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The venue for the 2006 U.S. Chess Championships will be the newly-opened NTC Promenade in San Diego, and will run from February 28 through 12 March, 2006.  The field for the 2006 U.S. Championship will again be the “natural” chess number of 64 with a guaranteed minimum prize fund of $250,000!

Less than one-third of the field will be seeded players including the defending champions, while the remainder will be composed of players who will be given the opportunity to qualify by competing in eight of America’s top open tournaments.

NTC Foundation and America's Foundation for Chess have joined forces to bring the U.S. Chess Championship, the country's only world-class competition for the game's foremost U.S. players, to NTC Promenade in February, 2006. The elite tournament, held in the Library, will be just one of many innovative and engaging experiences that will be showcased year-round at NTC Promenade.

US Championship Trivia

Which US Champion had the longest period of time between the first time they won the championship and the last time they won it?  Use your mouse to highlight the hidden text between the two brackets for the answer:

[   If you guessed Larry Evans (1951 & 1980, 29 years) you would be close!
But the winner is Samuel Reshevsky, who first won the title in 1936 at the age of 25,
and for the last time (six times overall) in 1969 at the age of 58, a span of 33 years!   ]

2006 US Championship Seeds

The USCF have now published the October Rating list (based on results up to August 31, 2005) that sees 14 seeds (8 overall, 6 women) go forward to the US Championships in San Diego next year.

Top three seeds:  Kamsky,   Onischuk,   Kaidanov

As in previous championships, some of the seeds have already won through to San Diego from the many qualifying events held throughout the year, and therefore their spots have to be reallocated from whichever tournament they qualified from.

The eight overall seeds are, as follows:

1. Gregory Kaidanov

2. Gata Kamsky

3. Alexander Onischuk

4. Boris Gulko

5. Ildar Ibraigimov

6. Alexander Shabalov

7. Varuzhan Akobian

8. Igor Novikov

Of these eight, three – Shabalov (Chicago Open), Akobian (World Open) and Novikov (Chicago Open) – have already qualified.  These three now become seeds, and their spots defer back to the tournaments they qualified from.

Thus, GM Alexander Fishbein and IM Blaus Lugo are now qualifiers from Chicago as they were next in line from that event.  Fishbein already has a spot from the World Open, so his qualifying tournament now reverts to Chicago, which frees up another spot from the World Open.

The game of musical chairs continues as we now have two spots -- Fishbein and Akopian -- to fill from the World Open, and these go to GM John Fedorowicz and FM Joshua Friedel.  And of course with Friedel now having a qualifying spot, this blows the race wide open in the new Grand Prix event as he had an almost unassailable three and a half point lead at the top.  Now, the Grand Prix spot will certainly go down to the wire of the final tournament of the 2005 cycle, namely the North American Open, where any one of the six contenders at the top now vying for the spot can win.

With the women’s seeded spots, things are more static with no shuffling around of spots.

The six going forward are:  Susan Polgar Anna Zatonskih Irina Krush Camilla Baginskaite Tatev Abrahamyan Jennifer Shahade

Susan Polgar

Irina Krush

In addition to the championship games, there will be other exciting chess events as part of Chess Fest 2006. For more information about the U.S. Chess Championships or the events surrounding the 2006 games, please visit  www.uschesschampionship.com.

About NTC Foundation The NTC Foundation, a 501[c][3] nonprofit organization, is responsible for the renovation of the 26 historic buildings on 28 acres at the former San Diego Naval Training Center in Point Loma into a new arts, civic and cultural district called NTC Promenade.  NTC Promenade will be the permanent home for the U.S. Chess Championship.  http://www.ntcpromenade.org/

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

All rounds begin at 1pm and are free to the public

Participants of the 2006 Championship

64 players will participate: 19 seeded players as determined by the October 2005 USCF rating list, 43 tournament qualifiers and 2 wild cards. Read the complete qualification guidelines.

* Indicates player occupies one of the women's spots.

Both the USCF (www.uschess.org) and the U.S. Chess Championship (www.uschesschampionship.com) websites will post press releases and details about the tournaments throughout the year.
Please consult these websites and Chess Life magazine for all the details.

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