Wisconsin Junior Open / Veteran's Tournament

In the Junior Open HONGKAI PAN went 5-0. He will be Wisconsin's Denker representative at the US Open in 2009.

Round 5:
DEREK D SACHS(1767) vs HONGKAI PAN(1895) 0-1 and
JAMES FAN WU (2040) vs JOSHUA D MILLER (1610) 0-1 (closest to camera)

Click here for USCF results

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In the Veteran's event TIMOTHY P VOIGT & CHRISTOPHER BAUMGARTNER tied for first with 4.5/5.0

Although I was the 3rd seed I played poorly to end with 1-1=3! I don't have an explanation for this poor showing. I think I let the first round draw get to me, although I tried not to let it. My record in this event now is 12-3=8

Click here for USCF results

History - Number of players and the winner(s)
2008 34 TIMOTHY P VOIGT, CHRISTOPHER BAUMGARTNER
2007 45 ALEX BETANELI, TATIANA VAYSERBERG
2006 42 DANIEL L LINDQUIST
2005 29 GUY G HOFFMAN
2004 34 WILLIAM ELGER , WILLIAM R OLK, IVAN WIJETUNGE

Coach

I decided to volunteer as chess coach at my son's school. We've had only 2 lessons, and today the kids played in their first tournament as a team. (It was the first tournament experience for 3 out of the 4 team members)

We won third place!

Click here for the the team blog

Wisconsin State Blitz Championship

Open Champion - Erik Santarius
Scholastic Champion - Jordan Smith

Click here for complete results

Midwest Class Championships

Click here for Prize winners

Click here for USCF results

Click here for some pictures

Conrad Holt

I got a chance to ask Conrad a few questions, at the Midwest Class Championships but before we get to that a few facts:

Age : 15
Rating : 2262
Home town : Wichita, Kansas
Number of tournaments to get from 1600-2000 : six in 10 months
Number of tournaments to get from 2000-2200 : nine in 8 months

Click here for Conrad's USCF history

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You seem to have made the difficult transition from expert to master fairly easily, what helped you most to achieve this?

Conrad: Playing on ICC (mostly 3, 5 and 15 min. games) & studying opening books.

Do you have a coach?

Conrad: No

What's your record against GMs?

Conrad: I played GM for the fist time in round 1 and drew him. (Dmitry Gurevich)
(Conrad finished with 2.5/5.0 with losses to Yury Shulman & Benjamin Finegold)

Click here to see Fingold's analysis of his win over Holt

When do you think you will become a GM?

Conrad: In 2 years.

When is your next tournament?

Conrad: Not sure, but I will participate in the next US Chess School

Southwest Chess Club 4 round Swiss [G/100]

Click here for latest results

Car pooling : Mason Ohio Nov 14 (from Milwaukee)

Nov 14-16 or 15-16, 2008: Kings Island Open, Mason OH
3-day Schedule

Spots available : 3

HCC VIII

I finished with 2-1=1 and lost 3 rating points. The loss was to co-champion Allen Becker. I misplayed the middle game, but reached the following equal position as Black. But in mutual time trouble played Qxc4??, which loses a piece to Bxe4.

Hales Corners Challenge VIII

Emory Tate, Angelo Young, Steven Tennant & Allen Becker tie for first with 3.5/4.0

USCF Results

Nolan Hendrickson vs Angelo Young & Emory Tate vs David Sagunsky round 1

History: number of players (open+reserve) and the winner(s):
HCC VIII.10/2008 (33+32=65) TATE, YOUNG, TENNANT, BECKERHCC VII..04/2008 (22+30=52) BURGESS, TENNANT, PARKER
HCC VI...10/2007 (30+32=62) TENNANT, BREIDER, SANTARIUS
HCC V....04/2007 (40+22=62) TATE, STAMNOV
HCC IV...11/2006 (23+26=49) STAMNOV
HCC III..04/2006 (28+17=45) TENNANT
HCC II...10/2005 (20+18=38) BURGESS, BECKER
HCC I....04/2005 (34+36=70) BETANELI
Most wins:
4 TENNANT 2 TATE, BURGESS, STAMNOV, BECKER

LEPers II Coronation

Click here

1900?

There have been several times in the past when I was close enough to 1900 where a decent performance would have put me over. But each time I underperformed to fall further behind(Madison, Neenah, Rockford, Kansas City, Grand Rapids).

I am at that point again(1883). Since I plan to play in the u1900 section at the Kings Island Open, Nov. 14-16, I decided to wait till the cut-off for the November supplement(Oct 3), before I play again. (Just in case I cross over!)

I know, I know....ratings don't mean much, what really matters is playing good moves.

I have been re-reading Jeramy Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess . I am getting much more out of it this time around.

I have also been working on tactics(Understanding Chess Tactics, CTS) and openings.

My next week-end tournament will be the Hales Corners Challenge VIII . (Oct. 4)

And then the WI Veteran's Tournament (Nov. 8, 9)

I also plan to play in a couple of one game a week events at the SWCC & WCC
4 Round Swiss G/100 (Sep. 25, Oct. 2, 9, 16)
Double RR Quads G/90 (Nov. 5, 12, 19, 26 Dec. 3, 10)

Upcoming Wisconsin Events

Sep 27th, 28th 2008 Greg Knutson Memorial
Oct 4th Hales Corners Challenge VIII
Oct 18th Wisconsin State Blitz Championship
Nov 8th, 9th WI Junior Open/Veteran's Tournament

LEPers II Champion

I am proud to announce that I am the LEPers II Champion. I am eagerly awaiting invitations to prestigious chess events as a result of this :)

The LEPers II tournament was an online (FICS) tournament for Bloggers conducted by Donnie (Liquid Egg Product). That's where the name LEPers came from. The time control was 15 min. with a 30 sec. increment.

Click here for more information on who took part.

Click here for the final game against Polly(Castling Queenside).

Thanks Donnie for running the event. I can't wait for LEPers III.

Polly's account of the final is here.

39th Annual Badger Open

Paul Fricano wins clear first.

Click here for USCF results.

WCC Team Tournament [5 Rnds G/90]

Waukesha Chess Club

The winning team: Back row M Politowski, M Lawrence, Me
Front row C Schneider, Greg Reese Jr and Ryan Jayne(not pictured) .

*Updated 9/08 (Final team results)

36 players participated.

Team Selection

Once the team captains were selected(top 6 rated players), the lowest rated captain got the first pick. In each successive round the lowest(cumulative) rated team got first pick.

Jim directing the team selection process.

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July 16

My team(Team-2) won 5-0. (The opposing team had a missing player)

I beat Stanley Garvin (1776). The game started 1.d4 c6 2. c4 d5 3. cd cd 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Bf4 This was getting pretty boring and I wanted to break the symmetry and played 6... e6 although I knew that 6...Bf5 was the best move. Stanley took too much time in the opening and dropped a piece with about 12 min left. (I had around 40 min left).

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July 23

My team lost 2-3=1. I lost to top seed William Williams(2200) on board 1. Ryan Jayne was upset by James Nickell on board 2.

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July 30
No team results since there were many missing participants. Williams was upset by J Kohlenberg

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Aug. 6th

My team went 6-0!

I beat J Veech on board 1. Since I hadn't played the White side of the Grunfeld in a while I opted for a passive line with e3.

1.d4 Nf3 2. Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 d5 5.e3 0-0 6.cd Nxd5 7.Bc4 Nxc3 8.bc c5

I thought I had a slight edge after the opening phase, but after many exchanges, Black may have had a slight advantage in the ending. The deciding factor was going to be the clock, since I was way behind. Luckily for me a bishop was gifted to me on move 39.

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Aug 20
Three weeks of make-up games began today.
I drew J Coons(1840), but Ryan was upset by Aaron Krause.

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Aug 27
I lost to J Kohlenberg(1907) But Cludia Schneider's won a great game over T.Kulkarni to gave the team a win. Team 2 will at least tie for 1st. I am White here. Instead of playing Re8, I decided to complicate matters since my opponent was short on time and played Ne5, But I am the one who later got into time trouble and lost!

SWCC Club Quads

Southwest Chess Club
Aug 28, Sep 4, 11

Click here for USCF results

Iowa Open - What could have been.

I had great fun playing at the Iowa Open. Since I had lived there in the past it was a chance to meet up with old friends. James Hodina ran a great tournament and the playing conditions were excellent.

Round 1 - Win
I won against a 2200 player, but since he is at his floor and not currently playing at the Master level I did not attach too much significance to the win.

Round 2 - Loss
I was paired against 2116 rated Matthew Dahl from Minnesota. I had Black in the following position.

All have to do is play Rb8, and White's best move is probably to resign! But I got greedy and completely overlooked the Rook check on h7 (after the check on c8). I never thought of it that way, but because of the check White essentially got to play two moves in a row. Even after the move I played, I had several chances to draw, but botched it. After this narrow escape Matthew went on draw 2425 rated top seed Sean Nagle in round 3 and beat 2144 rated Tatiana Veyserburg in round 4, but he was beaten by Matt Anzis in round 5. Matt finished clear second with 4.0/5.0 and gained 50 points to get his rating up to 1960.

Round 3 - Draw
After the set back in round 2 I was in no mood to play round 3. I was White and played the exchange variation of the King's Indian. We agreed to a draw around move 20. My opponent was 1981 rated Robert Keating.

Round 4 - Loss
I was paired against a 1999 player who had not played in a long while. I managed to build a huge time advantage. (in the neighbourhood of 1 hour!) The time control was G/120 with 15 second delay. I had an opening initiative, but lost my way and once Black got his knight to c3 I thought that Black was better. At the end when Black was desperately low on time, I missed the tactic that not only won him a pawn, but forced the exchange of queens and left my pieces badly placed.

Click here to replay rounds 2 and 4.

I can't help but wonder what could have been, had I won round 2!

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USCF Results

Sean Nagle won the tournament with 4.5/5. He beat 2 time Iowa champion Pete Karagianis in round 4 and 3 time current Iowa champion Tim McEntee in round 5. Matt Anzis was second with 4/5. 3rd was shared by McEntee, Matt Dahl, Robert Keating, and Tatiana Vayserberg at 3.5/5

Iowa Open 2008

USCF Results

Top seed and 2008 Iowa Open Champion FM Sean Nagle

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Sean Nagle won the tournament with 4.5/5. He beat 2 time Iowa champion Pete Karagianis in round 4 and 3 time current Iowa champion Tim McEntee in round 5. Matt Anzis was second with 4/5. 3rd was shared by McEntee, Matt Dahl, Robert Keating, and Tatiana Vayserberg at 3.5/5

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History (year/# of players/ winners)
2007 32 P KARAGIANIS, R BUTROS, J HODINA, A APPLEBAUM
2006 27 A BETANELI, J BURGESS, R REYNOLDS
2005 26 J ZULIC, D VASTO, D ROCKLIN, R REYNOLDS

I wish I could gain 215 points from four games!

Roshan plays in Texas

Labor Day Events

Labor day is big w-end for chess in most states.

Illinois - Illinois Open Championships

Wisconsin pre-entries include:

2168 Kane, Jeremy
2066 Velikanov, Alexander (He will also be playing in the World Youth Champ. in Vietnam!)
1833 Veech, John
1770 Pan, Hongkai
1723 Jin, David
1717 Kane, Jonathan M
1601 Gorectke, Andrew
1530 Zhang, Tianye
1432 Schneider, Thomas
1415 Jing, Aaron
1192 Gorectke, Samuel

Iowa - 54th Iowa Open

Michigan - 2008 MICHIGAN OPEN

Ohio - 64th Ohio Chess Congress

Professor Arpad E. Elo – a fond remembrance

Don't miss this article which has references to Milwaukee/Western Open etc.

Link to chess base article

Free Yemolinsky Lecture

Click here

No "Western Open" this year

Arlen Walker came by and gave the news. This event has a rich history.( Fischer played in the 1957 edition )

More Chicago Chess

When I was in Chicago, I stopped by Angelo Young's Chess Club where Chris Baumgartner was running a FIDE/USCF rated event. Anthony Parker picked up a FIDE rating norm at this event.

USCF Results

IM Angelo Young's Touch Move Chess Center

3 Days 4 events

Aug. 15 Indiana State Blitz Championship Kokomo, Indiana Results

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Aug. 15 Indiana State Quick Championship Kokomo, Indiana Results

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Aug. 16 Indiana State Class Championships Kokomo, Indiana Results

I scored 1-1=2. This is a position I had in the loss.

I am black. Here I had 23...cxd4 24.cxd4 fxe5 if then 25.fxe5 I have Nxd4! if then Bxd4 Bg5+ wins.

But inaccurate play on my part cost me the game.

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Aug. 17 Blitz Chess Tournament Skokie, Illinois

Final results from the Skokie Blitz event. IM Amanov vs IM Kapengut,

FM Kaushansky vs FM Stamnov (shaking hands)

SWCC Club Championship - Anthony Parker goes 6-0

Southwest Chess Club

Anthony playing the wing gambit against the Sicilian defense in his last round game.

Final results

USCF results

Chicago Class Championships - WI Players

There were some outstanding performances by the following players in the lower sections, but WI names were noticeably missing from the top of the upper sections.

Class B HONGKAI PAN Tie for 3rd

Class C NEIL THOMAS STRUGNELL Tie for 1st

Class E QIANG CHANG Clear 1st

Under 700 ADREAM LIANG Clear 2rd

Complete results

I was in good form going in.

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Round 1

I am playing White against a 1963 player, and with Na4 (I missed that I could play Bb3 if Qc2), I have a great game, but I played Ne2 and in mutual time trouble threw it all away.

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Round 2I am Black. Here I should have played Kf7 and I think I am slightly better, I played Qa2 missing ef, but even after that I should have been able to hold the draw, but my opponent had a lot of extra time and that proved decisive.

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Round 3I am Black. White had just played Rxd6, and with Rxd6 I would win in a few moves, but I played the lemon Ba6+????

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Round 5 (forced bye in round 4)I am playing White here, but could not come up with a good plan and the game ended in a draw.

Although I had a very poor final score, I am pretty happy with my play. I was not outplayed in any of the games, more like I outplayed myself. The first round loss was a tough pill to swallow, and had I won that I am sure that I would have finished strong. I made the trip with 5 others and we had a great time in Chicago although only one of us managed an even score.

Chicago Class Championships

USCF Results

IM Kirill Kudeinov(Right) tied for first with Yermo. He beat Gurevich in round 3. The battle of the generations in the U2200 section. Alexander Velikanov (10) battling Erik Karklins (94 years young) in round 3. Experience won out this time. Erik had a chance to tie for first going into the last round. He gained almost 50 points. You can see Erik's son Andrew Karklins playing in the Master section above and to the left of Erik's head. WI top juniors, Brian Luo(2069) and Alexander Velikanov(2027) #2 and #3 in the age 10 list. They played each other to a draw in the last round, and finished with 2.0/5.0
Pink squares and cool shades in the U1000 section

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Six of us rode together, and except for Paitrick who finished 2-2=1 playing up in the U2200 section, the rest of us performed well below our capabilities.

Alan Schaefer

Alan with his niece and sister

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Alan Schaefer was a regular at the Waukesha Chess Club. In fact he played in the last tournament I played there. That’s why I was surprised to hear that he was in bad health.

I visited him a few days ago, and we talked about his chess history. Alan moved back to Wisconsin in June 2007, after spending many years in Massachusetts. He got into chess as an adult, and got more than he bargained for when he visited the local chess club for the first time. Not only did he find himself signed up as a USCF member, he also got to play his first rated game against a strong opponent. Although he was soundly beaten, he was determined to get better. In time, he was able to get his rating up to class B.

Alan says that one of the main reasons he didn't get better was the fact that he didn't take the game seriously enough. He recalled a game where at one point, 7 pieces were lined up on the same file. Instead of trying to find the best move, he was intent on putting an 8th piece on the vacant square. He lost two moves later!

Alan currently resides at the Angels Grace Hospice in Oconomowoc, (920) 474-7800, he welcomes visitors and/or email alan_schaefer@hotmail.com

Link to Alan's chess history

Spring Swiss [4 Rnds. - G/90]

Waukesha Chess Club

7 time Wisconsin Champion WILLIAMS, WILLIAM P

There were 30 players

WILLIAMS, WILLIAM P (2200) won clear first with 4.0, I was clear second with 3.5 (1 bye)

Prior to today my record against SOUVIK ROYCHOUDHURY (1985) was 0-4, I finally won one.

USCF Results

World Open 2008

likesforests http://likesforests.blogspot.com/,
chessloser http://chessloser.wordpress.com/,
BlunderProne http://blunderprone.blogspot.com/ and me

Most go to the World Open with dreams of finishing high enough to snag a nice prize, but only about 5% of the participants come home richer than they went in. The rest of us are left dreaming of what might have been. Just for the record it is not impossible for a regular Joe to make a decent showing : My tie for 3rd place in the HB Global U1800

I was in a confident mood going in, but this was definitely not my year. I was going to play in the 5 day with 2 byes for rounds 1 and 2, but car trouble on the way forced me to decide between taking 3 byes or playing in the 3-day event. I decided to play in the 3-day although playing five games of G/45 in one day was not going to be easy. Further delays forced me to take a bye for round 1. I finally started in round two but 2 losses in a row did me in.

Although I had a disappointing result, I enjoyed the trip to Philly and got to meet several old friends and fellow bloggers. There is always next year!

Click here for more pictures

CCA Results

World Open 2008 - Road Trip

Toronto (June 28,29,30) -> NY (July 1,2) -> Philadelphia (July 3,4,5,6)

I will play in the 5-day U2000 section with byes for rounds 1 & 2.

2008 Rochester Grand Summer Open June 13,14

2008 Rochester Grand Summer Open, Rochester, MN hosted by the Rochester Chess Club.

Despite high gas prices and flooding rivers more than 80* players from 4 states attended this year's event. Matt Jensen and his crew ran a great tournament, with lots of extras including: upset prizes for every round, drawings for ICC memberships and a chess set, multiple playing schedules etc.

I have played in four states in 14 days! Not sure when my next w-end tournament will be. I was thinking about the World Open, but it does not look likely at this point.

USCF results

*including the unrated section

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Tournament winner IM VICTOR-EDVIN ADLER checking out the last round game RON R DEIKE vs MATTHEW D DAHL

DAHL won this game

Bad planning (actually no planning!) turned a 4 hr drive into a 7 hour one (due to road closings). I was forced to take two half point byes.

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Round 3
Win against BILL GRAYDON(1603)

I arrived 30 min late for the 60 min game. I played the opening well, but then gave my opponent several chances to equalize that he did not take advantage of. Later, I was winning on the board when my opponent went over the time limit!

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Round 4
Loss to KEVIN BU (1966)

I was 30 minutes late again* but this time I was facing the nation's 10th ranked 12 year old. I was in the process of congratulating my self on lessening my time disadvantage and obtaining a fairly equal position when I missed a simple tactic that forced mate.

*had to drop the family off at the hotel

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Round 5
Win against ROBERT J DONAHUE (2064)

My opponent misplayed the opening and I was able to win a nice game.

Click here for the games

Mind Games Open - Indiana

Mind Games Open
Mishawaka, IN 46545

I finished clear first with 3.5/4.0 including a last round win against top seed Leslie Kistler (2029)

USCF Results

There were 14 players. I was the 4th seed

Chicago Open 2008

Although I didn't play I stopped by during the 6th round. This year's edition attracted 702 players. Attenedance since 2001:

Final results here.

Notable performances by WI players:

Under 2300
Alexander Betaneli tied for 1-2 with 6 points (worth $4000)
Alexander Velikanov, 10 years old and rated 2028 played up to finish with 3 points, beating 2 masters.

Under 1900
Alex Gianos-Steinberg clear first with 6.5 (worth $5000)
Alex has played in only 7 tournaments 6 of them Chicago Opens. His rating jump: 1786 => 1927. He also won the under 1600 section in 2005 with an identical score.

Under 1500
David Jin clear first with 6.5 (worth $5000)
*Correction - Jin was limited to $1500 due to rating over 1530 in past year
Under 700
Edward Larkin clear second with 5.5

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I had a chance to meet Chessloser and he gave me a couple of his "HARDCORE PAWNOGRAPHY" stickers. (Click here for his interview with Hikaru Nakamura)

Chessloser anlyzing after round 6

Back

After starting the year on a high note (highest published rating), I am back on my floor after a dismal 0-7 performance in my last event. I took two weeks completely off of any chess acivity.

I will not be able to go to the Chicago Open this year.

On a personal note, my daughter was born on May 16th

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

I managed to lose seven games in a row. Lack of chess skill had a lot to do with it, but there was a big phsychological barrier that I was not able to navigate around once I lost a few early games.

In todays game I got a great game after my oponent misplayed the opening. I am Black in the following position. There is absolutely no reason not to play ...e5 here. In fact playing ...e5 was my plan all along, but for some reason I decided to delay it. Then lost to a simple tactic.

Click here to replay game

Starting tomorrow I am going to take a 2 week break completely away from chess. I am going to concentrate on physical fitness and practicing my violin.

Waukesha Chess Club Championship

There are a record 42 players in 5 sections.

Bill & Sasha are joint champions. Congratulations!

Section 1

2200 WILLIAMS, W
2100 HAYES, R
2027 VELIKANOV, A
1961 ROYCHOUDHURY, S
1882 VELIKANOV, P
1858 COONS, J
1839 WIJETUNGE, I
1784 GARVIN, S

6.0 WILLIAMS ,VELIKANOV,A
5.0 ROYCHOUDHURY
4.0 VELIKANOV,P
3.5 COONS
2.0 HAYES
1.5 GARVIN
0.0 WIJETUNGE

Week 1 (March 19)
1-0 ROYCHOUDHURY vs VELIKANOV,P
0-1 COONS vs VELIKANOV,A
1/2 GARVIN vs HAYES
0-1 WIJETUNGE vs WILLIAMS

Week 2 (March 26)
PPD VELIKANOV,P vs WIJETUNGE
1-0 WILLIAMS vs GARVIN
1/2 HAYES vs COONS
PPD VELIKANOV,A vs ROYCHOUDHURY

Week 3 (April 2)
1-0 VELIKANOV,A vs VELIKANOV,P
1-0 ROYCHOUDHURY vs HAYES
1-0 COONS vs WILLIAMS
1-0 GARVIN vs WIJETUNGE

Week 4 (April 9)
1-0 VELIKANOV,P vs GARVIN
0-1 WIJETUNGE vs COONS
1-0 WILLIAMS vs ROYCHOUDHURY
0-1 HAYES vs VELIKANOV,A

Week 5 (April 16)
0-1 HAYES vs VELIKANOV,P
0-1 VELIKANOV,A vs WILLIAMS
1-0 ROYCHOUDHURY vs WIJETUNGE
1-0 COONS vs GARVIN

Week 6 (April 23)
1-0 VELIKANOV,P vs COONS
0-1 GARVIN vs ROYCHOUDHURY
0-1 WIJETUNGE vs VELIKANOV,A
1-0 WILLIAMS vs HAYES

Week 7 (April 30)
1-0 WILLIAMS vs VELIKANOV,P
1-0 HAYES vs WIJETUNGE
1-0 VELIKANOV,A vs GARVIN
1-0 ROYCHOUDHURY,S s COONS

Make up games - May 7
1-0 VELIKANOV,P vs WIJETUNGE
1-0 VELIKANOV,A vs ROYCHOUDHURY

0-6

Can I be this bad? I hope not. The timing coudn't be worse as my next tournament is the Chicago open. I was speaking to my friend Jose and he suggested that after next weeks game I take two weeks completely off of chess.

Here Black has a good game after ...d4, but I played Rc8

Clich here to replay

0-5

I lost my 5th game in a row to 10 year old expert Alexander Velikanov, who should be the #1 rated 10 year old after this tournament is rated. It was an even opening and middle game, I then went astray and was worse, but later got the following chance to even things up. Here I should have played Bc4, but played Ke3 and was not able to hold.
Click here to replay

K-12 Nationals

Several WI players are participating in the K-12 Nationals. Alexander Velikanov is the 44th seed out of 341.

Parings/Results

Monroi link

Yet another loss!

I am now 0-4. But as they say, "What does not kill you will make you stronger". I am also increasing my probability of winning in the future :)

The opening was good for me. Inaccurate play in the middle game cost me a pawn, but I was sure that I could hold the resulting Bishop endgame. My opponent then sacrificed a pawn, so the material was equal.

We reached the following position. My last move was Kd5-d6. This move is a blunder because it allows White to play Bf6! It is interesting to note that Bf6 only draws if I had played Kd5-c6!

I lost this game because I failed to look at winning plans for White, was too confident of my drawing chances in my opponents time trouble.

I have seen Bishop endings where the theme was to sacrifice a bishop to queen a pawn, but in this game I forgot all about it. There is so much to remember!

I spent a lot of time going over this game and learnt a lot about Bishops of same color endings.

Local News

Looks like there won't be a "Cedric Thompson Memorial Tournament" this year. (formally known as Milwaukee City Championship) . Thie event was scheduled for 5/3 - 5/4 and was a Wisconsin Tour Event.

Event History (Players / Winner)
2007 31 / BETANELI
2006 22 / VAJA

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The winners of the 4 USAT tournaments met on April 12th to determine an overall winner. The team from the South won.

The mainly WI based team of

1) 2282 Betaneli Alexander
2) 2239 Vaja Ashish
3) 2175 Santarius Erik
4) 2003 Magness Trevor (IL)

lost to

"We have Cox"
1) 2386 Robby Adamson
2) 2246 Landon Brownell
3) 2115 Jonathan Cox
4) 2100 Benjamin Marmont

in the semi final with a score 0f 1-3 (Trevor won)

Hales Corners Challenge VII.

Burgess, Tennant and Parker tie for 1st.

USCF Results

Event History (players/winner(s))

HCC VII 52(22+30)/ BURGESS,TENNANT,PARKER
HCC -VI 62(30+32)/ TENNANT,BREIDER,SANTARIUS
HCC --V 62(40+22)/ TATE,STAMNOV
HCC -IV 47(23+24)/ STAMNOV
HCC III 45(28+17)/ TENNANT
HCC -II 38(20+18)/ BURGESS,BECKER
HCC --I 70(34+36)/ BETANELI

Can't win to save my life!

I am 0-3 in my current tournament at the Waukesha chess club, but am determined to make a 2nd half come back. Yesterday I played 1.b4 for the first time in my life. I ended up losing a pawn, but my opponent handed me the game when he played Bb4. There are several ways to win here. I chose Ng6 (not the best if Black finds Qf6), but he played Qd6, I then played the obvious Bxf7+, Black replied Kh7, I should have just played BxB QxB, Rb1 and then picked up the rook on e8. I played dxe Qc5,Bxb4 Qxb4, Rb1 Qxe4, Bxe8 Bc4, Qb2 Bd5.

If I had not played dxe earlier, Black would not have had mating threats. Here the best defence is f3, then after Qxf3 I can play Bxd7. Instead I chose f4, I am still winning but in bad time trouble didn't realize that in order to defend properly I had to approach the Black bishop with my King, instead I ended up getting mated on the q-side.

2008 Arpad Elo Open, Wisconsin Dells April 5-6

There were 58 players, but only 12 in the top section.

10 year old Alexander Velikanov rated 2028 won all his games(+3rd round bye) to finish clear first. He gained 20 points to close in on Brian Luo in the USCF age 10 list.

1) Luo, Brian J WI 2068
2) Velikanov, Alexander WI 2028
3) Pamatmat, Jarod TX 2002

USCF results

I didn't play so well and finished with 1-1=1, I could not play the last round(sick family member) and took a first round bye. I started with a draw against Nietman (1921). In the second round I misplayed the opening and had a bad position, but just after I fought my way back to equal played a horrible move that lost the game. I had a slight edge for a while in round 4, then went from being horribly lost to winning in my opponent's time trouble.

Velikanov vs Nietman, Round 5 (The secret must be to drink lots of water!)

Event History (players/winner(s))
2008 59 (13+46) , ALEXANDER VELIKANOV
2007 56 (21+35) , ALEX BETANELI, JEREMY KANE
2006 47 (20+27) , DANE M MATTSON
2005 48 (20+28) , STANISLAU SMIATANKIN

Critical position from my last loss

I am Black, I have about 5 min. White has 1 min.(with 5 sec. delay). I spent too much evaluating the position after 1...Qh1+ 2. Ke2 Qxc1 3.Bxe6+ Kxe6 4. Qxg6+

Considering the time factor, I should have played ...Qg2+, now that my rook is protected I can move my king to e7.

During the game I didn't even look at ...Qg2+

In the actual game I ended up being up a Bishop, but lost too many pawns, and lost in a wild time scramble.

Check out this site

http://web.jrn.columbia.edu/newmedia/2008/masters/chess/