Yip, Caruana Repeat as U.S. Champions

Photo courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC (All other photos courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

With his final-round victory over GM Sam Shankland, GM Fabiano Caruana joined IM Carissa Yip in repeating as U.S. Champion. Caruana’s 7/10 score was good for his third consecutive victory (fourth overall), while Yip’s 8½/11 score netted the 21-year-old her third title in four years.

After her 8/8 start, Yip boasted a gargantuan lead over the field. But consecutive losses before today’s draw allowed IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova to close the gap to a single point, clinching clear second with a 7½/11 score. Funnily enough, the Open saw a six-way tie for second with 5½/10 scores, meaning that Caruana actually won his tournament by a larger margin than Yip! But who’s counting?

Women’s

Despite losing on Tuesday, Yip clinched the 2024 title thanks to Alice Lee’s victory over Tokhirjonova yesterday. Yip said she would buy Alice an ice cream as a “thank you,” and, immediately after drawing their game today, Yip kept her promise. After winning $35,000 for her tournament victory (and a $5,000 winner’s bonus, to boot), some ice cream seems like the least Yip could do:

Carissa kept her promise and invited Alice for ice cream right after their game! It's always heartwarming to see rivals on the board become friends off the board! 🙂🍦#chess #uschesschamps #icecream pic.twitter.com/R5DywMSe8p
— Saint Louis Chess Club (@STLChessClub) October 23, 2024

While Tokhirjonova might not be getting Alice a gift any time soon, Lee’s draw did give Tokhirjonova a chance to claim outright second with a victory. And, as anybody who has been following Tokhirjonova’s play can tell you, if you give her a reason to fight for a win, she’ll take it!

Got my third Silver🥈 at the US Women’s Champs and qualified for the Women’s World Cup💕 Grateful🙏#chess #usa #uschesschamps pic.twitter.com/VilV3H0ELX
— Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (@Gulruhbegim) October 23, 2024

With her win, Tokhirjonova finished a half-point ahead of Lee despite her head-to-head loss. Tokhirjonova takes home $30,000 for her performance. In clear third with a 7/11 score, Lee earned $20,000.

Also victorious today was FM Megan Lee, who capped off an impressive showing with a victory over FM Rose Atwell to finish in clear fourth and earn $13,000 for her efforts.

The below game is a complicated, tactically rich affair that will certainly see its day in a future Wednesday Workout, so for now it will be left unannotated below:

Open

Entering the day with a half-point lead over GM Awonder Liang, Caruana’s options were clear. He could defeat Shankland and clinch an outright victory, or he could leave Liang with a chance to catch him by defeating GM Leinier Dominguez. Guess which option the longtime world number two chose.

Shankland, to his credit, was happy to play his part in creating a complex game with three possible results. Despite being eliminated from a top finish, he still played a Najdorf Sicilian and, at several junctures, chose the more combative of several options. Caruana may have won, but Shankland made him earn his $55,000 first prize (and his $5,000 winner’s bonus).

It is common for players to pace around the hall as they wait for their opponent to make their move. Sometimes, it’s an intimidation tactic to signal that they “know” the move caught their opponent off-guard. But sometimes they just get restless waiting. Far less often, it’s because they opened with 1. a3 and are trying to not distract their flummoxed opponent with barely suppressed laughter.

And yet, for much of the game, it was Liang who had the serious winning chances. It’s almost like there are no bad openings, especially for players as creative as Liang. The game even transposed into a position played in a 2020 Carlsen – Nakamura game by move seven! But, at the end of the day, Dominguez reminded Liang that the best defense is sometimes an unexpected counterattack.

With his victory, Dominguez managed to catch Liang and Robson (who had the day off) in a tie for second with 5½/10. GM Levon Aronian had an opportunity to play a slightly unclear queen sac and took it (of course) and converted the imbalanced position (of course) to also join the logjam behind Caruana.

GMs Sam Sevian and Hans Niemann each entered the day with 5/9 scores, but after drawing their head-to-head game, the pair rounded out the six-way tie for second! This author’s back-of-the-envelope math suggests that each player will take home just shy of $25,000.