Round Eight: Yip Still Perfect, Niemann Makes A Move

Today is the final rest day of the 2024 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship. With three rounds to go, IM Carissa Yip boasts a 2½-point lead over the field and is still in contention for the $64,000 Fischer Prize if she wins out. GM Fabiano Caruana still leads the open, but another draw gave GM Hans Niemann a chance to move closer to the leader.

Women's

It was another day at the office for Yip, who moves up to number 26 in the FIDE women's live ratings and improves to 17 wins, two draws, and zero losses over her last two tournaments.

WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan chose an aggressive set-up against one of Yip's increasingly trademark unconventional opening choices. But one slightly complacent bishop move allowed Yip to equalize and take the initiative from there:

WGM Tatev Abrahamyan moved back to a plus score with an incredibly complex game against FM Rose Atwell.

The final decisive game was IM Alice Lee's complicated skirmish against GM Irina Krush in one of many intra-Olympiad team battles.

The race for second place is still highly contested, as Lee moved within a half-point of IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova. With a $30,000 prize for second (and $20,000 for third), there's still a lot to play for even if catching up with the leader is all but impossible at this point!

Yip's next challenger will be FM Megan Lee, with Yip taking the white pieces. Other interesting match-ups include two intra-Olympiad duels in Zatonskih – A. Lee and Krush – Tokhirjonova. The battle between two former Olympiad teammates in Yu – Abrahamyan should almost certainly be a barn-burner, as well.

Open

The final round before the rest day was calm in the Open, with Niemann being the only victor.

Niemann had an advantage for most of the game against GM Abhimanyu Mishra, but tenacious defense from the patient prodigy brought him back within the drawing margin in the final phases of the rook endgame. But then...

Caruana preserves his half-point lead over GM Awonder Liang headed into the final three rounds. Adjusted for games played, Niemann is in third and GM Sam Sevian (who has played one fewer game than Niemann) is in equally good position to make a move up the leaderboard, especially with Sevian – Niemann looming in the final round.

The highlight of round nine should be Caruana – Liang, with the leader having a chance to pull away with a win, whereas Liang is looking to stay in the hunt and perhaps shake up the standings. Niemann will have the bye, and presumably be preparing for Tuesday's game with the white pieces against GM Grigoriy Oparin.

Games resume Monday, October 21 with live coverage beginning at 1:20 p.m. CDT. Rounds 10 and 11 will be Tuesday October 22 and Wednesday, October 23, respectively, with tiebreaks on the 24th if needed.

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