Lee and Yoo Win Junior Championships, Kraai Clear Second in Senior

Two new champions were crowned in St. Louis yesterday: GM Christopher Yoo in the Junior championship, and IM Alice Lee in the Girls’ Junior. They join GM Vladimir Akopian, who already won the Senior Championship with a round to spare, in a rare occurrence: the top seed in each section won the tournament!

Vladimir Akopian still had to "show up for work" on Thursday, despite winning the tournament with a round to spare. (Photo courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Junior

Yoo led by half a point prior to the last round, but he left nothing to chance as he beat GM Balaji Daggupati convincingly. The choice of the sharp Shabalov-Shirov Gamit in the Semi-Slav paid off nicely, as a mistake by Daggupati on move 16 already left Yoo with a winning position.

As it turns out, even a draw would have sufficed for Yoo: each of the players within striking distance of Christopher — GM Andrew Hong and IM Jason Wang — lost their games. Hong’s interpretation of the Fianchetto Grunfeld was suitably sharp for a must-win game, but a series of mistakes allowed IM Justin Wang to take over the game and win. Jason, facing GM Andy Woodward as Black, also sought to unbalance the game early on, but Andy was unperturbed and scored a fine positional victory:

As a result, Christopher Yoo won his second U.S. Junior Championship; the first came in 2022, whereas the young star elected not to play in the 2023 edition. Yoo finished a clear point ahead of second place.

Interestingly, much of his dominance came from his consistency against the bottom half of the field: Yoo drew the players who finished in second through fifth, and he beat everybody who finished in the bottom half!

Yoo — Photos courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC

Yoo — Photos courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC

The $12,000 first prize will surely be welcome for Yoo, but perhaps even more importantly, this victory secured Yoo a spot in the U.S. Championships later this year.

Thanks to his win against Hong, Justin Wang finished in clear second place – a strong performance for the Texan IM, who now combines chess with his studies at the University of Texas, Austin.

Graphic courtesy of SLCC

Finally, I should also mention a major upset in the Junior Championship: Nicolas Ladan, the only untitled player in the tournament, scored his first win of the event by defeating GM Arthur Guo with the black pieces. Ladan played stoically, successfully navigating his way through a series of messy tactical complications arising from a Steinitz Deferred:

Girls’ Junior

IM Alice Lee’s path to the title seemed less certain; playing Black against WFM Megan Paragua, she allowed an opposite-colored-bishop endgame (albeit with both pairs of rooks still on the board) straight out of the opening, seemingly nullifying her winning chances. At the same time, FM Rose Atwell was slowly outplaying WFM Rachael Li as White. If Lee drew, a win for Atwell would allow her to tie for first, forcing a playoff.

Photo courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC

However, Alice kept pushing. On move 61, Paragua made her first and only major mistake of the game. Lee took advantage, created a pair of connected passed pawns, and won the game to take home the title:

Overall, this tournament was a determined performance by Lee, who found the right balance of aggression and solidity to rebound from a rough start. She was rewarded by a $6,000 first prize.

In the end, Atwell did also win her game, finishing in clear second with 6.5/9. It was a convincing result – Rose’s only loss came to Alice in Round 3 – and a marked improvement over Atwell’s performance in the same tournament last year.

Atwell won her final game, but was not in control of her own destiny (Photo courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

At age 15, she can return to fight for the title for several years to come.

Graphic courtesy of SLCC

Of other interesting games this round, I enjoyed watching the unusual tactical motifs in the game between WIM’s Iris Mou and Omya Vidyarthi:

Additionally, WFM Yassamin Ehsani won an instructive endgame against WFM Chloe Gaw; a model game for those interested in playing this variation of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted as White:

Senior

In the U.S. Senior Championship, three players had a chance for second place: GMs Jesse Kraai, Joel Benjamin, and Larry Christiansen. Both Benjamin and Christiansen drew their games, while Kraai continued an impressive streak — winning his fourth game in a row, this time against GM Julio Becerra — to take home the $13,000 second prize.

It was a remarkable comeback for Kraai, who entered the event as the lowest-rated player in the tournament. After losing in the first round, he scored 6/8 and finished a full point ahead of Benjamin and Christiansen.

Jesse Kraai qualified via the 2023 U.S. Senior Open and, despite being the lowest-rated player in the event, finished on a four-game winning streak to claim outright second place! (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

Graphic courtesy of SLCC

And with that, another edition of the U.S. Junior and Senior Championships was in the books. I have provided annotations for this tournament in every year since 2021, and this event never ceases to inspire with its assortment of legends and future greats, and the fighting chess seen across the board.

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