At the outset of Round 6 with Yury Shulman and Alexander Onischuk on board 1, Emil Sutovsky says a “Shulman win puts him as a top contender for at least shared 1st place prize…definitely ambitious…”

Onischuk is likely realizing he has tough final rounds ahead, having avoided the more challenging competitors in the first rounds.

Of the Akobian v. Nakamura match, Sutovsky says, “Nakamura definitely wants to play for a win against Akobian…” as this is the last chance for Nakamura to gain a title. Without a win against Akobian, he'll fall too far behind in point, but Akobian seems to be gaining some momentum and playing very sharp games.

Shulman v. Onischuk



Jennifer Shahade also estimates that, depending on who Irina Krusha and Ray Robson are paired with over the next 2 rounds, and the outcome of today's game, Irina will need 2 out of 3 wins, and Ray Robson will need 1 and a 1/2 out of 3 wins to complete their respective GM norms.

Author: Ken West, CCSCSL Championship Blogger 


Anna Zatonskih

Gregory Kaidanov defines sportsmanship. His opponent, Anna Zatonskih, is ill and was admitted to the hospital this morning.  But rather than starting his clock and taking the point after an hour, Kaidanov offered to play her on the players' rest day on Friday. In a tournament where every point means big money and prestige, Kaidanov has truly defined sportsmanship.

A couple of today’s games are off to a quick start.

In the Kamsky-Shulman game, the players whipped off 16 moves each in less than 26 minutes for Shulman and 17 minutes for Kamsky. Shulman opened with d4 and Kamsky played he Gruenfeld.

Emil Sutovsky, providing analysis with Jennifer Shahade on ICC and at saintlouischessclub.org , in response to a question from Shahade, said he thinks the Gruenfeld provides the most dynamic chances against d4. It’s no surprise, then, that Kamsky is playing it as Sutovsky was Kamsky’s second during the recent world championship cycle.

Add to the mix the fact that both Kamsky and Shulman are 2-0 and the $64k Fischer prize goes to the person who scores a perfect 9-0, replicating Fischer’s U.S. tournament title run. Sutovsky said that with the strong field of several grandmasters rated over 2600, going 9-0 will be hard. But as Shahade said, “If you don’t go three for three, you can’t go nine for nine.”

In another game of interest is the Nakamura-Hess game, a rematch of a recent Foxwoods match where Hess beat Nakamura on the way to a GM norm. Shahade talked about the possibility of Nakamura playing hard to avenge the loss. Sutovsky said, that could be, but the nature of the tournament and Nakamura’s style leads to fighting chess.

Their game also has proceeded quickly, with 13 moves made in quick fashion.

And a quick shout out to Companion, located next door to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, for the food. Great stuff. Too bad they aren’t delivering any of their awesome soups! And don’t get me started on their sweet treats.

Remember, live action at saintlouischessclub.org <http://saintlouischessclub.org> . The Round 2 video recap can be found here.

Blog #2: Approximately 5:30 pm CST

Author: Ken West, CCSCSL Championship Blogger



Jennifer Shahade told the audience a bit before 5 p.m. that Gary Kasparov was following the games online. That’s pretty good company. It would be great to have him commenting live here.

Sutovsky said Shabalov made a mistake somewhere. Earlier in the game he preferred Shabalov’s position. However, Sutovsky said looking at the position around move 20 it was looking bad for Shabalov. On move 23 Shabalov had 20 minutes compared with 53 for the young Nakamura, who is playing white.

Move 30 in Charles Lawton‘s game, and my chess analysis machine, Paul Mechem, still thinks it is equal and Charles may even have improved a bit. Paul thinks black could have trouble with defending the b pawn if he trades off too much material.
Sutovsky, in going over the Gulko-Hughes game, ripped off a five or so move series that shows Hughes would have a losing game after 25...Nd7. After the white rook takes the b pawn and the black Knight attacks the white queen, and then the white rook takes the black rook on the 7th. The black knight takes the queen, but the next few moves showed black losing.

Sutovsky got a lot of laughs when he was asked how many candidate moves he looked at before coming up with the winning sequence. He said it was the first line he looked at, that it was typical. Well, maybe for his level. As Jennifer said, when you can analyze as quickly as Sutovsky, you too can be a master. Listening to him analyze and the numbers of moves he comes up with, it’s easy to see why he was Gata Kamsky’s second during the run up to the world championship.

After he analyzed that line he and Jennifer went to the game. Hughes made the knight move to d7. She pointed out that Hughes had less than four minutes on his clock.

*IM Robert Hess has pulled off the first win of the tournament!