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[imagefield_assist|fid=4375|preset=frontpage_200x200|lightbox=true|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=200]By FM Mike Klein

St. Louis, May 16, 2010 – GM Gata Kamsky and GM Hikaru Nakamura have met over the board three times, and all three games failed to produce a winner. They battled to a 37-move draw Sunday at the 2010 U.S. Championship, held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. Their draw last year at the same event was two fewer moves, but both games were hard fought.

Nakamura showed his willingness to fight as Black, playing the uncompromising King’s Indian Defense, which has seen a revival of sorts at the championship. For the second round in a row, two games featured the opening, the other being GM Yury Shulman against GM Alex Shabalov.

[imagefield_assist|fid=4192|preset=frontpage_200x200|lightbox=true|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=200]St. Louis, May 15, 2010 – Chess fans will not have to wait much longer for the strongest matchup of the 2010 U.S. Championship, as the top two seeds will face each other in round three. Both GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Gata Kamsky, the first and second seeds of the tournament, won again today to push their totals to 2-0. They are the only players with perfect scores, and tomorrow Kamsky will have White.

Nakamura began gaining a useful spatial advantage against recent high-school graduate GM Robert Hess, who was last year’s Cinderella story at the championship. Hess claimed he had no idea what opening to prepare for. In the middlegame, Hess said he felt he could not stand by and allow the White f-pawn to advance.

[imagefield_assist|fid=3699|preset=frontpage_200x200|lightbox=true|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=200]SAINT LOUIS, May 14, 2010 – Mayor Francis Slay and Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed helped kick off the opening ceremonies Thursday for the 2010 U.S. Chess Championship at the Old Post Office. For the second year in a row, the country’s chess elite will converge on St. Louis to compete at the Chess Club & Scholastic Center of Saint Louis to crown a champion.

“We have 24 of the strongest players in the country here,” announced Tony Rich, director of the chess club. “The next two weeks will truly be a battle.”

The tournament, which first took place in 1888, will have the strongest top players ever. Games will begin at 2:00 p.m. daily and will run for 10 days beginning Friday.

[imagefield_assist|fid=3511|preset=frontpage_200x200|title=|desc=|link=none|origsize=|align=left|width=200|height=200]Anand did the unthinkable in the 12th and deciding game of the World Championship --- he won with black in a QGD! This was the first QGD of the match, and Anand played the super solid Lasker Defense.

After getting an equal game, Topalov weakened his own kingside and tried too hard to make something out of the position, and was soon on the defensive. Topalov missed a key move and was losing by move 35.