Day1 of the 2018 US Championship
Posted: 6 years, 8 months ago
Daily report by IM Vignesh Panchanatham
The 2018 US Championships are taking place from April 17-30 in the Saint Louis Chess Club. The immensely strong field includes World Champion Challenger Fabiano Caruana, defending champion Wesley So, and 4-time US Champion Hikaru Nakamura. Representing California are Sam Shankland and BayAreaChess’ own Zviad Izoria!
Rounding out the rest of the players are Jeffery Xiong, Alexander Onischuk, Varuzhan Akobian, Ray Robson, Yaroslav Zherebukh, Aleksandr Lenderman, and Awonder Liang. The rounds will take place at 11 AM PST daily, with a rest day on April 24.
The first round ended with four draws and two decisive results, both wins coming from the black pieces. Akobian and So currently lead the field, but there is definitely an abundance of chess left to play. Izoria escaped with a draw against Xiong, using precise play to survive a pawn down endgame.
Read day 2 report and analysis here.
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