USCF Lawsuits Settled!

Good news for both USCF and Susan Polgar, the lawsuits between the two have finally been settled. USCF released a statement which suggests that the settlement was mostly in USCF's favor. Here are some main points.

1) All named parties except Gregory Alexander and Sam Sloan have agreed to dismiss all claims and counter-claims.
2) Polgar and Truong acknowledge that they are no longer USCF EB Board Members, they will not contest the decision of the board of delgates to expel them, and in the future will not run for or accept a leadership position in the USCF.
3) USCF receives $131,000 from their insurance company to help pay legal bills.
4) Susan Polgar's attorneys receive $39,000 from the same (USCF's) insurance company

In a lawsuit like this, everybody loses. Neither Polgar or the USCF will be receiving enough money to cover even half of their legal fees, so both are worse off then when they started. Time to put this huge mess behind us.

Corus Round 7

I scored 50% on yesterday's predictions, so not too good. Carlsen won but Anand did not. Short-Kramnik was a draw, although it was Short who was actually close to winning, and Nakamura defeated Shirov.

A little more than half-way through, the race has tightened up.

Shirov: 5.5/7
Carlsen, Nakamura, 5.0/7
Kramnik: 4.5/7
Dominiguez, Ivanchuk: 4.0/7
Anand, Karjakin, Leko: 3.5/7

Shirov now faces the unenviable task of playing Anand, Kramnik, Carlsen, and Ivanchuk all in a row! I'd be very surprised if he keeps the lead through that!

Round 8 Games:

Anand vs Ivanchuk
Shirov vs Carlsen
Kramnik vs Nakamura

Predictions: Carlsen and Kramnik will win.

Ray Robson suffered a set back when he lost his round 7 game to Vocaturo, but remains in sole lead of group C with 5.5/7. Four players are breathing down his neck though, two at 5.0, two at 4.5

Akobian is not doing nearly as well as his compatriots, and is sitting last but one in group B with just 2.0/7. Wesley So, the Phillipenne teenager that impressed at the World Cup has now won a couple games, and is sitting tied for 2nd place with 4.5/7, a point behind the leader.

Corus Round 6

All Predictions from yesterday came true! Shirov [finally] drew a game, as did Nakamura, Carlsen, and Ivanchuk. Kramnik beat Van Wely to join the chase pack.

Robson has improved to 5.5/6 in group C and still holds the lead.

Round 7 Leaders' Games:

Caruana-Anand
Short-Kramnik
Nakamura-Shirov
Carlsen-Ivanchuk

Anand is finally through most of his tough games, maybe he can start to win some games now. Nakamura can pull within a half point of the lead with a win, but I think a draw is the most likely result.

Predictions: Anand and Carlsen will both win. Short-Kramnik, and Nakamura-Shirov will be drawn.

Corus Round 5

Shirov wins again to move to 5.0/5! Nakamura, Ivanchuk, and Carlsen all drew to fall to a point and a half back at 3.5/5. Kramnik won his first game and is now sitting in 5th place with 3.0/5.

Round 6:
Shirov vs Short
Anand vs Carlsen
Ivanchuk vs Nakamura
Kramnik vs Van Wely

Prediction: Shirov will draw to rise to 5.5/6. Kramnik will win to join the chase pack at 4.0/6. The other leaders' games will draw.

Shirov is enjoying "relatively" easy players in the first half of the tournament. Of his opponents so far, only Peter Leko is rated above 2700. His next round (Rd 6) is against a sub 2700 (Nigel Short), but then he has murder's row in rds 7-13! Nakamura, Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Anand, Kramnik, Karjakin, and Dominguez. 2700s all! (except Carlsen, who's a 2800). Rounds 8-11 look especially hairy. Still, if Shirov just manages an even score from here on out, he'll finish with 9.0/13. That's a point more than Karjakin won with in 2009.

Corus Chess Rds 1-4

Alexi Shirov is off to a great start at Corus with 4/4, mostly against the the lower-rated players in the tournament, but also includes a win off 2739-Peter Leko. Magnus Carlsen, Vassily Ivanchuk, and Hikaru Nakamaura are in the chase pack with 3.0/4. Vladimir Kramnik, Visi Anand, and last year's winner Sergey Karjakin have an uninspiring 2.0/4.

Anand may be saving all his theoretical novelties for his upcoming match with Topalov, so his lackluster performance is not too surprising, but I was hoping that Kramnik would be joining Topalov and Carlsen above 2800 after this tournament, after coming off a fine performance at the Tal Memorial.

The B group is being led by Hua and Giri with 3.0/4. The lone american, Vladimir Akopian, is way back in 13th place with 1.0/4.

The C group ("dubbed the kindergarten group") is being led by Li Chao and Ray Robson, two of the top three seeds, with 3.5/4.

The winner of group C will be invited to the B group the following year, likewise the winner of group B is invited to the A group. Robson will be following Carlsen's footsteps if he manages to win group C.

Carlsen's Progress.

2004: Group C: 10.5/13 1st
2005: Group B: 7.0/13 7th
2006: Group B: 9.0/13 1st-2nd
2007: Group A: 4.5/13 13th-14th
2008: Group A: 8.0/13 1st-2nd
2009: Group A: 7.0/13 5th-6th

2010 Election Updates

The deadline for the $250 filing fee and signatures for the executive board passed on January 11th, so nominations are now closed. Although there are two spots open on the board, there are only three candidates that will get statements in Chess Life. This is the lowest # of candidates, special election or not, since OMOV (One Member, One Vote) was enacted in 2003. Whether people were afraid of being sued, wer not interested in the only 1-year term (they would have to run for re-election in 2011 since they are completing Susan Polgar and Paul Truong's terms [2007-2011] in order to stay on the board], or something else entirely, the choices are very limited this year barring a write-in campaign.

The three Candidates are (in alphabetical order):

Mike Nietman: He's been president of the Wisconsin Chess Federation for 20 some odd years now, and is (was?) the chair of the Scholastic Committee. He is a life member and has by far the most impressive purely chess experience of the three. My one criticism is that he is neither active in the USCF forums, nor has a website or blog of his own.

Nietman run for the executive board once before, in 2009. He finished a distant 6th out of 11 candidates with 732 votes (Mike Atkins finished in 4th place with 2672)

Sam Sloan: He is a former executive board member (2006-2007). He sued the USCF and the members of the Executive board shortly after the 2007 election over the "Fake Sam Sloan (FSS)". Someone (allegedly Paul Truong, another nominee in 2007) posted hundreds of online defamtory comments online claiming to be Sam Sloan. I'm not sure of most of the details, but the deal-breaker for me is that he sued the organization and as a result thousands of dollars that could have been spent on chess were instead spent on litigiation.

Sloan has run every election year since OMOV started in 2003. He finished 5th (top 3 elected) in 2003, 3rd (top 2 elected) in 2004, 8th (top 4 elected) in 2005, 2nd in 2006 (elected), 9th (top 4 elected) in 2007, and 9th in 2009.

Gary Walters: Like Nietman and Sloan, he is a class A player. Unlike them though, he is a very active correspondence player, he is currently playing in the 2009 Absolute Championship, 2010 Absolute Championship, 18th United States Correspondence Chess Championship (USCCC), and a preliminary section of the 33rd world championship. He has a very active blog and is also active on the USCF Forums. He has little or no experience organizing or directing tournaments, but his experience as a lawyer could prove valuable with all of the suits that USCF is involved in.

This will be the first time that Walters has run for the Executive Board.


With three candidates and only two spots, unless Nietman or Walters decides to sue the USCF, it looks like I'll be voting for them in June.

Corus Chess

The first super-tournament is the A-section of Corus in the Netherlands, a fourteen-player round robin. The favorites are #1 ranked Magnus Carlsen, world Champion Visi Anand, and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik. The tournament is actually weaker than it has been in the past with only four players from the top 10 and 6 from the top 20, still with the avg rating at 2719, this a category XIX tournament and definitely classifies as a 'super'

A big story for the American crowd is how is US Champion Hikaru Nakamura going to do in this field. Hikaru is rated 2708, but has had little success in the international field. Arguably, this will be the first super-tournament that he has even participated in. Here is his record against 2600+ competition.

December 2003: 13th Ciudad de Pamplona IO (3.0/7 against 2611 opp)
June 2004: FIDE World Chess Championships (4.5/8 against 2665 opp)
July 2005: Biel International GM (4.5/10 against 2633 opp)
February 2006: Cuernavaca Young Masters (6.0/9 against 2627 opp)
October 2007: Magistral Ciudad de Barce (7.0/9 against 2602 opp)
November 2008: Olympiad (6.5/10 against 2608 opp)
July 2009: G.P. Donostia Capital (6.5/9 against 2679 opp)
August 2009: NH Chess Tournament (3.5/10 against 2658 opp)
December 2009: London Chess Classic (3.0/7 against 2694 opp)

One tournament a year until 2009 where he's played in three strong tournaments. He tied for 1st in the G.P. Donostia tournament, but was disapointing at both the NH Chess Tournament and the London Chess Classic. He is playing quite well at the World Team Championships, however, with a specactular win over Boris Gelfand in the King's Indian.

Anything north of an even score should be considered a success, but a top 3 finish is necessary in order to be considered in the world's elite.

Mike Nietman announces candidacy

Mike Nietman who finished 6th in the 2009 Executive board election, has announced on the USCF forums that he is running again in 2010.

It's a little early for endorsements, as the entire field of candidates have not been announced yet, but I voted for Nietman in 2009, and unless two other candidates completely blow me away I'll be voting for him in 2010 too.

Al Ufer Memorial

I played in my first tournament in nearly five months at the 5th Al Ufer Memorial tournament. In the first round, against a 1620, I got a great attack going which was only stopped by winning the exchange, and then proceeded to pick off several pawns in the late middle-game. By the time I gave the exchange back, I was three passed pawns ahead and won easily in the end game. In the second game, against a 2030, I was worse all game but sacrificed a pawn in order to get into a fairly equal queen and opposite-bishop endgame. After the trade of queens, a draw became inevitable. In round 3, I played a 1880 and won the exchange with a great attack on the queen. Unfortunately I drifted in the middle-game, and my opponent found a good combination to win a piece and a pawn, and won the two pieces vs rook endgame fairly easily. My last game against a 1750 also had a strong attack that I sacrificed a rook for. I didn't get the mate I was looking for, but I managed to decimiate the kingside and win four pawns, making material almost even. The position was about equal when I tried to activate my king, but instead walked into a forced mate by two bishops and a rook.

All in all, even though I scored only 1.5/4 and lost 15 rating points to 1843, I felt pretty good about my games. I had chances in all four games, emerged from the opening with honor in all my games, and took advantage of many tactical chances. Four weeks til the Portsmouth open.

Happy New Year 2010.

As expected, Magnus Carlsen topped the 2010 FIDE list at 2810. Current world championship challenger Veselin Topalov is five points behind at 2805.

As it turns out, I will not be playing the 2010 Colorado Correspondence Semi-final after all. Fourteen players signed up this year, a 50% increase from last year. Jeff Baffo, the 2009 champion, automatically received a bye to the final, leaving thirteen. Six the budget only allows for six or at the most seven games per person in the semi-finals, the semi-finals were organized into 3 groups of four. As the 2009 runner-up, I also received a bye to the final. Jeff and I will be joined in the final by the three group leaders, and at least the top two scoring 2nd place finishers (creating a seven-player round robin). If all three 2nd place finishers score 4.5 or more points, then all three 2nd place finishers will advance and it will be an eight-player round robin.

In related news, the January 2010 Check is in the Mail has the full standings for the 2009 Colorado CC Championship!

Since I'm not participating in the Colorado Semi-finals, I elected to start in an earlier section of the 2010 Electronic Knights instead. The Knights have three sections, preliminaries, semi-finals, and finals. In order to progress to the next stage, players need to score at least 4.5 points in the final, or win their section with at least 4.0. A weighted score is calculated to determine the winner. The 2006 winner, GM Cesar Augusto Blanco-Gramajo, was just announced, so the entire tournament takes approximately four years, about half of the time that it takes the postal championship, the Golden Knights.

Last year I scored 3.5/6 in my preliminary section, a full point short of the goal. Hopefully this year I can improve upon it.