Yury Shulman, our new U.S. Open Champ

GM Yury Shulman takes clear first in the U.S. Open! His key victory was in Round 8, in which he defeated GM Alexander Shabalov. In round 9, he met a peaceful Emilio Cordova. When Fedorowicz was unable to win a better endgame against Michael Aigner, Yury's 8/9 was untouchable.

Here is Yury's eighth round game against GM Alexander Shabalov:

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Yury was the fourth rated GM in the tournament, but as the top Chicago area player and the youngest GM playing, no one could be surprised by his victory. Yury's been playing excellent chess lately and this victory must make up in part for having come so close to victory at the U.S. Championship in San Diego. The U.S. Open prize check is almost 20K shy of the U.S. Championship grand prize, but his name enters history all the same, along with luminaries such as Fischer (1957) and Reshevsky (1931,1934,1944).
Click here for Yury's recent interview with CLO.

No more f4!

Michael Aigner, known as "f-pawn" on the ICC defeated IM Timothy Taylor in the eighth round, and went on to hold a draw against GM John Fedorowicz. Only a few FIDE points away from the FM title, this tourney should easily put him over the top. Here's his game against IM Timothy Taylor.

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Michael said that normally he doesn't play 1.d4, but he was attracted to this line. As for his old favorite and ICC namesake 1.f4, Michael jokes, "I get hate mail from my coach when I play 1.f4!"

Standings

1. Yury Shulman: 8/9

2-9: IM Emilio Cordova, GM John Fedorowicz, Michael Aigner, GM Gregory Kaidanov, GM Giorgi Kacheishvili, GM Joel Benjamin, GM Dmitry Gurevich, IM Alfonso Almeida.

U2200 winners-Ryan Militsis and Tony Cao: 7/9

Click here for complete standings.

Click here for last round results.

Photo Gallery


Alexander Barnett and Andrew Karklins had tough last round pairings to GMs Dmitry Gurevich and Joel Benjamin. The Grandmasters both won.


GM John Fedorowicz was upset not to win a better endgame against Michael Aigner and tie for first in the U.S. Open.


Two talented kids, Amanda Mateer from Arizona, and Sean Vibbert from Indiana, duke it out. (Amanda won.)


Emilio Cordova defeated Joel Benjamin in Round 8. His only chance to win the U.S. Open title was to defeat Shulman, but he went for a quick draw instead.


There were a lot more girls in this tournament than usual. This is one of the many intimidation techniques they came up with. Left to right: Sarah Selby, Krista Selby and Stephanie Pitcher.


Daaim Shabazz is best known for creating and updating "The Chess Drum", which follows the achievements of African and African-American chess champs.