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In 2014 I attended my second US Championship as a spectator. The year prior had seen a 24 player Swiss, which was interesting as it featured many players who otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance to play. Some of those players, Conrad Holt, for instance, who scored +2, proved that they could play on that stage when given a chance.
In 2014 though, we were back to the standard 12 player round robin. At this point in time, a mere eight years ago, it was still possible to get into the event with a sub-2600 rating, and the field featured only one 2700 player, Gata Kamsky.
Contrast that with today. In 2021 the only way to get in as a 2500 rated player is to win the US Open or to get the wild card invite. On the one hand, this is great for US Chess to have so many strong players, On the other, it means that a lot of players who would benefit greatly from the experience of a strong round robin event are not going to get the chance.
Let’s take a look at the top 12 in the US right now:
| # | Name | Title | Fed | Rating | G | B-Year |
| 1 | Caruana, Fabiano | g | USA | 2783 | 0 | 1992 |
| 2 | Aronian, Levon | g | USA | 2775 | 0 | 1982 |
| 3 | So, Wesley | g | USA | 2773 | 9 | 1993 |
| 4 | Nakamura, Hikaru | g | USA | 2760 | 0 | 1987 |
| 5 | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | g | USA | 2754 | 0 | 1983 |
| 6 | Shankland, Sam | g | USA | 2720 | 9 | 1991 |
| 7 | Xiong, Jeffery | g | USA | 2691 | 8 | 2000 |
| 8 | Niemann, Hans Moke | g | USA | 2688 | 27 | 2003 |
| 9 | Sevian, Samuel | g | USA | 2684 | 8 | 2000 |
| 10 | Oparin, Grigoriy | g | USA | 2683 | 9 | 1997 |
| 11 | Robson, Ray | g | USA | 2682 | 3 | 1994 |
| 12 | Kamsky, Gata | g | USA | 2655 | 8 | 1974 |
It’s safe to assume that not all of these players would accept an invite (Kamsky and Nakamura, for instance, certainly won’t be playing this year) and so one or two players further down the list will get a chance. Additionally, between the wild card and the US Open winner there will be a couple of players outside this list who would play.
But that leaves out a lot of up-and-coming players who certainly would very much benefit from the chance to play strong events. Think Yoo, Mishra, Liang, etc.
I’ve long been a fan of the top Soviet players since they had dominated chess for 25 years before I was born until the fall of the USSR. One thing that I was always fascinated by is how they kept cranking out such strong players, seemingly year after year.
One thing that the USSR did that aided in player development was to have both semifinals and then finals of the Soviet Chess Championships. So I’ve been thinking, why can’t we do that here?
Imagine a scenario in which instead of inviting the top 10 players by rating, along with the two seeded-in players, we held two semifinals, followed by the final. I picture it like this: two 12-player semifinals in which three players each qualify for the final, along with six players seeded directly into the final.
The seeded players would be the prior year’s champion, along with the top five players by rating. Under that system 2022 would see our top six players since So is the defending champ.
| # | Name | Title | Fed | Rating | G | B-Year |
| 1 | Caruana, Fabiano | g | USA | 2783 | 0 | 1992 |
| 2 | Aronian, Levon | g | USA | 2775 | 0 | 1982 |
| 3 | So, Wesley | g | USA | 2773 | 9 | 1993 |
| 4 | Nakamura, Hikaru | g | USA | 2760 | 0 | 1987 |
| 5 | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | g | USA | 2754 | 0 | 1983 |
| 6 | Shankland, Sam | g | USA | 2720 | 9 | 1991 |
Below that you would have the two semifinals, which would consist of a couple of wildcards, along with the US Open winner, etc.
So let’s take players 7-30 on the top player list:
| # | Name | Title | Fed | Rating | G | B-Year |
| 7 | Xiong, Jeffery | g | USA | 2691 | 8 | 2000 |
| 8 | Niemann, Hans Moke | g | USA | 2688 | 27 | 2003 |
| 9 | Sevian, Samuel | g | USA | 2684 | 8 | 2000 |
| 10 | Oparin, Grigoriy | g | USA | 2683 | 9 | 1997 |
| 11 | Robson, Ray | g | USA | 2682 | 3 | 1994 |
| 12 | Kamsky, Gata | g | USA | 2655 | 8 | 1974 |
| 13 | Swiercz, Dariusz | g | USA | 2652 | 0 | 1994 |
| 14 | Onischuk, Alexander | g | USA | 2640 | 0 | 1975 |
| 15 | Liang, Awonder | g | USA | 2625 | 6 | 2003 |
| 16 | Bruzon Batista, Lazaro | g | USA | 2623 | 0 | 1982 |
| 16 | Zherebukh, Yaroslav | g | USA | 2623 | 0 | 1993 |
| 18 | Akopian, Vladimir | g | USA | 2620 | 17 | 1971 |
| 19 | Naroditsky, Daniel | g | USA | 2617 | 3 | 1995 |
| 20 | Gareyev, Timur | g | USA | 2597 | 9 | 1988 |
| 21 | Akobian, Varuzhan | g | USA | 2591 | 9 | 1983 |
| 22 | Quesada Perez, Yuniesky | g | USA | 2583 | 0 | 1984 |
| 23 | Christiansen, Larry | g | USA | 2577 | 0 | 1956 |
| 24 | Burke, John M | g | USA | 2575 | 17 | 2001 |
| 25 | Lenderman, Aleksandr | g | USA | 2572 | 14 | 1989 |
| 26 | Ramirez, Alejandro | g | USA | 2561 | 0 | 1988 |
| 27 | Mishra, Abhimanyu | g | USA | 2553 | 9 | 2009 |
| 27 | Holt, Conrad | g | USA | 2553 | 0 | 1993 |
| 29 | Yoo, Christopher Woojin | g | USA | 2550 | 8 | 2006 |
| 30 | Kaidanov, Gregory | g | USA | 2548 | 8 | 1959 |
Imagine a scenario in which many of those players suddenly are playing an 11-round event in which they are fighting for three spots in the US Championship. There would be two of these events as there would be two semifinals feeding into the final.
How much stronger could the US get if we were doing this? The cost to do this is not nominal, but assuming that the Saint Louis Chess Club, by way of the Sinquefields, were willing to pick up the tab, I think we come out much stronger as a chess nation within just a few years.
Food for thought.
Til Next Time,
Chris Wainscott