Yoo Temporarily Suspended By US Chess And Charged By Police; Caruana, Yip Lead

Undeterred by his win in the previous round not being counted for the tournament score, top-seed and defending champion GM Fabiano Caruana jumped into the sole lead in the 2024 U.S. Championship with 4/5. He defeated GM Grigoriy Oparin in an impressive endgame grind, and is followed by GM Hans Niemann on 3.5/6, and GMs Awonder Liang (3/5), Sam Sevian (3/5), Sam Shankland (3/6), and Levon Aronian (3/6) another half-point back.

In the Women's championship, IM Carissa Yip raced to 6/6 by outwitting WGM Tatev Abrahamyan in a wild game and leads the field by a two-point margin with a whopping performance rating of 3103. She is followed by IM Alice Lee, GM Irina Krush, and WGM Gulrukbegim Tokhirjonova, all on four points each.

This was also a day when news away from the board was followed with just as much interest. Further to being expelled from the tournament after the fifth round, GM Christopher Yoo has been "temporarily suspended, pending a full investigation" by the US Chess Federation, and charged by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department with assault.

The seventh round of the U.S. Championships will start on October 18 at 2 p.m. ET/20:00 CEST/11:30 p.m. IST.

Round 6 Standings: Championship

Round 6 Standings: Women's Championship

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

U.S. Championship

Arbiter Chris Bird clarified that further to his Safe Play complaint, the USCF had temporarily suspended Yoo's membership pending a full investigation.

My thanks to @USChess for their immediate action on my Safe Play complaint. GM Yoo's US Chess membership has been temporarily suspended, pending a full investigation. https://t.co/Y6DUOeGb54

— Chris Bird (@ChrisBirdIA) October 17, 2024

Bird also provided more information on the incident involving Yoo and a female videographer, explaining "the videographer was not at fault, nobody approached Yoo as he left the playing room, the punch was completely unprovoked, from behind and in no way accidental."

It further transpired that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department had charged 17-year-old Yoo with fourth-degree assault as he had "struck a 24-year-old woman in the back with his fist. He was released to a parent, and the matter would be handled in juvenile courts", reported KSDK, a St. Louis television station.

Video of the alleged assault exists, though not in the public domain, with Aronian noting that the drastic incident shows a need for "mental health awareness and training" for young players.

Ivan, I saw the video and it’s awful. It was a well prepared punch to a completely innocent person. The club’s action is very mild , I assure you.
We need to acknowledge that chess is a very tough mental sport. Mental health awareness and training for our young players is a must

— Levon Aronian (@LevAronian) October 17, 2024

The tournament continues, with one player slated to get a bye in each round, and Liang enjoying his rest day at St. Louis on Thursday. However, such round-robin tournaments with an odd number of participants have an inherent weakness: till the completion of the final round, the number of games played by each participant is bound to be uneven. This might allow a competitive advantage to those who get their bye early in the tournament rather than those who get them towards the end.

For example, let us assume that players A, B, and C are in the leading pack of the tournament, and player C has a bye in the final round. This will give A and B a clear target in terms of points to play for in the final rounds: to play for a win or a draw "to order" in the final stretch of the tournament. This also means that those players who get their byes in the final rounds come under undue pressure to win as much as possible in the initial games, so as to at least set tough scoring targets for other players toward the end. 

Almost all the games in round six featured long drawn-out endgames, and Caruana played the most impressive of them.

GM Leinier Dominguez played the other glorious grind of the day, outfoxing young GM Abhimanyu Mishra when the latter was down to his last minute on the clock in the final sudden finish phase.

Shankland took advantage of GM Ray Robson's blunder under time pressure to score his maiden win of the tournament. The final phase of the game saw Shankland creating aesthetically-pleasing mating patterns against the cornered black king.

Niemann - Aronian and GM Wesley So - Sevian were comparatively quieter draws.

Dominguez will receive the bye in Friday's round seven.

U.S. Women's Championship

It was another round of good fighting chess in the women's section, with four of the six games ending decisively.

The encounter between Abrahamyan and Yip started wildly, as White seemed to have blundered in the opening stages, giving Black a clear advantage. It looked like a typical move-order slip and, as it all happened within the first 10 minutes of the game, it gave hopes for a miniature win for Yip. Commentator GM Cristian Chirila exclaimed, "Absolute gift from Tatev... she should have stopped and rechecked her memory".

Absolute gift from Tatev... she should have stopped and rechecked her memory

—Cristian Chirila

But as the game went on, both players made numerous errors, and Yip's slips enabled Abrahamyan to fight back into the game, even though Yip was up by a piece right after the opening. That prompted commentator GM Yasser Seirawan to remark, "Literally a lot of very, very bad moves by Carissa has allowed Tatev right back into the game."

But finally, the error-prone game ended in Yip's favor, after many twists and turns.

In a surprisingly one-sided game, FM Rose Atwell went down to Krush, who patiently collected all the material offered by her opponent throughout the game and won comfortably in 31 moves.  

Tokhirjonova's win against WGM Thalia Cervantes was another error-prone affair, where the former used the pressure of the clock cleverly to pull off a win in the run-up to the first time control.

Lee - WGM Jennifer Yu was another game that promised much for the spectators if the latter had found a crucial exchange sacrifice, but ended in another one-sided win for the former.

The 2024 U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational classical event that determines the chess champion of the United States. The 2024 U.S. Women's Championship is being held concurrently. Both events start on October 11 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

• Round 5: Yoo Expelled From U.S. Championship Due To "Gross Violations" Of Code Of Conduct
• Round 4: Caruana Beats Mishra, Assumes Sole Lead; Yip Still Perfect
• Round 3: Olympiad Players Fall As Caruana, Niemann, Liang Join The Leaders
• Round 2: So, Sevian Register First Wins; Caruana, Shankland Miss Golden Opportunities
• Round 1: "Fischer Prize" Off The Table As U.S. Championship Gets Underway