CHESSBASE: US CHAMPIONSHIP

Shulman wins US Championship; Zatonskih wins Women's Title
23.05.2008 – GM Yury Shulman won the 2008 Frank K. Berry U.S. Championship with 7/9, with IM Johhua Friedel completing his final GM norm. In the Women's Championship IMs Anna Zatonskih and Irina Krush tied for first, then went into dramatic blitz tiebreaks, which Anna won in the last possible second. You can watch the scene in a new version of this dramatic video.

The 2008 FKB US Chess Championship The championships were sponsored by IA Frank K. Berry and held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, at the Radisson Hotel. The main championship was a 9-round Swiss with 24 players, and the women’s championship a ten-player round robin. The rate of play was 40 moves in 100 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with with 30 seconds increment per move. The first prize was $13,000 plus a Caribbean cruise.

Yury Shulman wins US Championship; Anna Zatonskih wins Women’s Title

By Tom Braunlich

Yury Shulman won the 24-player 9-SS event sponsored by Frank K. Berry in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with solid play that included wins over GMs Gulko, Kaidanov, Becerra, Kudrin, and IM Pruess. He had a full point lead going into round nine and a quick draw with IM Josh Friedel gave him the title, while also giving Friedel his third GM norm. An example of Shulman’s play was win over veteran GM Boris Gulko.

US Champion 2008: GM Yury Schulman, with 7.0/9 and a 2760 performance

Gulko,B (2559) - Shulman,Y (2606) [E04]
Frank K Berry ch-USA Tulsa USA (3), 15.05.2008
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 a6 6.Ne5 c5 7.Na3 cxd4 8.Naxc4 Bc5 9.Bd2 Nd5 10.Rc1 0-0 11.0-0 Nd7 12.Nd3 Ba7 13.Ba5 Qe7 14.Qb3 Rb8 15.Nce5 Nxe5 16.Nxe5 Qf6 17.Nd3 b6 18.Bb4 Rd8 19.Bxd5 Rxd5 20.Rc7 Bb7 21.Be7 Qf5 22.Qc2 e5 23.Rc1 h6 24.Nb4

24...d3! 25.exd3 Rd7 26.Rxb7 Rbxb7 27.Qc8+ Kh7 28.Nxa6 Qxd3 29.Nb4 Qd2 30.Bf8 Rb8 0-1.

Alex Onischuk was clear second with 6½, and Sergey Kudrin was clear third with 6.0/9

Final standings in the open championship

#	Player	Title	Rating	Pts.	Perf.
1.	Shulman, Yuri	GM	2606	7	2760
2.	Onischuk, Alexander	GM	2664	6½	2707
3.	Kudrin, Sergey	GM	2549	6	2672
4.	Friedel, Joshua E	IM	2484	5½	2614
5.	Akobian, Varuzhan	GM	2601	5½	2596
6.	Perelshteyn, Eugene	GM	2552	5½	2559
7.	Becerra Rivero, Julio	GM	2575	5	2597
8.	Ivanov, Alexander	GM	2560	5	2517
9.	Finegold, Benjamin	IM	2539	5	2508
10.	Gulko, Boris F	GM	2559	5	2501
11.	Kaidanov, Gregory	GM	2596	4½	2545
12.	Fedorowicz, John P	GM	2459	4½	2543
13.	Shabalov, Alexander	GM	2633	4½	2487
14.	Gurevich, Dmitry	GM	2513	4½	2429
15.	Yermolinsky, Alex	GM	2518	4	2514
16.	Kraai, Jesse	GM	2509	4	2465
17.	Pruess, David	IM	2425	4	2455
18.	Ludwig, Daniel		2357	4	2423
19.	Vigorito, David	IM	2405	3½	2351
20.	Langer, Michael	FM	2254	3½	2352
21.	Ippolito, Dean	IM	2425	3½	2342
22.	Kaufman, Larry C	IM	2365	3½	2353
23.	Shankland, Samuel		2296	2½	2237
24.	Galant, Sergey		2235	1½	2135