The National Open has started! Top seed Jianchao Zhou is victorious in his first round facing a Reti as Black. After a series of exchanges, Zhou took advantage after some inaccuracies in the early endgame to stay on top an never look back. While your run of the mill Nimzo Indian calls for an exchange on […]
Congrats to GM Viktor Matviishen, winner of the Edmondson Cup with a final score of 7/9, edging out Grandmasters Bilel Bellahcene and Jianchao Zhou on tiebreakers. A draw between Matviishen and Bellahcene opened a path to see four people vie for a share of first. While we find ourselves with the Sicilian not paying off […]
GM Matviishen moves Mikaelyan into a bind with with a Maróczy, seemingly able to maintain an edge throughout the whole game, an attempt to challenge the center by Armen left his back rack exposed, leaving a way for Viktor to gain a stronger grip on the position. Naj-dorf? More like My-dorf with the approach Bellahcene […]
IM Oleksii Bilych, GM Arman Mikaelyan, GM Bilel Bellahcene , and GM Viktor Matviishen sit at top with 5.5 points. With draws at the top three boards, Grandmasters Bellahcene and Mikaelyan broke free from the trend, one of them getting a shot to take out the young Ukrainian International Master.
GM Robby Kevlishvili attempts to take down the leader with a Sicilian Kalashnikov against Matviishen, managing to walk away with a draw. With draws on Board 2 and 3, the streak was brought to an end with GM Bilych on the White side of a Classical Ruy, initially at least. After a few deviations from […]
Round 1 of the National Open has begun. 2024 US Senior Champion Vladimir Akopian aims for another National title as he defeats 2024 US Girls Champion qualifier WIM Omya Vidyarthi. The 2024 US National Championships took place last July at the Saint Louis Chess Club. Omya opens with Nf3, and Akopian was Reti for it. […]
Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes, https://x.com/LennartOotes, https://www.lennartootes.com/ While norm seekers and GM’s are battling it out in the National Open, several hundred youth were putting up their own fight in the International Youth and Youth Trophy championships at the Flamingo as well. Just as important as the learning game itself is fostering values of etiquette […]
Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes, https://x.com/LennartOotes, https://www.lennartootes.com/ After an early Round 2 draw against IM Matias Perez Gormaz in a French Advance gridlock, Vasif wins the next five games, including one against last years defending champion Illya Nyzhnyk, and norm seeker Ryo Chen. These pair of wins allow Vasif to climb up the leader board, […]
We are heading into the last day, and through 7 grueling rounds, GM Vasif Durarbayli is a full point ahead of the field (6.5/7) with one round to go after defeating defending champion GM Illya Nyzhnyk. Vasif faced a Najdorf that transposed into a Scheveningen in the opening and picks up a pawn in the […]
Photo courtesy of Tim Hanks Congrats to FM Rose Atwell, who picked up a WIM norm in the 1000GM Tournament that took place this past week at the Flamingo. She picks up where she left off, with win vs IM Mark Heimann and this draw against GM Neuris Delgado, analysis provided by GM Ben Poppa […]
An exciting finish as we conclude the US Womens Championship! While last year we ended up with a solo first place finish, we had another year where several people were tied going into the last round, much like the previous two years. WCM Avery Yu, a top ranked female under the age of 14 had […]
Thank you!The National Open and the U.S. Women’s Open are co-sponsored by the U.S. Chess Federation.
The National Open is paired with Swisssys by ChessRoster. 
