USCF National Events / 2012 U.S. Open
58. Ke4 Nh4 59. Rxc3 Kd7 60. Rh3 Ng6 61. Rxh5 Ke6 62. Rf5 Ne7 63. Rf8 Ng6 64. Ra8 Ne7 65. Ra6+ Kd7 66. Ke5 Nc6+ 67. Ke4 Ne7 68. Rh6 Ng8 69. Rg6 Ne7 70. Ra6 Nc6, Draw agreed.
As the clocks began their countdown Friday night in round seven, all 517 play- ers from three different schedules finally merged into one huge series of face-offs. Seeing the top boards take their places behind their cordoned off area was a bit like watching runners in a 400-meter sprint leave their restrictive lanes and fall in line on the inside of the track—you could finally tell who was in the lead. Hoyos was at the head of the pack with a perfect score. That evening board one matched him, playing black, against 2010 U.S. Open Champion Alejandro Ramirez. Hoyos relied on the Benko Gambit, giving up a pawn for counterplay.
Benko/Volga Gambit (A59) GM Alejandro Ramirez (2613) GM Manuel Leon Hoyos (2632) U.S. Open, Vancouver, 08.10.2012 (7) Notes by IM Alfonso Almeida and Al Lawrence
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 c5 4. d5 b5 5. cxb5 a6 6. bxa6
Ramirez plays the main line. Other pos- sibilities are 6. e3 or 6. b6 (6. b6 d6 7. Nc3 Nbd7 8. e4 Bg7 9. a4 Qxb6 10. Be2 [10. a5+/=] 10. … 0–0?! [10. ... Qb4=, Milov- Nakamura, 34th World Open, 2006]).
6. ... Bxa6 7. Nc3 Bg7 8. e4 Bxf1 9. Kxf1 d6 10. g3 0-0 11. Kg2 Nbd7 12. Qe2 Qa5
Bologan played 12. … Qb6 13. a4 Rfb8 14. Nb5 Ne8 15. Bg5 when White has a big edge, Carlsen-Bologan, Biel 2012.
13. a4 Rfb8!? 14. Bd2
According to several chess engines, the position is equal.
14. … Rxb2 15. Nd1 Rxd2 16. Nxd2 Nxe4
Benko/Volga Gambit (A57) GM Yasser Seirawan (2674) GM Manuel Leon Hoyos (2632) U.S. Open, Vancouver, 08.12.2012 (9) Notes by IM Alfonso Almeida and Al Lawrence)
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. b6 d6 6. Nc3 Nbd7 7. e4 g6 8. Nf3 Rb8 9. h3 Bg7 10. Bd3 0-0 11. 0-0 Qxb6 12. Qc2 a5 13. Na4 Qa7 14. Bd2 Ba6 15. Bc3 Nb6 16. Nxb6 Rxb6 17. Nd2 Nd7 18. Bxg7, Draw agreed.
(see diagram top of next column) Hoyos, Bryant, and Gurevich all topped
A sharp move that should result in an even game. Houdini finds 16. ... Nxd5 even a tad better. Other choices are much in White’s favor.
the crosstable with eight points, each win- ning $4,667. Yaz dropped back to tie for fourth through eighth, with GM Alexander Shabalov—who had won clear first at the U.S. Open in 1993 and 2003, and shared first three other times—, Webster student GM Andre Diamant of Brazil, IM Justin
17. Nc4 Qb4 18. Ndb2?
Better is 18. Rc1 or 18. Ra2. 18. ... Nc3 19. Qxe7
White puts up stronger resistance with 19. Qd3.
19. ... Ne5 20. Qxd6 Nxc4-+ 21. Qc6 Ne3+! 22. fxe3 Qe4+ 23. Kh3 Qf5+ 24. Kg2 Rb8 25. Nc4 Qe4+ 26. Kh3 Qxc4 27. Raf1 Nxd5 28. Rb1 Rd8 29. Rhc1 Qe4 30. Qxc5 Nxe3, White resigned.
Going into round eight, Hoyos’ perfect 7-
0 put him a half-point up on Seirawan, Norowitz and IM Salvijus Bercys of New York. Then Hoyos drew Norowitz on board one. Gurevich won again, completing a comeback from his early-round draws, and Seirawan drew Bercys. FM John Bryant of California beat GM Anatoly Bykhovsky of Israel, a member of the Webster University team. Bryant continued to far outdistance his fellow FIDE masters, sharing the rarefied air of the tournament leaders. So with one round to go, GM Manuel Leon Hoyos stood alone at the top of the wall chart with 71
⁄2 points and seven were on his
heels with 7, including Seirawan and Gure- vich. Seven more reached from just one more half-step behind the pack at 61
2⁄ , includ- ing Ramirez and GM Alexander Shabalov.
THREE-WAY TIE AT THE TOP Bryant and Gurevich won their last-
round games to catch up with Hoyos, as Seirawan, back on board one, drew quickly against Hoyos’ trusty Benko. Yaz needed a win to catch the leaders, but the game fizzled out early. “I expected him to at least look for something,” Hoyos said, “but the game was within his style of play.” For the record, here’s the game:
Sarkar of New York, and Bercys.
ARMAGEDDON IN VANCOUVER According to the New Testament’s Rev- elation, Armageddon will be the site for final battle between good and evil during the end of times—determining who dom- inates for eternity. So, let’s face it, the use of the term by chess players to desig- nate a tiebreaking blitz game at the end of an important tournament is nothing if not hyper-dramatic. The loser lives to score another day—and certainly isn’t the embodiment of evil. But in other ways the term fits. It’s the end of days for an event. And it’s used to distinguish the playoff from the old-fashioned “sudden death” game that gave each player equal time— and could result in repetitive draws, requiring more and more games or a final coin toss. In an Armageddon game, Black gets draw odds, and to compensate, White gets more time. The exact formula is always open to debate. Sometimes a bidding nego- tiation takes place between the players. In the case of the U.S. Open this year, the for- mula was predetermined. White got five minutes, while Black got three, along with his draw odds. A five-second delay was used, which could certainly be seen as ameliorating White’s time deficit. The rules announced before the event called for a playoff between the top two players. Because Hoyos and Bryant had the best tiebreaks, Gurevich was left out. And because Hoyos had the
better
tiebreaks, he got to choose color and claimed white. The showdown would be Mexico versus California. Bryant, by virtue of his being the highest-finishing (count- ing tiebreaks) U.S. finisher, was already guaranteed a place in the 2013 U.S. Cham- pionship. The playoff would be for the trophy, an extra $200—and the title of U.S. Open Champion, putting the player into the history books alongside Sammy Reshevsky, Reuben Fine, Bobby Fischer, Bent Larsen, Pal Benko, Lev Alburt, and Yasser Seirawan. In the past, Californians had won the U.S. Open, notably in the hey- days of GMs Larry Christiansen and Nick de Firmian. But, as we’ve seen, it had been nearly 90 years since the only
www.uschess.org 23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76