Cleveland Chess is designed to promote chess in the Greater Cleveland area and throughout all of Ohio. Our Scholastic League welcomes any students currently in grades K-8 to participate.
Profile of the Month
Grandmaster
Magnus Carlsen
Magnus Øen Carlsen was born on November 30, 1990 in Tønsberg, Norway. The Washington Post described Magnus as the "Mozart of chess". In 2004, at the age of thirteen, he defeated former world champion Anatoly Karpov and the next day he drew with former world champion Garry Kasparov.
World Champion
Anatoly Karpov
World Champion
Garry Kasparov
Currently Magnus' chess rating is 2765, ranking him 5th in the world. He continues to rise among the world's elite chess players and his style and tactics are quite impressive. Here is the score from one of his games that won a brilliancy prize.
Carlsen - Ernst
Wijk Aan Zee 2004
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bf4 Ngf6 12.0-0-0 Be7 13.Ne4 Qa5 14.Kb1 0-0 15.Nxf6+ Nxf6 16.Ne5 Rad8 17.Qe2 c5 18.Ng6!
...fxg6 19.Qxe6+ Kh8 20.hxg6! Ng8 21.Bxh6! gxh6 22.Rxh6+ Nxh6 23.Qxe7 Nf7 24.gxf7! Kg7 25.Rd3 Rd6 26.Rg3+ Rg6 27.Qe5+ Kxf7 28.Qf5+ Rf6 29.Qd7# 1-0
Magnus: And I was not at all happy with my 0.5-1.5 score against Kasparov in the rapid chess game. I should have won as White. As Black I played like a child!
Question: Do you cry or feel depressed when you make a bad move and as a result lose a game after five or six hours of play?
Magnus: Yeah, I can still get really angry with myself when I lose! But mostly it passes quickly.
Update - June 17, 2008
With just 2 rounds to go in the Foros tournament in Ukraine, Magnus is leading the field by 1.5 games. He is within 6 rating points of being the number one ranked player in the world! Currently he is 2793. This is a remarkable feat for a 17 year old boy from Norway!
Cleveland Open 2008
Returning after a long absence, The Cleveland Open was held at the Sheraton Hopkins Hotel June 13-15. Nearly 200 players entered (including 5 grandmasters). GM Erenburg from Maryland and GM Mitkov from Illinois tied for first place. Four time U.S. Champion Alex Shabalov stumbled in the last round to finish in a 7 way tie for third.
The Playing Hall