US Champ R10: Leaders in Position

The 2015 U.S. Championship is an elite national championship event, featuring 12 of the strongest chess players in America. Over the course of eleven rounds, these competitors will battle for $175,000 in prize money, qualification into the World Championship cycle, and the coveted title of 2015 U.S. Champion.

U.S. Chess Championship - Round Ten

Appeal

Wesley So decided to not appeal the result of the game, but instead appeal that the rating should not count for FIDE rating. His argument that in case of "cell phone forfeits" no FIDE ratings are changed was faulty, and the appeal was declined. We will have more information on this later.

Daniel King shows the highlights of round 10

Troff, Kayden ½-½ Gareev, Timur
A very complex game. Some minor pieces came off the board very quickly, but the resulting close structure was still difficult to handle. Troff might have found himself in a slightly worse position with an accurate continuation from Gareev, but he did not find it and the game was eventually drawn.

Robson, Ray ½-½ Nakamura, Hikaru
The round that everyone was waiting for, the top seed and tournament leader against the young pursuer. However things were far from interesting, in a known Scotch/Four Knights position the game simply went directly into a drawn endgame.

Robson and Nakamura played an empty game

Onischuk, Alexander 1-0 Sevian, Samuel

Sevian's last two games were not the best

Onischuk won easily and is now clear third

Holt, Conrad 1-0 Shankland, Sam
What a fight! The anti-Moscow gambits. Shankland's unusual Bb4 idea was interesting, but risky. Holt got into deep time pressure, but kept putting up the pressure. Shankland decided to part with his queen, but he received lots of material in compensation. The two rooks and knight for the queen were uncoordinated and his king was in danger. He didn't find a very accurate way of defending and lost. A fantastic game.

Akobian, Varuzhan 1-0 Naroditsky, Daniel
Akobian used a new idea in a known Vienna type gambit, which was made particularly famous by Aronian's demolition of Anand a few years ago. Naroditsky's passive position was difficult to play, though defensible. He eventually run out of moves and started playing badly. Akobian's pressure eventually cracked Black's position and he took the full point.

Kamsky, Gata 0-1 So, Wesley
After the drama from yesterday, So recovered very, very nicely:

Wesley So winning after his forfeit game

Gata Kamsky hadn't lost a game with white in the U.S. Championship since 2012

Pairings for Final Round

Standings

Replay Round Ten Games

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U.S. Women's Championship - Round Ten

Virkud, Apurva ½-½ Wang, Annie
Virkud misplayed her Nimzo-Indian, again, and Wang had a beautiful initiative against White's center. Wang missed a few tactics to obtain a decisive advantage, and instead let her opponent go. After further trades Virkud might even have had winning chances, but it ended in a draw.

Melekhina, Alisa 0-1 Sharevich, Anna
After reaching a very unpleasant endgame, many strange things happened. The evaluation pendulum kept swinging between losing and winning as both sides kept blundering away a draw or a win, mainly due to a lack of understanding in this rook endgame. Eventually Melekhina was the one to blunder last, allowing Sharevich to win.

Good posture between Melekhina and Sharevich. Endgame technique not so much.

Abrahamyan, Tatev 1-0 Goletiani, Rusudan

Who is the owner of these sunglasses? Tip: they match the owner's hair

Good friends: Tatev Abrahamyan and Rusudan Goletiani

Yu, Jennifer 0-1 Krush, Irina
After making several position horrors Jennifer Yu got checkmated by Irina Krush.

A lot was exepcted of reining u-12 World Champion (for girls)
Jennifer Yu, but she has had a disappointing event

Half a point away from the title: Irina Krush

Nemcova, Katerina 0-1 Paikidze, Nazi
What an important result for the standings! And another great performance by Paikidze.

Katerina Nemcova suffered her first loss of the tournament

Foisor, Sabina 0-1 Ni, Viktorija
Foisor's position from the opening was good, but she was completely outplayed by Ni. Black was the superior player, sacrificing a pawn and obtaining a strong initiative. She converted another nice win in a tournament that has been superb for Ni.

Viktorija Ni has had a fantastic tournament after her slow start

Pairings for the Final Round

Standings

Replay Round Ten Games

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Commentary provided for the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis by Josh Friedel:

Joshua Friedel Josh was born in 1986 in New Hampshire, USA and is currently living in Wisconsin. He obtained his international master title in 2005 and his grandmaster in 2008. He has participated in six US Championships, including a tie for fourth in 2008. Major Open tournament victories include: the 2003 Eastern Open, 2005 Berkeley Masters, 2008 National Open, 2009 Edmonton International, 2009 North American Open, 2010 Saint Louis Open, 2010 American Open, 2013 Chicago Open. Josh will be annotating the games for the Saint Louis Chess Club.

Photos by Lennart Ootes

Links Official tournament site Open Games Women's Games The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.