Speaking of prodigies and former prodigies, ChessNinja contributor US Champion Hikaru Nakamura is in clear first place in the Biel tournament at the half. He also has white against his two highest-rated competitors in the second half, Gelfand and Volokitin. He really made Pelletier look bad in a classic grind against the French in round five. Impressive stuff against a 2600.
To show how tough it is to even get into the ring at the top level, Nakamura's two games against Gelfand at this event will almost double the number of games he's played against 2700-rated opponents in his career. Unless you are a local favorite, there just aren't many chances at invitations until you break into the top 20. How about a nice category 16 here in the US? With Kamsky, Nakamura, and Onischuk, the US could have three legit participants born since 1974.
I've always been impressed with Nakamura. Who cares if he shuns formal trainers? The kid can play some serious chess.
It's about time America has a really strong GM. Hikaru, you can go to college, but please stick with chess and don't go the Kamsky route.
All round 6 games drawn, so he maintains his lead after drawing with black against Carlsen.
Just what would it cost to run one of these six-GM category XVI internationals in a place like Philadelphia, Chicago, or Denver?
And Seattle, don't forget Seattle...
Make it eight GMs, four USA. Make at least one spot from qualification from one of the big opens, a la Aeroflot-Dortmund, one of the best things to come up in supertournament play in a long time.
Costs:
Lodging, Travel and Expenses for GMs
Prize Fund
TD Fees
USCF, FIDE Rating Fees
Venue Costs
Promotional Expenses
Has there been a high-category tournament in the US in recent memory? I find it a tad bizarre that the major economic powerhouse of the world cannot find a sponsor for a high-level chess tournament.
Imre Konig Memorial
Akobian made a GM norm
http://www.chessclub.org/KonigGM.html
Directed by John Donaldson of the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco
macuga: it is because Chess is not popular here like in Europe. Check out Mr.Bacan's posts under -Women in Russia -
Peach: Can you tell me those costs in $$?? Thanks.
Mr. Greengard. Why aren't you talking about the $1 mil chess television show on July 24 at noon (EST) in your country? It is a very big deal even for people at the FIDE office. People without TV can watch it at www.martinbroadcasting.com. I thought you are in chess promotion? Do you have something against the producers? They seem to do a good job to me. I know one of the investors and he thinks this is a very big deal.
Thanks for the forum.
J. Martin
Ryan:
The reason why I am not willing to put costs is it is difficult to generalize with titled players. Different people have different requirements. You need to have a minimum of 4 foreign players in a 10 player field for norm possibilities and there are other requirements in terms of no: of titled players etc.
There was a tournament in New York comprising 4 GMs, 5 Ims/ FMs and one master. 10 player , single Round Robin. Approx. Average rating 2375. The budget for that event was $12,000. The university provided the playing hall for free.
Mr. Greengard will talk about it if some green from the 1 mill goes his way ..jk. What is this show Mr. Martin?
Peace...
Yes, the tournament peachtree is speaking of was played at the Manhattan campus of St. John's University concurrently with the women's tournament won by Jen at that time. It was an awful tournament for a friend of mine, who went 0/9 in the tournament. I think Yudasin shared first with one of the other GMs, and Vovsha just missed a GM norm by drawing with Yudasin in the last round when he needed a win.
Hotep,
Maliq
It can be seen that most Americans watch a sport and sponsors pay only if the winner is American. e.g. world championship of Baseball between NY Yankees and Chicago cubs or American football WC between SF 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. No matter who wins the WC is in the US :) And soccer is made fun of because US finishes last in WC.
If there is a high rated chess tournament in US, it's highly unlikely that an American wins it. Hence it won't be popular or find sponsors. Who is the highest rated American and his rating? Can Nakamura be upto any of the top 20 players?
Their neighbour in the north (Canada) is far more liberal in this respect.
Kapalik
Peace...
The US has Kamsky, Onischuk, and Nakamura, and they are able to play in some good event, at least one akin to the one going on in Biel. You are right, kapalik, that Americans tend only to pay serious attention to sports in which American competitors are successful (never have accepted that bogus "world champion" title for teams winning American sports league championships), but I think that there is a good possibility that these players can win. For the record, Hikaru, I believe, has played four 2700 players (two games with Adams, one with Aronian, one with Dreev, and one with Gelfand) and has drawn with all of them, losing only the game against Adams in which he missed a draw. It is not inconceivable that he can contend in a tournament containing a 2700 or two. Hell, he might win the one he is participating in now, athough there is still a ways to go. I think that it could work, however, or at least is an interesting idea.
Hotep,
Maliq
Fide's july list has Nakamura at 45 (2660). 2699 would put him into top 20 right behind Kamsky listed at 2700.
I believe that in the '02 WC the yanks made it into the quarters... the most common complaint i hear from people regarding both soccer and chess is they're boring sports. No matter how i try to push the amount of drama involved in them both ...people don't budge.
With chess, maybe the Beliavsky- Nakamura game, in minneapolis, is a reasonable example. It was a huge game for Nakamura. I sat there wondering why Nakamura resigned ... if i could have seen that he had hung a rook i would have fallen off my chair ... as it was i had to whisper around until someone could fill me in. And the moment had passed.
With soccer, I have no idea why it seems boring to people. Probably because everytime you turn your head you miss a rare goal.
There's a Chicago group interested in staging Category 14+ FIDE events, but they'd like to get multiyear commitments from sponsors. This means real money.
The real payoff for US players--once European players are routinely invited to US events, reciprocal invitations to European events will be easier to obtain. That's one reason why the Chicago group isn't interested in a one-off event.
Bill Brock:
You have to do it once , so that the sponsor is able to see what value they get for their money. After that, worry about multi year commitments.
Hi all,
Just was asked by a friend of mine
to comment here on a budget for strong GM-event.
First of all, you'd rather have category 16
(or even 17) to be noticed by the chess public
around the globe. I think US never seen cat.16
event,but now with Kamsky,Nakamura,Onishuk and
few decent players from Europe/Asia it's pretty
realistic to hold such an event.
An overall budget for such 10-days
Round Robin tournament,
cat. 16 or even 17 shall be about 60-70K.
I could see such an event as being a welcomed addition to the World Open. I think many players would sacrifice a bit of prize money to have such a high class event occuring in the same playing hall(or at least hotel).
Yeah - CORUS/USA!!!!
Of course, what CORUS (and other, similar festival-type setups) proves is that you have to have a deep-pockets sponsor to give this staying power.
A weird thought just hit me: David Letterman?!
It's a bit weird that for all the millionaires and billionaires in Silicon Valley, you can't find one chess enthusiast willing to put some money on chess. I wonder if it's because we're not even trying at all. It's interesting to see that Accoona sees the value in chess but not Google, Microsoft, etc... I remember Intel used to sponsor the PCA events. There has to be tons of chess enthusiasts at a company like Google.
There are plenty of chess enthusiasts in IT, but probably more among the rank-and-file (senior management will usually be into "management"-type hobbies). A senior software developer, pulling in $120k yearly, can't afford to sponsor a supertournament.
The chances of a given multi-millionaire or billionaire being sufficiently interested in chess to fork over $100K+ are very low.
Still, you might be able to find a handful of people who'd be willing to contribute.
Heck, some grandmasters actually WORK for Google.
3 losses in a row for Naka to end the tournament...ouch. When's his next tournament? US Open?
Nakamura castled long