Photo Jennifer Shahade

by Jennifer Shahade

There was a seven-way tie in the U.S. Open(Cherry Hill, NJ July 28-August 5). Boris Gulko, Alexander Shabalov, Sergey Kudrin, Benjamin Finegold, Michael Rohde, Michael Mulyar and Anton Del Mundo all scored 7.5/9, good for $2263. Gulko won the title on tiebreak.

Alexander Shabalov tried and almost succeeded in winning against Sergey Kudrin on board one, which would have earned him clear first place. Shabalov says that instead of 37.c4+, allowing a long variation after which Black is fine he should have improved his position slowly: "He has no counterplay. I'm lucky I'm not losing after Kd4."

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Alexander Shabalov and Elizabeth Vicary at an excellent French-Thai restaurant near the Crowne Plaza. Photo Jennifer Shahade


Sergey Kudrin. Photo Jennifer Shahade

Anton Del Mundo and Michael Mulyar were the only two in the winners circle who won their last round games. Michael's game featured some interesting tactics. 24...Rxb5 was a mistake because Black cannot return his rook to the e-file in view of Rxe2 Rxe2 Nxe2 Rxe2 Rc8 winning the queen. Black should have played 24...Re4 Qb1(or b2) Bf3, when the game looks equal.

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Hikaru Nakamura was not happy with his tournament or his last round draw against Michael Rohde as this was his chance to share first place.

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Rumor is that he was distracted by a girl in the Polgar tournament, hence his enthusiastic participation in the awards ceremony. (Along with many other young chess lumanaires seen below.)


America's top talent supports the young ladies in the Susan Polgar Invitational for Girls. Front, Left to Right: NM Eric Rodriguez, U.S. Junior Champion Marc Arnold, FM Elliot Liu- Back Row: World Youth coach FM Aviv Friedman, GM Hikaru Nakamura, Danny Rohde and Brian Goldstein. Photo Jennifer Shahade


Something you don't see too often: Six girls playing Bughouse. Photo Elizabeth Vicary.


Abby Marshall and Darrian Robinson playing mini-golf. Abby Marshall tied for 8-18th and top U2200 player. Read Abby's blog from Cherry Hill. Photo Elizabeth Vicary.

U.S. Open, Cherry Hill, NJ July 28-August 5
Final Standings
1-7- Boris Gulko, Sergey Kudrin, Benjamin Finegold, Alexander Shabalov, Michael Rohde, Michael Mulyar and Anton Del Mundo.
8-18- Hikaru Nakamura, Amon Simutowe, Alex Lenderman, Mikhail Zlotnikov, Dean Ippolito, Alexander Barnett, Ronald Henry, Abby Marshall(joint U2200 prize), Andy May (joint U2200 prize), Naor Brown (clear U2000 winner) and Tegshsuren Enkhbat.

Complete Final Standings and Crosstable