U.S. Championships, Round 1

The U.S. Championship and the Women's Championship began this afternoon: the only game in progress involves the #1 player in Illinois, GM Yury Shulman.  FM John Bryant is up the Exchange, but Yury seems to have a (tricky) tablebase draw in hand...

After 112...Kc5!, White has no time to take: 113.Rxg4 hxg4 114.Kxg4 (otherwise the pawn queens) 114...Kd6 is a dead draw.

The game continues, so I hope this post is not a jinx.  (Update: drawn in 130 moves.)

Our other local representative, WIM Viktorija Ni, drew comfortably against WGM Camilla Baginskaite

May 7-20 in St. Louis: U.S. Chess Championship

Press release at Chess Life Online: time for a road trip!

The field is incredibly strong: our own Yury Shulman is seeded tenth, and GMs like Shankland, Christiansen, Benjamin, and Shabalov did not make the cut (don't know whether GM Jaan Ehlvest declined an invitation or missed the cut).

 The women's field is equally impressive. It's nice to see the U.S. Championship return to an élite event!