All of the photos here are from the final round. At the beginning of the day, So was tied for first with Akobian and Onischuk. The pairings:
Naroditsky - So
Nakamura - Akobian
Kamsky - Onischuk
Naroditsky opened with 1.e4. Perhaps So thought that neither Akobian or Onischuk would win their games. He played the infamous Berlin Defense. Naroditsky replied with a thoroughly unambitious variation. They shook hands while I was still eating lunch at the Kingside Diner. I was reminded of a Tal quote: "to play for a draw, at any rate with White, is to some degree a crime against chess." (The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal). This game was a disappointment, but at least So left us with some beautiful games in the other rounds. And Naroditsky's decision is also understandable. If you could get an easy draw against the world's number 2 player and pick up a couple of rating points, you would jump on that opportunity!
Var Akobian has been a top player in the US for many years, but he has never won the US Chess Championship. I had the honor of playing him in a 2010 blitz tournament. He beat me 2-0 and made it look easy; you can count me among Var's admirers. Alas, in the final round he was "re-accommodated" by Nakamura (to borrow a phrase from United Airline's CEO).
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Var sees that the end is near; he resigned soon.
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Alexander Onischuk had an excellent tournament. A few rounds ago, he defeated Nakamura. In the final game, he held a draw against Kamsky in a quiet Ruy Lopez. Onischuk tied for first place with So, but lost the playoff.
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Kamsky had an uneven performance. He won a few great positional games (Xiong - Kamsky, Kamsky - Naroditsky). On the other hand, he also blundered horribly against Akobian and Caruana.
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Onischuk in the main hall after the game. The player behind him in the light purple shirt is Naroditsky.
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Shabalov played a lot of fighting chess. His game with Shankland was very interesting. Unfortunately, it didn't get much attention since it was unimportant for the final standings.
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When the games ended, Maurice Ashley came upstairs. Here he is talking to Dr. Daaim Shabazz, who runs the popular Chess Drum blog. IM Greg Shahade is on the other side.
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It's time for the chess journalists to file their reports! On the left, we have Mike Klein of chess.com. Dr. Shabazz to next to him. Does anyone recognize the third person at the table?
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IM Greg Shahade, GM Alejandro Ramirez, and WGM Tatev Abrahamyan. GM Ramirez was one of the commentators in the Spanish broadcast.
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When the round ended, the fun continued! Greg Shahade and Carissa Yip, undeterred by the absence of a chessboard, played a few games of blitz. Greg won them all.
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Yasser Seirawan recruited Maggie Feng for his bughouse team. "We need some victims!" he said. They challenged Jennifer Yu and Carissa Yip. Usually bughouse is a strength of the scholastic players, but Yasser proved that he is very good! He and Maggie swept their games.
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Rex Sinquefield looks on, watching bughouse for the first time.
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The next set of "victims" fared no better than Jennifer and Carissa.
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