The Smartest Iowan Live

If you missed an episode, just watch them later! 

Go to: www.ustream.tv/channel/the-smartest-iowan and click on the clip in the bottom left corner. Enjoy!

Watch The Smartest Iowan, every Wednesday night LIVE at 8pm (3am dutch time!).

Games from the tournament in Madison:

Round 2: Black wins...

Did you reach the following position in your analysis? Checkmate in a few now.

Round 4: Is Nxe4 possible?

Round five: black wins.

Answers in the comments.

Two won chess tournaments

Chess update!

The past two weekends I participated in two chess tournaments and.. managed to win them both.
The first one was in Cedar Rapids, only 30 minutes away from Iowa City. It was a 4 round tournament with 40 contestants. I won three games and drew one. Funny enough, my 3,5 out of 4 was enough for the first price!

This weekend I played a 5 round tournament in Madison, the capitol of Wisconsin. This is a 3,5 hour drive. On my way there, I dropped off Abi in Dubuque, she went there to spend a weekend with her friends from Loras College. I arrived in Madison on Saturday. The tournament was already on its way but they gave me a free point. A first round point is an option if you are rated above 2200 and me and one other player used this option.
I won the second round game within the hour, so this gave me time to check out the city and to go see a movie. The third round was a long game versus a 13 year old talent that I managed to win. At night I had some beers with Chris, a friend from Abi's program in Amsterdam last year.
Round 4 on Sunday morning led to another smooth and fast victory, so I did the capitol tour and chilled on one of the lakes (that was frozen) in the sun. The other 2200+ player lost to a talent and withdrew from the tournament, so round 5 led to the fourth 1800 opponent and another quick win: 5 out of 5, 250 dollars and tournament victory!
One of the contestants wrote something about the tournament on his blog:
gettingto2000.blogspot.com

This week I'll publish some mating combinations from the previous weekends!

Tex

The Smartest Iowan

Hi everybody!

Starting next Wednesday (February 18th), the new PATV game show 'The Smartest Iowan' will take off!
My colleague Emily and I developed the idea of a game show. She will be directing and I will be hosting. My debut as an TV host.

I'll try to show the show live on the internet. In Holland, this will be at three o'clock at night! My advice is to go out, drink a few beers, get home and watch the show!
check out Patv.tv and click on the smartest iowan!