Chess Chatter
Chess Chatter
Embedded Files
This page is for news and recent results of the local chess community.
If you have news send it to, Bill at feellikeapawn@gmail.com
October 21 IM Alice Lee finished clear second in the US Women's Championship. Her loss to the winner, Rachel Li, was too much to overcome. Second was worth $30,000.
The Gov's Cup has been rated. GM Isik Can was first.
October 13 The Castle has another Master: Connor Weatherly who slipped over the 2200 threshhold. Congratulations. Alice is in first place in the US Women's Championship with 4.5/5 after some shaky chess. I watch on Chessbase. Agadmator on YouTube highlights some men's games.
October 4 Andrew Titus, who was in only do to a late cancellation, and John Blomer tied for first at the full Norhtern Open. The new site, the Renaissance Bloomington, filled to capacity as chess is booming. Help the organizers and enter early. At least 126 players in four sections. It has been rated.
September 28 Ryan Zhou finished clear first at the Gopher Open. Scoring 4.5/5 and pushing his rating to 2177. Tied for second were Iwu, Blomer, and Thiagarajan with 4/5. David Atelbauers won the U1800. It has been rated.
September 25 The USA Men's team at the Olympiad finished tied for fourth place. The Women's finished tied for third. Alice Lee was terrific with a score of 8.5/10. A 2572 performance and individual gold. Next up is the US Chanpionships Oct. 7th-23rd. All the stats.
"Alice Lee dazzled at the last Olympiad on Board 4 at only 14, and this time was no different. Even on Board 2, she still kept her unbeaten Olympiad record intact, scoring 8½/10 for a 2572 performance. That was good enough for Board 2 gold and was the 4th-best performance on any board. Alice gained +14 Elo at the Olympiad, and is up a staggering +68 Elo since March alone. To top it all off, she finished the event as the No. 1-rated junior girl in the world for the first time in her career."
September 16 One GM playing in the Governor's Cup.
September 9 A couple of chess books I found interesting: Checkmate by Ben Mezrich and Interregnum by Jordan Himelfarb. They are both in the library. Checkmate is about the Hans Niemann scandal. Interregnum about the road to the 2024 World Championship. Reviewed in Chesss Life.
August 23 The Roger Hale Open was a huge success. GM Bryan Smith as expected took first place with 5/5. Yusuf Khan was second with 4.5/5. Jordan Timm, Miles Tisserand and Rishab Jain were next with 4/5. 130 players took part. DETAILS Thanks to Dane and Jiten for running the show.
Alice is crushing it at the Cairns Cup. She finished second with a $50,000 payday. Next up is the Olympiad and Women's Championship for her.
August 13 Alice Lee plays Hou Yifan in the Blitz final. Great chess to watch. Check it out.
August 10 With the two old men shuffled away in the corner Sammy Narayanan and Linden Lee battled to a tie for first in Sammy's Farewell Blitz Party. . With 16.5 points they were 2.5 points ahead of Alan Xu in third place. 20 games of Blitz is a lot but luckily there was a feast provided at the half way point by Mom and Dad. The old guys finished with 10 points each. Sammy is off to grad school in Pittsburgh.
Watch the Cairns Cup or Sinquefield Cup.
August 6 IM Alice Lee in preparation for the Cairns Cup in St. Louis is playing the Women's Speed Chess Championship. Against world class players she is doing well. It is on YouTube.
July 27 There was a three way tie at Catfish Days. Dane Mattson came from Missouri and Josiah Jorenby from South Dakota and Dane Zagar from the club to tie at 5.5/7. Okey Iwu and Jordan Timm were close behind at 5/7. 33 players competed. The potluck was so good it went on for three days. Thanks to Dane Zagar and Andy Grube for running a smooth tournament. James Kanne started the Catfish tournament over thirty years ago.
July 16 The dates and site for the Minnesota Open and Gopher Open have been posted on the MSCA calendar.
July 14 Kyler Weatherspoon has made Master. I do not feel so bad now after losing to him in Rochester. Congratulations.
Check out the US Juniors and US Girls and US Senior Championship in St. Louis. Website YouTube or chess.com
July 2 Just for fun watch John take on Dina. GAME
June 24 The Roger Hale tournament will be Aug 22nd -23rd at the Castle. LINK Friday Night (August 21st) GM Bryan Smith Attacking Chess Bootcamp Plus Blitz 5-8pm LINK
The Winter Open is scheduled for Jan. 8th-10th,2027 at the Embassy Suites Bloomington. Good job Shanti! The Oval was just too small.
June 21 The State Blitz Championship has been completed. The format was new. John Bartholmew came out of retirement, Alice Lee from chamionship play, Sammy Narayanan from school and Jackson Wahl from bridge to compete as the favorites. Andrew Titus stopped John. Alice stopped Jackson. Sammy stopped Alice for the Title. About 100 played in different sections. All the details here.
June 8 II5 players in three sections played in the Mpls. Open at the Castle Chess Club. It was very strong with two IMs and one GM. Sammy Narayanan, State Champ, and Ivan Excender Soriano Quispe battled to a 117 move draw in round four. Sammy was pushing hoping to have an easy last round. He faced Andrew Titus in the last round and needed a win to claim a tie for first with Ivan who one his round 5 game. GM Bryan Smith and David Schabert tied for 3-4th. Dane Mattson and Andrew Titus held Bryan to draws. Ivan won the Blitz losing only to Sammy.
June 7 You can view the games from the Mpls. Open here. Sammy tried for 117 moves to beat the visiting IM, Soriano Quispe, but could not quite seal the deal.
May 19 Two books that may be of interest: Dark Squares and Silman's Chess Odyssey. The first about Danny Rensch's life and the start of Chess.com. Silman writes about historical players he liked and played. Older players would like this book.
Sammy's Farewell $1,000 Blitz Party (June 28th)
May 1 Two IM's entered . The Minneapolis Open, June 5th-7th, has a two day and three day schedule. Entries limited to 170. Castle Blitz Championship also that weekend.
April 12 Congratulations to IM Samrug Narayanan for once again becoming Minnesota State Champ. He had to beat Charles Hua in a very tough playoff to get the title. There are two video choices: Iwu and Weatherly or Matt Jensen. The picture is old but he is still handsome. Game player Rd.1 Game player Rd.2
April 10 Jordan Timm won the playoff for the Castle Championship.
April 1st The video that made Dina famous. YouTube
March 28 The last round of the playoffs was exciting. The play by play is archived on YouTube.
The games from the Playoffs can be viewed here.
March 21 Irene Fei made Master at the Cedar Rapids Leather Jackets tournament. Congratulations. I do not have a picture.
March14 IM Alice Lee came thru again to win the American Cup for the third time. Beating her friend IM Carissa Yip to take home $49,000. The games were exciting. Alice had an hour long interview with GM Mauricio Flores. You can find it on YouTube
November 28 IM John Bartholomew has gone down the Scandi rabbit hole. His love of this opening has led to him producing the Ultimate Scandi Repertoire. His new venture is called Chessiverse. The link takes you to the Scandi page. If you are interested in the new trends in openings, click on the short video and expect to be amazed at the new features he has developed. There is a longer free video.
For those of you that are old school or suffer from Chess Depression three books caught my eye:
Chess Imbalances by Maricio Flores Rios
Mastering Chess Defense by Johan Hellsten
Converting An Extra Pawn in Chess by Sam Shankland
October 22 As we know there is no quit in IM Alice Lee. In the tenth round of the US Women's Championship she had the position on the left. It has been assumed a draw for some time but Alice still tries. Alice is White and pushing for a win. Black to move. Is it a win or draw?
The GMs said this was a win for Alice. But wait. Alice will play Rook to f4 and Queen the pawn. Black played 45....Ke5 46.Rf4 Kxf4 47.f7 and the pawn turns into a Queen as the Rook can not get back to stop it.
Black should have played 45...Kd5 46. Rf4 Rb3 47. f7 Rb8 48. f8=Q and the Rook sacrifices it self for the pawn. But now the Black King is close enough to the a pawn and White will have to give up the Rook for the pawn.
Alice showed great technique in converting the Q vs R+p ending. She plays Yip tomorrow going for second place.
She drew Yip and finished in third with a nice payday. Chessbase
June 17 In this position Alice blundered after an hour of playing on increment at the Cairns Cup. Not one to play for a draw in a bad position she played actively. After the mistake the commentators assumed she was lost. As we all know there is no quit in her. With the tricky Knight she struggles on. With brilliant play she draws the game. To play the GIF just refresh the page. I do not know how to auto replay. Chess.com link to the game.
February 5 At the left is a picture of the remodeling that was done after the accident. A huge amount of sewage fell from a broken pipe and covered the floor, tables, sets and clocks. Dane showed me pictures and it was massive. Southdale took no responsibility and it was left to volunteers to fix the problem. Thankfully Roger Hale once again stepped up with carpeting and other items. This was huge. Dane's Dad, Bruno, volunteered his skills at sheet rock repair and all round handyman to help get the club looking great. Many others helped too. The place looks brand new and more tables will be added to get us back to be able to handle bigger events. I advise you to take advantage of one of the best clubs in the nation.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse