Woodward, Tang, and Fishbein Win National Championships

Breaking: Fishbein wins Senior Championship after three-way playoff

For the first time ever, we have a three-way tie in the U.S. Senior Championship. But the winners may not be who you expect. Yesterday’s round concluded with a three-way tie between GMs Vladimir Akopian, Larry Christiansen, and Alexander Goldin. Of those three, only Akopian made it through the last round unscathed after drawing a solid game with GM Gregory Kaidanov.

Defending champion Vladimir Akopian jumped out to an early lead, but a string of draws led to him studying his competitors' games as closely as his own by the final round (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

As for the other co-champions? First, Goldin succumbed to GM Alexander Shabalov in a long endgame:

This was Shabalov’s second win in a row and catapulted him to the top of the cross table to join Akopian.

A focused Shabalov did what needed to be done, winning as Black to force a playoff (Photo courtesy of Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

Then, in the last game to finish, GM Larry Christiansen lost a 154-move game to tournament spoiler GM Maxim Dlugy after mounting a heroic defense earlier.

Alex Fishbein's grinding victory made him the third player to join Friday's fun (Photo courtesy of Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

In the midst of this drama, GM Alex Fishbein won an endgame grind against GM Joel Benjamin. Both players chose to play solidly in this mutual must-win situation and for some time it looked like the game would end in a draw, but Benjamin’s time pressure ended up being the decisive factor:

As a result, Fishbein joined Akopian and Shabalov at the top for a playoff. The latter two are not strangers to the podium, both having won the event in the past. On the other hand, this is Fishbein’s first time in a tie for first, and his result is particularly memorable given his performance in the last rounds of the tournament: after the first four rounds, he had a -1 score, but finished with a very strong 4/5.

According to the tournament rules, all three co-winners will compete in a playoff on the following day. So, before the closing ceremony could get underway, Akopian, Shabalov, and Fishbein made their ways back to the playing hall for a rapid (game-in-15 with a 10-second delay from move one) Round Robin.

In order, the games were Shabalov – Akopian, Fishbein – Shabalov, and Akopian – Fishbein. A clear winner after these three games would be the Senior Champion and earn the Winner’s bonus. If two (or more) players ended up tied, a blitz Round Robin between the remaining combatants would take place (with more blitz Round Robins to follow if needed).

In the first game, Shabalov was unable to convert a won rook endgame:

Having the black pieces immediately following the disappointing draw, Shabalov opted for an aggressive opening against Fishbein, a thematic Exchange sac, and continued to create complications in the endgame to avoid a draw long after his advantage evaporated:

With his win over Shabalov, Fishbein guaranteed that his game against Akopian would produce the tournament champion. An Akopian victory as White over Fishbein would give him a half-point lead, whereas a draw or Fishbein victory would give Fishbein the better score. After failing to produce any chances out of the opening in this final game, Akopian eventually had nothing better than accepting Fishbein’s pawn sac for a perpetual check.

Final standings (including prize distribution) will be included here shortly.

Junior: Woodward clinches

In the other two sections, the results were much more predictable. GM Andy Woodward’s task in the Juniors was perhaps the simplest: a draw with White against GM Kirk Ghazarian would guarantee him clear first. He managed this without difficulty. It was a convincing performance for the young star; he won four games, lost none, added another nine points to his already impressive rating, and played with enviable maturity.

See you in October, Andy! (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

There were three other decisive results in this section. In general, the quality of the games in the Junior was somewhat lower than usual in this round, a sign that the players were getting tired. Nevertheless, IM Grayson Rorrer took advantage of some endgame mistakes to beat IM Justin Wang with the black pieces, while GM Brewington Hardaway defeated IM Evan Park as White. And the game I have selected to annotate, GM Abhimanyu Mishra’s victory against FM Sharvesh Deviprasath, is a good illustration of an important tenet: sometimes one doesn’t need to do anything special to win; one just needs to make simple, good moves.

Graphic courtesy of SLCC

Girls’ Junior: Tang inches past Paragua as both win on demand

There was more excitement in the Girls’ Junior, as both FM Megan Paragua and WFM Rachael Li had potential chances to catch the leader, WGM Zoey Tang. Li drew her game quickly, but Paragua outplayed her opponent (WIM Iris Mou) from a bad position and won. This meant that Tang had to win her game against Jasmine Su to avoid a playoff scenario, and this she did with poise:

Tang’s performance was the most dominant of the winners in any of the three sections; she won five games and lost none to finish at 7/9.