Sudden change at the US Championship as both games in the "Final Four" were decisive, Kamsky beating Onishuk and "dark horse" qualifier Shulman stunning Nakamura to set up a Shulman-Kamsky showdown Monday for all the marbles.

At the end, Re1-g1 doesn't help after ...Rc1.  The defending champ goes down hard.  Personally, I think Nf3 is too passive, Black gets what he wants in the opening.  The gambit idea Qg4 is more critical.  Nicely played by Shulman, especially from ...h6 on.  Now he can win the US Championship if he can beat Kamsky with White!  Not sure of the format, but there is "possible tiebreaker" schedule for Tuesday 10 -12 CDT, so I suppose it is a pair of rapid games, then a pair of blitz games, then an "Armageddon" blitz game - a terrible way to decide the championship, IMO.

Nice game. Who's this Shulman guy then?

He was 4th rated going in, so it wasn't any upset he made the finals - all four top rated did - only Larry Christiansen had the chance to crack the final quad, but fell just short.

Shulman came here in the late '90s and won the US Championship in 2008, although the field wasn't as strong as the last two years.  But he's no slouch, as the game vs. Nakamura shows.

Shulman really played it well - you have to have nerves of steel sometimes to let the Kingside get wiped out and have faith the open lines and other piece play will carry you through as Black.  Much in the spirit of the Winawer Poisoned Pawn, if a delayed version.

Nicely done, Yury, and good luck vs Gata!

To be fair, Nakamura simply blundered. Instead, 21. Qe3 gives white all the chances to eventually press for a win using that h-pawn. Probably still a draw, but I'd prefer white after Qe3.

Nakamura's pawn sac was what they call a "true pawn sac" in that it wasn't based on a forcing sequence, but rather for positional compensation. It was risky and Kasparov felt a little dubious. In the end, the deciding factor ended up being a blunder.

See, contrary to what people may think, the french is still extremely rich with ideas (and in every line too, classical, winawer, macutcheon, rubinstein, so many options!). I myself have even come up with some ideas not addressed by theory. They're probably not good, but still, it's saying something.

personally, i don't believe in the french as an answer to e4, but i realize that, if nothing else, it is important to know how to play against the french if the need presents itself. Most players on this level would chose a form of the sicilian. i must admit, shulman had nakamura's number! i still believe nakamura is an amazing player! 

 im here, dude. LOL

Yiss it was beautiful