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By Ken West

Round 2

Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov paid a surprise visit Friday to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis during the second round of the U.S. Junior Closed Championship.

His presence allowed him to speak about one game in particular — National Master Gregory Young against FIDE Master John Bryant. Playing against Bryant’s Najdorf Sicilian, Young retreated his knight from d4 to f3 on move 13.

When Young made the move, Grandmaster Ben Finegold — who is providing commentary with FIDE Master Aviv Friedman — said he had not seen the move in that line before. During post-game analysis, Young said Kasparov played the line against Boris Gelfand in 1993 in Linares. Young made the comment not knowing Kasparov would make a surprise visit to the games.

Kasparov said Gelfand played the line against him again in 1994. Kasparov also played the black side in the same line. He played a5 as black, a move Bryant also played.

After Young’s e5 push, Bryant played d5.

Shown Young’s Rd4 on move 17, Kasparov smiled and said, “Nice!”

“This is very risky play by both,” Finegold said during the game. “I predict no draw here.”

His prediction proved true as the game ended on move 38 with Young taking the full point. An oddity of the final position: Bryant had both rooks on the seventh.

“It looks like Bryant got a taste of his own medicine today,” Friedman said, talking about Young’s attacking play. Bryant won the day before with a knight sacrifice on f7.

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GM Kasparov also commented on the other games.

In those games, FM Warren Harper beat International Master Conrad Holt to keep pace with Young at two points each.

In the other games, NM Kayden Troff won with the black pieces against NM Raven Sturt; IM Daniel Naroditsky beat FM Alec Getz; and FM Victor Shen topped NM Jialin Ding.

In the Sturt-Troff match, Friedman said Sturt could have secured a draw with a queen trade. After the game, Sturt said he saw the move but rejected it.

“I’m in it to win it,” he said.

[imagefield_assist|fid=10407|preset=fullsize|lightbox=true|title=GM Hikaru Nakamura sits in front of the Wall of Fame at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=700|height=467]

GM Hikaru Nakamura once again will take on the world's best at the Bazna Kings tournament in Romania June 11-22. Nakamura needs eight points to break Bobby Fischer's record as the highest FIDE-rated American chess player ever. Fischer's highest-ever published Elo rating is 2785 and Nakamura's current Elo rating is 2777.2. 

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Article courtesy USChess.org