U.S. Championships underway

The U.S. Chess Championships began yesterday in St. Louis. There are sixteen players in the men's tournament and eight in the women's; last year's women's champion Irina Krush declined her automatic invitation to the men's tournament and chose instead to defend her title. Unfortunately for her, she was upset in the first round by Sabina Foisor, but there's a lot of chess still to play and anything can happen. On the men's side, most of the first-round games were drawn, with only Grandmasters Ben Finegold and Alexander Shabalov falling, to GM Alexander Onischuk and GM Larry Christiansen, respectively.

Closer to home, the New Hampshire Quick Chess Championship was contested earlier in the month, but I was unfortunately unable to attend. I would have liked to play, but the tournament just didn't fit into my schedule. I did get to play in the Vermont Resort Open in Fairlee, VT last month, and even though I suffered a last-round defeat at the hands of FIDE Master Nelson Castaneda which dropped me out of the prize money, I still had a great time. Hopefully I'll play in another tournament soon!

The NBA playoffs begin today, although I have a feeling my interest will soon wane once the Knicks are annihilated by the Celtics. I know that Sun Tzu would disapprove of my attitude, and I also know that the Knicks have shown flashes of brilliance this season during which they can beat any team, but I fear their inconsistency will match up poorly against the Celtics' experience. Though that experience (read, age) will catch up to them as they, in turn, fall to a surprisingly talented Bulls team. And despite the preponderance of individual stars in the East, I'm predicting another Western Conference NBA champion this year. There, I said it.

In other news, the Internet has been ablaze with the story of Kevin Na, the PGA golfer who required sixteen strokes to finish a par-4 hole on Thursday. You have to admire the man's persistence, though. I usually call it quits on a mini-golf hole after eight shots.