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Cream of the crop for quad final

By on May 20, 2010 in

Saint Louis – Four players have survived and advanced to the quad finals of the 2010 U.S. Championship, but the results of round seven do not tell the full story. Though a casual glance will show that the top three boards ended in draws, the uncompromising play brought the tournament to within a whisker of a large tiebreaker for the four-player round robin.

Board one was the first to finish, but the relatively peaceful draw between GM Yury Shulman and GM Alex Onischuk that qualified both for the quad did little to portend the action on the next two boards. “I had a little advantage, typical for a Queen’s Gambit Declined,” Shulman said.

Benjamin wins --- Benjamin loses

By on May 20, 2010 in

I finally won a game, and it was not bad. I was white against ICC online qualifier Levon Altounian. I was slightly better for most of the game, and Levon capitulated with time trouble looming.

The tournament is going into round 6 with a lot of excitement, and at least 10 players are still in the hunt to try to qualify for the final Quad. I am guessing the four players will have +4 and +3 who make the final quad, and, at the moment, there is a two way tie for first with Kamsky and Onischuk, who are both playing great chess! The big surprise is Jesse Kraai, who won with black against Jaan Ehlvest. Jesse has 3.5 and is tied for third. Jesse gets black once again, against his biggest challenge of the event, defending Champion Hikaru Nakamura.

Usual suspects poised to advance to quad final

By on May 20, 2010 in

Saint Louis, May 19, 2010 – With one round to play before the field splits for the three-round quad finale, four of the top five seeds from the 2010 U.S. Championship have given themselves the best chance of qualifying.

An uneventful draw between the pre-round leaders and two decisive games on boards two and three have landed GM Gata Kamsky, GM Alex Onischuk, GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Yury Shulman atop the tables with 4.5/6. The four players, which comprised 80 percent of the last U.S. Olympiad Team, are all undefeated with three wins and three draws each.

Moving day in St. Louis; Kamsky and Onischuk driving the U-Haul

By on May 19, 2010 in

St. Louis, May 19, 2010 – With a field of seven players jumbled at the top of the tables, only two players managed to continue their winning ways at round five of the 2010 U.S. Championship, held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. GM Gata Kamsky and GM Alexander Onischuk, the second and third seeds, both won as White and are all alone at 4/5.

Kamsky had one of the shorter games of the day as he dispatched three-time champion GM Larry Christiansen on the White side of an offbeat Ruy Lopez. Building a huge center with the one-two punch 10. d4 and 11. f4., he preceded the advances with a queen sortie that he called a “gorgeous idea.” Together, the moves gave Kamsky the initiative. Kamsky’s goal was to turn the tables on Christiansen.

Two more draws

By on May 18, 2010 in

[imagefield_assist|fid=4444|preset=frontpage_200x200|lightbox=true|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=200]Two more games, two more draws, although not for wont of trying! I had white against Gregory Kaidanov in round 3 and drew an interesting game where I sacrificed a piece and then another for good measure! The second piece was poisoned, so, I was *only* down one piece, and the game was quite complicated, but ended in a fair draw. After the game, Kaidanov said he completely missed the piece sacrifice and thought I had good compensation.

Actually, I only sacrificed a piece because I was not satisfied with the alternatives. Round 4 saw an interesting Old Indian against Aleksandr Lenderman. I was worse in the early middlegame, then my opponent pushed too many pawns too far, and was slightly overextended. Not liking his position, Lenderman took a page from my book, and sacrificed a piece of his own!

Logjam at top of leaderboard

By on May 17, 2010 in

On board one, GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Alex Onischuk had the quickest game of the day. After a few brief fireworks out of the opening, Onischuk continued his usual solid ways to earn the half point as Black. He has now extended his record U.S. Championship unbeaten streak to 45 games. His only loss was in the 2004/5 event, and Onischuk came in to the tournament with the third highest lifetime win percentage ever, behind Bobby Fischer and Reuben Fine.

Leaders draw, four-way tie at top

By on May 16, 2010 in

St. Louis, May 16, 2010 – GM Gata Kamsky and GM Hikaru Nakamura have met over the board three times, and all three games failed to produce a winner. They battled to a 37-move draw Sunday at the 2010 U.S. Championship, held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. Their draw last year at the same event was two fewer moves, but both games were hard fought.

Nakamura showed his willingness to fight as Black, playing the uncompromising King’s Indian Defense, which has seen a revival of sorts at the championship. For the second round in a row, two games featured the opening, the other being GM Yury Shulman against GM Alex Shabalov.

2010 U.S. Champs

By on May 16, 2010 in

[imagefield_assist|fid=5021|preset=frontpage_200x200|title=|desc=|link=none|origsize=|align=left|width=200|height=200]Hi everyone! I wish my first 2010 U.S. Champ blog post had better news, but, as I said after I drew round 1, "I have more points now than before the round started!" So far, I have 0.5 out of 2, drawing against Var Akobian in round 1 and losing to Alexander Shabalov in round 2. I have white against Gregory Kaidanov tomorrow.

The tournament has featured quite a few decisive results, and thus far, the two main favorites, Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky are the only players with 2 out of 2, and Gata will have white against Hikaru in round 3.

Second round whittles field of perfection down to two

By on May 15, 2010 in

[imagefield_assist|fid=4192|preset=frontpage_200x200|lightbox=true|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=200]St. Louis, May 15, 2010 – Chess fans will not have to wait much longer for the strongest matchup of the 2010 U.S. Championship, as the top two seeds will face each other in round three. Both GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Gata Kamsky, the first and second seeds of the tournament, won again today to push their totals to 2-0. They are the only players with perfect scores, and tomorrow Kamsky will have White.

Nakamura began gaining a useful spatial advantage against recent high-school graduate GM Robert Hess, who was last year’s Cinderella story at the championship. Hess claimed he had no idea what opening to prepare for. In the middlegame, Hess said he felt he could not stand by and allow the White f-pawn to advance.

2010 Championship sees fighting chess, Krush victory

By on May 15, 2010 in

[imagefield_assist|fid=4165|preset=frontpage_200x200|lightbox=true|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=200]The first round of the 2010 U.S. Chess Championship, held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, produced an uncharacteristically high number of decisive games, with eight out of 12 games yielding a winner. Normally at top levels of chess a draw rate of more than 50 percent would not be abnormal.

As the tournament began, the Swiss system pairing format pitted the top players against the bottom players. But since the tournament only invites the top rated players and makes open qualification difficult, there are no easy opponents in the 24-player field.