U.S. Championships: Shulman-Gareev, Round 4

In this variation of the Nimzoindian, the bishop looks oddly placed on a5. But it works in practice!

U.S. Championships, Round 1

The U.S. Championship and the Women's Championship began this afternoon: the only game in progress involves the #1 player in Illinois, GM Yury Shulman.  FM John Bryant is up the Exchange, but Yury seems to have a (tricky) tablebase draw in hand...

After 112...Kc5!, White has no time to take: 113.Rxg4 hxg4 114.Kxg4 (otherwise the pawn queens) 114...Kd6 is a dead draw.

The game continues, so I hope this post is not a jinx.  (Update: drawn in 130 moves.)

Our other local representative, WIM Viktorija Ni, drew comfortably against WGM Camilla Baginskaite

Oh yes, the U.S. Championship

It's Kamsky-Nakamura in the penultimate round: Kamsky leads by ½ point.  A Nadjorf Sicilian (6.a4 variation) is on the board.

Link to live coverage here.

Nakamura (with Black) just won a clean pawn.  The average rating of Nakamura and Kamsky is roughly equal to the average rating of Anand and Gelfand: just sayin'.

Update #2: Nakamura just won a great game. After today, he should unofficially be at least #5 in the world, and possibly #4 (ahead of World Champion Anand).     Oops, still one win short of the #4 spot.
 

U.S. Championship Round 9

Kamsky takes the lead with a brilliancy:

Kamsky-Seirawan
2012 U.S. Championship, St. Louis
White to play and win

So why didn't Black play 23...Nd7, one asks?  The answer is not hard to find, but it's very beautiful.

Kamsky-Seirawan (variation after 23...Nxd7?)
White to play and win

Grandmasters blunder, too

Here's a position from today's play.

It's White to move in Stripunsky-Onischuk.  Find White's worst move: White made it, then immediately realized his hallucination and resigned.

White to play: What's the worst move?

 The worst move is also a very natural move to make....

Round 1, US Championship: Shulman and Kaidanov draw

Both players were going for the full point today.  Yury Shulman opens the h-file against the castled king, and Gregory Kaidanov strikes back in the center.

U.S. Chess Championships begin shortly

Follow the play in St. Louis here.  Round one begins at 1 p.m. Central Time.

It's a very interesting field, and the championship format is much improved, with a traditional 12-player round robin.  Here are today's pairings:

1	GM Akobian, Varuzhan		2625	GM Seirawan, Yasser		2643
2	GM Shulman, Yuri		2571	GM Kaidanov, Gregory S		2594
3	GM Stripunsky, Alexander		2562	GM Onischuk, Alexander		2660
4	GM Lenderman, Aleksandr		2587	GM Robson, Ray		2614
5	GM Kamsky, Gata		2741	GM Ramirez, Alejandro		2593
6	GM Nakamura, Hikaru		2775	GM Hess, Robert L		2635

Both Kamsky and Nakamura would like to make a statement with White today, but both are facing strong opponents with exceptional opening preparation.

The Women's Championship is a ten-round event. As in the men's event, pre-tournament favorites Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih have the White pieces in round one:

1	WIM Ni, Viktorija		2228	WGM Abrahamyan, Tatev		2329
2	WIM Zenyuk, Iryna		2224	FM Melekhina, Alisa		2242
3	IM Krush, Irina		2457	WGM Foisor, Sabina-Francesca		2364
4	IM Goletiani, Rusudan		2333	WGM Baginskaite, Camilla		2358
5	IM Zatonskih, Anna		2510	WFM Kats, Alena		2137

May 7-20 in St. Louis: U.S. Chess Championship

Press release at Chess Life Online: time for a road trip!

The field is incredibly strong: our own Yury Shulman is seeded tenth, and GMs like Shankland, Christiansen, Benjamin, and Shabalov did not make the cut (don't know whether GM Jaan Ehlvest declined an invitation or missed the cut).

 The women's field is equally impressive. It's nice to see the U.S. Championship return to an élite event!

Round 5: A near miss for Dmitry

Dmitry Gurevich was probably winning this game, but Vinay Bhat defended well to halve the point....