Field Taking Shape at Bay Area International
Top-flight chess will be returning to Northern California this winter, as the third installment of the Bay Area International is officially set for January 2-8, 2014 at the Hilton in Santa Clara, CA. The tournament is designed as a norm-hunting opportunity, as only players with ratings above FIDE 2000 are eligible, and a maximum of one-third will be below FIDE 2200.
The tournament will be a hybrid of European and American Swiss schedules. The nine rounds will be played over seven days; players will only play two games per day twice and will get the "relaxed" one game per day for most of the event. First prize will be $3000 out of more than $7500 in total prizes.
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Mike Klein began playing chess at the age of four in Charlotte, NC. In 1986, he lost to Josh Waitzkin at the National Championship featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." A year later, Mike became the youngest member of the very first All-America Chess Team, and was on the team a total of eight times. In 1988, he won the K-3 National Championship, and eventually became North Carolina's youngest-ever master. In 1996, he won clear first for under-2250 players in the top section of the World Open. Mike has taught chess full-time for a dozen years in New York City and Charlotte, with his students and teams winning many national championships. He now works at Chess.com as a Senior Journalist and at ChessKid.com as the Chief Chess Officer. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, he was awarded Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. He has also previously won other awards from the CJA such as Best Tournament Report, and also several writing awards for mainstream newspapers. His chess writing and personal travels have now brought him to more than 85 countries.
