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European Champion 2010 Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi


European Women's Champion 2010 GM Pia Cramling, Sweden

Source: Chessbase

A few days ago, I asked about this. USCF EB Member Mike Atkins responded:

The previous US Armed Forces Opens were held at:
2009- Gettysburg War Museum, Army, Chief TD/Organizer Mike Hoffpauir
2008- Bethesda Naval Hospital, Navy, Tom Belke Organzier, Ernie Schlich Chief TD
2007- Henderson Hall Marine Corps Base (On the grounds of Fort Myer, next to Arlington Cemetary), John Farrell/Organizer, Michael Atkins, Chief TD
2006 - Washington DC Old Soldier's Home, Org/Lt. Col Doug Taffinder, Chief TD/Michael Atkins
For the 2006 event we brought in as special speaker retired USAF Lt. General William Earn Brown, a chessplayer who was in one of the Tuskeegee Airman graduating classes in the late 1940's.

The US Armed Forces Open is open to solder who are active-duty, retirees (20+ year retirees) and students at the Academies.

This year's event is being organized by Lt Col Taffinder again and will be in the DC area. They do a wonderful job in securing donated prizes and have gotten financial support in the past in order to purchase great trophies. The Military Academies participate in the tournament with West Point typically bringing the most players. When it is being held on military bases, the rooms for the academy students are usually free and the EF is always free for everyone.

The Military Chair recently resigned and they are in the process of ironing out a strategy to always have a Chair. I am the EB Liaison to the Military Committe.

Mike

(Used with permission.) Here's a chess site devoted to this topic:
http://www.usmilitarychess.org/

Check out the World Records In Chess on Wikipedia!

After winning 2-0 one more time, today against Smeets, Carlsen joined Vasily Ivanchuk in the lead in Nice. The Ukrainian on his turn defeated Aronian 1.5-0.5, while Kramnik went down 2-0 against Gelfand.

# Ti. Name FED RtgI Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 Rp
1 GM Socko Monika POL 2465 6.0 22.0 30.5 5 2694
2 GM Stefanova Antoaneta BUL 2555 5.5 24.0 33.5 4 2614
3 GM Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan SCO 2447 5.5 24.0 32.5 5 2663
4 IM Cmilyte Viktorija LTU 2485 5.5 21.5 30.0 4 2595
5 WGM Galojan Lilit ARM 2380 5.5 21.0 29.0 4 2589
6 GM Cramling Pia SWE 2523 5.5 21.0 28.5 5 2605
7 IM Dembo Yelena GRE 2457 5.5 17.5 25.0 4 2537
8 GM Kosintseva Tatiana RUS 2524 5.0 23.5 32.5 4 2570
9 IM Muzychuk Anna SLO 2533 5.0 22.0 31.5 3 2556
10 GM Sebag Marie FRA 2506 5.0 22.0 30.0 3 2507
11 IM Muzychuk Mariya UKR 2444 5.0 21.5 30.5 3 2561
12 WGM Zhukova Natalia UKR 2492 5.0 21.5 29.5 3 2500
13 IM Khurtsidze Nino GEO 2434 5.0 21.5 29.0 3 2523
14 IM Rajlich Iweta POL 2459 5.0 21.0 29.5 3 2484

I was a bit offended that my buddies over at the Kenilworthian didn't list me on their chess blogs list. But with the chess blogging community growing it's becoming that much harder to keep us all together isn't it?

I remember when chess blogging had only a select few hardcore bloggers. We've lost a number of those old veterans but in their place we have dozens more now! It's a good time to be a chess blogger and we're gaining momentum.

Get ready to play in a chess tournament this weekend.

Here's a little video to help you get your engine started. (-or to just learn a little more about the game.)



Almost always, when the Queen Pawn meets the Queen Pawn in the center, White supports with the Queen Bishop Pawn. While this forumation is not as deadly as its brother formation on the Kingside, it is more strategic and hence more practical.

I usually play this. I note that the QB pawn usually moves up next to the Q pawn no matter what Black does.

This is an overview for beginners.

Chess events in your area . . . and visit The Chess Website who created these wonderful videos.

www.jacklemoine.com

check out Jrobichess on youtube!!

Is there a strategy for Sloan getting back to some status of respectability in the chess world? (I’m thinking of something like the post-Watergate Nixon did.)

First, let’s clear out some underbrush. About the election:

Sloan’s election chances are slim. The worst thing from his standpoint was that he’s in an effectively 2 man race. Had there been a third man for that last slot, then he might have had a shot at getting in by the majority of anti-Sloan voters splitting their vote. As it is, every one of them can concentrate their votes on Walters. The election is Walters’ to loose. He does not need to be qualified or even knowledgeable; he just needs to avoid anything stupid. Sloan’s only hope is to get people thinking the USCF is badly managed and then go negative on Walters. He’s not up to the job; he cannot fix things – that sort of spiel. This is a plausible strategy for him; he likes attacking people. Still, Sloan faces the problem that he has no base of support. Further, in his case, his experience on the Board actually works against him in this election.

I just do not see him winning this. Even if he does win, what does he get? - A seat at a Board where he will once again be isolated. Worse, Sloan being Sloan, he probably won’t be able to resist the opportunities to cause trouble. Having gone to the well once already, the USCF may do unto Sloan what it did to Polgar and Truong and expel him. Eviscerating the rules for removal from the Board will not be the novelty it was last year.

Sloan’s best bet would be to withdraw from the race so that he can get an early start on his rehabilitation but to analyze that move would be to withdraw from any plausible Sloan-like behavior into fantasy. So, I assume that he will run, adopt some strategy such as I imagine, and loose.

Then what? What is his best strategy from that point?

Since Susan Polgar and Paul Truong were forced off last year, their seats are vacant. This July the members will elect 2 people to replace them. 3 candidates have filed:

1) Mike Neitman, who has served for a very long time in Scholastic Chess Committees and has a long record in USCF affairs.

2) Gary Walters, who has no record at all but has played a few rated games in the past few years. He has also posted 300+ times on the USCF's forums, mostly attacking yours truly.

3) Sam Sloan, who has a very long record in USCF affairs but it is really bad. He served 1 year on the EB in 2006-2007.

Of the candidates, Neitman is a lock, so the real election is between Walters and Sloan for that last seat. Because Sloan is so unacceptable, people are trying to pump up Walters by exagerating his qualifications and downgrading the qualifications expected of an Executive Board Member.

I shall provide much more explanations of this short summary in the future.

I am still feeling under the weather (this is day four or five) and I'm taking this one totally off! I posted my illness on my facebook status and a friend sent me the following song: