2013 US Championship Begins

The most prestigious annual event in America kicks off on Friday.  The US Championship brings 24 of the best chess players in the country to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis for a 9-round swiss.  The winner earns $30,000 and five players punch their ticket to the FIDE World Cup in August.  Does that sound exciting?  You betcha!  Make sure to watch live video coverage starting at 11am PDT daily through May 12th (except the rest day on Wednesday).

• Click Here for Pairings and Standings
• Live Coverage from St. Louis
• Broadcast on Internet Chess Club

Gata Kamsky

The heavy favorites are the top three seeds: Grandmasters Gata Kamsky, Timur Gareev and Alexander Onischuk.  Each spent a different way preparing for this important event.  Kamsky (age 38) participated in the elite FIDE Grand Prix in Switzerland until Tuesday.  He somehow beat Sergey Karjakin (2786) from the black side of a sharp a6 Slav in the penultimate round to finish at 50%. On the other hand, the energetic Timur Gareev (age 25) took on a superhuman challenge: taking on St. Louis club members in a 33 board BLINDFOLD simul!! 

Timur Gareev

Over 10 hours, he beat 29 opponents, drew with 4 and lost none, all the while seated and wearing a heavy black blindfold!!  By comparison, the third seed Onischuk (age 37) took it easy, studying in his office at Texas Tech University and giving this interview. Regretfully, the country's higher rated player and defending champion GM Hikaru Nakamura chose to skip this year's event to challenge Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and many other Top 10 Grandmasters at the spectacular Norway Chess event beginning on Monday.

Northern California chess fans will want to cheer for two local players.  GM Sam Shankland (age 21) grew up in Orinda and learned the moves at the Berkeley Chess School.  The other, IM-elect Sam Sevian, is the tournament's youngest (age 12) and lowest rated (2467 USCF) invitee, although he made quite a name for himself by winning the World Youth U12 last fall.  Good luck to Sam and Sam!

Participants in 2013 US Championship

Ranked by May FIDE Rating

1. GM Gata Kamsky 2741 Seeded (by USCF Rating)
2. GM Timur Gareev 2674 Seeded



Alex Onischuk

3. GM Alex Onischuk 2666 Seeded
4. GM Ray Robson 2620 Seeded
5. GM Varuzhan Akobian 2616 Seeded -- CA/S
6. GM Sam Shankland 2612 Seeded -- CA/N
7. GM Robert Hess 2595 Seeded
8. GM Gregory Kaidanov 2593 Seeded
9. GM Larry Christiansen 2579 Seeded
10. GM Yury Shulman 2570 Seeded
11. GM Alexander Stripunsky 2570 Seeded
12. GM Alejandro Ramirez 2551 Seeded
13. GM Alexander Shabalov 2544 Seeded
14. GM Marc Arnold 2538 Junior Champ
15. GM Joel Benjamin 2534 Seeded
16. GM Aleksandr Ivanov 2529 Senior Champ
17. GM Melikset Khachiyan 2518 Wildcard -- CA/S
18. GM Conrad Holt 2513 Wildcard
19. GM Ben Finegold 2505 Wildcard
20. FM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun 2463 Seeded
21. IM-e Yaacov Norowitz 2451 Seeded
22. FM John Bryant 2442 US Open Winner -- CA/S
23. IM Kayden Troff  2421 Wildcard
24. IM-e Sam Sevian 2371 Wildcard -- CA/N

Ten of the country's top female players compete in the concurrent US Women's Championship, vying for a first place prize of $18,000 in a Round-Robin format.  The two overwhelming favorites are IM Irina Krush (2470 FIDE) and IM Anna Zatonskih (2466 FIDE).  Between them, they have captured the past seven titles (4-3 edge to Zatonskih, but Krush won last year).

Photos of King Magnus in Bay Area!

Nicholas K and Daniel S with Carlsen.

Tom Langland poses with Numero Uno.

Not every day does a young Norwegian man makes waves in Silicon Valley.  Nov. 16, 2012 was indeed a magical day!  Magnus Carlsen, the highest rated chess player on the planet, stopped by for a small blindfold simultaneous exhibition, Q&A and many personal photos.  Check out Facebook for photos and videos by Richard Shorman.  Thanks to IM David Pruess, Tom Langland and Bay Area Chess for putting together this memorable afternoon.

GM Carlsen slouches in chair while playing four kids blindfolded!

Make sure to read Mr. Langland's new article at Chess Life Online and watch the video of Daniel Naroditsky playing blitz against King Magnus.

Fpawn Simul Results

Thank you to the 21 students who challenged me in a simul yesterday on ICC. My overall record in this 2.5 hour long event was 10 wins, 9 losses and 2 draws. The time control was G/60 +20/move. I faced a wide variety of opponents, ranging in rating from under 1000 to nearly 2000; the top six were all rated above 1800. Here are a few more statistics:

• I played 1070 moves in 2.5 hours
  
• average of 51 moves per game
  
• average of 8 seconds per move
  
• despite the 20 second increment, I was under 2 minutes on as many as ten boards at once
  
• I hung one queen, two rooks and allowed a forced checkmate, all to 1-movers
• my record against players from Saratoga High School was a miserable 0-4
  

Congratulations to all of the winners: Arthur Liou, Yian Liou, Rebekah Liu, Eric Chen, Sankash Shankar, Brian Wai, Evan Ye, Charles Sun and Nicholas Karas! The most brilliant game was Evan (see photo above) setting an impressive endgame trap, which I blindly walked right into. The second prize goes to Eric for creating substantial counterplay after losing a pawn. Honorable mention to Charles for blowing me off the board after I made two small inaccuracies.

1. fpawn vs Evan Ye
2. fpawn vs Eric Chen
3. fpawn vs Charles Sun
   

Danya Undefeated in Two Simuls

In addition to throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game, World U12 Champion FM Danya Naroditsky recently gave a pair of simultaneous exhibitions. One occurred prior to the baseball game in the Oakland A's clubhouse, when Danya faced pitchers Andrew Brown and Huston Street repeatedly, beating both about a half dozen times within 30 minutes. The second simul (see photos below) was a fundraiser at the prestigious Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough, which both Danya and his older brother Alan attend. Danya won all 16 games without difficulty. Thanks to blog readers and proud parents Vladimir Naroditsky and Carl Moy for sending these photos to me.