Hi everyone. I haven't had access to "Chessbase", which is the program I use to create the puzzles and games for this website. Sorry about that. I will put up a lot of good stuff starting around Tuesday. So for now, I will just write about a few things that are interesting to me. The U.S. Championship and my new bike!
The U.S. Championship is going on right now in San Diego California. My friend and former coach Ben Finegold is doing very well, with 1.5 out of 2 points. He just beat Grandmaster Kudrin with the Black pieces today. This is a very impressive result! I really hope he wins the whole thing. Another interesting thing is that the the 18 year old fan favorite and America's top player, Hikaru Nakamura, only has .5 out of 2 points. He lost a very complicated game in round 1 against a much weaker opponent, and then could only draw his 2nd round game against another underdog. The U.S. Championship is a very exciting event as there are players of widely different rating levels competing in it. The lowest rated player is rated around 1700 and the highest rated player is close to 2700. With this large rating variance, the games tend to be very exciting and there are a lot of upsets. Very few countries have such an exciting National Championship to watch. For me it is very instructive to observe the way 2700 rated Grandmasters beat players of my level. I find this to be more instructive than watching Grandmasters beat other Grandmasters. It is also entertaining to watch the weaker players score surprise victories against the stronger Grandmasters!
For more information about the U.S. Championship go to: http://www.uschesschampionship.com/ or read Ben Finegold's blog at http://www.benfinegold.com.
In other news, I just bought a brand new bike today. I am very excited. This is my first bike purchase since I was in elementary school! It is a "hybrid" Trek 7300 FX, kind of in between a mountain bike and a road bike. For those who don't know, I have always been physically active playing sports, working out, practicing martial arts, and I just love physical activity. I think this is true with many other strong chess players. When I moved to Houston about a year ago, I started taking an indoor cycling class (on a stationary bike). I was the only person in the class who doesn't ride a bike outdoors. After a year of engaging in indoor cycling, I decided that I will try to get into outdoor cycling. Who knows, maybe you'll see me riding in the M.S. 150 in a few months, but before that I have to learn some things.. such as changing gears, using the brakes, and a few other basics.
That's it for now.
