{"id":2461,"date":"2024-11-09T18:12:09","date_gmt":"2024-11-09T17:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skolasachu.com\/?p=2461"},"modified":"2024-11-20T22:53:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T21:53:35","slug":"us-championship-or-a-display-of-self-centred-brats-and-gross-blunders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skolasachu.com\/en\/mistrovstvi-usa-nebo-prehlidka-sebestrednych-spratku-a-hrubych-chyb\/","title":{"rendered":"US Championship or a showcase of self-centred brats and gross blunders?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Motto:<\/strong> if we treat children like gods from an early age, they tend to behave like devils in adulthood (P. D. James in the dystopian novel The Children of Men)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Alas, precisely by disjunction, the text behind or<\/em>, this year the most interesting and strongest domestic tournament of the chess superpower for many years impressed me. \u201eBut everything is in order and in its place,\u201c another reader who followed the tournament might claim. \u201eFabiano Caruana won again with a clear lead. Wesley So, the 2021 US Champion, became the draw king once more, and Levon Aronian and another former winner Samuel Shankland could certainly have performed better.\u201c Yes, but what was demonstrated by<\/em> the American youth<\/em>, former prodigies, but rather self-centred aggressive brats, is worth more reflection. The unusually high number of outright lapses and logically inexplicable gross blunders is also striking.<\/p>\n

In my contributions I usually present the final tournament table to readers right at the start. I am a person who loves order, and so I think the final standings should contain no errors. However the error is in the very nature of the matter<\/em>. Despite several hours of effort, I was unable to find a correct final table of the 2024 US Championship on the internet!<\/p>\n

On every other page you do find that prizes ranged from $55,000 $ plus bonuses in the open competition and $40,000 $ for first place in the women's tournament. You are flooded with photos of happy winners, but the essential information is missing. In the greatest democracy in the world<\/em> they fundamentally and in all respects celebrate only and exclusively the winners. Take a look at what the American chess.results list looks like. You will fundamentally not find the essential data there.<\/p>\n

Well, it is no wonder that, for example, on the live.chessbase.com pages so far <\/em>they did not understand that if someone drops out of a closed tournament without having played half the games, their results are annulled!<\/p>\n

The final results (not a correct table) looked like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sufficiently <\/em>strange final standings of the 2024 US Championship can nevertheless be found:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Readers surely noticed that one of the participants did not finish the tournament. We will deal with this and the psychopathic behaviour of some young players in the second part of the article.<\/p>\n

Lapses, illogicalities and terrifying blunders\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

This is how I would characterise this year's US Championship. \u201eEven the strongest players make gross blunders!\u201c many might object. Certainly, but it is a trend \u2013 the number of such, in chess slang, plunders. <\/em><\/p>\n

To start with, one example for all. Let's look at the position from the game Shankland vs. Aronian<\/strong> played in round 5.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As has been the case for some decades in the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian, without the Rauzer attack White cannot make a move.<\/em>. Black has obtained excellent play and with the last move 21...Rc4<\/strong><\/span> created two threats typical of Dragon strikes: 22...Ng4 and 22...Nxe4.<\/p>\n

After less than 4 minutes of thinking, Levon Grigorievich literally ambushed the black position. What followed was 22.Nf5!<\/strong><\/span>!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Indeed, threatening 23.Qxb6 and there is truly something to consider. The clock shows that Shankland pondered for more than 9 minutes and continued with a bold but... completely losing 22...gxf5??<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201eHe simply miscalculated somewhere. After all, the position is complicated, so what,\u201c<\/em> perhaps many a reader will say.<\/p>\n

But how do you explain this: what followed was 23.Bh6 <\/strong><\/span>(let's admit it was not the only move, but certainly the most obvious; threatening a double-move mate)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and Black plunged into an even longer, this time more than 10-minute, thinking! After 23...Nxe4 24.Nxe4 Bxe5<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(see diagram on the left) followed a brilliant combination 25.Nxd6!!<\/strong><\/span> with spectacular final variations that the reader will surely enjoy discovering and calculating for themselves. \u201eSo what is the problem? Shankland simply completely overlooked this nice tactical blow, and when he noticed it, it was already too late!\u201c<\/em> the reader might argue this time. Yes, I thought the same myself, watching the live broadcast from Saint Louis at night live transmission<\/em> of round 5.<\/p>\n

However, there is one but<\/em><\/strong>. thing. If we look once again carefully at the position in the left diagram after 24...Bxe5<\/strong><\/span>, we rather find a quite simple alternative winning path, which a top grandmaster and former super-grandmaster should not have missed in calculation! True, it is also a combination (a forced manoeuvre with a sacrifice \u2013 let us stick to Botvinnik's simplest definition of a combination), but believe me dear readers, even any of my 10\u201312-year-old pupils would be able to solve it (it is an easier form of puzzle). Here is a hint: \u201eWhat do we calculate first in complicated positions?\u201c<\/em> \u201eChecks, captures and strong threats,\u201c<\/em> have been the answer of my pupils for decades!<\/p>\n

The whole game did not escape the attention of streamers. Despite the inglorious ending, it has theoretical value (Sam Shankland is famous for precise preparation), so I chose a video analysis by Sergei Makarychev. Former second to both the twelfth and thirteenth world champions.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/skolasachu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Drak-Sc4h3-Ja5b6_Aronjan-Shankland-2024-Makarycev.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n
<\/h5>\n

<\/p>\n

Blunders come in pairs!<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Who does not know this chess proverb! In the game of round 9 Sevian vs. Dominguez Perez<\/strong> White experienced the truth of this saying firsthand. Apart from two really ugly blunders, the game also contained one exceptionally interesting moment. I would primarily like to present this to the reader in the form of a test. Depending on the choice of a particular continuation, your taste and style of play can be assessed. So let's get started.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I will say straight away that the experienced American super-grandmaster of Cuban origin probably understood very well that the first part of the game had \u2013 to put it mildly \u2013 not gone very well for him. He may even have known that he was completely losing, and that is why with the move 25...Ne7!<\/strong><\/span> he offered the opponent a rook.<\/p>\n

Question:<\/strong> How would you continue here as White?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can find the complete solution in the viewer below. But now let us see that mistakes really often come in pairs!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We see that White decided to accept the rook sacrifice! In the position of the left diagram, White is still completely winning, but positions with opposite-coloured bishops in the middlegame require particular precision. White continues with the superficial 27.Bd4??<\/strong><\/span> Sevian first lost his decisive advantage. Of course, the bishop should have been advanced to a strong outpost and centralised, but White did not penetrate into the heart of the position! Why did I mark the White king and rook in the right diagram? Instead of 27.Bd4, the move should have been first 27.Re1!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and only after the planned A\/<\/strong> 27...Ng6<\/strong> 28.Bd4<\/strong>. After B\\\/<\/strong> 27...Bb7+<\/strong> do we have for the king a new <\/em>square 28.Kg1<\/strong> Ng6 29.Bd4!+-<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This indirectly protected the pawn on f4: 29...Nxf4??<\/strong> 30.Qe8+!<\/strong> with mate!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, the fight goes on. In the position of the left diagram, Black created after 28...Ng6<\/strong><\/span> a direct threat of Nxf4. I believe that quite clearly again <\/em>we see a simple tactic<\/em> 29.Re1<\/strong>, thanks to which the pawn on f4 is indirectly protected. In practice, an unclear situation arose, theoretically the chances of the sides were in complete balance.<\/p>\n

I had to hold on to something when on the computer screen appeared 29.Qe6?? <\/strong><\/span>(right diagram). After - already<\/em> I really don't know, surprisingly for White - 29...Nxf4<\/strong><\/span> which is also proven by the computer evaluation of over -5, that resistance is futile. What did the likeable American grandmaster have prepared against the two obvious following moves Nxf4 and Nxh3? So let's emphasise - only material gain<\/em> still with a crushing attack?<\/p>\n

Perhaps even small children here would be able<\/em> to come up with <\/em>29.Re1<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

again with possible combinations featuring the theme of a weak eighth rank. These are simply puzzles! I can vividly imagine the position as one of the initial tasks in three- or five-minute games on Chess.com<\/em>: Black plays Nxf4 and after Qe8+ Rx e8 Rxe8 # the system jumps to the next position...<\/p>\n

Of course, no less important here is the freeing of the g1 square for the king! If Sam Sevian feared 29\u2026Be4, then I add that White has at least four (sic) options available to maintain balance on the board!<\/p>\n