This year's U.S. Championships have been full of excitement and blood on board, and have been more competitive than most fans expected. Today Hikaru Nakamura drew again, pretty comfortably with the black pieces against Sam Sevian. He has 5/7 and leads, and that's not a surprise. What is a surprise is that he has a co-leader, and it's not Wesley So or even Gata Kamsky. It's Ray Robson, who defeated Daniel Naroditsky with Black in an 85-move marathon to reclaim a share of first. Naroditsky had been losing for a long time, but well into the second time control managed to get back into the game - only to be outplayed a game and finally lose. It has been a very hard event for Naroditsky, who is in last place with just 1.5 points, but he's young and strong and will return with a vengeance.
As for Wesley So, he's back in the hunt after a win against Alexander Onischuk. Onischuk was fine until his 28th move (28...h6 was better) and especially his blunder on move 30, when ...h5 had to be played. It's hard to know what Onischuk missed, especially since he had time on his clock and spent more than nine minutes on his 30th move. With the win, So has 4.5 points and is in clear third, half a point behind the leaders.
Kamsky beat Conrad Holt in what Fabiano Caruana praised as a model game of exploiting the bishop pair, while Kayden Troff defeated Varuzhan Akobian after the latter's blunder on move 23. Kamsky and Troff have 4 points apiece, as does Sevian. Finally, Sam Shankland beat Timur Gareev to get back to an even score.
In the women's championship, top seed and defending champion Irina Krush won convincingly against Annie Wang, but is still a point behind the leader, Katerina Nemcova, who ground out a tough win against Apurva Virkud. Nemcova now has 6/7 to Krush's 5.
Rusudan Goletiani could and should have had five points as well, as she was winning against Anna Sharevich, but on the last move of the time control she blundered with 40.e4?? (39 moves too late). 40.Rxf7 instead was a very easy winner: 40...Qxd5+ (forced) 41.Qxd5 Rxd5 42.Rxg7+ Kf8 43.Rxg6 Rxe5 and now I think 44.Rxh6 Rxe3 45.Kg2 Rxb3 46.Rb6 should win, but if White deems this inadequate she can play 44.Rf6+ followed by 45.Rf3 instead, which definitely wins. After 40.e4??, she was soon mated.
Paikidze is in third with 4.5, and Goletiani and Abrahamyan are another half a point behind.