2007 US Chess Championship

 Yes, the 36 player field, swiss tournament took place May 15-23 but the focus of this article is on the nine Brilliancy Prizes given, one for each round.  Each was determined by a public vote.  The nine diagrams represent crucial positions in those selected games.  Find the continuation.

Round 1 had 14 decisive games out of 18 total with no major upsets.  In the first round, the Brilliancy Prize went to Joshua Friedel vs Hikaru Nakamura.  Black to move.  

There were nearly twice as many draws in round 2 with Shabalov, Stripunsky and Ibragimov tied for first place.  The best game of round 2 went to Yuri Shulman vs Irina Krush.  White to move.

Shabalov beats Ibragimov in their game and Shabalov is in sole possession of first place followed by Nakamura, Ehlvest, Onischuk and Kaidanov with 2.5.  The Brilliancy Prize was awarded to Julio Becerra Rivero vs Justin Sarkar.  White to move.

Shabalov beats Nakamura in round 4 and moves a full point ahead of the closest competition.  This was also voted the most brilliant game.  Black to move and win.

In round 5, Shabalov beats Kaidanov, putting him one and a half points above the rest.  This was the game voted the round's brillancy prize.  Onischuk drew with Ehlvest on board 2.  Nakamura beat Yermolinsky on board 3.

 In round 6, Onischuk, last year's winner, beat Shabalov in Semi-Slav Botvinnik System opening.  This was the brilliancy prize game of the round.  The next four boards drew so the race is a little tighter with Shabalov still a half point in the lead.

Shabalov draws against Ehlvest in round 7 and Onischuk beats Nakamura.  The two Alex's are tied.  The Brilliancy Prize went to Varuzhan Akobian vs Eugene Perelshteyn.  Black to move.

Both leader draw their 8th round matches:  Shabalov with Gulko and Onischuk with Kudrin.  Kaidanov and Shulman both win and pull within a half point of the leaders.  The award for the best game goes to Gregory Kaidanov vs Alexander Ivanov.  White to move.

In the final round, Shabalov beats Kudrin to finish the tournament with 7 points.  Onischuk has second place with 6.5.  Kaidanov, Shulman and Becerra each have 6 points.  Julio Becerra gets another Brilliancy Award with his game against Nakamura.  Black to move and win.

FM Joseph Mark Bradford and FM Michael Langer both picked up an IM Norm.