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 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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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:

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:

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:

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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 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.

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):

Final standings — tiebreak

All games

Tiebreak games

Links

• Official website
• Three leaders in American Continental Championship