It was a busy week in the world of chess, as the U.S Championships were winding down and the Norway Chess tournament had many of the world's top players in action as well. As I mentioned last week, Irina Krush won the U.S. Women's title outright, but the overall Championship was down to a playoff between perennial contender Gata Kamsky and the surprising Alejandro Ramirez. The playoff consisted of two rapid games, and Kamsky had the better of the play in both instances. But after being unable to reach a winning position with the white pieces, Kamsky was then surprised to see Ramirez find a stalemate tactic that allowed him to once again escape with a draw in the second rapid game, meaning we still didn't have a winner.

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Heading into the U.S. Women's Championship, almost everyone was certain that the competition would come down to a two-horse race between Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih. In the end, those two did end up 1-2 in the standings, though a third player -- Tatev Abrahamyan -- proved to be an important part of the mix as well. Krush hadn't truly sealed up her victory until she scored a decisive win over Abrahamyan in the 8th round, which -- combined with her earlier victory over Zatonskih -- put her virtually out of reach. A safe draw in the 9th and final round brought Krush's score to 8/9, which was enough to hold off Zatonskih by a half-point.

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The United States Chess Championships are underway, and after three rounds of play, Gata Kamsky leads with a perfect 3/3 score. Perhaps more surprising than Kamsky's success (he's the clear favorite with Hikaru Nakamura not participating this year) are the two players tied for second place with 2.5 points each: GM Conrad Holt and FM John Daniel Bryant, both of whom are near the bottom of the ratings list for the 24 player field. Nearly as unlikely is the trio of players currently tied for last with 0.5 points: grandmasters Alexander Ivanov, Ray Robson and Marc Tyler Arnold. Of course, with six rounds remaining, there's still plenty of time for the standings to change, and Kamsky has a long way to go before he can dream of winning the $64,000 bonus -- known as the Fischer prize -- for a perfect 9/9 score.

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There was a bit of a whirlwind series of events this week related to exactly where the next World Chess Championship match would be held. For weeks now, it had been assumed that Chennai, India would host the match, as they announced that FIDE had awarded them the hosting duties for the contest between World Champion Viswanathan Anand and his Norwegian challenger, Magnus Carlsen. This was perceived as a small advantage for the reigning champion, who grew up in Chennai.

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As I wrote about last week, there were two very important tournaments taking place simultaneously in different locations. First, there was the prestigious Alekhine Memorial in St. Petersburg, which was a tightly contested affair throughout. In the end, a score of +2 was enough to get you a share of first place, as both Levon Aronian and Boris Gelfand finished on 5.5/9 scores, just ahead of World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Aronian had the best tiebreaks, and thus became the official winner. Aronian's result was enough to give himself a tiny ratings boost -- just over one point -- which, combined with a disappointing even score from Kramnik, secured Aronian's hold on the #2 position in the world rankings.

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It's hard to really impress the chess-conscious public these days. Simuls are fun, but any strong club player can tell you that playing any number of games can be trivial if you're much stronger than your competition. Similarly, blindfold play might look impressive, but grandmasters used to do it all the time at the Melody Amber tournament, and any reasonably strong player can learn to play blindfolded without too much trouble.

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It was a relatively quiet month on the site, but if you weren't watching closely, you might have missed a couple new articles go up. For instance, I've added an article on the Top Five Chess Books for Intermediate Improvement, which I hope will be the first in a series of lists that will help players find the books that are right for their needs. Also, I added an article on Advanced Chess, a form of the game in which humans and computers work together.

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Here's a problem that chess fans rarely have to deal with: which of two elite tournaments to watch? It's certainly a good problem to have, as both the Alekhine Memorial and the Zug Grand Prix are being contested right now, and both events feature some of the world's top players in action.

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Just a quick post alerting you to a half-hour long interview with Magnus Carlsen that was conducted by Charlie Rose. For those unfamiliar with him, Rose is a prominent interviewer who has hosted his own show on PBS (the public broadcasting network in the United States) for the last two decades. It's a talk about his upcoming match with Anand, his career, and the world of chess. It's definitely worth a listen, and you can check it out at this link.

Fresh off his victory in the Candidates Tournament, Magnus Carlsen was profiled this week in the New York Times. It's an interesting read, as it looks more at Carlsen's efforts to make himself marketable as an individual outside of the chess world -- something he's been rather successful at so far, and which should make the World Championship something of a spectacle later this year (even if Viswanthan Anand isn't as popular worldwide, he does have India behind him -- a cheering section of more than a billion people). I particularly liked this quote from Peter Svidler on why Carlsen is more marketable than him:

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