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Larry Kaufman Arrives for World Senior Print E-mail
By IM Larry Kaufman   
October 27, 2008
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IM Larry Kaufman, Photo Betsy Dynako from the 2008 U.S. Championship.
I'm here in Bad Zwischenahn, Germany for the World Senior Championship (October 28-November 11) , having won most of my expenses to play here when I won the US Senior. Despite the name, it's not a "bad" place at all, seems more like a resort town. Apparently people come to the facilities here to recover from various illnesses. I'm staying at a very small but very nice hotel. I stayed in Bonn a few days first to get over jet lag (still not accomplished) and to visit the "real" World Championship.

There are over 300 players registered for the tournament, including ten GMs (top rated is Mihail Suba). I may be the youngest player in the (men's) tournament (or nearly so), as you had to be at least sixty (fifty for the women) at the start of this year and I turned sixty just a few weeks before that. It's not often I can be the kid in a tournament these days! The winner gets an automatic GM title, so of course I will do my best to win, but being only around the 20th seed my chances are less than John McCain's right now! But my USCF rating is at a five year peak right now at 2445, so it's not completely hopeless. There are a few other Americans preregistered, of whom the best known (at least among the men) is probably Jude Acers. There are also some names from the past, like GM Wolfgang Uhlmann. At least Korchnoi isn't preregistered, then my chances would really be nil.

Visit the official website for more information, including a list of pre-registered players, and keep checking CLO for more German dispatches from Larry Kaufman.
 
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