2012 U.S. Championships News
IM Daniel Naroditsky is tied for first place with just one round to go at the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship.
By Brian Jerauld
SAINT LOUIS (June 23, 2013) -- California IM Daniel Naroditsky and Idaho FM Luke Harmon-Vellotti met in round 2 of the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed in a game that fizzled into an uninspiring draw. And after quickly trading his way down to an opposite-colored bishop snoozer, Naroditsky admitted that the draw was more for practical reasons.
“At some point, it’s important to make a prudent decision. You don’t always have to go all-in,” he said at the time. “Sometimes the decision is not justified, sometimes it is. We’ll just see how it goes for the rest of the tournament.”
Reckoning day is here. In every round since that day two rendezvous – which left them tied for second – Naroditsky and Harmon-Vellotti have never left a half-point from each other, and they’ve never left the top of the standings. The two have see-sawed back and forth with the lead in every round, continuously re-climbing over the other’s draw with another win.
Now they find themselves tied at the top, left with one final round to justify every decision over the past ten days. Naroditsky faces Robert Perez, who shared the lead at the tournament’s halfway point but has since cooled against the higher ranks, while Harmon-Vellotti defends against FM Jeffrey Xiong, who has held his own since a slow start with draws against most of the field. Both front runners have the black pieces.
Naroditsky was in the driver’s seat as clear leader entering Saturday’s round 8, but suffered a frustrating draw as white against FM Yian Liou. The half-point allowed Harmon-Vellotti to catch pace at 5.5/8 with his subsequent win over Perez.
“I’m very unhappy, and it shows my bad form,” said Naroditsky after the draw. The 17-year-old is the only player without a loss this tournament. “But the world hasn’t ended, I’m still tied for first. I just have to get my stuff together tomorrow and come back strong.
“I really want to win, and I know [Harmon-Vellotti] is not in his best form, either. It’s time to go all-in; I’m going to try and play to win.”
Harmon-Vellotti shares the urgency, stating he intends to “just go for the win from the beginning” against Xiong, though his prediction of the tournament’s outcome differs than Naroditsky’s.
“I think I’m going to win [the championship] – in clear first,” said Harmon-Vellotti, who has collected five wins in eight rounds. “Daniel has drawn most of his games as black, so if I win [Sunday], I should have pretty good chances.”
Praying for rain will be FM Sam Sevian, who lurks a half-point behind with 5.0, alone in second place. He will command black against tenth-place WFM Sarah Chiang and is seeking a win that will keep pressure on both front-runners.
After several games that have seen one dramatic swing after another, Harmon-Vellotti’s round 8 win over Perez was – finally – a relatively straightforward one.
The tactically adept 14-year-old guided the game into the Najdorf Sicilian, with Perez burning much of his time just getting out of one of the opening’s sharper lines. Harmon-Vellotti was thrown out of prep early with 8. … h5, to which his response of 9. Bg5 was admittedly “not correct.” It cost him a pawn with 9. … hxg4, temporarily, but when he regained the material at 15. Qxh4, his king was chased before castling with 15. … Qa5+.
But Perez was below eight minutes after his 20th move, and the complicated position beckoned several non-optimal moves. With his minor pieces entrenched on strong central outposts, Harmon-Vellotti pawn rushed the queenside castle of black. After some indecision by Perez on how to deal with the outpost, with 28. … Be6 … Bd7 … Bxf5, black plotted to bring his h8 rook through the open kingside, but the idea did little more than collapse his pawn structure and invite white’s h-pawn unabated toward its queening square.
“I actually had a good game, one where I calculated correctly all the way through,” he said. “It was finally a good game for me – unlike the last four.”
Though Naroditsky tallied a half-point in round 8, he took his draw to Liou like a loss, calling his own play “completely horrible for the second part of the game.”
It’s hard to argue against Naroditsky holding a solid advantage out of his Ruy Lopez opening, where Liou’s 8. … Bg7 instead of d5 allowed white to push the square and grab a strong command of the center. But while the game was quickly trading down to a pro-white endgame, Naroditsky lost his grippers with 24. h4, intending to begin exposing the black king, instead of 24. f5, which would pushed the envelope on his central advantage.
From there, Liou transferred all his resources to defusing the center, and the game was traded down into equality.
“After [28. …] Qg5, I thought things were already out of my control,” said an irritated Naroditsky, who was in clear first by a half-point entering the round. “At that point, it was a complicated position and I hoped to outsmart [Liou], but I didn’t. A draw is a draw.”
Sevian missed his golden opportunity to equalize in the standings. After scoring 3.5 in his last 4 games, he had raced back to a tie with Harmon-Vellotti in second place, and a win in the eighth round would have completed the comeback. But IM Victor Shen had been providing consistent frustration to every opponent through the week, and Sevian – who ultimately escaped with a draw as white – was just another on the list.
His line through the Classical Ruy Lopez looked clunky-at-best, including an early push of 10. d4 that he later lamented should have been delayed to find better support, and a white-squared bishop that spent five tempos rerouting itself to the f1 square. By move 15, black was fully developed and harmonious, while white’s army was just the opposite, passive and packed on top of itself.
Sevian desperately worked to trade out of his jam and open the position, but Shen leaned on him with excellent pressure down the queenside, ultimately forcing a white knight back to its original square with 32. Nb1, awkwardly tying it to a defensive role. Sevian blundered with 34. h4, dropping a pawn that he incorrectly assumed he could recover, but Shen later missed the potentially superior 42. … Rg5, instead moving Ra2 and ushering the draw.
“I went into that game playing for a win, but I just didn’t play well,” Sevian said. “Now, [Sunday] is a must-win.”
The final round of the U.S. Junior Closed Championship begins early at 11 a.m. today. If a playoff is necessary, it will take place following the final round. Catch live commentary with GMs Yasser Seirawan and Ben Finegold at www.uschesschamps.com/live.
IM Daniel Naroditsky is in clear first with just two rounds to go at the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship.
By Brian Jerauld
SAINT LOUIS (June 22, 2013) -- Though three players emerge in the endgame of the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship – IM Daniel Naroditsky, FM Luke Harmon-Vellotti and FM Samuel Sevian – their lines to get here couldn’t have been any different.
Naroditsky entered as the tournament’s highest-rated player and has played like it. The California 17-year-old has written books on positional chess and complex endgames, but at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis his openings have been varied and sound, making him equally hard to prepare for as he is to play against.
As the last player standing without a loss, his approach to the tournament has been systematic. Drawing with the top-four players and manufacturing full points out of the lower half of the rankings, he has mixed solid play with just a little bit of luck – just enough to squeak out of a quasi-uncomfortable position or two to earn a draw. His 5.0/7 puts him in clear first entering the weekend, with his final two rounds against FM Yian Liou (3.0) and Robert Perez (4.0).
Harmon-Vellotti, on the other hand, has been the magician of the week. Excuse Boise, Idaho, for making the 14-year-old seemingly come from nowhere (Idaho’s next-strongest player is an Expert) but he made quite an introduction for himself when he knocked off IM Kayden Troff in the first round in Saint Louis.
Since then his play toward this tournament endgame has been flashy and dramatic, once pulling a rabbit out of a hat in a losing position against IM Victor Shen (4.0) in round 5 – and then bringing a dead rabbit back to life in a completely lost position against WFM Sarah Chiang (0.5) in round 6. The magic ran out in Friday’s round 7, however, when an otherwise struggling Liou knocked down Harmon-Vellotti with a taste of his own medicine: sacrificing three pawns and beating him from behind.
Harmon-Vellotti sits a half-point behind Naroditsky, with his final two matchups against Perez – who may find trouble taking down both Naroditsky and Harmon-Vellotti to help his own fortunes, but could certainly become the tournament spoiler with just a draw – and FM Jeffrey Xiong (3.0).
And here comes 12-year-old FM Samuel Sevian, the current U-12 World Champion out of California. Sevian, who once held the record as both the youngest Expert and the youngest National Master in U.S. history (both records were recently broken by Awonder Liang), became the youngest-ever competitor in the U.S. Championship last May – where he lost just two games, one of them to Troff.
Sevian sat in clear eighth place after three rounds this week in Saint Louis, mustering up only two draws against Perez, Liou and Xiong – who have otherwise been donating points to the tournament front runners. He appeared to be headed for the proverbial bump in the road.
Instead, Sevian has been chewing up the top talent with unbelievable calculation and accuracy in a furious comeuppance. He first served a loss to Harmon-Vellotti, clear leader at the time in round 4, and then drew with Naroditsky, who was leading in round 5. And after a convincing win over FM Atulya Shetty (2.5), Sevian’s triumph against Troff on Friday – which swapped the two from second-to-third in the standings – was a strategically rich beauty.
Sevian’s 3.5 points from the last four rounds ties him with Harmon-Vellotti in second place, a half-point behind Naroditsky. In today’s round 8 matchup, he takes white against a calm-and-collected veteran of the U.S. Junior Closed, IM Victor Shen (4.0), who has given fits to every opponent in a solid tournament thus far. Chiang is on Sevian’s plate in Sunday’s final round of the ten-player round robin.
Of course, the ridiculously tight field of this year’s Junior Closed has been serving up shockers in its entirety, and the final weekend’s endgame should follow the same path. Troff, Shen and Perez are tied for third with 4.0, all within range of Naroditsky and each with matchups that promise to ruin somebody’s day.
In Friday’s round 7, Naroditsky earned his point from Chiang in straightforward fashion and Shen again battled through time pressure for a win over Shetty, while a draw with Xiong has Perez continuing to slip pace after leading through five rounds.
Sevian might have taken the word ‘rematch’ a little too seriously. After losing as white to Troff last May in the U.S. championship, Sevian decided to try, try again on Friday by proceeding right down the same line as before – 11 moves – until Sevian altered them into a seemingly improved line at 12. Rad1.
“I don’t think he prepared against it,” Sevian said with a smile. “It was a surprise. Usually people don’t repeat what they play.”
From there, Troff’s response of b4 shifted a white knight to the rim, where he quickly set up his bishop and queen to feast on the immobile piece. But it would ultimately prove bait, as the knight’s sacrifice kicked off a magnificent attack by Sevian, who swung his pieces to the kingside for a sudden and gripping attack on Troff’s monarch, becoming exposed and limited to one tight corner by 17. … Kh8.
The tactically rich middlegame saw Troff desperately defending the a1-h8 diagonal, with Sevian in constant threat of mate to usher further weakness in black’s position. His 24. Be6 was ripe with tactic, earning him at least the exchange, as was the follow-up 25. Qf5, which threatened mate and ensured Troff’s rook would be taken with no exchange at all. Sevian reoffered an exchange sacrifice at 28. Rxf6, unhinging another five-move combination to earn it right back. With a three-pawn advantage in the endgame, Sevian could afford to sacrifice one at 39. f5 in order to simplify and rapidly hurl the match into endgame.
Harmon-Vellotti had pulled out so many victories while down significant material in this tournament that Liou decided to see what he was made of on the other side of the coin: ahead with material. As white, Liou ambushed Harmon-Vellotti’s French defense in a game that got combative early with 7. Ng5 – a defended square.
While it did thoroughly destroy the black kingside and Harmon-Vellotti’s options for castling, the fight saw consecutive sacrifices of white’s e-, b- and f-pawns. But with each precious tempo Harmon-Vellotti spent in collecting Liou’s front line, black slowly fell behind in development and let white dominate several important lanes – all centered around a king that lay helpless in the center.
With a three-pawn advantage, Harmon-Vellotti looked to close the game down early with 18. Qg5, threatening mate and offering the queens off the board. But Liou attacked black’s open weaknesses, first recollecting a pawn with 18. … Qxh7+, followed by a quick swing of white’s minor pieces to trap the black queen. 23. Bf5 brought a just reward from excellent tactical work.
Watch live commentary with GMs Ben Finegold and Yasser Seirawan today at 1 p.m. CT at www.uschesschamps.com/live.
FM Luke Harmon-Vellotti has notched two miraculous come-from-behind wins in consecutive rounds to take the lead at the U.S. Junior Closed Championship.
SAINT LOUIS (June 21, 2013) -- As if Luke Harmon-Vellotti didn’t get enough cake from his sixth-round match versus WFM Sarah Chiang, he got to eat it, too, when Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura helped analyze the game afterward.
During his off day from the Tal Memorial in Russia, America’s No. 1 “called in” to the live stream of the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship – or, more accurately, chatted with commentator GM Ben Finegold – to help evaluate several of Harmon-Vellotti’s lines from his sixth-round match versus Chiang.
And through several variations, he kept coming up with the same suggestion for the 14-year-old pride of Idaho: Resign. Resign. Resign.
But Harmon-Vellotti found light at the end of the darkest of tunnels on Thursday, where a small slip-up by Chiang – perhaps her first of an otherwise fantastic game – allowed him in for a desperate 11th-hour checkmate. The full-point puts Harmon-Vellotti back in clear first with 4.5/6, after a draw for IM Daniel Naroditsky and a loss for Robert Perez, both who shared the lead entering round 6. The day also featured important wins for both IM Kayden Troff, who moves into a second-place tie with Naroditsky at 4/6, and FM Samuel Sevian, whose 2.5 points over the last three rounds have him tied for third at 3.5/6.
Despite the three-way share of the lead on Thursday morning, Harmon-Vellotti looked to have the most comfortable schedule to close the round-robin tournament, with matches still to play against three opponents in the tournament’s lower half of the rankings. But Chiang, struggling in tenth place with just a half point, had clear intentions of spoiling his visit to Saint Louis. As black, she offered an early twist to the Classical Nimzo-Indian to stay hyper-aggressive in the opening, beckoning the white queen out for early harassment.
Though at the expense of a ruined pawn structure, including an isolated c-pawn and stacked on the f-file to expose her king, Chiang’s immediate pressure made Harmon-Vellotti lag behind in time – both on his clock and on the board, where an uncomfortably late castle cost him a pawn at 15. … Bxe2. Chiang mugged another pawn with 22. … Qxb2, creating a downhill passer on the c-file and all but foreshadowing the upset.
Harmon-Vellotti’s only meager attack was to charge ahead with his g- and h-pawns, which did more to expose his already weak king than mount much of an attack. But he sacrificed one – dragging his material disadvantage down even further, now three pawns behind – in a desperate attempt to open the h-file and set up a battery.
And then Chiang slipped. Her clear path to victory was stalled only by the need of a brief safe spot for her king, which she could have found on 32. … Kg8 but instead pushed f5 with thoughts of an escape route. Harmon-Vellotti pounced quickly with a pin, exchange and discovery-filled tactical slam to earn checkmate.
“This was the only game where the opening has done any good for me – he played right into it,” said a dejected Chiang. “I very clearly knew I was better, in a winnable position, and I was just trying to take it one move at a time. But near the end, I thought my way down to six minutes; I should have slowed it down even more. If I had just moved my king back [to g8], he had nothing, and I’m queening.”
Perez shared the lead entering Thursday but faced a grueling road ahead, still with matchups against both Harmon-Vellotti and Naroditsky, as well as the round 6 skirmish with second-place Troff. As black, Perez defended with the Czech Benoni and pushed into an extremely closed board, unaided by an early knight trade with 13. Nxb5 axb5.
Troff did not castle until late in the game, disrupting his kingside option with 9. Rg1 to expedite an attack on the black king. He opened the file with 18. gxd5 gxd5 and followed with 19. Bh4, laying claim to the important f7 square. His knight landed there on the next move, forcing Perez to exchange a rook and avoid the king-queen fork.
But here Perez suffered an oversight, losing his queen to a one-mover for the second time in the tournament, with 22. Rg8+. However, while the exchange for white’s bishop and rook put him even further into material disadvantage, the closed position and a swarm of minor pieces around Perez’ king left the outcome unclear.
“[Perez] had some surprisingly annoying threats with the bishops and the knight,” Troff said. “I was both low on time and in a tough position, where he could still come in with attack. But I decided not to play fast, just take things slowly toward breaking through, not allowing him any crazy positions and to just keep my position solid.”
He was successful. His king found its way into the safe corner, shielded from Perez’s bishops, and then his queen shifted to the open a7-g1 diagonal with 29. Qe3. The move eventually allowed her to slip behind black’s front lines, forcing Perez’s pieces into defense and scooping up pawns to deflate the position.
Sevian has become red hot after a slow start, scoring two points against the tournament’s three leaders, including a full-point in Harmon-Vellotti’s only loss of the tournament in round 4. An impressive and solid win on Thursday over FM Atulya Shetty, who led early but has skidded with just a half-point over the last four rounds, has brought Sevian to 3.5/6 where he lurks in range of the top.
As black, Sevian worked cleanly through an English opening to take advantage of Shetty’s queenside, which was prematurely opened. Looking ready to blow it all open with three major pieces on the b-, c-, and d-files, Sevian instead closed it down, opting to slide his bishops in to the tight position. The result was an impressive display of calculation to earn an exchange, with his white bishop causing the most trouble. Move 21. … Bb3 first chased the white queen from the area, and then a two-move reroute to 23. … Bd3 attacked a rook.
“From the moment I won the exchange, it looked like I was just winning,” Sevian said. “But he made some good moves, and his bishop was so strong. I couldn’t find a way to activate my rooks, so eventually I had to sacrifice a pawn to activate them.”
It worked. Sevian pushed 38. … f4, to which Shetty grabbed the hanging e-pawn, and the board sprang open for Sevian’s major pieces. Shetty’s bishop came off in a trade with the black knight, and Sevian’s rooks applied quick pressure, earning the pawn back with 47. … Qb5. It turned his b-pawn into a passer and, though Shetty did well in exposing the black king with thoughts of a perpetual draw, Sevian worked a clean endgame to see it to promotion.
Though IM Victor Shen has slid to the middle of the pack after a solid start to the tournament, he is still an opponent that no one wants to sit across – including Naroditsky, who found himself immediately uncomfortable as white on Thursday.
Shen’s move of 4. … Qc7 in the Sicilian defense caused Naroditsky – expecting d6 – confusion with the move order and, after an early trade of minor pieces, black found itself in a solid position. White was able to muster up a triple battery on the f-file, but it was on a path to nowhere, and Naroditsky’s minor pieces were tied passively to defense without promise of advance.
When Shen met 20. Qh4 with his own Qh5, in an offer to trade queens that would have left white drowning, Naroditsky jumped at the chance for the perpetual draw.
“[The opening] went horribly,” Naroditsky said. “I’m pretty lucky I was able to get out with a draw so easily and nothing bad happened. I’ve been obviously happy that the two times my opening has gone wrong this tournament, I haven’t been punished for it.”
Pairings for Round 7
| Table | White | Score | Rating | Black | Score | Rating | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FM Sevian, Samuel | 3.5 | 2390 | IM Troff, Kayden W | 4.0 | 2443 | |
| 2 | IM Shen, Victor C | 3.0 | 2411 | FM Shetty, Atulya | 2.5 | 2320 | |
| 3 | WFM Chiang, Sarah | 0.5 | 2101 | IM Naroditsky, Daniel | 4.0 | 2494 | |
| 4 | FM Liou, Yian | 2.0 | 2385 | FM Harmon-Vellotti, Luke | 4.5 | 2340 | |
| 5 | Perez, Robert M | 3.5 | 2359 | FM Xiong, Jeffrey | 2.5 | 2370 |
Robert Perez has overcome a slow start, winning hsi last three games to pull into a tie for first place after five rounds at the U.S. Junior Closed Championship.
By Brian Jerauld
SAINT LOUIS (June 18, 2013) -- Still, no one can find distance in the standings at the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship.
Today marks the players’ rest day after Tuesday’s round 5 pushed the nine-game round-robin tournament past its halfway point. But despite a finish line that now looms, seven of ten players still sit within a point of each other, now with three tied atop the standings at 3.5/5 points.
Standings after Round 5:
| Rank | Name | Rating | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IM Naroditsky, Daniel | 2494 | x | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3.5 | ||||
| 2 | Perez, Robert M | 2359 | x | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3.5 | ||||
| 3 | FM Harmon-Vellotti, Luke | 2340 | ½ | x | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3.5 | ||||
| 4 | IM Troff, Kayden W | 2443 | ½ | 0 | x | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3.0 | ||||
| 5 | IM Shen, Victor C | 2411 | 0 | 0 | x | ½ | 1 | 1 | 2.5 | ||||
| 6 | FM Sevian, Samuel | 2390 | ½ | ½ | 1 | x | ½ | 0 | 2.5 | ||||
| 7 | FM Shetty, Atulya | 2320 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | x | 1 | 2.5 | ||||
| 8 | FM Xiong, Jeffrey | 2370 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | x | 1 | 2.0 | ||||
| 9 | FM Liou, Yian | 2385 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | x | ½ | 1.5 | ||||
| 10 | WFM Chiang, Sarah | 2101 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | x | 0.5 |
California IM Daniel Naroditsky, the field’s highest-rated player, was the sole leader entering Tuesday and has yet to lose a game this week at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. But his fifth-round draw against FM Sam Sevian slowed the pace, and wins from both FM Luke Harmon-Vellotti and FM Robert Perez brought them both up to speed. Harmon-Vellotti’s come-from-behind shocker over IM Victor Shen made it two wins and a draw against the field’s three top-seeded IMs; and Perez has shrugged off a slow start to the tournament to notch three straight victories, including Tuesday’s turnaround matchup versus FM Yian Liou.
After an outstanding opening that found Shen up two pawns, including one passed on the sixth rank, he did everything he could to let his solid position slip away against Harmon-Vellotti – and he eventually got his wish. The game transposed to a Queen’s Indian, with Shen grabbing a solid foothold in the center and prepping his bishops for dominance. But Harmon-Vellotti’s 12. … Qf6 was very suspicious, begging for Shen’s 13. Bc3 response. The move showed Shen’s position clearly winning, with an advantage in development, a better dominance of space and several tactical opportunities brewing. He quickly converted it to a material advantage.
But after wrecking the black queenside, Shen found trouble re-coordinating his pieces and was never able to find traction behind his three passed pawns, including two connected. Meanwhile, Harmon-Vellotti slowly pieced together a harmonious defense and let Shen sink into time pressure.
“That was going into a winning endgame [for Shen], so I just tried to make it as complicated as possible,” Harmon-Vellotti said. “And then he blundered in time trouble.”
Indeed, with under five minutes on his clock and eight more moves until time control, Shen offered up 32. Rxb5 with tactical eyes. But Harmon-Vellotti defied the play with 32. … Rbxb6, ultimately releasing nearly all of white’s pressure and gathering the d6 passer. Even still with winning chances, Shen struggled to find any continuance, and Harmon-Vellotti wreaked havoc on the white king with his remaining knight and rook. The move 57. … h5 kicked off a race to queen – one that Shen actually won, but left him positionally inferior.
“[Shen] was winning all the way down to [53.]Kg1,” Harmon-Vellotti said. “I think if he had gone Ke1, he would have won.”
Perez performed his own climb out of a dark position thanks to an outstanding endgame and some fantastic work with his king. The game progressed through an unusual line of the Sicilian, but one Liou was up to the task of pressing. For more than 20 moves, he kept Perez on the defensive and looked primed to push solid queenside space into an advantage.
But his 23. Ncd5 ignited a massive swap-out of material, ultimately leaving Perez with a bad bishop and Liou in control of the outpost – though limited in attacking ideas.
“He was still better, but compared to what the position was before, I was able to get rid of a lot of pieces and centralize my king,” Perez said. “Yeah, my d6 was weak, but bad bishops defend good pawns.”
That d6 pawn was more than “good” – it was the winner – as it was able to work its way over to the e-file and eventually down to its queening square. And it would not have been possible without the major play of Perez’s king, who helped open up some lanes against Liou’s kingside pawns and then escorted his passer to safety.
After 37. Rdxe5 dxe5 38. Bxf8 won white a pivotal pawn advantage, 42. c5 allowed entry to the black monarch, who became a monster on the d-file. And after pushing the white king backward, Perez was able to swing around to the other side of the advancing e-pawn, finding safety from Liou’s remaining rook behind white’s own pawn.
The secret of IM Kayden Troff’s fondness for the Grunfeld defense is out, as FM Atulya Shetty was the second player in a row to attack Troff with Anti-Grunfeld designs. But Troff showed little concern, looking solid through the opening including an excellent Nf6-Nd5-Nb4 transfer of his knight before castling his king. The series attacked the white queen and earned Troff the bishop pair, but it was not a reward held for long. Shetty was able to push back, eventually swapping out the light-squared bishop with 17. Nxe6, while taking control of the center and stacking pawns on Troff’s e-file in the process.
From there, however, the game became a complicated mess, beginning with Shetty offering his e-pawn as a sacrifice – with apparent intentions of opening the file – though he struggled to find much compensation. Trying to bail himself out of the position, Shetty offered up his other center pawn, setting up a confusing conglomerate that even Troff – eventually with a two-pawn advantage – found trouble navigating.
“After he played d4, trading the d-pawn for the e-pawn, I thought I was solid by being a pawn up,” Troff said. “But my pieces were really awkward, and the position was tough. It ended up becoming complicated.”
In the end, the frustration of opposite-colored bishops fizzled into the expected draw. Shetty was able to recollect a pawn with 43. Qxh7 and harass Troff’s king, which never did find time to castle.
Sevian came at Naroditsky with the Ruy Lopez and met the Breyer, in a game that moved quickly through theory for more than 15 moves. Sevian’s 16. d5 intended to close the center, while Naroditsky’s response of Rc8 showed intentions of opening it, and both sides battled over their central intentions. Sevian grabbed the first material advantage with 22. Qxd6, but at the cost of being pushed into some awkward defense with Naroditsky controlling several key lanes.
The position was headed swiftly toward an endgame featuring Sevian’s two knights versus Naroditsky’s two bishops, though white’s cavalry sat rather passive on the kingside wing. It prompted Naroditsky to push the envelope, acknowledging that he “didn’t want to let the knights get to good squares.” He traded off rooks with 29. … Rxc1, and then put Sevian on the spot with 32. … Qc3. Naroditsky offered a draw several minutes after the move, and Sevian accepted after ten minutes of thought.
“There were three concrete lines that I saw, but I could not get the advantage,” Sevian said. “One line where I was worse, another where I was equal, and another that forced a draw. I was up a pawn and consolidated, so I wanted to keep that extra pawn and play for the win, but his two bishops were going to be very strong at the end.”
FM Jeffrey Xiong is starting to roll after two losses to open the tournament. He drew both his third- and fourth-round matches to Shen and Sevian, and then notched his first full-point win over WFM Sarah Chiang in round 5 as black. The game began in a Rubinstein Nimzo-Indian line, but Chiang looked to fall out of prep early, first moving 6. Ng3 and then following it with the unnecessary a3. The folly converted directly to the loss of her c4 pawn, which Xiong collected on move 13.
Chiang all-but abandoned her queenside, instead loading her pieces around Xiong’s temporarily exposed king for an assault. But Xiong foresaw too strong of an advantage with his pawn majority, opting to give back his pawn advantage with 27. … e5, which traded the queens off the board and ultimately left Chiang far removed from Xiong’s connected passers on the queen wing.
It was not an easy close for Xiong, as Chiang kept the black pieces occupied with her own passed pawn on the f-file and not able to help usher the a and b pawns in for promotion. Black eventually found its way through.
“I thought I was okay, but she found some really nice resources in the endgame that made the win really tough,” Xiong said. “After [43. …] Rf5, she played [44.] Nb3, but if she had played Nd3, I think she would still have been in it. It would have been a long fight.”
Play resumes tomorrow, Thursday, June 19, at 1 p.m. local time. Follow live commentary with Grandmasters Yasser Seirawan and Ben Finegold at www.uschesschamps.com/live.
Pairings for Round 6:
| Table | White | Score | Rating | Black | Score | Rating | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IM Troff, Kayden W | 3.0 | 2443 | Perez, Robert M | 3.5 | 2359 | |
| 2 | FM Xiong, Jeffrey | 2.0 | 2370 | FM Liou, Yian | 1.5 | 2385 | |
| 3 | FM Harmon-Vellotti, Luke | 3.5 | 2340 | WFM Chiang, Sarah | 0.5 | 2101 | |
| 4 | IM Naroditsky, Daniel | 3.5 | 2494 | IM Shen, Victor C | 2.5 | 2411 | |
| 5 | FM Shetty, Atulya | 2.5 | 2320 | FM Sevian, Samuel | 2.5 | 2390 |
IM Daniel Naroditsky, the top seed entering the tournament, leads the U.S. Junior Closed Championship by a 1/2 point after four rounds.
By Brian Jerauld
SAINT LOUIS (June 18, 2013) -- Nobody is safe on top of the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship.
After a third round that saw two perfect-score frontrunners fall with the white pieces, Monday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis was more of the same for the leader. FM Luke Harmon-Vellotti entered atop the standings with 2.5/3 points, but he fell in glorious fashion to FM Samuel Sevian in round 4. The full-point victory was one of four on the day, with only one draw in the round between IM Victor Shen and FM Jeffrey Xiong.
The standings remain tight, with seven of the ten players still within one point of each other, entering round 5. Calfornia 17-year-old IM Daniel Naroditsky now sits atop the leaderboard on the proverbial hot seat and, with two wins and two draws in four rounds, is the last player in the field without a loss. Four players sit in a tie for second place, a half-point behind Naroditsky with 2.5 points.
Not 20 moves into Naroditsky’s game versus FM Atulya Shetty, things looked to be headed into a dead draw, which would have created a six-way tie for first place. Shetty gave fight with the French defense, producing an isolated queen’s pawn. It was one Naroditsky was up to the task of blockading, but unfortunately it was black’s only slight weakness.
But Shetty missed 19. … Bxd4 20. Bxd4 f6, which would have ushered in an opposite-colored bishop endgame and left white with no prospects. Naroditsky capitalized, with a powerful 24. Qg3 to set up the winning Re5 on the next move. Shetty blundered his major pieces to a knight fork soon after, and Naroditsky closed the game with some great back-rank tactical work.
“I just misevaluated the position,” Shetty said of his drawing chances. “I thought he would be able to keep pushing for awhile, with me suffering. I guess it was an easier draw than I thought it would be.”
Harmon-Vellotti had been nothing short of impressive through the first three rounds, including a win over IM Kayden Troff and a draw with Naroditsky, the field’s two highest-rated players. But his fourth-round match on Monday versus Sevian was a quick reminder that there would be no getting comfortable in this field.
Boise, Idaho’s 14-year-old pride looked solid through the earlygoings of a Ruy Lopez, prompting Grandmaster commentators Yasser Seirawan and Ben Finegold to comment on Harmon-Vellotti’s polished openings thus far in the tournament. But the middlegame held a different story.
If 16. c4 was confusing, then 18. Nfg5 was downright wrong. The former move, in a position that looked primed for white to push b4, greased the wheels for Sevian to come on the attack, and the latter simply sent a minor piece into the barbs of the enemy camp for no compensation.
“It was just one of those games where everything I calculated just didn’t work,” Harmon-Vellotti said. “I thought b4 didn’t work, because I was losing material – but I’m not. Then c4 was supposed to start this crazy kingside attack, where I thought I could get d4 and have something – but I don’t. Then Nb6, [Sevian] had several refutations – but I didn’t see any of them.”
Troff converted a solid endgame into a full point in his match versus FM Yian Liou. The Utah IM and reigning U-14 World Champion, who turned 15 while playing in his first U.S. Championship in May, came out clean against the Queen's Gambit-Declined Slav defense and found himself with an early advantage. Liou’s 17. … b6 was suspect, especially without his king castled, and Troff created the first weakness in his opponent’s army with an isolated c-pawn.
But he fell a bit flat on his choice of attack, opting for 19. Bb5 which was met by Ra7, and Troff voluntarily traded minor pieces and queens to speed toward the endgame. But Liou missed 23. Bf6, which would have brought the devastating 24. … Bd4+ and paved the way for an easy draw. Instead, Troff cleaned up in an excellent rook-and-pawn endgame. Liou’s choice of 23. a5 was the one he wanted back.
“It wasn’t miscalculating as much as it was just misevaluating how much of an easy draw [Bf6] was,” Liou said. “I just thought a5 led to an easier draw.”
With a draw in round 3, her first points on the board, WFM Sarah Chiang looked to be warming up and cruising to a convincing win versus Robert Perez on Monday. She came with the Classical Nimzo-Indian, including c5 and Na6, to disrupt Perez’ middle and stack his c-pawns. After 20 moves, Chiang was looking strong and coming heavy with attack, while Perez played with under 15 minutes on his clock and another 20 moves needed before time control.
Chiang’s attack, however, seemed just a tempo late, as Perez had just enough defense set up to avoid an otherwise lethal 24. Rg4. As it was, the move did little more than trap her own rook. Still, Chiang hung solid all the way through 34. gxf3, a position which Perez had all but conceded to time troubles.
“After [34. Gxf3], I thought I was dead, because she was so far up on time. That position was really annoying to defend low on time,” Perez said. “After that, I didn’t know. I couldn’t figure out what to do. My pieces were passive, and her pieces were active.”
But her 37. Kg7, instead of Kh7 which would have drawn, brought Perez’ shocker of 38. Ne6+, bringing mate in several ways if 38. … fxe6. Chiang lost her queen to a fork with her king at move 40. Nf8.
The draw between Xiong and Shen also featured a Ruy Lopez, but one Xiong fell out of line of rather early. The result saw an early attack on his white-squared bishop and struggling to find initiative in the early going. He stumbled through an awkward advance through the center that momentarily left his king exposed, but he was able to eventually close the board and create a pawn fortress, where he weathered the storm through the endgame.
Shen found slightly more play with the black pieces throughout the middle game, but trading the knights at move 29 all but sealed the draw.
To watch live grandmaster commentary with GM Yasser Seirawan and Ben Finegold, tune into www.uschesschamps.com/live.
Pairings round 5
| Table | White | Score | Rating | Black | Score | Rating | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FM Shetty, Atulya | 2.0 | 2320 | IM Troff, Kayden W | 2.5 | 2443 | |
| 2 | FM Sevian, Samuel | 2.0 | 2390 | IM Naroditsky, Daniel | 3.0 | 2494 | |
| 3 | IM Shen, Victor C | 2.5 | 2411 | FM Harmon-Vellotti, Luke | 2.5 | 2340 | |
| 4 | WFM Chiang, Sarah | 0.5 | 2101 | FM Xiong, Jeffrey | 1.0 | 2370 | |
| 5 | FM Liou, Yian | 1.5 | 2385 | Perez, Robert M | 2.5 | 2359 |
GM Magnus Carlsen will headline the Sinquefield Cup, which will feature four of the top-ten players in the world. Image Courtesy Ray Morris-Hill.
SAINT LOUIS (June 17, 2013) -- For the first time ever, World Championship challenger GM Magnus Carlsen will play a high-profile tournament in the United States.
The World’s No. 1 ranked player will take on three other top-ten players in Saint Louis this September when he joins GMs Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky for the Sinquefield Cup, a four-player, double round robin scheduled to be held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL) September 9-15.
In November, Carlsen will challenge GM Viswanathan Anand of India for the World Championship title.
CCSCSL Executive Director Tony Rich said this event marks an important milestone for U.S. chess.
“We are honored to bring the world’s best to Saint Louis this September,” Rich said. “Hosting an event of this magnitude is yet another sign that the U.S. is becoming a major player in the world chess scene.”
Carlsen and Aronian currently sit atop the world rankings at No. 1 and 2, respectively, while Nakamura and Kamsky hold the No. 1 and 2 spots in the U.S.
Nakamura is coming off one of the most successful three-game runs of his career having recently defeated GMs Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana at the Tal Memorial, which has vaulted him back into fifth place in the world rankings.
Kamsky also is coming off one of his most successful tournament performances in recent years with a second-place finish at the FIDE Grand Prix that recently concluded in Thessaloniki, Greece. Kamsky, who recently won his fourth U.S. Championship title, climbed back into the world’s top 10 for the first time since September 2011.
The average FIDE rating for the field is over 2800, making it the strongest tournament in the history of the U.S.
The opening ceremony will take place on September 8, and round 1 will begin at 1 p.m. CT on Monday, September 9.
The Sinquefield Cup, which will feature a prize fund of $170,000, is named after the founders of the CCSCSL, Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield. The Sinquefields were each honored by the U.S. Chess Federation with a Gold Koltanowski award in 2012, with Rex also earning the distinction in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The award is given to the person or persons who have done the most to promote chess in the U.S. each year.
Stay tuned for more details.