2009 U.S. Open Chess Championship

I received the July, 2009 edition of Chess Life Magazine in the mail today. The lovely Jen Shahade (a former U.S. Women's Chess Champion and current editor of the USCF's Chesslife Online) is on the front cover. I think women should always be on the cover of Chess Life Magazine. (Photo of Jen Shahade from her website). Curiously, I noticed for the first time in the lower right hand corner that the magazine sells "on the stand" for $3.95. Where? I've never seen it offered for sale anywhere - and I am a frequent habitutee of Borders and Barnes & Noble... Anyway, I must not allow myself to get distracted, darlings! I have a complaint about the "TLA" pages in Chess Life Magazine. The print is smaller than ant poop! Well, at least I assume it is, because I've never seen ant poop, but you can be sure it's very tiny, as ants are tiny creatures! But even with my magnifying glasses on, I cannot read most of the TLA announcements in Chess Life! Geez, guys, considering that a lot of old fogeys like me read Chess Life Magazine (rather than visiting the online version of Chess Life, which I generally don't have time to do when I'm online because I'm doing so many other things online, like playing chess -), can't you do us all a favor and make the frigging print a little bigger? Please? The BIG news about this event, as far as I'm concerned, is that GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (now residing in Florida with her nuclear family), will be playing in the event! But since there is no official website for the event, one has no idea just what players have signed up to participate thus far! For such a PRESTIGIOUS EVENT (Jerry Hanken's words in an article in this month's Chess Life Magazine) shouldn't it have it's own dedicated website? I don't disagree that this is a great event. It should be treated accordingly! Maybe a dedicated website is in the cards down the line - I sure hope so. And if it is, I sure hope the USCF makes it easy to find! A Google search under 2009 U.S. Open Chess Championship did not yield any dedicated website on the first page of search results, but did yield a lot of unrelated stuff. I was able to FINALLY decipher the url for the website for this event, ta da! Here's some of the poop, er, scoop: 110th United States Open Chess Championship A Heritage Event August 1-9, 2009 August 4-9, 2009 August 6-9, 2009 Indianapolis, Indiana Prize Fund $50,000 based on 500 paid entries - else proportional - $40,000 Guaranteed!! [80% of each prize]. Top five players qualify for the 2010 US Championship! A one section tournament with Class prizes. All schedules merge after Round 6. Prizes[Projected] Top Places: $8000-4000-2000-1500-1000-800-600-500. Clear winner - $200 bonus. If tie for first, top two on tiebreak play speed game [W - 5 min, B - 3 min and draw odds] for bonus and title. Class Prizes: Top Master (2200-2399): $2500-1200-800-500. Top Expert: $2500-1200-800-500. Class A: $2500-1200-800-500. Class B: $2500-1200-800-500. Class C: $2000-1000-600-400. Class D: $1500-700-500-300. Class E & Below: $1500-700-500-300. Unrated: $800-400-200. Half Point Byes: Must commit before round 4; up to 3 byes allowed for 2000/up2 byes for 1400-1999, one bye for Under 1400/Unr Zero point byes are always available in any round if requested at least two hours before the start of the desired round! Entry Fee: Online, $135 by 5/15, $155 by 7/29 By mail, $137 postmarked by 5/15, $160 postmarked by 7/23 By phone, $140 by 5/15, $160 by 7/29 At site, all $180 GMs are free