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.
Meet Ray Robson
Ray is thirteen years old and lives in Florida. He started playing chess at the age of three and is currently one of the most promising young players in the United States. Two weeks ago he tied for first place in the 2008 Florida State Championship with Grandmaster Julio Becerra. Ray is in the 7th Grade and wants to become a professional chess player. I am sure that he will make his goal.
September 14, 2008
The Miami Chess Open tournament is being held this weekend. There are nine games to play and first prize is $10,000. After five rounds Ray was the only player with a perfect score of 5 wins and no losses.
Today after 7 rounds he is still in the lead by a full point with a score of 6.5 out of 7 games. There are two rounds to go and he is playing very well. Behind Ray are Grandmasters Alexander Shabalov (18th place) and Darmen Sadvakasov of Kazakhstan (3rd place). Ray is in front of a total of 7 Grandmasters and 20 International Masters!
IM Joshua Friedel
IM Ray Robson
In round 2 this game continued -
20. e5 dxe5
21. h3 Nf2
22. Bxf2 Bxf2
23. fxg5 hxg5
24. Rhf1 Bxg3
25. Rxf6 Bf4
and Ray went on to win the game.
Ray wins the 2008 Miami Chess Open!
Both Ray and Darmen Sadvakasov finished with a score of 7-2. Ray went on to win the quick chess playoff game with Darmen. Congratulations Ray!
Ray Robson
Darmen Sadvakasov
Magnus Carlsen
Rated number 1 in the world!
With a recent win at the very strong tournament in Bilbao Magnus Carlsen has reached the number one ranking in the world. His rating is currently 2791.3 (less than 1/2 point in front of Viswanathan Anand of India). This is an amazing feat for a 17 year old. Congratulations Magnus!
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!
