Arlington Chess Club
Est. 1954
“If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure.”
(Garry Kasparov)
“All that matters on the chessboard is good moves.”
(Bobby Fischer)
Brief Calendar
- Friday Ladder:
Sep 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 - Action+: Sep 23
- Blitz: Sep 29
- DCCL: (none)
- Quads: (none)
- Friday Ladder:
Oct 6, 13, 20, 27 - Blitz: Oct 20
- Action+: Oct 14
- DCCL: (none)
- Quads: (none)
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
ACC is
OPEN
this
Friday
Tournament Reports
April 1, 2019
March Wrap-Up; By ACC President
The ACC Action Plus tournament continues to be played at the Marriott Residence Inn - Ballston. Everyone raves about this new location for our tournaments! This month we had yet another great turnout of 50 competitors with Larry Gilden and Daniel Clancy tying for first (4/5) followed by a tie for 3rd between Andrew Samuelson and Alex Emmons (3.5/5) and the U2000 Class Prize the last of which went to Sergey Patsuk (3.5/5) for the second month in a row - what out for this kid! In the U1700 section, Lang Xiong and Samuel He tied for 1st (4/5) followed by a 4-way tie for 3rd. Jonathan Fox won the U1400 Class Prize while ther was a3-way tie for the U1200 Class Prize. Xiong, Fox, Mia Fuller and Braeleigh Crowell all snagged up about 100 ratings points - Congrats to all of them!
Separately, on the ACC Ladder, out 57 players, Lev Bargramian had a strong month (4/5) to finish a whole point over 3 other members. The ACC Quads had over three quads with the third becoming a 6-player Swiss. Akshay Indusekar won the top Quads with Yours-Truly upsetting 2 players to gain nearly 60 ratings points(!). Returning from a long time out of the DC area, Michael Abron won the second quad, and there was a 4-way tie in the bottom quad (actually a 6-player swiss). And finally, in the ACC Blitz tournament (2 games against each 5 opponents) saw Isaac Chiu top a 10-player field with a perfect score.
April 1, 2019
US Chess Championships 2019; By Mark Crowther; TWIC
The US Chess Championships took place 20th March to 2nd April 2019. Players: Open: Caruana, So, Nakamura, Dominguez Perez, Shankland, Robson, Xiong, Sevian, Lenderman, Akobian, Liang, Gareyev. Women's Championship: Krush, Zatonskih, Abrahamyan, Wang, Sharevich, Yip, Foisor, Yu, Gorti, Eswaran, Feng, Nguyen.
Hikarua Nakamura shared the lead with Leinier Dominguez and Fabiano Caruana going into the final round, he was the only one of these players to manage a win so he won his fifth title with 8/11 half a point clear of these rivals. The women's championship saw a remarkable performance by 17 year old Jennifer Yu, she was not at all one of the favourites but demolished the field with a fine 10/11 score.
March 31, 2019
US Championship: Jennifer Yu Wins With A Round To Spare; By Antonio Pereira; ChessBase
The astounding run of Jennifer Yu continued on Saturday, when she took down the one other contender for first place to get the title in style with a round to spare. The 17-year-old defeated Anna Zatonskih and stands on an unreachable 9 out of 10 score.
More: Chess24More: Chess.com
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March 31, 2019
Nakamura Wins 5th U.S. Championship; By FM Mile Klein; Chess.com
When the top four players all think a round is "must-win" then that's a good sign for the man who actually does. And so it was for GM Hikaru Nakamura in today's final round of the 2019 U.S. championship. Thinking that other players with a share of the lead might bag the full point, he pulled yet another rabbit out of the hat by playing the Dutch to land young GM Jeffery Xiong in unfamiliar waters.
March 28, 2019
Women's Candidates set for June in Kazan; By Press Release; FIDE
FIDE has announced in a press release the exact dates and the final field for the Women's Candidates Tournament in Kazan. Yifan Hou is not playing and Aleksandra Goryachkina will take her place. The tournament starts on May 29th.
March 23, 2019
A trip to Saudi Arabia; By Irina Bulmaga; ChessBase
The 1st Hail Rapid Chess Tournament for men and women took place from the 15th to the 18th of March in Hail, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It gathered more than 200 participants from 18 countries. Wang Hao took clear first in the men's tournament while IM IRINA BULMAGA won the women's tournament and sends her reflections.
March 18, 2019
2019 National High School Championship; By John Hartmann; US Chess Federation
The 2019 National High School Championship was a record-breaker, both officially and unofficially. This 51st edition of the High School Championship set an official attendance record with 1,689 players, shattering the previous best of 1,569 at the 2017 National High School in Nashville, TN. That year’s NHS was part of Supernationals VI; the record for largest stand-alone event was 1,492 in Columbus, OH in 2016.
March 16, 2019
This 8-Year-Old Chess Champion Will Make You Smile; By Nicolas Kristof; New York Times
In a homeless shelter in Manhattan, an 8-year-old boy is walking to his room, carrying an
awkward load in his arms, unfazed by screams from a troubled resident. The boy is a Nigerian
refugee with an uncertain future, but he is beaming. He can’t stop grinning because the awkward
load is a huge trophy, almost as big as he is.
More: ChessBase
More: Chess.com
March 6, 2019
USA Upsets China At World Team Chess Championship; By Peter Doggers; Chess.com
A fine combination by Alexsandr Lenderman was part of the USA's upset victory against China in round two of the World Team Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan. With Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So and Sam Shankland on the team in the Batumi Olympiad, the U.S. drew China on all boards in the final round and had to be content with silver.
March 5, 2019
TCEC Season 15 – To A/B or NNot to A/B, That is the Question; By Staff; Chessdom
Season 15 of the Top Chess Engine Championship will begin this March 5th. It will feature a record number of engines to accommodate the booming sector and a record ELO of the participants. A total of 44 engines will face off in a division based system to determine the current status quo of strength and the grand champion of TCEC.
March 2, 2019
TCEC14 Computer Chess Superfinal: A Perspective; By GM Matthew Sadler; Chessdom
Season 14 has been amazing! The clash of styles between STOCKFISH and LEELA produces consistently interesting chess – just like the match between STOCKFISH and ALPHAZERO did. You really hope that this sort of clash of styles can continue for the next few seasons.
March 1, 2019
February Wrap-Up; By ACC President
The ACC Action Plus tournament was again played at the Marriott Residence Inn - Ballston. Everyone continues to rave about this new location for our tournaments! This month we had yet another great turnout of 50 competitors with a 3-way tie (4/5) in the Premier section between Isaac Chiu, Jason Liang and William Marcelino. Sergey Patsuk snagged the U2000 class prize. In the U1700 section, Rahul Ponugoti won clear first (4.5/5), followed by Juan Diaz in clear second (4/5) and a 3-way tie for 3rd. Trista Crowell won the U1400 class prize and Lulu Huang won the U1200 class prize. Both Diaz and Huang also nabbed over 100 ratings points(!).
Separately, on the ACC Ladder, out 40+ players, newcomer Steve Draughn had a strong month (4/4) to win the prize by a whole point over Ghezai Menelik and Michael Hiban (3/4). The ACC Quads had over two quads with the second becoming a 6-player Swiss. Abraham White won the top Quads while 3 players tied in the Swiss. And finally, the ACC Blitz tournament saw only 6 competitors battle it out for a prize in the double-swiss structure (2 games against each 5 opponents) with winner Justin Paul playing to perfection (10/10).
March 1, 2019
Stockfish continues to dominate computer chess, wins TCEC S14; By Staff; Chessdom
Defending its title by Stockfish in Season 14 started in the Premier Division. There Stockfish was merciless – it qualified for the Superfinal as clear first and without losing a single game. Considering this was the strongest Premier Division in the history of TCEC, the achievement of Stockfish may remain a unique feat for many seasons to come.
February 15, 2019
TCEC Cup 2 Report; By Haworth and Hernandez; Chessdom
This is the third in a new series of analytical articles on past TCEC events. We give the usual generic statistics on the defined openings and game-lengths, plus a selection of interesting endgames that arose. Fuller data and the somewhat annotated pgn files of TCEC Cup 2 are available.
February 13, 2019
Grand Chess Tour Confirms 2019 Participants; By Staff; Chessbase
After Vladimir Kramnik's announcement to retire from tournament chess the Grand Chess Tour now revealed the names of the 12 players who will be competing as full tour participants in 2019. In an interview with Maurice Ashley, Michael Khodarkovsky, the GCT Spokesperson, talked about the new format of the GCT.
More: Chess.comMore: Chess24
February 12, 2019
Colossal battle in the TCEC; By IM David Martinez; Chess24
The Superfinal of the 14th edition of the TCEC is becoming an incredible show. The traditional competition between engines, which has always lately been dominated by consecutive versions of Stockfish, has encountered a new spectacular finalist: Leela, an engine that, despite being only 10 months old, already proved superiority in the last round to well-established engines such as Komodo and Houdini. In this article we will go through some of the most memorable moments of the Superfinal, which has been ongoing since the 4th of February.
ARCHIVES: Older Articles Have ... Moved.
ACC Club News
Our newswire covers club news and local tournaments as well as any particularly unique or interesting chess articles, videos and other items from around the web. We leave coverage of most other national and international events to TWIC, Chessbase and others, though we do cover really big events.
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March 27, 2019
Kramnik: Life before and after retirement; By Frederic Friedel; ChessBase
The announcement came as a shock to the chess world: former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, one of the all-time greats of chess, said he would no longer be participating in competitive chess. Journalists rushed to ask him about his motives, and one of the resulting pieces stood out: an interview in the Chennai-based New Sunday Express. We bring you excerpts (with kind permission) and narrative by Frederic Friedel on his first encounter with the super-talent.
March 25, 2019
Why Is This Chess Gambit So Weird?; By GM Gregg Serper; Chess.com
As I grew up, I learned about possible gambits in chess. All of them had something in common. When you play a gambit, you sacrifice some material and therefore avoid possible trades, as they would reduce the power of your initiative or attack. Naturally, your opponent tries to do just the opposite and trades as many pieces as he can, trying to get the game into an endgame where his material advantage would become decisive. That's why when I first saw games played with the Benko Gambit I couldn't understand what was going on. Black sacrifices a pawn there to get an initiative on the queenside and then tries to trade the queens and go straight into an endgame! What's going on?
March 24, 2019
Find the winning move; By David Cox; CHESS Magazine
Here's another opportunity to sharpen your tactical skills: twelve positions taken from recent tournaments. But we have a little surprise for you: on the diagram boards you can not only move the pieces around to analyze — there is also an embedded engine that will actually play out the position against you.
March 22, 2019
US Champs: So's Endgame Squeeze; By André Schulz; ChessBase
In the second round of the US Championships, Wesley So showed flashes of brilliance against Timur Gareyev, giving a master class in the endgame with rook and knight against rook and knight. Just when everyone thought it was a draw, that's when the struggle really began.
March 22, 2019
In Fischer's footsteps; By Oliver Reeh; ChessBase
Would you dare to play 30.Rxf7 in the diagram position? The 11th world champion did, a good omen — but can you walk the talk following Black's reply 30...Rc1+ then?
March 21, 2019
Carlsen and Giri campaign for racial equality; By Macauley Peterson; ChessBase
"Breaking a rule in chess to change behavior in life." World Champion Magnus Carlsen and GM Anish Giri team up in a social campaign dubbed "Move for Equality" in honour of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The pair shot a brief video in Oslo on Tuesday for the promotion.
March 18, 2019
India: Young talents and preteen GMs; By Frederic Friedel; ChessBase
In January our editor emeritus Frederic Friedel took a trip to India, to visit our partners at ChessBase India, to visit two big GM Opens, and to meet some of the incredible young talents the country is currently producing. There was a preteen grandmaster, a number of candidate GMs in their very early teens, and a delightful U12 girl's world champion. Frederic made many new friends, but he also used the opportunity to conduct his famous talent test on them. Here are the results and a biographical video.
March 18, 2019
A Valentine’s ode to chess; By Nagesh Havanur; ChessBase
He beat two legends — Capablanca and Alekhine in succession on their way to the world championship. In those days, 'Capa' was invincible and Alekhine irresistible. This son of Barcelona made his city proud even if it those victories came about “only” in simultaneous displays. But it is not on these chance victories that this player’s claim to fame rests. Valentin Marin y Llovet (1872-1936) was a composer with more than 250 problems to his credit. If the name rings a bell, we showed a challenge from Vladimir Kramnik and a solution with Vishy Anand last month. Here is a tribute to the great master. Don’t miss the problems in the end. They are for you.
March 18, 2019
Do You Believe Your Lying Eyes?; By GM Gregg Serper; Chess.com
In his famous comedy routine, Richard Pryor tells a story about being caught cheating with another woman by his wife. While that was just a comedy performance, I've seen many chess players who trust anything but their own eyes!
March 17, 2019
"Chess is the second biggest sport in Venezuela"; By Carlos Alberto Colodro; ChessBase
Venezuela is going through a devastating economic crisis, with hyperinflation, hunger, disease, massive emigration and death rates rising dramatically. Among the millions of emigrants is Juan Blanco, a PhD in Education that has worked with chess as a learning tool for over twenty years. He is now living in Peru and in conversation with ChessBase he talked about his current projects, the situation of chess in Venezuela and some of the reasons for this crisis.
March 15, 2019
Chess24 and Play Magnus join forces; By Colin McGourty; Chess24
Today we’re proud to announce that chess24 has merged with Play Magnus, the Norwegian company behind a family of apps building on the brand of World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. Play Magnus and chess24 will continue to operate independently online, but with our joint resources and know-how we believe we’re better equipped than ever to provide the very best possible chess experience.
March 14, 2019
Deadly French Defense?; By IM Jeremy Silman; Chess.com
Last year, I wrote about the French Defense. I am bringing this up because this new article is all about the French Defense and many of you will learn a lot if you read the old one too. During the Batumi Olympiad in 2018 I noticed a young lady on the Japanese team wipe out her Israeli opponent (rated 600+ points higher) in the first game. And then it happened again in the same tournament. Why happened in both games and why?
March 13, 2019
Who Was Abe Kupchik?; By Sarah Beth C. (a.k.a. Batgirl); Chess.com
In 1903 eleven year old Abe Kupchik arrived in New York from Belarus with his parents, Pinchas and Bessie and his five siblings. Where he went to school, when he learned chess, in fact everything for the next 9 years remains a mystery to me but by 1912 his name is appearing in the chess news...
March 13, 2019
An Adolf Anderssen anniversary; By Andre Schultz; ChessBase
In addition to Lasker's 150th birthday, the German chess had another anniversary to celebrate last year. On July 6, 1818, 200 years ago, Adolf Anderssen was born in Breslau. After his victory in London in 1851, he was considered the best player in the world. He died 140 years ago today, on March 13, 1879. Replay his "Evergreen Game" with notes by Garry Kasparov!
March 11, 2019
Kramnik: Championship Candidate; By GM Gregg Serper; Chess.com
As you know from my previous article, in 1992 Vladimir Kramnik transformed from a FIDE master into one of the world's leading players. The year 1993 made it official: Kramnik became a candidate for the world title. Again we played in the same tournaments many times that year. First it was the traditional super-tournament in Dortmund, Germany. It is funny that both of us won only one game each and came in second. But while Kramnik didn't lose a single game, I lost three!
March 8, 2019
Advice from the "Chess Educator of the Year"; By Macauley Peterson; ChessBase
Elizabeth Spiegel is a public school chess teacher in Brooklyn, New York. Her program at IS 318 was the subject of the 2012 documentary film "Brooklyn Castle". Recently she was given an award as "Chess Educator of the Year" by the University of Texas at Dallas, which has published her 55-minute talk that contains useful advice for parents and chess teachers gleaned from her 20 years of experience teaching chess.
March 7, 2019
Stanley Kubrick: Inspired by chess; By Andre Schultz; ChessBase
Stanley Kubrick was a giant in film history. Almost all of his films were milestones in their genre. He was also a great chess lover. In almost every one of his films, there is at least an allusion to the game of chess. He died 20 years ago today, on March 7, 1999, at the age of 70. We take a brief look at his career use of chess and chess imagery.
March 6, 2019
Golden Age of US Chess, for players ages 50 and older; By Alexey Root; ChessBase
A “golden age” for tournament players ages 50 and older has arrived in the United States. In the past three years, US Chess has authorized new tournaments and prizes restricted to seniors. However, women ages 50 and older have not been affected. That may change in March 2019, when US Chess begins grant applications for women’s chess programs. WIM Alexey Root explains...
March 6, 2019
Chess Coach Banned For Life From USCF?; By FM Mike Klein; Chess.com
In an update to a story that Chess.com broke last year, a nationally-recognized chess team from Texas may now face multiple disciplinary actions after the US Chess Federation's ethics committee found that more than two dozen games were lost on purpose to lower players' ratings.
March 5, 2019
Shankland: “My goal is to be World Champion”; By Colin McGourty; Chess24
At the age of 26 Sam Shankland suddenly stopped being a “solid 2650 grandmaster” to win the 2018 US Championship ahead of Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura. That catapulted him into the 2700 club, and he followed up with a string of results that have taken him into the world top 25. It’s fascinating, therefore, to hear a recent lecture at the Los Angeles Chess Club where he talks about what changed, his ambitions for the future and what separates Magnus Carlsen from the rest.
March 4, 2019
How Kramnik Became A Super GM; By GM Greg Serper; Chess.com
I have been lucky to play in tournaments with chess players who later became super grandmasters or even world champions. The transformation of talented juniors into the best players in the world was usually a gradual process. With Vladimir Kramnik it was totally different.
March 4, 2019
Flying High: GM Timur Gareyev; By Macauley Peterson; Chessbase
When you think about popularizing the game of chess, a lot of ideas may cross your mind, but few could be crazier than what Timur Gareyev did in collaboration with US Chess Federation last year: Sky-diving for the Chess Life magazine cover. Watch the amazing video and read a new interview along with recollections from IM Sagar Shah on Gareyev's trip through India.
March 4, 2019
Sharing the challenges of chess; By Matt Fernandez; ChessBase
Chess, often referred to as “the game of kings,” is a centuries-old game enjoyed by people of all ages. Expert ranked chess player Jay Stallings has made it his mission to help Santa Clarita students find joy in this ancient battle of wits.
March 2, 2019
Interview: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave; By David Cox; Chess.com
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave tells us about his chess origins, the state of elite chess and his world championship ambitions. Known for his sharp, tactical style, the Frenchman is one of the finest attacking players in chess, but despite being a fixture in the world’s elite since 2013, Vachier-Lagrave has yet to challenge Magnus Carlsen’s world championship.
March 2, 2019
Are Elo ratings going down?; By Walter Wolf; Chessbase
Chess fans tend to focus on the FIDE ratings of the top players in the world which are updated monthly. But the Elo system wants to reflect the strength of the chess players of all strengths all over the world. Since its introduction in 1970 it has become immensely popular and important for the chess world. However, it is not without problems. Why, for example, are junior players from Russia or India continuously underrated and how does this affect other players? To answer this and other questions, we took a close look at the development of some ratings over time.