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Chess Life Online 2008 June Yury Shulman U.S. Champion!
Chess Life Online 2008 June Yury Shulman U.S. Champion! | Yury Shulman U.S. Champion! |
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| By Jennifer Shahade/Betsy Dynako | |
| May 21, 2008 | |
 After a quick draw with Josh Friedel, Yury Shulman earned seven points, clinching his first U.S. Championship title. Yury told CLO that he was very happy with his play and his victory and that he is grateful to Frank and Jim for organizing the event in Oklahoma. "Of course I had a good time... I won the tournament!" However, he regrets that some of the top players are not participating in the U.S. Championships, especially Kamsky. "He is playing for the World Championship, so we should do everything we can to get him in the U.S. Championship," Yury said, explaining how great the exposure would be in such a case. A chess highlight for Yury was his win against Becerra in round seven. Although Yury was already a full point ahead of the field, he won with Black in a crazy theoretical Winawer French. 1966 Yury says that he was better prepared in this specific line and that he knew he had to go for complications based on the demands of the position: "Julio is very good in positions where he has pressure and is attacking." In the final round, it was obvious that Yury would clinch the title after Josh played the Exchange French. But of course, Josh is a fighting player, and he had a very good reason to hand Yury the title. With his final round draw against GM Yury Shulman, Josh Friedel earned his 5.5 points along with his final GM norm. After this tournament, Josh calculates his rating to be 2490. Josh's next two tournaments are the Chicago and National Opens, where he hopes to gain the remaining ten points to secure his GM title. Friedel also promises to tell the story of his last norm, in one of his popular blogs for CLO. 1979 
Yury Shulman after the round
Frank Berry U.S. Championship Final Standings 1. Yury Shulman-7 2. Alexander Onischuk-6.5 3. Sergey Kudrin-6 4-6. Josh Friedel, Eugene Perelshteyn and Varuzhan Akobian-5.5 7-10. Alexander Ivanov, Benjamin Finegold, Boris Gulko and Julio Becerra-5.0 11-14. John Fedorowicz, Dmitry Gurevich, Gregory Kaidanov and Alexander Shabalov-4.5 15-18. Daniel Ludwig, David Pruess, Jesse Kraai and Alexander Yermolinsky-4.0 19-22. Larry Kaufman, Michael Langer, Dean Ippolito and David Vigorito-3.5 22-23. Sam Shankland-2.5 24. Sergey Galant -1.5  |