Yeah, I too lived in Las Vegas for about 8 years or so and you're correct. AC doesn't even compare to Vegas!
I mean, let's face it, Vegas IS Vegas and everywhere else is simply a lesser version of "The Original Sin City"!
Peace!
JS/BF
PANDA and POET: Nov 30th: Topic 1: Daily Drivel
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The Panda and Poet Show Recap: Nov. 30th
The show's format includes five segments: four main topics covering varied aspects of the chess world; and a closing "Q & A" segment with audience participation.
Let's get on with the show recap:
Topic #1: The Daily Drivel
(News about the Chess World)
The first major bit of news Poet mentioned was that of a Chess tournament coming soon to one of the most unlikely places; Atlantic City, New Jersey. Called the Atlantic City International it goes from December 17th-19th and consists of one Open Section plus six seperate Rated sections from U2200 down to U1200. As with most tournaments, GMs free entry. But as a side special event on Thursday, December 16th, GM Gata Kamsky is staging a 25 Board Simul, costing $40 to each player who wants to participate. If boards are still open the day of the Simul, it is also $40 for anyone who wants to test their luck against the 2010 U.S. Open Champion. But that is not all...
Poet mentioned a time when he was in Atlantic City and he was approached by "shady people" wanting or looking for "certain things." (quotation comments are mine
) And he also discussed on how seedy Atlantic City really is and compared that to his living in Vegas and said that Vegas was actually nicer than A.C.
As a person who has lived in Vegas and has been in Jersey almost all of my life, I'm really not a big fan of either one. Last time I was in A.C. was back in '97 and I just remember wanting to get back on the highway and get away from the place. It's not a place where you want to be, no matter what time of day it is. So I second Poet's opinion on that.
For more about the Atlantic City Open, please visit this link for more information.
Next in this topic was the talking about of GM Nakamura winning the BNBlitz Tournament in Oslo, Norway. The event featured two groups of six players in double round-robin contests, with the top two players from each group reaching the semi-finals. In the finals, Naka went against the top player from the 2nd Group, Simen Agdestein. However, the final between Nakamura and Agdestein went down to an armageddon match, before the H-Bomb claimed a 3-2 victory.
Finally, The traditional Women's versus Veterans match sponsored by Czech Coal ran from November 20th-27th.
The women's team (the "Snowdrops") beat the veterans team (the "Old Hands") by a fairly comfortable score of 18-14 after eight rounds. The best individual performance came from top rated Humpy Koneru, who scored 6.0/8. For the official site of this event, please click here.