Are you ready for a truly spectacular 2009 U.S. Championship that’s set to get underway at the new Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis?
The 24 contenders include the “big three” of Gata Kamsky, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Onischuk and defending champ Yury Shulman, plus other former champions Alexander Shabalov, Boris Gulko (the only player to have won both the USSR and U.S. titles), U.S. Hall of Famers and ICC Chess.FM stars Joel Benjamin and Larry Christiansen . The championship also features some of the new rising stars of U.S. Chess, such as GM-elect Robert Hess plus IMs Ray Robson and Sam Shankland.
ICC Chess.FM plans extensive coverage direct from the playing venue in St. Louis! We’ll be having official U.S. Championship commentators IM Jennifer Shahade and GM Emil Sutovsky broadcasting live to the audience in St. Louis and also here on Chess.FM throughout, starting at 3.00pm ET; Macauley Peterson will be on-hand producing videos for ICC and the official site each day long with a wrap-up service; and former U.S. champion Nick De Firmian will be hosting each day a special U.S. Championship Game of the Day.
And with Chess.FM streaming audio live for free at the official site, there will be special email trivia contests that will be open to the general public with amazing daily prizes – the NIC trivia contest (1-year subscription to New In Chess magazine); the House of Staunton GOTD trivia ($70 coupon to buy online at HOS); and if you attend the commentary room in person in St. Louis, there’s the Everyman On-site trivia (Garry Kasparov on Modern Chess Pt. 2: Kasparov vs. Karpov 1975-198 5).
Look out for regular updates here at chessclub.com and uschesschamps.com including a Twitter feed, videos and a fantasy chess competition.
