Welcome back everyone; we’re happy you’re here. After the total roller coaster that was the World Cup we are back with another GM Spotlight. This month we are examining the games of GM Li Chao. Chao earned the GM title in 2007 at the age of 18. Since earning the title he’s climbed to a peak rating of 2756. He’s slipped… Read more →
Category: Chess
Recap of the 2nd Central NY Open: A King Dethroned
It is with sorrow that I announce that, after a valiant effort, I have relinquished my crown of Central NY State Chess Champion. I look back on my time as your champion with nothing but happy memories. One day soon I hope to reclaim the title. For now, I am content in knowing that the crown rests with a formidable… Read more →
Recap of the 20th Arkport Open
I competed in the 20th Arkport Open this past weekend. I’m going to take an excerpt from my previous post about the 19th Arkport Open: This tournament has a special place in my chess career because it was the first “big” tournament that I played in when I returned to chess SEVEN [sic. EIGHT] years ago. This year there was a four-way tie… Read more →
2015 Chess World Cup (Round 4)
Apologies for the delay everyone; I was traveling yesterday. There were some exciting results yesterday. In one of the worst displays of sportsmanship I’ve seen in top-level chess in a long time, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi appealed his loss against Hikaru Nakamura after claiming that Nakamura castled with two hands. To his credit, Nakamura did use two hands to castle, but… Read more →
2015 Chess World Cup (Round 3)
Round two is over and we’re at the stage of 32. Just 32 players stand in the way of earning one of two candidates spots. Technically less than 32 because a few remaining players have already reserved their spots in the tournament. Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana got spots via the FIDE Grand Prix. Today was quite dramatic. The tiebreaks… Read more →
2015 Chess World Cup (Round 2)
The first round is over and we have some interesting results. There were some notable upsets in the first round. A few of the players considered to be the “old guard” have been eliminated. Before we get started with the upsets I just wanted to make the comment that the repartee between GM Emil Sutovsky and GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko is… Read more →
Recap of the 137th NYS Championship
The New York State Championship is becoming one of my favorite tournaments. I look back on my previous tournaments and am filled with fond memories. This year Aleksandr Ostrovskiy won the tournament in impressive fashion with 5/6. This year was a good year for me. I played in the open section and performed well. I scored 3/6 and went +2 =2… Read more →
September 2015 Grandmaster Spotlight: Hicham Hamdouchi
This month we are examining the games of GM Hicham Hamdouchi. For a long time, GM Hamdouchi was one of the strongest players in Africa. He won the Moroccan Championship a whopping 11 times. In 2013, he won the french championship. This makes him one of the few players in the world to win in two different country championships. There… Read more →
2015 World Cup Preview
If you’re bored this year by the chess scene, I don’t blame you. This year hasn’t been all that interesting. The good news is, that all changes today. For today FIDE has announced the first round pairings for the World Cup. The World Cup is the March Madness of the chess world; TIMES TWO! In the NCAA tournament, ~64 teams… Read more →
August 2015 Grandmaster Spotlight: Sergei Tiviakov
Welcome back! This month we are examining the life and games of GM Sergei Tiviakov. Tiviakov has been a staple of high level tournaments for the last 20 or 30 years. I learned a lot about Tiviakov in doing my research for this post. I remember when I was weaker I saw a lot of his Scandinavian games and that… Read more →