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The Devil made me do it. This saying was made famous by comedian Flip Wilson, in his "drag" female character "Geraldine," a fat butt-wiggling, big breasted sass-talker with even bigger hair permanently glued into a hairstyle known as a "flip." Har!
Once upon a time, one of my grand-nephews, who was then 8 years old, asked me to play a game of chess with him. His dad had taught he and his brothers the basics of the game not too long before, and he was eager to practice. We played a few games that I won; not surprising given our relative difference in skill level. One day we were playing again. I was cocky and overconfident, not paying much attention and, before I knew it, I had left myself wide open to a dreadful fork. I knew he saw at least part of it (I like to think it was my teaching skill that gave him such keen insight). I might have forestalled some of the damage by moving one piece and sacrificing another but, instead, I deliberately castled, leaving the fork there for my nephew's next move. But my castling, as I'd intended, distracted him, as he did not know what the move was. So, I explained it to him. He then castled on his move instead of making the move that would have forked two of my major pieces. Thus I saved myself, and went on to win the game. Afterward I explained to him how I had distracted him. That didn't make me feel any better. I tell myself that besides teaching him about castling, I gave my grand-nephew a double life-lesson that day - about the treachery that can take place OTB and about the treachery of the human heart. Who am I kidding? That doesn't erase what I did - or why I did it. What I did sucked, but I did it anyway. Did the Devil make me do it? I came face to face that day with that Dark Ugly Thing inside me. Oh, I've glimpsed it before, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't - but that day - playing chess with an 8 year old boy I love dearly, the Devil revealed herself in a way she never had before. If I played serious chess, how often would that Dark Ugly Thing rear her head? Denoument
Thus ended IM Irina Krush's quest for a third U.S. Women's Champion crown at the 2008 Frank K. Berry U.S. Women's Chess Championship.
Grueling - I used the word myself (more than once) - to describe the final, incredible sequence of events that led up to the declaring of the United States 2008 Women's Chess Champion. But that word isn't adequate to describe what these two women experienced, what they went through in those endless hours on that final day of the championship. Krush had entered the final
round with a half point lead over Zatonskih, 7.0/8 to 6.5/8, but they
weren't the only two players in the mix. Tatev Abrahamyan had quietly put
together two three-game winning streaks and was sitting in third place with
6.0. It seemed no one was paying attention to Abrahamyan - everyone was
focused on Krush and Zatonskih, the two highest rated female players in the
country. But Abrahamyan had a shot at winning the title if she won her game
and Krush and Zatonskih lost theirs. Krush was playing Katerine Rohonyan, a player who'd been brought up in the remnants of the former Soviet chess juggernaught, a dangerous opponent. All the more so, since a win by Rohonyan would catapult her into a nice cash-winning position. Their Round 9 game lasted 108 moves, and is a classic head-banger: [Event "2008 Frank K. Berry
U.S. Chess Championship"] Tortuous comes to mind, as does excruciating. It's one thing to be a commentator, viewing the game from a third-party perspective. It's another thing to be a patzer pretending to know what the hell you're talking about and man oh man, have I seen plenty of that on the message boards out there about this game! Yeah, winning chances were missed, the game should have ended much earlier, etc. etc. But it was only Krush and Rohonyan sitting there playing that game, under those conditions, in a national championship. It's easy to be a know-it-all when you've got nothing riding on the line, darlings. Krush's half point from the draw with Rohonyan wasn't enough. In the meantime, Zatonskih had won her own Round 9 game against Battsetseg, and her full point win behind the black pieces tied Krush, with 7.5/9. Abrahamyan (B) dropped her final game to Tuvshintugs (W), to finish on 6.0. By virtue of her draw with Krush, Rohonyan moved into 3rd place also with 6.0, displacing Abrahamyan into 4th. Herstory in the Making The stage was set. By virtue of the rules, the prize money for first and second places - tied between Krush and Zatonskih - was split 50/50. But who would win the title? The play-off rules came into effect. Here are rules from the official website at Monroi:
Krush and Zatonskih split the first round of games: [Event "2008 Frank K. Berry
U.S. Chess Championship"] [Event "2008 Frank K. Berry
U.S. Chess Championship"] Zatonskih and Krush split the second round of games, forcing a final Armageddon playoff: Event "2008 Frank K. Berry U.S.
Chess Championship"] What the hell? Zatonskih hung her Queen!?! But don't let your breath out yet - there was another game to be played: [Event "2008 Frank K. Berry
U.S. Chess Championship"] And so, it all game down to this final Armageddon game. The rest, as they say, is herstory: [Event "2008 Frank K. Berry
U.S. Chess Championship"] For a few moments after Krush had thrown down the piece she'd been holding and made her hasty exit, Zatonskih looked a little stunned. Actually, everyone in the room looked a bit stunned. Then Anna gave a mini-shrug and the smallest hint of a smile as the few observers still in the room started a round of applause for the new U.S. Women's Chess Champion. Wow! This was the most exciting tournament I can remember in several years. Jen Shahade at Chess Life Online and Tom Braunlich at Monroi provided commentary on several games from the Women's Championship, I've got their links up at Chess Femme News' coverage, round by round. Do I understand all that stuff? Heck no, darlings! What I can tell you is that from the very first game of the first round of the Women's Championship, the women were there to fight for the title, and fight they did, all the way down to that final play-off game 5. The Armageddon game concluded hours after Round 9 ended. Krush's Round 9 game itself went longer than 6 hours, and the play-offs were held almost immediately after that. My personal experience was that I literally collapsed into bed sometime after 1:00 a.m. after monitoring Round 9 and the playoff games. I'm sure the number-crunchers out there can come up with more telling statistics than I. I just want to point this out: The women played 81 games (9 x 9) in their 9 rounds against each other. Of those 81 games, only 8 were drawn: Round 1: Rohonyan/Battsetseg; Round 2 - none; Round 3: Epstein/.Battsetset; Round 4 - none; Round 5: Tuvshintugs/Zenyuk; Round 6: Zenyuk/Krush; Round 7: Battsetseg/Zenyuk; Round 8: Zatonskih/Krush; and in Round 9: Epstein/Jamison (Jamison earned her half point for the tournament in this round) and Krush/Rohonyan. That comes down to a draw rate of 9.8% of the total games played among the women. The men played 216 games (24 x 9) and drew 51 games: Round 1: 6 draws; Round 2: 3 draws; Round 3: 4 draws; Round 4: 8 draws; Round 5: 5 draws; Round 6: 8 draws; Round 7: 1 draw; Round 8: 8 draws; Round 9: 8 draws. The men had a 23.6% draw rate. Now you tell me, who played fighting chess? Here is the final cross-table courtesy of The Week in Chess (I've added the prize money won by the players. Zatonskih and Krush split 1st and 2nd prize money).
In addition to the prize money funded by Frank K. Berry and the Goddesschess Fighting Chess Prize ($350, plus a contribution of $150 from the Susan Polgar Foundation, for a total of $500 this year), Jeff Smith put up a prize of $100 "Fighting Spirit Award" each round for the Championship game that garnered the most votes from fans at the Monroi official website. Each prize was split $75 to the winner and $25 to the loser. Women's games won three of these prizes: Round 5's prize was awarded to Tuvshintugs - Zenyuk 1/2; Round 6's prize was awarded to Rohonyan - Abrahamyan 0:1; and the women who fought so hard in the play-offs for the title of U.S. Women's Champion split the prize money for their Round 8 game: Zatonskih-Krush 1/2. Way to go, ladies! Here is the winning game in PGN from Round 6: [Event "2008 Frank K. Berry
U.S. Chess Championship"] Goddesschess Fighting Chess Award
In 2007 Goddesschess decided to fund a special prize for the U.S. Women's Chess Championship, not only in the hope of encouraging excellent chess play but also to add, in some small part, to the much smaller prizes available to the players after AF4C's five-year sponsorship ended at the conclusion of the 2006 Championships. This is certainly not a knock on the generous sponsorship provided by Mr. Berry to both the 2007 and 2008 U.S. Championships. But for that sponsorship, it seems the Championships might not have been held at all! The "Goddesschess Brilliancy Prize" in 2007 was $300. In 2008, Goddesschess increased the amount to $350 and changed the name to the "Goddesschess Fighting Chess Award." Thanks to the generosity of the Susan Polgar Foundation, the prize was increased by $150, for a total of $500. Was this increase made possible by an "anonymous" donation through someone close to Chessville??? I guess we'll never know. In any event, I'm sure Tatev Abrahamyan is very grateful for the additional $500. And, I suspect, having GM Susan Polgar lend the luster of her name and reputation to selecting the winner of the award money for this year's Championship added a deal of piquancy to winning the award - knowing that she was watching each and every game... Goddesschess will increase its contribution to the women's Fighting Chess Award prize fund for 2009. I'll talk about this more in later columns. The Official U.S. Championships Website I admit that when I first read that Monroi was going to be providing the "official" web pages for the 2008 U.S. Championships, I was skeptical. The 2007 website was excellent, and I thought "why are they changing it? Why not stick with a proven winner?" I wasn't convinced - at first. But in the end, I have to tell you that I think Monroi did a great job of putting together the webpages for the Championship. All of the games ("Men's" championship too) can be found there, along with videos, analysis of some of the key games and, in the later rounds, photos by Betsy Dynako that added needed sugar and spice. Kudos to Monroi for a job well done. Web Coverage of the Championships Susan Polgar's blog has many photographs from the Championship (I believe they were all taken by Paul Truong) as well as reports on the round by round action. I don't know how she does it, but it seems to me that SP is always balanced in her coverage. At Chess Life Online, Jen Shahade provided timely reviews after each round of both Championships and analysis of some of the men's and women's games, with photos by Betsy Dynako. I found Chess Life Online's coverage was much improved over what was done in 2007 - not in content, which I always thought was good, but in timeliness of delivery. Good job, Jen. Betsy - great photos! I did round by round coverage at Chess Femme News and blog entries - had a hoot of a time following things even though I made a fool of myself by declaring Irina Krush the 2008 Women's Champ before times! Well, it won't be the last time I'll make a fool of myself. Ahhh, what a life! The Week in Chess provided daily updates and cross-tables but, like a butterfly, one day it was there, the next day it was gone... No insult to any of the many chess bloggers out there who covered the U.S. Championships and provided their own particular insights to what was going on when it was going on. We'd love to hear from you - email me here at Chessville. I know there's a way to do it cuz I do get occasional "fan" mail (ahem). National News Coverage of the U.S. Championships The Devil Surely Made Them Do It, the Jerks. The 2008 Women's Championship was, to my mind, one of the most exciting Championships in recent memory, and yet it was given scant attention by the press. We may as well be living back in the 19th century instead of the 21st. Here's a classic example of what I'm talking about: In an article written by David R. Sands and published at The Washington Post on May 24, 2008, all of two sentences were devoted to the Women's Championship while two full pages, including annotated games, were published regarding the "Men's" Championship. This is what Mr. Sands wrote about the Women's Championship:
Say what? Did you look at any of the games played by the women, Mr. Sands? Did you watch the video of the final Armageddon play-off game between IM Irina Krush and WGM Anna Zatonskih? He didn't even bother to mention that Zatonskih is an WGM. You know what, Mr. Sands, your coverage and comments on the Women's Championship really suck. And so I wrote him and told him (although using somewhat more polite terminology). Geez, Louise! Dylan McClain at The New York Times wrote about how the "top men" in the country (and some former Champions) weren't playing in the Championship - supposedly because of (a) money and (b) the hick-town (his connotation, not mine) location. That was at his blog. The top women in the country did play in a U.S. Championship too, but Dylan only wanted to scoop poop - as if the women players didn't exist. He didn't even bother to write a regular article about the U.S. Chess Championships - he did that in his second-rate blog. I ran a search today to make sure I didn't miss anything. Zip, zero, nada. Geez! The Controversy About the Armageddon Game Did the Devil make her do it? You know, it was bad enough reading some of the smarmy posts made at popular chess blogs about the U.S. Women's Championship after it ended. Here is just one small example from Mig Greengard's Daily Dirt Chess Blog:
Now Irina Krush has published an open letter, in part stating her grievances against WGM Anna Zatonskih's alleged infractions of rules during their Armageddon play-off. Regardless of what anyone may personally think about the merits, in my opinion this does nothing good for women in chess. It invites, instead, more ridicule and condenscension from those who hold women is disregard and consider "women's chess" a laughing matter. There surely must have been a better way to address the matter. The Boo Hoo Babies The Devil make them do it and is laughing her butt off at this very moment... Certain "top players" in the United States did not play in the 2008 U.S. Chess Championship (this must be read as meaning the "Men's"Championship, for the top two active female players in the United States did play - Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih). Dylan McClain made a point of this in his non-coverage of the 2008 U.S. Chess Championships at The New York Times. So did Joel Benjamin at Chess Life Online. Let me tell you, it really jerks my chain when I read about "top players" refusing to play in the U.S. Championships because they didn't think enough money was offered, or they didn't like the location, or they thought, somehow, the "prestige" of the Championships had been diminished, and excuse, excuse, excuse. Well boo hoo. The only "prestige" that has been diminished is, quite frankly, on the part of the players who ignore their own national championships and its illustrious history. Darlings, we all know that making a living out of chess is tough; but no one is holding a gun to your head telling you that you HAVE to make a living that way. So if you want the Championships to be prestigious, how about lending some of your "prestige", heh? Bobby Fischer played for peanuts in the Championships compared to the players of today, so don't give me that crap! We all owe something to history else we wouldn't be here, so suck it up and quit whining. I put you all at the end of this column, where you deserve to be. Actually, you're lucky I mentioned you at all. Games noted above in PGN from Monroi.com All photos above are from Monroi.com official website unless otherwise noted There's much more news about women in chess at Chess Femme News and the Goddesschess Blog. Darlings, I never run out of hot air...
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That's
me (not Geraldine), in a 2001 photo that was "slightly doctored" by Mr. Don,
who loves to play around with his Photoshop software. My hair wasn't that
short back then. Bwwwaaaaaaahhhh...she laughed evilly... 
She
said "Oh come on!," as she jolted up from her chair and in one swift motion,
threw down the piece she'd been holding in her hand when her clock ran out;
it bounced once toward the left center of the board and then off the table
out of sight as the player turned her back on the table and hurried from the
room. It was quite evident that she was upset and anger compelled her
quickly across the floor, through a door and out of camera range. She was
more than tired - she was beyond exhausted - and deflated, and furious, that
nine non-stop days of hard-fought chess games had come down to this. She
was also most likely experiencing the physical effects of suddenly crashing
down off a sustained adrenalin rush. She'd been playing chess under the
most stressful of circumstances for about eight hours, practically non-stop.
The
player on the other side of the board was IM Anna Zatonskih, who was named
2008 U.S. Women's Chess Champion by virtue of having survived five separate
play-off games held almost immediately after the end of Round 9. Irina and
Anna were both playing for the privilege of being a three-time U.S. Women's
Chess Champion. This time, Anna won.
As
it turns out, someone was paying attention to Abrahamyan! In
addition to the Round 6 Jeff Smith "Fighting Spirit Award", Tatev won the
$500 Goddesschess Fighting Chess Award. GM Susan Polgar, who agreed to
select this year's prize winner for Goddesschess, chose Tatev Abrahamyan at
the conclusion of Round 9 for her record of 6 wins, 3 losses, and no draws.
Thanks to GM Polgar for her crucial role in making the award this year.
