USCF National Events / 2014 U.S. Open
In Their Own Words
The various winners from the Orlando, Florida, U.S. Open festivities write about their experience.
GM Conrad Holt finished in a massive tie for first with IM Michael A. Mulyar, GM Giorgi Margvelashvili, GM Fidel Corrales Jimenez, GM Illia I. Nyzhnyk, and GM Alexander Shabalov. After tiebreaks were calculated, Holt played Mulyar in an Armageddon game for the title.
THE U.S. OPEN: GM CONRAD HOLT At this year’s U.S. Open (July 26-August
3 in Orlando, Florida), I decided to play the four-day schedule, which involves six games of Game/60 followed by three of 40/120, SD/60. Last year I had played the six-day, which worked out well, but this year I elected to shorten my time away. I also preferred a more regular allocation of time spent playing chess compared to the six-day format. There, the games are all at a long time control, but at first they only take one or two hours each, while growing to about five hours in the last couple of days. The first day of speedier games went
smoothly: I reached four out of four without giving my opponents any chances, but the second day was different. I first faced a grandmaster in round five, playing black against Akshayraj Kore. After 20 moves the position was equal, but then I dropped a piece:
36 November 2014 | Chess Life ... that allowed me to regain part of the
lost material. White still comes out up the Exchange, but at least it is not a full piece, so I can play on for a while. A few moves later he spoiled the winning position by allowing a tactical trick where my knight ended up forking his rooks. After that it was a dead draw. In round six, the final round of Game/
AFTER 21. Nxc4
21. ... Bxh2+?? I intended to “fork” the king and knight
with 22. ... Qc7+. However, I did not notice that the knight could move to d6. After:
22. Kxh2 Qc7+ 23. Nd6 I was lucky to have the move ... 23. ... Nd5
60, I was white against IM Levan Bregadze. I got a serious endgame advantage shortly after leaving preparation, which I managed to convert. After scoring 51
⁄2 /6, I was thinking how
it was a great idea to play in the four-day schedule. But if I hadn’t had loads of good luck after my blunder in round five, no doubt I would have been berating myself for the stupidity of choosing to play the matches at Game/60, which naturally increases the probability of blunders. Round seven that evening had me playing black against GM Dmitry Gurevich. It was
ALL PHOTOS THIS FEATURE BY CHRISTOPHER OQUENDO,
MYCHESSPHOTOS.COM
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