Tactics Take Over Top Boards on Day Five of U.S. Open

No perfect scores remain in the traditional nine-day schedule of the U.S. Open. Five players are tied for first with 4½/5, including top-rated Julian Proleiko, who played a wild "three-result" game against Matthew Diao last night:

The current standings for the traditional schedule are available here. Tonight's sixth-round game is the final one before the players merge with the other two schedules for the final three rounds.

In the six-day schedule, every round is played at the same slow time control of the traditional, but players double-up their rounds on Wednesday and Thursday. Yesterday's second- and third-round games saw a number of tactical flourishes from the top boards.

FM Tanitoluwa Adewumi is the fourth-highest rated player in the six-day schedule (Photo by Caroline King)

A number of the top players were mentioned in yesterday's report, but now we have broadcasted games from their section, too! We have several grandmasters, a number of invitational champions, and this year's U.S. Cadet champion.

Below are highlights from each of their games:

Today is the second double-round day for the six-day schedule, with participants also playing two games on Friday (merging for the second one in round seven).

The four-day schedule also begins today, with a number of big names including GM Awonder Liang and GM Varuzhan Akobian among the highlights. These ambitious players will play four games at a faster time control today, and two more on Friday before merging for the seventh-round game Friday night.

Julian Proleiko won the U.S. National Game/15 Championship yesterday, finishing with a 4½/5 score a half-point ahead of CM Joseph Wan, FM Robby Adamson, Matthew Diao, and Stephen WIlly. Your humble reporter gave Adamson a run for his money, and was thoroughly outplayed in a tense Benoni middlegame by Diao, finishing with a moderately respectable 3/5 score.

Erik Tkachenko won Wednesday's top quad with a 3/3 score. Today's quads promise a higher number of entrants, as they are not held at the same time as another side event.

Committee meetings continue today, with your reporter racing off to the Executive Board open session the second this is published. This afternoon's meetings include the Women's Committee, Development, and the Safe Play Advisory Group session held ahead of the delegates meeting.

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