12 THE JEWISH CHRONICLE AUGUST 23, 2007

Style
Checkmate ... and mate and mate and mate
Chess grand master takes on 24 opponents at Shaare Torah exhibition
BY TOBY TABACHNICK
Chronicle Correspondent
There are those children who, at the
tender age of 7, can say they play a mean
game of Shutes and Ladders. Then there
are those children who at the age of 7, or
9, or 11, can say they matched wits play-
ing chess against a grand master of the
game.
And not just any old grand master, but
four-time American champion, Alexan-
der Shabalov.
Shaare Torah Congregation hosted
Shabalov Sunday night for a “simultane-
ous exhibition,” in which Shabalov
played 24 games of chess at the same
time, two of them “blindfolded.”
Shabalov’s opponents included a Kol-
lel fellow, an optometrist, an accountant,
a graduate student and several children,
including one 7-year-old. Most of the
players were members of Shaare Torah.
The blindfolded games are a “circus
act,” according to Shabalov. Though
they are not that difficult, he said, they
are “impressive” for the audience. Al-
though Shabalov is not actually blind-
folded for these matches, the chess
board is completely hidden from his
view by a shield; Only his opponent can
see the board; Shabalov must retain
mental images of the locations of all the
pieces, while engaged in 22 other match-
es at the same time.
Tables were set up in a square in
Shaare Torah’s social hall, with Sha-
balov’s opponents sitting along the out-
side of its perimeter, a chess board in
front of each challenger. Shabalov
played the white pieces in each of the 24
games. He walked along the inside of the
square, quickly moving pieces suc-
cessively, leaving each oppo-
nent free to contem-
plate his or her
next move until
Shabalov made
his way around
the square
again.
When he got to a
“blindfolded game,”
his opponent would
inform him of
where the last black
piece was placed,
and Shabalov would
instruct his opponent on
where to move his white
piece.
One has to qualify to
play opposite a blind-
folded player, proving
his or herself profi-
cient enough in the
game to properly
report the chess
notations.
Opposing Sha-
balov in one of
the blindfolded
games was 9-
year-old Jacob
Mayer, a tourna-
ment champion in his own right. May-
er, who has been playing since he was
5, only smiled and shook his head
when asked if he thought he might
beat Shabalov.
Alex Sax, the organizer of the contests,
has played Shabalov himself. “It’s
ridiculous,” he said. “It’s like box-
ing Mike Tyson.”
A Latvian Jew, Shabalov was
born in 1967 and came to Pitts-
burgh in 1992. He began playing
chess when he was 7 years old.
“Everyone starts at 7,” he said.
“Some people start at 5.”
He first learned the game from
watching his father play with his
friends to pass the time. Then, he
said, he “got lucky.”
“I got an extremely good
teacher,” Shabalov recalled. That
teacher was 1960 World Chess
Champion Michael Tal. “I owe
everything to him,” Shabalov
said.
Although he was never the Lat-
vian champion (“I
was second many
times”), Shabalov
was the Soviet Union
under 16 champion.
“This was quite a serious ti-
tle back then. The Soviet Union
was the number one country for chess
back in 1982.”
Grand master is the highest ranking
one can achieve in chess, and Shabalov
has held that rank since the age of 20. “It
used to be an exclusive category,” he ex-
plained, but now there are about 600
grand masters in the United States, and
it is now common for someone as young
as 12 to hold that title.
More and more people are becoming
proficient in chess because of the prolif-
eration of computer programs and data-
bases, which facilitate mastery of the
game. Although Shabalov did not pre-
pare for Sunday night’s exhibition, he
typically prepares for tournaments with of the U.S. junior champions, and Sha-
the help of his computer; specifically, a balov says he “will be much stronger in
database that holds more than 3 million years to come.” Right now, he is only 11.
games, beginning from ones played in
1850 through the present. (Toby Tabachnick can be reached at
Shabalov owns The House of Chess, toby.mail@verizon.net.)
which is a combination
retail store and chess
club, but the store will
close this week in Ross
Park Mall. Shabalov is
looking for a new loca-
tion in Pittsburgh. He
also has a store in
Cleveland, and will
open one in Chicago
this fall.
Because he is an ac-
tive tournament play-
er, Shabalov has few
students. But he is Chronicle photos by John West
excited about one Chronicle art by Jane Muder
Top: Alexander Shabalov studies the move of Ken Feldhamer
young man he has
been training here in of Squirrel Hill.
Pittsburgh who Sha- Bottom: Shabalov, grand master chess player and current
balov says is “very 2007 champion and holder of four U.S. chess championships,
greets players before making his first move at the chess
promising.”
He is currently one competition that was held at Shaare Torah Congregation in
Squirrel Hill.