Issue of the Lake Superior Chess Association WoodPusher July / August, 2001 Back

International Chess Master to present exhibition in Sault
By KENN FILKINS

SAULT STE. MARIE - The highest-rated chess player ever from Michigan, International Chess Master Ben Finegold, of Plymouth, is coming to the Sault this August. He will present a simultaneous chess exhibition by playing nearly 40 local participants all at one time on Aug. 17 at 6:30 p.m. The "simul" as the chess world calls such exhibitions, will be held in the Oasis Room at the Kewadin Convention Center, and will the kickoff for the U.P.'s largest and longest running chess tournament. The 30-year-old tournament was held in the Sault for the first time last year, after a long history in the western U.P.

Formerly called the U.P. Open, The Kewadin Open and 30th Annual U.P. Chess Championship will be Aug. 18 and 19 in the same location and feature $2,300 in cash prizes plus trophies. Last year the tournament drew a record 53 participants from all over the U.P., lower Michigan, Ontario, Wisconsin, Illinois and New York. This year 60-plus players are expected to attend to challenge for the Kewadin Open Chess Championship. The highest scorer in the five-round, two-day event will win the Kewadin Open and the highest scoring U.P. resident will win the trophy for the 30th U.P. Chess Championship. Trophies will be award to the Kewadin Open champion, sponsored by the Kewadin, the top U.P. player, the top U.P. junior player, the top unrated player, and the player who wins the greatest upset.

The EUP will be well represented again this year by Rob Roos, of the Sault, and Jim Sawaski, of Newberry, who tied with Ken Ceterski, of Iron Mountain, for the 2000 U.P. Championship. The top U.P. Junior was Sault High student Brandon Caruso.

With the upsurge in elementary school players this last school year, many of the local students will get their first chance to meet and play against an International Master (IM), when Finegold and his 10-year-old son, Spencer, arrive in August.

Finegold, rated at over 2630, is the highest rated Michigan born and raised chess player ever and he is the world's second highest rated "blitz" chess player (at 2802) according to the World Blitz Chess Assoication. Only former world champion GM Gary Kasparov has a higher blitz rating. Blitz chess is a timed chess match where each player has only five minutes to complete the entire game.

"I don't know why I am good at bullet (blitz chess)..." Finegold said recently. "I guess it's because I see tactics quickly and have fast hands."

His fast hands will help him in the simul when he faces 40 players at once on 40 different boards.

Last December, Finegold won the Michigan Action Championship by going undefeated. Spencer tied for second with a Master player and an Expert player and only had one loss in the six round event. Seemingly following in his father's footsteps, Spencer has won over 50 trophies in scholastic and adult events.

To the 31 year old, Finegold playing chess came naturally as his father, rated as a chess Expert, taught him chess at five-years-old. Soon afterward Finegold, won the six-year-old section of the Michigan Junior Championship. That was just the beginning of his chess career which blossomed over the next 15 years.

"I was a fine student, but my grades went down in (Oak Park) High School slightly due to all my chess playing. My dad, brother and I played in tournaments all the time. ..." Finegold recalled. "I would guess we played 150 USCF (United States Chess Federation) rated games a year. "My dad drove me to tournaments for 12 years. And we played speed chess often at home." All the practice paid off when Finegold became a USCF rated Master at age 14, a Life Master at 15, a Senior Master at 16 then became an International Master at age 20. In 1989 he was co-champion of the U.S. Junior Championship. Finegold beat two chess Grandmasters Arthur Bisguier and Miguel Quinteros, when he was only 16 years old.

In 1993-94 he won the prized Samford Fellowship, which goes to the "most talented American chess player under age 26" awarded by the Chess-In-Schools Foundation. Under the scholarship Finegold chose to study with GM Gregory Kaidanov of Kentucky and played in many strong chess events in the U.S. and Europe, including such places as Iceland, England, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Holland, Germany and Czechoslovakia.

His favorite game was a victory against Dutch IM Geert Jan De Boer, in which Finegold sacrificed a rook and won the game some 22 moves later after running De Boer's king all over the board. That game won the "brilliancy prize" in the Wijk ann Zee chess festival in Holland.

Finegold is the General Manager of Chess Express, Inc. of Ann Arbor which sells chess equipment and organizes tournaments. He is also a chess teacher who instructs at week-long camps and a chess author. His first book, The Finegold Defence, co-authored with Life Master Bob Ciaffone of Saginaw, was published in 2000.

Besides chess, Finegold enjoys bridge, poker, blackjack, tennis, basketball and watching films, and he is excited to return to the U.P.

"I like casinos, and I like going to the Upper Peninsula. I have had three great times up north and hope to have another," Finegold said. "I also like the driving conditions which are much easier than in the Detroit area."

Those interested in playing in the Finegold simul should contact the Sault Chess League at 635-7406 or through e-mail at kenn@filkins.com. The cost is $5 each for players under 16 and $10 for adults and the public is invited to attend.

Photo courtesy of Michigan Chess Magazine

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Created by LSCA Editor: Ken Ceterski