GM Onischuk and IM Zatonskih defeated GM Shulman and WGM Goletiani by the score of 1.5 – .5 respectively in the Rapid Championship Match. This is the first US Championship title for both. Congratulations to Alex and Anna! 
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Well done Alex and Anna!
Posted on the uschess.org forum:
Well, it is now 2 AM central time on Monday, and there is ONLY ONE mention of the championship results that turns up in a Yahoo News search – and that is Kavalek’s column in the Washington Post.
There are still NO press releases about the result posted in the “press room” section of the uschesschampionship.com website. In fact, there is nothing on the website that a reporter could possibly use to put together a story about the finals unless the reporter already was a chess player and fully understood the whole event.
Frankly I think there is somehow a complete failure on the part of the organizers and publicists of the championship to understand what the media actually NEED. They need SOMEBODY to send out a press release on Saturday night saying, “The finalists of the US Chess Championship, Alexander Onischuk and Yury Shulman, will play a final match on Sunday, March 12, at 1 PM Pacific time” … and the story should go on and say who they are, where they were born, how old they are, where they live, what they do with their time, how they became finalists, and then describe the women’s finals as well.
Then, on Sunday afternoon, someone has to send out ANOTHER press release saying, “Alexander Onischuk, of Maryland, won the US Chess Championship for 2006 by defeating Yury Shulman, of Illinois, in a two-game match in the final round of the tournament in San Diego. ….” and then it should go on and say, AGAIN, who they are, where they were born, where they live, and something about the final games, and “Previously, Anna Zatonskih had won the Women’s Championship …” etc.
That is how you write press releases. The idea of the press release is that the reporter who is completely lazy or overworked or has no time to give to the story can take the whole press release and submit it to be printed as is. Or the last paragraphs can be discarded to make a shorter story. Or the reporter can copy most of the release into the story and add a couple paragraphs of his/her own. Or the reporter might be gotten interested enough to produce a whole story him/herself.
Actually, press releases just like that should have been produced EVERY DAY for the last two weeks. Press releases for the Chicago area about Shulman’s and Gurevich’s prospects. Press releases for the NY area about their candidates. Press releases for the African-American media about Tate and Muhammad. Press releases about the women’s championship and about the people who upset Nakamura in the early rounds and about defending champ Nakamura’s attempt to come back in the later rounds. Press releases about all the players destined for their local papers and media outlets, telling how the hometown hero was doing. That’s what you DO.
The Group B winner is from metro Chicago, but was there a word about it in the Chicago press? NO!!! Is that their fault? Is that because they don’t care about chess? NO!!! It’s because NOBODY TOLD THEM. As to WHO should have told them, maybe someone in San Diego should have told them. Maybe the USCF should have told them. Maybe the USCF state delegates should have told them. Maybe the Illinois Chess Association should have told them. Maybe a hired publicist should have told them. But SOMEBODY should have. SOMEBODY should have made SURE that somebody did. Because nobody did, an opportunity has been irretrievably lost for another year.
What makes this triply frustrating is that the whole two-group, rapid-playoff format was designed for the explicit purpose of interesting the media. We can’t have long playoffs, because the media want short watchable events. We can’t have a long match because you wouldn’t be certain what day it would end. No, we have to have a decisive event on a particular day, a Sunday, and that means it has to be a rapid match! Then maybe the media will watch and televise it and the sponsors will get their money’s worth and chess will catch on and be popular! This was, of course, controversial, but I can’t deny that it made some sense. BUT!!!!!! – it only makes sense if, having redesigned the format of the event for the supposed purposes of the media, you then go and TELL THE MEDIA ABOUT IT.
petrel