www.uschess.org is the official Website of the US Chess Federation

The 1997 Interplay U.S. Chess Championships:
Standings Report After Round 6

This report was posted by Chess Life Online Editor Duif Calvin just before the final round in the Division Preliminaries. See the Features Section for later standing reports.

Sunday, August 31 will be the last round in the preliminary phase of the overall championship. Only two players from each of the two divisions will advance to the Semifinals next week. (In case of a tie for the top slots, there will be a playoff Monday).

Division 1 Standings

4.5 Christiansen

4.0 Benjamin,Fedorowicz

3.0 Gulko, Browne, Yermolinsky

2.0 Zamora

1.5 Ivanov

Meanwhile, 1996 US Junior Champion Jorge Zamora Jr. defeated GM A. Ivanov. NM Matt Guthrie, reporting from the site, says this is obviously a tournament Ivanov will be looking forward to forgetting (However his wife, Esther Epstein, is now leading in the Women's Division, so at least the family has some good news).

Pairings for the last round of the preliminaries will be: Benjamin-Browne, Christiansen-Fedorowicz, Gulko-Ivanov, and Zamora-Yermolinsky.

If Benjamin-Browne draw and Christiansen-Fedorowicz draw, then Christiansen would be guaranteed a spot in the Semis and Benjamin and Fedorowicz would have a play-off tomorrow for the second spot. This seems the most probable result. HOWEVER--the pairings slightly favor the two men, Browne and Yermolinsky, trying to play catch-up. If Christiansen defeats Fedorowicz and Browne defeats Benjamin, then Browne (and possibly Yermolinsky) could also join the group playing off for the second slot. But if Christiansen draws against Fedorowicz, then Yermolinsky and Browne are out of it. That seems the most likely outcome, but we'll have to see in today's round.

Division 2

4.0 Kaidanov

3.5 Shabalov, de Firmian, Seirawan

3.0 Dzindzichashvili, Schwartzman

2.0 Kudrin

1.5 Gurevich

Well, two of those three wins are on the board, and with Schwartzman's defeat of Nick de Firmian last night, Seirawan is suddenly right back in it!

Kaidanov drew with Shabalov, while Seirawan defeated Kudrin. (Dzindzichashvili kept his undefeated string intact with a draw with Gurevich.)

In today's pairings, Kaidanov will play de Firmian, Shabalov will play Seirawan, and it will be Kudrin-Dzindzichashvili and Gurevich-Schwartzman.

While there will be a lot of pressure to take a "safe"and get the round over with in Division 1, in Division 2, the "Seirawan factor" makes it hard to determine the right strategy. (Or maybe we should call it the Schwartman Factor, as the youngest player in the Division has also added the most unpredictability to the results.)

If Kaidanov draws with de Firmian, for example, that's good for Kaidanov of course--but a win by Shabalov would knock de Firmian out of the Semis. Similarly, if Shabalov and Seirawan draw, a win by de Firmian could knock Shabalov out. More importantly, though, Seirawan HAS to win to have a chance. He plays sharp lines anyway. So the other three (Kaidanov, de Firmian, and Shabalov) have to assume that the Shabalov-Seirawan game will probably have a decisive result.

It's even possible for Kaidanov to get knocked out if both Shabalov and de Firmian win!

Even the 20 year old Schwartzman from Florida is still mathematically in it--a draw by Seirawan and a draw in Kaidanov-de Firmian would leave an opening where a win by Schwartzman would sneak him into the playoffs for a Semi spot, tied with Seirawan, Shabalov, and de Firmian.

All of which adds up to lots of excitement, especially surrounding the Shabalov-Seirawan game.

Now here! Online Shopping