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Alekhine's Parrot
Welcome
to the weekly leader
of chess events around the world.
5-3-2008
 Wait
a minute! Before we get started with around-the-world reporting, I
want to know why India is showing up as a massive source of readership at
Chessville? There are 2 possibilities; (a) the first being India has
more spammers hitting our site than any other country whatever, and (b)
that the subcontinent has discovered Chessville, and likes it.
What I would like
to ask is that if you are a (b) type person, our editorial group at
Chessville wants to talk with you about your own column, your own reporting
on chess in the sub-continent. Interested? Write to this
Parrot!
Chess News USA
and Canada
|
 More
Chess on TV with ABC
Paul Azzuro
(President of
http://www.chessondvd.com/) and Eileen (Avanti Visual
Communications) are setting up the equipment at ABC TV studio for
chess DVD filming. |
 |
|
 |
So what does it look like? Susan Polgar reports:-
“This is the first ever DVD from the ChessonDVD.com series which is
being shot using the latest High Definition Widescreen technology.
This 2-volume DVD series will cover the French Defense, the first
opening I learned when I started playing chess. I actually used this
opening exclusively until when I reached around the master level. I
still use the French as one of my weapons today.” |
Its…
Editor Atkins!
Susan Polgar’s Blog reported earlier
this week:
"This is Mr. Kelly Atkins, one of the editors and forum host at
chessville.com. He will be visiting SPICE and Texas Tech today to do
an exclusive behind the scene college chess report. Many people hear
about the incredible success of SPICE in a very short period of time.
But how do we do it? After this visit, Kelly will report the behind
the scene secret of success of SPICE and its plans in the future."
Look for Kelly’s special report on SPICE: [caption
Jerry Perez, Dr. Hal Karlsson (one of the
discoverers of water on Mars), GM Susan Polgar, Kelly Atkins.]
Photographer unknown.
US Senior Open – RESULT
Stop-press: Susan
Polgar reports; “Going into the final round, IM
Kaufman and Foygel were both 4-0. IM Bradford and GM Gurevich were both 3.5
points. IM Kaufman defeated Foygel to win clear first and earn a spot in the
Frank K. Berry US Championship in Oklahoma.”
White: Kaufman,
Lawrence 2383
Black: Foygel, Igor 2501
1.d4
d6 2.e4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Be3 a6 5.f4 b5 6.Bd3 Nd7 7.e5 Bb7 8.Nf3 c5 9.Be4 Qb8
10.dxc5 Bxe4 11.Nxe4 Qb7 12.Nc3 dxc5 13.Qd5 Qxd5 14.Nxd5 Rc8 15.O-O-O f6
16.Rhe1 fxe5 17.fxe5 Nxe5 18.Nxe5 Bxe5 19.Bh6 Nxh6 20.Rxe5 Ng8 21.Rde1 Kf7
22.Nxe7 Rc7 23.Nd5 Rd7 24.Nf4 Nf6 25.Rxc5 Rhd8 26.Nd3 Kg7 27.Rc6 a5 28.Nc5
1-0
More Chess on TV, this time, Toppy
Its in Bulgarian, but that’s OK, chess humor must
be international, and this one bank commercial featuring GM Topalov is
short and its funny. [Click
here].
Even Brits do it.
But can we?
In fact, I have been writing for 3 months with
the moving force of this project in England, to distribute free chess
sets to schools, who has managed the complex logistics of moving tons
of chess sets around the country, and who now thinks we should do it
in the USA too. But, he says, we should use our own plastics
company here. The English company who sponsored this initiative,
he told me, got 10 years of advertising from their annual marketing
budget by doing so. Here is a report from an English Newspaper
which cites local politicians – of national politicians I think there
are now a dozen members of parliament strongly enthusiastic of the
program:-
SCHOOLS across Warwickshire
are to be given new chess sets to try to get more youngsters
interested in the game.
The Chess for Schools initiative is being backed by the government and
the English Chess Federation and will involve the distribution of
250,000 chess sets nationwide.
Cllr John Burton, cabinet member for schools, said: "We are delighted
to be involved in this scheme which will bring enjoyment and many
educational advantages to pupils across Warwickshire. |
|
What to Play?
An on-going exploration into critical
opening positions or ‘tabiya’.
She* says ‘Critical’… so lets take a
look at the Exchange Variation and that 8. Rb1 in the Grünfeld.
1. d4 Nf6
2. c4 g6
3. Nc3 d5
4. cxd5 Nxd5
5. e4 Nxc3
6. bxc3 Bg7
7. Nf3 c5
Fix that position in your mind as the basic tabiya, and now
comes “one of the most critical tests in the entire Grünfeld.”
8. Rb1 0-0
9. Be2
And here is the big question… who
wants to be Black?
White has a strong center, a lead in
development, the possibility of creating a powerful central
passed pawn, the lack of good squares available to Black’s minor
pieces, and the exposed Queen. Ready to resign yet?
The answer is Yelena Dembo*, from
whose book “Play the Grünfeld”, I quote, and also Petr Svidler,
Garry Kasparov, Bobby Fischer, Zoltan Ribli, Andras Adorjan,
Peter Leko…
Encouraged? Let’s keep looking at this, the most critical
variation. |
|
Under the scheme, each school in the county is entitled to 10 chess sets -
made by a plastics firm from raw material donated by chemical companies. As
part of the initiative, the council's extended services team is to launch
chess as one of its children's university modules.
The
junior university scheme runs modules including story telling, break-dancing
and Mandarin. After distributing the chess sets, extended services is
aiming to organise sessions with accredited chess coaches to help young
people learn and improve at the game.
|
But Brits Split:
Following the April Council meeting
on Saturday the following Directors have tendered their resignation
effect 31 May 2008: Martin Regan (Chief Executive), Peter Sowray
(International), Claire Summerscale (Junior Chess & Education; Women's
Chess) and Mike Truran (Non-Executive Director).
Martin Regan had this to say about the issue:
However, in order for English Chess
to achieve that of which it is capable, more fundamental changes are
needed. This is what the board was elected to deliver.
We were under no illusion about the hurdles that would need to be
overcome, nor were we even sure that the Federation itself would wish
to embark on major change.
However, it was clear from the first that in order to progress this
agenda two fundamental conditions were required: A unified board and a
Council wishing to hear the debate with an open mind.
I regret to say that neither condition could be met, despite my best
efforts.
Chess News WORLDWIDE
The IX European
Individual Chess Championships take place in Plovdiv,
Bulgaria 20th April - 4th May.
It was
a bit of an effort to determine what actually happened from the offical
web site, but the Parrot thinks that Tiviakov won the men’s, and
Lahno the women’s. |
|
9.…b6!
A move developed by the aptly named David
Avrukh, and adopted by Petr Svidler, David Navara and Pavel
Eljanov
10. 0-0 Bb7
Take another snapshot of the position:
The author notes one worthwhile
alternative in 10. …Qc7!? As an attempt to avoid the pawn sac line
11. d5, but we skip that analysis here to look at White’s two main
options at move11:
11.d5 or 11. Qd3.
The idea of ‘What to Play’? is not to just
remember move orders from the openings, but to try to understand
the potentials of the position by looking at key points in it. If
you want to play the Grunfeld, or understand what to play against
it, each tabiya illustrates critical strategic or tactical points
in the game that are essential to understand.
Next week we can continue this investigation
with the most aggressive move, the pawn sac variation Black fears
initiated by 11.d5. |
|
After 10
minutes at the site I decided I couldn’t tell who was who from the
pictures, so do not provide any, or any other information that is for
sure, rather than a guess. Maybe you can do better, see the
Official site.
A Russian site reports leader scores:
Men:
1 Tiviakov - 8.5
2-10 Volkov, Tregubov, Movsesian, L'Ami, Vachier-Lagrave, Grachev, Baklan,
Kryvoruchko, Nyback - 8.0
11-34 Sutovsky, Laznicka, Pavasovic, Efimenko, Papaioannou, Khalifman, Najer,
Mamedov, Akopian, Areshcenko, Fressinet, Smirin, Lululesku, Bologan,
Khismatullin, Galkin, Gustafsson, Sargissian, Andreikin, Hracek, Roiz, Vajda,
Markovski, Gurevich - 7.0
Women - Final leading standings:
1 Lahno - 8.5
2-7 Ushenina, Zhukova, Cmilyte, Mkrtchian, Skripchenko, Dembo - 8.0
8-16 Cramling, Pogonina, Muzychuk, Stefanova, Dzagnidze, Danielian,
Lomineishvili, Demina, Socko - 7.5
17 Houska, Paehtz, Hoang Thanh Trang, Repkova, Rajlich, Zimina, Romanko,
Atalik, Turova, Khukhashvili, Molchanova, Cosma - 7.0
Big
Deal in Baku
When Sicilians go bad…
GM Adams
(2729) - GM Svidler (2746) [B92]
30.04.2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6
5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.0–0 0–0 9.Be3 Be6 10.Qd2 Nbd7 11.a4 Qc7
12.Rfd1 Rac8 13.a5 Rfe8 14.h3 h6 15.Qe1 Qb8 16.Bf3 Rc4 17.Nd2 Rc6 18.Nf1
Rec8 19.Bd2 b6 20.Ne3 bxa5 21.Ncd5 Bxd5 22.exd5 Rc5 23.Bxa5 e4 24.Be2 Qxb2
25.Bxa6 Rb8 26.c3 Rxa5 27.Rxa5 Qb6 28.Rda1 Nc5 29.Bf1 Qd8 30.Rb5 Rc8 31.Ra7
Nfd7 32.Nf5 Bf8 33.Qe3 Qf6 34.Ng3 Qe5 35.Nxe4 Nxe4 36.Rxd7 Rxc3 37.Qe2 Qd4
38.Rd8 Rc1 39.Kh2 White wins 1–0
GM
Radjabov (2751) - GM Kamsky (2726) [B41]
30.04.2008 (Baku Grand Prix - Round 9)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6
5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Qc7 7.a3 b6 8.Be3 Bb7 9.f3 d6 10.Rc1 Nbd7 11.Be2 Be7 12.0–0
0–0 13.b4 Rac8 14.Nb3 Qb8 15.Kh1 Rfe8 16.Na4 Bd8 17.Bg1 h5 18.Bf2 Bc7 19.Nd4
Ne5 20.c5 dxc5 21.bxc5 b5 22.c6 Nxc6 23.Nxc6 Bxc6 24.Rxc6 bxa4 25.Bg1 Be5
26.Qxa4 Rxc6 27.Qxc6 Rc8 28.Qxa6 Rc2 29.Bd3 Rd2 30.Rc1 Qb2 31.Qc8+ Kh7
32.Rc2 Rxc2 33.Qxc2 Qxa3 34.f4 Bxf4 35.e5+ g6 36.exf6 Qd6 37.Qc5 Qxc5
38.Bxc5 Be5 39.Be7 h4 40.Bc4 g5 41.Bxe6 Kg6 42.Bc8 Bxf6 43.Bxf6 Kxf6 44.g4
hxg3 White wins 1–0
Round 10 standings:
1 Grischuk - 6.5
2-3 Gashimov, Wang Yue - 6.0
4-6 Mamedyarov, Carlsen, Adams - 5.5
7-9 Bacrot, Kamsky, Radjabov - 5.0
10-12 Svidler, Karjakin, Cheparinov - 4.5
13 Inarkiev - 3.5
14 Navara - 3.0
I have been trying
to access the official site baku2008.fide.com all week, and you can too!
But it didn’t work for me.
 TheParrot
Squaawks….!
An Encounter with
ex-USCF board member, Mr. Sam Sloan
In a
public newsgroup following a discussion on varieties of ways to evolve chess
to the general public, specifically the respective directions of SPICE
and the Kasparov Chess Foundation [KCF], ex USCF board member, Mr.
Sam Sloan uttered these challenginging remarks, challenging that is to
anything normally considered consecutive or logical thinking… but also
clarifying the role of USCF’s historical activities and orientation; what
it does, and what it does not intend to do.
Sam
Sloan began with;-
> Do you feel
that by posting thousands of obscene and pornographic
> messages from "The Fake Sam Sloan" and by posting similar obscene
> messages on her own blog at
http://www.susanpolgar.blogspot.com ,
> Susan Polgar has been "eliminating gender-bias from the inside".
To parse that sentence, I first notice it is not an answer to anything I
wrote, and then there is the usual Sloan-ism of relating thousands of
obscene messages from the FSS with 'those similar', according to Mr. Sloan’s
estimation.
The comment also addresses gender bias, as if this also related to either of
the items he mentioned.
> Do
> you feel that her personal attacks on rival female chess grandmasters
> has helped by "actually encouraging self esteem in young women"?
What does Sam Sloan mean by 'attack'? If I state my opinion and it is not
the same as, say, Larry Parr's, do I 'attack' him? Answer this question
since otherwise we have so far 4 unrelated but cobbled together factors
within a few sentences, indicating either a short-hand version of what
'everybody knows' [which is often itself shorthand for, 'who knows
anything?'] or a suggested but contra-intuitive connection to all of them?
> If you have such strong opinions on this subject,
Which of the 4 subjects?
> why do not you
> actually come up with some money and join the USCF?
A 5th subject! All logically linked? Listen Mr. Sloan, they make more sense
in Ward 6, when the Count of Montezuma discussing stuff with the Lord of
Mars, Jupiter and sundry Moons, attempt more connectivity in their
observations.
> Why is it that her
> biggest supporters and our biggest critics are non-members such as
> Phil Innes, Rob Mitchell and Taylor Kingston?
Biggest supporters? Quite apart from the 'members' who voted her into
office, the issue for myself [let other people say their own orientation] is
not chasing the pretty chess skirt, but in support of everyone who attempts
to promote chess out of the grave USCF has dug for it in America.
> If you are so interested
> in the welfare of the USCF
Did I say I was? I am interested in promoting chess, what has that to do
with the resolutely maintenance-oriented USCF?
> (instead of trying to destroy it which is
> what you seem to be trying to do)
I only seem to be trying, or seem to be successfully making a distinction
between chess maintenance and chess promotion?
> why not join our organization?
If I want to vote for Senator Obama and whatever he represents to me, should
I join the Republican Party?
USCF have nothing to do with promoting chess, have not ever done so, and
have simply ridden the Fischer-boom to their current $300,000 deficit, by
favoring friends of family, who glean a small income if they make no
trouble, raise no issues, and critique nothing at all.
If Sam Sloan wants to support the maintenance activity of USCF, which is the
rating system, perhaps he could have while in office done something about
the obviously perverted award system for 'friends of family'. But he did not
do anything to correct the system which brought board-member Tanner down,
other than announce it the corruption.
Mr. Sloan must have read about another genuine US Master who wrote in the
NY Times Chess Blog recently that he was appalled that he asked for a Master
title and rating floor, and was simply given one, without needing to sign
anything, or even show any game records - and USCF couldn't check them since
they had thrown anything pre-1990 away!!
If Mr. Sloan wants to protect and preserve USCF, let him do it. Not talk
about it or what others should do about promoting chess.
Let him not pretend to any stance that he can present the game to a broader
public, nor criticize those who can if relatively simple maintenance
activities are beyond his wit. Mr. Sloan's potential role is a relatively
modest [if necessary] role. If he can't do that, then he might button up on
other subjects, since mouthy New Yorkers are merely perceived as arrogant
people who think because they are accustomed to bitch at extraordinary
length at other’s expense, that is somehow significant or impressive to
people in the rest of the country.
But I don't think so. I think there are 2 discreet subjects here, and if you
can’t do the simple one of maintenance well, then wanton criticism of those
who could project chess to a greater public in the media and in education is
not only unwarranted, it is patently insincere and obsturctive of that
effort.
> Sam Sloan
|
 |
Squaaawk back to
TheParrot… Hey!
It’s your game.
Speak up or have other people speak for you. |
Rare Chess Pictures:
One of the rarest pictures of all time!
To the left we have a very eminent Astrophysicist indeed, next, an unnamed
man in a t-shirt without a tie, then Grandmaster Susan Polgar, then
Chessville’s Senior Editor Kelly Atkins.
Why, you may properly ask, is this a rare picture?
Because the unnamed person-without-a-tie has probably taken more pictures of
chess players than any other human being, ever.
And since this section of the Parrot features rare-chess pictures, perhaps
in a 1000 years, future editorial writers of this column, re-titled “The
Galactic Parrot” will wonder who he is, and since his evident Asian origin,
it can’t be from Tie-land.
That’s a poor joke, but its short.
Afore
ye go:
With the English Chess Federation suffering the
same circumstances as the USCF, essentially balking activities of a new
board to do what they were elected to achieve - to get things moving again -
the final word spoken about 20-years ago goes to:
“The
small-minded leaders of the Unites States Chess Federation
try to keep it an amateur game and must be purged like
entrenched Communist Bureaucrats.” - Garry Kasparov.
Top of the Page
The Parrot's Archives
TheParrot's Special Reports
Polgar &
the USCF: A Parrot Special Report combines the text of GM Susan
Polgar's remarks, published in last week's Squaawk, and the USCF's
carefully worded response. Also, a further response from Ms. Polgar.
Scholastics - the Soul
of Chess?: Is the Scholastic chess movement actually bad for
chess? Maybe, or so argues Tom Braunlich in an
article extracted here at Chessville (Scholastics
and the Soul of Chess).
TheParrot's Special
Report addresses some very strongly worded reader opinions, along with
Braunlich's reply.
USCF's Book &
Equipment
Deal with Chess Cafe: It all started with the following posting by Larry Parr in one of the public
newsgroups last week: "Gentlemen, The USCF Executive Board has caved to the
ChessCafe. That is the report I received from a source. By a 5-1 vote the
EB has decided WITHOUT OFFERING A PUBLIC TENDER to alter favorably for the
Cafe the terms of its contract and to extend the Cafe's sales agreement
until 2012. Further, the Cafe will have over $100,000 of its $250,000-plus
debt to the USCF forgiven. The vote was 5 to 1."
USCF's
Fingerfehler: A related issue
has also surfaced, the alleged blacklisting or boycotting of certain authors
by USCF Sales.
USCF Sales is the name of the business entity, operated by Hanon Russell of
Chess Café, which
has contracted with the USCF to provide book & equipment (B&E) sales on
their behalf. TheParrot
received this message (12/29/2005) from GM Raymond Keene, regarding
the controversy on USCF Sales...
Who Cares? - Women and
Children in Chess:
Months ago the Parrot wrote to the USCF board via Bill Hall Executive
Director of USCF, asking after standards in place to avert offense to
women and children in chess. These concerns, although according to
Hall were delivered to the board, have not been addressed nor even
acknowledged. Perhaps this is a cultural thing,
but in some cultures is not dishonorable nor some game of politically
correct words, to actively protect women and children from offence - in fact
it is considered manly. The issues before the board were
about the treatment of women and children, and the lack of standard evident
in the works of USCF agents paid and unpaid – and who even sometimes wrote
anonymously, but let it be known that they wrote as USCF agents.
And what happens if you don’t …
Now we have a collision of
speculations about new board member Sam Sloan's standards with these
non-existent USCF standards...
Top of the Page
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