2019 U.S. Women's Chess Championship

It's that time of year again, darlings!  Yes, once again, the "St. Louis Chess Club," whose formal name is too long for me to remember, something with Chess and Scholastic and Center in it -- is hosting the U.S. Chess Championships.  It's smaller than you'd expect (at least it was in 2009 when I visited the city) in a great location on this wonderful mini-pedestrian mall area in an upscale neighborhood of St. Louis, right across the street from the World Chess Hall of Fame with its fabulous shows and displays. 

This year's Championships started on March 18 and end on April 1.  Not exactly an auspicious date (in my humble opinion) for ending a world-class tournament.  The prize fund is $100,000, which is fabulous.  Except the male players are competing for $185,000 in total prizes.  And the $64,000 Fischer Award will be paid to ANY player(s) who have a perfect score.  Yeah - well, you never know...

This year's field of twelve players features some "venerable veterans" and several young and eager up and comers, many with ELOs below 2400. Here's the Field:

GM Irina Krush 2533, age 35
IM Anna Zatonskih 2489, age 40
WGM Tatev Abrahamyan 2462, age 31
WGM Jennifer Yu 2398, age 17
WIM Carissa Yip 2384, age 15
WGM Sabina Foisor 2362, age 29
WIM Annie Wang 2360, age 16
WGM Anna Sharevich 2354, age 33
WIM Akshita Gorti 2352, age 16
WIM Maggie Feng 2333, age 18
WIM Emily Nguyen 2310, age 16
WIM Ashritha Eswaran 2295, age 18

Standings after Round 3 (chart courtesy of www.uschesschamps.com):
:

Cross-Table and Round 3 Pairings (chart courtesy of www.uschesschamps.com):