Round 3: Women Bring Fire to Board, Wesley So Takes Lead

Round 3 saw great attacking games in both the U.S. Championship and the U.S. Women’s Championship.

U.S. Women’s Championship

The women gave us several exciting and instructive games, with 4 decisive results.

Nazi Paikidze's victory over Tatev Abrahamyan vaulted her into a share of the lead (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

IM Nazi Paikidze won for the second day in a row, defeating IM Tatev Abrahamyan in a game that should find its way into best game collections or even textbooks of the future:

Alice Lee scored her second consecutive victory, putting her a half-point behind the leaders. (Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Alice Lee scored her second consecutive victory, putting her a half-point behind the leaders. (Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

IM Alice Lee also won her second straight game with an excellent positional game, sprinkled with crisp tactics:

Thalia Cervantes is on the board with her first win of the tournament (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

WGM Thalia Cervantes kept the pressure on for the whole game and won in a very counterintuitive rook ending:

Krush – Atwell — With her win over Rose Atwell, Irina Krush joins Alice Lee in a tie for third, a half-point behind Paikidze and Sargsyan. (Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

GM Irina Krush defeated FM Rose Atwell to bounce back from Monday’s loss to Sargsyan.

The game between WGM Jennifer Yu and IM Anna Sargsyan was a marathon draw. Jennifer had great winning chances in the middlegame but was very low on time and ended up having to defend with a bishop vs rook, where she had no problems.

Jennifer Yu (L) dashed Sargsyan's dreams of a Fischer Prize in Round 3 (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Pre-tournament favorite IM Carissa Yip is still finding her form, with a draw today against IM Anna Zatonskih.

Graphic courtesy of SLCC

After three rounds, Paikidze and Sargsyan are in the lead at 2½/3, with Krush and Lee a half-point back. Lee has White tomorrow against Yip in an early key game for the tournament.

U.S. Championship

Today’s round in the U.S. Championship was less combative than in the women’s section. In both GM Awonder Liang’s game against GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Hans Niemann’s game against GM Ray Robson, the players with White could not make anything of their tiny advantages. In each of GM Darius Swiercz’s game against GM Abhimanyu Mishra and GM Sam Sevian’s game against GM Levon Aronian, the player with the white pieces was unable to demonstrate the power of the two bishops in the Nimzo-Indian Defense.

Wesley So (L) took the sole lead with his win over Sam Shankland in Round 3 (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

GM Sam Shankland played a risky opening idea against GM Wesley So, who capitalized beautifully with a queenside pawn storm followed by a decisive undermining maneuver on the kingside:

GM Grigoriy Oparin deftly caught his opponent’s indecisiveness and built up a small advantage, but the game was decided by a blunder by GM Andy Woodward.

After causing problems for Niemann in Round 2, Oparin scored his first win of the event after an uncharacteristic blunder from Andy Woodward (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Graphic courtesy of SLCC

So is now the sole leader with 2½/3, but it’s still very early. He plays as Black tomorrow against Mishra, who hasn’t lost a game in about 70 tries. Caruana – Sevian is another key encounter, with Caruana having his third game as White in four tries.