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Chess Life Online 2010 April US Women's and Juniors Closing Gallery
Chess Life Online 2010 April US Women's and Juniors Closing Gallery | US Women's and Juniors Closing Gallery |
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| July 27, 2010 | |
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US Women's Champ Irina Krush and US Junior Champ Sam Shankland were
crowned a week ago at a closing ceremony at the Saint Louis University John Cook School of business. To the delight of the crowd, USCF executive director Bill Hall announced that the 2011 US Women's would also be held in Saint Louis, and that the possibility of a 2011 US Juniors in Saint Louis was also being discussed. The US Juniors competitors all received laptops by a tournament sponsor HP, including three juiced up ones for the top three finishers, Sam Shankland, Ray Robson and Parker Zhao. The event was captured in photos by Suzy Gorman.  Mayor Francis G. Slay, 2010 US Women's Champion Irina Krush and CCSCSL president Rex Sinquefield with Irina's record-breaking $16,000 prize check. Sinquefield joked, "I hope this puts you into a higher tax bracket."  2010 US Junior Champion Sam Shankland and joint second-place finisher Tatev Abrahamyan, who also won the 9queens/goddesschess fighting chess prize.  Jeanne Sinquefield announcing the Boy Scouts Chess merit badge.  Runner-up GM Ray Robson gave a touching speech in which he complimented the organizers and his rivals and urged IM Sam Shankland to stick with chess. 
Alisa Melekhina, Katerina Rohonyan and Tatev Abrahamyan
Irina Krush with her coach, GM Georgi Kacheishvili
WIM Iryna Zenyuk
Reigning US Women's Champ IM Irina Krush, CCSCSL founder and president Rex Sinquefield and chair and commentator Jennifer Shahade
IM Irina Krush during her victory speech
US #1 ranked player GM Hikaru Nakamura, Rex Sinquefield and CCSCSL GM-in-residence Ben Finegold
Runner-up IM Anna Zatonskih gave a 7-board blindfold simultaneous prior to the closing ceremony, breaking her own record for a public simultaneous exhibition by a woman from 2009, when she played five boards. She won all the games both years. 
Parker Zhao
See more photos on the gallery page of the US Women's and Juniors Championship homepage. A future Chess Life Magazine will feature articles the US Women's by Irina Krush and the US Juniors by Andrea Rosen. CLO also recorded a short rap video by IM Irina Krush, so stay tuned to uschess.org--you don't want to miss it. |