Anand during simul, Photo Tim Hanks & Chris Roberts
Metropolitan Chess, Inc. is a Los Angeles based chess organization that was founded due to a lack of master level events in the greater Los Angeles area -- a gap we wanted to fill.
We wanted to do something outside of the box that would really inspire our chess community, so inviting World Champion Viswanathan Anand to our camp was a natural fit.
Anand, with his family, arrived in Los Angeles in early August. Prior to his camp commitments he stayed at Terranea Resort, one of Los Angeles' premier 5-star resorts, courtesy of Metropolitan Chess, Inc. for the purpose of a vacation and to allow him and his family to take in the sights that Los Angeles has to offer.
Photo courtesy Terranea Resort
Then a week later he began his camp commitments, from August 9th to 13th, along with another 8 instructors, to the over 100 youth participants that had flocked to Los Angeles, some from afar, to meet the World Champion at the 2012 Metropolitan Chess Camp. The rating group of players ranged from as young as 5 years old and UNR to as high rated as 2400.
Some of his instructional sessions with GM Anand -- split over a morning and evening session -- lasted over 5 hours per day.
GM Robert Hess, one of the other senior instructors at the camp, gave a video interview of the impression of attendees with GM Anand:
Robert Hess Interview from Metropolitan Chess on Vimeo.
On the last day of the camp, Anand played some of the top performing participants at the camp in a 20-board simultaneous exhibition. The simul was somewhat unusual in that it had several 2300 FIDE rated players partaking, and an additional 'vote chess' board which allowed the online audience to participate. The end result was 15 wins and 5 draws for the Indian Grandmaster. USCF Expert Nicky Korba, USCF Expert Karthik Ramachandran, USCF Master Elliott Neff, USCF Master Michael Brown, and the "Vote Chess" board held Anand to a draw.This simul concluded the 5-day camp with World Champion Viswanathan Anand, whom Metropolitan Chess, Inc. is looking forward to again hosting in a future year.
It is the goal of Metropolitan Chess, Inc. to promote and support the game of chess through community outreach and local, national, and international partnerships. Visit the group's website at www.metrochessla.com for more information.