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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
| May-14-09 | | Shams: More power to him, mixing it up-- the only issue is the inclusion of such an outlier is destabilizing in a Swiss System. Still, as Riverbeast said he hasn't been a complete pushover. |
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| May-15-09 | | ILikeFruits: who is...
this wonderful...
person... |
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| May-15-09 | | Jim Bartle: This is pretty cruel toward Lawton, but the inclusion of a local player serves another purpose. It emphasizes to the local community of players how superior the players in the US championship are. There are probably players around St. Louis who think Joe over at this club, or Charles at so-and-so club, are as good as some of the competitors in the championship. After all, it's pretty easy to follow GM games afterward and say "that wasn't so hard." I've fallen into that trap. Lawton is showing (so far) how good these players are. |
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| May-15-09 | | euripides: C Lawton vs M Khachiyan, 2009 is an excellent fight where the ending is not obvious until the very end. |
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| May-15-09 | | SetNoEscapeOn: <There are probably players around St. Louis who think Joe over at this club, or Charles at so-and-so club, are as good as some of the competitors in the championship.> What? Nobody thinks that.
It is true that he is outmatched, but I just discovered something curious. I checked out his rating history on http://main.uschess.org/component/o... (for whatever reason, they are not using the player id in the url so you have to do the search yourself). Apparently, Mr. Lawton has not really been actively playing standard chess since 1990 (!). On that basis alone, his inclusion is extremely odd. After a 17 year layoff, a rating might as well be considered provisional. And nobody is going to go from playing local blitz events to beating competitors in the US Championship. |
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| May-15-09 | | hedgeh0g: Might as well include Ricky from down the pub and me mate Archie as part of the line-up... |
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| May-15-09 | | SetNoEscapeOn: <Shams: More power to him, mixing it up-- the only issue is the inclusion of such an outlier is destabilizing in a Swiss System. Still, as Riverbeast said he hasn't been a complete pushover.> It certainly can happen in other situation, but I don't think Lawton's inclusion has upset the integrity of this tournament. With nine rounds and only 24 players, all of the top guys are going to play each other. It's just been brutal tournament for Lawton. Usually when you lose a few games in a swiss you get to play people around your rating (if not lower). I guess he did do that with Eckhert and Hughes, but lost to both. The brutality is that then,with a dismal 0-5 score, he got paired with... Boris Gulko. |
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| May-18-09 | | Raisin Death Ray: Oh, I TOTALLY see why he deserved a spot in the US Championship with such an awesome display of chessic abilities that we saw in St. Louis! |
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| May-18-09 | | Udit Narayan: Going by his games, it doesn't seem as if his rating is any more than 1900. Disappointing score, but I wouldn't mind getting that score in the US Championship. |
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| May-19-09 | | Jim Bartle: Let's give him another half point for that first game. So what would his performance rating be for 1.5/9? |
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| May-19-09 | | whatthefat: <Jim Bartle>
Well, there are different ways of calculating these things, but using this USCF calculator: http://main.uschess.org/content/vie... His 1/9 corresponds to a performance of about 2069. If he'd managed 1.5/9, that'd be a performance of about 2158. |
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| May-19-09 | | Jim Bartle: Thank you very much, ---. Oops, better spell that out: I appreciate that, whatthefat. (I put in the blanks because cg censored my abbreviation of whatthefat.) |
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| May-19-09 | | whatthefat: <Jim Bartle>
Hah, no worries. My fault by way of my choice of username I suppose. CG doesn't stand for anything offensive perchance? :) |
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| May-21-09 | | crawfb5: I actually know Charles. I used to go to tournaments with him back in the 1970s when he was in the Navy. He doesn't get to play much these days because of work, and may have gotten a wildcard spot because he lives in St. Louis. Even if you play more often, it's going to be an uphill fight as a "mere" 2300 player against a GM-heavy field. |
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| May-21-09 | | MaxxLange: yeah, the organizers gave a wildcard spot to a local hero I'm sure Mr. Lawton would fix my wagon in no time at chess - it's fascinating and also scary to me to contemplate the levels of chess, where an FM strength player, who is better at chess than almost anyone a normal person can even imagine, out of practice, has no chance in this field at all |
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| May-21-09 | | MaxxLange: By the way, I think they were right to do it. It connects the 2009 tournament with the populist history of the US Champs, creates media interest in St. Louis, and recognizes them for the great job they did hosting to give them a wild card pick. |
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| Jun-02-09 | | myschkin: . . .
"The king of chess in St. Louis":
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne... (by By Joe Holleman)
* Interview with NM Charles Lawton (audio):
http://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/20... (by Daaim Shabazz ) |
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Jun-02-09
 | | sisyphus: Nice feature article. Too bad we don't have access to the score of the game it refers to: <He played in local tournaments and was at his peak in 1990, when he competed in the U.S. Open in Las Vegas. There, he scored his greatest victory: A draw — against Gata Kamsky.... "He knew, and everyone knew, he was lost in that game," Lawton said. "I offered him a draw, and he quickly took it."> |
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| Jun-02-09 | | Riverbeast: I hate to say it, but I don't think Lawton's words match his actions. He said in this article, <Every chess player is driven by ego and thinks they can win any match against any opponent," Lawton said. "If you don't believe in yourself, why should anyone else> But then he talks about how he offered a draw in a winning position against Kamsky....And as it turned out, he offered a draw in a much better (if not winning) position against Krush in the last round of the US Championships. I don't know the full story behind these games...Maybe time trouble was involved? If time trouble was not involved though, those are not quite the actions of someone who really "thinks he can win any match against any opponent" |
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| Jun-02-09 | | myschkin: . . .
"Lawton’s odd loss" (2009)
https://webcast.chessclub.com/blog/... |
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| Jun-02-09 | | Riverbeast: Maybe Lawton offered the draw in the winning position against Krush because he was in time pressure, and the situation with Sevillano was still hanging on his mind...I don't know. Anyway, I thought overall he played reasonably well in the majority of his games, and probably gained some great experience. Those of you who say he was 'too weak' to be included in the field don't remember that until just recently, there were lower rated players than him in the US Championships...One year I think they had a 1600 player....Now that's the REAL travesty |
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| Aug-08-09 | | Knight13: <One year I think they had a 1600 player....Now that's the REAL travesty> And which one is that? And how the hell does a 1600 get in US Chess Championship? He went 5-0 against 2200+ opposition and proved himself to be super underrated? |
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Aug-08-09
 | | Phony Benoni: I think the 1600 player referred to was Kelly Cottrell. There are several pages of kibitzing on her page which give the background to the situation; this one seems a good place to start: Kelly Cottrell |
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| Jan-06-11 | | Benzol: The puns could be ripe here. "Mr Christian", "The Bells" and "Hobson's Choice" easily spring to mind. Alfred Hitchcock once said of Charles Laughton 'You can't direct a Laughton picture. The best you can hope for is to referee'. |
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Nov-12-23
 | | Knighthawkmiller: Charles, hoping you can play in the next US Armed Forces Championship (veterans section) in 2024, Columbus Weekend, will probably be at Annapolis. I was fortunate this year to place 2nd and drew C Unruh (1st) in round 1. It is $0 EF and is an amazing tournament. Mike Miller (USMC) |
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