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Samuel Shankland managed to come ahead of the great three – Nakamura, So, and Caruana, and win the US Chess Championship! After having drawn the first couple of games, he played the final 9 rounds almost perfectly. He only drew the great three and in all the other games he almost gave his opponents no chance. In the final part of the tournament, him and Caruana were closely tied for 1st (with no one else being even close) and the winner wasn’t decided until the final round. Caruana was trailing only half a point behind and all he needed was one slipup by Samuel. That never happened!

Fabiano Caruana missed the title by only half a point. Samuel Shankland gave him no chance to win because he had a very convincing performance in the second part of the tournament. Both players seemed to sweep up the competition, but Shankland was tiny bit more successful. Despite that Caruana’s performance is up to par with his wins at the Candidates and at the Grenke Classic. He played marvelous chess both positionally and tactically and he outperformed almost all his opponents.

The great Var Akobian is unfortunately having a less then ideal performance at the US Championship. Despite starting off great with a magnificent win in the Dutch, he is now at only 4/10. His play was definitely at a much higher level and he deserved more. Nakamura is having a bad tournament as well. This game is his first victory (despite being close twice). He drew and lost all his games, which is very uncommon for him.

Caruana played a marvelous attacking game against Zherebukh! After opening with a close Sicilian, Zherebukh went for a King’s Indian Attack setup (preparing f4, fianchettoing kingside) which Caruana met with almost perfect play. As soon as white tried pushing his own plan of f4 through, Caruana exploited the weaknesses it created and started putting on attacking pressure not many people could resist for long.

Var Akobian played a magnificent game which not even the engines understood fully. He faced Wesley So in rd.9, in a less than ideal situation on the scoreboard. He was at only 3.5/8, which means he had no chance at the title anymore, but he definitely wanted to make a point with the white pieces. Wesley was trailing behind Caruana after rd.8 by only half a point, so he too must have wanted a victory.

After a surprisingly bad start to the US Championship, drawing six consecutive games, Nakamura lost in round 7 and had to face the tournament leader, Sam Shankland in round 8. He opened with 1.b3, the NImzo-Larsen Attack. A very rare choice on top level for a reason. This opening lets black comfortably equalize whatever white does afterwards. It does provide great dynamic attacking chances for both sides as well, so it’s perfectly suitable for Nakamura’s playing style.