Happy New Year! I wish all of you a Happy, Healthy, and Successful 2010!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Battle of the Gender
Judit Polgar vs Gregory Kaidanov
February 22-24, 2010
Sicilian Theme Match (Dragon, Scheveningen, Najdorf or Sveshnikov), GM Judit Polgar vs GM Gregory Kaidanov, 4 Classical 90min /40 move games, Possible Blitz playoff.
Purpose: Make a fun match for all to enjoy on the Internet. Onsite invitation only, closed to general view. The match will be webcast on the Internet.
Host: Jeff Smith, Business Consultant. Jeff supports chess as a hobby and enjoys seeing others benefit from the game.
Match Budget: 22K with a prize fund of 16K. 100% prize money funded by Mr. Smith.
Sponsor: Houseofstaunton.com
About Judit:
| I have never been good at writing CVs. This is because I have trouble coming up with the usual items, such as educational institution, course of study, profession and career path. I never went to school, having done all my studies at home, and I have never held a conventional job.
Practically from the moment of my birth, on July 23, 1976, I became involved in an educational experiment. Even before I came into the world, my parents had already decided: I would be a chess player.
My sister Susan had been a successful player for years, winning one tournament after the other. | ||
| | | |
Based on educational research, our parents decided that their children’s lives and careers would be a living example that would prove that any healthy child – if taught early and intensively - can be brought up to be an outstanding person – or, in the words of my father László Polgár: a genius.
Thus, my CV essentially consists of my achievements as a chess player. I was 9 when I first won an international chess tournament, and at age 12 and 14, I won the boys’ World Youth Chess tournament in my age groups. I was 12 when – for the first time in the history of Hungarian chess – my team, including Ildikó Mádl and my two sisters Susan and Sofia, won an Olympic gold medal in women’s chess. We repeated this achievement in 1990. But ever since that second Olympic gold medal, I have competed only against men.
In 1991, I became Chess Grandmaster, breaking Bobby Fischer’s record as youngest grandmaster in history at the time. On four occasions, I played on the Hungarian men’s Olympic chess team, and we won a silver medal in 2002. I have defeated world chess champions Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov, Topalov and Anand at international tournaments, matches and rapid tournaments.
I have been the world’s No. 1 woman chess player for nearly 20 years straight, since 1989. Among men, I was ranked 8th in 2005. I was awarded the Chess Oscar seven times, and was elected Woman Chess Player of the Century.
In the past few years, I have been able to add some “normal” items to my CV: In 2000, I married Gusztáv Font, a veterinarian. We have two children, Olivér and Hanna. And thus, not only my CV, but my whole life has become more complete.
Info about GM Kaidanov can be found here.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
2 state titles for TTU Knight Raiders Chess Team
The Texas Tech University Knight Raiders A team just captured two Texas State Collegiate Championships. International Masters Gergely Antal and Davorin Kuljasevic captured 1st and 2nd in the individual competition.
Together with International Master Gabor Papp and Chase Watters, the Knight Raiders A team captured the state team title on tiebreaks over the powerful UT Brownsville team, led by the top seed GM Mauricio Flores. UT Dallas finished in a distant third and the Knight Raiders B team finished 4th.
This is the first time Texas Tech sends an A team to the state championship and this is also the first state title for the Knight Raiders. Congratulations to all the team members!
Top 10 individual standings:
| # | Name | Rtng | Team | Total | TBrk[M] | TBrk[B] | TBrk[S] |
| 1 | IM Gergely Antal | 2543 | TTECHA | 4.5 | 14 | 10 | 14.5 |
| 2 | IM Davorin Kuljasevic | 2581 | TTECHA | 4.0 | 14.5 | 10 | 16.5 |
| 3 | GM Mauricio Flores | 2663 | BUTB | 4.0 | 13 | 8.5 | 15 |
| 4 | FM Max Cornejo | 2405 | BUTB | 4.0 | 12.5 | 8.5 | 13.5 |
| 5 | Arturo Gracia Jr | 2094 | BUTB | 4.0 | 9.5 | 6 | 10.5 |
| 6 | IM Gabor Papp | 2597 | TTECHA | 3.5 | 14 | 10 | 16 |
| 7 | NM Nelson Lopez II | 2197 | UTD | 3.0 | 13 | 8.5 | 14.5 |
| 8 | NM Yashodhan Gogte | 2186 | UTD | 3.0 | 13 | 8.5 | 14 |
| 9 | NM Bradley J Sawyer | 2224 | BUTB | 3.0 | 10.5 | 6.5 | 11.5 |
| 10 | Chase Miles Watters | 2018 | TTECHA | 3.0 | 10 | 6 | 11.5 |
| 11 | John K Hendrick | 2185 | HUSTTH | 3.0 | 8.5 | 5.5 | 10 |
Top 3 teams:
| Code | Name | Score | TBrk[B] | TBrk[S] | TBrk[R] | TBrk[C] | |
| 1 | TTECHA | Texas Tech University 'A' Team - Cnt: 4 | 12.0 | 30 | 47 | 35.25 | 39 |
| IM Gergely Antal 4.5 | |||||||
| IM Davorin Kuljasevic 4.0 | |||||||
| IM Gabor Papp 3.5 | |||||||
| Chase Miles Watters 3.0 | |||||||
| 2 | BUTB | University of Texas at Brownsville - Cnt: 4 | 12.0 | 23 | 39 | 27.75 | 35 |
| GM Mauricio Flores 4.0 | |||||||
| FM Max Cornejo 4.0 | |||||||
| Arturo Gracia Jr 4.0 | |||||||
| NM Bradley J Sawyer 3.0 | |||||||
| 3 | UTD | U of Texas at Dallas - Cnt: 5 | 8.0 | 27 | 44.5 | 18.5 | 28 |
| NM Nelson Lopez II 3.0 | |||||||
| NM Yashodhan Gogte 3.0 | |||||||
| NM Chaitanya Vaidya 2.0 | |||||||
| NM Francisco Guadalupe II 2.0 | |||||||
| Medina Parrilla 2.0 |
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
34th Annual Staser Fall Scholastic
34th Annual Staser Fall Scholastic Chess Tournament
Presented by the Orange County Great Park and American Chess Equipment
IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Young chess players are invited to challenge their creative minds at the 34th Annual Staser Fall Scholastic Chess Tournament. Presented by the Orange County Great Park and American Chess Equipment, the event will be held on Saturday, November 21st from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Great Park. The Annual Staser Chess Championship was created by Miley Staser, a senior citizen, to give students throughout the southland an opportunity to meet over a chessboard, enhance their learning and life skills through chess and make new friends. The tournament is open to students of all skill levels in grades K-12, and registration is free. Interested students are encouraged to register in advance by e-mailing amchesseq@aol.com and include your complete name, grade, and school by Friday, November 20 at 6:00 p.m.
"The Great Park will emerge as an outstanding chess venue for Orange County and southern California," said Larry Agran, Chair, Orange County Great Park Corporation. "Chess is a multigenerational, intellectual and fun board game for all to enjoy."
All players will be separated into sections by grade level. They will play against every person in their section during the course of the tournament. All players will receive a certificate of participation. Medallions will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place players in each section of each grade. Everyone is invited to take a free ride on the Orange County Great Park Balloon, weather permitting.
"Chess is an instructional aid that is part of the process of learning," said Dewain Barber, American Chess Equipment. "Chess assists in memory, logic and analysis which are key components to the improvement of any student's ability to think."
For more information about the Orange County Great Park, go to www.ocgp.org
SOURCE Orange County Great Park Corporation
Sunday, November 08, 2009
SPNI Girls FaceBook Group
You can view this page or join this group by click this: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=276705435505
The historic connection between chess and baseball in the U.S.
The historic connection between chess and baseball in the U.S.
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Story last updated at 11/8/2009 - 12:27 am
The question of the week is when did chess become popular and how popular is chess today? In addition, does chess have a worldwide governing body?
In the late 1820s and early 1830s, chess gained new popularity because of the "great chess automaton" - a kind of 19th century precursor of a chess playing computer. This great automaton was designed to resemble a large "mechanical brain" capable of playing masterful games of chess. In actuality, the games were played by a human being hidden inside the machine.
The deception was so cleverly done, however, that the audiences invited to peer inside the machine before the exhibition began were none the wiser. That the automaton turned out to be a fraud did nothing to dampen the surging enthusiasm for the game. By the middle of the 19th century, chess had come into its own in America.
Between 1857 and 1860, there were only two major sports "crazes" in the United States: baseball and chess. In 1857, both chess and baseball were among the first sports to form national organizations. That was the year the American Chess Association was founded.
Chess and baseball were so closely linked in the public's mind that Amherst College hosted a "doubleheader," which featured both the first intercollegiate baseball game and the first intercollegiate chess match.
Today, according to CBS news and the U.S. Chess Federation, 40 to 45 million people play chess in the United States. Worldwide, chess is played in more than 160 countries, and it is estimated that more than 700 million people know how to play chess.
What account for the popularity of chess? Well, for one thing, chess is one the fairest games of all. Men, women, and children of all ages start out in chess at the same level. Children with little experience can beat adults who have played for years. There is no advantage due to height, weight, gender, age, skin color, nationality, or social class. To play, you don't have to have money or belong to a club; all you need is a chess set and a place to play (or the Internet).
Unlike other board games, chess is considered a combination of art, sport and science. Certainly chess can be fun and can be played by everyone. But to be a competitive or professional chess player requires skill, knowledge, strategy, experience, wit, logic, focus, patience, discipline, fitness, good memory, strong nerves, mental toughness, and yes, sometimes even luck.
Chess wasn't always a thought of as an equal opportunity game. At one time, chess was considered something of a rarefied pastime, competitively dominated by men who were generally wealthy and well connected. But in the last few decades, the world of competitive chess has broken wide open.
For instance, my sisters Sofia, Judit, and I proved to the world that women can play chess as well as men, competing with and beating our male counterparts. Nor is age a barrier to achieve: teen such as Sergey Karjakin from Ukraine, and Magnus Carlsen of Norway are both world-class grandmasters.
Competitive chess players train as vigorously as Olympic athletes, spending up to 8-12 hours analyzing games of opponents, and improving various parts of their games. In the United States, there are several noteworthy young stars, such as 17-year-old grandmaster Robert Hess, and 15-year-old grandmaster Ray Robson (youngest grandmaster in U.S. history and reigning U.S. Junior Champion).
Organizing Chess Play
International chess competition is governed by the World Chess Federation, which is known by its French acronym FIDE (Fdration Internationale des checs) and was founded on July 20, 1924, in Paris.
With its headquarters in Athens, Greece, FIDE is the umbrella organization for more than 160 national chess federations, as reflected by its motto: Gens Una Sumus (we are one family). National chess federations, such as the USCF (U.S. Chess Federation), which have been admitted to FIDE, manage chess activities in their respective countries. With more than 5 million registered chess players worldwide, FIDE is one of the largest organizations recognized by the IOC (International Olympics Committee).
Important FIDE titles
Here are some of the important and prestigious titles awarded by FIDE:
Grandmaster
International Master
FIDE Master
Woman Grandmaster
Woman International Master
Woman FIDE Master
International Arbiter
Source: LubbockOnline.comSaturday, November 07, 2009
Beating the perception about chess
Chess for Success tournament tries to beat perceptions about the game
By Allan Brettman, The Oregonian
November 07, 2009, 6:32PM
Jerryd Bayless, Phillip Margolin and Susan Polgar. Remember those names.
Linda Hu and Camille Franklin don't know any of them, but they do know chess.
This morning, 8-year-old Hu, a Woodstock Elementary third-grader, and 9-year-old Franklin, a Vernon Elementary fourth-grader, hunched over a vinyl chess mat. Their rapid moves on the board and shoving arms somehow imitated a fencing match.
With countering claims of "check," it was over and Hu thrust her right arm in the air -- the signal to call a tournament judge.
In the bigger scheme of things, both Hu and Franklin, were victors, along with about 70 other participants in the girls-only Chess for Success practice tournament at Harold Oliver Primary.
The gymnasium floor in the school on Portland's east side was half filled with lunch tables covered with chess mats. Parents on folding chairs filled the other half.
Chess for Success executive director Julie Young watched the action from the perimeter.
Chess, she said, has long been perceived as a men's sport.
Today's event and Chess for Success try to erode that perception, though the nonprofit program has more boys than girls.
Other youth chess programs may emphasize strategy and the importance of winning. That's not Chess for Success' game.
"The main thing is," Young said, "we want it to be fun and social."
The program targets schools with a high proportion of children receiving free or reduced-price lunch. With the help of a Meyer Memorial Trust grant, it was launched in 1992 in nine schools. Today, it's in 87 far-flung schools, mostly in the metro area, and reaches about 3,400 children a year.
As for Bayless, Margolin and Polgar? All linked by chess, Young said.
Bayless is a Trail Blazers basketball player. Plays a mean game of chess, too, and along with Mona Lisa, he is one of the subjects of promotional posters for Chess for Success.
He's not a mollycoddler when it comes to playing the impressionable youngers.
"He plays to win," Young said.
Margolin of Portland seems to always have a best-selling thriller on The New York Times' list.
For 17 years, until June, he was president of Chess for Success. The novelist credits chess with transforming his approach to school as a young man.
"He says," Young said, "'We trick kids because they think they're just going to play a game and we teach them how to think.'"
And Polgar is regarded as among the best female chess players in the world.
The Hungarian native is director of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence at Texas Tech University.
And she heads a foundation that promotes chess, her Web site says, "with all of its educational, social and competitive benefits ... for young people of all ages, especially girls."
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com
Friday, November 06, 2009
2010 SPNI - July 25-30, 2010
As I announced during the 2009 Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls, the 2010 event will take place from July 25-30, 2010 at the Frazier Pavillion (Texas Tech University).
Rules and regulations can be found here: http://polgargirls.blogspot.com/2009/07/rules-and-regulations-for-spni-2010.html
Carlsen 1/2 Morozevich
[Event "Tal Memorial"]
[Date "2009.11.06"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Carlsen, M."]
[Black "Morozevich, A."]
[ECO "E25"]
[WhiteElo "2801"]
[BlackElo "2750"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 d5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. dxc5 Qa5 9. e4 Nf6 10. Be3 O-O 11. Qb3 Na6 (A lesser known move. Most popular is 11...Nfd7) 12. Nh3 += (I expect Morozevich to play Nd7 here. Even though Black is down a pawn, he can recapture at c5 at will. However, I am not very impressed with Black's position. The Bishop on c8 is stuck.)
12... Nd7 (Now, White's best option is to take the Knight on a6. Even when Black recaptures with the Queen, White does not worry about the castling problem because White always has the f2 square for the King. White can also play c4 to block the Black Queen.)
13. Ba6 Qxa6 14. c4 (White can now castle safely.)
14...Ne5 (The only decent square for the Knight)
15. Rc1 Bd7 (Pretty much a must since Black has to begin to develop his Bishop.)
16. Qc3 f6 17. 0-0 Ba4 += (The idea is to block the White's Rooks from the d file.)
18. Nf4 Rfd8 (White must chase the Black Knight from the best square e5. Bd4 would solve this problem. White can also solidify his Bishop with Ne2 eventually.)
16. Bd4 (Black has many choices to retreat his Knight. A logical spot is on f7. Nc6 is no good because of Nxe6. Ng6 is also playable and interesting.)
16...Ng6 (If White captures the Knight, it would lead to a Bishop opposite color endgame.)
17. Nxg6 hxg6 18. e5 (White is up a pawn. But after 18...f5, I am not sure if White has enough to score a full point.)
18...f5 19.h4 Rd7 += 20. Rf2 Rad8 (21. Rd2 is must.)
24. Rd2 Qc6 25. Kh2 Qc7 26. Qe3 Kf7 (White is up a pawn but has the double c pawns and opposite color Bishops. White is still slightly better.)
27. Kg3 (The only play White has is to open up the h file to have Kingside play. However, Black can simply park his Rook on the h file to hamper White's plan.)
27... Rh8 28. Qf4 (White has a dilemma. He must be careful not to exchange more pieces because the Bishop endgame would lead to an easy draw for Black.)
28...Qd8 (I still fail to see any real threat or plan for White. White can continue to shift his focus back and forth between the h and b file. However, Black has no problem defending against these plans. Many websites and servers have LIVE commentary as well such as Chessdom.com, Chessvibes.com, ICC, PlayChess, etc.)
29. Rb1 Bc6 30. Rb2 = / += Qa5 31. Be3 (White is giving back a pawn voluntarily. I still see nothing for White.)
31...Rxd2 (I expect a draw soon.)
32. Rxd2 Qxa3 33. Qd4 (A possible idea is to play Bg5, Qd6, followed by Qc7 or Qe7 because the Black Queen is temporarily out of play. You have to give credit to Magnus for trying. His plan is quite sneaky :) Black can solve this problem with 33...Rc8 with the idea of Qa5 then Qc7.)
33...Rc8 34. Rd1 Qa5 (Obviously Morozevich is not afraid of giving back the a pawn to get the Queens off the board.)
35. Ra1 Qd8 36. Qxd8 Rxd8 37. Rxa7 (Black should have no problem drawing this game at this point with Rd3.)
37...Rd3 = (However, White has a neat possible trick up his sleeves with Bg5, then Ra8, followed by Bd8, Bc7, Bd6, and Rf8 :) I am sure Morozevich will see this though and not allow it.)
38. Bg5 Rd4 39. Be3 1/2
Monday, October 26, 2009
Chess journey to the center of the Earth in New Mexico
Chess journey to the center of the Earth in New Mexico
http://reports.chessdom.com/news-2009/chess-carlsbad
On Sunday October 18, 2009, members of SPICE and the Texas Tech Knight Raiders Chess Team took part in an officially rated chess tournament nearly 800 feet below ground at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.
After extensive research by numerous people in the past month, I am told that this is a world record for a chess tournament.
The event was officially approved by the National Park Service. NPS also provided all members of SPICE and the Knight Raiders complimentary entrance to the Caverns.
We departed from the Texas Tech Student Union Building at 9 a.m. and arrived at Carlsbad Caverns a little more than three hours later. Once we arrived, members of SPICE and the Knight Raiders descended nearly 800 feet below ground and it took about an hour to get to the playing location. However, everyone enjoyed the breath-taking sight of spectacular stalactites and stalagmites along the way.
The weather in the cave is a mild and comfortable 56 degrees year-round. The tournament started at 2 p.m.
After five hard-fought rounds, International Master Gergely Antal and International Master Gabor Papp, two of the Knight Raiders A team members, tied for first with the score of 4.5 points. The only half point they each yielded came from the draw against each other in a bitterly hard-fought game.
Murfee Elementary fifth-grader Tommy Polgar and Tech freshman Rebecca Lelko tied for third and fourth with three points. The Knight Raiders student adviser Hal Karlsson and another Tech freshman Brett James tied for fifth and sixth with two points. Eight players took part in this rated chess event.
After the tournament, everyone continued to explore the incredible "Big Room." Facts from the NPS: "The Atlas of Great Caves of the World" by Courbon, Chabert, Bosted & Lindsley published in 1989 states that the floor area of the Big Room in Carlsbad Cavern is 33,210 square meters, which equals approximately 357,480 square feet. A football field is 360 feet long (including the end zones) by 160 feet wide or equal to 57,600 square feet. By dividing 57,600 quare feet into 357,480 square feet, you roughly get that 6.2 football fields would fit into the Big Room. In acres, one acre is equal to 4,840 square yards or 43,560 square feet. Divide 43,560 square feet into 357,480 square feet and we find that the Big Room is 8.2 acres in size (more or less)."
In addition, according to the official Web site, "Carlsbad Caverns is one of over 300 limestone caves in a fossil reef laid down by an inland sea 250 to 280 million years ago. Twelve to 14 thousand years ago, American Indians lived in the Guadalupe Mountains; some of their cooking ring sites and pictographs have been found within the present day boundaries of the park."
After the tour of the Big Room, our group got back to ground level, just in time to witness the fascinating bat flight. Approximately 500,000 Brazilian (commonly called Mexican) free-tail bats call Carlsbad Caverns home during the summer. At 5:25 p.m, the bats came out of the caverns in circular formation then headed off to find food. The bats eat several tons of insects each night. We were told by the park rangers that this may be the last or one of the last bat flights of the season as they migrate to Mexico for the winter.
It was a fantastic chess experience for everyone involved. We are now searching for the next exciting chess place to explore. If you know of one, please feel free to e-mail me your suggestion.
Resources
Big thanks to the U.S. National Park Service for making this possible and for their wonderful hospitality, Texas Tech University, and Peggy Flores for making all the arrangements for SPICE and the Knight Raiders. More information about SPICE and future events can be found at www.SPICE.ttu.edu
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Carlsbad Caverns Blitz Chess Video
Round 3
Round 2
Round 1
Members of SPICE and the Texas Tech Knight Raiders Chess Team took part in an officially rated chess tournament nearly 800 feet below ground at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico yesterday (Sunday, October 19, 2009).
The event was officially approved by the U.S. National Park Service. In addition, all members of SPICE and the Knight Raiders were provided complimentary entrance to the caverns by the Park Service.
Once arrived at
The tournament started at 2 pm. After 5 hard fought rounds, International Master Gergely Antal and International Master Gabor Papp tied for first with the score of 4.5 out of 5. The only draw they had was against each other in a bitterly hard fought game.
Tommy Polgar and Rebecca Lelko tied for 3rd and 4th. Dr. Hal Karlsson and Brett James tied for 5th and 6th. 8 players took part in this rated chess event.
We were even lucky enough to witness the fascinating Bat Flight at
Here is the link to 95 pictures from the Carlsbad Caverns Blitz Chess Tournament: http://picasaweb.google.com/SPICEChess/CarlsbadCavernsChess. Videos of each round will be posted on YouTube shortly.
Monday, October 12, 2009
The pint size warrior continues to march forward
Monday, October 12, 2009
EMILY NGUYEN FROM PINT SIZE TO PROMISING FUTURE...
When Team USA was in its formative stages for the NAYCC 2009, I was very excited to know that Emily Nguyen would be participating. She captived our family's attention with her performance in the Susan Polgar National Invitational 2009.
I had no recollection of Emily prior to the SPNI 2009. Although I was not at the SPNI this year, the only girl wonder that impressed me was Annie Wang from the 2008 SPNI. After analyzing the game that Annie Wang and Claudia played, I told my daughter that she was fortunate to have won the game. We both agreed she had a special talent. Therefore, I did not think another girl wonder would come up the pipeline.
Well it happened.
Emily Nguyen shocked everyone by arriving at the SPNI 2009 at seven years of age with an 832 rating and trounce between the 2nd, 3rd and 4th round a 1251, 1501 and a 1659 player with ease (www.susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2009/07/pint-size-warrior.html).
It was not hard for all of us to realize that Emily, if she continued in chess, would be someone of importance.
Here is the full article.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Texas Tech Home Coming Parade
Here is the link to 100 pictures from the 2009 Texas Tech Home Coming Parade.
http://picasaweb.google.com/SPICEChess/2009TTUHomeComingParade
Friday, October 09, 2009
Texas Tech's Knight Raiders to compete inside Carlsbad Caverns
Texas Tech's Knight Raiders to compete inside Carlsbad Caverns
Posted: Oct 09, 2009 10:58 AM CDT
LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - Members of Texas Tech's Knight Raiders chess team will venture into the world of stalagmites and stalactites October 17th when they participate in a tournament inside Carlsbad Caverns.
The officially rated blitz chess tournament, which is sponsored by Texas Tech's Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE), will take place in the cavern's lunchroom, which sits more than 750 feet underground in the Big Room.
Paul Truong, director of marketing for SPICE, said he is not aware of another chess tournament that has ever been organized in a cavern before.
"The message we want to give is very simple," Truong said. "Chess is fun, and it can be played anywhere. We want to change the social stigma that chess is a boring game for old guys."
Source: http://www.newschannel10.com
Thursday, October 08, 2009
SPICE World Smallest Chess Set
Dr. Tim Dallas, and his students Ashwin Vijaysai and Granapathy Sivakumar, have just created a SPICE Chess Set with the dimension of 1mm x 1mm. This was created out of the MEMS lab (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) at Texas Tech University. The SPICE Chess Set even has the SPICE logo on it :)
Here is the link to 32 pictures of this 1mm x 1mm chess set.
Great job by Dr. Dallas and his students!
Last year, I reported about the world's smallest chess set here. The dimension of that set is 0.25 cm.
Om April 2008, it was reported that a Russian man created a chess set with the dimension of 3.5 mm by 2.5 mm.
The SPICE Chess Set is smaller than both of these sets.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Friday, October 02, 2009
Chess from the center of the earth
The Texas Tech Knight Raiders chess team members will be playing a rated chess tournament from the center of the earth (not literally)in about 2 weeks. It will take them about an hour just to manually descent about 1,000 feet to the spot where they will have the tournament. Then they will engage in a 6 round SS tournament. The event has been approved by the National Park Service. Stay tuned for more details.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Make me a genius
My Brilliant Brain – Make Me A Genius
www.topdocumentaryfilms.com
Susan Polgar is the world’s first female chess grandmaster. But she wasn’t born with her brilliant brain – it was created by the unique experiment that dominated her childhood. From the age of four her father trained her for up to six hours a day at chess alone.
Growing up in the early 1970s, no woman had ever held the title of chess grandmaster. It was widely believed that female brains weren’t wired with adequate spatial awareness for the game. Nowadays, memory and pattern recognition are recognized as they key areas used by experts in all fields – everyone from waiters to fire-fighters.
Neither of these however, has the trained memory of a chess grandmaster. Able to recreate a chess game glimpsed only on the side of a passing van, Susan’s true genius is revealed when she plays an entire chess match over a mobile phone. Her opponent can see the board but she can’t, instead using her memory to imagine the game.
Click here to see the documentary.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Parade Magazine
Q Are there any women chess masters?—David Zwerling, Portland, Ore.
A While men dominated the game for centuries, the same social advances that brought the world a great influx of female athletes in the ’70s also gave us a spate of fresh female faces on the chess scene, such as the amazing Polgar sisters of Hungary—grandmasters Susan, 40, and Judit, 33, and international master Sofia, 34—all of whom have notched significant tournament victories over men.
Source: http://www.parade.com/celebrity/2009/09/personality-parade-80s-teen-stars.html
Here is an older article on Parade Magazine back in July 2005.
www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2565
Top 50 Smartest People
1 Albert Einstein
2 Bill Gates
3 Marie Curie
4 Stephen Hawking
5 Condoleezza Rice
6 Bill Clinton
7 Sandra Day O'Connor
8 Oprah Winfrey
9 Warren Buffett
10 Jane Goodall
11 Steven Spielberg
12 Dalai Lama
13 Sally Ride
14 George S. Patton Jr.
15 Jon Stewart
16 J.K. Rowling
17 Dr. Phil (McGraw)
18 Ben Carson
19 Susan Polgar
20 Pablo Picasso
21 Rosalyn Yalow
22 Linda Buck
23 Yo-Yo Ma
24 Johnny Carson
25 Georgia O'Keeffe
26 Katharine Graham
27 Mary Matalin
28 James Carville
29 Meryl Streep
30 Sergey Brin
31 Toni Morrison
32 Dr. Ruth (Westheimer)
33 Jackie Chan
34 Quincy Jones
35 Hayao Miyazaki
36 Maya Lin
37 Meg Whitman
38 Edward Albee
39 Pat Summitt
40 Wynton Marsalis
41 Mikhail Baryshnikov
42 Martha Graham
43 Ralph Lauren
44 Bette Davis
45 Antonia Novello
46 Allison Fisher
47 Frank Gehry
48 Mike Nichols
49 Annie Duke
50 Annika Sorenstam
SPNI 2004 - Fort Lauderdale, FL
2004 was the first year of the SP National Invitational for Girls. It was held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On hand were the late GM Arnold Denker (presenting me with the medalion above) and former World Champion Anatoly Karpov.
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Pair | Player Name |Total|Round|Round|Round|Round|Round|Round|
Num | USCF ID / Rtg (Pre->Post) | Pts | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
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1 | ROZA EYNULLAYEVA |5.5 |W 17|W 10|W 11|W 3|D 2|W 7|
MA | 12817693 / R: 2108 ->2113 | | | | | | | |
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2 | ALISA MELEKHINA |4.5 |W 16|W 22|W 7|D 4|D 1|D 3|
PA | 12726115 / R: 1989 ->1990 | | | | | | | |
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3 | ELISHA C GARG |4.5 |W 24|W 25|W 8|L 1|W 4|D 2|
CA | 12760037 / R: 1814 ->1835 | | | | | | | |
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4 | ANJALI DATTA |4.5 |W 18|W 14|W 20|D 2|L 3|W 12|
TX | 12783131 / R: 1801 ->1810 | | | | | | | |
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5 | ETTIE V NIKOLOVA |4.0 |W 23|L 8|D 9|W 26|D 6|W 18|
VA | 12712488 / R: 1808 ->1789 | | | | | | | |
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6 | ASHLEY CARTER |4.0 |L 25|W 29|W 17|D 8|D 5|W 20|
MI | 12862296 / R: 1742 ->1723 | | | | | | | |
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7 | GAYATRI VEMPATI |4.0 |W 34|W 26|L 2|W 20|W 15|L 1|
TX | 12847303 / R: 1707 ->1713 | | | | | | | |
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8 | DESTINY SAWYER |4.0 |W 30|W 5|L 3|D 6|D 11|W 15|
OK | 12821178 / R: 1563 ->1634 | | | | | | | |
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9 | GABRIELLA KAY |4.0 |D 29|W 19|D 5|W 14|D 12|D 10|
CA | 12669829 / R: 1616 ->1630 | | | | | | | |
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10 | EMILY LAU |4.0 |W 33|L 1|W 23|D 11|W 14|D 9|
HI | 12735736 / R: 1596 ->1626 | | | | | | | |
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11 | COURTNEY JAMISON |3.5 |W 27|W 28|L 1|D 10|D 8|D 13|
TX | 12746751 / R: 1787 ->1769 | | | | | | | |
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12 | GENEVIEVE HAYMAN |3.5 |W 31|L 20|W 19|W 18|D 9|L 4|
NV | 12779120 / R: 1620 ->1602 | | | | | | | |
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13 | JESSICA E FULLER |3.5 |L 20|W 27|W 28|L 15|W 25|D 11|
GA | 12814110 / R: 1454 ->1456 | | | | | | | |
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14 | RHEANNA ENGLISH |3.0 |W 21|L 4|W 25|L 9|L 10|W 24|
TX | 12807166 / R: 1640 ->1614 | | | | | | | |
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15 | STEPHANIE PITCHER |3.0 |L 26|W 34|W 16|W 13|L 7|L 8|
UT | 12805367 / R: 1622 ->1592 | | | | | | | |
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16 | STEPHANIE HEUNG |3.0 |L 2|W 31|L 15|D 24|W 27|D 17|
FL | 12833909 / R: 1467 ->1460 | | | | | | | |
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17 | STEPHANIE A FRIEDMAN |3.0 |L 1|W 33|L 6|D 30|W 26|D 16|
KY | 12715075 / R: 1438 ->1433 | | | | | | | |
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18 | PATRICE B CONNELLY |3.0 |L 4|W 21|W 22|L 12|W 30|L 5|
IL | 12728968 / R: 1397 ->1418 | | | | | | | |
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19 | EUNICE RODRIGUEZ |3.0 |B |L 9|L 12|L 25|W 34|W 29|
FL | 12691412 / R: 1417 ->1391 | | | | | | | |
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20 | EMILY R NICHOLAS |3.0 |W 13|W 12|L 4|L 7|W 28|L 6|
ID | 12861613 / R: 944 ->1165 | | | | | | | |
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21 | DEMETRA FOTIS |3.0 |L 14|L 18|D 34|W 33|D 22|W 28|
OH | 12722514 / R: 973 ->1126 | | | | | | | |
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22 | JORDANA CATHRYN WILLIAMS |2.5 |W 32|L 2|L 18|L 28|D 21|W 30|
LA | 12804915 / R: 1604 ->1549 | | | | | | | |
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23 | STACEY R STAHL |2.5 |L 5|W 32|L 10|D 31|D 29|D 25|
OH | 12870358 / R: 1374 ->1352 | | | | | | | |
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24 | KRISTA KIM SELBY |2.5 |L 3|D 30|D 26|D 16|W 31|L 14|
IN | 12661487 / R: 1352 ->1344 | | | | | | | |
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25 | MARJORIE L HEINEMANN |2.5 |W 6|L 3|L 14|W 19|L 13|D 23|
MN | 12652104 / R: 1214 ->1306 | | | | | | | |
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26 | ANNIE LARSON |2.5 |W 15|L 7|D 24|L 5|L 17|W 31|
MD | 12814155 / R: 1232 ->1292 | | | | | | | |
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27 | JENNA J HAGGAR |2.5 |L 11|L 13|D 32|W 34|L 16|W 33|
SD | 12729734 / R: 1271 ->1262 | | | | | | | |
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28 | GRAHAM GIBSON |2.0 |X |L 11|L 13|W 22|L 20|L 21|
TN | 12777372 / R: 1353 ->1309 | | | | | | | |
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29 | SARAH SELBY |2.0 |D 9|L 6|L 30|W 32|D 23|L 19|
IN | 12735956 / R: 1198 ->1202 | | | | | | | |
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30 | ELAINE SMITH |2.0 |L 8|D 24|W 29|D 17|L 18|L 22|
CT | 12920345 / R: 990P20->1090 | | | | | | | |
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31 | ANNA T SMOAK |1.5 |L 12|L 16|W 33|D 23|L 24|L 26|
NM | 12815147 / R: 1202 ->1184 | | | | | | | |
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32 | MACKENZIE MICAL |1.5 |L 22|L 23|D 27|L 29|L 33|W 34|
OR | 12687938 / R: 1171 ->1135 | | | | | | | |
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33 | AMANDA M HUNT |1.0 |L 10|L 17|L 31|L 21|W 32|L 27|
NH | 12706889 / R: 1077 ->1053 | | | | | | | |
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34 | TERRA B GARAY |0.5 |L 7|L 15|D 21|L 27|L 19|L 32|
NE | 12831899 / R: 1184 ->1131 | | | | | | | |
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