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!
Showing posts with label US Chess League 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Chess League 2010. Show all posts
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
2010 Philadelphia Inventors 8/23 Match Recap
Well, this is pretty cool. The Philadelphia Inventors won their first match with a score of 3 to 1. The Inventors played Smith, Bartell, Dehmelt and Costigan. This line up was very strong on the bottom boards, and as it turned out, the Inventors secured 2 points from the lower boards. Karl Dehmelt beat Arthur Shen and Richard Costigan beat Sean Finn. Unfortunately, Bryan Smith lost to Joel Benjamin on the top board, but the Tom Bartell was able to beat Boris Gulko. Judging from the Philadelphia Inventor's line up, this type of victory may be common this year. The Inventors dont have the highest rated players in the league on their roster, but this allows them to have more depth on the bottom. I am not sure if it is strategy or just chance, but it could definitely work out well for the Inventors.
Lets not get ahead of ourselves though ;)
Here, I am just going to post up the games with a few comments after each of them. Depending on how the rest of my week goes, I may or may not do some in depth analysis of these games.
Well, at least this game was interesting. The c6 followed almost immediately by c5 is a very interesting idea in the Caro-Kann. 14. g5 was another interesting idea, as Black greatly restrains White's position, especially those doubled f pawns!
Here is a very cool game. White takes central control and better piece activity for Black's better presence on the Queen side. Black is able to neutralize White's activity, and then his Queen side pawn majority wins the game.
White gets a grip on the light squares, especially d5, and Black cannot contend with this. Well, it was a little more complicated than that, but that is part of it!
Black gets some nice piece activity out of the opening and is able to slowly convert his advantage into a win.
Well, that is a wrap for the recap. Maybe some more in depth analysis will be coming soon. If you want to check out the other games, you can find them here. The next match is Wednesday, September 1. The Inventors play the Boston Blitz, who incidentally got 4-0ed this week! It should be an interesting match.
Lets not get ahead of ourselves though ;)
Here, I am just going to post up the games with a few comments after each of them. Depending on how the rest of my week goes, I may or may not do some in depth analysis of these games.
Well, at least this game was interesting. The c6 followed almost immediately by c5 is a very interesting idea in the Caro-Kann. 14. g5 was another interesting idea, as Black greatly restrains White's position, especially those doubled f pawns!
Here is a very cool game. White takes central control and better piece activity for Black's better presence on the Queen side. Black is able to neutralize White's activity, and then his Queen side pawn majority wins the game.
White gets a grip on the light squares, especially d5, and Black cannot contend with this. Well, it was a little more complicated than that, but that is part of it!
Black gets some nice piece activity out of the opening and is able to slowly convert his advantage into a win.
Well, that is a wrap for the recap. Maybe some more in depth analysis will be coming soon. If you want to check out the other games, you can find them here. The next match is Wednesday, September 1. The Inventors play the Boston Blitz, who incidentally got 4-0ed this week! It should be an interesting match.
Friday, August 20, 2010
2010 Philadelphia Inventors: Kavinayan Sivakumar
Well, now that we have taken a look at the 2010 Philadelphia Inventors top board, lets take a look at their 10th board. Kavinayan Sivakumar currently has a USCF rating of 2183, which is good, but perhaps even more impressive is the fact that in 2006, he had a USCF rating of 569! It has only taken Kavinayan Sivakumar 4 years or so to go from beginner to high level Expert. We shouldnt be surprised, then, if Sivakumar outplays his rating a bit during this Chess League.
Being a younger chess player, he does not have as many games online as some of the other more established players on the Philadelphia Inventors, but he also seems to be very comfortable with blogging and Chess. You can read some blog posts of his here and here. I believe he is also a major contributor for the Philadelphia Inventors official chess blog Of course, the whole League is about chess, but Kavinayan Sivakumar's contributions to the team in the form of blog posts will also be appreciated.
Definately make sure to check out the many games of Sivakumar on the Philadelphia Inventors blog. Lets look at a few of his games that are not featured there.
Here Kavinayan Sivakumar gets an aggressive draw against Expert Ian Harris. Sivakamur is able to get a nice passed a pawn to the 7th Rank, but sadly for him Harris was able to defend his position.
Another exciting draw against Jim West. Thanks to Jim West for posting this game on his blog, Jim West On Chess.
Perhaps Sivakumar will become a National Master over the course of this year's Chess League. That would be great! Good luck to him.
Being a younger chess player, he does not have as many games online as some of the other more established players on the Philadelphia Inventors, but he also seems to be very comfortable with blogging and Chess. You can read some blog posts of his here and here. I believe he is also a major contributor for the Philadelphia Inventors official chess blog Of course, the whole League is about chess, but Kavinayan Sivakumar's contributions to the team in the form of blog posts will also be appreciated.
Definately make sure to check out the many games of Sivakumar on the Philadelphia Inventors blog. Lets look at a few of his games that are not featured there.
Here Kavinayan Sivakumar gets an aggressive draw against Expert Ian Harris. Sivakamur is able to get a nice passed a pawn to the 7th Rank, but sadly for him Harris was able to defend his position.
Another exciting draw against Jim West. Thanks to Jim West for posting this game on his blog, Jim West On Chess.
Perhaps Sivakumar will become a National Master over the course of this year's Chess League. That would be great! Good luck to him.
2010 Philadelphia Inventors: Magesh Panchanathan
Well, the good news is that the US Chess League starts this Monday. The bad new is that this came up really quickly, and I have only done one player profile for the 2010 Philadelphia Inventors team!
The rest of the roster is up and can be found here.
I am going to Blitz out a bunch of player profiles for the remaining 9 players then over this weekend. Quality will be non existent! Haha, no quality will be fine. I will just go through one game of each player, and very brief biographical stuff.
The 2010 Philadelphia Inventors top board this year is Magesh Panchanathan. He is an 27 year old Grandmaster who has done well in tournaments in the United States, India, Canada and Scotland. In 2005, he shared 1st place in the 2005 World Open in Philadelphia. Lubomir Kavalek went over one of his games for the Washington Post. This is Magesh Panchanathan's first year with the Philadelphia Inventors, but he has played with the Dallas Destiny before.
Lets look at a few of his games!
A nice tactic with Nxf7 gives Magesh Panchanathan a nice position. In the final position all of White's pieces work well together to form a mating net around Black's King. The White Dark Squared Bishop attacks the c7 and b8 squares. The White Rook holds the Black Rook to the b-file, the Light Squared Bishop attacks the a6 square, and the White Queen prepares to move to a6 checkmating the Black King.
The only way Black can prevent checkmate is through massive loss of material.
Notice that the Black King cannot move out of danger by Kc8.
Unfortunately, I am having difficulty finding games from the 2005 World Open that Magesh Panchanathan tied for first at. It would be nice to see his later round games. Here is his Second Round win, though.
A nice tactic wins the exchange.
One last game from the Second Mumbai Mayor Cup from 2009. Magesh Panchanathan shared 1st through 4th in this tournament.
Well, that will wrap up this post about Magesh Panchanathan. Have fun and Good luck to him!
The rest of the roster is up and can be found here.
I am going to Blitz out a bunch of player profiles for the remaining 9 players then over this weekend. Quality will be non existent! Haha, no quality will be fine. I will just go through one game of each player, and very brief biographical stuff.
The 2010 Philadelphia Inventors top board this year is Magesh Panchanathan. He is an 27 year old Grandmaster who has done well in tournaments in the United States, India, Canada and Scotland. In 2005, he shared 1st place in the 2005 World Open in Philadelphia. Lubomir Kavalek went over one of his games for the Washington Post. This is Magesh Panchanathan's first year with the Philadelphia Inventors, but he has played with the Dallas Destiny before.
Lets look at a few of his games!
A nice tactic with Nxf7 gives Magesh Panchanathan a nice position. In the final position all of White's pieces work well together to form a mating net around Black's King. The White Dark Squared Bishop attacks the c7 and b8 squares. The White Rook holds the Black Rook to the b-file, the Light Squared Bishop attacks the a6 square, and the White Queen prepares to move to a6 checkmating the Black King.
The only way Black can prevent checkmate is through massive loss of material.
Notice that the Black King cannot move out of danger by Kc8.
Unfortunately, I am having difficulty finding games from the 2005 World Open that Magesh Panchanathan tied for first at. It would be nice to see his later round games. Here is his Second Round win, though.
A nice tactic wins the exchange.
One last game from the Second Mumbai Mayor Cup from 2009. Magesh Panchanathan shared 1st through 4th in this tournament.
Well, that will wrap up this post about Magesh Panchanathan. Have fun and Good luck to him!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
US Chess League Shop, Philadelphia Inventors
Well, I did some surfing on the internet and found a US Chess League Shop. I am not sure how the money all works out for this, but I am sure it will help the league and the Philadelphia Inventors.
Aside from the money, you can show your support for US Chess!
A few notes about the shop. They offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. It looks like a pretty solid offer as well. If after 30 days you want to return or exchange something, you can do it. I am not sure if they cover any return shipping, though. If you are the Shop reading this and you do cover return shipping, you should say so!
The Shipping is a little pricey, but frankly that is to be expected with a small time operation. If you want shipping costs and costs in general to go down for this kind of thing, tell your friends to follow the US Chess League!
Finally, I feel I should say I havent actually ordered anything from the Shop. Here are some reviews. I havent read them all in much depth, but it looks pretty solid. The biggest complaints appear to be about various features and slow shipping. As far as complaints go, these are actually pretty good complaints. If the first thing someone says is the shipping was slow, it probably means the product was ok!
If anyone has any experience with this shop, positive or negative, please write it in the comments.
Aside from the money, you can show your support for US Chess!
A few notes about the shop. They offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. It looks like a pretty solid offer as well. If after 30 days you want to return or exchange something, you can do it. I am not sure if they cover any return shipping, though. If you are the Shop reading this and you do cover return shipping, you should say so!
The Shipping is a little pricey, but frankly that is to be expected with a small time operation. If you want shipping costs and costs in general to go down for this kind of thing, tell your friends to follow the US Chess League!
Finally, I feel I should say I havent actually ordered anything from the Shop. Here are some reviews. I havent read them all in much depth, but it looks pretty solid. The biggest complaints appear to be about various features and slow shipping. As far as complaints go, these are actually pretty good complaints. If the first thing someone says is the shipping was slow, it probably means the product was ok!
If anyone has any experience with this shop, positive or negative, please write it in the comments.
Friday, July 16, 2010
US Chess League 2010, Schedule has been Released UPDATE
This is just going to be a real quick post that links to a nice table of the Philadelphia Inventors 2010 schedule. I went through and wrote out the schedule, but this table is a much better format.
As soon as they put up their Roster, I will start working on trying to give some brief info about each of the Philadelphia players.
As soon as they put up their Roster, I will start working on trying to give some brief info about each of the Philadelphia players.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
US Chess League 2010, Schedule has been Released
Well, as the title suggest, the US Chess 2010 Schedule has been released. This blog is going to focus on the Philadelphia Inventors (formerly Masterminds).
Hopefully I do a bit better job with this then I did with the 2010 US Chess Championship! I do plan on putting more of those games up, but honestly that has pretty much grinded to a halt. Oh well.
Lets look at the Philadelphia Inventors schedule.
Week 1, 7:15 pm, Monday August 23rd
Philadelphia Inventors vs. New Jersey Knockouts
Week 2, 7:00 pm, Wednesday September 1st
Philadelphia Inventors vs. Boston Blitz
Week 3, 7:00 pm, Tuesday September 7th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. New York Knights
Week 4, 7:15 pm, Monday September 13th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. Baltimore Kingfishers
Week 5, 7:00 pm, Monday September 20th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. New England Nor'easters
Week 6, 8:15 pm, Monday September 27th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. Chicago Blaze
Week 7, 7:15 pm, Wednesday October 6th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. New England Nor'easters
Week 8, 7:15 pm, Monday October 11th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. Baltimore Kingfishers
Week 9, 7:15 pm, Wednesday October 20th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. Manhattan Applesauce
Week 10, 7:30 pm, Monday, October 25th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. Carolina Cobras
Those are all the scheduled matches. After that, there is a Quarterfinals and Semifinals round, and finally there is the Championship Match.
The Philadelphia Inventors Roster has not yet been made, so I cant give overviews of the players yet. Once it is set, though, I will try and scrounge up some nice biographical information about each of the players so we get a better idea of who are team's chess players are!
One person I am fairly sure will be on the team, though, has also had a very nice tournament recently. Bryan Smith is an IM (International Master) living in the Philadelphia area (apparently he is from Alaska!) and he recently won the Philadelphia International.
I am not too familiar with the Philadelphia International tournament as a whole, but I believe it was first started last year, in 2009. The goal of the tournament is to give US Chess players a chance to get what are called Norms. It is necessary to get a few Norms in order to receive international titles, such as International Master and Grand Master.
A Norm is achieved if a player has a sufficiently high performance rating and played against players from enough Federations. Each country has its own Federation. This creates a problem for US Chess Players, because only Canada or Mexico are close by. Even then, many chess tournaments are far away from either of these two countries! Because of this, US Chess Players can be very successful and achieve very high ratings but still never end up getting a Grandmaster or International Master title. That is a shame. The title doesnt do all that much, but it is a great honor.
The Philadelphia International helps US players get Norms because foreign GMs receive free admission to the Philadelphia International. Thus, foreign GMs can come to Philadelphia, play in the tournament for free, and if they do well take home 1,000 or so dollars. That is not a whole lot, but it covers the plane ticket and hotel room (almost!).
The Philadelphia International is also scheduled right next to the World Open, though. This means that any foreign GMs that were planning on attending the World Open can come a week early and play in the Philadelphia International. As far as I can tell, it hasnt been tremendously successful in attracting foreign GMs, but hopefully that changes. It has been moderately successful, though, and both years quite a few US players were able to get Norms.
Needless to say, then, with a handful of GMs playing in the tournament it is a great sign for the Philadelphia Inventors that Bryan Smith won the thing! I hope he got a GM norm, as I believe he is fairly close to achieving a Grandmaster title. As far as I know, only a few US born players have achieved the Grandmaster title in the past 10 or 20 years, so having someone in Philadelphia achieve this would be awesome!
I will give some updates on the US Chess League as more information is posted on their website.
By the by, the Philadelphia Inventors home base is the Franklin Mercantile Chess Club, which is located at about 20th and Walnut Streets in Center City Philadelphia. Last I heard, membership to the Franklin Mercantile Chess Club is 50 dollars a year. I am not sure if they let spectators come in and watch for free. They do let everybody get one free visit, though, so if you have never been there this might be a good chance to check it out. Unfortunately for them, Chess is very easily enjoyed on the internet, though, so following games live or following blogs like mine should also let you enjoy the US Chess League.
It should be an interesting thing to follow!
Hopefully I do a bit better job with this then I did with the 2010 US Chess Championship! I do plan on putting more of those games up, but honestly that has pretty much grinded to a halt. Oh well.
Lets look at the Philadelphia Inventors schedule.
Week 1, 7:15 pm, Monday August 23rd
Philadelphia Inventors vs. New Jersey Knockouts
Week 2, 7:00 pm, Wednesday September 1st
Philadelphia Inventors vs. Boston Blitz
Week 3, 7:00 pm, Tuesday September 7th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. New York Knights
Week 4, 7:15 pm, Monday September 13th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. Baltimore Kingfishers
Week 5, 7:00 pm, Monday September 20th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. New England Nor'easters
Week 6, 8:15 pm, Monday September 27th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. Chicago Blaze
Week 7, 7:15 pm, Wednesday October 6th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. New England Nor'easters
Week 8, 7:15 pm, Monday October 11th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. Baltimore Kingfishers
Week 9, 7:15 pm, Wednesday October 20th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. Manhattan Applesauce
Week 10, 7:30 pm, Monday, October 25th
Philadelphia Inventors vs. Carolina Cobras
Those are all the scheduled matches. After that, there is a Quarterfinals and Semifinals round, and finally there is the Championship Match.
The Philadelphia Inventors Roster has not yet been made, so I cant give overviews of the players yet. Once it is set, though, I will try and scrounge up some nice biographical information about each of the players so we get a better idea of who are team's chess players are!
One person I am fairly sure will be on the team, though, has also had a very nice tournament recently. Bryan Smith is an IM (International Master) living in the Philadelphia area (apparently he is from Alaska!) and he recently won the Philadelphia International.
I am not too familiar with the Philadelphia International tournament as a whole, but I believe it was first started last year, in 2009. The goal of the tournament is to give US Chess players a chance to get what are called Norms. It is necessary to get a few Norms in order to receive international titles, such as International Master and Grand Master.
A Norm is achieved if a player has a sufficiently high performance rating and played against players from enough Federations. Each country has its own Federation. This creates a problem for US Chess Players, because only Canada or Mexico are close by. Even then, many chess tournaments are far away from either of these two countries! Because of this, US Chess Players can be very successful and achieve very high ratings but still never end up getting a Grandmaster or International Master title. That is a shame. The title doesnt do all that much, but it is a great honor.
The Philadelphia International helps US players get Norms because foreign GMs receive free admission to the Philadelphia International. Thus, foreign GMs can come to Philadelphia, play in the tournament for free, and if they do well take home 1,000 or so dollars. That is not a whole lot, but it covers the plane ticket and hotel room (almost!).
The Philadelphia International is also scheduled right next to the World Open, though. This means that any foreign GMs that were planning on attending the World Open can come a week early and play in the Philadelphia International. As far as I can tell, it hasnt been tremendously successful in attracting foreign GMs, but hopefully that changes. It has been moderately successful, though, and both years quite a few US players were able to get Norms.
Needless to say, then, with a handful of GMs playing in the tournament it is a great sign for the Philadelphia Inventors that Bryan Smith won the thing! I hope he got a GM norm, as I believe he is fairly close to achieving a Grandmaster title. As far as I know, only a few US born players have achieved the Grandmaster title in the past 10 or 20 years, so having someone in Philadelphia achieve this would be awesome!
I will give some updates on the US Chess League as more information is posted on their website.
By the by, the Philadelphia Inventors home base is the Franklin Mercantile Chess Club, which is located at about 20th and Walnut Streets in Center City Philadelphia. Last I heard, membership to the Franklin Mercantile Chess Club is 50 dollars a year. I am not sure if they let spectators come in and watch for free. They do let everybody get one free visit, though, so if you have never been there this might be a good chance to check it out. Unfortunately for them, Chess is very easily enjoyed on the internet, though, so following games live or following blogs like mine should also let you enjoy the US Chess League.
It should be an interesting thing to follow!
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