2021 Chess.com Speed Chess Championship: From the So-Xiong Match

The penultimate match of the round of 16 was played earlier today (if you want to know the result, see the first comment, below, or click here to see Chess.com's report on the match), and it was a good one that came down to the final segment. I won't offer any spoilers here, but want to show you two games from the match, both featuring a terrific new opening idea by Jeffery Xiong. The games both finished rather randomly, with each player winning one game and with both players enjoying winning advantages at different moments in each game; Xiong's idea, however, was excellent, exciting, and of some theoretical significance.

Have a look.

Sinquefield Cup, Round 5: A Slightly Calmer Round

The crazy, super-aggressive play of rounds 3 and 4 wasn't seen in round 5. There were two short draws, and the third draw fizzled out pretty quickly as well, even if it took a while longer before the draw could be made official. But the other two games were decisive, interesting, and consequential - in one game the winner joined the tie for first, and in the other the loser left the tie.

The first game to finish was Wesley So vs. Richard Rapport, ending in a draw by repetition that has been seen in many previous games. An apologetic So said afterward that he had slept very poorly the night before due to too much coffee too late in the day, so it was better safe than sorry.

Peter Svidler and Sam Shankland also drew quickly: Svidler was more or less forced to repeat, while Shankland was mistaken in thinking that he was similarly forced. That said, his other option, while playable, did not provide him with an advantage, so it wouldn't have been a bad choice even if he had assessed it as Svidler and the engines did.

The third draw was between Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Leinier Dominguez. Mamedyarov played a very interesting pawn sac in a Queen's Gambit Accepted, and enjoyed a sustained initiative and a lead in development. Dominguez played very well, however, and in the end Mamedyarov found nothing better than a combination that ultimately regained the pawn at the cost of mass liquidation, and the draw was inevitable.

The first decisive game to finish was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's impressive victory over Dariusz Swiercz. Swiercz blitzed out his first 17 moves with Black in a sharp Italian line, all prep he had been looking at with his coach, commentator Alejandro Ramirez, just before the game. As it turned out, MVL's coach had also examined the line at some point, but Vachier-Lagrave clearly hadn't looked at it as recently as Swiercz did. So he had to take his time from early on, trying to recall/reconstruct/figure out what to do. After his 18th move he was almost 50 minutes behind Swiercz on the clock, but he had avoided any grave dangers and found a promising plan that made his position easier to play. Now it was Swiercz's turn to start thinking, and he didn't cope with his challenges as well as his opponent did. A trail of inaccuracies left him in trouble, and after 28...c4? he was simply lost. Vachier-Lagrave finished him off with confident, powerful play, and rejoined the tie for first. It was a very nice way to bounce back after his loss to Dominguez in round 4.

Finally, Jeffery Xiong also showed his resilience, bouncing back from his loss to Swiercz in round 4 by defeating none other than world #2 Fabiano Caruana in the present round. (Now world #3, falling below Ding Liren on the live rating list. How long has it been since he was out of the #2 spot? It's not official yet, so he may yet finish the event back in his "rightful" spot. But for now, he's #3 in the world and #4 in the tournament, out of the tie for first.) Early on things were going very smoothly for Caruana, who enjoyed a significant opening edge with Black. But at some point everything went completely off the rails, and the four-move sequence from moves 22-25 may have been the worst of Caruana's career as a grandmaster. Xiong didn't always find the best moves either, and Caruana could have saved the game. The last key moment came after Xiong's 34.Ra6. Caruana spent almost all his time trying to solve the position, but didn't manage it, and lost on time making his 36th move in an already hopeless position.

Today - Sunday - is a rest day. The round 5 games can be replayed here, with my comments, and I'm hoping to post the games for the first three rounds later today. And here's what we have to look forward to tomorrow, in round 6:

• Caruana (3) - Vachier-Lagrave (3.5)
• Dominguez (3.5) - Svidler (1)
• Xiong (2.5) - So (3.5)
• Shankland (2) - Rapport (2.5)
• Swiercz (1) - Mamedyarov (2.5)

U.S. Championship, Day 3: The Podium is Set; Can Xiong or Robson Catch So for First?

It has been a surprisingly competitive - and uncompetitive - U.S. Championship. Already after day 1 Wesley So was in the lead, with Ray Robson and Jeffery Xiong tied and nipping at So's heels. The same is true at the end of day 3, and as was the case after day 2, no one else has more than 50%. This means that with two rounds to go, So (with 8 out of 9), Xiong and Robson (tied with 7 points apiece) are guaranteed the medals no matter how they do on Thursday.

That said, who will win what medal is entirely up for grabs, especially with Robson getting White against So in round 10. But before discussing the final day's pairings, let's recap the day 3 action as it pertained to the leaders.

After getting out to a 5-0 start, So was finally held to a draw in round 6, and he opened Wednesday's action with another draw. This time he had White, against Sam Sevian, got nothing out of the opening - not even his customary advantage on the clock, and the game was abandoned - entirely appropriately - after only 28 moves. This gave the youngsters a chance to catch him. Xiong won with shocking ease against Hikaru Nakamura, while Robson also won, in dominating fashion, against Elshan Moradiabadi. That produced a three-way tie for first with all the players having 6/7, but the troika was dissolved in the next round.

Just when it seemed that So might have lost a step, he won with Black against Moradiabadi, happily accepting the material his opponent sacrificed in the hopes of an attack. It looked a little scary, but the engine - and So's strong play - confirms that there was nothing there. Meanwhile, Xiong and Robson faced off in the first battle of the leaders, Robson was doing well until he played 15...Ne5, presumably either missing or underestimating Xiong's fine retort, 16.Ba3. From then on he was in serious trouble, and after 25...c6 he was clearly lost. Xiong finished strongly, won, and maintained his part of the tie for first.

His reward? Black against So. The game was very sharp, with the players castling on opposite flanks, and while So was better in much of the early going, his 22.Qxf4? gave Xiong the chance to obtain a serious advantage with 22...Qa5. Xiong played 22...Rxb4 instead, and So had a small plus after that. The evaluation fluctuated between something serious for So and equality for a long time, and only turned into a win for White after 47...f5? Another 2.5/3 day left So a point ahead of Xiong - and ahead of Robson, too, who bounced back nicely after a win over Nakamura. (Incredibly, Nakamura is now at -1, which would be shocking in classical chess but is even harder to believe in a g/25 event. Kudos to Leinier Dominguez, however, who seems to have recovered from the doldrums, going 2.5/3 today to get back to 50%.)

Two rounds remain, and here are the relevant pairings:

Round 10:

• Robson (7) - So (8)
• Xiong (7) - Lenderman (3)

Round 11:

• So (8+?) - Nakamura (4+?)
• Lenderman (3+?) - Robson (7+?)
• Ramirez (2.5+?) - Xiong (7+?)

As Xiong has the easiest pairings on the day and So the hardest, it's difficult to pick a clear favorite. In case of a tie, there will be a playoff (see section VIII of the regulations), so don't forget to add that into the mix as you determine your favorite. Hopefully it will be exciting, whatever happens.

Here are today's games featuring the leaders - sans comments. (At least for now. I might annotate some of them later, either for here or for Chesslecture.com.)

U.S. Championship, Day 2: So Continues to Lead the Three Horse Race

The 2020 U.S. Championship is just past the halfway point, and barring something incredible only three of the 12 players have a realistic shot at first. Wesley So won his first two games today before making an easy draw with Black against Leinier Dominguez, and leads with 5.5/6. Jeffery Xiong and Ray Robson also went 2.5/3 today, sandwiching a draw in round 5 with a pair of wins. As a result, they remain only half a point out of first with five points apiece.

And then...the next score group consists of those on 50%. The most notable of those is Hikaru Nakamura, who also entered the day with a 50% score. He got off on the right foot, winning in round 4, but in round 5 had some difficulties against Elshan Moradiabadi before achieving a draw, and then he lost in round 6 to Awonder Liang after going too bonkers in the opening hoping for an attack. The other pre-tournament favorite (in addition to So and Nakamura), Leinier Dominguez, is doing even worse. He lost to Xiong in round 4 before drawing with Robson and So in the day's last two rounds; his total score is 2/6.

Here are the leaders' pairings for tomorrow (Wednesday):

So (5.5): W vs. Sevian (3), B vs. Moradiabadi (2.5), W vs. Xiong (5)

Xiong (5): W vs. Nakamura (3), W vs. Robson (5), B vs. So (5.5)

Robson (5): W vs. Moradiabadi (2.5), B vs. Xiong (5), W vs. Nakamura (3)

Clearly Xiong is going to have a big challenge, and if he survives the day with a plus score he'll be in fantastic shape heading into the last two rounds, when he'll be facing the current tailenders (Lenderman and Ramirez). So has the toughest final day, with Black against Robson and White against Nakamura. As for Robson, he has White against So (as already noted) and then Black against Ramirez.

There were lots of interesting games today, and you can replay all of today's games by the leaders, including So's round 5 win over Swiercz, with my comments.

Clutch Chess International, Day 3

Now that online chess makes our "job" as spectators even more taxing than it was in the OTB era, my motivation for resuming blogging has sunk back to its previous levels, very closely approximating zero. But I'll give it a shot for a few days more, and then we'll see.

So, on to the latest goings-on in the super-GM world of online chess. It's day three of the 2020 Clutch Chess International, and today's continued matches are between Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (So leads by 3 points) and between Magnus Carlsen and Jeffery Xiong (Carlsen leads by a single point). The action can be seen here; right now So-MVL is ongoing, and soon the other match will resume.

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.

U.S. Championship, Rounds 2 & 3: Xiong Still Leads

It's still early, of course - eight rounds remain - but it's so far, so good for 18-year-old Jeffery Xiong, who is having a spectacular March. First, he won the Spring Chess Classic in St. Louis with 6/9, ahead of superstars like Vassily Ivanchuk and Le Quang Liem, and now he leads the U.S. Championship with 2.5/3. He has gained 23 rating points this month, and is within 14 points of becoming the 6th U.S. player over 2700. His win in round 1 was already covered in the relevant post, and after a slightly hiccupy draw with Varuzhan Akobian in round 2 he won a crazy game against Sam Shankland in round 3 to regain the clear lead.

Three players are half a point behind: Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura, and Leinier Dominguez Perez. So ground out an endgame win against Timur Gareyev in round 2, Nakamura won a heavy piece ending against Sam Sevian in round 3, and Dominguez won a rook ending with an extra pawn against Ray Robson, also in round 3. That almost exhausts the wins so far, but there was also an endgame win by Sevian in round two against Awonder Liang.

The games from rounds 2 and 3 can be replayed here; I've offered some notes to Xiong's games. Finally, here are the round 4 pairings:

• Caruana (1.5) - Dominguez (2)
• Xiong (2.5) - Robson (1)
• So (2) - Shankland (1)
• Lenderman (1.5) - Akobian (1.5)
• Sevian (1.5) - Gareyev (.5)
• Liang (1) - Nakamura (2)

U.S. Championship, Round 1: Xiong Wins, All Other Games Drawn

The 2019 U.S. Championship started with four solid draws, a see-saw marathon draw between Awonder Liang and Alex Lenderman, and a win by Jeffery Xiong over Timur Gareyev.

Gareyev with White played very committal chess, and while it was objectively sound there was the danger that his far flung pawns would prove overextended. That's what happened after 20.Qf2 and especially 23.Bc3; Black's 23...b6 blew up White's brittle construction, and Xiong went on to win quickly and easily.

The longest game of the round by far was the draw between Liang and Lenderman. Lenderman was better much of the way and winning at times, though there was also a stretch where he was losing. Ultimately it came down to a double rook ending where Black had two extra pawns but a very poor structure. I think he was winning with best play, but it wasn't easy and by the time White escaped to a single-rook ending it was an easy draw. The game went 120 moves; hopefully they won't be adversely affected in round 2, which has the following pairings:

Round 2 Pairings:

• Xiong (1) - Akobian (.5)
• Caruana (.5) - Robson (.5)
• Lenderman (.5) - Nakamura (.5)
• So (.5) - Gareyev (0)
• Dominguez (.5) - Shankland (.5)
• Sevian (.5) - Liang (.5)

The round 1 games, with my comments to Gareyev-Xiong and Liang-Lenderman, are here.

Vachier-Lagrave vs. Xiong

This past Wednesday, Chess.com's Speed Chess Championship marched on with its penultimate first round match, between world #2 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and the young Jeffery Xiong. The video is here, and I'll give the result in the comments section, to avoid providing a spoiler to anyone who wants to enjoy the match as if live.

Wijk aan Zee 2017, Rounds 10 and 11: So and Xiong Lead Their Groups

With two rounds to go, it's looking good for a USA sweep of the gold medals. Wesley So won (convincingly, against Radoslaw Wojtaszek) in round 10 to put himself a full point clear of the field in the Masters group, and while Wei Yi closed the gap to half a point after defeating Sergey Karjakin in round 11 (Karjakin completely misplayed the opening and was losing after his 15th move) So is still looking good to win yet another super-tournament on his current hot streak.

Wei Yi was the only winner in round 11, but several other players came close. Tournament surprise Baskaran Adhiban was pressing with Black against Magnus Carlsen, and had a one-move chance to obtain a winning advantage. Had he played 34...Qg4!, intending ...Re3 or ...Ne3, he probably would have won to join the big tie for third. Anish Giri was completely winning from early on against Penteala Harikrishna, but he not only lost his advantage but even wound up with a losing position near the end. Richard Rapport was better against Loek van Wely early on, but near the end would have been lost had van Wely played 34...Bd7.

The other three draws were smoother for everyone involved. So drew Dmitry Andreikin without a speck of trouble on the Black side of a 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.Re1 Berlin; Ian Nepomniachtchi and Pavel Eljanov played a relatively long and hard fought game, but one that never got out of hand for either player; finally, Wojtaszek did have a pull against Levon Aronian, but didn't seem to miss any clear chances for a full point.

As for round 10, So's victory over Wojtaszek was already mentioned, and there were two other winners in the round. Karjakin beat Andreikin in an Italian game taking advantage of one inaccuracy at a time, while Levon crushed Rapport in a beautiful attacking game. The most noteworthy game among the draws was Eljanov-Wei Yi, which saw Black have a serious advantage before the time control and Eljanov a similarly large one after it before everything finished peacefully.

The decisive games from the last two rounds are here (with my annotations), and this is what the pairings look like for round 12:

• Aronian (6.5) - van Wely (2.5)
• Harikrishna (5.5) - Rapport (4)
• Adhiban (6) - Giri (5.5)
• Eljanov (6.5) - Carlsen (6.5)
• Karjakin (6) - Nepomniachtchi (4.5)
• So (7.5) - Wei Yi (7)
• Wojtaszek (4.5) - Andreikin (4.5)

Nice pairings on boards 4 and 6!

To the Challengers Group: Entering round 10 Markus Ragger and Ilia Smirin shared the lead with 6.5 points each, half a point ahead of Xiong and Gawain Jones. Ragger and Smirin only managed to draw (against Benjamin Bok and Erwin L'Ami, respectively), and they were caught by Xiong (who like almost everyone else in the tournament so far defeated Sopiko Guramishvili). Jones drew his game (with Lei Tingjie) to remain half a point behind, along with the surging Eric Hansen (who crushed Lu Shanglei in a great game that was the subject of my World Chess column this week).

In round 11 some stratification occurred. Ragger drew again, with Nils Grandelius, and for the first time all tournament was out of first place after one co-leader - Xiong - defeated the third - Smirin. Interestingly, the two players were half a point back also played each other, and Jones defeated Hansen (with Black) to join Ragger in second, half a point behind Xiong.

Here are the leading pairings for round 12:

• Tari (5.5) - Xiong (8)
• Ragger (7.5) - Van Foreest (3.5)
• Jones (7.5) - Dobrov (3.5)
• Smirin (7) - Lei Tingjie (3.5)

Xiong has his work cut out for him this round, but on the flip side he's the only one of the four with seven or more points to have White in the last round, and he also has the easiest opponent by far - at least in terms of the tournament scoretable - in that last game.