New Blog

I have decided to continue this blog under a different name - Fiore Chess Blog.

Be advised I will continue to cover Minnesota events, in addition to those in South Dakota and Iowa. As you will note, they will be covered under the Sibley Chess Club domain.

Thank you for visiting this blog...I encourage you to follow us at the new site.

2010 Minnesota Closed Games

2010 Final Four of College Chess

March madness is over but four teams are jousting for the prestigious President's Cup, otherwise known as the Final Four of College Chess. The teams competing are University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Texas at Dallas, Texas Tech University and University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College (UTB/TSC).

The event is being held at UTB/TSC located at Brownsville, Texas. To learn more read History of Chess in Brownsville or download the Final Four program guide.

Games from the event can be viewed individually at Monroi.com (registration required) or on this blog by clicking 2010 Final Four. The official page is found at 2010 President's Cup.

Frank Johnson Games from 2010 MN Open

I finally found the pgn code for blogs and figured it out to make it functional. There were several to choose from, but I was looking for one which allowed multiple games to be listed under one board/viewer.

Please check out the games played by Frank Johnson at the 2010 Minnesota Open. He also did some great video analysis which I also linked to this blog. Enjoy the Johnson Games by clicking the link or under the blog pages area.

Pre-registration List for Minnesota Scholastic Championships

Round 1 Pairings

(for pre-registered players only, rest to be paired Saturday.)

Dan Voje, Chief TD for the MSCA Scholastic Championships, has posted a pre-registration list for the event at Scholastic Championships. He is asking players and coaches to review the list and verify the following:

• name is listed and correct;
• listed under the correct section; and
• team, if any, is correct.

You are asked to email him at danvoje@chesscastle.com if there are any errors. First round pairings will be posted Thursday evening.

I will inquire about getting games for the top 2 or 3 boards of the high and middle school sections so I may post them here. Standings will also be posted if and when available.

Are Our Schools In Checkmate?

I am a member of the School Improvement Advisory Committee (SIAC) for the Sibley-Ocheyedan Community Schools Distict (S-O CSD). It is a committee made up of community members, teachers and students. Our mission is to formulate and prioritize recommendations for our school board. They in turn, will consider these recommendations when setting goals for the 2010-2011 school year.

Jeff Herzberg, Superintendent for S-O CSD, posted the following video on his blog, Superintendent Herzberg. The video is a speech given by Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D., at an international schools conference in India, where 1-1 initiatives (meaning all students get laptops) are being considered and implemented. Dr. McLeod also wrote The status quo no longer suffices: An open letter to the Ames (IA) School Board, presented this topic to the National Education Association Board of Directors and the Dubuque School Board.

How does this relate to chess? It was amazingly fascinating to hear all of the presenters at our second SIAC meeting (teachers explained the Iowa Core Curriculum) use key phrases associated with chess; critical thinking, problem solving, planning ahead, deductive learning, social interaction, etc.

Of interest is, "A Word From the Wise", an op-ed piece written by New York Times columnist, Thomas L. Friedman. It is referenced in Mr. Herzberg's blog and relevant to the discussion.

I invite the members and visitors of this website to share your thoughts on Dr. McLeod's video or presentations regarding the challenges our schools face. Please consider asking educators and others in your communities to share their perspectives. You may do so on Superintendent Herzberg's blog or below.

Rochester Chess Blog Moved

As you may know the Rochester Chess Blog is down as well as the MSCA site and Sibley Chess Club site are down. The reason for it because they were all hosted on the same server which experienced a major crash. The administrator for said server is working feverishly to get it back online and to set a backup in case this happens again.

The new address for the Rochester Chess Blog is:

• http://rochesterchess.blogspot.com/

When my site returns I will look into forwarding rochester.fiorechess.org to the new address.

3rd Annual Okoboji Scholastic

3rd Annual Okoboji Winter Games
Scholastic Tournament
Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center
1405 Highway 71 S
Okoboji, IA 51355
See Map
January 24, 2009

5 Rounds Swiss Sys; Unrated Game/25; Rds: 10:00a, 11:10a, 1:30p, Rounds 4 & 5 to 15 minutes after the previous round ends.

Entry Fee: $7 if received by January 14, 2009; $10 onsite registration fee. Registration: 9:00a-9:45a.

Trophies: 1st place trophy for each section - Primary (K-3), Elementary (4-5), Middle School (6-8) and High School (9-12). 2nd and 3rd place medals to also be awarded in each section. Top female is to be awarded a trophy and second best female to be awarded a medal. All players are to play in their own division or up; only one section trophy to be awarded per individual. Sections may be combined or grades shuffled to accommodate turnout numbers. Female players may win top female and section trophies. Other gifts and/or prizes may be awarded.

Make Checks payable and mail to Jodene Kruse at 934 6th St, Sibley, IA 51249, or email jodene77©yahoo.com.

Click Flyer for flyer/registration form (click on blue arrow to view/download).

3rd Annual Okoboji Open

USCF online TLA now available for the 3rd Annual Okoboji Open.

Look for the March and April issues of Chess Life for the print TLA. Below is a copy of the proof for those issues.

Apr. 24-26 or 25-26, 3rd Annual Okoboji Open GM Alex Yermolinsky to Play and Hold Lecture & Simul 5SS, G/2, Arrowwood Resort & Conference Center, 1405 Highway 71 S, Okoboji, IA 51355. An Iowa Qualifying Points Event. EF: $40 by 4/24 or $50 at site. Sr/Jr's $25 by 4/24 or $35 at site. GMs and IMs Free Entry. Memb. Req'd: $15 (Jr/Sr $10). OSA. USCF reqd. $$b/50 Full Entries: Sr/Jr entry count as half. $300-200-100-50. U1900 $175-100-50, U1600 $150-75-50, U1300 $75-50, U1000/Unr $75-50. Trophies to 1st, top female, top Sr. and top Jr. ½ pt bye any round if req. before rd. 2. Rds: 3-Day Option 4/24 6:00, 4/25 9:00-4:30, 4/26 9:00-2:30; 2-Day Option 4/25 9:00-1:00-4:30, 4/26 9:00-2:30. Reg: 4/24 5:00-5:45 and 4/25 9:00-9:45. Satellite locations may be available for 1st rd, see website for details. HR: $89 by April 10. 1-800-727-4561, mention Chess group. ENT: Jodene Kruse, 934 6th St, Sibley, IA 51249. INFO: jodene77@yahoo.com. www.fiorechess.org. NS NC W. WCL JGP.

To view/download flyer go to Okoboji Open Flyer.

A new site to check out

A recent visitor suggested trading weblinks. Please check out his site, Chessblog for chessfuns..., which looks good.

(Also, hope all of you are doing well and have time to enjoy some chess. I haven't had as much time to play as I'd like to, but I'm doing chess league again this year.)

Thursday Chess

Thursday chess had a pretty good turnout this week. This is my first post. I havent figured out how to put the games up here that you can output with fritz (like the uschess.org page does). Best I can do is upload an image. So I uploaded an image from Michael Heinisch vs me from yesterday. This wasnt the exact position, but it was something like this.

I thought I had the game won (he seemed to think so too judging by his gestures), but he capitalized on a miscalculation I made. Looking at it now with a cool head, I'm not sure I should have resigned when I did, but thats chess.

Both Jeff Chandler and I had skipped first part of the tournament and played just the last game. Jeff played Reed Russel. I didnt get to see the game. Wish I had though. I bet there was some nice fireworks.

Roger Hale played Michael Melander. Michael is somewhat new to the club. Roger somehow beat him with a R & P vs Michaels 2 Qs. I should probably have posted an image of that here.

I was watching Josh Franz play Vince Berg. For a while, Josh had quite a time advantage, but Vince Managed to even it out. The position looked even as well. I thought maybe Vince might have been slightly better, but what do I know. It didnt matter though, because Josh busted a nice piece-winning tactic.

Vince Wisniewski played Norm Myrin. Norm had the white pieces, if I recall correctly. It seemed Norm had the advantage (looking at the post mortem analysis) but made a tactical error.

The last 3 games finished between 11:30 and midnight. I left around midnight. Norm, Vince W, Jeff, and Reed were still there going over Norm and Vinces game.

Was a good night!!

World Chess Live

I was informed by Larry who plays at the Chess Castle that the USCF has an online chess playing service. If you have not looked at it yet, here is a link to World Chess Live.

Is anyone in the Minnesota chess community interested in running this blog?

Hello everyone!

I see that there is still some traffic to this site, but I have not had the time to update this blog.

If anyone is interested in running and updating this blog, please email me at the address listed on my profile.

Thank you and good chess to you all!

Joe

The first year at the new location is coming to a close!

I thought the new location was good for the Castle. So far, we have 49 events listed as being played this year. I was happy to play in five of the Thursday Knighters, which averaged between 15-17 players most months.

I didn't achieve my goal of raising my rating into the next class. In fact, I'm ending the year 39 points lower, but I had a good time playing. Thanks to everyone who runs and plays at the Castle. You are a good bunch who I enjoy spending time with.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable Christmas and New Year!

See you in the next year!

Joe

Tension!!!

At 9:45 p.m., over two hours into round one of the November Thursday Knighter, only one game was finished. Vince Wisniewski played his Alekhine's against an unrated, but strong player.

I was only at move 18 on the Black side of a Caro-Kann, in which my opponent made me work hard. I stepped out of the room for a moment, and when I walked in, found that we were all roughly at the same point...move 16, move 19, move 19, and...move 12?!!! Kevin Landman, a 1500+ player, was playing Black with a strong time advantage against 1900+ Reed Russell.

Roughly an hour later, after I finally resigned, Dennis McGrath finished an excellent game against Steve Turmo with a victory.

Reed was concentrating head down, with just over five minutes left. I was exhausted and couldn't stand any more tension, so I left.

But it was one of those nights where everyone seemed to be playing their best!

John B's team, the Dallas Destiny, won the first round

John Bartholomew blogged about his team's first round win over the Tennessee Tempo in the U.S. Chess League.

Tags: US Chess League, U.S. Chess League, chess, Internet chess

Two items: How's the Thursday Knighter, and a link of interest

Every Thursday night has been busy for me this month, so I have not had a chance to visit, let alone play for this month's Thursday Knighter. Does anyone have an update on this month? (Add a comment or email me.)

Second, I added a link for the US Chess League on the side. For those who haven't heard about it, it is an Internet-only league played by teams across the country. The first round of the new season will begin this evening, Monday, August 27.

Some GMs play, including Nakamura, as well as Minnesota's own IM John Bartholomew. John will be playing Board 2 as Black this coming Wednesday, August 29th.

Tags: US Chess League, U.S. Chess League, chess, Internet chess

Check out this new chess website: Gambetto

I was just apprised of a new chess website this morning, called Gambetto, put together by Dan Bennett. Please take some time to visit. I am impressed with the layout, and heck, he has an area called Tal's Tactics! What's not to like?

Twenty enrolled in July Thursday Knighter

Because school is out, we have a few scholastic players this month, over and above our usual crew of folks here. Matt Dahl, Robert Donahue, and Christopher Gill have joined the action.

It's not to late to join June's Thursday Knighter

We have fifteen people currently enrolled in this month's event, so if you are interested in playing, please come down to the Castle tonight. The rating range is from class E to expert.