by Jennifer Shahade

Hikaru Nakamura's offbeat and exciting line against the Alexander Shabalov's surprise Alekhine failed, allowing Shabalov to glide into clear first by a full point with 4/4. Alexander was expecting Hikaru to play 1.d4 or c4, so after 1.e4 he thought for ten minutes. "The Alekhine is Hikaru's current main opening for black against 1.e4," Alex explained, "and I know it is uncomfortable to play against yourself."



722

Alex identified 30.fxe4 as a mistake (b3 was better) and said that Nakamura: " almost bailed out after his troubled opening....but he just blundered later with 33.Rxf7. 33.Rdd1 was probably drawn."

Tomorrow Shabalov plays Gregory Kaidanov with white.

The biggest upset of the round was Iryna Zenyuk's (2229) win over IM Josh Friedel (2542)

723

Standings after four rounds

1-4.0 Alexander Shabalov
2-5 3.0- Alexander Onischuk, Jaan Ehlvest, Alex Yermolinsky and Gregory Kaidanov

Click here for complete standings.

Round 5 Pairings

Bd	White Player Name		Black Player Name
1	GM ALEXANDER SHABALOV		GM GREGORY KAIDANOV
2	GM ALEXANDER ONISCHUK		GM JAAN EHLVEST
3	GM HIKARU NAKAMURA		GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY
4	GM ILDAR IBRAGIMOV		GM DMITRY GUREVICH
5	GM YURY SHULMAN		IM ENRICO M SEVILLANO
6	GM MELIKSET KHACHIYAN		GM BORIS GULKO
7	GM JULIO BECERRA		GM VARUZHAN AKOBIAN
8	GM ALEXANDER STRIPUNSKY		GM WALTER S BROWNE
9	FM ROBERT L HESS		GM ALEXANDER IVANOV
10	GM SERGEY KUDRIN		WFM IRYNA ZENYUK
11	GM EUGENE PERELSHTEYN		IM IRINA KRUSH
12	FM MICHAEL LANGER		IM DAVID PRUESS
13	IM RONALD W BURNETT		FM JOSEPH MARK BRADFORD
14	IM JAY BONIN		IM BRYAN SMITH
15	FM RAY S ROBSON		IM MICHAEL MULYAR
16	FM MOVSES MOVSISYAN		IM JUSTIN SARKAR
17	TOM BRAUNLICH		IM JOSHUA E FRIEDEL
18	MICHAEL AIGNER		WFM CHOUCHANIK AIRAPETIAN

Fantasy Update by Arun Sharma

As Day 4 of the tournament concludes, the standings of the fantasy competition may finally have begun to take some real shape as for the first time the leaderboard is not all virtually new names. The three leaders from yesterday, Joe Blidy, Patrick Adamek, and Ryan Miller have all managed to stay near the top and also in the mix are Day 1 Leader Darrian Robinson and Day 2's second place, Walter Carrara. We do however have two notable upstarts threatening to cause chaos as Gilberto Luna II makes his first appearance in clear first place, and perhaps even more surprising, IM Irina Krush probably guided somewhat by her solid performance in the tourney thus far, has also secured a spot no doubt looking to pull off a double sweep of both competitions. Unsurprisingly all of the top ten teams contain two of the most impressive performances in tourney thus far: GM Alexander Shabalov's tourney
leading 4-0 and WFM Irina Zenyuk's 2-2 brought about by two consecutive sensational upsets. Here's how things look right now (and for those keeping count, the longest game to this point is the GM Gulko - IM Bonin struggle from Round 2 at 98 Moves).

Standings by Points:

18 Points: 1st
17.5 Points: 2nd - 3rd
17 Points: 4th - 5th
16.5 Points: 6th - 10th
16 Points: 11th - 24th
15.5 Points: 25th - 42nd
15 Points: 43rd - 73rd
14.5 Points: 74th - 106th
14 Points: 107th - 150th
13.5 Points: 145th - 203rd
13 Points: 204th - 254th
12.5 Points: 255th - 306th
12 Points: 307th - 349th
11.5 Points: 350th - 373rd
11 Points: 374th - 385th
10.5 Points: 386th
10 Points: 387th

1st: Gilberto Luna II (2504.2857) - 18 points

Alex Onischuk 3
Jaan Ehlvest 3
Alexander Shabalov 4
Julio Becerra 2.5
Ray Robson 1.5
Michael Langer 2
Irina Zenyuk 2

Tiebreaker 1: 35.5 Points
Tiebreaker 2: 119 Moves

2nd: Darrian Robinson (2506) - 17.5 points

Alexander Shabalov 4
Eugene Perelshteyn 2
Julio Becerra 2.5
Alex Yermolinsky 3
Melikset Khachiyan 2.5
Ray Robson 1.5
Irina Zenyuk 2

Tiebreaker 1: 35.5 Points
Tiebreaker 2: 115 Moves

3rd: Ryan Miller (2509.1429) - 17.5 points

Alex Onischuk 3
Gregory Kaidanov 3
Alexander Shabalov 4
Irina Krush 2
Robert Hess 2
Ron Burnett 1.5
Irina Zenyuk 2

Tiebreaker 1: 45 Points
Tiebreaker 2: 95 Moves

4th: Irina Krush (2504.1429) - 17 points

Alex Onischuk 3
Jaan Ehlvest 3
Alexander Shabalov 4
Irina Krush 2
David Pruess 1.5
Ray Robson 1.5
Irina Zenyuk 2

Tiebreaker 1: 37 Points
Tiebreaker 2: 89 Moves

5th: Valicio Pahla (2508.4286) - 17 points

Hikaru Nakamura 2.5
Jaan Ehlvest 3
Alexander Shabalov 4
Irina Krush 2
Robert Hess 2
Ray Robson 1.5
Irina Zenyuk 2

Tiebreaker 1: 37 Points
Tiebreaker 2: 105 Moves

6th: Kevin Villarreal (2504.1429) - 16.5 points

Hikaru Nakamura 2.5
Alex Onischuk 3
Alexander Shabalov 4
Irina Krush 2
Jay Bonin 1.5
Ray Robson 1.5
Irina Zenyuk 2

Tiebreaker 1: 33 Points
Tiebreaker 2: 120 Moves

7th: Walter Carrara (2506.5714) - 16.5 points

Alex Onischuk 3
Alexander Shabalov 4
Alex Stripunsky 2
Alex Ivanov 2
Alex Yermolinsky 3
Irina Zenyuk 2
Tom Braunlich 0.5

Tiebreaker 1: 25 Points
Tiebreaker 2: 83 Moves

8th/9th: Joe Blidy/Patrick Adamek (2509.1429) - 16.5 points

Hikaru Nakamura 2.5
Alex Onischuk 3
Gregory Kaidanov 3
Alexander Shabalov 4
Jay Bonin 1.5
Chouchanik Airapetian 0.5
Irina Zenyuk 2

Joe's Tiebreakers:

Tiebreaker 1: 40.5 Points
Tiebreaker 2: 125 Moves

Patrick's Tiebreakers:

Tiebreaker 1: 42.5 Points
Tiebreaker 2: 112 Moves

10th: Mikhail Sher (2509.7143) - 16.5 points

Ildar Ibragimov 2.5
Yury Shulman 2.5
Alexander Shabalov 4
Irina Krush 2
David Pruess 1.5
Robert Hess 2
Irina Zenyuk 2

Tiebreaker 1: 37 Points
Tiebreaker 2: 112 Moves

Keys to Success:

Alexander Shabalov 10
Irina Zenyuk 10
Alex Onischuk 7
Irina Krush 5
Ray Robson 5
Hikaru Nakamura 4
Gregory Kaidanov 3
Jaan Ehlvest 3
Robert Hess 3
Jay Bonin 3
Julio Becerra 2
Alex Yermolinsky 2
David Pruess 2
Chouchanik Airapetian 2
Ildar Ibragimov 1
Yury Shulman 1
Alex Strupinsky 1
Alex Ivanov 1
Eugene Perelshteyn 1
Melikset Khachiyan 1
Ron Burnett 1
Michael Langer 1
Tom Braunlich 1