IM Irina Krush

Thanks to Tom Braunlich for providing us with the following event report!

Shulman and Zatonskih Lead 2008 U.S. Championships

GM Yury Shulman leads the 2008 Frank K. Berry U.S. Championship by a full point with three rounds to go.
IM Anna Zatonskih is ahead in the U.S. Women’s Championship with a perfect 6-0, half a point in front of main rival IM Irina Krush.

IA Frank Berry, Tournament Director

The championships are sponsored by IA Frank K. Berry, with a prize fund over $85,000 total. They are being held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, at the Radisson Hotel.

Frank Berry Championship – Playing Hall

The championship is a 9-round Swiss with 24 players, and the women’s championship is a 10-player round robin. The time control is 40/100 (+ 30 seconds per move), then G/30 (with 30 seconds per move).
Games start at 2:30pm central time. Games can be watched live at MonRoi.com, with pictures, videos, and full player information.

Grandmasters during post mortem

MonRoi is also producing video commentary of the best game each round by IM Alan Stein.  First prize is $13,000 with a Caribbean cruise deal provided by CruisingThroughLife.com for their Caribbean Gambit Chess Cruise 2008.

For more information on participating in that see www.cruisingthroughlife.com/chess2008/

Shulman has wins against GMs Gregory Kaidanov and Boris Gulko.

In Round 6 he defeated GM Sergey Kudrin to take the lead with 5/6: Shulman, Yury (2606) – Kudrin, Sergey (2549) 2008 FKB U.S. Championship (6), 18.05.2008?

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Rb1 O-O 9.Be2 b6 10.O-O Bb7 11.Qd3 e6 12.Bg5 Qc7 13.Qe3 Nd7 14.Rfd1 Nf6 15.Nd2 cxd4 16.cxd4 Rac8 17.h3 Qc2 18.Bd3 Qa4 19.Bb5 Qc2 20.Re1 Qc3 21.Bd3 e5 22.d5 Nd7 23.Bb5 Qxe3 24.Rxe3 Bf6 25.h4 Bxg5 26.hxg5 Nc5 27.Nc4 h6 28.Nxe5 hxg5 29.f3 Kg7 30.Ra3 Ra8 31.Bc6 Rfb8 32.Rc3 f6 33.Bxb7 Rxb7 34.Rxc5 fxe5 35.Rc6 Re8 36.Kf2 g4 37.Rbc1 gxf3 38.gxf3 Rf7 39.Rc7 Ref8 40.Ke3 Kh6 41.Rxf7 Rxf7 42.Rc6 b5 43.Re6 a5 44.Rxe5 b4 45.Re6 Rb7 46.Ra6 b3 47.axb3 Rxb3 48.Kf4 Ra3 49.d6 Kg7 50.Ke5 Rxf3 51.d7 1-0

Defending champion GM Alex Shabalov lost in the first round to GM Alex Yermolinsky and has been trying to catch up ever since. He needs to win his last three games for a chance at first place.

In the U.S. Women’s Championship, IMs Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih are in a race for first, with the latter taking a half-point lead in round 6. The two will meet in round 8 in what will surely be the deciding game.

Abrahamyan, Tatev (2239) – Zatonskih, Anna (2458) 2008 FKB U.S. Championship (5), 18.05.2008?

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6.Be2 Rc8 7.a3 c4 8.O-O Na5 9.Nbd2 Bc6 10.g3 Qd7 11.Nh4 Ba4 12.Qe1 Ne7 13.f4 h5 14.h3 Kd8 15.g4 hxg4 16.hxg4 Kc7 17.Qg3 Kb8 18.Ndf3 Ka8 19.Be3 Bc2 20.Rac1 Bh7 21.Ng5 Bg8 22.f5 exf5 23.gxf5 f6 24.e6 Qe8 25.Nh3 Bh7 26.Bg4 Rd8 27.Nf4 g5 28.fxg6 Bxg6 29.Rce1 Be4 30.Nfg2 Bg7 31.Bf3 Bxf3 32.Rxf3 Rg8 33.Bf4 Nac6 34.Bc7 Rc8 35.Bd6 Qh5 36.Qf2 Rh8 37.Rg3 Qh7 38.Qf4 Bh6 39.Qf3 Bg5 40.Rh3 Rcg8 41.Kh2 Bxh4 0-1

Official website: http://monroi.com/the-2008-fkb-us-chess-championship-home.html