Today’s
round had a lot of action in all sections. Nicolas Checa took the lead
with a fine victory over Andrew Tang. Both Rochelle Wu and Carissa Yip
won topsy-turvy games, and seem to be running away in the Girls’
tournament with 4/4 and 3.5/4 respectively. Alex Shabalov survived a lot
of strong pressure from Joel Benjamin, and maintains a half point lead
in the Seniors over Larry Christiansen and Alex Goldin. Let’s break down
what happened in each event.
U.S. Junior Championship
The first game completed in the Junior was a heartbreaking one. IM Craig
Hilby got his moves confused and had to resign after hanging a bishop
against IM Hans Niemann. Such blunders occur now and then, even by super
strong players, but they always leave the players and viewers in
shock.
Atulya
Vaidya has been having a rough event, and today he played solidly
against Joshua Sheng, hoovering off most of the pieces in short order.
They agreed to a draw in a balanced rook endgame. The US Women’s
Champion continued to struggle, as Jennifer Yu got a cramped position as
Black against Brandon Jacobson. Brandon finished off the game in
resounding fashion by sacrificing a knight on f6 and taking advantage of
Black’s lack of coordination.
Awonder Liang shook off yesterday’s loss by taking risks and pitching
his queenside as Black against John Burke. His risk paid off
handsomely, and he crashed through by giving his queen for two rooks and
a vicious 1st rank attack, winning the game in short order. Lastly,
Nicolas Checa found an initiative against Andrew Tang, and eventually
hunted down the Black king. This win put Nicolas in clear first place
with 3.5/4.
Read the full recap >
Nicolas Checa played a very nice game today, and is currently in the clear lead with 3.5/4
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U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship
“I
hated it,” Rochelle Wu said about her position after the game. She had
severe positional problems against Ruiyang Yan, who was playing an
excellent game and dominating the entire board. Similar to previous
rounds, however, Rochelle proved her resourcefulness. She opened the
game by pitching a couple pawns, then found a nice tactical resource
which won a rook out of the blue, forcing Yan to resign. Rochelle is an
incredible 4-0, but Carissa moved to 3.5 today by beating Rachael Li as
Black. The game was anything but clear, and the 9-year-old definitely
had her chances, but in the end Carissa’s pressure proved to be too
great.
Thalia
Cervantes and Emily Nguyen played a game that had a lot of potential
for sharp play, but none of it really materialized. The players agreed
to a draw after a lot of pieces came off in a locked position. Agata
Bykovstev seemed to have some pressure against Martha Samadashvili, but
she soon found herself in trouble when she traded her queen for two
rooks. Martha took full advantage of White’s weak king position, and
eventually reeled in the full point in a queen vs. rook endgame.
In
the final game of the day, Veronika Zilajeva had a thrilling game
against Maggie Feng. Maggie’s king ran up the board, and for a while it
was unclear who was better. Unfortunately for Feng, she captured a pawn
on a5 at the wrong moment, and allowed Veronika to deliver checkmate.
Veronika found it, and thus won her first game of the tournament.
Read the full recap > |
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Veronika Zilajeva and Maggie Feng had quite a battle this round
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U.S. Senior Championship
Larry Christiansen and Alex Fishbein played an interesting Nimzo Indian,
and the position became extremely locked after an f5-f4 push. Neither
side could find a way to break through, and they agreed to a draw on
move 31.
Igor
Novikov and Gregory also drew a solid game. Neither side made errors in
a drawish line, and they agreed to a draw in a knight endgame. Jaan
Ehlvest put a lot of pressure on Maxim Dlugy’s weak king. While Max
found a lot of tricks, as he has in previous rounds, eventually Jaan
extinguished all of them and forced a win in a queen endgame. Joel
Benjamin and Alex Shabalov had an incredible battle, and for most of the
game Joel was clearly in charge. Shabba put all of his resourcefulness
on display to make things complicated, however, and Joel finally
acquiesced to a draw in a rook endgame.
Finally, Alex Goldin had an instructive positional win against Alex
Yermolinsky. He transitioned from a hanging pawns position to a rook
endgame up a pawn. As Goldin commented after the game, the “Russian
School” helps in such positions, and he converted it with great
accuracy.
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| Alex Goldin showed great technique in a rook endgame against Alex Yermolinsky
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Round five starts today at 1pm. Tune in at
12:50pm central time for live commentary by GMs Robert Hess, Jesse
Kraai, and WGM Tatev Abrahamyan. |
