Chess Nuts: North America's top chess players converge on Las Vegas

One of the nation's top chess players lives in Las Vegas. But he won't be among the more than 500 participants competing in the last major American chess tournament of the year, being played this week at Bally's.

"I will show up and watch a couple of days," 47-year-old Stephen Barbre said. "I like to kibbutz."

Players from across the country will compete for a share of $100,000 in prize money during the 10th annual North American Open, sponsored by the Continental Chess Association (CCA).

The tournament, which began today, runs through Friday. Participants range from those who are not rated by the U.S. Chess Federation (USCF) to grand masters, who have ratings of 2,400 points and above. Six grand masters are expected to compete.

"We have seven levels of play," Brenda Goichberg, corporate secretary for CCA, explained. "The Open Division is for professionals. Those with ratings of 2,200 and under are for those who play for a hobby."

Meanwhile those ranked between 2,200 and 2,400 are considered masters.

Barbre began playing chess when he was about 13 years old and living in a small town in southern New Mexico.

An electronics technician at the U.S. Postal Service's main Las Vegas station on Sunset Road, he has a tournament rating of 2,200. But he has a rating of 2,430 in correspondence chess (played against opponents via mail and the Internet) and is ranked No. 7 in the country by USCF.

Chess through the mail is almost as old as the mail service itself. The Correspondence Chess League of America was formally organized in 1909 but has been conducting postal chess tournaments since 1897.

Barbre began playing almost exclusively by correspondence in the early 1980s. He prefers the near-anonymity of facing an opponent by mail to sitting across from him or her at a chessboard. He said many players are "obsessed with chess," which makes them a little "off-center."

"I don't take the game so serious that it is obsessive," he said. 'Almost all the opponents I play, we will talk back and forth on every card (we mail). We ask how each other is doing, that sort of thing."

Playing in direct competition is more stressful than correspondence chess, which tends to be played at a more leisurely pace. Barbre said some of his long-distance games may take months, even years. His longest game lasted 2 1/2 years.

Once Barbre receives a card in the mail (or an e-mail message) with his opponent's move, he might take an hour or two making his own move. "I may take notes and stuff, do some research."

One of the main attractions of correspondence chess is that it can be played at his own pace. "I can do it when I have time," said Barbre, who spends about 10 hours a week playing chess.

Currently he has games going with 12 opponents in other states (nine e-mail games and three games through post cards).

Barbre used to play as many as 25 games at the same time, but then he got married and had children and became less interested in chess. Fanatics, he said, may play 50 or more games at once.

There are rules that help speed up the correspondence game. The first 10 moves must take place within 30 days. After that the time becomes more flexible. Since the average game might take 60 moves, games can drag on.

Correspondence chess moved even slower on the international level before the Internet came along. Games now often are played online.

"It could take two months or longer just to get a card from behind the Iron Curtain," before the Soviet Union dissolved in the 90s, Barbre said.

But e-mail has made delivery almost instantaneous. "The Internet has brought a lot more (correspondence) players into the game," he said. "Until a couple of years ago, international postal chess wasn't going anywhere. It took too long."

Too fanatical?

When Barbe first started playing he aspired to be a grand master, the highest ranking for a chess player.

"When I was 19 I went to a couple of tournaments and changed my mind," he said.

Barbe discovered that many players become so obsessed with the game they "focus on only one thing" and become so introverted 'there's not much personality there."

Many, especially young players, are temperamental. "If you beat them, they get very upset," Barbre said.

He won't encourage his daughters, ages 1 and 3, to play the game because he doesn't want them to become obsessed with it. He will answer his daughters' questions and talk about the game with them,"but I hope they don't play," he said.

Anyone who hopes to become a grand master, Barbre said, needs to learn the basics by age 10, and then spend four to six hours a day, six days a week for 10 years learning such chess maneuvers as the openings and end games.

There are almost an infinite number of possible moves in a game, "but most of them are (strategically) bad," Barbre said.

Grand masters who play in tournaments carry most of the best moves in their head. Correspondence players, however, are allowed to use reference material.

"There are hundreds of reference books just on openings," Barbre said. 'We can do our homework."

Next move

Barbre said he has been ranked at or near No. 7 by the chess federation for almost five years. His status doesn't change much. "For me to advance to the next level would require a divorce."

He said he would have to devote almost all of his time to chess and to ignore his family something he isn't willing to do.

Barbe said he plays the game just for pleasure and isn't interested in winning a lot of money in tournaments. "I've won a total of about $2,000."

He went to one tournament in California in 1988 and has played in a couple in Las Vegas. He mostly goes to the events to watch the grand masters, but sometimes he does play.

"During a tournament a grand master may take on 30 challengers at once, and sometimes I have been one of the 30," he said. "I have three wins and three draws (ties) against grand masters."

Barbre said Las Vegas is an average chess-playing city. The game is popular here among a small segment of the population, but the enthusiasm is not like it is in the nation's chess centers Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

"Las Vegas is on a par with other cities its size," he said.

Dan Conver is a local chess fan who teaches the game after hours at Meadows School in northwest Las Vegas and often helps out at tournaments. He will on hand for the tournament at Bally's.

"This is one of the biggest tournaments in the country," Conver said.

CCA hosts many tournaments year-round. Its five biggest each with $100,000 in prize money include the current Las Vegas event, the Foxwood Open (held in Ledyard, Conn., in April), the Chicago Open (May), the World Open (in Philadelphia in June) and the Continental Open (in Los Angeles in July).

Conver is especially fond of tournaments for children and works at most of the local ones.

CCA, which has been around for more than 35 years, originated several tournaments for students in grades kindergarten through the 12. The Nevada state championship was held here in Las Vegas last year. About 200 children participated.

Conver said interest in chess among students seems to be increasing, thanks in part to electronic chess games. However, interest among adults seems to be decreasing, possibly because of time constraints.

For those with busy schedules there is "five-minute chess," a match played in five minutes from start to finish. It is a favorite with Conver, a busy retiree. "It's all I have time for."

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