Time bidding and draw odd playoff:
Zhao and Shankland will have to bid on how much time each is willing to start with in order to win the ability to play with Black and draw odds in the first round of the Armageddon playoff. Then, the winner will have to take on the tournament’s only grandmaster for the title.
Shankland defeated Zhao to set up a meeting against Robson. Shankland chose black and draw odd. This means that Shankland will be the U.S. Junior Champion if he draws as Black against Robson.
Update: Shankland beat Robson to win the 2010 U.S. Junior Championship! Congratulations to Sam Shankland!
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Great. So we’re promoting draw in chess again. Brilliant.
Looks like Shankland won (not drew) the game and the title. This completes the world’s strangest way to win a championship: announce right before the tournament that you’re quitting chess, lose your first two games, score 6-1 in the rest to tie for first, then win the Armageddon playoff.
I suspect Shanky won’t be away from chess for very long. There’s probably a brighter future for him as a chess player than as an English major.
Congrats to Sam!
BLACK WON AGAIN, Susan UM goin Bazonkers!!! I thought they told me the opposite? boy theses top guys are something we not even into the good stuff yet Susan, this is just basic UM stuff.
The way I understand this system is that you bid 1 to 45 minutes, the low bidder gets his choice of colors, with black getting draw odds. If the low bidder takes white, he gets that amount of time and black gets 45 minutes. If he takes black, they both get 45 minutes.
I think the best strategy would to bid 1 minute to win the bidding but then take black, with draw odds. So it seems like a stupid system.
Whoops, I misunderstood the process.
At least this is better than the Armageddon Blitz game, but why not have co-champions, as the USCF rules state?
jMac, as I understand it, if you bid 1 minute, you get that amount of time, while your opponent gets 45 minutes. Then the winner of the (in this case 45-1) game gets Black and draw odds in the final game against Robson.
Hahaha, LOLL RuralRob. I agree – English majors are in a diminished state of poverty right now. Shankland should NOT retire from chess – he’s not that old. Come on, Shankland!!! Get some sense into your head!
As for the moral of this tournament, Shankland did prove something worthwhile: Never give up!
GO Shankland!
P.S. Isn’t it uncanny how Nakamura predicted this spot-on (or nearly spot-on)?
I was going to ask whether anyone had ever won a significant championship by losing the first two games, but then I recalled that Fischer did just that in 1972.