by Jennifer Shahade

Besides four draws (Krush-Kaidanov, Shulman-Bradford,Gulko-Mulyar, Bonin-Ivanov), the first round of the 2007 Frank Berry U.S. Championship (May 15-23) saw expected results.

Board 1 was a grudge match between recent Samford awardee IM Josh Friedel and top seed Hikaru Nakamura. Josh upset Hikaru in round 1 last year but this year Hikaru got his revenge:







On board three, Irina Krush drew an interesting game with Gregory Kaidanov.



Kudrin defeated crowd favorite Ray Robson with a pretty combination featured above and displayed in full below: (Scroll all the way down for the solution.)


White to Move

Ehvlest won nicely against Bay Area IM David Pruess's Benoni:



U.S. Championship Standings after Round 1

	Name	Rtng	St	Rd 1	Tot
1	GM HIKARU NAKAMURA	2738	NY	W23	1
2	GM ALEXANDER ONISCHUK	2712	MD	W24	1
3	GM JAAN EHLVEST	2683	NY	W25	1
4	GM ILDAR IBRAGIMOV	2680	CT	W26	1
5	GM ALEXANDER SHABALOV	2671	PA	W27	1
6	GM ALEXANDER STRIPUNSKY	2664	NY	W28	1
7	GM VARUZHAN AKOBIAN	2651	CA	W29	1
8	GM SERGEY KUDRIN	2612	CT	W30	1
9	GM EUGENE PERELSHTEYN	2611	MA	W31	1
10	GM JULIO BECERRA	2608	FL	W32	1
11	GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY	2588	CA	W33	1
12	GM DMITRY GUREVICH	2583	IL	W34	1
13	IM ENRICO M SEVILLANO	2566	CA	W35	1
14	GM MELIKSET KHACHIYAN	2550	CA	W36	1
15	GM GREGORY KAIDANOV	2686	KY	D19	0.5
16	GM YURY SHULMAN	2667	IL	D20	0.5
17	GM BORIS GULKO	2660	NJ	D21	0.5
18	GM ALEXANDER IVANOV	2623	MA	D22	0.5
19	IM IRINA KRUSH	2488	NY	D15	0.5
20	FM JOSEPH MARK BRADFORD	2457	TX	D16	0.5
21	IM MICHAEL MULYAR	2420	CO	D17	0.5
22	IM JAY BONIN	2383	NY	D18	0.5
23	IM JOSHUA E FRIEDEL	2542	NH	L1	0
24	GM WALTER S BROWNE	2520	CA	L2	0
25	IM DAVID PRUESS	2473	CA	L3	0
26	FM ROBERT L HESS	2472	NY	L4	0
27	IM JUSTIN SARKAR	2470	NY	L5	0
28	IM BRYAN SMITH	2441	PA	L6	0
29	IM RONALD W BURNETT	2396	TN	L7	0
30	FM RAY S ROBSON	2378	FL	L8	0
31	FM MICHAEL LANGER	2334	TX	L9	0
32	MICHAEL AIGNER	2300	CA	L10	0
33	FM MOVSES MOVSISYAN	2274	OK	L11	0
34	WFM IRYNA ZENYUK	2229	NY	L12	0
35	WFM CHOUCHANIK AIRAPETIAN	2188	WA	L13	0
36	TOM BRAUNLICH	2136	OK	L14	0

 

Fantasy U.S. Championship Standings after Round 1: (Top ten out of 410 players)

1. Darrian Robinson XXXXX651 5.0 (2506)

Alexander Shabalov
Eugene Perelshteyn
Julio Becerra
Alex Yermolinsky
Melikset Khachiyan
Ray Robson
Irina Zenyuk

2. John Sheatsley XXXXX013 5.0 (2507)

Hikaru Nakamura
Jaan Ehlvest
Julio Becerra
Alex Yermolinsky
Enrico Sevillano
Chouchanik Airapetian
Irina Zenyuk

3. Matthew Leong XXXXX124 4.5 (2505.1)
4. Walter Carrara XXXXX827 4.5 (2506.5)
5. John Evans XXXXX526 4.5 (2506.8)
6. Harrison Termott XXXXX387 4.5 (2507.7)
7. Frank Bloise XXXXX044 4.5 (2508.5)
8. Ed Feldman XXXXX919 4.5 (2509.2)
9. Bran Whitcomb XXXXX831 4.5 (2509.7)
Gary Walters XXXXX923 4.5 (2509.7)

Round two pairings

Bd	White Player Name		Black Player Name
1	GM HIKARU NAKAMURA		GM SERGEY KUDRIN
2	GM EUGENE PERELSHTEYN		GM ALEXANDER ONISCHUK
3	GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY		GM JAAN EHLVEST
4	GM ILDAR IBRAGIMOV		GM JULIO BECERRA
5	GM DMITRY GUREVICH		GM ALEXANDER SHABALOV
6	IM ENRICO M SEVILLANO		GM ALEXANDER STRIPUNSKY
7	GM MELIKSET KHACHIYAN		GM VARUZHAN AKOBIAN
8	GM GREGORY KAIDANOV		FM JOSEPH MARK BRADFORD
9	GM YURY SHULMAN		IM IRINA KRUSH
10	GM BORIS GULKO		IM JAY BONIN
11	GM ALEXANDER IVANOV		IM MICHAEL MULYAR
12	FM RAY S ROBSON		IM JOSHUA E FRIEDEL
13	GM WALTER S BROWNE		FM MICHAEL LANGER
14	IM DAVID PRUESS		FM MOVSES MOVSISYAN
15	MICHAEL AIGNER		FM ROBERT L HESS
16	IM JUSTIN SARKAR		WFM IRYNA ZENYUK
17	IM BRYAN SMITH		WFM CHOUCHANIK AIRAPETIAN
18	IM RONALD W BURNETT		TOM BRAUNLICH

Solution to Kudrin-Robson problem: Bb6!+ Qb6 Rxd7!+ picks up the queen.