Hawaii Chess Federation

Beyond the usual glory, prestige and trophies that can be won at the yearly Hawaii State Scholastic Championships, players this year have extra motivation to do well! Premier chess publishing company Chess Informant (Šahovski Informator) has generously donated over $500 worth of chess books! We will be handing out the 12 books as prizes at the Hawaii State Scholastic Championships on 3/29/14.

Based out of Belgrade, Serbia, Chess Informant periodically produces the book of the same name, as well as the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, Encyclopedia of Chess Endings, Opening Monographs, other print publications, and software (including electronic editions of most print publications).

The winner of each section (K-3, 4-6, 7-8, and 9-12) will receive one of the following Encyclopedias:

1) Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations, 4th Edition – A beautiful and powerful hardcover book at 660 pages that offers years of enjoyment and training material to test the reader’s tactical ability. ECC4 is a completely revised and updated edition of one of the fundamental books about the art of combinational chess.

2) Small Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, 3rd Edition – The Small Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings combines this selective approach with today’s exhaustive collection of material. The five volume Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings – A, B, C, D, E – consists of 500 sections based on opening codes. Its key quality, unique among openings books, is a system of elimination which helps the reader to find the critical lines in the midst of the abundance of information.

3) Encyclopedia of Chess Endings I – Pawn Endings, 2nd Edition - Because of its simplicity and systematic approach, the book is useful for active players and for those who want to become familiar with endgame basics.

2) Encyclopedia of Chess Endings II – Rook Endings I – The First Edition of ECE II Rook 1 was compiled by Andras Adorjan, Alexander Beliavsky, Walter Browne, Lubomir Ftacnik, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Lubomir Kavalek, Vlado Kovacevic, John Nunn and Jan Timman. The Second Edition comes to the surface 30 years later! It is still based on the work of these giants, but heavily updated and revised.

2nd-3rd place of each section will each receive a copy of Chess Informant 118!

Only shortly after the end of the dramatic fourth game of the World Championship match between Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov tweets from the battlefield in Chennai: ” Game 4 also demonstrated exactly what I wrote for my last Chess Informant column: The Berlin is a sharp & rich middlegame, not an ending.” What better recommendation could there be for Chess Informant 118, than this comment from the world’s best chess player ever? Hot stuff!

Read more about or order Chess Informant 118 here!

A big mahalo to Josip Asik, CEO of Chess Informant, for his support of scholastic chess in Hawaii!  Good luck to all of our young combatants this year!

Over 100 players showed up to Washington Middle School on Presidents’ Day, Monday 2/17/14, for a day of chess.  Complete results from the Presidents’ Sectionals scholastic event, including crosstables, team results and prize reports have been posted on our Tournament Results page.

Lots of Tournament Chess in Hawaii in 2014!

The 2014 Hawaii Chess Calendar is starting off with a handful of exciting tournaments.  Two all-ages tournaments were recently added to the calendar, including a Master/Expert Event and a Memorial Weekend Tournament (now running for a third straight year):

1) Hawaii Spring Chess Tournament (3/20-3/22/14) -round rated tournament. Game/55 Delay/10 time control, USCF rated, affecting regular and quick ratings. Two sections: 8-player round-robin for the top eight players, Swiss tournament for all the rest. Will be held at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.  For full details, visit the facebook page or contact Tournament Organizer/Director Damian Nash at chess (at) krusemer.com.

2) Memorial Day Weekend Tournament (5/24-5/25)-  Open to all, at the Atherton YMCA near the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Also, there are three scholastic events left for the 2013-2014 school year. These include:

1) President’s Day Sectionals (2/17/14)
2) Girls State Championship (3/22/14)
3) State Scholastic Championship (3/29/14)

As usual, the Scholastic events will be held at Washington Middle School. For more info about any of the remaining scholastic events, contact Scholastic Director, Guy Ontai at hawaiiandragon (at) chess.com

We hope to see you at the tournaments!  Let’s make 2014 a big year for Hawaii Chess!

2014 MLK Open Trophy Winners - Eldon Nakagawa, Evan Zheng, Joshua Kim, and Ford Nakagawa

Results and photos from the 2014 MLK Scholastic are in!  State champ Eldon Nakagawa took first in the 91 player Open with 5.5/6, followed closely behind by Evan Zheng, Joshua Kim, Ford Nakagawa, Giogrio Tran, Michael Llanos, Wun-Min Chen and Elias Akimseu (all tied at 5/6 points!).  Kamehameha Middle School won the team event and Greg Nystul emerged triumphant in the Novice event.  Well done, all!

OPEN Crosstable, prize winners, and team standings

NOVICE crosstable and prize winners

Facebook PHOTO GALLERY

GM Timur Gareev

International Grandmaster and 3rd Ranked player in the United States, Timur Gareev (the “Uzbek Dragon”) will return to Oahu this week to conduct a 2-day mini-camp for the first 10 participants interested, Saturday and Sunday, 21-22 December.

For more info or to register download the event flyer here or contact event organizer Guy Ontai at hawaiiandragon (at) chess.com.