The Garden State Chess League is seeking additional teams and players for the 2009-2010 season, which starts on Tuesday, October 6th.
Current and prospective Club Presidents/Team Captains are invited to attend our organizational meeting at the Kenilworth Chess Club on Thursday, September 10th, 8 p.m.
In addition to admitting new teams & confirming the return of existing ones, we will be discussing possible rule changes, drafting a schedule and electing officers.
IM Dean Ippolito and FM Tommy Bartell shared first place and champion honors yesterday at the New Jersey State Chess Championship in Somerset. (Update: According to Ken Thomas, though his USCF membership still says “NJ” Bartell now officially resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, therefore only Ippolito owns this year’s title). Also tied for first was GM Michael Rohde of New York, who entered on the two-day schedule. The tournament was directed by Ken Thomas and Aaron Kiedes. It was a great event with lots of star power, not least because of so many entries from former state champions (who were able to enter the tournament for only $1 this year). Update: Final standings are now available online from the New Jersey State Chess Federation website and crosstable at the USCF.
Kenilworth Chess Club regular and past champion Steve Stoyko shared a nice game with me from Round 5 against former NJ champ Steve Pozarek (whom I first met at his peak in the early 80s when we all played regularly at the Westfield Chess Club). The game offers a nice example of the attacking potential of the Colle-Zukertort and is likely to appeal to fans of the “Zuke ‘em” approach.
Related Links
News broke today that former World Champion Garry Kasparov, widely seen as the greatest chess player in history, has been training 18-year-old Magnus Carlsen, currently ranked #4 in the world and one of the most likely contenders for the world title. ChessBase quotes Espen Agdestein, who sums it up nicely: “This is the king training his crown prince.” Here are some links, and I will add to them as more stories emerge.
Alexander Grischuk, fresh from victory in the Moscow Blitz tournament, is on a rampage in the Grand Slam Final in Bilbao. The Russian grandmaster won his second game, this time with fine endgame play against Alexei Shirov. Meanwhile Levon Aronian struck out against an ill-prepared Sergey Karjakin to put three Bilbao points behind his name. Round two report.
Amazing. The international discussion on chess subjects is currently centered around the question of whether it is ethical (and conformant with the rules) to wake a player who has fallen asleep in the middle of his game. This happened to GM Vladislav Tkachiev, who in round three of the Kolkata Open clearly displayed ‘methylated somnolence’, as tournament participant Nigel Short calls it.
Alexander Grischuk, fresh from victory in the Moscow Blitz tournament, is on a rampage in the Grand Slam Final in Bilbao. The Russian grandmaster won his second game, this time with fine endgame play against Alexei Shirov. Meanwhile Levon Aronian struck out against an ill-prepared Sergey Karjakin to put three Bilbao points behind his name. Round two report.
On 2 September 2009, for the fourth straight year, chess events were in the programme of the birthday celebrations in Odessa, once the fourth largest city of Imperial Russia, nowadays the fourth largest city in Ukraine – and always the best. Which is logical: none other than Efim Geller was officially recognised as the best sportsman of Odessa of the 20th century. GM Mikhail Golubev reports.