GM Yermo - U.S. Championships
Part 1
The big name missing from the field is, of course, Hikaru Nakamura, who cited his preparation for the upcoming FIDE Grand Swiss as the reason for not showing up. It remains to be seen how serious Hikaru is about taking another crack at the World Championship run, but as we speak, no big name U.S. player has qualified for the Candidates yet, and none of them appear to be in an exceptionally good form in the early going of the U.S. Championship. Is this the moment for some others to emerge as front runners? Ray Robson certainly did, scoring 3 out 4.