GM Fabiano Caruana coasted to his third U.S. nationwide chess championship this week, whereas IM Carissa Yip took a extra arduous route to say her second U.S. ladies’s title Tuesday on the occasions’ conventional residence on the Chess Club of St. Louis.

Winning 5 video games and shedding none towards one of many strongest fields ever, Caruana claimed the U.S. open crown with a spherical to spare, ending at a formidable 8-3. GM Wesley So and 14-year-old GM Abhimanyu Mishra, taking part in within the first of what's going to seemingly be many, many nationwide championships, tied for second at 6½-4½.

It was a two-filly race within the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship, with Uzbek-born WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova trailing IM Carissa Yip by a half-point going into Tuesday’s eleventh and last spherical.

Yip opened the door by shedding to FM Ruiyang Yan, however Tokhirjonova spoiled a promising place and misplaced to defending ladies’s champ WGM Jennifer Yu, giving Yip the title. It was a replay of the 2021 ladies’s championship occasion, during which Yip held off her rival to say her first crown.

At 5½-5½, GM Ray Robson completed in a three-way tie for fifth and gained’t be taking residence any of the massive {hardware}, however his unbelievable win over GM Jeffery Xiong in Round 5 is prone to have a protracted shelf-life as a modern-day attacking brilliancy, with some unique, line-clearing sacrifices resulting in a satisfying mate.

Black has some kingside holes on this well-known Petroff’s Defense line, and Robson goes proper for the jugular with 14. Bc5 Re8 15. f5!?, attempting to crack open strains earlier than Black’s full military can deploy. Xiong reacts nicely at first with 15…Rxe5 16. fxg6 hxg6 17. Bd4 Re8!? (Re6 retains an eye fixed on g6 and meets the tough 18. Nf5!? [Rf3 Qd6 19. Raf1 Re7 20. b4, and now 20…b6! — and not 20…Qxb4?? 21. Qxg6+ fxg6 22. Rf8+ Kh7 23. Rh8 mate — holds the position] with 18…Bg5! 19. h4 Re4!) 18. Rxf7! (not profitable, however placing huge stress on Black to seek out the proper defensive strikes) Kxf7 19. Rf1+ Ke7 20. Qxg6, and White has a perpetual test in hand and just a little risk of 21. Rf7 mate.

Xiong picks the mistaken parry to the mate risk and goes down in flames: 20…Be6? (it’s not simple to see why, however 20…Kd7! was the one path to survival: 21. Rf7+ Re7, and it seems White has nothing higher than a draw with 22. Qf5+ Kc7 23. Qf4+ Kd7 [Qd6?? 24. Be5!] 24. Qf4+) 21. Qg7+, and, remarkably, Robson mentioned later he already noticed by means of the sacrificial thickets on the trail to a profitable assault.

The good finale kicks off with 24. Be5+ Kc5 (White now finds a sequence of “only moves” to run down Black’s uncovered king) 25. Bc7! (already threatening 26. Qc3+ Kb5 27. a4+ Kxa4 28. Qa5 mate) Bf6 26. Rxf6 (and never 26. Qxf6?? Qxc7 27. Qc3+ Kb6 28. Qb4+ Ka6 29. Rf3 Qb6+ 30. Qxb6+ Kxb6 and Black wins) Rg8 (see diagram; 28…Re7 additionally loses to White’s subsequent transfer) 27. Ne4+!! (dangerous was 27. Qh6? Qxc7 28. Qe3+ Kb5 29. a4+ Ka5! 30. Qc3+ Ka6 and White should accept the perpetual) Kb5 (the primary level: 27…dxe4 28. Rf5+!! — clearing the diagonal for the queen — Bxf5 [Bd5 29. Qc3+ Kb5 30. a4+ Kxa4 31. Qxa5 mate] 29. Qc3+ Kd5 30. Qe5+ Kc4 31. b3+ Kb4 32. Qa5 is mate) 28. a4+ Kb4 29. Qh6! — nice stuff.

Black resigns because the White queen will switch to the opposite flank for the win; e.g. 29…Qxc7 30. Qd2+ Kxa4 31. Nc3+ Ka5 32. Nxd5+ Ka6 33. Nxc7+ Kb6 34. Nxe6 and White cleans up.

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Blame it on the wristwatch.

The most surprising occasion of the week — and maybe the last decade — got here on the Qatar Masters Open now being performed within the Qatari capital of Doha. Former world champ and nonetheless world No. 1-ranked GM Magnus Carlsen was obliterated in 31 beautiful strikes to unheralded Kazakh GM Alisher Suleymenov, rated greater than 300 factors under the good Norwegian star. It was, based on the stats guys, the primary loss by Carlsen to a participant rated under 2520 in 17 years.

Carlsen, whose accusations of dishonest towards Niemann final 12 months sparked a world controversy, was at it once more in Doha, praising his opponent’s play however blaming his personal terrible efficiency partly on the distracting (analog) wristwatch his opponent wore in the course of the sport.

“This is not to accuse my opponent of anything, who played an amazing game and deserved to win,” Carlsen, whose considerations about computer-aided dishonest run deep, posted on social media afterward, “but honestly, as soon as I saw my opponent was wearing a watch early in the game, I lost my ability to concentrate.”

Playing over the sport, the end result makes good sense: White performs method higher than Black, with easy, sturdy creating strikes whereas Carlsen wastes time and backtracks to no apparent function.

In big-time Swiss occasions, the higher-rated participant generally will play second-best (and even worse) strikes to get his opponent on unfamiliar terrain, however after 14. 0-0 Rc8 15. Rfe1 Bf8 16. Bf1 on this Queen’s Indian, Suleymenov’s king is protected and his items and pawns are in preferrred positions whereas Black continues to be attempting to get into the sport.

Carlsen makes issues worse with 16…Ne7?! (an odd retreat that will get in Black’s personal method; 16…Ne5 makes extra sense right here) 17. Nb5! (handed a powerful place, White proves as much as the duty, not being intimidated by his lofty opponent) Ne8 18. Ng5, already with concepts akin to 19. e5 Ng6 20. exd6 Nxd6 21. Be5!, as 21…Nxe5?? permits 22. Qxh7 mate.

Whether it was the watch or the stress, Carlsen is unrecognizable within the ensuing rout: 19. e5! d5 20. Qb3 Be7 (the already determined 20…Rxc4?! permits 21. Bxc4 dxc4 22. Qxc4 Qc8 23. Qxc8 Rxc8 24. Nxf7! Kxf7 25. Rd7+, and wins; Black’s transfer within the sport solely accelerates the downhill slide and White doesn’t miss his probability) 21. Nxf7! Kxf7 22. cxd5; with the Black king uncovered and all White’s items engaged, the collapse of the middle is decisive.

White’s play is incisive to the tip: 22…Bxd5 23. Rxd5! (the one profitable transfer, however a crusher) exd5 24. Qxd5+ Kf8 25. Nd4, and Black’s protection has too many holes to plug.

Even giving again the piece can’t save Black right here: 26. Qf3 Kg8 (g5 27. g3 works properly) 27. Qxf4 Qb7 28. Nf5 b5 29. Bxb5! (a transparent signal this simply wasn’t the champ’s day; 29…Qxb5?? 30. Nxe7+ Kh8 31. Qf8 mate) Bf8 30. Bc4+ Kh8 31. Nh6!, and a last flourish forces resignation. After 31…Qe7 (gxh6 32. Qxf8 mate) 32. Nf7+ Kg8 33. Ng5+ Kh8 34. Bb3 Nf6 35. Re3, the White rook joins the mating get together and there’s no protection.

(Click on the picture above for a bigger view of the chessboard.)

Robson-Xiong, U.S. Chess Championship 2023, St. Louis, October 2023

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 Nxe4 4. Bd3 d5 5. Nxe5 Nd7 6. O-O Nxe5 7. dxe5 Nc5 8. Be3 Be7 9. f4 Nxd3 10. Qxd3 g6 11. Nc3 c6 12. Ne2 O-O 13. Ng3 Bh4 14. Bc5 Re8 15. f5 Rxe5 16. fxg6 hxg6 17. Bd4 Re8 18. Rxf7 Kxf7 19. Rf1+ Ke7 20. Qxg6 Be6 21. Qg7+ Kd6 22. Be5+ Kc5 23. Bd4+ Kd6 24. Be5+ Kc5 25. Bc7 Bf6 26. Rxf6 Rg8 27. Ne4+ Kb5 28. a4+ Kb4 29. Qh6 Black resigns.

Suleymenov-Carlsen, Qatar Masters Open 2023, Doha, Qatar, October 2023

1 d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Ba6 5. Qc2 Bb7 6. Nc3 c5 7. e4 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Bc5 9. Nf3 Nc6 10. b4 Be7 11. Bb2 Qb8 12. Rd1 O-O 13. Be2 d6 14. O-O Rc8 15. Rfe1 Bf8 16. Bf1 Ne7 17. Nb5 Ne8 18. Ng5 Ng6 19. e5 d5 20. Qb3 Be7 21. Nxf7 Kxf7 22. cxd5 Bxd5 23. Rxd5 exd5 24. Qxd5+ Kf8 25. Nd4 Nf4 26. Qf3 Kg8 27. Qxf4 Qb7 28. Nf5 b5 29. Bxb5 Bf8 30. Bc4+ Kh8 31. Nh6 Black resigns.

• David R. Sands may be reached at 202/636-3178 or by e mail at dsands@washingtontimes.com.

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