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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Nice preview of upcoming US Men and Women's Chess Championship 2011

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Gata Kamsky

Hi everyone,


We found this nice preview of the upcoming American men’s and women’s chess championships by Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolff. Here are some excerpts.


The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, courtesy of philanthropist Rex Sinquefield, is once again sponsoring the American Men’s and Women’s Chess Championships. The tournament will be held April 13-28 and will feature a combined prize fund of $230,00. 

The USCF has announced the men’s field: Grandmasters Gata Kamsky (last year’s winner), Alex Onischuk, Varuzhan Akobian, Yasser Seirawan, Yury Shulman, Jaan Ehlvest, Alex Stripunsky, Larry Christiansen (of Cambridge), Alexander Ivanov (Newton), Robert Hess, Ben Feingold, Alex Shabalov, Grandmaster-elect Sam Shankland (a Brandeis student), and International Master Daniel Naroditsky. Two wild-card spots will be filled this month in a qualifying tournament.



Missing is of course Hikaru Nakamura who is now based in St. Louis, who has his eye on the world championship. His victory at Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands, in January gave him a ranking of No. 8 in the world and identified him as an up-and-coming star in international chess. Still, to win the world championship he must defeat the top-rated Grandmasters. Carlsen is not competing in the forthcoming world championship cycle, but Kamsky is. Kamsky has a quarterfinal match against Veselin Topalov in May. This is a rematch, as Kamsky lost to Topalov in the finals in 2009.


An unexpected development at this year’s US Championship is the “wild card’’ inclusion of Seirawan in the field. Seirawan, who largely retired from the game in 2003, is 50 years old and has a current USCF rating of 2689. He was US Champion in 1986 and shared the title in 1981, 1989, and 2000. He was the 1979 World Junior Champion. An internationally popular player, Seirawan used his worldwide influence to arrange a series of matches in 2001 that he hoped would unite the two world champions into one FIDE world champion. He is a successful author of chess books and articles and has worked constantly for chess charities.


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1 Comments:

  • At March 9, 2011 at 10:58 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Alexandra...It is Benjamin FINEGOLD...and not Feingold?!? lol
    Hope it helps...
    Blessings abound to you !
    Ras B

     

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