One of the most anticipated tournaments in America, the U.S. Chess Championships, had its first round on Wednesday, October 6. This event is, as usual, being hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club. Twelve players compete for the prizes fund of $194,000 in the U.S. Championship, while twelve women play for the $100,000 prize fund in the U.S. Women’s Championship.
In the U.S. Championship, the top seeds are GMs Fabiano Caruana (2800 FIDE), Wesley So (2778), and Leinier Dominguez Perez (2760). It hosts a number of other extremely strong players, such as America’s top young talent GM Jeffery Xiong, Former U.S. champion GM Samuel Shankland and many others. It is worth pointing out that GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista is participating in the U.S. Championship for the first time since changing his federation from Cuba.
In the U.S. Women’s Championship event, the top players are GM Irina Krush (2429 FIDE), IM Anna Zatonskih (2422), and IM Carissa Yip (2402).
With this introduction behind, let’s see how the tournament began. And by no means did it begin as many expected!
GMs John M. Burke and Ray Robson were the only players to win their games in the first round, versus GMs Dariusz Swiercz and Daniel Naroditsky respectively. Burke and Robson took the early lead in the tournament, while the top seeds Caruana, So, and Dominguez drew their games.
It is pretty astonishing that two of the favorites—Caruana and Dominguez—were in a lot of danger today. Caruana was positionally outplayed by Bruzon and miraculously survived as the former Cuban grandmaster got into time trouble.
In the Dominguez versus GM Alex Lenderman game, Dominguez mixed something up in the opening and was struggling to find active moves after Lenderman advanced his d-pawn. However, White misplayed the position and gave the top seed a break.
It is interesting to point out that both Robson and Burke have been members of the famous SPICE chess program at Webster University. Robson graduated a few years ago, while Burke just began his junior year. So are a few other players, such as Bruzon and Lenderman. In the female section, WGM Katerina Nemcova also graduated from Webster and was a SPICE member.
U.S. Championship All Games Round 1
Round 1 Standings