Jennifer Shahade’s “Glamour and Big Bucks Close the U.S. Women’s” shows you just how far women’s chess has come: strong players, interesting games, big prizes, great sponsors, a fantastic venue, and brilliant PR. Scroll down to see the glam shots of the contestants by Suzy Gorman. Great Betsy Dynako photos at the 2009 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship website and at ChessBase (”Photo Impressions…,” “Anna Zatonskih Wins…,” and “US Women’s Championship: jazz, blindfold and hula chess“).
In “US Chess League Nears Playoffs,” USCL VP Arun Sharma gives a team-by-team recap of the year so far, with some games from Round 7. League Standings show Boston and New Jersey at 6-1 in the East and Seattle at 6-1 in the West. On Monday, October 19 at 7:00 p.m. on ICC, Boston plays NJ to determine who leads the East (expect previews from the Blitz Blog, NJKO Blog, and BCC Weblog). Meanwhile, at the NJ Knockouts Blog, IM Albert Kapengut annotates his game with Uesugi and Joseph Criscuolo discusses the victory over Baltimore (”Kingfishers Get Royally Plucked by Knockouts: NJ in Playoffs!“).
The opening festivities at the 2009 US Women’s Chess Championship lasted two days and included a jazz concert, a bounty blitz tournament and a five-board simultaneous blindfold exhibition by Anna Zatonskih. There was also a demonstration of hula-chess, a new variant of the game that made it to the Francis M. Naumann gallery in New York and Fox news. Pictures and videos.
… in this position where you are to decide which of the following assessments are true – one, two or even all three?
A) White checkmates by force after …Rxa6;
B) White checkmates by force after …Bxc6,
C) Black can checkmate himself.
The solution is here,
but first ponder over it with a larger version of the diagram.