 On 20 October Grandmaster Larry Christiansen, three-time United States Champion, took on 21 players in a simultaneous exhibition held in a rather unusual and marvelously public place. Battle was joined in the middle of Boston’s South Station right under the train status board.
Setting up tables in a large rectangle, Grandmaster Christiansen took the inside as White as members of the Boylston Chess Club, and some brave members of the public, took Black along the rim of this arena. They were joined by a throng of very curious members of the public who largely had never seen anything like this before, certainly not as they made their usually normal way home!
After Boylston Chess Club President Jason Rihel introduced Grandmaster Larry Christiansen and explained some ground rules, the Simul in South Station started in earnest. People from all over the historic station crowded around the tables, looking over the shoulders of the players. “Who’s the guy in the middle?” some asked. Word quickly spread that he was a three-time United States Champion causing one spectator to allow that, “he probably knows what he’s doing.”
You could say that, yes, but as Larry went from board to board it slowly dawned on people that the south side of the square he was walking was giving him trouble. There, all in a row sat Expert Jesse Nicholas and Noah Kulick with National Master Andrew Wang between them. These three-boysin-a-row comprised Grandmaster Christiansen’s only losses among his 21 battles that evening.
We present one of these games here.
GM Larry Christiansen
Noah Kulick
Simultaneous, Boston 2011
[B19] Caro-Kann Defense
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bf4 Qa5+ 12.Bd2 Bb4 13. c3 Be7 14. c4 Qc7 15.O-OO Ngf6 16. Kb1 O-O 17. Ne4 Nxe4 18.Qxe4 Nf6 19. Qe2 b5 20.c5 a5 21. Ne5 Rfd8 22. Bc1 Rd5 23.g4 Rad8 24.Be3 Bxc5 25.Nxf7 Qxf7 26. dxc5 Ne4 27. f3 Ng3 28. Rxd5 exd5 29. Qg2 Nxh1 30. Qxh1 d4 31. Bc1 Qd5 32. g5 d3 33. Bd2 Qxc5 34.Qe1 hxg5 35. Qe6+ Kh8 36. Qe1 Rf8 37. Bc3 b4 38. Bd2 Qf5 39. Qe7 Qxf3 0-1
In the end Grandmaster Christiansen’s record was 18-3, but everyone – Grandmaster, players, and the public – won. South Station was impressed with the display and the Boylston Chess Club is looking forward to working with them in the future to do additional “Simuls in South Station.” Look for them!
BCC President Jason Rihel contributed to this report |