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The Year 2004 in Review | ||||||||||
National Championships (of the main English speaking countries) | ||||||||||
Since the majority of the visitors to the About site are native English speakers, here are the results of the 2004 championships of the main English speaking countries.
In January, Gary Lane won the 2003/4 Australian Championship in Adelaide. He finished 0.5 point ahead of Ian Rogers.
Also in January, Nigel Short won the 9-round 2004 Commonwealth Championship in Mumbai, India, with a score of 7.5.
Pavel Smirnov of Russia finished with the same score, but was not eligible for the Commonwealth title.
He won the International Open trophy with a better tie break than Short.
In May, Vassily Ivanchuk won the gold medal in the 5th European Individual Championship, held in Antalya, Turkey.
He beat Predrag Nikolic (silver) in a playoff match.
Levon Aronian won the bronze medal after another series of playoff matches.
A few months earlier, Alexandra Kosteniuk won the 5th European Women's Championship after beating Peng Zhaoqin 1.5-0.5 in a playoff match.
In July, Jonathan Rowson won the 111th Scottish Championship in Hamilton.
He finished 0.5 points ahead of Jacob Aagaard in the 9-round event.
A month later, Rowson won the 91st Smith & Williamson British Championship, held in Scarborough, Yorkshire.
He finished 0.5 points ahead of Peter Wells and Simon Williams of England, to become the first Scottish player to win the title since R.F. Combe in 1946.
Also in August, Pascal Charbonneau won the 77th Canadian Championship (a zonal) in Toronto.
He beat Eric Lawson 2-0 in a playoff match and earned the right to compete in the next FIDE World Championship.
One of the biggest stories of the year was 16-year old Hikaru Nakamura's win in the 2005 U.S. Championship, a 9-round Swiss system held in San Diego in December.
Nakamura beat Alexander Stripunsky in a playoff match to win the title and the $25,000 first prize.
Rusudan Goletiani beat Tatev Abrahamyan in another playoff match to win the women's title.
A week later, Nakamura confirmed his status as a rising star by beating 14-year old Sergey Karjakin of the Ukraine by a score of 4.5-1.5 in an exhibition match held in Mexico.
Also in December, Surya Shekhar Ganguly won the 42nd National 'A' Championship of India.
He won on tiebreak over Chanda Sandipan after both players finished with 12.0 points in the 19-player round robin which took place in Visakhapatnam.
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