Cover Story
996Moves Anna Zatonskih’s long road to her fourth U.S. Women’s Championship. by FM MIKE KLEIN | PHOTOS COURTESY OF ST. LOUIS CHESS CLUB
When a player collects auto- graphs from fellow competitors in the middle of a tournament, usually his bags are packed too. little did International Master anna Zatonskih know that she should do some laundry—in ten days time her autograph would be the one sought after. her name would also be on the $18,000 winner’s check for the 2011 u.s. Women’s championship. prior to this april’s event, held at the
chess club and scholastic center of saint louis, Zatonskih had won three previous u.s. women’s championships. she never won like this. consider—for her 2009 title, her blitzkrieg of the field netted her a near-perfect 81
⁄2 /9. More-
over, prior to the 2011 u.s. Women’s championship, she had only lost in clas- sical chess to one other woman in the field, WgM rusudan goletiani. that all changed this year—Zatonskih lost a host of games but won slightly more of her 19 battles en route to a grueling victory, her fourth in six years. she played nearly 1,000 moves in the process. “It took me more energy than any other
u.s. championship,” Zatonskih said. “this one I had to suffer. I had to struggle. I will remember this one more than the rest.” the hardship began early. Zatonskih
struggled to hold a worse endgame in round one against FM alisa Melekhina. she followed with a win and a draw, but
28 Chess Life — July 2011
after a dispiriting round-four loss, a vis- ibly defeated Zatonskih walked down to the press room to fulfill her professional obligations. she had never appeared so despondent at any championship before. In the hotel lobby the next morning,
her sadness had turned to frustration over losing the previous day’s endgame. It was also her first career loss to IM Irina Krush, her main rival. Zatonskih marshaled her- self to the next round, only to lose again, this time to WFM tatev abrahamyan. she sat on a minus score, in fifth place with only two games remaining in the prelimi- nary round-robin. anticipating an early exit from the tournament, she began col- lecting autographs for the championship’s program to give to friends back home. not many suspected that nearly three-quarters of her tournament had yet to be played. the only nugget that lent verisimilitude
to the idea of title chances was the format. Instead of a simple round-robin, the top four players after the seven preliminary rounds would advance to knockout matches. Most importantly, after the round-robin, the slate would be wiped clean, thus nullifying the lead that Krush was methodically building (after an open- ing-round loss, Krush won five straight to qualify for the finals with a round to spare). In a sense, Zatonskih’s knockout tour-
nament began after the loss to abrahamyan. she had to win and keep
winning. going in to round six, Krush was on 4/5, while abrahamyan and WgMs camilla Baginskaite and sabina Foisor both stood at 31
⁄2 /5. Zatonskih’s score of
2/5 put her well back, but luckily she had Foisor in round seven. First up was goletiani, her perennial
olympiad teammate who was having a similarly disappointing tournament. as Black, Zatonskih slowly attacked her opponent’s overextended center. later, with goletiani’s king stranded in the corner, a timely queen sacrifice finished off the game. one must-win game begat the next,
and in round seven Zatonskih faced Foisor, who she now trailed by a point. Foisor drew Baginskaite uneventfully in round six, giving Zatonskih the driver’s seat to her own fate, even if the road stretched for miles. the game transposed to a King’s Indian attack, a rarity in top- level play. “you can see by my opening I didn’t prepare at all,” Zatonskih said. she hobbled Foisor with a weak c-pawn, and then allowed a few trades before cor- ralling the isolani en route to a decisive pawn majority. even though she missed a pretty underpromotion to knight on her 43rd move, by then the game was well in hand. “I was pretty relaxed,” she said. “Maybe that’s why I played better.” With a dozen playoff, knockout, rapid and armageddon matches forthcoming,
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