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By IM Kostya Kavutskiy
Press release of the Saint Louis Chess Center
CHAMPIONS BRACKET
ARONIAN - CARUANA | ½-½
A quiet Italian Game quickly turned incredibly sharp as Caruana opted to sacrifice a pawn in exchange for long-term pressure against White’s kingside. After a complex struggle Aronian managed to trade the queens off and go into an endgame, where he then sacrificed an exchange in order to win a second pawn. Although the position was tenable for Black, Caruana soon erred and found himself in a nearly lost position. But a last ditch effort by Caruana to create counterplay worked, as in time trouble Aronian missed his chance to achieve a winning ending and instead had to settle for a draw by repetition.
After Caruana’s 45…Bh4, White’s only win was 46.Ne2 Kxd8 47.Rd3+! followed by 48.Rd4. Instead Aronian played 46.N8e6, after which 46…Rg1+ 47.Ke2 Re1+ 48.Kd3 g6! saved the game for Black. | ½-½, 52 moves
Aronian will have to defeat Caruana in two consecutive matches to earn the title.
KRUSH - LEE | 1-0
In a repeat of the first game of their previous classical match, Krush was able to achieve a serious positional advantage right from the opening, this time a Reverse Benoni where Black lost several tempi compared to the usual line. From there it was smooth sailing for Krush, who simply improved her position until Black’s structure could no longer hold, and Lee’s kingside simply collapsed.
After 26.Qb6, White’s pieces were simply dominant across the whole board. | 1-0, 39 moves
Today’s win put Krush another step closer towards the $25,000 1st place prize. | Photo Courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes
Day 9 of the 2022 American Cup will take place Thursday, April 28 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.
