US Championship 1978 — Pasadena

◇A championship on the west coast

No US championship had ever been played on the west coast before; 1978 took it to California for the first time. The playing site was Ambassador College in Pasadena, the four-year liberal arts college run by the Worldwide Church of God, and the tournament ran from 4 to 26 June under the direction of Isaac Kashdan.

The field averaged 2498. Ken Regan, at 2363 the lowest-rated player present, was there as the runner-up of the previous year's US Junior Championship — and finished the event by drawing with the winner's closest rival.

◇Browne walks off the stage

Walter Browne came to Pasadena as the reigning champion and, at the opening players' meeting, raised his familiar objection to the hall's lighting. Kashdan accommodated him: the college's lighting technician met Browne the next morning and set his board to his satisfaction, and Browne was to keep that board for the whole event.

Inspecting the hall afterwards, Kashdan noticed one table out of alignment and pushed it back into the row — which moved it out from under the special lighting. Browne arrived late for round one, found his table shifted, and left the stage without acknowledging his opponent, Larry Christiansen. An appeals committee of William Lombardy, Ken Rogoff and Andrew Soltis upheld the forfeit; Browne departed the following morning, and with him went any chance of qualifying for the Interzonal. The final table carries fifteen names, not sixteen.

◇Kavalek in front

Kavalek, who had left Czechoslovakia after the Soviet invasion of 1968 and settled in the United States in 1970, lost exactly one game — with White to Tarjan in round five — and won seven. His 10/14 finished a point ahead of Tarjan and two ahead of Leonid Shamkovich and Edmar Mednis, who tied for third on 8. It was Kavalek's second US title, after sharing the 1973 championship with John Grefe.

Norman Weinstein produced the strangest score of the event: one win, no losses, and thirteen draws in fourteen games, good for a share of fifth place. Bernard Zuckerman drew twelve.

As the zonal, Pasadena sent Kavalek and Tarjan to the 1979 Interzonals directly. Shamkovich and Mednis played off for the third seat and Shamkovich won it — but Kavalek then withdrew from the Interzonal, and his place went to Mednis after all.