Two Historic Events
After many months of planning, the 2006 New York City Mayor’s Cup Chess Invitational tournament finally took place June 25-26, at the prestigious New York Athletic Club. The event was organized and sponsored by the Susan Polgar Foundation, in collaboration with the N.Y. Athletic Club, the N.Y. City Sports Commission, the Office of Mayor Bloomberg and International Chess Marketing.
I wanted to do something big for chess in America and especially in New York. So after discussing a number of ideas with friends, supporters, and colleagues, as well as receiving suggestions from the fans that follow my chess blog, the idea of the N.Y. City Mayor’s Cup was born. I began to contact the the potential sponsors, who were all receptive to the idea, and the next step was be to create a list of invitees.
The criterion for the invitations was based on ratings, current titles, location of residence, past invitations, ability to handle the media and fans, etc. The six players who took part were:
· GM Alexander “The Rock” Onischuk (Reigning U.S. Champion, 2006 Olympiad Bronze Medalist)
· GM Gata “The Grinder” Kamsky (#1 USCF and FIDE rated player in the U.S., 2006 Olympiad Bronze Medalist)
· GM Susan “The Ambassador” Polgar (#1 USCF and FIDE rated woman player in the U.S.)
· GM Ildar “The Silencer” Ibragimov (Olympiad Bronze Medalist)
· GM Boris “The Gentleman” Gulko (Former U.S.SR and U.S. Champion)
· GM Alexander “The Terminator” Stripunsky (Former U.S. Open Co-Champion)
This was the highest rated double round robin chess tournament in U.S. history. The average USCF rating was 2665+, with four players who are currently or have been over 2700 (Kamsky, Onischuk, Ibragimov and Gulko). The time control of the tournament was 25 minutes per game with 5 seconds delay each move. Most of the games were very hard fought right until the last few seconds.
The rest of my round by round account can be read here.
This was an excellent event, nice job!! The only downside was the glaring ommision of one of Americas finest players, Hikaru Nakumura.
Hikaru didn’t meet the criteria. No big deal. With the way how Naka behaves, it’s better that he wasn’t invited. He basically insulted all the players in the event. If I’m an organizer, I wouldn’t invite him either. Finest in chess doesn’t make you a decent human being.
I agree with Jacques. It’s no big loss without Nakamura. He needs to learn to respect his colleagues. Don’t bitch why you don’t get invited when you’re acting like a spoiled brat.
Could not care less about Hikaru Naka. I prefer to watch Kamsky and Onischuk.
I would have liked to see Kamsky versus Nakamura or Onischuk versus Nakamura. The last time Onischuk played Nakamura I think was the US chess championship and Onischuk was lucky to escape with a draw. It was an exciting game. Nakamura’s games tend to be exciting. It’s fun to see how his opponents respond to it.
Here was the game Nakamura versus Onischuk:
http://www.uschesschampionship.com/2006/news/09annotated.htm
doesn’t seem to be displaying properly.
the last part of the link should be 09/annotated.htm