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)
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