US Women's Chess Championship starts on July 9

US Women's Defending

Chess Champion Anna Zatonskih

Hello Everyone!

Saint Louis will host the 2010 US Women's Chess Championship and the 2010 US Junior Closed Championship from July 9-20. The 2010 US Championship took place in Saint Louis last month.

Both the championships will include 10 players who will fight for the crown through nine rounds of tournament play. Reigning US Women's Champion Anna Zatonskih and current US Junior Champ Ray Robson will also be defending their title.

Grandmaster commentary will be provided by GM Ben Finegold and WGM Jennifer Shahade. Saint Louis resident and #1-ranked U.S. player GM Hikaru Nakamura will also provide special commentary for two days yet to be determined.

The field for the 2010 U.S. Women's Championship is as follows:

• IM Anna Zatonskih: Defending Champion
• IM Irina Krush: Rating
• WGM Camilla Baginskaite: Rating
• WGM Sabina Foisor: Rating
• WGM Katerina Rohonyan: Wildcard
• WIM Alisa Melekhina: Rating
• WFM Iryna Zenyuk: U.S. Women's Open Champion
• WFM Abby Marshall: Rating
• WFM Tatev Abrahamyan: Rating
• WIM Beatriz Marinello: Rating

The field for the 2010 US Junior Closed Championship is as follows:

• GM Ray Robson: Defending Champion
• IM Sam Shankland: Rating
• FM John Bryant: Rating
• FM Darwin Yang: Rating
• FM Stephen Zierk: Rating
• FM Conrad Holt: Rating
• Parker Zhao: Rating
• Warren Harper: Rating
• Tyler Hughes: Rating
• Eric Rosen: U.S. Junior Open Champion

The 2010 US Women's Championship will feature a $65,000 prize fund, the largest prize fund in the history of the tournament. The breakdown is as follows with the winner taking $16,000.

The 2010 US Junior Championship will also feature a record-breaking prize fund. The ten participants will fight for $10,300 in prizes and will also receive a laptop computer as a part of their prize. The winner will receive $3,000.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also visit my personal blog at

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