WGM Goletiani drew GM DeFirmian to win group A. I have not done the math but I believe she also got an IM norm. IM Zatonskih drew GM Wojtkiewicz to win group B. Both ended up with a 5-4 score and they will face each other in the “rapid championship match” tomorrow.
In group A, GM Onischuk faced a ferocious attack by GM Nakamura. At the end, Alex held on for a draw. He won group A with the score of 7-2.
However, group B is a mess. GM Shulman lost to GM Fishbein. In the mean time, GM Kamsky defeated GM Shabalov while GM Christiansen defeated GM Yermolinsky. Therefore, GMs Shulman, Kamsky and Christiansen tied for first with the score of 6.5 – 2.5.
I guess now it is up to the luck of the tie-breaks to determine a challenger for GM Onischuk and it is GM Shulman. I have known all three (Shulman, Kamsky and Christiansen) for a long time and I hate to see the spot being decided this way. It is so unfortunate. I really hope that the organizer will reconsider this format for next year.
I understand that the organizer is trying to make the event exciting. And yes, I agree that the organizer has done so much for US Chess. I thank them for that. But please, let’s not compromise with the integrity of the national title, the most prestigious chess title in the United States.
Didn’t Mr. Ilyumzhinov spend $30 million to change the World Championship format, the time control and other things to make chess exciting? How did that turn out?
When you are giving the players $250,000+, they will play bullet chess for the national title if you ask them to. Why? Because they need to pay their rent. Chess players are not wealthy like athletes in other sports. Most of them have no choice. But that does not make it right.
Chess has to be much more exciting to attract the mainstream media and serious corporate sponsorships. I absolutely agree with this and I am working very hard toward this as well for the last 4 years. If excitement is what we are looking for, why not organize a US Invitational Blitz or Rapid Championship? This would be perfect for TV as well as the Internet. But it is just too illogical for me to change the time control for the final match to rapid.
I am also very disappointed that a number of our women players are not able to compete in the Women’s World Championship which started today (and Irina Krush not able to compete in this event) because of the schedule conflict. Someone dropped the ball with this. I hope things like this would never happen again.
Overall, it has been a very exciting US Championship. Mr. Tanner and his staff have done a good job. Mig has also done a good job with the website. The fighting spirit has been high and I hope to see some good chess tomorrow in the “rapid championship matches”. I am curious to find out about the level of media coverage for this event. Does anyone know if there have been a lot of on site spectators and media coverage?
This was posted on uschess.org”
One of my club members returned yesterday from a four-day business trip to San Diego. While there, he of course decided to go see some chess in the afternoon. Even with a printed map to find the event, the taxi driver could hardly find the venue, and when he arrived the playing hall was full of … players and hardly any spectators. He told me the playing site is nice, but apparently not even locals are aware that the US championship is going on right now. Of course, this was a mid-week round, and things might look better over the weekends.
Jens
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President Morgantown Chess Club
http://morgantownchess.farvista.net
USCF affiliate-#: A6024401
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I couldn’t believe it! I also went to the “Official USCF Press Releases” and there were no mentions of the on-going tournament. It seems to me that somebody’s really dropped the ball on this one. I had been following the tournament from ICC and was getting pretty decent info on what was going on, but where’s the USCF coverage hidden? Why no official press releases? If you want the media to cover this event, you’ll practically have to write their stories for them. The info on the official web site is nice, but not nearly enough.
tanstaafl
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Something I can’t understand is why the main page link to the US Championship information is six lines down. This is absolutely insane.
Any other sports organization would have their US Championship as headlines. I guess the USCF isn’t too proud of the US Championship?
detectorist
Very few spectators. There are less spectators here in 10 days than there were in Lindsborg in 2 days.
So Kamsky didnt make even though he tied for top and didnt lose any games, unlike the others ?
– Vinay
I attended the US Championship on Tuesday & Wednesday last week. On Tuesday I saw about 25 spectators and on Wednesday about 40; less than the number of players!! The setup and venue was pleasant and the tournament very well organized and run well, with good commentary and analysis by John Donaldson & friend.
Not surprising about lack of publicity for Championship on USCF webpage. It has been very poorly organized and run. I am hopefull that Jen Shahade, new USCF Web Mistress, can fix this and make it into something useful for USCF members. She’s got the ability and spunk to make it great, if the USCF politicians will allow her some freedom to do it right.
Rich in Phoenix