USA Championship 2016

[Chris Rice]

This starts tomorrow (14/4) I believe at 7pm GMT. It's one hell of a field in the men's. Xiong is a new name to me but clearly at 2600+ he must be very good:

1 Nakamura, Hikaru 2798
2 Caruana, Fabiano 2794
3 So, Wesley 2788
4 Kamsky, Gata 2680
5 Onischuk, Alexander 2665
6 Shankland, Samuel L 2661
7 Robson, Ray 2656
8 Lenderman, Aleksandr 2623
9 Akobian, Varuzhan 2622
10 Xiong, Jeffery 2609
11 Shabalov, Alexander 2520
12 Chandra, Akshat 2491

The women's championship features some very good youth players such as Carissa Yip (12 years old) and Jennifer Yu (13) so should be worth watching too. http://www.uschesschamps.com/2016-us-championship/live

[Tim Harding]

Jeffery Xiong was born in the year 2000 and Chandra in 1999.
Also Shabalov is in/back.

Much of the field is as in 2015.
Those three are playing instead of Sevian, Gareev and Holt who helped make last year's event so memorable - apart of course from the Wesley So note-taking incident.

[Mick Norris]

TWIC brief summary

I imagine TWIC will also be carrying the games live

They will also be on chess24live

[Tim Harding]

I shall probably watch on Chess24 (Seirawan/ Shahade/ Ashley etc).

Play starts at 1pm local time in St. Louis; that corresponds to 7pm BST I think, not 7pm GMT as said above. The opening ceremony only starts 6.30pm local time this evening so we won't know the draw until tomorrow.

Presumably the US line-up for the Olympiad will be decided (or at least greatly influenced) by the result, with Caruana, So and Nakamura fighting for the top three spots and the rest of the field for board four and reserve spots.

[Mick Norris]

This starts tomorrow (14/4) I believe at 7pm GMT. It's one hell of a field in the men's. Xiong is a new name to me but clearly at 2600+ he must be very good:

Xiong is the world's youngest 2600 player according to the chess.com report

They have clearly had the draw, any sign of the actual pairings?

[Tim Harding]

This starts tomorrow (14/4) I believe at 7pm GMT. It's one hell of a field in the men's. Xiong is a new name to me but clearly at 2600+ he must be very good:

Xiong is the world's youngest 2600 player according to the chess.com report

They have clearly had the draw, any sign of the actual pairings?

Round 1 pairings:
Caruana-Akobian
Shankland-Chandra
So-Kamsky
Nakamura-Lenderman
Shabalov-Robson
Onischuk-Xiong

So-Caruana will be on Saturday (round 3)
Caruana-Nakamura rd 4
So-Nakamura rd 6

So gets the best deal and Hikaru gets punished for his misdemeanour in Moscow.

Last year's women's championship also featured some hot battles.

[Mick Norris]

Round 6 should be interesting, the note taker v the j'adouber

[NickFaulks]

So gets the best deal and Hikaru gets punished for his misdemeanour in Moscow.

That's interesting, I've heard both views. Some players like their whites to be against their main rivals, others reckon they can draw those games anyway and prefer to have their whites against the players they intend to beat.

[Tim Harding]

It seems the Big Three all have the extra White - and after just two hours play Wesley So has demolished Gata Kamsky, who becomes the first player to lose in either championship this year.

[Mick Norris]

Chess Mind preview

chess.com round 1 report

Round 1 (April 14, 2016)
Nakamura, Hikaru - Lenderman, Aleksandr 1-0 38 D43 Anti-Meran Gambit
Caruana, Fabiano - Akobian, Varuzhan 1-0 40 B01 Centre Counter
So, Wesley - Kamsky, Gata 1-0 28 C95 Ruy Lopez Breyer
Shankland, Samuel L - Chandra, Akshat 1-0 63 C07 French Tarrasch
Onischuk, Alexander - Xiong, Jeffery ½-½ 53 D20 QGA
Shabalov, Alexander - Robson, Ray 0-1 42 D43 Anti-Meran Gambit

Round 1 (April 14, 2016)
Abrahamyan, Tatev - Bykovtsev, Agata 1-0 33 B90 Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Yip, Carissa - Gorti, Akshita 1-0 48 C04 French Tarrasch
Nemcova, Katerina - Krush, Irina ½-½ 50 B47 Sicilian Paulsen
Paikidze, Nazi - Zatonskih, Anna ½-½ 65 D02 Queen's Pawn Game
Foisor, Sabina-Francesca - Melekhina, Alisa ½-½ 39 B39 Sicilian Maroczy Bind
Yu, Jennifer R - Eswaran, Ashritha ½-½ 56 A18 English Opening

[Tim Harding]

Round 2 at 7pm BST:

Caruana-Shankland
Kamsky-Nakamura
Chandra-So
Robson-Onischuk
Akobian-Xiong
Lenderman-Shabalov

Commentators last night could not agree on whether the move of the day was So's Nf5 sac against Kamsky or Robson's ...Ne2 haymaker that KO'd Shabalov. They thought Nakamura had a pretty good game too.
Chandra showed his inexperience taking more than an hour on one move,which resulted later in him having no time to save a tenable position against Shankland.
Xiong, on the other hand, showed his class by holding the only draw of the day from a slightly worse position ending up with R+2 v R+3.
He said afterwards he had drawn a pretty bad number, starting with two Blacks, and just aimed to play solidly.
Kamsky, who had done well in the Moscow Aeroflot, looked to be in shock and will have to recover quickly if he's to give Hikaru a decent game.

Winner of the day, though,was 12-year-old Carissa Yip who won her debut game and gave a nice interview afterwards. Her aim is to make the top five to be selected for the Olympiad and her mum has promised her a new phone if she comes in the top three.
The draw is being kind to her as she doesn't meet one of the favourites until round 3.

[Tim Harding]

Kamsky played it safe in the opening with a London system and drew in 35 minutes!

Caruana is taking his time playing an old Hungarian idea with 10 Nh3 in the Winawer French v Shankland.

[LawrenceCooper]

So appeared to have allowed his opponent a very strong Rxe6+ combination on move 33 but having got away with that seems likely to win.

[Steven DuCharme]

Robson now 2/2 !!!

[LawrenceCooper]

Robson now 2/2 !!!

He doesn't play the top 3 until rounds 8,9 and 11 so a good opportunity to build up a decent plus score.