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