The Author

Let's face it: I'm a decidedly amateur player. Have been for 20 years, since I played my first tournament and lost 7 games in a row. (And GM Walter Browne, seeing me misting up by the wallchart, told me not to give up--a chance meeting he doesn't remember, but I'll never forget.) I don't have any particular inside knowledge. But like a lot of amateur players, I've been to a lot of tournaments, and I've seen many of the top players many times. It's one of the good things about chess, especially in the United States: those big Swiss-system events the Europeans tend to put down do throw us together with our top players. We may not get to play them, but we see them in the elevators, by the wallcharts, in the skittles rooms. Away from the stage.

The www.uschess.org Web team is going to do our best in our 1997 Interplay US Championship feature section to provide you with lots of expert commentary. Meanwhile, let's take a minute on this page and look at things from a fan's point of view. For that, I may be uniquely qualified. I play chess. I write about it. I even dream about it. When the US Championship rolls around, I pay attention. This year looks like it's going to be one of the great ones.

Division One

GM Joel Benjamin

GM Benjamin is 9 years younger than I am. 33. Lives in New York City. When I moved to New York at age 20, he was 11, and I saw him in a lot of tournaments. He was already higher-rated than I was, of course. Six years after that he won the US Junior Championship. I've seen him at many events over the years. Benjamin always looks like he's sharing an in-joke with people I don't know. He's often in a group of 4 or 5 people, smiling--the picture of the Deep Blue team (he was the GM "trainer" for the mechanical beast) fitted my image of him perfectly. There was that small smile, and the not-only-do-I-know-something-you-don't-know-but-you're-NEVER-going-to-find-it-out look that he seems to have a lot. Of course, he's also probably right: he certainly knows more chess than I ever will. He won the US Championship 10 years ago, tied with GM Nick deFirmian. For a lot of people, Benjamin represents a rarity, a home-grown American Grandmaster. But he seems to have a long view of the game as well. From his magazine, Chess Chow to his work with IBM's Deep Blue, he's often done the unexpected. I guess that's a New York thing, but it suits him. I don't know if he's really always laughing to himself, but from a fan's point of view, he's an interesting player to watch.

GM Walter Browne

Almost the opposite of Benjamin, Browne seems to always take everything just that much more seriously than the people around him. He's won the US Championship six times, more than anyone else in this event. The first time was the year I first met him, 23 years ago. Since then, I've seen him at dozens of events, and he never remembers me. He seems to always be in a hurry--well, I guess that's reasonable for a man who founded the World Blitz Chess Association. He also has a reputation for always getting into time trouble--does that fit with a blitz player? I don't know. In his 20's, he also had a reputation at Las Vegas tournaments for staying up all night and playing poker, but it never seemed reckless--just an excess of energy, perhaps the same thing that keeps him rushing from one room to another. I saw him last weekend at a small tournament in California. The week before the US Championship, and he was playing in a 10 Grand Prix Point local event at LERA. I once read that even now he studies chess 4 hours a day. I don't know if it's true, but it would be easy to believe. As a fan, I like him. His games are great to watch, of course--nothing energizes a tournament like time scrambles. But it's a little more than that. I have the feeling that, of all the players in the event, Browne is the one who would still be out there at weekend Swisses even if he was only rated 1600. It's not just chess he likes, but tournaments. He's always out there playing. Blitz, weekend swisses, national championships. He's got enough energy to do them all.

GM Larry Christiansen

This is a nice guy. Seriously. A nice German-American kind of guy, a little quiet, a little uncomfortable being interviewed. Takes his chess seriously. Likes his friends. Does a lot of favors. (He's even done me a couple of favors, just as a writer--he's the kind of person that when you need another half-page filled, or another commentator, you can ask him and know that if he's got the time, he'll do it. If not, he'll let you know. No fuss either way.) I've never heard him tell a joke, but he's got a great half-smile. I got to interview him at the NY Open this year, and he was very, well, nice about it--we were sitting in the hotel bar, and he was waiting for de Firmian. He was patient with me, maybe a little shy, and worried that the picture would look too much like a bar, not like a lunch place. Like de Firmian, he's played a lot in Europe the last few years--I think his wife is German, although I might be confused about that. I know they lived in Germany for awhile. Anyway, he's the sort of guy that when you hear he's won a tournament, you always think, "That's nice." and mean it. He's qualified for the 1997 FIDE World Championship tournament. Now that is nice.

GM John Fedorowicz

Once upon a time, back when John was in high school (he's 4 years younger than I am, 38), I knew a friend of his, so I saw John almost every week at the Marshall Chess Club in New York City. Even then, he played to the room: "Eat this!" he'd say, slamming a piece down on the board in blitz, and you never knew whether it was a sacrifice, a trade, a random move. He's won the World Open 2 or 3 times (Wait--I hear John saying, "Four. Not that I'm counting or anything. But it was four."). OK. Four. And the US Open and the US Junior. When he sets his sights on something, he gets serious: when he didn't find enough opportunities in the US, he went to Europe, and came back a Grandmaster. He has an often remarked on resemblance to Sylvester Stallone, and for a long time his nickname, at least for those who didn't know him well, was "Rocky". He loves to be in the middle of a conversation. I was once at a World Open when a controversy arose over some requirements that GM Yudasin of Israel had for the Sabbath. John jumped right in, very self-assured, and started explaining things in (mostly-correct) detail to a group of fans. Not, by the way, that he's Jewish. But I guess being from New York City was close enough, at least for the moment. Later, one of the fans came up to him and said, "Rocky!" John's response was: "I prefer 'Rambo' these days: more blood." Everybody laughed, including John. If you get a chance, look at the program from this year's Championships. Every other player is seated at a chessboard, looking serious--John, very dapper, wearing a fedora, looks like he just stepped out of a Speakeasy.

GM Boris Gulko

This man is a hero to a lot of chessplayers. First, of course, there is the chess. The only man ever to win both the USSR and USA national championships. He's been a candidate for the World Championship. He's one of the only players in the world to have a plus score against Garry Kasparov. You'll hear about these things from a lot of sources, but pay attention. This is an important man in chess. These are important things. Then, of course, there is the rest of it. Persecuted (and that doesn't just mean house arrest) in Russia for seven years when he and his wife tried to emigrate, he went from being one of the very top players in the Soviet Union to a nonperson. And a nonplayer. When he did finally get out, no one thought he would ever regain his form. But he did. You want to talk about Play Like a Grandmaster? This man could write the book, Live Like a Grandmaster. He is calm, he is quiet, he is serious, and he gives his whole self to chess when he plays. But away from the board, he has a different set of priorities, and those command his full attention, too. You may see some other players offer draws to Gulko fairly early in a game. But don't think it's out of respect for him as a man--it's out of respect for him as a player, and what he can do on the board. His match strategy will be classical, and his success rate high. He adds quality to every event he plays in.

GM Alexander Ivanov

To me, Ivanov always looks like a Russian physicist. A slightly dreamy look, his eye on the horizon. Maybe faintly theoretical. He seems most down to earth when his wife, Esther Epstein, is playing, too--I've seen him several times walk away from his game and over to hers, just standing there watching quietly. At the New York Open this year I got a picture of him, leaning against a post outside the playing room, lost in thought as three hundred chessplayers charged by him on their way to their rounds. He's won the Championship before--he may make a quiet run for this one, too.

GM Alex Yermolinsky

OK, all together now: "His fans call him 'The Yermonator.'" Are you tired of hearing that by now? But it's true. Fans love him. He plays very forceful chess, few draws, wins everything in sight with a take-no-prisoners style that rolls over Grandmasters as well as lower-rated players. He tied with Shabalov in 93 for the US Championship (only one year after becoming a Grandmaster!). He won it on his own in 1996, which makes him the defending Champion in this event. Oh-and he took clear first last week at the US Open! He has qualified for the 1997 FIDE World Championship, and a lot of people are adding his name to their "may go a long way" lists. He had excellent results at the Olympiad last Fall. He's another big guy, but not scary away from the board--the kind the fans love to give nicknames to. Besides The Yermonator, he gets called Yermo and Internet players come up with all kinds of variations on his name for their own handles. As a fan, I like the fact that he didn't become a Grandmaster until he was 32. He's 39 now. If he was 29, he'd be scary. If he was 19, he'd be terrifying. As it is, he's got a kind of friendly look, and his relatively late start makes him seem more like a real person. (By the way, it's not "Alexander"--his given name is Alexey, and he goes by Alex in America.) He plays like a first-place player, and when he wins an event, everybody's happy. (Well, everybody except the losers.) He makes the job easy for journalists, anyway.

NM Jorge Zamora Jr.

He's not a Grandmaster. Not even an IM. He's the 1996 Junior Champion, and his rating is 200 points lower than the next player here. Summer's over: school's in session. Yes, we all know how Tal Shaked did at the beginning of last year's event, but he was already an IM, and on his way to GM status. Shaked regained the US Junior crown this year, and for good measure went on to win the 1997 FIDE World Junior Championship. Zamora isn't that good. Yet. But he's a very serious young player, and it's clear that he would like to be. I hope it will be fun to have him in this tournament. One of the teams at the SuperNationals Scholastics event this Spring had a slogan: "Win or Learn, play well!" Not "Win or Lose." I suspect Zamora will be doing a lot of learning over the next week--but then, I think that's what he's here for.

Division Two

GM Nick de Firmian.

Gm Roman Dzindzichashvili

OK, I admit this up front: Roman is my hero. He is a great bear of a man, tremendous charisma, black hair, black eyes, black shirt, black slacks...he fills a room with his presence. And a great voice, too--deep and resonant. Not to mention: he can play chess. I was at the World Open two years ago and Roman was there, making an appearance to promote his videotapes. After four days of sitting at a table, signing autographs and playing backgammon, he got a little bored. So he entered the tournament on the accelerated schedule, and won 4 and a half out of 5 games. In one day. In the top section at the World Open. A former top 10 player (that's World, not US), these days he describes himself as mostly a trainer. When Roman tells jokes, everybody laughs. He's very popular as a commentator. He loves blitz, and plays hundreds of games a month on the Internet. There are many different sides to Roman, all of them just a little larger than life. But here's the truth, from a fan's point of view: there are times when chess seems almost irrelevant to who he is. He is the best person I know at being a genius. It isn't chess that defines him--he could be a cabdriver or a merchant or a doctor and people would have the same reaction to him. He is who he is. Or course, he plays some seriously fine chess, too, from time to time.

GM Dmitry Gurevich

I don't know too much about this Gurevich, but I suspect that's true of a lot of American fans. For one thing, there is that name. Along with Dmitry (this one), there are Mikhail and Ilya. Not related. But "Which Gurevich is which?" is a frequent joke at East Coast tournaments. He has a great smile in this picture, but when I've seen him play he's been a pretty serious player, somewhere on the scale between Walter Browne's blitz-fueled nervous energy and Gulko's seemingly endless pool of quiet concentration. GM D Gurevich wins an awful lot of Swiss tournaments in US, the big money kind with lots of players and lots of chances to go wrong. He's won the National Open 5 times, the shortest and most unpredictable of the big Swisses. He's what we used to call in sports "a money player," the kind of guy who does what he needs to do to win when he needs to win. I don't tend to remember him as much as say, Roman or Fedorowicz or de Firmian--don't remember his games as clearly as Gulko's or Seirawan's--but he's always in there. One of those "Let's see, who won the National Open that year? Oh, right, Gurevich. Uh--Dmitry Gurevich." Ilya, the youngest of the "three G's" has the distinction of having been a junior superstar. Mikhail, for a long time, was the strongest. Dmitry was the guy in the middle, the one whose name you looked up in the photo credits--the one holding the big trophy and taking home the big check.

GM Gregory Kaidanov

Kaidanov lives in Kentucky, loves the Wildcats, and looks like he makes moonshine in a little cabin in the hills. Of course, he's also qualified for the FIDE World Championship tournament, and is the #2 rated player in the US, right behind Gata Kamsky. 5 years ago, he won everything but the US Championship, placing first at the World Open, the National Open, the US Open and winning the Novag Grand Prix. It's not that he has to prove anything (his resume is impressive), but actually, although he's won a number of international tournaments, he's never won the US Championship. Never even tied for it. I imagine he thinks about that, whether other people do or not.

GM Sergey Kudrin

Kudrin has a chiseled look to me. To be honest, he scares me a little. I've never even asked him for an interview--he always looks like he has much more important people to see. Oh, I don't mean he would think that. There's just this little distance there. Like Ivan Lendl, he might be a great guy, easy to talk to, but I've never really tried. I hear he's a very good junior coach (he'll be taking a team to the FIDE Under 18 Championships later this year). Whenever I see him at a tournament, he seems to be standing, caught up in earnest converation with two or three players sitting at a table. Maybe that's a teacher's pose--I never thought of it that way before. I may have to pay more attention to his games this time around.

GM Yasser Seirawan

I can remember a conversation back when Yasser was about 18 and I was 23, about the best way to promote chess in the United States. I had a lot of ideas then, and I was talking to everybody--Yasser was mostly listening, and happened one day to be in the neighborhood of a conversation I was having with a California organizer. The other guy walked away, smiling--he thought I was cute, I guess. Yasser looked at me, very intently. "You've got it wrong," he said, very quietly. Very seriously. (I wasn't used to being taken seriously.) I looked back. He said, "You have to think about how to promote chess in the world". Well, he was right of course, about that as well as a lot of other things. Within ten years, he'd pretty much proven every point: he was a Grandmaster, he'd won the US Championship, he'd written books and (I think by then) had founded a serious and successful chess magazine, Inside Chess. He's even a better dresser than I am. He has (of course) qualified for the 1997 FIDE World Championship. You know, he doesn't even make it look too easy--you can tell there's a lot of hard work there as well. Hmmm. I may have to do some more thinking about this listening thing...

GM Gabriel Schwartzman

It's so much fun to have Schwartzman in this tournament! He's only 20, but he is a 100%-for-real Grandmaster. First, of course, he won the US Open last year, with a score of 10.5 out of 12. Then he comes back this year on the accelerated schedule, and although missing the early rounds means he had no chance for first, he DID manage to win every game he played and tie for second. Amazing. I've talked to him on the phone once, and seen him a couple of times at tournaments. He doesn't have the same intensity that Seirawan did at that age, but he's got a very nice style. A light touch. I expect a lot of people say he's very polished for his age, but he's still definitely just out of his teens, and that's kind of nice to see, too. You can tell he's just at the beginning of his career, both in business and in chess, and for fans like me it's fun to see someone that you know is going to be right up there in a few years. Gives us a chance to collect those "knew him when" stories. Will 1997 be Schwartzman's first US Championship? Maybe, maybe not. But it seems like a pretty safe bet to say there's one waiting ahead for him one of these years.

GM Alexander Shabalov

Shabalov strikes me as a very modern grandmaster. No particular craziness, wears a nice jacket, does a good interview. And plays fantastic chess. He's only 29, but comes across as a little older (at least to those of us in our 40's). Very handsome. He's got style. Even better, I love his games. They're fun to watch, fun to go over. He won the US Championship once, 4 years ago, tying with the 10 years older Yermolinsky. Certainly one to watch.

Well, there you have it. The definitely unofficial fan's eye view of the 1997 Interplay US Championships. Let the games begin!

--Duif

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