2018 U.S. Championship, Round 5: Six Draws

At least some people have the right spirit. All six games were drawn in round 5 of the U.S. Championship, which means that Wesley So, Sam Shankland, and Varuzhan Akobian remain tied for first with +2 scores, half a point ahead of Fabiano Caruana.

Shankland came close to making it a 1.5 point lead over Caruana, up a pawn for no compensation shortly before the time control. Material was limited, however, so Black (Caruana) had good drawing chances in any case. Still, had Shankland met Black's threatened 40...Ne2+ with 40.Kh3!, intending to meet 40...Ne2 with 41.Kg4, he'd have maintained some winning chances. Instead, he played 40.Kg4, and Caruana had no trouble neutralizing White's bid for activity, and the game was soon drawn.

So had Black against Jeffery Xiong, and played solidly against the Catalan, achieving an easy draw in 22 moves. Akobian's game with Zviad Izoria was more interesting and went more than twice as long as Xiong-So, but he had no winning chances to speak of, either.

Hikaru Nakamura remains stuck in neutral, but not for want of effort. He went into a main line Classical King's Indian against Aleks Lenderman, which is about as sharp an option as there is. Both sides played well, and Nakamura held a draw.

Awonder Liang and Yaroslav Zherebukh played an exciting game - just ask the 17 pairs of opponents who already played it, most recently Wei Yi and Ding Liren last December.

Finally, Alexander Onischuk and Ray Robson had a well-played draw in an Exchange Gruenfeld.

Here's what's in store tomorrow, in round 6:

• Akobian (3.5) - Shankland (3.5)
• So (3.5) - Izoria (2)
• Robson (2) - Caruana (3)
• Nakamura (2.5) - Xiong (2)
• Zherebukh (2.5) - Lenderman (2)
• Onischuk (1.5) - Liang (2)

Shamkir, Round 4: Topalov Spoils Tournament Perfection By Winning

Veselin Topalov had a winning position in two of his first three games, but in keeping with the thoroughgoing amiability of the Gashimov Memorial had sportingly allowed his opponents to save the game and make a draw. That same splendid spirit of friendship was on display today, too. Teimour Radjabov and Magnus Carlsen drew their game in 19 moves, while the other games not involving Topalov went a bit longer before the players split their points.

Ding Liren had plenty of chances to win against Anish Giri, the last one coming on move 64 when either 64...a6 or 64...Ka3 would have eked out a win. Sergey Karjakin and David Navara played an interesting game that never got fully out of either player's grip, and the same could be said of the draw between Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Rauf Mamedov.

But Topalov, tsk, tsk, tsk. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov outplayed him - with Black - but showed the true spirit of the tournament by letting Topalov off the hook. And then when Mamedyarov makes an error, how does Topalov repay him? By capitalizing on it and winning! Very disappointing. It's not too late to fix things, however. In the next round Mamedyarov plays Giri and Topalov plays Navara, and in the round after that Giri and Navara play. So if Mamedyarov wins and Topalov loses, they get back on track, then Giri just needs to beat Navara in the next round to get everyone back to a comfy 50%.

Here are the full pairings for round 5:

• Ding Liren (2) - Radjabov (2)
• Mamedyarov (1.5) - Giri (2)
• Navara (2) - Topalov (2.5)
• Mamedov (2) - Karjakin (2)
• Carlsen (2) - Wojtaszek (2)

2018 U.S. Championship, Round 4: Three Leaders - But Not the Same Three

It was a strange day at the U.S. Championship - or at least it was a day with one extremely strange game. Entering the round there were three co-leaders: Wesley So, Varuzhan Akobian, and Fabiano Caruana - all of whom had White in this round. And there were three co-leaders at the end of the day, too, but the identity of one of the leaders had changed.

So had some advantage against Aleksandr Lenderman, but although he managed to win a pawn it wasn't enough to win the game. Varuzhan Akobian likewise managed to win a pawn in his game, against Jeffery Xiong, but once again it wasn't enough to collect the full point. He came closer than So did, and maybe would have managed a win had he played 33.Qc8 Qd5 34.Qe8+.

Fabiano Caruana played as if he had a death wish against Zviad Izoria. If this had been the last round and he were in a must-win situation his play would be explicable, but not in an early round where a draw, though not ideal against a lower seed, isn't a real problem. Caruana was better early on, but by move 20 or so the position was equal. Izoria was happy to repeat (see his 31st and 32nd moves, and then his 34th, 35th, and 36th moves), but Caruana played on with no justification except for his higher rating. He was even in a bit of trouble after that, but managed to wriggle his way out of it.

But once again, Caruana was bound and determined to avoid a draw, and he succeeded. Playing for tricks, he went for the dubious 67.c4, apparently counting on 67...Nxg2 68.Kd5 Rc8 69.Nb6? to pick up Black's d-pawn and give him some minuscule winning chances. But Black played the obvious 69...Ne3+, and after 70.Ke6? (70.Ke4!) gave Caruana one last chance to save the game. 70...Rh8 won, but the trappy 70...Rc6? allowed several drawing moves. Caruana's 71.Kd7? wasn't one of them, and he fell headlong into the trap. After the neat 71...Nxc4! Caruana was caught. Maybe 72.Nd5 offered some hope, but after 72.Kxc6? Na5+ 73.Kxd6 Nxb7+ the battle was decided: White would not be able to stop Black's h-pawn.

Meanwhile, Sam Shankland won a good game with Black against Ray Robson in an Open Ruy, and caught up to the leaders on +2.

As for Hikaru Nakamura, he drew again, despite having White in three games out of four. This time it was against Awonder Liang, who was entirely ready for the King's Indian Attack. If anything, Liang had the better chances, and Nakamura had to earn the draw that was agreed on move 32.

Here are the pairings for round 5:

• Onischuk (1) - Robson (1.5)
• Liang (1.5) - Zherebukh (2)
• Lenderman (1.5) - Nakamura (2)
• Xiong (1.5) - So (3)
• Izoria (1.5) - Akobian (3)
• Shankland (3) - Caruana (2.5)

Yet Another Prodigy: Shreyas Royal

Here's a story (registration required) about nine-year-old Shreyas Royal, a promising youngster living in England who may (along with his family) be forced to return to India soon. He may be one to watch, though it's also possible that there's a bit of hyperbole in the story to strengthen the case for letting him and his family remain in the U.K. Whatever the case, I'll add a tag for him, and if he becomes a superstar in a few years you can say you first heard of him here.

(Unless you're Marc Beishon, who gets the hat tip for passing this along.)

Other Events: Sharjah & Bangkok

A strong open tournament in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, finished this week as an impressive success by 17-year-old Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo. He scored 8/9, drawing his last two games and still finishing a point ahead of Eltaj Safarli and Wang Hao, his two closest pursuers. Among others, Maghsoodloo defeated Wang Hao and Vladislav Artemiev, both rated over 2700, and gained 28 points in the tournament. That brings him within striking distance of the world's top 100. Very impressive, especially considering that other players left in his wake were Yuriy Kryvoruchko, Ernesto Inarkiev, Pavel Eljanov, and Baskaran Adhiban.

The Bangkok Open isn't nearly as strong, but given Chess24's Jan Gustafsson's constant praise of the event one might be curious about how it went. The answer - at least for Gustafsson - is not particularly well. He finished tied for 7th-20th places, losing to Australian GM Anton Smirnov in round 6 and then surrendering draws with FMs in rounds 7 and 9. But speaking of FMs, the tournament was won by one: Novendra Priasmoro, who finished with 8/9. He began with a draw against a 1927 before reeling off seven wins in a row, three against GMs, and drawing with Nigel Short in the last round. He'll gain 26 points from the tournament and, I would assume, a GM norm.

Short finished tied for 3rd-6th with 7/9, half a point behind Deepan Chakkravarthy. Short had a catastrophe in round 5 when he was outplaying 11-year Indian IM D. Gukesh but failed to press his clock. His opponent said nothing - until Short's flag fell, that is. Short wrote on Twitter, "Lose with dignity...is a bit hard when your opponent is fully aware that you have not pressed your clock and jumps and down for glee the moment your flag falls." As Marc Beishon notes, in passing that tidbit along, "if you can't jump up and down at age 11..." The tournament might well have finished differently had he won; on the other hand, he was clearly worse when the draw was agreed in his last round game, so the tournament could have finished worse for him, too.

Shamkir, Round 3: More of the Same

Five more draws, believe it or not! That makes it 15 out of 15 thus far. Also in keeping with the pattern of the first two rounds, four of the five games were straightforward draws, while in the fifth one player should have collected the full point. Today it was Veselin Topalov, who missed a simple win against Ding Liren after the first time control. Topalov with Black was worse in the early middlegame, but near the end of the time control started putting the pressure on Ding. It may not have been enough to win, had White played 42.Bf3. After 42.Bf1, however, the obvious 42...Ng4 would have won a pawn and wrecked White's kingside structure. The only move that would theoretically punish 42...Ng4 is 43.f3, but that only makes things worse after 43...Qb8. It's hard to believe that two great players like Ding Liren and Veselin Topalov could have missed that. Maybe they continued their calculations with 44.Qb2 Qxg3+ 45.Qg2 and stopped there, but 45...Qe1 isn't that hard to see either, and then White is out of tricks. Whatever they missed, it was a big opportunity for Topalov.

Here are the pairings for round 4, tomorrow: Radjabov-Carlsen, Wojtaszek-Mamedov, Karjakin-Navara, Topalov-Mamedyarov, and Giri-Ding Liren.

U.S. Championship and Shamkir (Gashimov Memorial): Catching Up

I've been doing a little traveling, partially but mostly not chess-related, so I haven't had anything to say about the two major events that started this week, the U.S. Championship and the Gashimov Memorial. I won't say too much now, either, just enough to get the ball rolling (or ready to roll tomorrow).

We begin with the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, which features a stellar field including World Champion Magnus Carlsen, world #2 (#3 on the live list, but still officially #2) Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 2016 World Championship finalist Sergey Karjakin (and co-runner up in the 2018 Candidates, along with Mamedyarov), Ding Liren, Anish Giri, and five other 2700+ rated players. Round 3 is on Saturday (today, for most of you), and sees the players in a ten-way tie for first (and last), as all ten games in the first two rounds were drawn. Most of the draws were "correct", with neither player in serious trouble, but there were two exceptions. Ding Liren should have beaten Radoslaw Wojtaszek in round 1, and Veselin Topalov failed to convert a decisive material advantage against Giri in round 2.

Here are the round 3 pairings: 

• Giri - Rajdabov
• Ding Liren - Topalov
• Mamedyarov - Karjakin
• Navara - Wojtaszek
• Mamedov - Carlsen 

In the U.S. Championship there have been many decisive results: nine in three rounds. In round 1, defending champion Wesley So and Varuzhan Akobian both won with the black pieces, against Yaroslav Zherebukh and Alexander Onischuk (who tied for first last year, only losing to So in a playoff), respectively. Fabiano Caruana only managed a draw against the barely-15-year-old Awonder Liang (though with Black), while Hikaru Nakamura got nowhere on the white side of a Scotch against Ray Robson.

In round 2, So and Akobian won again; this time they both had White. Their victims were Onischuk and Liang, respectively. Caruana also won, beautifully crushing Aleksandr Lenderman, and Robson managed a win against Zviad Izoria. Nakamura again had White, this time against Zerebukh, but was unable to achieve anything against the Petroff.

In round 3 So and Akobian were finally held to draws, with neither player coming close to winning or even having a real advantage. So had Black against Liang, and with the exception of a brief period around move 30 was always on the way to a comfortable draw. Akobian had to defend for many moves against Lenderman, but good defense in time trouble led him reach an easily drawn position in the second time control. Caruana caught up with them in shared first after defeating Jeffery Xiong with the black pieces. All three have 2.5/3. The day's other winners were Zherebukh, who took advantage of multiple errors by Robson just before the time control; and Sam Shankland, who defeated Izoria after the latter self-destructed for no obvious in time trouble. As for Nakamura, it was yet another draw - and not a particularly comfortable one as he was in some danger with Black against Onischuk.

Here are the pairings for round 4, on Saturday: 

• Caruana (2.5) - Izoria (.5)
• So (2.5) - Lenderman (1)
• Akobian (2.5) - Xiong (1)
• Robson (1.5) - Shankland (2)
• Nakamura (1.5) - Liang (1)
• Zherebukh (1.5) - Onischuk (.5)

U.S. Championship Starts Today/Tomorrow (Wednesday)

The action in the 2018 U.S. Chess Championship, 12 player round robin, begins at 1 p.m. local time in St. Louis (= 2 p.m. ET, = 7 p.m. CET), and here are the pairings:

• Hikaru Nakamura (2787) - Ray Robson (2660)
• Yaroslav Zherebukh (2640) - Wesley So (2786)
• Alexander Onischuk (2672) - Varuzhan Akobian (2647)
• Awonder Liang (2552) - Fabiano Caruana (2804)
• Aleskandr Lenderman (2599) - Samuel Shankland (2671)
• Jeffery Xiong (2665) - Zviad Izoria (2599)

Predictions? I'll say Caruana, and hope he doesn't collapse in a heap due to exhaustion.

A Mamedyarov Interview

In which the world's #3 (#2 until very recently, and technically still is #2) talks about his performance in the Candidates tournament and looks forward to the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, which starts on Thursday.

A Roundup of Recent and Ongoing Events

Here.