Reinforcements Arrive: Day 4 in Orlando

With the four Invitational tournaments completed, attention now turns to two events: US Chess organizational meetings and the US Open. Here’s how things stand with both after Day 4 here in Orlando. Welcome Delegates! US Chess Delegates and Committees began their work today here at the Rosen Centre Hotel, with committee sessions devoted to a wide range of topics, including Senior Chess, Women’s Chess, and Scholastic Chess. The Chess Journalists of America also holds its annual meeting today, handing out awards for excellence in chess journalism. [UPDATE - US Chess won many awards at the CJA meeting. Full results will be up soon at the Chess Journalists of America website! Congrats to all the winners!] New Delegates may want to attend the “New Delegates Seminar” held Thursday at 9am. Other highlights: The FIDE Arbiter Seminar got underway today and runs through Friday. Participants, all of whom are already experienced Tournament Directors, will gain necessary knowledge to become FIDE Arbiters through education and testing. https://twitter.com/HanSchutChess/status/1158404276550545409 Friday sees a presentation by NM Han Schut on the Stappenmethode or “Steps Method.” The Steps Method is a chess teaching method popular in Europe, and increasingly used here in the States. Schut is a certified instructor in the Steps Method and will offer a two-hour seminar at 2pm on the topic. Immediately after the Schut presentation and the Finance / LMA Trust Committee meeting on Friday, there will be a “Staff Forum / General Membership Meeting” at 4pm. US Chess staff will be on hand to talk and answer questions. Please try to attend! This all leads up to the Delegates Meeting on Saturday and Sunday. Delegates will hear the state of US Chess from the Executive Board and Executive Director, among others, and will vote on a number of motions from Delegates across the land. There is also an Awards Luncheon scheduled for Saturday at noon. And then there were two… The 94 players in the Traditional Schedule of the U.S. Open were joined by 153 of their comrades in the 6-Day Schedule last night. The 6-Day includes three Grandmasters – Illia Nyzhnyk, Elshan Moradiabadi, and Mackenzie Molner – along with four International Masters and one FIDE master. More than a few of the players in the four Invitational events are entered in the 6-Day, taking advantage of a generous half-price offer on entry for Denker, Barber, Haring and Senior players. All of the top boards came through the first round unscathed in the Six-Day. Nyzhnyk was the first to finish, defeating young Amit Mydukur in a miniature.

[pgn]

[Event "US Open 6-day"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.08.06"]
[Round "1.53"]
[White "Mydukur, Amit"]
[Black "Nyzhnyk, Ilya"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D20"]
[PlyCount "42"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.08.07"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4 e5 4. Bxc4 Qxd4 5. Qe2 Bb4+ 6. Nd2 Bxd2+ 7. Bxd2 Qxb2
8. Rd1 Nf6 9. Nf3 O-O 10. O-O Nc6 11. Rb1 Qc2 12. Rfe1 Bg4 13. Rxb7 Bxf3 14.
gxf3 Nd4 15. Qd3 Qxd2 16. Qxd2 Nxf3+ 17. Kg2 Nxd2 18. Rxc7 Nxc4 19. Rxc4 Rfc8
20. Rec1 Rxc4 21. Rxc4 Kf8 0-1

[/pgn]

IM Justin Sarkar got on the scoreboard with a nice sacrificial attack.

[pgn]

[Event "US Open 6-day"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.08.06"]
[Round "1.56"]
[White "Sarkar, Justin"]
[Black "Pullela, Naren"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D60"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "2r2r1k/5pp1/p2qpn2/4N3/Pp1P4/4P3/1P3RPP/R2Q2K1 w - - 0 21"]
[PlyCount "23"]
[SourceVersionDate "2019.08.07"]

21. Rxf6 gxf6 22. Qh5+ Kg7 23. Qg4+ Kh7 24. Qh4+ Kg7 25. Rf1 fxe5 26.
Qg5+ Kh8 27. Rf6 Rc1+ 28. Kf2 Rc2+ 29. Ke1 Rc1+ 30. Kd2 Rc2+ 31. Kxc2 b3+ 32.
Kb1 1-0

[/pgn]

The Traditional Schedule played its fourth round last night, and the top twelve boards were broadcast on uschess.live. Only two perfect scores remain: Grandmasters Kamil Dragun and Victor Mikhalevski are both at 4/4, and meet in tonight’s fifth round. Mikhalevski will have the white pieces. Playing a theoretically important line in the Grunfeld, Mikhalevski gave up an exchange on move 18 for serious positional compensation. He ground down his opponent, Theo Slade, and took the full point in 43 moves.

[pgn]

[Event "2019 US Open 9-day"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.08.06"]
[Round "4.2"]
[White "Slade, Theodore"]
[Black "Mikhalevski, Victor"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D87"]
[PlyCount "86"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bc4 c5 8.
Ne2 O-O 9. O-O Nc6 10. Be3 Bg4 11. f3 Bd7 12. Rb1 Qc7 13. Bd3 Rad8 14. Qd2 Bc8
15. Rfc1 b6 16. Bf4 e5 17. Bg5 exd4 18. Bxd8 Rxd8 19. cxd4 Nxd4 20. Qe3 h5 21.
Kh1 Kh7 22. Nxd4 Bxd4 23. Qe2 h4 24. Rd1 Qf4 25. Qd2 Qxd2 26. Rxd2 Be3 27. Rdd1
Be6 28. Bb5 Rxd1+ 29. Rxd1 c4 30. Ba4 Kg7 31. Re1 Bd2 32. Rd1 c3 33. a3 Kf6 34.
Kg1 Ke5 35. Kf2 Kd4 36. Bc2 b5 37. Rb1 Kc5 38. Bd3 Bc4 39. Bc2 a5 40. Ra1 Kd4
41. Rd1 Bd3 42. Rxd2 cxd2 43. Bd1 a4 0-1

[/pgn]

Six players are in the 3.5 score group, including GM Jim Tarjan, held to a draw last night by Vyom Vidyarthi.

[pgn]

[Event "2019 US Open 9-day"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.08.06"]
[Round "4.3"]
[White "Tarjan, James"]
[Black "Vidyarthi, Vyom"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A26"]
[PlyCount "100"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. c4 e5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 g6 4. Nc3 Bg7 5. e4 d6 6. Nge2 f5 7. d3 Nf6 8. O-O
O-O 9. Nd5 Nxd5 10. cxd5 Ne7 11. Qb3 Kh8 12. Be3 c5 13. f4 b6 14. Nc3 Ba6 15.
Nb5 Bxb5 16. Qxb5 a6 17. Qb3 b5 18. Rf2 exf4 19. gxf4 Rc8 20. Rc1 fxe4 21. dxe4
Qa5 22. Bh3 c4 23. Qd1 Rce8 24. Bd4 Ng8 25. Bxg7+ Kxg7 26. Qd4+ Nf6 27. e5 Nh5
28. Rcf1 Qd8 29. Bg4 Qh4 30. e6+ Nf6 31. Rg2 Kg8 32. Bf3 Nh5 33. Bxh5 Qxh5 34.
Rg5 Qh4 35. Kg2 Rf5 36. Rxf5 Qg4+ 37. Kh1 Qxf5 38. Re1 Re7 39. Qe4 Qf6 40. Re2
Kh8 41. Rf2 Rc7 42. Re2 Re7 43. Kg2 Qh4 44. h3 Qf6 45. Rf2 Rc7 46. f5 gxf5 47.
Qxf5 Qxf5 48. Rxf5 b4 49. Rf1 c3 50. bxc3 bxc3 1/2-1/2

[/pgn]

The second round of the Six-Day is underway as this goes to press, while Round 3 of the Six-Day and Round 5 of the Traditional Schedules will take place tonight at 7pm. Quads, Quads, Quads There are always side events here at the U.S. Open, and one of the most popular (on days when there isn’t the G/15 Championship, like today!) are the Quads. Two sets of Quads are in the books, and here are the winners by section: Monday: A: Theo Slade; B: Bryan Weisz; C: William Bowman; D: Cannon Farragut; E: Samuel Mo; F: Benjamin Jiang; G: Sandra Hoffman and Joshua Titus; H: Callum Leys. Tuesday: I: Ryo Chen; J: Bryan Weisz; K: Brejesh Chakrabarti; L: Michael Schulte; M: James Weisz; N: Sandra Hoffman, Scott Leslie, and Varshini Venkat; O: John Jankowsky.

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