Shulman Wins; Hess Wows
By Jennifer Shahade   
March 23, 2008
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Yury Shulman, Foxwoods Open Champion. Photo Michael Atkins
Yury Shulman won the Foxwoods Open (March 19-23) title after a victory in the Armageddon match against Alexander Ivanov. Ivanov and Shulman faced off in the match because of their superior tiebreaks, but three other players also earned 7 points: IM Robert Hess, GM Julio Becerra and GM Alexander Shabalov. Among many outstanding performances, 16-year-old IM Robert Hess's stands out. Robert overfilled his first GM norm by a full point by defeating Alexander Stripunsky in the last round. This is his seventh straight GM opponent and his fourth GM scalp of the event.

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That the Shulman-Ivanov tiebreak game was decided by a blunder (32...Qf4?)  is unsurpising in any blitz game, particularly a blitz game after five grueling days of chess. If Ivanov had found 31...Re5 instead of Ng4, White would have been in big trouble.

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Chris Bird reports other norm news from the scene: "Williams IM norm confirmed - he drew with Mackenzie Molner.  Marcel Martinez lost to Sadvakasov so no norm there. Special mention should go to Melekhina who scored an WIM norm but didn't play enough foreigners. Enkbhat norm news still pending."

Watch for a report co-written by Elizabeth Vicary and Jennifer Shahade tomorrow iwth more details on Robert Hess's victory, in addition to an upcoming final blog from Jonathan Hilton.