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Had an impressively awesome time at the SPICE CUP and wanted to share. The field had 14 star youth players and it was an intense joy watching the upsets unfold and seeing grandmasters get taken down and watching them hurt their heads (I think it was even more of a pleasure because I remember how hard it has been for me over the years playing countless strong juniors). Kayden Troff, Sam Sevian, Jeffrey Xiong, Ruifeng Liu, Akshat Chandri, Sarah Chiang amongst others were taking upsets and the grandmasters were not having it their usual smooth way. Lovely! My tournament play was incredibly stressful and I hurt my head by the combination of tough games and partying every evening. I also blundered before the event. How so? I went to visit my almost 90 yr old mother for Thanksgiving on Monday and she insisted on making Thanksgiving dinner for me and that I should stay the night. I knew however that she goes to bed awful early and that I would have to get up awful early to start my journey to St Louis. So I left after the meal and ended up taking a 2am shuttle to Detroit airport and got very little sleep before, during, and after. So I was still not recovered at breakfast on Wednesday morning. However my day soon changed dramatically and became magical. I was sitting in the hotel restaurant unshaven and unshowered, keeping my head down, having my first breakfast in 48 hours and really enjoying it when a voice interrrupted: Hello sir how are you doing? I looked up and a gentleman very dapper in a full business suit with a silk handkerchief in the breast pocket shook my hand and said: Hi Im Pete Zes the owner of the hotel and continue to chat for almost a half hour! Several stories later I was the one who brought it to an end! WoW! Apparently he is 86 yrs old and looks 60 and acts 40ish - razor sharp mind and loves what he does. He even told me he has relatives in TO and I should look them up! Now Ive stayed in hundreds of hotels in my time but have never met an owner before! What promotion - but its not just promotion - he could have done that in less than a minute - this was a genuine friendly welcome from an amazing character! Needless to say I will promote his hotel any time I can. To be continued.....
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
So.... the hotel is the Crowne Plaza and it is in Clayton (pop. about 16000) For those of you that dont know St.Louis well it consists of more than 100 municipalities all with their own unique charms. (ok,ok East St. Louis is basically a ghetto and very depressed and there are other nasty areas) However on the whole St Louis is a wonderful area to get to know - many attractions and once you break the ice very friendly. The Crowne Plaza was a very classy hotel, heritage decor, old wood finely polished, classy pictures on the walls but modern touches where they were needed. Grand piano in the foyer, concierge wearing top hat and tails, music playing continually in the lobby - sounded like a mechanical piano with show tunes from the 40's and 50's. Service was way beyond excellent. When I first got to my room I received a call from the desk asking if every thing was ok and how could they help? Service staff was always friendly, helpful and prompt. I carried a bunch of one dollar bills in my pocket - small tips go a long way. The complimentary breakfast each day was a lavish buffet on which you could load up for two meals and on top of that they had a sous chef who would make you choice of fresh omelettes, pancakes, any kind of egg base, all free of charge. Awesome! Complimentary coffee (excellent quality) in the lobby until mid afternoon. Even the hotel shuttle service obliged when I arranged transport (free of charge!) in advance to the St Louis club 5 miles away in the Central West End. (I did that 4 times!) Clayton itself was full of interesting places. The local Walgreens (like our Shoppers Drug Mart but much bigger - far more variety) had Sam Adams Oktoberfest Lager on sale (cant get it here in Canada) and I helped myself. There was a lovely Jewish deli so I had smoked sardines for a treat - goes very well with Sams. On Thursday I had a craving for ice cream and discovered an old fashioned drug store soda fountain from the 30's or 40's still operating the old equipment (called Oh Pie! Oh My! - stupidest name Ive ever heard) but for some reason they stopped serving ice cream at 3pm. Fortunately the upscale bar next door served fantastic ice cream even tho I was definitely their most under dressed customer. The next day I went back despite the stupid name and service because I wanted an old fashioned banana split and it sure was good. They were bizarre people but very friendly. They had an initiation trick for new customers. The owner had a stuffed toy monkey and her helper stood at the other end of the soda fountain and held up a ring the size of a hula hoop that had sparkling lights all around it and blew thru it with liquid fire coming from her mouth. The idea was they both would mutter some gibberish and the owner would toss the flying monkey thru the hoop from about 50 feet away and if it missed the actual hoop and didnt catch fire then you were lucky. I guess I was lucky. The soda fountain shoppe also had bizarre gifts and they hooked me. I ended up buying a kazoo, a jaw harp, and some weird harmonica as gifts for my granddaughter just to help drive my son crazy. To be continued.... -
Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
On the Wednesday after meeting the owner of the hotel the rest of the day was magical. In the afternoon between rounds I went to the St Louis Club and enquired who the grandmaster in residence was. Was it Yasser? No, unfortunately Yasser has gone back to Europe until February. Irina Krush is here for a week and she is doing lectures tonight. Good, even better. I played a quick second round, jumped in the shuttle and arrived towards the end of Irina's intermediate lecture. As a teacher it was nice to see how it was presented to intermediate students (mainly B and C category) and how it naturally evolved and continued into a lecture for advanced students. Her major theme which she saved until the end of the advanced lecture was the initiative - the quest to take it, your duty as a player to grab the initiative when you can, and the challenges doing so. Her method was to present interesting positions and ask questions. One was a position where there was a bizarre forcing line which sacked the queen. Irina asked how many people here would do this. I was the only one but I prompted: Yes but Im crazy. She then asked me for my calculations and I saw it thru to the critical position but then I said now just ask me about normal positions. I wont be able to solve them. Her lecture so inspired me I produced the following game: Jung - Hendrickson, Spice Cup 2013, 1.Nc3 d5 2.e4 d4 3.Nce2 e5 4.Ng3 Be6 5.Bb5+ c6 6.Ba4 Nd7 7.Bb3 Nc5 8.Bxe6 Nxe6 9.Nf3 f6 10.0-0 Qd7 11.d3 0-0-0 12.a4 g6 13.Nd2 h5 14.Nc4 Ne7 15.Bd2 h4 16.Ne2 g5 17.Nc1 Nf4 18.Bb4 Neg6 19.Bxf8 Rdxf8 20.Nb3 b6 21.a5 b5 22.Nb6+ axb6 23.axb6 Kb8 24.Ra7 Qxa7 25.bxa7+ Ka8 26.Qa1 Rh7 27.Qa6 Rc7 28.Ra1 Rff7 29.Qb6 Rc8 30.Nc5 g4 31.Ra6 g3 32.fxg3 hxg3 33.hxg3 Nh5 34.Qa5 Rfc7 35.Rb6 Nf8 36.Rb8+ Rxb8 37.Qxc7 1-0 Afterwards I got what I call a grandmaster sandwich picture - me between two GM's and then a real treat - we went out for a late dinner and two GM's discussed war stories and I didnt even get stuck with the bill!Comment
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
Friday I needed to go for a walk and headed out east towards Forest Park along Forsyth Blvd. For those of you who dont know St Louis, Forsyth Blvd is Millionaires Row. Gated estates worth multi millions line both sides of the street, large sprawling mansions almost hidden by acres of trees along one stretch of about half a mile. Then past Washington University and many blocks of luxurious homes, a very pleasant walk of about 3 miles, and then Forest Park. St Louis planned well with this central jewel of a park. In 1900 a major chunk of land (about 3 miles by two miles) was set aside for the 1904 Worlds Fair and it is quite a showpiece. Several pavilions from the fair are still standing. There are lots of interesting sites to visit. An 18 hole golf course inhabits one corner of the park. One of the US's oldest and classiest zoo's inhabits another corner and I went to see that last time. This time I visited the art gallery. It is on the scale of a mini Versailles. Stunning. In front a statue of Louis emperor of France 30 ft high on a giant stallion stands guard over sloping lawns and spectatular lake sized fountains. In the art gallery what to see? Many rooms full of amazing treasures and dozens of security guards. Beautiful sculptures by Rodin, a couple of fabulous paintings of incredible scenes (incredible shades of light!) by Gainsborough caught my eye. Most spectacular were two incredible floor to ceiling (about 20 ft high and 12 ft wide) paintings by Robert, one called the Ruins of Tivoli and the other I dont recall (but some other amazing Roman ruins). So much in so little time. Back for more chess. After my evening round game I went back to the St Louis club and met Adam Eubanks, an interesting character that I met on Wednesday night. He had paid the bill for dinner and so I bought him a drink at a classy Scottish pub two doors down from the chess club. The place was in full swing (Friday night) Lots of gorgeous young couples, older musicians and artists, and other characters. We just sat in a corner, observed, listened and had a great conversation about writing over 20 yr old Scotch. Adam is a budding writer and I hope to read his book some day. Wordsmiths and writing craftmanship, gotta love it. A memorable evening coming off the high of a very nice chess game.Comment
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
Actually the St Louis Zoo is free entry on select days and the art gallery was free when I visited it! Two of the best bargains in the US to those that are interested!Comment
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
Keeping off-topic, the best US tourist bargains are the museums, monuments, and zoo in Washington, DC - all free, all the time! Likewise free is the Staten Island ferry in NYC - a scenic 20-minute ride each way with close-up views of the Statue of Liberty. The major NYC museums have "suggested" admission fees (you can state how much you want to pay when you buy your on-site ticket - average visitor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art pays $11 - suggested fee is $25).Comment
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
Sunday was my last day to enjoy St. Louis. The tournament had ended and I had the full day to explore. The day started off right when I joined Raja Panjwani and Leonid Gerzhoy for breakfast. Raja had endless anecdotes and information that kept us going for more than an hour. I left very impressed with this exceptional young mans talents and phenomenal potential future. No sense being envious. I never even came close to sniffing such possibilities. Good Luck and make good Raja! I headed out for another walk and ended up on the Metro Link and met FM Eric Rodriguez on the train platform. A delightful young man from Florida who makes his living as a coach and has ambitions for the IM title. I introduced him to Forest Park and we both ended up at the St Louis Chess Club. That afternoon was a gorgeous day and Eric wowed the locals with his speed chess abilities. I started out by observing the crowd in the busy cafe scene surrounding. There were lots of exotic pets waiting for treats at various tables and exotically dressed female company. Two elderly classy gentlemen were playing casual chess and both were indulging in endless cans of Guinness supplied by a large cooler at their feet. I came over and complimented them on their choice of drink and both introduced themselves to me. One was Charlie, a professor at Webster U, who makes it up to the club and sits outside for a session of casual chess (at least 5 games in a row) with good friends as often as twice a week in good weather. I then indulged in some speed myself and managed a record of 10-0 against two of the better young speed players there. (no they arent that bad I was incredibly lucky and I had a great time trash talking them. Imagine an old dinosaur giving them better than they could dish out. They loved it.) Jennifer Shahade and Irina Krush showed up and I was invited to go with them to see the exhibit "Queens" across the street at the World Chess Hall of Fame. They guided me thru and it was quite the treat. One full room was a display that put Alice in Wonderland to shame. An artist had introduced an eye popping fantasy where the scene was made up of at least 10,000 roses artfully put together in animal and human caricatures. The roses even looked real but they were behind glass so I couldnt tell. There were dozens of lavish outfits designed as queen statues for the game of chess larger than life - some 10 ft tall. A thought provoking display. Afterwards we went to the gift shop where I had to buy Jen's book: "Play Like a Girl" for my granddaughter and Jen herself put in some wonderful comments and Irina autographed her section. Then I got another couple of pictures in a grandmaster sandwich - me in the middle and Irina and Jen on both sides. Quite a memorable day.Comment
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
I really enjoyed reading about your St.Louis experience, thank you for sharing.University and Chess, a difficult mix.Comment
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
Hans, I'm just curious, do you play and / or follow poker at all? And if so, did you and Jennifer talk poker along with chess? She is a very avid poker player.Only the rushing is heard...
Onward flies the bird.Comment
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
I used to play poker a lot. (for about a six month stretch) but I dont follow it any more. Jen was mainly busy talking with Irina and she didnt know me that well, so to me not so much. Having said that she was very friendly.Comment
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
St. Louis seems to be forever in the news in a positive light. And those Canadian players who didn't start playing chess at the age of 4 or so can take heart in the story of Matt Larson who didn't start playing until the age of 12 and is already a master at the age of 16 (:
http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/...yalty-st-louisComment
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
Jennifer Shahade just won $43,300 (31st place out of 1031 entries) at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure poker tournament. First place is worth $1.8 million.Comment
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
St. Louis continues to be the new Mecca of North American chess.
http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/...cal-reputationComment
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
And the beat goes on!
http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/...s-chess-muscleComment
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Re: SPICE CUP and St Louis impressions
Another milestone quietly celebrated (at least Ive seen no direct press on it) - the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St Louis has gone over 1000 members.Comment
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