Yip Wins 7th Straight Game, Liang Closes Gap To Caruana

In the seventh round of the 2024 U.S. Chess Championships, GM Awonder Liang moved to 4/6 and reduced GM Fabiano Caruana's lead to half a point after toppling GM Grigoriy Oparin with the black pieces. GM Ray Robson is on a rollercoaster ride he can't seem to get off—the Puzzle Rush world champion beat GM Hans Niemann in his sixth decisive game in a row.

IM Carissa Yip may not hold chess' second most prestigious FIDE title for long as she won to move to 7/7, this time defeating IM Nazi Paikidze. Sitting on 5/7, which would normally be a leading score, is WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova, who defeated FM Rose Atwell. Wins by WGM Thalia Cervantes, FM Megan Lee, and WGM Jennifer Yu were all relevant in the battle for second place.

The eighth round of the U.S. Championships will start on October 19 at 2 p.m. ET/20:00 CEST/11:30 p.m. IST.

Round 7 Standings: Championship

Round 7 Standings: Women's Championship

• U.S. Championship
• U.S. Women's Championship

U.S. Championship

Liang is emerging as Caruana's chief challenger after the 21-year-old played a near-perfect game in the seventh round of the championship. Liang played quickly and creatively in the opening against Oparin and managed to procure a 47-minute time advantage by the time the players deviated from the master database on move 15. 

Plagued by time trouble, Oparin lost a pawn on the queenside before rushing an f-pawn break. Liang only took one minute to respond, snapping up the f4-pawn and systematically re-routing his pieces to dominant squares.

Liang would later state in an interview that he had been preparing a similar line for a GM Larry Kaufman-inspired knight-odds match against an engine, albeit with an extra piece on the board. A funny moment also occurred right before the round as GM Wesley So mimicked Liang's movements during his games.

Wesley So showing his humorous side by imitating how Awonder Liang makes moves during his games.#uschesschamps #chess #standupcomedy pic.twitter.com/wxhlZRbrte

— Saint Louis Chess Club (@STLChessClub) October 18, 2024

Tripled pawns were on the menu in Robson-Niemann in round seven and after causing the structural damage, Robson took command of the adjacent files with his rooks and infiltrated Niemann's position.

The title aspirations of Niemann have been seriously dented with this loss as the now world number-21 will only play three more games due to his scheduled bye in round nine.

The remaining games of the round were drawn, however plenty of action transpired in two out of three of these games. GM Sam Sevian, who is five points shy of a 2700 FIDE rating, was able to thwart Caruana's rampant run by forcing a threefold repetition on the 26th move. 

Once again showing that he is the form player of the competition, Caruana played the opening with pinpoint accuracy, and for the most part, it felt like Sevian was having to find perfect moves to stay afloat.

The commentator's curse reared its ugly head in one of the drawn round-seven games as Shankland blew yet another advantageous position, this time against GM Abhimanyu Mishra.

GM Yasser Seirawan witnessed Shankland going for two exchange sacrifices against the tournament's youngest participant and as the luckless GM built a strong edge Seirawan declared that Shankland was potentially  "playing one of the best games of his career."

An hour and a half later Mishra-Shankland ended in a draw, leaving Shankland to echo the sentiments expressed after round six: "I feel like I should be winning this thing."

Caruana will face his toughest pairing yet in the eighth round, Black against So. With Liang on a hot streak and facing Sevian, the pressure will be on Caruana if he wants to keep his lead. Shankland is scheduled to have the bye.

U.S. Women's Championship

Chess historians will already be re-writing the history books off the back of Yip's seven-game streak and having notched this latest win against Paikidze, the 21-year-old is four wins away from equalling the 11/11 feat achieved by the famed, late-GM Bobby Fischer in the 1963-64 edition. There's a prize up for grabs.

Carissa Yip has won all 7 games in the US Women's Chess Championship, matching Fabiano Caruana's 2014 streak in St. Louis!She keeps fighting for the Fischer Prize of $64,000, awarded for a perfect score if she wins her last 4 games. Will she make history? Stay tuned!… pic.twitter.com/3rzF93murK

— Saint Louis Chess Club (@STLChessClub) October 18, 2024

Yip chose the aggressive Tal Variation to play against Paikidze's Caro-Kann Defense and though Black was able to equalize, Yip's middlegame play demonstrated that she is a class above the field.

Yip has repeated Caruana's 7/7 in St. Louis...

in my fabi era

— Carissa Yip (@carissayipchess) October 18, 2024

...and now holds a two-point lead over Tokhirjonova who is a further point ahead of a third-placed trio: Lee (Megan), GM Irina Krush, and Lee (Alice). The gap between Yip and Tokhirjojova may have been wider if not for a move 21 oversight by burgeoning star Atwell.

Krush and Lee (Alice) were on track to challenge Yip at the tail end of the tournament but losses in round seven have all but squashed hope of a last-second comeback. The 2022 champion Yu successfully employed the Smith-Morra Gambit against Krush while the battle of the two players with the same surnames, Megan and Alice Lee, was won cleanly by Megan.

All eyes in round eight will turn to Yip's showdown with WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan and Yip will play with the black pieces. With a 7/7 score in St. Louis and a 14/15 score in her two months of classical chess, it may not matter which color Yip plays.

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.

Previous Coverage

• Yoo Temporarily Suspended By US Chess And Charged By Police; Caruana, Yip Lead
• Yoo Expelled From U.S. Championship Due To "Gross Violations" Of Code Of Conduct
• Caruana Beats Mishra, Assumes Sole Lead; Yip Still Perfect
• Olympiad Players Fall As Caruana, Niemann, Liang Join The Leaders
• "Fischer Prize" Off The Table As U.S. Championship Gets Underway
• So, Sevian Register First Wins; Caruana, Shankland Miss Golden Opportunities