Titled Thanksgiving: Caruana Comes Up Clutch in Charlotte

Caruana Wins Massive U.S. Masters, Six Norms Earned in Charlotte

Spending Thanksgiving weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina has become something of a tradition for amateur, expert, and professional chess players alike.

As the rare event open exclusively to players rated 2200+ US Chess (or 2000+ for juniors, or FIDE equivalents), the U.S. Masters has become a fixture of the Charlotte chess calendar thanks to the organizational and promotional prowess of the Charlotte Chess Center (CCC). By running the event concurrently with the NC Open, hundreds of additional chess-nuts get to be a part of the celebration.

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GM Fabiano Caruana (L) being presented with the U.S. Masters trophy by CCC director FM Peter Giannatos (Photo courtesy Kelly Centrelli/CCC)

Bigger, Stronger, and More High-Profile

Last year’s edition saw dozens of strong grandmasters compete, now-GM-Elect Brewington Hardaway earn a GM norm, and over 200 players compete in the nine-round event. So, when I say that this year’s U.S. Masters was an even bigger, stronger, and more high-profile event, I do not say that lightly.

Bigger: Attendance at the Masters was up almost 30%, with 264 players competing this year compared to 202 last year. Combined with the various sections of the Open, there were a total of 737 unique players competing, representing 36 states and 39 federations, according to CCC Executive Director and tournament organizer FM Peter Giannatos. In an event preview for the South Charlotte Weekly, Giannatos estimated over 650 players, suggesting that the event surpassed even his own expectations!

Stronger: 47 grandmasters were among the 264 players, with an additional 51 IMs and 35 FMs in attendance. That means over half the field were FM strength or higher. The promise of playing such strong competition and, with the Super-Swiss designation, the real potential to earn an IM or GM norm is a major draw for many competitors. But, this year, the biggest draw for some was the top-rated player in the event: world number two GM Fabiano Caruana.

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Photo courtesy Kelly Centrelli/CCC

High-profile: With a player of Caruana’s caliber and stature in tow, the publicity for this year’s tournament greatly eclipsed what previous years had achieved. The people wanted to see how Caruana would handle the pressure of an open event, where other top GMs had struggled recently to produce the win-rate their ratings demanded. 

And, of course, the people wanted to see GM Daniel Naroditsky (and GM Kayden Troff, too!) providing live analysis of the games. The combination of big-name players and commentators was promoted in advance and throughout the event by Chess.com, an official partner of CCC.

Results: Caruana wins, Theodorou second, Tokhirjonova ties for third

Caruana won the tournament in clear first with an 8/9 score, taking home $7,500, a trophy, and (perhaps most importantly) 17.11 FIDE Circuit points. With a spot in the next FIDE Candidates given to the top finisher on the 2024 Circuit, these points are crucial as Caruana is now less than a point behind Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi.

It’s very rare for an open tournament to be able to promise enough FIDE Circuit points to draw a player of Caruana’s caliber. For perspective, when is the last time you saw a top-five player in a classical tournament with more than one round a day? In conversation with US Chess Executive Director Ranae Bartlett, Caruana said it must have been at least nine years since he played such a grueling schedule.

Caruana’s stamina was still remarkable, coming back from a sixth-round loss to win three more games. Now, Caruana’s eight victories stand as a record for the nine-round event.

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GM John Burke was one of several players to push Caruana into a drawn-out grind of a game (Photo courtesy Kelly Centrelli/CCC)

Considering how common it is for players on the top boards to agree to at least one quick draw on the dreaded double-round days, Caruana’s commitment to playing every round earned praise from spectators and commentators alike.

Below are two examples of Caruana’s fighting spirit paying off (both with the black pieces!), first in round five against GM John Burke and again in round seven against an impressively resilient young GM Andy Woodward:

Caruana’s 8/9 score saw him finish the event a half-point ahead of Greek GM Nikolas Theodorou, despite Theodorou upsetting Caruana in their head-to-head sixth-round game:

The two players entered the game each undefeated with 5/5 scores, but after his win against Caruana, Theodorou “drew out” the tournament against three more experienced grandmasters: GM Grigoriy Oparin, GM Illia Nyzhnyk, and GM Alexander Donchenko. His 7½/9 score earned him $3,500 for his efforts.

Of those three aforementioned grandmasters, Oparin and Nyzhnyk each finished with 7/9 scores, which were good for a share of third place and $1,700 apiece. Below are my favorite games from each player, with Nyzhnyk’s win coming out of a curious piece imbalance and the rare appearance of tripled pawns. Oparin’s victory over another grandmaster who remained on the top boards most of the event is simply an attacking masterpiece:

Rounding out the top five was a third player with 7/9: IM Gulrukhbegim “Begim” Tokhirjonova. It was a massively successful event for the 2024 FIDE Women’s Olympiad bronze medal squad’s top board, as she was the only non-GM in the top five.

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IM Begim Tokhirjonova continued her string of strong results, finishing in a tie for third overall as well as being the top woman and the top player rated under 2500 FIDE (Photo courtesy Kelly Centrelli/CCC)

Moreover, as the top overall finisher under 2500 FIDE and the top-scoring woman in the field, she ended up earning $3,300 for her excellent result.

IM Mark Plotkin won $1,200 for his 6½/9 score, making him the top Under-2350 finisher. IM Alice Lee finished with 6/9, good for the $800 second-place prize for top women. With 5½/9, IM Padmini Rout tied for the third-place top women prize along with WGM Dina Belenkaya. Belenkaya also tied with FM Dylan Tang as the top Under-2200 scorers. All pairings and prizes used FIDE ratings.

That’s Not All: Four GM and Two IM Norms

Six players earned norms from their time in Charlotte: Gunnar Andersen and FM Avi Kaplan each earned an IM norm while IMs Tianqi Wang, Evan Park, Mark Heimann, and Turkey’s Isik Can earned GM norms.

Andersen and Kaplan each held one of the more renowned GMs in the field to draws in the early round:

Kaplan actually drew five GMs this event, additionally defeating GM Pablo Salinas Herrera. His only loss was to a seventh GM: Luka Budisavljevic. Andersen “only” had to hold three GMs to a draw for his norm (and $300 prize for his share of second Under-2350), but had a nice win over IM Ryo Chen as well.

17-year-old IM Evan Park’s performance was so impressive that he actually clinched a GM norm with a round to spare. As soon as GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista showed up for his ninth-round game against Park, the norm was guaranteed! Indeed, Batista did go on to win their game and tie for fifth.

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IM Evan Park defeated a number of grandmasters en route to clinching a GM Norm (Photo courtesy Kelly Centrelli/CCC)

Park’s only other loss was to Theodorou in round five, but he went 4½/5 against the other grandmasters he faced! Park boasted wins over GMs Brandon Jacobson, Emilio Cordova, Viktor Matviishen, and Elshan Moradiabadi, as well as a draw against Donchenko. A mixture of great preparation and initiative from the start and solid conversion technique was the recipe for many of his victories, including both an unusual imbalanced endgame against Jacobson and a minor piece endgame victory against Moradiabadi:

Charlotte local IM Tianqi Wang earned his GM norm with a 6/9 score (tying with Andersen for the second Under-2350 prize) that included wins over GMs Praveen Balakrishnan, Akshat Chandra, and Guillermo Vazquez. But it was his technique to hold a draw in a game against a fourth grandmaster that really stood out:

Last but not least, Heimann and Can were both part of the 14-way tie for sixth in the standings (and fifth in the prize money, as Tokhirjonova won other prizes), each earning a little over $300 to go along with their norms.

Heimann actually had a shot to tie for first and controlled his destiny headed into his last round game against Caruana. That alone is remarkable: 47 grandmasters were in the field but on the top board in the final round, it was an IM facing off against Caruana. Perhaps that’s why Heimann still got a GM norm despite that loss!

Heimann’s highlights included wins against GMs Yair Parkhov, Olexandr Bortnyk, and last year’s co-champion Mikhail Antipov, as well as draws against Nyzhynk and GM Robby Kevlishvili. His win against Bortnyk is below:

Finally, the Turkish IM Can was the only foreign player to earn a norm, also drawing Nyzhnyk and losing to Caruana as well as drawing Donchenko, as well as holding three more grandmasters to a draw and defeating GM Vasif Durarbayli in impressive style:

The CCC also hosted the 2024 CCC Fall Norm Invitational right before the event, producing an additional norm to go along with the six mentioned above. Congratulations to Canadian WIM Maili-Jade Ouellet for her IM norm!

Including the NC Open, this year’s total prize fund was $43,000. Full results from the U.S. Masters can be found here. Games from each round can be reviewed on Chess.com. Results from the NC Open are here.