Halftime Fireworks as Yip, Caruana Extend U.S. Champs Leads

Most major sports competitions go all-out for glamorous halftime shows full of bright lights and music reverberating throughout the stadium. Fittingly, Thursday's sixth round (of eleven) was its own halftime show of sorts. While it was the competitors themselves putting on the performance, there was plenty of dazzling chess to entertain us viewers.

So, unravel that chessboard, grab a snack, and set those mental cogs into motion, as round six of the 2024 U.S. Championships and 2024 U.S. Women’s Championships was quite the show, with seven decisive results ranging from clinical endgame victories to sharp middlegame skirmishes. 

Women’s 

In the Women’s event, we saw various innovative opening choices and tactical struggles as the players sought to close the gap with defending champion and current leader IM Carissa Yip. Yip, however, had other plans.

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With a victory over the sole chaser WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, Yip extended her lead to a full two points. Her 6/6 score takes her over halfway towards the coveted Fischer prize (an additional $64,000 for any player who goes 11/11 in either section). 

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A sharp line in the Italian and several aggressive pawn pushes showed that Abrahamyan was ready to fight right from the start, tearing open the center and implanting a white pawn on g7 as early as move 10. Abrahamyan defended tenaciously, trading all but one of the second player’s pawns, but that single soldier was enough for the 21-year old to seal the deal. 

Wednesday’s loss to Yip was a setback for IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova, but she course-corrected yesterday with a win over WGM Thalia Cervantes to improve to 4/6 and regain a share of second place. This game turned into a lovely example of “playing the full board,” as it was Tokhirjonova’s queenside that ended up winning the game. 

Another interesting matchup was IM Alice Lee’s game against WGM Jennifer Yu. While Yu has won the U.S. Women’s Championship twice already, Lee is fresh off her run of winning the Junior Girls’ Championship and scoring an individual medal at the Chess Olympiad. Today was Lee’s day, and she was able to convert the full point and join the chaser pack with 4/6. 

Also hopping into shared second place with 4/6 points was GM Irina Krush after her win against FM Rose Atwell, as the eight-time U.S. Women’s champion was able to combine both mating threats and promotion threats to bring home the victory.  

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The remaining two games (Pourkashiyan – M. Lee and Paikidze – Zatonskih) each ended peacefully in the endgame. Next round, Yip will face Paikidze with the white pieces, and all three chasers will take the black pieces: M. Lee – A. Lee, Atwell – Tokhirjonova, and Yu – Krush. 

Open

In the Open, players demonstrated precise technical skills and unwavering determination in seemingly drawn positions, showing us that there is always room to squeeze and apply pressure. 

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GM Fabiano Caruana, who recently returned to the second spot in the live ratings list, continued his winning streak and jumped into the clear tournament lead after grinding down GM Grigoriy Oparin in a level bishop-versus-knight endgame with rooks. 

After suffering a tough endgame loss in the previous round GM Leinier Dominguez bounced back yesterday, scoring his first win of the tournament against GM Abhimanyu Mishra. Funnily enough, the win came in the same rook-and-queen endgame Dominguez lost on Wednesday! 

Speaking of equal endgames, Shankland – Robson remained close to level for the first 28 moves of the game after mass trades in a Steinitz French led to an early endgame with equal pawns. 

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But GM Sam Shankland showed his chops there, defeating GM Ray Robson in a technical grind.

The remaining games Niemann – Aronian and So – Sevian both ended in draws after mass trades steered the game towards an equal rook endgame. 

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Today, GM Sam Sevian will take on Caruana with the white pieces and sole chaser Niemann will face Robson as Black. With 4/5 points, Caruana is in the lead both in terms of “raw” score (nobody else has four points) and adjusted score (most players in the top half of the standings have played six games).  In other words, Caruana’s lead is bigger than it looks.

Tune in at 1:20pm to watch the round seven broadcast with live games and commentary! 

Quick Links

Official website

Live commentary from Saint Louis Chess Club on Twitch and YouTube

All games on Chess.com: Open and Women’s

Round-by-round coverage on Chess Life Online

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