The Merge: Day 7 from Orlando

Everyone who has played a U.S. Open knows about “The Merge.” Trying to accommodate as many players as possible, US Chess offers three schedules for the Open: a 9-Day (one round a day), a 6-Day (two rounds a day), and a 4-day (up to four games a day). All three schedules are merged for Friday night’s Round 7. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/1159961062130835461 Today’s Open player is used to seeing pairings up on uschess.org well before their rounds start. With the Merge, however, pairings are sometimes delayed, posted right before games start at 7pm or (if memory serves) even just on paper in the ballroom. For information junkies like me, this can feel utterly nervewracking. But this year’s Merge was different. It was efficient. It was prompt. It was easy. And that has everything to do with the hard work in the backroom, headed by Backroom Chief Joe Yun. Here Joe explains that, contrary to this club TD’s understanding, the Merge is actually not that difficult to pull off. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/1159955300197310464 Heading into the Merge, four players were at 5.5/6. GM Illia Nyzhnyk was one of them, continuing his impressive run of form in the Six-Day with this demolition of IM Justin Sarkar’s defenses in Friday’s afternoon round.

[pgn]

[Event "2019 US Open"]
[Date "2019.08.09"]
[Round "6.1"]
[White "Nyzhnyk, Illia"]
[Black "Sarkar, Justin"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A30"]
[PlyCount "47"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. b3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Bb2 Nc6 6. Nc3 e5 7. e3 f6 8. Nxd5
Qxd5 9. Bc4 Qd6 10. d4 cxd4 11. exd4 e4 12. Qe2 Qe7 13. Nd2 f5 14. O-O Bd7 15.
d5 Nd8 16. d6 Qxd6 17. Nxe4 fxe4 18. Qxe4+ Be6 19. Rfe1 Be7 20. Bxg7 Rg8 21.
Qxh7 Bxc4 22. bxc4 Rxg7 23. Qxg7 Nc6 24. Qg8+ 1-0

[/pgn]

Three players from the 4-Day – GMs Dariusz Swiercz, Lazaro Bruzon Batista, and Timur Gareyev – also got to the Merge with 5.5 points. The two top seeds from the 9-Day, GMs Kamil Dragun and Victor Mikhalevski, were in the large pack of players a half-point behind at 5.0/6. Top board pairings for Round 7 were: Bruzon Batista – Nyzhnyk Gareyev – Swiercz Burnett – Dragun Mikhalevski – Zhang Moradiabadi – Proleiko Mitrov – Paul Bruzon Batista and Nyzhnyk, both linked to the Webster chess program, drew fairly quickly.

[pgn]

[Event "2019 US Open"]
[Date "2019.08.09"]
[Round "7.1"]
[White "Bruzon Batista, Lazaro"]
[Black "Nyzhnyk, Illia"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C47"]
[WhiteElo "2718"]
[BlackElo "2760"]
[PlyCount "41"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Bb4 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Bd3 d5 8.
exd5 O-O 9. O-O Bg4 10. f3 Bh5 11. Bg5 cxd5 12. Bxf6 Qxf6 13. Nxd5 Qxb2 14. Rb1
Bc5+ 15. Kh1 Qe5 16. f4 Bxd1 17. fxe5 Bg4 18. h3 Bd7 19. Nxc7 Rac8 20. Nd5 Rfe8
21. Rfe1 1/2-1/2

[/pgn]

The Gareyev-Swiercz game was also drawn, although it took quite a bit longer. Swiercz was down to 4 seconds before making his last move.

[pgn]

[Event "2019 US Open"]
[Date "2019.08.09"]
[Round "7.2"]
[White "Gareyev, Timur"]
[Black "Swiercz, Dariusz"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E14"]
[WhiteElo "2682"]
[BlackElo "2756"]
[PlyCount "50"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. e3 b6 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bd3 Bb7 7. O-O Bd6 8. b3
Qe7 9. Bb2 Nbd7 10. Nc3 a6 11. a4 O-O 12. a5 b5 13. Ne2 Ne4 14. Ne1 Qh4 15. g3
Qh6 16. Ng2 f5 17. f3 g5 18. Bc2 Ndf6 19. b4 Qh3 20. Qe1 Rae8 21. Kh1 Bc8 22.
Ng1 Qh6 23. Ne2 Qh3 24. Ng1 Qh6 25. Ne2 Qh3 1/2-1/2

[/pgn]

With these two draws, the four players enter tonight’s round 8 with 6/7. They are joined there by seven others: GMs Kamil Dragun, Victor Mikhalevski, Elshan Moradiabadi, and Robert Hungaski; IMs Daniel Fernandez and Bryce Tiglon, and FM Justin Paul. Of these eleven, Swiercz, Gareyev, Moradiabadi, Hungaski, Fernandez, Tiglon and Paul are eligible to win the seat in the 2020 U.S. Championship. Perhaps Moradiabadi (who nearly lost in Round 6, saving a draw against Tiglon), Paul, and Fernandez had the most interesting battles among the games broadcast on uschess.live.

[pgn]

[Event "2019 US Open"]
[Date "2019.08.09"]
[Round "7.5"]
[White "Moradiabadi, Elshan"]
[Black "Proleiko, Julian"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A11"]
[WhiteElo "2632"]
[PlyCount "65"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 c6 3. g3 Bg4 4. Bg2 e6 5. O-O Nd7 6. cxd5 exd5 7. h3 Bh5 8. d4
Ngf6 9. Qb3 Qb6 10. Qe3+ Be7 11. Nh4 Bg6 12. Nc3 Kf8 13. Nxg6+ hxg6 14. Qd3 Bd6
15. Rb1 a5 16. a3 Qb3 17. Qd1 Qxd1 18. Rxd1 a4 19. b3 axb3 20. Rxb3 Ra7 21. a4
Ke7 22. Bg5 Kd8 23. e4 dxe4 24. Nxe4 Be7 25. Nc3 Ne8 26. Bxe7+ Kxe7 27. d5 Nef6
28. dxc6 bxc6 29. Bxc6 Rxh3 30. Nb5 Rxa4 31. Re3+ Kd8 32. Bxd7 Nxd7 33. Red3
1-0

[/pgn]

[pgn]

[Event "2019 US Open"]
[Date "2019.08.09"]
[Round "7.6"]
[White "Mitkov, Nikola"]
[Black "Paul, Justin"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C28"]
[WhiteElo "2576"]
[BlackElo "2369"]
[PlyCount "74"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. d3 Na5 5. Nge2 c6 6. O-O b5 7. Bb3 b4 8. Na4
d5 9. f4 Nxb3 10. axb3 Bd6 11. fxe5 Bxe5 12. Qe1 dxe4 13. Bf4 Bxf4 14. Rxf4 O-O
15. dxe4 Qe7 16. Qf2 Re8 17. Nb6 Rb8 18. Nxc8 Rbxc8 19. Rxa7 Qe5 20. Qd4 Qb5
21. Ng3 Rcd8 22. Qf2 Rd1+ 23. Nf1 Red8 24. h3 h6 25. Qe3 Rb1 26. Rf2 Rdd1 27.
Qf3 Qc5 28. Ra8+ Kh7 29. Kh2 Qe5+ 30. Qg3 Qd4 31. Qf4 Qxf2 32. Qxf2 Rxf1 33.
Qd4 Rbe1 34. h4 Nxe4 35. Kh3 h5 36. g4 Re2 37. gxh5 f5 0-1

[/pgn]

[pgn]

[Event "2019 US Open"]
[Date "2019.08.09"]
[Round "7.9"]
[White "Fernandez, Daniel"]
[Black "Zhou, Jason"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B12"]
[WhiteElo "2534"]
[BlackElo "2158"]
[PlyCount "57"]
[EventDate "2019.??.??"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 h6 6. O-O Ne7 7. c3 Nd7 8. Nbd2
Qc7 9. b4 g5 10. Nb3 b6 11. a4 Ng6 12. Bd2 f6 13. c4 Bg7 14. cxd5 cxd5 15. Rc1
Qd8 16. exf6 Bxf6 17. Ne5 Bxe5 18. dxe5 Nf4 19. Bxf4 gxf4 20. Bh5+ Kf8 21. Nd4
Qg5 22. h4 Qg8 23. Nxf5 exf5 24. Re1 Rh7 25. Rc6 Re7 26. Qd3 Rg7 27. e6 Rxg2+
28. Kh1 Ne5 29. Qxf5+ 1-0

[/pgn]

Tonight’s tenative pairings (subject to change, although top boards rarely do): Nyzhnyk – Mikhalevski, Swiercz – Moradiabadi, Tiglon – Bruzon Batista, Hungaski – Gareyev, Dragun – Paul, and Shabalov – Fernandez. You can watch all the action on the US Chess livestream with IMs Kostya Kavutskiy and Eric Rosen on our Twitch channel. But wait, there’s more… While chess fans will certainly be focusing on the final two rounds of the Open, there’s a lot more going on here in Orlando. The Delegates continued their schedule of Committee meetings yesterday here at the Rosen Centre, and as this goes to press, today’s Delegates Meeting is nearing its day’s end. Han Schut gave a well-attended seminar on the Stappenmethode (“Steps Method”), the official teaching system of the Dutch Chess Federation, and increasingly used across Europe and here in the States. Schut is a certified instructor in the Method. https://twitter.com/USChess/status/1159945908609589251 And eight players took part in a U.S. Open Tennis tournament, as Senior Director of Strategic Communications Dan Lucas tells us in his piece on the event. It’s shaping up to be an exciting final weekend here in Orlando, for players, friends, and fans alike. Keep up with all the results at uschess.org, and be sure to check in with the livestream tonight at 7pm EDT to watch the Round 8 action!

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