Monday, October 29, 2007

FIDE Tournament Under Way Here

Top masters compete for norms at North Side club

Most of the major tournaments affiliated with the World Chess Federation (French acronym: FIDE) take place abroad, but thanks to Sevan Muradian and his North American Chess Association, we do get to see FIDE-rated events here in Chicago. The latest is the 6th North American FIDE Invitational, which got started yesterday at IM Angelo Young’s Touch Move Chess Center and runs through next weekend.

The tournament brings to town several very strong players from around the country and around the world who will mix it up with top local masters. Some players are looking to win “norms” that will help them earn FIDE titles, so the high stakes should make it a pretty exciting tournament. IM David Vigorito, FM Mehmed Pasalic, and FM Ray Robson are tied for the lead after two rounds. Ray, who turns 13 this year, beat IM Stephen Muhammad in the second round with the Black pieces. Keep an eye on this kid!

The next round starts tonight at 6:30 at Touch Move, 5639 North Ashland. Fans are welcome, and admission is $5 if you're not a club member. If you can’t make it to the club, you can follow all the action live at the MonRoi site. More information here and here.

In other news, congratulations to Evanston Chess for the 23-player turnout they got for Saturday's tournament. It was their biggest yet, I think. Kudos to Matthew Pullin for winning.

Update: Chicago's FIDE tournament is attracting national attention from former U.S. Women's Champion Jennifer Shahade, who is writing about it on the USCF Web site.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tom:

Good blog coverage per usual.

Check out pics at http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AYuGjJw5cNWLiY&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5

Sorry-- you'll have to teach me how to hotlink one of these days....

brad

Tom Panelas said...

Wow, stunning pictures, Brad. Thanks. The composition is superb.

Here's a direct link.

Tom Panelas said...

Did Betsy Dynako take these photos? This looks like her excellent work.

Anonymous said...

Sevan was taking those pics ....

btw..Ray Robson just beat Albert Chow to go 2.5/3.0 !!