"All Aboard" Night at the US Open

  Thursday at the U.S. Open is the day all the players are finally onsite—403 at this 2017 version, the 118^th annual iteration without interruption. Six lead with 5-1. GM and 2017 U.S. Championship competitor Yaro Zherebukh (Missouri), GM Aleksandr Lenderman (New York)—who drew Zherebukh tonight after having a challenging position—GM Evgeny Postny (Israel), GM Sergei Azarov (New York), GM Sergey Erenburg, FM James Schuler, and FM Macon Shibut (all three of Virginia).

[pgn]

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.08.04"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Lenderman, Aleksander"]
[Black "Zherebukh, Yaro"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D73"]
[PlyCount "152"]
[EventDate "2017.08.04"]
[SourceDate "2017.08.04"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 c6 4. Bg2 d5 5. cxd5 cxd5 6. Nc3 Bg7 7. Nf3 Ne4 8.
Qa4+ Bd7 9. Qb3 e6 10. Nxe4 dxe4 11. Ne5 Nc6 12. Qxb7 Nxd4 13. Qxe4 Bxe5 14.
Qxe5 Nc2+ 15. Kf1 f6 16. Qe4 Rc8 17. Rb1 Ke7 18. Bd2 Bc6 19. Qd3 Qxd3 20. exd3
Bb5 21. f4 Nd4 22. Kf2 Rc2 23. Rhd1 Rd8 24. Bf1 Bc6 25. Bg2 Bxg2 26. Kxg2 Rb8
27. b4 Rbc8 28. Kf1 Rxa2 29. Ra1 Rcc2 30. Rxa2 Rxa2 31. Be3 Nb5 32. Rc1 Kd7 33.
h3 a6 34. Ke1 h5 35. h4 Ra4 36. Bc5 Nc7 37. Rc4 Nd5 38. Ke2 Ra2+ 39. Ke1 Ra1+
40. Kd2 Ra2+ 41. Ke1 Rb2 42. Re4 Rb1+ 43. Kd2 Rf1 44. Ke2 Rh1 45. Rc4 f5 46.
Bf2 Rb1 47. Be1 Rb2+ 48. Bd2 Rb3 49. Be1 Ra3 50. Bd2 Ra2 51. Ke1 Ne7 52. Rd4+
Kc7 53. Rc4+ Nc6 54. Kd1 Kd7 55. Ke1 Ra3 56. Bc3 Rb3 57. Ke2 Rb1 58. Ke3 Rh1
59. Ke2 Rh2+ 60. Kf3 Ne7 61. Bd4 Rd2 62. Ke3 Ra2 63. Kf3 Nd5 64. Bf2 Rd2 65.
Rd4 Kc6 66. Be1 Rb2 67. Rc4+ Kd7 68. Rd4 Ra2 69. Rc4 Nf6 70. Ke3 Ng4+ 71. Kd4
Ra1 72. Bc3 Rd1 73. Rc5 Nf2 74. Ke3 Ng4+ 75. Kd4 Nf2 76. Ke3 Ng4+ 1/2-1/2[/pgn]

But we need to explain the three-ring circus that is Thursday at the U.S. Open. It’s true everyone plays nine games at the U.S. Open. And it is an “open”—eventually. But three sections fill the ballroom on Thursday—not separated by rating ranges, but divided rather by how many days the entrants chose to play. The early arrivals, in the “traditional” schedule (although until fairly recent times, the tradition was 12 rounds!), started their one-game-an-evening pace on Saturday and so were in their sixth round Thursday. Nearly 130 players chose that leisurely pace. Zherebukh is top seed at 2731. He’s one of six GMs in the traditional schedule, including GM Angel Arribas Lopez (Texas), who lost Thursday night to Azarov. Veteran U.S. Open Champs and junior champs choose a faster pace At the same time, 185 players, who began the previous Tuesday night, electing the six-day schedule, played their fifth round Thursday night. Another section, another six GMs: Illia Nyzhnyk (Missouri), Ruifeng Li (Texas), Hall of Famer Joel Benjamin (New Jersey), Hall of Famer Alexander Shabalov (Pennsylvania), Holden Hernandez (Texas), Priyadharshan Kannappan (Missouri). Shabalov, with his swashbuckling take-no-prisoners style, has won or shared first at the U.S. Open seven times since 1993, including the last two. Benjamin has won four, starting in 1985. All the six-day warriors play two games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before easing up to one game on Saturday and Sunday. Three dozen competitors from the Denker, Barber and National Girls Tournament of Champions also joined the Open in this six-day schedule, after finishing their own six-rounders. In fact, Thursday night saw an interesting U.S. Open matchup between IM Praveen Balakrishnan (Virginia), who won the Denker Tournament of HS Champions and with it a $5,000 college scholarship sponsored by the US Chess Trust, and NM Annie Wang, who took clear second in the NGTOC.

[pgn]

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.08.04"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Balakrishnan, Praveen"]
[Black "Wang, Annie"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E05"]
[PlyCount "125"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 e6 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. O-O Be7 5. c4 O-O 6. d4 dxc4 7. Ne5 Nc6 8.
Nxc6 bxc6 9. Na3 Bxa3 10. bxa3 Nd5 11. Qa4 Nb6 12. Qxc6 Rb8 13. Qc5 Bb7 14. e4
Qd7 15. Bf4 Rbc8 16. Rab1 Ba6 17. Rb4 Bb7 18. Rc1 Rfd8 19. Be3 Bc6 20. Qa5 a6
21. Qg5 Bb5 22. Bh3 Rb8 23. d5 Re8 24. Bd4 f6 25. Qe3 f5 26. dxe6 Qxe6 27. Bxf5
Qf7 28. Bxb6 cxb6 29. a4 Bd7 30. Bxd7 Qxd7 31. Rbxc4 Rb7 32. Rc6 Reb8 33. Qb3+
Kh8 34. Qe6 Qxe6 35. Rxe6 Kg8 36. Rec6 Rd8 37. Rc8 Rbd7 38. e5 Kf7 39. Rxd8
Rxd8 40. Rc7+ Kg6 41. Rc6+ Kf5 42. Rxb6 Kxe5 43. Rxa6 Rd2 44. a5 Rxa2 45. Ra8
Kf6 46. a6 Kf7 47. a7 Kg6 48. f4 h5 49. h3 Kh7 50. g4 hxg4 51. hxg4 Kg6 52. f5+
Kh7 53. Kf1 Ra5 54. Ke2 Ra3 55. Kd2 Ra4 56. Kc3 Ra5 57. Kc4 Ra1 58. Kd5 Ra6 59.
Ke5 Ra5+ 60. Ke6 Ra6+ 61. Ke7 Ra5 62. Kf7 Ra4 63. g5 1-0[/pgn]

Balakrishnan ground out a win to chalk up 4.5-.5. He joins Nyzhnyk, Li, Benjamin, IM Craig Hilby (California), and FM Sam Schmakel (Illinois) at the top of the six-day group. Frenetic four-day schedule On Thursday at noon, 89 players bolted into the Open, choosing to play all nine games in four days. Five GMs decided on this dash: Conrad Holt (Kansas), Joshua Friedel (Wisconsin), Gil Popilski (Texas), Rogelio Barcenilla (Arizona), and Hall of Famer John Fedorowicz. “Fed,” a favorite teacher and youth-team coach, won the U.S. Open in 1980 and has had strong comeback results at recent Opens. Friedel won it in 2013. Holt won in 2014. The group contests four games on Thursday before they can grab some sleep and play three more games Friday. IM Dmitry Gordievskiy (Russia), Friedel, and Barcenilla scooted to a narrow early lead with 4-0. Friday, the six-day group will play their round six at noon. The four-day section will play at noon and 3 p.m. Then, at 7 p.m., all the U.S. Open players will at last sit together in a single 403-player section for three traditional rounds that will end the championship on Sunday. It will then really be the U.S. “Open.” Follow along on the official site, where you can find results and pairings, live games. Also follow us on @USChess for tweets and more pictures from the site.