GM Larry Christiansen Lecture and Simul Wed. 2/27!

Next week, three time US Champion GM Larry Christiansen will be discussing games from the 2008 Corus Wijk aan Zee at the Boylston Chess Club. A simul will follow the event, if we have at least 10 people.

Details:

Who: 3 time US Champion, Boston Blitz Board 1, Grandmaster Larry Christiansen

When: Feb 27th, 7:00 PM. A simul following lecture at 8:30 PM.

Where: Boylston Chess Club

240 Elm St. Suite B9

Somerville, MA

Cost: Boylston Club Members: FREE lecture; $5 simul

All others: $5 lecture, $10 simul

Don't miss this chance to hear and play Boston's premier chessplayer!

GM Christiansen visits the heartland

Natasha forwarded a few pictures from Larry's visit to The Chess Club in Kansas City.

And now, the photo you've all been waiting for...

LarryC takes on a "Porker" Platter

Larry reports that "the BBQ was delicious!"

Eat a "Porker" Platter with LarryC

Apparently that's going to be one of the highlights of GM Larry Christiansen's day long visit to The Chess Club in Kansas City, Missouri on Saturday, November 3rd.

Here are links to the details of the event and to a menu from the Smokehouse BBQ.

Do it for the kids

Sunday's Boston Globe Magazine has a lengthy article on several top scholastic players in Massachusetts, all of whom we've seen from time to time at the Boylston Chess Club. The profiled players include Andrew Wang, James Lung, Zaroug Jaleel and Winston Huang. The article also includes quotes from GM Larry Christiansen and, local MetroWest Chess Club player, Derek Slater.

At one point the author discusses the many reasons why these scholastic players often give up chess before reaching their full potential:

...there is peril in predicting whether a great young chess player will become a great adult chess player, especially in America. Chess is not a money sport here, even though there is a professional league.... There’s also the threat of puberty, which can change a young chess player’s dreams from grandmaster to girls practically overnight.

Read "Young Knights" soon, before the Boston Globe website archives it (registration may be required).

GM Christiansen gets 3rd best game of 2006

The US Chess League has awarded the 3rd best game of the 2006 season to the Boston Blitz's Larry Christiansen for his win over Carolina's IM Milman. While ranked fairly highly by the judges, I found their comments on the game somewhat tepid (other than GM "I have no memory at all" Shabalov's).

As I remember it, even the titled players in the crowd were saying that Milman's attack would play itself and that he needed only 4 or 5 straightforward moves to bring Larry to submission. Instead, it was Christiansen who unleashed the lightning strike on his opponent's King. It was an exciting game and a very worthy award winner.

Susan and the BCC

Susan Polgar has a new blog where she is posting hundreds of photographs (why she's using Blogger instead of a photo sharing site like Flickr is beyond me, but whatever). I noticed two shots which have a Boylston Chess Club connection:

1. Susan with Boston Globe chess columnist and long-time BCC member Harold Dondis
   
2. A picture from one of her chess cruises including BCC member GM Larry Christiansen
   

Herb Healy Results

The final crosstables for the 2007 BCC Herb Healy Open House have been posted in the news section of the Boylston Chess club website.

In the rated section, IM David Vigorito and Expert Joe Perl tied for 1st with perfect 4-0 records. While Vigorito didn't face a player rated over 2200 all day, Perl defeated both FM Chase and NM Shmelov. Jason Rihel also had a nice day scoring 3.5-0.5 including a draw with LM Godin and a last round win over young phenom Stuart Finney (who was undefeated after 3 rounds).

There was also a tie for first in the unrated section where GM Larry Christiansen and NM Alex Cherniack both scored 3.5 points. The two met in Round 3 and drew.

Several players claimed master scalps throughout the day including: Joe Perl (over FM Chase & NM Shmelov), Lawyer Times (over FM MacIntyre), Carey Theil (over NM Riordan), Stuart Finney (over LM Godin), David Glickman (over IM Fang), and Yogesh Raghunathan (over NM Enkin).

I can't think of anything wittty to say