Beginning of the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship in St. Louis

The spirit of Marcel Duchamp is taking over Saint Louis just in time for the final countdown to the U.S. Championship (live coverage link) . Check out photos from the Duchamp book panel discussion on Tuesday night, Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess and the Marcel Duchamp: Chess Master opening at the Saint Louis Museum University of Art (SLUMA). SLUMA also hosted the opening ceremony in which GM Yury Shulman chose for colors and selected white in the first round. Look for photos of that in the next article.

The panel discussion featured Larry List, the author of The Imagery of Chess and curator of the recent 32 Pieces in Iceland; Francis M. Naumann, Duchamp authority and author of The Art of Chess; Dr. Bradley Bailey, also the author of The Art of Chess and Professor at Saint Louis University and me. I am the U.S. Championship chair and I analyzed 15 Duchamp games for the book. To find out more about the book and exhibit, or purchase the book, go to the artofchess.org.

Meanwhile, the 24 contenders for the U.S. Championship have all arrived safely, just before intense thunderstorms Thursday night and Friday morning! Two of the earliest arrivals were U.S. Open champ IM Enrico Sevillano and GM Melikset Khachiyan of California. When they saw the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis , it was as if they'd seen an waterfall in the desert, "This is the place," said Sevillano when he approached the wide screen video monitors that were showing chess video art and top-level games. 

(Original article and more: http://main.uschess.org/content/view/9353/529)