Gata Kamsky

It would have been a nerve-wracking moment for most anyone. As FBI agents paced in a Manhattan hotel lobby, Gata Kamsky, 14, was on the brink of defecting to the United States. But the unflappable Russian chess prodigy was not about to flee so fast. A star participant in the New York Open chess tournament, Kamsky had one more game to play. The federal agents poised to whisk him and his father off in a limousine would have to wait. "I'm sure the FBI people were stunned," says Allen Kaufman, a U.S. chess official who helped arrange Kamsky's defection two months ago. "But what could they do?

Position No.6139: White Mates in three. Solution to Position No.6138: A "smothered mate" is unstoppable after 1. Rg7! Unless black allows a two-move mate (?Rg8?? 2.Rg8 mate), white plays 2. Rg8+ followed by Nf7 mate. Ask anyone even slightly familiar with chess, "Who was the best of all time?" and the name Bobby Fischer will probably arise most often. In the last several years, though, a young man from Norway has quickly and rather quietly moved onto the scene. He's been dubbed the "new Bobby Fischer.

May 30, 2010 Position No. 6109: White to play and win. From the game Marat Dzhumaev-Gurpreet Singh, Delhi 2010. Solution to Position No. 6108: White wins elegantly with 1 Qh3 Rxf1+ 2 Rd1. To avoid checkmate, Black must yield both Rooks by 2…Rh4 3 Qxh4 Qh1 4 Qxh1 Rxh1 5 Rxh1. Gata Kamsky of New York won the U.S. Championship on Tuesday in St. Louis. In an odd finish to the 24-player event, Kamsky drew to break a tie with Yury Shulman of Chicago. The tournament began with seven conventional rounds.

May 30, 2010 Position No. 6109: White to play and win. From the game Marat Dzhumaev-Gurpreet Singh, Delhi 2010. Solution to Position No. 6108: White wins elegantly with 1 Qh3 Rxf1+ 2 Rd1. To avoid checkmate, Black must yield both Rooks by 2…Rh4 3 Qxh4 Qh1 4 Qxh1 Rxh1 5 Rxh1. Gata Kamsky of New York won the U.S. Championship on Tuesday in St. Louis. In an odd finish to the 24-player event, Kamsky drew to break a tie with Yury Shulman of Chicago. The tournament began with seven conventional rounds.

Position No.6139: White Mates in three. Solution to Position No.6138: A "smothered mate" is unstoppable after 1. Rg7! Unless black allows a two-move mate (?Rg8?? 2.Rg8 mate), white plays 2. Rg8+ followed by Nf7 mate. Ask anyone even slightly familiar with chess, "Who was the best of all time?" and the name Bobby Fischer will probably arise most often. In the last several years, though, a young man from Norway has quickly and rather quietly moved onto the scene. He's been dubbed the "new Bobby Fischer.

Gata Kamsky of New York has had a spectacular year, highlighted by four victories in world championship qualifying matches. The latest rating list issued by the Professional Chess Assn. (PCA) takes into account Kamsky's 5 1/2-1 1/2 mauling of English grandmaster Nigel Short in September. The PCA now ranks the 20-year-old Kamsky third in the world at 2741, behind only PCA world champion Garry Kasparov (2813) and World Chess Federation (FIDE) champion Anatoly Karpov (2758).

Soviet chess authorities today blamed the father of 14-year-old chess player Gata Kamsky for his defection in New York last week, saying he was forcing his son to become "a robot for dollars." The newspaper Sovietsky Sport quoted Alexander Roshin, the head of the Soviet chess delegation taking part in the New York tournament, as saying Kamsky's progress in the game had halted because of too many demands from his father.

The Soviet Union's leading young chess player and his father requested political asylum in the United States here Tuesday, according to grandmaster Lev Alburt, a former U.S. chess champion who defected from the Soviet Union in 1981. Alburt said 14-year-old Gata Kamsky and his father, Rustam Kamsky, spoke with an FBI official Tuesday morning and are staying at an undisclosed address in the New York area.

World chess champion Garry Kasparov of Russia wants to defend his title in New York on the observation deck of the 110-story World Trade Center because of the spectacular views, officials said Friday. New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told reporters he had offered the Russian Grandmaster the opportunity to play at the top of the twin-tower building, a target of a fatal truck bomb attack in 1993. Kasparov is scheduled to defend his Professional Chess Assn.

The tense match between former U.S. champion Gata Kamsky and Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand is deadlocked at 4-4 in Las Palmas on the Canary Islands. The winner of the best-of-12-game series earns the right to challenge the world's top player, Garry Kasparov of Russia, in the 1995 Professional Chess Assn. world championship, scheduled for September in Cologne, Germany. Kamsky, who accurately described his play as "kind of shaky," might easily trail by two points.

Gata Kamsky of New York has had a spectacular year, highlighted by four victories in world championship qualifying matches. The latest rating list issued by the Professional Chess Assn. (PCA) takes into account Kamsky's 5 1/2-1 1/2 mauling of English grandmaster Nigel Short in September. The PCA now ranks the 20-year-old Kamsky third in the world at 2741, behind only PCA world champion Garry Kasparov (2813) and World Chess Federation (FIDE) champion Anatoly Karpov (2758).

It would have been a nerve-wracking moment for most anyone. As FBI agents paced in a Manhattan hotel lobby, Gata Kamsky, 14, was on the brink of defecting to the United States. But the unflappable Russian chess prodigy was not about to flee so fast. A star participant in the New York Open chess tournament, Kamsky had one more game to play. The federal agents poised to whisk him and his father off in a limousine would have to wait. "I'm sure the FBI people were stunned," says Allen Kaufman, a U.S. chess official who helped arrange Kamsky's defection two months ago. "But what could they do?