After Dallas I was heading to California. There was a tournament in Orange County. The 49th Annual American Open (the first tournament to become both an American Classic and Heritage event) drew an improved turnout of 263 players to the Doubletree in Orange, California over Thanksgiving weekend. The winter was harsh this year I was worried about my flight to LA, but California is called sunny state for a reason. Next to our hotel there was a big shopping center and because of Black Friday http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_%28shopping%29 it was crowded. I got the idea about Black Friday from “South Park”. It was not as violent as it looks on TV screen. I am not very big fan of shopping malls anyway, so I can not tell about the crazy discounts. The tournament had different schedule option as usual in US tournaments and to lower my expenses for the hotel room I choose to play the short schedule. First four games with shorter time control. So did other top players, so our tournament had a quite strong field. I managed to win a nice game against local international master Bryant and after three rounds myself and the tournament rating favorite Timur Gareev had perfect score. We met in round four. I had black pieces. I forced myself to play complicated Kings Indian defense and I got a good position. At the end of the game however I blundered in drawish position. Next day the two schedules emerged and I plaid against local LA grandmaster from Armenia Melikset Khachiyan. My opening was little shaky and suddenly I had lost position. Just before time trouble I succeeded to trick my opponent and then the draw become obvious. In evening game I won and still I had chance to catch up with Gareev. Next morning I had white against Mackenzie Molner and I needed badly to win. In one moment I went into slightly better endgame instead of trying to convert extra pawn in the middle game. To my surprise my opponent did not make any mistake in the endgame and draw was finally agreed. Because my opponent had half point more, it was obvious that this time I am out of big money. I still won my last game and shared third place. Khachiyan did not play his last game assuming that he does not have enough winning chances as black against Molner and he got a weak opponent instead. Gareev did not take any risk against Bryant, so he and Molner shared first place. The complete standing of the main tournament is here http://www.americanopen.org/main-standings
Its not easy to travel without a car in US especially in California. My flight from LA was next day and I was lucky that Eugene Yanayt who also played in the tournament took care of me. We drove from Orange County to Pasadena where he lives. Pasadena is famous for chess players because Bobby Fischer used to live there. It was late in the evening when we arrived and my flight was next day, so as usual for travelling chess player I can not say much about Pasadena. I believe its nice place as California in general. I was just surprised how close it was to the LA airport.
Next day I had flight to Las Vegas. Tournament winner Gareev was also heading to Vegas, so the very next tournament in Vegas I might have a chance to change the tables. In Vegas airport my friend Ronald Gross was meeting me in the airport and he took care of me few days before the tournament. I was very interested to here his stories about Bobby Fischer. Gross and Bobby went once in 1982 together to Mexico. The fishing trip with Bobby was published later in an interview to the chess writer for The Register of Orange County, an innocuous but informative piece about the fishing trip. Their relationship ended that summer, after Gross gave an interview. Little by little I start to see Bobby in light of all those stories and I might have an answer about some of his deeds. I hope to write some essay about Bobby later, now I just collecting some information about him from direct sources which is still available. The weather in Vegas was pleasant but very windy, Americans are famous to drive their cars and avoid to walk, so to get some physical activity we visited gym. Other activity included the movies. I usually avoid the cinemas, but because of my host I agreed to go.
In the eve of the tournament I gave double simul together with Gareev in the local chess club. It is run by Juan Jauregui who is originally from Cuba. He and his lovely wife are very supportive toward chess players. The club is in downtown and has a lots of space. http://www.vegaschessclub.com/ You can see that Ron Gross gave a lecture recently over there and its going to be on youtube soon. The December tournament was held not in the club but in convention center of Venice hotel. The reason was that it was part of Mind Games which had different other games beside chess. http://www.chess.com/blog/keche/mind-sports-las-vegas-december-7-8 This time I had black again against other tournament favorite Gareev and I played classical Queen’s gambit. Gareev did play till endgame, but I was accurate this time. Finally we managed defeating all others to tie for first place in the open section with 4.5 out of a possible 5 points. Timur won the first place medal on tie-breaks, but we shared the first and second place prize money equally. Our encounter is published here.
Las Vegas experience was pleasant one, because of friendly atmosphere provided by local chess club and their director Juan Jauregui.
Jaan Ehlvest
