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Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So are clear favorites to win the US Championship 2016. After all, Caruana is the world's number three (2795), Nakamura is the world's number five (2787), and Wesley So is currently number ten in the world. With a rating of 2773 So is also 95 points ahead of Gata Kamsky (2678), number four in the US and number 63 in the world. All three favorites started well into the tournament. Caruana and So with two wins and Nakamura with a convincing win against Alex Lenderman in the first round and an easy draw with Black against Gata Kamsky in round two.
Round two begins
Kamsky and Nakamura repeated the line of the game they had played in the US Championship 2015 against each other. One year ago they drew after a long and protracted fight, this year Nakamura accepted Kamsky's proposal of early peace talks by quickly liquidating into a very drawn position.
Gata Kamsky vs Hikaru Nakamura, energetic...
... and thoughtful
Fabiano Caruana had no objection to play a sharp line of the French against Sam Shankland. This led to an interesting fight and brought Caruana his second win.
2.0/2: another good start for Fabiano Caruana in St. Louis
Wesley So started the game convincingly and got a better position but then needed a bit (or a lot) of luck to win:
Alexander Onishuk suffered a bitter defeat against Ray Robson:
| 1 | GM Akobian, Varuzhan | 0.0 | 2615 | GM Xiong, Jeffery | 0.5 | 2618 | ½-½ |
| 2 | GM Robson, Ray | 1.0 | 2663 | GM Onischuk, Alexander | 0.5 | 2664 | 1-0 |
| 3 | GM Lenderman, Aleksandr | 0.0 | 2618 | GM Shabalov, Alexander | 0.0 | 2528 | ½-½ |
| 4 | GM Kamsky, Gata | 0.0 | 2678 | GM Nakamura, Hikaru | 1.0 | 2787 | ½-½ |
| 5 | IM Chandra, Akshat | 0.0 | 2477 | GM So, Wesley | 1.0 | 2773 | 0-1 |
| 6 | GM Caruana, Fabiano | 1.0 | 2795 | GM Shankland, Samuel L | 1.0 | 2656 | 1-0 |
In the women's tournament the favorites Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih did not have such a smooth start. Irina Krush drew her first game and won her second, Anna Zatonskih drew both games.
| 1 | WIM Bykovtsev, Agata | 0.0 | 2219 | FM Melekhina, Alisa | 0.5 | 2205 | 1-0 |
| 2 | GM Krush, Irina | 0.5 | 2465 | WGM Foisor, Sabina-Francesca | 0.5 | 2258 | 1-0 |
| 3 | IM Zatonskih, Anna | 0.5 | 2470 | WGM Nemcova, Katerina | 0.5 | 2367 | ½-½ |
| 4 | FM Gorti, Akshita | 0.0 | 2184 | IM Paikidze, Nazi | 0.5 | 2346 | 0-1 |
| 5 | WIM Eswaran, Ashritha | 0.5 | 2225 | Yip, Carissa | 1.0 | 2164 | 0-1 |
| 6 | WGM Abrahamyan, Tatev | 1.0 | 2342 | WFM Yu, Jennifer R | 0.5 | 2157 | 1-0 |
Spring helps to enjoy chess even more...
Pictures: Lennart Ootes for the tournament page
