Brooklyn Castle to Air on PBS!!!!!

Hola Darlings!

I received the news tonight from the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation:

Brooklyn Castle will have its national broadcast premiere on October 7, at 10pm on PBS’s award winning POV series. As first time filmmakers,  it is truly an honor to have our film be part of this outstanding documentary series, television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. You can check your local PBS listings here to find out what time the film is airing in your city. And if you’re interested in hosting a premiere party or organizing a free public screening in your community you can download a screening toolkit, a movie poster, flyers and email reminders here – everything you need to keep the conversation about Brooklyn Castle going strong. Please tell your friends, family, and colleagues who have not yet seen the film to mark their calendars and to set their DVR’s for October 7, at 10pm!  More. 

Awesome!  I will be glued to my t.v. to watch this film. 

Want to read about some of the wonderful things this chess program has done for its kids over the years?  Please read "The Kings of New York" - by Michael Weinreb, an absolutely excellent book!  And to read about someone's firsthand (and ongoing) experience as a chess coach for some of the young chessplayers at IS 318, please visit Elizabeth Vicary Spiegel's blog. 

Jon Stewart Talks About IS 318!

The Daily Show
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Katie Dellamaggiore specifcally mentions walkng into a chess class being taught by teacher Elizabeth Vicary (since married, now known as Elizabeth Spiegel) and being totally captivated, even though she had not ever played chess before, and had no idea what she was talking about...

IS 318's class president found himself in "a huge fiscal crisis" when the Brooklyn school's principal announced $1 million in cuts that would threaten the top-rated chess club's tournament travels.

Pobo Efekoro, now a student at Forest Hills High School in Queens, was juggling school, class presidency and a budget that was about to put the brakes on the IS 318 chess team, which had won more national championships than any other in the country -- and out of an inner city school populated by low-income students. The team was considered "the Yankees of chess." That was when documentary producer and director Katie Dellmaggiore sought to capture the story on film in "Brooklyn Castle."

Efekoro and Dellmaggiore appeared on The Daily Show together Thursday to tell parts of the story, shedding light on how IS 318's chess team illustrates the importance of extracurricular activities and education beyond the core four.

Stewart took the opportunity to bring up issues with the federal No Child Left Behind law and emphasis on standardized testing.

"As a student, there's a program in this school that's clearly lighting up these children's hearts and minds and bringing out the absolute best in them and the first thing we do in that situation is say, 'Well that's the thing that has to go.'" Stewart says. "You're cutting the vital appendage, and spending all that money for the tests."

Filming the documentary allowed Dellmaggiore to see first hand how chess, and other non-core subjects, allowed teachers to educate and engage kids in a different way, she said. Efekoro added that his eighth grade teacher at the school was the best he'd ever had -- and there was no teaching to the test.

"The teachers work very hard, and for them to get targeted as being demonized as the problem for why our education is bad is absurd," Efekoro said. "The teachers are fabulous. And a lot of my teachers that I had, according to the city, they're bad. But the fact of the matter is, I love them."

New York City released, for the first time, in February a list of individual ratings of thousands of the city's schoolteachers -- a move that concluded a lengthy legal battle waged by the local teachers union and media. The Teacher Dat aReports rate more than 12,000 teachers who taught fourth through eighth grade English or math between 2007 and 2010 based on value-added analysis. Value-added analysis calculates a teacher's effectiveness in improving student performance on standardized tests -- based on past test scores. The forecasted figure is compared to the student's actual scores, and the difference is considered the "value added," or subtracted, by the teachers.

Controversy surrounding the release was widespread as tales surfaced of teachers who were perhaps unfairly rated poorly. Forest Hills, where Efekoro now attends, has nearly 3,900 students, far above its intended capacity of 2,300 seats. "And thats what's going on in the schools right now," Stewart says. "And you have these incredibly intelligent, passionate young people. What you guys are doing there is incredible, I give you all the respect in the world, it's tremendous."

Brooklyn IS 318 in USA Today

This Brooklyn middle school develops master chess players - a photo essay

Love this pic of Elizabeth Vicary Spiegel with "her" kids at IS 318. 

Visit USA Today at link (above) for more!

Chess Miscellany

Wow - I just saw one of those "TODAY IN HISTORY" things that today, November 5:  In 1992, U.S. chess legend Bobby Fischer clinched a $5 million chess match against Russian Boris Spassky, marking a triumphant return after 20 years in self-imposed obscurity.

Was it this match that led to the sad end of Robert James Fischer? He died a permanent exile who did not even attend the funeral of his only sibling, his older sister, Joan Targ.  Perhaps they had been estranged for many years at the time.  With Fischer, one never knew.  When Fischer died in 2008 without a Will, a big fight ensued over what was left of his "fortune" - I suspect a very large junk of it was eaten up in legal fees!  The Filippino lady who claimed that her daughter was Fischer's lost her claim when DNA testing excluded Fischer as the child's father.  A Japanese woman, Miyoko Watai, a pharmacist and the president of the Japan Chess Association, produced documentary evidence of a 2004 marriage to Fischer to the satisfaction of the Court in Iceland that was probating the Estate, was determined her to be Fischer's legal heir.   I suppose I'm a sap, but I do hope that in his final years Robert James Fischer found some happiness with a female companion. 

Visiting some of the chess femme blogs:

At GM Alexandra Kosteniuk's blog, she posted an obituary/article for former chessplayer Andrija Fuderer (of the former Yugoslavia, later moved to Spain).  One can only wonder - what might have been if he had continued to play chess as a full-time career...

GM Kosteniuk is playing on the Russian Women's Team (Board 4, alternating with WGM Natalia Pogonina) in the European Team Chess Championships currently taking place in Greece.  So far, she is 2 for 2!  You Go Girl!

At GM Susan Polgar's blog, I am thinking about putting her in my Will after she published this photograph of an absolutely smoking hot Vassily Ivanchuk from 1991.  OHMYGODDESS!  Be still, oh my heart.  The game wasn't bad either...  Come to think of it, I was probably pretty hot back in 1991 too.  Oh time, time, time, what you have done to us?  Thicker around the middle and, at least in Ivanchuk's case, much greyer hair too.  Hmmm, actually I've probably aged fairly well.  Okay, enough ego talk.  I owe it all to my sister Yvonne's L'Bri products.  Miracles in little jars and bottles...

A great way to help kids and chess - contribute a chess set and board!  This article Mr. Solomon's Chess Gifts posted at SP's blog - what can I say?  Inspirational, wonderful, awesome!

Visting favorite person Elizabeth Vicary's chess blog, she has posted several "snapshots" of board positions of her chess kids from a recent match and I COULDN'T UNDERSTAND ANY OF THEM.  Oh my, my new chess coach is certainly going to face a daunting uphill battle - I'm hopeless!  And he thought I was joking when I warned him about battle pay in an email.  Hmmm...  The photographs of the kids - how can anyone not fall in love with these kids?  Oh, those faces!  They make me want to cry - tears of happiness, tears of empathy.  Gee, I really am getting sentimental in my later years.  I've never been particularly fond of children, but they do seem to be particularly fond of me.  Perverse. 

This photo brought a smile to my face:  It's Elizabeth Vicary analyzing with Michael Yu.  I gave my very own second chess lesson to a co-worker yesterday, and I swear I had that exact intense look on my face, and that exact same body position - uncanny!  Will the right answer out of him, Lizzy!  Maybe it's a sort of universal position for coaches - except for the dorky yet fashionable hat, I aint gonna wear one of those, at my age I'd look like a bag lady.

Anyway, she - I mean my pupil - did very well.  She remembered the names of most of the pieces and their respective moves even though we weren't able to have a lesson last week Friday.  She confused the Rook and the Bishop but that's probably my fault, I should not have gone into that little bit of chess herstory about how the Rooks and the Bishops switched places back in ancient times, or how the game is said to have been invented in India, but everyone really knows it was the Persians who did it... I shouldn't ramble on so, but she seems fascinated by the ancientness of it all, and you should hear her say "Ja'doube"!  She loves the word!  She loves the concept!  Oh my, I've got a captive audience and I'm playing the Ham to the Hilt.  Sigh.  Yesterday I explained to her how the Persian "ruhkh" became the "rook."  What possible relevance this has to moving the pieces around on the board - NONE. 

After our review, we went through some simple moves and I also attempted to explain "castling" and how to do it Queenside and Kingside.  Her head didn't explode so I think she's okay.  Next lesson we're actually going to start playing and move by move we will question each and every move.  I may actually learn something myself.

Oh, the exquisite irony.  Here I am, acting as a chess coach ("acting" is the key word in this sentence), and I don't know a damn thing about how to actually to play the game, but I do know a lot about it's ancient beginnings; and there I will be on the 14th of the month, sitting across from my own chess coach for the very first time, gulping and wishing with all my might that I won't make an absolute fool of myself.  But, I probably will.  Such is life, darlings! 

But back to Elizabeth Vicary and the school where she teaches, IS 318 in Brooklyn, New York USA.  A film crew who has filmed massive amounts of chess stuff with the IS 318 kids and is hoping to prune it all down to an award-winning documentary (like producer Lynn Hamrick's "Chess Kids") are looking to raise some money so they can refine a final product and tout it around all the various places that such films have to be touted in order to get enough recognition to be put on the list of nominees for film awards, etc. etc.  Sounds absolutely exhausting!  Why would anyone undertake such a project, Ms. Not-So-Innocent (me, darlings) asks?  I saw the information/request for contributions at both Alexandra's blog and Susan's blog, so here's some more information.  I think it's a great cause because it involves (1) chess and (2) kids and (3) IS 318 (but IS 318 could be any school in the country that has a great chess program). 

You know what - since I lost my three faithful canine companions, Tasha being the last to die, she went to The Happy Hunting Grounds in 2004, I've become absolutely fanatical about chess.  Am I substituting chess for not having had children, replacing children with dogs, and now that I no longer wish to have official pets (my assorted backyard wildlife faithfully fed for the past 21 years do not count as pets) replacing dogs with chess?  What would Freud say?  Okay, I can't say what I really want to say about Freud without a lot of profanity and vulgarity, so nix that thought...

WGM Alina L'Ami's blog always has such fascinating articles at her blog.  If you come back to Montreal in 2012, Alina, to defend your title as Female Champion of the City of Montreal Open, I hope to meet you.  I'm planning on being there.  Just how I'm going to manage that, I don't know; if I make an appearance at every event we're sponsoring in 2012 I'll be on the road A LOT.  Oh my poor pocketbook!  In hindsight, I really should have married that millionaire back in 1974.  Oh well.  My life may not have taken a chessly turn if I had...

Alina has words of wisdom about losing in chess and Lady Luck, and her words could not be more timely as I am going from bad to worse in my online games with Shira Evans Sanford.  Shira, I HATE YOU.  I love you, but I HATE YOU.  Hmmm, maybe I need some new medication.  I'm definitely sounding more and more schizoid these days.

Alina also wrote about Chess Design.  I absolutely adore this Chess Theme Bedroom - like WOW!  I have yet to finish my black/cream/red country French-themed bedroom -- too busy writing here, darlings.  It's been lingering and dying a slow death ever since Kevin painted out the room in 2009 from the dreadful pink I'd had since 1990 when I moved in - well, I did like it once.  To be truthful, these days the house looks like crap.  The only time I clean now is when I'm expecting company, but I sort of miss the days when I used to have House Beautiful.  And it was a Beautiful House.  No dust, no odd smells emanating out of the odd corner or from behind (or underneath) furniture, cleaned carpets, sparkling windows.  Now it looks like the Castle of Sleeping Beauty, that hasn't been touched in (fill in your own number here) years.  Cobwebs and spiders in the corners - I'm not kidding. WHERE THE HELL DO THEY COME FROM? 

Oy, I see the shade has already overtaken the front lawn and I've got to move my large pot of three white geraniums back into a sheltered spot.  We've been getting hard freezes here at night, but so far, thanks to draping them nightly in a big black towel and uncovering them when I hit the road at 7:15 a.m., those geraniums are not only blooming, they are setting more blooms!  I may have another miracle set of geraniums like the ones I had some years back that lasted well into December. Time to move on to other projects - like laundry and baking that apple pie I picked up the ingredients for earlier today during the weekly Saturday trek to the Pick and Save supermarket.  Cortland apples were on sale at only 0.98 USD a pound!  I couldn't resist. They are such beautiful apples, and perfect for baking.  I have a complaint though.  Pick and Save did not have the ready-made roll-out pie crusts prominently displayed.  I went through that damn gigantic store's dairy/cold and frozen aisles three times before I finally found them!  Geez Louise!  And how dare they try to foist off on me two ready-to-bake pie shells in cheap tin-foil pie plates for $4.99?  I mean, PLEASE!  I may have to finally resort to making my own.  EEK.  Double EEK.  Oh well, how hard can it be?  Certainly easier than learning how to play a sound chess game!

Speaking of which - one last word about me as chess coach:  Yes, darlings, I did actually talk about controlling the center of the board, why that is beneficial, how it's supposed to be done (hello, Ruy Lopez - never thought I'd ever say that and that sure isn't the way I play), and never ever making an intentional move, unless you wish to sacrifice a piece, without making sure the piece is both simultaneously attacking and protected from attack from the enemy forces.  Gee, I hate the way that sounds.  Maybe that's why I'm not so good at playing.  I don't like the premise.

Please Help the Chess Kids of IS 318

Times are hard.  Revenues are down for states and municipalities.  As is the case in so many school districts across the country, budgets are being slashed, teachers are being fired, aides are being fired, programs (those left that is, after many prior years of cutting, cutting and cutting) are being eliminated.  None of this benefits our kids.

I think all of us would agree that our kids should not be made to suffer. 

When I read the plea for help for IS 318's chess program at Elizabeth Vicary's blog, my heart went right out to the kids - in this case, chess kids!  We immediately pledged a donation.  We only wish it could be more!

For those of you who don't know Elizabeth Vicary, she has played in several U.S. Women's Chess Championships.  These events are by invitation only from the U.S. Chess Federation, to the top-rated U.S. women and those who have otherwise earned the right to participate (such as the prior year's champion and winners of certain USCF-sponsored events).  Elizabeth won the 2007 Goddesschess Brilliancy Prize for her game against WGM Camille Baginskaite at the 2007 Frank K. Berry U.S. Women's Chess Championship.  It was by virtue of that prize that I came to "know" her a little bit, and became a big fan! 

Goddesschess believes whole-heartedly in the importance of chess programs for our young people.  The many benefits that chess brings to them are well-documented and I'm not going to bore you to tears by going into them here.  Suffice to say that the tangible and intangible benefits for our young people stand as a testament to why "scholastic" chess is so popular in the United States today - and new chess programs are being added across the nation, despite budget cuts!  But, as fast as we're pedalling, we're just playing catch-up to programs that have been going on in Europe (and particularly in Russia and many countries of the former Soviet Union) for generations; and these programs are a primary reason why Chinese players have risen so quickly to the top ranks of female and male chessplayers on the world ratings lists! 

Please help the IS 318 school chess program.  If you can, please help the kids by making a donation.  A Pay-Pal account has been set up to make donating easy.  Any amount, no matter how "small" you think it might be, is welcome.  All of those "small" donations can add up quickly, darlings, if enough of us make them! Remember the story about how a mighty forest grew from one little acorn? That's what we can do, a few dollars at a time.

Your donation is deductible for U.S. income tax purposes to the extent allowable by law as a donation to a qualifying tax-exempt entity (as a public school, IS 318 is a qualified tax-exempt entity under the Internal Revenue Code).

Link to the PayPal page for IS 318. 

If you pre, checks, made payable to I.S. 318 Chess Team, can be mailed to:
I.S. 318
101 Walton Street
Brooklyn, NY 11206

For more information, please contact I.S. 318 Chess Coach Elizabeth Vicary. 

Anita Maksimiuk, 2010 IS 318

Elizabeth Vicary (left) and some of the girls from the 2007 IS 318
Chess Teams.  IS 318 was honored by the Mayor's Office in 2007!

I would also like you to know that Goddesschess' donation will be used as follows:  [W]e decided to use the money to send girls to girls nationals, in honor of your blog. The total should cover the entry fee for 10-12 girls. Obviously, we'll still have to cover other expenses, but the assistant principal said he would find the money.

Information on the wonderful chess program at IS 318:

You can read up close and personal accounts of Elizabeth's work with these kids at her blog.

I.S. 318 Chess Team

IS 318 Chess Team

The Story of IS 318: Interview with the Director of Chess Movie
by Jennifer Shahade
April 5, 2010

April 20, 2011
Remainders: IS 318 wins national chess tournament
by Philissa Cramer, at 7:28 pm

Information on Elizabeth Vicary:

E. Vicary on Chess, Girls and Genius
by Jennifer Shahade
June 26, 2007

Some of Elizabeth's games at Chessgames

Braden Bournival on Elizabeth

According to the U.S. Chess Federation's current statistics, Elizabeth is currently ranked 49th of U.S. women, with a USCF rating of 2076 and a FIDE ELO of 2154.  She reached her peak USCF rating near the end of 2007. As so often happens with promising U.S. female chessplayers, Elizabeth has not played in many events recently - her life is now filled up with other demands on her time, including her teaching career.  Her most recent event was in May of this year, the 2011 World Amateur Team and US Team East. 

Chess Femme News! Checking In on the Chess Femme Blogs

A trip around the internet, visiting some of my favorite chess blogs by chess femmes!

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk's chess blog:

October 4, 2011
Make a difference - you can contribute to Peace and Sport/Chess for Leadership and Creativity

October 4, 2011
GM Vassily Ivanchuk and his wife robbed at gun-point in Sao Paolo, just as they going to the airport to go to Bilbao, Spain, to finish the second half of the Grand Slam.  Mrs. Ivanchuk's passport was in one of the stolen suitcases.  Fortunately, neither GM nor Mrs. Ivanchuk were injured although, of course, both were quite shaken up by this horrible incident, just 20 yards from the hotel they had stayed in, in a "safe" area of Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Well, nowhere is safe, these days, is it? 

I can't help it - the first question that came to my mind was - who put those thieves up to this?  That GM Ivanchuk suffers from "nerves" is well-known for years.  Something like this could send him over the edge in the second half of the Grand Slam, and his wife has to travel back to their home country in order to get a new passport.  No one could possibly seriously believe that anyone would be carrying money in a suitcase - not these days!  So - what really was the goal of these thieves?  Just saying...

October 1, 2011
Strategic chess puzzle for chess-y weekend.
Video:  Chess Puzzle:  Kosteniuk v. Shen Yang (2008 Beijing).  Excellent! 

GM Susan Polgar's chess blog:

October 4, 2011
Inaugural Lecture at World Chess Hall of Fame

Dr. George Dean and GM Susan
Polgar at World Chess Hall of Fame,
St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Dr. George Dean will give a lecture on his unparalleled collection of chess memorabilia.

“Chess Masterpieces: One Thousand Years of Extraordinary Chess Sets,” will explore the history and significance of Dr. Dean’s extensive collection.

For more than 50 years, Dr. Dean and his wife Vivian have traveled the world acquiring rare, beautiful and culturally significant chess sets, including those currently on view in the World Chess Hall of Fame’s second floor exhibition, Chess Masterpieces: Highlights from the Dr. George and Vivian Dean Collection.
October 3, 2011
Zambinian Teenager Shines at Botswana Invitational Ladies Section
Zambian chess whiz kid, 18-year-old Epah Tembo has won the Botswana International Invitation Ladies Section in style, after emerging unscathed after nine rounds, and sweeping aside a strong field of Botswana national team players.

October 2, 2011
Chess' Greatest Challenge: Girls
In the world of chess, boys are always in, but U.S. Chess Federation numbers confirm girls are out the minute they hit the teens.

IM Jen Shahade's blog (hint: she keeps her Facebook more current):

September 17, 2011
Autumn Means Running
Autumn invigorates me to a comical extent. I actually find myself spontaneously running in heels from place to place during this season. The energy was useful last week as I just got back from the opening of the fabulous new World Chess Hall of Fame in Saint Louis. I also hosted commentary for a special team event in honor of the opening, K v Q: A Battle of the Sexes.

WGM Natalia Pogonina's chess blog:

October 4, 2011
Avoiding Fatigue During Tournaments
We often hear or say ourselves that “I got tired, and my brain went dead”; “I was tired and blundered”, “I didn’t have enough energy left for the last few rounds”.

Liz Vicary's Blog:
No kidding, Liz Vicary is one of my favorite people.  She's so damn passionate and erudite, and she loves the kids she teaches 2000 percent!  She's also incredibly witty.

October 3, 2011
IS 218 Fund Raising Drive - Please Help! (Of course I will, and I hope YOU will too, readers.  Please please please, every dollar will help, and I know it will be used efficiently, not going to overhead and bureaucracy nonsense.)
Please help support IS 318's chess team. Our funding has been cut every year for several years now, and it's at the point that we have tomake really fundamental cuts. We won't be able to take many students to Nationals or go to many of the tournaments we regularly win/do well in (the Marshall, the NY State Championship, Girls Nationals, High School Nationals, Elementary Nationals).

87% of our students live below the poverty line, which is currrently $22,000 for a family of four. That's even harder to live on in New York City than in the rest of the country. The money you donate will give these kids enriching educational experiences they would not otherwise be able to afford. Because we bring so many kids to tournament and I work on salary, your donated dollar is spent extremely efficiently and goes really far.

9 Queens Action! Free Chess Workshop AND Free Chess Tutorial

CHESS MOVIE (working title) from Rescued Media on Vimeo.
This weekend 9 Queens is thrilled to host Elizabeth Vicary - nationally renowned chess teacher and star of the upcoming documentary Chess Movie. On Saturday, February 20 at 12 noon at Lineweaver Elementary School, Elizabeth will run a free, two-hour workshop for parents, coaches, teachers and chess players interested in learning simple ways to create and improve chess club lessons and activities.

On Sunday from 2-4 at Bookmans on Grant and Campbell (Tuczon, Arizona), Amanda Mateer will teach a free two-hour chess workshop for intermediate and advanced female chess players of all ages.

For more information email jhoffman@9queens.org

Hope to see you this weekend!

2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship

Who will win it? In 2007, Elizabeth Vicary won the $300 Goddesschess Brilliancy Prize for this game against much higher rated Camilla Baginskaite, as reported by Chris Bird, Round 7, at the official website of the 2007 U.S. Women's Championship: Quite simply the best game of the round by far, and possibly the best game of the tournament given that a beautiful attack was actually finished off, was played by Liz Vicary in her demolition of Camilla Baginskaite. Of course it takes two to tango, and thanks to a blunder from Baginskaite in a complicated position, Vicary was able to come up with a whirlwind attack that ended up in mate. Baginskaite,C (2361) - Vicary,E (2155)2007 US Women's Ch., (7), 19.07.2007 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Qe7 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 Bxd2+ 7.Nbxd2 0-0 8.0-0 d6 9.e4 e5 10.d5 Nb8 11.Ne1 a5 12.Nd3 Na6 13.a3 Bg4 14.f3 Bd7 15.b4 c6 16.dxc6 [ 16.Qb3 cxd5 17.cxd5 axb4 18.axb4 Nc7 19.Qb2 Bb5 20.Ra3 Rxa3 21.Qxa3 Ba6 22.Rc1 Nb5 23.Qa5 Nd4 24.Bf1 Nh5 25.Nf2 Be2 26.Rc3 Qg5 27.Qa2 f5 28.exf5 Qxf5 29.Bg2 Nf6 30.Rc7 Bxf3 Skembris,S-Beliavsky,A/Igalo 1994/0-1 (35)] 16...bxc6 17.f4 [ 17.Qb3 Nc7 18.Qb2 Rfb8 19.f4 Ng4 20.f5 Ne3 21.Rf3 Nxg2 22.Kxg2 f6 23.Qc3 Be8 24.Rff1 d5 25.Rfc1 Na6 26.exd5 cxd5 27.b5 dxc4 28.Nxe5 Qxe5 29.Qxe5 fxe5 30.a4 Nc5 31.Rxc4 Nd7 Pedersen,N-Shkapenko,P/Marianske Lazne CZE 2007/0-1 (47)] 17...Rab8 18.Rb1 axb4 19.axb4 Rb6 20.fxe5 dxe5 21.c5 21...Rxb4!? 22.Nxb4 Qxc5+ 23.Kh1 Nxb4 24.Qb3 Rb8 25.Qc4 Qd6 26.Qe2 [ 26.Nf3! c5 ( 26...Be6 27.Qc3 Nxe4 28.Qxe5) 27.Rfc1 Rb5 28.Rd1 Nd3! with complicated play for both sides.] 26...c5! Giving the bishop some life. 27.Nc4 Qe6 28.Rfc1 Bb5 29.Bf1? [ 29.Qe3! holds the position thanks to a few tactics 29...Rc8 ( 29...Ng4 30.Qxc5 Nd3 31.Rxb5 Rf8 32.Qa3 Qh6 33.h3 Nxc1 34.Rb2 is good for White.) 30.Nb6! Ng4 ( 30...Qxb6 31.Rxb4) 31.Qd2] 29...Nxe4! Not only does Baginskaite blunder a pawn but now her king is wide open on the diagonal. 30.Qe3 [ 30.Qxe4? Bc6] 30...Bc6 31.Bg2 f5! Vicary finds by far the best and most energetic continuation. The position is already winning for Black, it is just a question of finishing it off! 32.Nd2 32...f4!! 33.gxf4 [ If 33.Qe2 Nxd2 34.Qxd2 f3! is simply crushing.] 33...exf4 34.Qe1 [ 34.Qxf4 Rf8! 35.Qe3 ( 35.Qh4 Nxd2) 35...Nf2+] 34...Ng3+! 35.hxg3 [ 35.Kg1 Ne2+ 36.Kh1 Bxg2+ 37.Kxg2 Qg6+ is also devastating.] 35...Qh3+ and mate next move. 0-1 　 In 2008, GM Susan Polgar selected Tatev Abrahamyan as the winner of the $500 Goddesschess Fighting Chess Award ($350 from Goddesschess and $150 from the Susan Polgar Foundation) for her record of six wins, no draws, and three losses. She finished in 4th place overall. Abrahamyan has since earned an IM title that will be confirmed at the upcoming FIDE Congress. Who will win the 2009 Goddesschess Fighting Chess Award of $500? GM Susan Polgar will once again select the Fighting Chess Award winner in 2009. The guidelines are simple – the winner exhibits the same qualities in her games as the fighting chess played by the Polgar sisters. Stay tuned!

The Kings of New York

From Michael Weinreb's The Kings of New York, this is from the chapter "The Women in the Room." (The photo is 2003 U.S. Women's Chess Champion Anna Hahn, from an event in March, 2002.)

Anna Khan was sixteen years old and the reigning women's chess champion of Latvia when she enrolled at Murrow High School, the latest pubescent prodigy to arrive in Brooklyn from a distant corner of the crumbling Soviet empire. This was in 1993, ten years after Eliot Weiss founded the school's chess club and a few months after it won its first national championship. And for reasons entirely beyond Weiss's control, Anna Khan was the first female ever to compete on his traveling team.

Anna Khan would lead Murrow to two more national championships, in 1993 and 1994. Eventually, after changing her name to Anna Hahn, she won the U.S. Women's Championship in 2003 and earned the title of WIM, which is the abbreviation used for a "Women's International Master," a less stringent title than "International Master," and one that many of the best male players in the world deride as a second-class designation. On a Web site that archives past games from top players, the comments under Hahn's entry and photograph are a catalog of puerilities ("Anna Hahn can mate me any day. Growl.") But then, this is the way it has always been. Since the inception of competitive chess, the upper eschelons of the game have reeked of sexism, and women who dare intrude upon this sanctity are often treated with as much subtlety as if they'd wandered into the back room at Scores. "Guys aren't going to stand around and watch a guy's game because he's a guy," Bruce Pandolfini says. "Maybe if he's Bobby Fischer, but not for any other reason. But that's not why they stand around women. And if they say it's for any other reason, they're lying."

Forty-five years earlier, when a U.S. women's champion named Lisa Lane drew a sudden barrage of media attention (she was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and was profiled in Newsweek and The New York Times Magazine, which described her as "comely" and "shapely"), Fischer, an equal-opportunity bigot, dismissed her and her entire sex with a barrage of insults. "They can't concentrate, they don't have stamina, and they aren't creative," he said of female chess players. "They're all fish." And that attitude didn't cease with Fischer: in 2002, Garry Kasparov told the Times of London that "chess is a mixture of sport, psychological warfare, science, and art," and that "when you look at all these components, man dominates. Every single component of chess belongs to the areas of male domination."

Of the top players in the world, only one, Hungarian Judit Polgar, is female, and fewer than ten of the world's 950 international grandmasters are women. [This information is somewhat dated.] Some efforts are being made to alter this: in recent years, Kasparov's own foundation has sponsored an all-girls national championship. But there remains a consensus among many of the best male players that this imbalance exists for a reason, that women are not wired for chess in the same way as men, that they they are, by nature and through societal pressure, more social creatures, and that they would prefer to interact with others than be locked in a room by themselves, poring over esoteric middle-game theory. Which is why most of these girls, when they reach the age of twelve or thirteen, an age that Bruce Pandolfini calls "crucial" to one's development as a chess player, simply fade away. Which is why approximately ninety-seven percent of competitive chess players in the United States happen to be male.

Of the thirty-five participants in the high-school varsity section at the city championships, two were girls. One of them was Anna Ginzburg, who came up through the Chess-in-the Schools program and landed one of those coveted spots at Stuyvesant High School. Ginzburg wears wire-rimmed glasses and has a tangle of thick brown hair and a penchant for feminine accessories, like her "Mrs. Affleck" tote bag. On the back of her Chronos digital clock, she's written her name in permanent marker, dotting the I with a flower and underlining the whole thing with a feminine flourish. when she was younger, she was painfully shy, but now she's gotten used to it, to being out-numbered and overlooked. At times, she is able to assimilate into this boys' world, beating them at cards and surprising them over the board and returning their banter when necessary. (Anna's rating is 1656, about the same as Oscar's whom she defeated at cities after an overconfident Oscar hung a rook). But the worst part, she says, is that when she travels to tournaments, she has so few people with whom she can share a hotel room. In that sense, she is very much on her own.

Because there is such disparity in numbers, the women who break through to competitive chess, the women who can manage to thrive amid a sea of testosterone, tend to be unique and forceful personalities. Some, like Elizabeth Vicary, admit that they thrive on the attention (one Russian women's GM, Alexandra Kosteniuk, has posed for so many risque photo shoots that she's been called "the Anna Kournikova of chess"). [Actually, Kosteniuk is a GM who just happens to be a woman]. Many say they've never felt discriminated against, and that if anything, it's just the opposite: men are so deferential, so cowed by their presence, that their brains often seize up and start melting when they play. Adults turn into randy adolescents. They make silly moves they would never make against other men, and when they are called on these things, they attribute their carelessness to the sex of their opponent: Against a man, I would never make such a move. "In most games, I am thinking about girls for fifty to seventy-five percent of the time, another fifteen percent goes to time management, and with what's left over I am calculating," grandmaster Alex Shabalov once admitted to Jennifer Shahade, the strongest female player ever to be born in this country.

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I'll bet Shabalov never figured those words would be immortalized in such a way. Har! Oooohhhh, Alex, Mr. Ladies' Man.

2007 U.S. Women's Chess Championship - 3

How quickly the time has passed! The Championship starts tomorrow in Stillwater - two games tomorrow, eek! Good luck to all of the players. Unfortunately, since most of the play will be taking place while I'm at work, I won't be able to watch. Sigh. There's been a conversation going on at Mig's Daily Dirt since July 4th when he posted about the U.S. Women's Championship and was kind enough to give us some publicity about our Brilliancy Prize for the Women's Championship and a plug for Goddesschess and this blog. You can find the conversation here. Someone (I think it is only one person although there have been several postings of similiar ilk under different "names" - none that reveals anything about the poster's true identity, of course) has taken serious offense at women chessplayers. The gist of his complaint seems to be that he, as a 2400 level player, cannot make a decent living at chess because women chessplayers with lower ratings are raking in cash from their women's events and special prizes only available to them, thereby sucking cash away from him/his level of male players. Hey - I'm not making this stuff up! The level of venom and spitefulness/hatefulness this poster demonstrates toward women is instructive - and revealing. He's not brave enough, though, to reveal his true identity - typical all bluster and no guts when it comes right down to it. On the plus side, many insightful and thought-provoking posts have been made by the regulars who hang out at Mig's Daily Dirt, most of them male. And - to tie this ongoing conversation into the current event - Elizabeth Vicary, who will be playing in the Championship at Stillwater, made some posts too. Ms. Vicary is the lowest rated player in the Championship but let me tell you, if she plays chess as well as she writes, she'll come out of Stillwater with the winner's trophy :) After reading her recent interview with Jennifer Shahade at Chess Life Online and reading her posts at Mig's, I've become a big fan and I'm rooting for her all the way.

Elizabeth Vicary on Chess, Girls and Genius

Jen Shahade has an excellent piece at Chess Life Online in which she interviewed Elizabeth Vicary. The interview focuses on Elizabeth's Masters of Education thesis: "Encouraging Middle School Girls' Success and Involvement in Chess." Shahade and Vicary have a revealing give and take during the interview and the respect and affection they have for each other is obvious, but to their credit they don't spare themselves answering some hard questions. Elizabeth Vicary will be playing in the upcoming U.S. Women's Chess Championship. You can find some of her games at chessgames.com. There is some information about Vicary's chess coaching, etc. in an article by Steve Goldbert at Chess Cafe. She's going to have a tough row to hoe - in the 2006 U.S. Chess Championship, she finished tied for 25-30th place with 3.5 points in Group A, but did not face any of the women who will be competing for the 2007 title in Stillwater. The Chablis and Glickman article that Vicary talks about in her interview is summarized in this article at Goddesschess.