Chessville - News - Millennium Chess Festival 2005

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The Millennium Chess Festival
Reported by Tom Braunlich

The Millennium Chess Festival, Virginia's premier chess event, this year featured an upset finish, a great Exhibition Game between U.S. Champ 17-year-old Hikaru Nakamura and 4-time Women's World Champion Susan Polgar, plus a unique "Fischer-Random Chess" blitz tournament.

The tournament was held at the Ramada Plaza Oceanfront Resort in Virginia Beach over the weekend of February 25-27.

Booz Allen Hamilton, a big international consulting firm, was a new sponsor this year. Senior Vice President Mark Hermon, a lifetime chess player, introduced the players at the start of the Exhibition Game between Polgar and Nakamura, which ended in a hard-fought tactical draw that was greatly enjoyed by the audience. (The players played from separate rooms, discussing their thoughts with the spectators, while the moves were relayed by radio.)

GM Susan Polgar (2577) – GM Hikaru Nakamura (2660)
[D09] Virginia Beach, 02.27.2005 (Game 60) Analysis by Susan Polgar

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 d4 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.g3 Nge7 6.Bg2 Ng6 7.Bg5 Qd7 8.e6 fxe6 9.0–0 e5 10.Nbd2 h6 11.Bh4 Bd6 12.c5 Bxc5 13.Qc2 Nxh4 14.Nxh4 Bb6 15.Ng6 Rg8 16.Qc4 Qe6 17.Bxc6+ bxc6 18.Nxe5 Qxc4 19.Ndxc4 c5 20.Rfc1 a5 21.e3 dxe3 22.Nxe3 Be6 23.Nd3 0–0–0 24.Nxc5 Bh3 25.Rc2 Rge8 26.Rac1 Kb8 27.a3 a4 28.Rc3 Rd2 29.Nxa4 Bxe3 30.Rxe3 Rf8 31.Rb3+ Ka8 32.g4 Bxg4 33.Rxc7 Rfxf2 34.Nb6+ Kb8 35.Nd5+ Ka8 ½-½

GM Jaan Ehlvest

In the main event, GM Jaan Ehlvest of Estonia and GM Yury Shulman of New York tied for first. Shulman defeated GM Nakamura in the last round after Naka, in a must-win situation, took too many risks.

GM Aleks Wojtkeiwicz and GM Pavel Blatny, along with FM Bryan Smith finished with 4-1 to take 3rd-4th/Top U 2400. Chris Bush won the under 2000 section with 4.5; Ryan Thunder Rust and Bradley Marts took the U1800 with 4.5; Sara Walsh took the U1600 with 4.5; and Kyle Ward-Dahl won the U1300 section with the tournaments only perfect 5-0.

The Fischer-Random Blitz event was a unique experience to most of the players -- except for Susan Polgar who had helped Bobby Fischer invent the rules of the variation when the legend briefly lived with the Polgar family in Hungary in 1992. The event was a blitz tournament using the random positions to start each game of a round.

GM Yury Shulman

Some experts believe Fischer-Random is the future of chess since it prevents the excessive use of computer database preparation for tournament games and forces the players to play on their own, yet still "feels like" regular chess. The last-round matchup between Nakamura and Polgar was indeed fascinating, with the youngster winning two hard-fought games.

The tournament was won by GMs Nakamura and Blatny with 7.5/8.

All final standings are at the tournament website. The Millennium Chess Festival was directed by Ernie Schlich and Mike Atkins, and organized by Tom Braunlich, with support from the City of Virginia Beach and the new sponsor Booz Allen Hamilton.