2016 U.S. Junior Closed – Round 1
By GM Robin van Kampen Ruifeng Li faced off top seed Jeffery Xiong in a closed Sicilian. Black was quickly faced with a pawn storm heading straight for his King, and tried to counter attack in the centre. When the 15 year old grandmaster missed an opportunity to scatter Ruifeng’s centre, he found himself forced […]
Nation’s Top Chess Prodigies Head to Saint Louis for 2016 U.S. Junior Closed Championships
For more information, contact: Nicole Halpin 314-309-0799 [email protected] For Immediate Release Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis hosts seventh consecutive Junior Closed tournament SAINT LOUIS, June 16, 2016 — The nation’s elite junior chess players are coming back to Saint Louis, the nation’s Chess Capital, this summer as the Chess Club and Scholastic […]
Saint Louis Invitational – Final Round Recap
The 2016 Saint Louis Invitational ended with the same fighting chess seen throughout the whole tournament. The final round found FM Gauri Shankar needing a win to secure another IM norm as he faced off against FM Kostya Kavutskiy. As for the grandmaster norm tournament, IM Steven Zierk wanted to avenge his eighth round loss […]
Saint Louis Invitational – Round 8 Recap
As the 2016 Saint Louis Invitational winds to a close, the players with hopes of gaining their norms found difficulty in Round 8. Three players still had a chance to earn GM norms going into the round. IM Steven Zierk had the Black pieces against IM Ruifeng Li and needed to win to keep his […]
Saint Louis Invitational – Round 5 Recap
The 2016 Saint Louis Invitational, featuring both a GM and IM norm 10-player round robin, is more than halfway finished. Norm seekers in both sections have traded blows with their opponents and resulted in a very tight standings list. Each field’s norm requirement sits at 6.5 total points and still a few have the chance, […]
Saint Louis Invitational – Round 7 Recap
After round seven of the 2016 Saint Louis Invitational, three players are still in contention to earn a GM norm. IM Irene Sukandar, IM Akshat Chandra, and IM Steven Zierk all stand at 4.5 points with two rounds to go. That means each needs to win their final two games to achieve the norm. Round […]
Ultimate Blitz Challenge: The Results
Final Results Round Two Summary Nakamura and So were leading the Ultimate Blitz Challenge going into the 2nd and final day of the event. The legendary Kasparov was trailing behind one point and seemed like he could pose some serious problems for the leaders if he could brush off the rustiness and avoid the blunders […]
Ultimate Blitz Challenge Day 1
By GM Cristian Chirila The 2016 U.S. Championship has ended but the chess festival in Saint Louis has one more surprise for the fans all over the world, the Ultimate Blitz Challenge! In what could easily be considered the most anticipated blitz event in the world, Garry Kasparov was summoned by the patriarch of modern […]
Newcomers Take Top Honors at U.S. & U.S Women’s Championship in Saint Louis
SAINT LOUIS, April 27, 2016—Saint Louis is not only the U.S. Chess Capital—it’s home to the 2016 U.S. Chess Champion. The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL) crowned Saint Louis resident, Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, the 2016 Champion in his U.S. Chess Championship debut. Caruana was not the only fresh face to take […]
Dramatic Finale At the 2016 U.S. & U.S. Women’s Championships!
By GM Cristian Chirila The 2016 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women’s Championship will not only go down in the history books as the strongest event but also as arguably the one with the most dramatic finale. Entering the final round, both tournaments had one clear leader as well as one or more players trailing by […]