WIM Alexey Root, PhD

Final Four of College Chess won by UTRGV

The Final Four of College Chess was won by The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), for the second year in a row. Webster University (Webster) was second. The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) was third. And Harvard University (Harvard) was fourth. This article provides round-by-round results and two chess problems, taken from games in rounds 2 and 3. More 🡢

Summer Chess Camps – Contest

Chess camps can be a great introduction to chess for beginners and give experienced players the skills they need to improve their chess results. Most chess camps are for children, but some camps are now open to adults too. FIDE Master and FIDE Trainer Kevin Bachler became involved in chess camps in 1996. This summer, Kevin is running two week-long camps, OleChess Camp in Minnesota and Caveman Chess Camp in Naperville, Illinois (Chicago area). Read on for Kevin’s tips for choosing a summer chess camp and for your chance to win a discount worth $200 to Kevin’s Caveman Chess Camp. More 🡢

U.S. Senior Women’s Championship?

Although most tournaments include men (and boys), there are occasional all-girls tournaments, female-only opens, and women’s invitational tournaments. The most prestigious invitational women’s tournaments held annually in the U.S. are the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship and the Cairns Cup, won its inaugural year (2019) by GM Valentina Gunina, age 29. The oldest, and lowest-rated, player in the 2019 Cairns Cup field was 40-year-old IM Anna Zatonskih. More 🡢

Money for Love

The documentary The Gentleman Driver follows four amateur race car drivers who pay to compete alongside professional drivers. Just as these amateur drivers spend money to race, one amateur chess player likewise sponsors an annual event where he plays chess with professionals. Some amateurs spend millions to compete in the sports that they love, money that they earned from being extraordinary businessmen. More 🡢

Win a chess book from Lauren Goodkind

Read an excerpt from a book-in-progress and then vote on a name for that book. The author of the book-in-progress, Lauren Goodkind, will pick one winner from the comments. That winner will receive a copy of her previous book 50 Poison Pieces: Solve 50 Puzzles Where the Unprotected Piece is Toxic. More 🡢

The Knight’s Tour

The knight’s tour is recommended by GM Susan Polgar. In her free Chess Training Guide for Parents and Teachers, she wrote, “Try to jump with the Knight from one square to another covering all 64 squares on the chess board, landing only once on each square.” When I taught BayAreaChess students, some taking their first chess class and others rated up to 1000, I included the knight’s tour. More 🡢

Instructional Chess Books for Christmas 2018

In this article, I review two instructional chess books published in 2018. Either one would make a great Christmas present! One is aimed at teachers, the other at kids. But both books would benefit chess players of any age, who know the rules of chess, have played several complete games, but are still learning tactical themes. More 🡢