Iryna Zenyuk. Photo Elizabeth Vicary.

by Jennifer Shahade

Just before midnight on Sunday,April 8, Gata Kamsky and Zviad Izoria faced off for the title of Foxwoods Open Champion. Kamsky and Izoria had the highest tiebreaks among the four-way tie for first, which also included Ildar Ibragimov and Alexander Stripunsky. The blitz game was for a free hotel room throughout next year's Foxwoods Open.


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Why did Zviad resign in the final position? Puzzle it out yourself or read Gata Kamsky's own analysis in Jerry Hanken's July Chess Life Magazine article.

Women in Foxwoods

20-year-old Iryna Zenyuk had a breakthrough tournament in Foxwoods. In addition to winning her first WIM norm, she broke the 2200 barrier for the first time ever. This must have been satisfying as her published rating on the April, 2007 list is the frustrating 2199. Here is her favorite game from the event, against Xiao Cheng:

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Irina Krush had a solid event in Foxwoods, tying for the U2500 prize with David Pruess. She gained 8 rating points for a post-tourney rating of 2488 and is creeping steadily toward 2500 USCF. Still, she was not thrilled with her result, as she lost to one lower rated player, Thomas Bartell, and would have preferred to be battling on the top boards more often.

Anna Ginzburg tied for first place in the U1800. However, because of a new anti-sandbagging rule that prohibits full participation from players who have a rating over the signified class in a published supplement, she was only able to take home $1,000 of the $4,000 prize. She hadn't played for a while, and didn't expect to win, so although she was disappointed in the money, she was still happy with herself. Anna had just found out she was accepted into Columbia University, her dream school. "Between Columbia and Foxwoods, this has been the best two weeks of my life."
Here is her favorite game from the event:

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Anna Ginzburg

Photo Gallery by Elizabeth Vicary


GM Dmitry Gurevich and his student, Brian Lau.


GM Zviad Izoria defeated Jesse Kraai in the last round to tie for first in Foxwoods, but lost the title to Gata in the playoff.


IM David Vigorito with his new book on the 4.Qc2 Nimzo Indian


Alexander Stripunsky defeated Alexander Shabalov in a tough last round fight to tie for first in Foxwoods.