US Championship: Caruana takes sole lead again

by André Schulz
4/21/2016 – After five of eleven rounds the players had a free day at the US Championship in St. Louis but then round six brought a top encounter: Wesley So played with White against Hikaru Nakamura. The game ended in a draw and that gave Fabiano Caruana, who had White against Alexander Onischuk, the chance to take sole lead again. Which he did with a nice trick in the endgame.

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The round starts


In the top encounter of the sixth round Hikaru Nakamura had Black against Wesley So and after 1.e4 tried a popular line of the Steinitz Variation in the French. So had a slight initiative but after a small inaccuracy all his chances were gone and the game soon ended in a draw.

 

 

So against Nakamura

Wesley So

Fabiano Caruana was well prepared against Alexander Onischuk's Arkhangelsk variation and chose a line which had been tried in a number of correspondence game. After the opening Caruana was better but he won the game with a nice tactical trick in the endgame.

 

In a duel "Experience vs Youth" 48-year old Alexander Shabalov, who played against Sam Shankland, showed that he still is a force to reckon with. Shabalov first won the exchange and then the game.

Gata Kamsky and Ray Robson drew as did Varuzhan Akobian and Aleksandr Lenderman. Jeffrey Xiaong also switched back to drawing mode. He played against Akshat Chandra and this battle of the young also ended in a draw.

Results of round six

Br. Tit Name Coun ELO Ergebnis Titel Name Coun ELO
1 GM Wesley So
 
2773 ½ - ½ GM Hikaru Nakamura
 
2790
2 GM Fabiano Caruana
 
2794 1 - 0 GM Alexander Onischuk
 
2664
3 GM Gata Kamsky
 
2667 ½ - ½ GM Ray Robson
 
2663
4 IM Akshat Chandra
 
2501 ½ - ½ GM Jeffery Xiong
 
2588
5 GM Samuel L Shankland
 
2648 0 - 1 GM Alexander Shabalov
 
2520
6 GM Varuzhan Akobian
 
2610 ½ - ½ GM Aleksandr Lenderman
 
2623

Games of rounds 1 to 6

 

With 5.0/6 Fabiano Caruana took the sole lead again. Wesley So and Ray Robson follow half a point behind while Hikaru Nakamura still suffers from his loss against Caruana.

Standings after six rounds

Women's Tournament

In round six of the Women's Tournament five games were decided and only one ended in a draw. Tournament leader Nazi Paikidze had a good position against Carissa Yip but missed a possible win. This allowed Tatev Abrahamyan and Irina Krush to catch up to her. Anna Zatonskih also won and now is half a point behind the three leaders.

Carissa Yip

Results of round six

Br. Tit Name Coun ELO Ergebnis Titel Name Coun ELO
1   Carissa Yip
 
2109 ½ - ½ IM Nazi Paikidze
 
2346
2 WGM Tatev Abrahamyan
 
2324 1 - 0 WGM Sabina Francesca Foisor
 
2258
3 FM Akshita Gorti
 
2242 0 - 1 GM Irina Krush
 
2458
4 WIM Agata Bykovtsev
 
2176 0 - 1 IM Anna Zatonskih
 
2469
5 WFM Jennifer R Yu
 
2102 0 - 1 WGM Katerina Nemcova
 
2367
6 WIM Ashritha Eswaran
 
2149 1 - 0 FM Alisa Melekhina
 
2205

 

Games of rounds 1 to 6

 

 

Standings after six rounds

Photos: Tournament page...


André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.

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