Drawing of lots for pairings being held at the St Louis zoo. Lots are stuffed animals from the zoo. Pairing numbers are attached to the stuffed toy. The players keep the one they select.
All pairings have been made. Check in the US Championships web site for the pairings. The tournament starts Wednesday.
Will each player set the stuffed animal he chose on the board next to him in each round? That would be a neat idea!
Bill Smythe
There were some folks looking to trade critters. I don’t know if any trades we’re made, but Akobian’s daughter was not about to give up the monkey he picked.
When I played 10-year-old Judit Polgar at the New York Open in 1987, she set a little rubber elephant on the table next to her board, facing me. I should have known I was outgunned!
I seem to remember the 1995 US Open in Concord, CA where there was this young girl carrying her “Good Luck Bunny” to each of her games, and I think in Round 7 or 8 she was matched up against an adult man, and the man brought his “Good Luck Lion” to this game, and needless to say, the young girl lost pretty quickly. I wonder why?
Respectfully Submitted,
David A. Cole, USCF Life Member, Franklin, NJ
Even before the stuffed animals, Rex had already made the US Championships into a compelling event. There are many intriguing narratives in both the Open and Women’s championships.
No player has repeated as US Champion since Kamsky in 2013 and 2014. The addition of Dominguez Perez makes this year’s event the strongest ever. Caruana has to be considered the favorite, but So, Nakamura and Shankland are all recent champions. Of particular interest is if Jeffery Xiong is ready to make his ascent towards a 2700 ELO rating.
The Women’s event has 5 “veterans,” of which Sabina Foisor is the only one under 30 years of age, playing against 7 teenagers, with Maggie Feng being the oldest at 18 years. Jennifer Yu, Carissa Yip, Akshita Gorti and Annie Wang all played in multiple FIDE rated events in the past year in the pursuit of IM Norms, with up-and-down results, as one would expect for young, developing players. (Yu has 2 norms, I believe, while the others all have at least one norm.) I would hope that all of them get to the IM and 2400 ELO level before college and career goals interfere with their chess.
Missing from this year’s championship is the reigning women’s champion, Nazi Paikidze. It appears she has played in no classical events since last year’s event. (With an expired USCF memebership, btw.) Has she retired from active play?
My picks: Open/Caruana. Women’s/Tatev Abrahamyan.
So our forum censorship software can’t handle the names of all our Championship participants. I’ll just have to figure them out 
Years ago, text-to-speech software for blind computer users used to have similar censorship. My wife would hear something like “Matsu-sugar-a” where the name of a certain Japanese company was intended. She was irritated that people who could see didn’t have to have censorhip, but she did. We still sometimes chuckle about that.
Miracle victory for Krush imo 
Like a card shark - an extra Rook up her sleeve! 
I hope it can be fixed. Of all of the advanced USChess “Teen Princesses,” Ms. Gorti appears to be the one most likely to pursue chess as a profession. (IMO, of course). She played in Europe for over 4 months last summer, earned 1 IM Norm, and played a slew of stronger players. She is also home-schooled, I believe. I’d hate to see her try and make a name for herself, only to have that name censored. 
The banned word list has been a part of the Forums since they were introduced. If the ED or EB want to authorize changing or removing the banned word list, editing it is possible. (It gets a bit tricky since it works on word fragments, so additions can have unexpected consequences.)
Inserting the last name into the middle of the first name, that would be Aksh - Gorti - ita,
Will the championship ever be held somewhere besides St. Louis? When it floated around the country, there was a chance you’d get to go see a few rounds when it came to your area.
We have a fine sponsor who spends a whole bunch of money on the event in STL. If there is a competing bid for the event that exceeds what the folks due in STL we will certainly consider it.