The 2016 US championships (USChessChamps.com) have come to a rousing conclusion. Fabiano Caruana is our new champion. Wesley So finished in second place, with defending champ, Hikaru Nakamura, in third. It was expected that one of the Big Three would win, given their 100-point average rating advantage over the field; the only question was which one? Caruana won, but not in a convincing manner. He had five draws and seemed to struggle at times. So had eight draws while playing solid chess. Nakamura’s fate was sealed early on with a bad loss to Caruana and draw to last-place Akshat Chandra. His run was capped off with a colorless draw in the last round vs. Ray Robson, when he really had to win to have any chance of repeating as champion.
Other interesting results include Brandeis grad Sam Shankland finishing in a disappointing 10th place. Fifteen-year-old Jeffery Xiong had a great event, holding his own against the field, beating Kamsky and losing only to Nakamura. Gata Kamsky, the five-time US champion, had a very poor event, finishing seventh with a minus 1 score. Webster University student Ray Robson did very well, finishing fourth, half a point out of third.
The big surprise in the women’s championship was that big pretournament favorites Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih were never real threats. Krush must have had one of her worse events ever, and Zatonskih seemed rusty from a possible lack of practice. The winner, Nazi Paikidze, played solid chess throughout, capping the event with a pressure-filled win over Krush in the last round. Her main rival, Tatev Abrahamyan, needed to beat 13-year-old Ashritha Eswaran in the last round to win the event, but she lost, finishing second. Andover’s Carissa Yip finished in ninth place, but she did beat her second grandmaster, (her first was Alexander Ivanov) Krush, and earned $3,500 in prize money.
Winners: MetroWest April Fools Swiss: Open: 1st-2nd: David Vigorito, Lawyer Times: 3.5-.5, Under 2000: 5 player tied for 1st–3rd: Nikita Konovalchuk, Robert C. Sullivan, James W. Todhunter, Alon Trogan, Neal D. Bruce: 3-1, U1700: 1st: Peter Davis: 4-0, U1400: Kelsey Liu: 3-1; CCA’s Eastern Class (266 players): Master: 1st: Alexander Ivanov: 4-1, Expert: 1st: Joseph Bihlmeyer: 5-0, Class A: 1st: Anton Barash: 5-0, Class B: 1st: Doug Ryan: 4.5-.5, Class C: 1st: Catherine Ryan
Coming Events: Billerica Friday Night Swiss, May 6, 13, 20, 27, Council on Aging, 25 Concord Road, Billerica, arthur978@comcast.net; Kaamatan Open, May 7, West Newbury Town Hall Annex, 381 Main St., West Newbury, www.relyeachess.com.
Answer to today’s problem: The amazing 1.Rh5!! with the winning threat of 2.Ng5+ and 3.Rxh6 mate. If now 1…QxQ then 2.Ng5+ Kh8 3.Rxh6 is mate. And if 1…gxh 2.QxQ is good but 2.Qd3+ leads to mate.
Weekly problem
