A Special Simultaneous Exhibition at the Marshall

It is not every day that a chess player who is in the Top 50 in the world stops by the Marshall Chess Club. However, on Tuesday, May 22nd, many Marshall players were lucky to not only see but play against one. 30 challengers took on GM Arkadij Naiditsch in a simultaneous exhibition, which was an exciting, exclusive event for Marshall members. The grandmaster also autographed books and merchandise after the games.

Grandmaster Arkadij Naiditsch was born in the Soviet Union in 1985 and won the European Under-10 championship in 1995. He earned his grandmaster title in 1999 at quite a young age. He represented Latvia until 2015 when he switched his federation to Germany, also impressively winning the Dortmund Sparkassen that year. He became part of the “2700 club” in 2011 and achieved his peak in 2013. GM Arkadij Naiditsch was consistently rated 2700 in 2017 and only recently dropped below that. In 2015, he transferred to the Azerbaijani federation and moved to Baku with his family. Since he lives far from New York, it was a unique experience for Marshall members to play him.

In fact, it was quite a bit more exciting for a few of them, for three players emerged victorious- that is, with draws- at the simul. For almost any chess player, a draw against a just under 2700 opponent is impressive to begin with! One of those players was Expert Adia Onyango, self proclaimed “chess traveler,” who we profiled on the blog in the past.

To participate in events such as simultaneous exhibitions in the future, you can become a member of the Marshall Chess Club. Past events include Candidates Tournament Analysis, other GM simuls (GM Timur Gareyev and more), book lectures and signings, and much more. Other benefits include discounted tournament and event entries, casual visits to the club at any time while it is open, and voting for our Board Members.

Special thanks to IM Raven Sturt for the photos.