US Championship, Round 6: Top Boards Draw, Akobian and Shulman Retain Lead

There were eight decisive games today at the US Chess Championships, but none of them were on the top boards, where draws were the order of the day. Varuzhan Akobian and Yury Shulman drew on the top board; meanwhile, Robert Hess surprised Gata Kamsky by playing a "Dragondorf" Sicilian, an opening he later admitted he had never played against high-level competition before, and earned himself a draw against the top seed, while Alexander Onischuk couldn't convert an advantage against Hikaru Nakamura and also settled for a draw.

The lack of decisive results at the top did let a couple more contenders emerge from the middle of the pack. Joshua Friedel and Joel Benjamin both scored wins to join Hess, Kamsky, Nakamura and Onischuk at 4/6 -- just a half point behind the co-leaders. Even Gregory Kaidonov and IM Ray Robson are on the edge of contention at 3.5 points.

Robson and Hess have had excellent tournaments, and it's great to see some new stars on the horizon to join established American heroes like Kamsky and Nakamura. Of course, they're both a long way from getting near that level of success, but it wouldn't be a surprise if one or both someday became very strong grandmasters -- provided they decide to take chess that seriously in adulthood.

For round seven, we once again have several matchups to watch that could change the shape of the leaderboard dramatically. Shulman takes on Onischuk, Nakamura battles Akobian, Benjamin faces off with Kamsky and Friedel plays Hess. Who will come out on top heading into Friday's rest day?