Does anyone have the details on the equipment they are using in the current US Championship being held in St. Louis? What pieces, boards, clocks are they using?
http://www.saintlouischessclub.org/US-Championship-2009
I can't be 100% sure but from the pictures on the site it looks like they're playing with DGT boards with DGT Classic pieces.
http://digitalgametechnology.com/site/index.php/Electronic-Boards/dgt-classic-set-walnut-e-board-usb.html
The tables and chairs were commissioned by some guy who won the state woodworking competition. The pieces look like HOS Reykjavik, or a simlar knockoff but most likely HOS, which in turn is a knockoff of the Jaques set used by Fischer and Spassky in 1972.
The boards look lke DGT boards, so the pieces most likely are from HOS. They made high quality pieces to replace the mediocre ones that you usually see used with the DGT board, with sensors in the bases.
OK, don't take this as an official answer, but I've been watching the tournament through the reports that have been appearing on chess.com...
The chessboard and pieces: DGT Electronic Board
Clock: DGT (I don't know if the model is the XL or 2010, but probably the XL, cuz it can connect to the Electronic Board.)
But from what I've heard (again this isn't official), there was a problem with the DGT system and so they started using the MonRoi Personal Chess Manager to record the moves. The MonRoi PCM is an electronic handheld device. Players continued to use the DGT boards, but the live game transmissions were handled by MonRoi. At least this is how I understand it.
Amy
I know some players are using the Monroi but others are using the old standard pen and paper.
I remember going to a couple of the games in the Korchnoi/Mecking candidates match in 1974 and they played on one of those cheap roll up boards and a plastic dreuke set and even Fischer and Larsen also did in Denver !! This says a great deal about how chess and chess players are seen in the USA. I think it was horrible myself and I would have refused to play on such cheap crap myself. Makes my blood boil.....
Yes, that could be, because I was only basing my statement on pictures I saw. Sorry about any confusion.
I do know that MonRoi handled the transmissions. At least those were the ones appearing on the official website.
I remember going to a couple of the games in the Korchnoi/Mecking candidates match in 1974 and they played on one of those cheap roll up boards and a plastic dreuke set and even Fischer and Larsen also did in Denver !! This says a great deal about chess and chess players are seen in the USA. I think it was horrible myself and I would have refused to play on such cheap crap myself. Makes my blood boil.....
I thought it made US chess look cheap. The previous match Fischer had with Taimanov had a great chess table and nice pieces, and the match following Denver was Petrosian in Buenos Aires, again with fine equipment. Denver however used the same gear local schlubs would bring to local tournaments. Dreuke plastic pieces and a BHB clock. A good set for the lcoal tourney, but lacking all class for the world stage. As it turned out, caught in the spotlight of history too.
I particularly liked the pieces used in the Petrosian/Fischer match in Argentina. Anyone know where I could get pieces exactly like those ? Hope I dont have to go to Argentina......wait, I hear they have the best steaks in the world there and cheap...ok, hope I do have to go......
To me those pieces looked like Jaques "Marshall" pieces, so I suspect the pieces they used in 1971 were 50+ year old antiques. HOS sells a knockoff of the Jaques Marshall or you could blow quite a bit of money and get the real thing.
There's a charm to playing with nice pieces on a nice board. But there's another charm at work too, at least to me -- that it's a game played in the mind, and the equipment is irrelevant. I may lose at golf because my opponent had a fancy new Taylor Made R7, but I could play chess on a piece of paper with a pencil and eraser, and it's still all me at work.
I dont agree with this. I think playing on better equipment makes one take the game and the event/match more seriously and perhaps even inspires one to play better chess. In any event it certainly is more attractive to the world ( chess playing and non ) to see nice equipment being used by the worlds best and not some dime store set that costs a few dollars. Its better for the image of chess and the top players to use good equipment just as its better for them to dress nicely and not show up in blue jeans, tennis shoes and t-shirt.
Nothing like having your blood boil over the poor choice of equipment 35 years ago instead of celebrating the high quality equipment that is being used in the US Championship this year as this thread started out. Nice hijack.
Makes me wonder what the equipment was like in US championships that Fischer played ? Better late then never eh Loomis ?
Thanks, I had never heard of DGT. Those boards and pieces are pricey!
I read somewhere that Reshevsky never owned a chess set, and that once in South America he had to use a coin for a rook!
I use wood board and pieces at home but for tournaments it's usually easier to use plastic pieces.
Based on a close look at the photos on the site (here is a good one http://picasaweb.google.com/SaintLouisChessClub/Round7PhotosByBetsyDynako#5335804432221472162) I would say they are DGT board, pieces and clock detailed here,
and clock here,
http://digitalgametechnology.com/site/index.php/Clocks/dgt-xl-red-beige.html
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