About the Championship
Prize Fund
Total Prize Fund – $130,400
- 1st – $35,000
- 2nd – $15,000
- 3rd – $10,000
- 4th – $8,000
- 5th – $7,000
- 6th – $6,000
- 7th – $5,000
- 8th – $4,000
- 9th – $3,600
- 10th – $3,300
- 11th – $3,000
- 12th – $2,900
- 13th-16th – $2,600
- 17th-20th – $2,300
- 21st-24th – $2,000
If the 2009 U.S. Championship ends in a tie for first, all tied players up to a total of four players will contest a playoff match for the title of 2009 U.S. Champion and for the $5000 Jackpot Bonus. If there are more than four players tied for first the following tie-breaks will be used to determine four players to contest tiebreak C below: (1) Modified median, (2) Solkoff, (3) Cumulative, (4) Cumulative of Opposition, (5) Most Blacks, (6) Score against other Tied Players (7) Most Wins. In all cases, the main prize pool will be split equally.
A. Two Players:
If two players tie for first, they will enter a tiebreak that begins at 5:00 pm or no earlier than an hour after the conclusion of either Player’s final round.
The base time for the game is 45 minutes+ 5 second increment. It will be a draw odds game (Black wins on a draw.) The players will both bid on the amount of time (minutes and seconds, a number equal or less to 45:00) that they are willing to play with in order to choose their color.
The player who bid the lower number of time chooses his or her color and gets the amount of time they wrote down; the other side always receives 45:00. If both players pick exactly the same number, the chief arbiter will flip a coin to determine who shall choose their color.
If either player wins, he or she gets the title of U.S. Champion and the $5,000 Jackpot Bonus. If the game is a draw, Black wins the title of U.S. Champion, but the Jackpot Bonus will be split equally.
B. Three players:
The Playoff for three players or more begins at 5 pm on May 17, 2009. If there are three players tied for first, the player with the highest tie-breaks in the math tie-breaks will choose between a.) getting a bye into the first round or b.) playing the preliminary round. If he or she chooses b.), the bye into the final round will be passed on to the next player by tiebreak, and if the second player by tiebreak also refuses the bye, it will be forced on to the final player by tiebreak.
Preliminary round:
Players ranked 2 and 3 by math tie-breaks will contest a bidding draw odds game like the one above except instead of 45 minutes base time the base time will be 25 minutes+ 5 second increment.
Final round:
After a ten minute break, the winner of the preliminary round will play the player with a bye in another 25+5 increment draw odds game. This will not be a bidding game. The player who won the preliminary round will chose whether he prefers White or Black and draw odds. The Jackpot Bonus and Championship title will be awarded to the players in the final match as described above.
C. Four players:
The Playoff begins at 5 pm.
Preliminary round
Math tie-breaks will determine which Players are paired for play: 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3. They will contest two preliminary 25+5 second increment bidding games as described above.
Final round
After a ten-minute break, the winner of each of the preliminaries will contest a final 25+5 draw odds bidding game. The title of U.S. Champion will be determined by this game, and the Jackpot Bonus will be awarded as described above.
Source: http://saintlouischessclub.org/US-Championship-2009-About
This is the most professionally run U.S. Championship, unlike the joke in Oklahoma in the past few years.