Hola darlings!
What a beautiful day in Milwaukee, 74 degrees, sunny, low humidity. I wish the entire summer had been like this, but now I'm getting the yard in ship shape just in time for winter to arrive. Sigh. Well - not going to think about that right now. The weather has energized me - it's a relief to be able to work hard and not break a sweat in 2 minutes. The only thing missing today is a nice breeze, which had been consistent pretty much over the last week from the west/southwest.
The 2021 U.S. Women's Chess Championship is hosted at the St. Louis Chess Club in St. Louis, Missouri. The Opening Ceremony will be held October 5, 2021 and the tournament will run through October 19, 2021, in conjunction with the U.S. Chess Championship.
There is $100,000 at stake for 12 female players this Championship. We won't discuss the fact that the (Men's) U.S. Championship has a prize fund of $194,000 for 12 players (all male). Ahem.
The line-up (with bios) features some revered veterans and several players I'm not familiar with (but I haven't been following the players the way I used to, either, so there's that):
GM Irina Krush (2475)
IM Carissa Yip (2468)
IM Anna Zatonskih (2453)
WGM Tatev Abrahamyan (2403)
IM Nazi Paikidze (2386)
WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (2375)
WGM Katerina Nemcova (2347)
WGM Thalia Cervantes (2316)
WGM Anna Sharevich (2296)
WGM Sabina Foisor (2286)
WIM Ashritha Eswaran (2286)
WIM Megan Lee (2268)