US Championship 1984 — Berkeley

◇A zonal with the title on the line

The 30th U.S. Championship ran three weeks, from 9 to 30 July 1984, and carried extra weight: it doubled as the American zonal for the 1984–87 world championship cycle, with Interzonal qualification riding on the result. Lev Alburt, who had defected from the Soviet Union in 1979 and been three-time Ukrainian champion before that, led from the front to finish on 12½ points from 17 games — a point and a half ahead of Nick de Firmian, the clear runner-up on 11. Both qualified outright for the 1985 Interzonals; Yasser Seirawan took the zone's other automatic berth on his FIDE rating.

Behind them the tournament produced a four-way tie for third — Maxim Dlugy, Seirawan, James Tarjan and John Fedorowicz all finished on 10½ — that briefly left three men, Dlugy, Fedorowicz and Tarjan, in line for the zone's remaining qualifying spot. Tarjan stepped back from competitive play before it was settled, and Dlugy beat Fedorowicz 3½–2½ in a playoff staged in New York later that year.

◇A long, graded field

Seventeen rounds made for a deep table below the leaders: Larry Christiansen and Lubomir Kavalek shared seventh on 9½; Joel Benjamin, Roman Dzindzichashvili, Boris Kogan and Ron Henley followed on 9; Robert Byrne finished on 8½ and Walter Browne on 7½. At the bottom, Kamran Shirazi took just half a point from his seventeen games, last of the eighteen entrants.