Club News
January Chess Roundup
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- Written by Dan Leroy Dan Leroy
New Years resolutions. Maybe more time studying chess. Perhaps buying a book. Or studying the book you bought last year. Playing more tournaments. Or fewer tournaments but prepping more for those you do play. Or just relaxing and enjoying the game. Whatever it is you hope to achieve this year there are a lot of people in Illinois Chess with the same goal. For those looking to compete in tournaments there is a lot of chances to get involved. Not only is the Illinois Tour starting back up, but there is a wealth of opportunity to play. In December alone there were events with as few as 4 people and as many as 173. Here are some of the highlights:
December 2: In Naperville, IL the NYCC Quad#3 tournament drew 16 players to this 4 section event. Crosstables.
December 2 thru 9: Oak Lawn had their G/30 Championship Tournament. 14 players participated. Steven Tennant beat out expert Tam Nguyen and fellow master Len Weber to take first place. Crosstable.
So You Want to Organize a FIDE Event?
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- Written by Sevan Muradian Sevan Muradian
In this article we’ll switch hats from player to organizer and look at what needs to be done in order to organize a FIDE rated event (no title norms available). We’ll discuss first regular Swiss tournaments and then invitation based Round Robin tournaments.
One of the first requirements for having a FIDE rated event is to ensure you have enough FIDE rated players in your area because without a large prize fund it’s going to be hard to pull people in from out of town. In general I would say look for a ratio of 1 FIDE rated player per 2 non-FIDE rated players, and try to have at least 7-10 FIDE rated players. The reason for this is simple – the majority of players will not have scored their initial performance norm (see the first article in this series for information on this) thus these players will need to meet at least 3 FIDE rated players in a single event.
So You Want to Get a FIDE Title Norm?
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- Written by Sevan Muradian Sevan Muradian
So now your FIDE fever has reached new heights and you want to try to get a FIDE title! You’re seeing people in your local community get them and you think you’ve got what it takes to get one as well. So let’s then talk about how to get that to happen.
FIDE has 4 titles which require achieving levels of performance called ‘norms’. These titles are Grandmaster (GM), International Master (IM), Woman Grandmaster (WGM), and Woman International Master (WIM). Now of course those titles with the word ‘Woman’ in them are only open to females. There are other titles as well such as Candidate Master (CM), Woman Candidate Master (WCM), FIDE Master (FM), and Woman FIDE Master (WFM). These 4 titles are based on achieved ratings. For title norm tournament purposes, the CM and WCM title are not meaningful (this is really more for organizers but if you are thinking of applying for one to increase your chances to get access to an invitational event, don’t bother). You can find the rating requirements here - http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=58view=article
So You Want to Get a FIDE Rating?
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- Written by Sevan Muradian Sevan Muradian
With the FIDE rating floor dropping to 1000 from a previously lowered 1200, more class players have the possibility of achieving a FIDE rating. Let's look at both the players' side and the organizers side of what is necessary.
Unlike a USCF rating where you play 1 game and then receive a provisional rating, getting a FIDE rating is more complicated, and you require a minimum of 9 games against FIDE rated players to achieve your first FIDE rating. The prevalent way of achieving of rating is playing in a Swiss paired tournament (the normal ones we all play in) but you have to meet certain criteria:
(1) For your first performance rating norm you must have met 3 FIDE rated players and scored 1 point or more (1 win or 2 draws)
Holiday Chess Blitz Tournament
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- Written by Serge Bonda Serge Bonda
The Holiday season is around the corner! Windy City Sports Club (WCSC, the Chess is #3 sport there after Soccer and Hockey) and Academy of Intellectual Games (AoIG) ran a Holiday Chess Bllitz (G5mins +2s) Tournament featuring a 100% payoff - as promised a guaranteed $800.00 prize money pool was distributed to 7 winners. It was our first tournament at a new venue: 718 S Milwaukee in Wheeling, IL.
In a very tough competition, GM Dmitry Gurevich (rated 2nd out of 35 participants) showed a remarkable result beating all his main opponents, but one (10 out 11). He lost only one game to his own student FM Sam Schmakel.