San Diego, CA - America's Foundation for Chess (AF4C) and San Diego's NTC Foundation are joining forces to bring the U.S. Chess Championships to San Diego, which starts next week at the Hilton Torrey Pines, La Jolla, California. The public is invited to watch the top 64 U.S. chess players compete for the overall Championship title as well as the Women's Championship title. 64 Chess Masters are planning their attack to out maneuver opponents in the most prestigious tournament to date. Spectators will be able to meet the players and hear expert commentary during the matches.

A new dedicated championship web site at www.uschesschampionship.com has now been launched, and this will include all the latest news, live games, game download, reports, and pictures direct from the playing venue.

More People Compete For National Titles

Seventeen top-rated players (12 men, 5 women) - including the 2003 U.S. Champion Alexander Shabalov and the 2004 U.S. Women's Champion Jennifer Shahade, the 2003 and 2004 U.S. Junior Champions, Varuzhan Akobian and Lev Milman, and the 2002 and 2003 USCF Grand Prix Champion Aleks Wojtkiewicz - were automatically seeded into the event. For the first time, an online Champion of Champions event hosted by the Internet Chess Club saw Ronald Burnett of Tennessee become the first qualifier from all the State Champions.

Making up the rest of the field will be 43 additional players (33 men, 10 women) who survived the qualifying events held at the National Open, Foxwoods Open, the Chicago Open, the World Open, the U.S. Open and the North American Open. This open-competition format has also allowed many young, non-titled players to compete for the first time for a cherished spot in the national championship.

In addition, AF4C utilized their two wild card spots, agreed to by the USCF, to further our mission of promoting chess. AF4C's Wild Card committee voted to invite returning superstar Gata Kamsky after a five-year lay-off from the game, who will be this year's top seed, as well as 14-year-old Salvijus Bercys, the #1 U.S. rated player under the age of 16.

Richest Annual Prize in Game's History

AF4C has consistently boosted the prize fund since taking over in 2000, and this year the prize fund for the 2005 U.S. Chess Championships is a record $255,000. No other national championship in the world offers a prize fund to players higher than this. This unprecedented amount - with $25,000 slotted for the winner - should encourage more Americans to pursue a career in chess so that one day soon America finds its next Bobby Fischer - an American-born world champion who cultivated a new-found fascination with chess around the world.