Chess without borders

Grandmasters check out eager chess players
January 17, 2008
By TONY GONZALEZ Contributor

Despite a visa complication which kept former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov from appearing at Rose Elementary School in South Barrington, nearly 60 area chess players challenged three other grandmasters at the school Friday.

Young and old alike gathered for the “simul,” a chess game in which the grandmasters — Alexander Onischuk, Susan Polgar and Yuri Shulman — rotated around the room as a team, playing simultaneously against nearly all the challengers.

Speaking before the games, Polgar regretted Karpov’s travel snafu, but reminded attendees of the rare circumstances.

“You still have three grandmasters here,” Polgar said to laughs and applause. “Usually you’re lucky if you get one.”

Polgar, a multi-time women’s world champion and the first woman to qualify for the men’s world championship, appeared on short notice in place of Karpov and left again midway through the game to fly back to Texas, where she coaches the Texas Tech University chess team.

Polgar fielded questions from attendees before moving along the chess board-filled tables to shake hands and sign autographs with the eager players.

Then the grandmasters took on the room.

Polgar and Onischuk sidestepped around the room taking silent turns while Shulman moved his pieces with dashing strokes while joking with and advising players — many whom learn in Shulman’s Barrington-based chess school and the Chess Without Borders program.

“You just hold on as long as you can,” said Barrington-area dad Jay Eiring, who sat planning moves between his sons Kevin, 13, and Konrad, 11, who also took on the masters.

“Oh my gosh, here she comes,” Jay said, pausing his piece-tapping to watch Polgar capture two pawns in a row from neighboring boards.

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