Interview with Alan Kaufman (founder and CEO of Michigan Chess Festival LLC)

Is this your first time organizing such a large scale tournament? And what prompted you to do this?

Alan: Yes this is my first time putting together a large tournament. To be precise, I created a company, Michigan Chess Festival LLC, and it is that company which is organizing the tournament. Of course, I'm doing the work. I want to bring large scale tournaments to Michigan so that we can grow the interest in the game locally as well as providing tough competition for our young rising stars without them having to travel very far and without their parents having to spend something like $1,000 for them to travel to Chicago or Philadelphia or wherever the next large national tournament is being held.

What are your hopes in terms of player turn out?

Alan: I'm hoping for around 150 players.

You have chosen the Dearborn Hyatt Regency as the venue for the tournament, what made you decide on that particular location?

Alan: Several reasons, first I have a fondness for Metro Detroit from all of the years I have lived here so I wanted MCFLLC to host its first major tournament in Metro Detroit. Secondly, I wanted the hotel that hosted the event to be union represented. My grandfather was a member of one of the unions that merged to form the Union representing the workers at the Hyatt Regency Dearborn, and much of my career I dealt with unions so it was important to me. Third, the Hyatt Regency Dearborn has a "chess history," including having been the site of a US Open during the 1990s. Finally, while I was in the process of negotiating the "deal" at the Hyatt, some hotel workers came up to me and talked chess. Turns out several of the waitstaff at the restaurants are avid chess players, and they even organize informal tournaments among the staff. They were very excited about the tournament. How cool is that!

It's my understanding that this is a FIDE rated event as well as a USCF rated event is that correct?

Alan: That is correct

How were you able to get it FIDE rated?

Alan: The FIDE/USCF parameters are quite clear on this. You need a FIDE approved tournament director, you have to advertise it as a FIDE rated event, you have to adhere to FIDE approved time controls, and pay the appropriate fees.

Do you think we should have more FIDE rated events in Michigan?

Alan: Absolutely. We have some very strong players in this state that could easily attain FIDE titles if they were given the opportunity. Atulya Shetty, Epiphany Peters, John Brooks, and James Canty (to name a few) all are strong enough to have FIDE titles. I think most of us believe that Seth Homa will be an International Master soon. If we can bring larger scale events, like the International Chess Festival to Michigan, then ultimately my goal is to run Normed events down the road.

Do you have GM's, WGM's, or IM's that have committed to play already?

Alan: Yes Carlos Matamoros the strong Ecuadoran GM has committed to play, as well as his counterpart IM/WGM Martha Fierro. Paloma Gutierrez the WIM from Spain is also on our committed roster at the moment. Unofficially Ben Finegold has committed to play as well, but he has not made that commitment to myself, rather to a colleague of mine. I hope to be able to nail down Ben's commitment in the next few days.

Thats a pretty star studded line up already, and the tournament is still pretty far off! Can you tell us a little bit more about these GM's and WGM's...what have been some of their major chess accomplishments thus far?

Alan: Well GM Carlos Matamoros just recently won the Forni di Sopra Chess Open which was held in the Italian Alps June 12-18th. He took clear first with 7 out of 9, finishing ahead of such strong players as former Soviet Champ Mikhail Gurevich, and GMs Korneev and Hoyos. The open section in this tournament was really strong, in fact the top 20 players in the open section were all IM's or GM's. Carlos has represented Ecuador many times at Chess Olympiads, mostly on first board. Also, immediately after the Beijing Olympics (2008), there was a "Brain Games" competition. Carlos and Martha won the Gold Medal in mixed pairs speed chess. Going in, they were ranked 11th. This was a tremendous accomplishment, the Ecuadoran press exulted that it was the greatest triumph in the history of Ecuadoran chess.

WGM Martha Fierro is also from Ecuador, and I'm a really big fan of her games. She was the National Womens' Champion for Ecuador from 1992-2002, and she took silver medals at the 1996 Chess Olympiad, and more recently at the Dresden Olympiad in 2008, playing first board for Ecuador. Many MCA members know Martha from her two prior visits to Michigan. She visited and played chess in Detroit, Warren, Ann Arbor, Lansing, and Battle Creek. So, she's very well-known in Michigan.

WGM Paloma Gutierrez played 3rd board for the Spanish team in the 2004 Chess Olympiad at Calvia, and she has won numerous titles in Spain.

GM Ben Finegold doesn’t need much of an intro. As you know Ben grew up in Michigan and spent much of his life here. We were sad to see him go to St Louis, but he is doing great things there.

Will you entertain the idea of having sponsors for the event?

Alan: Yes I am currently speaking to a few different corporate sponsors at the moment

If you could pick one GM that you would absolutely love to play in this tournament who would it be?

I would love it if the U.S. womens chess champion Anna Zatonskih played in the event.