Stormy Weather

In all the driving to and from the tournament this week, I've happened upon several cloud bursts that have accomplished their goal of making everything wet. They are the typical Chicago summertime happening in that they don't last very long but can be quite formidable in their intensity. This is very similar to what happened in my round 7 game last night. Playing against a lower-rated high schooler (I'm guessing), I found an opportunity to sacrifice a Knight for 3 center pawns, leaving me with a lengthy pawn chain with which I planned to storm down the board and "make everything wet". Being an Architect by schooling, I love the idea of the pawn chain and it's inherent structure and beauty. The slow and inexorable way these pawns march down the board adds the nice psychological touch akin to a python chatting it up with the gazelle trapped in it's coils. My opponent, not wanting to be linked in any way with Donna Summer's cake, started playing in desparate fashion and induced me to push the pawns prematurely, allowing him to sacrifice a Bishop back for two of my buttons. With the summertime thunderstorm over, I had to nurse my one-pawn advantage for awhile until he finally cracked and I notched my third win of the week. I'm back to even now with 3 1/2 points out of 7 and two rounds to play. I was on board 205 and only the top 200 boards played in the big hall so I was relegated to the basement. We were the last to finish downstairs and at one point, with the Tournament Director watching as we approached the Sudden Death time-control, a voice boomed out "You all 'bout done down here?" It was the security guard coming down to close up shop, apparently under the impression the round was over for the night! After that was cleared up, I picked off another pawn a few moves later and my opponent promptly resigned. We had barely begun our post-game chat when the lights went out and the doors closed, leaving us in the dark in a room full of chess sets. Apparently the round was over NOW!

To make amends for my round one tardiness, I've been arriving early the last few rounds which has afforded me the time to talk to some more folks I know, "chess friends" I only ever see at tournaments. All good people I might not ever meet if it wasn't for this royal game. I've met some of the top-level players as well and they can run the gamut from being extremely cordial and pleasant ("normal" if you will), to being funny and off beat and some even downright weird and mysterious. GM John Fedorowicz from New York, who's playing here this week and currently in 6th place, is a regular blue-collar type guy who'd rather talk to you about the Yankees than the Sicilian Defense (I hope I'm remembering that right, lord help me if he's a Mets fan!). IM-elect Emory Tate has regaled us for years with his witty chess banter and tremendous tactical vision. His military history has surfaced on occasion with wild stories of the KGB and the "assuming a crab-like position" story that's up there with the best Fischer could offer. I also remember giving Estonian GM Lembit Oll a ride back into the city from a suburban tournament many years ago, thrilled to have an actual Grandmaster in the car, only to hear sadly of his suicide a few years later. He jumped out of his 4th floor apartment, eerily similar to the main character in Nabokov's "The Defense". Chess is life, life is chess, but they're not equal.

By my count, there are 9 of the top 100 players in the U.S. playing in the 107th this week. The extended schedule and relatively low prize fund has probably kept many away due to the commitment involved. Nonetheless, the battle at the top boards has been blistering and going into tonight's round, three players are leading with 6 1/2 out of 7: Illinois "own" GM Yuri Shulman, GM Alexander Shabalov from Pennsylvania and New Jersey's GM Joel Benjamin. Eight others follow at 6 points, including two more GM's and two IM's. Let's hope we see some true clashes and not a litany of friendly handshakes.

Sightings: I can tell who I did NOT see and that was Susan Polgar, 4-time Woman's World Champion and the top female player in the U.S. She was in town for ther finale of her Polgar Invitational Tournament that just ended. She has some blog posts on the U.S. Open as well. Another nice website is the MonRoi people that are here sponsoring the event. They make the new score-keeping devices that looks like a blackberry but it's only for entering the game moves as they are being played. You can automatically have the moves transmitted live over the internet (to both the MonRoi website and the ICC--Internet Chess Club), but at $350 a piece, getting my own will have to wait. They rent them out at $10/round, which does guarantee your game gets published in the daily bulletins but I'll reserve that experiment for another time. Their website also has an extensive collection of photos, too.

Standings: With my win, I'm now in 267th overall and 21st in my section.