Pix from DOCA

Last night, I visited the Dean of Chess Academy where colors were drawn for the 1st DOCA TransNet FIDE Invitational, to be held in July. I picked number 3 from the hat. Here are the pairings.

Round 1: Saturday July 11, 11am
Chen-Feuerstein
West-Somers
Hall-Grasso
Swaminathan-Ferrero
Ippolito-Wu (rescheduled)

Round 2: Saturday July 11, 3pm
Ippolito-Chen (rescheduled)
Feuerstein-West
Somers-Hall
Grasso-Swaminathan
Wu-Ferrero (rescheduled)

Round 3: Sunday July 12, 11am
West-Ippolito
Hall-Feuerstein
Swaminathan-Somers
Ferrero-Grasso
Chen-Wu

Round 4: Sunday July 12, 3pm
Ippolito-Hall
Chen-West
Feuerstein-Swaminathan
Somers-Ferrero
Wu-Grasso

Round 5: Saturday July 18, 10am
Swaminathan-Ippolito
Hall-Chen
Ferrero-Feuerstein
Grasso-Somers
West-Wu

Round 6: Saturday July 18, 2pm
Ippolito-Ferrero
Chen-Swaminathan
West-Hall
Feuerstein-Grasso
Wu-Somers

Round 7: Saturday July 18, 6pm
Grasso-Ippolito
Ferrero-Chen
Swaminathan-West
Somers-Feuerstein
Hall-Wu

Round 8: Sunday July 19, 11am
Ippolito-Somers
Chen-Grasso
West-Ferrero
Hall-Swaminathan
Wu-Feuerstein

Round 9: Sunday July 19, 3pm
Feuerstein-Ippolito
Somers-Chen
Grasso-West
Ferrero-Hall
Swaminathan-Wu

While there, I took these photos of Dean Ippolito lecturing his chess students, as well as shots of the Friday Night League.

Fischer's Books Auctioned

On Wednesday, Bobby Fischer's chess books were sold at auction.

January-March 2009 "ACN"

My article on endgame analysis can be found on page 18, in the January-March 2009 issue of Atlantic Chess News.

USCF Lawsuits Update

Here is an article on the many lawsuits involving the United States Chess Federation.

Lincoln-Hubbard School Wins in Summit

The chess team from Lincoln-Hubbard School was the winner at the sixth annual Summit Elementary School tournament.

Double Bishop Sac @ Chess.com

At my Jim West Talks Chess blog, I have posted my double bishop sacrifice against NM Mark Kernighan, from last month's Hamilton quads.

Marshall Chess Club Swiss 6/7/2009

Playing in the one day schedule, I finished with a score of 2-1-1 today, in a Swiss tournament at the Marshall Chess Club. Here is the draw.

Round One: Philidor Counter Gambit

Frank Paciulli (USCF 1926) - Jim West (USCF 2210), Marshall Chess Club 6/7/2009

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 f5 4.Nc3 fxe4 5.Nxe4 d5 6.Nxe5 dxe4 7.Qh5+ g6 8.Nxg6 Nf6 9.Qe5+ Kf7 10.Bc4+ Kg7 11.Bh6+ Kxh6 12.Nxh8 Bb4+ 13.c3 Qxh8 14.cxb4 Qf8 15.O-O Nbd7

16.Qg3 Qd6 17.Qe3+ Kg7 18.f3 Kh8 19.Rad1 b6 20.fxe4 Qxh2+ 21.Kxh2 Ng4+ 22.Kg3 Nxe3 23.Bd5 Nxf1+ 24.Rxf1 Ba6 25.Rc1 Rc8 26.Be6 Bb5 27.b3 Re8 28.Bxd7 Bxd7 29.Rxc7 Bb5 30.e5 Rd8 31.a4 Bd3 32.e6 Bg6


33.e7 Rxd4 34.Rc8+ Kg7 35.e8=Q Bxe8 36.Rxe8 Rxb4 37.Re7+ Kg6 38.Rxa7 Rxb3+ 39.Kh2 h5 40.a5 bxa5 41.Rxa5, draw.

Bierkens to Lecture at Marshall CC

On June 9th, Pieter Bierkens will lecture at the Marshall Chess Club, in the club's series of free Tuesday chess classes for adult players.

Bierkens is a national master and former member of Holland's youth chess team. He has competed in USCF tournaments for more than a decade.

The series is based on The Mammoth Book of the World’s Greatest Chess Games.

The two games being analyzed are Rotlewi-Rubinstein, Lodz 1907/8 and Rubinstein-Emanuel Lasker, St. Petersburg 1909.

The lesson begins at 7:30pm.

Kasparov Protests Khodorkovsky Trial

Garry Kasparov is among the protesters at the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Moscow.

Another PCG Victory Against IM

NM Rohan Agarwal has been victorious against two international masters with the Philidor Counter Gambit. Besides winning against IM Emory Tate at the North American Open in December 2008, Agarwal also defeated IM Ricardo De Guzman at the Mechanics Masters in September 2007.

Improvement for Black in Till - West

At Contre Gambit Philidor, Frederic Fournier translates into French an article by Bruce Till on Till's game against me at the New Jersey Open in 1996. Below is the position following my opponent's 22.Bd5.

Instead of my 22...Nxd5 23.Qxd5 Ba6 24.Rfxf3 winning for White, I might have tried 22...Ba6 23.Bxa8 (23.Rfxf3 Re8) Bxf1 24.Kxf1 fxg2+ 25.Ke2 Qe8+ 26.Kd3 Nh5 27.Bxg2 Nxg3 28.hxg3 a5 with a playable game.

Pix from Westfield Quads 5/31/2009

Among the participants, captured on camera by me, in Sunday's quads at Westfield were NM Boris Privman, NM Pete Radomskyj [wallet in hand], Atlantic Chess News editor Steve Ferrero, candidate master Sam Barsky, and my chess student Ziping Liu. As a former resident of Indiana, Ziping is a fan of the Purdue Boilermakers.