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After the fourth round of the US Championship in St. Louis Fabiano Caruana led the field by half a point but in round five he had to concede a draw against Alexander Shabalov, which allowed Wesley So to catch up to Caruana.
So played a textbook attacking game against Varuzhan Akobian and quickly smashed Black's position in a Rubinstein French.
Hikaru Nakamura ppeared to be well recovered from his loss against Fabiano Caruana and played a fine game against Sam Shankland. The game started as a Caro-Kann but then entered French structures, in which Nakamura showed powerful chess and demolished Black's position with the typical f4-f5 break.
The 15-year old Jefferey Xiong, the youngest player in the field, started with four draws but in round five scored his first win - and against elo-heavyweight Gata Kamsky to boot. The young talent profited from a blackout of his opponent. Kamsky, who was playing with Black, opted for Alekhine's Defense and sacrificed a piece early on. This investment gave him lots of compensation and a long-term attack. However, Xiong defended stubbornly and in the end Kamsky fell victim to a blunder.
Kamsky played courageously but was not rewarded (Photo: Austin Fuller)
Results of round five
Alexander Onischuk won against Akshat Chandra (Photo: Spectrum Studios)
Alexander Shabalov drew against Caruana (Photo: Lennart Ootes)
Games of rounds 1 to 5
Standings after five rounds
Women's Tournament
The Women's tournament (Photo: Austin Fuller)
Tatev Abrahamyan has a lot of fans (Photo: Lennart Ootes)
Irina Krush and... (Photo: Spectrum Studios)
... Anna Zatonskih drew (Photo: Lennart Ootes)
In the women's tournament Irina Krush played against Anna Zatonskih - and these two players have been dominating the US Women's Championship for the last ten years. But after they drew a long game Nazi Paikidze took the sole lead. She won against Jennifer Yu and is the only player with 4.0/5.
Results of round five
Games of rounds 1 to 5
Standings after five rounds
Maurice Ashley with students and fans (Photo: Austin Fuller)
Jennifer Shahade and Yasser Seirawan in the chess studio (Photo: Austin Fuller)
Photos: Tournament page..
