Anna Zatonskih Wins 2009 U.S. Women's Championship

Anna Zatonskih has won the 2009 U.S. Women's Championship with the incredible score of 8.5/9, allowing only a draw to her closest competitor, Camilla Baginskaite, who finished two points back at 6.5/9. Last year's playoff challenger Irina Krush and rising star Alisa Melekhina finished tied for third and fourth at 5.5/9. Zatonskih won the championship last year in a controversial "armageddon" playoff with Krush, but this year demonstrated conclusively that she deserves the championship title. I recommend that you explore the excellent 2009 U.S. Women's Championship website (part of the excellent website of the Saint Louis Chess Club), where you will find every game annotated by GM-elect Ben Finegold in both java replay (an excellent deployment of Palview) and PDF bulletins. I was especially impresed by Zatonskih-Krush from Round 3 and the hard fought game Goletiani - Krush from Round 2.