Entry fee: $25. 3 SS, G/30, d0. Prizes (based on 10 entries): 1st place $75, 2nd place $50. Registration: 6pm to 7:10pm. Rounds: 7:15pm, 8:30pm, 9:45pm. Entry information: Diana Tulman, phone number 201-797-0330; e-mail chessdirector@icanj.net; www.icanj.net.
As a special introductory incentive, there will be a grandmaster lecture from 6:15pm to 7pm. The lecture is free to all players. For non-players in the event, the lecture fee is $25.
The first grandmaster lecture will be given by Joel Benjamin, with the topic of discussion being “Unorthodox Openings: the Black Knights Tango (i.e. the Mexican Defense or the Chebanenko Experiment)."
Upcoming Thursday night tournament guests include GM Alex Stripunsky, GM Boris Gulko, GM Alex Fishbein, GM Sergey Kudrin, GM Tamaz Gelashvili, and IM Albert Kapengut.
Joel Benjamin is a 3-time United States chess champion (1987, 1997, and 2000). At the age of 13, Joel broke Bobby Fischer's record by becoming the youngest ever U.S. master. In the 1997 rematch, he helped the Deep Blue IBM computer team defeat Garry Kasparov, as the official grandmaster consultant. (Deep Blue lost to Kasparov in 1996.) Joel trained the computer to think more positionally, augmenting its awesome calculation skills.
