American Cup, Day 1, Recap: Plenty of action

by ChessBase
4/21/2022 – The inaugural American Cup kicked off today with plenty of decisive action as several players drew first blood in their individual matches within the Champions Bracket. Samuel Sevian (pictured) caused the biggest upset: he won with Black against Wesley So. | Photos: Austin and Crystal Fuller, Saint Louis Chess Club

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By IM Kostya Kavutskiy
Press release of the Saint Louis Chess Center

 

Champions Bracket - Open Field


Champions Bracket - Women’s Field

In this exciting new format, the winner of each match will advance to the next stage while the loser will be relegated to the Elimination Bracket, where they will be given a second chance to keep their tournament hopes alive.

Both GM Levon Aronian and GM Sam Sevian managed to win their first game in the Open Field, while the Women’s Field saw GM Irina Krush, WGM Begim Tokhirjonova, and IM Anna Zatonskih each scoring a decisive victory. With each match consisting of two games, So, Robson, Yan, Nemcova, and Abrahamyan will all be in a must-win situation tomorrow in order to force a rapid playoff.

Check out the full replay of live coverage from the day here. The time control for the event is 90 minutes plus 30 seconds increment for all games in the Champions Bracket, with a rapid time control of 25+10 for the Elimination Bracket and a 10+5 time control for all playoff matches.

OPEN FIELD

The first game of the day to finish took place between GM Leinier Dominguez and GM Sam Shankland, as the players entered a highly theoretical variation of the Italian Game. Showing good preparation, Shankland sacrificed a piece for three pawns and was able to successfully neutralize Dominguez’s pressure, who then forced a draw by repetition.

Scoring a huge win with Black was GM Sam Sevian, who managed to overtake the initiative against GM Wesley So in a sharp position with opposite side castling.

 

28…Qd5! allowed Sevian to launch a devastating counter-attack against White’s king. | 0-1, 36 moves

Also winning was GM Levon Aronian, who gave up his strong fianchettoed bishop in order to snag a pawn against GM Ray Robson. Although Black had serious compensation, Robson was unable to generate enough play for the pawn and Aronian was eventually able to convert the full point.

 

After 43.Kh5, White’s winning plan was to break through with f4-f5-f6. | 1-0, 52 moves

Current World No. 4 Levon Aronian took an early 1-0 lead against GM Ray Robson. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Austin Fuller

The last game to finish was a wild affair between GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Jeffery Xiong, as a quiet Petroff quickly turned into an unbalanced queen vs. two rooks middlegame, with both players missing chances as they approached mutual time trouble. With Black’s king too open for the rooks to create serious counterplay, the game was logically drawn by repetition, keeping the match level going into tomorrow’s round.

Group A - Games

 
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1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 d4 4.Nf3 c5 5.0-0 Nc6 6.e3 Nf6 7.exd4 cxd4 8.d3 Bd6 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11.Nbd2 Qe7 12.Re1 0-0 13.Nb3 Qf6 14.Nfd2 Bc7 15.a3 a5 16.Nc5 Qe7 17.Na4 Bd7 18.Nb3 b6 19.Bxc6 Bxc6 20.Nxd4 Bb7 21.Nb5 Qd7 22.Qe2 Rad8 23.d4 Qc6 24.f3 Rd7 25.Kg2 Bd8 26.Nac3 Bf6 27.Rad1 Qc8 28.d5 Bxc3 29.Nxc3 exd5 30.Nxd5 Bxd5 31.Rxd5 Rfd8 32.Qe4 b5 33.Rxd7 Qxd7 34.c5 b4 35.axb4 axb4 36.Qxb4 Qd2+ 37.Qxd2 Rxd2+ 38.Kh3 Rxb2 39.Rc1 Kf8 40.c6 Rb8 41.Kg4 Ke7 42.c7 Rc8 43.Kh5 Kf6 44.Rc6+ Ke5 45.f4+ Kd5 46.Rc1 Kd6 47.f5 Ke5 48.g4 Kf6 49.Rc6+ Ke7 50.f6+ Kd7 51.Rc2 gxf6 52.Kxh6 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Aronian,L2785Robson,R26811–02022A13American Cup Champ1.1
Dominguez Perez,L2756Shankland,S2709½–½2022C53American Cup Champ1.1
So,W2778Sevian,S26930–12022E48American Cup Champ1.1
Caruana,F2781Xiong,J2685½–½2022C42American Cup Champ1.1

WOMEN’S FIELD

In the Women’s Field, top seed GM Irina Krush earned a smooth win against FM Ruiyang Yan, nursing an extra pawn out of the opening to eventually take over the full board. No. 2 seed IM Anna Zatonskih also won her game, building up a large strategic advantage against WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, who later blundered in time trouble while in a difficult position.

 

25.d6! left White with a long-term positional advantage, thanks to the weakness of Black’s king. | 1-0, 37 moves

Eight-time U.S. Women’s Champion GM Irina Krush started off with a clean win against FM Ruiyang Yan. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller

Winning with Black was WGM Begim Tokhirjonova, who outplayed WGM Katerina Nemcova out of the opening in order to pick up a clean extra pawn. Although Nemcova had chances to hold in an endgame with opposite colored bishops, a further blunder allowed Tokhirjonova to secure the victory.

WGM Begim Tokhirjonova, who plays for the University of Missouri chess team. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller

The final game to finish was a rollercoaster draw between IM Stavroula Tsolakidou and WIM Alice Lee. Although Lee held a big advantage out of the opening with an overwhelming majority on the queenside, a timely knight sacrifice allowed Tsolakidou to turn things around with a powerful kingside attack. Amazingly, Lee managed to survive and eventually escape into an endgame with a knight against four pawns, where Tsolakidou was unable to generate any real winning chances.

 

26.Nef6+! allowed White to launch a dangerous kingside attack. | ½-½, 70 moves

Group B - Games

 
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1.d4 3 Nf6 5 2.c4 7 e6 4 3.Nc3 21 Bb4 25 4.e3 19 0-0 52 5.Bd2 10 c5 6:01 6.a3 14:51 E46: Nimzo-Indian: Rubinstein: 4 e3 0-0 5 Ne2 without early Bd3. Bxc3 1:48 7.Bxc3 7 Ne4 8:23 8.Rc1 2:53 The position is equal. d6 5:16 9.Nf3 2:46 Nd7 4:48
10.Bd3N 14:35 Predecessor: 10.Be2 Ndf6 11.0-0 Nxc3 12.Rxc3 b6 13.b4 Bb7 14.Nd2 Rc8 15.Bf3 ½-½ (15) Aleksandrov,A (2574)-Macovei,A (2435) Moscow 2019 10...Ndf6 10:41 11.0-0 38 Nxc3 16:14 12.Rxc3 33 Qe7 7:28 13.Ng5 11:46 e5 6:28 14.dxc5 3:09 dxc5 7 15.Qb1 9:15 g6 3:22 16.Ne4 4:30 Nd7 2:13 17.Rc2 49 f5 2:49 18.Nc3 21 Nf6 3:59 19.Nd5 5:38 Nxd5 4:40 20.cxd5 8 Bd7 2 21.b4 9:58 cxb4 2:28 22.axb4 25 e4 3:52 23.Bc4 2:38
aiming for d6+. 23...Kg7 3:36 24.Rd1 3:46 Rfc8 2:08 25.d6 58 Qf6 22 26.Qa2 3:35 Rc6 57 26...a6 27.Rcd2± 13 &Bianco is more active. Rb6 2:04
Against Bb5 28.Qa5 5:51 Rc8 46 29.Bf1 16 Rcc6? 1:49 29...Kh6± was necessary. 30.b5 30.Qxa7 Rxb4 31.Qa2 Rb6 30...Ra8 30.b5+- 1:51 Less strong is 30.Qxa7 Rxb4 31.Qa5 Rb3 Don't play 30.Bb5 Rxb5 31.Qxb5 Rxd6+- 30...Rxd6 25 31.Qxa7 37 Rxd2 46 32.Rxd2 1 Be8 28 33.Rd4 1:46 Kh6 31 33...Bxb5? 34.Rb4+- 34.Qa5 1:16 34.h4± 34...Kg7? 31 34...Rd6 35.h4 41 White should try 35.Bc4+- 35...Re6 15 36.g3 33 Rd6? 55 36...Re7± 37.Qc7+ 21 Weighted Error Value: White=0.19 (very precise) /Black=0.25 (precise)
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Zatonskih,A2405Abrahamyan,T23111–02022American Cup Women Champions 20221.4
Tsolakidou,S2359Lee,A2237½–½2022American Cup Women Champions 20221.3
Nemcova,K2335Tokhirjonova,G23350–12022American Cup Women Champions 20221.2
Krush,I2421Yan,R23151–02022American Cup Women Champions 20221.1

Day 2 of the 2022 American Cup will take place Thursday, April 21 starting at 12:50 PM CT. Catch all the action live with grandmaster commentators Yasser Seirawan, Cristian Chirila, and Alejandro Ramirez on uschesschamps.com and on the Saint Louis Chess Club’s YouTube and Twitch.tv channels.

Live commentary by the Saint Louis Chess Club

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