Shankland's amazing run continues in American Continental

by Antonio Pereira
6/11/2018 – Just like Caruana in Norway, Sam Shankland won his last two games to take sole first place in the American Continental Championship. This was his third tournament victory in a row, an incredible achievement that propelled him to the 27th place in the live ratings list. Diego Flores finished clear second and secured a World Cup ticket. | Pictured: Sam Shankland, Diego Flores and Pablo Salinas | Photos: Uruguayan Chess Federation

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Undisputed champion

In January, Sam Shankland's rating was 2668, a similar number to the ones shown in his FIDE rating card since 2015. Five months later, he has already climbed to 2727.2 and is now the 27th best-rated player in the world (those who believe in superstitions might say this is "a sign"). His rise was accompanied by three consecutive wins in very strong tournaments.

In April, Sam finished ahead of the Caruana-Nakamura-So trio to be proclaimed 2018 U.S. champion. A few weeks later, he finished first at the Capablanca Memorial, leaving Alexey Dreev a distant one-and-a-half points behind. Only twelve days later, he flew to Montevideo to play the gruelling American Continental. Thanks to his latest results, he arrived as the clear favourite — second seed Jorge Cori entered the event with a 2659 Elo rating, a number that resembles Shankland's January mark.

Shankland and Flores

Shankland and Flores were in a league of their own | Photo: Uruguayan Chess Federation

When we last reported from Uruguay, Shankland was sharing the lead with Neuris Delgado and Diego Flores after eight rounds. On Friday, the American was paired against Argentina's best-rated player, the always dangerous Sandro Mareco. The game was drawn in 26 moves. Meanwhile, Flores defeated Delgado after outplaying him positionally:

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,166,62354%2421---
1.d4947,29855%2434---
1.Nf3281,60256%2441---
1.c4182,10256%2442---
1.g319,70256%2427---
1.b314,26554%2427---
1.f45,89748%2377---
1.Nc33,80151%2384---
1.b41,75648%2380---
1.a31,20654%2404---
1.e31,06848%2408---
1.d395450%2378---
1.g466446%2360---
1.h444653%2374---
1.c343351%2426---
1.h328056%2418---
1.a411060%2466---
1.f39246%2436---
1.Nh38966%2508---
1.Na34262%2482---
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 dxc4 5.0-0 Nbd7 6.Qc2 a6 A13: English Opening: 1... e6 6...Nb6 7.a4 a5 8.Na3 Bxa3 9.Rxa3 0-0 10.e4 e5 11.Nxe5 Qd4 12.Qc3 Qxc3 13.Rxc3 Be6 14.d4 Nxa4 1-0 (40) Wei,Y (2738)-Ponomariov,R (2699) Danzhou 2017 7.a4 a5 LiveBook: 3 Games 8.Na3 Nb6N The position is equal. Predecessor: 8...Bxa3 9.Rxa3 Nb6 10.d3 cxd3 11.Rxd3 Qe7 12.Be3 Nfd5 13.Bc5 Nb4 14.Qc3 1-0 (48) Mayer,F (2331)-Vatter,H (2322) Saarbruecken 2009 9.Nxc4 Nbd5 10.d3 Be7 11.Bd2 c6 12.Qb3 0-0 13.Nfe5 Nb4 14.Rfd1 Nd7 15.d4 Nxe5 16.dxe5 Qc7 17.Nd6 c5 17...Ra6 18.Rac1± Bd7 19.Nxb7 Rab8
...Nd5 is the strong threat. 20.Bxb4! axb4 21.Nd6 Qa7 22.Qe3 Bxd6 23.exd6 Bxa4 24.b3 Bb5 25.Rxc5 But not 25.Qxc5 Qxc5 26.Rxc5 Bxe2± 25...Bxe2 26.Rdc1 Bb5 27.Qe5 Qb6 28.Bc6 Ba6 28...Bxc6 29.Rxc6 Qb7 29.Ba4+- Rbd8 30.Rc6 Qb7
31.d7! Bd3 31...Qxd7 32.Rxa6 32.Rc7 Qf3 intending ...Be4. 33.Qf4 White has strong initiative. Qxf4 34.gxf4 f6 35.f3 e5? 35...Kf7± was necessary. 36.fxe5 And now e6 would win. fxe5 37.Re1 Rxf3 37...g5 38.Rxe5 Bg6 38.Rc8 Rff8 39.Rxd8 Precision: White = 84%, Black = 39%.
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Flores,D2614Delgado Ramirez,N26131–02018American Continental-ch 20189

In the penultimate round, one of America's strongest young talents, Jeffery Xiong, had White against Shankland. They had drawn rather quickly in this year's U.S. Championship, but Saturday's game followed a very different script. In a sharp Sicilian, Sam went for a typical exchange sacrifice, 16...Rxc3:

 
Xiong - Shankland

Black to move

The decision was approved by the computer, but there was still a long road ahead. Shankland, however, proved his technical prowess once again and, despite being an exchange down, used his bishop pair to get an overwhelming advantage. Xiong did not resign quickly, but had to accept defeat on move 41, staring at Black's five connected passed pawns on the move:

 

Xiong resigned

Flores drew Robert Hungaski in Round 8, so Sam caught him in the lead before Sunday's last round. Both players were paired against IMs about 200 points lower-rated than them. Only Shankland triumphed, however. His final victim was the winner of Wednesday's blitz event, Tomas Sosa. The young Argentine already had a worse position, but his 18...e5 left his king too vulnerable:

 
Shankland - Sosa

White to move

After 19.dxe5 Bxe5 20.Bd3 g6, Shankland finished the game in style:

 

The attack on the kingside is too strong

The sacrifice is screaming to be played: 21.Bxg6! hxg6 22.Rxg6+ Bg7 28.Rh4 and White's rooks dominate the open g and h-files. Sosa tried to find a perpetual, but to no avail. Resignation came on move 33.

Shankland's last round win annotated by GM Daniel King

When Sosa resigned, it was not clear that Shankland would finish clear first, however, as Flores had a positional advantage against Peru's Brian Escalante. The advantage disappeared on move 29:

 
Flores - Escalante

White to move

Here, Flores played 29.Kf2 instead of the correct 29.d4. It's better to fix the black pawn on a light-square in order to attack it later with the bishop. Escalante did not take long to equalise and the players agreed to a draw after 35 moves.

Flores and Delgado

Flores got a crucial win over Delgado | Photo: Uruguayan Chess Federation

In the U.S. Championship, Fabiano Caruana had a great performance, but Shankland's was almost too good to be true. Flores found himself in a similar situation in Montevideo, as his seven wins in eleven rounds were not enough to finish ahead of Sam. Nonetheless, the player from Junin had a great tournament.

The World Cup spots

Shankland and Flores grabbed two of the four World Cup spots offered in the tournament. They will both travel to Batumi next year. Sooner than that, however, they will play in this year's Olympiad, where the U.S. team will add even more power to its very strong line-up. With three top-ten regulars and an inspired Shankland on fourth board, is it too much to call them clear favourites ahead of Russia? 

The American Continental Championship awards four tickets to the World Cup and does not use mathematical tiebreaks to allocate them. Thus, the seven players that tied on 8/11 played a single round-robin with a 15+10 time control to decide who would get the cherished spots. The contenders were Jorge Cori, Emilio Cordova, Kevin Cori and Brian Escalante from Peru; Sandro Mareco from Argentina; Pablo Salinas from Chile; and Robert Hungaski from the United States.

The drawing of lots before the playoff | Photo: Uruguayan Chess Federation

Peruvian GM Jorge Cori finished with four wins undefeated to take the top spot, followed by GM Emilio Cordova, also from Peru, with 4.0 / 7. The pair earns a ticket to the first round of the next FIDE World Cup knockout event slated for 2019.

Cordova can thank his teammate for sealing his place by beating Sandro Mareco in the last round of the tiebreak in a wild game. At one moment, Mareco had a fearsome attack and was just a few moves away from winning.

 
Cori vs Mareco
Position after 37.Qd1

The Argentinian didn't manage to find 37...Qb4, holding both the rook on g4 and the pawn on b3 and threatening the devastating ...Rxg2+.

Instead, Mareco played 37...Rg5 allowing Cori to collect the b3-pawn and stabilise his position. He managed to defend against the black attack, beat back an exchange sac and forced resignation on move 59. (You can find all tiebreak games below.)

Final standings (top 20):

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Final standings — tiebreak

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Cori Jorge 5,0 0
2 Cordova Emilio 4,0 0
3 Mareco Sandro 3,5 0
4 Cori Quispe Kevin Joel 3,0 0
5 Escalante Ramirez Brian Sebasti 2,5 0
6 Hungaski Robert 1,5 0
  Salinas Herrera Pablo 1,5 0

All games

 
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Tiebreak games

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Nbd2 0-0 5.a3 Be7 6.e4 d6 7.Be2 Nfd7 8.Nb1 e5 9.Nc3 exd4 10.Nxd4 Nc6 11.Be3 Bf6 12.0-0 Nc5 13.Rb1 Re8 14.f3 Be5 15.Rf2 Nxd4 16.Bxd4 Ne6 17.Be3 Bxc3 18.bxc3 b6 19.Bf1 Bb7 20.Rd2 Qf6 21.Qc2 Bc6 22.Re1 h5 23.Qc1 a5 24.Bd4 Qg6 25.Bd3 Nc5 26.Bxc5 bxc5 27.e5 Qg5 28.exd6 cxd6 29.Rde2 Qxc1 30.Rxc1 Rab8 31.Rxe8+ Bxe8 32.Rb1 Rxb1+ 33.Bxb1 ½–½
  • Start an analysis engine:
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Mareco,S2643Cori Quispe,K2468½–½2018American Continental Championship12
Salinas Herrera,P2463Cori,J26590–12018American Continental Championship12
Escalante Ramirez,B2422Cordova,E26210–12018American Continental Championship12
Cori,J2659Escalante Ramirez,B24221–02018American Continental Championship13
Cori Quispe,K2468Salinas Herrera,P24631–02018American Continental Championship13
Hungaski,R2510Mareco,S26430–12018American Continental Championship13
Salinas Herrera,P2463Hungaski,R25100–12018American Continental Championship14
Escalante Ramirez,B2422Cori Quispe,K24681–02018American Continental Championship14
Cordova,E2621Cori,J2659½–½2018American Continental Championship14
Cori Quispe,K2468Cordova,E2621½–½2018American Continental Championship15
Hungaski,R2510Escalante Ramirez,B24220–12018American Continental Championship15
Mareco,S2643Salinas Herrera,P24630–12018American Continental Championship15
Escalante Ramirez,B2422Mareco,S26430–12018American Continental Championship16
Cordova,E2621Hungaski,R25101–02018American Continental Championship16
Cori,J2659Cori Quispe,K2468½–½2018American Continental Championship16
Hungaski,R2510Cori,J26590–12018American Continental Championship17
Mareco,S2643Cordova,E26211–02018American Continental Championship17
Salinas Herrera,P2463Escalante Ramirez,B2422½–½2018American Continental Championship17
Cordova,E2621Salinas Herrera,P24631–02018American Continental Championship18
Cori,J2659Mareco,S26431–02018American Continental Championship18
Cori Quispe,K2468Hungaski,R2510½–½2018American Continental Championship18

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Antonio is a freelance writer and a philologist. He is mainly interested in the links between chess and culture, primarily literature. In chess games, he skews towards endgames and positional play.

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