4.5 Points for Sevillano in US

As we might already know by now, Alex Shabalov has won the 2007 US Chess Championships with a score of 7/9 points. That was a very powerful performance by Shabalov that involved 6 5 straight wins, 2 draws (against Ehlvest and Gulko), then capped off with a final round victory over Sergey Kudrin.

Of interest to us is the play of Pinoy-American IM Enrico Sevillano. This guy completed his outing with a 50% score overall. In the last round, Sevillano, a former Philippine Olympiad rep (last appearing for that country in 1994), essayed the Benko Gambit against Akobian. It was an exciting but disappointing finish for Sevillano.


More coverage is also available on Chessbase with some interesting little detail about Shabalov's secret for success.