The Professional Chess Association (PCO) semifinal championships in Linares, Spain, both ended on Sept. 29 with identical one-sided results.
Gata Kamsky of Brooklyn defeated Nigel Short of England, and Vishwanathan Anand of India defeated Michael Adams of England.Each of the best-of-10-game series to pick a challenger for Gary Kasparov of Russia was decided by a 51/2-11/2 score.
Kamsky and Anand will meet each other in the final in London in January.
In Linares, they each got off to a surprising 3-0 start. Then Short won Game 4 while Anand and Adams drew.
Kamsky made Short's comeback brief and futile by winning Games 5 and 6 and closing out the match with a draw in the final game.
Anand won Game 5, drew Game 6 and also put the match away with a final draw.
Mostly, the games were long positional battles culmination in endings. The exception was Kamsky's bright victory in Game 5 with a virtuoso attack.
- MOURNED - There must be many Utah adult chess players who owe their interest and skill to Sam Teitelbaum, whose obituary appeared last week. He died at age 86 in Salt Lake City after a long illness.
For several years Sam was one of the most active chess teachers, players and sponsors. Sam was the owner of a floral store, "Teitelbaum's Flowers," on the north side of 300 South between Main and State streets.
And when he wasn't tending to the store, with his late wife, Marie, he was involved in chess activities.
He became so involved in teaching children chess that one summer Sam was hired by the Salt Lake Recreation Department, and Salt Lake City Commissioner, L.C. Romney, and gave lessons and supervised other chess activities on about every Salt Lake school playground. He must have taught hundreds of youngsters over the three months. They were caught up in his love for children and his skill in teaching the fundamentals of chess.
Several summers he chartered Greyline buses and took loads of Utah players to Twin Falls, to direct a team one-day match (three games) against a selected Idaho team.
Eventually the flower business was given up and Sam began a long career as a marriage counselor that required so much time that he eventually gave up his chess activities, but he maintained his interest in what was happening in the chess world.
From 1950-70, Sam made a rich contribution to Utah chess and chess players. He played well, but I do not remember his ever winning a big tournament. For a number of years his bookkeeper was Farrell Clark, a Utah and Nevada state champion.
- CHICAGO - "Although the Chicago chess community boasts only a single resident grand-master," the nationally syndicated chess columnist, Shelby Lyman, wrote recently, "it has managed to lovingly and enviably nurture a thriving grass-roots chess culture."
If you should ever visit the Windy City, you will find 12 clubs, among them the recently established Chicago Chess Club, which is open for play daily. You will also find a host of other activities often spearheaded by the remarkably effective Illinois Chess Association.
Through the years, the metropolitan area has spawned one of the most active industrial chess leagues in the country with four divisions and 40 to 45 teams. (Wow!)
It is also the focus of a rapidly growing scholastic effort for both inner-city and suburban youths.
Notable are the Helen Warren Junior Chess Program that provides special tutoring for top junior players and a newly des-ig-nated pilot project sponsored by Intel Corp. using computers in the schools.
Recently, the Chicago chess community hosted the annual U.S. Open Championship attracting 467 entries from all 50 states. Brian Harrow, 14-year-old chess whiz, participated and represented Utah well!
Open tournaments are beguilingly democratic. Their format allows lower-rated talented players - such as Kaushansky, ranked 251st in the U.S. and Chow, ranked 273rd - to challenge directly top-flight grandmasters with at least occasional heroic results.