Grandmaster Gata Kamsky played in the Marshall Chess Club Tuesday
Night Masters Tournament two days ago.

This is the first time that Kamsky has played in a USCF rated
tournament in ten years!!!

Kamsky tied for first, defeating Grandmaster Blatny and scoring 3-1
against a field with an average rating of 2425. This gave him a
performancy rating of about 2625. This is a minor drop from his last
published rating of 2784 but it is a great result for a player who has
not played since his world championship match with Karpov, except for
his three game match with future world champion Khalifman in 1999.

As I reported on my website and at
http://www.samsloan.com/gatafide.htm Gata Kamsky was in law school
(not medical school) and was scheduled to graduate in May. He did not
want to be bothered with chess until then.

May has now passed and this undoubtedly explains why Kamsky is
suddenly playing.

Meanwhile, I have received several telephone calls from Roustam Kamsky
saying that Gata does not want to run for President of FIDE and I
should say that my previous report was a joke.

I will say however that from the e-mails I have received if Gata
Kamsky were really to run for President of FIDE he would be elected
overwhelmingly.

The cross-table of the tournament in which Gata Kamsky just played is
posted at http://www.newyorkmasters.com/xtables/xtable106.html

I hope that John Fernandez took his picture, because Gata looks vastly
different from the last time in which he played.

Sam Sloan

At 04:06 PM 6/17/2004 -0400, wrote:
Kamsky's return to serious play would be excellent news indeed. Thanks for
passing this on. Regards, John McCrary

I believe that Gata Kamsky really is back and that he will be playing
actively from now on. He has finished law school and he is a father.
He has time on his hands and he needs money. He can get more from
chess than anything else right now.

Here are a few questions:

1. Is he qualified to play on the US Olympiad Team assuming that he
plays six more games so as to meet the ten game activity requirement?

2. Is he qualified to play in the US Championship in December?

3. If he decides that he wants to play in the World Championship in
Libya, can he be qualified for that?

My view of Gata changed radically as a result of my meeting with him
and Roustam a few months ago. Before, it seemed like Gata was a quiet
kid who just mindlessly obeyed whatever his father told him to do.

I now believe that the true situation is the opposite. Roustam is
outgoing and loquacious. Gata is still quiet, but, Gata is the
ultimate boss. He tells his father what he wants and Roustam is merely
his spokesman.

Here are the four games, provided by John Fernandez. Thank you very
much, John Fernandez.

Sam Sloan


[Event "106th New York Masters"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date "2004.06.15"]
[Round "01"]
[White "Kamsky, Gata"]
[Black "Privman, Boris"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C11"]
[WhiteElo "2717"]
[BlackElo "2268"]

1.d4 e6 2.e4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 cxd4
8.Nxd4 Bc5 9.Qd2 Nxd4 10.Bxd4 Bxd4 11.Qxd4 Qb6 12.Qxb6 Nxb6
13.Nb5 Ke7 14.Kd2 Bd7 15.Nd4 Na4 16.Rb1 Nc5 17.Bd3 Nxd3 18.cxd3
f5 19.Ke3 h6 20.Rbg1 h5 21.Rc1 Rac8 22.Kf2 a6 23.Kg3 Bb5 24.Rxc8
Rxc8 25.Rd1 Ba4 26.b3 Be8 27.Kh4 a5 28.Kg5 Rc3 29.a4 Rc5 30.h3
Rc3 31.Rd2 b6 32.Rd1 Bf7 33.g3 Be8 34.g4 fxg4 35.hxg4 hxg4 36.f5
Bf7 37.Kxg4 exf5+ 38.Kxf5 Be6+ 39.Kf4 Rc8 40.Rg1 Rf8+ 41.Ke3 Bf7
42.Rxg7 Rg8 43.Nf5+ 1-0

[Event "106th New York Masters"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date "2004.06.15"]
[Round "02"]
[White "Scekic, Milos"]
[Black "Kamsky, Gata"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A07"]
[WhiteElo "2405"]
[BlackElo "2717"]

1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 c6 4.O-O Bg4 5.d3 e6 6.Nbd2 Nbd7 7.h3 Bh5
8.Qe1 Bd6 9.e4 Qc7 10.Nh2 g5 11.d4 dxe4 12.Nxe4 Nxe4 13.Qxe4 Nf6
14.Qe3 h6 15.c4 O-O-O 16.c5 Be7 17.b4 Nd5 18.Qa3 a6 19.Qb3 Bf6
20.Bb2 Bg6 21.a4 h5 22.b5 a5 23.Nf3 Nb4 24.Bc3 g4 25.hxg4 hxg4
26.Ne5 Bxe5 27.dxe5 Bc2 28.Qb2 f5 29.exf6 Qh7 30.Rfe1 Bd3 31.Re2
Nc2 32.bxc6 bxc6 33.Rb1 Qh2+ 34.Kf1 Ne3+ 35.fxe3 Qxg2+ 36.Kxg2
Be4+ 1/2-1/2

[Event "106th New York Masters"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date "2004.06.15"]
[Round "03"]
[White "Kamsky, Gata"]
[Black "Vovsha, Eli"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C44"]
[WhiteElo "2717"]
[BlackElo "2441"]

1.d4 d6 2.e4 Nf6 3.Bd3 e5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 g6 6.O-O Bg7 7.h3 O-O
8.Re1 Nh5 9.dxe5 dxe5 10.Bg5 Bf6 11.Be3 Nf4 12.Bf1 Qxd1 13.Rxd1
a6 14.Kh2 Be6 15.g3 Nh5 16.Nbd2 Be7 17.Ng5 Bxg5 18.Bxg5 f6 19.Be3
Rfd8 20.b4 Kf7 21.a4 Ng7 22.f4 Ne8 23.b5 axb5 24.axb5 exf4
25.gxf4 Na5 26.b6 Nc6 27.Rxa8 Rxa8 28.bxc7 Nxc7 29.Rb1 Nd8 30.Nc4
Ne8 31.Bb6 Nc6 32.Bc5 Nd8 33.Bd4 Ra4 34.Ne3 Nd6 35.Bd3 Ra2+
36.Kg3 Rd2 37.Rd1 Rxd1 38.Nxd1 f5 39.e5 Nc4 40.Nf2 Bd5 41.Be2 Ne6
42.h4 h6 43.Nd3 Nd2 44.Kf2 Ne4+ 45.Ke3 g5 46.hxg5 hxg5 47.fxg5
N4xg5 48.Bh5+ Ke7 49.Nf4 Nxf4 50.Kxf4 Ne6+ 1/2-1/2

[Event "106th New York Masters"]
[Site "New York"]
[Date "2004.06.15"]
[Round "04"]
[White "Kamsky, Gata"]
[Black "Blatny, Pavel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B00"]
[WhiteElo "2717"]
[BlackElo "2451"]

1.d4 b6 2.e4 Bb7 3.Bd3 Nf6 4.Qe2 Nc6 5.c3 e5 6.Nf3 d6 7.O-O Nd7
8.a4 a5 9.d5 Ne7 10.Bb5 h6 11.Nbd2 Ng6 12.b4 Be7 13.bxa5 Rxa5
14.Nc4 Ra7 15.Be3 O-O 16.a5 Nc5 17.Bxc5 Nf4 18.Qc2 bxc5 19.a6 Ba8
20.Na5 Qc8 21.g3 Nh3+ 22.Kh1 f5 23.Nc6 Bxc6 24.dxc6 f4 25.Qe2 Qg4
26.Bc4+ Kh7 27.Rab1 Rfa8 28.Ra1 Rf8 29.Qd1 Qh5 30.Be2 Qg6 31.Qd5
Rb8 32.Ra2 Rb6 33.Bc4 Qh5 34.Qg8+ 1-0