The U.S. Championship, Round 11: All the Leaders Draw Their Games; Playoff Tuesday
Entering the last round of the 2021 U.S. Championship, three players (Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, and Sam Sevian) were tied for first, with three more players (Aleks Lenderman, Leinier Dominguez, and Ray Robson) just half a point behind. One of the 6-pointers (So) was playing a 5.5-pointer (Robson), so a six-way tie for first was impossible. But five-way? Yes, please!
That extreme possibility didn't occur, but as all the games involving the players in the two score groups just mentioned finished in draws. (The only decisive game was the only one not involving players with a chance at first: John Burke defeated Jeffery Xiong in just 25 moves to switch places with him in the tournament table.) Two of the leaders drew quickly: with Black, Sevian drew by repetition in just 13 moves against Daniel Naroditsky, and So got nothing with White against Robson and drew by repetition in 26 moves.
The other three games were quite long. Dominguez had an extra pawn against Darius Swiercz, but didn't manage to overcome the drawish propensity of the opposite-colored bishops. He thus remained half a point behind the leaders. Likewise Lenderman, except that he was the one who had to suffer forever (well, 127 moves) in a queen ending against Lazaro Bruzon before saving the draw.
The other game saw Caruana pushing hard against Sam Shankland. He only enjoyed a small if enduring edge until Black's 34th move, when Shankland gave up his queen for a rook, knight, and some counterplay. With a shorter time control it might have been practically sound, but Caruana did everything right through the time control and beyond. The critical moment came on move 45, when Caruana had several plausible moves but only winner. He didn't find it, and from there Shankland walked the tightrope to the draw.
The "regular" tournament is therefore over, but the event goes on. According to the regulations, there will be a round robin played with a 10-minute time control (with two seconds time delay each move). If it's still a three-way tie after the round-robin, the time control will speed up: 3-minutes per game, with a two-second time delay each move. If it's still a three-way tie, they'll play a second round-robin; if it's a two-way tie, then only a pair of games will be played. If there's still a tie, it will be on to an Armageddon or two (depending on how many players are in the tie). Good fun for the fans.
Here are the last round games, with my comments to the Caruana-Shankland game.
(Sort of) Final Standings:
1-3. Caruana, So, Sevian 6.5 (of 11)
4-6. Dominguez, Robson, Lenderman 6
7. Shankland 5.5
8-9. Sweircz, Burke 5
10-11. Xiong, Naroditsky 4.5
12. Bruzon 4