2012 U.S. Championships News

By FM Mike Klein

IM Irina Krush won both games of yesterday's rapid playoff match to become the 2012 U.S. Women's Champion. Playing black, Krush beat defending champion IM Anna Zatonskih in the first encounter, then survived several exceptional blunders to win game two.

An emotional Krush ran downstairs after the second game and hugged everyone in sight. Zatonskih and Krush have now alternated wins at the women's championship for the past four years. The duo have won the last seven titles combined, and this was Krush's fourth in her career.

“That's a scary-looking position when all you need is a draw,” Krush said during the post-game commentary. After winning the first game, she found herself on the wrong end of an all-out attack. Zatonskih's two bishops, two knights and queen were all poised to strike. The enemy queen on h3 loomed ominously on one of Krush's weak light squares. Krush said she simply missed the idea of 19...Ne5 with the idea of heading to g4. She set up a second-rank defense by clearing out her minor pieces, but she panicked after the pin 22...Bf5. While it seems dangerous to stay in the pin, it was better than her chosen alternative, 23. Ng5. The counterattack should have failed, but while all of the fellow competitors saw 23...Qxf1+ right away, Zatonskih sat there analyzing for several minutes.

“I just thought maybe she's savoring the moment,” Krush said, admitting she saw the refutation almost immediately after her knight move. Eventually, Zatonskih played a different move. Krush called the situation “my first gift ... unfortunately my position is still positionally terrible.” The second gift came on the final move.

Though Zatonskih's 23rd move was not the best, she still had a much more pleasant position. Krush labored to find more defensive moves and had to sacrifice an exchange almost right away to prevent the loss of her c4 pawn and the subsequent demise of her lone bishop.

“It wasn't even easy to get to that losing position,” Krush said. She was down to fewer than five seconds repeatedly, but stayed alive with the five-second increment. The two previously had a contentious title decided in 2008 without the use of increment. Zatonskih squandered her six-minute advantage but still kept a winning position. She eventually found an invasion for her rooks. After Krush's 47. Ne5 to defend the c-pawn, Krush expected 47...f6 to deflect the knight, after which she said, “Black is just losing of course.”

Instead, with her clock almost expired, Zatonskih played 47...Rxc4 almost immediately. The recapture 48. Nxc4 ended the game, as Zatonskih resigned right away.

“Anything can happen when you're down to five seconds,” Krush said. “It's not every day that your opponent gives you a rook – twice!”

In their first game, Krush equalized with the ...c6 variation of the Modern Defense. Zatonskih had the possibility to repeat the position by chasing Krush's queen back and forth, but instead chose the risky advance g4. Krush's knight sortie to e4 turned the tables, and eventually her queen probed the weak white king. After landing on f3, and with both rooks on the second rank, Zatonskih could not find an answer in the few seconds she had remaining and lost on time.

Krush wins $18,000 for the title, while Zatonskih pockets $12,000 for second place.

By FM Mike Klein

After 11 exhausting days of play at the 2012 U.S. Championships, one champion has been decided, while one will require another day. GM Hikaru Nakamura took 30 moves to beat GM Yasser Seirawan today to become the 2012 U.S. Champion. It is his third title and his first since 2009. IMs Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih both won also to remain tied for first in the U.S. Women's Championship. They will play a playoff at noon Central time tomorrow.

“It has been a long two weeks,” Nakamura said. “There's a lot of pressure to perform. I feel a lot of relief.” Nakamura was the top-seeded player and according to the live ratings list, he has now pushed his rating to 2782.6, a personal best. “If I hadn't won, I'd be pretty depressed.”

Nakamura reverted back to 1. e4. He used it to win several games earlier in the tournament. Seirawan, a four-time champion, differed from his usual Caro-Kann and played the French Defense. After a 10-minute think, Nakamura unleashed 2. f4 to get the game out of charted waters. Seirawan said later it was new for him.

“This tournament is a tournament of firsts for me,” Seirawan said. “And I've never faced f4 before.”

Nakamura's capture 10. Bxf5 produced a critical moment for his opponent. Since ...g6 had just been played on move eight, Nakamura said it was natural to continue by recapturing with the g-pawn. Seirawan did just that, however upon reflection his isolated h-pawn ended up being a liability. Very short on time, Seirawan could not find a defense to the impending discovered checks on the dark-squared long diagonal. He expressed “instant regret” on his choice of which way to capture on f5. “It's just a totally bad grovel,” Seirawan said.

Nakamura had ideas all over. “He had play on both flanks,” Seirawan said. “My position was in some ways carved in half. I was defending on both wings. My position is like a sieve.”

GM Gata Kamsky, who acquiesced the lead to Nakamura yesterday by losing their head-to-head game, drew against GM Robert Hess to earn clear second place with 7.5/11. GM Alex Onischuk was third with 6.5/11 and tied for fourth were GMs Varuzhan Akobian, Yury Shulman and Alex Lenderman. Shulman's one win and ten draws makes him the only other undefeated player besides Nakamura.

GM Ray Robson's even score of 5.5/11 was good enough for seventh, while Hess grabbed eighth (5/11) and GMs Gregory Kaidanov and Alejandro Ramirez shared ninth (4/11). GMs Yasser Seirawan and Alex Stripunsky tied for 11th with 3.5/11.

In the 2012 U.S. Women's Championship, nothing was gained today by the two leaders. Krush and Zatonskih both won, necessitating a playoff tomorrow for the title. They will play two 25-minute rapid games, one with each color. If the score is tied 1-1, a final Armageddon with clock bidding will ensue.

The two women finished within minutes of each other. Krush won a pawn with the tactic 13...Bb5. Her opponent, WGM Camilla Baginskaite, said she thought her position was worse and that she had to sacrifice her e-pawn for possible counterplay on the e-file. Krush said she barely noticed her rival's position. “I basically focused on my own game,” she said. “I looked at Anna's game a few times, but not more than usual.”

Zatonskih admitted to glancing at Krush's game only once. She said that Krush had won from a worse position earlier in the tournament against IM Rusudan Goletiani, so even if Krush had a bad position today, no result was guaranteed.

Going into Sunday's playoff, Zatonskih was melancholy of her games. “I'm critical of my own play,” she said. “Maybe it's age. You cannot play that good every time.”

Both women are undefeated this year, with five wins and four draws, including an uneventful draw against each other in round seven. Since then, both have won two in a row to earn a spot in the playoff. In the past, both women had achieved scores of 8.5/9 at the event. Krush did it in winning the 1998 championship, while Zatonskih did it in 2009.

Goletiani bounced back from last year's subpar result to finish in clear third place. WIM Viktorija Ni played the longest game of the day, coming back to beat FM Alisa Melekhina to finish in fourth. WGM Sabina Foisor, WGM Tatev Abrahamyan and WIM Iryna Zenyuk all finished with 4.5/9 to tie for fifth. This was the first time Zenyuk has achieved an even score at the championship. Melekhina was sixth, Baginskaite seventh and tournament rookie WFM Alena Kats eighth.

The playoff between Krush and Zatonskih will begin tomorrow at Noon Central, 1 p.m. Eastern. Tune into www.uschesschamps.com to catch live commentary and analysis by GM Ben Finegold and WGM Jen Shahade.