Gata Kamsky Moves on to the Semi-Finals in World Cup 2007!

Chess fans around the country have started to chant: Kamsky!, Kamsky!, Kamsky! Ok, maybe they haven’t, but I have! Gata Kamsky just defeated his greatest challenge yet, Ruslan Ponomariov, to move on to the semi-finals where he will be facing Darth Vad… I mean Magnus Carlsen. Speaking of Magnus, my Cheparinov upset prediction over Carlsen was off the mark, but I couldn’t just go with all the favorites! Cheparinov is well known as Topalov’s second, so I figured he must have learned a thing or two from all that studying with a World Champion.. Oh well, atleast I’m 2/3 so far with the predictions!

Meanwhile, Shirov is just blowing opponents off the board. He is playing really ANGRY chess, one has to wonder if maybe he just had a colonoscopy or something. Whatever he’s doing, it’s defintely working as he is a force to be reckon with. No matter who wins the tiebreak match between Alekseev and Karjakin tomorrow, you have to figure that Shirov will be the favorite.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, 2006 Queen City Open Champion Josh Friedel just wrote a really great article for the US Chess Website about his recent trip to Europe. Jennifer Shahade seemed to leave most of Josh’s humor intact this time, as it’s filled with zinger after zinger. Speaking of the USCF Website, I can’t stand their new design with all the little numbers for each article. Many people have complained about it to USCF, but it seems that they spent too much money on their new design, therefore they are sticking with it!