News
Keeping the Heat On
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- Written by Tom Panelas Tom Panelas
- Created: 03 October 2011 03 October 2011
The Chicago Blaze juggernaut continues to roll through the U.S. Chess League.Last night our Chi-town team won another decisive victory, beating the St. Louis Arch Bishops 3.5-.5. At this point, halfway through the ten-week regular season, the Blaze have a perfect record of 5-0—undefeated and untied.
Once again we got stellar performances from all four boards, with victories by GM Dmitry Gurevich, IM Angelo Young and NM Sam Schmakel and a draw by GM Josh Friedel against the redoubtable St. Louis GM Ben Finegold.
Blaze force LA to Bite the Bullet
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- Written by Brad Rosen Brad Rosen
- Created: 28 September 2011 28 September 2011
National Master Gopal Menon made his USCL debut in spectacular fashion as he extracted a win, from what many in the crowd thought was a drawn position, to clinch the Blaze win and extend the team's perfect record to 4-0. Menon, known for his one minute bullet chess prowess (he was #1 on the ICC one minute list earlier in the year), came out of the opening in typical fashion, with an advantage and up the exchange against 10-year old whiz kid Albert Lu.
As with last week's match, Grand Master Mesgen Amanov was the first Blaze player of the evening to finish his match, this time with a gorgeous win over IM Zhanibek Amanov (no relation) on Board 2.
Mesgen played a variation of the Modern Benoni where he gave up his queen in return for two active knights and a strong bishop that dominated play. "This was a very theoretical variation," Mesgen said. "I knew this line very well."
Chicago Blaze Begins USCL Season
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- Written by Sevan Muradian Sevan Muradian
- Created: 12 September 2011 12 September 2011
It's an exciting time in Illinois chess with the start of the new chess school year. This time of year also marks the beginning of the season for the Chicago Blaze, a professional chess team that represents the State of Illinois in the United States Chess League. The Blaze consists mostly of the Grandmasters and International Masters we all know and love but it also has two of the top youth players in the country, National Master Eric Rosen of Niles North High School (who is also the High School National Champion) and National Master Sam Schmakel of Chicago's Whitney Young Magnet High School (who is a national champion in various grades).
New State Champions
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- Written by Bill Brock Bill Brock
- Created: 07 September 2011 07 September 2011
Grandmaster Mesgen Amanov, International Master Angelo Young, and FIDE Master Aung Thant Zin are the 2011 Illinois Open Co-Champions! Young lost to Amanov, but was the only player to win five games.
Crosstable here: even without Yury Shulman (recovering from the World Cup), this was one of the strongest championships in recent memory. It was a particular honor to have three of our grandmasters (defending champion Dmitry Gurevich, Nikola Mitkov, and Amanov) playing in this event for two years running.
Illinois Players Light it Up at the World Open
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- Created: 11 July 2011 11 July 2011
Along with picnics, parades, and fireworks, the fourth of July weekend is also known for World Open, one of the premier chess events held every year in the Philadelphia area. This year’s $200,000 plus prize fund attracted many strong players from all over the world, as well its share of chess hustlers and chess characters from across the nation. Over 1000 players participated in this year’s chess extravaganza. 23 of those chess devotees made the trek from the state of Illinois, and brought back their share of the big bucks and rating points. Read on for a recap of some of those performances.