Chess Tournament in Hyde Park!

Rated Event at U of C Next Saturday

No, it’s not a typo. There really will be a genuine USCF-rated chess tournament right here in Hyde Park next Saturday, thanks to the University of Chicago Chess Club. Details:

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The Reynolds Club -- 5706 S. University Ave, Chicago, IL

USCF rated only (not FIDE rated).

4-SS G/60+10 Sec increment. $1225 b/60
(An increase of $525 over the last prize fund we offered at this site!).

EF: $30 preentry, $40 at the site. $10 discount to U of C students. IDs will be checked at site and discount given at site. All pre-entries will be put in a drawing for a Chessbase software package of your choice.

Prize Fund: (All class prizes based on 4 per section) 1st $400, 2nd $250, 3rd
$150,Expert/A $125,B $100, C $100, D + below and Unrated $75, Biggest Upset $25.

Registration: 9:00am-9:45am Round Times: 10am-12:30pm-3:00pm-5:30pm.

Info/Preentries: Chris Baumgartner, 9985 Linda Ln Apt 2E, Des Plaines, IL 60016
(please make checks payable to Chris Baumgartner) Phone: 847-609-2987 Email:
mcafide@yahoo.com.

Here's the official listing on the Illinois Chess Association calendar.

Here's a flyer you can tack up on the fridge. And a hat tip to NM Jeremy Kane, team’s captain and also the new Ray School chess coach, for sending me the information.

An Expert in the Neighborhood

For a blog that aspires to cover chess in Hyde Park, we're doing a pretty pathetic job of it, I must admit. I only just now spotted this three-month-old article in the Chicago Maroon about strong chess expert Jeremy Kane, captain of the University of Chicago Chess Club. He's 13 rating points shy of national master. Let's root for him to make it to 2200. Please read the article, and kudos to the Maroon for covering chess.

Incidentally, I think I have some photos from the spring chess tournament at U of C mentioned in the article, and I'll try to get those up here in due course. Yes, I know; I should've done it a long time ago. All the usual excuses.

Shulman is U.S. Champion!

The new United States Chess Champion is Chicago-area Grandmaster Yury Shulman, a member of the new Chicago Blaze chess team. Details at USCF. Anna Zatonskih won the women's title (her second time, I think) beating incumbent Irina Krush and others in a tough tournament.

In other news, Chicago chess will be "blazing" this summer, according to USCF. Next on tap: the Chicago Open, where Ray School Chess Club members Sonam Ford and Phillip Parker-Turner will be playing this weekend. (Note to Hyde Parkers: members of the University of Chicago Chess Team will be there, too.)

More as I have the time.

Congratulations to Yury and everyone else.

Chess, Chess Everywhere

Herewith scenes from recent Chicago chess touraments, starting with some spirited bughouse at the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club today, in the latest tournament by Chess Education Partners:

In other Hyde Park chess action, 59 players descended on the University of Chicago’s Quadrangle Club on January 20 for the latest Third Coast Challenge chess tournament was held by the Renaissance Knights. Among those in attendance were several members of the U of C Chess Club, whose top board, Jeremy Kane, tied with Isaac Hagerling for first place in the tournaments open with 3.5/4. More photos here.

Jeremy Kane and Gene Scott (I think)

In another Renaissance Knights event that did not take place in Hyde Park, IM Stan Smiatankin, scourge of the suburbs, once again left destruction in his wake, this time by playing three consecutive simuls against 6th, 7th & 8th graders in January.

Stan the Man

You may recall that last summer Stan summarily dispatched the mayors of Forest Park and Oak Park at one time, in a game that evoked Morphy at the Opera House. This time Northbrook Junior High School was the scene of his triumph.

Chess Comes In from the Rain

Our first “Chess Alfresco” outdoor meeting didn’t work out exactly as planned, thanks to a driving rain that opened up right around 4:00 yesterday, but it turned out well all the same. The six intrepid chess players who showed up on the dismal Saturday afternoon—three kids and three parents—ducked into the University of Chicago’s “C Shop,” got some snacks, and played a few round of chess indoors.

Most likely the weather will be better next week, and we’ll play outside. Will you join us?

An intense game of blitz that turned heads among the normally blasé U of C crowd

Adults play chess too. Coaches Qing Dai and Emil Sidky battle it out in an exciting game that ended in a draw.