Top Seeds Take Leads Into Home Stretch of U.S. Junior, Girls' Junior, and Senior Championships

Round six of the U.S. Junior, U.S. Girls’ Junior, and U.S. Senior championships is in the books in St. Louis. With just three rounds to go, the final results are becoming increasingly difficult to predict.

With his sixth-round win, Joel Benjamin is now tied for second in the Senior. A win against tournament leader Akopian could shake things up. (Photo courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

In the Senior, GM Joel Benjamin is storming back into relevance with a date against tournament leader GM Vladimir Akopian on the horizon.

Brewington Hardaway glances approvingly at Jason Wang's position during round six (Photo courtesy Austin Fuller/SLCC)

GM Chris Yoo has put on a clinic of imaginative play in the Junior, but GM Andrew Hong and IMs Justin Wang and Jason Wang are each only one point behind him, with the latter two still having games against the frontrunner ahead of them.

Alice Lee has shaken off her slow start and is in a share of the lead with three rounds to go (Photo courtesy Austin Fuller/SLCC)

In the Girls’ Junior, IM Alice Lee is on a small winning streak, but FM Rose Atwell has caught up on points and currently shares first with her.

Senior

Of the three tournaments going, the Senior has the greatest clarity. GM Vladimir Akopian is standing strong atop the podium, and now seems content to draw his way to victory with clinical precision. He’s retained a one-and-a-half-point lead over his two nearest competitors, successfully rebuffing the challenge from the first of them in round six.

Akopian's experience was on display, never giving one of his closest competitors a chance to narrow the gap in the standings (Photo courtesy Austin Fuller/SLCC)

If Akopian “draws out” his remaining games, he would finish with a respectable 6½/9. Looking at the standings below, can anybody catch him if this happens?

Even though two players are tied for second on 3½/6, their paths to catch Akopian are very different. For GM Julio Becerra Rivero to catch up to Akopian's "all draws" score, he would need to win out, which seems unlikely. This is in large part because Akopian managed to hold a stodgy draw with the black pieces against Becerra to stave off any shake-ups:

GM Joel Benjamin, however, does have a slightly more clear path to victory after picking up a win as Black in round six over IM Douglas Root.

Since Benjamin has yet to play Akopian, a head-to-head win would bring Benjamin within a half-point of the leader.

In the lower rungs, GM Melikset Khachiyan managed a win over GM Igor Novikov and GM Jesse Kraai grabbed a win over GM Larry Christiansen. The game between GMs Alexander Shabalov and Gregory Kaidanov ended in a draw.

Girls’ Junior

This round saw IM Alice Lee grab a win with the black pieces, sacrificing a knight in a sharp English to secure a share of the top spot in the Girls’ Junior.

What a difference a year can make: Rose Atwell was the newcomer last year, finishing at the tail end of the standings. With three rounds to go this year, she is tied with Alice Lee atop the standings. (Photo courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Meanwhile, FM Rose Atwell won a back-and-forth game with WIM Iris Mou and joined Lee for joint first with a 4/6 score.

The duo holds a half-point lead over WFM Yassamin Ehsani and Jasmine Su, who has now dropped her last two games after jumping out to an early lead.

It's been an up-and-down tournament for Jasmine Su, who has a chance to "bounce back" from consecutive losses today against Lee. (Photo courtesy Austin Fuller/SLCC)

That said, she plays Alice Lee today, and will have a chance to regain the lead if she can pull off an upset as with the black pieces.

The Girls tournament has maintained its reputation as being the most exciting, as every single game this round had a decisive result. FM Zoey Tang outplayed WFM Chloe Gaw as Black in a Nimzo Indian and WFM Rachel Li pulled off a win as White in the Closed Sicilian against WFM Megan Paragua.

Junior

Chris Yoo is a madman. This is meant to be a straight report on the happenings of the tournament thus far, but it needs to be said that this kid is playing out of his mind.

No theory? No problem! Chris Yoo has been playing unorthodox openings and following them with inventive play. (Photo courtesy Austin Fuller/SLCC)

He doesn’t care about opening conventions (he played an Accelerated Dragon this round) and is making it look easy against his opponents. In his sixth round game, he traded a rook and two pawns for two pieces as Black in a Maroczy structure and proceeded to put on a positional masterclass.

Yoo is currently standing in clear first and for good reason. Nipping at his heels are GM Andrew Hong, who won a convincing game as Black against Nicholas Ladan, and IMs Jason Wang and Justin Wang, who both have yet to play the frontrunner. Below is Hong’s victory:

With these three players all a full-point behind Yoo, it’s looking like 6½/9 should be good enough for at least shared first, with 7/9 a virtual lock for that U.S. Championship invitation that these players are chasing.