Time for the US Championships

[Hans Jung]

Alice Lee held Irina Krush to a draw. They are both now mathematically eliminated from any chance of first place.

[Hans Jung]

Unbelievably fantastic game by Mishra! After stiff, stubborn defence with Sam Shankland grinding away and eventually playing breakthrough h5 and g5 pawn levers, Mishra concentrated on opening the queenside with counterattack and found sharp tactics to crack open Sam's position. However both sides missed key endgame moves, Sam Shankland especially missed dual connected passed pawns on the 6th rank (considered worth a rook) The heat of battle. What a win!

[Hans Jung]

Wesley So found a killer combination at the end against Ray Robson.

[Hans Jung]

Three way tie for second at 5.5, Dominguez, So, and Mishra after 9 rounds, one point behind Caruana.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 10 Key pairings Caruana vs Mishra, Robson vs Dominguez, Niemann vs So In my estimation Dominguez and So must win for any chance at first place.

[Hans Jung]

Rd 10 Womens Key pairings Zatonskih vs Yip, Krush vs Tokhirjonova

[Hans Jung]

https://en.chessbase.com/post/svitla...onship-tactics Svitlana Demchenko, one of Canadas best women players, has a series of columns published at chessbase news. In this column she shows key game winning or key game losing tactics from the US championships including the soon to be famous Mishra's miss.

[Hans Jung]

Caruana - Mishra WoW - what a game. Dynamic prep or what! According to what I see 12.Rab1 is the novelty move but how far does the prep extend? Anyways doubling the pawns on c3 in order to use the c5 pawn lever! and then later on the f5 pawn lever! White is totally in charge!

Mishra has sacrificed a rook for the strong knight and Im interested in seeing Caruana's technique.

Mishra tries a Houdini like save with his knight to stop the passed pawn but its still lost.

[Hans Jung]

And another question. Levon Aronian who couldnt win a game in the championship so far in the next to last round is crushing Sam Shankland! Whats going on?

[Hans Jung]

Rd 10 womens Big win from Carissa Yip just when she needed it.

[Hans Jung]

Alice Lee is playing one of my favorite lines better than I could play it. She has two knights for a rook and I am really enjoying watching that game.

An endgame with two rampaging knights and passed pawns, couldnt ask for more.

[Hans Jung]

Has Hans Niemann messed up? I thought Wesley So was playing for a draw but now it looks winning to me (what a rook sack!)

Sorry, hallucination on my part - its a draw.

[Hans Jung]

Robson Dominguez is a draw. If Caruana wins his game he wins the championship.

[Hans Jung]

Alice Lee wins her game and moves to +3, good for third place.

[Hans Jung]

Tang pulls off a great checkmating attack against Swiercz. Never too late to get your first win in the US championship.