Another American 2700: Jeffery Xiong!
There are now six U.S. players rated over 2700: Fabiano Caruana (#2 in the world), Wesley So (#4), Leinier Dominguez (#11), Hikaru Nakamura (#18??!), Sam Shankland (#32), and as of this weekend, Jeffery Xiong (#35). The 18-year-old Xiong tied for first in the World Open with 7.5/9 (he lost the Armageddon playoff by drawing with White against Le Quang Liem, but who cares), gaining 11.5 rating points to reach a rating of 2702.5. Congratulations to the youngster!
If Garry Kasparov would just give in to the inevitable and take on U.S. citizenship already, we could just about have two competitive Olympiad teams, which would be relevant in case we ever host the Olympiad. All fantasy, I know, but it's amazing how deep the U.S. team has become--there are now nine players rated over 2665. Quite a few are imports, but not all.
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