It’s a drizzly Sunday morning here in Tulsa, as we get ready for round six. I can see from the comments that some of you want pairings. We’ve got your pairings! Here they are. Games start at 9:00 local time, 10:00 Eastern time.
- Yermolinsky (4.5) – Kraai (4)
- Shankland (4) – Ivanov (4)
- Kudrin (4) – Bercys (4)
- Fedorowicz (4) – Bhat (4)
- Bick (4) – Ippolito (4)
- Becerra (3.5) – Bonin (3.5)
- Perelshteyn (3.5) – Schoonmaker (3.5)
- Ludwig (3.5) – Finegold (3.5)
- Kleiman (3.5) – Goldin (3.5)
- Pruess (3.5) – Burnett (3.5)
- Bradford (3.5) – Beelby (3.5)
- Naroditsky (3.5) – Brooks (3.5)
Below board 12 we get to the people with 3 points or less, which I didn’t write down.
The tournament directors made a very important announcement last night, which made the tournament a whole lot more interesting for most of the people on the list above (as well as some of the people with 3). Some of the people who were eligible for the U.S. Championship on the basis of their ratings have declined their invitations. So five of the players in this tournament are now eligible: Kudrin, Ivanov, Becerra, Perelshteyn, and Finegold. The seven qualifying spaces will go to other people than them. So the qualifying threshold just got lower; in effect, you only need to be in the top 12, not the top 7.
I drew my game last night against a master from Indiana named Jim Dean. He says that we played once before in Ohio, which is quite possible because I used to live there. This was a very exciting game, which I might write about more in a later blog entry. I took a repetition of position on move 32 when I could have played on for a win, but it was very hard to tell what was happening. In our analysis it looked as if I would win a pawn-race endgame by one tempo with best play, but with less than best play it could easily have gone the other way. I had one minute left and he had two minutes left, so less-than-best play was very likely!
One more quick comment before I go to play my next game. In my last entry I wrote that I couldn’t find Alexey Root’s regular blog. That’s because she doesn’t have one! She is blogging this tournament at the U.S. Chess website, www.uschess.org. And by the way, she has the pairings up, as well as some photographs and fun stuff.
Michael Aigner just stopped by to watch me blogging. He commented, “This tournament is really going on somewhere else!” (i.e., on the blogosphere)Â He had a tough game last night; he got smashed by Bercys. Now he says he has a “nightmare pairing” — he has to play Ray Robson, who also has 3 points. I don’t think he should complain. I always enjoy playing the prodigies… except when I embarrass myself!
