IM Irina Krush is performing really well in this tournament. She is on pace for a GM norm, which would be her 2nd. Her 1st GM norm came in 2001 at the NY City Mayor’s Cup which I organized. In that event, she tied for 1st with GM Novikov. Irina will be back at Texas Tech University for the 2010 SPICE Cup B group. I will definitely root for Irina!
In round 8, the rest of the field will compete for 4th place and higher money prizes. The top 4 seeds, Nakamura, Kamsky, Onischuk, and Shulman will play a quad for the national title.
Round 8 pairings:
| 1 | GM Nakamura, Hikaru | 5.0 | 2699 | – GM Kamsky, Gata | 5.0 | 2733 | |
| 2 | GM Onischuk, Alexander | 5.0 | 2613 | – GM Shulman, Yuri | 5.0 | 2702 | |
| 3 | GM Stripunsky, Alexander | 4.5 | 2570 | – GM Christiansen, Larry | 4.5 | 2578 | |
| 4 | GM Finegold, Benjamin | 4.0 | 2539 | – GM Hess, Robert L | 4.0 | 2590 | |
| 5 | GM Shabalov, Alexander | 4.0 | 2585 | – IM Krush, Irina | 4.0 | 2455 | |
| 6 | GM Kraai, Jesse | 3.5 | 2492 | – GM Yermolinsky, Alex | 4.0 | 2528 | |
| 7 | GM Akobian, Varuzhan | 3.5 | 2599 | – GM Ehlvest, Jaan | 3.5 | 2591 | |
| 8 | GM Robson, Ray | 3.0 | 2569 | – GM Khachiyan, Melikset | 3.0 | 2539 | |
| 9 | GM Bhat, Vinay S | 2.5 | 2547 | – GM Kaidanov, Gregory | 3.0 | 2577 | |
| 10 | GM Benjamin, Joel | 2.5 | 2565 | – IM Altounian, Levon | 2.5 | 2454 | |
| 11 | GM Gurevich, Dmitry | 2.0 | 2488 | – GM Lenderman, Alex | 2.5 | 2598 | |
| 12 | GM Kudrin, Sergey | 2.0 | 2571 | – IM Shankland, Samuel | 1.5 | 2507 |
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Krush is strong. Should have had 1.5 points more.
Today, Larry C. had a really great position against Nakamura. Nothing against Nakamura, but would have been great if Larry had won. He is playing really well. Too bad he had Black against Onischuk and Kamsky. Also, love his commentary on ICC. He has been showing lines with deep and accurate analysis long before others were willing to go out on a limb.
I hope Irina gets a GM norm number 2! She is playing great chess!
Don’t you nrrd to get 3 norms and a 2500 rating in a 4 year span to get GM title?
Won’t happen, she’ll fold.
Yes, Larry had tough breaks by having Black against Onischuk and Kamsky.
If she makes GM norm again, I’ll eat my sneakers.
I don’t think there’s a time limit anymore on norms.
Nice hat Irina! It’ll be interesting to see if she can defend against Shabalov. She should have beaten Ehlvest and at least drawn Christiansen.
Yeah she is icecold in that hat i’ll rate here about 2600! Susan thats a nice hat Jesse Kraii got on too , tell him to give it to Irina so she can play it right! Susan check out Daiaam on the chess drum he over there in African , go down 3 pictures and you will see that UM right he looks like he always up to something even if he isnt, look at him Smilling and Grinning with thoses eyes!!! hahaaha.
Been a fan every since she put in a major effort in the Kasparov-World game.
Hope she makes it!