Sneaky: I know this guy!!! I met him at a chess park in Miami where he hustled me out of a few bucks. I used to be real good friends with him now he's moved to Baltimore so I haven't seen him in years.Kenny is a MONSTER at blitz chess. He can beat anybody anytime if he's in the right form. If he played Nakamura I would put money on Kenny if I got some fair odds. I'm serious, he's THAT good. OTB he's a strong master, but at blitz chess he is a freaking MACHINE. Seeing him convert a pawn-up rook ending with only 5 seconds left on his clock is truly a thing of beauty.
If you play through his games, keep slapping the "next" button as fast as you can when it's Kenny's move, and then you'll get the flavor for how his games are really played. He doesn't think on his time, he thinks on his opponent's time.
He's the only blitz player that I've ever met who can play using those old Quartz clocks (the black blocky ones USCF used to sell) and slap the button so quickly that it doesn't register any time at all. (You see, the way they used to make the clocks, if less than one second has elapsed then your clock stands perfectly still.) He used that trick to beat me in a few games where he had 15 seconds to my 5 minutes. At the end of the game my king was checkmated and he still had the same 15 seconds he started with.
But he's not really a chess hustler -- after emptying my pockets at chess (only a few bucks), he took his winnings and bought a six-pack of beer which he was then kind enough to share with me. Then we went back to play more chess. The start of a great friendship.
By the way, I happen to know that he is friends with Alberto and Daniel as well, which explains why CG might have bent their standards a little bit when including his games. But if you knew Kenny like I know Kenny, you'd admit he deserves a page too.
Kibitzing
