Caruana Sole Leader After Long Grinding Win

Defending champion GM Fabiano Caruana captured the sole lead with three points from four games after an 80-move grinding endgame win over GM Dariusz Swiercz in the 2023 U.S. Championship. Overnight leader GM Abhimanyu Mishra was defeated by GM Hans Niemann, resulting in both of them joining GM Sam Shankland half a point behind the leader.

Curiously, heavyweight GMs Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, and Wesley So have all scored a sedate four draws so far, thus being in the middle of the points table along with GM Sam Sevian on two points.

The encounter between joint leaders IM Carissa Yip and WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova ended in a draw, enabling them to continue to lead jointly with three points in the 2023 U.S. Women's Chess Championship. The round featured two topsy-turvy encounters where WGM Tatev Abrahamyan and IM Alice Lee pulled back from near lost positions to score wins.

Round five starts on October 10 at 2:30 p.m. ET/20:30 CEST/12:00 a.m. IST.

• U.S. Championship
• U.S. Women's Championship

Round-robin tournaments, especially those packed with elite players, always feature a high draw-percentage. The main reason is the inevitably high standard of opening preparation which enables players with the black pieces to achieve positions with such equality that it becomes difficult for players with White to infuse any complexity into the game to even try for a win.

The fourth round in Saint Louis too had its share of such "shut-downs" by the black pieces, in the games of Aronian-GM Ray Robson, and GM Jeffery Xiong-GM Andrew Tang in the open section, and IM Anna Zatonskih-FM Ruiyang Yan in the women's section. This is where the presence of players with uncompromising styles helps, right from choosing openings to employing risky strategies irrespective of the strength of opposition or the importance of the tournament.

Another question is the entertainment value of games for spectators. The higher the standard of the players, the lesser the chances for mistakes. For this reason, chess gets nuanced and deep when the quality of play is high, and entertaining and fun when it is error-prone, though a chess fan can enjoy both. 

Hence, it is enjoyable either when Niemann converts a slight advantage in a technical endgame against Mishra, or when Lee walks her king across the board to the e4-square, survives, and lives on to win the endgame. We are entertained either way. 

U.S. Championship

One player who is showing a daredevil attitude and hence is a spectator favorite in the tournament is Dominguez, as he has conducted three of his games in the tournament so far with positions of material imbalance—a guarantee for complexity and hence excitement. Curiously, in all four games, he has infused such complexities by employing openings with an open center: those starting with the moves 1.e4 e5, which is not really considered to be the sharpest of choices.

Just like in the third round, Dominguez once again introduced complications with 11...g4!?. Sevian was seen shaking his hands and head, for which he explained that he "did not know 11...g4 and was not very happy!"

However, just like in the third round for Dominguez, the game did not enter into a full-fledged fight and ended in a repetition of moves.

Being the sole leader after three rounds, Mishra's game against Niemann was much looked forward to, but the youngster didn't handle the middlegame with the necessary energy. Niemann obtained a slight edge in the endgame and scored a win with easy play.

Appearing on the live commentary after the game, Niemann revealed the process of recovery from his difficult loss in the third round as well as his preparation for the fourth round: "I honestly could not fall asleep until 5 a.m... I was in the hotel... This moment yesterday [against Shankland], this move 24.f4! sort of haunted me... I didn't prepare at all for 1.e4."

Niemann really looked forward to the rest day after the fourth round: "I've just found out there is a rest day!... I didn't realize there was a rest day. I will go enjoy Saint Louis' finest ways of passing time!"

I will go enjoy Saint Louis' finest ways of passing time!

—Hans Niemann

Also, after Mishra's loss, it took someone to unearth a predicament for the leaders or co-leaders of the tournament, "the leader's curse":

For a 3rd day in a row, the leader or co-leader of the #USChessChamps is beaten! https://t.co/fwPok6CLo3 #c24live pic.twitter.com/nUrJN4x27B

— chess24.com (@chess24com) October 8, 2023

So played one of those openings which can be called a distant cousin of the Berlin Defense—Black voluntarily accepts a poor pawn structure for the sake of exchanging queens in the opening and the advantage of the bishop pair. He has employed it from time to time, and Shankland seemed to have come armed for the system too.

For the second day in a row, Caruana had to grind his opponent down in a long endgame. The defending champion answered with a chuckle when he was asked how he felt about his chances of winning the endgame when it started: "Like... one percent!" His technique in the endgame was easily the best effort of the day, annotated by GM Dejan Bojkov as our Game of the Day.

U.S. Championship | All Games Round 4

Round 4 Open Standings

U.S. Women's Championship

As the games reached the midway stage, two positions attracted the attention of the commentators, with the black kings in various degrees of peril.

White needed a way to open lines to the black king with imagination and force.

White blasted open a path to the black king. Incredibly, the black king walked to the e4-square in the ensuing middlegame, presenting the spectators with a gripping encounter. 

Both the games were of the "tragedy" genre rather than mere entertainment, however, as both games ended in a win for the player with the black pieces.

The fightback essayed by Lee was even more dramatic.

After the game, Lee admitted that she had overlooked 29.Bxc6, but was happy: "Fortunately, I managed not to lose!"

IM-elect Alice Lee has had a difficult start in the 2023 US Women’s Championship, but she came back with a win going into the first day off. Here she answered some of @SabinaFoisor ‘s questions. #USChessChamps #STLChessClub pic.twitter.com/Fc9pLrfnW8

— Saint Louis Chess Club (@STLChessClub) October 9, 2023

U.S. Women's Championship | All Games Round 4

Round 4 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:

• 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