By Nancy Keller Better than in-school detention, this week there was an in-school chess tournament at Coquille Valley Middle School. For kids, it gave them the chance to skip classes with a valid excuse and play for the “giant candy bar” prizes. For Coach Keller, it gave her an opportunity to test interested chess players…
Corvallis Winter Open
by Dan Dalthorp •
The Corvallis Winter Open was a hotly contested battle between 18 players, with a median rating 1611 and all players rated over 1150. Several Oregon juniors joined in fray: Calvin Parnon (9th grade, Crescent Valley HS + homeschool), Max Sun (5th grade, Hoover Elementary), David Wen (8th grade, Cheldelin MS), Matt Dalthorp (9th grade, Crescent…
Portland Area HS League, Round 6
by Dan Dalthorp •
by Ed Addis Portland Area HS League teams play one match per week against another team in the league. Wednesday night (Dec 15) they played their sixth round. Upper Division In the Upper Division first place Clackamas yielded just one draw against a depleted LaSalle team. Second place Horizon Christian lost on first board, won…
London, Final Results
by Dan Dalthorp •
The London Classic finished with Magnus Carlsen winning in style after recovering from a miserable start. He quickly and efficiently dismantled tail-ender Nigel Short’s French defense in the final round to move into clear first place. For his efforts he won a beautiful crystal trophy and a fat check for €50,000 ($67,000). It’s tough to…
London, Round 6
by Dan Dalthorp •
All games were drawn today. Kramnik-Carlsen, 1/2-1/2 Carlsen played the Chigorin defense to Kramnik’s Queen’s gambit. Kramnik gradually built up a solid positional advantage with a great supported passed pawn in the center, while Carlsen had a pair of passed pawns on the a- and b-files. As they say, “In the middle game, center pawns…
Chess Odyssey Friday Quads
by Dan Dalthorp •
Mike Terrill and Pete Prochaska had good turnout for the Friday quads this week. In the top section, Dhruva Chatterjee (7th grade, Wilsonville) beat his dad Sandip to take first place with a perfect score. Right now father and son are close to equal playing strength — but it won’t last. Middle schoolers improve rapidly.…
Chess Vision Quads
by Dan Dalthorp •
Tony Hann’s popular Chess Vision Quads are held at the Portland Chess Club every other Sunday. Last week, Clemen Deng won with a perfect score in the upper section. In the lower section, first grader Ankur Moolky mowed down all his opponents in downright scary fashion: perfect score 5/5. Watch out, Praveer, Ankur’s coming! [Praveer…
Corvallis PE+
by Dan Dalthorp •
Lisa Still hosted her 8th annual PE+ tournament on December 8. The first version in 2003 was called “PE+ Citywide” to distinguish it from a school “in-house” tournament. She soon had to drop “citywide” from the title because the event was attracting players from all over the state. This year’s event was divided into seven…
Southern League, Round 3
by Dan Dalthorp •
by Nancy Keller Round 3 of the Southern Oregon Chess League was held in Sutherlin this Saturday and once again, Coquille dominated at both the Varsity and Junior Varsity levels. Coquille did not have a single loss on any board as they played against Marshfield, Myrtle Point, Sutherlin and Oakland. Final result for Varsity: 1st…
London, Rounds 4 and 5
by Dan Dalthorp •
In the 4th round, Carlsen tried to play the English opening, but Nakamura wanted to play the Dutch. They argued about it over the board for several moves and settled on a Dutch-like English. Carlsen quietly, relentlessly, and effectively coordinated his pieces on the queenside and kept posing defensive puzzles for Nakamura to solve. At…
