2012 U.S. Championships News

Day three of the Match of the Millennials saw the complete obliteration of the U.S. team. Out of the twelve games, the Americans were able to only score 1.5 points. As usual, the members of the World team were very well prepared and mentally strong, as they didn’t let their guard down even with a commanding lead. In the post game interviews, many of the players mentioned the great team spirit they have and the amount of time they spend together analyzing and preparing for each round. The score of the match so far is 23.5-12.5 in favor of the World team. They need just one point out of the next twelve games to clinch the title.

Under 17 Section

After a tough loss in the previous round, the U.S. team really needed to score big today. Given that their top two players, Jefferey Xiong and Sam Sevian had the white pieces, a comeback seemed to be on the horizon. Unfortunately, they were off to a bad start after Nicolas Checa was completely annihilated by Alexey Sarana. An early win is a big confidence boost for the rest of the team since it puts the pressure to catch up on the other team. Even with the bad start, the rest of the positions looked promising for the Americans. Ruifeng Li had a comfortable position with the black pieces against Aryan Chopra. Not the one to shy away from complications, the American tried to push for a win but his opponent handled the attack masterfully, trading most of the pieces and ending the game in a draw. Jefferey Xiong had a big advantage against Haik Martirosyan who suffered a big loss yesterday after a careless blunder. The American overpressed and allowed his opponent first win a pawn in the endgame, then improve his only remaining pieces which were completely binded before. The Armenian recovered nicely from his previous game, delivering an important point to his team. The deal was sealed after Andrey Esipenko held Sam Sevian to a draw by finding the most precise continuation at the critical moment. The match ended with 3-1, in favor of the World Team.

It is always difficult to bounce back after tough losses and even more so in a team event. The second round of the day saw the complete collapse of the U.S. team. The team leader, Jefferey Xiong, was the only player who managed to salvage a half a point by drawing Andrey Esipenko.

Sam Sevian, John Burke and Ruifeng Li lost to Haik Martirosyan, Aleksey Sarana and Anton Smirnov respectively. The World team completely dominated on all three boards without giving the U.S. team any winning chances. A lot of credit has to be given to Aleksey Sarana and Haik Martirosyan who won both of their games today, but more so to the latter who recovered from yesterday’s embarrassing loss perfectly.

Under 14 Section

Unfortunately for the Americans, they did not have a Jeffery Xiong in this section and lost on every single board. Andrew Hong did not know how to handle the opening, lost a pawn and consequently the game against the young Nordibek Abdusattorov. The current US Junior champion Awonder Liang got outplayed in a Spanish turned Benoni, then blundered and resigned a move later against the young phenom from India, Praggnanandhaa Ramesh Babu. After playing two marathon games, Carissa Yip had a shorter day but with an undesired result. In a balanced position she blundered and walked into a pin, which forced her to lose a piece and the game to Bibisara Assaubayeva. The U.S. team had some hopes of getting at least half a point, when the game between Martha Samadashvili and Nurgyul Salimova fizzled out to an opposite color bishop endgame with the latter having two extra pawns. These endgames are known for being mainly draw even with the material discrepancy. With no time on the clock, Martha allowed the enemy king in her camp closer to her passed pawn and could no longer hold the fortress, which sealed the fate of the game.

Day one of the Match of the Millennials is in the books and it looks like it is going to be a close match! In the under 17 section, after two rounds, the score is 4-4.In the under 14 section, after one round, the World team leads by a full point with 2.5-1.5. Overall, the World team has a full point lead over the U.S. team but there is still a lot of games to be played. The heroes of the day were Sam Sevian from U.S. and Aryan Chopra from India, both of whom scored two points for their teams.

Under 17 Section

The day started with the players in the U17 section facing off. The top player from the World team, Haik Martirosyan of Armenia and Jeffery Xiong of U.S. had a solid draw. Things were really looking up for team U.S.A. as Sam Sevian outplayed his opponent, Andrey Esipenko of Russia, in a sharp and tactical Benoni, an opening that is rendered dubious by many top players. The game between Anton Smirnov of Australia and Ruifeng Li of U.S.A. was also a peaceful draw. It all came down to the marathon game between John Burke of the U.S.A. and Aryan Chopra of India. After playing over 70 moves, Burke managed to break through his opponent’s fortress and even promoted one of his pawns to a queen while his opponent only had a bishop, a knight and two pawns. Normally, that is not enough compensation for the queen, but the players had little time on the clocks and Chopra  had a dangerous passed pawn, which gave him practical chances. Not sensing the danger, Burke kept pressing for a win instead of making a draw which would have clinched the win for team U.S.A. Unfortunately, his ambitions backfired as he blundered his queen, allowing the match score to even out to 2-2

In the second round of the day, the team score for the section remained the same. Once again, Sam Sevian saved the day by outplaying Haik Martirosyan most of the game and converting the full point. Jeffery Xiong was up the exchange but his opponent, Anton Smirnov, had enough compensation to hold the draw. Since each team has one reserve player, both teams decided to rest the players who lost in the first round. Alexey Sarana made his debut for the World team and played a 91 move marathon game against Ruifeng Li, which ended in a draw. The debutant for the U.S. team, Nicholas Checa, did not fair so well as he got a bad position out of the opening, sacrificed a piece to complicate the position, but did not manage to salvage the half a point necessary to win the match.

Under 14 Section

After the first hour of play, it looked as though the score of the match would 4-0 in the favor of the world team. Awonder Liang, the newly crowned U.S. Junior Champion, was suffering the whole game against Praggnanandhaa Ramesh Babu of India, but managed to escape with a draw in the endgame. Martha Samadashvili of the U.S. had a great position against Nurgyul Salimova of Bulgaria but made the mistake of exchanging the wrong pieces, eventually getting outplayed in the opponent. Luckily for her, Salimova ran out of time in a rook endgame which was headed towards a draw. Andrew Hong had a great attacking position and a winning strike, but instead played a series of incorrect moves, allowing his opponent not only to escape but to eventually win the game. Carissa Yip from team U.S.A. miscalculated in a sharp line and found herself in one of the most unusual imbalances in chess where she had two rooks while her opponent Bibisara Assaubayeva of Russia had three minor pieces. Eventually, Yip found herself defending with one rook against a knight and a bishop. After 102 moves, the two pieces overpowered the lone rook, forcing the American to resign, allowing the World team to win the match with 2.5-1.5.