C-Squared: Caruana, Carissa are U.S. Champions

Nothing compares to the excitement of the final round. The audience loves the adrenaline, and the raised stakes can aggravate the pressure but also serve as a motivator for the players: a final boost to the finish. Round 11 of the 2023 U.S. Championships certainly lived up to the excitement, with the live cameras capturing nail-biting moments that could have been in a movie. We saw dozens of moves in mutual time trouble, with both players living off of the 30-second increment, and even witnessed the clock tick down to as low as a fraction of a second on one board.

After 11 long rounds and almost two weeks, the 2023 U.S. Championship has come to an end. GM Fabiano Caruana won the Open section with 8 points out of 11 and IM Carissa Yip emerged victorious in the women’s section with 8½/11. Although both the sections ended with a clear champion (meaning a tiebreaker match will not be needed), they got there in completely different ways.

courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC

courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC

In the Open section, Caruana entered the round with a 1½-point lead over second place, and thus had already defended his title from last year, earning $60,000 as well. Paired against GM Wesley So, the duo demonstrated incredible theoretical knowledge, blitzing out more than 20 moves of theory in a complex Nimzo-Indian. A draw was agreed on move 31, landing Caruana on 8/11 points and So on 6/½11 points, which was enough for the latter to tie for second place.

Another co-runner-up is GM Abhimanyu Mishra, who leapt to 6½/11 after prevailing against GM Levon Aronian. Mishra has had quite an amazing run this tournament.

Sevian (R) watches on over Mishra – Aronian (courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

The 14-year old already holds the record for youngest Grandmaster, and despite entering the tournament as the second-to-last seed, he finished way above his starting rank, holding his own and winning against many of the world’s strongest players.

Mishra and So are joined by GM Leinier Dominguez in the three-way tie for second, with each player taking home $35,000 (full results). Despite the title already set in stone, we still saw three out of six decisive games. In GM Samuel Sevian – GM Andrew Tang, a Marshall-esque pawn sacrifice quickly destabilized into chaos as both sides’ knights ran rampant to capture as much material as possible. Tang was temporarily up an exchange for a pawn, but with his trapped corner knight, it was Sevian who ultimately emerged up two pieces for a rook. It is worth noting that even as the tail-end, Tang will still be gaining rating points this tournament, showing that he is able to hold his own against such a field. Not bad for a first US Championship!

In stark contrast to the open section, the Women’s championship didn’t have a determined champion until the final minutes of the round. Both IM Carissa Yip and WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova had an amazing start, opening with 3/4 before the first rest day and both winning four in a row to land — still tied — on 7 out of 8 points.

Shortly after this picture, Yip left the venue to prepare for the likely tiebreak! (courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Going into the final round, the pair were still neck-and-neck, with Yip leading on 8½/10 points and Tokhirjonova just a half point behind on 8/10. Funnily enough, all six games ended decisively, but we’ll only focus on the ones contributing to the top three places. With the next person being more than a full point away from the leading duo, it was truly a two-person race, and the balance of the championship rested on just two games.

Alice Lee surveys her kingdom before clinching third place (courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

But before either Yip or Tokhirjonova’s games got anywhere close to their conclusions, FM Alice Lee finished her comeback and clinched outright third place on 7½/11 thanks to a nervy victory against a sharp King’s Indian.

The 14-year-old Lee will cross 2400 in the official FIDE ratings for the first time, and also earned $20,000 for her efforts.

Turning attention to the battle for first place (and $40,000), Yip was playing against wildcard FM Ruiyang Yan, and the pair both hit the ground running, with Yan’s king being forced to e7 as early as move seven due to a sharp choice in the Sicilian. As Yip clamped down on the weak d5-square, Yan slid her king to safety by manual castling, and the game quickly blew wide open with opposite-sided attacks.

A stellar tournament for the now-two-time champ (courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Yip knew that a win would net her the title without a playoff, and as someone who loves having fate in her hands, she valiantly pushed for a win in a drawish double rook endgame, declining repetitions to utilize her queenside passed pawns. However, Yan demonstrated strong knowledge of rook endgames, sprinkling Yip’s king with checks and stacking her rooks on the second rank in a classic “blind pigs on the seventh” setup. It looked like the game was veering towards a draw.

Simultaneously, Tokhirjonova was paired against reigning champion WGM Jennifer Yu, and although Tokhirjonova seized the advantage out of a Nimzo Indian with the bishop pair and superior central control, the game also seemed to sizzle out to a draw.

Despite a heartbreaking end, it is impossible to overstate how impressive Begim Tokhirjonova's performance was this year! (courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

But just when the tournament results seemed all but certain, time trouble struck. After playing hundreds of great moves in the ten games before, with only a few minutes on the clock, Yip made one natural-looking move which turned out to be a blunder. Suddenly, Yan’s blockaded passed pawn barged through to the finish line, winning a rook and the game.

All of a sudden, with a likely draw between Tokhirjonova and Yu, a playoff was on the horizon. Time trouble is relentless though, and it affects all players sooner or later. While Yip – Yan’s game saw the second player enjoy a significant time lead up until the end, Tokhirjonova and Yu saw mutual time trouble: a U.S. Championship title coming down to 30 second increment chess. When the camera panned towards Yu’s clock, the commentators sat with bated breath as it ticked down all the way to one second, lingering for a moment before Yu pressed it lightning-fast to evade flagging.

It wasn't the defending champ's year, but she still managed to make an impact on the final standings (courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

It was a sharp position with mutually unsafe kings, but Yu’s passed c-pawn, marching all the way to the second rank, tipped the tables in her favor. Capturing the blockader and dodging some checks, and that was all she wrote. It’s not every day you see Black’s king finish on c3 with queens on the board (at least, in a game when Black wins), but with the chaos of this game, it felt fitting.

With the conclusion of Yu’s “spoiler” victory, Yip’s 8½/11 took clear first and secured the championship. She did it before in 2021, also with the magic number 8½/11, but this tournament was definitely a much steeper emotional roller coaster compared to 2021, where she had clinched the title a round in advance. Tokhirjonova netted $30,000 for outright second. Full results are available here.

courtesy SLCC / Spectrum Studios

The U.S. Championships are getting more competitive every year, with a mixture of rising young stars and experienced veterans as well as several current or previous champion holders. GM Fabiano Caruana and IM Carissa Yip truly played great tournaments to prevail in such strong fields. Will they defend their titles next year or will a new king/queen overtake them? We’ll have to wait until next year to find out!

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