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.
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.