US Championship: The Fab Four Finale

The organizers of the U.S. Championship, the Scholastic Center and Chess Club of St. Louis, came up with an added twist to the Swiss format this year with the top four point scorers (after seven rounds) pairing off from the field to battle it out in a "Quad Final" for the venerable title and top prize of $35,000.

And they got the dream final they were looking for, with the fab four top seeds of defending champion Hikaru Nakamura, plus former champions Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk and Yury Shulman all winning through by top-scoring with 5/7. And play gets underway in the final on Saturday, 22 May, starting at 2pm CDT (3pm EDT here on ICC) with full Chess.FM commentary coverage here on ICC.

The end of the U.S. Championship will also see the end of our FREE PREVIEW period on ICC. Everyone is welcome to sign up for a new trial to test drive what's new inside ICC for this final weekend - and NO TRIALS WILL BE TURNED AWAY! So take a free trial today and catch the dramatic conclusion to the U.S. Championship - featuring Nakamura, Kamsky, Onischuk and Shulman - by clicking here.

You can listen to live commentary of the final on Chess.FM with WGM Jennifer Shahade and GM Maurice Ashley, who all week have been rocking the mic direct from the Chess Club & Scholastic Center of St. Louis. And you can also tune in to Chess.FM's Game of the Day video recap from former US Champion GM Nick De Firmian - and also Macauley Peterson with the New In Chess trivia on GOTD, where each round viewers (whether ICC members or not) can enter to win a one year subscription to New In Chess magazine.

Rd	Commentator	Game	Free Video
1	Nick De Firmian	GM Larry Christiansen vs. GM Dmitry Gurevich
2	Nick De Firmian	GM Ray Robson vs. GM Alex Yermolinsky
3	Nick De Firmian	GM Sergey Kudrin vs. GM Alexander Onischuk
4	Nick De Firmian	GM Jaan Ehlvest vs. GM Alexander Stripunsky
5	Nick De Firmian	GM Gata Kamsky vs. GM Larry Christiansen
6	Nick De Firmian	GM Ben Finegold vs. GM Joel Benjamin
7	Nick De Firmian	GM Larry Christiansen vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura

Arctic Chess Challenge Qualifier on ICC

According to Visit Norway.Com, the capital of the Arctic, Tromsø, is a "lively, humorous and beautiful city packed with culture and history, and surrounded by mountains, fjords and islands." But for chess players, stunning Tromsø is also the official candidate city to host the 2014 Chess Olympiad and venue for the Arctic Chess Challenge.

The Arctic Chess Challenge is one of a new breed of exciting international opens on the circuit and a large number of titled players have already signed-up for the trek to Tromsø - and ICC will soon be hosting an exclusive online qualifier for one of its own members to to win a trip there!

Running the weekend of May 28th - 30th, ICC members can take part in the Arctic Chess Challenge qualifier with the winner receiving automatic invite, air fare, hotel & breakfast and 400 ($485) euro cash prize! There will also be an additional $700 on offer for prizes on the ICC during the online qualifier.

Please note that only members of ICC can take part in this exclusive online qualifier - so don't delay and sign-up for membership today by clicking here!