It was cool that Kamsky came in today to blog after his win. He is clearly watched and seen as a little different from the rest because of his past star status and he's just as clearly intent on leaving that behind. He socializes and post-mortems with players he would have been giving simuls to a decade ago. It's got to be very hard to not have that magic at your fingertips anymore. Most never have it, but to have it and lose it is extra tough. Let's hope he sticks around long enough to get it back. Watching how well he is dealing with this has put him on my cool list.
I've heard friends say that Kamsky always was a pretty cool and nice guy away from his father. It's nice to hear that he's now hanging around and interacting more with his fellow competitors.
I'd like to see Kamsky do well. It is very nice that he's back playing chess.
Did Kamsky have any comments after the final round? Any future plans? His tournament performance rating of -159 was practically the worst of the field, although his initial rating of 2717 was obviously based on very old data. He himself surely recognized that he was unlikely to perform at that level after so much time away from competitive chess, but just two wins in nine rounds isn't much to celebrate. At least he had no losses.
Great tournament, great website, great job by Mig! One question: who won the Bent Larsen Fighting Chess award? I couldn't tell from the website.
P.S. I think Kamsky is probably reasonably happy with his +2. It's all part of the process of playing himself back into shape after 8 years off. Hats off to him for reentering the ring.
Excellent everything regarding the US Championship and the website! Catch up on some well deserved sleep, Mig. We'll give you a week, then wake you up and bombard you with idiotic questions, like "What kind of shoes was so-and-so wearing?" and "Is it really true that Ivanov sleeps with his mouth open at the board?"
Don't let the plane-bugs bite.
Nice work Mig, and grats to Nakamura for becoming the youngest US Chess Champion ever.
I'm a bit dissapointed that his win didn't catch the attention of the major tv news media, but oh well.
nakamura isn't the youngest US champion ever, dionyseus. Fischer, 14.