US Championships Finale

Submitted by SonofPearl on Thu, 05/22/2008 at 12:47pm.

Shulman and Zatonskih - US Champions

Yuri Shulman eased to victory in the final round of the Frank K. Berry 2008 US Championships in Tulsa with an 11-move draw against Josh Friedel, who thereby clinched his third and final GM norm. With both players benefitting so much from a draw, the result was inevitable. Congratulations to Yuri Shulman on an excellent tournament and clinching the title!

The destiny of the women's title was much more uncertain and ended up going right to the wire. Irina Krush, the defending Champion, was leading by half a point from Anna Zatonskih (pictured) going into the final round, but got into terrible trouble against Katerine Rohonyan, losing a piece. Remarkably, Krush managed to escape with a draw by bailing out into a King & Rook versus King, Rook & Knight ending which took the game to over 100 moves!

Meanwhile Zatonskih won her final round game against Tsagaan Battsetseg to end level on points with Krush. A thrilling playoff ensued; in rapid games Zatonskih won first but Krush levelled to take the playoff into blitz. Krush then won the first Blitz game only for Zatonskih to claim the second. That meant that the destiny of the US Women's Championship came down to an Armageddon game (a blitz game were White has a minute more time than Black, but must win - a draw counts as a win for Black).

Tragically for Krush, she lost on time with a good position on the board and Zatonskih was victorious. Congratulations to Zatonskih and commiserations to Krush, but both players deserve plaudits for a great tournament and providing such excitement.

Here are the playoff games in full. Mistakes abounded as the tired players slogged it out...

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Comments:

by BirdBrain - 17 months ago
KY United States

Member Since: Apr 2008
Member Points: 1806

That experiment in the Sicilian with 2. g3...d5 exd Qxd Nf3 Bg4 Bg2 Qe6+ Kf1...That may get you out of theory, and you may make it by in rapid, but I would never try that experiment for real in a serious game...

by eternaloptimist - 17 months ago
Orange Beach, AL United States

Member Since: Feb 2008
Member Points: 2133

I hated to see Krush lose these games to Zatonskih because she is one of my favorite players, but Zatonskih played a little bit better in the tiebreaks. I agree w/ cuendillar & Dralf. They should have waited until the next day to play the tiebreak games because a tournament of this caliber wears you out. If they would have done this Krush might have won. It really wasn't a fair way to decide a U. S. Championship. As far as the best way to decide the winner, the Norwegian system is a possibility. Although, in the future if this happens I think this might be a better system: 2 standard time control games, then if it's still tied play two 30 minute (per person) games. If it's still tied after that, then play an Armageddon game. This could take place over the span of 3 days (one standard game per day & the two 30 minute games & Armageddon game the third day).

by ghanaman - 17 months ago
Accra Ghana

Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 99

I played Irina on chesslive , she beat the hell out of me in a 2minutes game!

by Dralf - 17 months ago
Chino Hills United States

Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 5

I agree. Disappointed for Irina...she is a great lady and still the best! I would have preferred to see a better playoff where the best player was determined by standard chess games.

by cuendillar - 17 months ago
Stockholm Sweden

Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 814

Not a good way at all for a national championship to be decided. Better to either use another tiebreak criteria or at least play tie-breaks on the following day. There's probably no reason to hope for the Norwegian system - a 4-game match in standard time controls held later on in case of a tie for first place. Carlsen played two of those in consecutive years...

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