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Yip Scores 8th Straight Win, 3 Away From Fischer's Record
Carissa Yip stormed to 8/8 to lead the US Women's Championship. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.

Yip Scores 8th Straight Win, 3 Away From Fischer's Record

VSaravanan
IM VSaravanan
Staff
| 56 | Chess Event Coverage

IM Carissa Yip continued her dream run with a win over WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan to race to 8/8 in the Women's championship while GM Fabiano Caruana maintained his half-a-point lead with 5/7 after a draw against GM Wesley So in the eighth round of the 2024 U.S. Chess Championships.

GM Hans Niemann scored the only win of the round in the open section when his opponent GM Abhimanyu Mishra blundered in a fundamental rook endgame while down to less than a minute on his clock. Niemann moved on to share the second spot with 4.5/8 along with GM Awonder Liang on 4.5/7.

The women's section saw young IM Alice Lee score a crucial victory over heavyweight GM Irina Krush to move into the third spot with five points, behind IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova on five and a half points.

After a rest day, the ninth round of the U.S. Championships will start on October 21 at 2 p.m. ET/20:00 CEST/11:30 p.m. IST.

Round 8 Standings: Championship


Round 8 Standings: Women's Championship

U.S. Championship

As the championships enter the final stretch, it is interesting to observe the effect of the resultant tension on the players' demeanor. Initially, only the tradition of Liang and So having banter and laughter continued before the start of the eighth round. But then we got to see an additional curiosity.

Perhaps buoyed by this tension breaker before the beginning of the round, Niemann scored a grinding win over Mishra in a long rook endgame. The game is worthy of a good study, as Niemann built up steady pressure in the queenless middlegame and seemed to be well on his way to a deserving endgame grind win. Niemann's technique seemed to be especially impressive, with 25.Bc1! and 38.Bxc5! worthy of praise. However, he misplayed his advantage in the rook endgame, and the game entered into the zone of drama when Mishra came under severe time pressure, with less than a minute on his clock.

Commentator GM Yasser Seirawan recalled GM Maurice Ashley's quote, "Time trouble makes fools of everybody!"

Time trouble makes fools of everybody!

—Maurice Ashley

Niemann-Mishra was an error-prone endgame still worthy of a good study. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.

Commentators pointed to Ben Underwood's statistics models showing an 80.1% probability for Caruana to win the tournament at the end of the seventh round. Underwood has been partnered with the St. Louis Chess Club and Grand Chess Tour to provide analytical insights for tournament broadcasts. 

But the top seed at that very moment seemed to be in a spot of bother, having shunned the "standard" 11...Ke7 in favor of 11...Qb4?!, but So too seemed uninterested in entering complications and chose to exchange queens, after which the game ended in a draw after a long fight.

For someone in second place in the tournament standings, Liang's game plan for the day was perplexing. Playing the white side of a French Defense, he chose the exchange variation against GM Sam Sevian, traded pieces regularly, co-operated with his opponent to repeat the position thrice, and signed the peace treaty in just 27 moves. He even finished with more time on his clock than at the beginning of the round.

It is even more curious to note that Liang is set to face heavyweights Caruana, So, and Dominguez in his three remaining games of the tournament.

Both the Dominguez Perez-Grigoriy Oparin and Levon Aronian-Ray Robson encounters were well-fought draws where none of the players could claim any significant advantage to press for a win during the game.

GM Sam Shankland enjoyed his free day by joining GM Joshua Friedel on live commentary at the venue and seemed to contribute to the show with his typical energetic self.

Niemann will have a bye on Monday, in the ninth round.

U.S. Women's Championship

Not surprisingly, Underwood's models predicted a 98.5% chance for Yip to win the women's event, but at this point, all that remains to be seen is if the youngster can reach 11/11 to equal GM Bobby Fischer's record and capture the $64,000 special prize.

Employing her favorite Modern Defense with Black, Yip unleashed the sharp Tiger's Modern Defense and showed her preparedness by playing confidently and quickly through the opening phase. This formed a good base for conducting the game, as Pourkashiyan did not seem to react to the opening phase well, and went further and further into clock pressure.

Yip's quick play from the opening stages drew praise from commentator GM Cristian Chirila, "This has been her strategy this whole tournament. She is playing very fast. She is putting a lot of pressure on her opponents' clock."

This has been her strategy this whole tournament. She is playing very fast. She is putting a lot of pressure on her opponents' clock.

—Cristian Chirila

Talking after the game, Yip dubbed her result as "Gukesh era," referring to the Indian world championship contender's score in the 2022 Chennai Olympiad. Yip's exploits on the board are being suitably acknowledged by all kinds of "just fans" of the game.

Yip is scheduled to play Megan Lee, IM Anna Zatonskih, and Alice Lee in the last three games of the tournament.

Alice Lee moved up on the rankings with a crucial victory over Krush in a typical sword fight from a King's Indian Defense.

Alice Lee scored a crucial win over Krush in the eighth round. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.

WGM Tatev Abrahamyan scored over FM Rose Atwell in an erratic game, while -Jennifer Yu, Nazi Paikidze-Thalia Cervantes, and Megan Lee-Zatonskih were all hard-fought draws. The last one featured a rook vs. bishop fight which went on for a long 130 moves.

Megan Lee vs. Zatonskih was a long 130-move draw featuring a rook vs. bishop endgame. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.
How to watch?
You can watch the U.S. Championships on the Saint Louis Chess Club YouTube Channel. You can also follow the games on our Events Page: Open | Women.

The live broadcast was hosted by WGM Katerina Nemcova and GMs Yasser Seirawan and Cristian Chirila.

See what happened
You can follow the games from the U.S. Championships on our Events Pages: Open | Women.

The 2024 U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational classical event that determines the chess champion of the United States. The 2024 U.S. Women's Championship is being held concurrently. Both events start on October 11 and have the same format: a 12-player, 11-round tournament with a $250,000 prize fund for the U.S. Championship, and $152,000 for the U.S. Women’s Championship.

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