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USCL: Week 2
After last week's setback, New Jersey Knockouts bounced back with a dramatic win over last year's champions, New York Knights. GM Boris Gulko was back to his old USCL form with victory over GM Kacheishvilli, but it was FM Victor Shen (who beat Alex Getz) that sealed the win for NJKO's.
Other impressive scores from last Monday includes perennial playoff favorites, San Francisco Mechanics, getting off to a perfect 2-0 start with a big win over rivals the Miami Sharks.
Wednesday's featured match-up has to be last season's MVP, GM Hikaru Nakamura, returning from his European sojourn to make his debut tonight for the St. Louis Archbishops, who take on the Chicago Blaze. Another key matchup is Boston Blitz facing Philadelphia Inventors.
All of the week two tesults can be found below. Go to USCL for all the full analysis, standings and MVP performances. Click on one of the team logos below to go straight to their homepage.
USCL matches are broadcast live only on ICC every Monday and Wednesday, starting from 7pm ET. Some of the top stars you will be able to watch in action throughout the new USCL season include: Hikaru Nakamura, Yury Shulman, Sergey Erenburg, Larry Christiansen, Alexander Stripunsky, Joel Benjamin, Boris Gulko, Alex Lenderman, Pascal Charbonneau, John Fedorowicz, Irina Krush, Alejandro Ramirez, Melikset Khachiyan, Julio Becerra, Patrick Wolff, Josh Friedel, Varuzhan Akobian and Gregory Serper!
So what are you waiting for? Come join ICC now by clicking here for all the best action from the new USCL season.
Monday, August 30th
1. New Jersey Knockouts vs New York Knights
2.5-1.5
2. Carolina Cobras vs New England Nor'easters
1.5-2.5
3. Miami Sharks vs San Francisco Mechanics
1-3
4. Arizona Scorpions vs Seattle Sluggers
3-1
Wednesday, September 1st
5. Boston Blitz vs Philadelphia Inventors
7:00 PM ET
6. Baltimore Kingfishers vs Manhattan Applesauce
7:15 PM ET
7. Chicago Blaze vs St. Louis Arch Bishops
8:00 PM ET
8. Los Angeles Vibe vs Dallas Destiny
9:00 PM ET
Carlsen Freezes Out Anand
Magnus Carlsen is now definitely the biggest thing to come out of Norway since pop trio A-ha spawned worldwide hits during the mid-1980s. But in a country with next to no formal chess tradition, there definitely seems to be a chess boom brewing among the fjords on the back of Magnus mania.
The Arctic city of Tromsø has now become the favored candidate city to host the 2014 Chess Olympiad. And more tournaments are springing up with sponsors keen to support, not only Carlsen, but also the game in general.
The latest is the Arctic Securities Chess Stars, which ran 28th-30th August, in Kristiansund. It featured an impressive cast of Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Judit Polgar and Jon Ludvig Hammer - who all did battle in a rapid (20 min + 10 sec), two-stage event, with a double round robin between the quartette followed by the top two going forward to the final.
Everyone kept to the script of the dream final being between world No.1 Carlsen and World Champion Anand, as both top-scored ahead of Polgar and Hammer. And in perhaps a portent of things to come, Carlsen beat Anand, 1.5-0.5, to take the Arctic Securities Chess Stars title. There was also additional joy for Norway with Hammer beating Polgar to take third place.
While ICC covered the games live on our servers, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation website http://bit.ly/chessnrk had unparalleled, live web-tv coverage of all the games throughout. Go check the amazing video content there.
Nakamura Blitz's his Way To Amber
There was a dramatic conclusion to the end of the NH Tournament in Amsterdam, as the Experience team rallied with a sensational last round defeat of the Rising Stars by a score of 3.5-1.5 - a wonderful comeback, but they couldn't prevent the young guns from overall victory in the contest by 26-24.
However all the drama took place at the top of the scores for the Rising Stars team, as Anish Giri lost his game to Peter Heine Nielsen, and then had the imposing task of facing a blitz tiebreak playoff against Hikaru Nakamura - whose legendary ICC blitz reputation was confirmed for all to see as the American easily won both games to snatch his ticket for a debut appearance at next year's 20th edition of the Amber Tournament blindfold and rapid elite extravaganza in Nice, France.
Mig Greengard and GM Miguel Illescas watched all the drama unfold live here on ICC Chess.FM. And after recording his GOTD (Nielsen-Giri, see below) Illescas stayed on the air to give us a blow-by-blow account of the bruising blitz playoff. Checkout below also the video coverage from Macauely Peterson and Peter Doggers of the final round and the blitz playoff.
Individual and Team scores (FINAL STANDINGS)
Rising Stars
vs.
Experience
Giri
6
Gelfand
7
Nakamura
6
Svidler
5.5
Caruana
5
Nielsen
4
Howell
4.5
van Wely
4
So
4.5
Ljubojevic
3.5
26
24
Chess.FM have on offer all of our Game of the Day wrap-up videos below from the NH Tournament free for you to view - so even if you are not an ICC member, YOU can also play and win the New In Chess trivia contest, where each day a lucky winner will receive a one-year subscription to the world's best chess magazine.
'New in Chess' TRIVIA! ICC and New in Chess present the 'New in Chess' Trivia Contest, where each day an ICC member will win a 1 year subscription to NIC!
Game of the Day Trivia! ICC presents the Game of the Day e-mail trivia, where each day an ICC member will win a 1 and 6 month membership extension.
In his weekly Gambit Guide series on ICC, Boris investigates gambits old and new and show that, while some may not be actively played on the grandmaster circuit these days, they are all exciting to play and at the same time instructive as they teach us all about natural development of the pieces and tactics in chess. GM Boris Alterman has an official blog where, among other things, he'll be discussing some of his choices for his Gambit Guide.
In the venerable Bishop's Opening, the Lewis Gambit, 1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Bc5 3 d4!?, named after the 19th-century top English player William Lewis, is witnessing a renaissance of sorts with many new publications, such as Dangerous Weapons 1 e4 e5, and a recent volume of Secrets of Opening Surprises, showing that it is still a force to reckon with even in today's modern game.
One of the reasons for this is because it offers some tricky transpositions, chiefly to the Max Lange Gambit - with 1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Bc5 3 d4 Bxd4 4 Nf3 Nc6 5 Nxd4 Nxd4 6 O-O - and it's not clear that Black can avoid getting into known lines. And also getting in on the "exhumation" of the Lewis Gambit is GM Boris Alterman, who takes a closer look at all those transposition tricks in a new series of his Gambit Guide for ICC Chess.FM.
. The Alterman Gambit Guide: White Gambits - Boris Alterman
440 pages, paperback
The Alterman Gambit Guide: White Gambits is an instructional manual for improving players. Sharpen your tactics and learn to play dynamic attacking chess while studying the most entertaining gambits Chess has to offer.
GM Larry Christiansen's "Attack with LarryC"
Sep 01, 2010
GM Larry Christiansen is a three-time U.S. Champion and one of the most dangerous and respected attacking players of his generation. He is a feared competitor and attacker who authored two popular books that showcase his aggressive
style: Storming
the Barricades and Rocking
the Ramparts. Each week on the show, Larry
will feature various attacking motifs and themes and showing
you how best to play for mate.
The Orthodox Defense to the Queen's Gambit (1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Nf3 Be7) is an extremely resilient system for Black, and a solid favorite of not just your average club player but also many of the world's top stars. For many years, the two main lines against it used to be 5 Bg5 or 5 cxd5. But in the early 1970s, Hungary's Lajos Portisch revived an old favorite of English player Joseph Blackburne (1841-1924) of 5 Bf4 with some pioneering new ideas in it.
Players such as Kasparov, Karpov, Kramnik, Fischer, Carlsen, Topalov and Ivanchuk added it to their repertoire. And in a new series of Ronen's Opening Survey for Chess.FM, our resident openings expert, GM Ronen Har-Zvi, takes a closer look at the many attractions to the Queen's Gambit Declined with 5 Bf4 and why you also should be adding it to your repertoire.
National Master Dan Heisman is a name that is synonymous with excellence in chess coaching and teaching. Dan authors the award-winning Novice Nook column (winner of three Chess Journalists of America "Best Instruction" awards), aimed at improving adults, for chesscafe.com that are clearly written and offer very practical advice and tips on how to improve your game. More info about Dan can be found here.
In the new Improve Your Chess IV series, Dan provides instruction by reviewing amateur games played on ICC and showing where the players went wrong and how to improve.
Three-time U.S. Champion GM Joel Benjamin brings you a new show every Friday at 15:00 Server Time. Joel is regarded by many as one of the best commentators and analysts' we have in the game today -- so if you want to get ahead of the game, get ready to tune-in!
This week (Tue., Aug 25), returning to join IM John Watson on Chess Talk will be Russian/Irish Grandmaster Alexander Baburin, who was one of the first guests on the show back in November 2007.
Originally born in Gorky, Russia, in 1967, Alexander Baburin relocated with his family to Dublin, Ireland, in 1993. He is an experienced player, coach and writer on the game, and for a short spell a few years ago he was also manager and second to Alexander Morozevich.
He sells antiquarian chess books and runs his own chess school in Dublin, offering chess classes in schools. But Alexander's biggest contribution to the chess world is unquestionably his popular emailed daily chess newsletter Chess Today, a venture he started in November 2000, and to-date has reached 3576 issues.
Each week, ICC sends a newsletter to its members, featuring the most important international chess news, in addition to the main ICC online activities. The list can be found here.
All events are free to ICC members unless noted. All times are Eastern Standard Time. Add 5 hours for GMT. Add 6 hours for CET.
Thursday, September 02
00:00
Tournament All the Scheduled Tournament of the Day
00:45
Tournament Sleepless - 3 tourn. - 5 rd - 3 0
07:00
Tournament EarlyMorning - Tomato - 7 rd - 3 1
11:30
Tournament Weekday - Tomato - 5 rd - 5 0
13:00
Simul voja- in SimulBot - 30 players - OPEN
13:00
Tournament Weekday - Tomato - 5 rd - 5 0
14:15
Tournament Daily Standard - Slomato - 4 rd - 17 5
15:00
Webcast [VIDEO] - Gambit Guide with GM Boris Alterman
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WELCOME TO ICC! 
USCL: Week 2
'New in Chess' TRIVIA!
Game of the Day Trivia!
. The Alterman Gambit Guide: White Gambits - Boris Alterman
Recently Concluded:
Arctic Chess Challenge 2010
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Each week, ICC sends a newsletter to its members, featuring the most important international chess news, in addition to the main ICC online activities. The list can be found here.
Tournament All the Scheduled Tournament of the Day
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