2012 U.S. Championships News
By FM Mike Klein
SAINT LOUIS, May 8, 2012 -- There were running starts and standing starts and very little in between to open the 2012 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship. All but three games in the events produced a decisive result. The tournaments are being hosted by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis for the fourth consecutive year.
In a turn of the unexpected, the grandmasters in the U.S. Championship played more provocative chess than their female counterparts. Their early imbalanced positions meant the first three games to finish came from their event.
The first result shocked everyone. GM Alex Stripunsky overlooked a simple capture on move 11 and resigned immediately against GM Alexander Onischuk. According to U.S. Championship statistical guru Ed Gonsalves, the game was the third shortest to produce a winner since the modern tournament began in 1936. Onischuk felt some of his playing partner's chagrin and was disappointed with the way he won. “We are really good friends, and I feel sorry for him,” Onischuk said. Several other players offered various possible reasons for the blunder, but at the end they were simply left guessing. Onischuk took a walk with Stripunsky afterward but could only speculate on whether Stripunsky could recover mentally. “It depends on the personality,” he said. “Some people will never recover.” The loss is particularly handicapping for Stripunsky, as he squanders one of the cherished opportunities with the white pieces. Onischuk's good fortune allowed him to be the only player to win as black in either championship.
Top-seeded GM Hikaru Nakamura scored the second point of the day by converting an opening advantage against GM Robert Hess. Nakamura skipped last year's championship and came prepared this time, opening with 1. e4 and making his unsuspecting opponent think on move one. Hess took three minutes before playing his usual 1...e5 but the next surprise lurked only a few moves later when Nakamura played 4. b4, the Evans Gambit, an opening only a shade younger than the incorporation of Saint Louis as a city.
“I just felt like trying something new,” Nakamura said. “It's almost like when [Nakamura] plays 1. e4, you know he's got something up his sleeve,” said Jennifer Shahade, one of the two on-air commentators. Nakamura questioned 9...Ba3, which was only played one other time in 1967. Hess was attempting to free his light-squared bishop and give back his extra pawn, but Nakamura suggested 9...b6 as a possible improvement. Hess said he was weary of playing a more topical variation against the Evans, especially since he had not studied the opening in a long time. He added that while his 12-page college paper analyzing the writings of Jorge Luis Borges was turned in prior to the game, that was not an excuse for his theoretical shortcoming. “Nakamura is so hard to prepare for anyway,” Hess said. “I lost because he completely outplayed me.”
Defending champion GM Gata Kamsky finished next, besting tournament newcomer GM Alejandro Ramirez. Kamsky played in the style that has allowed him to elude defeat for the past several U.S. Championships. “My style of play is called constrictor,” Kamsky said. “I'm a great admirer of (former World Champion Tigran) Petrosian. He came up with that style of play.” With Ramirez's backward pawn on d6 sitting helplessly, Kamsky marshaled all of his pieces into position, then pushed a pawn one square on the edge of the board. The move was cunning in its subtlety, and Ramirez admitted that he could not find a good move afterward.
In other round one action, two of the younger players squared off. GM Alex Lenderman played the most attacking-minded game against GM Ray Robson. He got a pawn to f7 early, opened the file his opponent's king sat on, and jettisoned a piece into the foray to gain time for the whirlwind. Robson complicated the issue by walking his king to f6, an unexpected maneuver for Lenderman. “It's such an unusual idea,” Lenderman said. “I just didn't see it. I kind of underestimated it.
“I was actually trying to steer the game away from dynamic complications, but Ray went for it, so I had to. I'm a little surprised I won this game.” Robson survived until the endgame, when Lenderman claimed he won by a single tempo.
In their first-ever meeting, GM Varuzhan Akobian and GM Yasser Seirawan faced each other. The two are at opposite ends of their chess careers. Akobian is seeking his fist U.S. Championship title and a return to qualifying for the U.S. national team, while Seirawan already has a handful of titles and has returned after a long layoff to play in the tournament for the second straight year. Like 2011, he got off to a slow start, as Akobian edged him out today. “Somehow I was slipping, and I just couldn't stop slipping,” Seirawan said. Akobian's pieces overwhelmed his opponent's, but the timing of when to convert his activity into a material advantage was crucial. “I was better,” Akobian said. “But you never know if you win the pawn, if you're going to win the game.” Still, his position was devoid of risk, and allowed him to ease his way into the tournament. “I was definitely enjoying the position.”
GMs Yury Shulman and Gregory Kaidanov played a see-saw affair that ended in the only draw of the championship. “I'm sure Yury was worse,” Kaidanov said. “I just couldn't find ...” and the end of his sentence was as elusive as the clinching move of the game.
In the U.S. Women's Championship, reigning champion IM Anna Zatonskih began her title defense with a painless win over 17-year-old Alena Kats, who is playing in her first championship. Zatonskih had the classic dominant knight against an imprisoned bishop, and a stranglehold of both sides of the board. “She probably doesn't have experience in such positions,” Zatonskih said.
Kats said preparing for Zatonskih is mostly guesswork. “I was expecting anything really,” she said. “Maybe I don't know anything?” Zatonskih jokingly replied. “I'm just playing!”
IM Irina Krush, who since 2006 is the only other woman to win the event besides Zatonskih, kept pace with a convincing win over WGM Sabina Foisor. The two also played in the first round last year, when Krush survived an onslaught only to hang her queen and scramble later in the tournament to try to qualify for the finals. Besides getting off to a better start, Krush was particularly pleased with the planning that helped her win the game.
“All these ideas I studied I actually got to use,” she said. “It was a product of all my work. The onus is on white when black plays ...g6 lines.” Krush liked her early a4 and was ready to push the pawn again to restrain the knight on d7. She gave back her surplus pawn at just the right moment, then in a better position found a knight retreat that forked Foisor's rook and bishop. She admitted that it took her a few minutes to find the elementary idea, but was completely satisfied with the quality of her play.
IM Rusudan Goletiani came out of an equal middlegame to land a dominant queen in the center of the board. WGM Camilla Baginskaite could only wait, and Goletiani's kingside pawns marched up the board and then used her queen for an indefensible pin to net a piece and the game. Goletiani was rooted at her own board and was one of the few players who did not even know about the 11-move game in the U.S. Championship. “I guess I don't get as bored as other players,” she said.
FM Alisa Melekhina reversed an unfortunate trend by drawing WIM Iryna Zenyuk, whom she had lost to at three consecutive championships. She actually came close again. Melekhina pitched her weak isolated pawn but received insufficient counterplay, eventually scrambling for a pawn-down ending with queens still on the board. Zenyuk couldn't create a passed pawn without uncovering her own king. The two settled for peace after Melekhina's queen chased Zenyuk's king in the latter's fruitless search for shelter.
The last game to finish was WIM Viktorija Ni's unlikely draw of WGM Tatev Abrahamyan. Ni found herself down two pawns in the endgame after Abrahamyan's Benko Gambit netted her the typical control of the b-file and subsequent rook invasion. Both women ran short of time and Abrahamyan faced just enough difficulties to have the win elude her.
Round two begins tomorrow at 1 p.m. Central, 2 p.m. Eastern. Tune in to www.uschesschamps.com for live commentary from Shahade and the club's GM-in-Residence, Ben Finegold. Pairings for round two can be found at www.uschesshcamps.com/standings-and-games.
By Mike Klein
SAINT LOUIS, May 8, 2012 -- The 2012 U.S. Chess Championship and U.S. Women's Championship began in the most serene setting, belying the pressure that will mount over the next two weeks.
The opening ceremony and drawing of lots took place outside the Missouri Botanical Garden on Monday evening. After the players enjoyed a cocktail reception and were introduced, they took turns selecting their random starting assignments. Then they hurriedly boarded the bus back to their hotels to prepare for the first game.
The tournament begins Tuesday, May 8, and concludes Saturday, May 19, with a possible playoff on May 20. The top 12 players in the country will play in an 11-game round robin to decide the title of U.S. Champion. Grandmaster Gata Kamsky will attempt to defend his title and win his third consecutive championship, a feat not accomplished since GM Walter Browne in the 1970s.
The top 10 female players will play a nine-game round robin. Woman Grandmaster and International Master Anna Zatonskih will attempt to repeat. In 2011, using a different format, it took her 19 grueling games to wrap up the victory.
“It represents the best that America has produced,” said Tony Rich, executive director of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The club is hosting its fourth straight U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship.
Club founder Rex Sinquefield highlighted some other local chess news. Earlier in the day, the Chess Club and the World Chess Hall of Fame, located across the street from the club, unveiled the world's largest chess piece. The white king, made up of layers of ¾-inch exterior grade plywood, stands more than 14 feet tall, weighs more than 2,200 pounds and is approximately the height of an average female giraffe.
More than 70 students from Saint Louis language Immersion School took a field trip to the Chess Club and Hall of Fame to witness the unveiling of the world record and to tour both facilities. The students got the opportunity to play some of the competitors from the U.S. Championships. Throughout the day, competitors from both events visited area schools to put on simul exhibitions and to speak to students about the benefits of chess.
At the opening ceremony, Sinquefield also explained that local Lindenwood University would begin its chess program in the fall, which will include numerous scholarships for promising players and will be coached by the club's Grandmaster-in-Residence Ben Finegold. “We will have a lot of grandmasters living in Saint Louis,” Sinquefield said, also referencing the chess team about to begin at Webster University.
“We're so very, very proud to be the chess city of America,” said Saint Louis Mayor Francis Slay.
In the first round of the U.S. Championship, Varuzhan Akobian will play Yasser Seirawan, Yury Shulman will face Gregory Kaidanov, Alex Stripunsky will play Alexander Onischuk, Alex Lenderman plays Ray Robson, Gata Kamsky goes against Alejandro Ramirez, and top-seeded local Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura plays Robert Hess. All 12 players are grandmasters, with Robson, 17, the youngest, and Kaidanov, 52, the senior statesman. Ramirez, a native of Costa Rica, is the only player competing in his first U.S. Championship. Robson will begin his college studies at Webster starting this fall.
In the women's event, play will begin with Viktorija Ni against Tatev Abrahmyan, Iryna Zenyuk against Alisa Melekhina, Irina Krush versus Sabina Foisor, Rusudan Goletiani against Camilla Baginskaite, and Anna Zatonskih facing Alena Katz. Ni and Katz are the two newcomers. Ni's husband is Shulman and Brooklynite Katz is the only member of either tournament that has yet to graduate high school. She took her SAT exam the day before flying to Saint Louis.
The total prize fund for the U.S. Championship is $160,000. If someone should score a perfect 11-0, the bonus “Fischer Prize” (so named because Bobby Fischer was the last to win every game) of $64,000 will be awarded. The women's purse is $64,000.
All games will commence at 1 p.m. local time. Spectators can visit the club or watch the action live with commentary at www.uschesschamps.com.
By Mike Klein
SAINT LOUIS, May 8, 2012 -- The 2012 U.S. Chess Championship and U.S. Women's Championship began in the most serene setting, belying the pressure that will mount over the next two weeks.
The opening ceremony and drawing of lots took place outside the Missouri Botanical Garden on Monday evening. After the players enjoyed a cocktail reception and were introduced, they took turns selecting their random starting assignments. Then they hurriedly boarded the bus back to their hotels to prepare for the first game.
The tournament begins Tuesday, May 8, and concludes Saturday, May 19, with a possible playoff on May 20. The top 12 players in the country will play in an 11-game round robin to decide the title of U.S. Champion. Grandmaster Gata Kamsky will attempt to defend his title and win his third consecutive championship, a feat not accomplished since GM Walter Browne in the 1970s.
The top 10 female players will play a nine-game round robin. Woman Grandmaster and International Master Anna Zatonskih will attempt to repeat. In 2011, using a different format, it took her 19 grueling games to wrap up the victory.
“It represents the best that America has produced,” said Tony Rich, executive director of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The club is hosting its fourth straight U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship.
Club founder Rex Sinquefield highlighted some other local chess news. Earlier in the day, the Chess Club and the World Chess Hall of Fame, located across the street from the club, unveiled the world's largest chess piece. The white king, made up of layers of ¾-inch exterior grade plywood, stands more than 14 feet tall, weighs more than 2,200 pounds and is approximately the height of an average female giraffe.
More than 70 students from Saint Louis language Immersion School took a field trip to the Chess Club and Hall of Fame to witness the unveiling of the world record and to tour both facilities. The students got the opportunity to play some of the competitors from the U.S. Championships. Throughout the day, competitors from both events visited area schools to put on simul exhibitions and to speak to students about the benefits of chess.
At the opening ceremony, Sinquefield also explained that local Lindenwood University would begin its chess program in the fall, which will include numerous scholarships for promising players and will be coached by the club's Grandmaster-in-Residence Ben Finegold. “We will have a lot of grandmasters living in Saint Louis,” Sinquefield said, also referencing the chess team about to begin at Webster University.
“We're so very, very proud to be the chess city of America,” said Saint Louis Mayor Francis Slay.
In the first round of the U.S. Championship, Varuzhan Akobian will play Yasser Seirawan, Yury Shulman will face Gregory Kaidanov, Alex Stripunsky will play Alexander Onischuk, Alex Lenderman plays Ray Robson, Gata Kamsky goes against Alejandro Ramirez, and top-seeded local Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura plays Robert Hess. All 12 players are grandmasters, with Robson, 17, the youngest, and Kaidanov, 52, the senior statesman. Ramirez, a native of Costa Rica, is the only player competing in his first U.S. Championship. Robson will begin his college studies at Webster starting this fall.
In the women's event, play will begin with Viktorija Ni against Tatev Abrahmyan, Iryna Zenyuk against Alisa Melekhina, Irina Krush versus Sabina Foisor, Rusudan Goletiani against Camilla Baginskaite, and Anna Zatonskih facing Alena Katz. Ni and Katz are the two newcomers. Ni's husband is Shulman and Brooklynite Katz is the only member of either tournament that has yet to graduate high school. She took her SAT exam the day before flying to Saint Louis.
The total prize fund for the U.S. Championship is $160,000. If someone should score a perfect 11-0, the bonus “Fischer Prize” (so named because Bobby Fischer was the last to win every game) of $64,000 will be awarded. The women's purse is $64,000.
All games will commence at 1 p.m. local time. Spectators can visit the club or watch the action live with commentary at www.uschesschamps.com.
Chris Bird, the chief Arbiter for the 2012 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship, is an International Arbiter (awarded 2010) and USCF National Tournament Director (awarded 2012). He has directed at numerous major events across the U.S., including the 2009 U.S. Championship, the 2007, 2009 and 2010 U.S. Women’s Championships, 2010 U.S. Junior Closed Championship and various National Scholastic events. Chris has directed at more than 200 events over the past 10 years and most recently was the chief arbiter for the Kings vs. Queens event held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.
As well as being an arbiter, Chris is also well known for his chess website work and providing live broadcasts and onsite coverage at major events such as the World Open, Chicago Open and North American Open. Chris has been the bulletin editor at the Las Vegas International Chess Festival (National Open) since 2004 and has authored articles and provided photography for Chess Life, Chess Life Online and New in Chess. Chris is also a former president and board member of Nevada Chess, Inc. and former general secretary and league secretary of the Hull and District Chess Association.
Born and raised in Hull, England, Chris moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1998 and has lived in the U.S. ever since, currently residing near Boston, Massachusetts, where his full-time occupation is as an administrator at Harvard Medical School.
Tony Rich, the assistant arbiter for the 2012 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women’s Championship, is a FIDE Arbiter (2011) and USCF Senior Tournament Director (2011). He has served as an arbiter and director for various events including the U.S. Championship (2010, 2011), U.S. Women’s Championship (2010, 2011) , U.S. Junior Championship (2010, 2011), U.S. Open (2010), and an international match between GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Rusulan Ponomariov. Most recently, Tony was the chief arbiter for two GM-norm tournaments held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.
In addition to work as a tournament director and arbiter, Tony is one of only 20 FIDE International Organizers in America. In this role he has successfully organized major events including three U.S. Championships, three U.S. Women’s Championships, two U.S. Junior Closed Championships, international matches and a variety of other high-level tournaments.
Tony has traveled extensively since 2008, serving as the head of delegation for the American teams at the FIDE Olympiad and World Team Championships. He is a member of the FIDE Swiss Pairing Program Committee and the USCF International Relations Committee. In 2009 and again in 2010, the U.S. Chess Federation recognized Tony as the Organizer of the Year.
Tony is an amateur photographer and journalist and has covered many events including the 2010 World Team Championship (Bursa, Turkey), 2011 FIDE Olympiad (Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia) and 2011 World Team Championship (Ningbo, China). His contributions can be seen in Chess Life Magazine, Chess Life Online and various chess websites. Tony also worked as the editor for the Missouri Chess Bulletin and has served on the MCA board of directors, on and off, since 2006.
A native of Saint Louis, Missouri, Tony is currently the Executive Director of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. During his four years in this role, he took the club from concept to inception and saw involvement grow to 800 members and nearly 100 schools across the Saint Louis area.
SAINT LOUIS, February 22, 2012 -- The fields are set for both the 2012 U.S. Championship and 2012 U.S. Women’s Championship, scheduled to be held simultaneously May 7 through May 20 in Saint Louis. Grandmaster Gata Kamsky and International Master Anna Zatonskih each look to defend their respective titles against strong and determined fields.
For the fourth consecutive year, these prestigious events will be held at Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL).
The 2012 U.S. Championship will feature an elite field of 12 grandmasters and a guaranteed prize fund of more than $160,000. With an average USCF rating of 2714 according to the USCF’s January rating supplement, this marks the strongest field in the history of the event.
After sitting out of the 2011 U.S Championship, GM Hikaru Nakamura, ranked No. 6 in the world, has accepted an invitation to participate this year. Nakamura, 24, is seeking his third U.S. Championship title. GM Yasser Seirawan, who came out of retirement to play in last year’s U.S. Championship, has accepted the final invitation for the U.S. Championship. Seirawan had a stellar performance at the 2011 World Team Championship in Ningbo, China, where he defeated three top-30 players on his way to a silver medal performance.
The field for the 2012 U.S. Championship is as follows:
- GM Hikaru Nakamura (2848)
- GM Gata Kamsky (2804)
- GM Alexander Onischuk (2736)
- GM Yasser Seirawan (2723)
- GM Robert Hess (2717)
- GM Varuzhan Akobian (2709)
- GM Alexander Stripunsky (2700)
- GM Ray Robson (2674)
- GM Alejandro Ramirez (2668)
- GM Yury Shulman (2666)
- GM Aleksandr Lenderman (2665)
- GM Gregory Kaidanov (2658)
The CCSCSL also will sponsor the “$64K Fischer Bonus,” to be awarded to anyone that scores a perfect 11-0 in the U.S. Championship, in honor of Bobby Fischer’s 11-0 result at the 1963-64 U.S. Championship.
Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Camilla Baginskaite, the 2000 U.S. Women’s Champion, and 17-year-old Alena Kats, who was the youngest female to become a master in 2010 at age 15, have accepted the final two invitations for the Women’s event. The 2012 U.S. Women’s Championship will feature a guaranteed prize fund of $64,000 and 10 players, including:
- IM Anna Zatonskih (2563)
- IM Irina Krush (2500)
- WGM Camilla Baginskaite (2419)
- WGM Sabina Foisor (2413)
- WGM Tatev Abrahamyan (2350)
- WIM Viktorija Ni (2349)
- IM Rusudan Goletiani (2337)
- FM Alisa Melekhina (2321)
- WIM Iryna Zenyuk (2298)
- NM Alena Kats (2233)
Tickets for the opening ceremony, which will take place on May 7, and the closing ceremony, scheduled for May 20, will be available soon. Round one for each event begins on May 8.
The U.S. Championship and the U.S. Women’s Championship will both be classic round-robin tournaments, in which each participant will play every other participant exactly once.
For more information, visit www.uschesschamps.com, or call (314) 361-CHESS (2437).