US Championship Rd9: The bigger they are...

By Alex Yermolinsky

All photos by Lennart Ootes

A day we never thought we would ever see. Two of the Big Three bought it today, while Wesley So was able to make a critical step forward.

Jeffery Xiong vs Wesley So

This marks it as the third loss (all with White) for the young Jeffery in this Championship. Clearly, something isn't clicking there.

Wesley So looking extremely confident

Dan Naroditsky continues to play swashbuckling chess, and today he had an opponent who was happy to oblige. Of all responses to 1.e4 Shabalov chose a line of the Richter-Rauzer Attack with double pawns on the f-file and king stuck in the center. The sharp reader would remember it from the last round battle of the Candidates between Karjakin and Caruana. Ask Fabiano how it worked for him.

With his position in ruin and time running out on him, Shabba looked like going in the same direction, but Dan just lacks sharpness in the second half of the tournament, likely due to lack of practice. After the time control it was Black who stood better, but it all ended peacefully.

Nakamura, who is known for his expressiveness when things don't work out, meets his match

Same score in the following game, which featured its share of fireworks.

Ray Robson vs Yaroslav Zherebukh

A fascinating tussle between Ray Robson and the surprising Yaroslav Zherebukh

Kamsky and Shankland have not had the tournament they hoped for. I guess they both ready to catch the first bus out of town once it's over, therefore the Berlin today and a solid draw.

Alexander Onischuk is a solid citizen, who was content with his positive score in the tournament and talked about “surviving” Nakamura with Black. He got that today, and more.

Hikaru Nakamura vs Alexander Onischuk

Hikaru Nakamura was so upset, he could not look his opponent in the eye

By the time you're reading this report you must have seen Caruana's blunder against Akobian plastered all over the internet. If not, then here it is, Fabiano had dominated the game and reached this position by move 47.

Akobian - Caruana

After move 47, it is pretty clear. Black is up two passed connecting pawns, plain and simple.

Somehow, that crushing position, degenerated little by little until this was how things stood after 76 moves.

Akobian - Caruana

After 76 moves, or 29 moves later, the position is now equal. Possibly rattled, and no doubt also due to the time issue as he stood with about one minute on the clock, Caruana played 76...f6?? and after 77. Qa7+ Kh6 78. Ng4+ it was all over. (Note: you can move the pieces on the diagram)

I can only add a couple of thoughts:

First, it was not a good idea for Fabiano to struggle with the clock throughout the entire tournament. Bad things happen to people who are habitually low on time. Fabi needs to take care of that before the problem grows to Grischuk's proportions.

He might be lost, and he knows it, but Akobian's body language conveys anything but defeat

Second, a great resilient effort from Varuzhan, who found the strength to continue fighting after first time control mistakes left him down two pawns. He's at plus three now, in a share of first place with the World's #2 and hottest player on the circuit, Wesley So, with just two more games to go.

Men's standings after nine rounds

(Click for full size)

Irina Krush has reasons to be upset tonight. While the leaders, Paikidze and Foisor, drew each other, she played an inspiring queen sac against Carissa Yip to reach a seemingly ending. Two connected passed pawns would be just the ticket had it been rooks instead of knights. As it happened the black pieces were distracted by white's a-pawn decoy, and White was able to vacuum off all the black pawns. Disappointing outcome for Irina, but being only half-point behind she still has time to catch up with the leaders.

Irina Krush is tied for 3rd-4th with Anna Zatonskih with 5.5/9, just a half point behind the leaders, with two rounds to go

Carissa Yip vs Irina Krush

Same goes for another favorite Anna Zatonskih, who inflicted a painful loss on the tournament sensation, Maggie Feng.

Women's standings after nine rounds

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US Championship pairings/results

US Women's Championship pairings/results

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN All Women's games in PGN 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 14 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.