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The Friday Action Quads made its triumphant return following the Women's Championship.  Fourteen fierce competitors slugged it out in three sections.  In the top quad, Jialin Ding and Kevin Cao, two of Saint Louis' best scholastic players, finished with 2.5/3.0 (drawing each other) to split the $36 prize.  In quad 2, Namit Gaur dominated the field, going undefeated with a perfect 3.0/3.0 performance for clear first.  The bottom section featured a six-player Swiss in which unrated Filippo Massari's 2.5/3.0 was good enough for the clear $36 first place prize.

Photos By: Betsy Dynako

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[view:float_right_thumb==1191]ST. LOUIS, Oct. 13, 2009 -- The 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship, held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, already had a clear winner going into the final round, but there was heavy drama in the battle for money, place and qualification for other tournaments.
   
Defending U.S. Champion Anna Zatonskih, of Long Island, N.Y., finished off the tournament in style with a positional crush of Yun Fan, of Greencastle, Ind. She won the record $15,000 first place prize fund. Zatonskih ended with eight wins and one draw in nine games, and her 8.5 points were tied for the best result in the championship in more than 20 years. She said the championship was the best performance of her career.

[view:float_right_thumb==1166]ST. LOUIS, Oct. 12, 2009 -- Anna Zatonskih clinched her second consecutive U.S. Women's Chess championship by defeating Sabina Foisor in round eight of the 2009 event at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.

With one round remaining, she has acquired a near-perfect 7.5 out of 8 points and will win the record $15,000 first prize. No other woman has more than 5.5 points so Tuesday's final round will be for posterity, not place.

Zatonskih, of Long Island, N.Y., said she will still try hard. "It doesn't feel right to win the championship and lose the last round," she said.

Zatonskih also earned an automatic qualification to the 2010 U.S. Women's Chess Championship. She said she was nervous today for the first time all tournament, knowing that single bad move and "I could easily spoil everything."