2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship

Holy Goddess! I just checked into the http://www.uschesschamps.com/ website to see what was going on with the games, expecting that some of them would be concluded by now (6:37 p.m. CST) and lo and behold, NONE of them are finished yet. Wow! Is everyone fighting fighting fighting? Live commentary from GM-elect Ben Finegold and Macauley Peterson (hope I spelled his name correctly) just took a break - so I'm going to dip in and look at the positions. NOT that I understand anything, mind you. LOL! Okay - I'm back - after roughly a 2 minute look at the Irina v. Iryna game, I think black is better - but don't ask me why! Okay - the live commentary is back (6:41 p.m.) - Macauley just commented that this is the first time that all five games went past time control. Whew! I just looked at the Melekhina-Goletiani game, which I was trying to pay attention to at the office. Let me tell you darlings, it's impossible to work and look at a chess board trying to figure out what the heck is going on at the same time! But I tried it anyway, and had my headphones on since 2:00 p.m. Everyone who walked into my office assumed I was on a conference call as I tried to block the computer screen with my body, LOL! Anyway, I like Melekhina's position. Baginskaite - Fan Yun -- no idea who is better - not even who is giving the appearance of looking better. 6:47 p.m. - Abrahamyan - Zatonskih -- Zatonskih is up a pawn, but her pieces look funny to me, they're sort of divided on either side of the board. 6:49 p.m. - Tsagaan - Foisor -- don't have a clue! From the discussion I heard between Shahade and Finegold earlier today about how Tsagaan seems to get into time trouble a lot, I thought she wouldn't make time control. Lo and behold! Here she is! So, folks, don't expect any enlightening commentary from moi. I'll continue to follow the action and report back as soon as there are some resolutions. Updated: 6:52 p.m. -- Irina and Iryna have drawn there game. [Event "2009 US Womens Championship"][Site "St Louis"][Date "2009.10.08"][Round "5"][White "Krush, Irina"][Black "Zenyuk, Iryna"][Result "1/2-1/2"][WhiteELO "2490"][WhiteTitle "IM"][BlackELO "2271"][BlackTitle "WIM"][Source "MonRoi"] 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c3 Bg7 4.Bf4 O-O 5.Nbd2 d5 6.e3 Bf5 7.h3 Nbd7 8.Be2 c5 9.O-O Qb6 10.Qc1 Rac8 11.Ne5 Rfd8 12.Re1 Ne8 13.Nxd7 Rxd7 14.Nb3 c4 15.Nd2 Nd6 16.Bg3 Qc6 17.Bf3 Ne4 18.Nxe4 dxe4 19.Be2 b5 20.Qc2 Be6 21.a4 Rb7 22.axb5 Qxb5 23.b4 cxb3 24.Bxb5 bxc2 25.Ba6 Rb1 26.Bxc8 Ba2 27.Raxb1 cxb1Q 28.Rxb1 Bxb1 29.c4 e5 30.d5 Ba2 31.Ba6 f6 32.d6 Kf7 33.c5 Bf8 34.f4 exf3 35.gxf3 Ke6 36.Be1 Kd5 37.Bb4 Kc6 38.Kf2 Be6 39.h4 f5 40.Ba3 h6 41.Bd3 Bg7 42.Bc2 Kb5 43.Bd3 Kc6 44.Bc2 Kb5 45.Bd3 Kc6 1/2-1/2 Updated 7:29 p.m. -- Melekhina - Goletiani draw! [Event "2009 US Womens Championship"][Site "St Louis"][Date "2009.10.08"][Round "5"][White "Melekhina, Alisa"][Black "Goletiani, Rusudan"][Result "1/2-1/2"][WhiteELO "2253"][WhiteTitle "WIM"][BlackELO "2437"][BlackTitle "IM"][Source "MonRoi"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.c3 Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.d4 cxd4 6.cxd4 d6 7.Nc3 Nxc3 8.bxc3 Bd7 9.Bd3 Bc6 10.Bf4 dxe5 11.Bxe5 Nd7 12.O-O Rc8 13.Re1 Qa5 14.Re3 Ba4 15.Bc2 Bxc2 16.Qxc2 Nb6 17.Qb3 Qd5 18.Nd2 f6 19.Bg3 Kf7 20.Rae1 Rc6 21.c4 Qxd4 22.c5 Bxc5 23.Rxe6 Qd5 24.Rxc6 bxc6 25.Rc1 Nd7 26.Ne4 Qxb3 27.axb3 Re8 28.Nxc5 Nxc5 29.f3 Nxb3 30.Rxc6 a5 31.Ra6 Re2 32.Ra7 Ke6 33.Rxg7 a4 34.Ra7 Ra2 35.Ra6 Kd5 36.Bd6 Nc1 37.h4 Nd3 38.Bf8 Ne1 39.Rxf6 Nxg2 40.h5 Ne3 41.Rf7 a3 42.Rxh7 Rg2 43.Kh1 a2 44.Ra7 Rf2 45.Bg7 Nf5 46.Kg1 1/2-1/2 7:33 p.m. - Live coverage commentary on uschesschamps.com has signed off after 5.5 hours. Earlier there was a live review of the Krush-Zenyuk game by the two ladies themselves joining the uschesschamps folks and it was lively commentary, very enjoyable! I think the uschesschamps people are doing a great job. So - back to watching the other games still in progress. 7:45 p.m. update -- it does not look like the other three games are going to be ending any time soon! I'm going to do some other stuff here (like eat!) and come back in 30 minutes or so. Ta, darlings!