Last weekend was a busy weekend in and around the state of Illinois with the following events:
Hammond Mayor's Open - Hammond, IN 08/13
2016 MWCC - Peoria 08/13
Southern Illinois Summer Open - Salem 08/14
128th Knight's Quest - Deerfield 08/14
Worth Class - Worth, IL 08/14
Here are the largest rises in ratings by Illinois/IHSA players
New to Class B
Jason Drews, Cary Grove: 107 points - 1545 > 1653 128th Knight's Quest
New to Class C
Georgia Wolf, Lane: 126 points - 1302 > 1428 128th Knight's Quest
Nick Allison, Andrew: 101 points - 1345 > 1446 Hammond Mayor's
New to Class D
Jack Heller: 248 points - 1117 > 1365 128th Knight's Quest
Advait Vijay: 191 points - 1042 > 1233 128th Knight's Quest
Derrick Red: 157 points - 1106 > 1263 128th Knight's Quest
Parker Sorensen: 317 points - 575P13-892P18 128th Knight's Quest
Elton Huang: 222 points - 101P4-323P7 128th Knight's Quest
Donald Egan: 190 points - 860 > 1050 2016 MWCC
Nolan Fletes: 190 points - 483P11 > 683P16 Hammond Mayor's
Srihas Rao: 186 points - 825 > 1014 Hammond Mayor's
Nisha Salian: 173 points - 768 > 941 128th Knight's Quest
Akiva Tokarskiy: 166 points - 705 > 871 128th Knight's Quest
Tim Liu: 158 points - 467P4 > 625P8 2016 MWCC
Kieran Cassidy: 134 points - 577P9-711P13 128th Knight's Quest
Aya Baraket: 134 points - 197-334 128th Knight's Quest
Yizhang Chen: 118 points - 805 > 923 2016 MWCC
Hudson Lutfiyya: 111 points - 608 > 719 Hammond Mayor's
David Zimmerman: 105 points - 1400 > 1505 128th Knight's Quest
Congrats to all of these players for putting in the necessary work to get better! If there are any interesting games or upsets that anyone has from one of these players at one of these tournaments, please email me at joeanthonychess@gmail.com and perhaps I'll post them.
Blitz tip of the weekA lot of people say, "don't play blitz if you want to get better." I don't think that that's good advice. Why? What makes people better to me, on average, perhaps more than anything, is just losing and winning a lot of different games a lot of different ways. If you never studied at all, you'd get better if you went and played 1000 games. Your brain would simply register the positive and negative consequences of a lot of different outcomes.
Blitz games show what your instincts are. There is no room for bettering your instincts through deep analysis. Your flag will fall. What you get to see is what is already in you.. the good and the bad. I think taking an engine and finding massive weaknesses in your blitz can get rid of a lot of the big issues before tournaments, so you aren't spending 20 minutes in a position where you have no instinctual ability and must find something that is better than your bad instinct.
Here's the tip. Be like a pitcher in all games. When you don't have your best stuff (blunder/aren't playing well), be resourceful. I have two students that are 1446 and 1596. The 1446 beats the 1596 all the time at our club. But the 1596 is rated higher simply because he's able to draw more lost positions and win more close positions. He manages to get good outcomes when he's not playing his best. That's what good pitchers do. The best ones find a way to eek out wins when they don't have their best stuff.
Here is the game, where I am proud of one of the best moves I've made
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. d3 d5 4. Bg5 Bg7 5. Qd2 Bf5 6. Bg2 c6 7. O-O Nbd7 8. Bh6 O-O 9. Bxg7 Kxg7 10. Nh4 e5 11. Nxf5+ gxf5 12. f4 e4 13. dxe4 Nxe4 14. Bxe4 dxe4 15. e3 Nf6 16. Qc3 Kg6 17. Nd2 Ng4 18. Nc4 Qe7 19. h3 Nh6 20. Ne5+ Kh5 21. g4+ fxg4 22. hxg4+ Nxg4 23. Kg2 Rg8 24. Rh1+ Nh2+!
I was proud that I instinctively saw this move. I don't think I'd play the king to the h-file in a slow game, and believe me, I know a master may look at this entire game like "wow, really." I knew I was not playing well.
The great thing about this move is that it simultaneously blocks check and puts white in check. Therefore, you should first notice that the white rook cannot take the knight! Secondly, Kxh2 leads to the devastating Qh4#! But, what if that was all there was. What if simply not playing Kxh2 made blacks position worse? Always be wary of the idea of "if he doesn't fall for my idea, am I just in really bad shape? Well, I immediately saw that if the white king just steps to the f-file, I own the entire 7th rank with tempo.
25. Kf2 Qh4+ 26. Ke2 Rg2+ 27. Kd1 Rd8+ 28. Kc1 Qf2 29. b3 Rd2 30. Kb2 Rxc2+ 31. Qxc2 Qxc2+32. Ka3 Qc5+ 33. Ka4 Qb5+ 34. Ka3 Qa5# 0-1
So, let's go back to the idea from last week. Don't be dogmatic. Strong players who, for whatever reason, don't want others to be as strong (and yes they do exist), will tell you things like "never play blitz games, just play slow games." Well, why not both? Yes, you should look at slow games as your chance to really see where you fail and where you succeed. They should be your landmark learning/demonstration moments. But, what if, instead of playing 25 slow games in a month, you played 16 games at 45 min/d5 and 81 blitz games? I like the chance to get in nearly FIVE times the games. It broadens the ideas I have and the ideas I can cope with.
Illinois IHSA Top 110
A few things to remember about this list:
> Right now, most freshmen are not included, because I simply don't know of them. Please, let me know if a player has transferred, is a freshman not on this list, is not the same person on this list etc.
> It's designed to recognize the best players who are actively playing; therefore it's active players within the last year only. A big reason I don't want to list players who have not played in the last year is that I don't want somebody who was 883 in the 5th grade to come up to me and say "hey, I'm way stronger than that man."
> It's non-provisional only. Too much fluctuation and too much chance that a player is not at their accurate strength
> The list is expanding, but due to not wanting to spend too much time on it, it's a work in progress. The goal is to get to 150.
1. George Li Jr. IMSA 2374
2. David Peng Fr. New Trier 2352
3. Alex Bian Jr. Stevenson 2302
4. Jacob Furfine Fr. New Trier 2277
5. Spencer Lehmann Sr. Barrington 2202
6. Matthew Stevens So. Whitney Young 2169
7. Anshul Adve Sr. Urbana University 2154
8. Akhil Kalghatgi So. Whitney Young 2133
9. Daniel Bronfeyn Jr. Mundelein 2130
10. Nikhil Kalghatgi So. Whitney Young 2083
11. Jack Curcio Jr. Maine South 2081
12. Rishi Narayanan So. Barrington 2074
13. Hanson Hao So. Bloomington 2042
14. Andrew Fei Jr. Dunlap 2026
15. Miranda Liu So. Stevenson 2010
16. James Wei Jr. IMSA 1902
17. Conrad Oberhaus Jr. Stevenson 1868
18. Bryce McClanahan Sr. Glenbrook South 1833
19. Abe Sun Jr. New Trier 1832
20. Tyler Tompkins Sr. Hinsdale Central 1820
21. Eric Starkman Jr. Highland Park 1803
22. Alec Feygin Sr. Glenbrook South 1789
23. Shayna Provine Jr. IMSA 1785
24. Henry Curcio Fr. Maine South 1768
24. Henry Curcio Fr. Maine South 1768
25. George McCoy Jr. Northside 1765
25. Richard Zhang So. Naperville North 1765
27. Jack Xiao So. Stevenson 1741
28. Patrick Li So. Dunlap 1739
29. Billy Hoseman So. Glenbrook South 1732
30. Jonathan Lee So. Northside 1715
31. Philip Song Jr. Naperville North 1714
32. Darek Nowak Sr. Maine South 1708
33. Omkar Prabhavalkar So. Barrington 1703
34. Cassie Parent Jr. IMSA 1702
35. Shon Shtern Sr. Glenbrook South 1698
36. Will Richards So. Wheaton North 1676
37. Rahul Dhiman Sr. Stevenson 1665
37. Nathan Yamaguchi Jr. New Trier 1665
39. Kenny Kotowsky Jr. Maine South 1655
39. Gustav Jennetten Sr. Peoria Richwoods 1655
41. Jason Drews Jr. Cary Grove 1652
42. Bethany Simos Sr. Naperville Central 1646
43. Vikram Dara So. Neuqua Valley 1634
44. Joseph Isaac Jr. Naperville North 1632
45. Mihir Bafna Jr. Bloomington HS 1624
46. Jack Thain Jr. Charleston 1624
47. Quinn Baker Sr. Oak Park-River Forest 1618
48. Akash Mattu Sr. Naperville Central 1614
49. Alex Lim Jr. Neuqua Valley 1610
50. Harrison Loh Sr. Naperville North 1603
51. Patrick Kut Jr. Andrew 1596
52. Monish Bhasin Sr. Naperville North 1578
53. Arda Sonmez Jr. Highland Park 1574
54. Shashank Bala So. Stevenson 1568
55. Ajay Balaraman So. Naperville North 1567
56. Shvetali Thatte Unknown Unknown 1555
57. Emma Wang So. Hinsdale Central 1554
58. Ritesh Sivakumar Jr. Naperville Central 1552
58. Mindren Lu Jr. Northside 1552
60. Austin Insley Jr. Indian Creek 1547
61. Nathan Saltzman So. Hinsdale Central 1541
62. Emily McClanahan Jr. Glenbrook South 1538
63. Kavin Lavari So. Stevenson 1537
64. Julian Liam-O'Carroll Evanston 1535
65. Isha Gani Sr. Northside 1518
66. Wesley Gizel Sr. Barrington 1504
67. Jesse Wang Sr. Naperville North 1502
68. Matthew Wong So. Lane 1491
69. Elijah Patterson Unknown Unknown 1485
70. Ricky Roman So. Whitney Young 1484
71. Matthew Kosova Sr. Northside 1477
72. Sean Insley So. Indian Creek 1472
73. Jiedong Duan Sr. Niles North 1469
74. Oliver Brady Jr. Evanston 1466
75. Nate Tracy-Amoroso Sr. Evanston 1452
76. Nick Allison Jr. Andrew 1446
77. Michael Dula Sr. Northridge Prep 1438
78. Prithiv Kumar Jr. Bloomington HS 1421
79. Georgia Wolf So. Lane 1406
79. Clayton Davis So. Normal Community West 1406
81. Matthew Kelly Jr. Northridge Prep 1396
82. Raymond Liu Jr. Rolling Meadows 1383
83. Eric Helgemo Jr. Niles north 1372
84. Matthew Tang Jr. Hinsdale Central 1351
85. Arnav Batta So. Fremd 1348
86. Joseph Harrigan Jr. Highland Park 1329
87. Perry Hoag So. Homewood-Flossmoor 1318
88. Capison Pang So. Hinsdale Central 1317
89. Alex Parkel Jr. Whitney Young 1312
90. Zach Warsh Sr. Highland Park 1294
91. Kyle Kras Fr. Andrew 1283
92. Jarun Jannak Jr. Andrew 1274
93. Ricky Nguyen Jr. Metamora 1264
94. Steffano Herrera Sr. Argo 1257
95. Daniel Hammond So. Andrew 1250
96. Prathik Kandimalla So. Barrington 1247
97. Geoff Murphy Jr. Metamora 1246
98. Nicholas Edels So. Barrington 1243
99. Micah Hill Jr. Naperville Central 1242
100. Muhammed Lotfi So. Northside 1240
101. George Polski So. Naperville North 1222
102. Shawn Smith Sr. Wheaton-Warrenville South 1221
103. Riley Wilson Sr. Evanston 1217
103. Anthony Mu So. Fremd 1217
105. Anshu Indusekar Jr. Neuqua Valley 1216
106. Patrick Tippens Jr. Highland Park 1214
107. Branden Wagner Jr. Glenbrook South 1201
108. Rebekah Nielsen So. Normal Community West 1180
109. Nathan Frommelt Jr. Neuqua Valley 1173
110. Jack Wakeman So. Wheaton North 1171
Where did the inspiration for this list come from? When my son's Andrew team got swept by Evanston. They sat down with a record of 1.5-0.5 and they had no idea what they were getting themselves in to. I knew; all too well. I was a strong 1500 (back when that was a high rating) as a senior in 1996 who just didn't have a team around me. I watched my Bloom Trail team go up in flames against the schools from areas where there is a far greater commitment to chess than there is in the south burbs.
The Evanston loss lit a fire in three of the players that has inspired me to give them everything I have as a coach. I thought, "gee, wouldn't it be great if there was a list where a team could look at the ratings and say "wow, this team we are about to play is pretty good"..? I understand that there are several very strong teams that just aren't in to rated chess, but for those that are, you have a guideline of where you need to be.
For example, take that round 3 matchup of Evanston v. Andrew. Evanston went 1800, 1500, 1400 for like four boards, and then had players at 7 and 8 who had not played rated in some time. Andrew had one rated player, my son Daniel (996) at board 3. Here would be the matchup today at the top:
Evanston v. Andrew
Board 1 Julian O'Carroll 1535 v. Patrick Kut 1596
Board 2 Oliver Brady 1466 v. Nick Allison 1446
Board 3 Nate Tracy-Amoroso 1452 v. Kyle Kras 1283
Board 4 Riley Wilson 1217 v. Jarun Jannak 1274
Board 5 Dhruva Molnakhar 923 v. Daniel Hammond 1250
Now, they could have a super freshman coming in, someone could be vastly underrated (like Nick and Kyle still are) and I could be missing someone, but when Tinley Park Chess players ask me, "would we still be swept by Evanston," and they do ask me that, I can say, "not only would you probably not be swept, and you should know, without Holzmueller, they may not finish 7th this year, BUT you might even win, and here's the evidence.
That was what Arpad Elo gave us... an imperfect way to sort of roughly measure what is likely to happen. Ratings don't win games any more than the much greater number of future NFL players on the 03 Miami Hurricanes failed to beat Ohio State, but they do give you a rough idea of where players are at in the tournament environment.
It should be more fun to show them right before state when Patrick is in the 1700s, Nick the 1600s and Kyle and Jarun the 1400s.
The scariest part of this list is that I'm 39 years old and within 50 points of my peak. If I, at my current rating, were a high school senior, I'd only rank 18th in the state! Wow. Way to go scholastic players.
General chess tip of the week
Learn to know when your opponent's "threat" is not really a threat, so you can ignore it!
This past weekend, I had a scenario against a 1700 who beat me with a very nice sacrifice at the Chicago Open in 2015. I grabbed a pawn early with my queen on the a-file (I was white), and he began to line up for a kingside threat on my castled king on the h-file. He brought his rook to h6 and his queen to h4 made intuitive sense at first from my perspective (the game notation has been misplaced). However, with my queen on e5, I saw that if I simply moved my knight away from f4 and my queen would be defending h2. So I played a simple rook move. I turned out that an engine had black substantially worse the more he pursued this dead end "attack".. I blew the middle of the board up and eventually HIS king was on h5 trapped.
AND, it turned out that had I responded to his non-threats, I would have made myself worse.
Learn to see when your opponents perceived threat is not a real threat so that you can ignore it and get on with your own objectives!
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