Playing a simul against strong grandmaster is usually a celebration for amateur chess player. There are some grandmasters in the category of legends and most chess players would like to play against them. I mean grandmasters like Kasparov, Karpov or… Korchnoi. If you will spend days in the middle of October somewhere in the Czech Republic, Europe, you have a chance!

There will be a weekend event called Chess Classic held in Spa Hotel Vráž. Two top grandmasters from older generation will participate. And as the title of this post speaks those players will be gentelmen Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi and Vlastimil Hort.

They will play two exhibitional games and on Saturday (October 16th) they will play a simul against interested chess amateurs. And (I must add) amateurs willing to pay about 2.000 EUR for a simul game against GM Korchnoi or 1.200 EUR for a simul game against GM Hort. The number of boards is limited – 6 for Mr. Korchnoi and 30 for Mr. Hort.

Do you play chess simul against strong players? Who was your most interesting opponent and what was the result your game?

And additional question – would you pay money for playing a simul against GM?

Photo source: Wikipedia

After great battles and nine rounds IM Irina Krush became the Women’s Chess Champion of the U.S. for 2010! She reached 8 points, only two draws and without a lost game! Performance 2686! Impressive result!

The second place was taken by Anna Zatonskih with 7.5 points. The same amount of points was grabed by Tatev Abrahamyan as well. She took the bronze medal for the third place.

Here is the final standing:
1. Irina Krush 8.0 points
2. Anna Zatonskih 7.5
3. Tatev Abrahamyan 7.5
4. Alisa Melekhina 4.5
5. Katerina Rohonyan 4.5
6. Camilla Baginskaite 4.0
7. Iryna Zenyuk 4.0
8. Sabina Foisor 3.0
9. Beatriz Marinello 1.5
10. Abby Marshall 1.0

Here are all participants’ photos and it is up to you to chose the most beautiful one among them.

I know it is hard, but I am sure you will be able to chose and vote in the form below ;)

Let us know who should be deserved by the title Miss of the US Chess Women’s Championship 2010!

Irina Krush	Anna Zatonskih
Tatev Abrahamyan	Camilla Baginskaite
Sabina Foisor	Alisa Melekhina
Katerina Rohonyan	Iryna Zenyuk
Abby Marshall	Beatriz Marinello

All pictures are taken from the official site of the championship – http://www.uschesschamps.com/

I think I have never mentioned we have to play 40 moves in 100 minutes and then we have 30 minutes until the end of game. No time increment as you can see.

Personally I have no experience with time increment in serious tournaments. What I like on our system is that each player knows how many time has for the whole game and he has to keep it somewhere in his mind when he thinks about the moves and plans. It is needless to get won position but having 4 seconds on chess clock to win it.

On the other side – when you have time increment you can win those games. The dark side of having time increment is the fact that when you play under the time increment only you are in the permanent time pressure. And it must be hard to play under that pressure (as I wrote above, I have no experience in playing serious games with time increment). And another minus- you can not go to the toilet! :)

OK, back to the game which I want to show you. It is one of my won games. It was it the 11th round. My opponent was another friend of mine – after several years playing in one club you realize that all your opponents are also your friends :)

I wanted to win the game, so I chose Benkö gambit as black. I was able to place my knight on beautiful square d3 during the game and it was really dominating piece on the board. This knight took a lot of space of white pieces and I think it was the main factor why I realize my small advantage and pressure into the whole point later on.

The standing after 2 rounds:
1.-4. Krush, Zatonskih, Melekhina, Zenyuk 2.0
5.-6. Abrahamyan, Rohonyan 1.0
7.-10. Baginskaite, Foisor, Marshall, Marinello 0.0

The round three contains very interesting game on its schedule. It will be game between Anna Zatonskih and Irina Krush. Just to remind you – Zatonskih is still the US Women’s Champion while Krush finished as the second last year. Does it sound interesting enough?

Here are the games from round2:

The game I like the most from the first day is the win of Irina Krush. Irina Krush has the highest rating of the tournament and she is definitely among the biggest favorites of the championship. In the game against Beatriz Marinello she had a small advantage after entering end-game. Her pair of bishop was better than opponent’s bishop and knight. How Irina Krush gathered the whole point from the ending is very nice and useful to study!

I hope we will see more games like this one in the next rounds!

The standing after 1st round:
1.-5. Krush, Zatonskih, Abrahamyan, Melekhina, Zenyuk 1.0
6.-10. Baginskaite, Foisor, Rohonyan, Marshall, Marinello 0.0

Here are the games from the 1st round:

You may remember I post polls on the blog sometimes. It is always good to know your opinion and/or to know who is your favorite player in the tournament/match.

I think, the question of today’s poll is clear – it could not be clearer :)

Voting is open until July 13rd only! Hurry and vote now! ;)