23 March 2011

The U.S. Championship as FIDE Qualifier

I took another stab at FIDE Rating Reports for Zone 2.x, concentrating on how USA players qualified into the various FIDE events. My goal was to determine which of the U.S. Championships doubled as zonal qualifiers.

The following list shows info on the U.S. Championship from Wikipedia. I've added venue and, where the event was a zonal, the subsequent FIDE event. The number in the first column is the series number of the U.S. Championship.

  • 38 • 1992 Durango • Wolff, Patrick -> 1993 Biel IZ
  • 39 • 1993 Long Beach • Shabalov, Alexander; Yermolinsky, Alex
  • 40 • 1994 Key West • Gulko, Boris -> 1997 Groningen KO
  • 41 • 1995 Modesto • de Firmian, Nick; Wolff, Patrick; Ivanov, Alexander
  • 42 • 1996 Parsippany • Yermolinsky, Alex
  • 43 • 1997 Chandler • Benjamin, Joel
  • 44 • 1998 Denver • de Firmian, Nick -> 1999 Las Vegas KO
  • 45 • 1999 Salt Lake • Gulko, Boris -> 2000 New Delhi KO
  • 46 • 2000 Seattle • Benjamin, Joel; Shabalov, Alexander; Seirawan, Yasser -> 2001 Moscow KO
  • 47 • 2002 Seattle • Christiansen, Larry
  • 48 • 2003 Seattle • Shabalov, Alexander -> 2004 Tripoli KO

For the 2004 Tripoli KO, all USA players qualified from the 2003 Continental Championship, Buenos Aires. All of the preceding KOs were World Championship events, although 1997 Groningen gets an asterisk ('*'), since reigning FIDE champion Karpov was seeded directly into the final round which was played after a short delay at another venue.

I didn't have time to double check the following, but I believe the U.S. Championship in odd years qualified to the corresponding Khanty-Mansiysk KO of that year, which were World Cup qualifiers to a subsequent event.

  • 49 • 2005 La Jolla • Nakamura, Hikaru; Tournament ('was played in 2004, but called the 2005 Championship, for legal reasons')
  • 50 • 2006 San Diego • Onischuk, Alexander
  • 51 • 2007 Stillwater • Shabalov, Alexander
  • 52 • 2008 Tulsa • Shulman, Yury
  • 53 • 2009 St. Louis • Nakamura, Hikaru
  • 54 • 2010 St. Louis • Kamsky, Gata
  • 55 • 2011 St. Louis • ?

I'll update my page on the World Chess Championship Zonals as soon as I can.

***

Later: After GM Shabalov, the 2003 U.S. Champion, informed me that the 2003 event was indeed a zonal, I reviewed my work and corrected my records. Apologies for the error.

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