The only adjectives used around GM Larry Christiansen's name at the US Championship spoke about the aged "old man" of US chess. People were recycling language from the latter day descriptions of Joseph Henry "Black Death" Blackburne who played 50 years of professional chess. Come to think of it, looking at Larry's career I estimate he has 2 years to hit his 50th USCF chess playing anniversary.
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Popular opinion gave Larry Christiansen (three times US champ) little chance to do well at the US championship as Larry was the oldest competitor in the year's event. Some gave odds of 200 to 1 of him winning the tournament. When in fact Larry came within one quiet move of getting into the Finals.
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There was a packed house at the BCF of chess fans in attendance at the lecture. The self-effacing Larry was very open and honest in describing and assessing his performance. Brutal honesty is the most common trait that Masters and above possess: always seeking the truth, always probing for the best move. Always questioning.
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An interesting sidebar was Larry’s discussing about the reliance of today’s players on computers for preparation.
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In great detail Larry reviewed the Round one game: Christiansen/Dimitri Gurevich a Richter-Rauzer Sicilian where Larry squeeze his opponent into making bad moves.
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Larry also presented round two Ray Robson/ Alex Yermolinsky same Richter-Rauzer but white played it a little more poorly than Larry and black played in super aggressive precise attacking fashion.
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He also reviewed his Round four game Alexander Shabalov/Christiansen where Larry played a Bogo-Indian Defense and described how he recovered from over extending his knight to tie up Shabalov to win.
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Round seven Christiansen/Hikaru Nakamura was a French Defense Tarrasch where Larry had the advantage throughout the whole game but on move 34 missed the quiet Qe5 which would have given him the win and Nakamura the loss. That result would have placed Larry in the Finals.
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Old man Larry put down his walker and got the joy of squashing all the kids finishing second in the US blitz tourney with Nakamura winning.
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I think Larry was too hard on himself. His openness to share his feelings and approach to the US Championships was very cool as we got to realize that at all levels the emotions, dreams, frustrations, joys and sorrows are the same for all of us who love the game.
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Thank You Larry for a special evening.
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Mike Griffin 06/23/2010
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=71454&pid=15040
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=71454
http://blog.chess.com/qtsii/the-black-death-of-chess---introduction-part-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Christiansen
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