| Round One Closes in Tulsa |
| By Jennifer Shahade | |
| May 13, 2008 | |
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Besides the board two shocker in which Shabalov blundered against Yermolinsky , the first round of the Frank Berry U.S.
Championship featured few upsets. On board one, GMs Jesse Kraai and Alexander Onischuk fought to a draw by perpetual check. 1924 Meanwhile on board three, GM Gregory Kaidanov defeated Josh Friedel smoothly. 1923 This wins puts Kaidanov on board one in round two, where he will face Dmitry Gurevich. Full pairings are: Frank Berry US Chess Championship Round 2 Pairings 1 Gurevich, Dmitry 2594 - Kaidanov, Gregory 2697 2 Kudrin, Sergey 2588 - Ivanov, Alexander 2628 3 Yermolinsky, Alex 2568 - Gulko, Boris 2623 4 Ippolito, Dean 2512 - Onischuk, Alexander 2728 5 Shulman, Yury 2676 - Pruess, David 2497 6 Kraai, Jesse 2569 - Akobian, Varuzhan 2666 7 Becerra, Julio 2648 - Fedorowicz, John 2514 8 Perelshteyn, Eugene 2626 - Langer, Michael 2307 9 Finegold, Benjamin 2613 - Ludwig, Daniel 2429 10 Shabalov, Alexander 2709 - Kaufman, Larry 2398 11 Friedel, Josh 2539 - Shankland, Sam 2299 12 Vigorito, David 2439 - Galant, Sergey 2176 The concurrent U.S. Women's Championship featured four decisive results, with the higher-rated player winning in each case: Krush, Zatonskih, Airapetian and Tuvshintugs. In her game against Irina Krush, Tatev Abrahayman saw her best chance to fight for a draw when Irina's queen was momentarily unprotected. After Qd7, Tatev should seize the chance to trade queens with fxg6, after which a forcing variation ensues: Qxh3 28. gxh7+ Kg7 29. Rxh3 Bxe4 30. Rxh5. Black is still better but Tatev has a lot less to worry about than she did in the game, where her king is too weak. 1922 Iryna Zenyuk seemed to defend well against Anna Zatonskih's kingside attack to reach an imbalanced endgame. However, Iryna was unable to resist Zatonskih's extra two pawns and the 2006 Champ reeled in the full point. 1925 Frank Berry U.S. Women's Championship Round 2 Pairings Courtney Jamison vs. Chimi Tuvshintugs Irina Krush vs. Esther Epstein Tsagaan Battsetseg vs. Tatev Abrahayman iryna Zenyuk vs. Katerine Rohonyan Chouchanik Airapetian vs. Anna Zatonskih Check Monroi.com for other games, including live games tomorrow at 3:30 EST. |