U.S. Chess Junior 2012 - Arnold, Getz Lead After Four Rounds

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

Four rounds have been played at the U.S. Junior Closed Chess Championship 2012 on in Saint Louis. Marc Arnold and Alec Getz are in joint lead after four rounds. Round three had witnessed several decisive games Eric Rosen upsetting second-seed Daniel Naroditsky. Rosen sacrificed almost everything he could and at one point was down a rook for a pawn. But, by the end of the game he was a pawn up with a winning endgame.

In Round 4, Jeffrey Xiong beat Will Fisher, Alec Getz beat Victor Shen and Atulya Shetty lost to Darwin Yang in wild battles. Eric Rosen also beat Robert Perez. Eric is in second spot along with Kayden Troff and Kevin Cao. Meanwhile, Kevin Cao also beat Justus Williams with Black. Tune in to www.uschesschamps.com/live to follow the games and enjoy the live commentary by GM Ben Finegold and FM Aviv Friedman, starting at 11 a.m. local time, Noon Eastern.

Tournament play will run through July 15, and the event will feature two rounds per day. The event features an overall prize fund of $18,000. The group of 16 players has been split into two fields of eight players each. The eight players will play one another in a round robin, and the winner of each field will play a head-to-head, two-game match for the title. If the score is tied after two games, there will be a playoff to determine the 2012 U.S. Junior Closed Champion.

The list of invited players and current USCF ratings is as follows:

IM Marc Arnold (2612)
IM Conrad Holt (2580)
IM Darwin Yang (2562)
IM Daniel Naroditsky (2552)
FM Victor Shen (2532)
NM Robert Perez (2519)
NM Will Fisher (2436)
FM Eric Rosen (2422)
FM Alec Getz (2410)
FM Jeffery Xiong (2394)
NM Raven Sturt (2387)
NM Atulya Shetty (2379)
FM Kayden Troff (2368)
NM Justus Williams (2318)
NM Kevin Cao (2230)
NM Matthew Michaelides (2164)

The 2012 U.S. Junior Closed Champion also will receive an invitation to the 2013 U.S. Championship and the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
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