Live Blogging Round 8 - US Chess Championship 2009- Final Results! HESS tied with Nakamura for 1st!

Saint Louis! Round 8! Get excited :) The action is underway, you can follow the games live @ www.uschesschamps.com

Final Update: Ray Robson wins vs. Enrico Sevillano.

UPDATE!: Hess Defeats returning world Champions Shulman tying GM Nakamura for first place. Congratulations Robert Hess. He's been playing incredible chess this week and everyone here at the club is really happy to see this outcome. Shulman is a great guy, but I guess we have a soft spot for the under dog.

Update: Hess still hanging in there with Shulman. All eyes on board 2 right now, there are alot of people here really impressed with Hess' play and routing for him to pull this off to tie Nakamura for 1st.

With only 4 boards left to play, the live broadcast is over, you can still follow the games but no more GM commentary. The club is packed with people, there is quite a bit of "Shhhhhh"ing going on on the 2nd floor.

Current Round Results + Games.

Update: Akobian defeats 3 times US Champion Joel Benjamin.

Update: Another shock of the day, Charles Lawton has managed to break his losing streak playing Sam Shankland to a draw on board 12.

Update: Christiansen has defeated Tyler Hughes.

Update: Friedel defeats Ehlvest

Update: Gulko draws Becerra

Update: Kaidanov draws Ibragimov

Update: Krush falls to Shabalov.

Update: Kamsky Onischuk split the game on board 1.

Update: Kamsky has 2.44 on the clock and is in a very complicated position. Onischuk still has 23.46 on the clock, with ten moves to reach the time control.

Game Result: Here's probably the shock of the day, FM Doug Ekert has defeated GM Khachiyan. I think Doug Ekert is surprised as anyone, here's here now in the commentary room being greated by applause.

Nakamura, "I'm white, I'm going to play to win tomorrow, that's all there is to it."

Result is official Nakamura defeats Brooks with little to no difficulty in Round 8. Nakamura is locked in to finish strong in the 2009 US Championship. Nakamura reports he was puzzled at the amount of time Brooks took on move 3 but is quite positive that this was a simple game and an easy win.

Tourney Update: The clock didn't die just got replaced because of dying batteries. Brooks is about to give though with an abundance of check mate options for Nakamura. You can pretty much chalk this game up to Nakamura. 

Tourney Update: Apparently the batteries in the Nakamura/Brooks clock died...uh oh! Drama to come I'm sure.

Tourney Update: A lot of people have been asking tournament chair and WGM Jennifer Shahade if she'll be up for playing in the US Women's Championship 2009. The tournament will begin October 2009 right here in Saint Louis. Jennifer has been pretty evasive of the question.

Tourney Update: Top 5 players qualify for the World Cup in Siberia, to represent the US in the world cup tournament.

Game Updates: Here's the top 3 boards positions. Onischuk pushing g5 to gain control of the f4 square. Brooks struggling to gain a good position as white and Hess playing it cool on board 2.

Tourney Update: It would be quite exciting to see a draw at the top of the tables as their is a quick game playoff system created to name an outright first place winner. The prize money for first gets split, but the 2009 US Chess Championship will have a winner one way or another.

Tourney Update: New video, the CCSCSL's mission to reach out to local schools and create curriculum opportunities is under way. The tournament players off day was Friday, and the club invited two local schools participating in their chess in schools program to come play off in a team tournament. Below is the new video diary featuring outreach employee Matt Lodge. Who is also, a member of chess.com! :) Below is the premier link to the video and under that is a recent game where in I defeated Matt with the French!

Tourney Update:

Kamsky and Onischuk are playing into a Berlin defense so we're not really expecting any fireworks from the top board today.

No fireworks from Hess on board 2 yet, but stay tuned!

IM Brooks has spent 30 minutes on his third move, which is kind of his habit as of late, but it won't benefit him as he is still in a theoretical position and Nakamura has no doubt as to what he's doing. The game should get interesting.

The club is packed! It's an overcast day here in Saint Louis, but there's a general air of excitment here at the club as there are some critical games going on right now.

Today I'm really excited about the top 3 boards. Kamsky vs Onischuk, Hess vs Shulman, and most exciting to me will be Kansas City's IM Michael Brooks battle Nakamura on board 3.

Good stuff! Photos and videos to come.