91 players in Orland Park? The title even looks surreal. This month attendance exploded, and we almost ran out of space. Next month it would be amazing to try to top 100! We will be raffling off prizes for the Holidays as we did last year.
Our very first Orland scholastic two years ago had a whopping 6 players. Six, that is not a typo. To come this far and give players in this area a place to play without driving an hour has been one of my bigger achievements in chess.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
The Illinois All Grade
I meant to blog about this event during the week, but I have to admit that I needed a little time to recover. 485 players, it was our largest event yet. Most of the people I have spoken with about the event seemed pleased with it, which is nice because of the hundreds of hours of logistics and prep work that goes in before that day.
But of course, the big story was the kids. Results can be found at http://chessforlife.com/chess/allgrade08/allgrade08.html
It was amazing to see how many talented kids there are in our area. It would not surprise me at all to see many of them place well at Supernationals next year.
One little proud anecdote from the event for me. As I was at the podium reading off the team results for the 5th grade section, it had occurred to me that earlier when I had spoken with a parent from Noonan (where I teach), he had mentioned that Noonan was in 3rd place in that section after a could of rounds. Since 5th place and 4th place had already been called out, my eyes scanned up to see if we had gotten 3rd, we hadn't. I continued scanned until it hit me that there we were in first place. I literally froze up at the podium to the point where Alice Holt who was handing out the trophies walked over to me and asked what was wrong, or if I was ok. I pointed to the results with a proud smile, and said, just taking a moment to savor this, she laughed and I went back to reading wondering if the team knew yet. When I read off the second place team, they started jumping around. Not sure when the last time a team from the south suburbs won a state chess title, but it was awfully gratifying to be there for this one.
Palatine HS and Sean Fisher-Rohde were exceptional hosts that hopefully will welcome us back in 2010. The TD staff had many of the best in the business in Wayne Clark, Jeff Wiewel, Mike Zacate, Betsy Dynako, Gary Janssen, Chris Merli, and Elizabeth Villaflor. And we would have been completely lost without the wonderful volunteering and support of Alice Holt, Margaret Drier, Maret Thorpe, Jon Burgess, Jerry Neugarten, Andi Rosen, Eric Rosen, Trevor Magness, and apologies to anyone that I may have missed.
Also, to any of the top finishers from the event or their coaches that may be reading this, we are in the process of writing an article on the tournament for the Illinois Chess Bulletin. If you have a game you are proud of and would like to submit it for the article, please contact me.
Thanks,
Glenn
But of course, the big story was the kids. Results can be found at http://chessforlife.com/chess/allgrade08/allgrade08.html
It was amazing to see how many talented kids there are in our area. It would not surprise me at all to see many of them place well at Supernationals next year.
One little proud anecdote from the event for me. As I was at the podium reading off the team results for the 5th grade section, it had occurred to me that earlier when I had spoken with a parent from Noonan (where I teach), he had mentioned that Noonan was in 3rd place in that section after a could of rounds. Since 5th place and 4th place had already been called out, my eyes scanned up to see if we had gotten 3rd, we hadn't. I continued scanned until it hit me that there we were in first place. I literally froze up at the podium to the point where Alice Holt who was handing out the trophies walked over to me and asked what was wrong, or if I was ok. I pointed to the results with a proud smile, and said, just taking a moment to savor this, she laughed and I went back to reading wondering if the team knew yet. When I read off the second place team, they started jumping around. Not sure when the last time a team from the south suburbs won a state chess title, but it was awfully gratifying to be there for this one.
Palatine HS and Sean Fisher-Rohde were exceptional hosts that hopefully will welcome us back in 2010. The TD staff had many of the best in the business in Wayne Clark, Jeff Wiewel, Mike Zacate, Betsy Dynako, Gary Janssen, Chris Merli, and Elizabeth Villaflor. And we would have been completely lost without the wonderful volunteering and support of Alice Holt, Margaret Drier, Maret Thorpe, Jon Burgess, Jerry Neugarten, Andi Rosen, Eric Rosen, Trevor Magness, and apologies to anyone that I may have missed.
Also, to any of the top finishers from the event or their coaches that may be reading this, we are in the process of writing an article on the tournament for the Illinois Chess Bulletin. If you have a game you are proud of and would like to submit it for the article, please contact me.
Thanks,
Glenn
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Scholastic results and Scheduling
Today was our first Orland Scholastic of the year, and we drew 42 players, which is about a 50% increase over last years October event. We have added a rated section which was dominated by wunderkind William Radak. William has been rocketing up the rating list and should be near 1600 now putting him near the top of his age group in the country, not bad for a second grader. Last week Shiva Maharaj dubbed him the "Harry Potter of chess" for his more than passing resemblance to the young Potter as well is his prowess on the board. The title drew a nice grin of approval and a high five from the young man.
Coming up next is the Illinois All Grade championships coming up on November 8th. So far registration has been a little slower than expected at about 240 right now, but we are still projecting that we break 400 for the event.
Glenn
Coming up next is the Illinois All Grade championships coming up on November 8th. So far registration has been a little slower than expected at about 240 right now, but we are still projecting that we break 400 for the event.
Glenn
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Allan Hsu is a lowlife
Been away from blogging for a while now, and the scholastic chess schedule is now in full swing. Unfortunately, it seems as though despite there being fewer tournaments, the turnout among the players has actually decreased. Maybe that will be a column for another day.
We are also in week 9 of the US chess league season, where our Chicago Blaze is 4-4 playing against the Arizona Scorpions in a match that has significant playoff ramifications. A win puts our destiny in our own hands and even gives us a chance at the #2 seed, a draw and week 10 becomes a must win game. I will probably blog again after the match.
Anyways, lets get to the title of the post. Back in the wild west days of the internet, cybersquatting was a practice that was common and even lucrative. The idea was that you either vulture a domain name when it expired, or beat a person or a company to getting a website at what their natural name is. Apparently this practice is still common. Several years ago the Seattle Chess Foundation (aka the AF4C) had their site taken and turned into a porn site. Allan Hsu purchased the Illinois Chess Association's http://www.ilchess.org/ address, and is holding it for ransom for $3000. To do this to a non-for-profit group is despicable. If you would like to tell Allan what you think of his doing this, you can contact him at allan_hsu@hotmail.com
To get to the real ICA website, please go to http://www.il-chess.org/
Glenn
We are also in week 9 of the US chess league season, where our Chicago Blaze is 4-4 playing against the Arizona Scorpions in a match that has significant playoff ramifications. A win puts our destiny in our own hands and even gives us a chance at the #2 seed, a draw and week 10 becomes a must win game. I will probably blog again after the match.
Anyways, lets get to the title of the post. Back in the wild west days of the internet, cybersquatting was a practice that was common and even lucrative. The idea was that you either vulture a domain name when it expired, or beat a person or a company to getting a website at what their natural name is. Apparently this practice is still common. Several years ago the Seattle Chess Foundation (aka the AF4C) had their site taken and turned into a porn site. Allan Hsu purchased the Illinois Chess Association's http://www.ilchess.org/ address, and is holding it for ransom for $3000. To do this to a non-for-profit group is despicable. If you would like to tell Allan what you think of his doing this, you can contact him at allan_hsu@hotmail.com
To get to the real ICA website, please go to http://www.il-chess.org/
Glenn
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Blaze take on the Sluggers
Monday night the Chicago Blaze take on the Seattle Sluggers and their creepy overcaffeinated knight mascot. As we are sitting at 1.5-1.5 we are on pace to make the playoffs which can be done with a 5-5 result. Seattle presents and interesting challenge as they will be putting out their 2 GM lineup, and we are out rated on 3 of the 4 boards.
The US chess league seems to be a large game of rock, scissors, paper and while the Seattle 2 GM lineup creates matchup problems this week, it probably gets no better than a draw against most balanced lineups that it would see. This is a must win matchup for seattle as dropping to 1-3 cripples their playoff chances. It also sets up what may become a rather heated rivalry due to the accusations Nakamura aimed at Mitkov a couple years ago in Vegas.
I still like our chances as we are coming off a big win last week, and are playing well. Thankfully it is an internet match so the 11 year old boys in the area are safe from Nakamura's rantings.
Glenn
The US chess league seems to be a large game of rock, scissors, paper and while the Seattle 2 GM lineup creates matchup problems this week, it probably gets no better than a draw against most balanced lineups that it would see. This is a must win matchup for seattle as dropping to 1-3 cripples their playoff chances. It also sets up what may become a rather heated rivalry due to the accusations Nakamura aimed at Mitkov a couple years ago in Vegas.
I still like our chances as we are coming off a big win last week, and are playing well. Thankfully it is an internet match so the 11 year old boys in the area are safe from Nakamura's rantings.
Glenn
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Colias best game prizes
We are pleased to announce the best game prizes for the Colias Invitational from last month. For the Class player section, Richardson-Djordjevic wins the prize. For the master sections, Tate-Gratz was selected. As soon as I figure how to add games to my blog, I will post them here with annotations.
This week the Blaze have a featured Monday night matchup against the Seattle Sluggers. We have a bit of an uphill struggle as we are outrated on 3 of the 4 boards, but our team has been playing well lately, and upsets happen.
Glenn
This week the Blaze have a featured Monday night matchup against the Seattle Sluggers. We have a bit of an uphill struggle as we are outrated on 3 of the 4 boards, but our team has been playing well lately, and upsets happen.
Glenn
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Visiting the St. Louis Chess Club
As every year at this time I am sentenced to hard labor day time in South Central IL (not LA), I decided I would make a break for it this year and drive the hour to St. Louis and check out the chess club that has gotten so much pub. That and I really did not want to see one more meal that was fried, pork, or fried pork. So I drove down.
First, the neighborhood is exceptionally cool. Right off of the Wash U campus, the homes are beautiful and brick, there are tons of outdoor cafes, and stores, and coffee shops, not to mention a Vodka bar just around the corner for the Russian GMs that want to stop by.
You walk in, and it has the feel of a nice apartment building or downtown office as you come to the granite countered kiosk and are greeted. The floors are a dark hardwood, everything else is themed black and white. The place is immaculate, and they must have made the plasma TV salesman happy as there are like 15-20 of them in the place.
There are three levels to the club, the basement has a library full of chess books and magazines, as well as about 20 boards, all with chairs with the STLCC logo etched into the back of them. The main floor has about 8 boards, and is for informal play. There are also the plasma sets showing Diana Thater's video artwork. The upper level has about another 20 boards, and is the tournament hall.
Right now they have about 250 members, and are looking for a resident GM to give lessons as well as play and work there. Tournaments are weekly, and we will see both the US Championship and Women's championship there next year.
It really is too bad that we don't see more places like this in other cities. The one question I did not get answered is what will happen to the vibrant club at the St. Louis Bread Company? Will this new club kill it?
My next blog will likely be on Wednesday during the Chicago Blaze-San Francisco Mechanics USCL match. Tune in at 7:30 to watch.
Glenn
First, the neighborhood is exceptionally cool. Right off of the Wash U campus, the homes are beautiful and brick, there are tons of outdoor cafes, and stores, and coffee shops, not to mention a Vodka bar just around the corner for the Russian GMs that want to stop by.
You walk in, and it has the feel of a nice apartment building or downtown office as you come to the granite countered kiosk and are greeted. The floors are a dark hardwood, everything else is themed black and white. The place is immaculate, and they must have made the plasma TV salesman happy as there are like 15-20 of them in the place.
There are three levels to the club, the basement has a library full of chess books and magazines, as well as about 20 boards, all with chairs with the STLCC logo etched into the back of them. The main floor has about 8 boards, and is for informal play. There are also the plasma sets showing Diana Thater's video artwork. The upper level has about another 20 boards, and is the tournament hall.
Right now they have about 250 members, and are looking for a resident GM to give lessons as well as play and work there. Tournaments are weekly, and we will see both the US Championship and Women's championship there next year.
It really is too bad that we don't see more places like this in other cities. The one question I did not get answered is what will happen to the vibrant club at the St. Louis Bread Company? Will this new club kill it?
My next blog will likely be on Wednesday during the Chicago Blaze-San Francisco Mechanics USCL match. Tune in at 7:30 to watch.
Glenn
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