Calm Day in the Open, but Carissa's Streak Broken in Round Nine

IM Carissa Yip’s perfect run ended yesterday after a fighting loss to FM Megan Lee. Her lead in the U.S. Women’s Championship was narrowed to “only” 1½ points with two rounds to go. Comparatively, the Open section was much more peaceful, with the only decisive game not influencing the race for first. GM Fabiano Caruana maintained his half-point lead over second-place GM Awonder Liang after the pair drew their head-to-head game.

Women’s

Three decisive games in the women’s section did not technically change the rankings much, but they did end Yip’s previously realistic chances of earning the $64,000 Fischer Prize with a perfect 11/11 score. Both she and FM Megan Lee came ready for a fight after the rest day. After all, how often do you see White enticing Black to start a kingside pawn storm?

A full range of emotions during Yip's first loss of the event (All photos courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Though Black’s ambitious plans were not completely sound — with Yip having excellent winning chances at one point — tricky complications and a final blunder were ultimately enough to mark Yip’s first loss of the tournament.

IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova increased her lead over the third-place chasers and kept her chances of winning the championship mathematically possible with a strong positional game versus GM Irina Krush.

Tokhirjonova and Yu were able to close their gap with the leader after yesterday's wins

After a mostly even game, one of Tokhirjonova’s strategic threats went undefended, and suddenly Tokhirjonova had full control over the position.

WGM Jennifer Yu showcased her signature creative style to win a pretty 23 move miniature against WGM Tatev Abrahamyan. Castling on move seven certainly seemed logical, but Yu proved the king would only become a bigger target.

IM Anna Zatonskih had the chance to dampen IM Alice Lee’s podium prospects, with an advantage of over “plus five” at one point, yet the resulting crazy position ended up drawn.

The remaining two games were relatively smooth draws. FM Rose Atwell was not able to build up an attack quickly enough against IM Nazi Paikidze and, despite small chances for both sides later in the game, a draw was ultimately not a surprising result. WGM Thalia Cervantes briefly had a promising endgame against WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan, but she wasn’t able to convert.

One benefit of starting off a tournament with 8/8 is that even if you lose a game, you’ll still have a huge lead over everyone else. With two rounds to go, Yip needs only one point over her next two games to guarantee her second consecutive title. Tokhirjonova is also well-placed to finish in second, being ahead of the third-place pack by a full point. The key matchups today will be Zatonskih – Yip and A. Lee – Tokhirjonova, where we can expect more fighting chess as the tournament nears its fiery finish.

Open

The game between the leaders yesterday was a strong showing from Liang. Taking advantage of his opponent’s risky pawn break, Liang equalized comfortably and was the only one pushing in the resulting endgame.

Caruana also showed his world-class technique, holding on past the scary moment and maintaining his narrow lead.

The one decisive game took place between GMs Sam Sevian and Leinier Dominguez. Sevian’s initial aggression paid off, and he looked set to catch Liang in second with a win. Yet after a few inattentive moves from his opponent, Dominguez created counterplay and won.

The other three games were drawn, though there was one interesting variation that could have appeared in the game between GMs Levon Aronian and Abhimanyu Mishra:

GM Ray Robson couldn’t get more than a draw after GM Wesley So defended the black side of a Tarrasch endgame well, while Oparin – Shankland was drawn right out of the opening as neither side wanted to take too many risks.

With two rounds to go, the Open standings are as close as ever. Caruana has good chances, of course, but a half-point lead isn’t much of a buffer. Additionally, almost everyone can still fight for the top three spots. Dominguez – Caruana and So – Liang will be the main games to watch, with the leaders both having the black pieces.

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