News
ICA Site Hacked Again, Articles Lost, No Further Content Forthcoming Pending Security Review
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Created: 06 December 2016 06 December 2016
With days to go before the 2016 Illinois Class, the Joomla-based ICA site was hacked and shut down by the site's host due to suspicious activity. Prompt action by webmaster Bill Buklis and Joomla administrator Maret Thorpe got the site up and running within hours with minimal content loss.
Over the next few days additional updated content was restored and other mysteries were resolved. Life was back to normal.
Yesterday (December 5), the site was attacked again and in the process of getting it back up, many recent articles posted over the past two weeks were lost.
ICA Website Maliciously Attacked, Service Restored
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Created: 19 November 2016 19 November 2016
Good news, bad news.
Service has now been largely restored on this website thanks to the valiant efforts of webmaster Bill Buklis along with those Maret Thorpe, the site-designer and Joomla administrator.
Unusual activity had been detected by the internet service provider, provoking them to close down the site for a time on Friday (11/18). The site was restored to its pre-attack state using back ups and attempts are being made to restore updated content.
2016 IL Senior Open: Zin and Condron Co-Champions
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Created: 08 November 2016 08 November 2016
The weekend of October 29 and 30 was about more than Halloween celebrations and presidential election home stretches.
In Illinois, it meant the third year in a row the Illinois Senior Open was held.
Aung Zin and James Condron were crowned co-champions, both with 3.5 out of 4 tallies.
A four-way tie for third place included Marvin Dandridge, Bill Brock, Ionel Dinca and Leslie Bale.
Computer Chess Profiled In Wake Of Deep Blue Anniversary
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Created: 03 November 2016 03 November 2016
As a former reporter and anchor in the NPR system, I've always liked National Public Radio (heard in Chicago on WBEZ, 91.5 FM, and around the state on other frequencies).
The outstanding "All Things Considered" show recently put together a piece as we approach the 20th anniversary of the Garry Kasparov match versus IBM's Deep Blue Computer.
Since that historic battle, computer algorithms have continued to get more efficient, and there is no doubt that even a modest open source "chess engine" running on a consumer model laptop can beat the best players in the world.
28 IL Players Show 100+ Point Rating Bumps in November
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- Written by Bill Feldman Bill Feldman
- Created: 03 November 2016 03 November 2016
David Cruz raised his rating an amazing 406 points playing in a series of small tournaments.
Tournaments posted to US Chess from September 22 through October 19 were considered, counting towards October and November "official" ratings.
Nicholas Kim, although registered in Illinois, and having played in the Greater Chicago and Illinois K-8 Championships earlier this year, apparently has moved to New York state... and in three October tournaments raised his official rating 340 points (before dropping in a fourth event). Good luck in New York, Nicholas!
Andre Zhao raised his rating 336 points from success in the Midwest Class and in a dual-rated Knight's Quest.