2008 U.S. Women's Chess Championship

Chess Life Online reports the following "confirmed" line-up for the 2008 Women's Championship: 1. IM Irina KRUSH 2515 Current Champion 2. IM Anna ZATONSKIH 2490 Rating 3. WGM Rusudan GOLETIANI 2384 Rating 4. WGM Katerine ROHONYAN 2318 Rating 5. WIM Batchimeg TUVSHINTUGS 2289 Rating 6. WFM Tatev ABRAHAMYAN 2280 Rating 7. WIM Tsagaan BATTSETSEG 2251 Rating 8. WFM Iryna ZENYUK 2205 Qualifier 9. WFM Chouchanik AIRAPETIAN 2143 Wild Card 10. Courtney JAMISON 2064 Wild Card The alternate on the rating list for the women is Alisa Melekhina, who will receive an invitation in case any of the above players must withdraw from the event. Just for the record, here are the top ranked U.S. chess femmes from the April, 2008 USCF ratings list: 1. Zatonskih, Anna (12873912) NY USA 2432 (Rating) 2. Rohonyan, Katerine (12973020) MD USA 2322 (Rating) 3. Krush, Irina (12543137) NY USA 2285 (Current Champion) 4. Abrahamyan, Tatev (12851435) CA USA 2242 (Rating) 5. Baginskaite, Camilla (12716466) CA USA 2233 (Rating) 6. Battsetseg, Tsagaan (12719650) MD USA 2147 (Rating) 7. Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg (12925481) CA USA 2103 (Rating) 8. Bianchi, Andrea (13887154) CA USA 2032 9. Sagalchik, Olga (12565069) NY USA 2028 10. Melekhina, Alisa (12726115) PA USA 1980 11. Root, Alexey W (10374651) TX USA 1969 12. Zitserman, Tatyana N (12654535) MN USA 1957 13. Zenyuk, Iryna (12846035) NY USA 1949 (Qualifier) 14. Jamison, Courtney (12746751) TX USA 1948 (Wild card) 15. Marshall, Abby (12784803) VA USA 1946 16. Vicary, Elizabeth (12477355) NY USA 1941 17. Vayserberg, Tatiana (12864285) WI USA 1937 18. Thompson, Tracey C (12750249) NJ USA 1922 19. Airapetian, Chouchanik (12629918) WA USA 1913 (Wild card) 20. Mateer, Amanda Rae (12752032) AZ USA 1906 I thought according to the official rules the participants were supposed to be chosen from the USCF April, 2008 Ratings List (with the exception of Irina Krush, who is the current U.S. Women's Champion, one qualifier, and two wild cards). Where did those different ELOs come from listed for the participants? Those numbers do not match with the USCF ratings. I do not believe those numbers are on the FIDE ratings list either. Irina Krush's FIDE rating is 2479, not 2515. Where did 2515 come from? WGM Goletiani does not even appear on the April, 2008 USCF ratings list. Why does she appear on the list of championship participants with a rating of 2384? By the way, according to FIDE, her current rating is 2383. Was the selection criteria changed? If that is the case, why was there no announcement that the qualifications for selecting particpants had been changed? Can someone please explain this to me?