US Chess Championship 2011: GM-elect Sam Shankland vs Grandmaster Alexander Shabalov |
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Sunday, 24 April 2011 | ||||
US Chess Championship 2011: GM-elect Sam Shankland vs Grandmaster Alexander Shabalov
US Championship Update GM-elect Shankland has truly come out swinging this year at the US Championship with an impressive 3/4, with notable victories over veterans Gregory Kaidanov and Larry Christiansen. Shabalov had been struggling, with 1/4 in the first few rounds. However, the tables turned in this game as Shabalov mixed it up and apparently took Shankland into some tricky home preparation. Shabalov sacrificed an exchange early in the game, and retained his extra two pawns as ample compensation throughout. Shankland resigned on move 39 out of frustration, not wanting to stick around for a few extra hours in a hopeless endgame. So many upsets! This year's US Championship has had a few major upsets thus far, however it's not surprising that Gata Kamsky and Yury Shulman are leading the field in group 1 after the completion of round 5. 20 year-old Robert Hess is topping group 2 with a very impressive 4/5 points. It's definitely a shame that US #1 Hikaru Nakamura has elected not to participate in this year's event, as it would be fantastic to see another great match-up between these two rising stars. My Predictions ... It seems that Kamsky and Shulman have a good hold on group 1, and will certainly remain the favorites to make the semi-finals. As for group 2, Hess has a solid lead over the competition however there is still a lot of chess to play (4 more rounds until the semi-finals). It seems reasonable to pick Onischuk as the fourth player in the semi-finals. Update 23/04/11 My predictions were close. Hess, Kamsky, Shulman and Shankland advancing into the semi-finals. Onischuk and Shankland went into a tie breaker-round (video) and Shankland won, eliminating Onischuk. In the semi-finals Shankland will play against Kamsky, while Hess will play against Shulman.
covering the 2011 US Chess Championship.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 24 April 2011 ) |
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