themselves and too busy banning each other’s board comments and political aspirations at their own forum [!] and have not deemed to publicly notice either factor.

Whoever suceeds to 4 available board positions better have more plans than personality ‘issues’.  That’s my opinion, and one shared by John Adams, who spoke of an empire of laws, not of men.

Chess Press Worldwide

The CJA (Chess Journalists of America) might soon gain unwonted attention, since it does not seem to have presented its financial books for inspection after it was requested to do so by its own vice president.  That gentleman was subsequently removed from office in a way mysterious to him.  CJA have also declined to examine ethical issues by non-members.  Well!  While that is not logical, it is consistent.  Even though CJA by-laws require annual reports there have been none for 5 years.  What a surprise that the treasurer is a member of the ethically-challenged current USCF board.

Bad weather to interrupt Corus?  Perhaps the only big chess event going on round the world is being hard hit.  Stormy weather has now passed to the East, and another system is about to hit.  Weather is so bad that spectators making it to the tournament are assured of good seats!

AP Reports: Storms in Europe kill 46, disrupt travel.  Europeans labored Friday to restore services across the continent after hurricane-force winds toppled trees, brought down power lines and damaged buildings, killing at least 46 people and disrupting travel for tens of thousands.

The Parrot reports Group A and Group B with a round 4 Win, Draw, Loss analysis for White and Black, and also a Decisive Game vs Draw analysis.  The ACP are also concerned over the number of draws, and if you are a member the official site states that voting on this issue is still open until the end of the month.  For those readers not familiar with the work of the Association of Chess Professionals the Parrot refers them to an article with their past president GM Joel Lautier.  There is also online analysis of games on video by Loek van Wely, in English!

The Corus Tournament is taking place 12th-28th January 2007 in Wijk aan Zee. There are two groups:

A Group: Veselin Topalov g BUL 2783, Viswanathan Anand g IND 2779, Vladimir Kramnik g RUS 2766, Levon Aronian g ARM 2744, Teymour Radjabov g AZE 2729, Peter Svidler g RUS 2728, Ruslan Ponomariov g UKR 2723, David Navara g CZE 2719, Alexei Shirov g ESP 2715, Magnus Carlsen g NOR 2690, Loek van Wely g NED 2683, Sergey Tiviakov g NED 2682, Sergey Karjakin g UKR 2678, Alexander Motylev g RUS 2647.

B Group: Dmitry Jakovenko g RUS 2691, Pavel Eljanov g UKR 2675, Viorel Bologan g MDA 2658, Gabriel Sargissian g ARM 2658, Bu Xiangzhi g CHN 2644, Friso Nijboer g NED 2638, Erwin L'Ami g NED 2594, Suat Atalik g TUR 2586, Daniel Stellwagen g NED 2585, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave g FRA 2573, Jan Werle g NED 2566, Jan Smeets g NED 2538, Vladimir Georgiev g MKD 2525, Tatiana Kosintseva m RUS 2474.

While Radjabov is on fire, Shirov fizzled, things are otherwise damp in Holland, and the organisers, Corus, posted this message:  Due to the extreme weather conditions in Wijk aan Zee, the commentary session in the Corus Chess pavilion is cancelled today...  A look at the pictures looks like Vishy is glad to get indoors!

The latest games in Group A Round 6 have 2 decisive results, both scoring the white bits, with Karjakin beating a completely out of form Shirov, and Kramnik beating Anand.  Radjabov is now an entire point clear in the lead with 5 points, followed by Kramnik and Topalov together in 2nd 3rd with 4 points.  More coverage here next week.  Official site

Regional focus: Chess in Nashville

MLK Day Chess Camp with TN State Champ - January 15 -Nashville Chess Center

This will be a fun-filled day of chess activities designed to help young chess players improve. There will also be competitions and lunch and snacks will be provided. This camp is great for anyone planning on playing in the regional and state scholastic tournaments.  This camp will be taught by Todd Andrews and more instructors may be added as needed. Call the instructor for more info: (615) 586–7254 or email: MusicCityMasters@yahoo.com.  Entry Fee: $40.00 ($30 entry for NCC Members or students in NCC programs) Half price for those students that only wish to stay a half day  Download flyer/entry form here.

Regional focus: Chess on New York TV and the web

Chess Now is a new chess show broadcast out of Manhattan, NYC on local public access TV and available for live streaming through the Internet.

More details are at the website, www.fractal-interval.com/chessnow

At the national level many this Parrot’s SPECIAL FOCUS Report observes what the attention to Chess Issues in the USA, from chess political levels, Sponsors and players perspectives.

National Discussion: Secrecy Rules

USCF’s forum banned 2 board members from posting there. Not, it seems, for stating anything untrue or uncoothly, but because ‘the matter’ was confidential to the board. But this matter of the US Championship was itself highly contested. Board member Marinello put it this way:

“(b) All Board members have the right to be involved in the determination of all Board decisions. A Board majority has no authority except as a majority vote within the context of a properly called Board meeting. Board decisions must result from discussions in which all Board members have had the opportunity to participate.”

Bill Goichberg instead of accepting that he violated the code of conducts react harshly by giving the moderator authority to move forward.”

USCF’s president Goichberg then posted the following regarding the suspension of Beatriz Marinello from posting:

DECISION MADE BY MIKE NOLAN, SERVING AS A MODERATOR OF THE USCF FORUM;BILL HALL, USCF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; AND BILL GOICHBERG, PRESIDENT OF THE USCF.

I was not aware of the above headline in advance and do not agree with it. I expressed my personal opinion (that the info was confidential) before any other Board member commented, and I did not claim that my opinion was necessarily that of the whole Board. //Bill Goichberg

Meanwhile USCF Executive Director denies being involved with the bannings and AF4C don’t want to be involved either. They have withdrawn from sponsoring the 2007 US Championship

Past-President Tim Redman joked that what we need is not a moderator at USCF’s forum, since it has become so evidently a political forum, instead we need a political commissar.

National focus: Chess in The Future

In an interview the North American Open Champion 2006 GM Hikaru Nakamura said of chess in the USA:

HN: If I may be very blunt about this, I would say that I'm quite concerned about the state of chess in America right now.  We have a federation, which, it seems, is not exactly being very successful in publicizing chess.  You never see articles in the mainstream media; you just never see any publicity outside of the chess world.

JH: We do have some promising young players…

HN: Well, the truth is, I simply don't think any of them are going to be as good as I am.

Read the whole interview Hanken/Nakamura http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_232.php

National focus: Core Chess Business?

While this hoo-hah had been diverting the board, 2 issues have gone neglected: the announcement of world wide Fide ratings for players 1000 and up, which some view as a raid on national rating markets, and the US Championship.  The Fide President says he will implement the world-wide ratings plan ‘soon’, and the USCF President says he will announce the US Championship details ‘soon’.  A little later the announcement emerged; AF4C withdrew from sponsorship of the 2007 championship.

Chess Press Worldwide

Boy David by Raymond Keene, The Spectator, UK.

Sixteen-year-old David Howell from Seaford in Sussex has become the UK ’s youngest  grandmaster as a result of his outstanding performance in the Rilton Cup in Sweden over the winter holiday. David first seized national headlines at the age of eight when he defeated the experienced grandmaster Dr John Nunn in a timed tournament game. Photo of David and GK from David’s website.

Read GM Keene’s full article at http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/diversions/

The Hastings Congress is taking place 28th December 2006 - 7 January 2007. Among participants there are Gagunashvili Merab g GEO 2611, Ikonnikov Vyacheslav g RUS 2587, Hebden Mark g ENG 2545, Tahirov Farhad g AZE 2545, Neverov Valeriy g UKR 2538, Gofshtein Zvulon g ISR 2509, Pavlovic Milos g SCG 2507, Pert Nicholas g ENG 2502.

Photo: Valerij Neverov of Ukraine, about to open his defense of the championship he won last year.

Final leading standings:

1-2 Gagunashvili, Neverov - 7.0
3-8 Ikonnikov, Gofshtein, Pavlovic, Pert, Lalic, Cherniaev - 6.5

Live games were available at the official site.

The 49th edition of the Reggio Emilia Torneo di Capodanno takes place 30 December 2006 - 7 January 2007. A round robin tournament with classical time control. Players: Igor Khenkin g GER 2620, Konstantin Landa g RUS g 2570, Viorel Iordachescu g MDA 2564, Oleg Romanishin g UKR 2542, Sabino Brunello m ITA 2460, Giulio Borgo m ITA 2420, Luca Shytaj m ITA 2441, Federico Manca m 2425, Roberto Mogranzini m ITA 2401, Denis Rombaldoni f ITA 2377.  Official site

Final standings
1 Iordachescu - 7.0
2-3 Landa, Khenkin - 6.5
4-5 Shytaj, Romanishin - 4.5
6-7 Brunello, Mogranzini - 4.0
8 Rombaldoni - 3.0
9-10 Manca, Borgo - 2.5
 

Result of the First ACP Rapid cup

GM Mikahil Golubev write to the Parrot from Odessa:

For the first time the tournament of the Bank PIVDENNY had live Internet relay of the games. The official website worldcup.pivdenny.com was attended by users from more than 100 countries. Famous grandmasters headed by Victor Korchnoi commented the games for hundreds of spectators in the hall of Londonskaya hotel.

The last day of the tournament was not limited to solving the sporting intrigue. Charity fund ‘Victor’ organized a meeting between young chess players and the World Cup participants: autographs, questions and answers, and, of course, the play! At the closing press conference the tournament winner Peter Leko noted that the main common interest of the world’s strongest players is carrying out tournaments similar to the World Rapid Cup in caliber and level of organization.

Final Result
Leko-Ivanchuk 1/2,1/2,1/2,1-0

Semi-finals
Gelfand-Leko 1/2,1/2,0-1,1-0,0-1
Ivanchuk-Radjabov 1-0,1-0

Quater-finals:
Leko-Rublevsky 1-0,1-0
Shirov-Gelfand 0-1,1/2
Morozevich-Radjabov 0-1,1/2
Bacrot-Ivanchuk 1/2,0-1

The Corus tournament takes place 12th-28th January 2007 in Wijk aan Zee. There are two groups:

A Group: Veselin Topalov g BUL 2783, Viswanathan Anand g IND 2779, Vladimir Kramnik g RUS 2766, Levon Aronian g ARM 2744, Teymour Radjabov g AZE 2729, Peter Svidler g RUS 2728, Ruslan Ponomariov g UKR 2723, David Navara g CZE 2719, Alexei Shirov g ESP 2715, Magnus Carlsen g NOR 2690, Loek van Wely g NED 2683, Sergey Tiviakov g NED 2682, Sergey Karjakin g UKR 2678, Alexander Motylev g RUS 2647.

B Group: Dmitry Jakovenko g RUS 2691, Pavel Eljanov g UKR 2675, Viorel Bologan g MDA 2658, Gabriel Sargissian g ARM 2658, Bu Xiangzhi g CHN 2644, Friso Nijboer g NED 2638, Erwin L'Ami g NED 2594, Suat Atalik g TUR 2586, Daniel Stellwagen g NED 2585, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave g FRA 2573, Jan Werle g NED 2566, Jan Smeets g NED 2538, Vladimir Georgiev g MKD 2525, Tatiana Kosintseva m RUS 2474.  Official site

An interesting US chess statistic this week is that 20,000 of the 50,000 scholastic members of USCF have an average rating of 500.  What seem less known is the annual frequency rate of games played for adults and especially for all scholastic players: of the 30,000 adult members of USCF we know by estimate [!] that some 18,000 of them did not play even ONE rated game in a 12 months period, so how many of the remaining 12,000 played 12 or more games?  Pictured are the Fernandez brothers of Greenwich Village.

Pace, GM Benjamin's recent on-line comments on the paucity of native-born US GMs, [last week’s Parrot] the situation with scholastics may be similarly blighted to that of adults.

To plan and administer a system for ‘player-generation’ would require some knowledge of scholastic activity, and surely someone can say in round numbers what quantity of the 50,000 kids played 12+ games, or in effect, have real rather than provisional ratings?

In investigating these activity ratings a USCF spokesperson made this response to the Parrot’s question:

While regular adults appear to be 6:5.  Yet there are counted 30,000 adult members and this accounts for only 10,000 of them.  Am I not understanding your figures - so that the missing members played no games at all?

Yes, roughly half of the regular adult members did not play even ONE rated game in 2006.  That appears to have been the case for as far back as I can analyze the numbers.  Tournament participation rates are even lower among other adult membership classes, especially life members.

But this is not the whole picture!  A newsgroup correspondent says of Washington State: “You would be making a big mistake taking USCF activity numbers as representative of US chess activity.  In Washington State, e.g., doing that would overlook 90% of what is going on in the scholastic realm.  Per capita, Washington's rates are over 5x the USCF levels, which would be food for thought if the USCF permitted thinking.”

Chess Press Worldwide

After the first ACP Rapid tournament the president of FIDE gave a sort-of press conference and said nothing.  Perhaps the most pointed question, if that term can be employed, was about Topalov’s challenge for the world title, which gained this response: “Upon receiving the guarantee, we will consider our future steps.”  Neither could the president comment on the cheating issues since ‘tearing down bathroom walls’ did not seem practical to him.  The president did say that FIDE will lower ratings to 1000, “something” he said, “they are going to do really soon.”

Since this was not actually news or even information as we know it, and he didn’t say what “consider future steps” there were to take [since of course there must be some future steps], and did not elaborate why “really soon” could not be really specific, the audience ended.

In the chess competition: First ACP World Rapid Cup saw Leko, Rublevsky, Shirov, Gelfand and Morozevich win, and go forward to the next event:

Sokolov - Leko 1/2,0-1
Rublevsky - Naiditsch 1/2,1-0
Smirin - Shirov 0-1,1/2
Gelfand - Nakamura 1-0,1-0
Harikrishna - Morozevich 0-1,1-0

Meanwhile in London, the Guardian newspaper’s columnist ‘Nicky Campbell’ has this to say: “The next move for chess in Britain is to gain official recognition as a sport and thereby receive the concomitant status and funding. The IOC says it's a sport, as do 150 countries worldwide. The World Chess Federation is the second-largest sporting association in the world, behind FIFA, but can anything be so termed if a computer can whoop your skinny ass at it? I love my Apple Mac but fancy my chances against it over 6k, or in a frame of snooker. Isn't sport about physical action and reaction? But, goes the argument, why not include the axons, dendrites and synapses of the brain within that definition? Give it some mental muscle, son.”

And also:

“Malcolm Pein from the London Chess Centre told me that, of course, chess is a sport. "The only thing going against it is the rather stupid drug-testing that we have to adhere to."

It's a point.  If there was a drug to make you cleverer, where was it when I took my finals?  A vague acquaintance swears blind that "a bit of spliff" is perfect for chess.”

The Guardian was once, a member of the ‘quality press,’ but now this is what the public is reading about the royal game; which is not a game but a sport, we are told, and presumably if they takes drugs in sports, then … like this reporter’s ‘vague acquaintance’ …Source.

The 49th edition of the Reggio Emilia Torneo di Capodanno takes place 30 December 2006 - 7 January 2007.  A round robin tournament with classical time control.  Players: Igor Khenkin g GER 2620, Konstantin Landa g RUS g 2570, Viorel Iordachescu g MDA 2564, Oleg Romanishin g UKR 2542, Sabino Brunello m ITA 2460, Giulio Borgo m ITA 2420, Luca Shytaj m ITA 2441, Federico Manca m 2425, Roberto Mogranzini m ITA 2401, Denis Rombaldoni f ITA 2377.  Official site

Round 5 standings:
     1 Iordachescu - 4.5
     2 Khenkin - 3.5
     3-4 Shytaj, Landa - 3.0
     5 Brunello - 2.5
     6-7 Manca, Borgo - 2.0
     8-10 Romanishin, Rombaldoni, Mogranzini - 1.5

2004

• July-September

• October-December
  
   

2005

• January-March

• April-June

• July-September

• October-December

2006

• January-March

• April-June

• July-September

• October-December