Kamsky Beats Topalov

Well, with the win of Kamsky's I posted earlier and three draws, Kamsky has beat Topalov in the first round of the World Championship Candidates match. That is pretty awesome.
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Here is a link from a write up Ben Finegold did of the candidates matches.

St. Louis Ben Finegold Candidates Matches

Kamsky's win overhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Topalov is sort of a surprise, but Kamsky is the kind of player that can beat Topalov. It is actually a pretty good match up for Kamsky. I think he is going to have a much tougher time with his next opponent, who is Boris Gelfand. Gelfand is extremely solid, and if Kamsky makes some minor mistakes here and there, which he does sometimes, Gelfand might be able to take advantage of it. It will also be very difficult to beat Gelfand, as Gelfand doesnt lose that many games.

I dont know who good Kamsky is at blitz. If Kamsky wins, he will face the winner of Kramnik and Grischuk. Both of those players are good as well. I think Kamsky matches up better against Kramnik. It seems likes just a little while ago Kramnik was still defending his title.

For all of the games and such, you can go to Chessgames.com

Also, I totally missed the U.S. Championships, which is too bad. Kamsky won that as well. It would be really great if he became the World Champion!

Kamsky Wins Round 1, Game 2!

Big Congratulations to Gata Kamsky for beating Veselin Topalov in round 1, game 2 of the 2011 World Championship Candidates. Topalov is one of the best players in the world, and Kamsky now leads him 1.5 to .5 in the match. Here is the game:



Good luck to Kamsky in his remaining games!

Congratulations to the New England Nor'Easters, the 2010 US Chess League Champions

I had a little time and thought I should do a congratulatory post. My coverage of the US Chess League was pretty poor, but it wasnt all my fault! My computer broke down for a couple of weeks. All in all, though, I had a good time covering the league. I look forward to next year, and will try and keep tabs on any big Philadelphia Inventors off season moves. I like the bottom heavy approach they have, but a couple of star GMs would be pretty cool too. In about two weeks, I may try and kick start this blog a bit, and get some sort of new series going. I have no idea what it would be though. If you have any suggestions feel free to leave me some comments. Otherwise, I will just try and rack my brain a bit and get something going.

Well, thanks for reading!

Philadelphia Inventors eliminated from the Playoffs

Well, it is not much of a shock that they wouldnt make the playoffs, but it is too bad that they are now actually mathematically eliminated. They lost 2.5-1.5 to Baltimore. They still have 2 more matches, though, and can maybe try and build up something going into next year.

Taking a look at the standings, one very interest stat just jumps out of the page at me. The Philadelphia Inventors have a 41% winning percentage games wise, but are dead last in match standings. Yep, there were a lot of close but losing matches over the course of this season. The Inventors game wise are tied with Manhattan, which is currently in 5th place with 3.5-4.5 and fighting for a playoff spot. That is just the way match chess goes, the team has to click at the right times.

Looking forward, though, this is pretty promising. Depending on roster moves, I dont think anyone can count out the Inventors from the get go next year. They are much closer to a playoff spot then their match record indicates, and that is nice silver lining.

I am not sure if they actually have team MVPs in the US Chess League, but my nominee would be Tom Bartell. He has an 4 out of 7 (2 wins, 4 draws, 1 loss), was undefeated up until this past week, and has fairly consistently been playing higher rated players. Indeed, his only loss of the year was against GM Sergey Erenburg, who is rated 200 points higher than him. His memorable win over GM Boris Gulko was a great way to start the season for the Inventors. It has been a bit of an unfortunate year for the Inventors, but Bartell has done a great job holding his own on the top boards, often against higher rated opponents. Unless I am missing something, the only game Bartell had against a lower rated opponent was his draw against Chicago's IM Angelo Young. That makes his 4 out of 7 pretty impressive, in my opinion. Nice work, Tom Bartell!

There are still two more matches, though, so maybe another Inventor will make a case for himself.

For Week 9, the Philadelphia Inventors will play the Manhattan Applesauce. I like the name by the way. Good luck to the Inventors!

Fight Tonight!!! Baltimore vs. Philadelphia

Well, my blogging has gone way down! Truth be told, I am a bit busier now then I expected to be. Also, to be frank, I enjoy doing Blitz commentary videos more. They are easier to do. Writing can be kind of a pain. Rambling is always a joy!

IM Jay Bonin has joined the Philadelphia Inventors mid season. He has replaced the Piano Man, Matthew Bengston. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I do not believe we had the privilege of seeing Mr. Bengston play this year. That is too bad, and it is too bad to lose him from the team.

As far as Jay Bonin goes, he is I believe a staple around the Marshall Chess Club in New York City. He is a very good IM. I am not sure if he has moved to Philadelphia, welcome if he has. He has played for the New York Knights since 2005, so while he is new to the Philadelphia Inventors he is not new to the US Chess League.

Well, here is a link that I think explains what a great addition Jay Bonin is to the team. This season is kind of over for the Philadelphia Inventors, but if Jay Bonin sticks around, the Inventors could have a very good thing going next year. A line up of Panchanathan, Smith, Bartell, and Bonin looks extremely promising to me. Panchanathan can try and get as many draws as possible against the top GMs from other teams, Smith can hold his own on board 2, and Bartell and Bonin would be extremely strong for boards 3 and 4. I am not sure if this line up is actually legal, because I dont know exactly what the average rating has to be. Anyway, I should probably get back to the present a bit.

Welcome Jay Bonin and Good Luck!

The Inventors have a good chance of beating Baltimore this go around. The tied the last time they met. Basically, and somewhat typically this year, the Inventors have a bit of a disadvantage on the top board and a pretty decent advantage on the bottom boards. Well, at least rating wise. One thing that might be an issue is that Baltimore is still very much in the race for a playoff spot. Well, they are actually currently in 4th, which would give them the last playoff spot. They might have a little extra oomph, today, as the Inventors are playing for pride. I am going to go ahead and predict a 3 to 1 win for the Inventors.

Actually, I just did some calculations and the Inventors are not mathematically eliminated yet. If they can go 3-0 the next three matches, they will finish with a score of 4.5-5.5 So long as Baltimore goes 1-2 the next three matches, and neither New Jersey, Manhatten or Carolina jump up too much, the Inventors would tie for 4th place with Baltimore.

So, as hope springs eternal, maybe this is the match that starts off the Inventors on a crazy season ending playoff getting tear. Good luck to them!

Hi I am back.

Well, I finally got my computer all sorted out so I will be able to post regularly again. I have decided on a few things.

First, I wont be doing the Chess Tactics of the Day anymore, at least for a while. They were pretty fun for me to do, but there are tons of tactics all over the place on the internet, so it is kind of redundant for me to put one up everyday. I mean, I have three gadgets with Chess Tactics of the Day at the bottom of my page!

Second, I am not going to make any sort of post about the Philadelphia Inventors past few matches. People have already read about this stuff elsewhere, so I will just say, in case you havent been following them at all, that they are doing pretty well, but things could be better. They have had a lot of ties and close lost matches and that type of thing. I think they still have a chance of pulling off some a solid ending to the season and sneaking into the playoffs. It is going to be pretty tough though. If you look at the bottom 4 teams in the East, though, the Inventors have the highest game winning percentage, at 44%. The other teams are all around 35%. 44% is not good, but the Inventors could easily be at something like 2-4, or even 2.5-3.5 if they had a little bit of luck.

Finally, the Inventors next match is on Wednesday October 6th against the New England Nor'easters. Maybe the Inventors can start a massive comeback! Good luck to them!

Double Bad News!

Well, the Inventors lost last night to the New York Knights 3 to 1. The Inventors did not get a win, but Bartell and Costigan got draws. Costigan was rated higher than his opponent, but Bartell's draw against GM Fedorowicz is impressive. I dont know for sure, but looking at the game, it seems like Bartell was content with a draw and got it. He was never under much pressure throughout, so that is pretty cool.

The other bad news is that my Computer is having some problems right now and I basically cant use it. I can use friends' computers every now and then, but I will only be able to blog lightly for the next 2 weeks or so. I will try and give brief updates like this one. I will also try and get a bunch of stuff ready so when my computer is fixed I can put up a whole lot of stuff to make up for the absence.

By the by, here is some good analysis from the Boston Blitz site of Bartell's win over Shmelov. Thanks for the analysis!

As a final thing, the Inventors will play the Baltimore Kingfishers on Monday, September 13th. Baltimore has been impressive so far this year, but hopefully the Inventors can defeat them. Good luck to the Inventors!

Philadelphia Inventors vs. New York Knights Week 3

The Philadelphia Inventors take on the New York Knights this Tuesday. A preview from the New York Knights blog can be found here. This will be a tough match up, but the Inventors are putting out their winning Week 1 line up.

Good luck to them!

Chess Tactic of the Day #90

Black to move.

Chess Tactic of the Day #89 (September 3rd)

White to move.

Chess Tactic of the Day Answers #56 to #62

Tactic #56:

1. Qd5+ Kxa7 2. Qb7#

Tactic #57:



White's pieces are very close to the Black King, but White's King is the one in more danger. Note that on move 22...Rf2 would have been better, as the Rook on the f file makes the defense Rag1 less good. Maybe best play would be 22...Rf2 23. Bg7+ Kg8 (this blocks the g file which gives White's King some breathing room) 24. Ne4 Rxg2 25. Kxg2 Kxg7. Black is two pieces up.

Tactic #58:



The position after 32...Ne4 is screaming for a positional exchange sacrifice. Here, though, White has pawn pushing bishop pinning tactics he can follow the exchange sacrifice up with to get two far advanced center passed pawns.

Tactic #59:



Here I missed



Tactic #60:



And here I missed



Tactic #61:

In the same game, this theme reappeared.



Well, it is kind of a funny thing to look back at games you won and point out all the tactics you missed. It is much less funny to go back at games you lost and point out all the tactics you missed!

Tactic #62:



Krush actually won her next and last game to become the US Womens Champion but that game wasnt good for a tactic of the day, so here is Krush's penultimate win on her way to becoming the 2010 US Womens Championship! Unfortunately, I seemed to have bungled this tactic anyway, as I have White to move. Well, I will edit it now, and hopefully no one spent too much time trying to find a win for White. I will say I did this for pedagogical purposes, so that you do not always assume there is an answer!

The tactic is supposed to be that Krush can ignore the attack on her Knight and push her center pawns with devastating effect.

Well aside from that last little foible, I hope you enjoyed these!

Chess Tactic of the Day #88

Black to move.

Larry Christiansen vs. Magesh Panchanathan

hey everyone, Magesh Pancahanthan has annotated his game on chess.com!

EDIT: Magesh Panchanathan has actually been making posts for Chess.com for a while now. Oddly, and unfortunately, these posts dont come up very high on a Google search of "Magesh Panchanathan". Chess.com, you should really figure out some way to get these posts higher on his Google search!

Philadelphia Inventors vs. Boston Blitz Week 2 Recap

Well, they lost. They didnt get 4-0ed though! My prediction of 2.5 in favor of Philly wasnt all that off, as in the end Boston beat Philly 2.5 to 1.5.



Considering Panchanathan had Black against an opponent rated about 100 points higher than him, this is actually a good result.



Smith played hard and well, but in the end his structural problems proved to be too much. As expected, though, and happily, it was certainly an exciting game!



If the Inventors were only going to get one win in a match, you would want it to look something like this. An excellent use of position and tactics by Bartell. It will be interesting to analyze what other possibilities Shmelov had other than returning the exchange sacrifice. Also interesting to note that all 3 games so far have come down to some form of Knight vs Bishop in the ending.



Well, to be honest I dont understand the pawn sacrifice on move 24. It will be interesting to analyze that a bit. Like Smith, Sivakamur fought hard for the draw, but he couldnt hold back the Queen side pawns.

All in all, it is disappointing that the Inventors lost, but there is a lot of good stuff in this match to look at as well. Both the Inventor's losses were close to draws, and if just one of them had been able to hold the match would be drawn as well. Magesh Panchanathan looked good, and Bartell got another win. This match perhaps solidifies what may have been initially thought about the Inventors: they would be a tough team that could give any other team troubles.

I want to do some more in depth stuff with something from this match, but as the vagueness of the previous part of this sentence may indicate, I have no idea yet what that will be! Maybe endgames? Anyway, next week the Inventors are going to be playing a very good New York Knights team. Good luck to the Inventors!

Chess Tactic of the Day #87

Black to move.

Schwog's Blog

Hey everyone, just wanted to direct Philadelphia Inventor fans to Schwog's Blog. Its a pretty cool looking blog so check it out!

Philadelphia Inventors vs. Boston Blitz Week 2 Preview

Well, the Philadelphia Inventors take on the Boston Blitz tomorrow. It is going to be a tough match for both sides. Lets check out each of the match ups.

Board 1

Larry Christiansen vs. Magesh Panchanathan

As far as I can tell, this will be the first time these two Grandmasters play. [Edit: I found a nice write up here, thanks to the Boylston Chess Club. Apparently, Panchanathan will be looking for revenge tonight!] Christiansen has about a 100 point rating edge on Panchanathan. At my level, which is Class A, 100 points honestly doesnt mean a whole lot. At the Grandmaster level, and perhaps at any high level it may mean more. The idea is that it is much harder to gain rating points at the highest levels, so the ratings are more accurate. Also, Grandmasters will be more wary of giving up rating points, whereas players at my level can show up to tournaments, play terribly and lose in 20 moves. Well, at least I do that sometimes!

The main point is that Panchanathan has his work cut out for him. However, I would in no way be surprised if he was able to come away with the win. A draw would also be an excellent result, considering the circumstances.

Board 2

Bryan Smith vs. Eugene Perelshteyn

Perhaps this is the most interesting match up to preview because these two players have met twice before in the US Chess League and both have been mainstays with their respective teams for years now. The first game, Perelshteyn was able to get the better of Smith.



However, Smith has had the last laugh.



One common factor between both these games is that they were exciting. Hopefully tonight's game swings this mini rivalry to Smith's favor!

Board 3

Denys Shmelov vs. Thomas Bartell

Well, again if there are games between these two I cant find them. These two are basically the same rating, though Shmelov has a 50 point edge on Bartell. As Bartell proved last week, though, he is not averse to upsetting his opponent.

Board 4

Grant Xu vs. Kavinayan Sivakumar

This is Philly's best match up of the night. Sivakumar has about a 50 rating point edge over Xu. As noted in the other Boards, I dont think that is so much of an advantage, but I think Sivakumar has a great chance of coming away with the win here. This will also be Sivakumar's 2010 debut.

Well, that pretty much wraps it up. I am not really a predicting kind of guy for this kind of thing, but I saw that Boston foolishly predicted they will 4-0 the Inventors. I think 2.5 in favor of Philly is much more likely.

Well, the match is about to begin, sorry this preview is so late. Hopefully it holds you over for hour or so before the match begins. Good luck to the Inventors!

Chess Tactic of the Day #86

Black to move.

Thomas Bartell's Analysis of his Gulko Game and other Links

Hey everybody, just wanted to add a few links about the Philadelphia Inventors. First off, congratulations to Tom Bartell for winning the the 1st Week Upset Prize. Here is his analysis of the game.

As a reminder, the Philadelphia Inventors play this Wednesday against the Boston Blitz.

It is going to be a very interesting match. Neither side has much of an edge rating wise, though the Blitz have about a 40 rating point advantage total. For the Inventors, Magesh Panchanathan and Kavinayan Sivakumar will be making their 2010 debuts. Bryan Smith will be playing this week on Board two, and Tom Bartell will be playing on Board three.

I will post a more in depth preview of this match tomorrow.

Also thanks to PK Sivakumar for a nice write up of my blog. It should be an exciting season for the Inventors and I am glad to be covering it! Hopefully I will learn a thing or two as well ;)

EDIT: Bartell won 3rd Place for the Game of the Week!

Chess Tactic of the Day #85

White to move.