Play Chess

David Franklin

Franklin wins August Blitz

David Franklin won a clear first Tuesday night with 5.0 out of 6. Mark Jutovsky came in second with 4.5, while Eric Rosen and Michael Auger tied for third with 4.0 each.
    The G/3 +d3 format continues to work well. Your reporter likes the way it puts a bit more emphasis on endgames. Also, we had twenty-five minutes after six rounds for analysis and skittles.      Crosstable

Posted by Tom Aug 19, 2008

Isaac Braswell

Matt Pullin

Chad Beasley

Braswell, Pullin & Beasley win Evanston Sixty

Isaac Braswell, Matt Pullin and Chad Beasley all scored 3.0/3.0 to tie for first. It would have been great to see Braswell and Pullin play for the win.
     Congratulations to Chad Beasley for a fine performance in his first USCF rated tournament; we look forward to seeing more of his games.
    The tournament format was three rounds Game/60 and we had a huge turnout. We used accelerated pairings, but still needed more rounds. Next time we will consider splitting the field into two or more sections.    Crosstable

Posted by Tom Aug 9, 2008

Jon Burgess

Burgess and Rosen win July Blitz

Jon Burgess and Eric Rosen each scored 5.5 out of 6 to tie for first in the July Blitz. Ilan Meerovich had sole possesion of third place with 4.0. Crosstable

Eric Rosen

We departed from the traditional five minute sudden death format to try three minutes with a three second delay. This format eliminates the "inufficient winning chances" rules which can be controversial. The players seemed happy, tell us how you feel about it.

Posted by Tom Aug 6, 2008

Michael Auger

Auger wins Evanston Rapid

Michael Auger went five out of five to take a clear first place. Eric Rosen and Robby Hecht tied for second with four out of five each. Crosstable

Arnulfo Benesa

NM Arnulfo Benesa made his first appearance in tournament play since his recent illness. All of us at Evanston Chess wish him a continued, recovery.

You might like to visit Mr. Benesa's personal website and see his oil paintings of chess masters.

The tournament was played with a game 29 time control, affecting Quick ratings only. The format continues popular, allowing something more thoughtful than blitz, yet still quite quick.

Posted by Tom July 13, 2008

Jordan Cohen

Parnaby & Cohen win Evanston Slo Mo

Mark Parnaby and Jordan Cohen tied for first with 2.5/3.0 each. Parnaby upset A player Mark Jutovsky in the first round and Cohen upset Expert player Fred Allsbrook in the third. Crosstable

The tournament was played with a game 90 time control, our slowest to date. Turnout was good, with fournteen players, but most took at least one bye.

We want to keep some of these longer time controls in our tournament mix, but scheduling multi day events is a challenge.

Posted by Tom June 9, 2008

Mack Smith Wins Evanston Economy Open

Mack (Milton) Smith won three games and drew one for uncontested first place. Congratulations Mack! Crosstable

The tournament, which had had only ten advance entries, drew twenty-six players. The playing room had just enough space, nobody was turned away. Maret Thorpe, chief TD, said that she would have moved additional tournament boards into the skittles room had more people entered. "We are in no danger of having to turn people away", said Maret.

Posted by Tom May 18, 2008

Bill Brock

No Clear Winner in Evanston Abbreviated

Bill Brock, Ranadip Bose and Dan Leroy all shared the honors in yesterday's 3SS G/40 Evanston Abbreviated. With only three rounds and twenty entries there was no clear winner.

Ranadip Bose

Brock went undefeated, but had a bye in the first round. Bose (unrated) had a great tournament with two wins and a draw. Bose played on his school's chess team in India, but had never been rated. He will be now. Leroy also scored 2.5 with an upset victory over Milton Smith in the first round.

Dan Leroy

The "accelerated" pairing system was used. It reduces the number of games with large rating point differences, but with twenty entries and only three rounds, it wasn't quite enough to give us a clear winner. It would have been fun to have one more "last" round.

Ron Washington

Evanston Chess was happy to welcome Ron Washington, legendary North Avenue Beach Expert, to his first rated game since the 2006 US Open. Ron suffered a second round loss to Matt Pullin, a rising A player, but otherwise went undefeated. Ron seemed to enjoy the day anyway and we hope he'll return.

Posted by Tom April 20, 2008

Alexander Stamnov

Alexander Stamnov Wins the Evanston Quick

FM Alexander Stamnov went 5-0 in the Evanston Quick, demonstrating his master's skills to defeat several strong club players. The Game/29 format remains popular. You can play five reasonably well thought out games in a day and not worry about your regular rating.

Posted by Tom March 16, 2008