January 5, 2005

 

For Immediate Release

 

Nakamura vs. Polgar Chess Exhibition

 

17-year-old U.S. Chess Champion Hikaru Nakamura  and World Women’s top-ranked Grandmaster Susan Polgar have agreed to play a unique exhibition game during the Millennium Chess Festival on February 26, 2005, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA, it was announced today.

 

The unique annual event is called the “GM Dinner / Exhibition Match”, and features two grandmasters playing each other from separate rooms before a live audience with moves relayed by radio. As they play, the GMs explain for the audience what they are thinking about and why they are choosing certain options. For the average casual player it is an opportunity for insight into the amazing mind of a chess grandmaster. (The GMs play on “wallboards” that allow the audience to follow along with the moves he/she is discussing.)

 

This year’s event, the fourth in a popular series started in 2002 at the Millennium Chess Festival, features two very famous players:

 

GM Susan Polgar was a child prodigy in her native Hungary, and became the first woman to earn the men’s chess Grandmaster title. She taught her two younger sisters how to play and they also became grandmasters (the youngest, Judit, now ranked #9 on the world men’s rankings list.). Susan won her 4th World Championship title in 1996 before retiring to have a family. Now a U.S. citizen she returned to chess in 2004 to lead the USA to a first-ever medal in the prestigious World Chess Olympiad.  In addition to the team Silver medal, Susan also captured 2 additional individual Gold medals and 1 Silver medal including best overall performance of the Women’s Olympiad bringing her total medal count to 10 (5 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze).  In addition, she has a 56 consecutive Olympiad game scoring streak without a single loss (this is comparable to Joe DiMaggio's incredible 56-game hitting streak in baseball). In fact, she has never lost a single game in the Olympiads.

 

GM Hikaru Nakamura last month won the U.S. Chess Championship, at just age 17. At age 10 years and 2 months, he became the youngest American master, shattering Bobby Fischer’s record.  He was born in Japan and now lives in New York. Nakamura is regarded by many experts as the best American talent since Bobby Fischer to have a chance to one-day challenge for the World Championship. He is known for hyper-aggressive and imaginative tactical play and has been shooting up the world rankings.  On January 1, 2005, Hikaru for the first time broke through the world’s top 100 ranking.

 

The GM Dinner / Exhibition Match will take place Saturday, February 26, 2005, at 7:30pm, at the Millennium Chess Festival at the Ramada Plaza Oceanfront Resort, 57th & Atlantic Street, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

 

The Millennium Chess Festival (Feb 25-27) is sponsored by the consulting firm of Booz Allen Hamilton and is presented by Beach Events and the city of Virginia Beach.

 

The Festival also includes the main tournament, in which many GMs and other players of all strengths will compete in various class sections, plus other special events including a lecture by Susan Polgar and a “Fischer-Random Chess” blitz tournament.

 

For more information, see http://www.geocities.com/millenniumchessfestival 

 

Contact: Tom Braunlich

tom.braunlich@cox.net

(918)749-3163