U.S. Championship, Round 10

Caruana still leads, Yip loses again but clinches the Women's title.

One round remains in the U.S. Championship, and while Fabiano Caruana is in excellent shape entering the last round three other players could potentially catch him (and one surpass him) if things break their way.

Had Caruana defeated Leinier Dominguez in round 10 the battle for first would just about be over. Caruana played well with Black and did what pressing there was in the game, but Dominguez played very well and never got into any danger.

That gave Awonder Liang the chance to catch him in first, but his story was similar to Caruana’s. He had Black and was the one trying to win, but his opponent, Wesley So, defended well and held.

Ray Robson caught up with Liang - but only sort of. His win over Abhimanyu Mishra gave him the same number of points as Liang and also left him half a point behind Caruana. The difference is that Robson is done - he would have played Christopher Yoo in the last round, but with Yoo out he gets the bye, and his current total of 5.5 points is where he’s finishing.

Two players have five points apiece: Sam Sevian, who won an entertaining game with Black against Sam Shankland after the latter made his one and only real error; and Hans Niemann, who had a serious, possibly decisive advantage against Grigoriy Oparin but couldn’t convert it. The other player, Levon Aronian, had the bye; he’s tied with So and Dominguez on 50%, half a point behind Sevian and Niemann. (The round 10 games are here, with my comments to most of them.)

Here are the pairings for round 11, the final round:

Mishra (2) - So (4.5)

Oparin (3.5) - Aronian (4.5)

Sevian (5) - Niemann (5)

Caruana (6) - Shankland (4)

Liang (5.5) - Dominguez (4.5)

Robson (5.5) - Bye

A Caruana win clinches first, a draw allows Liang to catch him with a win, and a loss would allow Liang to catch him with a draw or pass him with a win - and the winner of Sevian-Niemann (if there is one) would also catch Caruana in that case. So there’s all to play for in the last round.

This is not the case in the Women’s Championship, which was won by Carissa Yip - albeit in the wrong way. Once again she had a serious advantage, this time against Anna Zatonskih, and once again she went on to lose. Fortunately for her, her closest pursuer, Begim Tokhirjonova, lost to Alice Lee, and so Yip has clinched clear first with a round to spare. Her 8-2 score (after her 8-0 start) leaves her 1.5 points ahead of Alice Lee (not to be confused with Megan Lee, who defeated Yip in round 9) and Tokhirjonova. She’ll play Alice Lee in the final round.