FIDE chess comes to Massachusetts

The New England Masters Chess Tournament is scheduled for August 13-17 at the Holiday Inn in Peabody, Massachusetts. The 9 round FIDE Swiss tournament is only open to players with a FIDE rating of 2200 or higher and is designed to provide the maximum potential to obtain both Grandmaster and International Master norms.

So far, 32 players have entered including 4 GMs (Alexander Shabalov, Leonid Kritz, Eugene Perelshteyn and Nigel Davies), 11 IMs and 10 FMs. The US Chess League will be well represented with the likes of Carolina Cobra Lev Milman, San Francisco Car Fixer Josh Friedel, New York Knight Robert Hess and, the Blitz's very own, Bill Kelleher. Other notable entrants include all (?) the local three well known IMs whose last names end with the letter "o" (Ippolito, Vigorito and Rizzitano), former spammer Braden Bournival, and the lone female participant, WFM Elizabeth Vicary.

Rounds will be on Monday at 7:00 pm, then every day from Tuesday through Friday at 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm. Spectators are welcome.

Kelleher gets 9th best game of the 2006 season

The Game of the Year contest continues on at the US Chess League website. The judges have selected Kelleher-Enkhbat from the Boston Blitz's week 10 win over the Baltimore Kingfishers as the 9th best game of the year. Bill's win helped knock the 2005 Champions out of 2006 playoff contention.

The judges appreciated Kelleher's rook sacrifice which ripped open Black's kingside and led directly to a mating attack. IM Shahade also mentioned that the contest has instructional value showing clear plans of attack and defense in an isolated queen pawn position.

Those who have previously questioned WFM Vicary's role on the panel of judges will find more fodder in her comments about this game:

"This game looks similar to a dream I had last night about a horse and a real estate agent."

Game of the Week honors for Kelleher

FM Kelleher's attacking win over FM Enkhbat was selected as the US Chess League Game of the Week for Week 10.