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 staves of individual chess pieces across a giant chessboard laid across the street.
[imagefield_assist|fid=4863|preset=bdynako-preview|lightbox=true|title=Rex Sinquefield played as the white king for the Human Chess event and Timothy O'Leary served as the black king.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=375|height=240]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.
Most of the chess pieces were students from the Innovative Concept Academy, a school which uses chess to teach critical thinking skills. Sometimes the children moved across the board to capture adult chess pieces, other times the grownups schooled the youngsters.
“You’re a big dude, why are you attacking her?” joked Grandmaster Maurice Ashley, who commentated for the spectators along with Woman’s Grandmaster Jennifer Shahade.
Some of the other pieces were caricatured by local celebrities, including Rex Sinquefield, the founder of the chess club, who chose to play the role of the white king.
“I wanted to be the king, but they wouldn’t let me,” said Cam Janssen, a native St. Louisan, member of the St. Louis Blues and a rook for a day. Janssen has played chess since he was a child and believes in the game’s usefulness in the role of sport. “Any time you put your brain in a complex situation, that’s kind of a workout for your mind,” he said.
Ben Finegold and Hikaru Nakamura, two local grandmasters who are also playing in the championship, climbed atop lifeguard chairs to get a better view of their armies.[imagefield_assist|fid=4864|preset=bdynako-preview|lightbox=true|title=Two Saint Louis GMs, Hikaru Nakamura and Ben Finegold, captained the pieces for the event.|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=375|height=229]
“I’m going to play something really interesting,” Finegold said prior to the game. I’m going to play more enterprising than usual to put [Nakamura] on his toes.” Despite playing chess for more than 30 years, Finegold said he had never participated in a human chess match before.
While Nakamura, the defending U.S. Champion, ended up besting Finegold in about an hour, the game produced some funny moments. After a participating member of the press slid across the board to capture the piece played by St. Louis boxer Ryan Coyne, Shahade quipped, “This is the only game where a chess player and a journalist knocks out a boxer.”
