Yaacov in Vegas

Norowitz - Smirin
White to play and draw.

I have annotated three games played by SM Yaacov Norowitz at the North American Open in Las Vegas. In one game, against the world-ranked Ilya Smirin, he pulled out a draw from an apparently lost position (see diagram above).  Yaacov may well be the highest rated player since Claude Bloodgood without an international title, and before long he might just get an invite to the US Championship based on his rating alone.

For more on the North American Open, see Kacheishvili and Stocek Top Vegas and Friedel in Clear Lead at North American Open from the USCF site.

Nakamura Takes Dos Hermanas Blitz

U.S. Champion and world famous blitz player GM Hikaru Nakamura won the 11th Dos Hermanas online blitz championship, played on ICC.  As you can see from the Finals Grid, Nakamura (Smallville), author of Bullet Chess: One Minute to Mate,  began the finals by beating former Kenilworth Chess Club Champion Yaacov Norowitz (a tough first pairing for YaacovN!) and went on to beat GM Yaroslav Zinchenko (MEGAYARICK) in the final match.  You can download the games in PGN from the ICC site.

Yaacov Norowitz on Color Complexes

Kenilworth Chess Club Champion Yaacov Norowitz lectured on "color complexes" Thursday night at the club, showing two of his own games, including a blitz win over former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov to illustrate his ideas.  The color complex concept seems especially useful in blitz play, where trying to balance control of dark and light squares can yield an instant barometer of how well you stand positionally and can be translated quickly into strategy and action.  

One of the more interesting ideas that Norowitz discussed was that you could value the pieces according to how well they control light and dark squares, in which case the Bishop practically becomes the basic unit of value:

• Bishop: $1,000 of its color -- the two Bishops and an unopposed Bishop (which he called "the Golden Bishop") would be more valuable.
• Knight: $500 of light and $500 of dark, or about $1,000
  
• Rook: $750 of light and $750 of dark, or about $1,500
• Queen: $1,500 of light and $1,500 of dark, or about $3,000
  

It was definitely a fascinating lecture, which introduced a completely different paradigm than most people were used to for looking at chess positions.  

Test yourself with the position below, which could have arisen in one of the games Norowitz discussed as the conclusion of White's light square strategy.

The triumph of light-square strategy
White to play and win

Yaacov Norowitz Lecture on "Color Complexes"

Kenilworth Chess Club Champion Yaacov Norowitz will lecture tonight on "Color Complexes" (a.k.a. "square strategy") at the club.  Admission is $5.  This topic was touched upon in his previous lecture (which was very well received) on the Stonewall Attack.  I will be attending and recommend it to everyone.