Did I Mention the Grandmasters?

I had another great day at the St. Louis Chess Club before leaving for home tomorrow. As usual, I played lots of games. In this picture you can see that I'm not the only one that gets a headache from playing A-players like Alex Vergilesov.

And just to prove that I really did meet the player who signed my board in Indianapolis, here's GM Hikaru Nakamura and I posing under the club logo. Hikaru came in for a little 5 minute tourrnament action tonight and was kind enough to pose with me.

I caught GM Ben Finegold knocking out a few speed games with the guys (that's his daughter peering around another player). Later I listened to a great lecture he gave, reviewing all 6 of his games from the recent Nationals in Las Vegas. Amazingly, I actually understood some of the moves. At least .... I think I did.

A Day at the Chess Club

Well yeah. Of course they look familiar. It's the Emberton family from Elizabethtown! Imagine going to St. Louis to see the chess club, sittitng down for a game, and then thinking "gee, those boys sure look a lot like the ones from the Hardin County Kids Chess Club". Then I saw the rest of the familly and realized "they really are the boys from the Hardin County Kids Chess Club!"

Then I look up from my board and see a very familiar chess face, Jennifer Shahade! How gracious she was to have her photo taken with me just to prove to everyone at the club back home that I actually saw her. She was busy today teaching other women how to play chess.

The club building has three levels. The lower level houses the library along with a lecture room. Hmmm, maybe we need a real library room like this one!

The top floor was a spacious and quite attractive playing area. Imagine playing under the watchful eyes of Capablanca!

Everywhere I Go ..... There I Am

I have arrived! After a pleasant drive I've arrived at the door to the St. Louis Chess Club. Err ..... except the club isn't open on Monday's, so I'll have to come back tomorrow. No matter! I'm here! I'm good with that.

Kamsky Makes His Return

Like a comet, Gata Kamsky repeated his win of the U.S. Chess Championship of 1991! Having remained America's top rated player through many of those years, after multiple tries for the world title, and after several years absent from international chess before playing in public again in 2004, Kamsky bid 25 minutes against 60 for the black pieces with draw odds in a tiebreak playoff against Yuri Shulman, the 2008 champion. The bet paid off when Kamsky took a draw with a winning position, but only seconds left on each player's clock. Yuri himself achieved the playoff with a brilliant win against Hikaru Nakamura, the 2009 champion, in the next-to-last regular round of play. Kamsky delivered a shocker in the same round when Alexander Onischuk, the 2006 champion, refused a draw offer and then lost the game to the eventual champion. Then Kamsky stunned Shulman with a draw with the black pieces while using virtually no time on his clock for most of the game in the final regular round, setting up today's tiebreak victory! For complete game scores from the tournament, go to the official tournament site or TWIC.

Where's My Coffee?

Because of the holiday weekend and the Kentucky Open, there may not be any chess players at Panera on Saturday, May 29 or June 5. Expect regular meetups again beginning with Saturday, June 12. Wednesday night play at 8pm EDT on FICS is another way to get a game in the meantime.

Only the Best for Free

Are you missing out on the 2010 U.S. Championship? Did you know that you can watch daily coverage by Jennifer Shahade and Maurice Ashley direct from the tournament site in St. Louis for free? Go here to watch or to download the games.

Pied Robins

Coming up on June 1st is the 11th Chess.com tournament. It's played correspondence style at 3 days per move and you are automatically assigned a rating class for pairing according to your rating on the day it starts. The format is 6 player round robin groups with 2 games simultaneously with each opponent for a total of up to 10 games at one time. It's great fun, so don't miss out.

Pure ICC Updated

The ICC (Internet Chess Club) has just released the newest version of the Dasher interface program (1.4.0). Among the new features are new buttons for playing pure chess. ICC's pure chess is separately rated and is a way to be paired randomly within a pool of players, negating the skewing influence from the rating system of picking opponents. Now you have the new pure chess options of 3 minute, game 45 45, or 3 1 Chess960! You will be offered the chance to upgrade the next time you logon at ICC using the Dasher interface. See all the latest features in this update here.

Learning the Tabiyas

OK, you've reached that point. You know how to play, you've been studying your tactics and made great improvements in your performance, and you've settled in on an opening repertoire that you feel comfortable with. You're ready to start with some opening studies beyond just the general principles. So what do you do now?

Searching for Capablanca

This is a position I found at W.T. Harvey's great tactics puzzle website from the game R. Raubitschek vs. Capablanca, New York 1906. Capa has the black pieces and presses for the win. Do you see the best move?

Many chess coaches and authors have recommended the aspiring player to choose a chess hero to make a study of. Perhaps you'll choose one with a style like you see as your own, or maybe a style that you wish you could engender in yourself. I'm starting my search for my chess hero with J.R. Capablanca, the third official world chess champion.

See the solution to the puzzle and more about Capablanca after the fold: