U.S. Women's Championship - Round 3 - Anna defeats Irina - Live Blog
Defending U.S. women's chess champion WGM Anna Zatonskih is using her versatility to keep her opponents off balance at the 2009 championship at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis . After two games, she was the only player to move to 2-0, reflecting two victories. Zatonskih played a solid opening variation that she seldom uses to frustrate the aggressive style of Battsetseg Tsagaan. "I'm expecting Zatonskih to surprise us in many games," said Grandmaster-elect Ben Finegold, who provided live commentary.
The top-seeded Zatonskih, of Long Island, N.Y., avoided the trap of overlooking Tsagaan, of Ellicott City, Md., the seven-time Mongolian women's champion. Zatonskih insisted she was not placing undue emphasis on her upcoming encounter with second-seeded IM Irina Krush, with whom she shared an infamous incident at last year's championship.
Update: And the games are off! Follow it all live at www.uschesschamps.com!
http://www.saintlouischessclub.org/US-Womens-Championship-2009/Live-Coverage
Final Game Update: Apparently Yun Fan was up all night writing a paper for some college class. This preparation strategy has yielded some shabby results as she falls to Batsetsegg Tsagaan.
Game Update: Zenyuk falls to Foisor.
Video Update: While we wait for the last 2 games to come in. Here's a video I made featuring Betsy Dynako, a lovely lady and great photographer. All photos featured in the video were taken by Betsy. Enjoy http://www.betsydynako.com/
Update: Result 3 of the day, Melekhina defeats Abrahamyan who resigned over a lost d pawn, a nasty pin and a couple other things. Melekhina continues to play strong chess.
Update: Camilla Baginskatie who says she hasn't played in months, draws her game with Goletiani.
Update: Anna Zatonskih has come down to the commentary room to review the game. Irina Krush is perhaps too overwhelmed to come down and participate. Best of luck to Irina as she'll continue on tomorrow vs Yun Fan.
Anna defeats Irina after the Queen side gets too messy for Krush to clean up. It'll be a long road for anyone trying to upset Zatonskih who may be on her way to clean up the largest prize fund in the tournaments history.
Here's some photos while we wait for some results and and board updates.
Tatev Abrahamyan vs Alisa Melekhina
Battsetseg Tsagaan vs Yun Fan
Yun Fan studies the position
Irina Krush vs Anna Zatonskih
Camilla Baginskait
Iryna Zenyuk vs Sabina-Francesca Foisor
Pairings for Round 3!
Iryna Zenyuk vs Sabina-Francesca Foisor
Battsetseg Tsagaan vs Yun Fan
Irina Krush vs Anna Zatonskih
Camilla Baginskaite vs Rusudan Goletiani
Tatev Abrahamyan vs Alisa Melekhina
Here's some photos to tide you over, courtesy of official tournament photographer Betsy Daynako
