The Party Starts in Cherry Hill

The constellation of events that make up the 2021 U.S. Open get underway tonight at 7pm Eastern with the first games of the five Invitational events — the GM Arnold Denker (“Denker”) Tournament of High School Champions, the Dewain Barber (“Barber”) Tournament of Middle School Champions, the WIM Ruth Haring (“Haring”) National Girls’ Tournament of Champions, the John D. Rockefeller III (“Rockefeller”) National Tournament of Elementary School State Champions, and the John T. Irwin (“Irwin”) National Senior Tournament of Champions — and the first round of the traditional U.S. Open schedule.

Some of the players are already at work, however, playing in the FM Sunil Weeramantry (“Weeramantry”) National Blitz Tournament of State Champions. 143 players pre-registered to take part in four sections beginning at 10am Eastern, including GM Awonder Liang, IM Doug Root, and US Chess Technical Editor IM Ron Burnett. Current standings can be found at the main U.S. Open data page.

Already we have photos from the Weeramantry, provided by our on-site photographer, Iredia Ekhato.

The Opening Ceremonies for the Denker, Barber, Haring, Rockefeller, and Irwin take place this afternoon, with players heading to the board at 7pm Eastern to do battle in the Grand Ballroom of the Crowne Plaza in Cherry Hill.

At the same time, the first games of the 2021 U.S. Open will also kick off in the Grand Ballroom as the Traditional Schedule gets underway. While registrations are still trickling in, some of the top players currently entered in the Traditional section include GMs Lazaro Bruzon Batista, John Burke, Alex Fishbein, Benjamin Glendura, and Aleksandr Lenderman.

If you can’t make it to Cherry Hill, you can follow the action on the US Chess Twitch channel, where IM Kostya Kavutskiy and WGM Katerina Nemcova will headline the coverage.

TWITCH SCHEDULE

Invitational Tournaments

July 31, 7pm EDT: IM Kostya Kavutskiy and WGM Katerina Nemcova
August 1, 12 noon and 7pm EDT: IM Kostya Kavutskiy and WGM Katerina Nemcova
August 2, 12 noon and 7pm EDT: IM Kostya Kavutskiy and tba
August 3, 12 noon: IM Kostya Kavutskiy and tba

US Open – Final 3 Rounds

August 6, 7pm: IM Kostya Kavutskiy and WGM Katerina Nemcova
August 7, 7pm: IM Kostya Kavutskiy and WGM Katerina Nemcova
August 8, 7pm: IM Kostya Kavutskiy and WGM Katerina Nemcova

Live games will also be broadcast on uschess.live (subject to change).

Keep up with all the action here on Chess Life Online, where we will have daily coverage, and subscribe to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages, where we will post updates from the playing site. Be sure to use the Twitter hashtag #usopenchess to share your photos and thoughts!