Print      
Chess notes WEEKLY PROBLEM
By Chris Chase

The Fabiano Caruana-John Urschel exhibition game at the Liberty Science Center’s Genius Gala 5.0 ended with a predictable result — Caruana won. With grandmaster and “hedge-fund trader extraordinaire’’ Pascal Charbonneau as the celebrity referee, the game followed the expected course, though it was surprising how little time Fabiano had at the end, less than a minute, from his starting two. We give the game score below as provided by Caruana’s manager, Lawrence Trent.

Urschel, who plays for the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL, was kind enough to answer a couple of e-mail questions. Asked whether he has plans for chess or will stick with math and football he said: “I enjoy chess. A lot. I think in many ways it has the best of math and football. It has the rigor and quantitative reasoning of math, but with a football-like competitive component. I want to be a good chess player. I’m nowhere close to being there yet, but it’s a goal of mine. . . . I’m actually doing a vote chess game vs. the world on Chess.com starting June 1.’’

And when asked if it was time for chess tables in the Ravens locker room, he said, “I’m all for some chess in the Ravens locker room. Matt Schaub (a Raven’s QB) and I used to play on away trips.’’

John Urschel-Fabiano Caruana, 1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. d4 cxd4 5. cxd4 e6 6. Nf3 d6 7. Bb5+ Bd7 8.Bxd7+ Nxd7 9. exd6 Bxd6 10. O-O O-O 11. Nc3 Nxc3 12. bxc3 Rc8 13. Bd2 Nb6 14.Rb1 Rc7 15. Qb3 Qd7 16. Rfe1 Nc4 17. Re2 Rfc8 18. Rd1 Nxd2 19. Rexd2 Rxc3 20.Qb2 b5 21. Rd3 b4 22. Ne5 Bxe5 23. Rxc3 bxc3 24. Qc2 Bxd4; 0-1

Winners: Wachusetts Martin Laine Memorial: 1st: Eric Strickland: 4-0, 2nd: Ray Paulson: 3.5-0.5; U1850: 1st-3rd: Ken Gurge, Dave Thomas, Jim Hankard, all 3-1; Billerica May Swiss: 1st-2nd: Aashish Welling, Jeff Caruso: 3.5-5.

Coming events: Boylston $15 Open, June 11, 40 Norris St., Cambridge, BoylstonChess.org; Concord-Carlisle Scholastic, June 12, Harvey Wheeler Community Center, 1276 Main St., Concord, www.MassChess.org/events.

Answer to today’s problem: 1.Nh6! (with the threat of 2.Qg8+ and 3.Nf7! mate) wins. If 1…gxh6 2.Qxh7 mate or 1…Bxg5 2.Qg8+! RxQ 3.Nf7 mate or 1…Re7 2.QxR! BxQ 3.N(g)f7 mate. 1…Qc6+ changes nothing after 2.Kg1

Contact Chris at BostonGlobeChessNotes @Gmail.com.