GM Varuzhan Akobian Photo courtesy Monroi.com
The turnout at the 111th Annual U.S. Open in Irvine has reached 470 players, and the number of Grandmaster entries increased dramatically as the 4-day schedule began. Four hundred seventy players (plus five re-entries) are now competing.
GMs Varuzhan Akobian (his first appearance in a Southern California Grand prix tournament in three years), Timur Gareyev (College Tournament of Champions winner earlier in the week), Alex Shabalov, and Dmitry Gurevich joined Mark Paragua (6-day) and Alejandro Ramirez, Melikset Khachiyan, and Larry Kaufman (traditional schedule) for a total of eight GMs.
There are also eleven IMs playing: Michael Mulyar and Walter Shipman (Traditional); Enrico Sevillano, Julio Sadorra, Salvijus Bercys, Max Cornejo, Mark Ginsburg, and Tim Taylor (6-day); and Jacek Stopa, Andranik Matikozyan, and Anthony Saidy (4-day).
GM faceoff: Khachiyan vs. Ramirez, Photo courtesy Monroi.com
In the traditional schedule, GM Alejandro Ramirez won a crucial round game over GM Melikset Khachiyan to remain on a perfect score, 6/6.
Five players are tied for first in the six-day, with 4.5/5: GM Mark Paragua, IM Salvijus Bercys, FM Daniel Naroditsky, IM Mark Ginsburg and FM Elliott Liu.
US Open Photo Gallery, courtesy Monroi.com
GM Timur Gareyev
GM Alexander Shabalov
Katie Kormanick
Andranik Matikozyan
IM Jacek Stopa
Sunil Weeramantry
Tatev Abrahamyan
Frank Berry
Rayan Taghizadeh
Darrian Robinson
GM Dmitry Gurevich
You can watch the top boards of the US Open live on Monroi.com. Follow the US Open standings and pairings here and look for a blog entry later today by GM Larry Kaufman, former World Senior Champion.