US Junior Closed Chess Championship 2013: Harmon-Vellotti tops Shetty to Take Lead

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

SAINT LOUIS (June 17, 2013) -- On a day where separation was on the order, just the opposite was on the plate.

“This tournament hasn’t even started yet,” said IM Daniel Naroditsky after the third round of the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship. “Everyone is at the same place.”

Now everybody is throwing punches at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. Round 3 featured defeats of IM Victor Shen and FM Atulya Shetty, who had been the early frontrunners of the tournament heading into Sunday, and points on the board for both FM Jeffrey Xiong and WFM Sarah Chiang. Three draws on the day tightened the rankings instead of providing distance, as now seven players of the field of ten all sit within a point of each other.

FM Luke Harmon-Vellotti now stands alone on top with 2.5 points, after a win that has been two months in the making. Payback rang in the Idaho FIDE master’s mind as he took the chair across from FM Atulya Shetty for the second time, the first coming in the final round of the record-breaking 2013 K-12 Super Nationals last April. There, Shetty served Harmon-Vellotti a loss that not only disrupted the 14-year-old’s perfect 6-0 record, it also bounced him from the top spot to put Shetty in clear first. An instant rivalry.

“I really wanted revenge,” said Harmon-Vellotti, who will begin classes at UCLA in the fall after acing the math portion of his SATs. “I think having rivals is good for competition. They push you, give you something to focus on. Generally speaking, they help to spur better things.”

Shetty rolled out with an English attack and the game moved quickly through the first 14 moves, until Harmon-Vellotti knocked him from his prep with 14. … Nd8. The move looked to ready c6 and kick Shetty’s knight from the powerful d5, but Shetty retreated the knight willingly with 15. Ndc3 and Harmon-Vellotti’s response of 15. … c5 invited him right back in.

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US Junior Closed Chess Championship 2013 Round 2: Shen, Shetty Lead

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

(Left) FM Atulya Shetty, the reigning K-12 Champion, is tied with IM Victor Shen after two rounds at the U.S. Junior Closed Championship 2013.

SAINT LOUIS (June 16, 2013) -- Pairings for Round 2 of the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship looked more like those from a Swiss system than the actual round robin in place. After a completely decisive first round on Friday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, four out of five games on Saturday featured identical-score matchups, ensuring some early separation in the rankings.

Both FM Atuyla Shetty, who had the lone matchup without a like-scored opponent, and IM Victor Shen, a third-place finisher in the last two U.S. Juniors Closed events, were able to keep a perfect pace through the first two rounds. IM Daniel Naroditsky and FM Luke Harmon-Vellotti, both of whom earned wins in the first round, agreed to an opposite-colored bishop draw after 36 moves. Robert Perez and Samuel Sevian also drew, both earning their first half-point of the tournament. IM Kayden Troff also earned his first point of the tournament.

Shen wasn’t sure if he had just dodged a bullet in his game versus FM Yian Liou until he saw the text message from his father shortly after the game’s conclusion: You’re lucky.

“My dad doesn’t even play chess – but he does have a computer next to him, so I assume I was losing somewhere,” Chen said. “I had a feeling I was, so hearing that was not a giant surprise, but I just didn’t ever see it. And neither did [Liou].”

Indeed Liou, who had accurately squeezed Sevian into submission in the first round, came out with an equally clean King’s Indian Attack that seemed to foreshadow steady advancement into Shen’s camp. Tossing fuel on the fire was Shen’s offering of 19. … Qc8, a wasted move that was corrected immediately with 20. … Qc7, but at the loss of a crucial tempo. It was here Shen guessed he had earned the text from his father.

“I had been happy with the result of the opening, but after that [Qc8] mistake, I thought [Liou] was better,” Shen said. “After that, I just kept feeling that something dangerous was about to happen on the kingside.”

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