Play a Grandmaster at Atlanta Chess Club

We're still on with our Play a Grandmaster on May 10, at 1 p.m. at Dunwoody Bakery. Grandmaster Mark Paragua takes over the place of GM Tejas Bakre.

GM Bakre was in the United States April 10 and won the 50th Cincinnati Open. Unfortunately, an emergency situation happened back in India that he had to leave abruptly. GM Bakre texted me that he would be back only for our simul since it has been pre-arranged and will go home by May 12. Since he was still attending to the situation in India, I thanked him for not reneging on his commitment, but advised him not to make the trip for practical purposes. Instead, GM Paragua who is my guest during the Georgia State Championships, will stay longer to conduct the simul. He will be a guest at my home and during the week between May 5-9, he will also be available for individual lessons. Send me a note if you would like to take advantage of this training.

So, GM Paragua will be with us on May 10 at 1 p.m. for the simul. He will conduct a simul event and a short lecture after the simul.

I have known GM Paragua since he was five years old. He has attended five world youth festivals, and I watched him with his dad in three of them, in Hungary, Brazil and Spain. He became the Rapid World Champion Under 14 in Paris, France. He became a grandmaster in 2005, and achieved his highest FIDE rating of 2620 in 2006.

As you may already know, there is a $30 fee to cover the event. As an incentive for the first 20 who will sign-up, I am giving out free chess books, brand-new, for your continued learning of the game we all love. You have a choice between: Chess Child, The Story of Ray Robson, America's Youngest Grandmaster, or Inside Philippine Chess, a compendium of chess stories and notations of the first country that produced Asia's first grandmaster. GM Robson is a young chess player, who is now playing in Webster University. I met him a while back, and I am giving out the book which established in anecdotes on how he became a grandmaster. Inside Philippine Chess offers great games as played in that country who are known to be excellent tactical players, and as one American IM has said, they are among the best in the middle game. I am the editor and publisher of this book, and this was authored by chess journalist Bobby Ang. To those who can draw against Mark, I will give both books. To those who could win, I will give out a special gift.

Kindly join if you have the time. Let us welcome GM Mark Paragua on May 10 and have fun playing the grandmaster.

Herky del Mundo