Ten Americans are putting themselves to the test at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2011 Masters. Leading the team through 7 rounds is Alexander Grischuk holding the 17th position in the contest. Here we see him turn in a strong performance with the Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin Variation against the Ukraine's Inna Gaponenko, one of many female competitors in the event.
Perhaps the star performer for the USA is Paul Szuper, rated 2174 FIDE / 2208 USCF and the only untitled (FIDE) player in the tournament's top 50 at #28 (England's untitled Philip Wheldon is at #56). Here are two impressive wins against GM Damian Lemos of Argentina (Paul has the black pieces!) and WGM Natalia Pogonina of Russia. Szuper led Lemos into a murky Queen's Pawn Game and charged the grandmaster the full price of a win for his pawn on the 7th rank. He urged Pogonina into a less common line of the English Opening where she put her knight on the rim with 16... Na5 and couldn't get back into the game, losing the pawns she needed to make it a fight and suffering a relentless endgame.
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