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2017 U.S. Junior Championships - Round 6 Recap

A dramatic round where rivals clashed in both sections!

2017 U.S. Junior Championships - Round 5 Recap

 

by Denes Boros

Round 5 started off with multiple heavyweight battles: Michael Brown against Ruifeng Li, Akshat Chandra against Andrew Tang, and in the Girls’ Section the leading Emily Nguyen faced her tournament rival, Akshita Gorti.

 

U.S. Junior Championship

2017 U.S. Junior Championships - Round 4 Recap

Looking at the pairings, I expected some deep home preparation from the players. I was surprised to see that the tournament spontaneously turned into a Carlsbad Theme Tournament instead!

2017 U.S. Junior Championships - Round 3 Recap

Compared to the early rounds, players arrived with clear intentions, to challenge the leaders!

2017 U.S. Junior Championships - Round 2 Recap

Round one seemed to have an impact on the players and the players dramatically changed their game in round two.

2017 U.S. Junior Championships - Round 1 Recap

A day after the opening ceremony, where players were given presents and some good advice from Tony Rich, the tournament director, the players were ready for the first round of the 2017 Junior Championships!

Wesley So is the new U.S. Champion!

Another U.S. Championship has ended today, and we couldn’t have asked for a more exciting finish! Yesterday, Sabina Foisor wrote history with her emotional victory. Today, Wesley So added another chapter to his legacy when he defeated Alexander Onischuk in a highly disputed tiebreak match.

One championship down, one still to go!

One tournament ended and the other one continues tomorrow! The U.S. Women’s Championship declared its winner, and it is none other than the sensation of the tournament, Sabina Foisor! Sabina played a brilliant game and finished Virkud in style, while Nazi started well but failed to keep the pace and got slowly outplayed by the legend slayer, Jennifer Yu (she beat Nazi, Irina, and Anna). In the open section, it was a fairly quiet day, with Wesley So making a pragmatic decision and repeating moves in the opening. 

Ties in both sections as we are heading for the grand finale

If the Open section gave us the biggest surprises in round nine, the show in round ten was stolen by the women, who produced two decisive results in the biggest clashes of the round. Nazi Paikidze dodged a huge bullet when she defeated Tatev Abrahamyan after being completely lost once the opening ended. In the other important clash, Sabina Foisor managed to climb her way back up in a worse middle game and outplay Zatonskih after the latter once again fell into a challenging time trouble situation.

Drama In Saint Louis, Caruana and Nakamura stunned

 

If the previous rounds have not kept you on the edge of your seat, round 9 surely did. Today’s round will live in history as arguably the bloodiest round, with both Nakamura and Caruana crumbling under pressure in vivid fashion. In the women’s section, the leaders failed to produce any fireworks, but it was the experienced Zatonskih who amazed the crowd with her fearless and knowledgeable chess game. Let’s delve into today’s recap!

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