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The "Champions Showdown" has become an annual event to showcase the Saint Louis Chess Club by bringing world-class with a twist. Instead of eight grandmasters playing a typical round-robin ("all-play-all") tournament, each player has a match opponent against whom he has to play the total of 20 games. The four separate matches, running in parallel, this year feature Chess960 (a.k.a. Fischer-Random Chess) with the following pairings.
Commentary by WGM Jennifer Shahade, GM Yasser Seirawan & GM Maurice Ashley
Garry Kasparov warmed up with the "Ultimate Moves" exhibition | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
In this chess variant, the pieces are lined up on the first and last rank in a random order, with a few stipulations (e.g. the king must begin between the rooks, the bishops must be balanced). In all 960 different starting positions are theoretically possible. The basic premise is that the players can forget their theoretical knowledge in "normal chess" (a.k.a. position 518) and are instead on their own from the first move.
But what is "Chess 9LX"? The organizers seem to be pursuing a marketing strategy, something that can be more readily branded or even trademarked, but the meaning simply derives from the Roman numeral system, popular for instance in the American football Superbowl: "L" for 50 and "X" 10 - "LX" is simply "60". Chess 9LX = Chess 960.
It might have been "Chess CMLX" of course, but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, like "nine-el-ex".
USD $200,000 is on offer for the players.
Rapid (6 games): 30 min. / Game (10 sec. "Delay"), a win is worth 2 points
Flash (14 games): 5 min. / Game (5 sec. "Delay"), a win is worth 1 point
A new starting position will be drawn for every four rounds, with the same position being repeated in each round. In the unlikely event that, by random chance, the "normal" position 518 is drawn, it will not count and a new draw will take place. After the draw, players have a little time to prepare, but are not allowed to use any electronic devices. A (human) second is allowed. In addition, the players will be filmed during their preparation — it's part of the show!
Times in UTC.
|
Day |
Date |
Time |
Event |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Monday |
September 2 |
17:00 |
Selecting position |
|
18:00 |
Rapid game 1 | ||
|
19:30 |
Rapid game 2 | ||
|
21:00 |
Blitz game 1 | ||
|
21:30 |
Blitz game 2 | ||
|
Tuesday |
September 3 |
17:00 |
Selecting position |
|
18:00 |
Rapid game 3 | ||
|
19:30 |
Rapid game 4 | ||
|
21:00 |
Blitz game 3 | ||
|
21:30 |
Blitz game 4 | ||
|
Wednesday |
September 4 |
17:00 |
Selecting position |
|
18:00 |
Rapid game 5 | ||
|
19:30 |
Rapid game 6 | ||
|
21:00 |
Blitz game 5 | ||
|
21:30 |
Blitz game 6 | ||
|
Thursday |
September 5 |
17:30 |
Selecting position |
|
18:00 |
Blitz game 7 | ||
|
18:30 |
Blitz game 8 | ||
|
19:00 |
Blitz game 9 | ||
|
19:30 |
Blitz game 10 | ||
|
20:00 |
Selecting position | ||
|
20:30 |
Blitz game 11 | ||
|
21:00 |
Blitz game 12 | ||
|
21:30 |
Blitz game 13 | ||
|
22:00 |
Blitz game 14 |
