47th US Chess championship playoff :: Seattle, WA 2002

[ Competition summary || Match Results | Information | Tournament Review ]


Match results

name Elo Flag 1 2 3 4 5 pts + = -
⇑ GM Christiansen, Larry 2571 USA ½ ½ 1 0 1 3 2 2 1
GM De Firmian, Nick 2536 USA ½ ½ 0 1 0 2 1 2 2

Source playoff table shows Christiansen 3, de Firmian 1 in a four-game summary line; PGN source contains five tiebreak games, including the final decisive game.





Information

47th US Chess championship playoff
Dates: 13th January 2002
City: Seattle, WA (United States)
Venue: Seattle Center
Organizers: America's Foundation for Chess
Chief Arbiter:
Competition format: Head-to-head first-place playoff after tie in the Swiss main event.
Time control:
Website: http://graeme.50webs.com/chesschamps/us/2002.htm
Other websites: https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?200201130270-10102511
PGN game file: usa-2002playoff.pgn





Tournament Review

The 47th US Chess Championship (Seattle, 5-13 January 2002) was played as a 56-player, 9-round Swiss event in a combined men-and-women field. Jennifer Shahade, as top female finisher, became US Women's Champion.

Larry Christiansen and Nick de Firmian tied for first on 6.5/9 in the main Swiss event. First place was then decided in a separate playoff (stored as usa-2002playoff).

Contemporary Seattle coverage highlighted that this edition merged the traditional championship field with the women's event in one open Swiss structure. Tournament reports from the time also emphasize that the Christiansen-de Firmian title decision required a separate rapid/blitz playoff after the main event finished tied.

Quick notes:

  • Open Swiss format replaced the classical closed round-robin model.
  • Christiansen and de Firmian shared first in the Swiss and needed a playoff for the title decision.
  • Jennifer Shahade finished as top woman and became US Women's Champion.

Coefficients/tiebreak note: the source crosstable does not publish numeric tie-break coefficients for tied score groups. The displayed ordering inside equal-score groups follows the crosstable's start numbering.

Source links: Graeme Cree page; USCF MSA crosstable; Seattle Post-Intelligencer report (Jan 13, 2002); ChessDrum tournament report (2002); US Chess digital archive (2002).