Maxime Vachier LaGrave (MVL) may well be the strongest human chess player ever to visit Connecticut. He is the World Blitz champion and top 10 in classical time control. Here are a few games against World Champion Magnus Carlsen to whet your appetite: https://lichess.org/
He is coming courtesy of DIG Chess, the fantastic youth chess program based in Bridgeport. I am forwarding the latest announcement they have put out on the remarkable 3-day chess event.
Good Morning Everyone,
The Bridgeport Open Featuring MVL is less than a week away! I've attached a few pictures of the auditorium where MVL will be.
First, MVL will teach a lesson relative to the rating section for an hour. Then, the twenty players playing in the simul for that section will go on the stage to play MVL.
For each section, we will have a tripod camera set up to view the board of the top-rated player in the section. The tripod will broadcast the game live onto the big projector screen at the back of the stage so that people in the stands can watch the top-rated player in the section play his or her match against MVL.
For the Sunday Blitz Tournament consisting of the top two players from each section and MVL, we will have the tripod set up to view each of MVL's games so that people can watch them live on the big projector screen. If you don't qualify for the Blitz tournament on Sunday, you can stay to watch MVL's matches from the stands of the auditorium. It will be free to watch the blitz tournament in the stands. The person who finishes with the most points other than MVL in the blitz tournament will win $1,000 so it will be exciting! Who knows, maybe someone can beat MVL who is the current World Blitz Champion! You never know!
The tournament will be in the newly renovated gym in the school. We will also have a skittles area in the cafeteria.
We are excited to bring a big chess event to Bridgeport. This will hopefully inspire more people in Bridgeport to play chess. We have youth chess programs going at the Bridgeport Library, St Ann's K-8 School, Roosevelt K-8 School, Curial K-8 School, Central High School, Kolbe High School, and many other locations. We have developed players like Sebastian who are finding success in chess. Five to ten years from now, Bridgeport will rival other chess cities like St Louis and NYC!
