Round 10 of the US Chess Championships - daily report from IM Vignesh
Posted: 6 years, 7 months ago
By IM Vignesh Panchanatham
For prior coverage, see days one, two, three, five, six, seven (with analysis of the win by BAC coach GM Zviad Izoria over GM Hikaru Nakamura), eight, nine and four (with analysis of Zviad's win over world championship challenger, GM Fabiano Caruana.)
As the penultimate round drew to a close, only two players in each section remain with a chance to win the title. The underdog GM Shankland maintains a half point lead over World Champion Challenger GM Caruana, while youngster WIM Annie Wang also holds a half point over defending Champion IM Paikidze.
GM Shankland defeated GM Onischuk with the black pieces, achieving equality easily before making the most of the IQP in the endgame. GM Caruana kept pace with a win over GM Zherebukh, utilizing the weak dark squares and white’s undeveloped pieces to grab an exchange. GM Xiong was able to penetrate into GM Lenderman’s position and achieve a better endgame and although both players played the pawn endgame inaccurately, Xiong came out with the win. GM Nakamura won his first game this tournament after launching a strong attack against GM Akobian’s king and converting the resulting exchange up endgame.
GM Izoria equalized with black against GM Liang, but after Liang somewhat dubiously sacrificed an exchange, Izoria didn’t play actively enough and was left with a losing endgame. In the sole draw of the round, neither GM Robson nor GM So could make anything of the almost symmetrical position. Looks like it will be an exciting round tomorrow!
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