(tense music) - Welcome to our penultimate episode of "Today in Chess" in 2024.

I'm your host, Sharon Carpenter.

October was a big month in American chess, with the nation's top players descending on St. Louis for the US Championship and US Women's Championship.

Let's take a look back at the incredible action.

(tense music) - [Narrator] Winning streaks and tight finishes were the story of the 2024 US Chess Championships, in the chess capital of America, St. Louis, Missouri.

With stacked fields in both the Women's and Open sections, with eight past champions totaling 26 combined titles, anything could happen.

The event starts off decisive in the Women's section with wins from six different players over the first two rounds, while the Open section saw only one win from Sam Sevian in round two.

Reigning champion Fabiano Caruana picked up his first win in round three, while Carissa Yip continued her winning ways, starting off a perfect three for three in the Women's section.

Round four provided some fireworks, as players wanted to prove something before the first rest day.

Fabi would come away with a second straight win and Carissa Yip proved her winning ways were no fluke with a win over Irina Krush with the black pieces.

With Caruana on a bye round after the rest day, that gave players an opportunity to catch the rating favorite in the standings.

With Awonder Liang and Hans Neimann ending the day tied with Caruana in first place.

While it was a fully decisive round in the Women's section, the spotlight stayed with Carissa Yip recording her fifth straight win.

Fabi would return in round six with a win to bring him back into sole possession of first place.

And once again, Carissa Yip continued to stun her opponents and recorded win number six.

Yip would go into rest day number two with sole first place, and a perfect eight wins after eight rounds, only three wins away from the historic $64,000 Fischer Bonus Prize.

Unfortunately her streak had reached its end, losing in round nine to Megan Lee and Anna Zatonskih in round 10 before easily clinching the title with a draw in the final round to clinch her second straight title, and third in the last four years.

Fabiano Caruana was able to draw his remaining five games, winning his third straight title and fourth overall.

The US Championships are never short of incredible storylines, and this year's did not disappoint.

(exciting music) - [Narrator 1] The penultimate event of the year didn't disappoint.

Chess 9LX came with upsets and strong performances from some of the world's best, including four-time US Champion Fabiano Caruana.

Five-time US Champion Hikaru Nakamura, and former world chess champion, Garry Kasparov.

The crazy positions couldn't stop those three as all came away with a round one victory to start off the first day.

Caruana and Nakamura continued their success with victories in round two, while Kasparov struggled with the black pieces and lost to Wesley So.

It was an early match of the unbeatens going into the final round of the day, with Caruana and Nakamura going head to head.

At the end of day one, Fabi got the win being a perfect three for three, and in sole possession of first place going into day two.

Fabi maintained the top spot throughout day two, with two draws and a win in round five against Wesley So.

But his lead was narrow, as Nakamura bounced back from his loss against Fabi with two wins to start the day, and ending only half a point back from first.

The final day was a two horse race throughout.

Nakamura got a huge win in round seven after Fabi drew in order to pull into a tie for first, with just two rounds to go.

Hikaru Nakamura tried everything he could to pull out a win against Grigoriy Oparin, but was unable to do so in a 166-move marathon of a draw.

Fabi had taken matters into his own hands, and won his final two games in order to claim the Chess 9LX title with an impressive seven and a half out of nine score.

Back rank position didn't matter as Caruana continued his impressive form and looks to close out 2024 on a high note.

(exciting music) - [Narrator 2] When we go back to review the 2014 Sinquefield Cup and Fabiano Caruana's amazing performance, it's important to point out that going in, this was the highest-rated tournament in history, where the average rating was 2802.

All the great players were there.

FIDE rated one, two, three, five, eight and nine in the world.

In the first round of 10 rounds in this double round-robin, Fabi did away with the formidable Veselin Topalov.

Fabi, with the black pieces.

In the second round, Caruana with white would conquer the Frenchman, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

The much anticipated third round paired World Champion Magnus Carlsen with Fabi.

Fabi would play with black and would outplay Magnus.

Fabi was now three in a row, and he would continue like that for four more rounds, putting away Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura, Veselin Topalov again, MVL again, until finally, in the eighth round, Magnus was able to stop the runaway train with a draw.

The final scores were staggering.

Caruana would win the Sinquefield Cup with a score of 8.5 out of a possible 10.

In chess terms, that's a 3098 performance rating, the highest in elite chess history.

His performance has been compared to the one and only Bobby Fischer's 1970 to 1971 streak, when Bobby won 20 games in a row.

The other Sinquefield Cup players were complimentary.

"Fantastico," Hikaru said.

MVL called him "ruthless."

And as for Magnus, as only Magnus can, called it "depressing."

2014 was a warning to the chess world from Fabiano Caruana.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

(bright music) - If you could only play Fischer Random or regular chess, which one would you choose, and why?

- Maybe Fischer Random, actually.

I know that sounds strange, but I think I'd enjoy something different.

After playing chess for so long, just regular chess.

But I'd really like to play both.

I wouldn't like to have to choose, but if you gimme a choice, maybe I'd pick Fischer Random.

10 years ago, I might give you a different answer.

- Fischer Random any day.

'Cause it's 960 times more fun than regular chess.

So a simple explanation.

- If I could convert the whole world to Fischer Random, it would be Fischer Random.

But I would not only play Fischer Random while the regular world is playing classical.

I would still stick with classical then.

- I think now I would pick Fischer Random, because I already had my time with chess.

And 960 is such an interesting game that, I mean, there's a lot to learn and it would be like playing, I mean learning chess all over again.

So that's why I would pick that.

- I don't have much choice now because playing regular chess requires very thorough preparation and I don't have time.

For me, playing chess these days is kind of a vacation.

So that's why 960 offers me just a little chance to face strong opposition and not being overwhelmed at the opening stage.

- I would probably choose classical chess because I spent so much time of my life on it.

It's also opening preparation and stuff.

But at the same time, I can clearly see advantages of Fischer Random and getting new positions, basically from the start of the game is very nice.

- Well, Fischer Random, of course.

I think Fischer has a point.

Actually he said 30 years ago that chess already dying.

Because that's not the whole point of the game.

I think the whole point of the game is logical thinking that you play better than your opponent.

It's about creativity and it's all just as hard.

(upbeat music) - While the chess board is the face of chess, the pieces are what really bring the game to life.

We caught up with Nicole Tessmer at the World Chess Hall of Fame to go over the history of some unique sets.

(gentle music) - This historically significant set was commissioned by the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in the mid 1970s.

Unfortunately due to the impending Iranian Revolution, he was unable to receive the set.

He ruled from 1941 through 1979, when he was disposed and had to head to Egypt for exile.

This set was created by artist Rita Ewing.

She primarily worked in paintings and jewelry using the lost wax technique.

This set is definitely created out of that lost wax technique, as you can see from the very detailed pieces here.

The first step in creating a lost wax technique sculpture is to create a wax mold.

You want to do this by putting as much detail as possible into the wax sculpture.

Once that is finished, you provide a mold around the wax sculpture.

Once the wax has set, it will be melted out.

In its place, you can pour a hot molten liquid such as metal or glass.

These were made from sterling silver, 28 grams to be exact.

This process allows for intricate details to come through.

The mold itself can be used several times, as you can see in the exact replicas of all of the pawns, as well as in the bishops, the knights, the rooks, the kings, and the queens.

This set is sculpted in a medieval style.

It has peridot, turquoise and amethyst jewels adorning it.

It would've been an excellent addition to the Shah's royal collection if he was not disposed of during the Iranian Revolution.

One interesting tidbit about copyright for this set was through a quick Facebook search.

Her grandson had posted that he was looking for artwork made by his grandmother to add more to his own collection.

He had no idea that she had actually created a chess set, and was very surprised to learn about this beautiful set she created.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) - The following ending of king and two bishops are actually one of my favorites.

The idea in this ending is the inferior side.

The king must be driven to the corner square.

Any corner square will do, but the only way to checkmate the black king is in the corner.

At this exact moment, take a look at the kings.

They are in opposition.

When you have the bishop, you put your bishop on D4 in this case and take a look at black's king.

It must retreat.

The king steps backward.

There's no choice because the bishop controls the diagonal from D4 to A7 and from D4 to H8.

The king steps up the board.

Again, black's king does not want to be driven in the corner, so black king tries its best to stay in the center.

Once again, bishop E5, take a look at black's king.

Where can it go?

It's gotta step back.

So imagine that the king steps back, in this case to the square D7, and again, white's king steps up the board and controls the three squares between the two kings.

Black's king does not want to move to the corner, and so plays king E7.

Now you bring your other bishop into play.

In this case, bishop F1 to D3.

So what we're trying to do is force the king into the corner, either the H8 or the A8 square.

Let's take a look at what would happen next.

Now, we've already seen that in case of king D7, we've planned bishop to D6.

So let's imagine in this case, king F7.

Aha.

Now look at this bishop on E5 controlling those squares.

F6, G7, H8.

This bishop controlling the squares G6, H7, the king working in combination with the two bishops steps up, king D6.

What can black do?

The king has to step backwards to F8.

The king moves over to E6, the king steps to E8, the bishop to F6.

You see how we're driving the king willy-nilly into the corner?

King F8.

Now this is an important moment.

You want to keep the king confined to this corner so you don't want it to escape to E8.

Play bishop B5.

King G8.

And now we swing the king.

Imagine king to F7.

We just make a pass.

Go back with your king.

King has to go back.

King G6, king G8.

And now we pause.

We want the king in the corner, but we patrol that square with the F6 bishop.

So we move our bishop to E7.

The king has to go into the corner, which is where we want it, and now it's checkmate in three moves.

We pause with our bishop, king G8, check.

King H8, bishop F6.

Check mate.

Practice this ending.

You'll understand how the three pieces, the two bishops and the king have to coordinate together to checkmate the weaker king.

Have fun.

(grand upbeat music) (gentle music) - Sometimes one person can make all the difference.

And sometimes the lowly chess board can become the strongest piece on the board.

My guest with me is Eric Nager, who is the chess coach of Bayside Academy.

Welcome, Eric.

- Thank you for having me today, Jovi.

- Yes, tell me about your chess career.

- Yes, tell me about your chess career.

- Well, my chess career, I played a little bit in high school, and then I got away from the game.

And years later, when I moved back to my childhood home, I wondered if that chess league was still going on, a Scholastic Chess League.

And I found out that it was.

My nephews were going to a school called Bayside Academy.

Small school.

And I wanted to know, I asked the administrators if there was interest in having a chess team, and they said, "Yes.

We don't know how to play, why don't you take it?"

So they just kind of gave it to me.

A very, very auspicious start.

And I thought, we'll have some laughs.

We'll win a few, lose a few.

I didn't have any expectations because we're a small school, we're starting our program from scratch.

We didn't have a lot of experienced players.

But we had a lot of success right away.

First year, we were second in our league, and second in the state, and the second year, we won a State Championship.

So that told me that more was possible.

- And how did that happen?

Because it's a big progression, right?

To be from a small school with a few players who aren't that experienced, and suddenly you take them all the way up to national levels.

- Right, we did.

In our fifth year, we won a national title on our first try.

So how did we do it?

I mean, the players, they were smart, they were willing to work.

We had great support from the parents, we had great support from the administration.

Kind of a perfect storm of support, really.

And I thought that my job as a coach, get the obstacles out of the way so the players could just perform, just worry about chess and play chess.

And they did better than I even imagined.

- And talking about better than you ever imagined.

You were also saying that it wasn't just national level.

You actually played a tournament in Russia.

- We did.

We went to Russia as part of a Chess for Peace program in the mid-2000s.

Anatoly Karpov, the former World Champion, had put this together, and Susan Polgar accompanied us over there.

There were 26 students from the United States, and five of them were from Bayside Academy.

And we played students from these Russian clubs and they had to give us younger opponents to make it a fair fight.

But all the US players won at least one game in international competition, so that was really a thrill to go over there.

- That's absolutely incredible because Bayside Academy, it's from a small town in Alabama, right?

- [Eric] That's right.

- And to find themselves on international stage is wonderful.

- A lot of people don't think about Alabama as a chess state.

When people think about Alabama, they might think about success with college football here in the United States.

Don't think of us as a chess power, but we kinda changed that perception, I think, because not only did we win the one national title, but we went back and had consistent success on the national stage after that with different casts of players.

And these are time controls that are very difficult to simulate.

The games are so much longer at nationals.

But it's more than that too.

It's talking about chess as an educational tool in the classroom.

It's talking about the need for more girls to play chess and scholastic play here in the United States.

Only about one in 10 players are girls.

So we need more girls playing to participate in the STEM fields, we think.

- Yes.

And you mentioned that chess should be an education.

- Yes.

- As well.

Do you feel that it should be actually incorporated into the school curriculums?

- I really do, because you look at a tournament board, which is gridded, A through H, and one through eight.

And when players write down their moves, they're plotting coordinates on a grid, which is applied algebra.

So there's real, tangible, immediate benefits and learning tools there the kids don't even realize.

And so if that were introduced, if all students were introduced, then I think more girls would play competitively and have the educational benefits of that.

They'd stay with math and science subjects longer in school.

- And of course, let's not forget, the more girls that are playing, the more social connections, the better it is for absolutely everyone.

And on that inspirational note, Eric, I'd like to thank you for joining me here.

- Thank you, Jovi.

(upbeat music) - The chess world is full of extraordinary and fascinating anecdotes.

One of the most extreme examples that I've ever seen was performed by a man by the name of George Koltanowski.

(upbeat music) George Koltanowski was an author and a columnist.

He was also the US Chess Federation President, now called the Dean of American Chess.

George Koltanowski did an extraordinary thing called the Knight's Tour, which he performed blindfolded.

Let me explain to you what the Knight's Tour is.

(upbeat music) I'm standing in front of the World Chess Hall of Fame on their own unique battlefield.

Each and every square of this chessboard has a unique name for the square.

I've removed all the pawns and the pieces, retaining but a lone knight.

What George Koltanowski did in his exhibitions, is he asked his audience to name each and every square.

Somebody could call out purple, somebody could call out their own telephone number.

Another person might say King Henry VIII, and so forth and so on, until every square had a unique address.

George Koltanowski would study the board, become blindfolded, and he would start his exhibition.

And what he did is extraordinary.

Let me tell you more about it.

(upbeat music) George Koltanowski would thrill his audiences with two additions that he made to the Knight's Tour.

After getting each and every square individually named, he would ask the audience to black out a square.

A square where the knight would not move.

So if you think about it, he might have memorized one unique pattern.

By blocking out a square, for example, the D5 square, that pattern is erased.

Then he would handicap himself further, and say, "Okay, put my knight on the square that you want me to start at.

You want me to start at Tyler?

Very good."

He would look at the board, see the board, and then make it blindfold so that he couldn't see it, but the audience could.

And he would say to the audience, "What I'd like to do is I want to move from Tyler to United.

From United to 2063025.

From 2063025, I would like to move to the Statue of Liberty.

And he did this from one square to another to another, always correctly saying the name of the square.

And the audience was thrilled.

It was amazing.

I've never seen it before.

I've never seen it since.

(gentle music) - Some chess sets and boards are notable because of their connections to famous players, people who changed the game.

Or famous chess events like a World Chess Championship.

Others like this one are beautiful works of art.

This set, which was made by Hungarian artists, who we don't know, but who came from a jewelry-making tradition, is something that would've been made for display as a work of art, rather than as a chess set that you would play with on an everyday basis.

You can see that if you look at the imagery and the rich materials it's made from.

On each corner there are amethyst, pearls and jade.

There's a lot of other details, it's a feast for the eyes.

You can see that the artist added brilliant color to it through the enamel work on each piece, as well as on the sides of the board.

And some places it adds subtle detail.

There are swirls of decoration on the fabric of the capes of each piece.

But there's also a symbol of what chess is, a game of war on each side.

There are these views of warring armies crashing into each other, which kind of allow you to imagine each of these chess pieces, the pawns, who are these advancing soldiers going across the board, or the knights, which are figures on horseback, riding across the board to confront each other.

(gentle music) Each piece also has elaborate decoration.

On the bases, there are some floral-inspired decoration, as well as on each shield.

And the artists carry that decoration through to the framing around each scene of battle.

You can also see that they have these little flower decorations on their chests, and those decorations are repeated on each side of the board.

(gentle music) Pieces like this show that chess has inspired artists for centuries, and this is a perfect melding of art and the game of chess.

(gentle music) - Here in St. Louis, we have a tremendous amount of opportunity to watch and learn about chess.

As the game continues its ascent into popular culture, we encourage you to get involved.

From all of us here, at "Today in Chess," we thank you for watching and we'll see you next time.

- [Narrator 3] This has been a presentation of the St. Louis Chess Club.

Any reproduction or distribution of this content without the express written consent of the St. Louis Chess Club is prohibited.