The 2003 Continental Championships for the Americas turned out to be a star-studded affair with no less than 30 Grandmasters (GM) in the 151 player field. Held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 16 - 30, this event featured a total prize fund of $72,000 and offered 7 qualifying spots for the next FIDE World Championship.

American GM Alexander Goldin led from start to finish and was awarded first place on tie-break over Brazilian GM Giovanni Vescovi, each scoring 8.5 points in 11 games. Six players scored 8 points to tie for third through eighth place. They were American GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Onischuk and Yuri Shulman, GM Ivan Morovic of Chile, GM Lazaro Bruzon of Cuba and IM Pascal Charbonneau from Canada. As Charbonneau had already qualified for the World Championship through the Canadian zonal, the other 5 players secured the remaining qualifying spots.

Going into the last round, it soon became clear that 8 points would be needed to qualify as the top three boards ended in quick draws. Goldin and Vescovi were safe, while Morovic, Nakamura and Bruzon anxiously awaited the results on the next four boards to determine whether a playoff would be needed. The pivotal games were Onischuk-Wojtkiewicz, Shulman-Novikov, Dominguez-Kudrin and Kaidanov-Vasquez.

Kaidanov (6.5) held Vasquez (7) to a draw, eliminating the latter from contention. Shulman registered a comfortable win against Novikov to reach 8 points. The final two games kept the entire audience on edge as the four players battled it out with precious 30 second increments. Finally, Onischuk prevailed to reach the magic number 8. One more decisive game would mean a playoff the next day to eliminate a single player. But Dominguez with an extra bishop could not escape Kudrin's perpetual check in a queen endgame and the dreaded playoff was avoided.

Thus Goldin, Nakamura, Onischuk and Shulman joined GMs Shabalov, Kaidanov, Gulko, Benjamin and Stripunsky who had already qualified through the US Championship, to form an impressive US contingent for the World Championship. It is certainly no accident that these nine players are all ranked in the top thirteen players in the nation in the August 2003 Rating Supplement.

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