U.S. Juniors and Senior Championship: Day 3 Recap
The action definitely started to heat up during Day 3 of the 2023 U.S. National Championships, with top seed in the U.S. Senior, GM Vladimir Akopian, scoring an important victory over tournament leader Kaidanov. Meanwhile GM Andrew Hong maintained his lead in the U.S. Junior, while IM Carissa Yip won her first game of the event to move up the standings in the U..S Girls’ Junior.
Check out the full replay of live coverage from the day here. Each event features a 10-player round-robin format, with a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by an additional 30 minutes with a 30-second increment added from move one.
U.S. Senior Championship
Taking out one of the previous day’s leaders in GM Gregory Kaidanov was top seed GM Vladimir Akopian, who won his second straight game in the event, today thanks to some skillful endgame technique:
Kaidanov-Akopian: 26...g5! allowed Black to break up White's pawns. | 0-1, 47 moves
With Kaidanov losing, the only other perfect score belonged to Khachiyan, who was not able to generate many chances and ended up drawing with Benjamin. This allowed GM Max Dlugy to catch up by winning his second game in a row, taking advantage of a late endgame blunder in the 6th hour of play by GM Dmitry Gurevich:
Gurevich-Dlugy: 73.g3? was the final mistake (73.Kf2 would draw), as after 73...Be3!-+, White was stuck in a decisive zugzwang.
GM Max Dlugy | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller
Getting back to a plus score was defending champion GM Alexander Shabalov, who fended off a dubious sacrifice by GM Patrick Wolff to reach 2.0/3.
GM Alexander Shabalov | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes
2023 U.S. Senior Championship - Standings after Round 3
U.S. Junior Championship
GM Andrew Hong managed to keep his lead after three rounds, despite being held to a draw today by IM Kirk Ghazarian. Mishra-Jacobson also ended in a draw with Jacobson displaying excellent preparation as Black, while wins were picked up by Wang, Stearman, and Guo, with Guo finding a nice way to finish off his second straight win:
Daggupati-Guo: 36...Ne2+! ended the game, as 37.Rxe2 Bc5-+ wins the queen.
IM Arthur Guo | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller
GM Andrew Hong continues to lead the U.S. Junior. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller
2023 U.S. Junior Championship - Standings after Round 3
U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship
After two draws to start the event top seed IM Carissa Yip finally managed to score her first win, defeating WIM Iris Mou in nice attacking style to move to 2.0/3:
Yip-Mou: 28.Nf6+! gave White an irresistible attack. | 1-0, 37 moves
On the hunt--Yip seeks her fourth U.S. Girls' Junior title. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller
Winning their games and staying in the lead with 2.5/3 were IM-elect Alice Lee and FM Zoey Tang, who both displayed strong middlegame technique to convert their games. For Lee, the victory was secured thanks to a powerful passed d-pawn:
Lee-Atwell: 27.Rbd1! allowed Black to play 27...Bxh3, but White's d-pawn proved decisive. | 1-0, 38 moves
IM-elect Alice Lee | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller
FM Zoey Tang | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller
2023 U.S. Girls' Junior Championship - Standings after Round 3
The 2023 U.S. Juniors’ and U.S. Senior Championships continue tomorrow, July 18th, starting at 1:15 PM CDT. Catch all the action live with grandmaster commentators Yasser Seirawan, Cristian Chirila, and Katerina Nemcova on uschesschamps.com and on the Saint Louis Chess Club’s YouTube and Twitch.tv channels.