Alexander Vasilyevich Onischuk vs Varuzhan Eduardovich Akobian, Dutch (A84), Rubinstein Variation
2018 US Chess Championship, Round 1, St. Louis, 04/18/18
The US Championship just started, and all eyes are on Fabiano Caruana, the challenger for the World Championship title. He is by far the biggest favorite, but several other players could cause him trouble. Firstly, Wesley So, the young genius who had a rough Candidates Tournament and a bad start to 2018., but you can’t tell when he’ll start playing in top form and dominate the field. Secondly, Var Akobian. This is his round 1 game against Onischuk with which he definitely made a statement saying that he is one of the favorites to win the US Championship.
He played the fighting Dutch Defense, immediately out of the opening accepting the fact that he is slightly worse and that his position is almost unsound. In exchange for that he got great attacking chances. He sacrificed the exchange, let Onischuk get a material advantage, but then went on to win a brilliant game with a nice tactical move. It only lasted 25 moves. A short attacking miniature which definitely means that he can fight for the first place. Wesley had the only other decisive result in rd.1.
Here are the standings:
Varuzhan Eduardovich Akobian 1/1
Wesley So 1/1
Samuel Shankland 0.5/1
Awonder Liang 0.5/1
Aleksandr Lenderman 0.5/1
Hikaru Nakamura 0.5/1
Fabiano Caruana 0.5/1
Ray Robson 0.5/1
Jeffery Xiong 0.5/1
Zviad Izoria 0.5/1
Alexander Vasilyevich Onischuk 0/1
Yaroslav Zherebukh 0/1
Y. Zherebukh vs W. So 0-1
Onischuk vs Akobian 0-1
Nakamura vs Robson ½-½
A. Liang vs Caruana ½-½
J. Xiong vs Z. Izoria ½-½
Lenderman vs S. Shankland ½-½
Game moves:
1. d4 e6 2. c4 f5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. g3 d5 5. Bg2 c6 6. Nh3 Bd6
7. O-O O-O 8. Qc2 dxc4 9. e4 e5 10. exf5 exd4 11. Ne2 c5
12. Qxc4+ Kh8 13. Ng5 Nc6 14. Bf4 Bxf5 15. Nf7+ Rxf7 16. Qxf7
Rb8 17. Bxc6 bxc6 18. Rfe1 d3 19. Bxd6 Qxd6 20. Nc3 d2 21. Re7
Rg8 22. Rxa7 Bg4 23. Qe7 Qxe7 24. Rxe7 Nd5 25. Re2 d1=Q+ 0-1