The US Chess Championship was opened on Thursday, May 7th at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, Missouri. Thanks to a local philanthropist who donated the exceptionally larger first prize of $35,000, the chess championship has managed to draw the highest ranked chess players of the United States, Gata Kamsky, Larry Christiansen and Hikaru Nakamura among them, who missed the former national events due to the relatively modest prizes.

In addition to the first prize, the 2009 US Chess Championship sponsor, businessman and amateur chess player Rex A. Sinquefield, also donated a new $64,000 prize named after the late American chess player Bobby Fischer, who won in every single game played during the 1963-64 US Chess Championship (yet later renounced his American citizenship and expressed such harsh anti-American criticism that his US Chess Federation membership right was cancelled.) The prize will be given to a player who would go through the 9-rounds chess tournament without counting a single loss.

In the end of 4 rounds, the standing list is topped by the defending US Chess Champion, Yuri Shulman, and chess grandmasters Gata Kamsky, Hikaru Nakamura and Joshua Friedel with 2.5 points each. The latter, has been carrying his grandmaster title only since the 2008 US Chess Championship and his 2568 rating stands out against the other three who all surround the 2700 rating points.

Chess & Culture

To make headlines outside the esoteric world of chess, the 2009 US Chess Championship is accompanied with events designed to communicate with broader crowds. So, the opening ceremony hosted American Idol's fourth season finalist and St. Louise native Aloha Mischeaux. At the same time, the Saint Louis University Museum of Art is exhibiting "Marcel Duchamp: Chess Master", a unique exhibition focusing, for the first time, on the influential artist relationship with the chess game including chess sets designed by his fellow Dadaist artists Man Ray, Max Ernst and Salvador Dali.