The American Cup, a hybrid double-elimination event has at last eliminated two players - Jeffery Xiong and Sam Shankland - while only two undefeated players remain - Leinier Dominguez and Fabiano Caruana, who will play each other in the next round. Here's what has happened since my post at the end of day 2.
Dominguez took on Aronian in the Champions bracket (the bracket for those who have yet to lose a match), and he won in the classical games 1.5-.5, not needing a playoff. The first game was a Petroff, but it was neither a sleepy game nor one won by White. Dominguez won in just 28 moves with a crushing attack, and managed to stay out of trouble in the rematch on the way to a draw.
The other match in that bracket was between Fabiano Caruana and Sam Sevian. Their classical games were drawn, and then Caruana won 2-0 in the playoff. It was not completely smooth sailing, however, at least not in the second game, as Sevian missed the chance to give mate or win Caruana's queen starting with 54...Qb1+. (It should be noted, however, that this was a one-move opportunity deep in a game with a short time control, which had been winning for Caruana for a while before that. On the other hand, Sevian had been winning before that, and before that it was again Caruana who was winning. It was a back-and-forth affair, with Caruana on top most but not all of the way.)
In the elimination matches, Ray Robson needed to win in Armageddon to eliminate Shankland, while Wesley So did the job more smoothly against Xiong, winning the first game and drawing the second.
The games are here (with notes to Dominguez's win over Aronian), and in the next round we'll have Caruana-Dominguez in the Champions bracket and the matches Sevian-Robson and Aronian-So in the Elimination bracket.