Naroditsky entered as the tournament’s highest-rated player and has played like it. As the last player standing without a loss, his approach to the tournament has been systematic.
FM Luke Harmon-Vellotti is back in clear first with 4.5/6, after the other co-leaders heading into round 6, IM Daniel Naroditsky and Robert Perez, failed to win.
Today marks the players’ rest day, and seven of the ten players still sit within a point of each other, now with three tied atop the standings at 3.5/5 points.
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.
The World’s No. 1 ranked player, GM Magnus Carlsen, will battle GMs Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky for the Sinquefield Cup, September 9-15.
Round 3 featured defeats of IM Victor Shen and FM Atulya Shetty, who had been the early frontrunners of the tournament heading into Sunday, and points on the board for both FM Jeffrey Xiong and WFM Sarah Chiang.
After a completely decisive first round on Friday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, four out of five games on Saturday featured identical-score matchups, ensuring some early separation in the rankings.
At the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, a decisive round 1 saw four of the five players playing white emerge victorious at the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship.
Blitz games passed the time surrounding the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship opening ceremony last night, as America’s best players under the age of 21 gathered at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.
Chess prodigies from across the nation have gathered in Saint Louis to compete in the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship, the premier chess tournament in the country for players under the age of 21.