The Sands’ Report

Shulman wins U.S. chess title
By David R. Sands
May 24, 2008

He came up just short the last two years, but Chicago GM Yury Shulman wouldn’t be denied this time.

With a dominating midtournament stretch, the Belarus-born Shulman won his first U.S. national title, winning the Frank K. Berry U.S. Championship tournament outright with an undefeated 7-2 score, a half-point ahead of GM Alexander Onischuk.

Shulman finished second in 2006 to Onischuk and third in the 2007 event, won by Alex Shabalov. This year, he put the field in his rear-view mirror with five wins and a draw in six games starting in Round 2. His victims in the streak included four grandmasters — Boris Gulko, Gregory Kaidanov, Sergey Kudrin and Julio Becerra Rivero.

A short final-round draw Wednesday with IM Josh Friedel clinched the title for the 33-year-old Shulman, while Friedel’s 5½-3½ score gave him his third and final norm for the grandmaster title.

Potomac IM Larry Kaufman, hurt by a slow start, finished with a 3-6 score, tying for 20th in the strong 24-man field.

There was high drama on the women’s side, as Anna Zatonskih caught front-runner IM Irina Krush with a last-round win over Tsagaan Battsetseg, and then prevailed in a winner-take-all blitz game after she and Krush split four previous rapid and blitz playoff matches. It’s the second U.S. women’s title for Ukrainian-born Zatonskih, who also won in 2006.

Source: Washington Times