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US Chess Championships take place May 2nd - May 13th, but the first games are on May 3rd and if there's no tiebreak nothing on May 13th.
The exact schedule can be found here. However it's basically games start at 1pm central all days except the off day on May 8th.
This is a "how to" on the US Chess Championship that covers:
1) Information about the tournament (format, location, etc).
2) How to follow the tournament.
3) Notable information about the tournament
4) What you should get hyped about
Note: I will only be commenting on the Main tournament, not the women's tournament. This is not a criticism of the decision to have a separate women's tournament and I'd prefer if this not become a discussion about that. The tournament is bound to have many interesting and exciting games (which I will surely follow), but as Anna Zatonskih and Irina Krush are the heavy, heavy favorites in my opinion and the level difference between players is larger I think the tournament will be less interesting in my opinion. I'm hope a local Southern California player, Tatev Abrahamyan, will win in an upset and she probably has a small shot at it, but realistically her level is quite a bit lower than either Krush or Zatonskih
2013 US Chess Championships
The field:
Player Rating Birth Year
GM Gata Kamsky 2741 1974
GM Timur Gareev 2674 1988
GM Alex Onischuk 2666 1975
GM Ray Robson 2620 1994
GM Varuzhan Akobian 2616 1983
GM Sam Shankland 2612 1991
GM Robert Hess 2595 1991
GM Gregory Kaidanov 2593 1959
GM Larry Christiansen 2579 1956
GM Alexander Stripunsky 2570 1970
GM Yury Shulman 2570 1975
GM Alejandro Ramirez 2551 1988
GM Alexander Shabalov 2544 1967
GM Marc Arnold 2538 1992
GM Joel Benjamin 2534 1964
GM Aleksandr Ivanov 2529 1956
GM Melikset Khachiyan 2518 1970
FM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun 2463 1979
IM-elect Yaacov Norowitz 2451 1982
GM Conrad Holt 2513 1993
GM Ben Finegold 2505 1969
IM-elect John Bryant 2442 1991
IM Kayden Troff 2421 1998
IM-elect Sam Sevian 2371 2000
Notable absence:
Defending Champion GM Hikaru Nakamura
Format:
This will be a 9 Round Swiss tournament. This is a change from last year when it was an 11-round round-robin (which I personally thought was a more exciting format). The problem with a 9-round swiss is that the leaders will likely face eachother in rounds 5-7 and cannot face eachother again. This can happen in a round robin as well, but in a round robin there's less luck in the specific pairings you get.
Location:
The tournament is being held again at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center in St. Louis
How to follow
Broadcast:
Internet Chess Club will be broadcasting games online with commentary at Chess.FM
Additionally there should be a broadcast on chess.com and the tournament will have a broadcast themselves (all the chess tournaments seem to use livestream for some reason, twitch.tv you should really get on that).
There will also be a games viewer where you can see the games live and a daily report on the main site to check out the games after the day. I might also post an update or two here if I have time.
[b]Notable Information / Hype[\b]
[b]Gata Kamsky[\b] is the favorite for the tournament, but he's still no more than 35% in my opinion. He just finished a FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Zug Switzerland so I think he'll be tired from traveling and it's unclear whether the leading games will help or hurt is overall form for the tournament. The good news is that he should have some slightly easier opponents in the early round and even an early draw shouldn't kill his chances.
This is [b]Timur Gareev's[\b] first time playing in the US Championship as he was previously representing Uzbekistan. He's a best at many us swiss tournaments recently finishing with 8.0/9.0 in the North American Open against a strong field. He also held an exhibition as a warm-up before the tournament where he defeated 29 players BLINDFOLD while facing a total of 33 players.
The young guns:
This is the first appearance in the US Championship for both Kayden Troff and Samuel Sevian, but likely their first of many. Both players are tremendously talented and have strong results to back them up. Samuel Sevian is particularly impressive as he's only 12 years old. Sevian is the youngest ever US master and was up until December (when he turned 12), the #1 U-12 player in the world. Personally his games have been impressing me for the last 4 years ever since I saw him as an 8 year old smoothly crush a few solid masters. Sevian is also the first player born after the year 2000 to ever play in a US Championship.
My handicap of the players:
Player Chance of winning
GM Gata Kamsky 35%
GM Timur Gareev 25%
GM Alex Onischuk 20%
GM Ray Robson 3%
GM Varuzhan Akobian 3%
GM Robert Hess 3%
GM Sam Shankland 2.5%
GM Larry Christiansen 2.5%
GM Alexander Shabalov 2.5%
GM Alejandro Ramirez 1.5%
Field 3%
What to look out for:
Upsets. There will be plenty of them. Everybody in this field is tough, even the lower rated youngsters. I think there are a few players in the field who will be looking to prove something. Shankland graduated college recently and is taking time off to play chess thanks to his Samford Fellowship. Sevian also made a GM norm not so long ago and should have a shot of at least having a very good performance even if his chance of making a full run are near 0.
Fatigue:
Kamsky just came off a very strong event 2 days before the tournament all the way from Switzerland.
Snipers:
There are quite a few fighters in the field, but I could see players like Shankland, Robson, or even Holt with some very specific preparation designed to catch their opponent. It can be tough to properly perpare for your opponents in a swiss tournament as you cannot know your pairing (in most cases) until the previous round is complete.
Luck: It's a 9 round swiss, that means half the field will get an extra white. And who you get your colors against might matter too. If you can get an easy victory against some of the lower rated players it can really shift your field around.
Update:
Btw I forgot to mention for those who like much more casual commentary my friend Amazingoid often streams chess on twitch and and I could imagine him live streaming the events.
http://www.twitch.tv/amazingoid
Tell him "Josh" sent you in the chat and say hello for me.
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Cool read actually.
Won't be watching or following but the subject is interesting 
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when is all this stuff happening?
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I always wish I could watch more chess with commentary. I've seen a few clips on youtube here and there and it's so exciting.
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I'd actually really enjoy following this as it unfolds. I haven't been into chess since I had to quit due to family problems when I was much younger. At the time I didn't achieve incredibly high or anything, but I played around with guys who, some of which at least, ended up becoming national masters (though iirc I think only one of my peers ended up like that). Very fun to play .
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On May 02 2013 07:26 strongandbig wrote:
when is all this stuff happening?
OMG, excellent question, I can't believe I left this out. It's technically May 2nd - May 13th, but the first games are on May 3rd, the opening ceremony is tomorrow though (boring). Will also add to OP.
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hmm no female players, wonder if there is a study to explain this.
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On May 02 2013 10:27 jcroisdale wrote:
hmm no female players, wonder if there is a study to explain this.
A few of the top female players would be good enough to be in the field, but there's a concurrent US Women's championship they're playing in.
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Cool. I've often thought it would be cool to see a big open Starcraft tournament run in a Swiss system style.
Where is Nakamura?
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On May 02 2013 12:09 ziggurat wrote:
Cool. I've often thought it would be cool to see a big open Starcraft tournament run in a Swiss system style.
Where is Nakamura?
Stephano would own Swiss open style tournaments in SC2, it's very favorable to his play style and the way he prepares for games.
Anyway, Nakamura for a few years have been putting top flight tournaments over the US Championships for at least a few years now. In the past, he mentioned not wanting to risk his ELO against hungry up and comers, where he has everything to lose but not much to gain - last year he dominated the field and convincingly beat Kamsky. Later in May, he's preparing for the Grand Prix series hes committed to where he just placed 2nd in first leg, so it doesn't make too much sense to crowd his schedule.
Kamsky is probably a favorite, but Gareev is strong also and has an incredible ELO for someone who had mostly plays in Open Tournaments. Hard to write off Onischuk but he is a perennial choker right before the finish line.
The rest of the guys are old and not that hungry for it anymore and the youngsters have displayed complacency in the last few years, saying in interviews like putting school as a priority, taking lengthy breaks from chess, and having better things to do while still enjoying chess.
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I used to play and follow, but not in years...I miss the beauty that the game can bring though and I hope to see it return in time. I just have to share this though...
+ Show Spoiler +
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On May 02 2013 12:44 zanzib wrote:Show nested quote +On May 02 2013 12:09 ziggurat wrote:
Cool. I've often thought it would be cool to see a big open Starcraft tournament run in a Swiss system style.
Where is Nakamura? Stephano would own Swiss open style tournaments in SC2, it's very favorable to his play style and the way he prepares for games. Anyway, Nakamura for a few years have been putting top flight tournaments over the US Championships for at least a few years now. In the past, he mentioned not wanting to risk his ELO against hungry up and comers, where he has everything to lose but not much to gain - last year he dominated the field and convincingly beat Kamsky. Later in May, he's preparing for the Grand Prix series hes committed to where he just placed 2nd in first leg, so it doesn't make too much sense to crowd his schedule. Kamsky is probably a favorite, but Gareev is strong also and has an incredible ELO for someone who had mostly plays in Open Tournaments. Hard to write off Onischuk but he is a perennial choker right before the finish line. The rest of the guys are old and not that hungry for it anymore and the youngsters have displayed complacency in the last few years, saying in interviews like putting school as a priority, taking lengthy breaks from chess, and having better things to do while still enjoying chess.
SC2 is probably right not to have Swiss System tournaments, but I think they should use it more often for qualifiers. It's way more fair for qualifiers, but obviously with varying game lengths can be a pain in the ass to actually run. Not that knockouts completely solve this problem, but they reduce the total number of players over time so the probabilities get better.
Maybe for qualifiers they should hold an "elimination swiss" where at after 4 rounds they eliminate anybody who's worse than 2-2, and do the same every so many rounds so that there are fewer weak players.
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"swiss system" is where they seed within W/L brackets after the preliminary rounds, correct?
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Swiss pairing: Everyone plays every round. Pairings try to match players with the same number of wins with each other.
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On May 03 2013 03:20 KillerDucky wrote:
Swiss pairing: Everyone plays every round. Pairings try to match players with the same number of wins with each other.
okay yeah that's a less detailed version of what i said
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On May 03 2013 03:20 KillerDucky wrote:
Swiss pairing: Everyone plays every round. Pairings try to match players with the same number of wins with each other.
One good thing about a swiss system is that it's fun for everyone even if you lose the first few matches. It's probably not a great idea for pro level tournaments. But for fun local LANs I don't think a system like double elimination is that good, because it discourages random people from signing up.
I went to a local tournament a while back. I knew that I had literally 0% chance of winning, but I thought it would be fun. I paid a reasonable fee (I think it was $30ish) and then after two matches I was done. Still fun but the experience could have been better.
Whereas, when I used to play tournament chess, I could go to a swiss system tournament and know that I would get 9 or 10 matches. Mostly they would be against players near my level, but I'd have the chance of playing a GM in the early rounds for a little added excitement. Either way, I'd know that I'd get a lot of fun games for my $$$.
Anyway, just a thought. Hope I'm not derailing your blog
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Too bad Nakamura isn't there to defend his title, but then the tourney in Norway he's playing in is a much stronger event, so no surprise there
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EPT
