3/21/2019 – There was one winner in the Open opener: 18-year-old GM Jeffrey Xiong (pictured), who turned the tables on the bold play of the ever-eccentric Timur Gareyev. All other games were drawn. In the Woman's group, however, not a single game ended in a split-point! Krush, Zatonskih, Wang, Yu, Feng and Yip, therefore all reached 1.0/1. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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With the moves d4-Nf3-e3-Bd3 White aims for simple piece development and to slowly build up a devastating attack on the kingside!
€39.90
Six decisive games between the Women!
So let's start there! Conventional wisdoms says that all-women events tend to have a lower drawing percentage, and the first round of the U.S. Women's Championship could be offered as 'Exhibit A'. The results were more or less according to rating, except for Maggie Feng's upset (with Black!) of Tatev Abrahamyan who out-rates Feng by 178 Elo points.
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After having an edge in the middlegame with a "good knight vs bad bishop", Abrahamyan, who has been in the running for the U.S. Championship before but has never won, first allowed Feng to equalise and then drifted in a position where accurate play was required.
Abrahamyan had been treading water, to use an analogy, but the exchange of pawns on the kingside only served to increase the potential scope of Feng's previously walled-in bishop. Now Tatev seemingly 'got tired and drowned'. 38.♘f8+? ♚h6 39.♘g6 ♜f7! 40.♘f4 ♜f5 winning the h-pawn and the game.
Abrahamyan, the perennial number three seed | Photo: Justin Kellar / Saint Louis Chess Club
Video: Feng discusses the game with Maurice Ashley
Xiong outmanoeuvres Gareyev
It's quite rare nowadays to find a position, between strong players in a prestigious tournament like the US Championship, that has been played less than 200 times after just three moves! But that was the situation in Timur Gareyev vs Jeffrey Xiong in round one on Wednesday after Xiong's 3...♝g4:
This position was reached recently in Duda-Laznicka from the Prague Masters, where Duda played 4.♕b3 as in the majority of games thus far. Gareyev opted for the rarer 4.♘e5 and after 4...♝f5 5.e3 ♞f6 the players were already 'out of book'. But that's where things got hairy. Gareyev, after thinking for 20 minutes, tossed the grenade 6.g4?!
The aim of these Dvd's is to build a repertoire after 1.c4 and 2.g3 for White. The first DVD includes the systems 1...e5, the Dutch and Indian setups. The second DVD includes the systems with 1...c5, 1...c6 and 1...e6.
Apparently the best continuation is to first take 6...dxe3 7.fxe3, then 7...♝e4 8.♖g1 e6 9.♗b2 and Black is fine or slightly better, but it's complicated. Xiong played 6...♝e4 straight away and after 7.f3 ♝g6 Gareyev thought for a further 39 minutes on 8.♗b2, a time investment that woudl come back to bite him later. The position remained equal until move 20.
The players traded rooks in a rather unusual manner 18...♛xh1 19.♕xh4 a5 and now Gareyev went awry: 20.♕f2 (20.♕g4 or O-O-O keeps the balance) axb4 21.axb4 ♜xa1+22.♗xa1 ♛e4 and Xiong's strong queen couple with Gareyev's overextended queenside pawns quickly gave Black a winning advantage.
Dynamic play is what makes your chess effective and most importantly fun! Timur Gareyev shows severeal examples which aspects are important to remember when seizing for the initiative!
The first DVD deals with the initial phase of the game, when the all the reigning principles can be crystalized into just one: DEVELOPMENT!
Xiong: "I was also very confused most of the way"
Most of the other games were close throughout, save for the last game to finish — between Awonder Liang and Aleksandr Lenderman — which ended drawn only after 120 moves and many missed opportunities for both sides. For example:
Double rook endings occur frequently and are different from single rook endings in several respects.
Lenderman played 42...♜1c5 here, but 42...♜f1+ 43.♔e2 ♜b1 would win the b-pawn for nothing. Liang eventually traded the b-pawn for Black's a-pawn and his remaining passed pawn gave him counterplay that eventually lead to a draw.
Awonder what he's thinking? | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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Games and commentary
Commentary by GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Maurice Ashley and WGM Jennifer Shahade
Macauley PetersonMacauley served as the Editor in Chief of ChessBase News from July 2017 to March 2020. He is the producer of The Full English Breakfast chess podcast, and was an Associate Producer of the 2016 feature documentary, Magnus.
I am looking to see more of Timur Gareyev's uncompromising chess style at the US Championship. Gareyev's games are always interesting and full of tension. Thank you Macauley Peterson for Informative article.
London System PowerBase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
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