Archive for the ‘Chess’ Category

Bradford Knight Owls compete in state chess championships – timesobserver.com

Photo submitted to Times ObserverRepresenting the Bradford Knight Owls Chess Club at the recent Pennsylvania State Chess Federation Scholastic Championships I Harrisburg were (front from left):Coach Bob Ferguson, Sylvia Bysiek, Juliana Bysiek, Aiden Ferguson, Elaina Ferguson, and Micaiah Ferguson; and (back) Brian Ferry, Rob Ferguson, Trenton Johnson, and Natasha Ferry. Missing from photo are Silence Karl, Ed Bysiek, and Ryan Ferguson.

The Bradford Knight Owls Chess Program, with members from Warren, sent a group of 12 chess players to the 2023 Pennsylvania State Chess Federation Scholastic Championships.

There were nearly 700 competitors at the event, held March 18 and 19, at the Red Lion Inn Harrisburg-Hershey.

The Knight Owls brought home trophies in both single-day elementary events and the two-day middle-high school divisions.

Micaiah Ki Ferguson tied for an individual third in the elementary U500 section and Sylvia and Juliana Bysiek were on the first-place school team in the U800 section of the elementary championships.

The Bysieks and Fergusons Ki and Aiden, of Bradford teamed up and brought home first-place club honors in the U1100 section.

In the two-day sections, Natasha Ferry of Warren brought home the trophy for first place girl in the unrated high school section, Trenton Johnson of Bradford finished tied for 17th in the U1000 high school section, and Silence Karl finished in 20th position among the U1300 high school players.

Im very proud of all the kids, but I wish more of our top students could have attended, Coach Bob Ferguson said.

The club will send a contingent to the annual Western NY and Northern PA Scholastic Championship in Friendship, N.Y., Saturday, April 15.

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

Read more:
Bradford Knight Owls compete in state chess championships - timesobserver.com

Open qualifiers to be held in Blitz Chess for Olympic Esports Series – Insidethegames.biz

You have viewed over 50 articles in the last 12 months.

Support insidethegames.biz for as little as 10

For nearly 15 years now, insidethegames.biz has been at the forefront of reporting fearlessly on what happens in the Olympic Movement. As the first website not to be placed behind a paywall, we have made news about the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Commonwealth Games and other major events more accessible than ever to everybody.

insidethegames.biz has established a global reputation for the excellence of its reporting and breadth of its coverage. For many of our readers from more than 200 countries and territories around the world the website is a vital part of their daily lives. The ping of our free daily email alert, sent every morning at 6.30am UK time 365 days a year, landing in their inbox, is as a familiar part of their day as their first cup of coffee.

Even during the worst times of the COVID-19 pandemic, insidethegames.biz maintained its high standard of reporting on all the news from around the globe on a daily basis. We were the first publication in the world to signal the threat that the Olympic Movement faced from the coronavirus and have provided unparalleled coverage of the pandemic since.

As the world begins to emerge from the COVID crisis, insidethegames.biz would like to invite you to help us on our journey by funding our independent journalism. Your vital support would mean we can continue to report so comprehensively on the Olympic Movement and the events that shape it. It would mean we can keep our website open for everyone. Last year, nearly 25 million people read insidethegames.biz, making us by far the biggest source of independent news on what is happening in world sport.

Every contribution, however big or small, will help maintain and improve our worldwide coverage in the year ahead. Our small and dedicated team were extremely busy last year covering the re-arranged Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, an unprecedented logistical challenge that stretched our tight resources to the limit.

The remainder of 2022 is not going to be any less busy, or less challenging. We had the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing, where we sent a team of four reporters, and coming up are the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the Summer World University and Asian Games in China, the World Games in Alabama and multiple World Championships. Plus, of course, there is the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Unlike many others, insidethegames.biz is available for everyone to read, regardless of what they can afford to pay. We do this because we believe that sport belongs to everybody, and everybody should be able to read information regardless of their financial situation. While others try to benefit financially from information, we are committed to sharing it with as many people as possible. The greater the number of people that can keep up to date with global events, and understand their impact, the more sport will be forced to be transparent.

Support insidethegames.biz for as little as 10 - it only takes a minute. If you can, please consider supporting us with a regular amount each month. Thank you.

Read more

Read this article:
Open qualifiers to be held in Blitz Chess for Olympic Esports Series - Insidethegames.biz

Detective Comics #1070: The Chess Pieces Move Closer to Conflict – Comic Watch

Detective Comics #1070 expands on the mystery of the Orgham family and the ongoing conflict without losing its mystery and pacing. Its an excellent world-building issue that deepens the history of all players involved while bringing in new ones.

This issue opens up to an angry Solomon Grundy taking round after round of gunfire. The undead giant makes his way through masked soldiers only to be pinned down and given Azmer, a known chemical agent that takes control over its subjects. He punches himself to release the chemical. Realizing it is a losing battle, a soldier releases grenades to take down everyone involved as a cat-masked person watches the violence.

In many ways, this scene could be viewed as a representative of how this issue plays out. Solomon Grundy, a staple of Gotham City, is facing violence despite doing nothing to deserve it. The new masked onlooker brings new characters into the saga, which fuels the chaos that lingers forever.

Ram Vs writing and pacing have been top-notch in this series, and issue #1070 keeps up the quality. Multiple threads are being weaved into the conflict, and with this comes a lot of mystery. This lends itself well to the experience of reading an issue of Detective Comics as readers slowly are given pieces and, by the end of the issue, are shown how they all fit together.

This operatic story arc began with Batman feeling slower and more tired. What this issue does well is continuing Batmans internal dialogue about how long he can put on the cape and cowl and whether or not it was a mistake. Its a clever way to throw back to the beginning of this story arc and a lovely subtle payoff.

This series has included several members of Batmans rogues gallery, and in this issue, there are some small insights as to how all of the pieces connect and how they are all headed in the same direction. Its brilliant writing and makes this issue incredibly enjoyable.

The backup story also has a theme of connecting to previous issues. A kidnapped woman having to keep hope to motivate herself to stay alive while being stuck in Mr. Freezes lab has a connection to an earlier backup story.

The art feels a little rougher than in previous issues. However, this is not a bad thing. How the line work is thick, giving the colors by Adriano Lucas a nice layout to enhance the art, is done well. Stefano Raffaele is two issues into this arc and has kept up with the quality expected of a Detective Comic issue while keeping its own identity. With all of the characters within this story, the lettering helps signal where the dialogue comes from. Done by Ariana Maher, it matched well with the entire issue.

Simon Spurrier handles the backup, and the art is by Caspar Wijngaard with letters by Arianna Turturro. The quality from the last issue remains, and the story has kept me engaged and curious about what will happen next.

Before wrapping up this review, it is essential to highlight the fantastic cover art done by Evan Cagle. The continuation of colors reflecting a theme of the issue remains. Oracle is a pivotal part of this issue, and its always great when other members of the Bat-Family are allowed to be recognized.

Visit link:
Detective Comics #1070: The Chess Pieces Move Closer to Conflict - Comic Watch

FIDE Candidates And Women’s Candidates 2024 To Be Held In Toronto – Chess.com

The FIDE Candidates and Women's Candidates 2024 will be held concurrently in Toronto, Canada, the International Chess Federation announced on Monday. Taking place on April 3-25, it will be the first time that the two tournaments will occur with the same schedule and venue. It is also the first time in history that the event will take place in North America.

In a statement published in the announcement, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said:

FIDE is happy to award such an important competition to Canada, a country that has made significant chess progress in recent years, with more kids playing the game, more titled players, and more chess fans and chess streamers.

He also emphasized the importance of combining the two Candidates tournaments at the same time and venue, stressing the goal to "bring the Women's Candidates to a wider audience, with a greater following."

The event will be sponsored by the Scheinberg family, who also helped sponsor the previous Candidates Tournament. Isai Scheinberg said: "My family and I are very happy that the Candidates Tournaments will be held in Canada, our home country."

The participants are not yet determined. The paths to qualification are the following (see here for more details):

The Candidates tournaments are the most prestigious over-the-board events in the world. The victor of each division will face the classical world champion and women's world champion, respectively, in the next cycle.

Reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen opted not to defend his title this year. The classical world champion will therefore be determined next month in the FIDE World Championship 2023, contested between GM Ian Nepomniachtchi and GM Ding Liren. The runner-up will gain automatic entry into the FIDE Candidates 2024.

GM Ju Wenjun has been the women's world champion since 2018this will be her third title defense. Her challenger in the Women's World Championship 2023 will be determined at the beginning of April this year in the FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2022-23. The women's world championship match will take place on July 3 in Shanghai and Chongqing, China.

See the original post:
FIDE Candidates And Women's Candidates 2024 To Be Held In Toronto - Chess.com

After Blunder By So In 4th Game, Nakamura Wins The American Cup – Chess.com

It took four rapid games before the victor was decided on the 10th and final day of The American Cup in St. Louis.

In the fourth game of their third match of the event, GM Wesley So blundered to lose a miniature to GM Hikaru Nakamura, who then became the second winner of the Open event of The American Cup.

It took three long, tough games to wear down So, who had missed some chances in game three to move ahead, but before that happened, a lot of moves were played in fascinating, albeit mostly queenless, positions, which is why it is almost prosaic that it was a mistake with the queen that cost So the game, the match, the tournament.

Let's dive into the action from day 10.

Game 1

Despite being rather long, it was clearly the least interesting of the four games. The first 17 moves had all been played before, including in a game with So playing the white pieces. Then Nakamura played a somewhat insignificant novelty when the game quickly went into a drawn rook ending. So showed the required technique and ultimately a stalemate appeared on the board.

Does that excite you? No, me either!

Game 2

Having gotten nothing out of 1.d4 in his previous White game, So opted for 1.e4 which, of course, means that we would either have to look at a Ruy Lopez Berlin Defense or an Italian Game, both of which can be both exceedingly dull or incredibly fascinating. Here, the players found their way to a Berlin Ruy, which, I must admit, initially looked quite drawish to me, but the players managed to make it very interesting despite the limited material.

However, in the end, it was still another draw.

Next step in the action would be two 10+5 rapid games.

Game 3

The colors remained the same, So playing White, and this time he essayed the Italian Game. Black seemed to equalize rather easily, but as Nakamura pointed out after the game, all of a sudden, it looked like Black was losing. This is a bit of an exaggeration, but when sitting at the board without an engine, it is hard to fault him for thinking that way.

Nevertheless, So didn't find the most testing continuation, and then Black was able to save himself.

This is our game of the day.

Game 4

I suspect that I was not alone in thinking that this match would continue all the way through to the armageddon game, but that was not to be.

Very quickly, this game started taking shape to be some sharp sauce where White's pieces would generate threats against Black's kingside. However, we never got to see a full illustration of this because suddenly, possibly from just sheer mental exhaustion, So blundered, and then the game was over, almost before it had really begun.

And just like that, the match was over. A bit anti-climactic, perhaps, but all good things have to come to an end.

A big congratulations to Nakamura on winning the second American Cup.

I think it is clear that this tournament has proven once more that the concept works and creates lots of exciting chess and that the different time controls challenge the players in different ways that we typically don't see in other tournaments.

After the game, Nakamura gave an interesting interview with the official broadcast team.

Next up, it was Wesley So's turn to be interviewed...

All Games

Concerning the prizes in the Open event, Nakamura picks up $50,000 plus the $10,000 bonus for winning the championship bracket. So gets a cool $35,000 for his brilliant effort. GM Levon Aronian, who lost the final of the elimination bracket, will receive a check for $25,000.

The remaining prize winners are GM Leinier Dominguez, $20,000; last year's winner, GM Fabiano Caruana, and GM Sam Shankland, each $18,000; and GM Sam Sevian and GM Ray Robson, each $12,000.

The American Cup is an over-the-board event in the U.S. capital of chess, St. Louis, featuring the country's top grandmasters. Split into Open and Women's categories, the players competed in a double-elimination knockout bracket while vying for their share of the $300,000 prize fund.

Previous coverage:

Read more from the original source:
After Blunder By So In 4th Game, Nakamura Wins The American Cup - Chess.com