American Discovers France

The second game was actually drawn, but such results don't matter, obviously. Hikaru will take it, even though it doesn't help out his FIDE.

Also, he beat Mikhalevski in the Octofinals, after losing game 1 (similar to the Bareev match).

$28,900 isn't a bad result for a couple of days in Corsica.

Didn't Hikaru have a big plus score against Kasparov in 3-minute games stored on ICC? I recall reading that on another blog a few years ago.

The event was rapid chess, so what was the time control.

I think Mig said the time control... "(10'+3")." Meaning 10 minutes with 3 second delay or increment.

I'd like to see Nakamura play rapid against guys like Anand/Kramnik/Aronian etc. I think he'd definitely be able to compete any maybe even beat those guys.. Obviously he would have some trouble in a slower time control, but Hikaru is just sick in rapid chess.

I think Naka is good and fast!
Pis'ka

All I know is, I saw Naka dismantle Grischuk in game after blitz game on ICC. That shows some serious chops.

To my mind, talent at speed chess translates well to classical chess, and I predict great things for Hikaru on the international tournament scene.

This is fantastic. Nakamura is hitting his stride. I hope these great results will result in him getting more invites to the elite events. I had the pleasure of watching him in a blindfold chess simul. He won all nine boards handily and showed a remarkable ability to keep track of where all of the pieces were on all of the boards. If he keeps winning (and winning in exciting style), it will be great for American chess. It's an added bonus that he's so approachable: I love the stories I've heard about him taking on all comers in blitz games in hotel lobbies after winning tournaments and his online interaction with fans on ICC.

Way to go, Hikaru!

This is fantastic. Nakamura is hitting his stride. I hope these great results will result in him getting more invites to the elite events. I had the pleasure of watching him in a blindfold chess simul. He won all nine boards handily and showed a remarkable ability to keep track of where all of the pieces were on all of the boards. If he keeps winning (and winning in exciting style), it will be great for American chess. It's an added bonus that he's so approachable: I love the stories I've heard about him taking on all comers in blitz games in hotel lobbies after winning tournaments and his online interaction with fans on ICC.

Way to go, Hikaru!

We can conclude that Americans should not sit in the US complaining about lack of norm opportunities and strong tournaments, but actually get on a plane and fly to Europe.

I remember, back in the day, Nick DeFirmian writing that, to get strong, an American had to live on the cheap in Europe, traveling around from tournament to tournament. Kind of like Jack Kerouac for aspiring GMs.

Of course that was a long time ago, and Nakamura is way past that level, but it seems that Europe's chess culture still exceeds anything available in America by a long shot.

"We can conclude that Americans should not sit in the US complaining about lack of norm opportunities and strong tournaments, but actually get on a plane and fly to Europe."

Damn skippy. Hear that, Ben Finegold?

I completely agree with No More Excuses. Finegold appears too lazy and cheap to get his last GM norm. The best he can do is go to Chicago, get a win on FORFEIT against Smetankin, get the title, then get it revoked.Shameless.

Chess is a VERY marginal activity in the USA (to the extent that most people find the "Master" title simultaneously intriguing and a bit funny). That's the main reason there are not strong (for Nakamura's level, anyway) tournaments held in the USA. Even the USA Championship is a mediocre tournament (by European standards), with only a handful of players stronger than 2600 FIDE.

Aspiring American players are subjected to an endless diet of terrible swisses that only benefit the tournament organizer (Bill Goichberg, who BY PURE COINCIDENCE happens to be the USCF President :-)) .

In other words, organized chess sucks big time for strong players in the USA, and very few of these players can afford to travel to Europe or anywhere else to find better tournaments. Sad.

Europe rulez for Chess. Yay.

Wow...Finegold actually did that?

yeah Irv, let's all slag Goichberg.
maybe that will stop people like him from running tournaments in the USA.
That will improve the chess scene here a lot.

3Pete wrote:

"yeah Irv, let's all slag Goichberg.
maybe that will stop people like him from running tournaments in the USA.
That will improve the chess scene here a lot."

I personally think that USA chess does not benefit from gambling operations disguised as "tournament chess", which is exactly what Mr. Goichberg (along with all other swiss organizers in the USA) is into.

No matter how you cut it, whenever the "prizes" are a portion of the entry fees total, with the organizer pocketing the difference, you have a simple and pure gambling operation. It's known in the streets as playing "pots".

This type of sad, exploitive activity does nothing for chess.

Is there anyone in the US who actually 'cannot afford' to travel to Europe? You can get a return flight from most major cities for a few 100 dollars. A lot of internal travel in the US is similar in price.

If you want something, there is a cost and an optimum way to proceed.

yeah, complaining is the only activity that does anything positive for chess.

irv (and a few others) hold the distinction of being the only true, selfless promotors to whom our chess-impoverished USA can lay claim.

So let's everyone follow irv's noble example. If you feel that the European economic model of an externally sponsored prize fund and a (essentially) volunteer tournament organizer is what chess in the USA should migrate toward, don't bust your balls trying to recruit a sponsor for chess over here. Just complain. that's all it takes to make the world a better place.

Irv...there are many people in the US who cannot afford a trip to Europe, much less pay for accommodations. A few hundred dollars may be a paltry sum to those with a good job or without a family, but to many it may as well be a few thousand dollars.

Many politicians born with a silver spoon in their mouths would also share your sentiments as they too have a distorted view of what is reality for many people, and they too have real difficulty connecting to the "common" people even when they promote themselves as a "man/woman of the people" (in their eyes poverty level is probably someone who has to buy a used Hummer instead of a brand new one).

So how about someone in Moldova or Ukraine? You think money floats into their hands to seek norms and rating? In any system you have earn or raise the money to pursue your dreams. If you are poor and incapable of getting a basic job, and saving money, in the US then becoming an IM is not for you. People in other countries have difficult lives and make big sacrifices to achieve in chess.

Actually, geography is one thing that is a big struggle to chess in this country. One is the difficult trip foreign players have to make to get here for norms (at least a few hour flight for just about everyone), and also posing some tricky travel issues when compared to, say, Germany or Spain or France.

Nakamura BECAME Nakamura precisely BECAUSE of the American Swisses! Now he has outgrown them; in no way is Bill Goichberg responsible for "lack of tournaments" that suits Nakamura now. Bill runs chess events; if you feel it's "gambling," feel free to forgo the events.

Incidentally, interesting to "hear" GM Nakamura describe his impressions and his games: it appears his vocabulary is a bit limited to "nice" and "awesome"! At least, it's not swearing. :-)

Go Hikaru!

Samochka

Why the rip on Ben Finegold? Isn't he free to run his life how he wishes? Becoming a Grandmaster or getting a Phd is a choice. Those who have a Masters but do not choose to get a Phd are not by definition lazy. Maybe Ben is being patient in light of his personal circumstances? Maybe he is content with his chess "status"? Who knows? Do those who criticize Ben Finegold really know anything about him?

Why punish a guy for winning a game by default? Was it his fault the opponent was disqualified?

I would sugget that the complainers and critics do something positive as already suggested

I don't know much about this Finegold except for a letter to Chess Life where he pretty much cried like a baby because they were printing all his losses but none of his wins..wah wah wah...only letter I have ever seen like that in any chess magazine ever.

Samochka wrote:

"Nakamura BECAME Nakamura precisely BECAUSE of the American Swisses!"

It's just the opposite: Naka became a very strong GM IN SPITE of his steady diet of swiss tournaments!

"In no way is Bill Goichberg responsible for 'lack of tournaments' that suits Nakamura now."

I agree completely. Bill Goichber is definitely not (and doesn't have an obligation to be)responsible for developing American players. My comment was not meant to blame Goichber for anything other than exploiting the average chess sicko for financial gain. Nothing illegal there, but ethically suspect. As ethically suspect is his practice of lending money with interest to players who find themselves broke during his tournaments.

"Bill runs chess events; if you feel it's 'gambling', feel free to forgo the events."

That's exactly what I do. BTW, I applied the same principle to the NY Open, run by Jose Cuchi. The NY Open ran Goichberg out of NY while destroying the local chess scene (.500 batting average!), but that will be a topic for another time...

Jon Jacobs wrote:

"irv (and a few others) hold the distinction of being the only true, selfless promotors to whom our chess-impoverished USA can lay claim."

I can say with great pride that I have never promoted or done anything for chess, other than play it. To me it is a game and nothing else.

"So let's everyone follow irv's noble example."

I don't think I have ever set an example for any chessplayers to follow...but you might know something I don't...

"If you feel that the European economic model of an externally sponsored prize fund and a (essentially) volunteer tournament organizer is what chess in the USA should migrate toward, don't bust your balls trying to recruit a sponsor for chess over here."

I couldn't care less about "European economic models"...and I'm not intending to "recruit" anyone for any chess-related purpose in the foreseeable feature :-)

"Just complain. that's all it takes to make the world a better place."

I was not complaining. At the end of the day, chess has been very good to me; I have met a lot of people though the game and have spent coutless hours of pure joy playing it. I reached my original goal of becoming a run-of-the-mill chess master a very long time ago. That's, perhaps, why I can see, with objectivity, how sad and dysfunctional the whole chess scene is, especially in the USA.

These are not mutually exclusive concepts. Nakamura's chess style came about as a result of playing in Swiss System events, where he often had to play 2 games a day, and a decent payday depended on winning at all costs in the last round. Frankly, the Tuesday night Rapid Chess tournaments at the Marshall Chess Club (for a Prize fund of a few hundred $$) probably had even a greater influence on his playing style. Nakamura is aggressive to the point or recklessness--definitely not at all risk averse.
Nakamura's experience in Swiss system events have made him a very formidable force in tournaments of that format. His many thousands of Blitz games have made him an Excellent Blitz Chess player.

However, such training is probably not the optimal recipe for success in Category XVII Round Robins, which he will need to excel in--if he is to have any chance of cracking the 2700 barrier.

While great skill and a "quick eye" on Blitz are indicative of having a lot of raw talent, it doesn't mean that such talent will be refined into a polished 2700+ player, let alone somebody who can make it to the Top 10.

There are many "Blitz specialists" who do not achieve similar levels of success in slower time controls.

Indeed, Ben Finegold is an example of one: He could probably give Nakamura a run for his money in 3 Minute Blitz Chess.

"Finegold appears too lazy and cheap to get his last GM norm. The best he can do is go to Chicago, get a win on FORFEIT against Smetankin, get the title, then get it revoked.Shameless."

Yeah, if Smetankin did not show up for the game, how is that Finegold's fault?? He probabl;y ought not have submitted the Title Application for GM, but that's another story. Trying to earn a Title Norm in a US Swiss System is always a risky proposition.

At any rate, there are nearly 1,000 GMs, including dozens who reside in and live in the US. While Finegold would certain accept the title, he doesn't seem to think that the Marginal value of the GM Title is worth the expense of traveling to, and competing in Europe.

I also laugh out loud when I heard american players were being geographically discriminated against because of the lack of norm opportunities this side of the Atlantic. I thought the only bright side of a Chess Player life was the opportunity to travel and experience other culture.

Just Another example of our entitlement mentality.

Paul, the "geographic discrimination" claim is based in part on FIDE's multiple-country rules for norm qualification (along with other conditions like minimum of 9 FIDE-rated opponents and minimum individual and average ratings of opponents, the norm candidate must face opponents from at least 3 federations besides his own, I think; that last condition is waived for national championships).

That multi-country rule's clear purpose is to prevent collusion among countrymen. Yet, who is it being applied against? Why, the USA, whose players are less prone to collude.

Meanwhile, whenever an incident of collusion comes into the open, Europeans are always the culprits. Yet, in Europe, which for all practical purposes (i.e. politically and economically) consists of two "super-USAs" (Western Europe and Eastern Europe) sitting side-by-side - or maybe more like a super-USA alongside a super-Canada - FIDE's multi-country rule is inapplicable, since each "state" counts as a separate federation.

The relation between the intent of that rule, and its practical application, is reminiscent of the early history of antitrust law in the US (the antitrust acts were passed to curb corporate abuses; yet in the decade or two after enactment, they were enforced almost exclusively against labor unions).

Jon,

The rule is not 'being applied against' the US. I am sure there was no intent to disadvantage the US. For any general, simple rule there are likely to be differential impacts on some countries because of geography. Australia would have even more problems with this rule.

Part of the reason for the rule is to prevent collusion. Another part is to benchmark players against international competition. An "International Grandmaster" should perform against players from more than just his or her own country.

What is your solution? Allow norm opportunities without a federation requirement? The really dubious countries would exploit that.

Allow only 'honest' countries to waive the federation requirement? Who will decide?

Waive the rule only for the noble and honest chess players of the US who never cheat? I don't think the outside view is that US players are 'less prone to cheat' than average.

All good points. I'm not sure what the solution is. But the present application of that federation requirement for norms does feel a bit like the "one country, one vote" system (used in both UN and FIDE elections). Yes, there are arguments in favor, and any reformulation would surely have drawbacks too...but the current system, however well-intended, seems clearly unfair in practice.

Personally I am suspicious of recent tournaments with insignificant prizes held with the purpose of giving norm opportunities.
The upside of Bill Goichberg Mega Swisses is that the high prizes make collusion less likely. May be we should support effort by Susan Polgar who is organizing a strong Round Robin tournament, the 1st in the US since San Antonio 1970.
Nakamura skipped the FIDE World Cup qualification held in Columbia not in Europe but here we are complaining his number was not picked in the FIDE lottery.

I don't believe Paul's above statement is correct. The Mechanics institute has organized strong norm tournaments before.

e.g. Imre Konig memorial was category 12 in which Akobian made a GM norm.

http://www.chessclub.org/KonigGM.html

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