US Championship, Round 4 Pairings

Here's what we have to look forward to in today's play:

1. Nakamura (2.5) - Onischuk (2.5)

2. Akobian (2.5) - Kamsky (2.5)

3. Hess (2) - Shulman (2)

4. Ehlvest (2) - Stripunsky (2)

5. Shabalov (1.5) - Christiansen (2)

6. Yermolinsky (1.5) - Kudrin (1.5)

7. Kraai (1.5) - Benjamin (1.5)

8. Robson (1) - Krush (1.5)

9. Lenderman (1) - Finegold (1)

10. Kaidanov (1) - Khachiyan (1)

11. Altounian (1) - Bhat (.5)

12. Shankland (.5) - Gurevich (0)

In addition to the obvious interest of the top boards, I'm eager to see board 5, which features two of the US's greatest hackmeisters. Their styles are a bit different - Shabalov, like his early mentor Tal, loves complications, while Christiansen aims to direct his aggression at the enemy king - but either way they have a propensity for very lively chess. Robson-Krush is intriguing too: Robson might be on the way up after a lousy start, while Krush must recover from yesterday's disaster against Akobian.

Enjoy the games, and remember that I'll be commenting on them live, starting at 3:30 p.m. tournament time (90 minutes into the rounds) = 4:30 ET = 10:30 CET. I'm commenting on the Playchess server (the "Fritz" server), and for those who aren't sure how to access it, you can find directions here.