2010 US Championship News

The suffering has ended! No more preparation 24 hours a day! I feel relief as I finish with +1 in the strongest event I have ever played in my 35 years as a chess player. I was paired up seven times, and paired "down" to "Yermo" and Altounian. My score of +1 is my best result, performance rating wise, in any U.S. Championship, and earned me my first GM norm since becoming a GM last year! In the "B" group, I tied for third place, as Alex Shabalov was on fire at the end, and scored +3 to win our section.

Alex Stripunsky was clear second, as he showed his wild card selection was no fluke with a +2 score which included only 1 draw! After blowing two winning positions in rounds 7 and 8, it was my turn to be fortuitous ("that means lucky"...."yeah, I know what it means....") as Larry Christiansen had me on the ropes from moves 35-50, but missed the likely winning maneuver, Re8+ - Rf8 more than once.

SAINT LOUIS, May 23, 2010 -- Twelve schools from the Saint Louis area will converge upon the Saint Louis Science Center for a Chess Fair, put on by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL). Competitors from the 2010 U.S. Chess Championship, including the soon-to-be-crowned 2010 U.S. Champion, will showcase their skills and host fun and informative booths and exhibits to raise the interest and awareness of chess in the area.

The event will take place on Tuesday, May 25, during the players' community outreach day from noon to 5 p.m., and is open to members of the public.

By FM Mike Klein

SAINT LOUIS, May 21, 2010 – The corner of Maryland and Euclid in the Central West End was closed Friday afternoon to traffic but open to chess players. Under the direction of the city’s two grandmasters, 32 chess aficionados donned white and black gowns and carried staffs of individual chess pieces across a giant chessboard laid across the street.

The event was held on the rest day of the 2010 U.S. Chess Championship, held adjacently at the Chess Club & Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. By organizing a “human chess match,” the club’s directors hoped to attract attention not just to the tournament, but to the ongoing educational programs throughout the city.

Thursday May 19, 2010: Round five

I finally won a game, and it was not bad. I was white against ICC online qualifier Levon Altounian. I was slightly better for most of the game, and Levon capitulated with time trouble looming.

The tournament is going into round 6 with a lot of excitement, and at least 10 players are still in the hunt to try to qualify for the final Quad. I am guessing the four players will have +4 and +3 who make the final quad, and, at the moment, there is a two way tie for first with Kamsky and Onischuk, who are both playing great chess! The big surprise is Jesse Kraai, who won with black against Jaan Ehlvest. Jesse has 3.5 and is tied for third. Jesse gets black once again, against his biggest challenge of the event, defending Champion Hikaru Nakamura.

By FM Mike Klein

St. Louis, May 19, 2010 – With a field of seven players jumbled at the top of the tables, only two players managed to continue their winning ways at round five of the 2010 U.S. Championship, held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. GM Gata Kamsky and GM Alexander Onischuk, the second and third seeds, both won as White and are all alone at 4/5.

Kamsky had one of the shorter games of the day as he dispatched three-time champion GM Larry Christiansen on the White side of an offbeat Ruy Lopez. Building a huge center with the one-two punch 10. d4 and 11. f4., he preceded the advances with a queen sortie that he called a “gorgeous idea.” Together, the moves gave Kamsky the initiative. Kamsky’s goal was to turn the tables on Christiansen.

Saint Louis, May 17, 2010 – With the top four players battling to draws on the top two boards, a trio of other players used the fourth round of the 2010 U.S Championship to draw even.

On board one, GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Alex Onischuk had the quickest game of the day. After a few brief fireworks out of the opening, Onischuk continued his usual solid ways to earn the half point as Black. He has now extended his record U.S. Championship unbeaten streak to 45 games. His only loss was in the 2004/5 event, and Onischuk came in to the tournament with the third highest lifetime win percentage ever, behind Bobby Fischer and Reuben Fine.

Hi everyone! I wish my first 2010 U.S. Champ blog post had better news, but, as I said after I drew round 1, "I have more points now than before the round started!" So far, I have 0.5 out of 2, drawing against Var Akobian in round 1 and losing to Alexander Shabalov in round 2. I have white against Gregory Kaidanov tomorrow.

The tournament has featured quite a few decisive results, and thus far, the two main favorites, Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky are the only players with 2 out of 2, and Gata will have white against Hikaru in round 3.

The first round of the 2010 U.S. Chess Championship, held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, produced an uncharacteristically high number of decisive games, with eight out of 12 games yielding a winner. Normally at top levels of chess a draw rate of more than 50 percent would not be abnormal.

As the tournament began, the Swiss system pairing format pitted the top players against the bottom players. But since the tournament only invites the top rated players and makes open qualification difficult, there are no easy opponents in the 24-player field.

The Opening Ceremony of the 2010 U.S. Championship went off without a hitch, and the most prestigious tournament in the country is about to begin. You can follow all of the action live here at www.saintlouischessclub.org, or visit uschesschamps.com to hit the 2010 U.S. Chess Championship home page directly.

We will be broadcasting all of the commentary live through the website. Visitors are welcome to attend all rounds of the championship here at the club, and commentary will be provided by GM Maurice Ashley and WGM Jennifer Shahade.

WGM Jennifer Shahade will be featured on ESPN 2's First Take tomorrow, May 7, at 9 a.m. CST (10 a.m. EST). Jennifer will be featured trouncing the competition in the green room throughout the show, and will then be brought on to the set to plug the 2010 U.S. Chess Championship.

This is a big step for the U.S. Championship as we continue our push to get national recognition from the U.S. sports scene. Jennifer is an excellent ambassador for the sport, and she has worked hard to give this sport and its players the recognition they rightly deserve.

SAINT LOUIS, April 20, 2010--The final four spots have been filled for the 2010 U.S. Championship, which is set for May 13-25 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL).

The 24-player field was finalized today with the four, official wildcard selections: GM Alexander Stripunsky (NJ), GM Vinay Bhat (CA) and IMs Irina Krush (NY) and Sam Shankland (CA). This year's championship will feature a purse of more than $170,000, the largest per-capita prize fund in the tournament's history.

SAINT LOUIS, March 23, 2010 -- Grandmaster Maurice Ashley, the first African-American GM in the history of chess, will provide expert analysis and commentary at the 2010 U.S. Chess Championship, set for the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis May 13-25. Ashley was featured on ESPN in 1996 when he provided commentary for the Man vs. Machine match (Garry Kasparov vs. IBM's super-computer Deep Blue) and again in 1997 for the Kasparov vs. Deep Blue rematch. Ashley earned the title of grandmaster in 1999. He and WGM Jennifer Shahade will provide in-depth commentary throughout the 2010 U.S. Chess Championship.

SAINT LOUIS, March 10, 2010 -- Nineteen players have accepted invitations to the 2010 U.S. Championship, scheduled to be held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis May 13-25. Four wild card spots and the winner of the Internet Chess Club (ICC) State Champion of Champions online tournament, all yet to be determined, will round out the 24-player field.

International Master Anna Zatonskih won an automatic bid to the 2010 U.S. Championship as the winner of the 2009 U.S. Women’s Championship, but had to decline because of prior commitments and familial obligations.

SAINT LOUIS -- The dates for the 2010 U.S. Championship have shifted. The tournament is now scheduled from May 13-25 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The U.S. Championship will have a larger prize fund than the 2009 tournament with more than $170,000 up for grabs.

The U.S. Championship was rescheduled to prevent overlapping with the World Championship match between Veselin Topalov and Viswanathan Anand in Bulgaria in order to ensure the highest quality of coverage.