With a short draw in the last round, Grandmaster
Yury Shulman of Chicago won the
2008 Frank K. Berry US Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He finished with an undefeated score of 7.0 out of 9, half a point ahead of top rated GM
Alexander Onischuk. In an interview with
Chess Life Online, Shulman pointed out his
round 7 win with black against GM
Julio Becerra (Winawer French) as the most critical game of the tournament. However, it was the
victory in round 5 with black against GM
Gregory Kaidanov (Alapin Sicilian) that propelled the eventual champion into the lead.
Congratulations to GM Yury Shulman for winning his first national championship!Yury Shulman and I have known each other for a while, dating back to the
1st President's Cup (Intercollegiate Chess Final Four) in Dallas, Texas in April, 2001. I played board 5 for
Stanford University while he manned the top board for the
University of Texas at Dallas. We were seated together at the social mixer on the night before round 1 and have been cordial ever since. A few years later, Shulman won the
2006 US Open in Oak Brook, IL while I finished tied for 2nd place. Thanks to this tournament, we both qualified for the
2007 US Championship, where Shulman finished near the top while I languished at the bottom.
Final Standings of 2008 US Championship- 7.0 Yury Shulman
- 6.5 Alexander Onischuk
- 6.0 Sergey Kudrin
- 5.5 Josh Friedel, Eugene Perelshteyn and Varuzhan Akobian
- 5.0 Benjamin Finegold, Alexander Ivanov, Julio Becerra and Boris Gulko
- 4.5 John Fedorowicz, Dmitry Gurevich, Gregory Kaidanov and Alexander Shabalov
- 4.0 Daniel Ludwig, David Pruess, Jesse Kraai and Alex Yermolinsky
- 3.5 Larry Kaufman, David Vigorito, Michael Langer and Dean Ippolito
- 2.5 Sam Shankland
- 1.5 Sergey Galant
The US Women's Championship came down to the wire, as described in detail at
Chess Life Online. IM
Irina Krush was leading by 0.5 heading into the last round, but needed a miracle just to save a draw against WGM
Katerine Rohonyan (2318). IM
Anna Zatonskih had already won her final game and was waiting for a playoff to determine the title of US Champion. Both ladies finished with an impressive score of 7.5. Unfortunately, the quality of play in the
tiebreak games was low considering the amount of effort both ladies expended getting to this point. After a win and a loss at G/15 and another win and a loss at G/5, Zatonskih won on time in the final Armaggedon game.
Congratulations to IM Anna Zatonskih (see photo at right) for winning her second national title!
Final Standings of 2008 US Championship- 7.5 Anna Zatonskih and Irina Krush
- 6.0 Tatev Abrahamyan and Katerine Rohonyan
- 5.5 Batchimeg Tuvshintugs
- 4.5 Tsagaan Battsetseg
- 3.5 Iryna Zenyuk
- 2.0 Esther Epstein and Chouchanik Airapetian
- 0.5 Courtney Jamison
Five players with strong ties to Northern California travelled to Oklahoma for this premiere tournament. Two put together strong results while the other three must be unhappy.
Mad props to GM-elect Josh Friedel for earning his third and final Grandmaster norm! His most exciting game was in a
wild round 4 victory against veteran GM Boris Gulko. Friedel now needs only 10 more FIDE rating points to complete the requirements for the GM title. In fact, his next opportunity to score points comes this weekend, at the
Chicago Open.
Batchimeg Tuvshintugs also put together a strong performance of "plus 2" in the Women's Championship, even
winning in round 7 against the eventual champion Zatonskih.
Unfortunately, GM
Alex Yermolinsky, IM
David Pruess and NM
Sam Shankland didn't perform so well. Both the "Yermonator" and David apparently ran out of gas in rounds 7 and 8, each losing consecutive games. Sadly, Sam's will to win was crushed by a long and tragic loss to IM Benjamin Finegold in round 5.
Sam: I know that you are disappointed because you did poorly, but down the road you should look back at this trip as a learning experience that propels you to even greater successes. I speak from experience as a fellow competitor who also struggled in the very same event last year.To close, I would like to thank organizer
Frank K. Berry for putting his money where his mouth is by sponsoring the US Championship for the second straight year. Mr. Berry has now donated over $150,000 to support the top chess players in America.
For this, he deserves a big round of applause! Thank you! Signed, chess player and chess fan.
ber applause for a job well done!
(Junior High co-champions Isaac Zhang on left and Mukund Chillakanti.)
Now that I am back home in California, I can blog about the roller coaster of emotions that I had experienced during the last round of the Chicago Open. Both my opponent, NM James Lewis, and I were tied for 2nd place before the game began and had a lot to play for. In fact, it became apparent after 3 hours that the leader, NM Gylfi Thorhallsson, was in deep trouble and that the winner of our game would share the $5000 top prize.
I don't pay the extra fee to reenter often, but if there ever is a time to do it, this tournament was that opportunity. After languishing with 0.5 out of the first 3 rounds at the Chicago Open, I could either play on for pride or reenter into the accelerated 2-day schedule. For once in my life, I made the right choice.
This is just a short update from the Chicago Open (check standings here). Unfortunately, everything that can go wrong has indeed gone wrong. I dropped out of the 4-day schedule after 0.5/3 against experts (1851 performance rating) and will instead try my luck today in the insane 2-day schedule (first four rounds at G/45). Sadly, I don't know what is wrong with me. I won't make excuses; either I'm playing like %$@* or my opponents are all GMs in disguise! Please check my ICC finger notes for updates from the 2-day schedule.
(As Salman Azhar commented at the awards ceremony, many of the top players in Northern California are friends with their rivals. Top 4-6 players Yian Liou on left and James Kwok are both in a good mood as they shake hands before their round 5 matchup.)
(Top trophy winners in 4-5 Varsity. From left to right: Qijie "Jack" Zhu, Kyle Shin, Vikram Ganesh, Hemang Jangle and Jessica Zhu.)
Steven Zierk, a 9th grader at Los Gatos High School, has qualified for the Denker Tournament of High School Champions on August 2-5 in Dallas, Texas! Steven finished tied for first place in the High School section of the CalChess Scholastics. With two of the four co-champions ineligible due to either residency or age, Steven and Jeff Young were slated to face off in a two-game playoff match. However, Jeff has conceded the playoff due to a conflict with his summer schedule.
First grader Tanuj Vasudeva, the nation's top ranked six year old and National K-1 Co-Champion, won the 1-3 Varsity division of the CalChess Scholastics with an impressive 5.5/6 score. As the top seed, he beat the 2nd place finisher in round 2 and scored wins against two of his top three rated competitors in the final rounds. Afterwards, he proudly showed off his trophy, which was merely two inches shorter than he (see photo at left)! The Bay Area has many prodigies that we've come to know by their first name: Jordy, Vinay, Danya and Nicholas. Tanuj already has a head start to becoming the next star.
For those of you not fortunate enough to be in Chicago this weekend, there still is plenty of chess available in the Bay Area over the coming weeks. In fact, there are three major multi-day adult tournaments in the Bay Area over the next four weekends.
I arrived in the Windy City today, leaving behind an even windier city in California. A week after coaching kids all weekend, the purpose of this trip is to dedicate myself to improving my own chess game. I will compete in the U2300 section of the Chicago Open from Friday night through Monday (seven rounds, $5000 for 1st place in my section). Yes, for the first time in ages, I am not playing in the Open section! Check out the advance entry list to see if I have a chance to do well.
With a short draw in the last round, Grandmaster Yury Shulman of Chicago won the 2008 Frank K. Berry US Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He finished with an undefeated score of 7.0 out of 9, half a point ahead of top rated GM Alexander Onischuk. In an interview with Chess Life Online, Shulman pointed out his round 7 win with black against GM Julio Becerra (Winawer French) as the most critical game of the tournament. However, it was the victory in round 5 with black against GM Gregory Kaidanov (Alapin Sicilian) that propelled the eventual champion into the lead. Congratulations to GM Yury Shulman for winning his first national championship!
(The playing hall was huge! I actually enjoyed speeding around in my wheelchair.)
(Photograph of IM Josh Friedel from the official US Championship blog.)
Since my initial report on the CalChess Scholastics featured Steven Zierk and FM Danya Naroditsky, I have now posted photos of the other two co-champs of the High School division. At left is Boglarka Erdos from Hungary, who is visiting California on vacation. At right is Jeff Young of Saratoga High School.
The troublemakers above are: Isaac Zhang (left), Ted Xiao (top) and Sam Bekker (right); the "victim" is Andrew Chen (middle). All four kids finished in the top six of the Junior High section, with Isaac earning a share of 1st place.
(High School co-champs FM Danya Naroditsky and Steven Zierk. This was Danya's second straight 1st place finish, which is amazing considering that he is in 6th grade!)
