The Men's and Women's USA Championships have started today in Saint Louis at 22.00 Moscow time. The official opening of the tournaments happened earlier.
The first round pairings are as follows:
The Women's Championship (10 players).
Ni - Abrahamyan
Zenyuk - Melekhina
Krush - S.Foisor
Goletiani - Baginskaite
Zatonskih - Kats
The Men's Championship (12 players).
Akobian - Seirawan
Shulman - Kaidanov
Stripunsky - Onischuk
Lenderman - Robson
Kamsky - Ramirez
Nakamura - Hess
The main favourites are not playing against each other in the first round of the Men's Championship. An encounter between Alexanders from Kharkiv and Sevastopol (both cities located in Ukraine) is worth pointing out: Stripunsky - Onischuk. In the Women's Championship, one of the key encounters of the first round is Irina Krush against Sabina Foisor.
It has been announced that the live transmission of the games (as well as live commentary) will be done by the site
The championships will last until 19 May, while the tie-break will happen on 20 May if necessary.