U.S. Women's Championship - Finished! Zatonskih Wins!

Submitted by strani on Tue, 10/13/2009 at 9:59am.

After a week of fantastic chess by America's top female chess talent, the competition has concluded. Anna Zatonskih clinched the title last night and finished her run today with another victory. Her performance over the last week was inspired and the challengers could do little to stop her. She finished the tournament today without dropping a single game. Camilla Baginskatie's return to tournament chess was fantastic to watch as well. She finished in second place and by defeating her final opponent prevented a 3 way tie for 2nd place. 

I have had much fun over the last week meeting the players and watching the action go down live. Thanks for reading. 

 

Update: Final Standings after 9 Rounds of great fighting chess. 

 

#NameUSCFFIDE12345678910Score
1 Anna Zatonskih 2492 2462 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 Camilla Baginskaite 2356 2317 ½ ½ 0 1 1 ½ 1 1 1
3 Alisa Melekhina 2253 2220 0 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 0 1 1
4 Irina Krush 2490 2458 0 1 ½ 0 1 1 ½ 1 ½
5 Tatev Abrahamyan 2342 2275 0 0 0 1 ½ ½ 1 1 0 4
6 Sabina Foisor 2379 2320 0 0 0 0 ½ 1 1 0 1
7 Rusudan Goletiani 2437 2391 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 1 1 0
8 Iryna Zenyuk 2271 2285 0 0 1 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 1 3
9 Battsetseg Tsagaan 2265 2258 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 ½ 1
10 Yun Fan 2134 1935 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 1 0 0

 

Anna Zatonskih clinched her second consecutive U.S. Women’s Chess Championship by defeating Sabina Foisor in round eight of the 2009 event. With one round remaining, she has acquired a near-perfect 7.5 out of 8 points and will win the record $15,000 first prize. No other woman has more than 5.5 so Tuesday’s final round will be for posterity, not place.

 Baginskaite and Krush have a lot to play for in the final round. Not only is there a lot of prize money still at stake ($12,000 is the second prize), but the top two finishers in the tournament will qualify for the next Women’s World Championship, to be held in Istanbul, Turkey. Zatonskih has already qualified, but if two or more women are tied for second after tomorrow’s round nine, a fast-paced tiebreaker will be played to decide who is awarded the second spot in the championship. " Written by FM Mike Kelin, Chess Life Correspondent. 

IM David Pruess is getting his live commentary on at www.chess.com/tv 

Hallo! Live @ www.uschesschamps.com you can follow the final rounds and all the competition for the cash. It's all about the cash this round. Irina Krush and Camilla Baginskatie are playing for the 2nd place $12,000 and a spot on the U.S> Women's Olympic team. Lotta money, exciting spot on a potentially gold medal team. I'm back in the basement of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center to follow it all and send you photos n' stuff. 

Game Updates

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Update: 

Below some pairings and standings till I get some photos. 

Camilla Baginskaite vs Sabina-Francesca Foisor

Tatev Abrahamyan vs Irina Krush

Alisa Melekhina vs Battsetseg Tsagaan

Rusudan Goletiani vs Iryna Zenyuk

Anna Zatonskih vs Yun Fan

 

#NameUSCFFIDE12345678910Score
1 Anna Zatonskih 2492 2462 1 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 -
2 Irina Krush 2490 2458 0 1 ½ 1 - ½ 1 1 ½
3 Camilla Baginskaite 2356 2317 ½ 0 ½ - 1 1 ½ 1 1
4 Alisa Melekhina 2253 2220 0 ½ ½ 1 1 0 ½ - 1
5 Sabina Foisor 2379 2320 0 0 - 0 ½ 1 1 0 1
6 Tatev Abrahamyan 2342 2275 0 - 0 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 0 3
7 Iryna Zenyuk 2271 2285 0 ½ 0 1 0 0 - ½ 1 3
8 Goletiani Rusudan 2437 2391 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ - 1 0
9 Tsagaan Battsetseg 2265 2258 0 0 0 - 1 0 ½ 0 1
10 Yun Fan 2134 1935 - ½ 0 0 0 1 0 1 0

 

Comments:

by kunduk - 2 months ago
kolkata India
Member Since: Feb 2009
Member Points: 871

congratulations...!!

by forrie - 2 months ago
Vanderbijlpark South Africa
Member Since: Jan 2009
Member Points: 450

Alisa did very well taking her rating into consideration.

 

In Anna's last game Fan provided a nice target for her on c6 - not that a difficult game for Anna.

by MANNY123 - 2 months ago
CHEVERLY,MD. United States
Member Since: Mar 2008
Member Points: 164

hey,sryiwannadraw...sorry to say this but if we go by your thinking according to your rating your brain would not be as well'' constructed'' as these ladiesYell there is a lot more to it than the man woman thing.....

by stAs7 - 2 months ago
Chişinău Moldova
Member Since: Jul 2009
Member Points: 35

Alisa is the hottestes ;)

by FM VPA - 2 months ago
Valsad-Gujarat India
Member Since: Jul 2007
Member Points: 180

That was a total whitewashed by Anna clinching the US Title with great ease & confidence for the 2nd consecutive year. Congrats.Smile

by SonofPearl - 2 months ago
Wales
Member Since: May 2007
Member Points: 6244

Congrats to Anna, and thanks for the great coverage and photos! Cool

by tadartabo - 2 months ago
arunachal pradesh,itanagar India
Member Since: Mar 2009
Member Points: 38

coooooool.   i never thought woman can also play like masters. from now onwarrds i ll appreciate them too!!!!

by artas44 - 2 months ago
klaipeda Lithuania
Member Since: May 2009
Member Points: 32

kamilija, laikykis!!

by drumdaddy - 2 months ago
International
Member Since: Apr 2009
Member Points: 143

Strani, thank you for bringing us the games from this fine tournament and also for your enjoyable reporting and colorful photography.

by WGM Natalia_Pogonina - 2 months ago
Saratov Russia
Member Since: Jul 2009
Member Points: 229

Great performance by Anna! Glad for her. Smile

by shareefh - 2 months ago
Amman Jordan
Member Since: Sep 2009
Member Points: 195

Thank you for the coverage....nice report...hope to report all important events like this one... Smile

by SilentWalker - 2 months ago
Milpitas, CA United States
Member Since: Nov 2008
Member Points: 594

@ sryiwannadraw -

My sentiments were the opposite.  I enjoyed the Women's US Championship over the US Championship held earlier this year.

My impressions were that the games of the Women's US Championship were very dynamic and very decisive.  That makes for some really exciting chess!

by Archaic71 - 2 months ago
Texas United States
Member Since: Nov 2008
Member Points: 187

Excellent reporting!  Nice to see that all of the ladies got at least a couple of wins - hate to ever see goose-eggs.  Hopefully next year we can get an American or two to play for the US championship. 

I am curious, has Jen Shahade retired from competitive chess for good?  Her current FIDE rating would place her in the middle of this group.  Perhaps two championships are enough for her?

by sryiwannadraw - 2 months ago
Austin, Texas United States
Member Since: Mar 2009
Member Points: 180

it seems men Masters are better than women... idk thats what ibelieve and im not being sexist 

 

-think mens brains are built better for chess...

by obregon26 - 2 months ago
Northern Virginia United States
Member Since: Oct 2007
Member Points: 418

Great job, strani for your reporting!

Alisa is top 3!!!  Congrats to the chess goddess!!!

 

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