U.S. Championships Round Four: Defending Champions Pull Ahead

Round four of the 2024 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women’s Championship saw last year’s defending champions GM Fabiano Caruana and IM Carissa Yip each notch another victory, with a total of four more decisive games (across the two sections) to boot. Caruana climbed to the sole lead for the first time, while Yip extended her lead to a full point heading into the first rest day.

Open

Of the five players tied with 2/3 heading into yesterday’s round, only Caruana managed to win. Although GM Abhimanyu Mishra managed to escape the opening (the Steintz variation of the Classical French defense) unscathed, Caruana did what elite grandmasters do best: he squeezed water from a stone in an equal, but slightly imbalanced, major piece endgame.

GM Sam Sevian was the closest of the remaining co-leaders to catch Caruana, with a chance to seize the advantage in the endgame versus GM Christopher Yoo. However, he was ultimately held to a draw, joining a three-way tie for second place.

Netting his first win of the event, GM Ray Robson broke GM Awonder Liang’s unbeaten streak in 28 moves, with the black pieces. Meaning, of course, that it was a sharp Sicilian where a slight mishap would spell doom for either player.

Somewhat counterintuitive to the result, it appeared that Robson was the one out of preparation early on, while Liang was the one blitzing out his moves.

The other games were relatively peaceful draws. Though So-Oparin and Dominguez-Aronian were interesting from a theoretical standpoint, neither of them ended up giving anything special. GM Hans Niemann also drew his game as black versus GM Sam Shankland after good endgame technique from both players.

Capturing the sole lead so early bodes well for defending champion Caruana, though things are very far from over.

Today is a rest day, which will almost certainly mean even better preparation for round five. Headline pairings: Yoo-Caruana and Niemann-So, where all players involved will be ready for a fight.

Women’s

Four decisive games in the Women’s only increased Yip’s lead. Continuing her dominant run, Yip won against GM Irina Krush to keep her perfect score and stretch her lead to a full point.

Hey, who is that watching in the second photo?

Yip’s victory was significant for the standings, as Krush was also one of the favorites to win the tournament. Though the game was not “perfect,” it did show remarkable class from both players.

FM Megan Lee scored her first win of the tournament, against none other than WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, who held sole second place going into yesterday’s round.

Megan Lee (pictured here in round three) is on the board after her fourth-round victory

Time pressure in a sharp position made it very difficult/basically impossible to calculate everything accurately, but Lee ended up coming out on top.

Despite this loss, Abrahamyan is still in sole third place and will be looking to bounce back quickly.

IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova won a second game in a row, this time against IM Anna Zatonskih, to reach sole second place. Fighting back from a worse position, Tokhirjonova took advantage of a small mistake and overtook her opponent with tactics.

WGM Thalia Cervantes won a very nice positional game against WGM Jennifer Yu, making the whole affair appear one-sided. Not bad for a first win!

After capitalizing on energetic, creative play, IM Nazi Paikidze seemed poised to win against WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan. Yet one missed chance led to the game fizzling out to a draw. Finally, IM Alice Lee and FM Rose Atwell both had brief chances in a complicated major piece endgame, but ultimately the game was drawn.

After the rest day comes an exciting matchup in the Women’s section: Yip-Tokhirjonova. Will Yip’s winning streak finally be ended, or will she manage to extend her lead even further?

Coming in after round four is a bit late for predictions, but I promise they’ve never changed. It might be a bit boring, but my picks are Caruana for the Open, and Yip for the Women’s. Plausible; after all, it’s happened before!

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