Story at Chess Life Online!
It's not clear who the U.S. Championship qualifier from this event will be, as GM Ramirez still represents Costa Rica, and the formula calls for the top finisher not otherwise qualifying by rating. Needlessly confusing....
2 comments:
the confused is you. I clarify: the Costa Rican Alejandro Ramirez won the U.S. Open Chess. A Zamora
My comment was a bit confusing: let me try again.
GM Ramirez won the U.S. OPEN Championship. Last year, the winner (and others) also qualified for the U.S. CLOSED Championship.
So Dmitry Gurevich (of particular local interest to us in Illinois!) won the 2009 U.S. Open in Indianapolis & qualified for the U.S. Open Closed this year in St. Louis.
It's very frequent for a non-US player to win the U.S. Open: Judit Polgar, Bent Larsen, Florin Gheorghiu, Walter Browne (under Australian flag), Vlastimil Hort, Boris Spassky!, and Vadim Milov, to name a few. I simply meant that the rule could have been better articulated before the event (had this not been a qualifier for St. Louis, I think the field would have been much weaker).
Quoting from Chess Life Online:
"Ramirez, a graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas, has applied for permanent residency and may change his federation, but for now he continues to represent Costa Rica. The 2011 U.S. Championship in Saint Louis goes to the highest scoring eligible player, but Akobian is a near lock to get in on rating, and Shabalov is also likely to make the rating cut. That leaves Naroditsky as a possible qualifier from this tournament."
Regards,
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