The final round (Photo: Austin Fuller)
In the final round of the US Championship 2016 Fabiano Caruana took no chances. Before the round Caruana had half a point more than his closest rivals and was to play with the black pieces but still left no doubt that he was willing to win his last round game against Akshat Chandra. From the start he put pressure on his young opponent who finally cracked - which allowed Caruana to become US Champion 2016.
Fabiano Caruana, US Champion 2016
Congratulations to the new Champion (Photo: Lennart Ootes)
Caruana scored 8.5/11 and this strong performance helped him to become number two in the world again. Wesley So, who won silver, and Hikaru Nakamura, who won bronze, finished one point behind Caruana. The young Jeffery Xiong once again showed his talent and added some more points to his already impressively high rating.
Wesley So became second (Photo: Lennart Ootes)
| Br. | Tit | Name | Coun | ELO | Ergebnis | Titel | Name | Coun | ELO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IM | Akshat Chandra |
|
2501 | 0 - 1 | GM | Fabiano Caruana |
|
2794 |
| 2 | GM | Ray Robson |
|
2663 | ½ - ½ | GM | Hikaru Nakamura |
|
2790 |
| 3 | GM | Aleksandr Lenderman |
|
2623 | ½ - ½ | GM | Wesley So |
|
2773 |
| 4 | GM | Alexander Onischuk |
|
2664 | ½ - ½ | GM | Varuzhan Akobian |
|
2610 |
| 5 | GM | Jeffery Xiong |
|
2588 | ½ - ½ | GM | Alexander Shabalov |
|
2520 |
| 6 | GM | Gata Kamsky |
|
2667 | ½ - ½ | GM | Samuel L Shankland |
|
2648 |
In the women's tournament the situation before the last round was similar. After ten rounds Tatev Abrahamyan was leading by half a point and "only" needed to win in the last round to secure the title. However, she was less lucky than Caruana in the open event and lost her last game against Ashritha Eswaran. The 16-year old Eswaran completely outplayed her opponent.
A big disappointment for Tatev Abrahamyan (Photo: Lennart Ootes)
Played like Karpov: Ashritha Eswaran (Photo: Lennart Ootes)
This gave Nazi Paikidze a chance to win the title - if she managed to win with Black against Irina Krush. Paikidze managed to spice up a rather quiet opening and this courage was rewarded:
The new US Women Champion:
Nazi Paikidze
Results of the 11. and last round
| Br. | Tit | Name | Coun | ELO | Ergebnis | Titel | Name | Coun | ELO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WIM | Ashritha Eswaran |
|
2149 | 1 - 0 | WGM | Tatev Abrahamyan |
|
2324 |
| 2 | GM | Irina Krush |
|
2458 | 0 - 1 | IM | Nazi Paikidze |
|
2346 |
| 3 | IM | Anna Zatonskih |
|
2469 | 1 - 0 | Carissa Yip |
|
2109 | |
| 4 | WGM | Sabina Francesca Foisor |
|
2258 | 1 - 0 | WIM | Agata Bykovtsev |
|
2176 |
| 5 | FM | Alisa Melekhina |
|
2205 | 0 - 1 | WGM | Katerina Nemcova |
|
2367 |
| 6 | FM | Akshita Gorti |
|
2242 | ½ - ½ | WFM | Jennifer R Yu |
|
2102 |
Jennifer Shahade and Yasser Seirawan provided the entertaining live commentary
together with Maurice Ashley and Alejandro Ramirez (Photo: Lennart Ootes)
On Thursday and Friday Garry Kasparov will play a blitz tournament with Caruana, Nakamura and So, the top three finishers of the US Championship 2016. (Photo: Lennart Ootes)
Photos: Tournament page (Lennart Ootes, Austin Fuller, Spectrum Studios)
