by Josh Friedel
Yesterday
the U.S. Junior, U.S. Junior Girls, and U.S. Senior Championships
kicked off at the Saint Louis Chess Club. This is the first year all
three events are taking place at the same time in the same location. The
first round didn’t disappoint, as there were many exciting battles in
all three sections.
U.S. Junior Championship
The U.S. Junior began with an eclectic mix of positional and tactical
struggles. IM Brandon Jacobson got an overwhelming opening advantage as
White against IM Hans Niemann, and finished off the game with fancy
tactical play, including the move 27. B6! Temporarily sacrificing a
queen.
GM
Nicolas Checa had slight positional pressure in an endgame against
Atulya Vaidya, but the bottom seed was defending quite well.
Unfortunately for him, his 40th move Bd5 allowed Nicolas to trap his
awkward rook on b5, and Atulya immediately had to resign.
The game between GM Andrew Tang and IM Joshua Sheng looked balanced for a
long time. Joshua grabbed a pawn on h4, and while Andrew probably had
ways to get good compensation, he failed to prove anything. After that
things went from bad to worse, and Sheng reeled in the point quite
convincingly.
Defending champion GM Awonder Liang converted a rook and knight endgame
against IM Craig Hilby. Hilby had his chances, but in the end Liang
proved too mighty a foe. WGM Jennifer Yu took an exchange by grabbing a
rook on a8, and afterwards was duly punished by GM John Burke.
Read the full recap >
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| WGM Jennifer Yu got a little too greedy against GM John Burke
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U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship
The
girls section saw White knights capturing rooks on a8 in two separate
games. This worked quite poorly for 9-year-old Rachael Li, who dropped
too much material in her quest to take the rook and lost in short order
to WIM Agata Bykovstev. To be fair to Rachael, Agata was putting her
under some pretty strong pressure before she went after the rook. The
risk paid off for WIM Rochelle Wu, however, who won an extremely complex
fight against WIM Emily Nguyen. It looked dubious at first, but Emily
allowed Rochelle to capture her queenside, and eventually those pawns
won the game for White.
Defending champion FM Carissa Yip scored a nice positional win against
bottom seed Veronika Zilajeva. Particularly sweet was her move 20 Bb5,
which secured her a strong knight against a bad bishop. WIM Thalia
Cervantes had some chances as black against Ruiyang Yan, but opposite
colored bishops proved to be too big an obstacle to overcome, and they
drew their game after a long struggle.
Finally, WFM Martha Samadashvili drew a long game with FM Maggie Feng.
It looked like Maggie was putting Martha under pressure in a lengthy
struggle, and perhaps even could have pressed more in the final
position, but in the end could find nothing better than delivering a
perpetual.
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Defending Champion Carissa Yip won a nice positional game against Veronika Zilajeva
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U.S. Senior Championship
When
you think of the U.S. Senior Championship, sharp and exciting play may
not be what first leaps to mind, but that is exactly how the first round
began. 3-time US Champion Larry Christiansen destroyed the kingside of
Jaan Ehlvest and won in convincing style in a mere 14 moves. Alex
Yermolinsky seemed to be pressing against Igor Novikov, but was unable
to generate any serious chances, and the game was drawn after 33 moves.
Alex Fishbein and Maxim Dlugy played down a theoretical line of a
Queen’s Gambit Accepted where Black sacrifices the exchange. It looked
like Maxim, playing Black, allowed Alex to simplify the game too much.
In what appeared like a dead lost ending, however, Alex went astray and
allowed Max to draw.
Alex Goldin got a promising opening position where he had a lot of extra
space, which later transformed into a queen against rook and bishop
advantage. Joel found pesky ways to defend, but in the end his position
proved impossible to hold, and Goldin took the full point.
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WGM Jennifer Yu got a little too greedy against GM John Burke
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U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship
The
girls section saw White knights capturing rooks on a8 in two separate
games. This worked quite poorly for 9-year-old Rachael Li, who dropped
too much material in her quest to take the rook and lost in short order
to WIM Agata Bykovstev. To be fair to Rachael, Agata was putting her
under some pretty strong pressure before she went after the rook. The
risk paid off for WIM Rochelle Wu, however, who won an extremely complex
fight against WIM Emily Nguyen. It looked dubious at first, but Emily
allowed Rochelle to capture her queenside, and eventually those pawns
won the game for White.
Defending champion FM Carissa Yip scored a nice positional win against
bottom seed Veronika Zilajeva. Particularly sweet was her move 20 Bb5,
which secured her a strong knight against a bad bishop. WIM Thalia
Cervantes had some chances as black against Ruiyang Yan, but opposite
colored bishops proved to be too big an obstacle to overcome, and they
drew their game after a long struggle.
Finally, WFM Martha Samadashvili drew a long game with FM Maggie Feng.
It looked like Maggie was putting Martha under pressure in a lengthy
struggle, and perhaps even could have pressed more in the final
position, but in the end could find nothing better than delivering a
perpetual.
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Defending Champion Carissa Yip won a nice positional game against Veronika Zilajeva
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U.S. Senior Championship
When
you think of the U.S. Senior Championship, sharp and exciting play may
not be what first leaps to mind, but that is exactly how the first round
began. 3-time US Champion Larry Christiansen destroyed the kingside of
Jaan Ehlvest and won in convincing style in a mere 14 moves. Alex
Yermolinsky seemed to be pressing against Igor Novikov, but was unable
to generate any serious chances, and the game was drawn after 33 moves.
Alex Fishbein and Maxim Dlugy played down a theoretical line of a
Queen’s Gambit Accepted where Black sacrifices the exchange. It looked
like Maxim, playing Black, allowed Alex to simplify the game too much.
In what appeared like a dead lost ending, however, Alex went astray and
allowed Max to draw.
Alex Goldin got a promising opening position where he had a lot of extra
space, which later transformed into a queen against rook and bishop
advantage. Joel found pesky ways to defend, but in the end his position
proved impossible to hold, and Goldin took the full point.
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Alex Yermolinsky checking out his position against Igor Novikov from another angle
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Round two starts today at 1pm. Tune in at
12:50pm central time for live commentary by GMs Robert Hess, Jesse
Kraai, and WGM Tatev Abrahamyan.
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| Alex Yermolinsky checking out his position against Igor Novikov from another angle
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| Round two starts today at 1pm. Tune in at
12:50pm central time for live commentary by GMs Robert Hess, Jesse
Kraai, and WGM Tatev Abrahamyan.
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Watch the games of the
US Championships - Juniors, Girls, Seniors with computer analysis LIVE on
ChessBomb.
