Caruana Defeats Niemann, Tokhirjonova Seizes Clear Lead
GM Fabiano Caruana cemented his lead by defeating GM Hans Niemann—the player who's been chasing him since round four—on day nine of the 2023 U.S. Championship. Though Caruana is a full point ahead, GMs Wesley So, Leinier Dominguez, and Abhimanyu Mishra also won, keeping their pursuit alive with two rounds remaining.
WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova has taken over sole first in the U.S. Women's Championship. She gained a winning position by move seven after catching FM Ruiyang Yan in an opening trap. With an undefeated eight out of nine, Tokhirjonova has also earned an IM norm.
IM Carissa Yip trails by half a point after drawing a combative game vs. IM Nazi Paikidze. At this point, Tokhirjonova and Yip are the only competitors who can win the title. No one else can catch Tokhirjonova's 2.5 lead on the rest of the field.
Round 10 starts on October 16 at 2:30 p.m. ET/20:30 CEST/12:00 a.m. IST.
See what happened
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U.S. Championship
In their previous head-to-head matches, Caruana had a 3-0 score vs. Niemann—all victories with the black pieces. Despite this, Caruana expected a fight of a game:
Yea, I have a very good score against him, but I didn't feel totally confident before the game today. I thought it was still going to be a very tough game. It's clear that Hans more or less had to win the game to fight for first place. I don't think a draw would've given him any chances, so I really expected a tough fight. Also, it's after a rest day, so he definitely could prepare something. So, I wasn't entirely at ease, let's say.
Yet, when Caruana started his kingside attack, Niemann seemed to underestimate the danger, and his attempt to create counterplay backfired. As Caruana described:
The game, of course, I can't say it was a very good game. I feel like I mostly benefitted because Hans was not in good shape today. He played probably not very well and gave me chances that I really shouldn't have had.
After pressing with Black for much of the game vs. So, GM Ray Robson blundered in time pressure as he made his 40th move. Suddenly, all of the resources that So had built up in the position erupted. Can you find how he finished the game?
White to move.
Afterward, So reflected on what it takes to win a chess game at the highest levels:
Of course, if you look at any chess game with an engine these days, you see tons of mistakes. You think: Oh, I played my best game. And then you made like ten mistakes. I figured maybe that's the way that chess is: You gotta take risks in order to win.
...I was watching some games in the Qatar Masters the other day, and Magnus Hikaru, they were not better 95% of the moments during their games, but they somehow managed to win in the end. Give your opponent room for mistakes.
Magnus, Hikaru, they were not better 95% of the moments during their games, but they somehow managed to win in the end.
-Wesley So
From the opening, Dominguez gained a "risk-free advantage" vs. GM Andrew Tang and continued to increase the pressure until he broke through on the queenside. As the players neared time control, a curious moment occurred. Check out the replay below.
Dominguez's seamless victory is our Game of the Day, with annotations by GM Dejan Bojkov below.
Dominguez might be the most overlooked elite player.
— John Bartholomew (@fins0905) October 15, 2023
Technical style, and all the top guys say he's one of the best-prepared players out there. Consistently ~2750 for the past decade. A bit older at age 40. Doesn't play too often, but rarely has a bad event.
I'm a fan 👍 https://t.co/3MqkfjpfOw
After a long struggle in a difficult French middlegame vs. GM Sam Shankland, Mishra faced a pivotal decision:
I had basically two ways to try and hold this position: Either I try to bring my pieces to the kingside and hope that I can fight on this minimal ground or I throw caution to the wind, play ...Be8, start playing ...b5-b4 and start trying to break on the queenside... I decided I had enough suffering this game. Let's do something a little bit more active.
Why did @ChessMishra play the French Defense?
— chess24.com (@chess24com) October 15, 2023
"Yeah, that's a question I ask myself a lot."#USChessChamps pic.twitter.com/3q5Q8ONkw9
U.S. Championship | All Games Round 9
Round 9 Standings
U.S. Women's Championship
On move six, Yan captured a poisoned pawn. Though Tokhirjonova wasn't familiar with the refutation, she knew that taking the pawn was off limits and figured out the winning response over the board: "I didn't see Rb8. I didn't see anything. I was like: Wait, they don't play like this. So I had to figure out c5, and then I'm just winning."
Tokhirjonova wins again to reach a stellar 8/9 score and a performance rating of over 2650!#USChessChamps pic.twitter.com/Tmi25ipPTQ
— chess24.com (@chess24com) October 15, 2023
Down a pawn in a difficult position, Paikidze found a critical queen maneuver to save the game vs. Yip.
After a stunning case of identical results for the first eight rounds, this draw finally broke the tie between Tokhirjonova and Yip. The 24-year-old WGM has taken the sole lead with two rounds to go. Additionally, since Tokhirjonova is 2.5 points ahead of everyone else, Yip is the only player who can catch her.
The two players tied for third, GM Irina Krush and IM Alice Lee, faced each other to a draw this round, ending both of their chances to catch the leaders. In her interview, Krush shared about her tournament experience beyond chess itself:
This has been a pretty tough tournament for me, especially this series of draws that I had, one crushing disappointment after another. ... I feel very lucky that I have my group of friends, people that I do my walks with here in St. Louis, people I talk to on the phone, phone I talk to by text, even my fans and supporters that write to me on Facebook. Everyone has been doing such an amazing job of supporting me.
You get to a point in your life: You're 39, and I don't remember having these kinds of friendships 10 years ago. Some of these friendships have been built up over a decade or more; some of them are some things that I've built in the last year.
When you have friends like that, you feel very rich, very blessed. So that's why this tournament is not going so well for me at least in terms of fighting for first place, but overall I feel very happy.
When you have friends like that, you feel very rich, very blessed.
-Irina Krush
In a five-hour duel, WGM Tatev Abrahamyan converted a pawn-up bishop vs. knight ending vs. IM Anna Zatonskih.
U.S. Women's Championship | All Games Round 9
Round 9 Women's Standings
The 2023 U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational classical event that determines the chess champion of the United States. The 2022 U.S. Women's Championship is being held concurrently. Both events start on October 5 and have the same format: a 12-player, 11-round tournament with a $250,000 prize fund for the U.S. Championship and $152,000 for the U.S. Women’s Championship.
Previous Coverage:
- Niemann Blunder Gives Caruana 1-Point Lead; Yip, Tokhirjonova Ahead By 2
- Winning Streaks Galore: Yip, Tokhirjonova, Lee Unstoppable
- Yip, Tokhirjonova Grow Lead With 4 Victories
- Nearly All Decisive Day: Caruana Pulls Off Hat Trick, Niemann Defeats Aronian
- Caruana Sole Leader After Long Grinding Win
- Mishra In Sole Lead, Becomes World's Youngest 2600+ Player
- On The Verge Of Blundering While Running Out Of Time, Niemann Defeats Leader
- Paikidze, Sevian Start As Sole Leaders
Vanessa West is a National Master, a chess teacher, and a writer for Chess.com. In 2017, they won the Chess Journalist of the Year award.
You can follow them on X: Vanessa__West
