Celebrity Friday: James Black, Jr., 12: Black Grandmaster?

James Black, Jr., 12, with his elementary school chess coach, Elizabeth Vicary

This is a cool, "good news" story. A 12-year-old Black kid from Brooklyn is one of the best junior chess players in the United States.

The New York Daily News reports:

Already a rising national star at age 12, Bed-Stuy chess champ James Black Jr. wants to become the youngest American grandmaster in the game's storied history.

Black led the chess team from Intermediate School 318 in Williamsburg to national championships in both the K-8 and K-9 divisions in April - and is only seven points away from the 2,200 needed to be named a master by the United States Chess Federation.

"It would mean a lot because I've worked so hard for it," said James. "I've practiced a lot to become a great player."

James wants to beat the record of Ray Robson, a Florida player who became the youngest American elected grandmaster at age 14 in 2009.

He needs to amass at least 2,600 points by continuing to win tournaments and score favorable results against existing grandmasters to receive that title.

This is not exactly correct; my current chess rating is slightly above 2400 points. There are two rating systems, a United States Chess Federation and a World Chess Federation rating. Titles are given by both (I have the National Master and Senior Master titles from the USCF and the FIDE Master title from the WCF). The U.S. titles are obtained by just achieving a particular rating level but the World titles involve specific perfomances (called norms) in tournaments against other higher rated players plus having a minimum WCF rating.

All that being said, a 12-year old with a rating just a handful of points  under the National Master level of 2200 is extraordinary. At that age, I didn't have a rating, although I did become a master by the time I was 16.

Best of luck to James Black, Jr.!

CHESS: Gelfand To Challenge Anand For World Title

I hadn't been paying much attention to this, but, in a pretty surprising result, 42-year-old Boris Gelfand has won the final FIDE Candidates match against Aleksandr Grischuk to become the official challenger to reigning World Champion (and MadProfessah associate) Vishy Anand next year. Gelfand won the 6-game match by winning the final game after 5 consecutive draws. If the game had been tied the match would have been decided by a series of four blitz (fast time control) matches. Both Grischuk and Gelfand had defeated their opponents, former World Champion Viktor Kramnik and American Gata Kamsky, respectively, in the time-control section of the match in the semifinal rounds, with the 27-year-old Grischuk believed by many to have an edge in fast play if the match had reached that stage.

Here's the final game:





There's some pretty great analysis of the match at chess.com.

Top 10 Chess Players in the World for March 2011

The Top 10 rating list for March 2011 has been released by the World Chess Federation and there are some surprises. Current World Champion Vishy Anand has returned to the top of the list, dethroning Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen by gaining 7 rating points to Carlsen's 1 since the last list. Rounding out the "super-duper grandmaster" level of 2800 is Levin Aronian of Armenia. Also, American Hikaru Nakamura vaults into the Top 10 for the first time, increasing a  remarkable 23 points, with his recent excellent tournament results.

Here's the list:

Rank	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
1	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2817	13	1969
2	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2815	13	1990
3	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2808	13	1982
4	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2785	13	1975
5	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2779	19	1969
6	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2776	0	1990
7	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2775	0	1975
8	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2774	13	1987
9	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2772	0	1985
10	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2747	13	1983

American Chess Player Wins Tourney Ahead of World's Best

GM Hikaru Nakamura, 23, is the world's #10 chess player

American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura has won the prestigious super Grand Master tournament held in Wijk ann Zee, the Netherlands, ahead of the top 4 ranked players in the world:  Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik . Carlsen is the world's top-ranked player and Anand and Kramnik have both won the world chess championship.


Former world champion Garry Kasparov called it "maybe the best performance by an American in  100 years." The New York Times Gambit blogger disputed this remark, but did call it "one of the best results by an American in decades."

Nakamura won the Tata Steel Chess with 6 wins, 6 draws and 1 loss (to Carlsen), or 9 points, half a point ahead of Anand, with World #3 Aronian and World #4 back at 8 points.

Congrats to Hikaru!

Hat/tip to Susan Polgar.