Leaderboard Takes Shape Halfway Through Tournaments of Champions at U.S. Open

After the second day of games in Norfolk, Virginia, the traditional schedule of the U.S. Open is just getting started. 25 players still boast perfect scores after two rounds, despite a couple of upsets (more on that later).

The five tournaments of state champions, however, are a different story. After the first double-round day, there are between one and four players with perfect 3/3 scores in each section. By the end of today, we'll know who has the inside track on the title of "champion of champions" before Tuesday's final round.

Below are annotations from round two of the invitationals courtesy of IM Robert Shlyakhtenko and two from the open by your humble reporter.

This report will be updated later today with games and highlights from round three from Shlyakhtenko, who will also provide analysis on rounds four and five tomorrow. Commentary from WGM Sabina Foisor and Gopal Menon of round four of the invitationals is currently streaming on our Twitch and YouTube, with the duo back for round five tonight at 7:00 p.m. EDT.

Irwin

Defending co-champion IM Nikoloz Managadze (NJ, 2449) leads the Irwin outright with a 3/3 score. With wins over Mikhail Koganov (CT, 2223) and GM Larry Kaufman (MD, 2325), Managadze is looking to be in good shape to repeat as champion.

IM Nikoloz Managadze is the sole perfect score remaining halfway through the Irwin (Photo by Caroline King)

Eight players trail Managadze by a half-point, including five IMs! Don't be fooled: there has been no shortage of upsets, either. In round two, Maurice Dana (NC, 2206) took GM Alonso Zapata (GA, 2394) down to the wire before the latter succumbed to a tactical error:

Denker

Only two perfect scores remain in the Denker, with IM Gus Huston (NY, 2480) and FM Sharvesh Deviprasath (TX, 2540) set to square off today on board one.

Six players, including IMs Sandeep Sethuraman (AZ, 2479) and Max Lu (CT, 2479) trail the leaders by a half-point. Below is Huston's nice second-round victory:

Haring

Four perfect scores remain in the Haring, suggesting that tonight's penultimate round might finally deliver the rematch between FM Zoey Tang (OR, 2337) and WFM Megan Paragua (NY, 2226) from last week's U.S. Girls' Junior Championship.

For that to happen, Tang will have to get past Laura Alejandra Escobar (IN, 1662), who is coming off an upset of WCM Chance Nguyen (VA, 1978). Paragua will play WFM Angela Liu (CA-S, 2131). Given Escobar's track record and Liu's proximity in rating to Paragua, the "rematch" is hardly a given.

Some highlights from yesterday's game include Paragua's second-round victory and not one but two incredibly instructive opening traps:

Barber

As in the Haring, a quartet of perfect scores leads the Barber. But, unlike in the Haring, there are some conspicuous absences in this group. While second-seeded FM Brejesh Chakrabarti (FL, 2350) is in this group, neither IM Eric Liu (TX, 2446) or FM Bryan Xie (CA-S, 2337) made it through the second day of the tournament unscathed!

Top-seeded IM Eric Liu (R) was held to a draw by Anjanenya Rao in round three (Photo by Caroline King)

Chakrabarti will play CM Stephen Willy (WA, 2183), who defeated Xie in round three. The other two perfect scores are Jasmine Su (CT, 2243), who just happens to be a third participant from last week's U.S. Girls' Junior Championship, and Dattasai Kilari (MA, 2121). Kilari is coming off consecutive wins against Michael Li (NY, 2250) and CM Jeffery Wang (2233, CA-N), while Su delivered a nice win over Andrew Jing (DE, 2192) in round three.

Some highlights include Liu's second-round win:

Rockefeller

Four more perfect scores remain in the Rockefeller, led by top-seeded Ted Wang (WA, 2211), who plays as Black against Advik Prasanna (NC, 1922) on board one. Vivan Mulay (FL, 1998) faces Tanay Sanghani (SC, 1879).

Top-seeded Ted Wang still leads the way in the Rockefeller (Photo by Caroline King)

Wang's second-round win is included below:

Open

25 perfect scores remain in the nine-day "traditional" schedule of the U.S. Open, led by top-seeded Julian Proleiko (MO, 2354). Below is his win from last night:

Ritvik Maridi essayed the upset of the tournament so far, displaying inventive defensive skill against a positionally sound sacrifice and never looking back from there (Photo by Caroline King)

The biggest upset of the round was on board two, where Scott Ramer (FL, 2267) was defeated by Ritvik Maridi (TX, 1853) in an exciting affair:

And more!

The first of four U.S. Open daily quads began today at noon. Remember that tomorrow's tournament will be held at a longer time control than the authors. All information about these events can be found here.

Tyson Brady and Caleb Denby won the Weekend Swiss with 4½/5 scores. Full results can be found here.

Gnanadatta Rambha won the Junior High and High School Scholastic Championship with a 3½/4 score, and Cyrus Serrette won the Elementary School Scholastic Championship with a perfect 4/4 score. Standings and results from the "under" sections are here.

Anirudh Anand, age 9, won the 2023 Junior Grand Prix thanks to a very active (not to mention) successful year (Photo by Caroline King)

Finally, congratulations to Anirudh Anand on winning the 2023 Junior Grand Prix. It was a very active and successful year for the Michigan-based nine-year-old, whose rating went from 890 at the start of the year to 1535 by the end of December.

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