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The real drama came in the final round of the main event. After a dismal start last year's champion Hikaru Nakamura had climbed all the way to the top and was just one point behind the leader, Alexander Onischuk. The two faced each other for a showdown on the board.
Onischuk,A (2650) - Nakamura,H (2644) [A70]
United States Championship 2006 San Diego USA (9), 11.03.2006
In this position Hikaru Nakamura had an excellent chance – to win and register the greatest comeback since, well, Topalov on Friday in Linares. The defending champion could have played 29...Qxf3 with excellent winning prospects (e.g. 30.Rxe7 Rxe7 31.Bf6 Rxe1 32.Qxe1 bxc4 33.Qe8+ Nf8). Instead he played 29...Qh3 and after 30.Kg1 Bg4 31.Nh2 Bxe2 32.Bxe2 Kxg7 the games was drawn in 65 moves.
That left Onischuk the winner by half a point in group A. In group B three players tied for first: Yuri Shulman, Gata Kamsky and Larry Christiansen. Shulman was the winner on tiebreaks. Here are the final standings after the main tournaments:
| No. | T | Name | USCF | FIDE | Pts |
| 1 | GM | Onischuk, Alexander | 2686 | 2650 | 7.0 |
| 2 | GM | Ibragimov, Ildar | 2707 | 2635 | 6.5 |
| 3 | GM | Stripunsky, Alexander | 2642 | 2564 | 6.5 |
| 4 | GM | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2774 | 2644 | 6.0 |
| 5 | GM | Akobian, Varuzhan | 2662 | 2600 | 5.5 |
| 6 | IM | Finegold, Benjamin | 2657 | 2563 | 5.5 |
| 7 | GM | Kudrin, Sergey | 2627 | 2554 | 5.5 |
| 8 | GM | Gurevich, Dmitry | 2562 | 2503 | 5.5 |
| 9 | IM | Fernandez, Daniel | 2424 | 2423 | 5.5 |
| 10 | GM | Goldin, Alexander | 2642 | 2598 | 5.0 |
| 11 | GM | Serper, Gregory | 2577 | 2517 | 5.0 |
| 12 | IM | Kraai, Jesse | 2540 | 2443 | 5.0 |
| 13 | IM | Friedel, Joshua | 2513 | 2455 | 5.0 |
| 14 | FM | Stein, Alan | 2486 | 2415 | 5.0 |
| 15 | WGM | Goletiani, Rusudan (w) | 2393 | 2378 | 5.0 |
| 16 | GM | Benjamin, Joel | 2624 | 2576 | 4.5 |
| 17 | GM | Dlugy, Maxim | 2604 | 2531 | 4.5 |
| 18 | GM | De Firmian, Nick | 2600 | 2547 | 4.5 |
| 19 | IM | Schneider, Dmitry | 2525 | 2486 | 4.5 |
| 20 | FM | Schneider, Igor | 2420 | 2376 | 4.5 |
| 21 | IM | Florean, Andrei | 2479 | 2426 | 4.0 |
| 22 | FM | Tate, Emory | 2441 | 2391 | 4.0 |
| 23 | IM | Lenderman, Alex | 2427 | 2431 | 4.0 |
| 24 | WFM | Ross, Laura (w) | 2238 | 2141 | 4.0 |
| 25 | IM | Gonzalez, Renier | 2548 | 2470 | 3.5 |
| 26 | FM | Bercys, Salvijus | 2440 | 2358 | 3.5 |
| 27 | WGM | Baginskaite, Camilla (w) | 2331 | 2299 | 3.5 |
| 28 | WIM | Epstein, Esther (w) | 2172 | 2178 | 3.5 |
| 29 | WFM | Vicary, Elizabeth (w) | 2118 | 2107 | 3.5 |
| 30 | Zenyuk, Iryna (w) | 2101 | 2194 | 3.0 | |
| 31 | Kleiman, Jake | 2318 | 2279 | 1.5 | |
| 32 | Cottrell-Finegold, Kelly (w) | 1663 | 1887 | 0.0 |
| No. | T | Name | USCF | FIDE | Pts |
| 1 | GM | Shulman, Yury | 2623 | 2581 | 6.5 |
| 2 | GM | Kamsky, Gata | 2729 | 2686 | 6.5 |
| 3 | GM | Christiansen, Larry | 2633 | 2546 | 6.5 |
| 4 | GM | Fishbein, Alexander | 2593 | 2519 | 6.0 |
| 5 | GM | Novikov, Igor | 2643 | 2575 | 5.5 |
| 6 | GM | Kaidanov, Gregory | 2722 | 2603 | 5.0 |
| 7 | GM | Shabalov, Alexander | 2665 | 2595 | 5.0 |
| 8 | GM | Ivanov, Alexander | 2657 | 2606 | 5.0 |
| 9 | IM | Perelshteyn, Eugene | 2614 | 2522 | 5.0 |
| 10 | GM | Yermolinsky, Alex | 2590 | 2554 | 5.0 |
| 11 | GM | Wojtkiewicz, Aleks | 2555 | 2554 | 5.0 |
| 12 | GM | Kreiman, Boris | 2535 | 2478 | 5.0 |
| 13 | GM | Browne, Walter | 2507 | 2434 | 5.0 |
| 14 | WGM | Zatonskih, Anna (w) | 2469 | 2433 | 5.0 |
| 15 | GM | Gulko, Boris | 2678 | 2585 | 4.5 |
| 16 | GM | Becerra, Julio | 2629 | 2556 | 4.5 |
| 17 | GM | Fedorowicz, John | 2558 | 2493 | 4.5 |
| 18 | IM | Milman, Lev | 2528 | 2478 | 4.5 |
| 19 | IM | Kriventsov, Stanislav | 2491 | 2449 | 4.5 |
| 20 | IM | Ippolito, Dean | 2464 | 2414 | 4.5 |
| 21 | FM | Muhammad, Stephen | 2458 | 2377 | 4.5 |
| 22 | IM | Lugo, Blas | 2440 | 2412 | 4.5 |
| 23 | IM | Ginsburg, Mark | 2425 | 2367 | 4.0 |
| 24 | IM | Vigorito, David | 2422 | 2359 | 4.0 |
| 25 | IM | Sarkar, Justin | 2399 | 2323 | 4.0 |
| 26 | WFM | Abrahamyan, Tatev (w) | 2325 | 2254 | 4.0 |
| 27 | WIM | Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg (w) | 2271 | 2208 | 3.5 |
| 28 | Liu, Elliott | 2266 | 2139 | 3.5 | |
| 29 | Airapetian, Chouchanik (w) | 2162 | 2130 | 3.5 | |
| 30 | West, Vanessa (w) | 2034 | 2083 | 3.5 | |
| 31 | WFM | Itkis, Hana (w) | 2149 | 2105 | 1.5 |
| 32 | WCM | Christiansen, Natasha (w) | 1872 | 2003 | 0.5 |
The winners of each group qualified for the Championship Match (in Group B the tiebreak system favoured Shulman over Kamsky and Christiansen). The top women payer in each group, Goletiani and Zatonskih, also qualified for the Championship Match for the women's section. The following results were achieved:
US Championship Match |
||
| Aledander Onischuk |
Yury Shulman | |
Yury Shulman |
Aledander Onischuk | |
Alexander Onischuk defeated Yury Shulman 1.5-0.5 to become the 2006 US Champion!
| US Women's Championship | ||
Rusadan Goletiani |
Anna Zatonskih | |
Anna Zatonskih |
Rusadan Goletiani | |
Anna Zatonskih defeated the defending champion Rusadan Goletiani to become the 2006 US Women's Champion!
US Championship match between Shulman and Onischuk
Anna Zatonskih on the way to victory against Rusadan Goletiani
The new US Champion 2006: Alexander Onischuk
Giving mom the good news? US Women's Champion Anna Zatonskih
Hikaru Nakamura losing to Camilla Baginskaite. After that he won four in
a row
Two former US champions analysing: Alex Yermolinsky and Boris Gulko
Another two former champions: Gata Kamsky and Larry Christiansen
Six times US Champion Walter Browne
Great pals: Laura Ross and Hana Itkis
Bet you can't do that! Kelly Cottrell-Finegold who scored a record-breaking
0/9.
