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After switching federations in 2021, Armenian-born GM Vladimir Akopian has been invited to participate in three US Senior Chess Championships. In 2022, he was one of five players tied for first place after 9 rounds of classical chess, and saw his colleague Alex Shabalov taking the title in tiebreaks. In 2023, he finished in sole third place with a 5/9 score, while this year, he is the clear favourite to take the title at halftime.
Akopian kicked off the event with three consecutive wins, drew Gregory Kaidanov in round 4 and defeated Jesse Kraai with the white pieces in round 5.
Akopian finished the round-5 game in style.
43.Qxg7+ prompted Kraai's resignation, as 43...Kxg7 fails to 44.Nf5+, with a royal fork.
Standing a whole 1½ points behind the leader are Larry Christiansen and Julio Becerra. Christiansen already faced Akopian in round 3 and lost with the black pieces, while Becerra is set to face the leader with white in Monday's sixth round.
Larry Christiansen playing black against Joel Benjamin | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Julio Becerra | Photo: Lennart Ootes
At 17, Christopher Yoo is already a former US Junior Champion and has already participated in an edition of the US Championship - he played in the very strong national championship in 2022, when he managed to beat Wesley So, among others.
In this year's Junior Championship, Yoo is the clear rating favourite and is leading the event with a 4/5 score. Yoo has so far drawn twice in the tournament and has obtained victories over Arthur Guo, Nicholas Ladan and Jason Liang.
Like Akopian in the Senior Championship, Yoo got to play a nice tactical combination to win his final game before the rest day.
26.Qxc6 is the most accurate - and spectacular - way to convert White's advantage into a win. After 26...dxc6 27.Rxd8+ Rf8 (27...Kg7 28.R1d7+) 28.Rxf8+ Kxf8, a knight fork ended the game at once.
29.Nxe6+ was followed by Liang's resignation.
Standing a half point behind Yoo is Justin Wang, who is set to face Yoo, with the black pieces, in the seventh round.
Christopher Yoo | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Justine Wang | Photo: Lennart Ootes
The third-lowest rated player in the field is the sole leader after five rounds at the Girls' Championship: Jasmine Su. Born in 2010, Su is outscoring the clear rating favourite Alice Lee, who at 14 has already won the American Cup earlier this year, after beating US chess legend Irina Krush in the final match.
Lee in fact kicked off the event with a loss against Iris Mou. Since then, she has drawn twice with black and obtained two victories with white to climb to shared second place. The top seed is tied for second with Mou and Rose Atwell.
Su, on her part, won 3 out of her 4 first games, drawing only Megan Paragua in round 2. The current leader, however, suffered her first loss of the event in round 5, when she was defeated by Omya Vidyarthi.
Vidyarthi played a nice exchange sacrifice to end the game.
30.Rxc8+ Rxc8 31.Qxb7 was followed by resignation. White is both attacking the rook on c8 and threatening mate along the seventh rank.
Su will face the tough task of playing black against Lee on Tuesday.
Jasmine Su | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Alice Lee | Photo: Lennart Ootes
