9/9/2004 -
I
Gata see Kamsky playing in the US Championship.
I watched Kamsky play in the Tuesday Knight Masters. It’s good to
see Gata getting back into chess. I also read the
AF4C
has asked Gata
to play in the US Championship this year. Gata will get the 2nd wild
card spot in the tournament. The 2004 US championship will take place in
San Diego from November 24 to December 5th. I am glad to see that Gata has
accepted the challenge.
I think this will be Gats 3rd US championship. He
played his first back in 1991. where as a 17 year old he defeated I.
Guerivich, A Ivanov, J Fedorowitz and Joel Benjamin to become one of the
youngest to win the US Championship since Bobby Fischer won it at 14. Gata
played in 2nd US championship in 1993. He got off to a fast
start, but loses to Larry Christiansen and Kaidonov cost him his 2nd
US title. Gata came in a respectable 3rd place.
In 1996, Gata
went on to
challenge
Anatoly Karpov for the FIDE version of the world champion. Gata, at 21
years of age, was too inexperienced to defeat
Karpov. Gata lost the match
by a score of 7.5-10.5 with 3 wins, 6 loses and 9 draws. Kamsky defeated
Anand in the
1994
semifinal candidate match, by a score of 6-4, with 4 wins, 2 lose and
4 draw. During this match, Kamsky had to over come a 2-point deficit.
Kamsky to his credit also has match victories over Nigel Short and
Vladimir Kramnik. Gata decided to retire from chess after losing his bid
for the world championship in 1996.
Kamsky did play in the
1999 FIDE KO in
Las Vegas, but was eliminated in the first round by eventual winner
Alexander Khalifman. Gata has been going to law school and recently
finished his studies. Earlier this year, there were rumors that Gata
wanted to run for FIDE
president. At 30 years of age, Gata must be wondering if he still has
what it takes to be a champion. With the current state of ciaos in the
chess world, you got to wonder if Gata feels he could be world champion.
There are many strong players today but there are questions as to who is
the strongest in the world. Kramnik is the current world champion, after
defeating Garry Kasparov in 2000. However Kramnik has not shown he is the
best player in the world.
Garry
Kasparov, still the number one rated player
in the world, is no longer the champion. Kasparov has been very busy with
fringe chess issues and politics
the last two years. He has not played well at Linares the last two
years.
Anand has shown that he is the best rapid-blitz player in the
world. Anand won
his 3rd Chess Oscar and has been on a tournament tear
recently. Anand took the 2nd
spot in the FIDE rating chart. He has been the dominate player these
last two years. Anand has shown he is superior to Kramnik
and Leko, however he needs to face Kasparov again to solidify his
place in chess history. One must wonder where Gata would be in the pecking
order had he not retired from chess in 1996.
In 1994 Gata had match victories over today’s top players,
namely Anand and Kramnik. Chess
would benefit from the return of Gata Kamsky. I think Gata is still young
enough to make another serious run.
|