I am Making my early prediction of the 2022 U.S. Women's Champion.

Alright, everyone is probably attempting to figure out who they think will win the US Women’s Championship and I believe my choice has a solid logical backing. I was planning to simply pick an underdog but I started reading the biographies and my intellectual curiosity was thoroughly stimulated.

There are 14 participants in the Women’s Championship and I will tell you why 13 of them should not win…

Now let us start from the bottom. Sophie Morris-Suzuki is the weakest player in the field and stands little to no chance of winning the event. If she somehow led the field, I would reason to believe she was probably using whatever Hans Niemann was using to beat Magnus Carlsen. Lol

And, with that well timed quip, I will rule out Sabina Foisor and Megan Lee on the same basis.

I can group a few of the youngsters together as well. One of my highest picks was Alice Lee but it then occurred to me that I had a conversation with her about a year ago in Minnesota. I remember her irritation about playing against a certain player that was super well prepared and theoretically had her number. I think everyone who

believes they have a chance of winning the event will be as well prepared. If her preparation is neutralized, I think it will result in an adult matching wits with a child. And for that reason, I will also rule out Ruiyang Yan and Rochelle Wu.

I was planning on the landslide victory going to Jennifer Yu this year but I think she will not have the same level of dominance due to her academic workload. I could be wrong but I remember those type of colleges being quite stressful. I figure she will go in with the same mindset as she did in 2019 but this year it will not work out for her. I think Ashritha Eswarana is in a similar situation so I will remove her too.

As a 36 year old man, it pains me to present this next group. Irina Krush, Anna Zatonskih, and Tatev Abrahamyan are not likely to win because of their age. The endurance factor will more than likely play a huge role. I could see a few of them dropping games to the youngsters.

That leaves the group of players who are most likely to win. Thalia Cervantes and Begim Tokhirjonova have the highest probability of winning due to their home court advantage and the sheer number of strong players in their area. Nazi Paikidze is hungry like everyone under the age of 30 and she lives that chess life. I think it could be Nazi’s year too.

If I had to choose the favorite amongst the 3, I would choose Begim Tokhirjonova for reasons I will not discuss.

Who do you think will win?