2012 U.S. Championships News
By FM Mike Klein
For the first time in the 2012 U.S. Championship, one player rests atop the leaderboard. With his win today in round five over co-leader GM Gregory Kaidanov, local GM Hikaru Nakamura took control of the tournament. With three wins and two draws, his four points are one-half point ahead of defending champion GM Gata Kamsky, who bounced back by also winning today. However, since the two top seeds have yet to play, both still control their own destiny.
Nakamura reverted to his more usual 1. d4 today, reversing his trend of advancing his king's pawn, which he had done to surprise opponents in rounds one and three. Kaidanov played a Catalan system, but Nakamura offered a temporary pawn deficit to activate his pieces. After Nakamura regained the material, Kaidanov's pieces could only entrench themselves and wait for the breakthrough. That came in the form of the improbable 61. f5 and subsequent king invasion. Kaidanov's rook and bishop moved listlessly back and forth while his opponent's monarch played checkers on the dark squares, taking the scenic route from g5 to h6 to g7 to f8 to e7. Kaidanov conceded defeat and now sits in a four-way tie for third, and will need some help to win his first-ever U.S. Championship.
Kamsky, whose 51-game U.S. Championship unbeaten streak ended yesterday, began a new one today by winning in a fashion that echoed Nakamura's victory. GM Varuzhan Akobian eschewed his nearly-automatic French Defense and played the cramped-but-solid Berlin Defense, known for forming a nearly impenetrable wall. But it was only a matter of time before Akobian's defenses collapsed, as Kamsky's knights finally penetrated his position, capping off the offensive with the devastating 31. Nf6+. Getting low on time (Akobian was down to two seconds several times), Akobian could not hold off the attack.
Third-seeded GM Alex Onischuk got back into the mix by winning a topsy-turvy game against GM Robert Hess. The Yale freshman did not control his knights as well as Kamsky. Hess's initiative began to subside after 22. Nfd4, which he called the wrong knight. Onischuk rallied for an attack on the castled king, and offered two minor pieces for a rook to prise open Hess's position. Still, it would not have been enough if Hess had played 29. Kf1, since after 29...Rxe4 30. Ne7+ Kh8 31. Ng6+ seals the win for white. “With knights, you always have to be careful,” Onischuk said. Instead, Hess made the practical decision to bring his queen backward into the defense, but Onischuk's rook eventually found daylight and a route to pay dirt – the second-rank. Onischuk played Pac-Man with Hess's queenside pawns, forcing him to resign.
Joining Kaidanov and Onischuk on 3/5 and a tie for third place are GMs Alex Lenderman and Yury Shulman, who played an uneventful draw versus each other. Both have won once and drawn four times at the event.
A pair of slow starters won in round five to get back to even scores. GM Alex Stripunsky reverse-engineered his rook back to the first rank to win GM Yasser Seirawan's bishop. After losing his first two games, Stripunsky has 2.5 out of the last three.
Joining Stripunsky was GM Ray Robson, who had a very promising middlegame according to Onischuk. With a light-squared attack on GM Alejandro Ramirez's king, he allowed the pressure to dissolve, only to later win a tricky rook-and-pawn endgame.
While the U.S. Championship took on a betting favorite, the U.S. Women's Championship did not break the three-player deadlock. IM Irina Krush, IM Anna Zatonskih and WIM Iryna Zenyuk are all still tied for first place with 3/4.
Zenyuk and Krush, who are good friends, could not commiserate much during yesterday's off day since they played today. Whereas Krush said earlier in the tournament that she would be careful not to use up valuable energy by preparing too much, Zenyuk said she spent seven hours studying for Krush yesterday. Still, that would not be enough to predict everything.
“Irina (Krush) surprised me with her opening choice,” Zenyuk said. The game, a Semi-Slav Defense, ended in a draw by agreement on move 30 when Zenyuk repulsed Krush's rook invasion. “We didn't see any fireworks today,” Krush said. “At last year's championship, I was just lost out of the opening,” Zenyuk said of their past encounter. “Someone like Irina is really good at openings. I really believe that. I was really scared.” Zenyuk continues her best championship ever, currently fashioning a 2500+ performance rating, nearly 300 points above her actual rating. “I feel more pressure, definitely. But I don't think I'm going to change much.”
Zatonskih kept pace, but for the second game in a row, she entered a deep think early in the game. Facing FM Alisa Melekhina's commonplace Sicilian Alapin, the defending champ could not decide between 6...Qxc5 or 6...Qxd1+. After 30 minutes, she chose the former, explaining that she wanted to keep pieces on the board for better chances of fighting chess. But Melekhina got the queens off the board anyway, obtaining a small but stable advantage of the queenside pawn majority. “She plays [the Alapin] also; it's tough to play against your own openings,” Melekhina said. “My position was so dangerous,” Zatonskih said. Melekhina pressed but settled for a draw by repetition in a double-rook endgame, as she feared the swift advance of her opponent's passed f-pawn. She expressed frustration at not being able to convert the full point. “Every time I thought I would gain a meaningful advantage, she found a simplifying continuation,” Melekhina said. “It's not just this game. In general I need to start winning.”
All three other games in the women's championship ended with white wins. WGMs Sabina Foisor and Tatev Abrahamyan both got a point to come within a half-point of the leaders. They beat WFM Alena Kats and WGM Camilla Baginskaite, respectively. Baginskaite is still without any points.
WIM Viktorija Ni fought off infant-induced sleep deprivation to win her first-ever game at the championship, over IM Rusudan Goletiani, who has begun the tournament win-loss-win-loss.
Round six for the U.S. Championship and round five for the U.S. Women's Championship begins tomorrow at 1 p.m. Central, 2 p.m. Eastern. Come by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis or tune in to www.uschesschamps.com for live commentary from WGM Jennifer Shahade and GM Ben Finegold.
By FM Mike Klein
For the first time in the 2012 U.S. Championship, one player rests atop the leaderboard. With his win today in round five over co-leader GM Gregory Kaidanov, local GM Hikaru Nakamura took control of the tournament. With three wins and two draws, his four points are one-half point ahead of defending champion GM Gata Kamsky, who bounced back by also winning today. However, since the two top seeds have yet to play, both still control their own destiny.
Nakamura reverted to his more usual 1. d4 today, reversing his trend of advancing his king's pawn, which he had done to surprise opponents in rounds one and three. Kaidanov played a Catalan system, but Nakamura offered a temporary pawn deficit to activate his pieces. After Nakamura regained the material, Kaidanov's pieces could only entrench themselves and wait for the breakthrough. That came in the form of the improbable 61. f5 and subsequent king invasion. Kaidanov's rook and bishop moved listlessly back and forth while his opponent's monarch played checkers on the dark squares, taking the scenic route from g5 to h6 to g7 to f8 to e7. Kaidanov conceded defeat and now sits in a four-way tie for third, and will need some help to win his first-ever U.S. Championship.
Kamsky, whose 51-game U.S. Championship unbeaten streak ended yesterday, began a new one today by winning in a fashion that echoed Nakamura's victory. GM Varuzhan Akobian eschewed his nearly-automatic French Defense and played the cramped-but-solid Berlin Defense, known for forming a nearly impenetrable wall. But it was only a matter of time before Akobian's defenses collapsed, as Kamsky's knights finally penetrated his position, capping off the offensive with the devastating 31. Nf6+. Getting low on time (Akobian was down to two seconds several times), Akobian could not hold off the attack.
Third-seeded GM Alex Onischuk got back into the mix by winning a topsy-turvy game against GM Robert Hess. The Yale freshman did not control his knights as well as Kamsky. Hess's initiative began to subside after 22. Nfd4, which he called the wrong knight. Onischuk rallied for an attack on the castled king, and offered two minor pieces for a rook to prise open Hess's position. Still, it would not have been enough if Hess had played 29. Kf1, since after 29...Rxe4 30. Ne7+ Kh8 31. Ng6+ seals the win for white. “With knights, you always have to be careful,” Onischuk said. Instead, Hess made the practical decision to bring his queen backward into the defense, but Onischuk's rook eventually found daylight and a route to pay dirt – the second-rank. Onischuk played Pac-Man with Hess's queenside pawns, forcing him to resign.
Joining Kaidanov and Onischuk on 3/5 and a tie for third place are GMs Alex Lenderman and Yury Shulman, who played an uneventful draw versus each other. Both have won once and drawn four times at the event.
A pair of slow starters won in round five to get back to even scores. GM Alex Stripunsky reverse-engineered his rook back to the first rank to win GM Yasser Seirawan's bishop. After losing his first two games, Stripunsky has 2.5 out of the last three.
Joining Stripunsky was GM Ray Robson, who had a very promising middlegame according to Onischuk. With a light-squared attack on GM Alejandro Ramirez's king, he allowed the pressure to dissolve, only to later win a tricky rook-and-pawn endgame.
While the U.S. Championship took on a betting favorite, the U.S. Women's Championship did not break the three-player deadlock. IM Irina Krush, IM Anna Zatonskih and WIM Iryna Zenyuk are all still tied for first place with 3/4.
Zenyuk and Krush, who are good friends, could not commiserate much during yesterday's off day since they played today. Whereas Krush said earlier in the tournament that she would be careful not to use up valuable energy by preparing too much, Zenyuk said she spent seven hours studying for Krush yesterday. Still, that would not be enough to predict everything.
“Irina (Krush) surprised me with her opening choice,” Zenyuk said. The game, a Semi-Slav Defense, ended in a draw by agreement on move 30 when Zenyuk repulsed Krush's rook invasion. “We didn't see any fireworks today,” Krush said. “At last year's championship, I was just lost out of the opening,” Zenyuk said of their past encounter. “Someone like Irina is really good at openings. I really believe that. I was really scared.” Zenyuk continues her best championship ever, currently fashioning a 2500+ performance rating, nearly 300 points above her actual rating. “I feel more pressure, definitely. But I don't think I'm going to change much.”
Zatonskih kept pace, but for the second game in a row, she entered a deep think early in the game. Facing FM Alisa Melekhina's commonplace Sicilian Alapin, the defending champ could not decide between 6...Qxc5 or 6...Qxd1+. After 30 minutes, she chose the former, explaining that she wanted to keep pieces on the board for better chances of fighting chess. But Melekhina got the queens off the board anyway, obtaining a small but stable advantage of the queenside pawn majority. “She plays [the Alapin] also; it's tough to play against your own openings,” Melekhina said. “My position was so dangerous,” Zatonskih said. Melekhina pressed but settled for a draw by repetition in a double-rook endgame, as she feared the swift advance of her opponent's passed f-pawn. She expressed frustration at not being able to convert the full point. “Every time I thought I would gain a meaningful advantage, she found a simplifying continuation,” Melekhina said. “It's not just this game. In general I need to start winning.”
All three other games in the women's championship ended with white wins. WGMs Sabina Foisor and Tatev Abrahamyan both got a point to come within a half-point of the leaders. They beat WFM Alena Kats and WGM Camilla Baginskaite, respectively. Baginskaite is still without any points.
WIM Viktorija Ni fought off infant-induced sleep deprivation to win her first-ever game at the championship, over IM Rusudan Goletiani, who has begun the tournament win-loss-win-loss.
Round six for the U.S. Championship and round five for the U.S. Women's Championship begins tomorrow at 1 p.m. Central, 2 p.m. Eastern. Come by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis or tune in to www.uschesschamps.com for live commentary from WGM Jennifer Shahade and GM Ben Finegold.
By GM Ben Finegold and Mike Wilmering
SAINT LOUIS, May 12, 2012 -- After four rounds of the 2012 U.S. Championship, an upset victory by GM Gregory Kaidanov has catapulted him into a first-place tie with GM Hikaru Nakamura. Yesterday was a rest day for the players of the 2012 U.S. Women’s Championship.
Kaidanov scored the upset of the event by beating the seemingly heretofore unbeatable GM Gata Kamsky. Kamsky, with the black pieces, misplayed the move order after his pawn sacrifice with 14…b5!? Kamsky said he thought he would be about equal after the correct 15...cxd4 instead of 15…Bb7? Kaidanov took control of things with the excellent 17.dxc5! and never looked back, winning an excellent game.
"Well, I blundered," Kamsky said. "After dxc5 I was much worse."
Kamsky had lost only once with black in eight previous U.S. Championship appearances. That game took place in 1993 against none other than Kaidanov.
Kaidanov, who only received an invitation to the event because 2011 U.S. Junior Champion Gregory Young declined, is making the most of his chances.
"Over the years, Gata's saved so many lost positions, some of which were dead lost," he said. "So until the very end, I didn't believe I could win."
This marks Kaidanov’s 18th U.S. Championship appearance. He’s managed to secure two second-place finishes in past events, but the title of U.S. Champion as of yet has proved too elusive. He has a crucial matchup tomorrow against Nakamura.
Just before reluctantly acquiescing to a peaceable draw with GM Alexander Onischuk, Nakamura was visibly frustrated at the board.
"Somehow it just felt like there should be something, like it should be winning, but maybe there's just not enough to win; it's just a symbolic advantage, perhaps," Nakamura said. "I just thought that somewhere in the middlegame Alex went wrong.”
Nakamura said he was inspired by GM Jesse Kraai, who played b6 against Onischuk two times prior.
"I just felt like trying something different,” he said.
Onischuk probably should have tried to castle kingside with 16.Bf2 and 17.0-0, but instead castled queenside. Both players thought they had a good position, but Onischuk said he simply blundered with 17.Nf5? However, this move was probably not so bad after all, as white kept the balance, and a draw was agreed soon after time control.
In the post-game interview, Nakamura attributed his newfound affinity for the bishop pair to his brief training partnership with former World Champion GM Garry Kasparov. Onischuk dismissed the notion.
"Frankly, I think everyone prefers two bishops," Onischuk said.
After the post-game analysis, Nakamura discussed the game between Kaidanov and Kamsky, which was still being played at the time.
"Gregory's playing a very good game, and he's a strong player, and Gata isn't having one of his better days, but that happens,” Nakamura said.
"It's early on in the tournament," Namakura said. "And even though Gata's probably going to lose this game, I have a feeling both he and [Onischuk] are going to be my main competition towards the end.”
The game between GM Varuzhan Akobian and GM Alex Lenderman was a well-played draw.
"The opening was preparation,” Lenderman explained. “It's a new idea, but it's been played before by a Russian grandmaster, Popov, but no one else has played this idea."
Indeed, Popov has played this line with 8...g5 and 9…Ne4 before with a +1 score. 14...Qe7 was a novelty, as Popov had played 14...Qd6 in an earlier game and drew, although 14...Qf6 may be best of all.
"Alex found a very good move, Bc7," Akobian said. This allowed Lenderman to escape with his king, castling safely, and a draw was the fair result.
Round four also featured a battle of the tournament's two youngest players, GMs Ray Robson and Robert Hess. Robson played the very unusual 7.Nbd2, and Hess was on his own early. In fact, IM Marc Arnold, Hess' second, said they were up till about 4 a.m. that morning preparing a line against 3.Bb5. Robson, however, threw a wrench in the prep, unleashing Bc4 on move three.
"I wanted to surprise someone in the opening instead of being surprised all of the time," Robson said.
Robson didn't get any advantage from his unusual opening, but Hess played quite passively and couldn't find a good plan. Robson increased his advantage methodically, and won a strategically beautiful game.
"I didn't make any good moves, that's the problem," Hess joked. "But no, Ray played well today."
The next game to finish was the long battle between GMs Yury Shulman and Alex Stripunsky. Both players had the edge at different points, but neither could gain a significant advantage, and a draw was a fair result.
The best chance was for Stripunksy to play 32...f5! with the edge. A win for Shulman would have launched him into a first-place tie with Kaidanov and Nakamura.
Although he wasn’t able to convert the full point, this result represented a nice comeback for Stripunsky, who started with 0-2, and now has 1.5 out of his last two games.
GM Yasser Seirawan won the longest game of the tournament against GM Alejandro Ramirez, as it looked like an easy ending win for white. But Seirawan’s technique let him down, and he had to win the game all over again. Black was in severe time trouble the last 20 moves, getting down to less than 5 seconds on the clock several times. The last drawing chance would have been 86...Rc5!
Round four of the U.S. Women's Championship and Round five of the U.S. Championship will begin at 1 p.m Central, 2 p.m. Eastern. Turn in to www.uschesschamps.com for live commentary and to follow all of the games live.
By FM Mike Klein
The bell curve of scores began to take shape after today's round three of the 2012 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship. With six of the 11 games pitting first-time opponents against each other, a lot of unknowns preluded the afternoon. The top two rated players pulled ahead in both competitions, with one surprising party crasher in the women's tournament.
The ascent of GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Gata Kamsky, who are joint leaders with 2.5/3, took divergent yet typical paths. Nakamura used investigative research of a topical variation that led to a swashbuckling game. Kamsky avoided a rigorous theoretical test and slowly took over the board with his bishops. A chess fan could probably guess which player was which without even seeing the names attached to the games.
Nakamura played 1. e4 for the second time in the championship, and hoped to steer his match with GM Ray Robson into a prepared line. Repeating the moves of an earlier Robson game from this year's Aeroflot Open, Nakamura unleashed a powerful kingside attack in the Yugoslav Dragon, an opening Robson plays frequently. “I've played the Dragon quite a bit recently with both colors,” Nakamura said. “I figured it would lead to a sharp position and there's certainly play for both sides, but I just felt this suited my style a bit more.”
Robson had not focused as much on 1.e4 during his preparation. “I wasn't sure what to do against 1. e4 because all of the lines I thought about, somehow there are some small holes I thought [Nakamura] could play into,” he said. His prescience proved accurate. Robson was forced to invest a small amount of material to quash the h-file invasions. He then became resourceful in his counterplay given his limited material. Nakamura's king hiked up the board to avoid the relentless checking, and in a study-like position he allowed Robson to promote to a queen. But as is often the case, a friendly knight shielded any further checks and soon Robson's chances were exhausted, forcing him to resign.
For the defending champion Kamsky, no such bravery was needed to beat third-seeded GM Alex Onischuk. In only his second win ever against him (the first was during the quad finals of the 2010 Championship), Kamsky used the London System, an opening rare at professional levels due to its benign reputation. Eventually he acquired the two bishops, or the “mini exchange” as GM Garry Kasparov once termed it. In the final position, Kamsky can deftly avoid the threats to his own king by trading queens on d7, whereupon his pawn becomes unstoppable. Onischuk has the burden of playing the other frontrunner, Nakamura, tomorrow. Earlier in the tournament, GM Alejandro Ramirez also had the daunting one-two punch, scoring one loss and one draw. Looking ahead, Nakamura and Kamsky are slated to meet in round 10.
GMs Alex Lenderman and Gregory Kaidanov, two of the lowest-rated players in the tournament (and for Kaidanov, the oldest), continued their unbeaten ways with a 30-move draw agreement, which is the shortest allowed under the rules. They both sit on 2/3 and are in a tie for second. Lenderman had a second consecutive rook and bishop ending. “In the end I feel like I was lucky to draw,” Kaidanov said. He added that ignorance is bliss when it comes to others' perception of his play. “I try to forget about the outside world when I play in tournaments...I don't think about what other people think about my play. I think this is the most important part of being a chess player.”
Lenderman claimed he was not at his best, but for a reason not heard much in chess circles. “I felt like I wasn't seeing the board clearly today; I think I overprepared,” he said, adding that he planned to study less for the next games.
Joining Lenderman and Kaidanov with two points was GM Yury Shulman, the only player of that trio to have won a U.S. Championship. Shulman squeezed the veteran GM Yasser Seirawan, who is still without any points.
GM Alex Stripunsky earned his first win, springing the unpredictable piece sacrifice 10. h4 and beating GM Varuzhan Akobian, thus puncturing Akobian's chances of a first championship. Stripunsky said he is recovered from his first-round blunder. “I fought back, and I am OK now.”
Young GMs Robert Hess and Alejandro Ramirez drew in their first matchup ever, not counting a quick draw at last year's Thanksgiving Open in Saint Louis.
In the women's tournament, IM Irina Krush won and caught up to her main rival, IM Anna Zatonskih. Krush beat WIM Viktorija Ni with the quieter 1. c4, instead of 1 .d4 and a likely King's Indian Defense, which is a mainstay in recent years at the U.S. Women's Championship. “I was a little bit confused by this move Bg5,” Krush said. “I wasn't expecting it. Then I thought, 'Oh, that's an interesting idea, stopping me from playing Ne3.'” But Krush called her “bluff”, playing 16. Ne3 anyway. Ni decided against doubling Krush's pawns at the cost of weakening her dark squares, but the resulting knight invasion to d5 proved no bargain either. Like Nakamura, Krush marched her king to the sixth rank for victory. She said she plans to use tomorrow's rest day to conserve her energy.
Zatonskih endured a rarity at this year's championship – the higher-rated player getting surprised out of the opening. While Kamsky has played an offbeat Sicilian and Nakamura has essayed the Evans Gambit, it was the lower-rated WGM Sabina Foisor that uncorked the Chigorin Defense with 2...Nc6. A bewildered Zatonskih spent 25 minutes on her reply, and could not engineer any activity for her light-squared bishop. The game ended in a draw, but not before Zatonskih's queen's rook also took an interesting sojourn, traveling a1-d1-d2-d3-d4-f4-h4-h1 and switching places with her king's rook. Luckily, Zatonskih is a big fan of puzzles and compositions, and perhaps has seen a solution with rooks inverting their normal positions.
Zatonskih and Krush are joined at 2.5/3 with WIM Iryna Zenyuk, the 8th seed out of ten players. Zenyuk won for the second day in a row, this time against WGM Tatev Abrahamyan. Zenyuk already has more points that she scored in all of last year's seven-game event. She will face one of her biggest challenges in round four - Zenyuk cedes more than 250 ratings points against Krush.
Close behind with 2/3 is IM Rusudan Goletiani, who rebounded from her unsuspecting late-game errors in round two. Coming off that painful loss leaves the next game difficult to predict. She stifled FM Alisa Melekhina's pieces all game. “I was so mad at myself yesterday, I was determined to do really well today,” Goletiani said. She went out to eat with a large group of playing partners and was in good spirits by night's end, helping her to rebound today.
WFM Alena Kats got her first win today by beating the winless WGM Camilla Baginskaite.
The women are off tomorrow, but the U.S. Championship returns for round four at 1 p.m Central, 2 p.m. Eastern. Turn in to www.uschesschamps.com for live commentary from WGM Jennifer Shahade and GM Ben Finegold.
By FM Mike Klein
The bell curve of scores began to take shape after today's round three of the 2012 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship. With six of the 11 games pitting first-time opponents against each other, a lot of unknowns preluded the afternoon. The top two rated players pulled ahead in both competitions, with one surprising party crasher in the women's tournament.
The ascent of GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Gata Kamsky, who are joint leaders with 2.5/3, took divergent yet typical paths. Nakamura used investigative research of a topical variation that led to a swashbuckling game. Kamsky avoided a rigorous theoretical test and slowly took over the board with his bishops. A chess fan could probably guess which player was which without even seeing the names attached to the games.
Nakamura played 1. e4 for the second time in the championship, and hoped to steer his match with GM Ray Robson into a prepared line. Repeating the moves of an earlier Robson game from this year's Aeroflot Open, Nakamura unleashed a powerful kingside attack in the Yugoslav Dragon, an opening Robson plays frequently. “I've played the Dragon quite a bit recently with both colors,” Nakamura said. “I figured it would lead to a sharp position and there's certainly play for both sides, but I just felt this suited my style a bit more.”
Robson had not focused as much on 1.e4 during his preparation. “I wasn't sure what to do against 1. e4 because all of the lines I thought about, somehow there are some small holes I thought [Nakamura] could play into,” he said. His prescience proved accurate. Robson was forced to invest a small amount of material to quash the h-file invasions. He then became resourceful in his counterplay given his limited material. Nakamura's king hiked up the board to avoid the relentless checking, and in a study-like position he allowed Robson to promote to a queen. But as is often the case, a friendly knight shielded any further checks and soon Robson's chances were exhausted, forcing him to resign.
For the defending champion Kamsky, no such bravery was needed to beat third-seeded GM Alex Onischuk. In only his second win ever against him (the first was during the quad finals of the 2010 Championship), Kamsky used the London System, an opening rare at professional levels due to its benign reputation. Eventually he acquired the two bishops, or the “mini exchange” as GM Garry Kasparov once termed it. In the final position, Kamsky can deftly avoid the threats to his own king by trading queens on d7, whereupon his pawn becomes unstoppable. Onischuk has the burden of playing the other frontrunner, Nakamura, tomorrow. Earlier in the tournament, GM Alejandro Ramirez also had the daunting one-two punch, scoring one loss and one draw. Looking ahead, Nakamura and Kamsky are slated to meet in round 10.
GMs Alex Lenderman and Gregory Kaidanov, two of the lowest-rated players in the tournament (and for Kaidanov, the oldest), continued their unbeaten ways with a 30-move draw agreement, which is the shortest allowed under the rules. They both sit on 2/3 and are in a tie for second. Lenderman had a second consecutive rook and bishop ending. “In the end I feel like I was lucky to draw,” Kaidanov said. He added that ignorance is bliss when it comes to others' perception of his play. “I try to forget about the outside world when I play in tournaments...I don't think about what other people think about my play. I think this is the most important part of being a chess player.”
Lenderman claimed he was not at his best, but for a reason not heard much in chess circles. “I felt like I wasn't seeing the board clearly today; I think I overprepared,” he said, adding that he planned to study less for the next games.
Joining Lenderman and Kaidanov with two points was GM Yury Shulman, the only player of that trio to have won a U.S. Championship. Shulman squeezed the veteran GM Yasser Seirawan, who is still without any points.
GM Alex Stripunsky earned his first win, springing the unpredictable piece sacrifice 10. h4 and beating GM Varuzhan Akobian, thus puncturing Akobian's chances of a first championship. Stripunsky said he is recovered from his first-round blunder. “I fought back, and I am OK now.”
Young GMs Robert Hess and Alejandro Ramirez drew in their first matchup ever, not counting a quick draw at last year's Thanksgiving Open in Saint Louis.
In the women's tournament, IM Irina Krush won and caught up to her main rival, IM Anna Zatonskih. Krush beat WIM Viktorija Ni with the quieter 1. c4, instead of 1 .d4 and a likely King's Indian Defense, which is a mainstay in recent years at the U.S. Women's Championship. “I was a little bit confused by this move Bg5,” Krush said. “I wasn't expecting it. Then I thought, 'Oh, that's an interesting idea, stopping me from playing Ne3.'” But Krush called her “bluff”, playing 16. Ne3 anyway. Ni decided against doubling Krush's pawns at the cost of weakening her dark squares, but the resulting knight invasion to d5 proved no bargain either. Like Nakamura, Krush marched her king to the sixth rank for victory. She said she plans to use tomorrow's rest day to conserve her energy.
Zatonskih endured a rarity at this year's championship – the higher-rated player getting surprised out of the opening. While Kamsky has played an offbeat Sicilian and Nakamura has essayed the Evans Gambit, it was the lower-rated WGM Sabina Foisor that uncorked the Chigorin Defense with 2...Nc6. A bewildered Zatonskih spent 25 minutes on her reply, and could not engineer any activity for her light-squared bishop. The game ended in a draw, but not before Zatonskih's queen's rook also took an interesting sojourn, traveling a1-d1-d2-d3-d4-f4-h4-h1 and switching places with her king's rook. Luckily, Zatonskih is a big fan of puzzles and compositions, and perhaps has seen a solution with rooks inverting their normal positions.
Zatonskih and Krush are joined at 2.5/3 with WIM Iryna Zenyuk, the 8th seed out of ten players. Zenyuk won for the second day in a row, this time against WGM Tatev Abrahamyan. Zenyuk already has more points that she scored in all of last year's seven-game event. She will face one of her biggest challenges in round four - Zenyuk cedes more than 250 ratings points against Krush.
Close behind with 2/3 is IM Rusudan Goletiani, who rebounded from her unsuspecting late-game errors in round two. Coming off that painful loss leaves the next game difficult to predict. She stifled FM Alisa Melekhina's pieces all game. “I was so mad at myself yesterday, I was determined to do really well today,” Goletiani said. She went out to eat with a large group of playing partners and was in good spirits by night's end, helping her to rebound today.
WFM Alena Kats got her first win today by beating the winless WGM Camilla Baginskaite.
The women are off tomorrow, but the U.S. Championship returns for round four at 1 p.m Central, 2 p.m. Eastern. Turn in to www.uschesschamps.com for live commentary from WGM Jennifer Shahade and GM Ben Finegold.
By FM Mike Klein
After two rounds of play at the U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship, only one player out of 22 remains with an unblemished record. Defending champion IM Anna Zatonskih continued her unparallelled recent success at the event by beating WGM Camilla Baginskaite. No other player in either tournament could string together a second win in a row. A large swath of men are all tied at 1.5/2 in the U.S. Championship.
Zatonskih's choice of the Nimzo-Indian Defense led to a cluster of pawns in the center. But what began as a stable maneuvering game quickly gave way to open files and diagonals. Zatonskih faced two menacing bishops, but she neutralized their combined power by trading one set, then took control of the open e-file. Baginskaite's 18. Rf3 should have been immediately punished by 18...Nc2 with twin threats of 19...Nxa1 and 19...Re1+, winning the queen. “I'm still experiencing jet lag,” Zatonskih said. She traveled from her home in Germany to attempt to defend her title. Although she is up a half point on her closest competition, Zatonskih pointed out that three of her toughest games will be in the final three rounds. “I have a very tough finish,” she said. “I have to save some energy.”
It seemed to most that she would have company at 2/2, as 2005 champion IM Rusudan Goletiani took a dominating position down to the wire. However, short of time, she overpressed, first losing her a-pawn, then allowing a crucial knight invasion to seal her own king's fate. WGM Sabina Foisor benefited to score her first win.
Second-seeded IM Irina Krush could not keep pace, as she could only draw with FM Alisa Melekhina. Like their matchup at last year's championship, Melekhina diverged from her usual Sicilian Alapin to play the Moscow Variation. Unlike last year, she went with an immediate 6. d4 instead of preparing it with 6. c3. “I was looking to play something more aggressive,” Melekhina said. “I feel like theory is my weakness, and I just wanted a playable position. I feel like she might overextend; she's the higher-rated player.”
After losing a string of games at the outset last year, Melekhina has now opened this year with two draws to women she lost to last year, Krush and WIM Iryna Zenyuk. “I'm content. Last year I lost to both Irinas.”
Zenyuk used the Benko Gambit to win against WIM Viktorija Ni. Much like WGM Tatev Abrahamyan's round one game, Zenyuk's queen's rook infiltrated the b-file in the Benko. Then followed her queen, which delivered the decisive triple fork of Ni's rook and two bishops. Zenyuk stands at 1.5/2 and is off to one of her best starts in the event.
Abrahamyan sacrificed a center pawn on d5 to open lines for her light-squared bishop, then attacked on the light squares. Coupled with her methodical g-pawn plodding up the board and resting on the seventh rank, WFM Alena Kats could not resist the buffeting. Kats is still seeking her first points of the tournament. “My bishop is just dominating the whole position,” Abrahamyan said. “It's a pretty standard line in the Najdorf.” She was more pleased with her effort today as opposed to the erratic game yesterday, when her opponent missed a crushing queen invasion. Abrahamyan is playing in her first tournament in two months, which for her is a longer layoff than normal.
In the U.S. Championship, everyone now has a pocked record, leaving a collection of players leading with 1.5/2. Defending champion GM Gata Kamsky surprised everyone with the exceedingly rare 2...b6 in the Sicilian Defense. While he had played it before online, Kamsky decided only at the last minute to essay it over the board. “It's fun to play away from theory on the second move,” Kamsky said. His opponent, GM Ray Robson, was not aware of Kamsky's Internet repertoire, but was unfazed by the choice. He reasoned that if he played normally he should not be worse against such an obscure choice.
In the post-game analysis, Kamsky marveled at Robson's analytical celerity. “This guy is really good at tactics,” Kamsky said. After 24...Ra8, Kamsky said he initially did not see Robson's king oscillation between b1 and c1, which is the only way to hold the draw. The last try for an advantage was 24...Bxe4, which simultaneously wins a pawn and brings a much-needed piece to the defense of Kamsky's king.
GM Hikaru Nakamura, widely considered Kamsky's biggest hurdle to winning three championships in a row, also drew. GM Alejandro Ramirez had his pressure on f7 quickly rebuffed, then scrambled after Nakamura's knight infiltrated to the center. “I kind of underestimated his position,” Ramirez said. “After ...Nd4 my position [was terrible] ... my time management was atrocious.”
Now with better prospects, Nakamura spent a lot of time prior to 27...f5, believing that his opponent could unearth the inventive resource 28. Qd1 Re7 29. exf5 Rxe1 30. Qxe1 Bxg2 31. Bxd4, followed by a queen invasion on e6 to hold the balance by either continuously checking or grabbing a handful of pawns. During the game, Ramirez assumed Nakamura had something up his sleeve in the variation, and instead pitched the exchange to reduce the pressure. It worked, as his dark-square pressure was enough to prise Nakamura's king out in the open for a draw by repetition.
Also on 1.5/2 is GM Robert Hess, who bided his time in an uncomfortable position against GM Yasser Seirawan until the tactic 18...Rxg4 appeared. Hess presumed Seirawan simply overlooked the pin to the rook on h1. While still not without pressure, the worse was then behind him. “I misplayed the opening as per usual,” Hess said. “I didn't remember the line very well." Seirawan's loss was his second in a row.
GM Gregory Kaidanov also has a win and a draw, as his active pieces created too many problems for the luckless GM Alex Stripunsky. Kaidanov's bishops, knights and rook harassed the enemy queen relentlessly unless she had to be given up. Kaidanov later offered his own queen in return to achieve the notorious outside passed pawn, which duly marched to victory.
GM Varuzhan Akobian used nearly all of his time in the opening, at one point only keeping six minutes with a 30-second increment for the next 23 moves. “I made all logical moves – in principle it should be better for me,” a frustrated Akobain said. “I'm not happy with my play today.” GM Yury Shulman tried all he could to keep the position complicated to stress Akobian, but had to settle for a static position that allowed his opponent to make easy choices and hold the draw. The split point also gets Akobian to 1.5/2.
In the day's only battle of first-round winners, GMs Alex Onsichuk and Alex Lenderman played an exciting draw that also got them both to 1.5/2.
The lack of perfection means that no player will win the $64,000 Fischer prize for a perfect score. Fischer was the only person to achieve the feat, scoring a perfect 11-0 in 1963. Round three begins tomorrow at 1 p.m. Central, 2 p.m. Eastern. Tune in to www.uschesschamps.com for live commentary from WGM Jennifer Shahade and the club's GM-in-Residence, Ben Finegold. Pairings for round three can be found at www.uschesshcamps.com/standings-and-games.