"Now in its 12th year, PC EXPO will open its doors to New Yorkers June 28-30 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center to display the latest products in computing.
"This year, PC EXPO also hosts the Intel World Chess Grand Prix - a speed-chess tournament starring Gary Kasparov and 17-year-old prodigy Judit Polgar."This is part of an introduction in the June 5 New York Times about the EXPO that is expected to draw crowds of 100,000 this month.
Inside the special section is an article titled: "Killer Chess at PC EXPO," written by Jill Bilzi:
"If you think of chess as a five-hour, scratch-your-head and furrow-your-brow game between two men in rumpled suits, the Intel World Chess Grand Prix Tournament at PC EXPO will be a radical departure from the norm.
"The usually ponderous game will be transformed into `action chess,' a highly watchable, sudden-death sport in which each player has 25 minutes to make all of his moves.
"In action chess, also known as `speed chess' and `Game/25,' if a player runs out of time before checkmating his opponent, he loses. And, in the event of a tie, a match will be decided by an express chess `shootout' in which white has six minutes for the entire game and black has five minutes with draw odds.
"Five minutes? A shootout? Welcome to chess for the wired generation. This, after all, is the computer age, with an ultra-fast information superhighway looming around the bend. Nintendo and MTV compete for kids' attention now, and a five-hour, stay-quiet chess match is a tough sell.
"The Intel World Chess Grand Prix Tournament, to be held in the Special Events Hall of the Javits Center during PC EXPO, may well deliver action worthy of the Super Mario Brothers. Sixteen of the greatest living chess minds, including world champion Gary Kasparov of Russia and the 17-year-old Hungarian sensation Judit Polgar, will compete in action matches.
"While players must make all moves in 25 minutes or less, spectators can enjoy master commentary by earphone as they watch the action on giant screens. Spectators may also play an interactive version of the game - they win prizes by guessing what the champions will do. The Intel World Chess Tournament is the second event in the Professional Chess Association's (PCA) 1994 schedule. The four-city tour started in Moscow and travels to London and Paris after PC EXPO."
"The best `high bandwidth' minds in the computer industry, where competition is keen, will be at PC EXPO, while the chess world will be represented by high bandwidth competitors Kasparov and Polgar," says Robert E. Rice, commissioner of the PCA, which is sponsoring the event along with giant computer chip maker Intel Corp. and PC EXPO.
This year, the PCA and Intel have developed an international chess circuit with prizes valued at $1.2 million; that figure is projected to almost triple to $3.5 million in 1995. Players in the four-city Intel Grand Prix circuit, which ends in Paris on Nov. 14, will be competing for a whopping $740,000 in prizes.
In Moscow a crowd of 4,000 jammed a theater inside the Kremlin, with a huge chess board projected over the players' heads.
"The theatricality of the play plus the quick time really makes the format exciting," Rice says.
The Moscow portion of the tournament was taped and is scheduled to be aired on ESPN. "We are never going to get the public to understand the subtleties of the game," Rice admits. "All we are trying to get to is the point where people see chess as fun and an excellent spectator sport."
Although speed chess was chosen as the format for the tournament, make no mistake: The PCA is not abandoning classic chess. The Intel World Chess Championship Quarter Qualifier will be soon be taking place at the Trump Tower.
Amid the waterfalls and marble, the world's best chess players will be engaging in classic chess, fighting for the right to challenge the world champion, Gary Kasparov, for the PCA world championship crown. Admission will be free, and the grandmaster matchups will include Nigel Short and Boris Gulko.
Intel says the company was drawn to the title sponsorship for two reasons: First, most chess players are computer users, and second, Intel's involvement includes sponsoring a school chess program designed to improve the academic performance of underprivileged students.
The $5 million commitment to the PCA represents Intel's first sponsorship.