U.S. Championship, Rounds 9 & 10: Caruana Good, Shankland Better
Fabiano Caruana is having an excellent U.S. Championship. Despite having played practically non-stop for a month and a half, he is continuing to play at a very high level. His score of 7/10 has increased his already lofty rating, and aside from a bit of insanity in round 4 against Zviad Izoria he has played well and shown great resilience. In round 9 he was in serious trouble against Hikaru Nakamura, but held on grimly and saved the game, and then in round 10 he won a very impressive game - with Black - against Yaroslav Zherebukh.
And yet, in this Championship he's playing second banana to Sam Shankland, who has caught fire after draws in his first two rounds. He won in both rounds 9 and 10, first winning against Zherebukh and then against Alexander Onischuk. Both games were long grinds, and in both cases he had to bounce back after missing chances to win the games more easily. He thus leads by half a point going into the last round.
As for the other contenders, they have all fallen back. Varuzhan Akobian co-led through much of the first half of the tournament, but had already dropped out of the running with losses in rounds 6-8. He stopped the bleeding with a draw in round 9 before losing again in round 10, to Nakamura - who only then got his first win of the tournament! (Coincidentally, Jeffery Xiong and Awonder Liang also won their first games in that round as well.)
Aleks Lenderman's wins in rounds 7 and 8 turned him into a dark horse, and when he came out of the opening with a winning advantage against Ray Robson he looked like a serious contender. Unfortunately for him, he let the advantage slip away, and after drawing that game he lost a drawn king and pawn ending to Xiong in round 10.
Wesley So began the tournament with two wins, and through round 10...still just has those two wins. No losses, but that wasn't good enough for him to retain his title. He had some advantage with Black against Akobian in round 9, but couldn't convert it, and in round 10 - again with Black - he drew with Robson in a game where neither side ever had any advantage to speak of.
If I annotate any games I'll include them in my final round report. Here are the pairings for the final round (ongoing as of this writing):
- Shankland (7.5) - Liang (4.5)
- Caruana (7) - Onischuk (3)
- So (6) - Nakamura (5)
- Xiong (5) - Robson (4.5)
- Izoria (4.5) - Lenderman (5)
- Akobian (4) - Zherebukh (4)
Reader Comments