'Fischer Prize' Off The Table As U.S. Championship Gets Underway
Draws on all boards in round one of the 2024 U.S. Championship have already dashed the chances of a player repeating GM Bobby Fischer's perfect score in the 1964 championship, but there are clear signs that the U.S. Championship title and $55,000 first prize will be hotly contested. The only player who came close to winning his round-one game was GM Hans Niemann, who missed a window of opportunity against the defending champion GM Fabiano Caruana.
In the Women's event, IM Carissa Yip defeated WGM Thalia Cervantes, while IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova and FM Rose Atwell won with the black pieces against IMs Nazi Paikidze and Anna Zatonskih, respectively.
Round two starts on October 12 at 2 p.m. ET/20:00 CEST/11:30 p.m. IST.
Round 1 Standings: Championship
Round 1 Standings: Women's Championship
The U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship have returned to the St. Louis Chess Club for the 16th year running, courtesy of longtime benefactors Rex and Jeanne (Cairns) Sinquefield, and with national titles and a $402,000 prize fund on offer, most of the country's top talents have made the trip to Missouri.
In the Open section, the world number-three Caruana is a hot chance to retain the title for the third year running but will be challenged by veterans such as GMs Levon Aronian, Wesley So, and Sam Shankland. Junior champions and GMs Christopher Yoo and Awonder Liang will also pose a threat and we shouldn't count out the iron-willed dark horse, Niemann.
15-year-old GM Abhimanyu Mishra also makes up part of the 12-player field and should he claim the crown, he would be the youngest to win the title since the late Fischer in 1958.
In the women's event, former champions including GM Irina Krush (8-time), Zatonskih (4-time), WGM Jennifer Yu (2-time), and Paikidze (2-time) will try to wrest the title from Yip, but don't be shocked if 14-year-old prodigy and IM Alice Lee is thereabouts come the money rounds.
U.S. Championship
Extensive preparation and steely resolve among all 12 participants saw six draws transpire in round one. Incredibly, every player posted CAPS scores over 97, and in only one game, Niemann-Caruana, did the evaluation bar creep over +1.
Diverting from Giuoco Piano theory as early as move eight, the players negotiated for space during the middlegame before Caruana erroneously retreated a knight, gifting Niemann an opportunity to capitalize.
Caruana has been a troublesome opponent for Niemann in the past and coming into this match-up he held a lifetime score of 5-0 over the U.S. number-five meaning that this draw bodes well for Niemann, who has shaken off a historical thorn in his side.
The U.S. Olympiad team board-five and puzzle rush world champion GM Ray Robson was the next closest to securing a full point and may have if not for the brilliant 30...Rc1!! found by GM Grigoriy Oparin.
Without finding this move, Oparin would have had to defend down a pawn in a queen-and-rook ending against one of the trickiest players in the world.
Aronian and GM Sam Sevian's 26-move French Defense clash was the quickest game of the round and would have caused major deja vu for Indian GMs Harshit Raja and Vaibhav Suri, who played the same game back in 2018.
The fact that Aronian had more than 90 minutes left on the clock after 18 moves meant that he was acutely familiar with the game, while Sevian seemed to draw the best moves from his memory, albeit taking more time than his opponent.
In round two, the headliner in the open section is Caruana-Aronian and a decisive result would give rise to an early favorite. The duel between GMs Leinier Dominguez and Shankland is one to watch as well and is expected to be highly theoretical.
U.S. Women's Championship
It's almost customary at this point that the Women's event sees more bloodshed than the Open and in round one, three decisive results split the field. Yip kicked off her title defense with a win over Cervantes.
The Tarrasch Defense was the battleground for this encounter and after isolating Cervantes' queen pawn, Yip deftly maneuvered around the weakness into a winning endgame.
Not wanting to be left behind by Yip, 2023's silver medalist Tokhirjonova muddied the waters against Paikidze and slowly built an advantage. Following a series of pressure-inducing moves, Paikidze slipped up with 39.Rbe3? which allowed Black to win a pawn and consolidate.
The most outstanding game of the day across both divisions though was played by the 15-year-old Californian Atwell, whose enterprising opening play and trio of piece sacrifices bamboozled the four-time former champion Zatonskih.
In round two, Atwell will play with White against Yip and the latter will be taking her opponent very seriously following her Tal-esque masterclass.
The live broadcast was hosted by WGM Katerina Nemcova and GMs Yasser Seirawan and Cristian Chirila.
See what happenedYou can follow the games from the U.S. Championships on our Events Pages: Open | Women.
The 2024 U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational classical event that determines the chess champion of the United States. The 2024 U.S. Women's Championship is being held concurrently. Both events start on October 11 and have the same format: a 12-player, 11-round tournament with a $250,000 prize fund for the U.S. Championship, and $152,000 for the U.S. Women’s Championship.
