Top Ten Lessons from the 2016 US Championships

1. Fabiano Caruana is a hero Fabiano not only played great chess, but also delighted the crowd with entertaining post game interviews. Most important was his constant use of the confessional booth. The fans absolutely loved it anytime a player used the booth, so for Fabiano to recognize this and actually use the booth with such frequency, was a clear statement that he cares about making chess fans happy.

Caruana in the confessional: "Well...Pretty sure I'm winning!" #USChessChamps

— SaintLouis ChessClub (@CCSCSL) April 25, 2016

[pgn] [Event "2016 U.S. Championship"] [Site "Saint Louis, Mo"] [Date "2016.04.25"] [White "Chandra, Akshat"] [Black "Caruana, Fabiano"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C88"] [WhiteElo "2477"] [BlackElo "2795"] [PlyCount "106"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] [WhiteClock "0:07:48"] [BlackClock "0:27:36"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. a4 b4 9. d4 O-O 10. dxe5 dxe5 11. Nbd2 Bc5 12. a5 h6 13. Bc4 Bb7 14. c3 Qd6 15. Qe2 Rad8 16. Nf1 Ne7 17. Ng3 Ng6 18. Be3 bxc3 19. bxc3 Bxe3 20. Qxe3 Qc6 21. Bf1 Bc8 22. h3 Be6 23. Reb1 Nd7 24. Rb4 Kh7 25. Rab1 Qc5 26. Bxa6 Qxa5 27. Bf1 Qc5 28. Qxc5 Nxc5 29. Bc4 Nd3 30. Ra4 Ngf4 31. Ne1 Nxe1 32. Rxe1 Rd2 33. Bf1 Rb8 34. Rb4 Ra8 35. Rb7 Raa2 36. Nh1 c5 37. Rc7 Ra5 38. Ng3 Rc2 39. c4 g6 40. Rb1 Kg7 41. Rcb7 Raa2 42. Nh1 Bxc4 43. Bxc4 Rxc4 44. Re7 Rb4 45. Rd1 Rd4 46. Rb1 Ne6 47. Rbb7 Nd8 48. Rbc7 Kf6 49. f4 Rd1+ 50. Kh2 exf4 51. e5+ Kg5 52. Rxc5 Ne6 53. Rc3 Rdd2 0-1 [/pgn]

Chess is a sport where quite honestly, almost everyone looks after their own self interests. Fabiano went above and beyond to provide an extra enjoyable experience for the fans, and deserves huge applause for his efforts. Also he played pretty well too! 2. Nazi Paikidze is a beast In her last round game, I felt like I was watching Topalov during his prime. Topalov would just play these sharp and overly dynamic moves against everyone and just mow them down one after another. Nazi did the same thing with Krush, constantly finding ambitious and provocative ideas until Irina couldn’t stand it anymore.

[pgn] [Event "2016 U.S. Women's Championship"] [Site "Saint Louis, Mo"] [Date "2016.04.25"] [White "Krush, Irina"] [Black "Paikidze, Nazi"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A07"] [WhiteElo "2465"] [BlackElo "2346"] [PlyCount "128"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] [WhiteClock "0:04:48"] [BlackClock "0:10:55"] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 c6 4. O-O Bg4 5. d3 Nbd7 6. h3 Bh5 7. Qe1 e5 8. e4 dxe4 9. dxe4 Bc5 10. a4 a5 11. Na3 O-O 12. Nc4 Qc7 13. Bd2 b6 14. Nh4 Rfe8 15. Kh1 Bg6 16. Nxg6 hxg6 17. f4 b5 18. Bxa5 Qc8 19. axb5 cxb5 20. Nd2 exf4 21. gxf4 Nd5 22. Rf3 f5 23. e5 g5 24. fxg5 Nxe5 25. Rf2 Ne3 26. Nb3 Nxg2 27. Rxg2 f4 28. Qc3 Nc4 29. Qf3 Qf5 30. Nxc5 Qxc5 31. b4 Qf5 32. Rf2 Re4 33. Rg1 Rae8 34. Bc7 Re3 35. Qxf4 Rxh3+ 36. Kg2 Ne3+ 37. Qxe3 Qg4+ 38. Qg3 Rxg3+ 39. Bxg3 Re3 40. Kh2 Qh5+ 41. Kg2 Qxg5 42. Kh2 Re6 43. Rgg2 Qh5+ 44. Kg1 Qd1+ 45. Rf1 Qd4+ 46. Rff2 Re1+ 47. Kh2 Qd1 48. Bf4 Qh5+ 49. Kg3 Rh1 50. Rh2 Rg1+ 51. Rhg2 Rh1 52. Rh2 Qg6+ 53. Kh3 Qe6+ 54. Kg3 Re1 55. Rhg2 Qg6+ 56. Kh2 Qe4 57. Bg5 Qxb4 58. Bf4 Qe7 59. Kg3 Re6 60. Kh3 Qd7 61. Kh2 Re4 62. Kg3 Qf5 63. Rf3 g5 64. Bxg5 Rg4+ 0-1 [/pgn]

3. Our young girls are here to stay In the past years, we had a few young girls playing in the U.S Women’s Championship and they would breathe some life into what seemed like the same group of players year after year. Each time they would maybe score an upset or two and everyone would get so excited, even though as a whole their results weren’t that impressive. However this year things changed. We had 5 young girls competing and all of them made some serious noise. The biggest shocks were in Round 10 when Jennifer Yu beat Anna Zatonskij and Carissa Yip beat Irina Krush to knock both of the favorites out of contention. Then in Round 11 it happened again, as Ashritha Eswaran took out the leader in a superb positional effort.

[pgn] [Event "2016 U.S. Women's Championship"] [Site "Saint Louis, Mo"] [Date "2016.04.25"] [White "Eswaran, Ashritha"] [Black "Abrahamyan, Tatev"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B92"] [WhiteElo "2225"] [BlackElo "2342"] [PlyCount "65"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] [WhiteClock "0:39:16"] [BlackClock "0:00:50"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. Bg5 Nbd7 9. a4 b6 10. Nd2 Bb7 11. Nc4 Qc7 12. Ne3 O-O 13. O-O Rfe8 14. Bc4 Rac8 15. Bxf6 Nxf6 16. Qd3 Ra8 17. Rfd1 Red8 18. Bd5 Rac8 19. Ra3 Rd7 20. Rb3 Bd8 21. Bc4 Ra8 22. Ncd5 Nxd5 23. Bxd5 Bxd5 24. Qxd5 Rc8 25. Rc3 Qb8 26. Rxc8 Qxc8 27. Nc4 h6 28. Nxe5 Rc7 29. Qxd6 Bf6 30. c3 Bxe5 31. Qxe5 Rd7 32. Rd5 b5 33. Qf5 1-0[/pgn]

Next year these girls, along with other possible participants such as 2016 K-9 Champion Maggie Feng, are going to continue to cause problems and in not too long, one of them will win the whole thing.

Fierce competitors on the board. Friends off the board #USChessChamps

— US Chess (@USChess) April 25, 2016

4. Jeffery Xiong has top 10 potential Jeffery is 15 years old and went 50% in a very strong U.S. Championship. His only loss was to Hikaru Nakamura. He has great emotional control and is already comfortably above 2600. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him pass the 2700 mark in the next 2-3 years, and become a serious contender in the world rankings.

Jeffery is getting close to a draw. This might be a big result for the final standings #USChessChamps

— SaintLouis ChessClub (@CCSCSL) April 21, 2016

5. The Commentary Team Rules The commentary team and production value of the daily show is outstanding. Jennifer, Yasser and Maurice have great chemistry with each other. They all fulfill their own roles and seamlessly move from topic to topic to keep the show interesting and fresh. Using little things like phone calls, tactic puzzles during the break and quick segments are a great idea. Chess games are unbelievably long, and for that reason I almost never find myself watching any broadcasts. But for this year’s U.S. Championship, it was tough to stop watching.

Also the post game interviews are just awesome. My only complaint is what I find to be an excessive use of computer analysis. There is some place for it of course, but it should never be used when one of the top players is being interviewed (unless they specifically ask for it) or when Gary Kasparov is sharing his actual thoughts on a position. If you watch online you definitely see a lot of trolls complaining about various aspects of the show, but that’s just normal for anything that’s popular. You make fun of how announcers say things (Car-You-Anna), what quirks/annoying habits they have, etc etc, but you only do this because you are having fun and actually watching the show!

6. The Confessional Booth is Amazing The confessional booth is amazing but at the same time shows the relative selfishness of chess players. There are thousands of people watching, and nothing excited them more than someone stepping into that confessional booth. Everyone watching was just desperate for it. Meanwhile just a few select players did it, and only Caruana did it routinely (and notice he managed to win the tournament anyway).

Caruana: "I'm here to confess my undying love for @LawrenceTrentIM"#c24live #USChessChamps

— chess24.com (@chess24com) April 14, 2016

Chess players should get more in the habit of looking out for the fans if it’s not too painful to do so. I have played enough chess to know there is plenty of downtime in a game. I would 100% use that confessional booth every single game if I was playing, and I’m a bit disappointed that there were so many excuses made by various players to not deliver a more entertaining product to the people watching. All hail king Fabiano. 7. Wesley So is an angel Wesley So is an angel sent from heaven. Every interview and with every word that came out of his mouth I was like “This guy is the nicest guy to have ever existed.” His only personality flaw is his lack of confessional booth usage. I hope he becomes World Champion after Caruana.

8. The Kasparov Blitz Tournament is HUGE

9. Time Trouble is Bad Akshat Chandra was the lowest rated going in, but I actually thought he’d surprise a lot of people during the tournament. However Akshat displayed his biggest weakness: severe time trouble addiction. It’s one thing to get time trouble now and again, but if you get it every single game against the top players in the country, you are just going to get smashed. It even cost him a potential win against GM Wesley So early in the tournament. Akshat has the move 1. Rxe6 fxe6 2. Qxe6 Kf8 3. Qd3 and white is winning. Ray Robson also had some time trouble difficulties but managed to navigate things just a bit better. I hope that Akshat takes a serious look at this issue with his game and does everything possible to fix it. If he does, I am sure he will find his way back into this tournament, and will do much better next time 10. Change Happens Faster Now I have no clue what this tournament is going to look like in 3 years. I bet that a lot of the players who seem like perennial contenders, will be desperately clawing simply to qualify for the tournament. There are so many young kids whose ratings are going to go up very fast. A few quick examples are: Samuel Sevian, Ruifeng Li and Awonder Liang. Top players like Onischuk, Shankland, Lenderman, Akobian and even Kamsky, may find themselves having a real challenge to even qualify for the event. I think Robson will be safe and Shankland is still improving too. I also expect Xiong to get his rating up so that he qualifies pretty handily, but the other seven spots are going to be hotly contested. You’re seeing the same thing in the women’s tournament too. All the sudden it’s clear that Krush isn’t going to just show up and crush everyone. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are 5-6 serious contenders for first place in the 2017 U.S. Women’s Championship. Once again a huge congratulations to Fabiano Caruana and Nazi Paikidze on their tremendous Championship victories, and thanks to the St. Louis Chess Club and Scholastic Center for making it all happen! Find more details, photos and news on the US Championships on the official site. GM Ian Rogers wrote an award-winning article "Top Ten Lessons from the Sinquefield Cup" in the same style.