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The Year 2004 in Review
Opens


In the United States, land of the Super Open, the results of the 2003 USCF Grand Prix were announced in April. GM Alek Wojtkiewicz of Maryland won 1st prize with 391.78 points, ahead of GM Jaan Ehlvest (2nd, 280.92) and GM Ildar Ibragimov (3rd, 256.86). It was Wojkiewicz' fifth consecutive year as the Grand Prix winner.

In March, the USCF announced in a press release that it had 'reached an agreement with ChessCafe.com for the popular online website to sponsor the 2004 Grand Prix.' The release explained that

The Grand Prix is an annual year long contest, held each year since 1979, that causes more frequent play by top players, encourages organizers to reward excellence by guaranteeing more prize money that Masters are eligible to win, and helps to raise money for USCF’s Professional Players Health & Benefits Fund. ChessCafe.com will be the third corporate sponsor in the history of the Grand Prix. The others were Church’s Chicken (1979-1986) and Novag Computers (1988-1998). The event was sponsored by individual donors in 2001 and USCF in other years. This year’s prize fund will be the largest since 2000 and will include 18 special merchandise prizes for juniors and seniors.

Of the many events whose results are used to calculate Grand Prix points, a few offer the symbolic figure of 100 points or more. The events that reached this level in 2004 are shown by the date of each event's final round in the following table.

2004-01-19 120 Western Class Championships
2004-04-04 100 Millennium Chess Festival
2004-04-11 150 Foxwoods Open
2004-04-11 150 Far West Open
2004-05-31 150 Chicago Open
2004-06-13 200 CCA-ICC International
2004-06-13 100 Emory/Castle Grand Prix
2004-06-20 200 National Open (N)
2004-07-05 200 World Open
2004-07-18 120 Pacific Coast Open
2004-08-01 120 Continental Open
2004-08-15 150 U.S. Open (N)
2004-08-29 100 Atlantic Open
2004-09-06 100 Southern California Open
2004-09-06 150 North American FIDE Open
2004-10-17 200 Western States Open
2004-11-14 100 Kings Island Open
2004-11-28 120 National Chess Congress
2004-12-19 100 Edward Lasker Memorial
2004-12-25 150 Christmas Rapid Knockout
2004-12-29 150 North American Open
2004-12-29 100 Eastern Open

The two events marked '(N)' are National Events, co-sponsored by the USCF. Alex Yermolinsky won the 6-round National Open (Las Vegas, NV) on tiebreak ahead of four other players. Seven players tied for first in the 9-round U.S. Open (Fort Lauderdale, FL), where there was no tiebreak.

Next : Computers 2004


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• The Best Players
• World Championship
• International Events
• National Championships
• Opens
• Computers
• Passages
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• Opens 2003