U.S. Championships Round 4: So maintains Open lead; Sargsyan moves into clear 1st in Women’s

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The Saint Louis Chess Club. (SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

In Round 4 of the U.S. Championship and U.S. Women’s Championship, we were treated to several piece sacrifices, an uncharacteristically open Rossolimo Sicilian, and clinical rook endgames of the drawn and winning varieties. While GM Wesley So maintained his half-point lead in the Open Section, IM Anna Sargsyan pulled ahead of IM Nazi Paikidze, and now leads the Women’s field by a full point with her third win in four games.

U.S. Championship

From a glance, Round 4 seemed like a casual day at the office for most players, with five draws and just one decisive result, but many games progressed way past move 40 and involving dynamic imbalances, demonstrating the players’ fighting spirit, deep opening preparation, audacious sacrifices, and clinical endgame precision.

Tournament leader So drew with the black pieces against GM Abhimanyu Mishra, a 99+%-accuracy masterpiece for both players. GM Levon Aronian stayed in the chaser pack after playing all the way to bare kings against GM Dariusz Swiercz.

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GM Hans Niemann joined the group of players a half-point behind GM Wesley So with his win on Wednesday (SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Amidst the peaceful results, GM Hans Niemann emerged as the round’s only winner, with the black pieces against GM Sam Shankland. After Niemann’s c-file pressure earned him the upper hand in a serene Nimzo-Indian, the position quickly exploded into chaos, with Black winning an Exchange with a tricky knight sortie.

Shankland struck back, snatching a pawn and shattering Black’s kingside structure, but Niemann doubled down, putting both his rook and bishop in jeopardy to hunt White’s king. The engine shows that White had a path to equality, but one slight misstep for White’s king was all Niemann needed to deal Shankland his second straight loss.

With this victory, Niemann joins the pack in second-fourth place with 2½/4.

Defending champion GM Fabiano Caruana’s belligerent encounter with GM Samuel Sevian in the Open Ruy Lopez ended in a split point. Sevian offered a repetition early on with an implicit knight sacrifice, but Caruana forged on, activating his bishop pair and threatening to throw his central majority into motion. Sevian proved resourceful, though, uncorking not just a single or double but triple sacrifice: First a knight, then an Exchange, then finally a bishop, all to lure the white queen away and force a perpetual check.

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GM Fabiano Caruana remains a half-point behind So after GM Sam Sevian's triple-sac held a draw in Round 4. (SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Sevian stays on an even score of 2/4 and Caruana, seeking his fourth straight championship, remains in striking distance of the lead with 2½/4.

GM Andy Woodward – GM Awonder Liang seemed to be on track for a quiet draw in a Closed Catalan as piece after piece got traded off, but mutual aggressive pawn storms created imbalances in the ensuing rook-and-minor-piece endgame. Both sides broke through — Woodward with a passed e-pawn and Liang with a passed b-pawn — and although Liang emerged a pawn up, Woodward’s rook endgame knowledge proved solid, successfully holding with perpetual checks from the side.

After four rounds, So stays in the sole lead with 3/4, but Caruana, Aronian, and Niemann are right behind with 2½/4.

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Graphic courtesy SLCC

When play resumes Friday, So will take on Aronian with the white pieces; Niemann and Mishra will face off, and Swiercz will take on the defending champion Caruana with white.

U.S. Women’s Championship

For the last game before the first rest day, the chess queens of America were out for blood. Whereas the Championship saw five draws and one win, the Women’s Championship was the exact opposite, with just one draw and a whopping five games that ended decisively.

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IM Anna Sargsyan moved into the sole lead. (SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

IM Anna Sargsyan, a co-leader going into the round, took the sole lead after emerging victorious against FM Megan Paragua. After Paragua whipped out the non-committal 2. … a6 in the Sicilian Defense, Sargsyan elected for a positional approach, fianchettoing her light-squared bishop and playing on the queenside. After fixing a few weaknesses, she honed in on Black’s c5-pawn, pinning it, piling upon it, and finally rounding it up. Paragua defended tenaciously, trading down into a rooks-versus-queen endgame, but the queen combined with the passed pawns proved too much for the pair of chariots, and Sargsyan smoothly converted.

The other co-leader, IM Nazi Paikidze, had a heated encounter against IM Anna Zatonskih with the black pieces. After neutralizing White’s bishop pair, Paikidze pushed forward on the kingside, but Zatonskih created counterplay of her own, blasting open the queenside and invading with her rook. Despite facing the firepower of all Paikidze’s pieces, the first player kept the king safe and traded down into a winning rook endgame. There is a saying that all rook endgames are drawn, but three connected passed pawns were more than enough for Zatonskih to convert the full point.

Zatonskih joins the pack in second with 2½/4, along with Paikidze and IM Alice Lee.

The only game this round to feature opposite-side castling was GM Irina Krush – WGM Jennifer Yu, who together have won 10 Women’s Championships. The game seemed to be set for a positional fight in the Queen’s Gambit Declined, but Krush went the adventurous route and castled queenside, setting the stage for a pawn race against the castled kings that did not disappoint.

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WGM Jennifer Yu won a barn-burner. (SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Both players wasted no time in cracking open the position, but Yu, using White’s g6-pawn as a shield and wielding the powerful bishop pair, seemed on the verge of breaking through. Krush defended stubbornly, fighting back to equality in mutual time trouble by exploiting the exposed black king. The position hung in limbo, with less than a minute on each side and both kings with barely any protection. However, Yu ultimately emerged victorious in the tactics, using her first passed pawn to buy time for her endangered queen and trading down into a winning opposite-colored bishop endgame.

FM Rose Atwell – WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan also featured the bishop pair and sharp pawn storms. After a combative response from Pourkashiyan against Atwell’s Catalan, White was left with a pair of centrally dominating but vulnerable hanging pawns. The second player began to trade pieces, seeking an endgame with superior pawn structure, but Atwell kept the pressure on, winning the bishop pair and pushing the pair of pawns to the sixth rank. Pourkashiyan defended actively, generating counterplay on the kingside, but the passed c-pawn would win Atwell a rook and the game.

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FM Rose Atwell won in Round 4. (SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

IM Tatev Abrahamyan’s win over WGM Thalia Cervantes featured yet another bishop pair at work. The game started off as a closed Rossolimo Sicilian but quickly opened up when Cervantes broke through in the center to create lines for her bishops. Abrahamyan proved resourceful, though — she lost an Exchange but removed both bishops and had three pawns and a star outpost cavalry as compensation. Cervantes mounted a battery on the h-file, nudging the first player’s king out into the open, but Abrahamyan kept her monarch safe, trading into a winning endgame where the knight and pawns outshone the rook.

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IMs Alice Lee and Carissa Yip played the only draw in Round 4 of the Women's, and even that was interesting. (SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

IM Alice Lee – IM Carissa Yip ended peacefully, but not without fireworks. Lee started with the upper hand, exploiting a central weakness to win a pawn and create weaknesses around Yip’s king, but the two-time defending champion fought back and, a few thematic queen moves later, it was Yip who had the extra pawn and was seeking to convert. Lee recognized that her advantage had faded, and instead of settling for a losing rook-and-minor-piece endgame, promptly ended the game in a draw with a perpetual knight check.

Going into the first rest day, Sargsyan is in the clear lead with an undefeated 3½/4, with Zatonskih, Paikidze, and Lee her closest competitors a point behind with 2½/4.

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Graphic courtesy SLCC

In Round 5, Sargsyan will face defending champion Yip with the black pieces; chasers Lee and Paikidze will face off, and Cervantes will take on Zatonskih with the white pieces.

After Thursday’s rest day, tune in at 12:30 p.m. CDT on Friday, Oct. 17, to follow the action live!

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