By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
Holding off a battalion of younger challengers, a pair of well-seasoned veterans secured the top places on the chess leaderboard at the 40th World Open, which wrapped up Sunday at its traditional home in Philadelphia.
Texas GM Alejandro Ramirez and surprising Maryland IM Tegshsuren Enkhbat shared the lead entering the final turn in the Continental Class Championships, held over Columbus Day weekend in Arlington. The nine-round event, one of the strongest on the area's chess calendar, concluded too late Monday night for the results to be included in this column.
New York IM Yury Lapshun weathered a hurricane and navigated a shoal-filled, upset-laden Atlantic Open to take the city's biggest summer tournament on tiebreaks over Virginia expert Eric Most on Sunday, played despite the elements at the event's traditional site, the Westin Washington Hotel downtown. Lapshun and Most were the only two undefeated players in the Open section, drawing their final-round game to finish at 4 1/2- 1/2, a half-point ahead of veteran Connecticut GM Sergey Kudrin.
New York GM Gata Kamsky, the reigning national champion, was the first through to this year's U.S. Championship final, defeating young challenger GM-elect Sam Shankland 1 1/2- 1/2 in their semifinal match over the weekend at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis.
For some reason, the dog days of summer are among the busiest on the international chess calendar. Take a week off, and the news can really pile up:
GM Nikita Vitiugov notched a fine win for the Russian squad at classical time controls with a kingside attack against strong young Chinese GM Ding Liren, an attack that Shabalov would be proud to claim as one of his own.
