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Source: United States Chess Federation http://main.uschess.org/index2.php?option=com_rss&feed=RSS2.0&no_html=1
GM Sergey Erenburg succesfully defended his title in the New Jersey Futurity (July 7-11), earning 7.5/9, a full point ahead of GM Yudasin in second place. Unfortunately, no norms were scored this time.

New Yorker Obama Cover Sparks Uproar
Politico: Campaign Calls Magazine Cover Art “Tasteless And Offensive”

Barack Obama’s campaign is condemning as “tasteless and offensive” a New Yorker magazine cover that depicts Obama in a turban, fist-bumping his gun-slinging wife. An American flag burns in their fireplace.

The New Yorker says it’s satire. It certainly will be candy for cable news.

The Obama campaign quickly condemned the rendering. Spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”

Here is the full article.

What do you think? Do you find the cover offensive or it is just another satirical lampoon?

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

White to move and win! No computer please! See if you can solve this own your own. It is a good one.

Lamoss, 1968, presented by Andreas

8/4kpPr/2P4n/4PR2/8/6K1/7P/8 w - - 0 1

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

Final Standings:

1-2. GMs Greenfeld (ISR, 2545) and Baburin (IRL, 2526) – 8/9 (earning 2,000 euro each)

3. GM Hebden (ENG, 2520) - 6½ (1,000 euro)

4. Jessel (IRL, 2294) – 6 (600 euro)

5-7. FM C. Daly (IRL, 2311), GM Butnorius (LIT, 2442) and FM Ph. Short (IRL, 2300) - 5½, etc (32 players)

The tournament was sponsored by Island Oil and Gas company and took place at the Academy Plaza hotel in the city of Dublin. The rate of play was 40 moves in two hours, 20 moves in one hour and 30 minutes allegro finish (no increment). The tournament was well organised and run by Michael Crowe.

While I’ve been living in Ireland since 1993, this was the first time I took part in an Irish chess championship. In the mid 1990s a few Irish players campaigned hard against me playing in the Irish championship, so I stayed out.

Ironically, a few years later the same few players realised that with me and a few Irish IMs playing, there would be chances for IM norms in the championship, so they wanted me to play. Predictably, my reaction was “Thanks, but no, thanks!”. Besides, prize money was always rather modest.

But last year Island Oil and Gas Co started sponsoring the event, which improved prize money. I did not play in the 2007 championship only because I had made a commitment to coach at the Berkeley chess school in California. This year I kept 5-13 July free in my calendar.

Report from Chess Today CT-2806. To subscribe Chess Today, go to http://www.chesstoday.net/.

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

Gomez is champ

International Master John Paul Gomez drew with International Master Rolando Nolte yesterday to top the 2008 National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) qualifying tournament at the Kaban ng Hiyas building in Mandaluyong City.

Gomez finished the tough 17-round event with 13 points, half a point ahead of top seed GM Wesley So who defeated IM Ronald Bancod.

Bong Villamayor was in solo third with 11.5 points after halving the point with fellow GM Mark Paragua.

GMs Darwin Laylo, Jason Gonzales and Paragua tied for fourth spot with identical 10 points.

Laylo humbled IM Chito Garma while Gonzales smoked the peace pipe with National Master Leonardo Carlos.

Garma fell to solo seventh spot with 9.5 points.

Tied for eighth with 9 points apiece were Nolte and Carlos.

IM Julio Catalino Sadorra beat Haridas Pascua to finish 10th with 8.5 points.

Here is the full article.

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

IM Gomez and GM Wesley So lead the Philippines for the Chess Olympiad in Dresden
GM Bong Villamayor, GM Darwin Laylo, GM Jayson Gonzales join team
Report by Chessdom

Following the news of the Philippines national championship, the Olympiad team of the Philippines for Dresden 2008 is already known. The new champion IM Gomez and the young talent GM Wesley So will occupy the first two boards of the competition. They will be joined by the strong performing GM Bong Villamayor.

GMs Darwin Laylo and Jayson Gonzales complete the five-man team. GM Mark Paragua was tied with Laylo and Gonzales with 10 points, but he owned the lowest tie-break score. Thus he could not qualify for the Chess Olympiad. Paragua will lead the other Philippine team in the World Mind Games scheduled in October in Beijing. IMs Chito Garma, Nolte, Julio Sadorra and National Master Leonardo Carlos will join Paragua.

Source: Chessdom.com

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

Ikaros Chess Festival 2008
Strong field at the Aegean Open Championship 2008

This year’s Aegean Open Championship 2008, the main event of the Ikaros Chess Festival 2008, is expected to be a quite strong and interesting tournament that will take place from 12th till 20th of July 2008 at Aghios Kirykos, the capital of Ikaria island in Greece. So far the following strong players have confirmed their participation:

Evgeny Postny (GM, ISR, 2649), Christodoulos Banikas (GM, GRE, 2600), Andrey Rychagov (GM, RUS, 2565), Robert Markus (GM, SRB, 2557), Alexander Shneider (GM, UKR, 2537), Giannis Nikolaidis (GM, GRE, 2516), Sergey Zagrebelny (GM, UZB, 2480), Krum Georgiev (GM, BUL, 2452), Shojat Ghane (GM, IRN, 2424), Petar Velikov (GM, BUL, 2414), Thomas Henrichs (IM, GER, 2497), Sebastian Siebrecht (IM, GER, 2490), Nikolov Momchil (IM, BUL, 2488), Bjorn Brinck-Claussen, (DEN, IM, 2306)

Among the female players the field is also quite interesting:

Irina Zakurdjaeva (WGM, RUS, 2296), Darja Kaps (WGM, SLO, 2287), Ana Srebrnic (WGM, SLO, 2283), Yana Melnikova (WGM, RUS, 2259), Elitsa Raeva (WFM, BUL, 2258), Olga Dolzhikova (WGM, UKR, 2256), Liubov Kostiukova (IM, UKR, 2247)

As in the 2007 edition of the tournament, Ikaros Chess Festival 2008 is a very good choice for all chess players due to the beauty of the island of Ikaria itself that is ideal for relaxing family vacations without lacking the well known Greek island nightlife, the low cost accommodation package that the organization committee offers to the participants (250 Euros per person including ferry tickets, accommodation, and entrance fee, special discounts are available for junior players, families and club teams) and, of course, the friendly and relaxing atmosphere of the tournament that converts Aghios Kirykos to a pure chess vacation site.

Source: http://previews.chessdom.com/ikaros-chess-festival-2008

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

Teen breaks Rubik’s Cube record

By Sean Plambeck
July 14, 2008 02:30pm

A DUTCH teenager has set a new world record for solving the Rubik’s Cube and put the world of competitive speedcubing into a spin.

Erik Akkersdijk, 18, broke the world record for solving a standard 3×3x3 Rubik’s Cube, with a time of 7.08 seconds at the Czech Open at the weekend.

Australia’s quickest Rubik’s Cube solver Jasmine Lee, who completed the puzzle in 20.37 seconds at the UK Open in 2006, said Akkersdijk’s new mark would be hard for anyone to beat.

“That new record is pretty amazing - over 1.5 seconds faster than the previous record. That’s a big margin at the top levels of competitive cubing,” she said.

Akkersdijk had held the record before with a time of 9.77 seconds, set during the Dutch Open in 2007.

Bu that record had been beaten by Edouard Chambon (9.18 seconds at the Murcia Open 2008 ) and then Japan’s Yu Nakajima (8.72 seconds the Kashiwa Open 2008).

In competitive cubing, each cube is rotated by officials into a random configuration unveiled to the solver when the clock starts.

In official compeition only 13 people have ever solved the cube in less than 10 seconds and all those times have been set in the last two years.

Akkersdijk, an environmental management student, took up speedcubing in 2005 and on his website he lists his other hobbies as chess, juggling, building model airplanes and swimming.

Source: www.news.com.au

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

San Benito chess tournament a hit with youths
July 13, 2008 - 12:05AM
By AMANDA HARRIS/Valley Morning Star

HARLINGEN - Chess players of all ages gathered at the San Benito Community Center on Saturday for the 5th Annual San Benito Community Chess Tournament.

The event was open to anyone who could play chess, event organizer Edward Guetzow said.

Guetzow said he helps organize the event in hopes of encouraging young students to continue playing the game and hopes to encourage adult players to spend time teaching younger players.

“I’d like to see these kids continue to play chess - even if it’s not professionally,” Guetzow said.

“Hopefully, it will make them a better person, better citizens and will lead them to be responsible leaders in the future.”

Darren Lozano, a 10-year-old from McAllen, and Danny Deleon, a 10-year-old from Corpus Christi, were some of the first players to finish their game in round two.

“I started playing chess because I had heard about it and I started playing when I was five years old,” Darren said. “My dad plays a lot on the computer and I wanted to be as good as him.”

Danny had a hidden agenda when he started playing, he said, but enjoyed the game and continued to play.

“My mom started up a chess team at school and they were going to the national championships in Florida and I wanted to go,” Danny said. “She said I had to play if I wanted to go.”

The boys both said they’ve traveled to many cities in the state to play in tournaments.

Another group of players sat near their mothers inside the community center.

Elena Nortera, from Brownsville, said she’s glad her daughter, 9-year-old Elena, enjoys playing the game.

“We as parents are very supportive of our kids,” Nortera said. “We love that they get smarter in every subject. They pay more attention in class and it keeps them calm and focused.”

Nortera said she doesn’t mind spending her Saturdays at chess tournaments with her daughter.

Here is the full article.

Source: Susan Polgar Blog

Photo courtesy of chess.maribelajar.com

World champ at age 6

AT ONLY six, Derek Lim, became Singapore’s first and youngest world schools’ champion in chess.

Lim had won in the Under-7 World Schools’ Chess Championships held in Greece in 2006.

Lim who is now nine, a Primary 3 student from Anglo-Chinese School (Junior), had beaten other world-class players from Russia, the US and Greece, in a round-robin format to clinch his world title.

Unlike other professional athletes, Lim did not receive much training before he made his mark.

His mother Ng Lay Cheng told The New Paper: ‘Derek played chess for less than a year before he was selected to join the national junior squad and was later picked to represent Singapore in the world schools’ championship.

LESSONS

‘He trains with the national junior squad once a week. And just before the world tournament, my husband and I decided to hire a private trainer for him. Even then he had private lessons once or twice a week. And each session was not more than two hours.’

Lim may be just a child, but he has beaten many adults in chess, locally, said Tang Kum Foo, honorary treasurer of the Singapore Chess Federation.

In the same year, Danielle Ho from Nanyang Girls’ High, won the Under-11 category of the World Schools Chess Championships.

Source: newpaper.asia1.com.sg

Source: Susan Polgar Blog