Nyzhnyk Wins U.S. Open; Moradiabadi Qualifies for U.S. Championship

Grandmaster Illia Nyzhnyk scored an astounding 8/9 to win the 2019 U.S. Open. He takes home $6400 for his efforts, plus a bonus of $200 for uncontested first place.

Anand Dommalapati and Illia Nyzhnyk (photo Hartmann)

GM Timur Gareyev lost to Nyzhnyk in the final round. A half-point behind Nyzhnyk, Gareyev burned bridges to try and take the full point, but came up short. The game is also annotated in Kostya Kavutskiy’s final Game of the Day report.

[pgn]

[Event "2019 US Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.08.11"]
[Round "9.1"]
[White "Gareyev, Timur"]
[Black "Nyzhnyk, Illia"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D44"]
[WhiteElo "2682"]
[BlackElo "2760"]
[PlyCount "56"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Bg5 Bb4+ 5. Nc3 dxc4 6. e3 b5 7. a4 c6 8. Nd2
a6 9. axb5 cxb5 10. Nxb5 axb5 11. Rxa8 Bb7 12. Bxf6 gxf6 13. Ra1 e5 14. Qh5 O-O
15. Be2 exd4 16. Qxb5 Bxd2+ 17. Kxd2 dxe3+ 18. Ke1 Bxg2 19. Rd1 Qc7 20. Rg1
Qxh2 21. Rxg2+ Qxg2 22. fxe3 Nc6 23. Qxc4 Rb8 24. Qc3 Ne5 25. b4 h5 26. Qd4 Rc8
27. Qd5 Qg1+ 28. Kd2 Qf2 0-1

[/pgn]

Grandmaster Elshan Moradiabadi qualified for the 2020 U.S. Championship with his Armageddon win over IM Bryce Tiglon. Moradiabadi had 7 minutes and 30 seconds on his clock to Tiglon's 10 minutes for the Armageddon game, but took draw odds in compensation. He won the game outright after a key error by Tiglon.

[pgn]

[Event "2019 US Open Armageddon"]
[Date "2019.08.11"]
[Round "10.1"]
[White "Tiglon, Bryce"]
[Black "Moradiabadi, Elshan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C65"]
[WhiteElo "2454"]
[BlackElo "2632"]
[PlyCount "122"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]
[WhiteClock "0:00:54"]
[BlackClock "0:00:44"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. Bxc6 dxc6 6. Nbd2 Be6 7. O-O Nd7 8.
Nb3 Bb6 9. Ng5 Bxb3 10. axb3 Qe7 11. Nf3 O-O 12. Nd2 f6 13. Kh1 Bc5 14. Nc4 Bd6
15. f4 exf4 16. Nxd6 cxd6 17. Bxf4 a6 18. Qe1 Ne5 19. Bg3 Rad8 20. Qf2 Qe6 21.
Rae1 Rf7 22. Bf4 Ng6 23. Bd2 Rdf8 24. Qf5 Qxf5 25. exf5 Ne7 26. Re6 Rd8 27. g4
Nc8 28. Kg2 Re7 29. Rxe7 Nxe7 30. Kg3 Kf7 31. Ba5 Rd7 32. Re1 c5 33. Bd2 Nc6
34. Bf4 Nd4 35. Bd2 Nc6 36. Bf4 Nd4 37. c3 Nxb3 38. Re6 d5 39. h4 d4 40. c4 b5
41. cxb5 axb5 42. Rb6 b4 43. g5 Na1 44. Bd6 Nc2 45. Bxc5 Ne1 46. Bxb4 Nxd3 47.
Bd2 Ne5 48. Rb4 g6 49. fxg6+ hxg6 50. gxf6 Kxf6 51. Rb8 Kf5 52. b3 Ke4 53. Re8
Rb7 54. b4 Kd5 55. Rd8+ Ke4 56. Re8 Kd5 57. Rc8 Ke4 58. Rc5 Nf3 59. Bf4 Rxb4
60. Rc6 Ne5 61. Re6 Rb3+ 0-1

[/pgn]

Final standings: 8.0 – Nyzhnyk 7.5 – Bruzon Batista, Dragun 7.0 – Swiercz, Mikhalevski, Moradiabadi, Shabalov, Barcenilla Jr, Molner, Sarkar, Tiglon, Burnett, Triplett. Section winners: http://www.uschess.org/results/2019/usopen/?page=WINNERS&xsection=usopen