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I spoke with an organizer recently who told me that OTB chess for children is booming while OTB chess for adults “is a dying industry”. Due to internet chess. He always makes money on scholastic chess events and always looses money on adult chess events.
Is this the true state of affairs in the US?
Please let your hair grow long again, Susan!! :)))
You are so pretty with long hair!
Your Son Tommy seems to really love chess. You have said in the past that he goes to your club almost everyday. My questions are these how did Tommy start out getting interested in chess, observing you lecturing or playing? Also does Tommy have any personal goals already at his tender young age on what he’d like to achieve in chess?
hi Susan you look happy on that coat of yours, where did you buy it?
i have just tuned so i dont know who won the linares yet? is it over? -dont answer-.
i llooked a while ago the topalov morozev game, i was just thinking stuff-…..
anyway was Kasparov in his final years of chess player gave different type of performances? or was he a true champion?
i mean was he reallly the rated player he was or not?
im sorry i think im not making sense, its just that lately im a little dissappointed in chess, specially how they handle it.
ok bye for now.
i want to see who won the linares, probably anand, and yes you were right, carlsen is the REAL DEAL.
p.d. any chance of sending me the game of your siste judit vs anand 1990???
this is where u can send it to by the way, jóubliée.
jcalekhine@yahoo.com.mx
thanks, bye.
Ok Susan Im on a roll. Id like to ask you this interesting question. The scenario is this, you are playing for The World Championship of both men and women. In the whole history of chess what 3 World Champion GM’s would you like to compete against and why?
Thanks John
[Event “Munich”]
[Site “Munich”]
[Date “1991.??.??”]
[EventDate “?”]
[Round “?”]
[Result “1-0”]
[White “Judit Polgar”]
[Black “Viswanathan Anand”]
[ECO “C83”]
[WhiteElo “?”]
[BlackElo “?”]
[PlyCount “130”]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3
d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.c3 Be7 10.Nbd2 Qd7 11.Bc2 Nxd2 12.Qxd2 Bg4
13.Qf4 Bxf3 14.Bf5 Qd8 15.Qxf3 Nxe5 16.Qe2 Qd6 17.Re1 Nc6
18.Bg5 Kf8 19.Be3 g6 20.Bh6+ Kg8 21.Qg4 Qf6 22.Bc2 Bf8 23.Bg5
Qd6 24.Bf4 Qd8 25.Rad1 Na5 26.h4 c6 27.h5 Nc4 28.hxg6 hxg6
29.b3 Nd6 30.Bxg6 fxg6 31.Re6 Rh7 32.Bxd6 Bg7 33.Rde1 Rh6
34.g3 Qd7 35.Bf4 g5 36.Bxg5 Rg6 37.Qf5 Rxe6 38.Qxe6+ Qxe6
39.Rxe6 Rc8 40.Bd2 Kf7 41.Re1 c5 42.Kf1 c4 43.bxc4 Rxc4 44.Rc1
Ke6 45.Ke2 d4 46.cxd4 Bxd4 47.Be3 Bb2 48.Rxc4 bxc4 49.Kd2 Bg7
50.Kc2 Kd5 51.f3 Bf6 52.Bh6 Be5 53.g4 Bd4 54.Bd2 Bb6 55.Bc1
Ba5 56.a4 Ke5 57.Bg5 Kd5 58.Bd2 Bc7 59.Bc3 Bf4 60.Bf6 Bg3
61.g5 Bh4 62.Bd8 Bf2 63.g6 Bd4 64.Ba5 Ke6 65.Bc3 1-0
Susan, I’ve sometimes wondered who’s your favorite grandmaster among the pre-Botvinnik crowd. (That is, before Botvinnik won the crown at The Hague in 1948.) Whom do you admire most as a player and a writer?
jb.
tks for that game Gabor, ill look into it when i get the chance,
Sure, no problem.
Leko won, so your final ranking is correct.
Gabor
I second the question by Mr. Le Moine regarding the rise of scholastic chess at the expense of adult chess.
I am the Clearinghouse chair for Northern California and as such I interact regularly with organizers. I also play in many tournaments and can report based on first hand experiences.
My experience is that local adult tournaments often are just glorified scholastic events with a few remaining adult players. Most events in Northern California attract at least 40% kids. At some events, the kids outnumber the adults by 2:1 or 3:1. Mind you, these tournaments are open to adults and children, but the children dominate.
Why is this so? I am sad to report that the success of scholastic chess in our area has forced many adult players into premature retirement. The flow of rating points is clearly from adults to the children. Said another way, playing tournaments is a losing proposition for all but a few improving adult players. I think many adult players who were active in the 1990s have since given up and moved on to other activities. Even the scholastic players from 5-10 years ago who have gone off to college are struggling to keep up with the new kids on the block.
Is this phenomenon a good thing? It must be nice to see kids perform so well. As a coach of many of the top local children, I admit to being guilty in supporting the trend. However, if the pool of adult players dwindles even more, then the kids have nobody to look up to and to measure themselves. They need role models to teach them the etiquette of chess tournaments, e.g. how to lose with grace. Another problem is the future lack of teachers for the next generation.
What can the USCF do? Are adult-only tournaments in our future? Would an organizer risk running an adult-only event that will certainly draw less players than if it was open to kids as well?
Beautiful photo!
Nice commentary on the last Linares game to finish.
OK. Tough question: Is there an economical way to address the cheating problem? This puts OTB chess at risk.
Anonymous Frank
The 23rd Cappele la Grande tournament in France is now over. Out of 600 players, roughly 150 held the GM or IM title. GM Yue Wang took first on tiebreaks with a score of 7.0/9, good for a performance rating of 2784. Also tied at 7.0 were GMs Evgenij Miroshnichenko, Vugar Gashimov, David Arutinian, Yuri Drozdovskij and Vasily Yemelin.
Our local hero, IM David Pruess, drew his final game against GM Czaba Balogh to finish with 5.5/9. This was enough for David’s second Grandmaster norm! His performance rating of 2611 placed him on the top of the 5.5 point group. David defeated four GMs, lost to three GMs and drew the final round.
Way to go David! His colleague from the East Bay Chess Club in Oakland, CA, IM Josh Friedel, finished with 5.0/9. Both David and Josh are now just one norm away from the Grandmaster title!
NM Michael Aigner
Since we can touch any topic we want:
I agree with a previous poster, try to let your hair grow long again, and while doing it, get rid of the blond hair.
Not that you do not look nice with the blond hair, but darker is more natural and even nicer.
About scholastic chess(answer to Jack Le Moine and Michael Aigner):
The rise of children is impossible to stop!
I am rated 2150(expert)and I give one hour of chess class at the Community center each friday.
The class is open to everyone,but I have only 5 adults and about 20 children…the children play more games,ask more questions and many times they say me “please,I am going to play with this friend,explain us what we are doing wrong”.
Probably my children (and most of the children with a chess teacher) are going to crush the usual adult fan(rated 1500-1800)in the next future.
But that is not bad.We(and you) are improving and the level increses.That is good for us and good for you.
And do not care about if a player rated 1800 or less is very lazy to improve(reading good books) or very proud to lose with a kid and prefers other activities and quit chess:they are not important
the kids are important! and our future as sport is in their little hands.
Look at me,I am very proud being the first board of my team(10 players),but if one day,in the future, I must defend the last board because my children have learnt good things and they are better than me…then I will be absolutely more proud.
Think in big and you will be big!
Jose, let me explain what I’m concerned about. I live near a major US city (Atlanta, GA). There’s maybe one tournament per month here. There’s lots of tournaments but they’re for children only. I don’t mind playing children and loosing to them. Trouble is that since I’m an adult, I’m not allowed to play.
The organizers dare not organize open tournaments because most of the players are kids and they go to the kids only events. So we’re stuck.
So why don’t you (and/or your chessclub) organize some events yourself, Jack?
Just an idea…
One of he things that annoys me about this blog is when Susan posts some trivia question like yesterday’s “Who is this Man” and then does not give the answer. I guess we will never know.
Then go to the USCF forum and hang out with Sam Sloan. He gives you a lot of answers. He tells you what you want to hear. Hit to road Jack!
Susan,
I found this cool program you might like for your blog. It is free, open source software. I do not know the author. I am just trying to be helpful.
The software is simple to use and will create a chess board diagram and list the moves. You can annotate them as well, if you like.
On the page below there are screenshots and published html sample games, that are playable.
http://pgn2web.sourceforge.net/index.html
ps – I enjoyed listening to you on ICC this morning. Thanks for commentating.
I have to do an event at my club soon. I will get to your questions soon.
Jack, it is the rule of this blog from the beginning that unless no one gets the right answer, there will be no answer. The idea is to make you learn, calculate, do your own research, etc.
Many people have given the proper answer. All you had to do was type that name in Google and you will see the picture of the gentleman show up. In fact, in one of the latest posts, I showed a list of 20 richest people in the world and he is #4. He is the founder of IKEA.
When I teach, I do the same. I make my students come up with their own answers. I will only give them help if they cannot get it. And some of my students include my sisters, other national and state champions. I am sorry I cannot please everybody but I am not going to change my method of teaching or sharing information.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
Okay, now I understand. Thanks, Susan.
Note to annonymous: That Sloan comment was uncalled for. Whatever I say, positive or negative, smart or stupid, I take responsibility for. And like everybody, sometimes I’m ignorant. Susan has explained herself so now I’m enlightened. Unfortunately, you are still just as anonymous as you were before – in every respect.
I like Susan’s method.
I feel it also teaches self confidence. One has to answer the question and learn to have confidence in the answer.
The American school system of questions with fixed answers does not teach one how to think nor give one the confidence in their own answers. The world is much more complex then the simple idea of questions with fixed answers.
Self learning is very effective. With the internet today, I can find many answers very quickly.
I agree with fpawns’ post – best summary of the phenomenon that I have seen written. Firstly, I am an enthusiastic supporter of scholastic chess. With the continued work of dedicated leaders, it will continue to thrive, and that’s a good thing. But the decline of adult OTB chess is sad to see. I don’t blame scholastic chess, but the fact is that a tournament with a large percentage of scholastic players creates a “kids culture”, and that turns adults away. And in answer to the poster who suggested that people should organize more adult tournaments .. well, that is happening, sort of. There is a lot of serious OTB chess being played by adults in private homes, at bookstores, etc. These games never show up in USCF stats, because they aren’t rated.
Interesting discussion re: scholastic vs. adult tournaments. I took my daughter and two of her friends to a mixed (adult/child) tournament recently and I definitely sensed a certain amount of hostility on both sides. Adults were heard to grumble that they didn’t want to play kids because kids were “underrated.” On the other hand, one of my daughter’s friends, a strong scholastic player rated over 1400, played an “unrated” adult player in the first round, lost and was really upset about it. It turns out that the unrated player was someone who used to be “master” strength and gave up playing but was just getting back into it.
When Laszlo wrote “Chess: 5334 Problems”, did he happen to keep a .pgn or .cbv of (m)any of the puzzles, etc? Is such a file available for sharing, for users whom can prove that they’d purchased the book?
Yes there is a pgn version. I have one. I don’t know how legal it is but I followed the instructions provided to me that required me to tear out the title page in my book and send it before the file was sent to me.
She looks gorgeous!!