According to Mig Greengard of Chess Ninja, the organizer of the US Championship is planning to introduce a new format:

1. The 64 players will be divided into 2 groups. Each group will play a 9 round Swiss system with normal time control.

2. The top finishers (top male and top female) of each group will then play 2 rapid games against each other to determine the US Championship and US Women’s Championship Title.

It seems that there have been a lot of objections from the fans. The #1 objection is the discrepancy in the time control (normal for the 9 round Swiss system then rapid for the championship). Many people feel that the rapid time control would cheapen the title.

Other concerns include how evenly matched will the two groups be and what if there are multiple ties after 9 rounds? How fair is it to choose the finalists by tie-breaks? There is also the issue of what if one group winner scores 8/9 and the other scores 6.5/9. How fair would it be for the player who scores 8/9 to lose the final because of a different time control and a different format?

What do you think? Do you like the rapid time control to determine the US Champions?Posted by Picasa

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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