Paikidze, Sevian Start As Sole Leaders
IM Nazi Paikidze and GM Sam Sevian are the sole leaders after the opening day of the U.S. Championships in St. Louis.
Paikidze scored the only victory in the women's division, defeating FM Ashritha Eswaran in a tactical slugfest that featured three queens and a proactive king. In the open section, Sevian came back from a nearly losing position vs. GM Ray Robson to gain a full point after six hours of fighting.
Round two starts on October 6 at 11 a.m. PT/20:00 CEST.
See what happened
You can follow the games from the US Championships on our Events Pages: Open | Women.
The most prestigious chess event in America commenced on Thursday, hosting duels between 24 of the country's best male and female players across two divisions. It's one of the strongest national championships in the world, featuring the third-, fourth-, and fifth-highest-rated players in history, GMs Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, and Wesley So, with peak ratings of 2844, 2830, and 2822 respectively.
In the open section, two new faces have joined this year's competition, GMs Abhimanyu Mishra, U.S. Junior Champion and the top 14-year-old in the world, and Andrew Tang, the 23-year-old 2023 U.S. Open Champion especially known for his bullet expertise. The women's championship features eight-time U.S. Women's Champion GM Irina Krush, four-time champion and 2023 Cairns Cup Champion IM Anna Zatonskih, reigning champion WGM Jennifer Yu, and IM Alice Lee, the top female 14-year-old in the world.
we go again #USChessChamps pic.twitter.com/6JURqSBKmm
— Jennifer Yu (@imjenyu) October 6, 2023
On the day before the tournament, the Saint Louis Chess Club made a statement regarding the allegations against GM Alejandro Ramirez. In response to these changes, Chess.com will be resuming its support of events in St. Louis.
— Chess.com (@chesscom) October 5, 2023
Every year, the opening ceremony for the U.S. Championships is hosted at a noteworthy venue in St. Louis. This year, it took place at CityPark, a 22,000-seat stadium, home of St. Louis City SC, the city's Major League Soccer franchise.
The choice of venue draws a parallel from high-level competitive chess and the game's growing popularity to the most popular sport in the world, soccer, with an estimated 3.5 billion fans worldwide.
Three new inductees to the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame, GM Yury Shulman, 1959 U.S. Women's Champion Lisa Lane, and renowned composer William Shinkman, were honored at the ceremony.
As usual for any gathering of top players, the competitiors couldn't wait for round one to embark on duels of the mind.
U.S. Championship
Before round one, GM Hans Niemann reminded the chess world of the drama surrounding his competitive efforts last year with a post on X.
It is time to let the chess speak for itself pic.twitter.com/d5k8EpadRT
— Hans Niemann (@HansMokeNiemann) October 5, 2023
Along with his opponent, GM Dariusz Swiercz, Niemann produced one of the most enthralling battles of the day. An intense fight for kingside attacking chances took place with both competitors under time pressure. With mere seconds on his clock, Niemann found the stunning 30.f6!!, a strategic pawn sacrifice that seizes the initiative.
With five seconds remaining in the critical position that arose, Niemann’s hand hovered over the winning move. Yet, at the last moment, he opted for the safer option. Can you find the move he almost played?
Afterward, Niemann reflected: "Maybe I'm getting old and afraid, so I have to go back to my impulsive instincts to play for a win at all costs." Ultimately, after the players made the time control, the fireworks simmered into a perpetual check.
"Did chess speak for itself for this game?" #USChessChamps pic.twitter.com/vcfLMyCLYT
— Saint Louis Chess Club (@STLChessClub) October 6, 2023
On move five, Tang and GM Sam Shankland partook in a shocking moment of mutual grandmaster blindness. Tang blundered, and Shankland―believing that they were still in theory―continued developing as if nothing had happened. Though the players ended up drawing, the 2018 champion took the news of his missed opportunity hard: "You should just kick both of us out of the tournament."
Two favorites, Aronian and Caruana, met in the very first round. Caruana won a pawn with Black and tried to press into the endgame, but Aronian held off those attempts at generating winning chances. After the game, Aronian shared his feelings: "I wanted to get a fighting game. The result is okay—Fabi is a strong player. But I don't like that I was defending instead of putting pressure."
Excited to start the US Champs with a game against my neighbor Fabi! As a pro who has seen the #STLChessClub’s great work to support and promote chess,I’m pleased that the club is addressing important issues.Chess world is a lovely place and we owe it to the game to protect it
— Levon Aronian (@LevAronian) October 5, 2023
In the early middlegame, Robson lay siege to the uncastled king of Sevian, who admitted he was, "just trying to survive as long as I could." However, Robson ultimately missed the most pressing continuation. Once Sevian consolidated his position, Robson's earlier pawn sacrifice for a short-term initative came back to haunt him in the 71-move game. Sevian's queen danced around the white king to shut down the last of his opponent's attack and then win a second pawn.
So and GM Leinier Dominguez started the tournament on a calm note, trading rapidly and drawing in 26 moves. Similarly, GM Jeffery Xiong pressed with White for a few moves more vs. Mishra, but they repeated in a queen ending just after the 32nd move.
U.S. Championship | All Games Round 1
Round 1 Open Standings
U.S. Women's Championship
When Paikidze sacrificed a pawn in front of her king, her game vs. Eswaran ventured from calm positional waters into an ocean of tactical play. The players traded back-to-back threats as Eswaran sacrificed to open up the enemy king while Paikidze ran her fresh passed pawn down the board. Down a queen, the 23-year-old FIDE master continued to hunt after the white monarch, but Paikidze thwarted the attack by sacrificing her promoted queen.
This fierce duel of wits is our Game of the Day, with annotations by GM Rafael Leitao below.
Krush gained an extra exchange vs. IM Carissa Yip. Yet, when Krush overlooked how to further her kingside play, Yip tightened her defenses and won the material back, even gaining winning chances of her own before the players traded into an equal ending.
Yu pressed with an extra pawn vs. WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, but Abrahamyan was able to set up a fortress in the rook and opposite-color bishop ending.
Defending champion, WGM Jennifer Yu after today’s Round 1.#USChessChamps pic.twitter.com/RwCxBMhF0f
— Saint Louis Chess Club (@STLChessClub) October 6, 2023
Zatonskih sacrificed a pawn to gain active rooks on the seventh vs. WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan, but material was gradually traded away into a drawn ending. After a struggle for control of the queenside, Lee and WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova landed in an equal rook and bishop ending.
Though the majority of games ended in draws, the fact that the 51-move duel between FM Ruiyang Yan and FM Thalia Cervantes was the shortest shows the fighting nature of the games. In fact, at one point, Yan was two pawns ahead with winning chances, but Cervantes' activity provided enough counterplay to induce Yan to give back an exchange.
U.S. Women's Championship | All Games Round 1
Round 1 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.
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
