2002-09-29 - 11:57 p.m.

Fifty Vs. One

He came, he saw, he conquered.

Today, grandmaster Joel Benjamin played a simultaneous exhibition against fifty local players, and he kicked our collective asses. The final score was 48 wins for Benjamin, and two draws for us. Nobody actually beat him, but one of the drawn game was clearly winning for our side at a couple of points.

For those of you who have never been to a chess exhibition, I'll describe the scene to you.

In a rather large room we made a square out of 13 eight-foot tables, and we sat 50 chairs around the outside. That meant that most of the tables had four people sitting at them, which was a bit of a tight fit, but it turned out okay.

Basically what happens is the grandmaster moves around the inside of the square, moving at one board at a time. When the exhibitor gets to your board you have to make a move or "pass." Each player is allowed only three passes during the entire course of the game. You can only move while the grandmaster is standing in front of your board.

Before the exhibition started GM Benjamin fielded some questions from the audience. One of the most obvious ones was: "What is your rating?"

As it turns out GM Benjamin's U.S. rating is 2682, which makes him about 3rd on the rating list. His international (FIDE) rating is 2606, which puts him around #85 for the entire world. Not too shabby.

He also spoke about something that we'd discussed the night before, but his remarks seemed much more cogent, maybe because he was addressing some of the younger players in the audience.

Right now, he said, is the best time to be a kid playing chess. There are a fantastic number of programs for young players at all levels, and there was nothing like that when he (and I) was growing up.

On the other hand, this is one of the worst times to be a kid with a talent for chess because there are almost no programs to nurture someone who has a real gift for the game. In fact, GM Benjamin quoted a couple of sobering statistics to back up his point. He mentioned a long list of players who were promising young stars in the late 1980s and early 1990s who have all given up chess as a career. In 2000 GM Benjamin played in his 21st consecutive U.S. Championship. While this makes him sound like a grizzled veteran, he was, at 36, the third-youngest player at the event. Nearly all of America's strong players are in their late 30s, or older.

When we were talking last night I called this the "Soccerization" of chess. Organized chess is becoming a game for kids only. While it's good that scholastic chess is making such great strides, part of that progress is at the expense of chess for older players.

Shortly after that the games began, and GM Benjamin began making his circuits around the room. On average, it took him about five or six minutes to make a move on all 50 boards. To my surprise, he actually did what he threatened to do last night - he opened with 1.e4 on every board.

I sat with the rest of the players from the Frown Town Chess Club, and along the row where we were sitting five out of the seven boards opened with the French Defense (1.e4 e6). We really didn't plan to play the same opening, but I've been playing the French for years and doing well with it, so others in the club have taken it up too. He played something different against each one of us, so we couldn't get anything by looking at each others' boards.

At my board he played an Exchange Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5) which I really wasn't that happy to see. He played the variation most likely to mix things up (4.c4) and unfortunately I misplayed it, and he wound up winning a pawn pretty early on and I got no compensation for it. I had a miserable game, and he just spent the next three hours grinding me down. At no time did I have any real chance, even for a draw.

I took some consolation from the fact that nobody else seemed to be doing that well against him. In fact, the first resignation happened just 50 minutes into the exhibition, when a luckless fellow from Massachusetts played the following:

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.Bc4 c5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.0-0 e6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nxd4?! (Dubious. Already white is better.) 9.Qxd4 Qc5?? (Loses immediately) 10.Bb5+ Qxb5 (Black can't block the check with 10...Bd7 because of 11.Qxd7, mate.) 11.Nxb5 and black resigned.

Thereafter it was a process of attrition as the players got knocked off, one by one. As the exhibition entered its third hour, the amateurs started dropping like flies. As Phil, the organizer, said to me: "Positions are crumbling all over the room."

There were a couple of bright spots, though. Ten-year-old Andrew, our local wunderkind seemed to be holding his own against the grandmaster. Veteran player Lee was two pawns up, but his position looked dicey. However, Bobby, a guy in his early 20s, had a very promising position. I've talked about him before here and here. In the second entry, he's the guy who drew me in the Frown Town Championship preliminaries.

My own position was pretty hopeless, but I wanted to keep playing on until I was truly lost, to keep the GM occupied so the other players with better positions would have a chance. However, as the number of players decreased, Benjamin's circuits of the room got quicker and quicker.

When he won a second pawn from me, I knew the end was near, and a few moves later I resigned. There were only about six other people playing at that point. Most of the other players I thought were doing okay had all lost. Lee had succumbed to a whirlwind attack and little Andrew was getting crushed like a python. I had hoped that Andrew's tiny size would cause Benjamin to not take him seriously, but the grandmaster knew exactly who Andrew was, and treated him accordingly. The little guy never had a chance for any counterplay, but squishing him took a while - he was about the fourth to last person to resign.

On the far side of the room, Scott, who has always been a problem opponent for me seemed to be surviving in his game as well, with a little luck it looked like he could draw.

Finally there were only two games left, Bobby and Scott. Even though Bobby was a pawn up, his game was a draw, while Scott, a pawn down, managed to draw his game, too.

Overall, I have to say that the exhibition was a rousing success. While I was a little disappointed that we didn't get more spectators, the organizers managed to fill all fifty boards, and got plenty of media coverage as well.

Even while GM Benjamin was merciless in mowing down his opposition, he seemed to be having a good time as well. At one corner of the room there were a bunch of kids from the same school, most of them seemed to be about 10 years old. They were talking in stage whispers to each other throughout most of the exhibition. At one point, I happened to be standing behind them while GM Benjamin was making a pass through that part of the room. When he made a move on one board the kid's eyes bugged out and he gasped: "Holy Shit!" Plainly the grandmaster had made a move the kid hadn't anticipated.

Benjamin looked up at me and said: "He needs to work on his poker face a bit more."