2011 US Chess Championship - GM Gata Kamsky Vs GM Varuzhan Akobian - Round 2

♕ http://facebook.com/chesstutor ♕ http://twitter.com/OnlineChessLess
Website: http://www.OnlineChessLessons.net

Kamsky played an aggressive opening, sacrificing a pawn very early to develop a lasting initiative. Akobian played his usual French Defense and did not hesitate to take the pawn, however he was forced to hold on for dear life as Kamsky played extremely forceful and pressing chess. Kamsky has come out swinging, and has 1.5/2 points at the time of this article's release. Kamsky must be the hands-down favorite to win the US Championship this year, as the US #1 Rated Player, GM HIkaru Nakamura, has elected not to play for fear of lowering his FIDE rating (~2760 FIDE, top five in the world). Certainly understandable for HIkaru, as he is making a very serious bid to contend for the World Championship in the coming years and the top players in the US simply are not rated high enough for him to be able to raise his rating.

To explain the basic format and details of this year's event - it is taking place between April 15-28 in St. Louis, Missouri. There are 16 players divided into 2 groups, the players will play 7 rounds in these sub-groups in a round-robin format - then the top 2 players from each group will proceed to the semi-finals and finals. The US Championship has been changing the format of the tournament for the past few years, hoping to stimulate more interest. Personally, I like the current format (although it is somewhat confusing!) because the semi-finals and finals matches should be very interesting.

My picks for the tournament:
#1: Gata Kamsky - The only player rated above 2700 with a ton of top-level experience. Kamsky is no stranger to winning high-pressure tournaments, and if he can continue playing aggressively he will be very tough to beat.

#2: Yury Shulman - He is an absolute monster. An extremely aggressive player with a fantastic intuition/natural feel for the game. Shulman has never reached 2700 FIDE, however it would not surprise me if he does in the next few years.

#3: Larry Christiansen - LarryC is a beast. He has won the US Championship in 1980, 1983, and 2002. He also shared 1st place at Linares 1981 with none other than Anatoly Karpov. He also demonstrates an excellent natural feel for the game and is a very dangerous attacking player.

#4: Alexander Shabalov - Not his first US Championship, as he has won the event 4 times! Shabalov is a fierce attacking player and capable of taking anyone down. His play seems to have declined somewhat in recent years, however he is definitely someone to keep a close eye on - especially in this event.


Final standings

Group A

1 GM Kamsky, Gata 2733 x ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 5.0
2 GM Shulman, Yuri 2622 ½ x ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 4.5
3 GM Robson, Ray 2522 ½ ½ x 1 ½ ½ 1 0 4.0
4 GM Ivanov, Alexander 2540 ½ 0 0 x 1 ½ ½ 1 3.5
5 GM Akobian, Varuzhan 2611 0 ½ ½ 0 x ½ 1 ½ 3.0
6 GM Ehlvest, Jaan 2586 0 0 ½ ½ ½ x 1 ½ 3.0
7 GM Stripunsky, Alexander 2578 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 0 x 1 2.5
8 IM Naroditsky, Daniel 2438 0 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ 0 x 2.5

Group B

1 GM Hess, Robert L 2565 x 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 5.5
2 GM Onischuk, Alexander 2678 0 x ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 4.0
3 IM Shankland, Samuel L 2512 ½ ½ x ½ 0 1 1 ½ 4.0
4 GM Seirawan, Yasser 2636 ½ ½ ½ x ½ ½ 0 1 3.5
5 GM Shabalov, Alexander 2590 0 ½ 1 ½ x 0 0 1 3.0
6 GM Kaidanov, Gregory S 2569 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 x 1 0 3.0
7 GM Christiansen, Larry M 2586 0 0 0 1 1 0 x ½ 2.5
8 GM Finegold, Benjamin 2500 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 1 ½ x 2.5

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Chess
• US Chess Championship 2011
• US Chess Championship
• Championship
• Kamsky
• Akobian
• Christiansen
• Shabalov
• Shankland
• Kaidanov
• Nakamura
• US
• GM
• IM
• FM
• NM
• Ruy
• Lopez
• Queen's
• gambit
• slav
• defense
• master
• Najdorf
• Sicilian
• Defense
• Linares
• Grandmaster
• chesstweets
• openings
• kasparov
• tricks
• lessons
• strategy
• jrobichess
• tactics
• chessnetwork
• thechesswebsite
• Karpov
• Topalov
• rapidplay
• blitz
• fischer
• french
• sicilian
• berlin
• opening
• variation
• knights
• kaidanov

[IBOUGHTYAMOM]

thanks from here too, but i dont get one thing.. i understand that you thought about knight takes d5 that was the first move i had in my mind as well, but what i dont get is why rook f4??? i mean why did you have it on your mind rook f3 looks so natural and springs automatically to mind, i didnt really get it why you even thought about rook f4... besides AWESOME GAME!!!!!!!!!!!! i dont know if it was correct what kamsky played BUT IT WAS SO INTERESTING!!! SO MANY GOOD MOVES IT WAS

[OnlineChessLessons]

@IBOUGHTYAMOM i was thinking Rf4 might be a little more direct to go straight for a mate, but it didn't quite work. glad you enjoyed the game!

[redfreemind]

Thank you for the review sir.

[OnlineChessLessons]

@redfreemind glad you enjoyed the game!

[gentilguy]

3:00 "Nb5 analysed too heavily". Am I mistaking? your analysis seems flawed, it's another pawn sac on a2 and white's rook will be in prey with check.

[Badbentham]

Would have been nice if 12...Bb4 (after 12.f5), pinning the Nc3, were mentioned, when obviously 13.R:b4 (saccing the exchange) was Kamsky`s idea. Also, 8.Qd2!? is a fairly new move, it seems. Standard for decades was 8.Na4 Qa5+ 9.c3 c:d4 10. b4 N:b4 11.c:b4 B:b4+, where black seemingly has found new ways of counterplay. Also, 8.a3 has been played by Kamsky vs. Wesley So in 2010; - a game black managed to win . ;)

[0SS666]

after on month play vs the computer i test my rating an found that i get 2100 elo is that good or i need more training ?

[Nickalispicalis]

@SleepIsMagic Is this tournament not using local ratings or is it also FIDE rated ? Often it can be both.  I agree with the responding comment, that Nakamura gains nothing by competing and even winning this "Championship" Other than kamsky, weak chess.

[YtubeUserr]

@11:02 after b2 Qg5 b1=Q Bc1 Qxcl Qxcl is another continuation but u seem to be right about b2 being the better defense.

[YtubeUserr]

Are you being presumptuous by making statements on the reasons for Naka to not play the tournament?

[nomindbeats]

well done

[OnlineChessLessons]

@SleepIsMagic Naka was recently propelled to elite super-GM status with his win at the latest Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk Ann Zee in January 2011. He's not in this year's world championship cycle, but you can almost guarantee he will earn a spot into the next cycle, most likely in 2013/2014.

[OnlineChessLessons]

@SleepIsMagic nakamura is currently focused on becoming world champion. to do this, you have to be invited to the qualifying tournaments (to do that, you have to be consistently rated among the best in the world). Kamsky was the only player in the 2011 US Championship above 2700 FIDE (Nakamura is about 2774 FIDE now). So, playing/winning the US Championship would not really help Nakamura out as far as becoming World Champion.

[Sianistic]

@IBOUGHTYAMOM

as far as i can see (only hovering ~1350) the deal is that if the g5 pawn takes, the queen goes to h4 calling mate ... if g5 pawn doesn't take, white could still force a mate by saccing the queen by checking on h4, forcing the pawn to take it, retaking with the rook and blacks out of business ...

reason why it wouldn't work would be taking g7 to g6, giving the queen a spot there for retreat, but it still looks tricky at best for black from my PoV