Krush Repeats, Nakamura Survives in American Cup Grand Finals

After a week of play, it was finally time for the American Cup to come to an end. But first, in each section, the winner of the elimination bracket would have a chance to take revenge against the player that relegated them to the rapid and blitz bracket in the first place.

If the player from the champion’s bracket wins this match, then they win the tournament. But if the Elimination bracket player wins, a second match is played. In other words, So would need to defeat Nakamura in both a classical match and an ensuing rapid match, and likewise for Lee over Krush.

No rest! Nakamura was in for a challenge in the first grand finals match (courtesy SLCC)

After two classical games, Nakamura and So’s match ended up going to rapid tiebreaks. So then vanquished Nakamura by claiming both games in the rapid playoffs. This set up the first time in the American Cup that a second final match was needed.

In the Nakamura-So match, the first classical game was very exciting, with Nakamura having two rooks versus So’s queen after several pawn exchanges in the center. Both sides had chances to win the game, with a double-blindness moment, where Nakamura allowed So to check with his queen to move to an active square, but So did not give the check. The game also ended in a draw by an unusual stalemate, with White having two rooks versus Black’s knight with six pawns on the board!

The second classical game was relatively balanced, with no side making any significant mistakes, so the match moved to rapid games.

"Did you know I'm the Rapid Global Champion?" (courtesy SLCC)

So won the first rapid game as White by launching a pawn attack on Nakamura’s king on the queenside, which became hard to defend after So got his pawn on a5.

In a must-win situation, Nakamura went for a relatively quiet Nimzo-Indian with e3 and Bd2, but So found counterplay for Black and played the creative 18. ...Bf3, which damaged White’s pawn structure. Nakamura had a winning chance for one move with a difficult sequence of moves, but he soon lost the advantage and So was not in danger of being worse. Nakamura tried to press for a win in the ensuing queen endgame but ended up losing the game.

A dejected Nakamura realizing he had another day of work ahead of him (courtesy SLCC)

After two losses, Nakamura needed to bounce back the next day in a match of two 25-minutes rapid games played with ten-second increment. Since Nakamura never had to play an elimination match, this would be his first time playing at this time control, whereas So should have more familiarity after winning the elimination bracket. After three draws without serious chances from any player, So got his queen trapped early in the middlegame of the fourth game.

It was not a happy ending for So, as he fought very hard, winning the second match on demand, and remained contentious in the third. Nakamura also showed resilience, recovering from two rapid losses on the previous day, and nevertheless, both players played a great tournament with many fighting games.

Victorious! (courtesy SLCC)

In the Women’s section, Krush seemed to be cruising to a fourth match victory over Lee in two American Cups, winning the first classical game. But then Lee won on demand in the second classical game. Krush then scored 1½/2 in the rapid tiebreaks to win the tournament.

The finalists pose with a familiar sight (courtesy SLCC)

The match started with two decisive classical games, which was an exciting result for a final. In the first game, Lee plays a relatively new line (3. …e4) in the English Opening, and the position became double-edged with Lee having compensation for the pawn. Lee made a mistake trading her bishop for Krush’s knight, weakening her attack on White’s king.

The second game was a Carlsbad pawn structure with the bishops traded off the board, which made Black’s equalizing task easier. However, Krush ran into complications by taking the pawn on c5, leading to an isolated pawn. After further complications, Krush lost material from a concrete sequence of moves and could not save the game.

Giving it her all, Lee forced tiebreaks by defeating Krush in classical chess for the first time in her career (Courtesy SLCC)

Because the classical games were tied, the match moved to ten-minute rapid games with only five seconds of increment per move. The first rapid game was a rook endgame with equal material, and under time trouble, Lee made an inaccuracy that lost her a pawn (but not the game, objectively) before making a mistake to lose a second pawn.

In the last rapid game, Lee was in a must-win situation with the Black pieces and played a dubious Benoni-type structure where Krush had a large space advantage. Krush was not in losing territory, but Lee could have chances in the knight endgame where Krush was in time trouble. She was persistently searching for chances in a seemingly hopeless position.

This was a very hard-fought match, with Lee having the upper hand in the first rapid game, but making mistakes under time trouble in the endgame. Although Krush has won the tournament twice, Lee will have more chances in the future to win the highest-level tournaments.