Clarity at the Top After First Third of U.S. Junior, Girls', and Senior Championships

We finally dipped below 50% decisive games, with “only” seven today, but out of these seven, more than half came from a single tournament.

SENIOR

The Senior section was a display of accuracy from all players, with four games ending in draws where neither player faltered for too long. In fact, everyone involved finished with above 95% accuracy.

Perhaps the most striking example came between GMs Melikset Khachiyan and Alexander Shabalov. After neutralizing Khachiyan’s opening advantage with almost perfect play, Shabalov entered an endgame where he was exerting pressure for a couple moves until Khachiyan diffused it with timely exchanges.

Khachiyan and Shabalov produced a fantastic game in the third-round clash of 2024 FIDE World Senior Team gold medalist teammates (Photo courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

Neither player gave an inch of space to the other, and while it’s probably not satisfactory to either competitor, a draw was only logical.

Make it a triple for Vladimir Akopian (Photo courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

The only player to strike today was the top seed and leader GM Vladimir Akopian. With an enterprising win over GM Larry Christiansen, Akopian takes a one-and-a-half point lead after just three rounds and sets himself up for a seemingly picture-perfect path to the title.

Girls’ Junior

In stark contrast to the Senior, the Girls’ Junior had only one game that didn’t end decisively. After nursing a sizable advantage for most of the game, WFM Megan Paragua settled for a repetition that WIM Iris Mou was only too happy to take.

Jasmine Su sits a half-point ahead of the field after three rounds (Photo courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

On the other hand, a win for WFM Rachael Li was a much-needed comeback that will have her looking to join the chasing pack in the coming rounds. With her win with the black pieces today, WFM Yassamin Ehsani has already joined this group of “chasers.”

Alice Lee scored her first win of the tournament in round three (Photo courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

In the clash between the two pre-tournament favorites, IM Alice Lee scored her first victory with the white pieces and returned to an even score, while FM Rose Atwell “fell” down to 50%.

In the final game, Jasmine Su made her mark on the tournament with a win over WFM Chloe Gaw that saw her take the sole lead over players rated more than 300 points higher.

JUNIOR

The Junior had two decisive games that shook up the standings. First, a second victory in a row from GM Balaji Daggupati allowed him to rebound spectacularly from a first-round loss as white. The result also added another struggle to IM Jason Liang’s tournament so far.

Balaji Dagupati is back in the thick of things after back-to-back win (Photo courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Then, the third consecutive win for IM Justin Wang also served as the third consecutive loss for 2023 U.S. Junior Open champion Nicholas Ladan, putting them on opposite sides of the standings.

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