US Championship starts with an Evans Gambit by Nakamura

2012 U.S. Chess Championship and U.S. Women's Championship

These events began on Tuesday, May 8, and concludes on Saturday, May 19, with a possible playoff on May 20. The top twelve players in the country are taking part in an 11-game round robin for the title of U.S. Champion, with Gata Kamsky defending it and striving to win his third consecutive championship. In the women's championship the top ten female players take part in a nine-game round robin, with WGM and IM Anna Zatonskih defending her 2011 title. The total prize fund for the U.S. Championship is $160,000. If someone should score a perfect 11-0, the bonus “Fischer Prize” (so named because Bobby Fischer was the last to win every game) of $64,000 will be awarded. The women's purse is $64,000.

Club founder Rex Sinquefield highlighted some other local chess news. Earlier in the day, the Chess Club and the World Chess Hall of Fame, located across the street from the club, unveiled the world's largest chess piece. The white king, made up of layers of ¾-inch exterior grade plywood, stands more than 14 feet tall, weighs more than 2,200 pounds and is approximately the height of an average female giraffe. The piece is based on the “Championship Staunton” design and is made of layers of ¾-inch exterior grade plywood. It is 45 times larger than a standard chess piece. This new Guinness World Record beat the previous record, set in 2003, by 1 foot, 5 inches.

The Club, in partnership with the World Chess Hall of Fame also located in Saint Louis, set the new record to help further cement the city’s reputation for being the hub of chess in the United States. The piece was unveiled to kick off the 2012 U.S. and Women’s Chess Championships, which take place May 8 through May 20. This is the fourth year in a row the Club has hosted the tournaments. As a part of the unveiling and tournament kickoff, Saint Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay issued an official proclamation, declaring Saint Louis the “Gateway to Chess.”

“The Saint Louis Arch was built to commemorate Saint Louis as the gateway to the west,” said CCSCSL Executive Director Tony Rich. “This record-breaking chess piece is meant to celebrate another distinction for our city. Saint Louis has truly become a center of chess culture, and this larger-than-life chess piece serves as a striking monument to honor our city’s involvement in the game.”

The piece was built by R.G. Ross Construction, located in Saint Louis, and has been officially approved by Guinness as a world record. Following are some key statistics about the World’s Largest Chess Piece:

• The piece took eighteen days to construct and weighs more than 2,200 pounds.
• The piece is taller than a professional basketball hoop (ten feet), an average-sized female giraffe (fourteen feet) and the Statue of Liberty’s fingernail (thirteen feet).
• If the piece were to be used during a chess game, the square the piece sits on would be nine feet by nine feet, and the board would be 72 feet by 72 feet. This board would be big enough to hold 392 bathtubs or nine school buses.

Schedule of Events

Round one

By FM Mike Klein

SAINT LOUIS, May 8, 2012 -- There were running starts and standing starts and very little in between to open the 2012 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship. All but three games in the events produced a decisive result. The tournaments are being hosted by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis for the fourth consecutive year.

The players follow the action on-screen and up close

In a turn of the unexpected, the grandmasters in the U.S. Championship played more provocative chess than their female counterparts. Their early imbalanced positions meant the first three games to finish came from their event.

The first result shocked everyone. GM Alex Stripunsky overlooked a simple capture on move 11 and resigned immediately against GM Alexander Onischuk. According to U.S. Championship statistical guru Ed Gonsalves, the game was the third shortest to produce a winner since the modern tournament began in 1936. Onischuk felt some of his playing partner's chagrin and was disappointed with the way he won.

Stripunsky had a nasty slip in the opening round. The question is whether he will be able to recover.

Top-seeded GM Hikaru Nakamura scored the second point of the day by converting an opening advantage against GM Robert Hess. Nakamura skipped last year's championship and came prepared this time, opening with 1. e4 and making his unsuspecting opponent think on move one. Hess took three minutes before playing his usual 1...e5 but the next surprise lurked only a few moves later when Nakamura played 4. b4, the Evans Gambit, an opening only a shade younger than the incorporation of Saint Louis as a city.

Nakamura dug out a new weapon for his opponents to worry about

“It's almost like when [Nakamura] plays 1. e4, you know he's got something up his sleeve,” said Jennifer Shahade, one of the two on-air commentators. After the game, Nakamura explained, “I just felt like trying something new.”

Defending champion GM Gata Kamsky finished next, besting tournament newcomer GM Alejandro Ramirez. Kamsky played in the style that has allowed him to elude defeat for the past several U.S. Championships. “My style of play is called constrictor,” Kamsky said. “I'm a great admirer of (former World Champion Tigran) Petrosian. He came up with that style of play.” With Ramirez's backward pawn on d6 sitting helplessly, Kamsky marshaled all of his pieces into position, then pushed a pawn one square on the edge of the board. The move was cunning in its subtlety, and Ramirez admitted that he could not find a good move afterward.

As an added incentive to inspire the players, Former World Champion GM Garry Kasparov and world number-one female player GM Judit Polgar have agreed to judge the best game prizes for the 2012 U.S. Championship & U.S. Women's Championship. For their efforts, players from the overall US championship can win $1,500 for first, $1,000 for second and $500 for third to be chosen by Kasparov. Should the best game be a hard-fought draw, the two players will split the purse. Judit Polgar will judge the best game prizes for the 2012 U.S. Women's Championship. Players can receive $1,000 for first, $600 for second and $400 for third.

For complete reports and further pics, please refer to the official website.

Links Official tournament site All men's games in PGN All women's games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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