WIM Iryna Zenyuk Earns IM Norm!

Iryna Zenyuk has been busy with her education and she had not appeared much in the news, but stepped up her chessplaying activities during 2008. She is a player with great potential. I featured Iryna my Chessville column in April, 2008. I was very pleased to see the news that Iryna earned WGM and IM norms in the 2nd Berkeley Masters Tournament which took place from December 14 - 23, 2008. Information from TWIC: The 2008 Berkeley Masters took place December 14th-23rd 2008 in Berkeley, California, Giorgi Kacheishivili won with 7.5/10. IM-norms: FM Daniel Rensch, FM Marc Esserman, WIM Iryna Zenyuk WGM-norm: WIM Iryna Zenyuk. It is a 10 round swiss, open to players rated fide 2200+. Space in the tournament and conditions for some Grandmasters are available on a first-come first-serve basis. Prize fund $5000 US. Games were broadcast on ICC. Info at http://dotq.org/chess. Final Standings: Berkeley Masters (USA), 14-23 xii 2008 1 Kacheishvili, Giorgi g GEO 2572 7.5 /10 2 Izoria, Zviad g GEO 2610 7.0 /10 3 Friedel, Joshua E m USA 2498 6.0 /10 4 Krush, Irina m USA 2452 6.0 /10 5 Rensch, Daniel f USA 2354 6.0 /10 6 Bhat, Vinay S m USA 2498 5.5 /10 7 Pruess, David m USA 2422 5.5 /10 8 Kraai, Jesse g USA 2502 5.0 /10 9 Sarkar, Justin m USA 2451 5.0 /10 10 Sharavdorj, Dashzegve g MGL 2441 5.0 /10 11 Esserman, Marc USA 2348 5.0 /10 12 Zenyuk, Iryna wf USA 2237 5.0 /10 13 Milman, Lev m USA 2488 4.0 /10 14 Naroditsky, Daniel f USA 2382 4.0 /10 15 Haessel, Dale R f CAN 2199 4.0 /10 16 Evans, Bela f USA 2258 3.5 /10 17 Kustar, Sandor m HUN 2356 3.0 /10 18 Lee, Andy C USA 2240 1.5 /2 19 Jahedi, Salar USA 2106 0.5 /3 20 Shivaji, Shivkuma f PLE 2308 0.0 /1