Happy Birthday, ECC

Tonight the Evanston Chess Club celebrates its one-year anniversary, and it’s a milestone not only for them, but for chess in the Chicago area generally. At a time when chess clubs struggle to survive, Evanston Chess is one of the game’s great success stories. Started by a group of local chess players as a place for adults to play in a friendly, laid-back setting, the club has thrived by sticking to that principle and by charging absurdly low entry fees (typically $5) for first-rate tournaments. Nobody’s getting rich off of chess in Evanston, though they are having a lot of fun. ECC’s Tuesday-night meetings and weekend events attract some of the area’s top players, yet they have plenty of room for duffers like you and me. I’m sorry to say I haven’t visited the club yet, but maybe I can manage it before its second anniversary.

Happy birthday, Evanston Chess.

Evanston Chess Tournament Tomorrow

Adult chess club on North Shore holds “economy open”

I almost forgot to tell everyone that the Evanston Chess Club, which is rapidly becoming one of the great chess success stories in the Chicago area, will hold its third (or fourth?) “economy open” tomorrow, with registration beginning at 9:00 a.m. With an entry fee of $5.00, it’s the cheapest chess tournament you’re likely to find. It’s unrated, and I have it on good authority that the people are very nice.

Though it only started last February, Evanston Chess is rapidly becoming the area headquarters for friendly and relaxed adult chess. Details on tomorrow’s tournament here.

Also make a note of their next blitz tournament, on November 17. (But note as well that Ray kids will be playing in a tournament at Disney School that day.)

Vicary is Brilliant

Best game in women’s championship wins prize

You don’t hear the word “brilliancy” in everyday usage, but in chess the word has a popular and specific meaning, referring to a game that is, well . . . brilliant. International Master Jeremy Silman defines brilliancy as “A game that contains a very deep strategic concept, a beautiful combination or an original plan.” Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan has published an entire book of brilliancies, plural.

And sometimes, when you play a brilliancy, your achievement is duly recognized, as it was for Woman FIDE Master Elizabeth Vicary, a competitor in the recently concluded U.S. Women’s Championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Elizabeth didn’t win the tournament—Irina Krush did that—but thanks to a special prize from the Web site Goddesschess.com, Ms. Vicary won $300 for a thrilling game against Woman Grandmaster Camilla Baginskaite, in which she defeated the higher rated player with the black pieces, playing the Bogo-Indian Defense. (I confess I don’t know that opening well, though I have always liked the sound of it. It’s named for the late Grandmaster Efim Bogoljubov, who played it frequently.)

It was an exciting game. One commenter on Mig Greengard’s Daily Dirt blog called it “a kitchen-sink attack . . . Thrilling to watch - I was on edge for the final 10 moves or more.”

Sacking the Exchange
I haven’t seen the game annotated anywhere, but Elizabeth herself comments on it in a blog post at the USCF site. Note that she likes “sacking the exchange,” as she does with 21...Rxb4, allowing her rook to be captured, for which she gets only a knight and a pawn in return. The term refers to giving up your rook for a minor piece, the intention being to get some kind of compensation for the sacrifice, such as a positional advantage or a better attack. See what GM Robert Byrne had to say about it 20 years ago.

As you may know, great chess players are not compensated the way rock stars and major-league ballplayers are. The figure above is not a typo; $300 is what you get for a brilliant chess game. Barely enough to make a dent in Elizabeth’s stay at the Stillwater Quality Inn during the tournament, though I guess it’s better than a poke in the eye with a stick.

Play through the game, and enjoy. Congratulations, Elizabeth.

Endgame: Congratulations to Eric Rosen for winning the recent blitz tournament at Evanston Chess and to Vince Hart for taking first place in the club’s “economy open.” Vince blogs about his chess adventures occasionally (hat tip: Chessdad64), so maybe we can expect some commentary on this tournament, if he is so moved. . . . Congratulations to Ron Washington and the other woodpushers at the North Avenue Chess Pavilion, who got some high-profile coverage last week from the Chicago Reader, in addition to our recent post. The Reader's Ted Cox did a nice job on the article, despite having run smack up against the pavilion's top two players in his first encounter with chess in many years.

More Chess in Evanston

Evanston Chess, the place for friendly and relaxed adult chess in the Chicago area, will hold two more tournaments in the coming weeks. First up is a blitz match on Tuesday night, July 17. It’s unrated, so don’t let your lack of a U.S. Chess Federation membership keep you away from this one. After that, it’s the club’s second “economy open,” on Saturday, July 28. And when they say economy, they’re not kidding: it’s only five bucks to enter. Check out either tournament or both if you’re looking for some friendly chess with normal people—as normal as chess people get, at any rate. Details here and here. And while you're at it, stick this flyer up on the fridge to remind you that Evanston Chess meets every Tuesday night.

Adults Only: Evanston Chess Club

Laid-back tournament this Saturday

Let’s face it, there just aren’t enough places around Chicago for grown-ups to play chess. But thanks to a handful of woodpushers up in Evanston, including chess supermom Maret Thorpe and veteran trainer Tom Sprandel, there’s now one more than there use to be. The Evanston Chess Club has been meeting on Tuesday nights since early last winter, and their watchwords are friendly and relaxed. Doesn’t that sound nice? Don’t you wish we had a place like that in Hyde Park? Me too. But until that day comes, you may want to check out the scene in Evanston.

This Saturday, May 12, wouldn’t be a bad time to start, because Evanston Chess is planning its first rated tournament, from 9:00 to 4:00. Don’t let “rated tournament” scare you away. This isn’t a bunch of grandmasters; these are regular people like you and me. Remember: friendly and relaxed. That’s Evanston Chess. And it’s only five bucks to enter. Details here.