U.S. Championships: Caruana wins two in a row, grabs the lead

Outmanoeuvred

Fabiano Caruana is both the defending champion and the rating favourite at the U.S. Championship in Saint Louis. The experienced grandmaster is now also the sole leader after the first four rounds of competition. After drawing fellow elite-GMs Levon Aronian and Leinier Dominguez, Caruana obtained consecutive wins over Jeffery Xiong and Dariusz Swiercz to reach the top of the standings.

The victories over Xiong and Swiercz came in games lasting 76 and 80 moves respectively, with Caruana showing patience and his well-known fighting spirit to outmanoeuvre his opponents from close-to-equal positions.

Playing white against Swiercz, Caruana traded queens and entered a favourable endgame, with his bishop well-positioned to attack the opposite pawns fixed on dark squares. Swiercz could have altogether avoided this simplification on move 51:

51...Kh7 allowed 52.Qh8+ Kg6 53.Qxh5+ Kxh5 and the aforementioned endgame was reached. Instead, 51...Nf8 would have kept the queens on the board, and Black would have been able to constantly threaten to give perpetual check, as the white king is not all that safe in this structure. (It should be noted that Swiercz had less than 2 minutes when he placed his king on h7 instead of blocking with the knight).

Navigating the Ruy Lopez Vol.1-3

The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.

Converting the favourable ending was not trivial at all, but Caruana showed good technique and ended up grabbing the full point.

Levon Aronian and Ray Robson analysing their game (and, apparently, enjoying it) — it was a 38-move draw | Photo: Crystal Fuller

One more game had a decisive result in round 4. Abhimanyu Mishra, who entered the round as the sole leader after beating Andrew Tang and Ray Robson, was defeated by Hans Niemann. The two youngsters are now sharing second place a half point behind Caruana.

GM Karsten Müller analysed the endgame with rooks and bishops of the same colour. Abhimanyu’s mistake was not to activate the king at the right time.

Mishra, Abhimanyu2599

0–1

Niemann, Hans Moke2667

USA Championship 2023 Saint Louis08.10.2023[Mueller,Karsten]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.0-0 Bg7 5.c3 Nf6 6.Re1 0-0 7.d4 d5 8.e5 Ne4 9.Bxc6 bxc6 10.Be3 Qb6 11.Qc1 c4 12.Nbd2 Nxd2 13.Nxd2 Bf5 14.b3 Bd3 15.h4 h5 16.Bg5 Rfe8 17.bxc4 dxc4 18.Ne4 Bxe4 19.Rxe4 Rab8 20.Re2 Qa5 21.Qe3 Qd5 22.Rae1 Qe6 23.Qe4 Rb5 24.f3 Qd5 25.Qf4 c5 26.dxc5 Qxc5+ 27.Qe3 Rc8 28.Qxc5 Rcxc5 29.e6 fxe6 30.Re4 Bxc3 31.Rc1 Be5 32.Rexc4 Rxc4 33.Rxc4 Bg3 34.Kf1 Rb1+

Activate the king. This is often important in an endgame: 35.Bc1? This retreat is too passive. After the more active 35.Ke2 Rb2+ 36.Kd3 Rxa2 37.Bxe7 Rxg2 38.Bg5 White has good chances to defend due to the reduced material. 35...Ra1 36.a4 Bxh4! 37.Ke2 Now it is too late to activate the king. 37.Rxh4 Rxc1+ 38.Kf2 Rc2+ 39.Kg3 Ra2 40.Re4 Kf7-+ 37...Ra2+ 38.Bd2 Bg5 39.f4 Bh6 40.Kd3 e5 41.g3 exf4 42.gxf4 e5!

A well-calculated use of the pin of the f4 pawn. 43.Rc8+ Kf7 44.Rc7+ Ke6 Black activates his king forcefully. 45.Rxa7 45.f5+ is met by Kd6! 46.Ba5 gxf5 47.Rxa7 Kd5-+ 45...exf4 46.Ra6+ Kf5 47.Ra5+ Kg4 48.Ra6 h4 49.Rxg6+ Bg5 50.Bb4 f3 51.Bc5 h3 The direct 51...f2 wins as well. 52.Be7 52.Be3 is met by Ra3+-+ 52...f2 53.Rxg5+ Kf4 53...Kf4 54.Rg8 f1Q+-+ 0–1

Attack & Master Advanced Tactics and Calculations like a Super Grandmaster

Two Super Grandmasters from India explain the ins & outs of Attack, Tactics an Calculations in these two video courses.

Hans Niemann | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Round 4 results

Standings after round 4

All games

Women’s: Yip and Tokhirjonova share the lead

In a duel of co-leaders Carissa Yip played white against Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova in round 4 of the U.S. Women’s Championship. Yip got a chance to win the game in the ending, but failed to find the correct continuation.

44...c4 was a mistake by Tokhirjonova, as now White could play 45.f6 Kc6 46.g4, and Black will have trouble dealing with the kingside pawns. However, Yip replied by 45.Kd1 almost instantly, and the balance was restored — the co-leaders agreed to a draw shortly after.

Master Class Vol.16 - Judit Polgar

In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.

None of the players who entered the round in the chasing pack obtained full points, leaving Yip and Tokhirjonova in the lead of the standings. Four players stand a half point back, though: Irina Krush, Anna Zatonskih, Nazi Paikidze and Tatev Abrahamyan.

Carissa Yip and Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Alice Lee, who came from suffering two losses in a row, beat Thalia Cervantes with the black pieces | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Tatev Abrahamyan bounced back from her round-3 loss by defeating an out-of-form Ashritha Eswaran | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Atousa Pourkashiyan has a fifty-percent score after beating defending champion Jennifer Yu on Sunday | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Round 4 results

Standings after round 4

All games

Links

• Official site
• Reports from previous editions: 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019