U.S. Open Day 3: A Matter of Perspective

Meeting in the Middle

Aarav Karthik (L) makes his move against IM Jason Liang in Round 4. (Photo by David Llada)

Any chessplayer who has lost 20 minutes on the clock while analyzing a position for what felt like 20 seconds can tell you that time is relative, and that’s how it feels today at the 126^th U.S. Open, in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Thursday is the halfway point of the longest Open schedule, the 7-day; it’s also the last day of the National Invitational tournaments, while the hyper-accelerated 4-day schedule of the Open is just beginning!

A full schedule of the day’s events is available here. WGM Sabina Foisor will be streaming Round 6 of the Invitationals beginning at 10 a.m. EDT on the US Chess Twitch Channel, and she has once again curated the positions and games analyzed in today’s report. She will be taking a well-deserved rest this evening and returning for the final three rounds of action beginning tomorrow evening.

Irwin

Time is also a flat circle. In the 1988 Denker, Robby Adamson tied for first with future GMs Vivek Rao (PA) and Ilya Gurevich (MA). While Rao and Gurevich agreed to a last-round draw, Adamson needed a win to claim a share of the title. His opponent for that final round? New Mexico’s Jesse Kraai. You can read about the 1988 tournament on this page, and replay the game here.

Robby Adamson got the better of his long-time Southwest rival Jesse Kraai in Round 4 of the Irwin. (Photo by David Llada)

38 years later, and it’s FM Adamson (AZ) – GM Kraai (MD) on Board 1 of the Irwin. The game took a very similar shape, too, with Adamson getting an easier position to play out of a semi-open game and never giving Kraai a chance to strike back:

In the following round, Adamson took a similarly aggressive approach against FM Julio A Morella (FL), with less successful results.

Julio Morella leads the Irwin headed into the final round. (Photo by David Llada)

Morella’s win put him in clear first with 4½/5 entering this morning’s final round. Five players trail Morella by a half-point: Adamson, Kraai, GM Dmitry Gurevich (IL), GM Alonso Zapata (GA), and Paul Rohwer (CA-S).

Dmitry Gurevich (L) against Minnesota's Leonard Johnson in Round 4. (Photo by David Llada)

Gurevich’s Round 4 and Kraai’s Round 5 wins are included below:

Jesse Kraai rebounded from a loss Wednesday morning with a long, grinding victory in Round 5. (Photo by David Llada)

Considering that 21 of the 48 participants are rated at least 2200, the 2160-rated Rohwer has had a remarkable tournament. His only loss was to Morella in Round 3, and yesterday he delivered wins against FM Peter Bereolos (TN) and IM James Rizzitano (DE).

This morning, it’s Gurevich – Morella on the top board, while Zapata – Kraai and Adamson – Rohwer will help determine the rest of the podium.

Denker

IM Erick Zhao (PA) and CM Alex Zhang (MO) lead the Denker with 4½/5 scores. Both players entered Wednesday with 2½/3 scores, then won both games to overtake yesterday’s leaders.

In Round 4, FM Stephen Willy was able to do what no previous higher-rated player could, defeating Nathaniel Des Ruisseau (WV) to claim an outright lead.

But Willy then lost to Zhang in Round 5, while Des Ruisseau was unable to withstand the pressure from IM Julian Colville (CA-S). Colville suffered a loss in Round 4 out of a complex opening, but is still in the hunt:

Zhao took care of business to join Zhang in the lead, while Anshul Shetty (IL) joins Willy as the only player a half-point behind the leaders. Zhang has the white pieces against Zhao on Board 1, and it’s Willy – Shetty on Board 2.

Haring

FM Jasmine Su (CT) is the last perfect player remaining in any of the invitationals. She improved to 5/5 with wins yesterday over her closest competitor, WIM Chloe Gaw (NY), and the defending champion CM Irene Fei (IA).

For fans of Nietzsche (or Matthew McConaughey), Su also won her games against Gaw and Fei last month at the 2026 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship.

Su’s opponent this morning will be WCM Evelyn Qiao (GA) currently the only player with a 4½/5 score. A draw as Black will clinch the title for Su. WFM Chloe Wang (PA) is the only player with a 4/5 score, and she has the white pieces against Gaw for a shot at a top-three finish.

Barber

Jason Marshal (SC) leads the Barber outright with a 4½/5 score, putting him ahead of 18 players in the field with higher ratings (including five CMs, two FMs, and one IM). We mentioned Marshal yesterday after he drew Andrew Wu (NC), rated over 2300, and defeated the even higher-rated CM Sharath Radhakrishnan (OH).

But Marshal outdid himself yesterday, taking down John Abraham (KY) and IM Eshaan Hebbar (NJ) in consecutive rounds.

Six players trail Marshal by a half-point, including four of the section’s highest-rated players. One of these players — Artemi Khanbutaev (IL) — delivered a nice win against Sam Luger (NY) to stay in the hunt:

Marshal will defend as Black against FM Ted Wang (WA), and the players on the next three boards will be rooting for Wang to give them a shot at a share of first place.

Rockefeller

Aayansh Samanta (PA) leads the Rockefeller with a 4½/5 score, a half-point ahead of five other players. Last night, Samanta took down Landon Meadors (GA), the section’s final player with a perfect score, to leapfrog into first place.

Meadors made it onto the DGT boards for the first time Wednesday morning in his showdown against top-seeded CM Aiden Li (IL), in which he emerged victorious.

Samanta has white against Ryan Zhou (MN) on Board 1, and a Zhou victory (or draw) will give the players on Boards 2 and 3 a chance to tie for first.

Ashley

Max Mulholland (NY) and Devansh Vellanki (MA) lead the Ashley with 4½/5 scores and will square off this morning for a shot at an outright title. Mulholland took down top-seeded Mehmet Yilanli (OH) last night.

Four players with 4/5 scores are hoping for a draw on Board 1: Renae Chen (CA-S), Emily Tang (IL), Mustafa Muhammad (NC), and Ratul Krishnan (KS). Tang drew both leaders yesterday. Games are starting to come in from the Ashley, including two by members of this pack:

Vellanki plays White against Mulholland. In case of a draw, Muhammad – Chen and Krishnan – Tang will factor into the fight for first.

U.S. Open

In the 7-day schedule, seven players lead with 4½/5. The “Big Four” — GM Jianchao Zhou (MA), GM Christopher Yoo (CA-N), IM Jason Liang (OH), and GM Rahul Srivatshav Peddi (IND) — drew all their intra-group match-ups, with Zhou and Peddi drawing in Round 4 and Yoo and Liang shaking hands in Round 5 and all four players winning their other game in yesterday’s final double round day.

From left: Zhou, Peddi, and Liang are three of the seven co-leaders after Round 5 of the 7-day schedule of the U.S. Open. (Photos by David Llada)

Donald Johnson (NC) has won four in a row to join the leaders. Will Moorhouse (VA) and Caden Qiao (GA) round out the leading group.

One more player in the 7-day schedule has won every game; GM Jim Tarjan (OR). He’s just also taken byes in the two morning rounds so far, but he will be competing in every round from here on out. Here’s a nice miniature from the legend:

Players in the 5-day schedule got two games in yesterday and have three more to look forward to today. Then, Round 6 is played earlier in the day on Friday at the 7-day time control before the Round 7 merge Friday evening.

So far, 28 players (out of 143) remain with 2/2 scores in the 5-day, led by GM Grigoriy Oparin.

The 4-day begins this afternoon with three fast rounds, followed by three more fast rounds tomorrow before the evening’s merge. All details are explained here.

Side Events

Thirty players competed in Wednesday’s Daily Quads, and we had a new Quad A champion in Elijah Logozar (MO), who won the 2000+ quad with a 2½/3 score.

That’s fewer players than previously, which might be explained by the concurrent National G/15 Championship. There, 41 players decided not to put their regular ratings on the line, and four emerged as our co-champions with 4/5 scores: Pete Karagianis (IL), Roger Mastrapa (MI), Santhosh Ayyappan (NJ), and Julian Proleiko (MO).

Karagianis is the director of events at US Chess, and he makes it a point to fit at least one side event into his busy schedule. It was great to see him make the most of it!

As a fun incentive, this year we introduced a “bounty prize” for players who beat US Chess staff (or draw higher-rated staffers). Karagianis was one of three staffers who played yesterday in the G/15, and none of us held on to our gift certificate for the bookstore. Matt Waller (WI) took down Karagianis in Round 3, while Paul E. Brooks (MI) doubled up by beating Administrative Assistant Brian Harting and then, as an encore, came darn close to beating me the next round before offering a draw in a pawn-up endgame. His quick rating point was 400 points lower than mine, and that rating differential was the only thing my position had going for it.

Editors in action during Wednesday's side events: JJ Lang (L) and John Hartmann (R). I can tell you that I had just spotted a winning move here, and was in the process of talking myself out of playing it. I can't tell you what John was thinking. (Photos by David Llada)

Unsurprisingly, Brooks won the Under-1800 prizea for his 3½/5 score. Save for two small events a few months ago, the Grand Rapids local has been inactive since 2003. It’s great to see players come back to rated play and surprise a few opponents (and, in Brooks’s case, himself).

The final staffer competing yesterday — in the Daily Quad — was Chess Life/Chess Life Kids Editor John Hartmann, who wasted no time in giving his prize to Diwakar Rana (KS).

The only staff member playing in today’s quad is Assistant Editor Rick Massimo, but a few more might pop up over the weekend. Each staffer only has one bounty prize to give away, so you have to be the first to get to them! The full schedule of side events is available here.

And More!

Today is also the start of the committee and workshop meetings, which continue through tomorrow. We hope to see you at this afternoon’s Executive Board Open Meeting (3 p.m. in the Governor’s Room) and again tomorrow at the same time for the Staff Forum/General Membership Meeting in the Ambassador Ballroom. If you see anybody in a staff shirt or with a blue lanyard, introduce yourself!