Press Release by John Henderson

2003 AF4C US Chess Championships, 9-18 January Northwest Rooms, Seattle.

Round 8; The Joel and the crown

Joel Benjamin vs. Alexander Shabalov

The race for the 2003 AF4C US Championships was blown wide open in the penultimate eighth round of the tournament, as overnight leader Alexander Shabalov lost to his bete noire Joel Benjamin, the player accredited with being the chess-brains behind the IBM super-computer Deep Blue.

For Shabalov, a two-time winner of the title, the pairing proved to be the worst possible. For the ex Latvian who was trained by the great Mikhail Tal, it was almmost a repeat of last year in Seattle when Shabalov was playing great chess and leading the tournament, only to come up against "the wall" of Benjamin in the penultimate round, losing both the game and with it his title chances. And, during the first US Championships held in Seattle in 2000, Benjamin took the title after beating Shabalov twice in a three-way playoff.

Hard to imagine, but Benjamin, 38, a three-time title winner (1987, 1997 & 2000), now holds the record for the most successive US Championship appeareances. He made his debut at Columbus in 1977 as a 17-year-old, and has now made 21 consecutive appeareances.

Benjamin's win threw the tournament wide open, and now the 2003 title looks inevitably to be heading towards a playoff. With the leader losing, there is now a multiple eight-way tie for first, with five former champions among the eight who'll be battling it out in the final round for the record first prize of $25,000. And, with Boris Gulko, the only player in the world to have held both the US and USSR national titles beating 15-year-old Hikaru Nakamura, gone with it went the youngsters chances of a final GM norm to become the youngest American Grandmaster since Bobby Fischer, and also his chances of being the youngest title winner since Fischer.

Stephen Muhammad gets his third and final IM norm

If any players are still tied for the lead by the end of the final round on Saturday, they will have to come back to the arena on Sunday for a nerve-wracking playoff for both the title of US Champion and the first prize of $25,000. On the norm front, so far the following players have secured norms (and titles where applicable): Stephen Muhammad gets his third and final IM norm; likewise Igor Fogyel receives his third and final IM norm. Defending women's champion Jennifer Shahade not only secures her second successive IM norm at the US Championships, but she also receives a WGM norm. Varuzhan Akobian needs a win in the final round, which will not only secure his third and final GM norm but could also make him one of the few players to have won the US title on his debut.

In the race for the women's title, defending champion Jennifer Shahade made it two wins out of two against tough male opposition for a score of 4.5/8. She is now favourite to retain her title and first prize of $12,500. Going into the final round, she has a half point lead over former champion Irina Krush on 4/8.

ROUND EIGHT 1 GM Joel Benjamin 1-0 GM Alexander Shabalov; 2 GM Gregory Kaidanov draw Alexander Goldin; 3 GM Boris Gulko 1-0 IM Hikaru Nakamura; 4 WIM Jennifer Shahade 1-0 IM Eugene Perelshteyn; 5 WIM Tsagaan Battsetseg 0-1 IM Jesse Kraai; 6 GM Larry Christiansen 1-0 FM Stephen Muhammad; 7 GM Yasser Seirawan 0-1 GM John Fedorowicz; 8 IM Boris Kreiman 0-1 GM Alexander Stripunsky; 9 GM Alex Fishbein draw GM Alex Yermolinsky; 10 IM Varuzhan Akobian 1-0 FM Igor Foygel; 11 IM Greg Shahade 0-1 GM Alexander Ivanov; 12 GM Gregory Serper draw IM John Donaldson; 13 GM Walter Browne 0-1 IM Ron Burnett; 14 WGM Irina Krush 1-0 FM Aaron Pixton; 15 GM Maurice Ashley draw David Pruess; 16 GM Nick De Firmian 1-0 FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat; 17 WFM Laura Ross 0-1 WIM Anna Hahn; 18 IM Ben Finegold draw GM Anatoly Lein; 19 GM Sergey Kudrin 1-0 IM Larry Kaufman; 20 IM Michael Mulyar 0-1 GM Dmitry Gurevich; 21 IM Yury Lapshun 0-1 IM Justin Sarkar; 22 IM John Watson draw WGM Elena Donaldson; 23 GM Gennadi Zaitshik 1-0 IM William Paschall; 24 FM Allan Bennett 0-1 IM Dean Ippolito; 25 WGM Kamile Baginskaite 1-0 Julia Shiber; 26 WIM Cindy Tsai 1-0 WIM Olga Sagalchik; 27 FM Gregory Markzon draw IM Stanislav Kriventsov; 28 Anna Levina 0-1 WIM Elina Groberman; 29 WIM Esther Epstein draw Marc Esserman.

STANDINGS 1-8 Shabalov, Kaidanov, Gulko, Benjamin, Stripunsky, Akobian, Ivanov, Fedorowicz 5.5/8; 9-15 Goldin, Yermolinsky, Fishbein, Christiansen, Gurevich, Burnett, Sarkar 5/8.

You can follow all 29 games live over the Internet at: http://www.af4c.org