2024 U.S. Championships Round One: No Fischer Prizes in the Open, Women's Favorites Jump Out to Quick Lead

On the eve of National Chess Day, the 2024 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women’s Championship kicked off at the Saint Louis Chess Club (SLCC) with two sets of ultra-competitive fields. The Open event got off to a cautious start, with nobody wanting to begin the 11-round competition with a loss, while the Women’s event saw players take more chances.

Tokhirjonova won seven games in 2023. Can the top board from the American Olympiad squad beat that score this year? She's on track, as Dr. Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield rings the opening bell. (All photos courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Will we see more fireworks for National Chess Day? Find out by tuning in live at 1:20 p.m. CDT to SLCC’s Twitch and YouTube channels.

WOMEN’S

Things picked up right where 2023 left off in the 2024 U.S. Women’s Championship, with IMs Gulrukhbegim “Begim” Tokhirjonova and Carissa Yip each winning their first-round games. As a reminder, Yip and Tokhirjonova each won seven of their 11 games last year, with Yip finishing a half-point ahead after a rollercoaster finish.

Yip (L) and Tokhirjonova both scored early victories yesterday. What's next for two of the favorites?

Yip won with the white pieces against WGM Thalia Cervantes, and Tokhirjonova set the pace as Black with a win over two-time U.S. Women’s champ IM Nazi Paikidze. Yip's win was clinical, while Tokhirjonova played imaginatively and patiently to overcome strong resistance. Interestingly, each player also made a well-timed trade of a bishop for an enemy knight to solidify their positional advantages:

Things were less rosy for the other members of the 2024 Olympiad squad. IM Anna Zatonskih handed FM Rose Atwell her first-ever win in a U.S. Women’s Championship, in a fine victory for the 15-year-old wildcard.

In her first-ever U.S. Women's Championship game, Atwell defeated Zatonskih with the black pieces for a stunning upset. After a strong U.S. Girls' Junior this past July, will Atwell keep up her winning ways?

Atwell managed to create significant problems for Zatonskih essentially right out of the gate. Just when the worst appeared to be over, however, Atwell uncorked a killer blow. Can you find it below (Black to play):

Black to play and win (position after 28. Nc5)

The solution can be found below. Read on!

GM Irina Krush and IM Alice Lee each drew their games, with Krush getting absolutely nothing as Black against WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan. Lee, also with the black pieces, had brief chances before the time control against WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, but was unable to make the most of them:

Yu came close to joining the leaders yesterday, and has clearly brought the fighting spirit fans have come to expect from her over the years.

Finally, two-time U.S. Women’s champion and former Olympiad team member WGM Jennifer Yu had the most tense game of the round, coming close several times to converting against FM Megan Lee before the peaceful handshake.

Today, two leaders square off as Atwell takes the white side against Yip. Tokhirjonova will also have the white pieces against Pourkashiyan. Full pairings and all games can be found here.

OPEN

There won’t be any Fischer Prizes in this year’s U.S. Championship, as all six games ended in a draw, dashing everyone’s dreams of an 11/11 finish.

Most of the draws were uneventful affairs, with all games remaining balanced for the entirety. The lone exception was GM Hans Niemann’s showdown against reigning champion GM Fabiano Caruana.

Niemann earned an advantage on the clock with a novelty early on in the Italian, and he translated that edge into a concrete one in the ensuing moves. But one impatient liquidation was all Caruana needed to regain his footing and reach a comfortable drawish endgame.

The other most intriguing match-up was between the reigning U.S. Junior champion, GM Christopher Yoo, and GM Abhimanyu Mishra, who happens to be the 2023 U.S. Junior champ. Mishra opted not to defend his title this past summer, while Yoo missed the 2023 edition of the tournament. What would happen when the two finally squared off?

Mishra came prepared to grind for a win with the white pieces, taking his time from the start against Yoo’s solid Petrov’s Defense. A novelty from Yoo on move 11 guaranteed a level game, after which Mishra was unable to create any semblance of imbalance.

Today, Caruana takes the first move against Olympiad teammate GM Levon Aronian, and we’ll see what else Niemann has prepared as he plays the black pieces against GM Awonder Liang. Two other pairings see veterans face off: GM Sam Sevian versus GM Ray Robson and GM Leinier Dominguez against GM Sam Shankland.

Liang and So share a laugh before their respective first games

Of particular interest will be how the two juniors fare with the black pieces, with GMs Wesley So and Grigoriy Oparin having the first move advantage against Yoo and Mishra, respectively.

Quick Links

Official website

Live commentary from Saint Louis Chess Club on Twitch and YouTube

All games on Chess.com: Open and Women’s

Round-by-round coverage on Chess Life Online

Follow #USChessChamps on X