Laura Morales (one of the top female talents from Mexico City), Magdalena Matyszewska (a very talented player from Poland) and WIM Luciana Morales (member of the 2006 Peruvian Women’s Olympiad Team) won scholarships to Texas Tech University! Thank you Texas Tech for supporting this event!
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Hello Susan, my comment doesnt have to do with the topic, but I’d like to ask your professional advice. My elo is about 1500. I dont play tournaments, mostly just the net. How can I improve without going to GrandMaster Univeristy lol? I want to get better at tactics so I play 5 minute blitz and I think it has helped. When I play longer games my knowledge of theory hampers me. For instance I like to play with WHT Ruy Lopez and English mostly and with BLK Sicilian and KID but will try anything but French lol. When I play Sicilian I look to play the best move but opponents with more theorectical knowledge can create lethal attacks and traps. Ruy Lopez I do pretty well considering my level. English I like to play because you can gain space and develope an attack later on. When I play KID after the opening moves alot of time I have trouble on my Q side of not knowing what to do. But in most anything I play I tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. It seems to me the players with talent for this game have a natural gift of understanding. I know young players 16 and 17 years old who after two years of playing progress very rapidly compared to my 49 years of futile attempts LOL. A great example of gifted is you. For at 4 years of age you already had insight into the game that I think cant be taught. I love this game so I will continue to play but I would like to continously improve. My goal is to be 2000 elo expert. I welcome any suggestions.
Thank you TFK (1 of your biggest fans!)
P.S. sorry for such a lengthy comment ; )
Out of curiousity, how were the recipients of the scholarships determined? I noticed that the top two finishers in the U21 section were not included among the scholarship winners.
Aren’t there any American women in the list of winners ?
“Aren’t there any American women in the list of winners ?”
Someone has to teach them to play competitive chess first. There are almost no good trainers for this in the US.
Where can I see a list of US trainers? I want to choose one for live training, but don’t know from where?? I emailed USCF many months ago, but there was no reply! Now I see this blog, maybe some more responsible people in here.
Love me for my moves on the board, says chess queen
By Raymond Keene and Rajeev Syal
BEFORE this week Arianne Caoili was a beautiful but little-known competitor on the international chess circuit. That all changed when The Times broke the story of how a British grandmaster attacked the Armenian World No 3 when he was dancing with her in an Italian nightclub during a tournament.
Now, in her first interview since the incident on the dancefloor of Hiroshima Mon Amour in Turin, Ms Caoili, 19, is keen to address a few misconceptions. Despite being described around the world as the “Kournikova of Chess”, she said: “I want to be known as the Sharapova of chess, rather than the Kournikova — known for both my brains and beauty.”
She loves the game because it is “fighting for the mere pleasure of fighting”, adding: “There is nothing like arguing for the mere pleasure of arguing. It is my weakness to sometimes start a random friction between myself and another to test reactions, psyche, get amused, or simply to relax.”
Ms Caoili started playing aged 5 and took up chess seriously when she went to live in the Philippines, her father’s home. At 14, when she stopped playing to concentrate on schoolwork, she was an international master who had competed in Europe, Canada and the United States.
She recently took up the game again and now hopes to study law and international relations at Oxford University or in Germany. But her desire to be taken seriously has not stopped her throwing herself into modelling and taking up singing. “I am currently recording songs for my first album,” she said. “And I am looking for a recording company.”
Ms Caoili’s website lists her personal interests as, among other things, “philosophy”, “getting up to no good” and “fine food (and fine boys)”.
It was apparently a fondness for Latin dancing that started the trouble during the Chess Olympiad in Turin last week. Ms Caoili claims that she told Danny Gormally, the England No 10, that she wanted to be “just friends”. Later that evening, she began doing the salsa with Levon Aronian, Armenia’s star player, when there was a commotion. “Suddenly there was a scrum and Lev was on the floor,” she said. “Fortunately Lev was not badly hurt. Danny might have punched the wrong chessplayer, since I was supposed to be with the young German grandmaster Naiditsch that evening. He was my official escort,” she added.
She believes that Mr Gormally, 30, whom she has known for years, may have been drinking.The next morning the England team captain apologised to the leader of the Armenian delegation, who is also the country’s Defence Minister. Mr Aronian enjoys star status at home, where chess is a national obsession, similar to David Beckham in England. He also accepted the apology.
However, when Mr Gormally went out for coffee, he was apparently attacked by Armenian chess players bent on revenge. He returned home before the tournament’s end.
Friends of Mr Gormally said that he had developed an e-mail relationship with Ms Caoili. On her website is a message from a Daniel Gormally quoting the Stevie Wonder song My Cherie Amour. It says: “mycherieamour, lovely as a summers day, mycherie amour, distant as the milky way . . . oh sh** where was i? lol. for my good friend ari may the sun always guide her to her destination.”
Ms Caoili declined to say whether she was in a relationship with Mr Aronian. However, her mother, Annette Caoili, told an Australian newspaper that they were romantically involved.
Mr Gormally declined to return calls or requests for an interview.
“Aren’t there any American women in the list of winners ?”
Well, if I can indulge in a bit of parental boasting, I would like to point out that home-grown Abby Marshall finished second in the Under 21 section with a score of 5 out of 6. Abby turned 15 just four days before the age cut-off date so she had to play in the top section. She beat the WIM from Peru as well as the player from Mexico. Her only loss came against WIM Batchimeg Tuvshingtugs.
“Well, if I can indulge in a bit of parental boasting, I would like to point out that home-grown Abby Marshall finished second in the Under 21 section with a score of 5 out of 6. Abby turned 15 just four days before the age cut-off date so she had to play in the top section. She beat the WIM from Peru as well as the player from Mexico. Her only loss came against WIM Batchimeg Tuvshingtugs.”
Are you Abby Marshall’s mom or dad? Oh my gosh, if you are, say hi to her from “kelsey, the crazy bughouse girl!” Thanks!
The scholarship winners were determined, I think, by the people that were good scholars in school, and good at chess, but I’m not sure.
Scholarship winners were determined after potential candidates and their parents were interviewed. The potential candidates had to be interested in attending Texas Tech and had to be solid scholars. Students that had scholarship offers in hand from other major chess programs such as UMBC or UTD were excluded out of consideration for those schools. This is why offers did not go to the two top winners. However, this situation was explained to those students. Of course it is ultimately up to the student which school they choose to attend and we will consider any student for scholarship should they show interest in attending the university.
A small note to add to determing the scholarship winners. The candidates had to be either in college or within few years of attending college.