US Championship, Round 4
Another crazy round! The play wasn't very clean, but at least that made it entertaining for the spectators.
The fun started on the top board, with Nakamura pulling out a museum piece against Onischuk: 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4 d5 4.exd5!? Nxd5 5.fxe5. After 5...Nxc3 6.bxc3 Qh4+ 7.Ke2 Bg4+ 8.Nf3 Nc6 9.Qe1 Qh5 10.Kd1
we seemed to have something out of a beginner's game. In fact Nakamura quickly reached a slightly better ending, but with accurate play Onischuk reached a drawn rook ending.
Akobian - Kamsky was the other game with 2.5 pointers, and it too was drawn. That's not a shocking conclusion, given that Akobian played the Exchange Slav, but it wasn't quite as easy as that. First Akobian managed to achieve a slight pull, only to be outplayed by Kamsky. Around the time control Black's edge almost became significant, but White managed to hold - with some effort.
Their draws allowed three others to catch them. Shulman won on the black side of a Tarrasch French, and with surprising ease. I guess Hess was unprepared for 3...a6, because 6.Bd3 is unpopular and illogical: White's most common move is 6.Be2, when Black usually replies with 6...c4. So White's 6.Bd3 c4 7.Be2 throws away a tempo for absolutely nothing, and the downhill trend continued rapidly. Black was winning by move 16, up a pawn with a better position, and he duly converted.
Ehlvest - Stripunsky was also won by Black. Here's the key position:
White has several tempting continuations, but not all of them are good. See if you can figure out the right move, and when you're ready click the appropriate link at the end of the post. Unfortunately for Ehlvest, he chose wrongly, and Stripunsky made him pay in spectacular style.
Shabalov - Christiansen was as sharp as I had hoped, despite Black's choice of opening (a Bogo-Indian). The game really turned on one move: in a very complicated position, White's 14.Bg5 was a blunder. White was objectively okay with 14.bxc4, but it's very complicated: 14...exf3 15.cxd5 Nxd4 (or 15...Nxe2 16.Bxe2 Ne7 17.0-0 Nxd5 18.Bf3 Rd8 19.Rc1+=) 16.Bb2 fxe2 17.Bxe2 Nf3+ 18.Bxf3 Qxb2 19.0-0+=. After 14.Bg5? Christiansen had a big advantage and won pretty convincingly.
Moving to the lower score groups, White got revenge as Yermolinsky beat Kudrin and Kraai beat Benjamin.
Robson - Krush was a thoroughly bizarre draw, starting with the opening. The first 21 moves were theory, and not obscure theory, either. Neverthless, Robson was burning time from early on, and was down to about 10 minutes left when he played the new move 22.Rhf1. The position was about equal there, but with so little time left on the clock it's not surprising that he started making mistakes, and after 30.Nd5? Qc5 Krush was winning. Robson kept fighting, though, and somehow made it to a rook vs. rook and bishop ending...which was lost. Krush couldn't figure out the win, and after several exchanges of errors Robson held the draw.
The remaining games were drawn. Lenderman - Finegold was long and exciting, Kaidanov - Khachiyan was long and less exciting, and Altounian - Bhat was the longest of all. Bhat should have won, but a couple of mistakes let White escape by a hair. Finally, Shankland - Gurevich was absolutely crazy, but Gurevich was winning almost throughout. Fortunately for Shankland, his opponent's 32...Nd5? let him (Shankland) escape with a perpetual.
Standings After Round 4
1-7(!). Nakamura, Akobian, Kamsky, Onischuk, Shulman, Christiansen, Stripunsky 3
8-9. Yermolinsky, Kraai 2.5
10-12. Ehlvest, Krush, Hess 2
13-21. Finegold, Altounian, Shabalov, Lenderman, Kaidanov, Khachiyan, Benjamin, Kudrin, Robson 1.5
22-23. Bhat, Shankland 1
24. Gurevich .5
Tournament site here, Ehlvest - Stripunsky (with my comments on the key position) here.
Reader Comments