Veterans Laugh Last: Aronian Wins Blitz Playoffs, Krush Recovers In Women's

Eight players continue in the Champions Brackets of the 2024 American Cup after day two, while the other eight are one match loss away from elimination.

GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Wesley So clinched their matches with a game to spare. GM Ray Robson advanced after winning the classical game and drawing the rapid, while GM Levon Aronian won his match in the blitz playoffs only after over six hours of play. 

IM Alice Lee, WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova, and IM Nazi Paikidze all drew their first games to wrap up their matches and move on to the Champions Bracket. GM Irina Krush defeated FM Zoey Tang twice to join the other leaders.

Day three begins on Thursday, March 14, 2024, at 2 p.m. ET/19:00 CET/11:30 p.m. IST.

• Open: Caruana, So Finish Early; Aronian Vs. Sevian Goes The Extra Mile
• Women's: Krush Recovers, Wins 3 In A Row

Open: Caruana, So Finish Early; Aronian Vs. Sevian Goes The Extra Mile

The two leaders from yesterday, Caruana and So, solidified match victories with a game to spare.

Caruana needed just a draw with Black and didn't give even a fraction of a chance, defending with 99.5 percent accuracy against Oparin's 99.1 percent. A nearly perfect game.

The other match to wrap up without a fourth game was GM Sam Shankland vs. So. A point down in the match and needing to press with White, Shankland played ambitiously with 11.0-0-0 but then traded queens a few moves later. An erroneous exchange sacrifice 22.Rxe7? later turned the needle in Black's favor, decisively.

After losing game one of the match against GM Leinier Dominguez, Robson followed up by winning the next two and drawing the last. "Power pawn play" is what we saw in day two's classical game. Robson blasted open the kingside with 22.g5!, then 23.f5!, precisely calculating the piece sacrifice 23...Bxg3 fxg6 was winning.

GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the full Game of the Day below.

After holding a rook vs. rook and knight endgame, Robson continues and will face So in his next match.

Surviving down a pawn in a torturous queen endgame that ended on move 108, Aronian was simply unbreakable in the first game against GM Sam Sevian. After another draw in the rapid, the veteran GM won both blitz games.

The final game was pure nerves, with the evaluation swinging both ways innumerable times. I've annotated the most significant blunders, but the biggest one had to be Sevian missing a gorgeous forced checkmate in three moves. He had about four seconds, but what a beauty it would have been!

Aronian's prize for running a marathon on Wednesday? He plays Caruana the next day!

Edited on 3/14/2024: Curiously, Sevian had correctly solved a puzzle with the same pattern in a video recorded with Chess.com.

Women's: Krush Recovers, Wins 3 In A Row

All three players who picked up 2-0 leads on day one—Lee, Tokhirjonova, and Paikidze—consolidated their match victories with a draw in the first game. Krush, on the other hand, had to continue fighting her way through.

IM Anna Zatonskih's winning attempt against Paikidze was the sharpest of the draws, and the two-time U.S. women's champion defended with fewer pawns, but full compensation, for a long while before reaching a drawn rook endgame.

After the tussle, where she was content with being a pawn or two down for many moves, she advised: "Playing for a draw when you need a draw is the worst strategy!" It was a great display of defense.

Playing for a draw when you need a draw is the worst strategy!

—Nazi Paikidze

After losing the first game on the previous day, Krush re-asserted herself and proved why she's the favorite to win her third American Cup title. She won all three games that followed.

Wednesday's second game was a masterclass in positional play. After 15...e6? 16.dxe6 fxe6 17.Bc4 Nf8? 18.e5!, Krush sacrificed a pawn to create a dream position against the Benko Gambit.

"I feel like I've improved since [the first game]. I played better today than yesterday," said Krush after the game. About her mindset for future rounds, she added: "I think my main thing is just to keep playing better. Not blunder anything, calculate more cleanly, and then everything should be fine."

I played better today than yesterday.

—Irina Krush

The 2024 American Cup is an over-the-board tournament in St. Louis featuring some of the strongest players in the United States. Split into Open and Women's sections, the players will compete in a double-elimination knockout bracket while contesting for their share of the $400,000 prize fund. 

Previous Coverage:

• Caruana, Lee, Tokhirjonova, Paikidze Start With Double Wins
• Caruana, So, Krush, And Lee Headline 2024 American Cup