Beautiful Games and Missed Opportunities in Round Two of U.S. Championships

Carissa Yip leads the field with a 2/2 score, but three players (including Atousa Pourkashiyan, pictured) are coming into focus behind her (All photos courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

The second round of the 2024 U.S. Championship saw more fireworks than the first, with GM Wesley So and GM Sam Sevian becoming the first (and so far only) players to score wins.

In the 2024 U.S. Women’s Championship, IM Carissa Yip notched her second win in a row and now has a half-point lead over the rest of the field. However, what was more telling was who didn’t win. The second round was largely a round of missed chances – some understandable, and some inexplicable and heartbreaking.

U.S. Championship

2018 U.S. Champion GM Sam Shankland came extremely close to defeating GM Lenier Dominguez with the black pieces. As it developed, the game looked like a Shankland trademark: he seized the initiative as soon as possible and exploited his chances mercilessly when presented with them.

After finding all the right moves, Sam — with more than 20 minutes left on the clock — was just one decision away from scoring a major victory, and then the first of the day’s missed chances occurred:

Shankland is well-known for his hard work and discipline over the board, and such lapses in winning positions are rare for him. Hopefully, the overall quality of his play will be a consolation and an indication of things to come later in the tournament.

Something similar occurred in the clash between GMs Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian, who have both been rated as high as number two in the world. Aronian tried to surprise Caruana with the French Defense, but “Fabi” surprised Aronian in return with a rare line.

After unconvincing play from Black, Caruana methodically built up a strong attack. Uncharacteristically, however, he also faltered at the critical moment – first foregoing several promising attacking continuations, and then missing a direct combination that would have ended the game immediately.

Sevian won an important game as White against GM Ray Robson. The latter did not handle the nuances of the Jobava London well and allowed White an attack essentially for free. Sevian’s play was convincing throughout:

Finally, GM Wesley So took revenge on GM Christopher Yoo for their game in the 2022 U.S. Championship, where Yoo won with a brilliant sacrificial attack. This time, Yoo sacrificed a pawn early on, but never seemed to gain enough compensation.

Going into round three, the two leaders will both captain the black pieces. In Shankland – So, we will see whether Sam can shake off the disappointing end to yesterday’s game. In GM Abhimanyu Mishra’s clash against Sevian, anything could happen. Mishra is the youngest player in the field, and over half of his games in the 2023 U.S. Championship were decisive in one way or another along to Mishra’s eventual tie for second place.

Today’s remaining matchups are: Robson – Caruana, Niemann – Dominguez, Yoo – Oparin, and Aronian – Liang. Games can be followed live here.

Wesley So looks to improve on his early lead and is in pursuit of his fourth U.S. Championship victory.

U.S. Women’s Championship

IM Carissa Yip defeated newcomer FM Rose Atwell after the latter allowed her rook to be trapped in an unclear position. As a result, Yip moves to 2/2, her hopes of another title greatly aided by this strong start.

WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan has played in the U.S. for many years, but she changed federations from Iran only recently. As a result, this is only her second U.S. Championship, and it has gotten off to a great start.

Pourkashiyan (R) managed to defeat Tokhirjonova to join a tie for second place. Tokhirjonova won seven of her 11 games in 2023 and had a strong performance on the top board for the 2024 Olympiad team, so this is quite a victory for Pourkashiyan.

This round Pourkashiyan managed to defeat IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova with Black. Atousa equalized easily thanks to an opening surprise and then outplayed her opponent in a complicated rook endgame, which featured many interesting resources:

I grew up in Southern California watching the games of WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, and I am still rooting for her to win her first U.S. Women’s Championship title.

In an exciting game against IM Nazi Paikidze, Abrahamyan chose to sacrifice a piece immediately after time control and was rewarded for her fighting spirit:

In the only other decisive game, GM Irina Krush defeated WIM Megan Lee in a long fight. The result of the game was not clear until the very final moves, but in the end Krush navigated the sharp endgame better than her opponent.

In another missed opportunity, IM Alice Lee came very close to defeating WGM Thalia Cervantes in a bishop endgame, but did not find the winning idea. The whole endgame was very instructive:

Two rivalries highlight today’s pairings. First, Yip’s has white WGM Jennifer Yu is a battle of two two-time U.S. Women’s champions. The two undergraduate students have accounted for four of the past five titles in this event! Then, Krush takes the black pieces against IM Anna Zatonskih in a battle between an eight-time champion in Krush and a four-time champion in Zatonskih.

From the leaderboard’s perspective, the most significant of the remaining games is Pourkashiyan – Abrahamyan, which sees two of the three players a half-point behind Yip square off. All games and pairings can be found here.

Perhaps I am overstating matters — I spent the whole of Saturday doing non-chess work, so any chess at all seemed beautiful — but I found this round’s games to be really fascinating. There were a plethora of moments in both sections that I enjoyed analyzing, due to both their aesthetic and instructive value. I hope that the third round will bring more of the same!

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