Chess in the US in the eyes of the English
Report from Las Vegas by Sabrina Chevannes

…I had heard lots of stories about American chess events, but never experienced them myself. Even at a junior stage, their tournaments are bigger and better than the English events.

…It was difficult to find where the chess was actually being held, as there were no signs anywhere, just hundreds of slot machines and gaming tables. The staff had no idea either!

…Some boards were half set up, some boards weren’t even there, people were everywhere, just gathering and having a chat. It seemed that by arranging things in this manner, the organisers didn’t have any control over when the game could start.

…At this point, the tournament was hotting up with Vallejo, Sokolov, Akobian, Shabalov and Mitkov all on 3.5/4. However, it wasn’t easy to find out this information, as there didn’t appear to be a results board in sight. I then discovered that I had to go on a bit of a trek to another floor to find the list of players and their results, which they had to fill in themselves!! I started to look at the tournament and wondered: did the organisers actually do any work themselves?

…All in all, my first impressions of a US tournament wasn’t great as it seemed like a very lazy and unprofessional way of running things…

Full article here.

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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