This week's updates

Yesterday saw the rapid-play playoff games for Round 2. A score of 1.5 (one win and one draw) advances to Round 3. If the two players are tied at the end of the two games, then a play-off sequence takes place the third day of the round. (For information on play-off rules, see the official FIDE site.) Nine Americans competed in the event. Eight played in Round 1, of which three advanced into Round 2, and one had an automatic entry into Round 2. A total of 72 players were entered in Round 1; 70 of them showed up to play.

The two remaining Americans, Gata Kamsky and Alex Yermolinsky, both bowed out quietly in the second round rapid-play playoffs. The fourth seed, Kamsky (2720) lost the first Game/25 contest and drew the second to go down 21/2-11/2 to Russian GM Alexander Khalifman (the 36th seed, [2628]), while the Yermonator (45th seed Alex Yermolinsky [2588]) lost both Game/25 playoffs to 13th seeded Russian GM Sergei Rublevsky (2660) to go down 3-1. Boris Gulko was eliminated in Round 2 by Belarus GM Alexei Fedorov. Tal Shaked was eliminated in Round 2 by Rumanian GM Kirl Georgiev.

Second seed GM Alexei Shirov of Spain (2734) won his playoff series against Bosnian GM Ivan Sokolov (2656) after losing the first game of his Round 2 match with the White pieces. A couple upsets in the second round included Armenian GM Karen Asrian (#52) taking out English GM Matthew Sadler (#20) and Brazil GM Gilberto Milos (#50) shutting out Russian GM Valery Salov (#18) 2-0. But there were even more upsets in the 2nd round playoffs. Besides Khalifman (#36) taking out Kamsky (#4), there was Russian GM Lev Psakhis (#57) taking out Israel GM Ilia Smirin (#25), Spanish GM Jordi Magem Badals (#64) taking out French GM Vladislav Tkachiev (#32), and Romanian GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (#46) disposing of Russian GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili (#14).

Many of the American's games are available in auto-play format (one diagram per move) with commentary from GM Rohde in our Games Archives. No Java is required to view these games. Note, however, that there were problems with the FIDE feeds for this day and not all games are current. See the FIDE Official site for complete results.

GM Gata Kamsky lost in the Game/25 playoffs to Russian GM Alexander Khalifman and so is eliminated.

GM Alex Yermolinsky was eliminated in the second round Game/25 playoffs by Russian GM Sergei Rublevsky.

GM Boris Gulko was eliminated in Round 2 by Belarus GM Alexei Fedorov.

1997 FIDE World Junior Champion GM Tal Shaked was eliminated in Round 2 by Rumanian GM Kirl Georgiev.

GM Joel Benjamin, 2579, eliminated in Round 1 after a five game playoff.

GM Dmitri Gurevich, 2537, eliminated in Round 1 after a six game playoff.

Current US Champion, GM Nick de Firmian, 2598, eliminated in Round 1.

GM Sergei Kudrin, 2525, eliminated in Round 1.

GM Alexander Ivanov, 2515, eliminated in Round 1.

Schedule and Player Information

Round by Round Results Summaries

Quarter Finals (8 Players Remain)

Semi Finals (4 Players Remain)

The US Chess Federation is the official sanctioning body for tournament chess in the United States, and for US participation in international chess events. It has over 80,000 members. In addition to rating tournaments, the USCF supports and promotes chess activities in scholastics and correspondence chess. The USCF publishes two national magazines, CHESS LIFE and SCHOOLMATES (for children).