By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
Top seeds GM Gata Kamsky and IM Irina Krush are setting the early pace at the U.S. men's and women's championships that got underway Friday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, with each posting three wins in their first three games.
'Tis the season to roll up the board, pack up the pieces and put some fresh batteries in the old chess clock: The 39th annual Eastern Open, a four-day extravaganza, kicks off Dec. 27 at its longtime home at the Westin Washington D.C. City Center hotel at 1400 M St. NW.
Mikhail Tal, the great Soviet world champion, rarely lacked the will or the inclination to mix it up, but the same thing cannot always be said of his elite peers.
Fifty years ago this fall, Bobby Fischer and the Soviets staged a stirring battle for supremacy in the small Yugoslav (now Slovenian) town of Bled.
He boasted a record and a resume as impressive as anyone who ever played the game, but it always seemed that three-time world champion Mikhail Botvinnik was more admired than loved by chess players around the world.
