US Championships: Yoo expelled after violating the code of conduct

Banned from the Saint Louis Chess Club

This video shows the final phase of the game between Christopher Yoo and Fabiano Caruana.

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.

The video does not show Yoo storming out of the tournament hall and the subsequent incident with the videographer. However, the tournament organisers released a statement shortly afterwards in which they described the incidents. They expelled Yoo from the tournament and banned him from the Saint Louis Chess Club.

Christopher Yoo - one of the greatest American talents

Born in 2006, 17-year-old Christopher Yoo was long regarded as one of the biggest talents in the United States. He won the IM title in 2019 and became the youngest American IM of all time, a record that was broken later that year by Abhimanyu Mishra.

Yoo became a grandmaster in 2021 and with a current Elo rating of 2590, he is currently ranked 19^th among active players in the USA.

The game

The events after the game make it easy to forget how strongly Caruana played the game. He played with black and soon after the opening made a positional exchange sacrifice, forcing White to make one difficult decision after another. In the end, Caruana won the game with an outstanding mating attack.

After two draws at the start, this was Caruana's third win in a row, and it remains to be seen whether the drama surrounding Yoo upsets him and affects his game in the next rounds.

Yoo, Christopher Woojin2590

0–1

Caruana, Fabiano2796

USA Championship 2024 Saint Louis16.10.2024[Johannes Fischer]

1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 b6 3.Nc3 Bb7 4.e4 e6 5.d4 cxd4 6.Nxd4 Nf6 7.Bd3 Nc6 8.Nxc6 dxc6 9.e5 Nd7 10.Bf4 Qc7 11.Qe2 0-0-0 12.Bg3 h5 13.Bh4

13...Nxe5!? Black's provocative and unusual opening suggests that Caruana wanted to win with Black. And so he seizes the opportunity to unbalance the position with a positional exchange sacrifice. The engines are not enthusiastic about this decision, but in the practical game it poses problems for White. 14.Bxd8 Nxd3+ 15.Qxd3 Qxd8 16.0-0-0 After 16.Qxd8+ Kxd8 17.0-0-0+ Kc7 the engines give White a clear advantage, but Black has a pawn and the exchange for the bishop pair. That gives him plenty of chances. 16...Qc7 17.Kb1 Be7 18.Rhe1 g6 19.g3 Kb8 20.Qe3 Ba6 After the exchange sacrifice Caruana has consolidated his position and is now trying to provoke a weakening of the white king's position. 21.b3?! White lets himself be provoked. Better was 21.Ne4 Rf8 21...Bxc4 fails because of the double attack 22.Qc3 22.Qc3 with an advantage for White. 21...Bc8 22.f4 h4 23.Qe5 f6 24.Qe3 hxg3 25.hxg3 e5! White doesn't seem to have a clear plan and Black takes the opportunity to open up the position for his bishops. 26.fxe5 fxe5 27.Rh1 Yoo did not want to take the pawn. After 27.Qxe5 Bf5+ 28.Ka1 Qxe5 29.Rxe5 Bf6 30.Re3 Rh2 the black bishops are strong and White has difficulties finding a move. 27...Bc5

28.Qg5? This neglects the defence and allows the black queen to become active. Safer and better was 28.Qe2 Rf8 29.Ne4 Bd4 and Black has compensation for the sacrificed material. 28...Rxh1 29.Rxh1 Qd6! Black makes a devastating threat of 30...Qd3+ - and White can't adequately parry this threat. 30.g4 Qd3+ 31.Kb2 Bd4 32.Rc1 a5 33.a4 Qe4 34.Qf6 Kc7 White has no counterplay and his king is very exposed. 35.g5 Qd3 Threatening 36...Qd2+ gaining material, since 37.Rd2 fails to 37...Bxc3+. 36.Qe7+ Kb8 37.Qd6+ Kb7 38.Qe7+ Ka6 39.b4 With the threat of 40.b5+ and mate. But Black can easily parry this threat and then exploit White's weakened king position. Qxc4 40.Qe8 Qxb4+ 41.Ka2 Qc4+ 42.Kb2 Kb7 43.Qe7+ Kb8 44.Qd6+ Ka8 45.Qxg6 Be6

White can no longer stop the mating attack. 46.Rc2 Qa2+ 47.Kc1 Be3+ 48.Kd1 Bg4+ White resigned. Checkmate is coming in a few moves. 0–1

The expulsion of Yoo from the tournament has thrown the results and table into disarray, as one player is simply missing.

Round 4 results

Standings after round 5

Middlegame Secrets Vol.1 + Vol.2

Let us learn together how to find the best spot for the queen in the early middlegame, how to navigate this piece around the board, how to time the queen attack, how to decide whether to exchange it or not, and much more!

All games

Yip still perfect

Things were less dramatic in the women's tournament. Carissa Yip continues to set the pace in that even: she claimed her fifth win in a row and is already 1½ points ahead of Tatev Abrahamyan, who is in sole second place with 3½ out of 5 points.

Attacking with the Jobava London System

The Jobava London System is a minor form of the London System. White tries to play Lf4 quickly followed by Nc3.

Round 5 in the women's event saw all six games ending decisively.

Carissa Yip | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Tatev Abrahamyan beat Anna Zatonskih with black | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Round 5 results

Standings after round 5

All games

Links

• Official site
• Reports from previous editions: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019