The second day of rapid started off slow with ten straight draws, before an explosive final round left GM Ray Robson at the top of the standings after an important win over GM Alireza Firouzja. Heading into the final day of rapid, Robson leads with 8.0/12, while GMs Maxime Vachier Lagrave, Anish Giri, and Le Quang Liem trail closely behind with 7.0/12. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes
The first round of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz will take place on 14 November. This will be followed by three days of rapid chess and two days of blitz. After a short break, the Sinquefield Cup, a ten-player round-robin with classical time control, begins on 21 November. Last year's match between Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann caused quite a stir. Neither will be taking part this time. | Photo: Grand Chess Tour
At some point, it seemed like the title was going to slip away from her hands, but things finally went Carissa Yip’s way on Tuesday, as she claimed outright tournament victory to become a 2-time U.S. women’s chess champion. The 20-year-old lost her final-round game against Ruiyang Yan (her first loss of the event), and saw title contender Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova failing to find a drawing line and eventually losing to Jennifer Yu. In the open championship, Abhimanyu Mishra finished the tournament in style, beating Levon Aronian to climb to shared second place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Fabiano Caruana successfully defended his title at the 2023 U.S. Championship in Saint Louis. The 31-year-old beat Abhimanyu Mishra to secure tournament victory with a round to spare, and thus claimed his third U.S. title Caruana won the championship in 2016, 2022 and 2023. Meanwhile, in the women’s event, Carissa Yip beat Anna Zatonskih to leapfrog Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova atop the standings. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Yesterday's round nine of the 2023 U.S. and U.S. Women's Championships delivered a number of attacking games with lots of cool ideas, occasional blunders, and some missed opportunities. It was also a significant round for the standings as it reshaped the tournament landscape, especially in the women's section.