Caruana romps, Yip survives in U.S. chess title tournaments

GM Fabiano Caruana coasted to his third U.S. national chess championship this week, while IM Carissa Yip took a more arduous route to claim her second U.S. women’s title Tuesday at the events’ traditional home at the Chess Club of St. Louis.

Winning five games and losing none against one of the strongest fields ever, Caruana claimed the U.S. open crown with a round to spare, finishing at an impressive 8-3. GM Wesley So and 14-year-old GM Abhimanyu Mishra, playing in the first of what will likely be many, many national championships, tied for second at 6½-4½.

It was a two-filly race in 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 11th and final round.

Yip opened the door by losing to FM Ruiyang Yan, but Tokhirjonova spoiled a promising position and lost to defending women’s champ WGM Jennifer Yu, giving Yip the title. It was a replay of the 2021 women’s championship event, in which Yip held off her rival to claim her first crown.

At 5½-5½, GM Ray Robson finished in a three-way tie for fifth and won’t be taking home any of the big hardware, but his fantastic win over GM Jeffery Xiong in Round 5 is likely to have a long shelf-life as a modern-day attacking brilliancy, with some original, line-clearing sacrifices leading to a satisfying mate.

Black has some kingside holes in this well-known Petroff’s Defense line, and Robson goes right for the jugular with 14. Bc5 Re8 15. f5!?, trying to crack open lines before Black’s full army can deploy. Xiong reacts well at first with 15…Rxe5 16. fxg6 hxg6 17. Bd4 Re8!? (Re6 keeps an eye on g6 and meets the tricky 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 winning, but putting enormous pressure on Black to find the right defensive moves) Kxf7 19. Rf1+ Ke7 20. Qxg6, and White has a perpetual check in hand and a little threat of 21. Rf7 mate.

Xiong picks the wrong parry to the mate threat and goes down in flames: 20…Be6? (it’s not easy to see why, but 20…Kd7! was the only path to survival: 21. Rf7+ Re7, and it appears White has nothing better than a draw with 22. Qf5+ Kc7 23. Qf4+ Kd7 [Qd6?? 24. Be5!] 24. Qf4+) 21. Qg7+, and, remarkably, Robson said later he already saw through the sacrificial thickets on the path to a winning attack.

The brilliant finale kicks off with 24. Be5+ Kc5 (White now finds a series of “only moves” to run down Black’s exposed king) 25. Bc7! (already threatening 26. Qc3+ Kb5 27. a4+ Kxa4 28. Qa5 mate) Bf6 26. Rxf6 (and not 26. Qxf6?? Qxc7 27. Qc3+ Kb6 28. Qb4+ Ka6 29. Rf3 Qb6+ 30. Qxb6+ Kxb6 and Black wins) Rg8 (see diagram; 28…Re7 also loses to White’s next move) 27. Ne4+!! (bad was 27. Qh6? Qxc7 28. Qe3+ Kb5 29. a4+ Ka5! 30. Qc3+ Ka6 and White must settle for the perpetual) Kb5 (the first point: 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! — great stuff.

Black resigns as the White queen will transfer to the other 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 shocking event of the week — and perhaps the decade — came at the Qatar Masters Open now being played in the Qatari capital of Doha. Former world champ and still world No. 1-ranked GM Magnus Carlsen was obliterated in 31 stunning moves to unheralded Kazakh GM Alisher Suleymenov, rated more than 300 points below the great Norwegian star. It was, according to the stats guys, the first loss by Carlsen to a player rated below 2520 in 17 years.

Carlsen, whose accusations of cheating against Niemann last year sparked a global controversy, was at it again in Doha, praising his opponent’s play but blaming his own awful performance in part on the distracting (analog) wristwatch his opponent wore during the game.

“This is not to accuse my opponent of anything, who played an amazing game and deserved to win,” Carlsen, whose concerns about computer-aided cheating 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 game, the result makes perfect sense: White plays way better than Black, with simple, strong developing moves while Carlsen wastes time and backtracks to no obvious purpose.

In big-time Swiss events, the higher-rated player sometimes will play second-best (or even worse) moves to get his opponent on unfamiliar terrain, but after 14. 0-0 Rc8 15. Rfe1 Bf8 16. Bf1 in this Queen’s Indian, Suleymenov’s king is safe and his pieces and pawns are in ideal positions while Black is still trying to get into the game.

Carlsen makes things worse with 16…Ne7?! (an odd retreat that gets in Black’s own way; 16…Ne5 makes more sense here) 17. Nb5! (handed a strong position, White proves up to the task, not being intimidated by his lofty opponent) Ne8 18. Ng5, already with ideas such as 19. e5 Ng6 20. exd6 Nxd6 21. Be5!, as 21…Nxe5?? allows 22. Qxh7 mate.

Whether it was the watch or the pressure, Carlsen is unrecognizable in the ensuing rout: 19. e5! d5 20. Qb3 Be7 (the already desperate 20…Rxc4?! allows 21. Bxc4 dxc4 22. Qxc4 Qc8 23. Qxc8 Rxc8 24. Nxf7! Kxf7 25. Rd7+, and wins; Black’s move in the game only accelerates the downhill slide and White doesn’t miss his chance) 21. Nxf7! Kxf7 22. cxd5; with the Black king exposed and all White’s pieces engaged, the collapse of the center is decisive.

White’s play is incisive to the end: 22…Bxd5 23. Rxd5! (the only winning move, but a crusher) exd5 24. Qxd5+ Kf8 25. Nd4, and Black’s defense has too many holes to plug.

Even giving back the piece can’t save Black here: 26. Qf3 Kg8 (g5 27. g3 works nicely) 27. Qxf4 Qb7 28. Nf5 b5 29. Bxb5! (a clear sign this just wasn’t the champ’s day; 29…Qxb5?? 30. Nxe7+ Kh8 31. Qf8 mate) Bf8 30. Bc4+ Kh8 31. Nh6!, and a final 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 party and there’s no defense.

(Click on the image above for a larger 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 can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.