Caruana & Nakamura can't break each other, Paikidze regains her momentum

by Cristian Chirila 

 Round 2 of the U.S. Championships was once again filled with great battles. Despite the fact that none of the top three players in the open section produced any decisive results, there were plenty of other encounters that grabbed our attention and successfully kept our interest throughout the day. In the open section, the game of the day was definitely the encounter between Caruana and Nakamura, while in the women section the clash between Nazi Paikidze and Katerina Nemcova definitely produced fireworks. Let’s get into the recap!

U.S. Championship

Caruana vs Nakamura can’t be denied as the game of the day. The two pillars of American chess once again clashed over the board in what was announced as an extremely heated affair. The start of the game saw Nakamura choosing to follow the game Caruana vs Eljanov from the Baku Olympiad. Fabiano seemed surprised early on and spent a lot of time trying to figure his way out of the theoretical maze.

 Fabiano brushing off his early dust…or rain

Nakamura had his chance to grab the initiative with 15…f4! But instead, he allowed the white dark square bishop to occupy that square and shift the balance in Fabi’s favor. Despite a long grind by the champion, Nakamura neutralized his opponent’s extra pawn in a rook + opposite color bishop endgame and secured the draw with ease. Fabiano's difficult early schedule continues tomorrow as he will face the top seed, Wesley So, as black.

Kamsky vs Akobian showed once more how important tactics are in chess. Kamsky has stated quite often that the sharpness of youth is slowly fading, in his case. Despite that, he is still one of the strongest chess players in the U.S. and today’s accident will hopefully be a wakeup call for future rounds. The game started off quite low-key and was heading towards a fairly quick draw when Kamsky blundered with 22.Bxd8?? allowing a fairly easy tactic that ended the game, literally, on the spot.

Naroditsky vs Zherebukh gave us the most unexpected opening move of the round when Daniel decided to test his opponents nerves by playing 6.h4!? against the Najdorf.

The provoking move allowed white to build quite a sizable time differential, as well as a very nice position, if he would have made the correct recapture with 11.Nxd5! instead of the soft 11.exd5?. After that, it was black who had the best winning chances. In the end, Daniel’s good defensive stamina proved to be too much for Zherebukh to overcome. This exciting draw left us wanting more chess material from these two prospects!

U.S. Women’s Championship

Nemcova vs Paikidze is always one of the highlights of this event. The two ladies know each other very well and have always produced extremely entertaining games when facing each other. Unfortunately for Nemcova, she did not manage to settle the score after last year’s defeat as she again succumbed to Paikidze’s precise play.

Nazi’s confident demeanor has helped her gain a lot of fans around the world.

Nazi slowly built her advantage after a successful opening and never let go. Her bishop pair was swiftly revived when she blasted the center open with her powerful 21…f5! It was all downhill for white after that, and Nazi claimed her first win of her U.S. Women’s Championship return.

Krush vs Foisor was a very sad affair for Foisor. After playing a brilliant game and putting the 8 time champion on the ropes, Sabina completely lost her way in the final moments of the game when her position went from winning to completely losing after several time induced inaccuracies. Irina kept her cool and, when given the opportunity, closed the game with a sequence of precise moves that forced Sabina to resign.

A somehow fortunate game for Irina, but as the saying goes, there is no luck in chess!

The live broadcast of the third round of the U.S. Championships starts tomorrow at 12:50 PM Central Time and can be followed at www.uschesschamps.com . Make sure not to miss the action!