2014 U.S. Championships: Fit to be Tied

2014 U.S. Chess Championship
USA USA USA
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Round #6 (Tuesday, 13 May 2013)
Overall
Table White Score Rating Black Score Rating Result
1 GM Onischuk, Alexander 3.0 2668 GM Kamsky, Gata 3.0 2713 ½-½
2 GM Lenderman, Aleksandr 4.0 2582 GM Shankland, Samuel L 2.0 2634 0-1
3 GM Naroditsky, Daniel 2.5 2543 GM Erenburg, Sergey 1.5 2633 ½-½
4 GM Molner, Mackenzie 1.5 2522 GM Robson, Ray 2.0 2631 0-1
5 GM Akobian, Varuzhan 3.0 2643 GM Ramirez, Alejandro 2.5 2595 1-0
6 GM Friedel, Joshua E 2.0 2505 GM Gareev, Timur 3.0 2653 1-0
Games

2014 U.S. Chess Championship

Shankland catching a glance at his nemesis.
Having a huge plus-score certainly helps his confidence.

Aleks Lenderman lost ground after losing to his nemesis in Sam Shankland. Shankland told commentator Maurice Ashley that he had a huge plus-score against Lenderman and went in very confident. In addition, he was able to catch Lenderman off guard, a fact that Lenderman confirmed in the post-game interview. Shankland nursed the pawn lead all the way until the endgame along with very active play. Ultimately, white decided to jettison another pawn to activate his rook, but this attempt was futile and Lenderman resigned.

Onsichuk-Kamsky had a very equal game throughout and nothing was made out of this conversation. Akobian-Ramirez had a long discussion in a Semi-Slav, a game that lasted 85 moves. The game was fairly balanced, but white had a slight edge in terms of space and his two bishops. Ramirez sacrificed an exchange for a pawn, but the compensation was rather dubious.

2014 U.S. Chess Championship

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Lenderman watches as he waits to be interviewed.

White kept prodding with his rook and while it appeared that black had a fortress the dominant white king would play a key role in breaking it. Ultimately black had to race toward the queenside to avoid being pushed into total passivity and losing his kingside pawns. However, white had it figured out and was able to use his king to stop the progress of the passed a-pawn white promoting his own f-pawn.

In Friedel-Gareev, black trotted out the “Hippopotamus” and this game went 25 moves before any material was exchanged. However, white was able to create a few weakness, most notably the queenside pawns. However, black had resources including 37…Bc6! which Friedel claimed his missed. The game went on and white decided that he needed to give up a pawn to get a winning endgame and he was able to do so with his technique.

2014 U.S. Chess Championship
USA USA USA
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Round #5 (Tuesday, 13 May 2013)
Women
Table White Score Rating Black Score Rating Result
1 WGM Abrahamyan, Tatev 2.5 2366 GM Krush, Irina 3.5 2489 ½-½
2 WGM Foisor, Sabina-Francesca 2.0 2238 WIM Zenyuk, Iryna 2.0 2249 ½-½
3 WIM Ni, Viktorija 1.0 2206 WGM Nemcova, Katerina 1.5 2282 ½-½
4 NM Eswaran, Ashritha 2.5 1979 IM Zatonskih, Anna 3.0 2469 0-1
5 WGM Baginskaite, Camilla 0.5 2267 FM Melekhina, Alisa 1.5 2151 ½-½
Games

Unlike previous rounds, the women had mostly draws with only Anna Zatonskih scoring the full point against Ashritha Eswaran. All the games were hard fought and it appeared that Alisa Melekhina would score against Camilla Baginskaite, but could not escape a perpetual check.

Irina Krush now has company in 1st place. Guess who?

Photos by Lennart Ootes.

All the other games were hard fought and went into endings, but were drawn. Abrahamyan-Krush saw tense moments because Krush had fallen behind a bit as Abrahamyan had gotten two rooks on the seventh. However, she traded a pair of rooks and no longer had any winning chances with her extra pawn.

The race has heated up with Zatonskih pulling into a tie with Krush with 4/5. The two have yet to play each other, but will meet in the penultimate 8th round. Both will play Melekhina in the remaining rounds. Will we have yet another showdown?

Catch live commentary of the event with GMs Yasser Seirawan, Maurice Ashley and WGM Jennifer Shahade at www.uschesschamps.com/live.

Official Site: https://www.uschesschamps.com/
Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2014/05/09/2014-u-s-championships-st-louis-usa/

One Comment

  1. 2014 U.S. Chess Championship
    USA USA USA
    St. Louis, Missouri, USA
    Standings (Overall)
    Rank Name Score M/F Rating TPR W-We 1 2 3 4 5 6
    1 GM Akobian, Varuzhan 4.0 M 2643 2706 +0.48 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1
    2 GM Lenderman, Aleksandr 4.0 M 2582 2734 +1.22 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 0
    3 GM Kamsky, Gata 3.5 M 2713 2693 -0.13 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½
    4 GM Onischuk, Alexander 3.5 M 2668 2665 +0.01 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½
    5 GM Gareev, Timur 3.0 M 2653 2585 -0.56 ½ ½ 1 1 0 0
    6 GM Shankland, Samuel L 3.0 M 2634 2637 +0.04 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1
    7 GM Robson, Ray 3.0 M 2631 2605 -0.23 1 ½ ½ 0 0 1
    8 GM Naroditsky, Daniel 3.0 M 2543 2610 +0.55 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 ½
    9 GM Friedel, Joshua E 3.0 M 2505 2602 +0.79 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1
    10 GM Ramirez, Alejandro 2.5 M 2595 2549 -0.41 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 0
    11 GM Erenburg, Sergey 2.0 M 2633 2504 -1.03 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½
    12 GM Molner, Mackenzie 1.5 M 2522 2423 -0.73 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 0
    All PGN Games (Overall)

    2014 U.S. Chess Championship
    USA USA USA
    St. Louis, Missouri, USA
    Women
    Rank Name Score M/F Rating TPR W-We 1 2 3 4 5
    1 GM Krush, Irina 4.0 F 2489 2501 +0.09 1 1 ½ 1 ½
    2 IM Zatonskih, Anna 4.0 F 2469 2476 +0.08 ½ 1 1 ½ 1
    3 WGM Abrahamyan, Tatev 3.0 F 2366 2400 +0.26 1 0 1 ½ ½
    4 WIM Zenyuk, Iryna 2.5 F 2249 2369 +0.77 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½
    5 WGM Foisor, Sabina-Francesca 2.5 F 2238 2284 +0.29 1 1 0 0 ½
    6 NM Eswaran, Ashritha 2.5 F 1979 2256 +1.64 1 0 1 ½ 0
    7 WGM Nemcova, Katerina 2.0 F 2282 2238 -0.32 0 ½ 0 1 ½
    8 FM Melekhina, Alisa 2.0 F 2151 2139 -0.10 0 0 1 ½ ½
    9 WIM Ni, Viktorija 1.5 F 2206 2081 -0.87 0 ½ 0 ½ ½
    10 WGM Baginskaite, Camilla 1.0 F 2267 1973 -1.84 0 ½ 0 0 ½
    All PGN Games (Women)

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