USA Championship 2016

[Mick Norris]

I'm sure that the FIDE Ethics Commission will have a good laugh when they see this referral:

http://chess-news.ru/node/21329

Nicely making the point, about what they will and won't be investigating

[JustinHorton]

Oooh, French Defence in So-Nakamura

[JustinHorton]

Obviously I'm out of touch, but what's this that Caruana is playing?

[Roger de Coverly]

Obviously I'm out of touch, but what's this that Caruana is playing?

What was been played is 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 g6 . That's just an attempted improvement on 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6. It's similar in the Cozio. The line 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nge7 is regarded as a slight improvement on playing Nge7 immediately.

If you have to play .. a6 first, it makes neither line suitable for games against persistent Exchange Variation players.

Books sometimes attribute the 3. .. g6 line to Smyslov, but it's much older. Similarly the 3. .. a6 4. .. g6 is an old idea. You sometimes get a mention of these lines in the last chapter, or sometimes the first of works of theory.

[JustinHorton]

Yeah I know about 3...g6 (I've even played it two ir three times) but the insertion of 3...a6 is new to me.

[Roger de Coverly]

Yeah I know about 3...g6 (I've even played it two ir three times) but the insertion of 3...a6 is new to me.

Me as well, but searching for games shows it first played by Steinitz in 1883, even if the second captured game is in 1924 and the third in 1937. Come the database era and it gets played a little more frequently. I don't think there's ever been a book "Playing the deferred g6 system against the Spanish" or even an advocacy article, so it may have escaped the attention of all but the most avid database researchers.

In my collection of games culled from British websites, there's just the one example from the Glorney Cup in 2000. The related Deferred Cozio does appear from time to time.

[Mick Norris]

So won to join Caruana in the lead on 5.5
Robson has 5 but is yet to play the 2 leaders

Paikidze & Abrahamyan are the lead on 5.5
Krush has 5 but is yet to play the 2 leaders
Zatonskih also has 5 but has played Paikidze and Krush

[Mick Norris]

Final round today

Chandra (1.5) - Caruana (7.5)
Robson (6.5) - J'adoubeamura (7)
Lenderman (4) - So (7)

Looks likely that Caruana will win - Robson needs to win to meet Kasparov in the Blitz (top 3 qualify)

Eswaran (4.5) - Abrahamyan (8)
Krush (6) - Paikidze (7.5)
Zatonskih (6) - Yip (4.5)

Looks like Abrahamyan will win

7 pm our time

[LawrenceCooper]

Caruana did indeed win to finish a point clear with his nearest rivals both drawing. Abrahamyan lost and Paikidze is pressing for a win that would give her outright first.

[LawrenceCooper]

Paikidze did indeed win to take the title.

[LawrenceCooper]

Not that it has any real relevance but out of curiosity I looked for the last time US born players won the championships and believe that it was Christiansen in 2002 and Shahade in 2004.

[NickFaulks]

You mean until Caruana 2016?

[LawrenceCooper]

You mean until Caruana 2016?

Correct.

[NickFaulks]

Of course Nakamura, like Seirawan, was born overseas but moved to the US at a very early age and learned the game there. They are both arguably more "American", in a chess sense, than Caruana, who moved to Europe at the age of twelve and made most of his progress there.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

http://en.chessbase.com/post/it-s-blitz ... d-nakamura

Does anyone here think Kasparov stands a chance in this blitz tournament?
Or maybe whether the other three (Nakamura, Caruana and So) stand a chance?

"four-player sextuple Round Robin. Each player will play against the other six times.
The time control is 5 mins + 3 seconds delay (not increment)"