The Queen's Pawn
Wesley opens the game up with the queen's pawn, inviting a more strategic game than had he chosen the more direct and tactics-heavy path of king's pawn positions.
A flexible choice, developing the kingside knight before defining what he is going to do with his pawns.
Wesley grabs as much of the center as possible.
Sevian steps his king's pawn forward one square, opening up the vision of his bishop and setting up the possibility of a strong opening system like the Nimzo-Indian defense.
Wesley allows the Nimzo
Now, Sevian can move his bishop out to pin the knight. This would lead to the so-called Nimzo-Indian Defense, a watertight and very strategically rich opening that favors fast development for the Black side, in exchange for (often) giving up the bishop pair.
A very reputable weapon, considered one of the toughest nuts to crack at the elite grandmaster level. The bishop steps out, favoring speedy development, and also threatening to damage Wesley's pawn structure by swapping itself for the knight.
The Classical Variation
One of the main weapons against the Nimzo. The idea is to prepare to take back with the queen, ensuring that the structure is kept healthy.
Fighting for a foothold in the center.
Wesley forces Sevian to a decision
He wants to collect the bishop pair for his troubles. By troubles, I mean to say that Wesley has had to waste time moving his queen out, and will move the queen once again after Sevian captures the knight.
The first piece trade of the game, as Sevian goes for the logical follow-up. The point is to weaken Wesley's control over the light squares in the center, as well as forcing him to waste more time moving his queen around.
More double-edged than it appears
At first glance, things look great for Wesley, who has the bishop pair and better control over the center. But things are not so easy, as Sevian has a big lead in development and will hope to use this to drum up a fast initiative.
Looking to finish development
Wesley cannot afford to waste any time here, as his priority is to clear the minor pieces on the kingside, so that he can bring his king to safety. Notice how Sevian has already castled, while Wesley needs at least two more moves to be able to follow suit.
Sevian looks to fianchetto his bishop, a plan that ties in with the way the structure is set up. Notice how Wesley doesn't have a strong grip over the central light squares, so Sevian is going to add firepower to this set (known as a 'color complex').
More development
Wesley continues the plan that the position is calling for: to develop his minor pieces as soon as possible, so that he can bring his king to safety.
Sevian sets the bishop up on the long diagonal.
Wesley reinforces his structure
He supports one of his more central pawns, at the same time toying with the possibility of bringing his own bishop to the long diagonal. This maneuver is referred to as a fianchetto.
Sevian brings his final minor piece into the game, stepping it out in front of the queen rather than in front of his light-squared bishop, so as to not block that piece's activity.
Wesley ready to castle
He has now almost finished his minor piece development, and is preparing to castle next.
Sevian prepares the pawn break
He steps his rook out to x-ray (indirectly target) Wesley's queen along the file, and in this way hints at a quick pawn break in the center.
Wesley brings his king to safety.
Sevian challenges the center
He makes the expected pawn break (the term for when one pawn makes contact with an enemy pawn). His idea is to try to chip away at Wesley's strong central pawn mass.
Wesley prepares for an open fight
He places his own rook to x-ray the enemy queen, anticipating that the central files may open up after a trade of pawns. Wesley will be hoping this is to his benefit, since he has the two bishops, and these pieces tend to shine when lines open up.
Sevian begins by capturing away from the center, immediately opening up the vision of his powerful light-squared bishop.
Wesley takes back with the pawn, the benefit being that he gets to keep as much 'pawn control' over the center as possible.
Sevian goes for a second pawn trade
The benefit of this is that he's going to be leaving Wesley with a shakier foundation in terms of his pawn structure. Assuming Wesley takes back with a pawn now, he will have what are known as "hanging pawns".
Hanging pawns refer to when two pawns stand on adjacent files, with no pawns on nearby files to protect them. Such pawns are very much a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they are strong as they control the center. But on the other, they are weak as they lack pawn support.
Hanging Pawns
Wesley takes back with the pawn, setting up the formation mentioned in the previous note. It makes sense, since he wants to keep as much control over the center as possible. Plus, his dark-squared bishop is now active along the diagonal.
Sevian seeks to undermine the pawns
A very typical and well-known idea, with the point being to undermine Wesley's hanging pawns. If Wesley has to move this pawn forward, he does get a 'protected passed pawn' which is considered very strong. But in return, Sevian will seize control over the central square where he might wish to plant a knight.
Wesley pushes
He had no real choice, since he couldn't afford to let Sevian play pawn takes pawn. That would hasve cost him any advantage in the center that he has worked hard to build.
Sevian moves his bishop forward
It's not so much about blocking Wesley's passed pawn from moving forward. Instead, his focus is to stop Wesley from snapping up his previously undefended pawn.
Wesley adds to the pressure against Sevian's vulnerable pawn.
Sevian supports his attacked pawn.
Wesley looking for a bishop trade?
It's a bit of a mysterious move to make, purposefully retreating the knight to a more passive square. Looks like his idea might be to try to invite a trade of bishops, since he likely feels that this is Sevian's strongest piece.
Sevian hits Wesley's rook
I think the idea is that he wants to draw out Wesley's bishop to cover the threat, and then he will just retreat the piece. But Wesley won't want to do that, since he wants to plant his bishop on the long diagonal instead! That seems to be the dynamic that Sevian is cleverly exploiting.
Wesley steps his rook out of the way of the vision of the enemy bishop.
Sevian uses tactics
He takes advantage of the fact that the pawn cannot capture his knight, since then Wesley's queen would be lost. His plan is to bring the knight towards the central outpost next.
It's been a long time coming, but he finally activates the last of his minor pieces. The pin might be quite uncomfortable, since Wesley's bishop pair is starting to get quite active. And that passed pawn that he's got could become really dangerous ten or twenty moves from now.
Sevian drops back
It's not a move that contains any sort of threat, but Sam is likely just trying to add stability to his position, and his bishop in the center might have felt a little vulnerable to attack.
Wesley plants his bishop on the long diagonal
The last series of moves has been a success for him, as he's managed to coax Sevian's own bishop away from this diagonal and is now taking it over for himself.
Sevian occupies the outpost
It's a move that makes a lot of sense. The piece looks strong, but with both of Wesley's bishop pressuring the knights, it's the White side that has the edge here.
Wesley steps his queen away from the attack
One of his key ideas in the position is to push his left-hand pawn. If he can do so in good circumstances, he would collapse Sevian's pawn chain on the queenside and would definitely have big winning chances.
Sevian breaks the pin
He steps his queen away from the diagonal of Wesley's bishop, to relieve some of the piece pressure.
Wesley finds the right moment to capture the knight. The point is that he wants to drag Sevian's central knight away from the center, so that he can play his left-hand pawn break (explained in the next move).
Sevian takes back with the knight, since to take with the pawn would lead to bishop takes knight in the center.
The pawn break!
This is what Wesley wanted by playing bishop takes knight earlier. Without the knight in the center, Sevian is unable to push this pawn forward as he would have liked.
Without the option to push, Sevian sees nothing better than to defend it by sliding his rook over.
Wesley takes, opening up the vision of his rook. Plus, he gets rid of his isolated pawn while leaving Sevian with one of his own. That's a big positional gain for Wesley, who is the only one with chances to play for a win for now.
Sevian takes back.
Sevian takes the knight, a necessary thing to do since otherwise that piece was going to establish itself on the queenside and allow Wesley to build too much pressure.
Wesley takes back, and now has the benefit of having the stronger minor piece, with his light-squared bishop dominating the center and queenside.
Sevian brings his passive rook towards the center, pressuring Wesley's backward pawn.
Wesley hits the main weakness in Sevian's position
It's going to be uncomfortable for a long time here for Sam, as there's a bunch of slight edges that Wesley has, like the passed pawn + the bishop + the piece pressure. A long road ahead for Sevian if he wants to carve out a draw here.
A good move, with the point being that if Wesley now takes the pawn with his rook, then there'll be a knight fork at the end of the line.
Now that the knight fork is no longer on the cards, Wesley is able to snap up the pawn and go up material.
In truth, it seems that Wesley was a little too quick to trade his bishop in for the knight. Now, in spite of being down a pawn, Sevian's defense has gotten a lot easier. That is because he's got strong pressure against Wesley's backward pawn in the center.
Wesley sets up some tricks
He's anticipating that Sevian wants to try and win his central pawn. But now, if he does so immediately, then Wesley would have a very nasty check along the back rank at the end of the sequence.
Sevian has recovered his pawn, and between this and his active pieces, he should be running very little risk of losing from here.
Wesley forces a rook trade, since otherwise there was a nasty threat from Sevian to give a check against his back rank.
Sevian drops his queen back, making it impossible for Wesley to keep pushing his passed pawn.
Still not easy
This type of endgame can be quite tricky to defend, as the passed pawn is dangerous and can be easily defended by Wesley's king. Sevian is going to have to be precise over the next ten or so moves.
Wesley has now approached his pawn, freeing up his rook to try to reach a more active square.
Sevian does the right thing, generating quick counterplay against the base of Wesley's pawn chain.
Wesley pushes, but now the pawn to the right has become more vulnerable.
A really nice move, preparing to advance down the center.
Wesley seeks to activate his rook, which would leave Sevian's king in too passive of a position along the first rank.
Nice play by Sevian, as he carves out a passed pawn for himself. That's going to make it far harder for Wesley to apply any real pressure, as now Sam has counterplay moving forward. A draw looking extremely likely now.
Now Sevian is able to escape the checks while keeping his king quite active, so his position remains safe.
Sevian is still the side that needs to be more careful, as Wesley's passed pawn is the more advanced one. Wesley will know that the position should be drawn with best play, but is now going to continue to try and find ways of testing Sevian's resilience by searching for the trickiest sequences he can find.
Sevian has done everything right here, and it's highly likely that Wesley will soon take the pawn in the center. That would be tantamount to a draw offer, as then Sevian would take his pawn in return and force a dead drawn ending.
Wesley effectively offers a draw, inviting Sevian to trade down into a simple king and pawn ending. The game should be finishing in a matter of minutes.
This is the position that Wesley would have seen in his mind when he offered the rook trade. What matters is that he gets his king back just in time to defend the pawn, making the position an easy draw.
Sevian sets about trading off the last of the material.
Sevian offers the last exchange of material.
Two players entered this round in the shared lead: Wesley So, and Fabiano Caruana. But after just under 5 hours of play in round 9, the action concludes with only one man atop the tournament leaderboard.
Fabiano struck today in convincing fashion against Sam Shankland, as he continues to build upon his momentum of recent rounds. While for Wesley, it's a disappointing draw against Sevian, after obtaining what looked like a very promising position in the middlegame.
Wesley appeared to have everything going for him: the bishop pair, the more dangerous pawn structure, the more active pieces..
But Sevian held on, and didn't give Wesley any easy chance to break through. And in the end, all it took was a slightly rushed decision to trade off his final minor piece, for him to lose any trace of an advantage.
After that, Wesley did try to keep on pushing an objectively equal rook endgame. But by then, his fate was out of his hands, needing Sevian to make a mistake for things to play out in his favor.
Sevian, for his part, continued to do everything right. And that meant no more chances for either side to fight for the full point. And once the players both recognized this, it was a quick flurry of moves and a liquidation down to bare kings.
Two rounds to go. It's Caruana on 6.5, Wesley on 6, and Aronian on 5.5.
Will it be a fifth U.S. Championship victory for Fabiano?!
Wesley in the joint lead
It's been a more than solid showing for Wesley So, a regular fixture atop the pool of American grandmasters for the past decade or so.
He comes into today's ninth round with an excellent opportunity to fight for the full point from the White side, against rising talent Sam Sevian.
A victory today would be hugely significant, as it could leave him in clear first place, provided Fabiano Caruana is unable to win in his own game against 2018 U.S. Champion, Sam Shankland.
It's not going to be an easy path to victory for him however. Sam Sevian is early into his career, but has already built a reputation as exceptionally tough to beat. After eight rounds in this year's edition of the Championships, he has been defeated just once (by Andy Woodward).
It'll be interesting to see what approach each player brings to the table. That Sevian will aim for solid play seems easy to predict, given the calibre of his opponent. But as for Wesley...will he favor his usual cautious approach? Or will he mix things up to try to make a strong push for the title as the tournament reaches its final stages?!