Top Players Face Off as U.S. Open Enters Final Weekend

Today is the day! After two more games in the four-day schedule and one more in the six-day schedule, everyone will join the traditional schedule tonight at 7 p.m. EDT for the seventh round of the U.S. Open. The "merge" will determine the 124th Annual U.S. Open Champion (and qualifier for the U.S. Championship) after Sunday's ninth-round game. 

In the traditional schedule, Julian Proleiko leads by himself with a 5½/6 score, thanks to last night's win. Today's annotations are courtesy of Denker co-champ IM Sandeep Sethuraman:

Eight players trail Proleiko by a half-point with 5/6 scores, led by Vaibhav Kalpaka:

The most anticipated match-up of the six-day schedule lived up to the hype. GM Jianchao Zhou was victorious over FM Tanitoluwa Adewumi in last night's fifth-round tactical slugfest:

The victory leaves Zhou as the only perfect score remaining in the six-day. Three players are a half-point behind, thanks in large part to GMs Fidel Corrales and Mackenzie Molner's well-played, but cautious draw on board two:

The final player with 4½/5 is another Denker co-champion: CM Avi Kaplan. Matched against fellow Chicago-area youngster Nicholas Ladan, the pair produced an absolute work of art in their draw.

Eight more grandmasters joined the fray when the four-day kicked off yesterday. With the fourth game of the day not starting until 10 p.m., only two players remain perfect at the end of the marathon day. GMs Mikhail Antipov and Semen Khanin will face off on the top board today at noon. 

Trailing them are seven players with 3½/4, including GM Awonder Liang, Varuzhan Akobian, and three of the four other grandmasters, as well as FM Ryan Amburgy and Matias Shundy. After his fourth-round loss to Antipov, GM John Fedorowicz leads the pack of players with 3/4 scores.

CM Joseph Wan continued his impressive streak of performances in the side events, winning Thursday's top quad. The final quad of the tournament takes place today at noon, and the U.S. Open National Blitz Championship will be tomorrow, August 3, also at noon. A full schedule of events, including round times and information on today's committee meetings, is available here.

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