Recap

After an exciting second day of the 2020 U.S. Women’s Championship GM Irina Krush managed to overtake the lead in the standings, scoring 2.5/3 today to finish with 4.5/6 points. Trailing Krush by just a half-point are IM Carissa Yip, WIM Emily Nguyen, and IM Dorsa Derakhshani, who impressed online spectators with her fantastic attacking play. Previous leader, IM Annie Wang had a difficult day, losing all three games to drop out among the top places. 

IM Annie Wang grabbed the early lead in the 2020 U.S. Women’s Championship, scoring 2.5/3 points on the first day of play. Defending champion WGM Jennifer Yu earned 2.0/3, tied for second with top seed GM Irina Krush, WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, and WIM Emily Nguyen, with eight more rounds to go in this 12-player round-robin event. 

Despite starting off with a loss in the first game of the second day, GM Joel Benjamin managed to bounce back with two straight wins to take the sole lead with 4.5/6 going into the final day tomorrow. Trailing Benjamin by half a point is the previous co-leader GM Igor Novikov, who drew all three games today; while GM Gregory Kaidanov, GM Patrick Wolff, and GM Dmitry Gurevich are still within range with an even score after six rounds.

The 2020 U.S. Senior Championship kicked off today with a field packed full of legends that includes five former U.S. Champions with a combined total of 13 national titles. Leading the field at the end of the first day is GM Igor Novikov and GM Joel Benjamin, who both finished the day on 2.5/3 points. GM Gregory Kaidanov and GM Patrick Wolff are a half-point behind with 2.0/3, while the rest of the players are surprisingly all tied with 1.0/3!

2020 U.S. Junior Champion, GM John Burke

The second day of the 2020 U.S. Junior Championship experienced chaos at the top of the standings as both of the event’s early leaders, GM Jeffery Xiong and GM Brandon Jacobson ended up losing in the final round of the day, allowing multiple players to catch up within striking distance. With only three rounds left to go, Xiong and GM John Burke are in the lead with 4.0/6 points, Jacobson and IM Christopher Yoo are on 3.5/6, while GM Sam Sevian, IM Praveen Balakrishnan, and IM Joshua Sheng are just a point behind with 3.0/6.

 Top seed and two-time U.S. Girls’ Junior Champion IM Carissa Yip managed to pull a hat-trick and win her 3rd straight U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship title in a row, thanks to a brilliant final day where she won all three of her games to finish with 7.5/9 points.

Top seed IM Carissa Yip scored a fantastic 2.5/3 points to overtake the lead during the second day of the 2020 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, starting with a big win over the previous tournament leader and #2 seed, IM Annie Wang. Carissa’s 4.5/6 for the tournament now gives her a half-point lead over Annie and the rest of the field going into  tomorrow’s final rounds. .