2008 Frank K. Berry U.S. Women's Chess Championship
May 13 - 22, 2008
Tulsa, Oklahoma

Our Coverage of the 2007 U.S. Women's Chess Championship

News/Results/Standings (scroll down for latest news)
Rounds 1 and 2 
Rounds 5, 6 and 7 
Rounds 8 and 9 

Round 3, May 15, 2008 (report posted May 16, 2008):

Here are the results:

1 Zatonskih, Anna - Jamison, Courtney 1-0
2 Rohonyan, Katerine - Airapetian, Chouchanik 1-0
3 Abrahamyan, Tatev - Zenyuk, Iryna 1-0
4 Epstein, Esther - Battsetseg, Tsagaan 1/2 1/2
5 Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg - Krush, Irina 0-1

Standings (from Monroi):

Looks like the women are continuing their fighting ways - four decisive games out of five, and two perfect scorers (so far): Zatonskih and Krush.  (The men had 8 decisive games and 4 draws, which is pretty good, actually.  I'm going to keep my eye on the draws and see if they increase as the championship first waxes and then wanes).  

Susan Polgar's blog has several photos from Round 3 (I snatched this one - it's a very nice shot and, I assume, taken by Paul Truong, featuring Abrahamyan and Zenyuk front and showing Rohonyan and Airapetian in the background) - links to some of the photos:

Chimi and Irina

Jamison and Zatonskih

 At Monroi, Round 3 summary by Tom Braunlich (not a dedicated link, the link is to the blog with news and entries in chronological order)

Jen Shahade's Round 3 report at Chess Life Online features the top 3 women's games (and you don't have to register to play through them, either, unlike at Monroi).

At this point what I gather from the commentary is that Krush and Zatonskih will be slugging it out for first place.  They don't play each other until Round 8!  I'm not counting out Rohonyan, who may make a charge at this event before she starts grad school, the always tough (pun!) Tuvshintugs and Battsetseg.  Can Zenyuk make a come-back?  She's down 3 from the leaders with 6 games to go - a hard row to hoe, but she's a competitor.  She finished at 50% in the "B" Group at Aeroflot in February, with 4.5/9, and it's not out of the question for her to do so in Tulsa.

Round 4, May 16, 2008 (report posted May 17, 2008):

Here are the results:

Standings (from The Week in Chess):

Krush (photo: Corus, 2008) and Zatonskih (photo: Scandanavian Ladies' Open, 2008) are keeping pace.  Courtney Jamison, the youngest player and the lowest rated, cannot be having a pleasant time - in her interview with Liz Vicary at Chess Life Online she said she hoped she wouldn't lose all of her games!  She's not going down without a fight, though.  Tom Braunlich noted in his Round 4 round-up that Krush "had to work to beat Jamison, but eventually got the point."  Also from Braunlich:  Abrahamyan won her third game in a row, a sharp Winawer French against Airapetian. Zenyuk got on the scoreboard with her first full point. And Battsetseg beat fellow Mongolian Tuvshintugs in a Giuco Piano that started getting sharp around move 30.

Right now the scramble seems to be for third place, and the women once again showed true fighting spirit - all five matches yesterday were decisive.  How will Susan Polgar ever pick just one woman's game showing fine fighting spirit?  In contrast, the men drew 8 out of 12 matches.  Tsk, tsk. 

Here is Jen Shahade's report on Round 4 action, featuring games of Zatonskih - Ronhonyan and Jamison - Krush.