Tournament updates

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso


THE 17th Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess Tournament is taking place at the Hotel Palais de la Mediterranée on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice from March 14-28. Twelve grandmasters from 10 different countries are taking part in the competition, which dangles a total prize-fund of 216,000 Euros or $336,000. It is a major tournament in the chess calendar and is annually sponsored by Dutch billionaire Joop van Oosterom in honor of his daughter, Melody Amber.

Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian and Alexander Morozevich are tied for the lead with 5.5/9 points in the blindfold category, while Aronian has a massive two-point lead over Ivanchuk, Carlsen and Leko in the rapids. Here are the standings after nine rounds.

Blindfold—1 to 3 with 5.5 points Kramnik (2799), Aronian (2739), Morozevich (2765); 4 to 6 with 5.0 points Veselin Topalov (2780), Peter Leko (2753), Magnus Carlsen (2733); 7 to 8 with 4.5 points Viswanathan Anand (2799), Vassily Ivanchuk (2751); 9 to 10 with 4.0 points Sergey Karjakin (2732) and Loek Van Wely (2681).

Rapid—1.) Aronian with seven points; 2 to 4 with five points, Ivanchuk, Carlsen and Leko; 5 to 7 with 4.5 points, Kramnik, Anand and Topalov; 8 to 10 with three points Gelfand, Mamedyarov and Karjakin.

WOMEN MASTERS. The youngest participant, who just turned 14 years old, won the Ataturk International Chess Tournament with a full point lead and a performance rating of 2674. It is one of the strongest women-only contests in recent years and it was Hou Yifan of China who proved why she is considered a future women champion.

The total drawing results of the tournament was very low, with just 18 percent of the games ending undecided. Forty percent of the games were decided in White’s favor, 10 ended in a full point for Black.

1.) Hou Yifan (China, 2527, 7.0), 2.) Pia Cramling (Sweden 6.0), 3.) Zhao xue (China, 2517, 5.5), 4.) Ekaterina Atalik (Turkey, 2408, 5.0), 5.) Lela Javakhisvili (Georgia, 2470, 4.5); 6 to 7 with 4.0 points Harika Dronavalli (India, 2455) and Zhu Chen (Qatar, 2548); 8 to 9 with 3.0 points Anna Ushenina (Ukraine, 2484) and Irina Krush (2473) 10.) Betul Cemre Yildiz (Turkey, 2207, 2.5)

FOXWOODS OPEN. Mark Paragua of the Philippines drew his ninth and final round vs. GM Keith Arkell of England to finish in a tie for ninth to 17th places in the just concluded 2008 Foxwoods International Open Chess Championships yesterday in Connecticut, USA. The New York based Paragua had 6.0 points with five wins, two draws and two losses in nine games of play and finished 13th place over-all after the tie break points was applied. GM Shulman took the title after a play-off with GM Ivanov.

3rd CALCUTTA OPEN UPDATES. International Master Rolando Nolte won his first two assignments and moved to Round 3 where he will next face Indian GM Das Neelotpal, who played in last year’s Asian Championship in Mandaue.

IM Chito Garma won against Rajpara Ankit of India in Round 2 after a drawn first game. He is set to play the 2007 World Junior Champ Ahmed Adly of Egypt.

NM Barbosa drew India’s Super GM Krishnan Sasikiran (2677) in Round 2 after demolishing Mishra Swayams of India. The tournament will end on April 2.

2008 SYDNEY OPEN UPDATES. GM Rogelio Antonio defeated Fil-Aussie Edsil Dilla in Round 2 of the 2008 Sydney Open Chess in New South Wales, Australia.

GM Antonio is sharing the top spot along with 22 other participants led by top seed Super GM Zhang Zhong of Singapore.

Filipino Round 1 winners lost their second round assignments. Catherine Perena lost to IM Zhao Zong-Yuan; Ramon Manan-og was defeated by GM Dejan Antic; Shirily Cua bowed to IM Stepen Solomon and Kimberly Jane Cunanan succumbed to FM Metz Hartmut.

The contest started March 25 and will end on the 29th. It adopts a nine-round Swiss format.

CEPCA MARCH EDITION. Newcomer Felix Palaypoy was the winner in last weekend’s competition at the Deep Blue Café at SM. His runners up were Mandy Baria, Jessa Balbona and Nic Cuizon.

Tournaments from all fronts

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

MORELIA/LINARES, the “Wimbledon” of chess and traditionally considered as the unofficial championship of the year, had just finished and the winner was the highest-ranked player, Vishy Anand.

The surprise of the tournament though was the second place finish of 17-year-old, Magnus Carlsen, considered by many as the new Fischer and is expected to claim the No.4 ranking in the next Fide ratings in April.

Most of the games were bitterly contested as 22 games were decided out of 56, which is extraordinary in a caliber of this level, as all the players were over 2700 Elo.

Here are the final results: 1.) Anand (India, 2799, 8.5) 2. Carlsen (Norway, 2733, 8.0), 3. Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2739, 7.5), 4. Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria, 2780, 7.5), 5.) Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan, 2735, 7.0), 6.) Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2751, 6.5), 7.) Peter Leko (Hungary, 2753, 5.5), 8.) Alexei Shirov (Spain, 2755, 5.5).

We have two big ongoing competitions now. One of them is an all-women contest, which is long overdue as most tournaments nowadays are usually for men.

Here are the results of the first round of the Is Bankasi-Ataturk International Women Masters Chess Tournament held in Istanbul, Turkey, which saw every game reaching a decision: Irina Krush (USA, 2475)-Zhu Chen (Qatar, 2548), 1-0; Ekaterina Atalik (Turkey, 2404)-Harika Dronavalli (India, 2455), 1-0; Lela Javakhishvili (Georgia, 2470)-Zhao Xue (China, 2530), 1-0; Ushenina Anna (Ukraine, 2486)-Yifan Hou (China, 2527), 0-1; Yildiz Betul Cemre (Turkey, 2220)-Cramling Pia (Sweden, 2524), 0-1.

The Reykjavik Chess Festival is being held in memory of Bobby Fischer and has an open section and a special invitational tournament composed of Fischer’s contemporaries namely Pal Benkö, Vlastimil Hort, Lajos Portisch and Friðrik Ólafsson. Arbiter is Boris Spassky and the commentator is William Lombardy, Fischer’s second in the Match of the Century.

Starting Sunday, the 17th Melody Amber will start in Nice with the 12 top grand masters from 10 countries participating. Playing are Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, Alexander Morozevich, Shakhriyaz Mamedyarov, Peter Leko, Vassily Ivanchuk, Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand, Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin and Loek Van Wely.

The Amber Tournament is one of the most prestigious in the chess calendar and the only one where half of the games are played with blindfold.

BATTLE OF PINOY GMs. The NCFP’s “Battle of Grandmasters,” will be held from April 19 to 30 and will feature GMs Rogelio Antonio Jr., Eugenio Torre, Wesley So, Jayson Gonzales, Bong Villamayor and Nelson Mariano II. International Masters John Paul Gomez, Julio Catalino Sadorra and Rolando Salvador will also be invited. There is, however, no mention of Mark Paragua and Darwin Laylo playing, our two other GMs.

Cash prizes and trophies will be at stake with the champion getting the lion’s share of P200,000. The first runnerup will get P150,000, while the second runnerup will pocket P100,000. The fourth prize winner will receive P75,000, while P50,000 will be given to the fifth placer. No one will go home empty-handed as P30,000 will be given to the rest.

INTER-BARANGAY. The Mandaue Inter-Barangay chess team competition will start tomorrow and is open to Mandaue residents only. It will start at 3 p.m. in front of the City Hall. Time control is one hour per player, play to finish and will be a single round robin. The champion will receive P8,000 plus trophy, while runners up will get P5,000 and P3,000 respectively.

The team composition will be four regular players with two alternates.

CEPCA. The kiddies and juniors competition will be this Sunday, March 16, at the Deep Blue Café at SM City Cebu starting at 1 p.m. The regular members’ monthly contest will be on March 23 at the same venue.

Chess-playing IT billionaires

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

PROBABLY the strongest chess-playing billionaire is Joop von Oosterom, the legendary sponsor of one of the most prestigious tournaments in the chess calendar, Melody Amber.

I “guesstimate” Joop‘s playing strength about 2400 or even higher and his forte is correspondence chess where he is the 18th and 21st World Correspondence Champion. He founded the IT company Volmac and is estimated to be worth 1 billion euros.

Many people do not know it, but a lot of wealth in Silicon Valley is built by very strong chess players, which is not surprising.

Paul Allen is an avid chess player and co-founder of Microsoft together with another chess player, Bill Gates (whom I featured previously to be worth $56 billion) and estimated by Forbes to be worth $28 billion. Microsoft is in the limelight lately with an offer to buyout Yahoo for $41.7 billion.

He has investments in Vulcan Inc., Charter Communications, Digeo etc. and owns the Portland Trailblazers of the NBA.

He plays regular chess with his college roommate, Bert Kolde, the chief operating officer of Digeo.

Lawrence Elison is the co-founder and CEO of Oracle, a major enterprise software company. His net worth is estimated at $26 billion. Oracle is the world’s second largest software company after Microsoft.

He used to play tournament chess and says he puts a lot of time on his game.

Roelof Botha is a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital focusing on services and software investments. Prior to that, he was chief financial officer of PayPal (e-bay) and funded YouTube before it was sold to Google for $1.65 billion. He also sits on the board of Meebo and Xoom. He plays master level chess.

Peter Andreas Thiel is a hedge fund manager, and venture capitalist. With Max Levchin, he co-founded PayPal and was its CEO. He currently serves as president of Clarium Capital Management LLC, a global macro hedge fund with nearly $3 billion under management.He also sits on the company’s Board of Directors of Facebook. He was at one time a promising chess player.

Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar was fascinated by chess and spent some time studying the game . One of the first web-based programs he wrote was chess-by-mail service. Ebay is an online auction and shopping website where people can buy and sell goods and services worldwide.

Michel Birch is co-founder and chief CEO of the mega social network Bebo. He hosts the “Chess 2.0” Silicon Valley Chess Club at the Bebo office in San Francisco. Bebo, like MySpace, provides its more than 23 million users with a kind of prosthetic personality extension: a profile page where they can post diary entries, photographs, music, homemade video etc.

The well-hyped search company Powerset is headed by co-founder and CEO Barney Pell who happens to be a very strong chess player. Powerset is a natural language search engine trying to challenge Google.

David Cowan of Bessemer Ventures is a self-admitted “chess nerd” who joined Bessemer Venture Partners in 1992. He has since made 45 early-stage investments for Bessemer, including 19 that have gone public, and 18 that have been acquired by public companies. The first Forbes Midas List ranked David among the world’s top 10 venture investors. He says that he is addicted to Yahoo chess.

Auren Hoffman has already built and sold several companies in Silicon Valley and is now working on his fourth, RapLeaf, where he is founder and CEO. Among his pastimes are football and chess.

Cepca news. Joe Atillo, tournament director of the club, has announced that our March competition will be on March 16 at Deep Blue SM starting at 1 p.m.

Kiddies and Juniors will be on March 23 same time and venue.

Bobby Fischer: a new perspective

By Frank 'Boy' Pestaño
Chessmoso


SINCE the death of Bobby Fischer last month, more than 100 eulogies have been written including three by Chessmoso. The one that elicited a lot of feedbacks, however, was the New York Times blog post by Dick Cavett, the host of the Dick Cavett Show, which aired on national television in the USA for more than 50 years.

The newspaper got a lot of feedbacks, which was so moving to Cavett that he penned another piece, thanking the readers. One of these read, “brilliant, insightful, and very touching–by far the best eulogy of Bobby I’ve read, and, amazingly, from someone not in the chess community. Bravo, Mr. Cavett.”

Chessbase.com featured the article (if you want to read it) and also received a lot of feedbacks. But the one that impressed me the most was the article by Bryan Green, which I liked so much that I e-mailed him to ask his permission to reprint a part of it in this column so I can share it with you. A full reprint is not possible due to space limitations. However, if you want to read, check out his blog at optimaltraining.typepad.com.

(Italicized parts are mine) “Bobby Fischer was what we call a child prodigy. He was the Mozart of chess. He won the US Chess Championships when he was 13 years old! The real question is how did he do it?

He obviously had talent. But what was that talent? Was it the ability to memorize outrageously complex positions? Was it the ability to think 9, 10, 11 moves ahead? Was it the ability to devise devious traps for his opponents?

No. It wasn’t. He may have eventually been able to do those things, but those were not the talents that made him the greatest chess player ever. His talent was his obsession. He developed the ability to do all of the above things, but they didn’t come naturally. They were painstakingly develop through intense and focused effort. The type of effort that most people simply can‘t generate. Border-line superhuman.

Cavett says it better than I do:

“We assume that geniuses are blessed creatures, who don’t have to work hard to achieve their goals. Hard for us, easy for them. But Bobby, as a kid -- IQ pushing 200 -- put in 10 to 15 hours a day of brain power and heavy concentration that would kill an ordinary person. (Or at least me.)”

Does this mean that prodigies are made, not born? Yes and no. Because the simple fact is you can’t force a person to put in the quality of effort that Fischer put into his chess. That type of effort has to come from somewhere inside. It doesn’t come from fear of punishment or hope of reward. It comes from love. Love in the form of need and at the mercy of obsession.

One thing he does articulate well is that greatness isn’t all talent. He says you need talent to be truly great (which we can take to mean his level), but he follows that by saying many of the top players aren’t that talented; they’ve “just worked like dogs” and “they keep at it...they’ve got the character, they don’t get distracted by other things in life until they’ve gotten what they wanted out of it.”

I don’t know what caused Bobby Fischer to slowly come unhinged. I don’t know what caused him to isolate himself from the world and I don’t know what drove him to despise Jews and America. But I do think I know what made him into a child prodigy and a World Chess Champion. He believed his effort would improve his ability. And then he worked longer, harder, and with a higher level of quality than any of his competitors. (Harder than anyone, at anything, ever?) You can call it talent or effort, motivation or love or obsession.

Whatever you call it, it’s what makes you a champion.” The greatest ever. (frankpestano@yahoo.com)

Ex-UC varsity, Sanchez, is first Cebuano GM

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

CEBUANO Joseph Sanchez, 37, tied for first in the just concluded Festival des Jeux International Chess Tournament in Cannes, France with seven points after nine rounds to snare his third and final GM norm.

His rating is now 2492 and is expected to breach the 2500 Elo level to formally be declared a grandmaster.

“Yes, Joseph Sanchez made GM norm!” said Damir Levacic , director of the Cannes Chess Club.

I remember him in the 90’s as a soft-spoken young lad who was a varsity and athlete- scholar of the University of Cebu under then coach, my cousin, Friday de la Victoria and Romeo Romagos.

He finished Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation in 1994 and went to Manila where he became the mentor of rising star Mark Paragua. Next thing I heard, he ventured abroad and stayed for a while in Italy where he achieved the International Master status.

He is now based in France, being married to a Pinay nurse working there. As an alumnus of UC, he should be considered one of that school’s finest achievement. If you ask me, it’s a much bigger achievement than topping the bar exams.

LINARES. Aside from the Olympiad, the most sought participation in the chess calendar are Wijk Aan Zee (Corus) and Morelia–Linares.

The traditional Linares Tournament, which, starting 2006 has been split in two, is also known as the “Wimbledon” of chess and the winner in this competition will be considered the unofficial World Champion of the year. The first round robin competition was held in Morelia, Mexico from Feb. 17-25 and the second half was held from March 2-10 in Linares, Spain.

The participants in this year’s edition are Viswanathan Anand (India, 38, 2801), Vasssily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 38, 2787), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria, 32, 2769),Peter Leko (Hungary, 29, 2755), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan, 21, 2742), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 25, 2741), Alexei Shirov (Spain, 35, 2739) and the winner of Corus 2008 last month in a tie with Aronian, Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 17, 2717).

There were a total of 11 decisive results out of the first 20 games, which is exceptional, as top level chess are mostly draws. Anand leads with 3.5 points after five rounds.

NEW MEMBERS. I would like to introduce to the chess community in Cebu the following new members of Cepca:

Ramon Tapia is both a civil and chemical engineer. He has been with Ong Kin King for 19 years as production manager of its laundry soap and baking powder plant. His passion is chess and computer programming. He developed the CRM (customer relationship management) of Trans Asia Shipping Lines and the database programs of David‘s Saloon, Jayme Enterprises, Dr. David Alesna, Dr. Patricia Coronel, etc.

Jorge Gabriente of Mandaue City is a lawyer and department manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Cebu (MCWD), billing section. He is 42 years old, married with two children and the Board 1 player of the MCWD chess team. He immediately made his mark when he tied for third in our February tournament.

Byrone Pabilona is connected with San Miguel Brewery Plant as HR assistant. He is an Economics graduate of the University of San Carlos. He likes chess because “It exercises the mind and allows one to formulate strategies in a short period of time.” He idolizes Bobby Fischer and Mikhael Tal. He says chess can be played on equal footing, i.e. man vs. woman, child vs. adult etc.

Edgar Padolina is an old timer of chess in Cebu and is a contemporary of Mike Banibane in the military where he retired after 30 years of service with the Philippine Navy and eventually with the Coast Guard.

Congrats to Rene Casia for being elected the 16th president of Cepca!

Strongest chess-playing couples

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

AS far as I can recall, there had never been a team tournament that involved married couples. By writing this article, I hope someone out there reading on the internet, or a company, an individual, or a group, will make history, by sponsoring one on a global scale as there are quite a number of husbands and wives who are very strong players.

Yesterday being Valentines day, I am honoring these married couples by featuring a few of them, which is not uncommon in the chess world. They probably number by the hundred of thousands on this planet, although, there are only a unique few who are both GM, GM/IM or GM/WGM combinations.

Alexander Grischuk, 24, is one of the biggest names in the chess world today. He has an Elo of 2711 in the January 2008 Fide list. He was a participant in the eight-player Fide World Chess Championship 2007.

He is married to Ukranian GM Natalia Zhukova, 27, who has a rating of 2443 and achieved full grandmaster’s status in the 2005 Corus Chess tournament(Wijk Aan Zee). She won the First European Women’s Championship in Georgia in 2000. Their biggest event occurred in March 2007 when they had a daughter, Marsha.

Alexei Shirov, 35, has a January 2008 rating of 2755, which makes him world No.7 today. He has quite a number of big tournaments on his record besides being a well-regarded chess author.

His latest accomplishment was in the 2007 World Cup where he finished second to Gata Kamsky. He is married to Lithuanian IM/WGM Victorija Cmylite, who has an Elo 2475. She achieved quite a rare feat by becoming National Champion in 2001 in her country. They have two children together.

Wu Shaobin, 39, is a Chinese GM who has Singapore as his adopted country. His Elo rating is 2452 but his wife, Xie Jun, 38, who has Elo 2574, is twice a former world champion (1991-96 and 1999-2001). She is currently No. 3 in the January 2008 fide ratings so they still make a formidable combination.

Another former Chinese world champion (2002-04) is GM Zhu Chen, 32, who has an Elo 2548 and is ranked No. 4 in the world. He is married to Qatari GM Mohammad Al-Moldiakhi. She failed to defend her title in 2004 due to pregnancy. Mohammad played in Mandaue City last year in the Asian Championship.

Another GM/GM combination is Sweden’s Pia Cramling,44, Elo 2524(world No.6) and Spain’s Juan Bellon, 58, Elo 2455. Since the 80’s, Pia has been consistently one of the strongest female players in the world and even plays in the “men’s” team in the Olympiads. Bellon is a five-time Spanish champion.

Boris Gulko, 61, Elo 2576, is originally from Russia but is now a resident of the US since 1986, where he lives together with his wife Anna Akhsrumova. They are “refusedniks” meaning they were Soviet Jews originally denied permission to migrate to other countries. Boris is the only player to hold both Russian and U.S. championships and has a plus score against Kasparov. Anna also won the USSR and USA championships and is a WGM.

Other married couples who are both competitive and world class are GM Suat Atalik and GM Ekaterina Polovnikova, GM Bartozz Socko and IM Monica Socko, GM Yona Kosashvili and IM Sofia Polgar, GM Laurent Fressinet and IM Almira Skripchenko, GM Sergei Movsessian and WGM Petra Krupkova Movsessianova, GM Dibyendu Barua and WGM Saheli Dhar Barua and GM Pravin Thipsay and WGM Bhagyasree Thipsay.

CEPCA NEWS. The winners of the February tournament last weekend at Deep Blue Café in SM City Cebu were champion Lito Tagimacruz , who won on a playoff over new president Rene Casia. Tied for third to fifth place were Miguel Banibane, Ramon Pangilinan and newcomer lawyer Jorge Gabriente.

The kiddies and juniors divisions will have their competition this Sunday at 1 p.m. at the same venue.

Tug-of-war over Fischer's fortune

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

AFTER disappearing mysteriously for about 20 years, Bobby Fischer played a rematch in 1992 against Boris Spassky in Sveti Stefan, a resort in Montenegro, Yugoslavia, despite United Nations’ sanctions due to the civil war in Bosnia.

The prize fund was a staggering $5 million, with the winner receiving $3.65 million, aside from TV income as the match was broadcast over most of Europe. Fischer was 49 years old then and Spassky was 55.

The sponsor of the match was Jezdemir Vaseljevic and Bobby’s second was our very own Eugene Torre.

Bobby easily won the match 17.5-12.5 after 30 games and earned almost $5 million. With Fischer’s death two weeks ago, this money is now the subject of contention by his heirs. What is left of the money is about 140 million Icelandic Kronor and based on the latest exchange rate, it is about $2.4 million. I read sometime ago that Bobby converted some of his money into gold holdings and with the tremendous appreciation of gold, I estimate Bobby‘s estate to be at $3 million.

There are three claimants to this money, or four, if you include the Internal Revenue Service.

Joan Fischer Targ, Bobby’s sister, died in 1998. She was married to Russel and they had two children, Elizabeth and Alex. Russell went to Iceland to see if Fischer indeed had a legal wife or children. He intends to make demands on Fischer’s money in behalf of his children, since they are his next of kin.

Here is a brief background on the Japanese connection. When Bobby was in Japan in 2004, he was put to jail for about nine months when the United States cancelled his passport and wanted him extradited. During the course of his defense, Bobby decided to marry Miyoko Watai, with whom he had been living with as common law partners for years.

This marriage was confirmed by John Bosnitch, a former chairman of a committee in Japan, trying to free Bobby Fischer. He was the male witness to the marriage and the document bears his name, although it was a marriage of convenience.

The Japanese embassy in Iceland questioned the validity of that marriage, alleging it may have been unlawful because of Fischer’s lack of valid passport at that time.

The third claimant is the alleged daughter of Bobby Fischer, Jinky, who was born in May 21, 2001 in Baguio City to a Filipina, Marilyn Young. Young may have the strongest and most valid claim to the fortune.

In a release by Reuters yesterday, lawyer Samuel Estimo said that he has copies of the passports, pictures, signed notes and bank accounts of Bobby’s daughter, Jinky, whom Bobby sent the latest remittance of 1,500 Euros to on Dec. 4, 2007, including copies of birth and baptismal certificates.

He further said, “I believe we have substantial proof to back the claims of Marilyn Young and her daughter. They even stayed with him in Iceland for three weeks in 2005.”

This effectively dismisses the contention in Iceland that Fischer was not in contact with Marilyn since their daughter was born.

Also, Marilyn said that she and Bobby were exchanging text messages everyday. The last time they talked was Jan. 16–the day before Bobby died.

CEPCA NEWS. The board of trustees for 2008 recently elected the following officers: Rene Casia (president), Maggi Dionson (VP internal), Malou Pagarigan (VP external), Tony Cabbil (secretary-PRO), Fabio Abucejo (treasurer), Jong–jong Melendez (auditor), Joe Atillo (tournaments), Ben Dimaano (membership) and Boy Pestaño (ways and means). Induction will be this Sunday 1p.m. at Deep Blue, to be graced by national master and honorary member Bombi Aznar.

Our Monthly tournament will be this Sunday at Deep Blue at 2 p.m. This will be a thematic tournament and must use the following openings: English, Reti, Modern, Caro Kahn and King’s Gambit.

The Kiddies will have their competition on Feb. 17 at the same time and venue.