2017 Danville Open Winner Plays at the Pan-American Chess Championship

Former Lyndon Institute senior IM Matyas Marek, winner of the 2017 Danville Open, is now a student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Marek plays on the UMBC-A chess team that just competed in the Pan-Am Championships in San Francisco. He finished at 4.5/6 losing one game to a GM and drawing one with another with a GM. Marek is pictured here at the Danville Open last year playing against Vermont's National Master David Carter.

https://bayareachess.com/static/pairings/panam/index.html

Of Tal, Petrosian and Portisch---1976

An interesting article about the political machinations to e found in the Soviet Union and Eastern Block in the 1970's.

https://en.chessbase.com/post/team-tal-an-untold-story

Dubov Wins World Rapid Championship. Nakamura 3rd. Carlsen 5th.

The new Rapid Champion, Dubov, in action.

https://www.chess.com/news/view/daniil-dubov-ju-wenjun-win-world-rapid-chess-championships

Chess and Music as Cognitive Enhancers? Apparently Not

Not so good news for parents pushing their kids into competitive chess. I saw this recently at a FIDE rated tournament that I played recently in Massachusetts. Aggressive mother with miserable daughter.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/talking-apes/201710/music-and-chess-do-not-enhance-cognitive-ability

The Real Joy of Chess Illustrated

The Alaska Pacific University chess team is pictured at the Pan Am College Championships taking place in San Francisco. The team's average rating is 1020

The full story can be found here
https://en.chessbase.com/post/2018-pan-am-college-chess-west-coast-revival

Scholar's Mate Against a 2304 Opponent??

Carlsen loses his first two games at the World Rapid Championship.

[Event "FIDE World Rapid Championship"]
[Site "St. Petersburg"]
[Date "2018.12.26"]
[Round "2.1"]
[White "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Black "Vokhidov, Shamsiddin"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2903"]
[BlackElo "2304"]
[PlyCount "72"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]
[Whiteteam "Norway"]
[Blackteam "Uzbekistan"]
[Whiteteamcountry "NOR"]
[Blackteamcountry "UZB"]
[Whiteclock "0:08:40"]
[Blackclock "0:03:27"]
[CurrentPosition "8/R4p1k/4b1pp/8/3p4/2BP1P2/1PP2KP1/7q w - - 0 37"]

1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Nc6 3.Bc4 g6 4.Qf3 ( 4.Qd1 Bg7 5.d3 Nf6 6.Nc3 d6 7.f4 Be6 8.Bb5 O-O { Adhiban,B (2655)-Cheparinov,I (2710) Riadh 2017 } ) 4...Qe7 5.Ne2 Nf6 $146 ( 5...Bg7 6.Nbc3 Nd8 7.Nd5 Qd6 8.Nec3 c6 9.Ne3 Ne6 10.a4 Nf6 { Grcic,M
(1953)-Cotenescu,D (1991) Vellmar 2010 } ) 6.d3 Bg7 7.Nbc3 h6 8.Nd5 Nxd5 9.exd5 Na5 10.d6 cxd6 11.Bd5 Nc6 12.Bd2 Qf6 13.Qe4 O-O 14.O-O Ne7 15.Nc3 Qf5 16.Qb4 Nxd5 17.Nxd5 Kh7 18.Nc7 Rb8 19.Qxd6 b6 20.f3? ( { So far Carlsen has
played an excellent and thematic game, and in form he would certainly have
found } 20.Ne8! { winning an exchange as } 20...Ra8 { loses to } 21.Nxg7 Kxg7 22.Bxh6+ ) 20...Bb7 21.Rae1 Rfc8 22.Bc3?? ( 22.Nb5 { had to be played, when Black
is "only" clearly better. } ) 22...Bf8! 23.Nb5 ( { Carlsen must have missed } 23.Qxe5 Qxe5 24.Bxe5 d6 ) 23...Bxd6 24.Nxd6 Qe6 25.Nxc8 Rxc8 26.Rxe5 Qd6 27.Rfe1 Bd5 28.a4 Be6 29.a5 bxa5 30.Kf1 Rc5 31.Rxc5 Qxc5 32.Ra1 d5 33.Rxa5 Qc7 34.Ra4 Qxh2 35.Rxa7 Qh1+ 36.Kf2 d4  0-1


https://www.chess.com/news/view/carlsen-loses-2-on-1st-day-world-rapid-chess-championship

Two Rooks or a Queen?

An interesting question with no definitive answer. It all depends.......What follows is an interesting game won by the new Ukrainian Women's Chess Champion, Nataliya Buksa.

 [Event "UKR-ch Women Final 2018"]
[Site "Kiev"]
[Date "2018.12.20"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Babiy, Olga"]
[Black "Buksa, Nataliya"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2275"]
[BlackElo "2410"]
[Annotator "Golubev"]
[PlyCount "66"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. b4 Bd6 $6 6. d3 Ne7 7. Ng5 O-O 8.
f4 b5 $2 9. Nxf7 Rxf7 10. Bxf7+ Kxf7 11. fxe5 Bxe5 12. d4 $18 {White is
winning.} Nxe4 13. dxe5 (13. Qf3+ $5) 13... Bb7 14. O-O+ Kg8 15. Qd3 a6 16. a4
bxa4 17. Rxa4 Ng6 18. Ra5 c5 19. Bf4 $2 {White was playing imprecisely on the
previous moves, and this is simply wrong.} Nxf4 20. Rxf4 Qg5 $6 21. g3 $6 Qxe5
{White is no worse still. But a big mistake on the next move ruins her game.}
22. Qxd7 $4 Nd6 $1 $19 {The white queen is fatally misplaced.} 23. Ra2 Qd5 24.
Rd2 Qh1+ 25. Kf2 Re8 26. Qxe8+ Nxe8 27. Rd8 Qxh2+ 28. Kf1 Qg2+ 29. Ke1 Qxg3+
30. Rf2 Bc6 31. Nd2 Qxc3 32. bxc5 Qxc5 33. Re2 h5 0-1