U.S. Champ R1: Comedy of Errors

The 2015 U.S. Championship is an elite national championship event, featuring 12 of the strongest chess players in America. Over the course of eleven rounds, these competitors will battle for $175,000 in prize money, qualification into the World Championship cycle, and the coveted title of 2015 U.S. Champion.

U.S. Chess Championship - Round One

Holt, Conrad 0-1 Nakamura, Hikaru
Things opened up with a very strange game. Nakamura was much worse at some point, but as he pointed out once... when you need to play for a win you play the King's Indian, and sometimes your position is just bad, but you try to win anyway.

Conrad Holt saw himself in a complicated position and he blundered badly near the end

So, Wesley 1-0 Naroditsky, Daniel
Wesley So's opening was fantastic, obtaining a strong pair of bishops and a powerful center. Black's knight on h5 was bad, but So made a couple of mistakes and allowed Naroditsky back into the game... until he blundered!

Cool and collected: Wesley So took advantage of a blunder by Naroditsky

Naroditsky found himself in a bad position from the beginning, but it was a blunder that sealed the deal

Kamsky, Gata ½-½ Shankland, Sam
Not the most exciting game. Kamsky decided to avoid theory by playing an early cxd5 against the Semi-Slav. If anything he got a slightly worse position from the opening. The game was drawn on move 30 in a maybe slightly better position for Black.

Onischuk, Alexander ½-½ Gareev, Timur
In a clearly better position with symmetrical pawn structures Onischuk made a crucial mistake, blundering a pawn. He had to fight hard to save the half point, but managed at the end. His transition into a 4v3 rook endgame was good enough to keep the draw.

Onischuk usually enjoys grinding down these type of
positions, but he blundered a pawn and had to defend

Robson, Ray 1-0 Troff, Kayden
Sometimes one mistake, one opening mix up, is enough to lose the game.

Akobian, Varuzhan 1-0 Sevian, Samuel
Akobian obtained a slight edge from this early Bd2 Grunfeld. Sevian fought hard, but made an important mistake in the endgame during time pressure and Akobian showed excellent technique.

Akobian was as meticulous is his hand writing as he was with his in-game technique

Pairings for Round Two

Replay Round One Games

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U.S. Women's Championship - Round Two

Foisor, Sabina ½-½ Krush, Irina
The defending champion can certainly consider herself lucky for drawing her first game.

She'll take it! A lucky draw for the defending champ.

Ni, Viktorija ½-½ Paikidze, Nazi
Ni outplayed Paikidze, obtaining a slight advantage based on her control of c5 and blockade against the weak c6 pawn. Black managed to win a pawn, but the positional pressure was still strong. The players repeated in a position that was slightly favorable for White, but with both sides under time pressure.

Abrahamyan, Tatev 0-1 Wang, Annie
A complicated position that was decided by a blunder in time trouble. An important win for the 12-year-old!

Happy camper: Annie Wang wins her first game at the U.S. Championship

Nemcova, Katerina ½-½ Goletiani, Rusudan
A strange game to comment on. Nemcova was winning from the opening with a huge positional advantage. She continued playing well, won a pawn and had a crushing attack. Incredibly Nemcova let the advantage slip move by move until it completely evaporated into a drawn endgame.

Yu, Jennifer 0-1 Sharevich, Anna
The debut of both players in a U.S. Championship, and what a topsy-turvy game. Sharevich sacrificed two pawns from the opening for very questionable compensation... only to follow it up by sacrificing a piece! Yu thought for 30 minutes before declining the sacrifice (though taking the piece would probably have won without difficulties...). The extra two pawns still gave Yu a huge advantage. Somehow she did not take care of her king and in time pressure blundered several times to lose the game.

Jennifer Yu was winning, then losing, then winning, but finally lost

Melekhina, Alisa 0-1 Virkud, Apurva
One of the cleanest games of the round. Virkud showed good preparation against Melekhina's Closed Sicilian. A strong series of pawn pushes on the center gave Black a big initiative. Even though she could have wrapped up the game quicker,

Pairings for Round Two

Replay Round One Games

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Commentary provided for the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis by Josh Friedel:

Joshua Friedel Josh was born in 1986 in New Hampshire, USA and is currently living in Wisconsin. He obtained his international master title in 2005 and his grandmaster in 2008. He has participated in six US Championships, including a tie for fourth in 2008. Major Open tournament victories include: the 2003 Eastern Open, 2005 Berkeley Masters, 2008 National Open, 2009 Edmonton International, 2009 North American Open, 2010 Saint Louis Open, 2010 American Open, 2013 Chicago Open. Josh will be annotating the games for the Saint Louis Chess Club.

Photos by Lennart Ootes

Links Official tournament site The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.