2008 Gausdal Classic

Standings after round 8: 1 Kaidanov, Gregory USA 2596 6.5 2 Gopal, Geetha Naraynan IND 2562 5.5 3 Macieja, Bartlomiej POL 2599 5.0 4-6 Kotronias, Vasilios GRE 2611 4.5 Lie, Kjetil A NOR 2558 4.5 Sandipan, Chanda IND 2585 4.5 7 Ikonnikov, Vyacheslav RUS 2578 4.0 8 Krush, Irina USA 2479 3.0 9 Hole, Øystein NOR 2387 1.5 10 Moskow, Eric USA 2229 1.0 There is no chance at this point for Dr. Moskow to earn an IM norm in this event, but perhaps he will do better in his next tournament. Good luck to Dr. Moskow.

Reshevsky Memorial International Invitational

Is there anyone out there who doesn't read Susan Polgar's popular chess blog? If you haven't already seen the news, she posted that Texas Tech University, the home of SPICE, will be hosting the Reshevsky Memorial International Invitational from November 9 - 16, 2007. Dr. Eric Moskow has provided financial support for the event. In his quest to achieve his IM title (read more here), Dr. Moskow will be participating in this event. In addition to Dr. Moskow, confirmed players thus far are GM Boris Gulko (alright!) and GM Gilberto Hernandez. I found Dr. Moskow's posted suggestion under the Saturday Open Forum at Polgar's blog (September 1, 2007) of issuing invitations to some "senior" players delightful: susan. lets offer 3 spots to american vets in our tournament, lombardy, byrne, benko, soltis, bisquier, tarjan, commons, zuckerman, come to mind would be interesting all are friends of reshevsky im told or remember??? eric moskow I look forward to reading more about how this event develops and the final list of players. Good luck, Dr. Moskow, I expect this will be a tough event and a worthy test of your chess acumen.

Eric Moskow Takes Up the Challenge!

A few weeks ago, I read a post at Mig’s blog by Dr. Eric Moskow, where he was writing about his efforts to gain a patron’s spot in the recently-concluded U.S. Chess Championship ("Men’s"): "actually the truth is, I offered 10k now, 10k gurnatee (sic) next year, best efforts to secure a great site and large long term committment (sic) moving forward. In the event susan wins and works with me, I am committed to make that stick and play in person next year. I vow to have 1-2 im norms (earned) by then. …" Posted by: eric moskow at May 15, 2007 21:46 At Susan Polgar’s blog a few days ago she reported that Dr. Moskow reiterated to her and Paul Truong his desire to take a year off, basically, from his other activities, and just concentrate on achieving an IM title. SP has offered to assist Dr. Moskow in his training during the next year. I believe that Dr. Moskow has the will to succeed and the "fire" inside to do the grind necessary to achieve that next level in his chess playing. But it will take much hard work and total dedication. He is a husband, a father of four, a medical doctor, a businessman, a religious man devoted to his community and to the doing of good for others. He is a busy man! He will have to make many sacrifices during the next year to devote himself entirely to his intent and training. I don’t think his "age" has anything to do with achieving his goal – it’s all these other obligations (such as raising a family, making a living, etc.) that, typically, children don’t have to deal with, that may do him in, so to speak. When one is an adult and has so many responsibilities and obligations, it takes a lot of "selfishness" to concentrate on just doing those things (lots of purposeful studying and training and practice) that are necessary in order to take one's chess playing to the next level. Dr. Moskow does not strike me as a selfish person - obviously he is not, so this task he has set for himself may be more difficult that he can begin to imagine. It is much easier for children, who do not have the cares and responsibilities of adults, to achieve sometimes mind-boggling success in chess, because they have the luxury of being selfish and totally self-focused upon achieving their goals. Can Dr. Moskow focus on chess to the exclusion of these other areas of his life? Now that the "experiment" and stated goal has been publicized at Susan Polgar’s popular blog, people from all over the world will be following Dr. Moskow’s progress. Wow – talk about living life in a fishbowl for the next 12 months! See my prior post about David Shenk’s intriguing research, which I think is related to Dr. Moskow’s quest. Perhaps Dr. Moskow was intrigued by Shenk’s research as well, and perhaps he was inspired by the recently published book by former chess star IM Josh Waitzkin "The Art of Learning" which, based upon reviews I’ve read, is a very interesting book. Good luck, Dr. Moskow.

2007 U.S. Championship-7

Hola Darlings! Dylan McClain has a new chess column up at the New York Times in which he talks about sponsors (past and present) for some American tournaments. Most recently, of course, we have Mr. Frank Berry to thank for "bidding" $50,000 to host the U.S. Chess Championship ("Men's" event, although they're not calling it that officially - a separate Women's event is to be held in July); otherwise it's unlikely a championship would have been held this year. Of interest is the mention of Dr. Eric Moskow, who recently posted a message on this blog and also at Susan Polgar's blog - and also communicated with Mig Greengard over at Daily Dirt/Chess Ninja - about his willingness to pay good money to play in the U.S. Championship but - Dr. Moskow says - politics got in the way and he was prevented from participating because of his support for Susan Polgar in the upcoming USCF Executive Board election. Mig blogged: "Eric Moskow, a real chess patron who has done his share of pay-to-play over the years, was trying to get in but to play online because he is traveling. Unfortunately, such games couldn't have been rated by FIDE, ruining norm chances for his opponents according to the USCF. Too bad they couldn't have made it work out as Moskow was offering an amount close to the current first prize!" Dr. Moskow indicated that he was prepared to pay $10,000 to play this year, and another $10,000 for next year's tournament. It is unfortunate that things could not be worked out so that Dr. Moskow could pay to play; I'm sure the players would have appreciated an infusion of more cash into the prize fund and $10,000 toward next year's championship (which we all hope will be held) would have been a nice nest egg too! Oh - I see that Mig has just posted that two players chose to pay to play and were accepted: $3,000 from GM Walter Browne and $5,000 from IM Jay Bonin. Both gentlemen have been participants in the U.S. tournament circuit for many many years and, of course, GM Browne is a former U.S. Chess Champion. It is both generous and gracious for these two gentlemen to pay to play. I hope they will both do very well in the Championship. Interestingly, Mig thinks that the players will be gunning for the top five spots because those positions are qualified to play in the next FIDE World Championship cycle. I think it's more realistic for the players to gun for the other prizes: places 6 through 10 receive free room and board at the Continental Championship. The National Open is offering several prizes (not specified) according to a post by John Donaldson at The Daily Dirt (mentioned in my May 7 post about the U.S. Championship). There are probably only four players in the U.S. right now who would have any chance in advancing in the Championship Cycle: Nakamura, Onishuk, Kamsky, and Susan Polgar. Polgar has basically retired from "serious" chess play, she's got the Polgar Foundation, the Polgar chess school, two sons to raise and now the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence in Lubbock, Texas to run into the foreseeable future, and her other projects, so that leaves the three men to carry the banner for the United States. There was a nice article published today in the Cushing Daily Citizen (Cushing, Oklahoma, population 25 - only kidding!) about the Championship. There is a little confusion about the number of spots that would actually qualify to advance in the World Championship cycle because the Cushing Daily Citizen article mentions only the top two spots So, which is it? Five spots or two spots? Speaking of prize funds, Mig has got up a collection for a brilliancy prize fund, thanks to a base of $500 contributed by Chess Ninja. IMs John Donaldson and John Watson have volunteered to be judges for the awards. As of about 6:30 p.m. today, folks about contributed $481 toward the fund. This doesn't include my $25 donated a few minutes ago, so once that's counted the contributions from fans will be officially over $500. Hooray! Wouldn't it be great if a couple thousand dollars could be collected this way? Just from fans on the internet. The Cushing Daily Citizen article says: "To reward hard fighting, the Stillwater National Bank is awarding a $100 prize for the hardest fought or best played game after each round." I hope the judges for all brilliancy and "fighting" awards spread them around to as many players as possible. Many of the players are going to need help defraying expenses and $100 can help with the hotel bill. In conjunction with the U.S. Championship, the New York Times has started a chess blog - of COURSE it would - we start one little chess blog to try and attract readers to the greatest miscellaneous chess website on the internet - GODDESSCHESS - and all of a sudden their are sixty kajillion chess blogs! Who's going to read here when they can read at the New York Times and feel superior ("I read the New York Times chess blog, dahlings")? I must get a grip on myself, I must... The NYT blog is called "Gambit" - not original, but what the heck. It premiered yesterday; there will be coverage of the U.S. Championship and after that, it will be a general chess blog as well as covering future chess events, developments, etc. etc. Good luck to all the participants of the 2007 U.S. ("Men's") Chess Championship, and particularly to the three chess femmes playing: IM Irina Krush, WFM Chouchanik Airapetian and WFM Irina Zenyuk. I hope they kick serious chess butt! Play for every single woman chess player in the USA, ladies! Go go go!

Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence

Hola! This will be a short entry. I've spent the day doing yard work and - during breaks - reading a trashy regency romance novel :) Now it's time to go to sleep and tomorrow I'll tackle the REST of the yard work. Sigh. At least the weather is cooperating :) Today Susan Polgar and Texas Tech University announced the formation of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE - can't help it, I'm thinking Spice Girls!!!), and the hiring of Susan Polgar and Paul Truong (Polgar's friend of many years and her business manager) to head the Institute. I was totally WRONG in my guess that this announcement would have something to do with chess scholarships. This is much better! Dr. Eric Moskow made a post at Susan Polgar's website, offering to sponsor a memorial chess tournament - if I understand him correctly - in honor of his father: "I would like to congratulate the university on thier wise decision to ake this type of commitment. It is consistent with their history and good judgement. As my father graduated from texas college of mines, I would like to spnsor a international tournament at a time of their choosing. Of courseI will be responsible for all ocsts and hope that we could make it an annual event. As a father of a college football player that also is a tourament chess player this is an easy committment to make." Congratulations to Susan Polgar and Paul Truong - by the way, Texas Tech awarded SP an honorary doctorate degree. In my opinion, Texas Tech did a no-brainer in awarding SP this degree. Kudos also to Dr. Moskow for offering to fund a memorial chess event at Texas Tech. I have a feeling that SPICE is going to have a positive long-term impact on women and chess in the United States. Well damn, it's about time!