The Knights of Castle Kimbark

Kasparov, Karpov to Replay 1984 Epic Battle

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:15:00 +0000

Former chess world champions Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov will meet this September again on the anniversary of their first match for the crown:

Chess legends to play again 25 years after famous battle

MOSCOW (AFP) — Chess legends Garry Kasparov and Anatoli Karpov are to relive their epic 1984 world championship duel 25 years on by contesting a new match this September in the Spanish city of Valencia.

"It will be 25 years since the start of the matches (against Karpov), there is nostalgia about this unique event," Kasparov, now a Russian opposition politician and Kremlin critic, told AFP. "This is where modern chess began."

The September 21-24 match is not expected to reflect the suspense of their first encounter and will be more of "a ceremonial tournament", Kasparov said, explaining there would be a time-limit on moves. . . .

Full article here.

True Guitar Hero: Your July 4 Hendrix Fix

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:36:00 +0000

Chess in the Park: the Threepeat

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

For the third year in a row, chess will be a part of the Hyde Park 4th of July festivities in Nichols Park. After crashing the picnic in 2007 and 2008 by simply showing up uninvited (though not unwelcomed) with chess equipment, this year we'll be there officially.

The neighborhood 4th of July parade down 53rd Street ends at the park, and the celebration there starts when the parade ends. If you're there, please stop by for a game of chess. We'll be in the middle of the park, around the two concrete chess tables by the big-kids playground.

We'll be playing chess and plugging the Ray School Club, the Chicago Blaze, and some ill-defined fledging neighborhood chess initiative I hope to launch. See you then.

Leon Takes the Plunge

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:19:00 +0000

Good news: My neightbor, the expertish chess player Leon Shernoff, has started a chess blog. Finally, Hyde Park has a chess blogger who actually knows something about chess.

A visit to the site and a cursory glance at it reveal that one is in the presence of some serious chess analysis. Today's post in particular, about a game Leon played at the 2002 World Open, is something to be studied with monkish care. Print it out, set up the board, and work through the game. Strike a blow against the disease of multitasking and give it your undivided attention for a couple of hours. I think you'll find it's time well spent.

Leon is your basic Hyde Park Renaissance man, whose interests define a golden braid running from chess to music to mushrooms. He's been relatively inactive in chess of late, and if he decides to get back into the royal game it will be very good for chess in Chicago and Hyde Park.

Please visit "Music, chess and mushrooms" and give Leon plenty of comments and encouragement.

Ending on a High Note

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:37:00 +0000

Two Ray kids led the way in the last major tournament of the year.

It was the last tournament of the year from the Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago, and two Ray School chess players grabbed top honors. Second grader Abdel Raoul, playing in only his second YCFC meet, nearly won first place in the 60-player beginner, section with a perfect 5.0/5 score in regular competition. He fell to second when he lost a tiebreaker game--his only loss of the day--to an older player from another school.

Ray fifth grader Phillip Parker-Turner, always the man to beat in the advanced section, himself managed to beat back all challengers with a perfect 5.0/5 score, to take overall top honors in the entire tournament.

Thanks to Mike Cardinale and the rest of the YCFC crew for another great year of free chess in the Chicago public schools. Thanks to Tonti Elementary School on the Southwest Side for hosting the meet.

More photos here.

Obama Unveils Massive Chess Stimulus Package

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:10:00 +0000

President Obama announcing the chess stimlus package

Royal game to receive $787 billion

Ray School will serve as model for national chess policy

In an ongoing effort to stimulate the economy during its worst crisis since the 1930s, the Obama administration today announced that it will provide $787 billion in aid to chess, through players, clubs, and tournament organizers in the United States.

The aim of the chess stimulus package is to make it easy for people to buy chess equipment and chess lessons and pay tournament entry fees, thus providing a cash infusion that will in turn jump-start car sales, housing starts, consumer electronics, and new industrial products.

Speaking at a White House press conference this morning, President Barack Obama said that the initial federal stimulus package passed by Congress in February is starting to show results but that another jolt is needed to sustain the recovery. The best way to inject a second stimulus into the nation’s economic bloodstream, the president said, is through chess, which studies show produces a high multiplier effect per dollar spent.

New Cabinet Department
Under the terms of the package, a cabinet-level Department of Chess will be created, which will establish Chessmaster in Residence positions for strong chess players who will be paid to teach and play chess. Grandmasters will make two million dollars a year, international masters $1.5 million, and FIDE and national masters one million. Experts, with ratings above 2000, will earn $500,000 a year. Because these salaries will put the recipients in the administration’s top tax bracket, most of what they earn over $250,000 will come back to the government in taxes, reducing the real price tag of the program.

“Joe the Plumber may never make enough to pay high taxes,” said Obama, “but Joel the Benjamin will.”

The impetus for the chess initiative came from Ray School parent and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who told the president about the success of the Ray School Chess Club and how chess had enriched the lives of its members and improved their school work.

“The kids at Ray School have done a great job with chess, and they’ll serve as the model for our national chess policy,” said Obama, a longtime Hyde Park resident.

President Obama plays chess with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton played a key role in the defection of foreign GMs.

In an exclusive interview with this blog, presidential senior advisor and former Hyde Park Herald columnist David Axelrod said the president wanted to give even more aid to chess but that Republican members of Congress objected. Rather than risk a filibuster in the Senate, Mr. Obama agreed to the lower figure.

Super GMs to Defect
Axelrod also revealed that the State Department has reached agreements with about 20 super-GMs, those with FIDE ratings above 2700, including Vishy Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov, and Magnus Carlsen, who will all be paid large sums to move to the U.S., where they'll receive fast-track processing as citizens. The move virtually guarantees that future chess world champions will be Americans.

“We’re tired of searching for Bobby Fischer,” said Axelrod. “We’re just going to buy him.”

The president’s plan calls for chess to be taught in every school in the country from kindergarten through grade 12, all supplies to consist of top-of-the-line products from House of Staunton. Special training will be provided to teachers, and those who complete the training successfully will be paid an annual bonus of $50,000.

Chess tables will be built in every park in the country, and every city and town will have several chess clubs open 24/7.

The plan will also sweeten the pot for the annual U.S. championship, which will move from Oklahoma to the Borders bookstore on 53rd Street in Chicago’s Hyde Park. It will carry a prize purse of $50 million.

Republican Reaction Mixed
Reaction from the far right was mixed, though mostly negative. Republican Party spiritual leader Rush Limbaugh went apoplectic while denouncing Obama on his nationally syndicated radio program and had to be dragged from the studio hyperventilating. He was taken to a local hospital and heavily sedated. Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly dispatched several camera crews to follow and harass the nation’s leading scholastic chess players.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), reached on his cell phone at a LeAnn Rimes concert, was skeptical about the new cabinet department for chess. “Will the State Department and the Department of Chess fight a turf war over the Yugoslav Attack and the Italian Game?” asked the Republican House whip. “And under whose jurisdiction will the Fried Liver Attack now fall, Chess or Agriculture?” He also predicted that the Wilkes-Barre Attack could spark a crisis of federalism as the state of Pennsylvania and the federal government vie for control.

However, Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who said recently that she feared “America is running out of rich people,” praised the program that will create many new millionaires. She did express her hope, however, that America’s chess masters would use their newly acquired wealth to help overthrow the government.

“It’s what Jefferson would have wanted,” she said.

Update: Related story: "USCL to Get $80 Billion from Obama Stimulus"

Tournament at Whitney Young Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:51:00 +0000

Chess Parents,

I know this is very last minute, but I’ve learned that there’s a chess tournament this Sunday at Whitney Young High School for K-8 students. Details here if you’re interested.

I won’t try to organize a Ray contingent at this late date, but feel free to attend if your child would like to play.

The next tournament by the Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago will be Saturday, March 14, at Wells School, conveniently located on the South Side, on Pershing Road (244 east 39th Street). I do hope we can get a respectable showing from Ray for that tournament. Please let me know if your child is interested in playing at that one. I’ll have more details soon.

Chess Lecture Thursday at TMCC

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:00:00 +0000

IM Angelo Young is holding chess lectures more regularly at his Touch Move Chess Center. Here's the latest:

WHAT: Chess Lecture

WHEN: January 8,2009 (every Thursday 7pm -8:30pm)

TOPIC: Opening theory + sample game+ Q & A

WHERE: Touch Move Chess Center / 5639 N. Ashland ave. Chicago IL. 60660

PHONE: 773-627-2759

FORMAT: 1:30 hrs

Limit to the first 30 participant

Fee: $10 / $5 TMCC Members.

OPEN TO ALL !

Lecturer : IM Angelo Young

7th x Illinois State Champion

FREE SNACKS & DRINKS !

Please be there on time.

Santa Visits Coach Wilson

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:38:00 +0000

Ray School chess coach Lamarr Wilson exercises his mind with chess, but he gives his body a good workout as well with this contraption. I don't know who Tony Little is, but he must be very rich.

True Guitar Hero

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:20:00 +0000

Your Julian Bream fix.

The Basics for Tournament Players

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:17:00 +0000

This Saturday, the Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago will hold a scholastic chess tournament at Bell Elementary School, where they will introduce a new competition section for “novices,” kids who are playing in their very first tournament. The idea is to get novices playing other novices and avoid having some 8th-grade “Beginner” who’s played in ten tournaments but not yet advanced to Intermediate crush some kindergartener like an aluminum can and scare the latter away from chess competition forever.

Okay, so maybe the imagery is a bit over the top, but you get the idea. I think it’s a good one.

At least three Ray kids plan to play in the Novice section, and for them, as well as anyone else who needs a refresher on the basics for tournament play, we offer these aides for brushing up. The things your child should be prepared with are:

Scholar’s Mate. Know how to use it and how to avoid having it used on you. Go here and here for the details.
Basic Checkmates. The two main ones are rook & king vs. king and queen & king vs. king. These are basic techniques that are used to finish the kind of endgames that frequently come up. Once your child masters the techniques, winning these games is second nature.
Opening Guidelines. Go here for the most common openings.
Review GM Arthur Bisguier’s Ten Tips for Winning Chess.

Review these as well as you can with your kids before Saturday, and they should be ready. Now, as Bruce Pandolfini would say, go out there and be brilliant.

Lamarr Wilson's Geeky World

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:37:00 +0000

Here's what the Ray School chess coach does when he's not teaching the Royal Game to your kids.

Chess Leads to Crime

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:54:00 +0000

WDBJ reports:

"A Danville women is in jail, accused of robbing a man during a chess game. . . ."

Full story here.

Another Year for the Professor

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:15:00 +0000

Belated 101st birthday greetings to Jacques Barzun.

Everybody Loves Barack

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:50:00 +0000

This just in: Obama is Irish. No kidding. Kenya has claimed him as one of their own, but now they have competition. Everybody loves a winner.

Whose Adjourned Game?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:35:00 +0000

I ran across this photo in my files of a game in progress. Trouble is, I don’t know whose game it is. I think it’s a skittles game I or someone else was playing against one of the kids in the Ray School Chess Club, and the game stopped because the next round was called and the players had to go play. I think it was Black to move.

Anyway, lest a perfectly good position go to waste, I had the computer finish the game. Here’s one possible continuation. Feel free to suggest another if you’d like.

FEN:

3r1k2/Q3bppp/8/8/8/7q/2P2P1P/2R3K1 b - - 0 1

1... Bd6 2. Qe3 Qxh2+ 3. Kf1 Bf4 4. Qf3 Bxc1 5. c4 Re8 6. Qg2 Qh5 7. f3 Qh4 8.Qf2 Qh1+ 9. Qg1 Qxf3+ 10. Qf2 Qh1+ 11. Qg1 Qh3+ 12. Kf2 Be3+ 13. Ke1 Bg5+ 14.Qe3 Qxe3+ 15. Kf1 Qf4+ 16. Kg2 Re2+ 17. Kh3 Qh4# 0-1

Play through the whole continuation here. Black's mating attack strikes me as a bit sadistic, prolonged, and ostentatious. I mean, what would have been so bad about 9. ... Re1+ 10. Kxe1 Qxg1+? Maybe computers really can show off.

But I don't know much about chess. What do you think?

A Great Thanksgiving Tradition

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:23:00 +0000

For people of a certain age, at any rate.

Go here for Part 2. Part 3 here. And a happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Mate in 11

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:12:00 +0000

A Wacky Wednesday miniature. Who knew there was a Corn Stalk Defense?

Your Moment of Zen XII

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:10:00 +0000

Chicago, Illinois: 51st & Cornell
November 25, 2008

Phillip Beats a GM

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:23:00 +0000

Ray School star Phillip Parker-Turner (center) flanked by GM Antonio and IM Angelo Young

The scene was IM Angelo Young’s Touch Move Chess Center on North Ashland. And while the victory came on time in a simul, a win is a win. Ray’s Phillip Parker-Turner beat GM Rogelio (Joey) Antonio when the grandmaster’s flag fell in the G/30 game. Congratulations, Phillip! Another great milestone for one of Ray’s star players. More photos here.

Trophy Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:18:00 +0000

Phillip Parker-Turner gets taller every year, but so do the trophies he wins.

Congratulations to Ray's George Vassilatos for winning a trophy at November 8 Youth Chess Foundation of Chicago tournament at Burbank School, and to Phillip Parker-Turner for finishing in first place in the 5th-grade section of the Illinois All-Grade Championships.

More photos from the All-Grade here, courtesy of Phillip's dad.

Chess is War

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:21:00 +0000

Your moment of anti-Zen.

Inter-league Competition

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:29:00 +0000

Inmates at Princeton University played chess this week with the guys in the joint. UPI reports:

Students, prisoners face off in chess

TRENTON, N.J., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The seventh chess tournament between Princeton University and the New Jersey State Prison saw a surprising number of prisoner victories, participants said.

The "Inmates and Ivy" chess tournament brought six Princeton students to the prison in Trenton to test their chess skills against a collection of convicted felons and thieves, The (Newark) New Jersey Star-Ledger reported Thursday.

Read more here. I guess it's not uncommon for college students to play prisoners in chess. They do it at Emory University, too.

True Guitar Hero

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:15:00 +0000

Your Leo Kottke fix.

Your Kids Playing Chess

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Panelas) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:14:00 +0000

Coach Lamarr Wilson and chess dad Phillip Turner have captured the action at the Ray School Chess Club beautifully. Want to see more? Go to Lamarr's flickr photostream. And see the "Wilson Warriors" at Lamarr's blog.