Update: Rocky Mountain Team Challenge

The match between Colorado and New Mexico will be held on May 22nd in Manitou Springs (just outside of Colorado Springs, CO) at the Masonic Lodge.

As previously stated, the team challenge will feature 7 boards per team.

Board 1: State Champion (We are using NM Open, Colorado is using Colorado Closed)
Board 2: Scholastic Champion (Denker Rep - decided at Scholastic Closed)
Board 3: Class A Champion (1800-1999)
Board 4: Class B Champion (1600-1799)
Board 5: Class C Champion (1400-1599)
Board 6: Class D Champion (1200-1399)
Board 7: Class E & Below Champion (U1200)

Boards 3-7 will be decided by a class championship tournament to be held in March (date based on space availability - Dante Archuleta is working on finding space at UNM). In the event a person declines their position, the invitation will be extended to the next place finisher in the appropriate division.

Time Control will be G/90 + 30 second incriment. This will allow games to be played with minimal time scrambe and will also ensure that games are 100% recorded.

There will also be additional side events. On Sat. May 22nd, there will be a G/85+5 second delay 4 round swiss; on Sunday - Open Event: G/29 Super Sunday Tournament. 6-rounds, G/29 time control, no delay. $12 entry fee, $9 for juniors, seniors, unrateds. Rounds will run at 930am, 1045am, 1230pm, 145pm, 3pm, 415pm.

The Saturday event will be nice for those who want to travel with the team and play in a new environment. The Sunday event would provide an extra day of chess for those making the trip who want added incentive. Regardless, it should be a fun weekend of chess.

Additionally, the colorado contingent is working on securing a block of rooms at a discounted rate for this weekend.

Winners of Pawns and Pauper Action Tournament

1st (tie) - Leroy Quintana & Chad Schneider 4.5/5
3rd - Hector Flores 4/5
U1500 (tie) - Derek Garcia, Lin Wang, Preston Herrington & Albert Kwong 3/5
U1100 - Gabriel Maestas 3/5

USCF crosstable and rating results

Congrats to all of the winners and thanks again to everyone who played!

Baba's Bagels

Haven't played in the Baba's tournaments yet, but had a bagel sandwich there today and it was delicious. I look forward to playing in the November/December tournaments.

The Pawns and the Pauper (Entry List)

Entries received for the November 7th Action tournament, ratings as of supplement:

Chad Schneider 1912
Hector Flores 1781
Sam Dooley 1777
Jim Johnston 1734
Gabe Ewing 1728
Leroy Quintana 1700
Holly Mc Roberts 1608
Rick Lass 1573
Justin Gomez 1549
Robert Ryan 1546
Albert Kwong 1477
Preston Herrington 1475
Lin Wang 1450
Derek Garcia 1423
Don Coppock 1347
Timothy Tran 1118
Chris Hyde 1118
Carl Stein 1085
Noah Parks 1085
Gabriel Maestes 1083
Joe Schrader 1070
Gilbert Quintana 947
Matija Barrett UNR
Samantha Barrett UNR
Nicholas Barrett UNR
Tyler Barrett UNR
Rafael Barrett UNR

Date Correction

Please note that the tournament originally posted as January 3rd should actually be January 2nd. We have made the change on the website and are making the change on the NMCO website. Sorry about the confusion, Chad.

2010 Corus Line-up

Here is the 2010 Corus Line-up. I really think it is an interesting field with relatively younger (Caruana-17) and older players (Short-43) represented. There is one American in each section; two Americans in the "A" group, if you count American born and raised Caruana (who won B group last year) who currently lives in and plays for Italy. Notably missing is Gata Kamsky who finished middle of the pack at this tournament last year and is coming off of a World Championship (and US Championship) run that fell short. Feel free to post your predictions in the comments section below. I think Carlsen wins the top section with Nakamura getting 6.5/14. My not-so-bold prediction is that Peter Leko gets more than 8 draws.

In the B group, I like Naiditsch to win, with Akobian getting 7/14. I hope I am not being overly optimistic about Akobian as he has not had many tournaments of this stature on his resume.

A Group
Viswanathan Anand IND 2788
Magnus Carlsen NOR 2772
Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2772
Peter Leko HUN 2762
Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2756
Hikaru Nakamura USA 2735
Alexei Shirov ESP 2730
Sergey Karjakin RUS 2722
Leinier Dominguez Perez CUB 2719
Nigel Short ENG 2706
Sergey Tiviakov NED 2670
Fabiano Caruana ITA 2662
Loek van Wely NED 2650
Jan Smeets NED 2642

B Group
Ni Hua CHN 2692
Arkadij Naiditsch GER 2685
Emil Sutovsky ISR 2676
Pentala Harikrishna IND2673
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu ROM 2664
Wesley So PHI 2644
Varuzhan Akobian USA 2637
David Howell ENG 2624
Parimarjan Negi IND 2615
Tomi Nyback FIN 2615
Erwin l'Ami NED 2606
Dimitri Reinderman NED 2572
Anish Giri NED 2552
Anna Muzychuk SLO 2533

New Mexico Open Winners

For those of you that weren't there, 4 of us tied for the NM Championship!

Chad Schneider
Lior Lapid
Douglas Thigpen
Silas Perry

I think that one of the best stories comes from a frequent WKCC player, Carl Stein. Carl, rated 1085 coming into the tournament, finished with 3.5 out of 5 in the U1800 section! I believe he racked up over 2000 upset points. I hope that everyone congratulates Carl next time they see him!

Also, congratulations to Dante Archuleta for having the (misguided) courage to play 1. h4 against me in round 2. In all fairness, he played a very tough game after move 1.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the November 7th tournament (the Pawns and the Pauper). Also, if I have the in the next month I will annotate my games from the NM Open.

Finally, I appreciate the gratitude of NMCO for the service award that Scott and I received for the WKCC. It was an honor, but I belive I speak for the both of us when I say that we do not host for accolades and are happy that the tournaments have been such a success. Regardless, thank you, we appreciate your support. As we've said, we'll keep hosting if you keep coming.

Best Regards,
Chad Schneider