This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, April 14, 2011 - The first game features St. Louis' Grandmaster-in-residence Ben Finegold, white, versus Grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov, black.
As the chairperson and a commentator for the 2011 U.S. Chess Championships in St. Louis, it is my pleasure to fill in for your regular columnist, Grandmaster Ben Finegold, as he participates in the tournament. America's premier chess competition, the U.S. Chess Championship is a grueling two-week affair.
The actual games are five-hour mental slugfests, but the work stretches much longer than that - players prepare for hours before a game, analyzing their oppositions' past strategies in databases that contain millions of previous chess games. After the battles conclude, they engage in "post-mortems," where they figure out how the vanquished could have improved upon his or her play.
After four rounds, Finegold, who is also the Grandmaster-in-residence at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, has won one game, lost one game and drawn two. His victory was over renowned coach and player Grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov, an opponent Finegold had struggled with in the past. After a finesse in the early stage of the game, Finegold was able to advance a pawn to c6, which crippled Kaidanov's mobility and allowed the local hero a smooth victory.
This year's championship is split up into two groups of eight players. The top two finishers from each will advance to the semi-finals. So far, the "A" group has held little surprises. With steady play, defending champion and World Championship candidate Grandmaster Gata Kamsky is leading the way, along with last year's runner-up, Grandmaster Yury Shulman.
The "B" group, on the other hand, is being stormed by two young players who were not considered major contenders going into the event, Robert Hess and Sam Shankland, both 19. Robert Hess came close to nabbing the crown two years ago, and this year he is playing as if he is ready to finish the job.
In rounds three and four, Hess defeated two world-class players, Alexander Shabalov and Alexander Onischuk, both times playing with black pieces. Playing with the black pieces (and moving second) is considered a major disadvantage at such an elite level, making Hess' triumph all the more notable. Hess is something of a poster boy for combining phenomenal chess results with academic excellence. Hess plays for the American chess Olympiad team, and next year he will start classes at Yale University.
Shankland's rise to the top was even harder to predict. He has not performed well at the last two U.S. Chess Championships, but he nabbed one of the coveted spots into the championship at the U.S. Junior Championship held earlier this year in St. Louis. Now a freshman at Brandeis University, Shankland says that he is more relaxed, allowing him to play better chess. Shankland's most remarkable win was a quick win over Kaidanov.
The U.S. Women's Championship, an eight-player competition, features another surprise leader and college student, Sabina Foisor of University of Maryland Baltimore County. Foisor shocked spectators by winning her first game against reigning U.S. Women's Champion Irina Krush. Since then, Krush has gone on a raging comeback, winning three games in a row. Four of the eight players in the U.S. Women's will advance to the semifinals. Foisor and Krush are well poised to grab two of the spots, but the other two are very much up in the air.
Jennifer Shahade is a Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and two-time U.S. Women's Champion. She is the editor of USChess.org, the official website of the United States Chess Federation, and the author of the critically acclaimed book "Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport." Jennifer is the co-founder of 9Queens, a non-profit dedicated to promoting the game of chess, especially to girls and women, and her new book, "Play Like a Girl! Tactics by 9 Queens," features a collection of puzzles from the top women chess players around the world.