The Chess Party Begins in Irvine
August 1, 2010
The traditional schedule of the Jerry Hanken Memorial/US Open (July 31-August 8), Denker tournament of high school champs, US Junior Girls Open and the World Chess Live Tournament of College Champs all began Saturday night. You can watch the top boards of the Denker, TOC and the US Open live on Monroi.com.

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GM Melikset Khachiyan, Photo courtesy Monroi.com
See pairings and results from all tournaments on the official website. Round 1 of the US Open featured 3 GMs. GM Hikaru Nakamura is also in attendance, but does not plan to play, but rather relax before a big event at the NH Masters in Amsterdam. Alejandro Ramirez, Melikset Khachiyan and former World Senior Champ Larry Kaufman all won their first round games.  

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Dewain Barber opens the 2010 US Denker, Photo courtesy Monroi


In round one of the Denker, Stephen Mau of Hawaii upset Kevin Mo of PA and Richard Lee of NV upset Prashantha Amarasinghe of MN. 

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Steven Zierk's pre-tournament simul featured one very tough opponent,  Photo courtesy Monroi


Top seed Steven Zierk of Northern California won his game, fully recovered from what must have been a very difficult simul (see above photo). 

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In the 1st Trophies Plus Girls Junior Open, rating favorite Simone Liao got off to a good start:

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The World Chess Live tournament of College Champs features four IMs and one GM, Timur Gareyev. Surprisingly, Gareyev was nicked for a draw in round against Artur Safin (2174) from Texas.

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Look for more coverage on CLO of the US Open in Irvine,
including reports by Randy Hough, who previewed the Denker a couple days ago.