Woodward, Tang Take Lead as Goldin, Christiansen Catch Akopian

The penultimate round of the 2025 National Championships finally brought clear leaders in two out of the three sections. Nevertheless, the races so far have been close enough that no section has a guaranteed winner. GM Andy Woodward’s lead in the Junior is the largest (a full point), while WGM Zoey Tang’s in the Girls’ Junior is just half of a point. The situation is even more tense in the Senior, where GM Larry Christiansen, GM Vladimir Akopian, and GM Alexander Goldin all share the lead. Let’s take the sections one by one:

U.S. Junior: Woodward gets some breathing room

Woodward’s fortunes were greatly aided by a sharp Sicilian win with the black pieces against the struggling IM Evan Park. Andy’s position looked suspicious out of the opening, but Evan failed to contain Black’s counterplay and was left with his king in the center in an open position — a recipe for disaster.

With yesterday's win, Andy Woodward has a full-point lead over the field with only one round between him and a spot in this October's U.S. Championship (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Just as important for Andy, however, was IM Nico Chasin’s downing of the co-leader, GM Kirk Ghazarian. Nico excels in reversed Sicilian positions, and once he got his play, he never looked back:

Ghazarian still controls his own fate, as he plays Woodward tomorrow. But with Andy having the White pieces and most likely intending to play a solid line, Kirk’s work is cut out for him.

Nico Chasin (R) took down co-leader Kirk Ghazarian. According to Carissa's Law, Woodward owes Chasin an ice cream. (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

The silver lining is that in today’s round, each decisive game was won by Black, so perhaps Kirk just needs to keep following the trend!

Though not relevant to the standings, I also particularly enjoyed IM Justin Wang’s preparation-fueled win against IM Sandeep Sethuraman. Justin sacrificed a piece straight out of the opening, and White soon found himself off the precipice.

Graphic courtesy of SLCC

Girls’ Junior: Tang jumps out again

WGM Zoey Tang misplayed a winning endgame in the previous round (against then-coleader FM Megan Paragua), but any missed chances then were made up for by a solid win this round.

Zoey Tang (L)'s win gives her the slimmest lead over the pack with a spot in the U.S. Women's Championship on the line. (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Playing as White against WIM Chloe Gaw, Zoey never got much of an advantage in the opening or early middlegame, but kept posing problems for her opponent; eventually, her superior understanding of the position proved decisive in the mutual time scramble.

The only other decisive game was WFM Laurie Qiu’s second win in a row, this time at the expense of WGM Rochelle Wu. Laurie had a poor start to the event, losing the first six games, but has found her footing in the past two rounds and is now even poised to gain rating.

Two players have serious chances to catch Zoey in tomorrow’s round: WFM Rachael Li and FM Megan Paragua, both a half-point behind the leader with 5½/8 scores. None of these three contenders play each other, and the only one with the white pieces is Li, so it will be interesting to see how these players approach this tense last-round scenario.

Graphic courtesy of SLCC

Senior: Goldin and Shabalov catch Akopian

With a chance to create separation from the pack, Akopian instead drew GM Joel Benjamin in a high-quality game, allowing two players to catch him with wins. One was GM Alexander Goldin, whose game against GM Maxim Dlugy seemed to be heading towards a draw before Dlugy made a terrible blunder in a same-colored bishop endgame. Goldin exploited his chance precisely and liquidated into a winning pawn endgame.

Goldin was joined at the top by GM Larry Christiansen, who beat GM Gregory Kaidanov as Black in instructive fashion. Christiansen’s position was objectively worse for some time, but he kept forcing his opponent to make difficult decisions and played mercilessly when he got his chance.

The most dramatic game of the round, however, was GM Alexander Shabalov’s miniature win against GM Igor Novikov in a Sicilian Sozin. Shabalov was in his element throughout and punished his opponent’s mistakes convincingly.

The three co-leaders have all played each other already; Goldin will face Shabalov, Christiansen will play Dlugy, and Akopian will match up against Kaidanov. But, unlike the Girls’ section, all three players have White. This situation is particularly tricky for the players: all need to play for a win, but all absolutely cannot afford a loss. At this point, I think it very likely that we will see a tiebreaker.