Two and a half months after the death of the great chess legend Bobby Fischer, the examination of his legal estate has yielded some intriguing information, gleaned from the hard disk of his notebook computer. Apparently the reclusive former World Champion followed the chess activities of his colleagues quite closely, and in fact corresponded with a few of them. Today we received copies of his letters.
The Akron Chess Club
The Premier Chess Club of Northeast Ohio!
Archive for March, 2008
Chess and Baseball
Posted in March 31st, 2008
Sights, sounds and smells of opening day
Click-2-Listen
By Ben Volin
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 31, 2008
MIAMI GARDENS — Sights
Players killing time. The Mets reached the park at noon for a 4:25 start. Ryan Church curled up on the couch to watch Caddyshack on one of the visiting clubhouse’s big screens, while John Maine (John Maine is known as a chess fanatic) outdueled Mike Pelfrey in chess and Aaron Heilman got the better of Matt Wise in a heated game of Connect Four. “What’d you get on your SATs?” Wise said. Heilman, a Notre Dame product, didn’t answer.
Here is the full article.
Very important announcement
Posted in March 31st, 2008
My husband and I have been in a number of negotiation sessions (via phone) this entire weekend which could immediately effect our USCF board members status as well as our status at the Texas Tech University Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence. I expect to be able to bring you the latest news within the next 48 hours. Stay tune!
Create your own caption
Posted in March 31st, 2008
www.SofiaPolgar.com
Posted in March 31st, 2008
Here is my sister Sofia’s latest painting. She JUST created a BRAND NEW website with VERY COOL stuff in it. I love her website! You can check it out by clicking here.
6 year old wins State Title
Posted in March 31st, 2008
Six Year Old Cooper Takes State Chess Tournament
According to ChristiaNet.com
MEDIA ADVISORY, March 31 /Christian Newswire/ — There are few words six year old William Cooper, Jr. likes more than the two he uttered seven times at the State of Texas Elementary Chess Championship: check mate. “I was surprised,” said Cooper, a resident of Texas. “It was very scary for several of my games.” Scary, for the first grader who is studying pre-algebra math, meant he made several moves during his games that he immediately realized were mistakes. But he was able to overcome them to take first place at the tournament, a repeat of his finish at the 2007 tournament were he tied for first place.
“My dad was praying for me every time I was playing one of the games which could last one to two hours each over a two day tournament weekend. If I was in a difficult situation, I would stop to think knowing because of the prayer God would give me wisdom”, stated Cooper. William has learned many life lessons from playing chess over the past year. “Chess has taught me about prayer, practice, patience and making friends. Making friends from different parts of the state and country has been a lot of fun.”
Here is the full article.
Monday chess tactic
Posted in March 31st, 2008
Black to move. Is it possible for Black to hold this position?
3r2k1/4qpp1/7p/p3n3/1p2P3/1P5P/PB1R1PP1/3Q2K1 b - - 0 1
Carlsen #5 in the world
Posted in March 31st, 2008
Magnus Carlsen’s rating is currently at 2733. He is about to gain 32 points to get to 2765!! Levon Aronian’s rating is currently at 2739. He is gaining 24 points to get to 2763! Anand gains about 5 points to get back above 2800 while both Kramnik (2799-11) and Topalov (2780-13) lost points. Morozevich is at 2765 and he is gaining 9 points to get to 2774.
So it looks like Anand (2804) will be #1, followed by Kramnik (2788), Morozevich (2774), Topalov (2767), Carlsen (2765) and Aronian (2763). This is just my own rough calculation. Please feel free to correct any error.
Can Carlsen jump to the top 3 in the next list? Can Morozevich break 2800? What do you think?
Czech President has doubt in Kasparov’s plan
Posted in March 31st, 2008
Czech President not sure Kasparov’s path right for Russia
Hluboka nad Vltavou- Czech President Vaclav Klaus said today Russia needs political changes, but he does not know whether it should follow the path indicated by the chess legend Garry Kasparov, leader of the Russian opposition, whom he met today.
Klaus met Kasparov at Hluboka where Kasparov plays an exhibition game with 26 players, including Klaus’s son Jan Klaus and son of Industry and Trade Minister Martin Riman, Vaclav Riman.
Kasparov’s rivals in the simultaneous game are also bankers, businesspeople and children.
Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg also accepted an invitation to Hluboka, but he said he will not play.
Klaus met Kasparov several times before and he knows his opinions.
“President Klaus wanted to learn more about the situation in Russia, to discuss Russian domestic problems and hear my opinions of the policy pursued by Putin’s regime,” Kasparov said at a press conference after the meeting.
Here is the full article.
7 tie for the lead at Kolkata
Posted in March 31st, 2008
Humpy and Sasikiran join leaders
KOLKATA: The third Kolkata Open chess tournament title race promises to be a close affair with seven jointly sharing the lead with 5.5 points at the end of the seventh round at the Gorky Sadan here on Sunday. The joint second place was even more crowded with 14 players occupying it with 5 points each.
Top seeded Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran, playing the black side of a Queen’s Gambit accepted variation against GM Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic, enjoyed an advantage throughout. Despite capturing a pawn in the endgame, the Indian super GM failed to win the game in the king and pawn endgame. Both with 5.5 points enjoyed the top spot.
Here is the full article.
Upcoming events
Posted in March 31st, 2008
Texas Tech University SPICE (Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence) will organize a number of chess tournaments and special chess camps in the upcoming months in Lubbock, Texas. Here are some of them:
April 26
Lubbock Open Chess Championship
(K-12) Scholastic & Adults
http://www.susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2008/03/lubbock-open-scholastic-championship.html
http://www.susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2008/03/2008-lubbock-open.html
July 21-24
“Chess: It’s a Girl Thing” Special Camp
http://www.susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2008/03/special-all-girls-chess-camp_19.html
July 27 – August 1
5th Annual Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls
http://www.susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2008/03/rules-and-conditions-for-sp-national_19.html
September 19-28
2nd Annual “SPICE CUP” International Invitational Grandmaster Tournament
September 20
SPICE Cup Scholastic Open
September 27-28
SPICE Cup Open
In addition, the Susan Polgar Foundation is continuing to organize major events through out the United States. Here are some of our upcoming events:
Third Annual Susan Polgar World Open Championship for Girls
and
Second Annual Susan Polgar World Chess Challenge for Boys
www.vegaschessfestival.com/polgar
Over $100,000 in scholarships and cool chess prizes are available
Sections: Under 8, 11, 15, 19
June 6-8, 2008 Las Vegas
G/45 5 Round Swiss
Susan Polgar All-Star Training for Girls
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
July 21-24
SPECIAL SUMMER CHESS CAMP 2008
at the Polgar Chess Center in Forest Hills, NY
Week 1: August 18 - 22
Week 2: August 25 - 29
7 qualified for the US Championship
Posted in March 31st, 2008
Dr. Alexey Root just reported on CLO that GMs Julio Beccera, Alex Yermolinsky, Jesse Kraai, John Fedorowicz, and IM Dean Ippolito have tied for first at the US Championship Qualifier in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Since GM Beccera already qualified for the US Championship by rating, the other four players will now have a spot in the upcoming US Championship. Nine players tied for 6th place and the top three by tie breaks would qualify for the US Championship as well and they are Ludwig, Shankland, and Pruess.
Congratulations to all!
World Champion’s Assessment
Posted in March 30th, 2008
Lasker, Emanuel - Euwe, Max (Nottingham 1936) by Andreas
White to move. How do you assess this position? What is the best continuation for White?
8/pp4pp/2p1kp2/b7/2nP4/3K3P/PP3PP1/2B1N3 w - - 0 24
2008 MLB
Posted in March 30th, 2008
Photo by Jed Jacobsohn
The 2008 MLB season has begun. The defending champion is the Boston Red Sox. But are they the odds-on favorite in the October playoff and World Series? Which team do you pick to win it all in 2008?
A rare Fischer picture
Posted in March 30th, 2008
Chess Trivia
Posted in March 30th, 2008
Chess movie
Posted in March 30th, 2008
Kevin Kline Turns French… For Real This Time
Posted Mar 30th 2008 11:02AM by Monika Bartyzel
Time really does fly. It has been thirteen years since Kevin Kline wooed Meg Ryan in French Kiss, where he got to play a theiving French man who could teach someone to pull out the complex flavors in wine in seconds. It’s not Shakespeare, or storms of ice, but it has its moments. And now, he gets to play a French man for real — in French! The Hollywood Reporter posts that Kline has signed on for his first French speaking role in Caroline Bottaro’s drama Queen to Play (Joueuse).
This is the chess film I blogged about back in November, which focuses on “a hotel chambermaid who develops an obsession for chess.” Bruno Ganz was attached, but now it looks like he is out. Instead, Klein will be rejoined by his Anniversary Party co-star Jennifer Beals, plus Sandrine Bonnaire and Francis Renaud. Bonnaire will play the chambermaid who is “captivated by a romantic couple (Beals and Renaud) playing chess while staying at the Mediterranean island hotel where she works. The doctor (Kline) whose house she cleans reluctantly becomes her mentor in the game, leading her to a chess tournament and initiating major transformations in her life.”
Here is the full article.
Grandmaster tactic
Posted in March 30th, 2008
Bronstein - Boleslavsky (Moscow 1950) by Andreas
White to move. How should White proceed?
2rq1rk1/1b2bppp/p1n5/1p1BN3/5B2/P7/1P3PPP/R2Q1RK1 w - - 0 1
Chess news by NM Michael Aigner
Posted in March 30th, 2008
I just received the following from NM Michael Aigner. He is in Oklahoma competing in the US Championship Qualifier.
I received the following email from TD Richard Koepcke regarding the playoff for the annual Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls. The K-12 division at the CalChess Girl’s Championship last month ended in a tie for first place between two of my students: Rebekah Liu and Samyukta Bhat.
Rebekah Liu won the match (1.5 to 0.5) yesterday at the Mechanics’ Institute. When reporting to the USCF on who is our Representative for the Polgar tournament, you should list Rebekah Liu as the Primary and Samyukta Bhat as the alternate.
Congratulations to Rebekah and good luck in Texas this summer! I am sure both girls will have many more chances in the coming years.
Special thanks to Michael Aigner and Richard Koepcke for the information.
Joke of the day
Posted in March 30th, 2008
“No, Hillary now says that she just made an honest mistake when she said she had to duck sniper fire in Bosnia. There was no hostile fire of any kind. Although, ironically, while she was away, Bill Clinton did see some action. Do you think this is a big deal? See, all candidates exaggerate. Remember when McCain ran in 2000? Remember that? He had to retract a claim that he had been under cannon fire from the Confederates.”
-Jay Leno
General Trivia
Posted in March 30th, 2008
The ELO effect
Posted in March 30th, 2008
Chess by Bill Cornwall
March 30, 2008
What are ratings? I often refer to the ratings players have, but I have seldom explained exactly what ratings are. A “rating” in chess is a numerical value derived from using a mathematical set of formulas that can be used to evaluate the relative strengths and performances of players. The most popular system was created by Arpad Elo, an American physics professor and chess master, whose Elo rating system was adopted by our country nearly 50 years ago. In the United States, we have subdivided ratings into 200 point ranges and given them names. Top-down, they are: Senior-Master, Master, Expert, and Class A, B, C, etc.
The World Chess Federation also uses Elo and regularly publishes a list ranking top players by rating. Appropriately tied at the top of the current list, with ratings of 2799, are World Champion Vishwanathan Anand of India and his immediate predecessor Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.
Here is the full article.
Earth Hour
Posted in March 30th, 2008
In this photo released by the World Wildlife Fund shows the lights on the Golden Gate Bridge are turned off. Lights on San Francisco landmarks are switched off for one hour today March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m. to raise awareness for “Earth Hour”, a global awareness campaign sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund. (AP Photo/HO - John Storey)
Web search engine page Google is shown on a computer screen with a black background to support Earth Hour in this photo taken in Toronto, March 29, 2008. Google has changed their page background to from white to black in order take part in Earth Hour, where people were encouraged to turn off their lights for off one hour to make a statement about climate change. REUTERS/Mark Blinch (CANADA)
Breaking News: Top players said no to 2008 US Championship
Posted in March 30th, 2008
Breaking News
The ten players seeded by rating for the Frank K. Berry U.S. Chess Championship (Tulsa, May 15-21) were to have replied by March 25th to their invitations. Early on, GM Hikaru Nakamura, GM Joel Benjamin, and Marc Arnold declined.
As of the start date of the Qualifier Open, five other invitees had not yet replied. Since the 25th, the Berry brothers have been calling those invitees. The following additional invitees have now said “no” to participating in May: GM Ildar Ibragimov and GM Larry Christiansen.
At this time, having not been in touch, GM Gata Kamsky and GM Jaan Ehlvest are presumed to have declined. Therefore, this weekend’s Qualifier Open participants GM Julio Beccera, GM Alexander Ivanov, GM Eugene Perelshteyn, GM Sergey Kudrin, and IM Ben Finegold are now seeded by rating into the May 13th-21st tournament.
Source: WIM Dr. Alexey Root for CLO
This is quite shocking because it is an Olympiad year. It means that the US Champion would be automatically seeded on the US national team. Therefore, there should have been more interest to participate and win the championship, not less. For the record, I was kindly extended an invitation to compete for the title in May in Tulsa but I respectfully declined.
Going for the final GM norm in Merida
Posted in March 29th, 2008
Chess
Leonard Barden
Saturday March 29, 2008
The Guardian
China’s golden girl Hou Yifan, 14, is closing in on a record-breaking grandmaster title at men’s level. Last week Hou won the Ataturk women’s invitational in Istanbul with an unbeaten 7/9 and a rating performance well above the required 2600 points.
Normally an all-female event would not count for the open GM title but two of her rivals were full GMs and a third awaited title ratification, so she should be going for her third and final GM norm when she competes in Merida, Spain, next week, where the top seed is the England No1 Michael Adams.
Hou can become a GM nearly a year younger than the all-time No1 female player, Judit Polgar. It is less than two decades since many experts argued that women could never achieve the highest male standards, and even after Polgar became a world top-10 GM there were claims that she was a unique phenomenon.
Can Hou surpass Polgar? I am not yet convinced. Polgar could have become a GM at 14 with selective tournaments, and the Beijing prodigy, though a wonderful strategist, has not shown the same level of tactical skills.
Here is the full article.