A “disgusted” GM Fabiano Caruana won his match on the second day of The American Cup from a hopeless position as GM Jeffery Xiong lost on time. GM Sam Sevian indeed reached a 2700+ live rating by drawing his second game with GM Wesley So, who has been relegated to the Elimination Bracket. GM Ray Robson used a pretty exchange sacrifice on Thursday to level the score vs. GM Levon Aronian, but the latter won the tiebreak.
It was an action-packed second day at The American Cup in St. Louis, with the second classical game on the program and eventually four matches decided in tiebreaks. That wasn’t the case for So-Sevian, where the reigning U.S. champion couldn’t win on demand and thus was moved to the Elimination Bracket, while Sevian reached the quarterfinals of the Champions Bracket and a 2700.4 live rating.
His next opponent will be Caruana, who knocked out Xiong in the longest match of the day and the only one that was decided in an armageddon after a second draw in the classical game and also two draws in the rapid.
Xiong, with four minutes on the clock, had draw odds as Black vs. Caruana, who got five minutes. Like in the second rapid game, Caruana failed to convert a big advantage, but this time he ended up in a lost endgame. In a time scramble, Xiong ended up flagging one move before the two-second increment would have kicked in (on move 61).
Caruana wasn’t too thrilled about how he won: “I’m a little bit disgusted because twice he played this opening, I get basically a winning position out of the opening, and twice I ruined it.”
Robson joined So and the other round-one losers in the Elimination Bracket but can keep his head up high. He managed to win on demand against the mighty Aronian and did it in style, using a standard “Sicilian” exchange sac but also some nice tactics later on.