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2005 US Chess ChampionshipNovember 23 – December 5, 2004
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San Diego, December 5, 2004 – The final day of this year’s “Super Bowl of Chess” turned out to be a nail biter. Both the overall champion and women’s champion were decided in playoff games on the last day of competition. The final day of competition was a fight to the finish for the share of the $253,000 prize money and the prestigious title of best player in the U.S.
Hot-shot favorite Hikaru Nakamura, the teenage ace from White Plains, NY, beat Alexander Stripunsky for the championship title and the $25,000 prize. He is now the youngest winner of the 159-year-old title since Bobby Fischer. Although he had broken every Fischer age record in the U.S., he failed in one. Fischer won the US title at the age of 14 in 1957.
Nakamura holds the record for being the youngest American Grandmaster ever. He earned his title in February 2003 at the age of 15 years 2 months, eclipsing the record set in 1958 by Bobby Fischer, who went on to become World Champion.
On the women’s side, Rusudan “Rusa” Goletiani, 24, from Hartsdale, NY, beat Tatev Abrahamyan, 16, from Glendale, CA to claim the $12,500 women’s prize.
Eric Anderson gives the prize checks to the winners
If chess is the “game of kings,” these winning players are the new royalty. The newest U.S King and Queen of chess were crowned and awarded their prize money in a special ceremony. Erik Anderson, Founder of the America’s Foundation for Chess will present the championship trophies, a Swarovski Crystal Chess set, to the Overall Champion and the Women’s Champion.
Spectators during the tie-break games
The Championship was visited by over 63,000 people who viewed over 2.2 millions pages over the internet at www.uschesschampionship.com The U.S. Chess Championship was presented in San Diego for the first time by America’s Foundation for Chess and NTC Foundation. The new home for the championship will be at NTC Promenade, beginning in February 2006.
Greetings from the Terminator, who is the present Governor of California
The greetings from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver
Round nine game between Alex Goldin and Alex Stripunsky
Hikaru Nakamura vs Igor Ibragimov
Yuri Shulman vs Gata Kamsky
Finalists Alexander Stripunsky and Hikaru Nakamura before the playoff games
The playoff begins: Stripunsky wears the shades only to cover an eye injury
Goletiani and Abrahamyan, who tied for first with 4.5
The women's playoff between Tatev Abrahamyan and Rusa Goletiani
Watching the games in the VIP room
Hikaru's mom convincing him that he has actually won the title
The trophies for the champions
Rusa Goletiani receives her trophy from AFC's Eric Anderson
Hikaru Nakamura collects his
US women's team champion Susan Polgar signs autographs
Members of the US silver medal Olympiad team pose with the sponsor...
... and soak in the Ja Jolla sunshine
The championship board with signatures of the 64 participants
Stripunsky and Nakamura tied for first on points and played a two-game playoff match to decide first prize. Tiebreak details: Two games at G/25 plus 10 seconds per move. Six players finished with six points. Prizes 3-5 were decided by tiebreak points. So Kaidanov won third prize, Kudrin wins fourth prize, Shulman wins fifth prize. All other prizes are aggregated and divided evenly among each point group.In the women's championship, Goletiani and Abrahamyan tied for first with 4.5 and p layed a rapid playoff match.
Salvijus Bercys, Josh Friedel, Dmitry Zilberstein and Lev Milman gained IM norms; Tsagaan Battsetseg made a WGM norm; Tatev Abrahamyan made a WIM norm.
In the table below the first tiebreak formula is "modified median" which is based on the scores of the players' opponents, dropping the two lowest scores. Second is "Solkoff," the opponent's scores including the lowest. These systems are based on rewarding players for playing more successful opponents. Third is cumulative scoring, in which you add up number of points the players had in each round. This rewards early success, since in this tournament format players who have higher scores earlier almost always face stronger competition.
| # |
Name |
Rtg |
Tot |
TBrk[M] |
TBrk[S] |
TBrk[C] |
| 1 | GM Alex Stripunsky | 2640 | 7.0 | 41 |
50.5 |
36.5 |
| 2 | GM Hikaru Nakamura | 2676 | 7.0 | 41 |
50 |
36 |
| 3 | GM Gregory Kaidanov | 2730 | 6.0 | 42 |
51 |
31 |
| 4 | GM Sergey Kudrin | 2607 | 6.0 | 42 |
50 |
34 |
| 5 | GM Yury Shulman | 2590 | 6.0 | 41 |
47.5 |
32 |
| 6 | GM Joel Benjamin | 2620 | 6.0 | 37 |
44 |
29.5 |
| 7 | GM Gregory Serper | 2598 | 6.0 | 36.5 |
42.5 |
32 |
| 8 | GM Alexander Onischuk | 2680 | 6.0 | 35.5 |
43 |
28.5 |
| 9 | GM Alexander Goldin | 2705 | 5.5 | 40 |
48 |
29 |
| 10 | GM Ildar Ibragimov | 2671 | 5.5 | 39 |
47 |
30.5 |
| 11 | GM Boris Gulko | 2705 | 5.5 | 38.5 |
47.5 |
29.5 |
| 12 | GM Julio Becerra | 2582 | 5.5 | 38.5 |
46.5 |
28.5 |
| 13 | GM Alexander Fishbein | 2575 | 5.5 | 38.5 |
46 |
29 |
| 14 | GM Gata Kamsky | 2777 | 5.5 | 36.5 |
44 |
26.5 |
| 15 | GM Varuzhan Akobian | 2665 | 5.5 | 35.5 |
44 |
28.5 |
| 16 | GM Aleks Wojtkiewicz | 2590 | 5.5 | 35.5 |
43.5 |
28.5 |
| 17 | GM Alex Yermolinsky | 2642 | 5.5 | 33 |
40 |
26 |
| 18 | IM Renier Gonzalez | 2536 | 5.0 | 38.5 |
46.5 |
28 |
| 19 | Salvijus Bercys | 2418 | 5.0 | 37.5 |
43.5 |
24.5 |
| 20 | GM Igor Novikov | 2690 | 5.0 | 37 |
44.5 |
27 |
| 21 | FM Lev Milman | 2455 | 5.0 | 37 |
44.5 |
23.5 |
| 22 | GM Dmitry Gurevich | 2551 | 5.0 | 37 |
44 |
27 |
| 23 | GM Alexander Shabalov | 2689 | 5.0 | 36.5 |
42.5 |
26 |
| 24 | GM Nick DeFirmian | 2626 | 5.0 | 36 |
43.5 |
27 |
| 25 | IM Levon Altounian | 2546 | 5.0 | 36 |
42 |
25.5 |
| 26 | IM Eugene Perelshteyn | 2579 | 5.0 | 35 |
41 |
26 |
| 27 | GM Larry Christiansen | 2611 | 5.0 | 33.5 |
41.5 |
26.5 |
| 28 | IM Yury Lapshun | 2527 | 5.0 | 33.5 |
39 |
23.5 |
| 29 | IM Cyrus Lakdawala | 2545 | 5.0 | 33.5 |
37 |
24.5 |
| 30 | IM Ben Finegold | 2621 | 5.0 | 31 |
39 |
24 |
| 31 | GM Alexander Ivanov | 2633 | 5.0 | 28 |
34.5 |
22 |
| 32 | IM Dmitry Schneider | 2503 | 4.5 | 26.5 |
46 |
26.5 |
| 33 | IM Blas Lugo | 2413 | 4.5 | 25.5 |
43.5 |
26 |
| 34 | GM Walter Browne | 2508 | 4.5 | 23 |
40.5 |
23.5 |
| 35 | WGM Rusudan Goletiani | 2375 | 4.5 | 22 |
39 |
21.5 |
| 36 | IM Stanislav Kriventsov | 2504 | 4.5 | 21.5 |
40 |
23 |
| 37 | IM Ron Burnett | 2423 | 4.5 | 21.5 |
35.5 |
19.5 |
| 38 | FM Michael Casella | 2329 | 4.5 | 18.5 |
34 |
16.5 |
| 39 | WFM Tatev Abrahamyan | 2305 | 4.5 | 17.5 |
33 |
16 |
| 40 | FM Dmitry Zilberstein | 2419 | 4.0 | 35.5 |
47 |
25 |
| 41 | FM Joshua Friedel | 2464 | 4.0 | 32.5 |
44 |
21 |
| 42 | IM Irina Krush (w) | 2472 | 4.0 | 30.5 |
41 |
20.5 |
| 43 | WIM Tsagaan Battsetseg | 2238 | 4.0 | 30 |
41.5 |
20 |
| 44 | FM Marcel Martinez | 2466 | 4.0 | 29 |
40 |
20 |
| 45 | FM Matt Hoekstra | 2409 | 4.0 | 25.5 |
35.5 |
18.5 |
| 46 | FM Stephen Muhammad | 2445 | 4.0 | 23 |
35 |
19 |
| 47 | FM Tegshuren Enkhbat | 2481 | 4.0 | 22 |
32.5 |
16 |
| 48 | WGM Anna Zatonskih | 2459 | 3.5 | 34.5 |
46.5 |
23 |
| 49 | FM Robby Adamson | 2400 | 3.5 | 30.5 |
42 |
19.5 |
| 50 | IM Jesse Kraai | 2493 | 3.5 | 30.5 |
41.5 |
19 |
| 51 | FM Bruci Lopez | 2417 | 3.5 | 25.5 |
37 |
16.5 |
| 52 | GM Anatoly Lein | 2436 | 3.5 | 25.5 |
36.5 |
16.5 |
| 53 | Iryna Zenyuk (w) | 2094 | 3.5 | 22.5 |
32 |
12.5 |
| 54 | Chouchanik Airapetian (w) | 2149 | 3.5 | 18.5 |
28.5 |
10 |
| 55 | FM Fabio La Rota | 2336 | 3.0 | 26.5 |
37.5 |
17 |
| 56 | WFM Laura Ross | 2195 | 3.0 | 26.5 |
36.5 |
14 |
| 57 | WIM Jennifer Shahade | 2346 | 3.0 | 24 |
35 |
14 |
| 58 | WIM Anna Hahn | 2256 | 3.0 | 23.5 |
34.5 |
13.5 |
| 59 | WFM Anna Levina | 2099 | 3.0 | 21 |
30 |
11.5 |
| 60 | Tatiana Vayserberg (w) | 2037 | 3.0 | 19.5 |
28.5 |
10.5 |
| 61 | Jake Kleiman | 2310 | 2.5 | 25 |
35.5 |
14 |
| 62 | Vanessa West (w) | 2119 | 2.5 | 22 |
32 |
12 |
| 63 | WIM Esther Epstein | 2178 | 2.5 | 20.5 |
30.5 |
12 |
| 64 | WFM Olga Sagalchik | 2154 | 0.5 | 22.5 |
32 |
1.5 |
