U.S. chess tourney goes co-ed

Associated Press

SEATTLE — Except for the 1,500-year-old game at its core, the U.S. Chess Championship will be barely recognizable when it begins at Seattle Center on Saturday.

For the first time, men and women will play each other. The field has been expanded to 56 players, instead of the usual 10 or 12 in the men’s championship and six or eight in the women’s, and the prize money has been doubled to $200,000.

In addition, younger players will get their first crack at some of the country’s chess stars. Thirteen-year-old Hana Itkis of Fair Lawn, N.J., is the tournament’s youngest player ever, younger even than the brilliant Bobby Fischer, who won it at age 14 in 1957.

"The event typically has been rather staid in its format," says Yasser Seirawan, who wound up in a three-way tie for the championship last year. "Before, I’d show up and there would be 10 other players and I would know them all by their first names. This is going to be a much more compelling event."

There won’t be any tie for the title this year; instead, there will be a playoff.

The changes are part of a grand scheme to bring chess to the masses and generate some excitement for the event, which has come a long way since the Seattle Chess Foundation took charge of it in June 2000. Before, the future of the championships was often in doubt, as organizers struggled to find venues and prize money.

Giving women and younger players exposure to tougher competition should improve their play — and, by extension, the state of American chess in general, says Seirawan, a Seattle resident.

Besides, he says, gender desegregation in the black-and-white world is long overdue. Some other countries, including Great Britain, have already instituted similar changes.

"The women have been sheltered from the men," he says. "That’s understandable if you have to power-lift 300 pounds, but why can’t they play chess together?"

Technically, the men and women will be playing for one title: U.S. chess champ. But since the highest-ranked men are expected to win, the organizers will also give prizes to the top-finishing women.

Two-thirds of the players qualified for the tournament at other events. The rest were automatically seeded because of their ratings.

Several of the 12 females in the tournament say they’re excited about the new format, though some expressed reservations. Elena Donaldson, the top-rated woman, said she was used to playing with other women, but that she was willing to give the co-ed tournament a shot.

She hopes playing with some of the world’s best male players won’t scare female players away from the game.

"It might be good, it might not," she says. "It might take away a few women players, maybe not."

At age 21, New York University student Jennifer Shahade has the third-best rating of women in the tournament. She said she wasn’t sure she liked having a nine-round Swiss system, in which players in each round are paired with players who have the same number of points. The system means not everybody plays everybody else.

"It’s going to be more fun and more interesting for the spectators and the players," Shahade says. "But it’s going to be a little strange. The women’s title is going to be decided there, but you might end up not playing any other women, or maybe just one or two."

All players are guaranteed $1,900 in prize money. The top finisher will collect $15,000; the top woman gets $9,500.

Women have historically played less competitive chess than men. Thirty-three men in the tournament have better ratings than Donaldson, who leads other American women with a rating of 2,455.

Seirawan’s rating is 2,707. He is followed by Boris Gulko (2,704) and Gregory Kaidanov (2,694).

Associated Press