2015 U.S. Championship

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Chief Arbiter
International Arbiter (2013)
International Organizer (2010)
Senior Tournament Director

Tony Rich has served as the executive director of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis since 2008. Rich is recognized by the U.S. Chess Federation as a Senior Tournament Director and has been licensed as an International Arbiter by FIDE, one of only 22 FIDE International Organizers in the nation. In addition to his role as the chief arbiter in 2015, Rich has served as either Chief or Deputy Arbiter in more than 10 national championship events since 2009 and organized dozens of elite matches, exhibitions and other international events.

Rich has traveled extensively to broaden the impact of the Club while helping to establish Saint Louis as the burgeoning capital of chess. He is a member of the FIDE Swiss Pairing Program Committee and the USCF International Relations Committee, and has served as the head of delegation for the American teams at three World Team Championships. In 2009 and again in 2010, the U.S. Chess Federation recognized Rich 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.

Tracey Vibbert, IA
Assistant Arbiter
International Arbiter (2014)
Senior Tournament Director

Tracey Vibbert, the assistant arbiter for the 2015 U.S. Championship and the U.S. Women’s Championship, is an International Arbiter (awarded 2014) and a USCF Senior Tournament Director (2011).  She has served as an arbiter for various events including the 2014 US Women’s Championship, the 2014 Millionaire Chess Open, the 2nd Annual DC International, and the 42nd Annual World Open.

In addition to being a tournament director and arbiter, Tracey serves on the USCF’s Tournament Director Certification Committee and is also a co-founder of the Evansville Scholastic Chess Association in her home town of Evansville, Indiana.   Tracey was also just recently hired as the Ratings, Titles, and Certifications Officer for the USCF.

Live Broadcast Commentators

GM Yasser Seirawan 2677 (USCF) | 2620 (FIDE) 4-time U.S. Champion

Few names in U.S. Chess are more recognizable than Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan. A four-time U.S. Champion and former World Championship contender, Seirawan was the dominant force in American chess in the 1980s. Born in Damascus, Syria in 1960, Seirawan’s family immigrated to the United States when he was 7 and settled in Seattle. He picked up the game of chess when he was 12 years old and honed his skills playing against top players in the area, including Latvian-born master Viktors Pupols and six-time Washington State Champion James Harley McCormick. At 13, just a year after learning the game, Seirawan became the Washington State Junior Chess Champion, and by 1979 won the World Junior Championship. Seirawan went on to dominate the American chess scene, winning the U.S. Championship title in 1981, 1986 and 1989. He claimed the U.S. Championship title once again in 2000 and continued to play in major world-class events, including serving 10 times as a member of the U.S. team at the World Chess Olympiad, until he announced his retirement in 2003. Seirawan was lured out of retirement in 2011 to once again play in the U.S. Championship, which was held in Saint Louis. He cited the exciting developments of the Saint Louis chess scene as a contributing factor for his renewed interest in competitive chess. “Yaz,” as he is commonly known, followed the 2011 U.S. Championship with a stunning performance at the 2011 World Team Championship, where he earned an individual silver medal for his performance on board four, defeating some of the best players in the world along the way. He is a highly respected teacher, commentator and author and has written several books including Chess Duels, the 2010 Chesscafe.com’s book of the year. He is regularly featured as the Resident Grandmaster for the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.

WGM Jennifer Shahade 2301 (USCF) | 2322 (FIDE) 2-time U.S. Women’s Champion

Womens’ Grandmaster Jennifer Shahade lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is a chess player, writer and editor for Chess Life Online. She won the U.S. Women’s Championship in 2002 and 2004, the former being the strongest Round Robin women’s field to date in U.S. chess history. In 2004, Jennifer’s first book, Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport was published. The crisp writing, original interviews with players like Judit Polgar and Zhu Chen, and controversial title gave her a lot of media attention, including coverage in Reader’s Digest, the New York Times, NPR radio, and Time Out New York. Besides her numerous reports in Chess Life Magazine and Chess Life Online, Jennifer’s writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Games Magazine, the L.A. Times, New in Chess, and Foreword Magazine. Jennifer graduated in 2002 from NYU, with a degree in comparative literature. Jennifer also contributed to Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess (Spring, 2009.) Jennifer was also born into a chess family. Her brother Greg is an International Master and organizes the U.S. Chess League as well as the U.S. Chess School, while her father Michael is a three-time Pennsylvania State Champion. In 2007, Jennifer co-founded a non-profit, 9queens , devoted to promoting chess especially to girls and women. You can read more about it in Chess Life 4 Kids or the Chess Life Magazine article Hip-Hop Variation. Jennifer blogs on www.uschess.org, and writes most and photographs much of the content for Chess Life Online. (bio courtesy www.uschess.org)

GM Maurice Ashley 2459 (USCF) | 2440 (FIDE) Millionaire Chess Organizer

Maurice Ashley lives his passion. Through his love for chess, he not only made history as the first African-American International Grandmaster in the annals of the game, but he has translated his love to others as a three-time national championship coach, two-time author, ESPN commentator, iPhone app designer, puzzle inventor, and motivational speaker. He is now working as a Joint Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center and MIT’s Media Lab to bring the benefits of chess and other classic games to a wider educational audience through the innovative use of technology.

Maurice has traveled the world as an ardent spokesperson of the character-building effects of chess. Coming from the rough and tough streets of Kingston, Jamaica and Brooklyn, New York, Maurice has tirelessly shared his compelling story with young people in places such as the crime-ridden neighborhoods of Detroit, the townships of Cape Town, South Africa and the poverty-stricken jungles of Belize. His book, Chess for Success (Broadway Books, 2005) crystallizes his vision of the many benefits of chess, particularly for at-risk youth, and he continuously spreads his message of living one’s dream to universities, businesses, chess clubs and non-profit organizations around the globe.

His app, Learn Chess! With Maurice Ashley, has been sold in over 30 countries, and he has received multiple community service awards from city governments, universities, and community groups for his work. His drive and enthusiasm always have him on the go. In the fall of 2011, Maurice toured six Caribbean nations to bringing chess, books, and technology to kids in the region.

Live Audience Commentators

GM Ben Finegold 2587 (USCF) | 2500 (FIDE) U.S. Open Champion

Grandmaster Ben Finegold learned the rules of chess at age 5 and received his first USCF rating at age 6. It wasn’t long, around his mid-teens, until he realized he wanted to play chess professionally. GM Finegold’s first major tournament win came in 1989 when he finished in a first-place tie at the U.S. Junior Closed Championship. Also in 1989, Finegold scored his biggest victory to date with a win against Boris Gelfand at the Euwe Memorial tournament in Amsterdam, Holland. According to Finegold, this was the most famous player he had beaten at the time, and the fact that it was a Swiss tournament and he was unable to prepare for Gelfand specifically made the win that much more exciting. Finegold said he played an excellent tactical game to secure the victory. He obtained his first IM norm at the event, gained 40 FIDE points and eventually earned the title of International Master in 1990. In 1991 Finegold won his first major, international, Swiss-paired tournament in Antwerp, Belgium. He was just 21 years old. From 1988 to 1992 Finegold lived in Brussels, Belgium. He returned to the U.S. in 1992 and, in 1993, was awarded the Samford Chess Fellowship. The Samford Chess Fellowship is awarded each year to the most talented chess player in the United States under the age of 26. At that time, the fellowship gave Finegold a $1,200 per month stipend and also paid for all things chess related. During that time, he worked with Gregory Kaidanov, played in a number of strong tournaments, and began utilizing chess software on is computer to improve his game. In 1994, Finegold finished in a six-way tie for first place at the U.S Open in Chicago, and then in 2002 he finished in a first-place tie with eight players at the World Open in Philadelphia where he secured his first GM norm. He won the Chicago Spring Invitational in 2005 to earn his second GM norm, and then achieved his third GM norm at the 2009 Spice Cup Chess Festival in Lubbock, Texas. Serious chess players are divided by the question of whether it’s better to study a narrow set of openings in great depth, or play a wide variety of systems, to keep opponents wondering. Finegold falls somewhere in between. He’s been playing 1.d4 his whole life but with Black he’s more flexible and can play numerous defenses against both 1.e4 and 1.d4. Ben isn’t afraid of trading Queens early in the game, and wins a lot of half points from endgame technique. A familiar face around the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and a popular name within the Club’s Resident Grandmaster rotation, Finegold has offered outstanding commentary – both live and on the broadcast – for several of the Club’s elite events, including the U.S. Championships, the U.S. Junior Championships and the Sinquefield Cup.

GM Alejandro Ramirez 2677 (USCF) | 2590 (FIDE) U.S. Open Champion  

Alejandro Ramirez has become a frequent guest of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, through roles as both the Club’s Resident Grandmaster rotation and as a player in the nation’s elite events.

Ramirez was inspired by the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer when he was four years old. He became FIDE Master at the age of 9, an International Master at 13, and earned his Grandmaster title by the age of 15. That achievement set Ramirez as the first Centro-American to earn the elite title and, at the time, the second youngest grandmaster.

A competitor in the last three U.S. Championships, Ramirez displayed some of his finest chess in May 2013, when he pushed reigning champion Gata Kamsky to a playoff for the national title. He drew the first two playoff games with Kamsky before losing an Armageddon game where he had 19 minutes and 45 seconds against Kamsky’s 45 minutes.

Ramirez studied video game design at the University of Texas at Dallas, earning a master’s degree in Arts & Technology, and he now currently serves as an editor for the popular chess news website ChessBase. His personal familiarity with both fields of the 2015 U.S. Championships, coupled with his outstanding, plain-talk understanding of the King’s game, makes Ramirez an outstanding commentating option for the live audience at the 2015 U.S. Chess Championships.

Tickets may be purchased to each individual round of the 2015 U.S. Championships, which includes unlimited access into the championship tournament hall, additional live Grandmaster-led commentary, and complimentary beverage and food catering. Annual members to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis receive free entry to each daily round.

Ticket pricing:

The Chess Club has special hotel rates with the following establishments. Please make sure to ask for the “chess rate” when making reservations.

Walking Distance to Chess Club

Short Taxi Ride to Chess Club

The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis is proud to present the 2015 U.S. Championships. From video production to live game relay, we have assembled an excellent team of experts, each of whom plays an important role in bringing you these great events. Our partners include:

Fat Chimp Studios

Fat Chimp Studios is a full-service video production and digital media company. With our experienced staff and state-of-the-art technology FCS sets a high standard of excellence in everything we do. We offer services to our clients that include creative development, project management, script writing, storyboarding, directing, producing, casting, location production, studio production, sound design, custom music, color correction, video editing, art direction, graphic design, 3D Animation, 2D animation, special effects, file conversion and delivery. We also offer consultative services including video marketing and advertising. Technology can only take you so far, it is the people that produce quality video, meet client expectations, and deliver on deadlines. At Fat Chimp Studios we deliver for our clients.

Spectrum Studios

Spectrum Studios specializes in producing high quality digital content for multiple mediums including: commercials, feature films, music videos, short films, documentaries, educational and training programs, news, and sports for our clients. We’re ready to help you with your project, in any format: high definition, film, or standard definition. We are a one-stop shop facility equipped to realize your project, from pre-production to post-production, whatever your budget.

Spry Digital

Spry Digital is a nimble interactive agency in Saint Louis. Our experience in digital marketing, application development and responsive web design means that we can craft big ideas into custom digital products that drive your business. From pegging opportunities to building solutions and tracking results, when you work with Spry Digital, you get a partner that goes the distance.

Lennart Ootes

Lennart Ootes is a creative professional who mainly works in the world of chess. At the 2015 U.S. Chess Championships he serves as the DGT e-board specialist and photographer. His goal is to improve the quality of tournament coverage and to find new ways to attract a broader audience to the game of chess.

Lennart regularly works with DGT boards, builds and designs websites, produces live webcasts at tournaments for chess.com, is into photography and organizes chess tournaments. Last year he worked for 15 international chess events, including the 2014 U.S. Championships, Sinquefield Cup and Millionaire Chess.